Into the Fire

The divorced victim of physical abuse and mother of a young teen, Cara Wrestling accepts an accounting job in northern Idaho to get her and her daughter away from their difficult memories in Seattle, Washington, and to begin a new and better life for them. Her new financial advisor boss is the toast of the town with his popular business, beautiful wife and daughter, spectacular residence, and connections to all the "important" people.   

Cara's 13 year old daughter Riley learns quickly that the girls in her middle school can't be trusted and worse: they're mean girls. Cara's hopes for Riley's acceptance at school quickly fail, but Cara's shocking experience at work sends her into a tailspin from that familiar hopeless barrage of manipulation she feels powerless to resist. Her faltering faith is challenged, she's torn between right and wrong but knows the not-so-subtle threats from her boss regarding Riley will dictate any of her further actions.

Brandilyn Collins is known for her patented Seatbelt Suspense moniker, and from start to near finish Plummet is filled with high-wire tension. Capturing the hopelessness of a woman who's been abused her entire life, who's put in a position of utter impossibility, who wants more than anything else to protect her daughter only to learn in order to do that she has to comply with unbelievable demands. Desperation governs her actions while causing her severe distress. She contemplates any scenario which will give her and her daughter an escape route but the web of deceit keeps expanding.

Plummet is an exciting, emotionally difficult story depicting the horrible choices given to a victim of lifelong manipulation and abuse. With superb skill Brandilyn Collins amps up the suspense and trauma until reaching the satisfying conclusion to the conflict.  

Father, you've given Brandilyn such talent, many stories of many kinds, and the grit to keep writing them. I pray your divine protection over her and her family and that you will continue to bless her life and supply her with the stories you have just for her to tell. In the Name of Jesus, Amen. 

     "Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End."

Revelation 22:12-13 (NIV)

Five reasons I chose (and choose) to self-publish:

I'm stubborn. I want my novels written my way.

Although I got some compliments on my writing, agents and traditional Christian publishing houses that I pursued had no interest in pursuing my work.

I love getting the final word on my book covers and being able to communicate and work with the designers.

Most of my novels are longer than the preferred length of most publishers – except of course for their star authors.

Did I mention I was stubborn? 

Lord, apart from you, I can do nothing. Thank you for every word, every story, every moment spent writing them. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

The cowboy sheriff Shane Hamilton finds two dead bodies who wind up being connected to the return of drop-dead gorgeous and determined FBI Special Agent Liza Bartholomew's long lasting scam artist case. Not relishing working with the FBI and fighting his attraction to her, reluctantly they piece together strange occurrences and arsons to figure out who murdered two men and how the culprit who swindled a rash of decent people over several years ended up in McIntire County.

The sheriff is nursing bad memories of a love gone wrong ending in her death, and he's determined not to let anyone get that close again. He fights every feeling of longing, desire, attraction, and curiosity about Liza with his trademark headstrong stubbornness which works well for his job. Not so much for his personal life. Special Agent Liza Bartholomew wages her own war with her growing feelings for the sheriff, matching his refusal to engage personally while secretly wishing she could. But there is a gnawing situation back home that pulls at her loyalties.

The strange twist in this story requires incredible investigation from them both and leads them down one frustrating path after another. Who is the liar, liar?

This is the McIntire County Series Book 4 "finale" concluding a treasure trove of strong female characters each with their own weaknesses and flaws and the manly men who fall for them with true devotion once they overcome all the fireworks involved.

Winter Austin writes exciting stories with enticing characters, both male and female, handles romance honestly, gives readers great covers, and good satisfying endings. 

Father, I pray your blessing upon Winter, that you would watch over her and continue to provide what she needs to write the stories you have for her to tell. Keep her safe and continue to watch over her family. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.
 

I want to thank Winter Austin for her guest appearance here at Into the Fire. She's an ace at writing tough heroines with touches of tenderness. Her romantic suspense is well done with plenty of action for these strong ladies. Her book covers are exceptional and her stories leave you waiting for her next work. This is an entertaining series for readers who enjoy female characters with real substance. Tomorrow look for my review of her Book 4 finale to the McIntire County Series.                     

Strong, take charge heroines have had a decidedly big influence on me and my writing for years. I can trace it back to my love at a young age of characters like She-Ra and her menagerie of female sidekicks and female baddies. To superheroines like Supergirl and Wonder Woman, eventually leading to Marvel’s great female ensemble of heroes. But the strongest factor in all of this would be the ultimate kick-butt, take no flack heroine, Princess Leia Organa. Over the years there have been new and exciting women, real and fictional, who have taken roles in the hero spot, but Leia would always be queen.

Enter my own dreams of creating women like this in my own books. Believe me, anything I wrote or daydreamed about, it was always the woman who came out on top. The Bible has plenty of female heroes, and we should never forget this.
My first heroine, Cody Lewis, was the jumping point. Over time she developed into more, but she wasn’t quite what I wanted to be writing. And thus I developed that particular heroine. She’s the eye-opener, the one my editor explained to me that showed her who I was as a person and an author. Ex-Marine Scout Sniper, Nicolette Rivers.

Nic’s personality is unique in that she was influenced by real life women in the military. Hard as it is to believe, military women are a breed apart. They are feminine and soft when needs be, but they can be just as crude and tough as their male counterparts they serve with. And women in the military fight the same type of battles men do. Nic has irritated some readers, and been lauded by most, even male readers, and its because she’s unique. I had to write tough and work hard to soften her edges, but she molded into the character I wanted.

After Nic I didn’t know how I was going to top my efforts with her. The three subsequent heroines were a test of my mettle, one, to not repeat Nic, and two, to make them unique in their own ways. And the work paid off. Even my newest heroine, Liza Bartholomew is a step outside my comfort zone, because I didn’t realize it when she made her first appearance in Born to Die that she was actually an African-American. And as a white author writing a character of color, I was dealing with a minefield. Thankfully, there were resources I found to help me use better descriptions and imagery to make her well-rounded.

How I actually design the characters is simple. I tend to look for a model of sorts, whether it be an actress or real life woman, and if they did something that fits with what I’m seeing for a particular character, I use them. Once I have that, next I find the heroine’s wound, the one thing that changed everything for them and build on it.

For Cody, it had been her mother’s tragic death. For Nic, it was seeing the massacre of a squad and then the suicide of her lover. For Cassy, it was her kidnapping at the hands of a mad man. For Jolie Murdoch, it was the imprisonment of her brother. And for Liza, it was the deaths of innocents by an evasive scam artist.

Once I had that foundation, I went from there. How would they react or how did they react? How does it effect their decisions now? What quirk effects them as a character? And how do they find a way to fight back?

I like characters that can hold their own physically and mentally, and you’ll never get a heroine with a “woe is me” complex from me. I want the males in the books to work with them, never underestimate them because of their gender, and be strong for them when the heroines want and need it. Let’s face it, we’re women, and we are supposed to be vulnerable. God created us that way so men would have a reason to fight for us, not against us. But Satan has twisted that and made it a thing of ugliness and contention, and I refuse to allow that into my character’s arcs.

A truly strong heroine is one who can admit that there are times when she needs help. A truly strong woman will not let it bother her either.

Do I want my heroines to come out on top and win the day? You betcha. But does it always end up being that way in my books? Hmm, it’s about half and half. ’Cause let’s face it; I still like a hero who is there to help, and not lord it over his other half.
And let’s not forget I’m an action junkie, whether it be in the books I read or movies I watch. It’s got to have big fight scene, and my characters always deliver with that. 😉

My process is truly simple. But the writing is where everything begins to gel and come together. Sometimes the characters take a bit to really let me know who they are, but once that last puzzle piece is revealed, it’s no holds barred.

Father, you know Winter's heart and soul. Minister to her body, soul, and spirit, and keep her writing the way you designed her to write. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

Another band with some well known tunes back in the day of great musicians and singers in spite of the life styles . . .

Father, you are the Redeemer, the Rescuer. We all need you whether or not we know it or care. Thank you is never enough. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

With her cool covers, manly men, tough and beautiful women, the McIntire County Series Book 4 is another good one. We'll hear from Winter Austin on the strong heroines in her stories. Stay close. 

Father, thank you for the amazing writing skills you give your people. Apart from you, we can do nothing. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

. . . If anyone's name was not found written in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

Revelation 20:15 (NIV)

In a comment to yesterday's post (Throwback Thursday), my author friend Brenda S. Anderson remarked about another good writer that didn't sell well in Christian fiction (Mark Mynheir). For those of us who author novels and admire others who do the same, we of course, like all readers, have our favorites, and when we read their books, we appreciate, admire, and/or are inspired by their words and stories. We voice our opinions, some of us write sterling reviews, we promote them, and we watch in astonished disappointment when their work seems to fade away. 

In recent years much of the marketing has fallen upon the authors themselves. It's expected when authors extend an "application" or "audition" to an agent or publisher that they include their marketing plan for the book(s). I've done extensive posts on this topic over the years, and I don't need to reiterate my opinion of this other than to say I don't think most publishing houses have a clue how to market fiction other than for their top selling clientele whose established name basically markets itself as their audiences anxiously await their new book.

I can tell you straight up I cannot, nor do I want to, market my own work. The pressing question publishing professionals love to press is "If not you, who?" In other words, guilt tripping. Don't you believe in your work? Yes. Well, then. Well, then, what? Sell, sell, sell? No. Solicitation is not my specialty.

Most authors have a distinct audience. Some have a specialized audience. Others have a well-rounded general audience. When you narrow that description down to a Christian audience, it can get very specialized – to the point of realizing when your work isn't going to sit well with legalistic readers who prefer genuine escapes from all that's wrong in the world – and that some publishers seek to placate that specific audience. 

So. Why is it that some very good writers of Christian fiction are excluded from making the big bucks? Is it marketing? Is it a narrowed audience? Are some of them published by the "wrong" houses? That is to say, are those who tend to read the work from those houses not geared to reading the types of novels produced by these good writers? What is the reason?  

Any thoughts/opinions?

Lord, only you know the real reasons for the different paths of your people. As your people, more than anything we want to obey your directions for our lives and seek forgiveness for our waywardness when we stray. Please help us to do what you have for us to do and be content and blessed to be in your perfect, tailored, designed will. We're desperate for you. In the Name of Jesus, Amen. 

(Originally posted on April 7th, 2011; "Searching for . . . The Corruptible") 

For those of you who enjoyed the salty detectives of Randy Alcorn’s Deception, J. Mark Bertrand’s Back on Murder, and for any of you who’ve ever watched “The Rockford Files” or its reruns, you will love former Detective-now-Private Investigator Ray Quinn in Mark Mynheir’s second book in his Ray Quinn Mystery Series: The Corruptible published by Multnomah Books. If you haven’t read his first book in this series, The Night Watchman, I give it equal high marks with The Corruptible and highly recommend both novels, preferably read in order to savor the experience of getting to know Ray and his assistant, cop-wannabe Crevis Creighton.
 
Private Investigator Ray Quinn, basically crippled physically and emotionally from losing his partner/fiancée in a shoot-out a year and a half before this story begins, spends a lot of time numbing his pain from his hip replacement and useless leg leaning on his cane and soaking in his pal Jim Beam. The pain killers make him unable to focus and “loopy”, but the whiskey takes some of the sting away from the ever present pain and simply dulls his senses, leaving him with a hangover. He counts on his young socially-challenged friend, Crevis, who’s survived a difficult upbringing and wants more than anything to be a cop—or so he thinks as he studies with Pam, Ray’s client from The Night Watchman. Crevis is dyslexic but determined, and Pam is dedicated to seeing him triumph over his inadequacies, but the young man’s devotion to protecting Ray and being his partner surpass everything else to him. 
 
Sought out and hired by the germophobic Howard Hughes replica Armon Mayer, Ray is asked to locate some hijacked files of clients and transactions supposedly stolen by former undercover cop, Lance, who was disgraced by his conduct, forced out of police work, and employed by Armon. Immediately knocking heads with Armon’s security advisor, Ray accepts the job but is simultaneously thrust into solving Lance’s murder which takes place quickly after Ray’s hiring. With enough suspects to cause considerable suspicion and confusion, Ray is heckled by Armon to find those records under the threat of being fired with little regard for who murdered his employee.
 
There are obvious hints as to who’s involved in what Ray determines are more than just financial records of clients, but because of the number of people who might’ve wanted Lance dead, he misses some key points in solving both the murder and the missing hard drive. With police assistance suspects are brought in and dismissed, but the case continues to confuse, especially since Ray can’t squeeze out the real reason Armon is desperately concerned about acquiring his lost files.
 
Ray falls prey to a mild smokescreen but eventually brings the case to a close after a huge payday from Armon. When he finally puts it all together, Ray brings justice to all concerned.
 
Interlaced in the story is the persistence of Pam, who Ray believed and solved a case for in the previous book, a Christian woman who deeply cares for Ray and prays for him unashamedly. At the end of The Corruptible, Ray finally listens to what Pam has to say and discovers the value in what she proposes to him.
 
Realistically written from Ray’s POV, this is a quickly engaging, complex, and entertaining read. As crusty and sardonic as Ray Quinn can be, the depth of his pain is transparent and keeps us believing in him. He’s a great character who stays consistent, hiding the remnant of his tender heart until faced with the unconditional love of a lady who believes in him. There’s no real romance in this novel, only detailed investigation and a developing picture of the main characters in the series. Good book.
 

Father, you know Mark's heart and soul. You've given him stories to show diverse characters in the throes of real justice. Keep supplying him with those stories and characters and watch over him with your protective hand. Bless him for all of his efforts to honor you in his writing. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.