Linda Watkins presents Summer Girl and Storm Island

Escape with a Writer Sunday welcomes Award Winning Novelist Linda Watkins!

Linda, I'm in love with your dogs!!

USA Today bestselling author, Linda Watkins, who resides in Sedona, Arizona, is the author of the multi-award winning Mateguas Island Series and the critically acclaimed, award-winning, Kate Pomeroy Gothic Mystery Series.

In addition to these novels, she has also penned the award-winning contemporary romance, Summer Girl, A Novel and three novellas (Sarah & Zoey, A Story About the Power of Unconditional Love, The Night of the Sciurus, A Western Michigan Tale of Terror, and The Witches of Storm Island: Book I, The Turning), all of which have received excellent editorial and customer reviews.

Linda is a voting member of the Horror Writers Association, The Authors Guild, The International Association of Crime Writers (N.A.) and The Great Lakes Association of Horror Writers.

The adopter of three rescue dogs, Linda is serious about animal welfare and, all profits from The Mateguas Island Series are donated to her charitable trust, The Raison d’Etre Fund for Dogs, Dedicated to Rescue and Research which is administered through Schwab Charitable.

To find out more about Linda and her works, please visit her book website http://www.lindawatkins-author.com/, her blog, http://www.lindawatkins.biz/ where she posts book reviews and other items of interest, or her website dedicated to the Mateguas Island Series, http://www.mateguasisland.com/.

Tell us about your life outside of writing.

I’m a single woman who lives with three dogs – Chelsea, Chomps, and The Bear. Prior to COVID-19, I volunteered several days a week at the local humane society, walking and socializing dogs. Obviously, I’m a dog person. I also enjoy hiking in the red rocks of Sedona where I live.

Do you have a work in progress?

Yes, I do. I am currently working on the 4^th book in the Kate Pomeroy Gothic Mystery Series. The WIP doesn’t have a title yet!

What was the most difficult section/piece you ever wrote? What made it difficult?

The most difficult piece I’ve ever written was in my novel, Summer Girl. The section I refer to involved the graphic description of the sexual abuse of a child. I knew when I was writing this that I had to walk a very fine line between conveying the absolute horror of the act and, at the same time keep it from going so far overboard that I turned my readers off. I started off by writing the episode in as much graphic detail as I could. Once that was done, I re-wrote and re-wrote it, softening some parts and emphasizing others until I had what I wanted. Most of the time when I was editing, I was crying. While not a victim of sexual abuse myself, I did suffer physical and emotional abuse as a child and young woman. The trauma experienced by my heroine (Andie), brought my childhood experiences back and, in a sense, that was cathartic for me.

What sort of research do you do for your work?

All kinds. The first two novels in the Kate Pomeroy Series jump back and forth in time – from present day to the 1600s and back again. I had to do historical research regarding the City of New York, modes of transportation, clothing, etc. for the 17^th century segments. In the 3^rd novel in the Kate Pomeroy series, Abducted, I had to do research into drug addiction and geographical research into the country of Turkey.

The Mateguas Island series was easier. That series is set on an island off the coast of Maine and, at the time I wrote the 1^st novel, I lived on such an island. Therefore, I had first-hand knowledge of what island life is like.

Which books and authors do you read for pleasure? Is there an author that inspires you?

Stephen King, of course. He’s been one of my favorite authors for decades. As a member of the Horror Writers Association, I am privileged to receive works being promoted for Bram Stoker Awards. Thus, I get to read many new and established writers in the genre. My favorite novel, however, is The Magus by John Fowles. No matter how many times I read it, I always learn something new. I also loved The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein – best dog book ever – and The Lightkeepers by Abby Geni.

SUMMER GIRL, A Novel

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07H6NPMXL

Does First Love, True Love, Ever Really Die?

Andi Martin asks herself that question as she sits on the porch of the Sloane Cottage, her mind flooded with memories of the summer of '65 and a boy, once loved, but never forgotten.

Jake Chambers is also on a collision course with the past as he returns to Cutter Island for the first time in more than a decade. And, as the ferry approaches the wharf, he finds his mind filled with thoughts of a summer long forgotten and a girl destined to haunt him forever.

Summer Girl is the story of Andi and Jake - a story of love, loss, survival, and - most of all - HOPE…

STORM ISLAND, A KATE POMEROY MYSTERY 

 https://www.amazon.com/Storm-Island-Pomeroy-Mystery-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B07H7VQ9JV

 A body found hanging from the ceiling fan in the tower room of the old manor house on Storm Island.

For nineteen years, Kate Pomeroy has suppressed that memory. A second-year-resident in surgery, she thinks she has her life under control. But a curious conversation overheard while taking a catnap launches her on a descent into a world filled with nightmarish visions that cause her to doubt her own sanity.

Sent to Storm Island to rest and recuperate from an apparent breakdown, Kate is forced to come to grips with memories of the summer her mother died as well as new terrors that plague her mind. Even the blossoming of an unexpected romance with islander, Jeremy Bradshaw, cannot keep her fears at bay for long.

The discovery of a strange little silo, hidden deep in the woods, spurs Kate to action as she tries to unravel its mysteries. But is the silo real or just another illusion created by her tortured mind?

Storm Island, A Kate Pomeroy Mystery, is the first book in a series of mysteries involving the young doctor. The second book in the series, The Tao of the Viper, A Kate Pomeroy Mystery, was published in October 2019 and the third book, Abducted, A Kate Pomeroy Mystery, was published in March 2020.

My three websites are mentioned, with links, in the bio, but I’ll include them here, too.

http://www.lindawatkins-author.com - main book website (thru Author’s Guild)

https://lindawatkins.biz - (book reviews, thoughts, etc.)

http://mateguasisland.com - (website for the M.I. series).

Social Media:

FB:  https://www.facebook.com/LindaWatkins.Author/ 

and https://www.facebook.com/KatePomeroyGothicMystery/

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/Splatland

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/

Amazon Author Page:  https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00HQOY94Q

Joseph Badal tells us about Payback and Justice

Escape with A Writer Sunday Welcomes Joseph Badal!!

REVIEW: The Motive (The Curtis Chronicles,#1)

When Joseph sent me The Motive, I wasn't sure what I was getting into! This novel is definitely a wild ride with some great twists. Not for the faint of heart, there are several explicit and graphic scenes that made me cringe due to their stark realism. That said, I'm looking forward to reading more of is books when I get the chance.

Enjoy finding out more about this #1 Best-Selling Author!!

Joseph Badal is the author of 16 award-winning suspense novels, including Payback, which was released on May 12. He has written four stand-alone novels and twelve books comprising three series: the Danforth Saga, the Lassiter/Martinez Case Files, and the Curtis Chronicles. He is an Amazon and Barnes & Noble Best-Selling Author, a two-time winner of the Tony Hillerman Prize, a three-time Military Writers Society of America Gold Medal Winner, an Eric Hoffer Prize Winner, and a two-time “Finalist” in the International Book Awards competition.

Joe is a frequent speaker at writer, civic, and business conferences, and has taught several master classes in writing.

Prior to his literary career, he served six years in the U.S. Army, including tours of duty in Vietnam and Greece, from which he received numerous decorations.

After his military service, he worked for thirty-six years in the banking & finance industries and was a founding director and senior executive of a New York Stock Exchange-listed company for sixteen years.

Joe is a member of International Thrillers Writers, Sisters in Crime, Croak & Dagger, Military Writers Society of America, Public Safety Writers Association, and Southwest Writers Workshop.

 What would you say are your strengths as an author?

I want my readers to experience roller coaster-like tension throughout my books. I try to deliver brief moments of calm sandwiched between suspense and action that keeps the reader hooked and wanting more. My plots are advanced on the foundations of strong, well-developed characters to whom the reader can relate, rather than being super heroes who leap tall buildings in a single bound.

How often do you write, and do you write using a strict routine?

I approach writing as a profession, not a hobby. Just like going to work every day at an office, I write every day. I aspire to hone my craft through commitment to it. This translates to writing for at least four hours a day, six days a week. I should clarify that when I refer to "writing," I include research, editing, and drafting under that definition. I also spend at least two hours per day on marketing and promoting my work.

Five years from now, where do you see yourself as a writer?

Where I see myself and where I hope to be are two different things. I am confident that I will have had 20 books published by 2025, which works out to be one book a year since my first book was published in 2003. It would be gratifying if my readership will have doubled in that time. As to what I hope happens in the next five years, I would be thrilled if one or more of my novels is the basis for a movie and/or television series.

If you could offer one piece of advice to a novice writer, what would it be?

I have been asked this question many times over the years and my answer has never changed. Never, ever fall in love with your storyline to the point that you cannot see its flaws. It's not enough to write a good story. Your work must be "mechanically" solid. You must edit your work over and over until it is as clean as you can possibly make it. Then, have it edited by a professional editor who has one goal in mind: to make you the best writer you can be. Do not hire an editor who is concerned about your thin skin. Find one who will be critical and will explain why he/she recommended changes.

What would you consider to be the best compliment a reader could give your book?

There are many ways that a reader compliments me and my work. Just buying a copy of one of my books is a wonderful compliment. Of course, writing a good review is also gratifying. But nothing gives me more pleasure than when readers tell me they could not put my book down.

What are you working on now?

I just finished Payback, a standalone thriller released by Suspense Publishing on May 12. The Carnevale Conspiracy, the 7th book in my Danforth Saga, has been submitted for editorial review by the publisher. I am currently in final edit of Everything to Lose, the 4th book in my Lassiter/Martinez Case Files series. This series features two female homicide detectives who investigate dangerous, often diabolical cases while dealing with personal issues that would defeat most people.

PAYBACK 

 When Bruno Pedace learns that his investment banking partners are setting him up to take the fall for their own corrupt practices, he does what he has always done—run away. But the documents he takes with him put a target on his back. He changes his name and, for nine years, goes underground, until an assassin tracks him down in California and badly injures him.
Befriended by Janet Jenkins, a courageous woman who works in a battered women’s shelter, Bruno, for the first time in his life, with Janet’s help, fights back. He constructs an ingenious financial scheme to get payback for the crimes perpetrated by his former partners.
In PAYBACK, award-winning, Amazon #1 best-selling author Joseph Badal weaves a story about a sympathetic protagonist who, when pushed too far, finally pushes back. This is a story about revenge that includes assassins, corrupt Wall Street investment bankers, a Mafia capo, Asian gangs, and heroic cops. And, to top it all off, it is a story about friendship and love.

“Payback has everything: an intriguing, single-minded protagonist; cunningly evil bad guys; well-drawn settings; a possible romance; and, best of all, a complex plot based on dark revenge. Author Badal never runs short of clever ways to challenge readers' assumptions as the absorbing, action-filled plot brilliantly unfolds.”-- Anne Hillerman, New York Times best-selling author

“Badal's expertise in the world of high finance shines in this gripping story. With a finely tuned, fast-paced plot, the narrative in PAYBACK hurtles forward to a satisfying conclusion. Highly recommended.” --Sheldon Siegel. New York Times and Amazon best-selling author of THE DREAMER.

JUSTICE (The Curtis Chronicles #3)

Amazon #1 Best-selling author, Joseph Badal, delivers “Justice,” the third in his Curtis Chronicles series, with the same relentless tension that is a trademark of his award-winning suspense novels.
In “Justice,” Matt and Renee Curtis return, along with their maniacal tormentor, Lonnie Jackson. On a trip to Costa Rica with their friends Esteban and Alani Maldonado, Matt and Renee believe they are beyond Jackson’s reach. They soon find out how wrong they are, however, when Jackson orchestrates the kidnapping of Renee and Alani and transports them to his human trafficking headquarters located in Nicaragua.
Matt and Esteban recruit former special operations soldiers living in Costa Rica to help them rescue their wives, sending readers on an action-packed journey.
As with all of Badal’s novels, “Justice” is a bold and complex thriller. It weaves an intricate plot involving multiple international locations, a human trafficking organization, the CIA, Special Operations, corrupt politicians, Bulgarian organized crime figures, Swiss bankers, and a compelling cast of engaging, inspiring, and diabolical characters.
The Curtis Chronicles is an epic series that delves into the age-old conflict between good and pure evil, where each book leaves you begging for more.

"Another thrill ride by acclaimed suspense author Joseph Badal. It's relentless from start to finish. Badal just gets better and better."--David Morrell, New York Times Bestselling Author of "Murder As a Fine Art"

"'Natural Causes' by Joseph Badal is a first-rate thriller, a powerhouse of a story that will keep you turning the pages into the wee hours. The pacing is relentless, with a sense of menace that grows almost unbearable. Lassiter and Martinez are two homicide detectives for the ages. I loved it!"--Douglas Preston, #1 Bestselling Coauthor of the Famed Pendergast Series 5

Website: http://www.josephbadalbooks.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/joseph.badal.5

Twitter: @JoeBadal
 Instagram: joseph_badal

Robert Crawford talks about Tatterdemalion and The Doll Maker

Welcome to writer Robert Crawford!

      

Tell us about your life outside of writing.

There’s really not a helluva lot to tell. Probably moreso than most in our craft, I identify as a writer. The way I have my pattern set up now, I’m a political blogger by day and a novelist by night. I aggregate news and so forth, write political commentary on my blog then when I go to bed at night. I write my fiction. I used to enjoy following the Red Sox in the spring and the New England Patriots in the winter but with the pandemic, all sports have been put on hiatus.

Do you have a work in progress?

LOL! A good writer always has irons in the fire. Like you, I’m juggling multiple series. Yet, since beginning the first book in the Scott Carson series in November 2012, that’s been the one series that’s occupied most of my fiction-writing time. In fact, I even started a spin-off from one of the characters. Last spring, I’d finished the first draft of a new series taking place in contemporary Wisconsin entitled The River Never Speaks, the first in a trilogy that I’m currently shopping around various publishers and literary agencies. Yet of all my protagonists, Scott Carson speaks to me most readily and in an Old New York English that greatly appeals to me. He’s primarily a 19^th century character who keeps finding himself in the middle of one murder mystery or another. In Tatterdemalion, Carson basically gets hog-tied into going to Whitechapel by Buffalo Bill Cody to hunt down Jack the Ripper.

The book on which I’m working now and have been every day since March 14^th is tentatively entitled Nemesis, which, although I’ve written and started other sequels to Tatterdemalion, is what I call a “direct sequel” because, while it picks up 12 years after the events of that seminal novel, it actually spans over two decades when Jack the Ripper, whom Scott thought had died at the end of the first book, comes back for revenge. So, yes, while I have many irons in the fire at all times, I also have to regrettably admit that for every novel I complete, there are six or seven others I never do or have yet to complete.

What was the most difficult section/piece you ever wrote? What made it difficult?

Two scenes spring to mind and there were both death scenes. I had to kill off a character in my novel, American Zen. There really was no way around it. The rest of the story as it had to be told would’ve been impossible to tell without that death. But it was a character to whom I’d really grown emotionally attached and as I wrote his death scene, I admit, I cried a little after I drafted it out. I really grew to love that guy.

The second is Mary Kelly’s death near the end of Tatterdemalion. No spoiler there because she was Jack the Ripper’s final victim. But early in the book, she enters the story applying for a cook position working for Bill’s team and then eventually becomes almost like a member of the team and even goes on an operation with them to try to flush out Jack the Ripper. Carson, a 21 year-old lab rat who actually invented moving pictures working for Buffalo Bill’s show in 1887, falls madly in love with her. Her death is obviously a major dramatic spike in the book, probably the biggest, and that and the denouement not only determines the course of the rest of the story, it completely alters the trajectory of Carson’s life and even basic psychology in that and well into the series.

My WIP, Nemesis, replaces his ongoing guilt with a need for vengeance when he realizes he didn’t actually take Jack the Ripper’s life. Yet that still leaves the death of Mary Kelly, the love of Scott’s life, unavenged. So the two take turns being predator and prey as they stalk each other well into the 1920’s when Carson goes to Hollywood to become a cameraman.

What sort of research do you do for your work?

Well, because I’m always operating on a shoestring budget, I can’t go traveling like other authors used to before the pandemic hit. So I’m restricted to the internet and getting my historical data from trusted sites. When that doesn’t give me the depth of research I need, I also go to Amazon and get affordable books that expound at much greater lengths and depth for my research. I once bought an 800 page book about the history of Central Park for another sequel I was writing (The Doll Maker, which takes place 5-6 months after Tatterdemalion.), even though I only wound up using maybe 1% of the information in the book.

Which books and authors do you read for pleasure? Is there an author that inspires you?

I read literally dozens of authors for pleasure, too many to name. I’m in the middle of Anne Holt’s 1222, which is actually the eighth entry her Hanne Wilhelmsen series. Before that, I’d read the first in a startling new series by Swedish author Niklas Natt och Dag, The Wolf and the Watchman, which takes place in the filthy, corrupt and incredibly dangerous world of 1793 Stockholm. And, of course, I’m currently enjoying your Death Without Honor on my Kindle.

But since you’re asking me to name any that actually inspire me, I’d have to say Caleb Carr. His Alienist and Angel of Darkness duology (third entry was supposed to come out last September then it mysteriously got pushed back three years, so I don’t know what the hell’s going on with that.), Carr showed me the rich world of late 19^th century New York City, which not only got me interested in historical psychological thrillers but also in the history of my home town. He also showed the literary possibilities of genre fiction. Since reading The Alienist for the first time in 1996 (exactly a century after the story takes place), I’d harbored a desire to write a comparable novel. It took me over 16 years to find the right story. Tatterdemalion wouldn’t have been possible without Caleb Carr and his Alienist epics.

Was there a person who encouraged you to write?

There were several, hardly any of them being in the business. Since 1980, I’d begun writing and later became friends with X. J. Kennedy the poet, novelist and academic. Since 1977, I’d written virtually nothing but poetry and it was Joe Kennedy who’d exhorted me several times during our correspondence to try my hand at prose. 17 years later in 1994, I’d written my first novel (somehow, it got me a literary agent) and, once I’d shown myself that I could write a 100,000 word story from start to finish, I was bitten by the bug and I haven’t stopped since. By 1996 I’d stopped writing poetry for good.

I can’t really say that aside from my readers and the occasional author that anyone has given me any real encouragement aside from the Keep your nose at the grindstone and shoulder to the wheel bromides that are cheaper than talk usually is. There have been a few bestselling novelists who have helped and encouraged me on Facebook such as Alex Shaw, Jenny Milchman, Ruth Downie, Noel Hynd and precious few others. But bestselling authors always stop short of introducing you to their agent without reading your work, which they also never seem to have time for. Essentially, it’s usually the same old story of elitists who look down their noses at self-published and indie authors like us. And that’s fine. It’s not as if I need their encouragement, anyway. Stephen Crane once wrote about “the itch in the fingers” and that about sums it up perfectly. There are those who want to write and there are the ones who need to. I’m the latter. Writing is intellectual respiration for me.

Tatterdemalion

"In the fog-slicked back alleys of 1888 Whitechapel, an unprecedented evil abides. Scotland Yard, Parliament and even the Crown are jittery: Since the Trafalgar Sq occupation and brutal crackdown the year before, confidence in the police has never been lower or the threat of revolution higher as the first City Council elections approach: Opportunism breeds like rats for anarchists and newspapermen recklessly exploiting the murders for their own political and financial ends. Desperate for a solution, Queen Victoria grants harried Chief Inspector Fred Abberline her permission to use legendary showman Buffalo Bill and his friends Annie Oakley, Sitting Bull and others to bring Jack the Ripper to ground, all of whom having their own motives for doing so. Vividly narrated by Cody’s young official cinematographer Scott Carson, Tatterdemalion is the tale of how Buffalo Bill’s posse, aided by Sigmund Freud, Arthur Conan-Doyle and his real-life Baker Street Irregulars pursued history’s most elusive serial killer. By the harrowing conclusion, no one in this ad hoc investigatory team will ever see innocence the same way as these legends use 19th century frontier justice and modern science on, in Carson’s words, an emerging 20th century evil, 'rendering redundant the necessity of embellishment or dramatization.'”

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07R9NVK7B

The Doll Maker

      "Jack the Ripper was just the beginning.
      In 1889 New York, 22 year-old Scott Carson retreats to his parents’ basement on 69th Street. Unwilling to venture back into the world, the reclusive engineering genius is still licking his wounds after winning his final battle with Jack the Ripper and trying to reassemble his shattered psyche. Then his friend Jacob Riis, desperate to get him back into the land of the living, shows him a photograph given to him by a detective that seems to be of a dead girl sitting on the lap of an adult hidden by a shroud.

     Carson quickly realizes this person who’d had delivered the photo to NYPD HQ on Mulberry Street may be a more advanced photographer than him and his interest is piqued. Riis introduces him to this detective, Angelo Delmonico (of the famous restauranteur family) and he finds the scientific-minded detective and he are of a similar mind regarding this new killer. Together with teenager Kelley McCarthy, a pioneering female urban explorer 'who goes where even the rats don’t go', the trio chase an ingenious and elusive serial killer who is murdering little girls and turning them into human dolls."

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FTV8C5X?ref_=pe_3052080_276849420

Amazon author page- https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B008MMC2P4

Facebook author page-https://www.facebook.com/RobertCrawford59/

Facebook wall- https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100014835313550

Facebook author group- https://www.facebook.com/groups/1976477142420097/

Twitter accounts- @MikeFlannigan59, @Cinemaboy88, @KindleindaWind

Tatterdemalion product page- https://www.amazon.com/Tatterdemalion-Veracious-Account-Buffalo-Ripper/dp/1096466880

The Doll Maker product page- https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07FTV8C5X

MassWriter (@KindleindaWind) | Twitter The latest Tweets from MassWriter (@KindleindaWind). Thriller author, political blogger, unpaid but highly-motiv...