Submerge Yourself in the World of Cheryl Kaye Tardif, Guest Post

Today we are having more fun as part of the World Literary Cafe's Killer Thriller Book Launch. 

I'm thrilled to host Cheryl Kaye Tardif today.

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Submerge Yourself in the World of Cheryl Kaye Tardif

When people ask me what I do, I like to tell them: "I kill people off for a living." You can imagine the looks I get. Sometimes I'll follow with: "Fictitiously, of course. I'm a suspense writer." Sometimes I won't say anything else. Yeah, I'm bad that way.

Writing thriller, suspense, mystery and/or crime novels has always been my passion—especially if I throw a pinch of supernatural or paranormal into the mix. I've always been drawn to dark stories, ones that raise the hairs on the back of my neck or make me glance over my shoulder. The two greatest influences in my writing life have been Dean Koontz and Stephen King. Need I say more?

So what can I offer you if you choose to read my books? I hope and strive to give you a satisfying read, once that will impact you emotionally. If I can make you shudder or tremble or wince or even cry, then I've done my job.

In SUBMERGED, I share with you a very personal fear of mine—the fear of being in a car that's underwater and not being able to get out. I have traveled long distances by car hundreds of times during my life, twice from one coast of Canada to the other. Whenever we're along a stretch of highway with a body of water beside me, my fear kicks in. And I hold my breath…waiting…praying…

I want you to relate to this fear. But even more, I want my characters to come to life. I want you to feel for Marcus Taylor, a struggling recovering addict who has had his fair share of grief and guilt. I want you to admire his strength, even in the midst of his weaknesses. I want you, dear reader, to feel compassion for this man who has lost his wife and son in a terrible accident, who blames himself for their deaths, and who is searching for redemption, though he doesn't really know he is.

I want you to cheer on Rebecca Kingston, a mother on the verge of divorce who has left an abusive husband. I want you to feel empathy for her because this decision, no matter what others think, is not an easy one to make. I want you to cry with her when she realizes she is physically unable to help her children who are trapped with her in a sinking vehicle. And I want you to be holding your breath every time Rebecca does.

Marcus and Rebecca (and the others in SUBMERGED) may only be characters on paper, but they feel real to me. I gave "birth" to them and watched them grow. With every step they took, I wiped away their tears, hugged them and loved them. And, dear reader, I sincerely hope you'll love them just as much.

Happy reading…with the lights on…

Cheryl Kaye Tardif, international bestselling author

PS: The Kindle edition of SUBMERGED is available on Amazon from March 5^th – 7^th for a special price during the Killer Thriller Book Launch.

Learn more about me and connect at:

http://www.cherylktardif.com

http://www.twitter.com/cherylktardif

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cheryl-Kaye-Tardif-novels/29769736630

Thanks, Cheryl! I am looking forward to reading Submerged. 

Don't forget to check out the event starting tomorrow, March 5th.

Rocking Writer, Tweet Tweet Tweet: Author Blog Challenge & ROW80 Update

Welcome to Day Three of my Winter Author Blog Challenge journey. Today's prompt...

Are you on Twitter? Perhaps more than any of the other social media platforms, Twitter has developed its own language. Tweets. Twitterverse. Retweet. Are you invested in the lingo? So how do you make a statement in 140 characters? Are you following more people or are more people following you? How do you decide whom to follow? Do you reciprocate and automatically follow back everyone who follows you? What kinds of things do you post? How often do you post? What advice do you have for those who are just getting started? 

Admitting I'm a dork is nothing new, so it should come as no shock that I can't think of Twitter without humming Rocking Writer (makes more sense than robin for me), Tweet Tweet Tweet.  Every time I go on Twitter this little ditty plays in my head.

When I first started on Twitter, which I did in May 2011 as part of the first blogathon I ever joined, I was lost. What would I tweet? Would anyone care?

I may not be hip with the lingo, but I like the format. It forces brevity and makes users rely on words... pictures aren't as easily shared on Twitter as they are on FB (unless I'm missing something). I'm more of a word girl than a picture girl, go figure.

Hating to hurt anyone's feelings, I initially followed EVERYONE who followed me. But I found this made my Twitter feed a mess of stuff I didn't want to read. So now I look into the people that follow me and follow back those I find interesting. As of today, I have 1088 followers and follow 1011. Clearly I find most people interesting!

My favorite part about Twitter are word sprints. My #ROW80 buddies do a #teamsprinty sprint weekdays at 2pmEST (or at least I hope they still do... I need to get back in the habbit). There's also #wordmongering (jump on and see who is writing). I LOVE these! And I just discovered #editmongering... hold me back!

For those just getting started, I would jump into these types of hashtags and get to know people. It'll make tweeting fun! Also, search for authors who have written books you love and see what their tweets are like. If you write a certain genre, follow authors in that genre. Now that I've started writing YA, I'm looking in to different YA authors and their followers.

Most of all, have fun with it, in 140 characters or less of course.

*****

Now for my Sunday A Round of Words in 80 Days (ROW80) update (which is actually on Sunday this week because I have a guest post running tomorrow)...

Writing: Attended a writing conference this weekend. So stoked to get back to writing with a brain full of tips, strategies, and enthusiasm. I'll post more from the Pamlico Writer's Conference soon, but I had to share my wonderful news... 

I won first place in the YA writing contest!! *jumping up and down*

Editing: I'm applying my editor's comments and suggestions from the prologue and chapter 1 to the rest of the book. These edits will be sent on Friday, so no excuses!

Blogging: Posting every day until March 15 for the Winter Author Blog Challenge, and then back to my MWF schedule until the Blogging from A to Z Challenge starts April 1.

Reading: Lots lately! Check out Mom in Love with Fiction for reviews.

The Face of Facebook: Author Blog Challenge

It's Day Two of the Winter Author Blog Challenge. (I missed Day One due to a prescheduled guest post by Russell Blake, author of Blood of the Assassin.)

Each day for the next 15 days, Laura Orsini (aka, Marcie Brock -- Book Marketing Maven) will post writer-related prompts. 

Today's prompt...

Do you have a Facebook fan page for yourself/your book? How long ago did you start it? Did you do it yourself or have someone help you? Are you seeing lots of new people liking it? What kinds of things do you post? What have you found to be the most effective way to get fans/have people interact?

When Mom and I published our book, Depression Cookies, in late 2010, I knew nothing about an author platform. A book and no platform, what was an author to do?

I raced around the Internet, searching out my favorite authors. It quickly became apparent that social media was a huge component of book marketing, and Facebook was the place to be (or one of many places to be).

At the time, I wasn't sure there was another book in me, so I created a Depression Cookies page instead of a Tia Bach page. People interested in my book or blog who searched my name ended up sending friend requests to my personal Facebook page. 

I'll just accept a few requests for now and then create an author page, I said to myself. Two and a half years later, my personal page is equal parts family, friends, and author connections (some of which have also become great friends).

So my dilemma about Facebook... Do I now create a Tia Bach fan page and start directing people there? What do I do for those I already connect with through either Depression Cookies or my personal page? Do you add a new fan page for each book?

Fortunately, I didn't rush into creating a Twitter account. By the time I did, I realized my rookie mistake with Facebook and set up an author twitter page. In so many ways, I find Twitter the better author tool. But I think it's because I started it with a better knowledge of how I wanted to represent myself as an author. 

However, I think readers prefer Facebook interactions. 

Do you find Twitter or Facebook a better platform builder? Which one do you think reaches more readers?

Wait, my prompt turned into a Q&A session. ;-) 

I'm looking forward to reading what other challenges and successes others have found with Facebook.

(I will be checking out other ABC participants later today. I'm off to a Writer's Conference this morning.)

When Bad is Good: Guest Post from Russell Blake, Author of Blood of the Assassin

I'm thrilled to welcome Russell Blake to my blog today as part of the World Literary Cafe's Killer Thriller Book Launch event, which will take place March 5-7.

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When Bad is Good

by Russell Blake

I’ll admit, a lot of my favorite characters are bad guys. Don’t know why, but for me, those are the most memorable. Sure, I remember Bond and Bourne and whoever the hell Tom Cruise plays in Mission Impossible, but the ones that really stick in my mind are always the villains – in the movies, like the books, Hannibal Lecter/Anthony Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs, David Carradine in Kill Bill, Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men, Lawrence Olivier in Marathon Man (“Eees eet safe?”), Kevin Spacey in Se7en, Gary Oldman in just about every role he’s ever played. I could go on and on.

I don’t know why a compelling bad guy sticks with us with such vividness, but there’s no denying that they do. Consider a great movie like The Usual Suspects – I couldn’t for the life of me tell you what any of the characters’ names were, save one, and he’s a doozy: Keyser Soze. The baddest mofo of crime ever conceived.

Many books and movies try to build a hero you can root for, and a villain you can hate – but where it gets interesting is when innovative thinkers discard that formula and blur the lines. I think one of the fascinating things about the film Pulp Fiction was that everyone in it was basically bad, and yet you liked the characters. Hit men? Generally agreed to be bad. Robbers? Bad. Kingpin? Super bad. The down on his luck boxer? Somewhat bad, although redeemable. Even the women were sort of bad. Maybe not 100%, but close enough to where you knew they weren’t all that good.

And yet people respond well to bad, when it’s done well.

In books, much the same as in films, although a lot of the aforementioned villains are drawn from books. And literary baddies like American Psycho’s main character, or Red Dragon’s serial killer, or The Stand’s Randall Flagg, or even smaller villains like that piss-ant guard in The Green Mile. They stay with you.

That’s the way I was thinking when I first conceived my ultimate bad guy, the cartel super-assassin known as El Rey, The King of Swords, in the first book of my Assassin series, King of Swords. From that kernel has sprung a slew of books, culminating with my new release, Blood of the Assassin, where El Rey plays a central role in stopping a German assassin before he can kill a visiting dignitary and destroy the world order.

But Blood of the Assassin is different than any of the other books in the series, in that it was written so it could be read as a stand-alone book by folks who have never read any of the others, and yet be every bit as enjoyable – sort of like Da Vinci Code was the second in the Robert Langdon series but you didn’t have to read the first one to have a satisfying time. Blood takes that same approach, giving new readers a chance to sample the best of my work to date without plowing through the other four in the series.

And boy, does it have memorable villains. El Rey is the character I get the most fan mail for – some even send in photos of guns they think would be ideal for him (that’s not a lie). People seem fascinated by his combination of genius IQ, nerves of steel, zen-like calm under any sort of pressure, and his almost preternaturally efficiency in terminating his targets. If an actor was going to play him, it would have to be Johnny Depp – he’s got that vibe, that dancing on a razor’s edge, I don’t give a sh#t willingness to go to the brink and balance on the edge, daring the world to blow him into the abyss, taunting it to steal his soul. El Rey is larger than life, coldly efficient, remorseless, relentless and an island unto himself, and he has no hesitation about killing some of the most dangerous men on the planet, as well as politicians, if the price is right. He’s a bad man. There’s little that’s good in him, and almost nothing to warm to... and yet, readers do. They love him. And they want to know what he’s up to next. I get probably three to four e-mails a week from readers asking when the next El Rey book will be out. That’s wild, considering that I sort of envisioned any series built from King of Swords would revolve around the protagonist, Captain Romero Cruz of the Federal Police. But things have a way of taking on a life of their own, and that’s not how it played.

In Blood, however, Cruz is in the mix in a very big way, and the story gives us a real sense for his depth, as well as more insight into his relationships, his frustrations and the obstacles he has to contend with in his career, and the thankless, dangerous job he performs hunting the most vicious cartel drug lords in the world. But when you add El Rey into that stew, and have them forced to reluctantly cooperate in order to stop a German hit man who is intent on taking out the Chinese leader on his Mexican visit, you have a bad-guy fest that plays out at hyper-speed – a high octane rollercoaster that makes Day of the Jackal read like Wuthering Heights.

What makes Blood of the Assassin one of my favorite efforts are the villains – we get to really know them, and whether we like it or not, they’re fascinating, just as a Keyser Soze was fascinating. You didn’t want to find him that interesting, but you couldn’t help yourself. El Rey and his cast of miscreants is much the same way, and anyone who is a fan of Harris, Forsyth, Child or Ludlum will find Blood of the Assassin to be a welcome addition to their bookshelf. I’m so certain that readers will like it, I’m dropping the price for a few days during its launch, to reduce the barrier to purchasing it about as low as it can go without paying readers to read it. My bet is that once a reader gets 10 pages in, they’re hooked, and there’s no turning back as they delve into a controversial, forbidden underbelly populated by miscreants, killers, narco-traffickers, scheming intelligence agencies and a few good men and women trying to keep the world safe.

As one early reviewer said, this isn’t a book for folks who want to read a few chapters and go to sleep.

True, dat.

If a little titillation and a breakneck-paced story are up your alley, I’d encourage you to give Blood of the Assassin a whirl. Who knows – you might just find that you’ve discovered your very own, personal Keyser Soze, hiding in the pages of your kindle.

And he wants out.

~ ~ ~

Russell Blake is the bestselling author of twenty novels, including the thrillers Fatal Exchange, The Geronimo Breach, Zero Sum, King of Swords, Night of the Assassin, Revenge of the Assassin, Return of the Assassin, Blood of the Assassin, The Delphi Chronicle trilogy, The Voynich Cypher, Silver Justice, JET, JET II - Betrayal, JET III - Vengeance, JET IV - Reckoning, and JET V - Legacy. Non-fiction includes the international bestselling animal biography An Angel With Fur and How To Sell A Gazillion eBooks In No Time (even if drunk, high or incarcerated), a parody of all things writing-related. Blake lives in Mexico and enjoys his dogs, fishing, boating, tequila and writing, while battling world domination by clowns.

*****

I can't wait to pick Blood of the Assassin up! I've read and reviewed two of Russell Blake's books: The Voynich Cypher (5 stars) and Jet (4.5 stars). 

Learning Curve: ROW80 Update

Isolation, too often it is the life of a writer. Feeling a part of a writing community has helped my writing in some many ways. The learning curve has been intense but rewarding, and I have so many resources for my questions about writing, publishing, editing, marketing, and on and on.

Most of my writing community is online. I feel much less isolated than before, but I still long to surround myself with flesh and blood writers sometimes. To that end, I am attending the Pamlico Writer's Conference this weekend. I'm so excited to pick up writing tips and tools. But most of all, I'm excited to share in the energy of other writers.

I'll be sure to share what I learn.

Back to online writing communities... the Winter Author Blog Challenge starts Friday, March 1. I participated in the First Author Blog Challenge back in June and met some amazing writers, one of whom (the amazing Jo Michaels) is editing my newest novel. Please consider joining us.

Note: I had scheduled guest posts for March 1 & 4, so I will double up on writing prompts on March 2 & 5 for the Winter ABC.

Now for my Wednesday A Round of Words in 80 Days (ROW80) update...

Writing: Depression Cookies chapters coming along nicely. Almost ready to hit send to my co-author, aka Mom. A stubborn scene is still befuddling me. 

Question: When a scene really perplexes you, do you let it go for now and work on it in editing or pound away at it until you get what you want?

Editing: I'm applying some of the editor's comments about my Prologue and Chapter 1 to the rest of the book. I plan to be done editing by early next week. 

Blogging: I'm keeping with my MWF schedule nicely so far.

Reading: Lots lately! Check out Mom in Love with Fiction for reviews.

American Idol & Writing: ROW80 Update

I am so grateful for parents who always pushed me to do better. If I brought home a 95 on a test, my parents often asked where I could improve. Not that they didn't congratulate me, because they did. They just didn't blow smoke and chant about their perfect kid.

As a parent, it's so much easier to jump up and down around your kid and tell them how awesome they are. My kids are awesome, and I tell them. But I also make sure to let them know how they can be even better, and I make sure and support their efforts to do so. I never strive to change who they are, just make them better versions of themselves.

After all, what good does it do to be the mom of that kid who shrieks out a song at the American Idol auditions and then cries when the judges tell them the honest truth... they can't sing. Inevitably, the kids says, "But my mama and daddy said I was the best singer ever!" Okay, that's an extreme. But some kids might make it with a few voice lessons or a different song choice. 

What does this have to do with writing?

I not only can take constructive criticism about my work, but I long for it. It's not that I don't have confidence in my abilities. I do. But, I also truly believe that everything can improve with good input. 

My NaNo novel, Chasing Memories, will soon be in the hands of my editor. I know she'll help me make this book better. It's like adding chocolate chips to my great-grandmother's banana bread recipe. A small change, a huge impact! (Yes, I can bring most things back around to sugar.)

Chasing Memories is a real departure for me. Although my character in Depression Cookies was a young adult, this is my first real attempt at the young adult genre. Plus, I'm writing this one in third person. Again, something new.

I can't wait to dive into this book and get it out there to face, yes, more criticism. But I can take it, especially since I know the edits, and ultimately input from beta readers, will make for a much better book. And I'm excited! Does constructive criticism and peer input make you nervous or get you pumped up?

It's Monday, and time for my A Round of Words in 80 Days (ROW80) update...

Writing: Working on my Depression Cookies follow-up. Two chapters are done and ready to send off to Mom for her response. I've got a bit of a scene to flesh out, something is simply not working, and then they are off. My goal is to have them to Mom by Wednesday.

Editing: I'm applying some of the editor's comments about my Prologue and Chapter 1 to the rest of the book. I plan to be done editing by Friday. Wish me luck, because I know there are some holes to fill.

Blogging: I'm keeping with my MWF schedule nicely so far. March begins a 15-day Winter Author Blog Challenge and then April will bring A to Z. Check out both challenges. I've met some amazing people doing both, and they've only helped me as a writer and blogger.

Social Media: Doing better about getting around to other people's blogs, Facebook pages, and Twitter messages without letting it be such a time suck.

Reading: Lots lately! My Beautiful Creatures review is up today, and I have three more books I need to review.

Something I've NEVER Apologized For

I came across an interesting post on the Huffington Post this week: Stop Apologizing for What You Like to Read. The author of the post teaches Literature and finds it annoying that so many people apologize to her about liking certain books.

My husband gets onto me all the time for constantly saying, "I'm sorry." But I have NEVER apologized for the books I like, or the genres. Nor do I apologize for or try to defend those I do not like. (I HATED Wicked--loved the play, not the book. Couldn't even finish it, and I have only put down three books in my whole life. See Books I Quit.)

I will read anything, any genre. I'm very proud of this fact. And I like what I like. If I have had an overly stressful week, I turn to Nora Roberts. In fact, I keep several of her books on hand just in case. I love them all--they are my guilty pleasure. Except, really, I don't feel any guilt.

I also love Young Adult, but for now that's the cool thing to like, so I guess I'm good there. And although I try to stay open-minded, I'm not a huge non-fiction or horror lover. I'm just not.

I'm actually less impressed by someone who rattles off Hemingway, Dickens or Austen as one of their favorite authors. Granted, I love them all, but I feel like people say those authors because they think they are supposed to, not because they truly love them. If they do love them, however, all power to them.

I am just as happy reading To Kill a Mockingbird as I am Hunger Games, The Book Thief, or the latest Nora Roberts. Truly, I appreciate any book that transports the reader to a place that makes them happy.

But I'm never ashamed to admit to loving ANY book, nor would I ever apologize. The only person I can't talk to about books--a person who doesn't appreciate reading. Then, I really have nothing to say. 

Do you apologize for your reading preferences? Is there any genre you simply won't read, without exception?

For fun, here are two shots of the bookshelf next to my bed. It's all about variety!