Favorite Ebook reader

Just a mini blog this week. Today, I ask my fans what is your favorite ebook reader? And away we go…

Contest Winners

Here are the winners of the two 4GB flash drives with Lucifer’s Calling, Deadly Demented, and Red, White, and Blood.
Drum roll please…
Rebecca J. Tickle
Dan Rutledge.
Now send me your physical address and we will get it out to you.

A Big Thanks!

I just wanted to thank everyone for coming out this weekend to support all the authors at The Great Iowa Book Event. Here are a few of my new author friends…

Where Will You Be This Weekend?

If you’re in the Des Moines, Iowa, area this weekend, please join me at The Great Iowa Book Event. On September 11 & 12, Merle Hay Mall will host the festival. Come out to meet me…and get one of my great new book marks! Want more information? Click here!

The Story of Mark Blakenship…

Anybody who has read my short stories “Dead Holiday” or “Red, White & Blood” knows Mark Blakenship is the flawed but dedicated protagonist, who also happens to be a magnet for T-R-O-U-B-L-E.  If he were real (whose to say he isn’t?), his medicine cabinet would more than likely be filled,with a surplus of Prozac, Clonazepam, and anything else medical technology could conjure up to keep him from being a resident in a locked mental health unit. Needless to say, our hero presses on, and the city of Marcona should be grateful he is at the helm of the local police department. So, let’s talk about how I came to create Mark Blakenship and give you a little insight on where I’m going with him…

It was a long time ago… (Dec 09 hehe…) and I was laying in bed watching my second favorite pastime… NFL football baby!! Well, I got a call from a good friend of mine asking me if I had anything sitting around which would make an interesting holiday short story. I was still in the middle of creating my upcoming release 3:16, but I liked the challenge of putting something together in a short time frame.  So, I brainstormed for a few minutes…(Haha!) and decided on a using the same city (Marcona) I utilized in my last novel, Deadly Demented. Ah, yes the suburban city of Marcona needed more than just one story attributed to it, so onward and upward I went.

Well, most people who read my work know of Detective Brian Jeffers and his skill set, so this character had to have something more to draw the readers to him and want to care about in a shorter amount of time (Not as easy as one would think). I decided to add kinks to the armor of my protagonist. For example, Brian Jeffers was married, Mark Blakenship was unfortunately going through a recent divorce (Not a very classy girl btw.. hehe). Mark was trying to raise his young daughter on a part-time basis, and this was  obviously a change from what tragedy be felled Brian Jeffers leaving him with sole custody of his daughters (oops, I think I gave something away…). Of course, Brian Jeffers was the premier investigating animal, and Mark is more of an administrator type of guy.  Now,  add some salt and pepper hair,  a few wrinkles, and a LOT of really bad luck…and presto…you have Chief Mark Blakenship.

I will save the various details of “Dead Holiday” but will say that Mark Blakenship will NEVER look at purchasing an Christmas gift for his daughter the same again…hehe.  So, now Mark has survived for another installment of my little short story brigade, and this time, he will be facing a challenge like never before…

Okay, I have this little contest, which includes a copy of my latest Mark Blakenship series, “Red, White & Blood” (I so love this title!). So anyone interested, there’s a little quiz to take, and you only have a few days left to enter.  Wait a minute…I mentioned something earlier about where Mark Blakenship was headed in terms of future works, didn’t I? Hmm, this is a little secret, so if you all promise to keep it under wraps…I will share it with you. You gotta pinky swear though…okay?

Marcona Police Chief Mark Blakenship, Detective Kelli Jordan, and Detective Brian Jeffers will come together in my fifth novel, Death Map. They will need to use all their skills to stop a killer who uses the sport of geocaching to entice victims and make them a part of  his own little game. Are the three law enforcement officers prepared for just how far the killer will go, or will one of them pay the ultimate price?

Stay tuned…same  time…same channel…