ANNIE SOLOMON, Day 17, Month of Romantic Suspense

[becke_davis]

Please welcome ANNIE SOLOMON to our Month of Romantic Suspense!

Meet Annie:

Where were you born?

I’m a Noo Yawka, born and bred. Which is why if I sometimes seem loud and pushy, it’s just my biological imperative acting up. 

When did you start writing?

I wrote my first book when I was eleven. The main character’s name was Johnny. He had black hair, vivid blue eyes, and was something of an anti-hero. Hmmm. Not much has changed… 

What’s it like being a writer? Got any tips?

Make friends with rejection and you’ll do all right. And tattoo the word “persevere” on your writing hand so it’ll always be there in front of you as you work. 

How does your family put up with you?

With a heavy dose of tranquilizers…I mean humor. Not that I want to get mushy, but I have a wonderful husband and a great daughter, both of whom have been complete bricks when it comes to my work. We’ve had plotting sessions and character analyses over countless meals and umpteen car rides. My family is the best. 

What’s the rest of your life like?

What life? I mean, I’m a writer, I have no life outside my head. 

What do you do for fun?

Well, I’d love to say I ski and hike and climb things, but the truth is I’m a firm believer in the notion that only trees belong outside. But I am a big soap opera fan. And a huge knitting freak. I knit during critique sessions, board meetings, lectures. I’m pretty obnoxious about it. 

What did you do before you came a writer?

I was an advertising copywriter for twelve years, writing print ads and brochures, and writing and producing radio and TV commercials. 

How did you get interested in romance writing?

I’ve always been a sucker for a love story. And I believe unhappy endings belong in real life, not fantasy. Put the two together and romance is the only place to be.

[becke_davis]

Annie's website is here:http://www.anniesolomon.com/

Annie blogs here:http://www.anniesolomon.com/blog/

And here:http://grandcentralcafe.blogspot.com/

And here, too:http://otherworlddiner.blogspot.com/

[becke_davis]

Hot Pursuit 

Like A Knife 

Blackout 

Dead Shot 

Dead Ringer 

Dead Shot 

Blind Curve 

Tell Me No Lies 

One Deadly Sin

 

[becke_davis]

From Annie's website:

The Origin of One Deadly Sin 

ONE DEADLY SIN had an interesting beginning, which I thought I'd share with you. 

It began when I was working on another book, a book that never saw printer's ink. That story was about a young single woman who wanted to adopt a baby, and when a child was abandoned at a daycare, she gets involved in taking care of the infant and finding out what happened to her mother. If you've seenEastern Promises, you'll get the idea. Of course, I came up with the idea for the book way before the movie came out, so the plot similarities were a huge coincidence, But that didn't stop me from freaking out when I saw the movie, even though by that time I had abandoned that idea. 

Meanwhile, on the real life front, my brother and his family, who live next door, were moving from Tennessee to Iowa. Our families are very close, so this was a big loss. I was at their house, trying to pretend I wasn't surrounded by moving boxes, and picked up a book lying on top of one. Some kind soul had given them a couple of "off the beaten trail" tour books of the Midwest. I started thumbing through, and came across the legend of the Black Angel from the Oakland Cemetery in Iowa City, Iowa. 

The tale is about a stone angel over a grave that supposedly turned black overnight. Some say it was because the person buried in the grave had cheated on his wife. 

The idea caught my imagination, and I began to wonder what it would be like to create a story around it. What if the man in the grave was innocent of all charges, and the black angel over his grave would turn white only when someone proved it? 

That's the germ of the idea that sprouted into One Deadly Sin. 

The original title of the book, by the way, was Black Angel, but the editorial staff at my publisher thought I could do better, and they came up with One Deadly Sin. 

I don't think of Iowa as a place where legends are born, but those Midwesterners must have hidden depths because there are other cemetery legends from Iowa. If you want to know more, check out prairieghosts.com. 

[becke_davis]

More from Annie's website:

I'm On the Air!

Here's an interesting way to do research: on the radio with Car Talk's Click and Clack.  I needed an answer to an automotive question for my upcoming book, tentatively titledTwo Lethal Lies, and after searching the 'net, decided that only Click and Clack would do. So check in and see what they have to say.  If you don't have a public radio station nearby, you can listen on your computer or download a podcast. Just go to cartalk.com or you can click the speaker icon below to download just my call:

[becke_davis]

 

If you missed the Tour, you can still catch some interviews and reviews on these sites. 

authorkellymoran.blogspot.com 

bookinwithbingo.blogspot.com 

romancenovel.tv 

thisbookforfree.com 

www.ReadingWithMonie.com 

unmainstreammomreads.blogspot.com 

thetometraveller.blogspot.com 

chicbookreviews.blogspot.com 

cafeofdreams.blogspot.com 

mindingspot.blogspot.com 

enroutetolife.blogspot.com 

carolsnotebook.wordpress.com 

wendisbookcorner.blogspot.com 

www.morbid-romantic.net 

booksiesblog.blogspot.com 

bridget3420.blogspot.com 

[becke_davis]

Synopsis

COMING HOME IS MURDER...


Revenge. Edie Swann has hungered for it since she fled her hometown as a little girl. Now she's returned, ready for payback. Armed with a list of names, she leaves each one a chilling sign that they have blood on their hands. Her father's blood. What happens next turns her own blood cold: one by one, the men she's targeted start dying.


Sheriff Holt Drennen knows Edie is hiding something. She has a haunted look in her eyes and a defiant spirit, yet he can't believe she's a murderer. As the body count rises and all evidence points to Edie, Holt is torn between the town he's sworn to protect and the woman he's come to desire. But nothing is what it seems. Long buried secrets begin to surface, and a killer won't be satisfied until the sins of the past are paid in full—this time with Edie's blood.

[becke_davis]

ONE DEADLY SIN
Excerpt

ONE DEADLY SIN Excerpt

She came at night, creeping into town like a shade. Darkness suited her. It evoked the past, that black hole of fury and mystery. Recapturing it required dark arts.  There was irony, arriving at midnight. Pulling into the cemetery at the traditional witching hour, leaving the street lights behind. She inched forward, navigating through stars, those pinpricks of light. And memory.  The stars were out that night, too, long ago when the doorbell clanged and shattered the silence into before and after. She’d heard it through her bedroom door when she should have been asleep. But who could sleep with her father accused and missing, her mother an inconsolable machine of tears?  She remembered the darkness through her window, the moon a sly smile in the sky, the black a background against which the grown-up voices rumbled below.  And then her mother’s scream.  Unhuman, animal, a throat ripped out, a universe hacked and splattered into pieces. A sound so feral the memory of it still gave her shivers.  No one screamed now. Nothing broke the silence but the hum of her wheels rolling down the winding cemetery road, a path between graves.  At last she slowed. Stopped. Turned off the engine.  And picked her way over the dead to her destination. The last thing she’d seen in this town. The last image of home. Now, it was the first thing she’d see on her return.  The black angel.  She swept a penlight over the sculpture. Remembered the gargoyle face seen with ten-year-old eyes. Twenty years later she saw the face was meant to be kind. But it was overshadowed by massive wings that spanned up and out, looming over the headstone like a vampire bat.  There had been hot arguments over that angel. Even banished to her room, she could hear her mother and her aunt fighting.  “It’s frightening. Unholy,” her aunt had said. “A mark against his name.”  “They put the mark there, not me.”  “They who?”  “I don’t know!”  “You can’t do this, Evelyn.”  “It’s done.” Her mother’s voice was harsh and strained. “It stays until the stain is gone. Until I can prove it.”  Until I can prove it.  Poor mother.  There had been no proving. It was all too hard, too heavy. Like life itself.  She bent down, ran her fingers over the headstone. Mud had dried and caked over the words cut into the marble. She found her penknife and scraped it away, blowing to clear the residue.  Charles Swanford.  Hello, Daddy.  She traced the rest of the inscription, not needing to see it because it was incised in her memory. Beloved husband and father. And the quote: They make haste to shed innocent blood.  Innocent blood. She rose to face the angel. They needed a black angel, her father and mother. They were weak. Unprepared for the pressure life steamrolled over them. People who retreated and hid. Ran away. Died.  But they had her now. She snapped off the light, leaving the darkness to coil around her like a shroud. Edie was back. And she’d make everything right.

[becke_davis]

Thanks so much for joining us, Annie! Can you tell us about what you're working on now?

On Saturday I went to a big Barnes & Noble multi-author book signing, where I mentioned that I could use some help with questions for all the visiting authors this month.

These were some of the questions they suggested I ask -- you can save these for tomorrow, and don't feel obligated to answer them all.

1) What of the five senses do you tap into most when you're writing?

2) What favorite book of yours do you wish you had written?

3) What do you think about the show Castle? (There was a split between the Gerard Butler fans and those who want Nathan Fillion.) Which of those get your vote?

4) Do you watch mystery TV shows and/or movies? If so, which do you like best?

5) If you were casting your books, who would you choose?

6) Are you a plotter or pantser? Do you know how your books are going to end or do you figure out as you write?

[Annie-Solomon]

Hi, all! Can't tell you how excited I am to be here among all these wonderful authors! You asked what I'm working on now. I'm working on my next romantic suspense--Two Lethal Lies. It's a story about a man with a secret so deadly it could destroy the lives of everyone he loves. It's set for release in October. As soon as I get the okay from my editor on final revisions, I'll have an excerpt up on my website, www.anniesolomon.com.

[Annie-Solomon]

Great questions, Becke! Since I'm out of town with limited internet access, I'll answer them now.

1. The 5 senses: I tend to use touch and sight the most. I have a terrible nose, so how things smell rarely occurs to me. And taste is difficult to convey, though I like food, so I often throw in a few of my favorite things, which my daughter gets a big kick out of. I use sound, too, but usually only so far as it comes into the story. But the first two are great for portraying character: what you see is often a reflection of who you are. And you can't write a romance without touch!

2. Funny, my faves are mostly historicals. As for which ones I wish I'd written, two come to mind: Laura Kinsale's Flowers From The Storm and Diana Gabaldon's Outlander. The Kinsale book is a near-perfect romance with a great love story and very high stakes for both hero and heroine. And Outlander is an epic adventure with a to-die-for hero.

3. I enjoy Castle and am thrilled to see Nathan Fillion's career take off. I'm a big Firefly/Serenity fan. And how can I not support someone who started out on One Life to Live? I liked Gerard Butler in Dear Frankie, but not his recent Hollywood forays. GB fans--don't shoot me!

4. I like police procedurals with a lot of characterization and interplay among the protagonists: Bones, NCIS (not the one set in L.A.), The Closer and In Plain Sight. I also like Burn Notice for the same reasons. I watch 24 for the plot twists and turns and the use of tension and high stakes--great for a suspense writer. I haven't seen a lot of great movies lately. Not much Hollywood has done recently appeals to me. I have a list of  entry,terrific romantic thrillers on my blog (scroll down to the Feb. 6 entry, The Thrill of Romance), but most are 20-30 years old!

5. I'm always casting my books in my head! For One Deadly Sin, I'd go with Ben Browder of Farscape (I'm a huge 'scaper!) for the small town sheriff who realizes he's falling for the lead suspect in a string of murders. For my revenge-seeking, biker-chick heroine with a secret soft side, I'd go with someone like Lena Headey, who played the lead in The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

6. I'm both a plotter and a pantser. I tend to panic when I don't know what's coming next, so I do a general outline of the plot. But I don't go in for charts and strings of  note cards or fifty-page synopses. Which usually means quite a few panic attacks during the writing process! But I discover so much about the characters and reactions as I write that doing a detailed outline would be useless anyway.

[becke_davis]

Annie - Your teaser sounds really intriguing and as a mystery lover, of course I'll have to find out what those "two lethal lies" were!

If your publisher will let you share the cover image, you can email it to me and I'll upload here. If it's on the internet, you can copy and paste it but right now only  moderators can upload computer files.

What's the weather like in your area, Annie? We're supposed to have more snow here in Cincinnati - I'm ready for a break in the tropics!

Tell us about your "call" - when you found out you'd sold your first book. I love hearing those stories!

[dhaupt]

Annie, I agree with Becke, the teaser sounds amazing and I love the cover. I'm afraid that to be read pile is deeper than the snow here. Oh well what could be better than a great romantic suspense read to keep you on the edge of your seat with suspense and warm you with the romance.

Thanks for visiting us there at the mystery club. I'm sorry to say that I haven't read your works yet so I'm a future fan, but from the look of the blurb you will be on my go to list very soon. Thanks to Becke this month I've met several new authors who I can't wait to read.

[Annie-Solomon]

It's great to "meet" you, too, Debbie! And I hope you enjoy my books. You'll have to stop by my site and drop me a line to let me know what you think!

[Annie-Solomon]

Lucky me, the cover of Two Lethal Lies just came a couple of weeks ago! I've sent it off to you and hope you can get it up on my page!

[Annie-Solomon]

Unfortunately, Becke, even the tropics are cold! I'm in Florida getting my mom settled and the weather has definitely been off. The pools are positively deserted! But I do admit, it's better than most places in the country. No snow and temps in the  mid-60s, so I'm not complaining!

[Annie-Solomon]

My "call" came just as I was ready to give up on the whole writing adventure. I'd had rejections from every house my first book, Like A Knife, had been sent to. I'd even had a request for a rewrite, which I did, and it STILL got rejected. The book was out at one last house, but I didn't think they'd be interested. I was applying to grad school when my agent called and asked me if I was sitting down... When she told me I sold, I was so numb from all the rejections--had turned off my feelings, so to speak, so as not to get hurt--that I could hardly enjoy the good news!!!

Of course, it all eventually sank in, and I can't tell you how thrilled and excited I was when I saw my first book in an actual book store!

[Marie-Nicole]

Dynamic opening, Annie. It draws me right into Edie's story.

[becke_davis]

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Annie-Solomon wrote:

Lucky me, the cover of Two Lethal Lies just came a couple of weeks ago! I've sent it off to you and hope you can get it up on my page!

I've got Annie's great cover but the file is too big to upload. I'm trying to get a smaller image from her publisher. Mark this space!

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[becke_davis]

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dhaupt wrote:

Annie, I agree with Becke, the teaser sounds amazing and I love the cover. I'm afraid that to be read pile is deeper than the snow here. Oh well what could be better than a great romantic suspense read to keep you on the edge of your seat with suspense and warm you with the romance.

Thanks for visiting us there at the mystery club. I'm sorry to say that I haven't read your works yet so I'm a future fan, but from the look of the blurb you will be on my go to list very soon. Thanks to Becke this month I've met several new authors who I can't wait to read.

Debbie - I think you and I could be the cover-children for reading addiction!

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