NOT YOUR USUAL SUSPECTS

A group blog featuring an international array of killer mystery, suspense, and romantic suspense writers. With premises and story lines different from your run-of-the-mill whodunits, we tend to write outside the box. We blog several times a week on all topics relating to romantic suspense and mystery, our writing, and our readers. We welcome all comments and often have guest bloggers. All our authors can be contacted separately, too, using their own social media links.

We find our genre delightfully, dangerously, and deliciously exciting - join us here, if you do too!

NOTE: the blog is currently dormant but please enjoy the posts we're keeping online.


Julie Moffet . Cathy Perkins . Jean Harrington . Daryl Anderson . Nico Rosso . Maureen A Miller . Sandy Parks . Lisa Q Mathews . Sharon Calvin . Lynne Connolly . Janis Patterson . Vanessa Keir . Tonya Kappes . Julie Rowe . Joni M Fisher . Leslie Langtry

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Confessions of a Sneak

Okay, I’ll ‘fess up. I don’t write Romantic Suspense, at least, not yet. I do write things with lots of suspense, and I have written romance, but I haven’t gotten around to combining them yet.

So why am I here?

Because I snuck in when they weren’t looking, that’s why. You aren’t going to turn me in, are you? I do write good books, exciting books that can get your heart pounding in another way… Let me show you.

THE HOLLOW HOUSE is a cozy murder mystery set in Denver in 1919. Don’t ask me why. I knew nothing about either one – though now I know lots! – but the story wouldn’t let itself be written in any other place or time. The teaser is, “When a murder is committed in her employer’s home, Geraldine Brunton knows she must solve the crime to hide the fact she herself is a killer.” THE HOLLOW HOUSE will be released by Carina on 14 November.

Out now is a tasty little horror novella called LURE OF THE MUMMY. It’s the first horror ever published by Carina Press or, if I have heard it correctly, by Harlequin. Set in my beloved Cairo, LURE is about a down-on-his-luck translator named Bert who acquires an ancient votive cat mummy dedicated to the lion-headed destroyer goddess Sekhmet. It’s just a mummy… or is it? As Bert’s circumstances begin to change, he begins to wonder. Then he looks at the dried-out husk, its wrappings so old and desiccated they are crumbling, and something looks back at him from the bony eye sockets…

LURE OF THE MUMMY had its genesis in two incidents on my latest trip to Egypt last year. In a little town I was exploring while the rest of our group was happily arguing over the hieroglyphs in a small temple, and a strange man appeared from nowhere then tried to sell me a cat mummy. Ick! Then, later, in the Cairo Museum, we saw a number of votive mummies, including the ferocious looking one my dear friend Dr. Salima Ikram likes to call ‘Bad Kitty,’ and the story was born.

Right now I’m working on the revisions of another horror novella, this one entitled TIMELESS INNOCENT. It’s about a not-too-skillful lawyer who has to handle the strange will of some old friends and must deal with a lot of things she can’t really handle, including a crowd of demons.

Awaiting its turn at revision is perhaps the closest thing I have to a Romantic Suspense. It is a Traditional Gothic currently entitled DARK SUN, though I am told that will change. It concerns the daughter of an author of high fantasy novels; she never knew her father, believing that he committed suicide when she was a toddler and might have intended to sacrifice her. His books live on, though, and finally she attends one of the conventions held to honor her father and his works. This particular gathering is at the small college where he once taught, and sponsored by men who knew her father. What she does not expect is the appearance of an old love nor the threat of danger, and especially the fact she must face the possibility that the fantastical world her father created might not be totally fictional.

Both TIMELESS INNOCENT and DARK SUN (under whatever title) will be out sometime in the spring of 2012.

So, not a single real Romantic Suspense in sight, but a lot of pulse-pounding, heart-stopping action and suspense. And a little romance as well.

Ooops! I better go. I think someone just noticed I’m here. Thanks for reading Carina books!

12 comments:

Elise Warner said...

You are one scary writer, Susan. I'll think of you and your book when I visit the Eygptian section of the Met. Museum.

Maureen A. Miller said...

I am a closet horror fan, Susan, but don't tell anyone. Lure of the Mummy is on my must-list.

Jane said...

I'll definitely have to check out "Lure of the Mummy," but I won't read it at night.

Susan said...

Elise, that's a lovely compliment. Thank you. Enjoy the Egyptian collection- it's magnificent!

It's our secret, Maureen! I hope you enjoy LURE OF THE MUMMY.

Jane, you're very wise. I didn't even write it at night, and I'm normally nocturnal!

Rita said...

So many good books to read and so little time.

Marcelle Dubé said...

And you seem like such a sweet innocent, Susan... :-) Lure of the Mummy does sound fascinating, as do your other stories.

Clare London said...

This is marvellous, I love the idea of your horror story being a FIRST, and I'm certainly looking forward to reading it :).

I had a fabulous holiday in Egypt some years ago, it's a fascinating place.

Clare London said...

This is marvellous, I love the idea of your horror story being a FIRST, and I'm certainly looking forward to reading it :).

I had a fabulous holiday in Egypt some years ago, it's a fascinating place.

Stevie Carroll said...

Those all sound like books I need to buy. I like horror although when I try to write it I end up scaring myself.

Ellie Garratt said...

Ooo...I like your devious mind. Now which book should I read first?

Toni Anderson said...

I love the sound of LURE, Susan. I need to see if I am brave enough to read it :)

Anonymous said...

These all sound quite spine tingling.

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