I hate summer

Okay, I'll admit this up front. I'm kind of down these days. Reverse SAD? Actually, I looked it up and Seasonal Affective Disorder doesn't only afflict people in the winter—it can get you in the summer too. I find that reassuring, because I'm usually okay in the winter. I like the cold because you can just put on more clothes if you're uncomfortable, right? In the summer there's only so much you can do if there isn't a body of cold water nearby to jump into. Humidity makes me want to die. And yes, I know I should be living in the desert, but here I am in the nation's capital, which, if you didn't know, was built on a swamp. Which is exactly what it feels like in the summer.

At least I'm not in Florida, where, aside from being disgustingly humid, apparently there are Burmese pythons and giant alligators crawling around people's back yards trying to eat their pets. Eww! I went up to New England to cool off but the black flies bit my neck and eyelids and flew up my nose, so I raced back here where the bugs are too exhausted from the humidity to do any real damage. When I'm at home I fight with the air conditioner—too little and I'm limp, too much and I feel violated by the cold air blowing around my legs and drying out my eyes and nasal passages. In a pinch I blast it and wear sweats and wrap up in blankets while I drink Prosecco and do my crossword puzzles.

Oh, wait, I'm supposed be writing about my latest romantic suspense. Correction: I should be writing romantic suspense. Well, I'm not feeling romantic, and I'm too depressed to feel anything remotely like suspense. I tried picking up one of my keeper books to inspire me; you know the type, a big gorgeous alpha guy rescuing a beautiful kick-ass scientist on an archaeological dig…but it was set in the jungle! 

Please, somebody, can you recommend a delicious, sexy book set in a very cold climate??

—Ana 

WINNER of the JULY 04 PRIZE DRAW at NYUS

The winner of our fabulous INDEPENDENCE DAY Prize Draw is

LORA BAILEY

Lora, our authors will receive a note of your email today, and will contact you about your prize book(s). Please be ready to let us know what format you'd like, also what book you'd like if a particular prize is "choice of backlist". All their websites are below.

Many thanks to EVERYONE for taking part and visiting the blog! And here's hoping all your wonderful celebrations and thanks continue for many years to come.

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All prizes are in ebook (your choice of format, where available) unless otherwise stated.

Julie Moffett - No Place Like Rome

Shirley Wells - Dead End

Ana Barrons - choice of backlist

Jean Harrington - Designed for Death

Clare London - Freeman

Anne Marie Becker - choice of backlist

Julie Anne Lindsey - Murder by the Seashore AND Murder Comes Ashore

Toni Anderson - A Cold Dark Place

Rita Henuber - boxed set Fatal Obsession OR choice of backlist

Marcelle Dube - choice of backlist

Cathy Perkins - The Professor OR an ARC of Cypher, releasing in August

Josh Lanyon - choice of AUDIO books 

Who Do You Least Suspect?

The title of this post is probably a little deceiving, but you'll see why...

I have to admit to some excitement this month because three weeks from today is the release of Imminent Danger. The fifth book in the Adrenaline Highs series. I'm looking forward to sharing Abbey and Blake's book and bringing back a couple of characters that people might not have expected.  Here's my most awesome cover for Imminent Danger!

Have you ever written - or read - a character without any expectations of seeing them again, then all of a sudden they show up (in another book) and it's like visiting with friends you didn't realize you had? Maybe that's why I'm so jazzed about this book. I hope to surprise people and show that what you see isn't always what you get.

I'm curious if you've ever read a character in a series...never expecting them to be a hero or heroine in their own book. Some characters are so quiet until all of a sudden they're in front of the crowd (in my head) raising their hand saying, "I want a happily ever after!" And I can't really deny them because I WANT them to have that HEA.

So I'd love to know if you were ever surprised to find a character - and I'm not talking a secondary character, but someone even further down the line - in a series have their own book. Were your expectations met?

P.S. I've got an Imminent Danger countdown happening on my FB page and blog. Stop in for snippets 2 times a day! (Some are suspenseful. Some are fun. Some are sexy.)

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The Blog Tour

Yesterday, I happened upon a post about blog tours by Parajunkie.com--the high and the low points. It is a great post, so I hope you take the opportunity to read Dishing Blog Tours.

During my ten years as a published author, I’ve written hundreds of guest posts and traveled throughout the blog world on tour. I’ve hosted authors at my blog and met lots of wonderful bloggers, readers and authors. This year I’ve begun to ponder the benefit of blog tours.

From a writer’s perspective blog tours are time-consuming and sometimes expensive. It takes time away from writing to schedule and write posts, answer interview questions and to prepare the promotional material required by each blogger. Once a promotional tour starts, extra time is required to comment on posts, interact with readers and to do the social media posts necessary to advertise your tour.

It seems to me that the latest trend with blog tours is to do a release day blitz or a cover reveal. This is where dozens of blogs post exactly the same material on the same day. I’m not a fan of this type of post, because if like me, readers follow many different blogs, they’re bound to come across posts that are exactly the same.

As both a reader and a blogger, I prefer material that is original, something that offers entertainment value. I want to learn about the author and how they came to write their book. I want further information about the book’s setting or special research the writer carried out while writing their book. This type of post is more likely to entice me to purchase a book.

While I’m speaking of the downside of blog tours, I might as well mention those authors who don’t bother to stop by and comment on their blog post or to interact with those who comment. Very frustrating for the host! Occasionally, there are bloggers who book a date with a blog and don’t send the relevant material in a timely fashion. On the opposite side of the coin, there are host bloggers who don’t post at the correct time.

Confession time—to my shame, I screwed up once and didn’t get my post up at the right time. I was mortified by my mishap and have made very sure I haven’t repeated this mistake. The author was very gracious and accepted my apology, but I still feel bad about this lapse on my part.

When it comes to blog tour companies, not all are made equal. It pays to ask around because some are more efficient and organized than others. If an author spends hours writing posts, they need to know readers will see their efforts. Sadly, some of the host blogs don’t receive much traffic and excellent, original posts languish and die unread.

This year authors are holding Facebook parties as an alternative or in addition to a blog tour. Facebook parties are fun and quick, and although they require preparation time, I’ve found they attract a large number of readers and generate buzz. Maybe parties of this nature are the new blog tour?

What do you think about blog tours? Have you done a blog tour before and did you find it/them beneficial? Do you intend to do more blog tours in the future?

Where’s the motivation?

One of my pet hates is reading about a killer who just, um, kills. There are no reasons given as to why he’s become this axe-wielding maniac. The reader simply has to accept that he has. Maybe he was born evil. We don’t know. We’re not told.

I like my own fictional killers to have valid reasons. The motivation can be lust, greed, love or a dozen other things. They can, after suffering years of some particular torture, be driven to kill. Or perhaps events during their childhood have damaged them beyond repair. Whatever, I need to know why they kill.

One of the most notorious killers in the UK was Harold Shipman. Shipman was a family doctor who, at one time, practiced about 5 miles from my home. (Yes, I’m SO glad I didn’t book an appointment with him. :)) He was found guilty of 15 murders and was believed to have been responsible for around 250 more. Many of his victims were elderly, most were women. He was sentenced to life imprisonment but hanged himself in his cell on the eve of his 58th birthday.

So what made this man a killer? Why, when working in a profession that exists to save lives, was he compelled to take lives? I don’t have any satisfactory answers and that really bugs me.

His family were Methodists and he was very close to his mother who died of lung cancer when he was 17. She was given morphine by the family doctor to ease the pain, something Shipman witnessed, and, years later, this is how Shipman killed his victims. He administered lethal injections of diamorphine, signed the patients’ death certificates and then altered their medical records to indicate that they’d been in poor health. But why? Was witnessing his mother’s slow and painful death reason enough to turn him into a killer? I don’t know. 

What about you? Do you need to know why a killer kills? Or can you just accept that he/she does?

(Oh, and don’t forget that there’s still time to enter our Independence Day prize draw. There are lots of books up for grabs, including my Dylan Scott mystery, DEAD END, that was released on Monday. All the details are here.)

Independence Day PRIZE DRAW - what's YOUR celebration?

HAPPY 4th JULY to all our readers, and a WONDERFUL PRIZE DRAW for you all!

The authors at NOT YOUR USUAL SUSPECTS have plenty to celebrate this July - new books, new awards, life and job changes, the support and love of family and friends. And we recently passed 150,000 HITS on this blog! Thanks so much to everyone who's visited, supported and promoted us. We really appreciate it, and we really enjoy sharing our posts with you.

So ....What about YOU? We'd love to hear from you as to what YOU can celebrate this year, whether it's something in the world at large or something closer to your home. We can all identify with these. It may be celebration of a new law, a sports win, appreciation of your family and pets, or maintaining your health. It may be as huge as winning the Lottery (we wish!!!) or more personal such as mastering Facebook, getting a promotion, putting on/losing weight, or finally finishing that DIY that's been nagging at you since last year! In other words, we'd love to hear anything and everything, there are no rules (apart from basic decency, of course).

We'd just like to celebrate and share the positive with you all :)

And anyone who comments will be entered in the Prize Draw for TWELVE books from a selection of our fabulous authors. Yes, there's one prize and it's made up of 12 BOOKS and one lucky commenter will win it! That's definitely something to celebrate :D. Just make your celebratory comment on this post, and the winner will be chosen at random on July 14.

So here what's our authors have to share with you this July 04. Please feel free to browse their website, see their books, and enjoy keeping in touch with them.

Cathy Perkins: I’m grateful for friends and family. This year, we’ll celebrated one daughter’s marriage and another’s career change, cheered when my books hit category lists, worked with an architect on house plans, and been blessed by good health. Wishing all of you a wonderful upcoming year full of fun and adventures of your choosing.

Julie Moffett: I'm celebrating a move to a new house, a son who graduated from high school with honors, another son who just finished 1st grade, and a nice day job with a wonderful company!!

Julie Anne Lindsey: I'm celebrating because book three in the Patience Price series arrives in September and book 1 was selected for the Harlequin Book Club and all the mystery club readers will get a copy of book 1 in the mail this November.

Jean Harrington: In 2014 going forward into 2015, I'm celebrating the vibrant life of my wonderful country--despite its flaws and problems.  In that regard, a country can be a lot like the hero of a novel, wonderful though flawed.  And well worth the read!

Rita Henuber: I feel grateful to all those who have given so much to allow me to live the life I do. I hope I do them justice.

Ana Barrons: I've just had my first book released in print version (Son of the Enemy), and I'm so thrilled! I only wish my mother was still alive so I could put it into her hands. She would be so proud of me. 

Anne Marie Becker: I released books 4 and 5 in my Mindhunters series this year, and am writing the final installment. I’m excited to wrap up the mystery that’s run as a thread throughout them. I’ll also be celebrating my 20th wedding anniversary with my own, real-life hero, later this year.

Toni Anderson: I've had a lot to celebrate, writing-wise this year. My self-published book, THE KILLING GAME, is a finalist in the Romance Writers of America® RITA® Award, and both it and my Montlake Romance title (DARK WATERS) are finalists in the National Readers' Choice Awards. And to cap it off, my other self-published book, HER LAST CHANCE, finalled in the Daphne du Maurier Award for excellence in Romantic Suspense. Results for all the contests are announced at the RWA national conference at the end of this month. Another milestone is that I published my tenth novel in June. It feels like a good year with plenty of reasons to celebrate. I am so very, very grateful.

Clare London: I've recently left work - amicably! - and am looking forward to a significant change of lifestyle, and hopefully more time for writing. My family are employed, relatively healthy, and all have a great sense of humour! I'm also welcoming what will be the 6th annual UK Meet for GLBTQ authors, where I'm on the organising team; launching my own "accountancy for authors" service; travelling to the US again in Oct for the GayRomLit convention. Oh, and I'm meant to be finding enough time now to clear out my shoe cupboard...:)

Marcelle Dube:As for my causes for celebration, they are too numerous to list, so I'll limit it to a few. First, I'm Canadian, so my day of celebration actually falls on July 1st, Canada Day. So by the time you read this, I will already have celebrated all things Canadian. On the 4th, I will celebrate my good neighbours to the south. I celebrate the fact that I have two healthy, smart and wonderful daughters, a bevy of great friends, and a great job. And finally, I'm thrilled to be finished the first draft of my latest Mendenhall Mysteries, featuring Chief of Police Kate Williams. Yee haw!

Shirley Wells: On a personal note, I'm celebrating moving into my new home which will be lovely when I've cleared a bigger path through the maze of boxes. On a professional note, I'm celebrating the release of my 7th Dylan Scott mystery, Dead End.

Josh Lanyon: I have been so angry and bitter over a number of recent decisions by our Supreme Court that it was actually difficult for me to consider what I had to celebrate this Independence Day. And then I remembered that however biased and unconscionable these latest decisions are, I still live in a country where I am not only allowed to feel anger and frustration, I can express that anger without fear of legal reprisals or state-condoned violence. I can work openly to change what I don't like. And -- as anyone who watches the nightly news can contest -- that is no little thing. So yes, there remains much to be grateful for -- and to celebrate.  

HAPPY JULY 04!

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All prizes are in ebook (your choice of format, where available) unless otherwise stated.

Julie Moffett - No Place Like Rome

Shirley Wells - Dead End

Ana Barrons - choice of backlist

Jean Harrington - Designed for Death

Clare London - Freeman

Anne Marie Becker - choice of backlist

Julie Anne Lindsey - Murder by the Seashore AND Murder Comes Ashore

Toni Anderson - A Cold Dark Place

Rita Henuber - boxed set Fatal Obsession OR choice of backlist

Marcelle Dube - choice of backlist

Cathy Perkins - The Professor OR an ARC of Cypher, releasing in August

Josh Lanyon - choice of AUDIO books

Be Alert! - the use and misuse of Google Alerts

Join the authors and friends of Not Your Usual Suspects for an occasional series of posts about their world of reading, writing and publishing.

Short and sweet, hopefully both informative and entertaining - join us at I-Spy to find out the how's and why's of what we do.

TODAY'S POST: I-Spy something beginning with ... BE ALERT!

How thrilled am I when someone gets in touch to say they've featured my book, or made a comment, or - even more appreciated! - reviewed it online. It's heartening to know my book is being read and hopefully liked. It's also an opportunity to bring it to the attention of other readers.

And if nobody lets me know, or I'm not spending much time online? Use Google Alerts to email you when the name of an author or book appears in its common searches.

You can use an Alert for things other than your writing, of course. It can be for news about your work, about events or celebrities you're following. I've used it in the past to keep an eye on a publisher that I was having trouble getting my royalties from, and learned that they were having financial problems.


Here's an easy guide to HOW.

SETTING UP A GOOGLE ALERT FOR REVIEWS

Go to http://www.google.com/alerts

The screen below will appear.

If you already have a Google ID – through your yahoo email, for example – it’ll pick up your email address automatically. Otherwise you just have to type in the email address you want notifications sent to.

In Search query, enter the name of your book. I also add my name, so I don’t pick up too many random combinations from the web:

CLARE LONDON, FREEMAN

Then CREATE ALERT.

I’ve set up one for each of my books, and also a more general one of CLARE LONDON, REVIEW.

I keep the other default options –

Result type: Everything / How often: once a day (I don't get that many LOL) / How many: only the best results. But you can choose others from the drop down menu if you want.

At any time, you can go back to the same link and choose to “Manage Your Alerts” i.e. Add / change / delete any searches you have.

Here's what I hopefully get in response, straight to my inbox!

And the MISUSE of alerts? They can be a two-edged sword!

You may have heard of the Review Paranoia: how obsessive we can get with reviews, whether we're searching daily for them, sniffling because we don't get them, gnashing our teeth at the ones that just don't "GET" us, or ... well. You know what I mean :)

Sometimes it's best to step away. After all, you may choose to use your time more wisely and WRITE!

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Clare London, Author
Writing ... Man to Man

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FUTURE POSTS will cover: ????
We welcome everyone's constructive comments and suggestions!
What would YOU like to see future posts cover?