The Story behind the Story - Defective

There are writers who can create a whole story in their heads from nothing.  There are others of us who are sparked by an interesting snippet of conversation , a news item, something we've seen.  Anything which ignited the creative juices.  Whatever initiated the story is the story behind the story.
The Spark
As a teenager I heard about a murder case - The Scissors Murder.  It was in all the newspapers, everybody was talking about it.  This story sank into the murky depths of my subconscious and lay buried there until a few years ago.  I'd just finished a novel and wanted to start a new one.  But what to write about?  Where to find a story?  I have always been interested in the dark side of human nature and what motivates them to do what they do.  In a flash The Scissors Murder came into my mind and I researched it on the internet to refresh my memory about what happened all those years ago.
The Scissors Murder
On the 4th November 1974, 46 year old wife and mother Susanna van der Linde was stabbed to death in her home in Cape Town South Africa, with a pair of scissors.  The perpetrators of the crime were 19 year old Marlene Lehnberg and 33 year old Marthinus Choegoe.
Marlene Lehnberg worked with the victim's 47 year old husband, and soon after she started working with him began a 2 year affair.  He told her he'd never leave his wife for her, but was prepared to continue with the affair.  Marlene had had a very conservative upbringing with an abusive father.  Marlene was convinced that the only obstacle between her and marriage to Christiaan van der Linde was his wife.  You can read more about the murder through this link
The Plot and Characters

I was fascinated with the story, what motivated a young girl to embark on an affair with a married man so much older than her?  What drove her to murder his wife?  What role did the husband play in the murder?  There didn't seem to be answers to these questions.  So I thought, what happens if I use the basic plot, create my own characters with their own life stories, and try and figure out what the motivations could be.  I used The Scissors Murder as the spark, the starting point and then let my imagination take over.  That is how my novel Defective came about.
You can purchase Defective as a paperback or on Kindle from Amazon, Smashwords, Barnes and Noble and the Apple iStore.


Reviewed by Bob MacKenzie for Readers Favorite
"Defective" is the sort of story that sneaks up on you like those elusive shadows that give you shivers in the night. There's something about 17 year old Kara Butler. Though it would be easy to feel sorry for her, it's as easy to cheer her on. With an abusive father and a mother who mostly ignores her but will help in a crunch, Kara leaves home for the big city of Capetown. Innocent in the ways of the world, Kara nonetheless gets an apartment and finds a job. It all seems quite heroic. There is something else about Kara, something not quite right, something that her new-found freedom has set loose in her world. As her story seamlessly moves into darker and darker places, Kara's world slowly unravels. Drawn into Kara's journey of discovery are a promiscuous medical doctor, the doctor's emotionally abused wife, a boy who believes he is a secret agent, an Abbott and Costello team of detectives, and a cast of other quirky characters. The effect of this story is both surreal and chilling.

"Defective" is not a thriller in the truest sense. Neither is it a mystery or a police procedural. The genre is hard to pin down, shifting as it does while the story progresses. In some ways, the television series 'Dexter' comes to mind, in other ways Hitchcock's Psycho. It is tempting to call "Defective" a psychological-thriller. It is certainly psychological, though perhaps more in the way an update of the old-fashioned Gothic novel might be psychological. Quirky and intriguing, this story is clean and tightly written, drawing the reader inexorably to its inevitable conclusion without ever revealing that climax until it arrives. For readers who prefer their books to be intelligent, thought-provoking, and challenging, "Defective" will be an ideal choice.

Meeting up with Menopause

Eve was a domineering bitch who wore the pants in her relationship.  Oops, no pants not even a fig leaf at that time.  Adam was a weak-willed lily-livered simpering idiot.  If he had stood up to Eve and said, “No, put that damn apple back we are not supposed to eat it,” the world would be a very different place today.  For a start it would be one large nudist colony.  But more importantly, women would not be experiencing pain in childbirth.  Hand in hand with that we would not be having a monthly period.

Hormones, moodiness, irritability, and the worry that this month’s flow might be heavy and leak out are definitely a curse that Adam should have been afflicted with rather than Eve who just made a small suggestion.  She didn’t really expect him to grab that apple and take a bite.  He should have been principled and followed the rules.  Look what his lack of character caused!

Since the age of twelve I’ve been cursed every 28 days.  The only times I’ve missed on the 28 day cycle were the times I was pregnant.  Regular and like clockwork the dreaded lurgy arrives every month without fail.  When I turned 50 I thought I’ve done my time paying for Adam’s sins, it was time for menopause.  I eagerly awaited the onset, looking forward to the first signs of a hot flush, jealous when friends and colleagues started menopause.  No such luck.  Every 28 days it arrived.  It.  The thing that shouldn’t be mentioned out loud.

This month it didn’t arrive on schedule and I have to say I feel a little sad.  It’s like when you wish like mad for something and it happens it’s a bit of a let-down.  It’s not even an anti-climax, it’s just that it’s a realization that I have started on the next chapter of my life – old age.  I’d never previously equated menopause with old age, just the relief that it would be no more monthly periods.  But the fact is, it does mean the end of a chapter of your life and the start of the very last chapter of your life.  There is something so final when you put it like that.  I’m not sure that I’m psychologically ready for that.

This past holiday season I have had two operations and experienced more pain than I could ever have imagined.  Continuous chronic pain 24 hours a day now heading into week 5.  The remarkable thing, is that the trauma from the pain turned my hair grey basically overnight.  The pain aged me and I wonder if that’s what caused the onset of menopause, or if the good Lord upstairs decided that I’m going through enough on the pain front, He’ll just make me miss the 28 day cycle this month.  We’ll only know next month. But after years of wishing for this day, there is a part of me that wishes it will arrive again like clockwork next month so I can delay old age just a little longer.

Cindy Vine is the author of C U @ 8, Not Telling and Defective, all available on Amazon as kindle books and paperbacks.

Life in the Pain Lane

Doctors are not 100% truthful.  Well it's not as if they actually lie, they just negate to tell you or warn you about how exactly painful their op is going to be.  This of course leaves you unprepared psychologically.  You think it's going to be a quick and easy procedure.  But 5 weeks later and you still have plenty pain and limited movement.  Pain sucks.

As you can see, pain does not bring out the best in you.  It saps your energy, causes discomfort and kills all creative thoughts you might possess.  In short, pain kills your ability to think and write.  So no I have not been on holiday rejoicing on the extra time available to work on my book Hush Baby.  For the most part I have been laid up in bed knocked out on painkillers.
Why I thought an arthroscopy in the shoulder would be only slightly painful, I don't know.  It's like when the doctor explains the procedure to you, he makes a tiny hole and inserts a camera, that doesn't sound very painful does it?  Unfortunately that silly camera picked up 5 different problems that needed to be rectified immediately.  This meant 5 holes in the shoulder, 5 times the pain and the procedures included shaving off pieces of bone, fixing a frozen shoulder and repairing a torn tendon.
As if this wasn't enough, 2 weeks later I was back in hospital for a breast reconstruction.  This was a very new technique that sounded painless when the plastic surgeon described it to me.  Haha is all I can say.  After that op I felt like I'd been trampled on by 30 men at the bottom of a rugby scrum.  They took 500g of fat from my sides, shook and stirred it like a martini, converted it to 250ml of stem cell rich lipo-filling and injected it into my breast where they had to remove the implant after I went into septic shock last year.  And the plastic surgeon says we'll have round two of that procedure in June.  Charming.

I did get to have breakfast with Jodi Picoult though, and listen to her interesting and entertaining talk on wolves.  Definitely a highlight of my otherwise miserable Christmas holiday.  The lesson to be learned is do not embark on two big surgeries in a two week period.
The weather has been beautiful most of the time, I just haven't been in a condition to enjoy it.
Hopefully my shoulder will be sorted and will be back to normal in a couple of months.  The shoulder surgeon said it can take a year to come right.  As I said before, charming.
So do I have any new year's resolutions?  Survive, dig deep and survive.  That's all I want for 2013.
Have a good one!

Great Detective Story

This is a police procedural par excellence, with more twists and turns than in that David Bowie classic Labyrinth.  A villain with an agenda set on revenge and a dogged police inspector with the uncanny ability to think out of the box.  You can't go wrong with this read.

Book Blurb:

What would you do if you had been falsely imprisoned and if while in prison your wife and your children had been brutally murdered? Samuel Maxwell, the Prophet, decides to spend his time plotting out his plan for revenge against the greedy men responsible..

The Prophet stops at nothing to avenge the deaths. Will Inspector Duke Becker and his squad from Special Investigations Homicide be able to stop the Prophet and the reasons behind the killings before more die? 

Bio:

Gary L. Kassay born on March 20, 1956 in the Bronx, New York.  Married to high school sweetheart, Eileen on May 6, 1978.  Two children, Jason Kassay born March 30, 1980 and Samantha Kassay born January 6, 1986.  Eileen Kassay passed away on May 14, 2003.Worked as an x-ray tech for six years at Brooklyn Hospital and then joined the New York City Police Department, Transit Police.  Trained for the K-9 unit and worked until injured in the line of duty forcing early retirement.  Next worked in the field of commercial photography, starting in customer service, then becoming the assistant manager, manager and then with two partners buying Diversified Photo located on Long Island. 

Although retired at the time, he worked Ground Zero after 9/11 for several weeks.

In 2004 left business to two partners and moved to North Carolina  where he met his second wife Raella. Married on September 10, 2005 in Maui, Hawaii.  Worked for Homeland Security as a TSA officer, and then as a Lieutenant for Guilford County in charge of the Social Services Building.

In 2008  he moved to Casper Wyoming where he currently resides.

Online Links:

Twitter: @GaryKassay or www.twitter.com/GaryKassay

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/gary.kassay?fref=ts

Website: www.garykassay.com

Finding new authors

I don't know about you but I object to paying more than $10 for a kindle ebook.  I think that charging more than that is being just plain greedy and I don't want to feed and encourage that greed.  Feeling in the mood for a good gripping suspense thriller after trying to plough my way through a top-selling badly-written erotic romance and giving up, I looked to see what I could find on Amazon.  Forget Sandra Brown, Kathy Reichs, Faye Kellerman, Patricia Cornwell or anybody of that ilk.  All way too overpriced.  This of course is good for indie authors like Nancy Thompson.  Mostly indie authors set their prices realistically making their books affordable.
The Mistaken by Nancy Thompson was gripping, fast-paced, emotional, full of unexpected twists and turns.  What more could you possibly want from a suspense thriller?

BLURB: Tyler Karras is an honest man, a transplanted Brit living the American dream, but his charmed life takes an unexpected turn when his brother, Nick, is coerced into joining ranks with San Francisco’s Russian mafia. Ty intervenes to secure Nick’s freedom, yet only succeeds in incurring their wrath. With no choice but to accept Nick’s new life, Ty returns to his own, but his dreams are dashed when his wife—pregnant with their first child—is killed, the victim of a reckless crime. Despondent and bitter, Ty macerates his grief in alcohol. From the depths of the bottle screams a voice, howling for vengeance. His target is a stranger, the woman who drew his wife toward her death. He doesn’t know her, but he’ll find her, and when he does, he will make her pay, for a deal has been struck with Nick’s Russian associates, enslaving her into a life of bondage. But as Ty moves forward in a cloud of alcohol, he mistakes the wrong woman for his intended victim and now all his plans have gone straight to hell. With his eyes made clear by the stark reality of his mistake, Ty is driven, compelled by remorse and a relentless sense of guilt to make amends and protect Hannah Maguire, the innocent woman whose life he has derailed. He vows to keep her safe and out of the Russians’ hands, but they’re holding Nick as leverage to force Ty to complete their deal and turn over the girl. Once again, he must fight to free his brother, miring all three lives in further jeopardy. But Ty can’t do it all: Save the girl, his brother and his own soul. One of them must make the ultimate sacrifice.

 BIO: Nancy Thompson makes her fiction debut with The Mistaken. She is an interior designer and California transplant, currently living with her husband near Seattle, WA.
 ONLINE LINKS: Goodreads- http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/7809425-nancy-s-thompson Website- http://nancysthompson.blogspot.com/ Twitter- twitter.com/NancySThompson Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/nancy.saling.thompson Book Page- www.sapphirestarpublishing.com/themistaken BUY NOW LINK: Amazon- http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009R3SYC2 B&N ~ http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-mistaken-nancy-s-thompson/1113472607?ean=2940015514162 • Amazon paper book • Amazon Kindle copy Giveaway: 5 Ebooks Rafflecopter a Rafflecopter giveaway

A suspense novel worth the read

Finding Claire Fletcher is a special kind of read. Brutally honest, well-written, gripping - a real page-turner. This is what I like about discovering unknown authors and giving them a try. You are often pleasantly surprised and want more. This is not your normal kind of crime thriller and detective novel. This is something more, something unique. Lisa Regan has created something special with this novel. If you are hooked on suspense this will not disappoint.

Book BLURB:

Down on his luck, Detective Connor Parks takes solace in the arms of a woman he meets at a local bar, but in the morning, Claire Fletcher is gone, leaving behind clues to a decade-old mystery—her own abduction. Perplexed and driven by an unsettling need to see Claire again, Connor must solve the mystery of her disappearance and find her once and for all.
BIO:
Lisa Regan is a suspense novelist.  She has a Bachelor’s Degree in English and Master of Education Degree from Bloomsburg University.  She lives in Philadelphia with her husband and daughter. 

ONLINE LINKS:

Website: www.lisaregan.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lisa-Regan/189735444395923
Twitter: www.twitter.com/lisalregan  @lisalregan
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6443334.Lisa_Regan

Marketing your Books

'

You've just written your book and are now dreaming about relaxing on a beach in some exotic location with a good book.  Forget about that dream.  Writing was the easy part.  You now have to market your book and that is the unfun part.  Marketing is a serious amount of work and time.  If you don't market your book nobody will know it exists.  If they don't know it exists then they will not know to buy it.  So get yourself off that beach chair and fire up that old laptop and get started.
Author Platform
In a nutshell, this is your footprint on the worldwide web.  You develop this by having a website, a blog, using social media, writing articles, guest blogging and commenting on others' blogs.  The more active you are on the internet, the larger the footprint you will leave.  The easier it will be for readers to find you and your books.
Marketing 101
Freebies
There is a lot of discussion about giving your books away for free.  Some authors don't believe in it and say they didn't put all the hard work and effort into writing the book just to give it away.  Others say it gets your name known and out there.  If you want to give away books you need to sign up with Goodreads.com and list your book as a giveaway.  Alternatively put your book on Smashwords.com and give away a discount coupon.  KDP Select gives you 5 free giveaway days every 90 days.  How much longer this will last for, nobody knows.  I haven't found KDP Select particularly successful in the longterm.  You get a lot of people downloading your book onto their Kindle because it is free.  They don't always read it and aren't necessarily your target audience either, which can result in a sucky review.  Also, you have to give them exclusivity which is never a good thing as you miss out on a lot of other ebook retailers.
Blogs, Blogging, Guest Posts, Commenting and Virtual Book Tours
It's so easy to set up a blog it's frightening.  There are scores of places where you can get a free blog.  You have to post regularly, deliver good content and don't spam or only try and push your books on people.  If you have friends with blogs, offer to do a guest post and reciprocate.  You can also organise your own Virtual Book Tour, or pay someone else to organise it for you.  Once again there are countless people advertising on the net who arrange your blog tour for about $30.  You will get some exposure and reviews.  Find blogs similar to yours that you can sign up for and be sure to comment on them regularly.

Book Reviews
I'm a great believer in what you put out to the universe you get back.  If you review other books people will review yours.  Get into the habit of reviewing everything you read.  Post the reviews on Amazon, Shelfari, Barnesandnoble and Goodreads.  Don't pay people to review your books.  There are many people out there who are prepared to exchange reviews.  If you want to go that route you find review exchanges on Goodreads Forums, Createspace and Amazon Forums.
Social Networking
Twitter, Facebook, Pininterest, Google+, Linkedin are the more common ones.  For writers there is also She Writes, Goodreads, Kindleboards and Shelfari.  Join the groups, comment frequently and get yourself known as an oracle of useful information.  Don't spam as that will make you unpopular.

Try and work out a schedule for yourself so you can do a little every day.  Take on too much and it becomes overwhelming.  Good luck with your marketing efforts and have an awesome Festive Season!
Cindy