Tag Archives: romantic suspense

The woman with two brains

 

I’m so pleased to have Alison Stone on my blog today.  She writes great romantic suspense.  To learn more about Alison, go to yesterday’s blog. Her bio is there as is a blurb for  her newest book.  So–take it away, please, Alison!

Thanks Jane for having me on your blog.

I had the pleasure of meeting Jane on Twitter. Yes, we live in a brave new world. If you had told me twenty-five years ago that I’d be chatting with people over the Internet, I’d say, “What’s the Internet?” If you told me in 1987, that in 2012 I’d be a published author, I would have tossed my freshman calculus book across a Georgia Tech dorm room and asked you what parallel universe you were living in.

I settled on engineering after I saw an advertisement in a magazine picturing a blue baby booty and a pink baby booty. The caption read (I’m paraphrasing here): which baby will grow up to be an engineer? Then it reported some dismal statistics on how women are far underrepresented in the field of engineer. An idea was born.

Soon, I was enrolled in Georgia Tech‘s engineering program. After I graduated, I worked for various industries—from pharmaceutical to aeronautical to automotive. I always enjoyed the people I worked with, but my heart was never in it. I could never get excited about fin damage on a condenser core. Yawn. So, it came as no surprise when I took a leave of absence after my second child was born. Thirteen years later, I’m a full time author.

Oh wait, back up a step. Soon after my eldest was born, I saw an ad in a magazine. (I never realized until now how many magazines I read back in the day!) The ad was for an institute that taught writing for children. I enrolled in the course. Although I never had any success writing for children, I did have success writing articles for local publications. I soon got up the nerve to try full-length fiction and I was hooked. After a long learning curve filled with craft books, workshops and critique partners, I finally got “the call.”

Writing for a living was not on my radar twenty-five years ago, but life’s unexpected turns are what make life exciting.  Has your life taken any interesting twists over the years?

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Too Close to Home is Alison’s second romantic suspense with a sweet romance. It will be released August 7th.    What’s the story?   They say you can never go home. If you do, better watch your back.

Amazon Buy Link: http://www.amazon.com/Too-Close-to-Home-ebook/dp/B008GWOHIU/ref=pd_sim_kstore_3?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2

Barnes & Noble Buy Link: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/too-close-to-home-alison-stone/1112120174?ean=9781609288501

How did a nice girl like you end up writing gritty mysteries?

I first met Laura Griffin at her first book signing and was impressed with what a lovely person she is.   I then read her book and was surprised that this lovey woman could write such tough, gritty novels.   Over and over, Laura has proved that she’s one of the best writers of romantic suspense around.  Her latest novel TWISTED released Tuesday.  Laura, I’m delighted to have you here today.  The blog is yours.

Hi, Jane, and thanks for having me today! I get this question a lot, actually. And I’m not sure how I ended up writing chilling suspense books, but it probably has to do with my newspaper background.  I started my career as a reporter, and I was always drawn to the hard news stories. I liked the excitement of going to a crime scene and interviewing cops and hearing eyewitness accounts.

Newspaper reporting turned out to be a great entrée into fiction. I learned to overcome my shyness about interviewing people, which helps me all the time while I’m writing books. Whenever I have a question about something–maybe a police procedure or something about forensic science, I try to track down an expert who can help me get the answer.    I also love to interview people when I’m starting a new story. No matter what my protagonist’s job is–whether it’s a police detective, or a forensic anthropologist, or a hair stylist–I want to meet someone who does that job and get a first-hand account of what it’s like. I want to hear about the sights, the smells, the challenges of their daily life.

My new book TWISTED features rookie police detective Allison Doyle, who is working her first big murder case when she meets FBI profiler Mark Wolfe. To learn about Allison’s job, I interviewed female cops and did a police ride-along in my community. Touring the FBI Academy at Quantico and talking to veteran agents helped me better understand my FBI hero.

I hope readers will enjoy TWISTED! I had so much fun writing this story. This is the fifth book in the Tracers series, and people often ask me if it’s necessary to read the books in order. It isn’t. Each book focuses on a different romantic couple and has a stand-alone mystery plot. So feel free to plunge right in!

* * *New York Times bestselling author Laura Griffin started her career in journalism before venturing into the world of romantic suspense. She is the author of ten novels and has won numerous awards, including a RITA Award for Whisper of Warning. Laura lives in Austin, where she is working on the next book in her popular Tracers series. Find Laura on Facebook at www.facebook.com/LauraGriffinAuthor or visit www.lauragriffin.com.