Blood Score Book Birthday! Special Limited Discount Price

I've released my first full-length eBook novel through Amazon's Kindle Select, an exclusive program I've wanted to try. My indie book is called BLOOD SCORE and I've included a synopsis and an excerpt below. I'll be offering it for $2.99 through the end of August, in appreciation for the readers who have supported me and my publishers. I'm also doing a special promotion through Indie Book Promo on Aug 3rd for this launch. Details to follow.

Croco Designs did the stunning cover and here is a LINK to their portfolio on DeviantArt. I love working with the designer, Frauke Spanuth, out of Germany. She's amazing.

My dear Okie friends and fellow authors/editors, Alicia Dean and Kathy Wheeler helped with formatting and editing. They made that effort painless and fun.

This book was a long haul for me with plenty of soul searching. I worked on it between my YA contracts. I believed in it from the start and loved the voice of my two detectives, especially Gabe Cronan. My kind of guy. My agent and I got an offer to buy it from a major publisher, but I decided that self-publishing might be a better fit for me. I'm hoping to build my virtual shelf of offerings in between contracts through traditional publishers, but with this being my first self-published full novel, I'll be feeling my way through the promotion efforts.

I am updating a Self-Pub Resources tab on my blog at this LINK as I learn new things. Check it out and stay tuned for more.

Synopsis

A dangerous liaison ignites the blood lust of a merciless killer

When a beautiful socialite is savagely murdered in Chicago’s Oz Park, Detectives Gabriel Cronan and Angel Ramirez find her last hours have a sinister tie to two lovers. One is a mystery and the other is a famous violin virtuoso.

A child prodigy turned world class musician, Ethan Chandler is young, handsome—and blind. He’s surrounded by admirers with insatiable appetites for his undeniable talent and guileless charm. From doting society women to fanatical stalkers and brazen gold diggers, the reclusive violinist’s life is filled with an inner circle of mesmerized sycophants who are skilled at keeping secrets.

After Cronan and Ramirez expose a shadowy connection between Ethan and the victim with a private elite sex club, they discover intimate desires and dark passions aren’t the only things worth hiding at all cost. A vicious killer will stop at nothing to settle a blood score.

BLOOD SCORE Excerpt:

 When Angel Ramirez’s iPod changed tracks and another song started, her cell phone rang and made her heart jump. A call this time of night for a homicide cop was never a good thing, but when she looked at the display screen, she recognized the phone number.

She answered the call as her face flushed with heat.

“Hello?” Her voice cracked.

“Angel?”

“Yes,” she whispered.

Caller ID told her who was on the other end of the line, but she wanted to hear him say his name.

“This is Ethan.” His voice was soft and low. When he breathed into the phone, she heard the rustle of his bed sheets. “I couldn’t sleep…and I didn’t know who else to call. I hope I didn’t wake you.”

Angel shut her eyes and swallowed, hard. Ethan Chandler was a famous world-renowned violinist. With all the people in his life, she found it sad that he had to reach out to a virtual stranger when he needed to talk.

Had his dead girlfriend been that person for him? She didn’t feel like questioning Ethan’s motives for calling her at this hour, because she’d spent far too much time gazing into death’s never ending black mirror. She understood what it felt like to be lost and floundering in grief.

“No, you didn’t wake me. I couldn’t sleep either.” She pulled her blanket over her breasts and nestled into her pillows.

“Is that my music?” he asked.

Ethan had a smile in his voice and the intimacy of that made it feel as if he were lying next to her. She’d left her iPod playing. He must’ve heard it.

“Yes.”

Angel knew she should have asked why he’d called her cell this time of night. He was still a suspect in his girlfriend’s murder. She should have insisted he stop reaching out to her like this, but the truth was…she liked it.

Congratulations Goodreads Winners!

 


My Goodreads contest to giveaway TEN copies of Indigo Awakening ended December 15th. Congratulations to the winners listed below. Santa is on his way to deliver your book. Thanks so much to everyone who entered. Happy holidays!

1.) Melodie Platt - Canada  
2.) Linda Fisher - Ohio  
3.) Melissa Miller - Canada  
4.) Morgan Musselman - Iowa  
5.) Michael Rohmann - Kentucky  
6.) Angela Evans - Iowa  
7.) Sandi Harkness - Indiana  
8.) Patricia Garner - Florida  
9.) Katelin Deushane - Illinois  
10.) Jaime Smitte - Florida   

First Review & Goodreads Contest for INDIGO AWAKENING

@JordanDane

@RachelFriars of Rochies Reads made a video review for Indigo Awakening, book #1 in the Hunted series with @HarlequinTeen. The book comes out Dec 18th. Rachel did such a fantastic job with it that I had to share. She’s so cool under fire. I would be a nervous wreck. If you have trouble viewing the embedded code below, go to this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sc72hbI6HGc&feature=plcp





I also wanted to share that I’ve got an exclusive book giveaway set up for Goodreads to start on November 1 that will run through mid-December. There will be plenty of opportunities for you to win a signed book. TEN COPIES!!! Click HERE to go to the Goodeads link. Good luck!

Reckoning for the Dead – A “Sweet Justice” Birthday Celebration

I know. This is a YA blog, but I can't help it. The birth of a new book is always exciting. It never gets old. Officially released TODAY September 27^th, Reckoning for the Dead (HarperCollins) is book #4 in my Sweet Justice series for adult readers. My novels have the feel of being ripped from today's headlines because real crime inspires me. With an international setting, my Sweet Justice thriller series focuses on a covert vigilante organization called The Sentinels that wields their brand of justice on a global scale, without the hindrance of jurisdictions or courts of law.

With a starring role, Jessica Beckett is a former bounty hunter from Chicago with mad skills in outsmarting fugitives on the run. She has a no frills, tenacious pit bull personality, with a Colt Python and a dark past that never stops punishing her. International operative, Alexa Marlowe, is the polar opposite. Living in New York City, she’s sophisticated and into high fashion. She’s well-traveled and loves the good life and pampering, yet she can be fearless when it comes to leading the men in her tactical unit through the fiercest of hostage rescue scenarios on foreign soil. Her strong sense of loyalty makes her willing to take risks with her own life on the line. These women give Lady Justice a whole new reason to wear blinders and their brand of justice is anything but sweet.

In Reckoning for the Dead, Jessie and Alexa’s worlds become embroiled in upheavals stirred from their shadowy pasts. For Alexa, her former lover and Sentinel’s chief, Garrett Wheeler, is reported dead, killed in a mysterious covert op that’s “off book.” When a new leader suddenly assumes control of the elite vigilante organization overnight—a man Alexa can't afford to trust—she isn’t buying anything he tells her. In search of Garrett and the truth, she goes rogue and off the grid, following a deadly trail that leads into Mexico, behind the fortress walls of a murderous drug cartel boss. Alone, Alexa has no one to watch her back, not even her new partner, Jessie.

Ex-bounty hunter, Jessie Beckett, has troubles of her own. When her DNA turns up as evidence in a gruesome murder committed when Jessie was only a child, before her life was shattered by an infamous killer, Jessie’s world is turned upside down. Solving a very cold case may hold the key to who she really is or kill the only memory she has of a woman she believes is her mother.

For Alexa and Jessie, the dead must have a reckoning.

To celebrate book #4 of Sweet justice, I wanted to share my thoughts on creating series characters with enough inspired juice to build or sustain a readership. The next time you read your favorite series book, think about the characters and why they keep you coming back for more. Below are points that helped me craft my Sweet Justice novels:

• Paint a large enough canvass. Create a world that’s big enough to allow a character to grow and surprise a reader with different plots scenarios.
• Give your main character(s) enough emotional baggage & personal conflicts that they can develop and grow from, to keep the series fresh.
• Make the plots in the series challenge your character’s weaknesses or flaws. Conflict is vital for any book.
• Tie each plot to the character’s emotional soft spots and allow the character to learn from what happens to them over the course of the series.
• Add a secondary cast of characters who add value. Make them fun, quirky, and definitely memorable, enough to bring a unique touch to your series. They are especially valuable if they add conflict or reflect on your main character’s strengths or weaknesses. If your secondary characters are effective enough, this can mean spin off potential. (A perfect example of this is Robert Crais’s Elvis Cole, LA PI series with the spin-off of Joe Pike. I can’t get enough of Elvis and Joe.)
• In any book, plant seeds for a spinoff story line whether you use them or not. If the novel takes off, you can capitalize on your germinating ideas.
• Tell the reader enough in each book about the character’s back story to entice them to read your other books, but don’t go overboard with a dump of information that will slow the pace.
• Avoid the formula. If something worked in book #1 in order to successfully launch your series, don’t repeatedly recreate it. Surprise the reader with something new, which will keep your creative juices flowing too. Don’t be so tied into your own success that you’re afraid to surprise your readers.
• On the flip side, don’t “jump the shark” that got you there. Surprising leaps in character motivation—just to add shock value without substance or believable motivation—may stray too far from center to sustain your readership. Recognize your strengths and find new ways to hone them.
• Keep in mind that your character may have to age if the series becomes popular. Have a plan for that. Three books may wind up as twenty+.
• Don’t be afraid to dig deep inside yourself to fuel the motives or experiences of your character(s). Making them real is vital in order for a reader to connect with them, especially over a series.

These are points I found useful in writing my Sweet Justice thriller series for HarperCollins. Now that I’ve stretched into the Young Adult genre with Harlequin Teen, I’m learning more about story and character arc development. For more author craft resources, check out my website at www.JordanDane.com, my For Writers page.

New Book Trailer & Foreign Rights Pending

This week I received the latest book trailer for my first YA novel - In the Arms of Stone Angels (Apr 2011, Harlequin Teen). Trailer to the Stars did the promotional piece and I was so excited, I had to share it. Hope you like it.

I also just heard from my editor that foreign rights are pending for a few countries. Can't wait to share that news with you, too. More later.

The Countdown Begins...

I can’t believe January 2011 is nearly gone. I’m busy writing my second young adult book for Harlequin Teen – On a Dark Wing. And I completely am in love with this book, so I can hardly wait for you to read it. But in the mean time, the countdown for the release of In the Arms of Stone Angels (Mar 22, 2011) has begun. Since that’s right around the corner, I hope you’ll pre-buy now.

If you’re a reviewer and know about NetGalley.com, In the Arms of Stone Angels is available now. Signing up for NetGalley is FREE. And if you want to know more about how to get your advance review copy, go their FAQ page.

Here’s a summary of In the Arms of Stone Angels:

"In the arms of stone angels I am not afraid"
–Brenna Nash

Two years ago I did a terrible thing. I accused my best friend of being a killer after seeing him kneeling over a girl’s body. That moment and that outcast boy still haunt me. Now my mom is forcing me back to Oklahoma and I can’t get White Bird out of my mind. But when I find out he’s not in juvie—that he’s in a mental hospital, locked in his tormented brain at the worst moment of his life—I can’t turn my back on him again.

No one wants me to see him. My mom doesn’t trust me. The town sheriff still thinks I was involved in the murder. And the other kids who knew the dead girl are after me. I’m as trapped as White Bird. And when I touch him, I get sucked into his living hell, a vision quest of horrifying demons and illusions of that night. Everything about him scares me now, but I have to do something. This time I can’t be a coward. This time I have to be his friend.

Even if I get lost, too...

I have more on the book, including excerpts and early reviews and a book trailer, on my YA website. This book was a labor of love to write. And I hope you enjoy it.

Counting down to release day, I will post articles on the many inspirations behind this book. For instance:

• Did you know that the Euchee name of the main boy character, White Bird, comes from a real boy? Find out the real story.

• Stone Angels is set in a town called Shawano, Oklahoma. I’ll share why I chose to make this town up and what the word “Shawano” means in the Euchee language.

• White Bird longs to be part of the Euchee Tribe. And I’ll share more about this Native American community and why they inspired me to write about them.

• One face inspired the book. When I found the face of Brenna Nash online, I had to create a whole book about her. And after the novel was written, her picture was taken down and I lost her. Can you help me locate the real girl who inspired the character of Brenna Nash? Could she be someone you know?

• Brenna suspects that her “gift” to see the dead comes from her estranged father—a man her mother doesn’t talk much about and Brenna has never met. The seed is planted in Stone Angels for Brenna to learn more about him. Want to know more?

TEN WRITING TIPS

Writing a suspense thriller is so much more involved than ten tips, but the checklist below is a good start. You notice I used the word TIPS and not RULES. I hate rules. Think of these as talking points to chat about and explore in your own writing.

1.) Start with a BANG and Explain Later

• Start with the moment that changes the character’s life forever.

• Or throw the reader right into the middle of action.

• No backstory or introspection

• Stick with the action

• Be patient with dropping mystery hints & clues, thread thru plot later.

• Place the reader in the midst of it—using all their senses.

• Remember that your protagonist might be ducking gunfire or are in a dangerous situation. It's all about action, reaction and pace.

2.) Alfred Hitchcock’s Definition of Suspense & Basics on Structure
I’m not a plotter, so this part won’t be about plotting.

Hitchcock believed suspense didn’t have much to do with fear, but was more the anticipation of something about to happen. When I read this, it was a HUGE epiphany for me. The idea changed how I thought about scene and chapter endings. In a recent work-in-progress, I kept the same words that I’d started the book with, but ended scenes and chapters with this idea of anticipation. It gave the book a different dynamic and enhanced the pace. Don’t be afraid to cut off a scene or a chapter in the middle of the action. Here are some examples:

• One of my chapter endings in NO ONE LIVES FOREVER (RT nominee Best Intrigue 2008) has my hero in the middle of a steamy jungle, handcuffed and on his knees with a gun pointed between his eyes. The last sentence of that chapter is - And that’s when he pulled the trigger.

• Another chapter ending in my next thriller EVIL WITHOUT A FACE has my bounty hunter woman blinded by the headlights of an oncoming SUV about to run her down in an alley. With only seconds to consider her options, she plants her feet and raises her Colt Python, aiming for the faceless driver behind the wheel. And the last line to the chapter is - Time to play chicken with six thousand pounds of steel.

• Don’t let readers put down your novel.

• Give the reader a sense of foreshadowing or plant the seed of a red herring to sustain the pace and tease them with things to come.

• And the teaser doesn’t always have to be a major calamity. It can be something as subtle as a person walking into a room. For example, if an author has built a growing mystery surrounding an individual, have everyone in a courtroom turn to see who is walking in, then stop the action. In the next chapter, the author carries the story forward, drawing it out so the reader must finish the next chapter too—and so on and so on.

• Short sentences (as well as short chapters, scenes, and paragraphs) adds tension.

• Switch between key scenes – back & forth with the action like is done in movies to build tension.

• Or tell the story from different points of view (POVs) to build momentum on action sequences.

• 9-Act Screenplay Structure - Most blockbuster movies use a plot structure like this. (Check out my website www.jordandane.com under the FOR WRITERS page to see a 9-Act outline as well as other handy articles from craft to promotion.) This 9-Act structure is similar to the Hero’s Journey. And once you become familiar with the plot structure, your mind will automatically think in terms of it when you’re working on future projects. I’m not a plotter but I saw potential in this structure.

3.) The concept of Enter Late and Leave Early (ELLE) – The “Law & Order” Concept

• ELLE – Enter Late, Leave Early maintains pace and leaves the reader wanting more.

• The TV show “Law & Order” is a good example

• ENTER LATE refers to starting a scene in the middle of the pertinent action, such as AT the crime scene staring down at the body, not the drive over in a car.

• LEAVE EARLY refers to an ending that foreshadows something or raises a question or creates more of a mystery, not showing the detectives driving back to the police station.

• Quick snippets of plot suggest pace/movement and a reader can fill in the gaps on what happened in between.

• This principle does not apply to dialogue. Don’t make the reader guess what your characters are talking about. Start at the beginning of the dialogue for clarity.

4.) Torture Your Characters – It’s Legal

• Torture can be deviously fun—on paper, that is.

• Make the reader understand why your character is worthy of being the star of your novel.

• Your characters have to rise to the occasion—even if they are an average Joe—and go up against insurmountable odds.

• And we’ve all heard the phrase “Write what you know.” It should be “Write what you fear…what you love…what you hate.” Writing what you fear conveys human emotion that will resonate with readers. Tapping into what makes you afraid will translate into a trigger for the reader as well. And this goes for other emotions too. Drawing on a reader’s emotions will pull them into the story.

5.) Weaving in the Threads of Clues – No Surprise Suspects or Miraculous Databases

• Pretty self-explanatory. We all laugh when one of the CSI shows can turn around DNA analysis in minutes or they have access to amazing databases that don’t exist that allows them to wrap up the show in five minutes.

• I read about the “RULE OF THREE” on a mystery loop and it made sense. If you want a hint or clue to sink in for a reader, you subtly weave it into your plot in three different ways and places within your book. The repetition reinforces the importance and plants a seed with the reader, but don’t telegraph it in a huge way. It’s a balancing game of subtlety.

6.) Layer the Conflict & Allow Your Hero/Heroine to Be the Star

• Put up roadblocks and heap on complications.

• Use internal and external conflicts as a driver.

• Give them emotional baggage that the reader can relate to.

• Force your characters out of their comfort zones. Make them do the one thing they would never do.

• Action by itself can be boring if you don’t add the right balance of the human struggle and emotion into a story.

7.) Ramp Up the Stakes & Make it Personal

In my release, EVIL WITHOUT A FACE, I start with a 17-year old girl being lured from home by an online predator pretending to be another young girl. You’ve heard this story before, but I catapult this troubled Alaskan family into a massive global conspiracy with the clock ticking. A tangle of unlikely heroes attacks this conspiracy from different angles and they converge in a fight for their lives.

• The conspiracy is far reaching and it’s deadly.

• And because one young girl is caught up in it, it’s personal.

In my debut book, NO ONE HEARD HER SCREAM (Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2008), my woman homicide detective was burdened by the abduction and murder of her younger sister and filtered every new investigation through her pain and guilt.

• She’s flawed and makes mistakes in her investigation of a cold case.

• Puts herself in the cross hairs of treacherous men - unable to be objective.

• Her emotions drive her to be heroic and also become a weakness that can get her killed.

8.) The Clock is Ticking – Then Shorten the Deadline

• Give your characters a deadline—a race against time—then shorten the timetable.

• Force your hero or heroine to make really tough decisions.

• Make them do the one thing they would NEVER do—with the clock ticking.

9.) Give the Reader a Big Payoff & Tie Up the Loose Ends

• No hype – give readers a big finish. Don’t disappoint them.

• Exceed their expectations – go over the top.

• Tie up all loose ends.

• And tie up the emotional journey too.

10.) Restore the World, but Don’t be Afraid if it’s a Different Place

• In a series, you have greater flexibility in how you choose to end your story.

• Happily Ever After (HEA) isn’t always necessary because you are writing a bigger story arc in the series. My books tend to read as standalones in plot, but the characters’ journeys continue and they grow with each book.

• I still like the idea of restoring the world—a certain amount of redemption—but it doesn’t have to be the same world.

• Crime affects people in a bad way, so they are forever changed. Don’t be afraid to show the aftermath.