Silenced by Allison Brennan

This week I've finished the fourth novel in Allison Brennan's Lucy Kincaid series, Silenced. Having not read the first three books in the series, this book wasn't hard to follow the back story of what happened in the other novels. In many series novels I find that in the beginning of the book they give the reader an info dump to be able to keep up on what had just happened. This was not the case with Silenced. Brennan was able to weave into the story enough information as to the character's history to not be able to break up the flow of this intense thriller.

Lucy Kincaid is an analyst for the FBI, working to get into the Academy to become a Special Agent. With the special talent of being able to put herself into the mind of a killer and the mind of the victim, Lucy and her partner Special Agent Noah Armstrong are put on a high profile case that goes deeper than Senators and high end call girls. As Lucy's P.I. boyfriend has a job for himself to help protect Lucy and his past from getting in the way of her case and goal to become apart of the FBI.

Brennan has weaved so many story lines that in themselves could be their own novel, but here didn't over whelm the reader with too much information at one time. Balancing action and information Brennan had me questioning the whole time, who's the real killer, and wanting to know more about our heroine who's been through as many difficulties as some of the victims that she is trying to help.

I for one am curious about Lucy and her struggles and plan on going back to read book one in the series. If you like the TV shows Scandal or Bones, then these books are right up your ally.

Make sure to check out Allison Brennan at her website at www.allisonbrennan.com

Ironic....

Be warned this is a rant. Which I guess is like every other blog post. So, go forth and read. Ye be warned.


Something that I've come to accept is that some of my best friends, whom I've been roommates with for the past give or take six years, will never understand how my brain works and why I write. Then again from some of the writers that I've talked to about this it is a very common occurrence to not be understood. That our passion is a hobby. Nothing more.

When one of the roommates sees that I'm once again reading a Paranormal novel or what they call a cheesy romance novel that they wouldn't be caught dead reading out side the house (though they will read them inside sans possibility of being seen), I'll hear the phrase, "Of course you are reading that." Which makes me confused. Yes, I read genres I write in. I've tried to explain that it's basically research. Something that the roommates should understand as scientists. They themselves delve into research constantly. Even reading books on by Mary Roach which delve in to science of the corpse, sex, space and the spook.

I've learned over the last few years to not divulge what I'm working on when it comes to writing. Same goes for new ideas. This is all because I get the same "You are a weirdo. Of course you are going to write about something paranormal with lots of sex. Or have some short story with BDSM with a female dominatrix." The fact that this is a passion, a potential job, and something I take very seriously isn't something that they can comprehend.

The analytical mind of a scientist can't quite cope with that of my creative side that I've let run wild in the past only to harness to turn in to something tangible that with my business experience can be turned into my dream job. One that doesn't always have me in the classification of what falls under a real job for them.

Now here is what I find ironic. One of the roomies works with bodies that are donated to science, where the hospital she works with teams up with medical companies to teach surgeons new procedures with new medical supplies or new techniques.

*I suggest you stop reading if you get squirmy at all.* You've been warned.

On a weekly bases she works with not only full cadavers (they call all body parts specimens so that they can disassociate themselves with the fact that they are in fact working with human bodies that were donated for this purpose) but with specific disembodied parts. This job alone would make for a great comic or novel (something I've said and had eyes rolled at me for saying, sorry my bad for finding the job interesting). I mean how many people can say that they sat in on someone learning how to do a craniotomy, a heart procedure, a hip replacement, and other procedures.

Basically here's the irony. I'll talk about my imaginary friends and the some times morbid crazy things that happen in there plot lines to get a weird look. Then when I hear about "Oh I got to work with over 10 disarticulated heads today in prep for head surgery corse," is totally ok. There is no comments of some thing not witty saying of course you work with body parts. There is no calling her Jack the Ripper of a butcher. It's cause IT'S HER JOB. She just happens to get paid to help doctors teach other new procedures as science advances.

Don't get me wrong I think she has one weird job that you have to have a strong stomach for, but it's so bad ass. She is literally working with decapitated heads today! And legally!

She might not understand the irony of the whole situation, but we both have jobs (I just don't get paid for it yet) that people don't understand. We both are passionate about what we do and love doing it. Her's just happens to be the human body and the physiology of it.

I guess I should state that this isn't her dream job. That would be working with reproduction sciences, working with dulas and midwives, and that sort of things. As you can see she has a specific area of what she wants to do. I know exactly what I want to do. And am actively chasing after it.

That last point makes me wonder if her and other roomies comments are due to jealousy. That we all have aspirations of your non typical dream jobs, which I have no shame of talk about mine, yet they have to shame others.

I find it ironic cause in a way we are all scientists. We are delving into doing research and case studies. Mine happens to deal with 80,000 words of a world I've created. I send it out to beta readers to see what works and what doesn't. I change up the formula of those words to recreate a product in hopes for a successful out come, which just happens to be a finished novel that people want to buy.

Maybe it's just me. Maybe I don't understand why they "tease" me about the genres that I hold so dearly. Some of which they read and love as well! Fantasy, historical, etc, we all love them. Mine just happens to have romance as a key factor in the story. I've even introduced them to one of their favorite historical/contemporary authors (even getting the latest book signed by the author).

Maybe it's not ironic at all that we all have such abnormal jobs and enjoy the same genres of books only to make fun of the others about it. Maybe it's just me? Who knows really.

Personally I've gotten beyond the point of registering any bad comments of the genres I love and write. I embrace them. Yes, of course I write that and read them. Thanks for thinking that idea is weird. It means that you haven't seen it before. Awesome! I'm original! WIN!

 In the end I'll always ask the roomie about what procedures she watched that day. Cause I find it another way of inspiration. Cause it's not the normal job of sitting at a desk. I do that to pay my bills and it's not exciting. Working with cadavers and surgeons is something that you never know how it will exactly go.

While I mark it up as irony I trudge on with my head held high as I continue to actively chase my dreams. That way when I make the roomies buy my book off Amazon or go to the bookstore to see my book sitting on the shelves there maybe it will make sense to them.

Then again I've given up trying to explain it to them and trudge on. Now if you excuse me I have one of those books to edit.

A Seal at Heart by Anne Elizabeth

It has been just about two weeks since I've been back since the Romance Times Booklovers Convention with more books than I know what to do with. I know it's not a bad problem to have, and the first book I had to read was from an author that I had met, and made an amazing impression on me. I'd never read Anne Elizabeth's novels before, and I was excited to read this wonderful woman's work.

A Seal at Heart, isn't your typical military thriller romance novel. While many delve into nonstop action, this novel takes you into the real life of a Navy Seal after they go through a trama of losing a teammate, an op gone wrong, and fighting to find memories of what happened in order to be put back into the field. Jack Roaker goes through exactly that. Determined to find his way back into being eligible for deployment, Jack has a deadline till his job he loves is gone. With the help of a physical therapist, Laurie, he finds more than just his memories, he finds that he could actually have and want more than just being a NAVY SEAL. That is if Laurie can get past her own issues of dating a Seal, having grown up with a Seal father, she has to fight her own demons to help someone she is more than drawn to.

 A Seal wife herself, Anne Elizabeth shows the world a love story and the hardships of what it is be apart of the Navy Seal community. And I couldn't put this book down. Thanks to the day job I was forced to put it down, otherwise I'm sure I'd have devoured it with in a day. Personally I've always been interested in the dynamics of the military and their families. It takes more than a strong person to put their life on the line to keep our country safe, it takes a strong person to be married to someone who's life is to put their life on the line daily.

To have a love story that has both characters passionate about their work, and flawed in separate by similar ways makes the intereaction between the two fun to read what's going to happen next. And if you only know the smallest part about what exactly the Navy Seals do, then know they are some of the toughest, and most determined people in the world. And Jack found a partner in Laurie that not only pushes Jack's comfort levels but challenges him  enough to keep him on his toes.

Filled with enough action, action and spice for any Thriller Genre lover, and not going too extreme for those who prefer not too much blood, guts, and sex, then this novel is for you. Elizabeth makes it so that following any military terminology is easy for us non military people to understand, but not overwhelm us. By the end of the first chapter you will be hooked and want to be apart of Jack's life, cheering him on to find his way and not let his stubborn self get in his way of getting better.

Make sure to check out Anne Elizabeth's website out at www.anneelizabeth.net along with her Teen Comic book series and other novels. I know for one that I can't wait for the next book in the Seal Series, Once a Seal, out this Winter.

Can't Hurry Love by Molly O'Keefe

Can't Hurry Love by Molly O'Keefe was the first book I've read by this author and it wasn't your traditional contemporary western romance. Yes, there was the rough and tumbled cowboy, but the female lead was just as flawed as her male counter part, but the issues that they were fighting through were very much real and unlike any other romance novel I have read before.

Victoria Baker may have come to Crooked Creek Ranch as a child in the summers but she never fit in there or with her family until she came back to the Texas ranch a penniless disgraced wife of a New York Financier, who had stolen people's money in a ponzie scheme. Determined to take her life back into control Baker is determined to run the family ranch with the help of the forman, Eli. Only things aren't as easy, or hard, as Victoria had expected. Eli is determined to get the ranch back from the Bakers that his great great grandfather had lost to the them before he was even born. Both driven to prove themselves to there families, they end up in a twist of fate falling for each other no matter how hard they fight it while finding themselves in a new business venture that neither of them quite knew would be their salvation.

Eli and Victoria's relationship is purely driven on passion until they realize that they really care more for the other than they had originally thought they had. O'keefe's sex scenes are just as rough and tumble as any other relationship that is based purely on lust and sex. Victoria is finally able to explore her sexuality in a way that she had never been able to before and Eli is more than happy to oblige her in what she considers a dirty little secrete. And it is refreshing to have a sex scene in a romance that doesn't start or end in missionary position.

Both of Eli and Victoria's personal issues are driven bone deep with them that it takes a lot for them to work through. It's refreshing to know that while they both work through their own things they are really in the end helping the other. Even if at first they don't think that is what is happening. Being able to read about two people who in the hardest part of their lives they end up showing who they really are to the other, when no one else gets to see them. Like in the real world it's rare to let people see the real you and when you finally do, it's easy to slide back into old ways of being the 'safe person' that others have known for so long.

One of the great things that I liked about this book is that the book isn't about the two main characters just working through there own issues and falling in love. It's also about them mending relationships within their own family. In a way they are finding out more about themselves and letting themselves for the first time in their adult lives see the people who are in their lives for what and who they really are. And in the end it surprises them in more than one way. A father figure, a long lost mother and a step mother who is trying to make amends. It's a real life family who has more issues that need to be dealt with, but are working their way through it all to become closer than they ever thought was imaginable.

Molly O'keefe's Can't Hurry Love was refreshing to read as it doesn't follow the traditional cowboy romance formula that I've found many do follow. The cowboy doesn't rescue the girl from a life threatening event, nor does the girl domesticate the rouge of a man. In the end they both fight each other tooth and nail the whole way and end up saving each other from being the people they thought that they would end up turning into. Turning in to the people they never believed that they could actually become from all of the struggles. They hated to love the other and in the end that was exactly what they needed.

You can find out more about Molly O'keefe and her other books at her website www.molly-okeefe.com.

Closing Novelous Ladies Blog

Whenever I do something I try to give it my all. Especially when it comes to business....and well these blogs have been apart of my business of writing. I'd started Novelous Ladies as a review blog to post about the books that myself and a few other friends have been reading. The goal was to post once a week.

Not much to ask for right? Well, I've let my readers, if I had any on that blog, down. I haven't posted anything in over a month. If someone wasn't able to post something then I was going to step up and take over that post. Unfortunately I've put too much on my plate to take on and Novelous Ladies got pushed to the side.

With that being said, I'm going to be closing the Novelous Ladies blog and move over the reviews onto here. That way I can keep up with my personal blogging on here, and let you know what I'm reading and what I think about it.

It makes me sad that I can't keep Novelous Ladies up and running with the bare minimum but it's not fair to everyone. On the upside I keep the Novelous Ladies dream alive with posing articles on here in hopes to one day be able to reopen Novelous Ladies or a variation of Novelous Ink. Also it means that you, my lovely reader, get more posts from then just the ones I post on the weekend.

I know I'm just as excited for that as you are. And with that I got some work to be done. So, keep you're eyes open here to see what I'm reading and what I think about it.

Happy readings!

Organization

Todays rambling post is brought to you by little sleep, shiny objects, and the realization of how important having your book bible organized is......

This week I've been in a bit of a surreal mood. I've written "The End..for now" on my Unnamed Paranormal Romance and I'm left feeling like something is missing, yet with everything that I use to try to fix it, like inserting a scene or chapter, it feels forced. After taking a deep breath, I've let it go. 

The time has come to put it to the side for a while so that when I do come back to it I have a clean head to make objective decisions on what it needs to make it better. Along with that I've accepted that that uneasy feeling is the fact that I've cut the original book into two. While I changed the POV the realization that I tried to fit too much into one book hit me. Already having decided that this book will be apart of the series cutting it into two wasn't a hard decision. Yet, subconsciously I don't think I've accepted the drastic change.

Back to what I was wanting to talk about organization. Going back to look over Mackenzie Falls, my contemporary romance that I hit a wall with in editing I saw several things in the file that was a slap in the face. 1. It's too long. I'm talking about right now it's sitting at 94K. Which is way too long. 2. The footwork, aka book bible, and all that goes with it is unorganized so that when I look at the cork-board I just see chapter numbers. 3. I have to get it together before I even think about sending it anyone to read, let alone to the editor I was planning on talking to today to see if we would be a fit to work with to get this self published. 

Well shit on a stick. Here I thought I was a lot farther than I really am. Yes, I have a 'completed manuscript', but it's a draft that isn't clean enough to go out. Why I've sent it out to agents I have no clue. Lesson learned as to why I've only gotten rejections.

Now that I see where I've gone wrong it's time to get organized. It's amazing just how much work goes into organizing a book. Sorry to burst your bubble people that writing a novel in reality has a whole lot more to it than the actual writing part. 

This weekend will be dedicated to backtracking on the organization front. What should have done before a word is even written, let alone being down while writing shall now be done. Hopefully this will breakdown the editing wall that I've hit with this story.

As much as I want to spend my time creating new words, this is so important that I'm not allowed to ignore it. Don't get me wrong on the breaks that I will need to take I'm going to finish the erotica short story that I started last month.

Cause here's a big thing that just smacked me upside the head. You can have all the projects in the world done in first draft or second draft form. But if you don't have anything clean enough to put out there all you have are a bunch of shitty first drafts that no one other than yourself is going to see. Personally I'd like people to read my work. That being said it's time to get organized.

Outlines will be cleaned up, character descriptions will be typed up, summaries will be written, scene and chapter breakdowns will be created, and setting descriptions will be drawn up. All these are in my head already, but it's a totally different thing when you put it all in one place that you know you can reference to when your memory isn't quite what it should be.

So go be organized in your writing. This lesson is brought to you by someone who is kicking themselves for not doing. It's one of the many newbie lessons that I shall never have to repeat cause, well, it's a pain in the butt to go back to redo work that should have been done in the first place. Which I will be implementing in all future work.

Excuse me I got a few days worth of work that needs to be done before I'm going to even allow myself to start editing these two novels. Both of which I can't wait for you to read one day....soon I hope. 

I Got Nothing...NOT

There are times, more than not, that I just don't know what to write. The muse isn't in my ear whispering as my fingers fight to keep up as they type away on the keyboard. I don't have this shiny bright new idea that is like coveted gold treasure that you will write the adventure that it takes for you to reach it as it is guarded by a monstrous dragon and other beasts that go bump in the night.

The desire is there. You're sitting at the computer with the word processor open with the little cursor blinking away as it waits for you put type away on the key board. It's as if it's begging for you to paint a world of words on its blank page. It's life is not complete without those words and you have a big fat NOTHING.

Then the self loathing sets in. You know the story, the characters, the plot, but nothing is coming out. This is where you have to push through the pain to get something on the page. As Nora Roberts has said, "You can't fix a blank page." And you know what it's true.

They say that you need to write every single day. That the 'professional' writers are the ones that can write without their muse and take advantage of her when she does show up. And I think both of those are partly true. When you think you have the big fat nothing that's when you just need to put something down on the page the most.

I've actually started with new pages on my scrivner word processor that are supposed to be new scenes and put down what I thought should go there. "Wait doesn't that mean you just wrote a scene?" No, what I mean is I literally wrote down...character does something that makes their world feel like it's come to an end, something else, drama, maybe some sex, or a fight scene. It doesn't seem like anything but guess what, you put something down on the page. You got the words down. Cause guess what when your not dwelling on that big NOTHING feeling, you in reality have a place to start again tomorrow.

Cause that something something something drama might actually spark some inspiration the next day. It took me to actually doing this that I realized just how right everyone was. If you write something anything it's something that you can fix. Nothing comes out perfect the first time, so why not start with something crappy so that you can then bedazzle it later.

Join me as I take on this don't be a liar and put something down on the page. Even if it's a babbling mess cause if you say you have nothing you in reality are a liar liar pants of fire. If you have a character, or a setting, or a plot, then you have something that you can expand on.

I'm going to let you in on a little secrete. You can even write something that has to do with your novel that doesn't have to actually go in your book. Boom. Just blew your mind didn't I. I know I can be pretty amazing sometimes it even shocks me.

Seriously though, stamp out the chanting of I've got nothing and just let your fingers do the work. Stop over thinking it. Get your butt in that chair and write. No expectations. No requirements. No judgement. Just put something down.

Here let me help you get started...I'm an amazing writer that is currently having normal doubts about my talent. I feel like I have no words to put down on the page. So let me tell you about the idea I had for a book that I currently feel like I have no words for.....this is where you go on to write about that book that you seem to have nothing to write about.

It seems daunting to write something that you feel has nothing of value, but heres the thing, the more you write your nothing out you'll quickly realize that after 20 minutes or however long  you are doing thins that your nothing has gone away and you can roll over into your manuscript.

Moral of the post, you don't have NOTHING, you just have a roadblock in the way from seeing what you do have. So write yourself a ladder and get to that something. Now, if you will excuse me I just happened to finished writing my own ladder and have a manuscript to finish.

Good luck all and I can't wait to read what you have one day.