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BADASS WOMEN WEEK!

Welcome to BADASS WOMEN Week! Where we celebrate all things BAD ASS. What makes a woman a true badass? Is it fearlessness? The ability to kick some serious ass? An indefinable something that you can’t quite put your finger on?

***Feel free to add your thoughts on badass women in the comments.

Many of you are familiar with my character, Leine Basso, who is as badass as they come. Throughout the week, I’ll introduce you to a couple of other badass characters and their badass creators (with giveaways), as well as give you a sneak peek of the latest Leine Basso thriller, DAKOTA BURN.

graphic for pre-order

Pre-order Dakota Burn here.

On Friday, September 27, DAKOTA BURN launches into the world, in both print and ebook (audio will be coming soon). To celebrate, I’m going to give away a signed print edition of the book along with some awesome swag to one lucky winner. Be sure to stop back here on Friday to win!

Today I’ll leave you with an excerpt from DAKOTA BURN. Let me know what you think in the comments below!

image of paperback copy of Dakota Burn

They were several feet from the back porch when a car door slammed shut in the front yard. Leine gestured for Mimi to freeze as she withdrew her gun and moved where she could see the driveway.

Four men in tactical vests had just exited a shiny black four-door pickup. The man in the lead had a semiautomatic pistol with a suppressor. The other three were armed with AR-15s. They headed for the door.

The lead gunman made it to the front porch first and signaled the second man, who hung back and waited for the other two to make their move. The first gunman eased his way up the concrete steps, gaze riveted on the door. He paused for a moment, then slowly turned the handle. Cracking the door open, he hesitated, then slipped inside. The second man followed while the third took a position on the steps, face out, scanning for threats. The fourth headed around the side of the house.

Leine sprinted back to Mimi.

“Come with me.”

Mimi’s face drained of color. “Who is it?”

Leine propelled her toward the barn. “Not sure, but they aren’t friendly.” Her terse comment left the young girl silent.

They raced across the yard and around the side of the barn. Leine stopped outside the broken window.

“Derek,” Leine called, her voice low and urgent.

Derek appeared out of the gloom. “What’s wrong?”

“Four gunmen. I’ll hide Mimi, then you and I need to set up.”

He glanced at Mimi. “You okay in the dark?”

“I guess,” she said, the wariness returning. “Why?”

He turned to Leine. “Storm cellar—north side of the barn. She’ll be safe there.”

Scarf craned his neck, trying to see behind him.

“The fuck’s going on?” he said.

“We’ve got company.”

He stilled. “It’s them.” The fear in his voice serrated the air. “They fuckin’ found me.”

Absolution is Live!

ABSOLUTION, the latest Leine Basso thriller, is finally here! It’s been a long process to publication, and yes, I’m stoked. Early reviews have been off-the-charts–a ginormous thank you to everyone who read and reviewed an early copy! (See below for special pricing on the Leine Basso thriller series.)

cover for Absolution

This novel has been such funto write. I’m hugely attached to Leine and the characters in her life, and can’t think of a better crew to work with. I get emails from readers almost daily telling me how much they’d love to meet/have a drink/hang out with her. Me, too 🙂 This installment pits Leine against her alter-ego, Salome, from The Last Deceptionand Dark Return. I wanted both the protagonist and the main antagonist to be women, which was unsurprisingly easy to do 😉 

Absolutionis the eighth novel in the Leine Basso world, and my intention is to continue the series as long as readers like it. I’m not a fast writer, but promise to give everything I’ve got to each book. Some of the stories came together quickly, like AKilling Truth. Some practically wrote themselves (I’m looking at you, Serial Date). I agonized over Cargo, hoping like hell to get daily life in Africa right, and bring to light the horrors of ivory poaching and canned hunts. 

We all know I love to travel. With Kate Jones, I had a blast writingYucatán Deadafter visiting that region. Ditto for A One Way Ticket to Dead, Cruising for Death, Death Rites,and Dead of Winter. (Absolution, Dark Return, and The Last Deception too.)

cover for Yucatan Dead
cover for A One Way Ticket to Dead

The biggest influence on my writing, though, is a burning desire for justice–the devastation wrought by greed,. crime, and ignorance knows no bounds, and I aim to do my admittedly small part in bringing awareness. Bad Traffick and The Body Market were my first forays into the hell that is human trafficking, and set the tone for the series.

cover for Bad Traffick
cover for The Body Market

When I first started writing, my initial aim was to show people how strong they couldbe. I can’t tell you how often I’ve heard women talk about how powerless they felt in different situations (men, too, but the majority have been women–and this was long before #metoo). I was brought up to believe in myself and to defend who and what I hold dear. It was eye opening to realize how many people felt as though they couldn’t or shouldn’t fight back. As a writer, I did the only thing I could think of and wrote about it, trying to understand the dynamics of fear, of feeling “less than,” and then turn the tables and rewrite the narrative.  The Leine Basso series is my way of righting wrongs and exacting justice–she’s good at what she does and isn’t afraid to kick ass when the situation demands it. 

That being said, I do my best to avoid preachy, soap-box-y diatribes–just try to provide well-researched information so readers can make up their own minds. Nothing turns me off faster than someone shoving their views down my throat when I’m reading for entertainment. 

And ultimately that’s what we thriller writers produce: entertainment. The day writing becomes less than entertaining for either the reader or myself is the day I find something else to do with my time.

Links to ABSOLUTION (on sale for $3.99 for a limited time):

Amazon

Apple Books

Barnes & Noble

KOBO

Smashwords

SPECIAL PRICING:  

*Serial Dateis on sale through February for 99c. Bad Traffick, The Body Market,and The Last Deceptionare on sale for $3.99 during February. Absolutionis $3.99 for a limited time.

Merry Christmas!

And Happy New Year! I hope everyone has a wonderful, peace- and joy-filled holiday season, and an absolutely fantastic start to 2019. I’m certainly ready for a new year!

Christmas tree

PS: What would a holiday post be without a gift? YUCATAN DEAD (A Kate Jones Thriller) is on sale for .99 through January 4th.  Click here for links to all available platforms. It’s the closest thing I’ve got to a Christmas story 🙂

cover for Yucatan Dead

 

The Last Deception is FREE

How’s that for a subject line? It’s the first time I’ve had this puppy on sale ever, so sally forth and grab your copy today! Or, Jerry forth. Whatever floats your boat.

Cover for The Last Deception

Here are the links for download:

Amazon 

Apple Books

Barnes & Noble

KOBO

Smashwords

And here’s the book trailer: 

I have some fab news to share, as well. I just typed THE END on the next Leine Basso thriller, ABSOLUTION. Take a gander at the new cover:

cover for Absolution: A Leine Basso ThrillerTo say I’m excited to get this book out in the world is an understatement. I won’t bore you with the details, but this past summer and fall were chock full of events/stuff that tore me away from getting down the words. I’m grateful I managed to find enough chunks of time to continue the epic adventures of our favorite former assassin (she’s way, way, WAY too much fun to write…) 

“There’s only one sure way to stop a terrorist…

Leine Basso has severed ties with everyone she loves to keep them safe while she hunts for the ruthless terrorist, Salome. There are rumblings that the French-born assassin is planning another attack, and Leine’s determined to stop her before it’s too late.

Leine must follow her instincts despite a cunning and merciless enemy determined to lure her down a deadly path. Can Leine thwart her plans, or will Salome’s own twisted vengeance mean the end for Leine and everyone she loves?

From London to Edinburgh to the City of Angels, Salome’s making a comeback—and that comeback includes killing Leine.”

The novel drops January 26 (unless something ELSE comes up :-p). The book is available for pre-order on Apple Books and Barnes & Noble. Amazon and KOBO will follow soon. 

I hope everyone in the US has a fabulous Thanksgiving, and all my international friends have a spectacular week ahead. It’s hard to believe we’re coming up on the holidays already. I’m seriously afraid the next morning I wake up I’ll be 95 years old, looking back on my life and wondering just where the hell the time went…

Long Time No Blog…

So remember when I told y’all I was doing the whole “slow blog” thing? Yeah. Well, 6 months later…(that’s reeeeaaallly slooooow blogging, yes?) I’m going to try to get back into posting more. I really enjoy it, and would love to be able to do it more regularly…if I can only find the time (yeah, yeah, cry me a river, right? Hopefully some of you are still out there, or I’ll be shouting into the wind…but at least I’m shouting?)

Please don’t hold me to it, though. Life has a way of shtupping my best-laid plans. You can relate? Yeah.

Thought so.

I’ve been thinking about time a lot lately, probably because my octogenarian parents are here for the summer (literally here, as in they’re living in the mother-in-law apartment in the back yard…) and time seems to have compressed into that whole day-to-day, deal with the now and all the crazy that happens when you have a couple of generations sharing space.

I wouldn’t change it for the world.

Having said that, though, I must confess to yearning for a deserted beach with warm, white sand and turquoise blue water and nothing to do except read and sleep because there’s no service and my cell phone has essentially become a camera. Or a doorstop. Your choice.

So take a vacation, you say. We did. To Europe. In the name of research *cough*

Not to a quiet tropical locale with copious amounts of rum and sun, which, in retrospect may have been a wee bit easier on our so-not-twenty-anymore bodies… (I only took my phone this time–no laptop, no professional camera–to see if I could survive without them. I’d like to report that I only had one or two moments when I wished I had one or the other. It still amazes me.)

 

photo of London Book Fair 2018
The London Book Fair 2018. This is only part of the massive hall. I also was able to snag some time with Joanna Penn and Mark Dawson while we were there 🙂

 

gladiator foot armor
Gladiator foot armor. British Museum

 

Mosaic at the British Museum
Lion mosaic at the British Museum

 

Mark and I at Stonehenge. Early morning and punchy from not quite enough coffee…

 

Roman Baths
Roman Baths in Bath. Such an amazing place…

 

Edinburgh Castle
Edinburgh Castle. Absolutely fell in love with that city.

 

Castle Trim
Castle Trim in Ireland. Picture perfect. No wonder they used it in Braveheart.

All kidding aside, our time my research trip to Europe was amazing. We saw too many museums, cathedrals, and castles, ate and drank too much, seriously walked way too much, met some fine people (I’m looking at you, Dawn and Barry…and you, too, Dave and Ivca), and had too much fun (wait–is that even possible?). But apparently when I plan a trip, I tend to plan for someone much younger than myself.

Oops.

(Yes, Mark and I are still on speaking terms…)

To top it off, as soon as we got back there was the book launch for Dark Return and all the myriad details attendant to that, including formatting (yes, I still do it myself. I know. I know), updating the back matter in the other books, sending out advance reader copies, emails to my readers’ list, all sorts of promotion, making sure I got some swag out the door, yada yada yada.  Then we flew to Arizona to pick up the folks in sweltering, furnace-like heat (so not comfortable when you’re used to the weather in the Pacific Northwet).

We just got back (after the flight from hell, but that’s another story) and now I’m in the middle of a big sale on one of my box sets. In between, we got Mom and Dad stocked up with all the necessities—wine, snacks, chocolate, wine, and soup—as well as help them get settled, which is understandably more difficult when you’re in your 80s. Oh, and I have a vegetable garden that needs massive help, tons of flowers and too many weeds, the lawn needs mowing, the outdoor chairs really need repainting, and you can’t see my house because the wisteria is taking over the front porch.

And my neighbors wonder why there are so many wine bottles in our recycling.

Anyhow, that’s my report for spring break. Crossing fingers everything settles down and I’ll be able to breathe and actually start posting again. How about you? How is your spring/fall shaping up? Is it just me or is time whooshing by faster than you can say “Holy crap?” 

Winter is coming…

Okay, well, it’s pretty much already here where I live.  I almost biffed it on the ice today on my walk. But the sky is clear and the sun is gorgeous, so I’ll take it! 

Today I wanted to let y’all know about some special deals just in time for the holidays:

cover for Serial Date

First up, Michael over at Free Kindle Books and Tips is running a contest for signed paperbacks (the first Leine Basso thriller, SERIAL DATE, is included in the lineup) and a new Kindle Paperwhite.  There are some amazing reads by fabulous authors, including M.A. Comley and Debra Burroughs. Click here to enter. (contest ends Friday, 8 Dec.)

 

Next, 50 fast-paced, page-turning thrillers and a brand new eReader are up for grabs over at Booksweeps. (And you get free ebooks just for entering, so a great deal all the way around). An e-copy of the latest Leine Basso, THE LAST DECEPTION, is one of the prizes, so if you haven’t read it yet, get yourself on over there and enter the contest! (ends Sunday, 10 Dec.) Click here to enter.

 

FREEBIES: Two of my novels, THE KATE JONES THRILLER SERIES, Vol. 1, and CARGO: A Leine Basso Thriller, are FREE! Kate’s only available on Amazon, but you can download the app and read it on just about any device (free through midnight tomorrow, 8 Dec.). CARGO is available wherever eBooks are sold, and will be free through next week. See links below:

Cover for Kate Jones Thriller Series, Vol. 1cover for Cargo

Click here for the Kate Jones Thriller Series, Vol. 1

Click here for Cargo: A Leine Basso Thriller (link goes to my website which lists all retailers)

 

And last but definitely not least, I’m honored to have THE BODY MARKET: A Leine Basso Thriller, included with 24 NYT, USAT, and Amazon bestsellers in a fantastic box set of 25 full-length thrillers, with 100% of royalties going to One America Appeal for hurricane relief. The charity was spearheaded by five former US presidents in response to the devastating hurricanes that ravaged Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands this fall, and 100% of all donations go straight to supporting these hard hit areas.

 

 

There’s something for everyone in the set; crime, espionage, sci-fi, post apocalyptic, you name it, we’ve got you covered. I downloaded my copy and believe me, you’re going to love what’s inside. It’s available on Amazon through the end of December for $9.99 USD before it disappears forever. It’s definitely a “great deal wrapped in a good deed,” since the books combined are worth over $100. Like one of the organizers, R.E. McDermott, explained, it’s like donating $10 and getting over $100 back. Click here to download.

That’s all I have for now. Good luck with the contests, enjoy the free eBooks, and a huge, heartfelt thank you to those who decide to donate to such a worthy cause. Here’s wishing everyone a happy, healthy, and wonderful holiday season. Thanks for being here!

A Super Fantastic Giveaway

PSST: (looks over shoulder to make sure no one else is listening)

Wanna win some amazing ebooks? Enter to win 34 crime fiction novels, including books from authors like me, Adam Croft, Lisa Gardner, and Sandra Brown – along with FREE ebooks just for entering. This giveaway ends soon, so make sure you hurry! Good luck!

GO HERE TO ENTER > http://bit.ly/crime-nov2017

Collage of book covers in giveaway

November Giveaway

Hey guys,

My editor, Laurie Boris, and some other great authors are sponsoring a contest/giveaway of signed print copies (US and CA only). So click on over and enter to win!

 

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