Tuesday Teaser

Tuesday Teaser is a weekly bookish meme (rhymes with “cream"), hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. (I’ve borrowed it from LDS Women’s Book Review.) Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share at least two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers!

I’m adapting the rules slightly: I’ll be quoting some random lines from the last chapter I read before I post my teaser. I'm a slow reader, so you may get multiple teasers per book. Here's my second teaser from A Pride of Kings:

He looked down at the little King, seated in a great chair, scarlet legs not reaching the floor, and in a sudden lift of the head saw a remarkable likeness to his master of long ago. He had never cared for any man as he had cared for the Young King and now it was as if he was to serve him once more in this boy who was so like him.

From A Pride of Kings, by Juliet Dymoke, p 214

If you'd like to share a Teaser from a book you're currently reading, I'd love you to do so in the comment section. And you don't even have to share it on a Tuesday! Be sure to include the title, author, and page number in case others would like to check out the book you're reading, too.

Giveaway and Guest Blog by Linda Weaver Clarke

In celebration of the release of the second installment in her "Adventures of John and Julia Evans" series, Linda Weaver Clarke is holding a giveaway for Mayan Intrigue during the week of August 30th. Linda is guest blogging on JDP NEWS today with a post about her move from writing historical romance to the mystery. Welcome, Linda!

Romance VS Mystery!

by Linda Weaver Clarke

I always enjoy putting a little history in each of my novels to educate my readers. In historical romance, it’s a must and I continued with my research for my new series. The mysteries of the Anasazi Indians, the Mayas, Montezuma’s Treasure, and the Lost Dutchman Mine have intrigued archaeologists and scientists for many years. In the "Adventures of John and Julia Evans" series, I delve into such mysteries. I love research, so when I turned to mystery, I just knew I would put a little history into my books. It makes it fun to write. While writing my Intrigue series, I learned so much about the Anasazi Indians, artifact theft, and what the Mayan culture was like centuries ago and added all this knowledge to my novels.

I have written five historical romance novels. The writing process between romance and mystery is quite a change with a completely different mind set. It’s so different from telling a love story. With romance, you plan out the plot around the meeting of a couple. As you write, you develop some sort of charisma between the characters, making the reader feel excited that one day they're going to hit it off and fall in love. You, as the reader, know what the outcome will be. But with a mystery, the reader is in the dark. The author has to come up with a plot that no one knows about until towards the end of the story and hope they haven’t figured it out. In a mystery, you may or may not allow your reader to know who the bad guys are, according to whether it’s just a mystery or mystery suspense. Do you know the difference between a mystery and a mystery suspense novel? In a mystery, when a knock is heard at the door, the reader doesn't know who's behind it. With mystery suspense, the reader knows who's behind the door and yells to the heroine, "Don't open the door!"

Anasazi Intrigue is the first book in a mystery adventure series called "The Adventures of John and Julia Evans." It’s about a devastating flood that takes out several homes in a small town, the importance of preserving ancient artifacts, and a few puzzling and mysterious events. Julia is a reporter, and when she finds out about a possible poison spill that kills some fish and neighbor's pets, she has a feeling that something isn’t quite right. Before she realizes what is happening, Julia finds out that this incident is much bigger and more dangerous than she thought. With dead fish, a devastating flood, and miscreants chasing John and Julia, they have their hands full.

Artifact theft is a very intriguing subject. That’s why I call it the Intrigue series. In my research, I found that archaeological thievery is becoming more and more of a problem every year. Did you know that looting is only second to selling illegal drugs? While researching the second book in this series, Mayan Intrigue, my eyes were opened to the problems they have in southern Mexico. When an ancient ruin is discovered, it doesn’t take long for thieves to take it apart. The reason why is because the Mayas used astrological alignments when planning their city. Looters have learned the layout of the Mayan cities so they know where to dig. With this knowledge, they can loot a sacred temple in a few days. I also found that artifact theft in Mexico has been taken over by drug dealers from Columbia. In other words, since organized crime has taken over, there is also an increase of violence.

Mayan Intrigue will be released on August 30th and I’m having a week long celebration with a book give-away at my blog at http://lindaweaverclarke.blogspot.com. Mayan Intrigue is about the discovery of a priceless artifact that puts Julia’s life in great danger. While on assignment for the newspaper, John and Julia try to enjoy a romantic vacation among the Mayan ruins, but when Julia accidentally comes upon a couple suspicious men exchanging an item, she quickly turns and leaves but it’s too late. Before John and Julia realize what's going on, they find themselves running for their lives through the jungles of the Yucatan. To read an excerpt from each of my books, you can visit www.lindaweaverclarke.com.

GiveawayScout.com

Do you love giveaways? Or do you hold a lot of giveaways on your blog? Then you might be interested in GiveawayScout.com. 


GiveawayScout.com's tag line is: All blog giveaways, contests, and sweepstakes in one place. Their pledge: 

• We automatically scan thousands of blogs to bring you the latest blog giveaways, sweepstakes and contests.
• Never miss out on a giveaway!
• Our lists update every hour.

You can even subscribe to be notified every time a new giveaway is posted on their site.

With a giveaway appearing on JDP NEWS this coming Monday, I'm signing my blog up for GiveawayScout.com now!

The Novel and I

I picked up a good half-dozen intriguing-looking historical novels at Target today, opened each one to the first page, closed each one and put it back on the shelf. Why? Because each and every one began with the word “I”.

I’ve always had a “thing” about first person novels. I don’t know why. It goes back to long before I ever dreamed of becoming a writer. Even when young, as soon as I saw the first person “I” on a page, I wanted to put the book down. It’s pretty much a given that “I” is going to appear within the first two to three lines of a first person novel, so it’s not like I was really giving a first person book a fair chance. But the “I” just turned me off like a light switch. Off the top of my head, I can think of two novels/series that are on my “keeper” list that are written in first person: The Crystal Cave, by Mary Stewart, and the Amelia Peabody series, by Elizabeth Peters. A Vision of Light, by Judith Merkle Riley, is another keeper, but only for the third person scenes with Brother Gregory that are interspersed between the long first person scenes about Margaret. (There may be a few others on my keeper shelf, but those are the only ones that spring immediately to mind.)

So why do I have this “thing”? I don’t know. I’m sure I’m missing out on a lot of splendid books by my prejudice. On the other hand, Target might have sold six books today if they had only been written in third person, instead of first!

How about you? Do you prefer books in first person or third? And why? Or is your answer, like mine, “Just because!”

Decluttering

I've discovered that, when decluttering, it's easier to let go of some of those little snippets I've clipped from the paper if I share them on my blog first. That way I haven't actually tossed them out, rather I've recorded them for infinity! (Or however long the internet decides to last.)

So, for your reading pleasure (or not), here is a little anonymous ode to the Spell Checker:

TO BEE OAR NOT TWO BE

I have a Spelling Checker,

It came with my PC,

It plainly marks four my revue

Mistakes witch I can not sea!

I've run this poem threw hit,

I'm sure you wood bee pleased too no,

Its letter perfect in it's weigh,

My checker tolled me sew!

Okay, thanks for letting me share! I can let go of this one now. :-)

Tuesday Teaser

Tuesday Teaser is a weekly bookish meme (rhymes with “cream"), hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. (I’ve borrowed it from LDS Women’s Book Review.) Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share at least two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers!

I’m adapting the rules slightly: I’ll be quoting some random lines from the last chapter I read before I post my teaser. I'm a slow reader, so you may get multiple teasers per book. Here's my first teaser from A Pride of Kings:

[His brother] hurried on not waiting for an answer, and William gave his companion an amused look. "Do you suppose that was meant to wish me well or a hope that I might fall off my horse?"

From A Pride of Kings, by Juliet Dymoke, p 10

If you'd like to share a Teaser from a book you're currently reading, I'd love you to do so in the comment section. And you don't even have to share it on a Tuesday! Be sure to include the title, author, and page number in case others would like to check out the book you're reading, too.

The Plantagenets: A Pride of Kings