FCEtier

The Eight Sentences:

Claudia had been approved to work all summer as a volunteer at the main branch of the Boone County library. Her goal was to learn to use the library’s resources to do research. By September, she had become proficient with the Dewey Decimal System, the Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature and the microfiche device.

1952, the year Claudia avenged her father’s death. Her victim was a corrupt policeman from the Crescent City.

In late August of the following summer, the head librarian, Mrs. Laird, came to the table where Claudia was working and asked, “After two summers of research, have you found what you were looking for?”
Claudia smiled and told a convincing lie, “I wasn’t looking for anything in particular, but I have learned a lot about genealogy.”
The librarian did not see the article Claudia had been reading from a 1952 New Orleans Times-Picayune. The headline read, “Mid-westerner killed in Garden District drug raid.” Claudia had jotted down the name of the officer responsible — it was Emile Duplessis.

The Set Up:

Claudia was raised by her grandfather due in part to the loss of her father when he was young.

Too young.

He died at the hands of a corrupt cop in New Orleans.

Claudia began to plan her vengeance at an early age by learning to use the library and do research

the old fashioned way, long before the internet. See this snippet for 8 lines about her revenge.

Share your writing with us!

If you’ve got eight sentences (creative punctuation is fine) of a work in progress or a previously

published work, we’d love to see them. Here’s the link for Weekend Writing Warriors and more

exposure is available in the Sunday Snippet group on FaceBook. Check us out!

Our guest blogger today is Julie Medina of Garland, Texas. 

She designed the cover for my third novel, A Year Without Killing, and I thought

it would be interesting to hear about her work and how she views book marketing.

=============================================================

YOU DO WHAT FOR A LIVING?

Ever get that question?

I do, sometimes, when people ask me what I “do” and I say I do book covers (and book interior layout).

Sometimes I get a half-blank look with the question: “What kind of book covers?”

Then I like to say: the kind that jumps on you in a bookstore, the kind that stands out from the crowd and  makes you want to pick it up and read it.

It’s the weirdest thing. You see, I believe that for most people their first interest in a book is sparked by looking at its cover. Have you ever been in a bookstore, looking for a book on architecture, for example, and out of the corner of your eye a book in the Thriller section gets you to look twice?

Something in the combination of Look and Title on that cover jumped straight past your eyes and into your brain. A face, a landmark, a flower, a mood, something someone is doing –  yes, even a color.

And now you want to know what this is all about.

Someone is shooting holes into a calendar?? Who does such a thing?

Is this some kind of a countdown to off your Husband or your Wife?

Why does someone not kill for a year? Why have they killed before, and who?

Can’t speak for other people but that is pretty much what happens to me when a book cover jumps past my eyes and into my brain. That is how I like to design covers, with that extra little burst that takes them straight there.

When I begin a project, I like to learn a little about the story, the people that live in it — perhaps some pivotal moment in their lives.

Andre Le Gallo was very specific with what he wanted on the cover of his Red Cell.

In this case I tried to accommodate pretty much what the described.

Other authors are wide open and I have only the title and a brief synopsis on the story.  I think those are actually my favorite covers. Those give me complete creative freedom and I love that. Of course sending those covers to the author for viewing is a nail-biter every time. High stakes gambling in Las Vegas couldn’t be anymore exciting when the dice roll.

I drew four aces with Heartsongs From a Washboard Road by Roger Summers and won the Jackpot with CrissCross by Dale Fowler.

Designing a book cover (or an entire book) is a little like having a baby. You worry, You want it to be beautiful and perfect and you want everyone to love it. It has to be romantic, scary, funny, dramatic, melancholy, dark and brooding or the conveyor of hope and love, all depending on the story, and it has to almost tell the entire story in one picture.

On most projects I sift through thousands of photos until just the right one grabs my attention.  The mood, colors, and themes combine into an image or images that I think will work.

Playing around with pictures in Photoshop produces crazy good effects sometimes and can change everything about any photo and give it an entirely new “feel.” A good example for this is the Compost Pile by Stephen Woodfin. [The two photos on the left were combined to make up the final cover image.]

And then, when I think the cover is what I had in mind, I send it off to the “Parent”, the author, and wait.

No problem, I check e-mail only like every 20 minutes or so! No, I do not pace!

My clients report success with every project. We work together. We don’t stop until the author is as pleased with the cover. Until then the motto is: nothing is chiseled in stone, everything and anything can be tweaked and changed.

How did I get into this crazy, exciting world of book publishing?

Thanks to my friend and former boss, Caleb Pirtle of Venture Galleries, who kept telling me that I could forget about commercial advertising now and dig deeper to find that artist he knew was in there somewhere. I hope I have succeeded.

When I was young, I dreamed of being the one who wrote the books. Well that plan did not work out. But I found something equally great. I am the one who puts a story into a picture for all the world to see.

It does not get any better than that.

The Eight Sentences:

Biloxi Beach, Mississipi, circa 1947 This man is my mental image of Mr. Debert.

“Yes and it’s nice to meet someone who knows French, you never know these days.”
“I spent several years in the Deep South — Louisiana, they speak a little French down there.”
“I know,” his voice was a rich baritone, almost bass, soft yet confident — and so masculine — he could have been the man of her dreams.
“How would you know that?”, she asked.
“I’ve followed you for several years now,” Debert said, “It isn’t easy to keep track of your movements, but then you try so hard.” He could see that she was becoming uneasy with that revelation, “Don’t worry, I won’t tell.”
“I like your voice,” she commented, “You seem mysterious and, at the same time, charming.”
There was a twinkle in his eye, and he smiled again.

The Back Story:

There were two men in the life of Claudia Barry that had earned her respect and trust. The older of the two had been around for years, although they had not had the opportunity for much conversation since a lunch meeting in New Jersey in the fall of 1976. It had always been an occasional fleeting glance. Then one icy day in January of 1999, Claudia was dining alone at her favorite Irish pub, the Tir na nOg in downtown Manhattan, across from Penn Station when he walked up to her table. The snippet above comes from their conversation.

An Invitation to Join Us:

The Eight Sentences:

“You know my history and accomplishments. Not many shooters — regardless of sex — have the resume I’ve acquired and my vision is remarkable for any human. When I chose this career, it was obvious that I would never be in the limelight. I’ll be happy to be just as anonymous as you.” Claudia had resigned herself to anonymity even before the choice of professions. She had taken herself out of the fight for women’s rights with the selection of careers, because she couldn’t attract attention to herself advocating any issue publicly and then hope to reach the upper echelons of her craft. She could, and did, find ways to make financial contributions to the cause. After her first few jobs, she had stashed away enough funds to live happily ever after when and — if she ever retired.

The Set Up:

 My third novel, A Year Without Killing, will debut in December on my publisher’s site as a serial. One chapter at a time will be presented twice a week.

November will see a big promotion for The Tourist Killer to build interest in the sequel. In conjunction with these events, my snippets will be excerpts from The Tourist Killer’s flashbacks. Each of the seven parts of the book begins with a flashback into Claudia’s past. Today’s selection is from the first flashback and comes from Claudia’s meeting with the one who recruited her into the profession.

Calling all writers:

The Eight Sentences:

Claudia replied with a note of authority, “Your phone calls put you into the same light as the person who squeezed the trigger. Your finger did the damage before the cross hairs were set and the shooter probably never realized when the round was fired.”

Claudia is a bit older and blonde, although she IS a master of disguise… (I love this image though!)

“You’re into Zen aren’t you? So ‘into the moment’ you don’t realize the target is falling and it’s because of you,”

“Does it bother you so much you want revenge?” Claudia asked.

“I don’t consider solving a problem for the world as being revenge,” answered Star. “How do you view your work?”

“Sometimes I’m not sure if  I’m a do-gooder ridding society of undesirables or just a psychopath taking out the trash.”

The Set Up:

Claudia met someone she did not expect to meet (Star Braun.) Their encounter was the subject of a previous Sunday Snippet and can be found HERE. This week’s eight sentences are from the tete a tete the two had after they both survived their initial meeting. Star has just confessed that she had made phone calls to engage Claudia’s services and now has regrets.

NOTE: My confession is….I got that last line, Claudia’s comment about taking out the trash from one of the reviews of my book. It was in the Seattle Post Intelligencer.

Open Call for Writers:

Attention all writers, published or not.

Do you have what it takes to write a book?

Want some feedback on your work, eight sentences at a time?

Join us at Weekend Writing Warriors and also on FaceBook, at the Sunday Snippet group.

Our guest today is best-selling author, Veronica Scott. She is a two-time recipient of the SFR Galaxy Award and the winner of the 2014 National Excellence in Romantic Fiction Award for Paranormal and Futuristic Romance. She has written a number of science-fiction and paranormal romances and writes the SciFi Encounters column for the USA Today/HEA blog. Kirkus Reviews stated of her last SFR novel, Escape From Zulaire: “Scott, an experienced romance novelist, distinguishes herself first and foremost as a gripping storyteller; the conventional romantic undertones only distract a little from a well-constructed sci-fi escape novel.”
We invited Ms. Scott to tell us about one of the characters she has created.
Etier: Welcome, Veronica. Who will we learn about today?
Scott: Thanks for having me as your guest today! We agreed I’d talk about one of my characters in a bit more detail so I’ll give you Major Mike Varone, of the Sectors Special Forces. Not familiar with that fine organization, you say? Well, in my science fiction adventure/romances, the action takes place in the far future, when humans have spread through the galaxy, met other sentient beings of all types and have formed a civilization together known as the Sectors.
Of course there are several Big Bads in this universe, one being the Mawreg, a deadly alien race that wants to destroy everything the Sectors has built. Hence the need for a top notch military in space and on the ground. Mike is a member of one branch of the service. The Mawreg don’t figure too much in the plot of Mission to Mahjundar.
So, fire away with the questions!
Etier: When and where is the story set?
Scott: The action occurs on the planet Zulaire, located in one of the more distant Sectors.
Etier: What should we know about Major Varone?
Scott: Mike and his cousin Johnny, who is also a Sectors Special Forces operator, have done their time in the military and were actually in the retirement processing center when Command pulled them to handle the job on Zulaire. A small ship carrying a squad of operators has crashed in the planet’s Djeelaba Mountains. The men had been operating behind enemy lines and were believed to have obtained some vital information. But mineral deposits on Zulaire make it impossible to pinpoint the site of the wreck. Because they grew up on a frontier world, our hero and his cousin have some skills that make them the best match for an assignment on backwater Zulaire. Mike agrees to take the job because Command thinks there might be survivors to extract. Johnny takes the assignment because he always watches Mike’s six.
Etier: What is the main conflict? What messes up his life?
Scott: Day One on the planet, Mike is in the right place at the wrong time as a terrorist bomb goes off. He ends up saving the life of Princess Shalira. Daughter of the dying emperor, she’s been blind since an incident in her childhood. She’s resigned herself to an arranged marriage rather than face life under the thumb of her cold stepmother. After Mike saves Shalira from the bombing attempt, she arranges for him to escort her across the planet to her future husband. She’s already falling hard for the deadly offworlder and knows she should deny herself the temptation he represents, but taking Mike and Johnny along to protect her is the only way she’ll live long enough to escape her ruthless stepmother.
Mike, for his part, resists his growing attraction to the princess; he has a mission on this planet and rescuing the vulnerable but brave princess isn’t it. No matter how much he wishes it could be. Here’s a quote from the novel, revealing how Mike feels after agreeing to this side trip:
What had the mission briefers said? Nothing was ever simple and straightforward on Mahjundar. Expect the unexpected. Yeah, but who could have foreseen this set of complications? Princesses are the stuff of kids’ fairy tales, not an assignment for a first-tier operator like me.
Etier: What is the personal goal of the character?

Scott: As I said above, Mike’s committed to finding the wrecked military spaceship and retrieving the crew, dead or alive, and recovering the vital information. He never loses that overriding imperative but his personal goal becomes completely entwined with Shalira’s fate.

Etier: Where can we read more about the book?
Scott: Mission to Mahjundar was published in August and is available as an e book and a POD paperback.

Here are the links:
Amazon     Barnes & Noble   iTunes     All Romance eBooks     KOBO
You can find out more about her and her books at http://veronicascott.wordpress.com/

or follow her on twitter @vscotttheauthor

My third book, A Year Without Killing, will debut in December on my publisher’s site. It will be presented as a serial, one chapter at a time, twice a week. Since it is the sequel to my first book, The Tourist Killer, the month of November will see extensive promotions for both.

A new web site called, The Books Machine, is offering The Tourist Killer for free to readers who agree to review it. Their site hosts hundreds of books by great authors and we’re pleased to have ours among them. The folks over at The Books Machine asked for a video trailer less than one minute, so here is what we produced:

Here’s how this trailer was made for less than $150.00.

1. I shot the video myself. It only required 5,283 takes.(Just kidding.)

2. I selected the music from a royalty free website: Incompetech.com.  They’re great and have a wide variety of selections.

3. Once the camera work was done, I mailed the SD card to my friend and videographer, Art Hoffman. He added the titles and music and VOILA!  Art does great work and has been involved with all my book trailers. Authors can contact him via his web site HERE for a free consultation and estimated production costs. NOTE: Including three days of mail time, it took Art and me only seven days to get this video live on YouTube.

Remember, there’s plenty of time to enjoy The Tourist Killer before the sequel begins and now’s the time to start your Christmas shopping.

The Eight Sentences:

Image credit: specialize.co.nz

Jackson White spoke up and said with the confidence of a university professor in defense of his thesis, “In addition to social media, email, and driving directions, the internet is a powerful venue for human interaction. By  connecting with others, we discover that we aren’t alone, we aren’t broken or isolated. There is hope.”

“Well fuck you, too,” Barger said.

Scully was a bit more tolerant, but not much, “That sounds like something right outta the Reader’s Digest Journal of Popular Science.”

White replied, “It is, in fact, from an article I read in Reader’s Digest. I of course paraphrased it. Far be it from me to be guilty of plagiarism.”

============================================

The Back Story:

Several members of the League of Old Men are traveling together to their next mission.

They are discussing one aspect of the mission.

============================================

Open call for writers:

The Eight Sentences:

__________________                                                                                         

Dahl returned his crystal tumbler to its coaster on the drop leaf table.

His hand moved with the precision of an artist painting eyebrows one hair at a time.

He leaned into the light and his guest could see that Dahl’s expression had changed — his eyebrows had lowered. The lips were pursed and thin. The corners of his mouth were pulled back into his cheeks but he wasn’t smiling.

Unnerving seconds seemed to take minutes to pass. Remington’s palms became soaked with sweat. Dahl spoke, “You have always given me the impression that control of this man was unquestionable.”

The Back Story:

______________

This week’s snippet in a continuation of the meeting in last week’s, between the mysterious Mr. Dahl and his guest, a fellow member of the secret organization who controls the world’s leaders, Mr. Remington.

Open call for writers:

__________________

Join us here at Weekend Writing Warriors. 

Readers who purchase the Kindle version of my first book, The Tourist Killer, will receive a bonus chapter of my third novel. This book is a work in progress that will debut on Venture Galleries web site as a serial in late 2014. A Year Without Killing is the third book in my series of books entitled, The Barry-Hixon Conspiracy This is the sequel to The Tourist Killer.

Here’s a sample from the first chapter of A Year Without Killing. I hope you enjoy it.

Comments appreciated!

===========================

A Year Without Killing by FCEtier

Chapter One

Claudia Barry owned Manhattan’s West 33rd Street.
She stayed close to the buildings, away from the crowds, and glanced at every face. Every movement got her attention. It was an old habit and hard to break. It had kept her alive. She took deliberate strides toward 8th Street.
The drizzle had stopped, the skies were still overcast, and the sidewalk wet. It would have been impossible for her to miss the action fifty feet ahead of her.
An African-American woman who appeared to be in her late sixties stepped onto the sidewalk and headed towards Claudia. She needed a cane to keep her balance. Her body swayed from side to side like the wand on a metronome. A built up shoe compensated for a short leg. Every step required extra effort. That woman’s about my age, Claudia thought.
Then it happened.
A tall skinny male Goth stepped in front of the black woman. He grabbed the strap on her purse and jerked it from her grasp. His next decision was one of the worst of his life. He ran right into the path of a semi-retired assassin with a sense of justice.
As the mugger passed, Claudia Barry moved her five foot five medium built frame into his path and delivered a forearm to make Anthony Munoz proud. The Goth surprised her. He bounced off, continued down the sidewalk, and disappeared into an alley. He won’t get away so easy. She stepped out of her heels and gave chase. He’s no match for my aerobic endurance.
He collapsed behind a dumpster and complained out loud, “Fuck! I’m too damned out of shape. Bitch thought she would be a fuckin’ hero. Guess I showed her.” He opened the purse and began to toss the contents off to his side. “Not much in here. Done better many times. Ain’t enough for a decent fix.” He put his hand onto the pavement to stand and it touched a stocking covered foot. He raised his head and made eye contact with Claudia, “Where the hell did you come from?”
Their eyes met and she held him motionless in her concentrated gaze.
Her dark brown eyes dared him to move.
“I’ve been here all along. And I’ll never leave you.” While she spoke, she produced a tactical switchblade. In the blink of an eye, the blade sprang from the front of the handle and removed a button from his shirt with a quick, precise flick of the attacker’s wrist.

Article Copyright ©2014 by FCEtier. All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from the author is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and link backs to this story may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to the author with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. Violators will be prosecuted to the extent that the law allows.

==============================

Watch for the first episode of A Year Without Killing and enjoy the complete version of Chapter One later this year.

Debut date will be published here and on my Facebook author’s page.