The Excerpt:

Watch for a new chapter of my serial novel soon!

Claudia Barry owned Manhattan’s West 33rd Street.

She stayed close to the buildings, away from the crowds, aware of 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.

The Big News:

This week’s sample is the first eight sentences from A Year Without Killing (my third book.) It recently was selected as a finalist in the East Texas Writers Guild’s First Chapter Book Awards.

According to Roger Middleton, president of the Guild, “We received an overwhelming number of entries from around the world, including authors submitting from Australia, Great Britain, Canada, Cyprus, Italy, South Africa, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Texas.”

Each entry was judged by three different judges from a panel representing, editors, authors, educators, and avid book readers. An additional three judges were brought in to select winners from the finalists.

Read the entire first chapter of A Year Without Killing, HERE.

Share your work with us!

Join us here at Weekend Writing Warriors.The  same link will take you to the work of dozens of talented writers. For a treat, please check out their work, too.

Many of the contributors to Weekend Writing Warriors also

participate in the Snippet Sunday group on FaceBook.

Find us on FaceBook.

The Eight Sentences:

Hula girls and a skull dagger.

Claudia asked, “What’s up with the choice of shirts?”
“The dagger bothers you?” asked Debert.
“I’m not sure…” she hesitated wondering what Debert was up to. “Is he mocking me—or is this some dark metaphor?” she asked herself.
Debert assumed a dignified frown, lowered his eyebrows and intoned, “You remember from your study of history, that in medieval times, before the age of printing, events were often documented with marks on the handles of knives.”
“Mmmmm…..that does ring a bell,” Claudia remembered, “and this shirt with a skull at the junction of the blade, handle, and guard?”
Debert smiled, “Well I have no idea how many skulls, or notches on your gun you might have, but I thought one would represent what you do in addition to all of them in toto.”

The Set Up:

In this scene from The Tourist Killer, Claudia is having breakfast with Mr. Debert at the Sandestin Hilton in Florida. His choice of attire becomes the subject of their conversation. And in the news, Claudia got a great 4 star review this past week. Check it out, HERE.

Got eight lines to share? 

Join us here at Weekend Writing Warriors.The  same link will take you to the work of dozens of talented writers. For a treat, please check out their work, too.                                     

Many of the contributors to Weekend Writing Warriors also

participate in the Snippet Sunday group on Facebook.

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. 

Cindy A invited me to participate in a “Meet Your Character” blog hop. Cindy is the author ofThe Milk Carton Murders due out next spring. Meet Cindy and view her blog, HERE.

FCEtier at Blue Ridge Books for a book signing in Waynesville, NC.

Now, Meet My Character:

1) What is the name of your character? Is he/she fictional or a historic person?

Claudia Barry – fictional

2) When and where is the story set?                                          

Current times, eastern seaboard USA

3) What should we know about him/her?

Readers meet Claudia in my first book, The Tourist Killer. She’s sixty-two years old and has successfully negotiated a career of over thirty years. Now she’s contemplating retirement and examining her life. What’s next for a professional assassin? Who do you retire? Her assigner convinces her to take a year sabbatical rather than retire outright. A Year Without Killing is the sequel and chronicles her time off.

4) What is the main conflict? What messes up his/her life?

Is retirement from this career any easier than retiring from the CIA or the mafia? How do you break away and stay alive? Claudia must now find a way to be at peace with herself so she can enjoy the rest of her life. AsThe Tourist Killer ends, she and her lover are in separate parts of the country and neither knows the fate of the other.

5) What is the personal goal of the character?

 Claudia wants to settle down with John Hixon and pursue life without the burden of being the harbinger of death to others.

6) Is there a working title for this novel, and can we read more about it?

A Year Without Killing, my current work in progress is the third book in the Barry-Hixon series and is the sequel to my first book, The Tourist Killer. I participate most weekends in a blog hop, titled, “Weekend Writing Warriors” and most of the excerpts I publish for the next few months will be from AYWK. Catch up with Claudia and her exploits HERE.

7) When can we expect the book to be published?

    E-book and trade paperback versions should be available in the spring of 2015. A Year Without Killing will debut in serialized form, with two chapters per week in either late fall of 2014 or winter of 2015 on the publisher’s site, Venture Galleries.

To keep the meetings going, I’ll tag:

Caleb Pirtle , Stephen Woodfin , and David Stokes.

Today’s featured thriller

My first novel, The Tourist Killer, is the featured thriller on Kindle Books and Tips today.

Got a copy?

99 cents today on Amazon!

Travis Bickle lurks just a few rows from where the President is shaking hands with the crowd.
Twenty yards away, Squeaky Fromme waits with the patience of a tortoise.
John Hinckley is an adolescent who observes every movement.
A select detail of Secret Service Agents execute their duties to perfection.
The President works the crowd and departs the airport unharmed in his limousine, “The Beast.”

From her hotel room on the forty-second floor, Claudia Barry lowered her binoculars, smiled, and thought to herself, I could have choreographed that entire scene.

Her confidence in doing so comes from the fact that she was the first person to earn a (fictitious) masters degree in group dynamics from LSU (or anywhere else for that matter.)

The study of a system of behaviors and psychological processes which occur within a social group, or between social groups and individuals within and/or outside of either, is group dynamics. An in-depth understanding of these interactions coupled with knowledge of the subject individual will assist observers in predicting the subject’s movements and response to the movement of others. Such facts as the subject’s personality profile and handedness are key elements to anticipate reactions as well. (How many U.S. Presidents were left-handed?)

Ms. Barry earned an undergraduate degree in sociology with a minor in psychology from the University of Arkansas. She learned to shoot from her grandfather who was a retired motorcycle repairman (a subtle reference to Zen) and had enjoyed watching the movement of animals in the woods. She attended numerous church services, political cocktail parties, and trials to study the way humans moved in response to others. She took private dance lessons and applied what she learned while moving through crowded subway stations and common areas. Mardis Gras parades were a favorite for personal challenges.
How close can I get to the mayor?
Can I shake hands with the grand marshall on the parade route?
She interviewed street performers and scrutinized every move they made, especially as they interacted with the impromptu audiences.
To add legitimacy to her project and to mask her unconscionable motive, she titled her thesis paper, Security in Space: The dynamics and challenges of providing personal security in high risk environments.

My second novel, The Presidents Club, will be officially released on Amazon Tuesday, Nov. 19.
It will be available as an e-book for Kindle and soon will be available for Nook.
Already seeing some reviews coming in. Watch for a blog soon on how the series title was selected.
Since it features characters from both my first two books, I’m going with, “The Barry-Hixon Conspiracy.”

To support the Tuesday release, my blog this weekend in the Weekend Writing Warriors blog hop showcases

eight sentences from TPC.

“For Whom Did You Last Vote” can be found HERE.

My second novel, The Presidents Club, premieres as a weekly serial on my publisher’s web page.

Here’s the LINK.

A new chapter will post every Sunday.

All chapters will remain available at the site, so if you miss one, don’t despair. It’s easy to catch up

if you miss one.

Eventually, The Presidents Club will be offered as both an e-book and a trade paperback.

My first novel, The Tourist Killer, is available on Amazon now.  You can download the Kindle version for less than the price of a gallon of gasoline.

We hope you enjoy them both.