Wednesday, January 24, 2018

Book Trailer Spotlight: Secret Baby, Second Chance by Jane Godman #booktrailer @janegodman

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Title: SECRET BABY, SECOND CHANCE
Author: Jane Godman
Publisher: Harlequin
Pages: 288
Genre: Romantic Suspense

BOOK BLURB: 
She’s alive! Vincente Delaney has finally found his girlfriend, Beth Wade, who disappeared a year and a half ago, alive. But he’s shocked to discover someone with her: their child, a little girl he never knew about! Once upon a time, lone wolf Vincente never expected forever with Beth, but now he must put everything on the line to protect her and their family.
Beth was forced to leave Vincente to protect everything she held dear. But now the threat to her loved ones’ lives has reared its ugly head again. As danger approaches, she and Vincente must delve into her past to cast out the darkness jeopardizing their future.

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Monday, January 22, 2018

20 Questions with Mystery Author Abby Bardi @abbybardi

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Abby Bardi is the author of three novels: Double Take, The Secret Letters, and The Book of Fred. Her short fiction has appeared in anthologies and journals, and she has written academic articles on Roma (Gypsies). She grew up on the South Side of Chicago and now lives in Ellicott City, MD, the oldest railroad town in America.

WEBSITE & SOCIAL LINKS:

WEBSITE | TWITTER | FACEBOOK



 


1. Are you a morning writer or a night writer?

I write every morning. By night I’m tired and my brain stops working.

2. Do you outline or are you a pantster?

I’m both! I make outlines and then change things. I move back and forth between the two styles and change the outline to fit the pantsing.

3. Which comes first – plot or character?

Character has a slight edge but I basically start with both: a character in a particular situation.

4. Noise or quiet when working on your manuscript?

When I’m writing, I don’t notice what’s going on around me so it doesn’t matter.

5. Favorite TV show?

There’s so much great TV at the moment—it really is a golden age. Having said that, the TV show I enjoy the most is probably Dancing with the Stars. It just makes me happy.

6. Favorite type of music?

I love all kinds of music but what I listen to the most is music from Bollywood movies. Bollywood is my passion.

7. Favorite craft besides writing?

Is there a craft besides writing?

8. Do you play a musical instrument?

Yes, guitar and piano. I used to perform as a singer-songwriter but haven’t been doing that much lately. Writing novels in my kitchen is more fun.

9. Single or married?

Married for twenty years this year!

10. Children or no?

Two grown children. They’re really cool adults.

11. Pets?

A dog and a cat. The cat belongs to my daughter but has been living with for a while.

12. Favorite place to write?

In the kitchen on my laptop.

13. Favorite restaurant?

Every Thursday, we eat at a local Korean eatery. Their tofu stew is amazing.

14. Do you work outside the home?

Yes, I teach English at a community college.

15. What was the name of the last movie you saw?

Jab Harry Met Sejal—Bollywood starring the great Shahrukh Khan.

16. Favorite outdoor activity?

I do a lot of dog-walking.

17. Pet peeve?

Irritability. I think people should try to be pleasant.

18. Your goal in life?

My current goal is to find the right agent for my new novel. It’s a time-travel novel, and it turns out that some people aren’t crazy about that.

19. Your most exciting moment?

When my kids were born, when my three novels were published, and when my house is clean.

20. The love of your life?

My cute husband.

About the Book:

Title: Double Take
Author: Abby Bardi
Publisher: Harper Collins Impulse
Pages: 186
Genre: Mystery

Set in Chicago, 1975, Double Take is the story of artsy Rachel Cochrane, who returns from college with no job and confronts the recent death of Bando, one of her best friends. When she runs into Joey, a mutual friend, their conversations take them back into their shared past and to the revelation that Bando may have been murdered. To find out who murdered him, Rachel is forced to revisit her stormy 1960s adolescence, a journey that brings her into contact with her old friends, her old self, and danger.

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Thursday, January 18, 2018

Back Story l Good Girl's Guide to County Jail l Ellen Marie Francisco @ellenmfrancisco

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Back Story: Good Girl's Guide to County Jail by Ellen Marie Francisco
                                                
Good Girl's Guide to County Jail was conceived in a large population dorm at Glen Helen Rehabilitation Center in Devore, CA. I was arrested on August 5 2013 for the first time ever, and I was shackled and shuffled between three jails in less than a week. I ended up in a dorm with one hundred beds, and the chatty women who filled them. You couldn't help but hear conversations about all kinds of desperate situations they were in, and the legal conundrums to go with them. It was horrifying, and exasperating. We all shared a level of frustration as we negotiated our freedom without essential supports within the jail system. We had to rely upon each other.
With nothing but time on my hands, armed with a short pencil, some lined paper, and a whole lot of naivety, I decided I would interview as many girls as I could to learn what they'd learned about the court process and how to prepare for it. Most girls thought I was a narc at first, and didn't believe I'd been arrested for car-jacking, assault with a deadly weapon and robbery. Regardless, I was determined to create a survival guide of sorts for the women who would invariably follow in my wake. It was evident the system was warped and corrupt. It was clear we needed all the help we could get. And I definitely didn't want to get convicted of something I hand't done. So, there was the sense I didn't want to miss anything vital, or that may help prevent someone else from living this nightmare.
I wanted to help enlighten and empower people to the many traps the system sets, and to provide a snap shot of the third-world country that the Incarcer Nation really is. 
I'd been thinking about starting a publishing company for years, and I was enticed with the idea of being able to test the waters with a book that could potentially transform lives. This is the first book I've published, although I've written two novels, a true crime memoir, and a series of short stories that were completed long before this project even entered my consciousness. I'd shopped them around to agents at writer's conferences off and on for years. 
I was pretty sure a traditional publisher would have preferred my jail-time memoir I Stand Corrected, which I content edited out of Good Girl's Guide to County Jail for the Bad Girl in Us All altogether, but I wasn't ready to share that first time out. I hadn't even emotionally processed the experience in its entirety yet. It was the promises I'd made to girls I'd seen struggling in the jail system that drove the book forward, and the intent to reveal injustices we all witnessed in county jail and in court the whole time we were in there. I wanted to get the message across, now that I'd witnessed it first-hand, that the American family – every man, woman, and child were vulnerable to the destruction the criminal justice system commits every day whether they're an inmate or not. It's a national crisis. My desire for social reform far outweighed my need to stick with a traditional approach to publishing or to worry about how publishing it myself might affect a writing career that hadn’t even launched yet.

About the Author

Canadian born Ellen Marie Francisco worked in feature film development and production in Toronto on Canadian Content film projects partially funded through Telefilm Canada in the ‘80s. She was transferred to Los Angeles in the early ‘90s to help expand the production company into Los Angeles. Her work in the entertainment industry continued for decades under a NAFTA Investor Visa in Los Angeles, and environs with her catering company Amazing Graze. Her resort community Real Estate business Cabin Ready operated to the point of her untimely arrest.
                                                             
Francisco has also worked in the publishing industry. Along the way, she landed a job with writer Sidney Sheldon as a proofreader and fan mail response writer. That experience and her tenure in publishing helped shape her own voice. 

Her work as a photographer in Toronto and California in the early ‘90s landed her backstage access to Cirque du Soleil and one of her first print credits. She has sold and/or shown photographic works in galleries on the Big Island of Hawaii, in Los Angeles and Toronto. The book is filled with her raw and captivating vector artwork, a visual storyboard to her harrowing journey through the “Incarcer Nation.”

Francisco is the adoptive mother of two children and a Chihuahua named Piglet. They currently reside in Ottawa, Ontario. 


WEBSITE & SOCIAL LINKS:

WEBSITE | TWITTER | FACEBOOK

About the Book:

Title: GOOD GIRL’S GUIDE TO COUNTY JAIL
Author: Ellen Marie Francisco
Publisher: Scribbles and Ink Publishing / Friesen Press
Pages: 176
Genre: Nonfiction

BOOK BLURB:
Millions of viewers have made the television series “Orange is the New Black” a pop culture sensation, but Ellen Marie Francisco (http://www.EllenMarieFrancisco.com) has no interest in watching it or reading the memoir, by Piper Kerman, which spawned the hit show.

Francisco has lived her own version of “Orange is the New Black,” an experience she refers to as “innocent in oranges.” “Oranges” is prison jargon for the orange jump suits worn by prisoners who have been charged but who have not yet been to trial, Francisco explains.

Francisco, an author and entrepreneur, describes her experience behind bars in her latest book, GOOD GIRL’S GUIDE TO COUNTY JAIL (FOR THE BAD GIRL IN US ALL). A gripping and candid tale of her journey through three California jails for women, GOOD GIRL’S GUIDE TO COUNTY JAIL (https://books.friesenpress.com/store/title/119734000025993982) also serves as a resource guide for navigating the legal thickets necessary to surviving what Francisco dubs the “Incarcer Nation”.

GOOD GIRL’S GUIDE TO COUNTY JAIL “is a call to action to remedy the lack of support for pre-sentenced women sitting in jails across America who are not educated enough to understand what they’re negotiating in the courtroom,” Francisco explains, “and for the women who don’t realize how close they already are to the courthouse steps.”

Francisco was arrested in 2013 in Lake Arrowhead, California and charged with carjacking, assault with a deadly weapon and robbery after an incident involving her impounded car. The charges were ultimately dropped, but not before Francisco had served nearly two months in three county jails. While locked up, she talked to hundreds of women “each on a different path without a definitive end, each living with the certain fear that they were not in control of their own lives.”

Those conversations became the nucleus of GOOD GIRL’S GUIDE TO COUNTY JAIL.

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Tuesday, January 16, 2018

20 Questions with Chick Lit/Contemporary Fiction Author Victoria Bernadine

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Victoria Bernadine (a pseudonym) is, as the saying goes, a "woman of a certain age". After twenty-something years of writer's block, she began writing again in 2008. 
Victoria enjoys reading all genres and particularly loves writing romantic comedy and post-apocalyptic science fiction. What those two have in common is anybody's guess.
She lives in Edmonton with her two cats (The Grunt and The Runt).  Along Came Jones is the second novel she felt was good enough to be released into the wild.


1.      Are you a morning writer or a night writer?
Both.  I write on the bus, so that’s my morning writing, and then I’ll do more during my evening commute and/or at night.
2.      Do you outline or are you a pantster?  
I’m a pantser.  I’m usually as surprised as everyone else about where the story goes.
3.      Which comes first – plot or character?
It’s split pretty evenly as to which one comes first.
4.      Noise or quiet when working on your manuscript?  
Noise.  Quiet makes me sleepy.
5.      Favorite TV show?  
This varies with the day – LOL.  Right now:  Broadchurch.  What a magnificent show!!
6.      Favorite type of music?  
Country, but I listen to everything (although my least favourite music is jazz and rap).
7.      Favorite craft besides writing?  
Cooking, I guess?  Mainly because I have no other crafts.
8.      Do you play a musical instrument?  
No.
9.      Single or married?  
Single.
10.  Children or no?  
No.
11.  Pets?
Two cats who rule the roost.
12.  Favorite place to write?  
The back of the bus, simply because I have to do something during my commute.
13.  Favorite restaurant?  
I don’t really have a favourite restaurant.  I eat just about everything so will eat anywhere.
14.  Do you work outside the home?  
Yes, I do.
15.  What was the name of the last movie you saw?  
In theatre:  Star Trek:  Beyond, although I hope that will be Star Wars:  The Last Jedi by the end of the year.  ;D  On television:  Megamind, which was definitely charming.
16.  Favorite outdoor activity?  
Getting back indoors as quickly as possible – LOL.
17.  Pet peeve?  
Work colleagues who ask for advice but won’t follow it.
18.  Your goal in life?  
To be able to look back and say it was a life well lived.
19.  Your most exciting moment?  
Probably when I left home for the first time at 18 and moved to a city 600 kms away where I didn’t know another living soul.  O.O
20.  The love of your life? 
Writing.
About the Book:


Title: ALONG CAME JONES
Author: Victoria Bernadine
Publisher: Love of Words Publishing
Pages: 324
Genre: Chick Lit/Contemporary Fiction

BOOK BLURB:
Benjamin Ferrin Macon-Jones has it all: a luxurious lifestyle in Toronto and the love of an intelligent, ambitious woman…until that same woman refuses his marriage proposal, tells him he’s a detriment to her career, and leaves him. Unable to deal with his cantankerous family trying to be supportive, he quietly slips away into the Canadian countryside.

Lou Upjohn has problems of her own. She’s a recluse and agoraphobic, staying safely within the walls of her ancestral home in small town Saskatchewan and depending on Ike, her best and only friend, to deal with the outside world. Only Ike’s just married another woman and now he’s moving to Vancouver. Before he leaves, he hires the new guy in town, Ferrin Jones, to run her errands and do her yard work. Lou isn’t happy, but even she has to admit the stranger looks mildly interesting.

Both their lives could be changed forever if she only has the courage to open the door.

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Amazon


Thursday, January 11, 2018

My Homage to Nancy Drew - Girl Sleuth by Heather Weidner #nancydrew @heatherwwidnerauthor

12:00 AM 1 Comments

My Homage to Nancy Drew – Girl Sleuth

Thank you so much for letting me visit today. I write mystery novels and short stories. Secret Lives and Private Eyes is the first in the Delanie Fitzgerald mystery series. The Tulip Shirt Murders is the second book. My sleuth Delanie is a sassy, redheaded private investigator who zooms around Central Virginia in her black Mustang.

I have loved mysteries since Scooby Doo and Nancy Drew. My friends and I raced through all the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys collections at the public library in Virginia Beach. My favorite is still The Crooked Bannister (1971) with its hot pink cover. I loved the plot twists and the double meanings. From that point on, I was hooked on mysteries, and I moved on to Alfred Hitchcock, Agatha Christie, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. But Nancy Drew is still one of my favorite sleuths.

As a pre-teen reader, I was so impressed that Nancy could solve crimes before the professionals and adults did. I adored her freedom. She had a car. She did things that other girls didn’t, and she could solve crimes. She influenced generations of women like Hillary Clinton, Laura Bush, Oprah Winfrey, and Sonia Sotomayor. Nancy has been a role-model for lots of young girls for over eighty years.

The Nancy Drew mysteries were written by several ghost-writers under one pseudonym, Carolyn Keene. The series has undergone several revisions and updates over the years, but Nancy’s spirit prevailed. The famous yellow spines were added to the books in 1962. That was the set that I remember reading. And her stories have been translated into over twenty different languages.

The girl detective appeared in several movies from the 1930s to the 2000s and TV shows through the years. Her face and logo have graced all kinds of merchandising from jewelry, lunch boxes, and clothing to board and video games. She has appeared in novels, coloring books, and graphic novels.

There are some similarities between the iconic Nancy Drew and my private investigator. I didn’t intentionally mean to create the parallels, but subconsciously, her character influenced my mystery writing. Both females are fearless, smart, and feisty. Delanie and Nancy both have red hair. (Nancy Drew started out as a blonde in the 1930s, but artists in the 1940-50s depicted her as a redhead.)

Nancy drove a sporty roadster. Her car was upgraded to a Mustang in the mysteries from the 1980s. My sleuth loves her black Mustang, nicknamed Black Beauty. Nancy’s friends (Bess and George) were important in her life and to the stories just like Delanie’s partner Duncan (his English bulldog Margaret), and her girlfriends Paisley and Robin are key to her story life.

I like to think of my Delanie Fitzgerald as following in the footprints of the original girl sleuth.

About the Author

Heather Weidner’s short stories appear in the Virginia is for Mysteries series and 50 Shades of Cabernet. She is a member of Sisters in Crime – Central Virginia, Guppies, Lethal Ladies Write, and James River Writers. The Tulip Shirt Murders is her second novel in her Delanie Fitzgerald series.
Originally from Virginia Beach, Heather has been a mystery fan since Scooby Doo and Nancy Drew. She lives in Central Virginia with her husband and a pair of Jack Russell terriers.
Heather earned her BA in English from Virginia Wesleyan College and her MA in American literature from the University of Richmond. Through the years, she has been a technical writer, editor, college professor, software tester, and IT manager. She blogs regularly with the Pens, Paws, and Claws authors.

WEBSITE & SOCIAL LINKS:

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About the Book:

Title: THE TULIP SHIRT MURDERS
Author: Heather Weidner
Publisher: Sandpiper Productions
Pages: 264
Genre: Mystery – Female Sleuth

BOOK BLURB: 
Private investigator Delanie Fitzgerald, and her computer hacker partner, Duncan Reynolds, are back for more sleuthing in The Tulip Shirt Murders. When a local music producer hires the duo to find out who is bootlegging his artists’ CDs, Delanie uncovers more than just copyright thieves. And if chasing bootleggers isn’t bad enough, local strip club owner and resident sleaze, Chaz Smith, pops back into Delanie’s life with more requests. The police have their man in a gruesome murder, but the loud-mouthed strip club owner thinks there is more to the open and shut case. Delanie and Duncan link a series of killings with no common threads. And they must put the rest of the missing pieces together before someone else is murdered.

The Tulip Shirt Murders is a fast-paced mystery that appeals to readers who like a strong female sleuth with a knack for getting herself in and out of humorous situations such as larping and trading elbow jabs with roller derby queens.

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Wednesday, January 10, 2018

The Inspiration Behind Crimson Realm Chronicles Series by Gabriella Bradley & Taryn Jameson

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The Inspiration Behind Crimson Realm Chronicles Series
By Gabriella Bradley & Taryn Jameson

The start of this adventure is so much bigger than just one book, but what sparked the world Gabriella Bradley and Taryn have created was one tiny 1400 word glimpse into the lives of two people whom the gods determined were destined to meet. We decided the short story should not be the end. Readers deserved to know more about Brenn and Ciara and their destiny.

Taryn had hidden the short story away for over ten years and had actually forgotten about it until she started doing a hard-drive cleanup. She read it again, then contacted Gabriella to see if she would like to take a peek at it and maybe edit it. Gabriella phoned Taryn and discussed what her muse had inspired. Both their muses just seemed to take over. The short story, Carnal Twilight, grew to over 4k and became the prequel to the Crimson Realm Chronicles, and book 1, In Search of Pride.

This brief snapshot of the meeting between Brenn and Ciara, spawned an adventure filled with fantasy and science fiction—a vivid world where gods and goddesses rule, shapeshifters, magic, and sorcery are very real, and evil has wormed its way throughout the realms. Throw a crashed spaceship and people from Earth into the mix, and it has become an even more interesting journey, laced with romance, angst, quests, and humor.

The Crimson Realm Chronicles now has five completed books with two more in progress and more planned for the future.

We are published through eXtasy Books Inc. A company that has been in existence since 2002. Gabriella has been published with them from their start-up. They are a great company to work with. Royalties are paid on time. The editing process is painless, and coverart is fantastic.

We are working hard on books 6 and 7 and are already planning a spin-off series. It is a fantastic rollercoaster ride with new characters entering the story all the time, characters that deserve their own tale. And bingo, another book is in the making.

About the Authors

Gabriella Bradley lives amidst rugged mountains. She more than often has a grizzly in her backyard searching for food. Other critters that visit on a regular basis are cougars, coyotes, squirrels, raccoons.

She has been a writer all of her life, though only ventured into erotic works in 2003.

Gabby’s hobbies include hiking, gardening, swimming, sewing, embroidery. Favorite movies are old timers like Gone with the Wind, Spartacus etc. Favorite music is Abba. Besides all that, she owns and directs a busy company and its staff.

WEBSITE & SOCIAL LINKS:

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Taryn Jameson is a mother, artist, and avid reader who lives in an enchanted forest that sparks her imagination to create. Her latest outlet is the written word. She is the alter ego of cover artist Angela Waters.

WEBSITE & SOCIAL LINKS:

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About the Books:

Title: CARNAL TWILIGHT (Prequel)
Author: Gabriella Bradley & Taryn Jameson
Publisher: eXtasy Books
Pages: 23
Genre: Fantasy/Scifi/Paranormal/Shifter

BOOK BLURB:
The prequel to In Search of Pride
The gods smile upon a weary warrior…
Brenn, a warrior, returning home from battle, rests by a tempting magical pool and meets a siren who changes his life forever.

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Title: IN SEARCH OF PRIDE
Author: Gabriella Bradley & Taryn Jameson
Publisher: eXtasy Books
Pages: 125
Genre: Fantasy/Scifi/Paranormal/Shifter

BOOK BLURB:
Bound by a curse, Brenn must find a way to save his pride.
Brenn returns from a war far from his home to find that his village is destroyed and his pride missing. With the help of his guardian dragon, Ciara, he sets out to find his missing family and pride.

After Ciara saves Brenn's life twice, he begins to realize that he isn't as invincible as he once thought. He must accept his limitations and the help of his lifemate to keep him safe.

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Title: THE DRAGON’S LION
Author: Gabriella Bradley & Taryn Jameson
Publisher: eXtasy
Pages: 172
Genre: Fantasy/Scifi/Paranormal/Shifter

BOOK BLURB:
Danger, lies, and betrayal forge the path to unlocking the secrets Brenn seeks.
The rescue of Brenn’s pride sets off an angry tirade from Cewrick that results in curses that almost cripple the Crimson Realm and all of Ierilia.

With the help of Ciara, Brenn leads his crew through the bowels of the planet and the forbidden forest to unlock the secret of defeating Cewrick. But will his defeat end the reign of terror on their world?

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Title: SWORD OF BETRAYAL
Author: Gabriella Bradley & Taryn Jameson
Publisher: eXtasy Books
Pages: TBA
Genre: Fantasy/Scifi/Paranormal/Shifter

BOOK BLURB:
The blade of betrayal cuts deep.
When Erica is granted a commission in the king’s army and a magical sword for her bravery, she begins to look forward to a future for both herself and her crew. But not everyone is happy with their circumstances.
Erica joins Brenn’s team in the fight to save his planet from the angry god, Zolmes and she finds herself charmed by more than just the planet. The sexy lion shifter Laro, claims she is his lifemate, setting her passions ablaze. Stung by the sharp tongues and dissension of some of her crew, Erica pushes him away to focus on the lives of her crewmembers.
Can Erica accept a future with Laro or will she let hate and betrayal decide her fate?

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Tuesday, January 2, 2018

Flinch Not: Digging Deep to Research a Tough Subject by Ashley Warren @survivorsdawn

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Flinch Not: Digging Deep to Research a Tough Subject
By Ashley Warren

On a sunny day in early 2010, I sat in my parked car, late for an appointment, stunned by an NPR story about sexual predators. I had no idea such criminals roamed freely on university campuses.

Since then, I’ve paid close attention to the issue. It never goes away, and by all accounts the crime is pervasive at every college. As I heard story after story, I began to wonder if I could write a novel about victims whose lives were brought together by a common assailant.

To write a credible story, I had much to learn. Readers demand plausibility and accurate details, and this was all fresh territory for me.

One of the first topics I explored was the rape kit exam, a four-hour procedure described by victims as a nightmare. Next, I read of the aftereffects of medication offered to victims to reduce the risk of STDs and unwanted pregnancies. To flesh out the story, I explored many minor subjects: the range of good LSAT scores, chastity pledges, low alcohol cocktails, and the charges filed against Roman Polanski in 1977.

To make the character of Lauren Le’s mother credible, I researched the patterns of Vietnamese immigration in the 1980s and 1990s. To describe one harrowing scene, I learned about the physical attributes of scalding burns.

My hours of exploration turned into days, and then the days stretched into weeks. I read books on the subject. Two of the best were We Believe You by Annie E. Clark and Andrea L. Pino, and Missoula by Jon Krakauer.

We Believe You related the first hand account of many different survivors—life before the attack, the attack itself, and the long painful road that followed. Their stories were heartbreaking but also inspiring. I came to see the survivors as heroes. Many of them went on to become patriots in the fight to create a safer world for future students.

As I dove deeper, I learned of the symptoms of victims: stress, guilt, shame, sleeping disorders, eating disorders, anger, depression, flashbacks, and feelings of powerlessness. I found this quote on the website of the Rape Treatment Center at UCLA:

"Afterwards, I was too ashamed and confused to tell anyone what had happened. I tried to forget about it. But, it was eating away at me. I withdrew from my friends. I couldn't concentrate. My grades fell. I started to drop classes. I had no self-confidence. Eventually I dropped out of college and returned home . . .”

It surprised me to learn that some victims become sexually promiscuous after their assault. Psychologists believe they do this in an attempt to take control of their feelings of abuse. In Survivors’ Dawn, I wove this behavioral pattern into Lauren’s character change arc.

As I dug deeper, I kept encountering the same chilling statistic: approximately one in five undergraduate women has been the victim of attempted or completed sexual violence during college. The source, I learned, was a 2012 study conducted by the Center of Disease Control and Prevention.

In his book Missoula, Krakauer references the clinical psychologist David Lisak several times. This quote is from Missoula:

What Lisak found was that students who commit rape on a college campus are pretty much like those rapists in prison. In both groups, many are serial rapists. On college campuses, repeat predators account for 9 out of every 10 rapes.

“‘It's quite well-known amongst college administrators that first-year students, freshman women, are particularly at risk for sexual assault,’ Lisak says. ‘The predators on campus know that women who are new to campus, they are younger, they're less experienced. They probably have less experience with alcohol, they want to be accepted. They will probably take more risks because they want to be accepted. So for all these reasons, the predators will look particularly for those women.’”

To prepare to write a hearing scene, I researched university processes for adjudicating complaints. The rules and procedures varied widely from school to school, so I felt comfortable designing my own. In the Survivors’ Dawn hearing, Colin Jordan is not allowed to question his accusers directly, but he can channel questions to them via the review board of faculty members.

To craft the climactic pivot in the story, I spent hours researching the legality of clandestine recordings of conversations. Different states have different rules. Some states allow such recordings with the consent of one party; others require the consent of both parties. I went back on forth on this issue, doubting my plot twist, but then I found a case where a serial rapist was convicted largely due to a phone conversation recorded by one of his victims.

Researching this novel was often heartbreaking, at times infuriating, and occasionally inspiring. When I started writing the first draft, I had an enormous cache of facts, data, and true stories. Although my first duty to the reader was to write an engaging story, I forced myself to stay within the confines of what really happens on college campuses.

Brooke Flanagan, Lauren Le, and Nikki Towers are fictitious characters, but when you read Survivors’ Dawn, you will walk with them—you will feel their fear, despair, anger, disgust, purpose, redemption, and hope.

Thank you for having me. Book bloggers make the world a better place!

About the Author
The unending accounts of sexual assault on college campuses compelled me to write Survivors’ Dawn.
My goal in writing the novel was NOT to focus on the act itself, but instead, to write of the victim’s journey, to tell a story about the strength, courage, and determination of survivors, to describe the difficulties they face in their pursuit of justice, and finally, to offer hope for a future where students can pursue their dreams without fear of being attacked.
As Lady Gaga’s “Til It Happens to You” implies, non-victims can never truly know how it feels to be assaulted, but we can try to empathize, and we can try to help. Awareness is key to reducing the incidence of sexual assault on campus. Please do your part by taking the It's On Us pledge and contributing to organizations that are fighting on the front lines.
Thank you to readers who give me encouragement. It means so much to me. Word of mouth is an incredible thing, so thank you also for telling your friends about Survivors' Dawn. 

WEBSITE & SOCIAL LINKS:

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About the Book:

Title: SURVIVORS' DAWN
Author: Ashley Warren
Publisher: Chaparral Press LLC
Pages: 316
Genre: Contemporary Fiction / Women’s Fiction / New Adult Fiction

BOOK BLURB:
A heroic story of three college women’s fight for justice
At first glance, Brooke Flanagan, Lauren Le, and Nikki Towers have little in common: a churchgoing virgin, a party girl, and a resident advisor. But they all have their own dreams, dreams that can be shattered in a single night.
When freshman Brooke Flanagan first arrives at the university, she’s excited to escape her sheltered life in a Southern town. Lauren Le, a scholarship student, likes to have a good time, but she never disappoints her hardworking, single mom. Nikki Towers always goes her own way. Confident, poised, and wealthy, Nikki’s biggest problem is what to do with her future.
Into these girls’ lives walks Colin Jordan. Colin is the son of a private equity titan, captain of his club basketball team, and a brilliant pre-law student. He is also a sexual predator.
Survivors’ Dawn relates a journey of heroes: the strength, courage, and determination of the victims as they fight to survive; the obstacles they face in their pursuit of justice; and finally, with its conclusion, hope for a future where students can pursue their dreams without fear of being attacked.
A contemporary novel, Survivor’s Dawn wrestles with issues of privilege, sexual assault, and the responsibility of academic institutions to protect their students.

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