Continuing with mixing things up a bit this week, here’s Alexa Verde’s guest post. Be sure to also enter her ebook raffle. I had a chance to read Color of Danger, and I’ll be doing a review tomorrow. It’s a great Christian, romantic suspense.

Guest Post:

While I wouldn’t call myself a foodie, I do enjoy food tremendously and love trying new dishes. I’ve eaten Polish, Russian, German, Italian, Chinese food, and one of my favorites – Japanese cuisine. What I don’t like is cooking, even though I grew up making dishes from scratch. (I still remember most of the recipes of my childhood and share one of my favorite below – a salad, very popular in Slavic countries.)

Maybe that’s why I made the heroine of my debut book, Mari Del Lobo, a restaurant owner. I secretly liked the idea of having a lot of food at your disposal without actually cooking it. Mari also looks at great food as something nice and delicious to give back to the people of her small hometown who stood up for her when she needed it.

In writing, it’s important to engage different senses in immerse into the world of the characters. I want to smell what they smell and taste what they taste. I mention different dishes in my debut book and even considered the title Taste of Danger before settling on Color of Danger.

Do you like cooking? Do you have favorite recipes? What kind of food do you like?

Salad “Olivier”

Ingredients: 6 potatoes, 5 carrots, 8 eggs, 1 onion, 1 lb of bologna, ham, or boiled chicken, 1 can of sweet peas, 5 pickles, 1 can of mayonnaise. (Some people prefer this salad without carrots, and some people like to add an apple).
Peel and boil potatoes, boil eggs, let cool down. Chop potatoes, eggs, onion, ham, pickles, mix everything, add mayonnaise, keep in the fridge.

About the author:

Alexa Verde fell in love with writing at age eight when she penned her first poem. After publishing 200 short stories, poems, and articles in the five languages she speaks, Alexa has turned her creative passion to writing novels. Her 2014 debut inspirational romantic suspense, COLOR OF DANGER, is the first in her Secrets of Rios Azules series—set in a fictional small Texas town where rivers and emotions run deep and the richest family in town has a taste for fine food, jewelry, and murder. For news, recipes, giveaways, and more, please visit her website.

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I am very blessed to have met Kimberly over at Jera Publishing early into my writing. It was a time in my life when I was consumed with writing my first novel and wondering what I was going to do with it. There were many sleepless nights, as I did not know where to begin when it came to having a book published. Then, I met Kimberly, and everything changed!

After going to my first class at her office, I knew exactly what I was going to do with my novel. I was going to have it published, and I was going to do it my way! I went home that night filled with empowerment–no more worry, and I owe it all to Kimberly and the others at Jera Publishing.

Not only did they train me in the ways of the publishing industry, but they worked with Canton Walk Publishing in the designing, editing, and formatting of both Unexpected Metamorphosis and Unexpected Entrapment. When I needed bookmarks and a large banner designed for a conference, they worked hard to get the marketing materials ready.

Months later, I approached Kimberly with my author branding desire, and Jason came up with the perfect social media banner you now see at the top of this page.

Jera Publishing has done a lot for me, and I am very blessed to have met them early on in my writing career. Now that they are growing and business seems to be booming over there, I can’t help but be excited for them. They have a new, spacious office to hold classes and meetings, and more people are being hired.

If you are an author, I highly recommend you check them out to see what they have to offer. If you don’t see something you need, ask for Kimberly. She’s come through for me every time.

One more novel, and I get my own shelf there. I need to hurry up and fill up that shelf! This also might be a good time to mention that my twelve-year-old daughter would not let me leave the house that day without her doing my hair in a flower braid. She watched a video online and stood on a stool while I put on my makeup. Although I’m not much for braids, there was no way I was leaving the house without it–bobby pins and all! Mommy love 🙂

Check out JERA’s Facebook page for more pictures of their exciting event.

This week we’re going to do things a little different. The book feature will be on Monday, and the guest post will be on Thursday. I’ve started reading this book and hope to finish it in time to give a review on Wednesday–depending on my schedule.

Color of Danger (Christian, Romantic Suspense)

Former runaway Mari Del Lobo works hard to save her struggling restaurant and to trust people again. Dallas surgeon Dr. Luke Goodman turns her world upside down with terrifying news. A recent murder has her late brother’s – aka the Smiling Killer – signature and MO. When attacks on her escalate, Mari fights her growing attraction to the good doctor as fiercely as she fights for her life. To rescue herself and those she loves, will she be able to stop the murderer before he strikes again?

Luke couldn’t save his fiancée from the Smiling Killer, but he’ll do anything to prevent more murders, even ask help from the serial killer’s sister. Finding a kindred tortured soul and the perpetrator’s next target in Mari, Luke is determined to protect the stubborn ex-rebel. But Mari would rather face danger than risk the safety of the man she comes to love.

 Excerpt         Amazon

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Programmed for Danger:

Computer programming isn’t usually a dangerous occupation, but Andrea Kingston finds herself fighting for both her love and her life when she’s hired to solve Ferverill-West Company’s computer problems.

Andrea Kingston is surprised by the cool reception she receives when she arrives with her team of troubleshooters to work on Feverill-West’s computer problems. It’s not the first time she’s dealt with people aggravated by programming flaws and hardware malfunctions. Nor is she any stranger to corporate politics and bickering. But normally people are happy to see her since she promises to fix their technical issues. The level of hostility she encounters this time is new, as is the serious nature of the incidents plaguing  Feverill-West’s data processing system.

With the reluctant help of Feverill-West’s attractive Operations Manager, David Purcell, Andi tackles the problems, only to discover that at least some of them are deliberate sabotage. The closer she gets to the source of the attacks, the more personal and vicious they become.

When someone knocks her out to prevent her learning anything more, Andi realizes that more than just her professional reputation is on the line. She’ll have to risk her life to solve the crimes being perpetrated against the company.

Book Questions:

Is this book part of a series?  If so, when do you expect the next one to be available? No, it’s not part of a series.

What age would you say this novel is written for? Avalon Books were considered young adult because of their length and the insistence on clean language and lack of adult content, but I think the story would be suitable and enjoyable for anyone from pre-teen to adults

If it is not a YA novel, what content pushes into the adult market? The protagonists are adults, and the plot centers around a mystery that arises in the course of their employment

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 Read an excerpt here.

A Gift for Murder:

For fifty-one weeks of the year, Heather McNeil loves her job as assistant to the director of the Washington, D.C. Commerce & Market Show Center. But the Gifts and Home Decorations trade show, the biggest show of the year at the center, is a week-long nightmare. This year’s version is being worse than usual. Misplaced shipments, feuding exhibitors, and malfunctioning popcorn machines are all in a day’s work. Finding the body of a murdered executive dumped in a trash bin during the show isn’t. The discovery tips throws Heather’s life—personal and professional—into havoc.

The police suspect the victim’s wife killed him, but Heather doesn’t believe it. She’s gotten glimmers of an entirely different scenario and possible motive. Questioning exhibitors about the crime doesn’t make her popular with them or with her employers, but if she doesn’t identify the murderer before the show ends, the culprit will remain free to kill again.

Her only help comes from an exhibitor with ulterior motives and the Market Center’s attractive new security officer, Scott Brandon. Despite opposition from some of the exhibitors, her employers, and the police, Heather seeks to expose the killer before the show ends. To solve the mystery, she will have to risk what’s most important to her and be prepared to fight for answers, her job, and possibly her life.

Book Questions:

Is this book part of a series?  If so, when do you expect the next one to be available? Yes, it’s part of a projected series. I’m just finishing up the next book, so it may not be available for quite a while yet.

What age would you say this novel is written for?  Adults

If it is not a YA novel, what content pushes into the adult market?  The protagonists are adults, and the plot centers around a mystery that includes some adult themes.

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Read an excerpt here.

The Night Prowlers

Graduate assistant Jan Lindell has her hands full supervising a team of archaeology students as they excavate the site of a Colonial-era inn in central Virginia. Sweltering heat, feuding students, vandalism, a visit from the local lunatic fringe, and complaints from the handsome son of the property’s owner are all complications she doesn’t need.

Her problems increase when it becomes clear someone doesn’t want them around. Vandalism turns into threats and then attacks on the students. On the bright side, when Gary Simpson, whose mother owns and lives on the property, assists her in the effort to thwart and identify the assailants, they discover a mutual attraction.

But someone seriously wants to stop them. When the attacks escalate and threaten to turn deadly, Jan realizes she’s fighting for more than a graduate degree and an archaeological site. All of their lives may be at stake.

Book Questions:

Is this book part of a series?  If so, when do you expect the next one to be available? No, it’s not part of a series.

What age would you say this novel is written for? This is a republished version of a book originally published by Avalon Books. Their books were considered young adult because of their length and the insistence on clean language and lack of adult content, but I think the story would be suitable and enjoyable for anyone from pre-teen to adults

If it is not a YA novel, what content pushes into the adult market? The protagonists are adults, and the plot centers around a mystery that includes some adult themes.

Cover currently being redesigned.

Read an excerpt here.

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To update or not to update—that was the question I faced when I decided to re-release some of my older published novels as ebooks. I actually requested rights back on a number of my books some years before Amazon introduced its digital publishing program and then sat on them, confident that some sort of opportunity for republishing would come along.

The problem, of course, is that most of those books were written over twenty years ago, and a lot has changed since then. Since my books are romantic suspense and romantic mystery, changing technology can have a huge impact on the books. It’s amazing to me to consider that when I wrote my early books, cell phones and iPods didn’t exist, laptops were the size and weight of sewing machines and the Internet still belonged almost solely to the Department of Defense.

I could have left the books as they were and marketed them as recent historicals, but they were intended to be contemporary and that didn’t feel like a good solution. Fortunately, the first couple of books I released didn’t require that much change. Although the existence of cell phones had the potential to change things, both were set, in whole or in part, in places where I could legitimately explain that they were out of coverage area.

But when it came to the book titled Programmed for Danger, it wasn’t going to be that easy. The heroine of that story is a computer programmer. Obviously, the technology has changed so much in the twenty-plus years since that book was first published that I couldn’t just do a few tweaks to update it. I had to basically rewrite the story.

Plot and characters remained basically the same, but nearly all the detail had to be updated. I was fortunate that updating the technology didn’t force major changes in the story itself.

While re-reading and re-writing Programmed for Danger, I realized that I still very much liked the characters and the story. That helped make it worth doing the work to make it sound genuinely contemporary.

Author Bio:

Karen McCullough is a web designer by profession, and the author of a dozen published novels and novellas in the mystery, romantic suspense, and fantasy genres as well. She has won numerous awards, including an Eppie Award for fantasy, and has also been a four-time Eppie finalist, and a finalist in the Prism, Dream Realm, Rising Star, Lories, Scarlett Letter, and Vixen Awards contests. Her short fiction has appeared in several anthologies and numerous small press publications in the fantasy, science fiction, and romance genres. She has three children, five grandchildren and lives in Greensboro, NC, with her husband of many years.

You can learn more about Karen and follow her at:  

Website         Blog         Facebook         Twitter

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