Steamy Thrillers

Why steamy thrillers?

When I graduated from college and got my first job as an engineer, my cube mate and I became good buddies, and we’d talk about almost anything. My first clearance was granted in two weeks, which was apparently some record time, while my cube mate’s took almost a year. When the feds interviewed me about his teenage rap sheet, I told them I would not quote it from memory since they obviously had a copy of it. They then asked me what I thought about it. I told the fed that my cube mate was unlucky, and he asked me what I meant by that. My cube mate was unfortunately caught at what most kids do. I won’t go into the details because I grew up in another time and went to high school in a small wealthy town where the cops always asked who your daddy was. My daddy was a nobody in town, so I got points for making cops laugh whenever I was pulled over and told them that. Needless to say I acquired many life experiences at an early age and quite a few hair-raising moments.

Back to my cube mate. Raiders of the Lost Ark came out a few years before I graduated from college. Yes, I’m that old. The movie was awesome, romance, adventure, action, history, and a thrill ride. But what would have made it better? My cube mate and I agreed that having an X-rated scene between Harrison Ford, oh yeah, and Karen Allen would’ve made it perfect. Yes, I was young once and went through my chandelier-hanging days, though they didn’t start until college, not that I didn’t have fun in high school.

The romance books I have most enjoyed usually have a strong plot with plenty of conflict, action, and not just sexual tension, but really I love thrillers with a strong romance element. Sadly, I haven’t read any that have smoking hot sex. The beauty of being an indie author is that I don’t have to listen to some editor tell me what I have to write, and I can continue being the risk taker that I am. It’s not that I don’t want to please the reader. I read most of my reviews and other authors’ reviews I enjoy for any way I can improve my writing. It’s just that I want to write books I would love to read, even though I have a thriller series that currently has no romance or explicit sex and is due out within the next few months. I hope I make my goal.

So what’s next? My Cinderella stories (duet) are steamy thrillers—the first is set in Alaska and the second in Austin, Texas. I love Alaska during the summer when it isn’t pouring down rain. My Cinderella does not have a wicked stepmother or stepsisters but is based on the fact that Disney princesses have duped us into believing Prince Charming exists. Men are human and like us are not perfect. Sometimes, Mr. Wrong is Mr. Right.

I have a few series going on at a time but the next in the Lost Girls Series are White Squall and Red Lies. The second title may change. White Squall is based on my seventeen years of sailboat racing experience, part of where my nail-biting action scenes and jaded humor come from, and the other has to do with some of the creepers I’ve had to work with.

I hope and pray that my readers will enjoy these steamy thrillers. Give me a shout if you have questions or comments and thanks for reading!

Chris

The Darkness in Depression

Recently a young girl took her life. Her birthday was only a few short days away. She was a talented, beautiful writer and attended several of my workshops. I do not know the details of her suicide, but I do recall a good friend (another Chris) counseling her while she cried. This article is dedicated to a life that was cut tragically short.

Lennon's Rain Giveaway 

Depression strikes everyone. During the teen years when a child grows at an incredible rate, hormones spike, causing a rush of emotions. This is a crucial time to help children realize how much their bodies control their feelings and to let them know they are not alone. Everyone suffers down days. It is a part of one’s physiology. I remember them as a child and even now have days that are inexplicably sad. What is not normal is when depression hangs on for days that turns into weeks and then months.

There are different coping mechanisms. Serotonin levels affect your emotions.  Exercise helps to balance those levels and yet is rarely prescribed. A good diet also feeds the body to help it maintain chemical balance. Another way to cope is to learn through others. When I was in college, this family came in almost daily to the camera store where I worked. For a month they didn’t show. When the mom finally came in, I asked where they’d been. A drunk driver hit the father, and he was now a quadriplegic. Another good friend in college lost his teen sister to suicide and an older sister to melanoma. These people rolled out of bed every morning and dealt with that, not always with a smile but with perseverance and fortitude. It’s not that I haven’t suffered tragedies, but while evaluating one’s own depression take a look at the world outside your own. Will this work for everyone? No, but it gives perspective, and it is a coping mechanism.

My uncle used to run a large hospital in Pennsylvania and was a leading psychiatrist. I often spoke to him because I wanted to be one. The difference between a psychologist and psychiatrist is that the latter is a medical doctor and can prescribe drugs. He told me he would never prescribe drugs unless he found a chemical imbalance after a complete physical. There is an alarming amount of children that are being medicated in this country and a significant increase in mental health problems. The drug side effects are often scarier than the disease. We need to take a look at the treatments and cause of this upsurge.

Someone close to me suffered from panic attacks caused by over committing herself in AP classes, voice, dance, and theater. A doctor and a social worker wanted to use drugs to treat her condition. According to the research, drugs aggravate the attacks. Do your homework and find a therapist that employs treatments with high success rates.

Ensure the people you love are getting the proper treatment and support they need to get through the speed bumps in life. Don’t let a day go by without telling your family and friends that they matter and you care.

Your thoughts and comments are always welcome.

RIP Amy.

The Next Big Thing

Yes, I know. The blog is pretty ugly. Templates are on my To Do List, but Lennon's Jinx is on sale at Amazon and Barnes and Noble for 99 cents.

The Next Big Thing blog campaign began in Australia and went international, showcasing new authors and/or new books. Each author answers the same set of questions about recently published books and/or those that are slated to be released. Then that author “tags” a few other authors who do the same thing. Because my work-in-progress isn’t ready for prime time, I’ll be talking about my most recent work. I’m tagging two of my favorite fellow book authors, Cindi Madsen and Robin Nolet.
What is the working title of your next book?
Since my next book in the trilogy Lennon's Rain is coming out in August, I'll talk about Lennon's Jinx, a book that was released in January of this year.
Where did the idea come from for the book?
Most of my characters arrive in dreams and won't shut-up until I tell their stories. Lennon's Jinx centers around music, family hardship, friendship, and budding romance.
What genre does your book fall under?
New Adult Contemporary Romance.
What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

Lennon: You'll have to see my hot new cover coming soon!
Jinx: Emma Stone
Currie: Abigail Breslin (At the age she played Little Miss Sunshine)
What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
A teenaged bad boy, raising his little sister, decides to upgrade from easy groupies to the straight-A girl in his choir.
Who is publishing your book?
Books on the Edge.
How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?
About 6 months.
What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
Other New Adult books are Slammed and Down to Me.
Who or what inspired you to write this book?
Growing up with music. My sister majored in piano in college, my little sister played drums and coronet, and I played the guitar and piano and took voice for three years. Like most teens, I dreamed of being a rock star.
What else about the book might pique the reader’s interest?
Though Lennon's Jinx is fiction, truth, satire, and passion fill the pages. A new blog will follow with the same title. The Milwaukee Protocol really does exist and can be found here. I wrote the lyrics and will hopefully compose the music in my spare time. Finding it is the hard part.

Next up on The Next Big Thing, I’ve tagged these two fabulous authors in my ePub group: Robin Nolet on May 2 and Cindi Madsen on May 9.

Framed                  Falling for Her Fiance

Violence versus Sex in Young Adult/Teen Fiction

Recently I read a book blogger's site and noticed a post stating the blogger didn't want to read sex or profanity in teen fiction. This opinion isn't just the blogger's, but several school districts banned John Green's award winning novel Looking for Alaska because of the book's two-page fellatio scene.

I can understand we don't want to see explicit sex in young adult novels because there's plenty of that in Fifty Shades for closet sex addicts. I read all three myself. And personally I don't like to see the "F" word used in every other sentence in any book I'm reading. That doesn't mean that occasional expletives don't add realism to the character's voice. If it's appropriate, then obscenities can add punch to dialogue or a character's internals or intensify a character's emotions. If profanity is overused or not used appropriately, it loses its power, and makes the author look like a neophyte.

IMO, profanity isn't necessary in a lot of teen fiction, but if they're in high school and the work is dramatic then it doesn't seem realistic if the kids don't occasionally drop a four-letter word.

Getting back to the blogger's and schools' tastes in teen fiction, let's discuss violence. Lord of the Flies is required middle school reading. Clockwork Orange was required at the high school I attended. So we as a society push violence over intimacy? It's an important commentary of today's culture and an important discussion we as parents should explore and discuss with our public educators and even bloggers.

Interesting enough, the Bible is acceptable material in all the schools I've ever come across. So explicit sex, extreme violence, and lascivious behavior is acceptable in a religious context but not in teen fiction? Doesn't this seem hypocritical? I read the old and new testaments when I was ten and remember thinking that I'd gotten a hold of the raciest book of all time. It's still one of my all time favorite reads.

The blogger sited earlier gave five stars to The Hunger Games, so I can only assume that violence is okay with this individual. The schools seem to think so too. I'm a fan as well of the series. But is that what we want to say to our children? Killing other children is okay but being intimate with another individual is not okay? Telling a story with sex, and I'm not saying Fifty Shades level of detail, can help teen's explore a new and foreign--or not so foreign--world to them in a safe, non-threatening environment.

What do you think?

Chris Myers
Author of Date with the Dead (No sex or expletives but will leave open the option to explore them in other works)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008BC28N6

How to read an E-book without a reader

I recently published an e-book on Amazon and realized that many of my friends don't own a Kindle, iPad, or Nook. So how do you read the e-book and thousands of other great books for a much lower price than a traditional paperback or hardbound?

Easy and there's more than one way.

1. Get the Kindle for PC reader application for Windows at: http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000426311&tag=googhydr-20&hvadid=14437170330&ref=pd_sl_4h7wtqx7vl_b

2. Get the Kindle for Mac reader application at:  http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=kcp_mac_mkt_lnd?docId=1000464931

3. Read on the Cloud with Kindle on any web browser: https://read.amazon.com/

4. For Nook reading apps go here: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/u/free-nook-apps/379003593

Happy Reading.

Chris Myers
Author of Date with the Dead.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008BC28N6