Win a Copy of Deeper Than the Dead by Tami Hoag
California, 1985. Four children and young teacher Anne Navarre make a gruesome discovery; a partially buried female body, her eyes and mouth glued shut. A serial killer is at large, and the very bonds that hold their idyllic town together are about to be tested to the breaking point.
Tasked with fining the killer, FBI investigator Vince Leone employs a new and controversial FBI technique called “profiling” which plunges him into the lives of the four children — and the young teacher, whose need to uncover the truth is as intense as his own.
But as new victims are found and pressure from the media grow, Vince and Anne find themselves circling the same small group of local suspects, unsure whether those who suffer most are the victims themselves… or those close to the killer, blissfully unaware that someone very near to them is a murderous psychopath.
I’m giving away my copy of this book. To win, leave a comment here between now and Sunday night. I’ll announce the winner next Monday.
I’ve done a few teasers from this one:
Page 2
Page 41
Page 209
Page 277
55 – Separation
Unraveling
after the death
like a rope turning into grief-torn wisps
The hot tears
of never-going-to-see-her-again
splashing on passers by
as if a funeral couldn’t possibly contain the torrent.
She cried for her brother
because – numb, unraveling, dieing with their mother
he could not cry for himself.
Grief splashes on a future
that isn’t.
The challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to write a story in exactly 55 words. Flash Fiction 55 is hosted by the G-man, a host with the most.
13 filtered words and phrases
13 Words and phrases I’m tired of seeing in the machine-generated “comments” that hit my filters:
1. Article. I don’t write articles. I write all kinds of junk – most of it fiction – and post it here. Even my “How to” things rarely qualify as articles.
2. Helpful. Yes, I manage to be that sometimes, but never on the posts this word is applied to. Really, Suzie’s House is helpful? Or a poem about vampires? Or a picture of a wall? Yeah, right.
Suzie’s House 251 : Customs Agent
Some deviant walked into the airport in Juarez, Mexico with a black suitcase in his hand, but instead of checking the bag, he carried it straight to one of the rooms in emigration set aside to search for contraband. Even before security caught up with him he was unzipping the case.
“Here’s the….” The man, a gringo by look and the fact he spoke English, stared at the ordinary contents as if amazed. “Huh. It’s nothing but clothes.” He moved a few items around, then exclaimed, “They’re MY clothes!”
The Serialists of March 7th
Welcome Carrie Ann Golden! Carrie writes a YA/Fantasy/Horror serial. If you missed her last week, it’s worth swinging by this week.
Sheilagh Lee I’m enjoying your Fairy Stones mini series. Keep them comming!
This is the hub for The Serialists, a meme for people who post original, serialized fiction on their blogs. If you have one or more posts you would like for us to read, please put a direct link to the post(s) in the linky.
If you are not an author and would only like to read, then please leave a comment. I may feature you next week.
The Drop.
Jack: Darling, what is this you’re watching?
Jill: It’s called Dubstep, I guess.
Jack: Sounds weird.
Jill: Oh, you mean that electronic part? They call that The Drop. It’s all right I guess, but what I like is the way that guy dances.
Jack: (muttering) I could do that if I wanted to.
Jill: Oh really? Prove it.
Jack: All right. Check this out.
Jill: Eeek!
Jack: Oops.
Jill: Was that on purpose?
Jack: Oh, just drop it.
Today’s themes are Drop
Previously in Jack and Jill: Love Letter
To see who else is playing go to:
Whistle Stop Photohunt
55 – Plenty of Room
“It’s my chair! Get out!” Lucy screamed at her brother.
“Not it’s not! It’s Grandma’s chair.”
“That’s right,” Grandmother said. “Now if the two of you will move, I’d like to sit down.”
The kids scrambled to reply. As soon as she sat down, they scrambled into her lap, one child per knee.
Always plenty of room in Grandmother’s lap.
The challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to write a story in exactly 55 words. Flash Fiction 55 is hosted by the G-man, a host with the most.
13 Words
A while back the kids and I played a game in which I would find a word in the dictionary and they would try to define it. Not only did they impress the whole family with their vocabulary, we all learned a few more words, and what they learned stuck.
1. Dirge (This one actually came up on a test over a year later, and was remembered from the game. It was an English class, rather than Music, though.)
2. magnetite (obviously the black iron ore, not the latest butt-enhancing exercise routine)
3. confute (I’d just use refute, but whatever.)
4. disco (You’d think this would be easy for the kids, but no. Just shows my age. Now it’s all dubstep)
5. florid (Easy for a Romance writer to remember even if it’s from anger rather than passion, but not so easy for a teenager to remember)
6. quittance (You’d think with my accounting background I’d know this one.)
7. rabbet (No, it’s not misspelled. It’s the carpentry term)
8. Suetonius (I’m not sure it’s fair to use a dictionary that includes historical figures. No way I’d have guessed the Roman historian Gaius Suetonius)
9. capo (a guitar playing thing.)
10. Acyclovir (What the heck is this doing in the dictionary? Not what I want to have to explain to my kids, though I suppose they ought to know. *groan*)
11. provide (Got to give them an easy one now and then)
12. Madeira (The Boy knew because it had already come up in a video game.)
13. fakir (great way to start a religious discussion.)
Suzie’s House 250 : Luggage
“Huh. Well, look at that. It’s my suitcase.” Drew stared at the black bag sitting in the middle of the floor. Sitting in the middle of the first floor of what had once been a grand department store with sunlight streaming through the broken out front doors as if to spotlight it, his FBI-suitable case had a sadly forlorn look to it. “Was it there before?”
The Serialists for Feb. 29
Leaping leap year! Notice the date? Like it’ll land this way again for The Serialist hub any time soon.
Anyway, A big thank you to all our regular serialists. I’ve enjoyed a lot of great reading in the last ten months. Like the lives of Ahu and Ahuahu. Keep them coming. You know I love it.
This is the hub for The Serialists, a meme for people who post original, serialized fiction on their blogs. If you have one or more posts you would like for us to read, please put a direct link to the post(s) in the linky.
If you are not an author and would only like to read, then please leave a comment. I may feature you next week.
Anatomy of a Comment Form
A quick tour of how it works.
This one’s for all you lurkers out there. Lord knows I have a ton of them. Below is a copy of my comment form. Isn’t it pretty? 🙂 Looks pretty basic, doesn’t it? Honestly, there is nothing to be afraid of here.
Cabin Fever
Jill: Really, Jack, isn’t that a bit much? Even though you haven’t said a word, your desire to go on vacation is coming through loud and clear.
Today’s themes are Loud
Previously in Jack and Jill: Hearts United
To see who else is playing go to:
Whistle Stop Photohunt
