Blind Speed Dating #36 (A)

Title: TEAL

Genre: Mystery/Suspense

Word Count: 77,000

Query:

Two years after their 15-year-old daughter Eliza is killed in a hit-and-run accident on Thanksgiving night, Martin and Abby Anderson are still struggling to move on. Martin, a successful hospital marketing executive, lies awake most nights and Abby, a first grade teacher, takes a “pill bottle full of happiness” each day, just to keep her cool.

One fall afternoon, Martin finds a broken necklace lodged beneath the passenger seat of his car. It’s the cheap but well-loved, glittery teal necklace that Eliza rarely took off—the same one she was seen wearing that fateful night that she slathered on mascara in the dark, pulled on her lowest cut tank top and snuck out of her parents’ suburban Chicago home. The necklace was never recovered from the accident scene. So how exactly did it end up in Martin’s car?

The car never left his driveway that night—right?

All of Martin’s houseguests were asleep in their beds at the time of the accident—right?

Every single one of them was completely shocked to learn that Eliza had quietly snuck out of the house and been killed on the way home.

…Right?

TEAL is a suspense novel about a small clue that changes everything, a man’s increasingly obsessive search for the truth surrounding his daughter’s death, the cop that is watching his every move and the unexpected price of buried family secrets.

Besides writing mystery novels, I am a professional writer who has been published in a variety of news outlets, including Newsweek, WGNTV.com and Business 2.0. I hold a B.S. in journalism and an M.A. in communications. I spend my days as a marketing writer for a nonprofit community-based hospital, and my evenings either writing fiction or watching old mysteries on Netflix.

First 250:

The thing about Eliza Anderson was that she wasn’t the type of girl anyone would expect to sneak out of her house in the middle of the night.

That was because she simply wasn’t “that” kind of girl, many would later argue. Eliza was more books and brains than boys and booze.

So the night that she finally chose to sneak out—clad in a short black miniskirt she’d borrowed from her best friend Sarah and a face full of makeup that did very little to hide the fact that she was still only 15-years-old—was a rare, solitary night of peer pressure-fueled teenage rebellion which nobody could have expected.           

Which seemed to make her death all the more tragic.

Martin Anderson woke up to the sound of his doorbell ringing at exactly 3:01 that morning, and like any father, he knew immediately that something was wrong.

He struggled to gain his bearings as he reached toward the nightstand in the dark room, untangling himself from the onslaught of his wife’s arms and legs.

He flicked on the lamp and paused, his body partially lifted from the bed as he listened out for the bell again. Maybe he’d just dreamt it.

But his wife, Abby, had also woken up. “What was that?” she asked.

“I don’t know.”

Martin looked down at his wife. Her brown hair tumbled messily around her face, and her tired expression reminded him of when they were younger—back when they used to fall asleep at 3 in the morning…

Blind Speed Dating #35 (A)

Title: THIRTY-TWO GOING ON SPINSTER

Genre: Chick-lit, Women's fiction 

Word Count: 85,000 

Query:

Julia Dorning is stuck in a rut. Since graduating college ten years ago, she has lived in her parent’s basement, worked at the same mundane job, has not been on a proper date, and recently found out she has a mustache (a faint one, but it’s definitely there). Her hobbies include – and are limited to – baking, eating said baked goods, and watching television.

That was until Jared Moody, the new hire at work, entered the picture. Jared is handsome, mysterious, and for some odd reason, intrigued by Julia. With Jared around, suddenly Julia finds herself wanting to change some of her spinster-in-the-making ways. With a new wardrobe, a little make-up, and her upper-lip hair free, Julia begins to come out of her shell. But then, quite suddenly, her life gets turned upside down, and it turns out Jared might not be who he says he is. With everything topsy-turvy, Julia must find the strength to work through it and rise up stronger, or slip back to her old ways. 

Credentials:

-Over 55,000 downloads since June.

-Over 145 4 and 5 star reviews on Amazon - 4.3 star rating. 

First 250:

It certainly shouldn't come as a shock. I've always thought of myself as a recluse, a loner of sorts. Now I have a new title: spinster. I think I need some ice cream or an entire chocolate cake… or both.

I am a spinster… I am a spinster. It’s true. I just looked it up in the dictionary, and there was a description of my life in plain view.

1: an unmarried woman of gentle family.

I’m an unmarried woman of gentle family. Okay, so I’m not quite sure what is meant by “gentle family.” I wouldn't exactly call my family “gentle.” More like obnoxious. Still, I’m an unmarried woman who is part of a family, so that counts.

2: an unmarried woman and especially one past the common age for marrying.

I believe that I am past the common age for marrying. I just turned thirty-two. What’s the going age for marriage now? Twenty-five? Twenty-six? It doesn't matter because at the age of thirty-two, my clock is ticking. In fact, my doctor informed me of that last week. He actually told me that I seriously should consider finding someone and settling down because my eggs “weren't getting any younger.” Pretty harsh when you consider that I haven’t been on a proper date in over a decade, right? I seriously should find myself a new doctor, one who sugar-coats everything. I could use more sugar-coating in my life right now.

3: a woman who seems unlikely to marry.

This one has to be the worst of them all… 

Blind Speed Dating #34 (A)

 Title: THE WATERS OF AISLIN

Genre: Adult Historical Fantasy

Word Count: 125,000

Query:

Peter Lambert is motorcycling across northern France, chasing memories of his late wife. After drowning his sorrows in a bottle of wine, he ventures into the dank passageways of a ruined castle and tumbles into an underground pool. He emerges in an active medieval fortress, where he is captured and interrogated by strangers speaking an archaic German dialect.

One of those interrogators is Lady Kellan of Arnwald, who is traveling on a diplomatic mission to unite the kingdoms of Alamannland against marauding raiders and the sinister ambitions of a rival king. Kellan is gifted with unusual powers, including the ability to see visions in the forbidden Waters of Aislin. She assumes Peter is a spy, but a startling vision indicates he is no ordinary trespasser. Returning with Peter to Arnwald, she is determined to unlock his secrets – but finds herself unexpectedly drawn to her mysterious captive.  

Peter is plunged into the reeking, bloody heart of medieval Europe, where survival rides on the tip of an arrow – or the blade of a knife. A world where friendship runs thick as blood, where kingdoms rise and fall in the blink of an eye, and princesses become queens overnight. Torn between his desire to return home and his growing attraction to Kellan, he transforms from bewildered captive to indomitable warrior as he struggles to make a place for himself in this unfamiliar world. Only through their unlikely alliance can Peter and Kellan save Arnwald – and each other.

While living in Stuttgart, Germany, I wrote a series of articles on expatriate life for the website Expatica and I have published several well-received blogs about my travels and living abroad. THE WATERS OF AISLIN was inspired by my lifelong fascination with medieval history and my experiences living in France and Germany.

First 250:

The City of Light slumbered under a blanket of low clouds as Peter left his hotel in the Latin Quarter just after dawn. Mist swirled over the leaden waters of the Seine, obscuring the plane trees standing like stoic sentinels along the riverbank. Descending into the bowels of the city, he used his last Métro ticket to transfer to the Saint Michel station and caught an RER train to Orly airport, where he’d arranged to pick up the motorcycle.

In a deserted parking garage near the Air France terminal, an unmarked delivery van eased through the gate and pulled up next to him. The swarthy driver spoke rapid-fire French and little English, but they both understood the language of motorbikes well enough. The driver swung open the back doors of the van, pulled out a ramp, and backed the big BMW onto the concrete. Peter whistled softly under his breath at the sight of the naked beast, its silver frame gleaming in the flickering neon light. After signing the rental paperwork, he repacked the contents of his duffel into the two aluminum panniers and pulled on his helmet and gloves.

Straddling the bike, he entered the town of Montrichard into the GPS unit, then thumbed the ignition and eased out of the garage. The engine purred beneath him as he spun through the gears on the Autoroute, whipping past barren farm fields and gray stone villages. Gently twisting the throttle back, he sped south toward Orléans.

Blind Speed Dating #33 (A)

Title: SOUL SKINNED

Genre: Adult Urban Fantasy

Word Count: 93,000

Query:

   

Soul Walking witch Emmy Riley spent her youth on the run from a demon mother determined to use her blood to release her from exile in Hellfire. Remaining free and with all her plasma intact, Emmy’s managed to carve out a relatively normal life as an agent for the Bureau of Supernatural Affairs. Her ability to commune with the souls of the recently deceased and relive their final moments has made her one of the most valuable investigators in Seattle, and her track record for solving homicides is unmatched within the Bureau.

But when Emmy’s called to a crime scene involving a sacrificially flayed shapeshifter whose soul can’t identify his murderer, it quickly becomes apparent she’s dealing with a demon magick mastermind unlike any other. Before she has time to hunt for answers, another shapeshifter is killed and the murderer leaves an ominous message about Mommy Dearest in the victim’s memories. Emmy realizes that unearthing the demonic magick in her blood might be the only way to stop the madman, even if it means finally facing her past and walking right into her mother’s trap.

First 250:

In my line of work, the newly deceased always have the most fascinating stories to tell. The still warm one dangling above me was no exception.

At first glance, ordinary supernaturals or realmbounds would suspect that the body, suspended by rope attached to a glistening faeglass chandelier, was an obvious suicide. A sad rich woman who’d lost her husband, reputation, and firehound in the same month and thought death was her only option.

People would likely theorize her suicide was an easy escape from reality and a straight shot to the gates of Celestia, relieving her of corporal burdens and all that.

Too bad both the dead woman and I would adamantly disagree.

Rising from where I’d been kneeling beneath Mrs. Thompson’s swaying body, I wiped graveyard dirt covered palms onto my jeans and hoisted my bag of supplies over my shoulder. I’d fallen victim to a bad stretch of fate as much as the next witch, so I could relate to feeling as though life was shattering to pieces. But the dead woman was oddly dressed for the occasion of killing herself. Her crisp Chanel suit and elegantly chignoned hair spoke more of luncheons and charity events than someone on the verge of self-destruction.

Vision blurry from communing with the woman’s soul in Liminal, the in-between place souls resided before moving on to Celestia’s afterlife, I blinked rapidly until an expensive red pump dangling precariously from a stocking covered toe came into focus. It had slipped off during…

“Please, stop!”