PERIL

PERIL: A blog tour with Suzanne Hartmann and Lady Anne

Readers of Word Wanderings shouldn't be strangers to Suzanne Hartmann. She's guest blogged at least once, maybe twice. And today, I'm delighted to bring her back. She has just had her first novel debut! I couldn't be more excited for her. Peril: A Fast Track Thriller (Book 1) is now available.


A top secret agent with enhanced strength must use her extraordinary abilities during several high-profile assignments from the White House to NASCAR tracks. When unwanted publicity threatens to expose her, she herself becomes a terrorist target, with danger surrounding her on all sides.

“Plenty of action and unexpected twists.” -- Foreword by Jimmy Makar, General Manager of Joe Gibbs Racing

Suzanne and I have conspired a little treat. We've convinced her lead characters, Lady Anne and Stuart Jackson, to sit down and be interviewed--and it was no easy task, let me tell you!

A little about Lady Anne: She is King Ahmad’s beautiful, but mysterious bodyguard. While she appears to be all lady on the outside, she is not afraid to face terrorists and is capable of taking them down with her enhanced abilities. She is a woman full of secrets, and no one is able to trace her history or whereabouts.

A little about Stuart Jackson: he is a two-time NASCAR Champion at the peak of his career, yet finds his life lacking meaning. Although drawn to Lady Anne by her beauty, once he has a chance to get to know her, it is her contentment in an obviously difficult situation which makes him seek her.

WW: Thank you both for finally agreeing to this interview. I understand that you value your privacy and rarely make appearances.
STUART: Some of us make appearances so rarely that they’re almost impossible to find. (glances at Lady Anne)
LADY ANNE: (points at self and mouths "who me?") As the woman said, I value my privacy.

WW: Stuart, I hear that you and Lady Anne are an item.
STUART: (pulls at collar) Well…uh…no. Actually, the media started that rumor. She's might be the most beautiful and interesting woman I've ever met, but there are...ah...
issues...that keep us from having anything but a friendship.

WW: I see. Lady Anne, could you shed any light on these issues?
LADY ANNE: I cannot expound on them, but I can say that the way I dealt with these issues only encouraged Stuart to try to find me because he recognized in me the kind of peace he was seeking.

WW: Stuart, you're a NASCAR champion, and have the kind of fame and fortune most people can only dream about, and yet you're not content with your life?
STUART: I felt empty. Like I was missing something, but I didn’t know what. I was always looking for the next challenge—something bigger and better to look forward to: my first win, a championship, the next step up the racing ladder. But every time I got there, it was only a matter of time before I looked for what was next…until I ran out of challenges. I reached the pinnacle of my career, but when I looked down on the other side I saw nothing

Then I had two brushes with death in less than a month. I don’t know. It just stripped away everything that I valued, and the culmination of my dreams didn’t seem as important as it had been. I was still proud of my accomplishments, but I saw that something was missing.

WW: And you finally located Lady Anne to get answers?
STUART: It took quite a bit of finagling, but yes, I got my answers…and a whole lot more.

WW: Can you tell us how you first met?
LADY ANNE: Stuart attended the State Dinner at the White House in honor of King Ahmad, and I was the King's escort for the day.

WW: And you were the hero of the day--
STUART: And the hero when she escorted the King to the Talladega Superspeedway, and at the Famous Fifty Banquet.
LADY ANNE: (blushing) Yes, but I paid dearly because of the notoriety my actions brought. It threatened my personal life and eventually made me a terrorist target.

WW: Because you kept saving the first Muslim king to convert to Christianity?
LADY ANNE: Yes. But it was an honor to be given such an assignment. As difficult as it has made my life, much good has come of it, and I have come to realize that God is in control and has been leading me since the White House incident, even though I doubted Him.

WW: How do you deal with the stress of knowing that there are people out there who want to kill you?
LADY ANNE: It's hard. It worries me constantly, but I have a plan. It is very risky and I am not looking forward to implementing it, but if it works I should be safe from the threat of terrorists.

WW: I don't suppose you could share that plan with us?
STUART: Don't even go there. She'll never answer your questions about her plans. Trust me, I tried. She was polite, but wouldn’t give up any information she didn’t’ want to.

WW: As much as I would love to know more, I can understand that your plan requires secrecy, so I will simply wish you the best of luck. Thank your both for joining me today. It has been a pleasure to get to know you.

To celebrate the release of her debut novel, Suzanne is giving away a KINDLE!
Entries will be accepted until 12/16. For details, click here: WIN A KINDLE


Suzanne Hartmann is a homeschool mom of three and lives in the St. Louis area. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Composition & Linguistics from Western Illinois University. To relax, she enjoys scrapbooking, reading, and Bible study. She began writing fiction when her children were young, and four of her short stories were published in a Milliken Publishing reading workbook. PERIL: Fast Track Thriller Bk. #1 is her debut novel.

On the editorial side, Suzanne is a contributing editor with Port Yonder Press and operates the Write This Way Critique Service. Through her blog, Write This Way, she has become known as an author who can explain writing rules and techniques in easy-to-understand terms. Her popular Top 10 series of articles formed the basis for her e-book on the craft of writing, Write This Way: Take Your Writing to a New Level.

Peril is now available at Amazon.com in paperback for $16.95, as well as at ChristianBook.com for $12.99. I understand that while not available yet, it should be available on Kindle within the next couple of weeks.

If you're a writer, you should also check out Suzanne's e-book, Write This Way: Take Your Writing to a New Level, of which, I am pleased to be an endorser for.

Thanks so much for joining us today, Suzanne, Lady Anne, and Stuart! I honestly can't wait to read this book.


Until next time,

Take Your Writing to the Next Level

Learning to write fiction well is a process. There are so many details of grammar and style that trying to learn them all at once is overwhelming. Instead, consider it an ongoing “continuing education” class. No matter where you are in the process, there’s always something else you can learn or perfect.

LEVEL 1: The first step in taking your writing to the next level is to get your writing out there—let others read it. By that, I mean other writers. Friends and family can give you reader feedback, but they can’t give you the specifics about what you’re doing right and wrong.

The best place to get feedback when you’re beginning to write is a critique group (either local or on-line). I can’t say enough about how much they can offer. My first critique group practically taught me fiction style from the ground up. It was tough getting critiques back with all kinds of color marking errors and denoting long comments. But I took their teaching to heart and began applying it. It took a while—and many more tough critiques—but eventually they went from pointing out basic errors to asking me when I’d be sending the next chapter because they couldn’t wait to read more.

At this level, it’s also a good idea to read as many books on the craft of writing as you can get your hands on. Joining writing groups (both local and on-line) is also beneficial. There is a great wealth of knowledge available through other writers. Soak it up like a sponge!

LEVEL 2: When I reached a level where other writers began to enjoy my writing, that didn’t mean I had “arrived.” I still had much more to learn. I had another major revision to go through, along with some tweaking and a several complete rewrites of the first two chapters before my writing was good enough to catch the eye of an agent. During this time, the feedback from my critique group was still extremely important. Instead of pointing out basic stylistic and grammatical errors, however, they focused on deeper issues: goal/motivation/conflict, deep POV, motivation-reaction units, and character development, among others.

At this intermediate level, it’s also good to enter some contests to get feedback from professionals. It’s also an excellent time to find a mentor or hire a professional to critique your work. Either option connects you to someone who can help you navigate through these deeper issues.

LEVEL 3: Getting an agent is an awesome accomplishment, but isn’t the top level…neither is publishing your first book. There’s still more to learn. We need to work on the issues where we know we’re weak. We can polish our voice and our style. And anyone who has ever worked with an editor knows that they almost always suggest changes that will make your
novel even better. Learn from them and apply these lessons to your future novels.

Even at this level, being a part of a critique group or having several trusted critique partners can be very valuable. There are also a variety of editorial services available to help you polish your manuscript.

LEVEL 4: Even multi-published authors need to be open to learning. It never hurts to review the basics. A good way to do this is to work with newer authors in some way. Mentoring or critiquing or teaching are good options. It helps keeps you sharp. Also, the publishing industry is constantly changing. Styles come and go, and writers need to be aware of what the current trend is. If you’ve always written with omniscient POV, but the industry is moving towards third-person POV, you might find yourself left behind if you’re not willing to continue learning and growing.

AT ALL LEVELS there are good courses available. Most are short-term and focus on only one issue at a time, which makes them easier to digest. Attending writing conferences is also something good to do no matter what level you’re at. There’s something for everyone at these conferences. The key, no matter what level you’re at, is a willingness to keep learning.



Suzanne Hartmann is the author of the pre-published books, THE RACE THAT LIES BEFORE US and DISAPPEARING MOM. She is an editor with Port Yonder Press and offers her own critique service. She also blogs about the craft of writing at: http://suzanne-hartmann2.blogspot.com.

Thanks, Suzanne, for guest blogging today!

Until next time,