Idea – Character – Story – Unorthodox
Unfolds
Read on for the post, more info about the novel, and a giveaway.
Hello to everyone visiting “Paranormal Romance and
More” today. S. Peters-Davis here, author of Unorthodox, A Kendra Spark Novel. Glad you stopped by. Holly, thank
you so much for hosting me on your fantastical site. Please know you are
appreciated for your time, support, and kindness.
Release date of Unorthodox, A Kendra Spark Novel – book one in the series, was three days ago,
and I admit to being geeked – happy, excited, and anxious at the same time.
Happy I wrote my first book in this genre mix and excited its release finally
arrived. But I’m also anxious as the first book in any series does that to me;
it’s the foundation for character introductions, relationships, and story
threads. All of those components need to be strong straight off in order to
evolve throughout the series.
Every book an author writes shares a piece of them, of
their life, of their family and friends, and people who’ve touched them in some
way…besides the creative imagination that speaks for itself. There’s a number
of ways information comes to us: experience, education, books, research,
listening in on conversations, TV, movies, and observing (among many
others)…nothing you haven’t heard before.
So then an idea forms to light the way…
I picked up a crime suspense-thriller book and was
pleasantly surprised to find it was generously laced with paranormal. My love
of mystery, suspense, crime stories and the paranormal had me wondering if I could actually combine them with an element
of romance for a story? *grins* Wheels churned for a while…mostly because as much as I loved reading crime books,
I’d never written one.
I took an online Forensic Science course, stacked up
on books about police and FBI procedures, conferred with others who wrote crime
stories, joined Sisters in Crime organization and researched everything I
thought might be pertinent to start my story.
As I considered my protagonist, I decided she would
need some sort of job that familiarized her with a criminal mind, something
giving her access and knowledge on law enforcement protocol and procedures…like
research would give to an author; ) Why not have the main character be a
suspense, mystery writer? Hmmm
Finally, Kendra Spark, suspense, mystery romance
author, introduced herself to me one night in a dream, and I knew it was time
to write.
A writing buddy (close friend of mine) spent four days
at an intense writing retreat with me. We brainstormed on a story she was
plotting out and also on my story – at that point we didn’t have our titles or
a complete list of our characters. Brainstorming with someone who understood my
voice and style, my audience, and my mixed genre ended up playing a critical
part in my novel writing. By the time we left our writing sanctuary, we had
established our characters, main plots, along with a few subplot threads, and
our titles.
Unorthodox unfolded, tripped, slipped, and finally fell onto
paper…a new paranormal, suspense-thriller romance with a generous dollop of
supernatural released on September 15, 2017: )
Hope you enjoy the book as much as I enjoyed writing
it: )
A Kendra Spark Novel
Book One
S. Peters-Davis
Genre: Paranormal Suspense-Thriller Romance
with a good dollop of Supernatural
Publisher: Books We Love Publishing
Date of Publication: September 15, 2017
ISBN 978-1-77362-303-0
ISBN 978-1-77362-304-7
EPUB 978-1-77362-300-9
Kindle 978-1-77362-301-6
WEB 978-1-77362-302-3
Number of pages: 153 pages
Word Count: 63,000
Cover Artist: CoverUp.Net
Book Tagline: Kendra’s ability of communicating with the dead is requested by her FBI criminal analyst friend to stop a killer from murdering agents.
Series Tagline: Kendra sees ghosts, and then her BFF, Jenna, becomes one. The two friends and FBI agent Derek Knight fight for justice to the victims of heinous crimes.
Book Description:
Kendra Spark, suspense-mystery romance author and communicator with the dead, is requested to hop on the first flight to D.C.
Jenna Powers, FBI criminal analyst and estranged best friend of Kendra, gets ghosticized in a fatal accident before relaying all the details of the FBI killer case.
Derek Knight, a dedicated FBI Special Task Force agent, takes lead on the case.
The investigation into the FBI agent killings continues as Kendra, Jenna – yes, even after death – and Derek work together on the case before Director of the Special Task Force Jackson Powers’ number is up. He’s Jenna’s father and the end-game of the killer’s target list.
Somehow the elusive killer remains undetected, until Kendra’s unique ability produces results and a final possibility at stopping his killing spree before it’s too late.
Excerpt:
From the Author Review Copy: The scene –
Derek has Kendra in a casual interrogation room inside the FBI building – D.C.
location
The door opened
and Jackson Powers entered before I could respond.
He glanced
around the room stopping when he saw me; his red rimmed eyes spoke volumes. I
clearly remembered his presence, a straightforward man, full of confidence and
direction, but in this moment he appeared like a man broken. I rose and reached
for a hand shake. Instead, he grabbed my hand and pulled me into a big bear
hug.
“I’m so very
sorry about Jenna. Sorry for your loss, for my loss…” Muscles tensed around my
vocals and cut off the words.
Tears spilled
from both of us. Derek stepped out of the room, clicking the door closed.
“Jenna told me
she was meeting with you today, going to show you the city sights.” Jackson
held me for a few more minutes, patting my back and telling me it wasn’t my
fault.
The thought of
the accident initially being my fault had never entered my mind. Why would that
thought cross his? I stepped back. Obviously he hadn’t received the latest
details of the accident, but even so why would he consider that I’d feel
responsible. Even if I questioned that maybe I could have done something to
stop her in some way, she did save that boy. “Not sure what you mean…in
thinking it could be my fault?”
His eyes
widened, maybe a little startled at my blatant question. “I assumed Jenna ran
after a little culprit that grabbed your purse or something much worse. She
must have gotten caught up in the chase to run in front of on-coming traffic.”
His face softened. “Kendra, I know Jenna, there was nothing you could have done
to stop her. She’s always been head-strong…was always
head-strong,” he
corrected himself, then his voice cracked, and suddenly something occurred to
me.
Jackson isn’t
privy to Jenna and Derek’s manhunt for the FBI killer, nor the reason I’m here.
Of course. Jenna had tagged along to certain crime scenes while she was still
in college, but from all that I remembered, Jackson wanted her profiling cases
strictly inside the building. She had access to all the crime scenes from
pictures and files on her laptop. At least she always used to complain about
his restrictions, and I couldn’t imagine he would allow her in the field on a
serial killer task force, unless things had changed in the last couple years.
There’d been a
few close calls on other cases, some of the agent’s family members being
abducted or being used for negotiation, leverage. While in college, Jenna told
me all the rules her father had enforced if she were to join in any of the FBI
cases. He protected her, and now she had returned the favor…to her demise.
Jenna and Derek
were hunting the serial killer behind Jackson’s back.
There was a tap
on the door and Derek stepped in. His brows were drawn close, eyes narrowed,
perhaps his expression of concern. “Sir, I thought Kendra might be hungry. She
hasn’t eaten all day.” He smiled at me, and then looked back at Jackson. “I’m
headed out for a late lunch and thought I’d take her with me.”
Jackson’s lips
pressed together. He finally lifted his chin toward me. “Well, of course. We
certainly wouldn’t want anyone going hungry now, would we,” more of a statement
than a question. He patted my shoulder. “Go on, Kendra. We can continue our
talk later. I’d like to hear exactly what happened to my daughter from someone
who was there to witness it.”
Derek grasped my
elbow and led me toward the door.
Instead of
following, Jackson released a long breathy sigh and sat on the couch. “Shut the
door behind you, Derek. And tell Darla I don’t wish to be disturbed.”
My heart swelled
huge behind my ribcage, again the confining weight pressing in on my ability to
breathe. I couldn’t imagine the emotional maelstrom Jackson was going through.
I knew only my own turbulent ride. Now I needed to get some facts straight; it
was my turn to interrogate Derek.
S. Peters-Davis writes multi-genre stories, but loves penning a good page-turning suspense-thriller, especially when it’s a ghost story and a romance. When she’s not writing, editing, or reading, she’s hiking, RV’ing, fishing, playing with grandchildren, or enjoying time with her favorite muse (her husband) in Southwest Michigan.
She also writes YA paranormal, supernatural novels as DK Davis.
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