lying for a living

Brazen self-promotion being one price I pay (or fringe benefit I get) for having a novel hit the bookshelves, here’s an interview that’s just been published and is online at Shots magazine: Meg Gardiner Q & A with Mike Stotter.

Updated update: Mike’s intro has been corrected online, so I’m going to swap it and instead post the first question and answer:

YOU ARE AT A PARTY, SOMEONE ASKS WHAT YOU DO. YOU TELL THEM YOU ARE A WRITER BUT HOW WOULD YOU INTRODUCE EVAN DELANEY?

Evan’s a freelance journalist from California. She’s spirited, quick-witted, and fights hard for the people she loves. Okay, she’s too brash for her own good, which is why she’s on her second set of teeth. But she’s a softy at heart. She thinks the world is tragic and so you’d better laugh whenever you can. Pour her a glass of Jack Daniel’s and ask her about finding that FBI agent hogtied to her bed, stripped and ranting. Just don’t get on her bad side, because she may have a heatseeking missile stashed in her car. Why are you looking at me like that?

My brazeness then continues.

This Saturday, October 14th, I’ll be in Cheltenham.  I was supposed to do an event at the Cheltenham Literature Festival in support of the National Library for the Blind.  Circumstances have now forced that event to be postponed.

However, because I’m going to be in Cheltenham anyway, here’s the deal.  I have to eat, and if anyone else is going to be in town I’d love to see you.  I’ll be ordering a big pizza at the Cafe Paradiso.  Stop by and have a slice.   I’ll be there at noon on Saturday.

Cafe Paradiso: Hotel Kandinsky, Bayshill Road, Cheltenham  GL50 3AS.

Note: this morning my daughter told me she expected a new blog post by this afternoon, and gave me two potential topics: (1) the vicissitudes of fate, or failing that, (2) my prophetic powers.  Honey, I think I covered number 1 here.  And yes, I am proud that you can spell “vicissitudes”.

To do list for Thursday, October 5th:

1. pay electric bill

2. feed pets

3. publish novel

4. take kid to orthodontist

Done.

I now have some events scheduled for the publication of Kill Chain:

Cheltenham Festival - Saturday 14th October. Event in support of the National Library for the Blind. Time to be determined.

Authors’ afternoon with Adrienne Dines - Wednesday 18th October, midday. Methven’s Books, 12a Anyards Road, Cobham, Surrey. 01932 862903.

Elmbridge Literary Festival - “Why We Love Crime”. Wednesday 18th October, 7:30 p.m. Esher Library. Old Church Path, Esher, Surrey. Call for tickets: 01372 465036.

I’ll also be doing some drive-by book signings around the Southeast. If I get any more information as to places I might be loitering, I’ll let you know.

In military lingo, “kill chain” means the target cycle. Basically: find, track, target, kill. In my upcoming novel, Evan Delaney’s father disappears and she throws herself into a desperate race to rescue him. The people who abduct him are a dirty bunch he dealt with during his days in military intelligence. Evan doesn’t know what they want – money, secrets, revenge – just that if she doesn’t find out, her dad will die.

However, she ends up at odds not just with the kidnappers and with the law, but with her man. Jesse Blackburn wants to help Phil and to keep the Delaney family from becoming part of the kill chain. And he thinks the only way to do that is by keeping Evan from chasing down what the kidnappers are demanding. So Jesse sets out to stop her.

The trouble is, by the time he tries to do it, there’s a man lying dead on a Santa Barbara street and Evan’s on the run, about to embark on a chase across the Pacific ocean to find the information she needs.

As if that will stop him. Or her.

The book’s published October 5th. More before then.

The fifth book in the Evan Delaney series, Kill Chain, will be published October 5th. The manuscript has been written, rewritten, sent to my editor, sent from her to a copy-editor, returned to me for corrections, typeset, proofread, corrected by me again and finally sent to the printer.

Those are the nuts and bolts. Here’s the story.

Phil Delaney’s car is found wrecked at the bottom of a California ravine. The local cops think he’s killed himself, but there’s no body. The FBI thinks he’s skipped the country. He’s a former military intelligence officer, under investigation for divulging classified information. But Evan thinks her dad’s been abducted. Then she gets a phone call that confirms her fears - he’s been kidnapped because of his military work. The kidnappers give her 72 hours to turn over what they’re asking for, or he’ll die.

With the hours draining away, she has to piece together the puzzle and rescue him. She has bad guys on her tail, gets on the wrong side of the law and has to follow the trail into some dark and treacherous places - physically and emotionally - to track down the information she needs. If she fails, her father and others in her family will die.

That’s the gist of the story. The book started with the thought: what would happen if your father disappeared? Gone, without warning, under violent circumstances. What would you do to get him back? Would you turn your own life upside down and risk danger to find him? How that thought developed into the novel is a story that I’ll be continuing here throughout the summer. I’ll keep you posted.