#TeaserTuesday: Best Friend

 

87k words and going strong! I know how it all works out, so now it's just pushing through to the end. 

Outright rejection would be crushing.

But he didn’t reject her.

His throat jerked in a painful-looking way when he swallowed. Cass could hear the bone-dry click of it across the table. His eyes went very big, and very dark, and Cass realized, with a thrill, that this was the opposite of a dismissal. “Cassie,” he rasped. “Don’t—don’t ask me for that.”

She leaned forward in her chair. “Why not?”

Cover Reveal: Beware of Dog

 

“No one puts a sign in their yard proclaiming ‘Beware of Artist.’ When you’re out there in the city with Shep at your back, I don’t ever worry. I know he’d rip the throat out of anyone who raised a hand to you.”

I've been making great strides with book six of the Lean Dogs Legacy series, so it's headed your way soon!

Sunday Tidbits: BoD

This book is just fun.

Beware of Dog, Lean Dogs Legacy Book Six, coming soon.  

#TeaserTuesday: Don't Let Go

 

Remember the police procedural I mentioned on Sunday? The one I said I might post part of here just to throw it out into the universe? Well, consider this the wind up, and the pitch. 

Don't Let Go is currently sitting at 61,500 words, and despite lots of waffling, it seems like it would be a shame to abandon it with so much already written. Plus, I've grown attached to the characters, and already have a sequel planned. *ducks tomatoes* 

This is a contemporary novel set in Nashville, TN, that's half M/F romantic suspense, and half police procedural about a group of detectives struggling with personal problems against the backdrop of an assault against a celebrity author. After writing College Town, in which Lawson wants to be and is struggling to become an author, I decided to flip the script: this novel's central protagonist is an author who's hit it big, and has garnered a lot of ugly, unwanted attention in the process. She's attacked after a book signing in Nashville, and the local detectives set about solving the case while the media has a field day. Stuck in Nashville during the investigation, our author, Avery, becomes romantically entangled with the sexy district attorney in charge of taking her attackers to trial. Conflict of interest much? 

It's a whodunnit meets character-driven real-life drama, and I'm dropping the first five chapters here. Have a gander, see if you're interested, and leave me a comment. 😊 

*Fair warning, this hasn't been edited or proofed AT ALL, so here there be typos. 

1

 

An employee in a pin-bedecked ID lanyard claps her hands and then cups them around her mouth to yell, “Attention, shoppers! TBR is now closed! Please collect your final purchases and make your way to the register!”

Avery glances up from the page she’s signing with a start. “It’s ten already?”

“Yes,” her publicist, Trish, says with a gusty sigh and a fast check of her Apple watch. “Thank God.” She then turns a severe smile on the last fan in line that leaves the woman blinking and stepping back. That’s Trish: punctual, organized to a fault, a hell of a hard worker…terrible with people. “No offense, ma’am. We hope you enjoyed the signing.” She gives a little shoo motion with the flats of her hands.

RRJ 1/18

Red Rooster Writing Journal

48k words and hoping to break 50 tomorrow.

The structure of this installment is of three separate - though related - storylines that all converge for the big finale. They are the New York storyline, the Virginia storyline, and the Wyoming storyline, and all roads lead to Virginia. 

I had THE epiphany on the treadmill two nights ago, and it brought the whole storyline together. I was grinning like an idiot to myself, so pumped and excited...now I've just got to write it all down. *cries*

This series is the first time I've ever written about true historical figures. Once I got past the initial fear that I will Screw Up Big Time, I realized it was an absolute blast, and incredibly interesting. For me it's like watching a film, and then writing obsessive essays about the characters' motivations afterward. It's like my favorite kind of literary paper - the character study. In school, whenever possible, I wrote character studies as opposed to literature analyses. I read this amazing Vlad biography over Christmas break, and while the true story of the Impaler and his brother is fascinating, it was also largely filled with speculation - and not very deep speculation at that - as to Vlad and Radu's (Valerian in my books) thought processes. I now get to go in, armed with the facts, and construct their thoughts and emotions during all that, and that's  just a nerdy dream, let me tell you. So I'm incredibly excited to introduce my humble interpretation of Vlad in this book, and start digging into the mountain range of issues that lies between the two brothers. 

Today's writing focused mostly on the NY storyline, and I'm loving getting to draw the parallels between Trina and Katya. Theirs is a family of badass ladies. 

Favorite tidbit of the day:

“I can’t sniff anyone out, or Jedi Mindtrick anyone, but I can cause a distraction. And get some useful intel out of the idiot. What do you say?”

Lanny sent her an approving look.

Jamie buried his face in his hands.

Alexei looked at her appraisingly, head cocked to the side.

Nikita sighed, and finally nodded. “Carry a gun.”

She felt her smile widen. “I’m never not carrying a gun.”

Red Rooster

Copyright © 2018 by Lauren Gilley

#TeaserTuesday - Walking Wounded

Since I've been unfairly teasing, let's have a real teaser for #TeaserTuesday:

Excerpt from Walking Wounded

Copyright © 2016 by Lauren Gilley

“Your father-in-law,” Luke says when they’re sitting side-by-side at the bar, breakfast well under way, plates keeping warm in the oven for Hal and Maddox (he can’t think of him as “Matt” yet, he just can’t).

            “Mm.” Sandy takes a sip of coffee and says, “Now there’s a literary character for you.”

            Luke crunches a piece of bacon. “Between the original news story, and the way everyone’s building him up, I’m starting to get an impression.”  

            “Ah. An impression,” she repeats, using his exact inflection.

            He flicks a sideways glance her way. She’s messing with him, and if the curl of her mouth is anything to go by, she’s enjoying it.

            “I’m also starting to think this is some elaborate practical joke.”

            Her smile widens, truer now. “No. Definitely not that.”

***

With every book, I try to do something new that I haven't done before. Whether it's to do with characterization, plotting, or style, I always want to stretch myself and my skills.

Walking Wounded represents a lot of new things for me, the most obvious being the use of present tense, the more subtle you'll have to discover when you read the novel. Another new thing: I want to keep the plot and subject matter under wraps until release week, so I can have lots of fun playing around with pre-release marketing.

Of course, all of this means I can't share too much with you guys, which means you're going to wonder why you should be excited about this book. So here are some things I can say:

- At it's core, this book is a love story. More than one love story, in fact. Romantic love, family love, friendship love.

- Despite a notable lack of outlaw bikers, this book is extremely character-focused, just like all my work; it uses individuals to speak to larger issues, and vice versa. And of course the driving force is the bond between these individuals. It's a relationship book.

- We explore different cities and different professions, but it's still me at the helm, so you can expect the usual worldbuilding and attention to detail.

- A little heat, a little angst, a little sweetness, and a whole lot of ambition on my part. It's a moments-folded-into-moments sort of book, rife with memory, nostalgia, and subtle nudges. If I can pull this off - please let me pull this off - I have a feeling it's going to be one of my favorite works in my arsenal.

- If you like a good, emotional, thoughtful story full of memorable characters, you'll like Walking Wounded, trust me.

*Expected Dec '16/Jan '17