L.M. Steel's Balancing Act of Writing vs. Real Life @LMSteel1 #AmWriting #WriteTip #Crime

One of the most common questions I get asked on a daily basis is, where do you find the time?

The honest answer is that a lot of the time I don’t. I have a full time job that requires my 100% attention while there. With this I have to do some CPD (Continuous professional Development) I’m a scientist and as we know science is advancing daily so we need to stay in touch with everything new.

I’m happily married with a little dog, my own little happy family. I have a house that needs, shall we say, maintaining.

I don’t have a dishwasher, I don’t even have a microwave and I’ve only had a toaster for six months.

I also like to keep fit as much as I can and do a lot of fundraising for charity doing crazy sport things.

As you can probably gather, finding writing time isn’t the easiest of tasks, but I make myself find time because I love to write. I’m lucky that I have a very supportive wife who understands that when I say I’m going on the computer it’s best to leave me be. (But of course she’ll always call me when Big Bang theory is about to start)

I’m an organised person, I like to have a plan of what I’m doing, I very rarely stick to that plan, but it gives me direction about what I need to do and what needs to be accomplished.

I find making notes is the biggest help, little ideas through the day are quickly written down.

I no longer commute, but when I did I’d take a notepad on the train journey and put my phone on total silent, I made it part of the journey that I couldn’t look at it till the end and could only focus on the notes I was writing. I guess I made the train like exam conditions..

Now, as I walk to work I have to take different approaches; on lunch, again a little note pad. I email myself quick ideas so they don’t get lost in the rest of the day.

Not  a lot of time, don’t think I don’t have enough time to write, I only have twenty minutes. Write one scene and save it. If you have all those little half an hours through the week they add up. I do that regularly and when I sat on Thursday night and organised them in the right order and spent a little extra time filling in the gaps, I saw I had actually written 13’000 words!

We all love the weekend, but this is golden time when it comes to writing. By all means I clean the house, take the dog for an adventure walk in the forest, get in that long run that I just can’t get in during the week, catch up on TV, have some couple time and most important… have a lie in!

Priorities must be made though. I make sure I sit at the computer on both Saturday and Sunday for at least two hours each day. I’d rather aim for four but sometimes life gets in the way. this is two hours just for writing. The marketing, social media etc. is something else.

I find the best thing that could’ve come into my life for networking and media is my smart phone. most of your readers and connections are all checking their stuff on the move, whether it’s on the train to work, or just as they head out or just while they’re on lunch, and that’s when I approach them. There’s no point me tweeting at 11am, I’m at work and so is almost everyone else.

So I aim to catch them as they are just checking their Twitter feed, or just checking in on Facebook, or will be just scrolling through G+.

For other sites you have to commit a little bit more. Goodreads is one, and Linkd In: these have threads and discussions and it’s best to actually look and see where the discussion has led so far before just dropping in.

The key though is to make sure you use the time you’ve set aside for writing, to actually write, otherwise you’ll always be ‘just doing this’.

On May 17th 1982, an infant girl is found in a stolen car abandoned on a bridge. The police call her ‘Lotus’ after the car she is discovered in, and ‘Ogden’ – the name of the dam over which the car rested. Abandoned for no one; for no one came to claim her as their child, no one came to say that they were responsible for this babe, no one came to love her. 

This was how it was to be; always. Following abuse at the hands of her adoptive father, foster families and others, Lotus finds unlikely allies in car thieves and drug dealers, but her life of crime extends so much further than any of them appreciate. So very young, she takes her first life and realises how easy it is, and how no one would ever suspect the poor, timid, shy little girl who nobody calls their own. 

“Villain? Anti-Hero? Whatever she is, Lotus Ogden is like a perfect storm of rage and pain, but she’s also disturbingly human.” 

“Feed the dogs and take the phone off the hook. Once you get into this book you’re not going to want to put it down.” 

“A fast read, a great story, full of twists and turns.”

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Genre – Crime, Thriller

Rating – PG-18

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#Excerpt from GENERATION by @_William_Knight #AmReading #Thriller #Crime

Four hours after crawling from a fern-covered hide on Dartmoor, and driving along the M4 through one of the heaviest March downpours since records began, Hendrix Harrison stood at his desk sorting through a collection of prints featuring the so-called Ashburton Wolf. He took each in turn, held it to the light, then placed them in order of preference, working silently and quickly. He liked to spread them out on a table rather than peer at a screen, which limited his ability to compare subtle differences. Others called him a Luddite.

The editorial offices of Strange Phenomena included a large open-plan floor space and half a dozen rooms in a red brick office block conspicuously dumped between gleaming façades on Broadwick Street in Soho. An expensive location afforded through the magazine’s publishing group, RET, and the fact that the space was shared with three other publications, all owned by the group. Strange Phenomena’s set of desks occupied a four by seven metre island in the centre of the main room and seated a staff of five dedicated to the monthly issue and the website.

Joan O’Connell was the latest addition to the team, taken on as editor for online content. She coordinated work for Kirsty and William who, as junior reporters, bashed out much of the routine copy which she and Hendrix later rendered readable.

Sometimes he wondered if he should just write it all himself, but with so few staff, a regularly updated website and a monthly issue, roles were somewhat fluid. The magazine relied on half a dozen key freelancers to write features for the print copy.

At one end of the island-of-desks Tom Giles, the managing editor, had arranged a two-seater leather sofa which had followed him around since university. These days it was rarely visited except during crises when he and Hendrix shared a shot of Tequila and resolved the world’s problems over a lick of salt and a slice of lemon. Hendrix had to admit crises were getting more common as readers abandoned print subscriptions for the internet, and retailers concentrated on more commercial lifestyle titles.

A man emerges from the sodden undergrowth, lost, lonely and starving he is mown down by a speeding car on the edge of a remote forest.

Rumours of ghostly apparitions haunt a rural Northumberland community.

A renowned forensic research establishment is troubled by impossible results and unprecedented interference from an influential drug company.

Hendrix ‘Aitch’ Harrison is a tech-phobic journalist who must link these events together.

Normally side-lined to investigate UFOs and big-beast myths, but thrust into world of cynical corporate motivations, Hendrix is aided by a determined and ambitious entomologist. Together they delve into a grisly world of clinical trials and a viral treatment beyond imagining.

In a chase of escalating dangers, Aitch must battle more than his fear of technology to expose the macabre fate of the drugged victims donated to scientific research.

Buy Now @ Amazon

Genre – Crime, Thriller, Horror

Rating – R-16

More details about the author

Connect with William Knight on Facebook & Twitter

Website http://www.williamknight.info

Birth of an Assassin by Rik Stone @Stone_Rik #Crime #Thriller #MustRead

Adrik waited in the guard’s room a couple of corridors along from Kornfeld’s cell. There was only one way out, so the Jew had to pass this room. He spun a Makarov on his finger, aimed at imaginary targets and thrilled at the thought of using it. The gun was standard issue, but he would’ve chosen it anyway. Totally reliable, pull the trigger and out pop the bullets. The blowback design expels the spent case to the right and loads the next cartridge into the chamber – easy. And fully armed with eight rounds, he would use them all.

This wouldn’t be his first killing and sure as hell wouldn’t be his last. Kornfeld was a pain, and it was Otto who mattered. He would do anything for him. Why should he care about some Jew who got in the way?

But time dragged, and Kornfeld hadn’t yet made a show. For one horrible minute he thought there might be another way out – but no, that isn’t even possible. Calm down, be patient... Try as he might, he couldn’t, and the idea ran around his head, irritating him beyond measure.

He left the guardroom and paced the corridor outside. At first a short distance and then a bit further into the next passageway. No good – he had to find out what had happened. With gun in hand and footsteps stealthy he reached the cell door – it was slightly open. Oh shit, did that mean there was another way out? Or maybe Kornfeld had gone deeper into the prison block. Or maybe he was in the cell hoping the element of surprise would be with him.

Possibilities ganged up. Kornfeld knew Lubyanka well. What if there was another way out and that little bastard knew it? If so, Otto would kill him, never mind the Jew. He kicked the door fully open, slammed it against the cell wall, stood back and then moved in, pointing the gun around to make sure Kornfeld wasn’t hidden on either side of the opening. The cell was dimly lit and he found it difficult to see. He would stay put until his eyes got accustomed to the light. A body, he saw a body. It was covered with a greatcoat, on the bunk facing the wall.

He was clearly supposed to think it was Kornfeld. In that case he’d be under the bunk waiting... But then that’s obvious too, so he might be on top with the guard pushed underneath. That made more sense – it would be easier for him to make an attack from on top – but, shit, wouldn’t that be what he wanted him to think?

To be sure of the kill, Adrik wanted to shoot above and below – but he couldn’t. How would he explain the soldier’s death? Oh, Otto, if only Otto was there to tell him what to do. But he wasn’t, he had to make up his own mind. The Jew was on top – yes, definitely on top.

Cautiously, he edged forward, pointed the pistol to the back of the person’s head and pulled the body towards him with gun steady and ready to fire. As quickly as his huge form allowed, he pulled the greatcoat away.

Fuck! The guard! No time to react. A leg came from under the bunk with incredible speed and wrapped around the back of his. At the same time, the Jew’s other foot came against his knees and pushed. Adrik had brought his legs together when he tore the coat away and Kornfeld used the imbalance to his advantage. Adrik’s arms went out. He hovered awkwardly, then almost regained control, but Kornfeld pushed harder and Adrik went flying backwards with his legs in the air. A sense of suspension ended and he fell heavily, striking the hard stone floor. His head bounced, shudders chased through his brain and he found himself staring at the ceiling, wavering between conscious and unconscious.

The pain pierced his skull and he noticed his head had rested in a pool of warm liquid. He hadn’t seen that when he came in. Numbness consumed his body; he couldn’t move. But then his blurred vision saw the bleary outline of the Jew. Awareness came that his body was being rolled over. He was paralyzed, but it didn’t stop the surge of fear that ran through every fibre of his being.

 

Buy Now @ Amazon, B&N, Kobo & Waterstones

Genre - Thriller, Crime, Suspense

Rating – R

More details about the author

Connect with Rik Stone on Facebook & Twitter

Website http://rik-stone.simdif.com

Maximum Insecurity by William Wright M.D. @kindleexpert #Free #Memoir #NonFiction

After three decades as a successful ear surgeon, William Wright, MD is bored beyond belief. He dabbles with retirement, but finds idleness infuriating. He has to do something.

Then he sees an ad for a doctor’s position from the Colorado Department of Corrections at a supermax prison. Now that, he thinks, would be different. His wife has some thoughts on the matter too. She thinks her husband just lost his mind and is on a collision course with a prison shiv.

After his first day on the job, he wonders if she wasn’t onto something. His first patient is an arrogant, callous youth convicted of five cold-blooded murders. Dr. Wright has to steel himself not to bolt.

Nothing prepares a doctor for life at the Colorado State Penitentiary. He quickly discovers treating maximum security convicts is like treating recalcitrant murderous four-year-olds. Always willing to threaten their doctors with bodily harm, they are more interested in scamming drugs than treatment.

Told with self-depreciating humor and scathing wit, Maximum Insecurity describes Dr. Wright’s adventures practicing medicine in a supermax correctional facility without, he’s glad to say, getting killed even once.

Maximum Insecurity: A Doctor in the Supermax by William Wright M.D.

Amazon Kindle US

Rating – PG-13

Genre – Non Fiction

4.4 (21 reviews)

Free until 4 February 2014