Chris Ryan's Thanksgiving Prayer...

Thanksgiving and Christmas season is upon us and I figured I'd say a prayer of thanks. 

I'm thankful that Jessica is alive, even if she isn't with me.  I'm still a little sketchy about what really happened, but I'm alive and Frank's dead and  all's right with the world. 

I'm thankful Eric was too young to understand what a monster I really was otherwise I would have died in that concrete prison.  But in his eyes, I saved his mother, so he saved me, healed me with some serious mojo that I'm still carrying around today.  I can feel it in my bones, flowing through my veins like white lightning.   

I'm thankful I'm not rotting in some prison awaiting a death sentence.  If there were any justice in this world, that's where I'd be, but for some reason, the cops believed the ruse that I am indeed Christopher Aris and I had no knowledge of what my brothers were doing.  Thank God I was able to erase any proof of Chris's participation before I got out of there.  Now, I'm just waiting for that fiction to crumble. 

I'm thankful that everyone loved my brother enough for him to be named in all their wills.  When I took on his identity, I didn't imagine I'd be a richer than God.  My first act when the money was free and clear was to make sure the victim's families were compensated, including Jessica and Tom.  I know money can't erase my conscience, but it certainly helps me to think I'm trying to make amends for all the horror.

I'm thankful I kept the tapes of Jessica and I because without them, I wouldn't have lasted five years away from her. I would have sought her out before she had the chance to marry Tom.  I would have begged for her forgiveness and I would have done something I would live to regret. 

You see, I just want her to be happy.  I'd like to believe I'm the one that can make her happy - but I know that's just a ludicruous fantasy.  Unfortunately, I now have to break my silence, because if I don't she will be devistated. 

So please God, please don't let this be a mistake. 

To find out more about Chris Ryan, pick up MIND GAMES by J.E. Taylor at Amazon.com!




 

First Friday!

Hey all –


It’s the first Friday in November and that means it’s time to highlight some of my Backspace brethren’s books as well as two of my own November releases. Remember – books are fantastic Christmas gifts!

So without further adieu…(in release date order):

Ian Barker – FALLEN STAR - November 1

FAMOUS: Celebrated. Acclaimed. Legendary. Illustrious. Popular. Notorious. Recognised. Renowned. Successful. Eminent. Prominent. Excellent. Having kudos. Being a star. The Fallen Boys were at their zenith when Zac’s luck ran out. How does the shock of being dumped from dazzling and conspicuous success into relative obscurity affect his fellow boy band members Karl, Ritchie and Leon? Accustomed to adulation, wall-to-wall glamour, sex and all the illusions of fame, the Boys find themselves in strange territory. No longer courted, with zero prospect of resurrecting the group, they find themselves facing harsh realities. Karl is driven to appear on chat shows and accept pantomime roles: all the P.R. exercises he previously spurned. Desperate for work he even auditions for a blue movie. Reluctantly, he participates in a TV reality series soon after he meets Lizzie Keating, daughter of an IRA bomber. Hormones and adrenalin surge as the challenges to their relationship surface: Karl’s father, ex-Army and implacable in his hatred for the Irish; Karl’s wandering eye; Lizzie’s refusal to play second fiddle to anyone. With gusto, humour and insight, Ian Barker entertains with this intertwined tale of discovering what is truly valuable in life.

Kim Stagliano – ALL I CAN HANDLE – I’m No Mother Teresa (A Life Raising Three Daughters with Autism) – November 1

How one woman raises three daughters with autism, loses one at Disney World, stays married, has sex, bakes gluten-free, goes broke, and keeps her sense of humor. "Dr. Spock? Check. Penelope Ann Leach (remember her?)? Check. What to Expect When You’re Expecting? Check. I had a seven hundred dollar Bellini crib for God’s sake! I was perfect. And so was Mia when she was born . . ."

...and so begins Kim Stagliano’s electrifying and hilarious memoir of her family’s journey raising three daughters with autism. In these stories, Stagliano has joined the ranks of David Sedaris and Augusten Burroughs with her amazing ability to lay everything on the table—from family, friends, and enemies to basement floods to birthdays to (possible) heroin addictions—eviscerating and celebrating the absurd. From her love of Howard Stern to her increasing activism in the autism community and exhaustive search for treatments that will help her daughters, she covers it all. Always outspoken, often touching, and sometimes heartbreaking, Kim Stagliano is a powerful new voice in comedic writing—her “Kimoir” (as she calls it) will be a must-read within the autism community and the literary world at large.

J.E. Taylor – VENGEANCE – November 1

Living large in New York City as a corporate lawyer for the most savvy drug lord on the East Coast, Special Agent Steve Williams carefully plots Charlie Wisnowski's downfall. His plans go to hell when his wife Jennifer survives an attack by a serial killer. With her life in jeopardy and his undercover guise threatening to unravel, he orders Charlie's arrest. But the sting goes woefully wrong and Steve becomes the target of a mafia assassin hired by the biggest crime boss in America. Escaping from the city, Steve and Jennifer settle back into their quiet life on the banks of Mirror Lake. Their peaceful existence shatters with a crippling loss and Jennifer's visions escalate, forecasting a brutal assault on their family. Armed with scant details from her dreams, Steve trudges through a litany of past connections, searching for the key to stop the course of fate. What he uncovers chills him to the core - a brother with a grudge, a serial killer and a mafia assassin are all on his trail. The hunt begins . . .

Caridad Ferrer – WHEN THE STARS GO BLUE – November 23 YA

A dancer driven to succeed.

A musical prodigy attempting to escape his past.

The summer they share.

And the moment it all goes wrong.

Dance is Soledad Reyes’s life. About to graduate from Miami’s Biscayne High School for the Performing Arts, she plans on spending her last summer at home teaching in a dance studio, saving money, and eventually auditioning for dance companies. That is, until fate intervenes in the form of fellow student Jonathan Crandall who has what sounds like an outrageous proposition: Forget teaching. Why not spend the summer performing in the intense environment of the competitive drum and bugle corps? The corps is going to be performing Carmen, and the opportunity to portray the character of the sultry gypsy proves too tempting for Soledad to pass up, as well as the opportunity to spend more time with Jonathan, who intrigues her in a way no boy ever has before.

But in an uncanny echo of the story they perform every evening, an unexpected competitor for Soledad's affections appears: Taz, a member of an all-star Spanish soccer team. One explosive encounter later Soledad finds not only her relationship with Jonathan threatened, but her entire future as a professional dancer.

J.E. Taylor – MIND GAMES – November 29

Chris Ryan doesn't understand why he's alive. By all accounts, he should have died in the prison he and his step-brother created. Dying screams and the ring of gunshots still haunt his dreams and to make matters worse, five years hasn't erased his passion for Jessica Connor. She left him bleeding on the cold concrete floor, escaping the prison that held her for close to a year. Semi-conscious and close to death, his gaze fell on an apparition of her son and white light filled his skin, healing his wounds and giving him a second chance . . . and to this day that power still rages within him. Haunting visions of her daughter's death drive him out of hiding and he shows up at her doorstep with the intent of giving her the power he safeguarded all these years. But his good intentions fall short when they realize he led the vengeful spirit of his step-brother straight to her. Cancer is no longer their biggest worry, now Chris and Jessica must battle a ghost hell bent on destroying all of them.


Next week I'll be doing a character interview - stay tuned for more details.

In the meantime - keep reading!

Ciao.
JET

Happy Friday - comment to win a copy of Mind Games!

It's the last Friday in September and I've had a LONG week. 

Backtrack to last Saturday's workshop.  In case you're wondering, my pitch went eh.  At least in my mind, I stuttered and stumbled through the pitch and then took a second to gather my wits and get things straight.  Then the agent threw me a curve ball and asked since the pitch was YA - what is the story's lesson? 

What?  A YA story HAS to have a lesson?  I have no friggin clue.  I didn't set out to write a story with a moral.  This really threw me.  I know my eyebrows raised at that.  But I quickly got my bearings and said it's about hope in the face of impossible odds - or something along those lines.  Anyway, long story short - the agent asked for pages - pages that if I want a quick response, I need to record and send on a CD along with the synopsis.  How fun is that? 

I was all prepped to do this and then the cold from hell hit.  Ka-bam!  Knocked me on my ass and now I'm still sniffling and all nasally with a scratchy voice.  My husband calls it my "man voice" and offered to raise his real high to offset mine.  Lovely man, isn't he.  Well, he did get a chuckle out of me on that comment.

Now that I'm on the mend, I can start catching up on some of my ancillary responsibilities.  I still have a handful of eXcessica stories to format, a couple RWA contest entries to judge and a few stories to read for Dark Recesses before I ask for another cool dozen from the Allegory submissions.  That's all before I return to editing Dome Warriors - the story I pitched last week.  It needs some necessary chopping and cleaning in more than just prose - there are some scenes that probably shouldn't be in a book for 16 year olds and up - which is my target audience. 

I have some very interesting interviews lined up for October and I'll announce them next week in my First Friday blog.  I'll also be updating the calendar on my website so you folks can quickly check who my guests are or where I'll be, especially as November gets closer and my next releases come out. 

Anyway - just for giggles, since I have a few extra copies of my second book in the Games series - MIND GAMES, anyone who comments will go into a drawing for a copy - US residents can choose between the paperback and an e-book, international folks will have their choice of e-book format. 

I'll pick a winner on Tuesday at 9pm and announce it in the Jenny Craig Week 3 blog that's posted on Wednesday. 

Thanks for swinging in!
Ciao
JET

Dark Reckoning accepted by FIDO Publishing!

   
J. E. Taylor, suspense writer and Allegory E-zine assistant editor is delighted to announce the acceptance of her debut novel by FIDO Publishing. Dark Reckoning, scheduled for release on July 5, 2010, is the first in a planned series featuring undercover FBI Agent Steve Williams.


DARK RECKONING: released by FIDO Publishing (www.FIDOpublishing.com) on July 5, 2010:

A sadistic killer stalks the secluded college town of Brooksfield, New Hampshire. With bodies piling up and rumors of the murders being part of sacrificial hazing rituals, the FBI plants Special Agent Steve Williams in a fraternity at Brooksfield University. His investigation takes a ninety degree turn into the bizarre when he’s introduced to Jennifer, a clairvoyant co-ed who swears the killer isn’t human.
       
Steve considers the plausibility of the extraordinary, the unspeakable, even the inconceivable when his notebook starts bleeding cryptic messages. Messages that indicate Jennifer is at the heart of the darkness in Brooksfield.
        
When she describes her latest vision, a trail of violent deaths, including his, Steve asks the million-dollar question: Is Jennifer trying to help . . . or is she actually the one responsible?

      
J.E. Taylor’s short stories have appeared in Niteblade and Allegory and she has credits in three upcoming 2011 and 2012 eXcessica anthologies.
         
Her first erotic suspense novel Survival Games received a 4--star review from Manic Readers, an edgy, erotic, hang by the edge of your seat thriller that will be released on July 19, 2010 by eXcessica.(www.excessica.com) Mind Games and End Game, the final two in the Games trilogy are due to be released by eXcessica on November 29, 2010 and February 14, 2011 respectively.
            
Ms. Taylor lives in Connecticut with her husband and two children.
       
Visit her at www.JETaylor75.com.

First week of January brings some wonderful surprises!

This week has been quite an experience starting with the receipt of my Survival Games ARCs. Wow, let me tell you cutting the tape off the box and pulling out that first copy was surreal. It’s been a dream of mine since high school, and I had the pleasure of sharing it with my folks who were at the house to get my son off the bus like they do every Monday afternoon. I actually made my father tear up because that first book I pulled from the box, I gave to him as an early birthday gift. You have to understand the relationship I have with my dad, he is and always has been my hero. The man has a heart of gold and an equally sharp sense of humor that has defined my outlook on life, so it just seemed right for him to receive that first copy.

And here I thought my week couldn’t get any better than that but then Monday night I received the preliminary artwork for Mind Games from a stellar cover artist down under. Working with Scott Dawson was a pleasure and after a few minor adjustments in the image eye color, we had the cover ironed out and submitted. I posted that cover over on Facebook and I’m telling you, it is beyond beautiful.

The rest of the week was tied up with work - my day job overriding a lot of my time and sucking the life out of me so I had nothing left at night and even wading through the Allegory submissions was slower than usual. Well, I guess that’s what you get for taking close to two weeks off from work. LOL. I did get an invite to the Winslow House Bookstock event in Mass on October 2nd and set up a couple guest blog events close to the release dates of both books, so it wasn’t a total loss.

The week ended on an up-note. I was hired as a content editor and my story Grayson House hit in the top ten over at the P&E readers poll which thrilled me to no end. I’d love to see this story get within the top 5, so if you get a chance, please take a second to vote for me before the polls close on the fourteenth. Here’s the link and I would be eternally grateful for your vote! http://www.critters.org/predpoll/shortstoryh.shtml

Well, that about does it for me for this week faithful fans. Until we meet again!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year.

My new year resolution is to pay a little more attention to my blogs. I've neglected them for too long. So prepare for a weekly rant from yours truly.
I received wonderful news a couple days ago, Mind Games, the second book in the Games trilogy has been picked up by eXcessica for release on November 29, 2010. A little over four months after Survival Games goes live. I'll have to work on the last of the series which is appropriately titled End Game and hopefully that can get on the docket for early 2011.

I also have a short story that is in the staff showcase over at Allegory in the January issue. Armageddon. So jump on over to www.allegoryezine.com and check out all the fabulous stories that made it into this edition. There were some stellar submissions and I had the joy of helping Ty Drago narrow down the maybe list to the final eight. It was a joy to read all the maybe's but a bear to try and pare that list down for both the best and a balance of fantasy, science fiction and horror.

Anyhow, submission period starts again in February, so we all get a breather to focus on our own writing. Once I finish polishing End Game, I'll start my focus back on the FBI series and start hunting for representation of that series. I already have 5 books (that need work) and a partial 6th in that series and I've been away from them for too long. It's time to get Special Agent Steve Williams back into hot water.

My wish for all the writers out there is for a prosperous and productive New Year!