The Evolution of Marcie Kane

Marcie Kane is, of course, the lead character in my Marcie Kane Thriller Collection. While the books stand alone through the collection, Marcie evolves. One reviewer recently commented that he was disappointed that her circumstance change from one book to the next, but isn’t that what life is about?

Without giving away the story, I wanted to write a little about the evolution of Marcie throughout the series.  Marcie is known to readers as a strong, independent woman who often finds herself in trouble. The reader is introduced to Marcie in the first book in the series, The Vanishing Wife,  where she is recently divorced from a professional basketball player whom she refers to as He Who Shall Not Be Named. She is enjoying her newfound freedom after the burden of a bad marriage.  She is witty, sarcastic and smart and that helps her try to track down her friend who has vanished from the face of the earth.

However, in the second book, A Perilous Question, the incident of the previous story has given her nightmares and she becomes more reckless as she stumbles upon a human trafficking ring. She is unsure of the direction her life should be taking. She is still trying to do the right thing by contributing money to fund an orphanage in Africa when she finds out that some of  the girls are being spirited away. She foolishly tries to do too much on her own until a love interest enters her life and calms things down.

The third book in the series finds Marcie in a better place – more relaxed and ready to settle down. She helps her new fiancé, FBI Special Agent Nathan Harris, solve a crime using her brain.  She is a little older and perhaps a little wiser as her life takes off in another direction.  With the help of Nathan, she finds a career she loves, but still manages to find trouble.  

She will continue on in a fourth book, tentatively entitled Flight Risk, in which new life challenges and dangers  will be presented to her. How will she react when her life is turned upside down? We will have to see when the book is released in 2020.

The Subtle Art of Blowing Your Own Horn

Every author will tell you the most difficult thing about writing is, well, not the writing part. It’s promotion. It’s telling everyone you have written a new book and it’s really good. Of course, telling someone it’s really good is not going to do it unless they buy the book just so you’ll stop bugging them.

I have to be honest. I don’t have the answer. My books have won literary awards and I always have difficulty telling anyone about them. Quite often, posting becomes boasting in my humble opinion. But wait! By divulging I have trouble telling people about the awards, you are now aware that I’ve won some and you might go away thinking about looking into my books. It’s a subtle way of getting the message across without appearing boastful.

I was sharing a table at a book signing with another thriller author recently who was using aggressive sales tactics. Someone would go by looking in the opposite direction and she would yell at them to come over and look at her books. Two things happened. The first was that I benefited from her aggressive behavior and by taking a more passive approach, I had more sales at the end of the day than she did. The second is that I just told you I write thrillers, that I do book signings and my books sell.

I have done many book signings in book stores now and I find the best approach is to just let people know you’re there with your books and what the genre is. If they are history buffs with no interest in thrillers, there is no sense in dragging them over to try to convert them. It’s probably going to be a waste of everyone’s time. But if they show some interest in thrillers, then it’s time to proudly tell them about your books.

We all have to promote on social media, but a nice graphic with the cover, a line or two from reviewers and a call to action such as “Buy Now” is all that’s needed.

There are subtle ways of letting people know about your work. Confidence, honesty and passion (without being aggressive) will shine through. The internet is full of people willing to promote books at no cost up to thousands of dollars. Let them boast on your behalf.

Cynthia the Centipede

For those who have read Remote Access, you may remember a reference to Cynthia the Centipede. Here is how that came about.

While I was writing the book in 2017, we had the good fortune to spend some time in Barbados with good friends Brian and Jean. They had visited this beautiful island many times and they showed us around extensively. One day Brian introduced us to the Marizayra Sanctuary and its owner/operator Ryan. There were many amazing local birds and animals, but one that really made an impression was Cynthia the Centipede, an 11-inch behemoth that enjoyed eating mice among other things. I had never seen anything like her so she had to make a cameo appearance in Remote Access.

Sadly, Brian’s lovely wife Jean passed away in 2018, but Brian returned to Barbados this year with a signed copy of Remote Access for Ryan. This is what happened, in Brian’s words:

“I gave Ryan the book and when he read the relevant passage he got quite emotional and teared up a bit. He asked me to thank you very much, he will treasure your book.”

So, what happened to Cynthia? Brian followed up with Rashid, one of Ryan’s employees and asked about her. Brian reported the following: “He said she died about a year ago. So I enquired about the smaller one. “Cynthia ate her” he replied with a bit of a grin, “I was a few hours late feeding her one day”.

Brian added, “In a way I’m not too upset. She was a bit too close to the house for comfort!!!”

Cover Reveal

The readers have spoken. Some fans of the Marcie Kane Thriller Collection were shown options for the cover of my upcoming novella featuring Nathan Harris. I’m thrilled to reveal the winning cover below.

Never So Alone takes the reader back in time before Nathan meets Marcie. He is an FBI Special Agent on an undercover assignment to find the kingpins of a meth operation. His assignment initially takes him to a small town in Manitoba, Canada where things go horribly wrong.

Stay tuned. Never So Alone will be released very soon.