http://www.stephanie-osborn.com
We're going to hold off awhile on the Elements of Modern Storytelling series. Why? Because it's HOLIDAY TIME! And all us authors want to tell all you readers about our books, in case you want to get (or want to ask for) one for a Christmas/Hannukah/Kwanzaa gift!
Leading off, it's Aaron Paul Lazar!
~~~
So I Broke the Rules
– Go Ahead and Shoot Me!
©2014 Aaron Lazar
I didn’t intend to write a series when I created the rather
kooky and slightly paranormal mystery, For
the Birds. I knew it would feature a pretty little red bird on the cover (see
below), because I’d just had a vivid dream about her. Out of the wild blue
yonder, Ruby came to me and insisted on a book of her own. I’d never owned a
bird, never even known anyone with a feathered pet, but this dream was so
vibrant I couldn’t get Ruby out of my mind.
Marcella and Quinn “Black Eagle” Hollister came upon the
scene as Ruby’s owners, and Marcella’s mother, Thelma, popped out of nowhere.
Before I knew it, I had created a dynamic and diverse family and their pets.
True to my dream, I set the story in the Adirondack Mountains, which set me
craving for the mountains, woods, lakes, and rivers that I’d come to love. I
just had to get up there again.
Fortunately, or
unfortunately, as the case may be, I was laid off from my engineering job at
Kodak right around the same time. So, with lots of free time on our hands, we
headed up to the mountains and discovered the cabin where the story takes
place. Tall Pines is a rustic, wonderful cabin situated on seven acres of pines
above the Sacandaga River in Hope, NY. We fell in love with it, and it has
become the center of the series that grew from For the Birds.
When Marcella Hollister’s prize parakeet gets zapped by a wayward power line in the same pool as her mother, the ensuing psychic link helps Marcella chase her mother’s kidnappers through the Adirondack Mountains, where she unearths a fifty-year-old secret about her dear father with shocking links to a hidden treasure.
I really didn’t plan to include paranormal or spiritual
elements in For The Birds, either. I
just went ahead, guns blazing, and let the story blast out of me.
You can’t exactly call me a planner. But I have a hard time
trying to keep up with myself. I know, that sounds nuts. But it’s how I write.
When I finished this book, I was in love with the
characters. My readers wanted more of Marcella and her gorgeous half-Seneca
husband, and they seemed to enjoy our jaunts to the Adirondacks. At the same
time, I’d recently become infatuated and obsessed with essential oils. There
was no question that my characters would also discover them, and it came as no
surprise that I used the healing power of essential oils as one of the main
themes in the second Tall Pines book, Essentially Yours.
Strangely enough, however, this book was a bit different.
Although it’s dubbed a mystery, it had more suspense and action than the first
book. If I had to give it a genre on its own, I would have called it romantic
suspense.
Hey! Where’s the consistency?
If push came to shove, I’d say it’s in the characters and
the telling of a great story set in the same locale.
Marcella’s first love has been MIA for eighteen years. Callie, her best friend and Sky’s sister, flips out when a mysterious package from Sky arrives on her doorstep. Inside his old backpack are bottles of precious essential oils, a memory stick, and a bag of emeralds. Are these his final effects? Or is Sky alive?
Drug company goons want the data on the memory stick, because it links a newly discovered essential oil with a leukemia cure. They kidnap Callie, hoping to lure Sky into the open. Marcella and Quinn track her to the wilderness of the Adirondack Mountains, where against all odds they fight to save Callie and preserve the proof that could change the world.
The characters screamed at me to write more, especially
Marcella’s newly introduced old flame, Sky Lissoneau, and his damaged, but
adorable, sister, Callie. I thrived on the tension between Marcella’s husband
and her first love, who showed up after eighteen years with a whole gang of
villains chasing him through the Adirondack woods. Quinn—usually a quiet and
passive soul—is insanely jealous of Sky. After all these years, Sky still adores
Marcella, and can’t get that look of desperate heartache out of his eyes. I let
all hell break loose in Marcella’s family and in the mountains where the
scientific medical studies were being held to prove that a common lake week
held the key to curing leukemia. Mix together some nasty drug company thugs and
a bit of mysticism with crystals, oils, and the love of a big old Bernese
Mountain Dog, and you have Essentially
Yours.
When I wrote Sanctuary,
book three, I was obsessed with what I called “my Indian soul.” With the help
of a Cherokee historian friend, I wove substantial elements of Native American
traditions into this mystery/suspense. Using mystical elements of crystals,
smooth river stones, essential oils, and a haunted mountain top, I pushed the
psychic barrier a bit here and allowed a bit of mind-melding.
This doesn’t belong in a mystery, does it? You’d really
expect it more in Star Trek. But hell, like I said, I didn’t care. I just
forged ahead.
Marcella’s husband, Quinn “Black Eagle” Hollister, severed ties to his family and friends on the Seneca reservation years ago. He rarely mentions his past—until his young cousin Kitty collapses on the couple’s doorstep in the dead of a rainswept night. After two Seneca men break into their home with intent to kill, the Hollisters flee with the mute and injured girl to Tall Pines, their cabin in the Adirondacks. Marcella, unable to bear a child of her own, unleashes her motherly instincts caring for Kitty. As the girl slowly recovers, they start to piece together who wants them dead, and why.
When it came time to write Betrayal, which flowed out immediately after Sanctuary, I wanted to create a winter mystery full of threats, sexual
upheaval, and plenty of chase scenes. I didn’t expect to introduce a pair of
serial killers who left bodies on the icy shores of the Sacandaga, but that’s
what happened.
I also introduced some pretty dark relationship issues into
Marcella’s marriage. She feels Quinn betrays her, and flees to Tall Pines to
escape for a while. Trouble is, Sky is waiting there for her, and it’s all she
can do not to let herself fall into his arms. The old passion is still there,
and it tortures her to look into his sea green eyes.
Marcella Hollister realized a lifetime of hopes and dreams when she was given custody of a child. A cousin of her half-Seneca husband, Quinn, the baby’s mother was murdered in a political plot—and Marcella, who’s never been able to have children of her own, formed an instant bond with little Kimi. Then a distant relative comes forward to claim Kimi—and Quinn, who Marcella thought understood her pain better than anyone, allows them to take the baby without a fight.
Confused and deeply wounded, Marcella takes off for Tall Pines, their secluded Adirondack cabin. She hopes the peace and natural beauty of the mountains will help clear her head and decide whether to forgive Quinn…or leave him. But the situation at Tall Pines is anything but peaceful. Her high school lover, Sky, arrives to help out—and Marcella discovers her old feelings may not be as distant as she thought. Worse, a serial killer is stalking young women in the area. And when a teen girl whose mother works with Sky goes missing, Marcella and everyone she cares for wind up dead center in the killer’s sights.
If I were to read Betrayal
on its own, I might classify it as a romantic thriller.
Uh huh. Not a kooky, paranormal mystery like For the Birds. Not a romantic suspense,
like Essentially Yours. Not a Native
American spiritual mystery, like Sanctuary.
I know, I know! Where’s my consistency? Where’s my platform
planning?
That said -- I must tell you my Tall Pines fans and readers
don’t give a darn into which official genre my books fall. You could certainly
still classify them as mysteries. But they don’t care, and frankly, neither do
I. It’s the characters we care about, and they are going to be here for the
long haul.
So, yeah. I broke the rules. Please don’t shoot me.
Aaron Paul Lazar
www.lazarbooks.com
~~~
Aaron
Paul Lazar writes to soothe his soul. A bestselling Kindle author of 22 books,
including three addictive mystery series, writing books, and a new love story,
Aaron enjoys the Genesee Valley countryside in upstate New York, where his
characters embrace life, play with their dogs and grandkids, grow sumptuous
gardens, and chase bad guys. Visit his website at http://www.lazarbooks.com and
watch for his upcoming release, UNDER THE ICE. Aaron has won over 18 book
awards for his novels and finds writing to be his form of "cheap
therapy." Feel free to connect with him on Facebook or his website; he
loves to connect with readers!
