Alison Kent's Blah Blog

This isn’t one of my books, but a copy of PSYCHOSIS!, a 56-page, Black and White, horror anthology where the main theme is a relevant look at the fears of the 21st Century. Its contributors come from varied backgrounds and is a true mix of established talent with enthusiastic younger talent cutting their teeth on strong themes. Each issue will feature five 8-page stories, prose stories, and illustrations focusing on the fears and horrors of the modern age. Click here for details on the contest!

Chapter One

Tequila and Mickey Finn.

A hell of a bachelor party guest list.

A jackhammer morning-after headache.

José Cuervo might be a sumbitch, but the bottle didn’t deserve the blame for the hangover that had Jackson Briggs pressing the heels of his palms to his eye sockets.

His spinning head was all about waking on a cold, concrete prison floor, an AK-47 five inches from his nose jumpstarting his day with a jolt.

The stumbling trip he’d taken at gunpoint—from his cell, down a dark corridor, into a military command center—had added the tang of terror to his nausea.

And now here he was, stuck holding his tongue because he wasn’t so backwater that he didn’t know not to piss off his host country.

He didn’t care that the charity-based Smithson Engineering crew had just signed on for another back-breaking, year-long stint in the jungles of San Torisco.

He didn’t care that the contentious nature of the military dictatorship characterized a nation on the brink of disaster.

He didn’t care that he was the only chopper pilot on site. He was ready to go home. To the States. And as soon as he was outta here, he was outta here. It couldn’t happen soon enough.

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(You can read chapter one here.)

Chapter Two

Alexa Counsel wrapped her cardigan tighter and huddled deep inside the wool. She hurried down the sloped driveway from the bed and breakfast that was also the Maples’ home toward the path that cut across the lawn to the candy store whose business, when combined with that of the B&B, brought in almost as much income for the family as did Danny Maples’ fishing tours.

Molly had told Alexa she was certain her daughter had gone down to the docks to wait for the handyman she’d recently hired. Danny’s bookings had picked up to the point that he had little time to spare around the house or for the B&B these days, leaving Molly no choice but to pay someone to take care of what had always been her husband’s honey-do work. Finding help in the small fishing and tourist community of Comfort Bay on the Oregon coast was an iffy proposition.

With so many of the town’s residents self-employed in one of those two trades, the full-timers who weren’t retirees had their own work to keep them busy enough to put their teens to work as well. And since many of the part-timers flew south for the winter, that left Molly slim pickings.

Alexa trusted her friend to know what she was doing, but couldn’t help but wish Molly knew something about Ezra Moore. Something as in anything besides the fact that he happened to be in the Maple Sugar Shack the morning she put out the “Help Wanted” sign and told her he’d take the job. He didn’t ask about hours. He didn’t ask about pay.

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(You can read the first part of chapter one here and the second part of chapter one here, and the second part of chapter two here.)

Chapter Two

She looked exactly as he remembered. She’d always been slender; it had been an ongoing source of inside jokes, fearing she would snap in a strong wind, be whipped about on the bay’s waves like driftwood, float on a bank of misty fog. That she would break in half if he wasn’t gentle when they made love.

She’d disabused him of that notion quite forcefully and quite often—often enough that those memories were the first to come to mind when he should have remembered that everything between them had been a lie. Instead, all he could think about was the sex.

She didn’t say anything, just stood in front of him, her feet primly together in shoes he knew cost what was a month’s rent for Hector, Angie and Jin. He didn’t hold it against her. Milla Page was who she was.

He could tell by the way she clenched and unclenched her fingers around the handle of her funky purple purse that he’d been standing and staring way too long.

She was uncomfortable; he gave her the benefit of the doubt, deciding it wasn’t the fault of the neighborhood as much as it was seeing him again.

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I’ll be putting up a few excerpts today and giving you a chance to win some books. The husband gave away most of my ARCs for BEYOND A SHADOW the other day (not sure if he ever posted the winners), but I did unearth a couple more copies.

Plus, I have author copies of INFATUATION and, well, almost every other book I’ve written. He’s been threatening me with a monstrous freebie day, so I figure this is a good time to do that. I’ll figure out the “how to” here in a bit.

I also need to let you know that the excerpts will have to hold you until I’m finished writing the current WIP. Once that’s done and I have brain cells to spare for anything else, I’ll get back to blogging again!

8:45 pacific, 11:45 eastern. KWMR | Community Radio for West Marin

Today, Dear Author has up a fabulous post about author websites. I say fabulous as both an author and a web designer. All of the points made are well worth reading and taking note of, from what a site should contain, to how readable a site should be, to how a site design should reflect what an author writes (something DreamForge Media is very keen on when working with clients), and what items should be not more than a click away.

DA also gives stats about the online demographic, i.e., who it is we’re marketing ourselves to, and talks about a site reflecting an author’s professionalism, saying:

When I first started out in business, the casual dress philosophy was sweeping white collar industries. Khakis, open toed shoes, bare legs under skirts all began appearing. One of my mentors who never gave in to the casual dress mantra told me something I would never forget. You dress for the position you want, not the one you have. So authors, I tell you that you should dress your website for the position on the bestseller lists that you want, not the one that you have.

You want to be a New York Times bestselling author like Nora Roberts? Christine Feehan? Debbie Macomber? Lori Foster? Have you been to those websites? Do they look professional to you or do they look like something a third grader put together in computer arts class? If you look professional and successful, people who visit your website will think you are professional and successful and that your books are good. If you look sloppy and childish, people who visit your website will think you are sloppy and childish and that your writing is too.

(This seems the perfect opportunity to let you know about an upcoming class on The Author’s Website that Vibeke and I will be giving in February. If you want to see our online resume *g* (and, yes, most of the designs are Vibeke’s; she’s FAB!), check out our portfolio!)

I’m apparently having some email issues. If you’ve tried to reach me since yesterday, post me a note here and I’ll get back to you, or email my alternate addy: author.alisonkent @ gmail.com

I’ve never been to one except to walk through the Houston booksigning a few years ago. The next one is also in Houston, April 25 – 29 to be exact, and since I have out an April ‘07 book, and since I live here, well, I gotta go.

I’ve also been asked just this weekend (by an author I’ve never even talked to before) to be on a panel that is something that came out of the blue, something I never would have thought of doing, and something I think will be a total blast. I’ll tell you more about that later. But since Houston is my hometown, I’m also considering doing something fun for friends and readers coming to town.

If you’re coming or even just thinking about it, post here and let me know! I’d love to meet as many of you as I can, and connect up with those of you I never have enough time with when we are in the same place at the same time.

The ARCs for BEYOND A SHADOW, that is! Except I’m not giving them away here. (Updated to add: I’m also NOT giving them away on MySpace! If you’re a regular here, you can probably figure it out. Otherwise, check the comments for hints or nose around to see who does giveaways for me!)

You’ll have to figure out where …

Oh, and I have a new MySpace page for the book where I’ll be posting excerpts and other goodies. Right now you can see a picture cube with several scenes from the book.

(BTW, if you read/have read BAS and have posted a review anywhere, let me know and I’ll add a link to the MySpace page!)