Colleen Thompson | The Goose Bump Award

Some people fear spiders. For others, it takes rats or scorpions or snakes to really rev up the old goose bumps.

For me, it’s alligators. American alligators, in particular those big brutes lurking the lakes and bayous near the Texas-Louisiana border. I’m fascinated by the creatures, which seem like something left over from the pre-human prehistoric past (which indeed, they are).

While researching my latest romantic thriller, Beneath Bone Lake, I learned some fascinating facts about alligators. For one thing, their eyeballs always orient themselves so the slit-like pupil is vertical, even when the animal is rolling to drown its intended prey. Creepy, huh? In Texas, some are up to 16 feet long, and they more and more frequently wander into the human realm, from golf course ponds to backyard pools (yikes!) But in spite of their reptilian indifference to our charms and their nasty eating habits, I learned that at least in this state (I’m still talking Texas), there has never been a recorded case of human predation by an alligator. (There have been some injuries, many provoked by human idiocy, but basically, if you keep a respectful distance and use your head, you’re off the menu.)

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Laura Griffin | A Romantic Thriller and a Chance to Win

People often ask me where I get story ideas. With my latest romantic suspense novel, THREAD OF FEAR, the idea took shape as I watched a news broadcast about a kidnapped girl. It wasn’t the kidnapping itself that caught my attention, but the forensic artist who helped solve the case.

How does a person interview a traumatized victim, and come away with a life-like picture of a criminal? This is the job of a forensic artist. They listen to people’s heart-wrenching stories and transform them into concrete leads for the police.

Fiona Glass’s talent at forensic art has made her the best in the business—which is why she’s quitting. She’s haunted by the stories of victims and the faces of sadistic criminals. She’s working on her last case when rugged Texas police chief Jack Bowman bulldozes over her resistance and convinces her to help him hunt down a serial killer who is terrorizing his small town.

Jack never intended for Fiona to become so involved in his case. Or in his life. But he knows she’s his best hope for finding a psychopath who’s lurking in plain sight. He desperately needs Fiona’s help, but he never counted on her ending up in the killer’s crosshairs.

If you like a spine-tingling mystery, as well as a love story, I hope you’ll enjoy THREAD OF FEAR.

While you’re here, please check out my fall contest, through Fresh Fiction, for a chance to win a gift basket that includes: a $15 Starbucks gift card, a $15 Barnes & Noble gift card, a box of Godiva chocolates, as well as my romantic suspense novels, THREAD OF FEAR, ONE WRONG STEP, and ONE LAST BREATH. For details, just click here . To read an excerpt from THREAD OF FEAR, or to drop me a line, please visit my website at www.lauragriffin.com/. I’d love to hear from you!

Happy reading!

Laura Griffin

www.lauragriffin.com/
laura@lauragriffin.com

Colleen Thompson | Explores the Dark Side of a Mother’s Love

Have you ever looked down at a sleeping child and realized you would do anything, resort to any measure, to protect the life entrusted to you? Have you ever loved so deeply that it’s almost like a physical ache? Excused behavior even when you knew it was wrong?

If the answer to any of these is yes, perhaps you’ll understand the inspiration for my latest romantic thriller, Triple Exposure, where I explore the idea that even the best, most wholesome emotional attachment can be taken to deadly extremes.

Fine art photographer Rachel Copeland is acquitted of the self-defense slaying of a nineteen-year-old student who’d been stalking her back in Philadelphia. But thanks to a heart-wrenching emotional appeal from the young man’s mother, a popular television personality and the doctored-pornographic photos the “victim” posted to the Internet, Rachel finds no peace, even when she returns home in an attempt to reclaim her life.

What Rachel does find is a new assignment that leads her to photograph reclusive desert craftsman Zeke Pike without his knowledge. The picture taken highlights both his strength and sensuality as he creates his furnishings, igniting feelings Rachel had thought extinguished by her ordeal. But the lit fuse also burns toward hidden dangers, from the mysterious lights that rise above the desert plateau to the fragile gliders Rachel pilots to a killer intent on avenging a secret buried in the past.

Though I was deeply invested in Rachel and Zeke’s story, I found myself feeling compassion for those characters who choose to journey into darkness rather than struggle toward the light. I may not approve, but I understand them, for I, too, have watched a sleeping child.

So what about the rest of you? Are you ever caught up in a “villain’s” story? Do you catch yourself wondering how you might respond to the same situation or hoping one will find redemption in a sequel? If so, which stories’ villains caught your attention?

Thanks for reading,
Colleen Thompson

http://www.colleen-thompson.com/