Category: Writing

Black Queen: Killing Machine

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Two more books in the Valentine Apart series are on their way! Until they are ready, here’s a sample of the first chapter of Black Queen: Killing Machine. This book in the series reveals Jo Fuentes’ s past, before she met Valentine and just before she began working for Kelly McCormick. Enjoy!

 

Chapter One

She sat at the table, with her head down; right ear pressed against the surface. Her eyes were open, staring straight ahead at the metal door. The room was a typical interrogation room: painted in that drab matte gray. No windows. No pictures. No contact with the outside world. Only silence. Beyond the door, she imagined people going about their business, doing their jobs. Filing paperwork. Making phone calls. People in their fatigues or “dress blues”. Maybe a handful of people in “civies”. People who were moving around and doing important things, while she sat in a quiet little room, just waiting…

The door suddenly opened, and a man in uniform stepped inside. He was carrying a manila folder. She lifted her head and stood up from her seat, and saluted him. He nodded as he walked over to the table and took the seat across from her. He gestured for her to sit back down. Her eyes remained on his uniform as she seated herself. Marine. A Colonel. Bars. Awards. This guy seemed important.

“I’m Colonel Brantley,” he said. He set the folder on the table, and opened it. “It’s good to have you state-side, Lance Corporal Fuentes.”

“Thank you, sir,” she said. “But everyone calls me Jo.”

Brantley looked up at her through middle-aged gray eyes. “Jo, is it?” he said. “Jo. Okay, Jo. We need to talk about what happened. I’m going to ask you some questions, for my report. Is that okay with you?”

“Begging your pardon, sir,” Jo said, “But I thought a report had already been filed.”

“This is for my report,” Brantley clarified. “You see, what happened to you is a pretty extraordinary thing. I would like to know more about it.”

Jo shrugged her shoulders. “There’s nothing more for me to tell, sir,” she said. “We came under attack. Corporal Sullivan and I survived, and we’re both here in the states.”

Brantley looked down at the contents of the folder. He thumbed through a few documents, then looked at the eight-by-ten photos behind them. “I believe there’s more to it than that,” he said. He looked up at Jo. “Do you remember that day, Jo? Do you remember what happened?”

Jo stared ahead at him. Her face was still, but her mind was active. Images a Hummer, driving down a road in the Iraqi desert, her unit talking and laughing. Sullivan—Sully, as she called

him—made a joke, and everyone laughed. Suddenly, no one was laughing. There was an explosion, followed by darkness…

“Jo? Fuentes?”

She blinked at him, and furrowed her brow. “Yes, sir?”

“I asked you if you recalled anything strange happening before the explosion?”

Jo could feel her heart beating rapidly inside her chest. The explosion. The explosion…

 

(End of Sample)

 

My Do’s and Don’ts for Editing

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When you’re a writer, you find yourself wearing the hat of an editor, too. For me, editing is the worst stage of writing a book. It’s tedious, and boring, and seems to go on forever, depending on the length of the manuscript. While I was very proud on the day I completed a three hundred page manuscript, I was also annoyed because I knew I’d have to sit down and EDIT all three hundred pages. But, it was a learning experience. If you can afford to have someone else do the editing and proofreading for you, kudos to you. But, if you’re like me, you have to do it yourself. I’m not going to label myself an expert on editing and proofreading, but I would like to share some of the things I’ve learned.

Do all of your proofreading at one time.

I used to print a few chapters, edit them, then type a few more chapters, print them, edit them, and so on. This is a mistake. I did this for Valentine, and Fortune’s Wing, and Allan & Mac. These are much shorter books, however, using this method of proofreading and editing, left a lot of room for errors. I also did this for the original Our Lady of Righteous Rage. I must have read that book five times, and there were still a ton of errors after it was published. So, with Novocaine, I decided to try a different approach. I just spent time writing the entire manuscript, without worrying about proofreading. That took a tremendous amount of pressure off of me, because it allowed me to focus on the story. When the manuscript was complete, I printed it and proofread it, then read it a second time. When I received my author’s proof copy, there was only ONE error, which I corrected.

 

Don’t rely solely upon Spell-Check

Spell-check is helpful, but you can’t trust it to catch every mistake. Do you know how many times I’ve typed pf instead of of? More than I can count. Then, there’s dialogue. I have a tendency to use gonna instead of going to in my dialogue, and Spell-check gets me every time.

 

Don’t edit while you’re tired.

I’ve made this mistake. I feel like I’m on a roll, and I don’t want to put the manuscript down. I just want to get it done! But, I have learned to stop if I’m feeling sleepy. Sleepy editing will not benefit your writing. You need to be alert and well-rested.

 

Do read your writing more than once.

Yes, read it several times, to be sure everything is correct. Will you get sick of your own writing? Possibly. But is it worth it? I think so.

 

Do print your manuscript out and read the hard copy.

Should you read it on the computer screen or on your tablet? You could, but why would you want to? It’s stressful on the eyes. Reading a hard copy will help you catch more errors.

 

Valentine 3 Notes

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If you’ve been keeping up with the series (and I hope you have!), then you know a lot has changed since I first introduced Val Entienne and company in 2010. What began as a story about a girl going on a road trip to rescue her father has evolved into something completely different. There are shoot-outs, and hit men, and a Syndicate full of crime bosses. We’re a long way from the road trip, folks.

What’s the theme of the Valentine series? Girls with guns? Violence? If that’s how you choose to look at it, I certainly can’t stop you. But those are not the themes I intended. Valentine, is about family. Our pink-haired heroine only wants to protect the people she loves. She beginning to learn about and understand the world she was basically born into. Valentine, is about the choices we make, and the choices that are made for us. It’s about how our past can shape our present, but ultimately, we can alter the course of our future.

Queen of Hearts picks up where The Patron Saint left off (warning: there may be spoilers here!). Val returns home, and the Entienne house is whole again. But, she’s unaware of the new dangers and new people who are about to enter her life. There’s Michael Aldus: a liaison for the Syndicate. And of course, there’s the Syndicate: the network of crime bosses, hit men, and criminals who work all across the country (and the world). This is the world Val became a part of, when her father started working for John Rafferty. As Val is about to discover, it may have started even earlier than that.

Queen of Hearts answers some questions from the previous books, and presents a few new ones as well. And the ending, will be the big shocker (of course, I won’t tell you here). I’ll be hosting a major giveaway on Goodreads.com at the end of the month, so I’ll keep you posted.

 

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