WHEN DEATH COMES FOR YOU
Sergeant Brooke Forester wants to live a life that means something, and one in which she isn’t perpetually shrouded by her father’s sins.
YOU MUST FIGHT
But in the blink-and-you-miss town of Sula, Montana, gossip constantly sweeps through the community… And, while Brooke has been the public’s target for years, soon no gossip is juicier than that about the sexy, new FBI agent Sawyer Reynolds who has come to investigate a series of strange and gruesome murders.
OR DIE
Just when Brooke thinks she escapes her past, her past returns—
and brings a cold, calculating psychopath right along with it.
And this time, the killer won’t stop until they take every last shred of her identity and eventually, her life.
Excerpt from Hidden Truth (STEALTH Series, Book 1):
She clicked open the tabs of the gun case, exposing the M24 sniper rifle. It was a thing of beauty. Even without firing a single round from this particular gun, Trish Martin could recall the precise feel of pulling the trigger, smelling the spent powder and watching as her enemies fell to their knees.
There was no greater feeling in the world than a justified kill. The men standing around her, those dealing in death, would be easy to strip from this earth…
This week as a special Thank You to my readers, I have joined with fellow paranormal romance author Chris Karlsen and we have created a book giveaway! To take part, please leave us your favorite line from a book, including title, and author in the comment box below. The best line wins a copy of Chris Karlsen's e-book, Golden Chariot.
Please have fun, be creative, and enjoy! And once again, thank you!
-Danica Winters and Chris Karlsen
Tension is one of the best means to hold a reader’s attention and keep them from putting your book down. It is also a feeling that isn’t always clearly defined.
If you ask for an example of what adds tension to a story, the first response you often hear is actually an action scene. The problem with that answer is: action isn’t necessarily tension. The car chase through Paris in the movie “Ronin,” is fantastic action. However, the movie’s tension isn’t the high speed pursuit and crash at the end, but comes from the conflict within the group of mercenaries gathered together to obtain a valuable suitcase. Some are trustworthy, others are not. The viewer is on the edge of their seat throughout the movie, wondering if Jean Reno, or Robert De Niro, or Stellan Skarsgard is a traitor.
In any genre there are different ways to inject the story with tension. In a scene from my novel Golden Chariot, Charlotte Dashiell, my heroine, believes that the characters from The Iliad, by Homer, may not have been only fictional. She engages in a heated discussion with Atakan Vadim, the hero. For every point she makes, he presents a challenging counterpoint and thus creates tension. I will paraphrase the dialogue from the scene.
Charlotte: “The story of Troy and the war was retold through the centuries. I’m saying it wasn’t a mere war story. It had to be more.”
Atakan: “No. The bones of the story were given to him (Homer)...a tale which happened to include a few accurate details. Like many bards, he filled it with people from his imagination.”
Charlotte: “Something made the story unique. I say it’s the people.”
Atakan: “He took bits of old tales, injects the legends with heroes and villains for entertainment purposes. Why do you dispute the logical?”
This is a small section of dialogue. Atakan’s disbelief, his doubt and the fact he forces her to defend her beliefs drives the tension between them.
Combining tension with action can be especially fun to write as we as paranormal romance authors can vicariously live experience with our characters. In the following, Charlotte, who’s a nautical archaeologist and part of a shipwreck recovery team, is out swimming in the sea near the team’s campsite. Unbeknownst to her, there’s been an undersea earthquake, which has triggered dangerous tides. What was a relaxing swim becomes deadly dangerous for her.
Like all the team, she was a strong swimmer and tried to power through the swells and turn back. Fighting the tide, she wasn’t making any progress. The current was sweeping her the opposite direction and toward the open water. She kicked harder as the waves surged over her head, pushing against her strokes, the salt irritating her eyes. Every time she opened her mouth to take a gulp of air after the first set, the whitecaps smacked her in the face, sending seawater into her lungs than air.
She caught glimpses of the increasingly distant beach. If she screamed for help no one would hear.
Tension doesn’t always have to be big. We can connect with readers by giving our characters moments of tension that we all experience in our daily lives. Your protagonist absolutely must make a particular flight. But as paranormal romance writers, we are compelled to make things difficult. We torment him in all kinds of ways: He can’t find his car keys. The drawbridge he must cross to get to the airport is up and what seems to be the slowest boat in the world is passing through. He misses the shuttle bus at the long term parking by seconds. The TSA officer chooses the protagonist to pull out of line and perform a thorough and lengthy search of. Haven’t we all had days like this?
As you write, I suggest to look for a way to ramp up the tension in every scene, whether in a small or big way--it will keep your readers wanting to turn the page.
Thank you for visiting Danica Winters' blog. I would like to present to you my friend and fellow author Sue Lyndon. Sue Lyndon writes steamy bdsm romance. She's currently published by Books to Go Now, Etopia Press, Blushing Books, and Discipline and Desire. She enjoys a good book in any genre, loves Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica, and runs on coffee and chocolate. Please feel free to visit her blog, see her other work on Amazon, or order her book Valentine Submission, or Mountian Devil and show your support! 
Hi there. My name is Sue and I’m an erotic romance author. I’ve always been an avid reader too, and I enjoy a good story in pretty much any genre. I’ve participated in book clubs, chatted books with folks on Goodreads, Twitter, Facebook, and other places, and even before I became an erotic romance author I was aware of the stigma against erotic romance readers and authors. Before I began writing in this genre, I didn’t advertise the fact that I read these books either. I was afraid my bookish friends would think I was a pervert, especially since I preferred bdsm romances to any other subgenre of erotic romance. Talk about a double whammy.
I suppose whether or not I’m a pervert is a matter of opinion, but I can tell you I’m pretty darn normal. I’m a wife and mother. I have a real job and I pay taxes. I vote. I go to church on occasion. Oh, and I drive a minivan and live in the suburbs too. That paints a pretty normal, soccer mom-like picture, right?
Despite my love of reading erotic romance, I started my writing career by writing science fiction and fantasy. If my characters in these stories had to have sex, it was glossed over in a sentence or two. After all, my mother, relatives, and friends were reading these stories. I sure didn’t want them to think I was sick and needed counseling. I firmly believe that reading erotic romance is just as healthy as reading any other genre, but I understand not everyone shares this view. Some readers and authors look down their noses at erotic romance and don’t take it seriously. It’s seen as a lesser genre, and unfortunately it doesn’t get the respect it deserves. It’s been called names like trashy, smutty, and lowbrow, to name a few.
At first I was hesitant to tell anyone my pen name, but that’s all changed during this past year. If someone asks what I’ve been up to lately, I usually divulge my naughty writing activities. After all, it’s a big part of my life, so why should I walk around pretending it doesn’t exist? I’m aware of the stigma and I know there will always be those who blast the erotic romance genre, but I’ve developed a devil-may-care attitude and it feels great. If erotic romance is not your cup of tea, don’t read it and don’t ridicule it, because chances are you don’t understand it.
Criticism cuts deep, but I think life is too short to worry about other people’s opinions. If you enjoy reading erotic romance, then read it. It’s a perfectly healthy form of escapism no different than reading science fiction, fantasy, young adult, or any other genre out there. And if you enjoy writing it, then write it and hold your head high.
