Gaylon Greer's The Price of Sanctuary Blog Tour with a Guest Post

I am so excited to have Gaylon Greer here at Paranormal and Romantic Suspense Reviews with a Giveaway and Guest Post.

Thanks Gaylon and Goddess Fish Promotions for allowing me to join your The Price of Sanctuary Blog Tour!

Please take it away, Gaylon!

Blog #7: Starting a New Writing Day

In a recent blog I said that the hardest part of writing, for me at least, is getting off the starting blocks. It’s the same thing every darn morning: a new day, a new blank page, a new load of inertia. The easiest way I have found to break through the resistance is to read the previous day’s writing. Besides getting me ready for a new push, this reorients me to my story, ties me into where I left off, and reacquaints me with my characters. It’s also a chance to catch yesterday’s glitches. I’m not suggestion a rewrite every morning; that’s a formula for never finishing a manuscript. But when you read through your day-old production you will note rough spots that can be smoothed out with a word or a phrase. You will also find spots where you need to affix sticky notes because you think of something important to include in your eventual rewrite.

To make the exercise more profitable, try reading aloud. If you feel silly reading to an empty room, get over it. There’s a tremendous payoff here, particularly when you read dialogue. Here’s the key: reading aloud enables you to hear bad writing that a silent read would miss. If your tongue gets twisted up on a string of narrative, it’s almost certain that readers will find it clunky even when reading silently.

I sometimes take this a step further and read into a recorder that I play back over my next cup of coffee. If you try this, don’t get dramatic and try to ape the sounds and inflections that you want your characters to have. Why not? Because your readers will have no idea what you intended unless it shows up on the page. If it’s there, you won’t need to practice your acting talent to bring it out. Just read everything in a conversational tone, then listen and see if the beats you have inserted with the dialogue really do their job. This is particularly important with dialogue; you won’t really know whether it sounds like the spoken word until you hear it yourself.





 

BLURB:

Accustomed to a life of privilege, Shelby Cervosier new finds herself running for her life. Accused of killing an American Immigration agent, Shelby has undertaken a mission on behalf of a secretive American espionage agency in exchange for a promise of legal amnesty and political asylum in America. Now, however, the agent who coerced her into accepting the assignment wants her dead to cover up the bungled mission. Two hit men compete for the bounty that has been placed on her head.

Shelby and her younger sister flee into America’s heartland in search of a safe haven. They find only fear and danger, however, when they are captured by one of the assassins, Hank.

Prepared to do whatever it takes to keep her sister safe, Shelby cooperates with her capturer. Deciding that his feelings for them are more important than bounty money, Hank takes the sisters under his wing and secrets then away to his hideout: a farm in a remote corner of Colorado. They become a part of his extended family; they have finally found sanctuary.

Their safe new world is shattered when the second hit man, a relentless psychopath, captures Shelby’s little sister and uses her to lure Shelby and her lover into a middle-of-the-night showdown on an isolated Rocky Mountain battleground.

Excerpt:

“I'm coming out,” Vlad shouted. He stuck an arm through where the windshield's glass used to be and waved the long-barreled revolver with its laser sight. “Look at this. See? I'm tossing it.” He pitched the weapon in her direction. It landed roughly midway between them.

“The other one,” Shelby said. “The automatic.”

He held up the weapon and tossed it. “I'm unarmed. You won't shoot an unarmed man, will you?”

She waited with the Beretta centered on his windshield.

He stuck both hands out. “See? Nothing to fight with. I'm coming out.”

“Not all the way,” she said. “Head and shoulders, then stop. I have to know you're unarmed.”

“Whatever you say.” He wriggled through the broken wind¬shield, favoring the arm she had twisted.

“Stop,” she commanded when his shoulders were outside the vehicle. Keeping the pistol trained on him, she stood and hobbled close. Black smoke poured out through the windows. Orange flames danced inside. “Tell me again what you did to my friend in Arizona.”

“It's burning,” he said, desperation kicking his voice up to soprano.

“Describe once more how it felt in Arkansas, watching Elizabeth's eyes as she died.”

“You've got to let me out.”

“Why do I have to do that?”

His fingers dug into the soil, and he started pulling his body out of the wreck.

Aiming carefully, Shelby put a round through his shoulder, shattering the joint.

He muttered a low-pitched “Umph,” but kept wriggling, pulling with one arm.

She put a round in his other shoulder. With the Beretta lowered, she backed away from flames that were now spurting out the windows.

“Kill me,” he begged. “In God's name, kill me.”

“I could do that, but what if there's no hell?” She let the pistol hang loosely at her side. “This might be your only chance to burn.”

“Mercy,” he screamed. “Have mercy.”

She turned away and headed for the wrecked VW. His shrieking followed her, and she hesitated.

He screamed again.

Despising the weakness that compelled her, she turned back. He looked up at her and begged, “Shoot me. Don't let me burn.” She aimed at his head. Her finger tightened on the trigger, but she could not squeeze.

“Please,” he pleaded. “In the name of God, do it. Be merciful.”






 

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Working with traveling carnivals and itinerant farm labor gangs during his teen and early adult years took Gaylon Greer up, down, and across the United States and introduced him to a plethora of colorful individuals who serve as models for his fictional characters. A return to school in pursuit of a high school diploma while serving in the Air Force led to three university degrees, including a Ph.D. in economics, and a stint as a university professor. After publishing several books on real estate and personal financial planning, as well as lecturing on these subjects to nationwide audiences, he shifted his energy to writing fiction. Gaylon lives near Austin, Texas.

Gaylon’s Web Site: http://gaylongreer.com/

Amazon Author Page:

http://www.amazon.com/Gaylon-E.-Greer/e/B000APV4BE/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kxEUXWou4A

Buy Link:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Price-Sanctuary-Gaylon-Greer-ebook/dp/B00GAGFPQ2