The Next Big Thing Blog Hop

HeidiGlick invited me to the Next Big Thing Blog Hop. She’s blogging about her debut novel, Dog Tags.  

Thanks for stopping by. 

Today, I'm blogging about my debut novel, Hide and Seek. So let’s answer some questions about that book with all of the binary numbers and flames on the cover.

WHAT IS YOUR WORKING TITLE OF YOUR BOOK (OR STORY)?

My book is titled Hide and Seek, and it's releasing on Feb 1.

WHERE DID THE IDEA FOR THE BOOK COME FROM?

Ideas for this book came from incidents I saw and/or investigated during my work.

WHAT GENRE DOES YOUR BOOK FALL UNDER?

My publisher calls Hide and Seek an espionage thriller. If it was a recognized genre, I would call it a romantic thriller.

WHICH ACTORS WOULD YOU CHOOSE TO PLAY YOUR MAIN CHARACTERS IN A MOVIE RENDITION?

My main man, Lee Brandt, would probably be played by someone like Kirk Cameron, although he's about ten years too old now. My heroine looks like a young singer/actress, Yuna Ito. You may not have heard of her. She's Asian-Hawaiian like Jennifer Akihara, my heroine. Yuna Ito has a great voice. I wanted to use her photo for my book cover, but if I had talked to her agent about permission, I would have been in way over my head in legalese and legalities.

GIVE A ONE-SENTENCE SYNOPSIS OF YOUR BOOK?

Hideand Seek is an espionage thriller about an ingenious plot to neutralize several critical U.S. military weapons systems using cyber-warfare.

WILL YOUR BOOK BE SELF-PUBLISHED OR REPRESENTED BY AN AGENCY?

This book is contracted with a growing publishing company, Pelican Book Group, under their Harbourlight imprint.

HOW LONG DID IT TAKE YOU TO WRITE THE FIRST DRAFT OF YOUR MANUSCRIPT?

The first draft took less than four weeks. The second draft took about seven weeks, during which I was enrolled in a writing workshop to learn what I should have known before undertaking the first draft. The third draft took another month, and it brought me my first book contract.

WHAT OTHER BOOKS WOULD YOU COMPARE THIS STORY TO WITHIN YOUR GENRE?

Shattered Silence by Margaret Daley has a similar flavor, a mixture of 2 main characters confronting evil and danger together while romance occurs between them. Pursued by Lillian Duncan and Fatal Judgment by Irene Hannon are similar. But stylistically, I write a bit like Tim Downs, just not as well as him.

WHO OR WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO WRITE THIS BOOK?

Several years ago I thought I was being inspired to write the next great text on Christian Apologetics. After 10 years of study in preparation to write, I found that the real experts were publishing far superior works than what I could have produced. When my thoughts turned to fiction, I realized my 10 years of study would help me to incorporate the basics of the Christian worldview, and its answers to life's questions, into my stories. I began writing my first story and haven’t been able stop writing.

WHAT ELSE ABOUT YOUR BOOK MIGHT PIQUE THE READER'S INTEREST?

Hide and Seek is a high-action story that quickly leaves computers and technology behind as the Lee and Jennifer flee into mountains with rock faces and a system of caves. Also, the heroine, Jennifer, is intriguing. She's a small, stunning, Japanese-Hawaiian beauty with an IQ that's off the scale and a temper to match.

To find out more, you can read a non-spoiling synopsis of Hide and Seek on Linda Rondeau's Writing Across Generations Blog.

 

Please also visit the following other authors on the Next Big Thing Blog Hop:

Anne Greene

Anne will be blogging about her novel, A Texas Christmas Mystery. For a chance to win Anne’s book, please visit http://www.annegreeneauthor.com/Anne_s_Blog.html on February 11.

Anne delights in writing about wounded heroes and gutsy heroines. Her second novel, a Scottish historical, Masquerade Marriage, won numerous writing awards. The sequel, Marriage By Arrangement releases in February. A Texas Christmas Mystery also won awards. In 2014, her World War II novel, Angel With Steel Wings, about WASPs, women test pilots will release. She makes her home in McKinney, Texas. Tim LaHaye led her to the Lord when she was twenty-one and Chuck Swindoll is her Pastor. In 1990, Anne graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor’s degree in Literary Studies from the University of Texas.

View Anne’s other books, her blog, Addicted to Excellence, extensive travel pictures, and art work at http://www.AnneGreeneAuthor.com. Anne is active in ACFW, FHL, Sisters in Crime, The Writer’s View, and the Southwest Chapter of ACFW. Anne loves to speak to book clubs, libraries, and conferences. Her love of sailing, horseback riding, history, and art, as well as her Citizens Plano Policy Academy training, and military life sometime figure in her books. She maintains a web site, two blogs, and judges the Rita, Golden Heart, and Book of the Year, but she’s never too busy to talk with her fans.

Her highest hope is that her stories transport the reader to an awesome new world and touch hearts to seek a deeper spiritual relationship with the Lord Jesus. Buy Anne’s books at http://www.PelicanBookGroup.com. Or at http://www.Amazon.com.

Ada Brownell

A.B. Brownell has been writing for Christian publications since age 15 and spent much of her life as a daily newspaper reporter. She has a BS degree in Mass Communications and worked most of her career at The Pueblo Chieftain in Colo., where she spent the last seven years as a medical writer. After moving to Springfield, MO in her retirement, she continues to free lance for Christian publications and write non-fiction and fiction books.

The author will post about her upcoming release for teens, Joe the Dreamer: The Castle and the Catapult on January 27^th at http://www.inkfromanearthenvessel.blogspot.com/.

Joe the Dreamer is an action/adventure that surrounds Joe’s missing parents, a vicious man after Joe, robots, catapults, radicals working to erase Christianity from America, computer chips for the brain, a mental hospital’s juvenile unit, plus a spiritual payload.