New Mystery with Lizzie Borden's Doctor! Pre-Order!

Yay! My new supernatural-flavored mystery,

The Haunting of Dr. Bowen, A Mystery in Lizzie Borden's Fall River

is now up for Pre-order! (Kindle, Kindle Unlimited and Print)

(click for full image)

It will release on August 4th - the 125th anniversary of the Borden murders!

It is a tie-in story to the infamous Borden murders featured in my first book, Lizzie Borden, Zombie Hunter.  No zombies in the new book, though! 

I started wondering, how would some of the people who came on the scene, like Lizzie's family doctor and neighbor Dr. Bowen, be impacted by the horrific murders? 

Was there something in Fall River that would prompt such actions? 

Was the town, or the doctor himself, being haunted by the past? 

Read to find out!

Praise for The Haunting of Dr. Bowen, A Mystery in Lizzie Borden's Fall River 

“Dr. Bowen's tale is a mystery wrapped in a love story and sprinkled with historical tidbits. A pleasure to read.” —Jean Rabe, USA Today bestselling author

“ C.A. Verstraete has an unstoppable imagination and she does one thing I admire the most. Research. This is not a long book, it's not a difficult read, but it's written in such a way that it absorbs its reader into the turmoil that is Dr Bowen's mind. The imagery in this book is brilliant, and… creepy!” —Rebbie Reviews

“History, mystery, and a whole lot of blood. C.A. Verstraete starts with Lizzie Borden

 and spins a yarn that’ll keep you on the edge of your seat.” —Joanna Campbell Slan, author of the Kiki Lowenstein Mystery Series

Immortally Yours--New from Angie Fox

Killer Hobbies welcomes New York Times bestselling author Angie Fox. She has a new series coming out about a group of paranormal MASH surgeons. She’s stopped by today to give away a signed copy of Immortally Yours and to talk with us about the new book.

To start, how did you come up with the plot for IMMORTALLY YOURS?

I wanted to do something different. Plus, I love writing books that are not only about the hero and heroine, but also about the community where they live. A quirky, paranormal M*A*S*H unit sounded like a blast to write. Plus, I love books about special ops soldiers. So I made my hero a tough-as-nails wounded warrior and my heroine is the doctor who saves him (in more ways than one).

IMMORTALLY YOURS definitely has your trademark humor. It’s ironic – and amusing. How natural is it for you to write “funny”? Is it ever a challenge to rein it in for the more serious parts?

One of the challenges – and the great joys – of writing Immortally Yours was balancing the humor with the drama of war.

Petra and her colleagues at the MASH 3063^rd have been drafted until the end of the conflict, which is bad for Petra but even worse for people like her vampire roommate, Marius. They’re living in this quirky, ad-hock camp, trying to make the best of it while they work long hours in the OR, putting soldiers back together – knowing that they’re probably going to see these injured heroes again and again – if they’re lucky.

The underlying tragedy brings the oddball personalities in the camp together. They develop ways to keep their sanity and to create the kind of relationships that offer a port in the storm.

What can you tell us about Petra’s otherworldly sidekicks? (Are you an animal lover in general? They always seem to make a lot of appearances in your books.)

I am an animal lover. While there are no actual pets in Immortally Yours, we do have some creatures. I couldn’t resist. And really, it’s not Petra’s fault. Her roommate Rodger just happens to be keeping a few small swamp monsters. And when those babies shock him by having more babies, he has no choice but to adopt them out all over camp. Then we do have some supporting characters who happen to be creatures, like Jeffe the guard sphinx. On a side note, Jeffe is one of my favorite characters to write because he’s so infuriatingly logical, and it comes off in some unexpected ways.

Are there a set number of books for this series?

It’s a trilogy. At the same time, each book will read as a stand-alone and each book has its own happy ending, because, let’s face it: we need happy endings these days

Tell us about the creative marketing strategies for your books.

Angie Fox

I’m all about creative marketing. It’s fun and my brain just thinks that way. Like for the Accidental Demon Slayer series, I developed the What’s Your Biker Witch Name quiz? It went viral, which has been a blast. You haven’t lived until you get emails from physicists in China telling you that their biker witch names are things like Wino Wally No Brakes and Two Date Tessa Hard Rider. And now for a shameless plug: you can get your biker witch name at: www.angiefox.com.

For Immortally Yours, I’m doing a quirky little viral program that is cracking me up right now because it is getting slightly out of control (which in my world, means things are going well). I’m offering readers an interactive experience that centers around the news network that is covering the war.

In this new series, PNN is the paranormal version of CNN. So I’m basically setting up the “official” PNN website to be like The Onion, only paranormal. It allows me to have a blast, while giving readers a taste of the series and immersing them in the world of PNN.

The Giveaway

In fact, I’m centering my giveaway today around PNN. Just post your favorite headline from www.PNN-Network.com in the comments section below and you’re entered to win a signed copy of Immortally Yours!

How I Begin a Book

Well... it’s different for most books, or at least most ideas. Sometimes, a character speaks to me and demands that her (or his) story be told. This is most usual with my mystery series. Others, a situation screams at me to tell about it dramatically. This is most often how my paranormal ideas come about.

For individual stories, such as those within a series, my mind’s always working on what comes next for my characters. As always, my subconscious is most prolific at night, while I’m in the bathtub, and when I get out I jot down ideas on notecards. (I started writing this even before Monica’s post yesterday!) Those, if I can read them the next day, I transcribe onto the computer.

When I first started writing, I had to plot out every story minutely. I came up with detailed scene lists and followed them as I wrote--on the order of outlines, but since I wasn’t sure how many scenes would fit into each chapter they evolved as scene lists. Today, I write a synopsis for each story so I know where it’s going, and then sometimes remember to refer to the synopsis when I’m stuck while writing the story.

Best I can say is that it’s an evolving process. Fortunately, it always somehow seems to work.

At the moment, I have a paranormal thriller idea that’s circling my brain but I’ve been under deadlines and haven’t been able to satisfy that wannabe character’s demands to get her story started. One of these days, though...

I do tend to listen to my characters, BTW. Like Kendra Ballantyne, the protagonist of my Pet-Sitter Mystery series, the protagonist of my new spinoff Pet Rescue mystery series, Lauren Vancouver, wanted me to write it in first person so she could speak her mind. Her voice is different from Kendra’s. I enjoy them both!

Do you find that your processes evolve as time goes on?

Loss of a Puzzler

I read with sadness of the death of Martin Gardner this weekend. He was a revered logician, mathematician, puzzle constructor, and popularizer of logic and mathematics. As a longtime teacher of critical thinking, I was a big fan of Gardner's, aspiring to all of his titles.

His regular columns in Scientific American and, later, The Skeptical Inquirer were must reads for me.

Dear to my heart were what I saw as two missions Gardner pursued: championing the importance of science literacy for all, and providing amusement through numbers and puzzles.

Gardner was one of the founders of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (now called Committee for Skeptical Inquiry) more than 30 years ago. I started using their publications immediately for my logic classes and still do.

I also have a shelf full of Mr. Gardner's brainteasers and puzzle books. Coincidentally, my newest protagonist, Sophie Knowles (2011) is also a puzzler! She's a college math professor who creates puzzles for magazines on the side.

Here's a favorite of Mr. Gardner's that Sophie would like:

What's special about the number 8,549,176,320?

In honor of Mr. Gardner, I'm offering a prize to the first one to identify what's special (no Googling; an honor system is in place!)