Tag Archives: julie coulter bellon

Blog tour: Ring around the Rosie by Julie Coulter Bellon

The latest book from my critique partner Julie Coulter Bellon has launched—and it’s the thrilling conclusion to her hostage negotiator series! It’s a fantastic capstone to their stories, and a sweet reunion romance. Check it out!

Ring Around the Rosie Blog Tour and Giveaway!

Today is the kickoff for the blog tour for my new novel, Ring Around the Rosie! There are some awesome prizes being given away, so be sure to scroll down and enter to win!  

Ring Around the Rosie



Revenge is a dish best served cold . . .

As the ex-wife of a law enforcement officer, Sarah Reed has known loneliness and loss. In order to cope, she makes a life for herself that’s full of routine while building a wall of ice around her heart. Everything about her is as predictable as she can make it until a tiny detour for her ex-husband, Ron, changes her life forever. Caught in a bomb crisis, Sarah is taken hostage by a man who wants Ron and everyone around him to suffer—and his idea of suffering is more terrible than Sarah had ever dreamed.

Captain Ron Reed has seen the worst of humanity in his job with the Hostage Negotiation Team, but he never expected his past to come back with a vengeance—literally. Aaron Starks, a criminal explosives expert, has stolen next-gen bomb technology and uses it to force Ron to bargain for the lives of his team and his ex-wife, Sarah, the woman he still loves. But the situation escalates when Ron discovers that Starks has an even bigger objective in mind—using the bomb to show how vulnerable America and her people truly are.

Ron is willing to risk everything to save his country and those he loves, but when negotiations break down, will his sacrifice be too little too late?

Excerpt 

Her words were cut off by a blast of hot air and fire, an explosion so large it blew them all backward. Ron hit the floor hard and lay there dazed and groggy. Glass and debris rained down. Confetti-sized menus and napkins floated like snowflakes in slow motion all around him. For a second the entire world was a silent tunnel with him at the end of it. It would be so easy to just close his eyes and let the blackness suck him down into unconsciousness. But he couldn’t. Not yet. Get up. Get everyone out.

“Sarah?” he croaked. He tried again. “Sarah?” His legs felt like lead and the urge to just lie back was stronger than ever. No. Keep moving. “Claire?” He coughed and tried to catch a breath, but couldn’t get the oxygen to his lungs. With a shallow intake of air, he turned over on his stomach and used his arms to raise himself to a sitting position. The inside of the diner looked like a destructive madman had rearranged it. The booths were toppled or stacked on top of each other. The hostess station was next to him now. The only thing that was still standing where it had before the blast was the four walls, the ceiling, and the antique counter. “Sarah,” he called again. “Bart? Colby?” The little girl. Was she still in the back with her mother?

No one answered. Where is everyone? He crawled forward. Sarah had been nearly right beside him. Now there was no sign of her. He rubbed his eyes and coughed. Moving slowly, he prayed she was alive. It didn’t take long to find her sandwiched between an overturned booth bench and the podium for the hostess station. With some effort he managed to maneuver close to her, the adrenaline kicking in as his blood pounded through his system. Don’t let her be dead. Not like this.


Purchase Your Copy
Praise for Ring Around the Rosie
“Julie Coulter Bellon proves once again she is a master at capturing her audience from the very first page . . . Unlike most suspense novels, the most suspenseful portion of Ring Around the Rosie is the first two thirds of the book . . . Suspense readers as well as anyone who just enjoys an absorbing story will enjoy this one.”  —Jennie Hansen, Meridian Magazine

Julie Coulter Bellon is one of my favorite romantic suspense writers, and this book is her best so far! It charters deep emotions and a complex plot. At the same time it traces the resurrection of a marriage. It has good writing, good plotting, and a very satisfying ending.  —Award-winning romance author, G.G. Vandagriff 


About the Author





Julie is married with eight children and eleven published books. She loves to travel and her favorite cities she’s visited so far are probably Athens, Paris, Ottawa, and London. She would love to visit Hawaii, Australia, Ireland, and Scotland someday. She loves to read, write, teach, watch Castle and Hawaii Five-O, and eat Canadian chocolate. Not necessarily in that order.        

Giveaway

Prize #1—$30 Amazon Gift Card 
Prize #2—Booklovers Basket
Prize #3—Four Book Set of Hostage Negotiation Team series 
Ends 9/15/14 

Open only to those who can legally enter, receive and use an Amazon.com Gift Code or Paypal Cash. Winning Entry will be verified prior to prize being awarded. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 or older to enter or have your parent enter for you. The winner will be chosen by Rafflecopter and announced here as well as emailed and will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way associated with Facebook, Twitter, Rafflecopter or any other entity unless otherwise specified. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.

Spy for a Spy is here!

SpyForSpy_CVR_LRGIT’s 11-12-13! And you know what that means! It’s time to celebrate the release of Spy for a Spy—and my friend Julie Coulter Bellon’s new book, Pocket Full of Posies!

Join us TODAY on Facebook (at my page and Julie’s page) and Twitter (follow Julie and Jordan) for drawings from 9 AM MST until 5:30 PM MST, and enter to win more fabulous prizes here!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Party!

Also be sure to check out today’s tour stops!

Emily Gray Clawson Using spy skills to predict the presents of Christmas future (before the giver knows!) + a review!
Anna del C. Dye
Rebecca Shelley
Christy Dorrity Using spy skills to find a child lost in the grocery store + what I eat when I’m writing!

Win a mini spy kit!

If you missed it in my last huge post, Julie Coulter Bellon and I celebrating our new releases by hosting a Facebook & Twitter party on Tuesday (tons of prizes!), and a giveaway on our blogs. In our blog giveaway, we’re giving away our books, but also some cool gifts! Julie’s offering a book lover’s basket with a handmade lap blanket, Canadian chocolate and one of my hostage books your choice!

I’m giving away the “spy-on-the-fly” kit. What’s this? It’s a kit of small things that would come in handy for spies (and also non-spies, because nobody needs junk just sitting around their house). Check it out:

spy kit

Top row, left to right:

  • Zebra print zippered bag. Always stylin’.
  • Nonslip shoe pads. Normally, these go inside your shoes, but if you put them on the bottom of the soles, you can creep around quietly!
  • Electronic cleaning cloths. Get rid of your incriminating fingerprints.
  • Dual function mini flashlight. This tiny keyring flashlight doubles as a laser pointer. If you’re really in a pinch, it could even be a laser sight for your gun. (Not really; don’t even try that; it won’t work.)

Bottom row, left to right:

  • USB drive concealment. It’s not invisible, but it’s pretty darn good: carry (hide) up to four USB drives easily!
  • Window alarm. Protect your spy lair with an alarm that sounds when your window is opened!
  • Super glue. For breaking and entering without actually breaking.

Not pictured:

  • Quick disguise kit. Give your pursuers the slip with a quick change. (The winner can specify a favorite color, and I’ll see what I can come up with

Retail value: can you put a price on your life?!

How to win


Enter the Rafflecopter giveaway! Be sure to join me and Julie on Facebook & Twitter for more fun and prizes on Tuesday!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Julie Coulter Bellon’s Secret Sauce: The CLAW (and self-editing)

by Julie Coulter Bellon

Julie Coulter BellonMy secret sauce in making the leap to being a published author was learning how to be a better self-editor.  I think when you know the areas to look for that are your personal weaknesses as a writer, you can better learn the craft to make that your strength.

Here is my personal self-editing checklist.

First I do the CLAW  

I start with the easy stuff because it makes me feel good to check it off.

Check for basic editing errors like:

  • Page numbering and blank pages
  • Too many adjectives or adverbs:  “It was a beautiful sunny June day and the lush, emerald green grass reflected the bright yellow sunlight and hurt my eyes.  Or, “She desperately wanted to kiss him passionately.”
  • Tense consistency and subject/verb agreement:  “He couldn’t believe that his boss had fired him over a typographical error. He is a great worker and always turns in his projects on time.”  Subject/verb agreement, “He run to the store.”
  • Clichés: “She’ll come crawling back to me.”  “He couldn’t beat around the bush any longer.”
  • Repetitious descriptions:  Weave in your first descriptions and make them powerful enough that you don’t have to beat your reader over the head with more.
  • Favorite words: “really”  “just”  “some”  “that”
  • Too many dialogue tags or weird tags:   James laughed at her pain. “Don’t bother trying to get away,” he replied.  We don’t need the replied because we know it’s James talking.  And use “said,” in most instances because when you try to get fancy “he pontificated,” or “she remonstrated,” it can take the reader out of the story.
  • Chapter or POV breaks.  Double check that those are correct and done.

Let someone else read it that will give me good feedback.  Not my mother or grandma, but someone who will be honest and somewhat brutal.

Always print it out and read a hard copy.  Mistakes will jump out at me that way.  Sometimes putting it into a different font can also be helpful in spotting mistakes.

Walk-away for a few hours, days or weeks and come back with fresh eyes.  I’ve created something and I need a bit of time to enjoy that, but I keep thinking about it, and when I come back to it, I’m ready to make the changes I need to.  Anything that doesn’t advance the story must be cut out, even if it’s my favorite part.

So, now I’ve done the basic CLAW checklist, then I send it out to beta readers for some feedback.  But I don’t wait around for them to get back to me.  While they have it, I print it out myself and read it front to back for any other little changes I might want to make.  Once that’s done, I’m ready for the second round of self-editing.

My second round of self-editing is where I go through that hard copy and look for specific problem areas.  (For some reason I see mistakes better on a hard copy.  It can be done on the computer as well. Maybe I’m just getting old, or my old journalism habits are coming through!)

(Also, I know I’ve seen a lot of these areas on Jordan’s previous secret sauce blog entries and I have to say I’ve learned a lot from them and for my next book I can delve even deeper into some of these.)  Here’s my specific list for the second round.

Second Round of Self-Editing—The Editor’s Checklist

  1. Show don’t tell—show us what your character is experiencing in that moment.  What does he/she hear, feel, or smell?  Let the reader be in the moment with them.
  2. Passive voice—the lady is being kissed by a masked man.  The masked man is kissing the lady.”  Keep it active and concentrate on the action.
  3. POV shifts—usually one POV per scene
  4. Chapter hooks, beginning and end.  Make the reader want to keep on turning pages.
  5. Does each character have a motivation?
  6. Is the setting done well?  Does it contribute to the piece?
  7. Is the story timeline consistent?
  8. Does the conflict keep the tension throughout the story?
  9. Do you have a natural flow—nothing contrived?
  10. Is there a balance of narrative, action, and dialogue?

This round takes a bit more time, but it is totally worth it when I catch mistakes like my character having blue eyes in chapter one that magically change to brown eyes in chapter fifteen.  Going through the manuscript ten times looking for specific issues like the ones above has saved me so many times.  (That’s why I can never show people my first or even fifth drafts!  You would laugh.)  Also, by the time you’re done going through it so many times you’re going to hate your manuscript and that’s always a good sign that it’s close to being finished!

Which leads me to the last round of self-edits—the big picture issues.

Do You Know Your Big Picture Problem Areas? 

(If you find problems here, you will bang your head against the wall for a while trying to fix it, but make no mistake, you will be glad you fixed it at this stage instead of when a reader/editor/agent tells you.)  (See what I did there? Make no mistake? Haha)

Characterization—Are we privy to the main character’s thoughts, or do we only skim his/her surface? Is this a character we simply witness, or a character we understand deeply?

Plot—Is your plot contrived or unbelievable?  Do you know the end and work toward a satisfying conclusion with no dangling loose ends or unnecessary beats?  Are there elements of truth in it that readers can relate to?

Continuity—Are your characters consistent throughout with no name changes, eye color changes or backstory inconsistencies?  Is your timeline appropriate? Are settings and events consistent?

Details—Do you have a hard time finding balance and detail people to death?  Are you focusing on the small picture or keeping an eye on the big picture?

Once that is all done, there’s just one more step.

Now What? Change Hats Once More

Take off your editor’s hat and put on your writing hat again. Make the necessary changes from what you saw in your piece on your three editing rounds.  Drown the piece in red ink and bring it back to life with new words and ideas.  Make it flow.

I know it’s hard sometimes, but enjoy the journey of revision.  Rewriting can be rejuvenating and breathe new life into your characters.  Don’t be discouraged.  This is your opportunity to make the story shine and bring your ideas to life. One of my favorite quotes is by Arthur Polotnik.

You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what’s burning inside you. And we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”  Arthur Polotnik

Let your fire show so your readers can experience your story the way you saw it in your head.

The more you learn about yourself as a writer, the better able you are to self-edit and really improve in your craft.  Of course this is one of the first steps in your journey to publishing and doesn’t substitute for a critique group and a professional edit, but once you are this far, your piece is polished enough to go on in the process.

About the Author

Julie Coulter Bellon is the mom of eight children and the author of nine books. She balances being a mom with being a writer and an avid reader. She blogs at LDS Writer Mom. Her latest release is Ashes Ashes.

Sophia Naziri is wanted for questioning in the murder of a U.S. senator. She’s worried the police will show up on her doorstep any moment, but when Detective Colby Black appears, it’s to help her put out a kitchen fire, not take her in. Yet. His easy smile and persistence in getting to know her pushes all her troubles to the back of her mind, until a hit man tracks her down. Getting arrested becomes the least of her worries and the handsome detective could be her only way out—if she tells him the truth.

Colby Black’s sniper skills have been a blessing and a curse to him. As a member of a Hostage Negotiation Team, he can use them to save people, but sometimes he can’t protect the innocent despite his best efforts. When a hostage situation goes bad, he tries to put it behind him by helping out his mysterious next-door neighbor, Sophia Naziri. But she pulls Colby into a web of lies and conspiracy that will force him to use every skill he has in order to survive. Faced with the moment of truth, can he trust anyone around him—including the woman at the center of it all?

Writing events (not just mine!)

Book launch event

You might remember the missing persons case of Susan Cox Powell. Her husband, Josh, was a person of interest in the case, but the police could never find enough evidence to charge him. More than a year after she disappeared, during a custodial visitation, Josh took the lives of their young sons before committing suicide.

Josh’s dark inner life was heavily influenced—perhaps even engineered—by his father. Yet the tragedy might have been avoided. Josh’s sister, Jennifer Graves, grew up in the same household. But her choices led to a very kind of different life: one of faith, hope and happiness.

In her new book, A Light In Dark Places, co-authored with my friend Emily Gray Clawson, Jennifer talks about what it was like to grow up in a household where evil was engineered—and how to break that chain and escape.

That book is out today! Come celebrate tonight at Paradigm High School (11577 S 3600 W, South Jordan, Utah) from 7-9:30 PM. Nathan Osmond and Jessie Clark Funk will both be performing, and proceeds from book sales (and sales at the nearby Wendy’s) will go to the Susan Cox Powell and ChainBreakers Foundations.

(Also, come so I have someone to talk to, mmkay?)

Book blast!

Author Linda Weaver Clarke is celebrating her newest release by offering ten free ebooks to anyone who purchases her new sweet romance, The Rebels Of Cordovia, this week—including Mr. Nice Spy!

Centuries after the legendary Robin Hood, a group of men and women find themselves fighting for the same cause: for their rights, for freedom of speech, and equality. Robin’s Rebels realize they must fight against the tyranny of a wicked king and help the people survive this oppression. In the small country of Cordovia, small groups of rebels begin springing up, but its Robin’s Rebels who get the attention of the king. In this battle for freedom, a tender love story begins to blossom. Daniel, a rogue and a leader of the Freemen, doesn’t realize that the sweet feminine woman he has met and is falling for happens to be the leader of Robin’s Rebels. Realizing the importance of uniting all the rebel groups, Daniel tries to recruit Robin’s Rebels but they refuse. Now he has to find a way to convince them. When he finds out the leader is actually a woman, what will his reaction be?

Here’s how to get your free books!

My next event

I also have an event coming up with my friend Julie Coulter Bellon: our Canada Day Book-e-bration! Next Monday, come celebrate Canada Day with us at the Pleasant Grove City Library, 7-9 PM.

  • Door prizes and drawings
  • Canada fun facts
  • Canada coloring pages
  • Canadian treat samples
  • Canada storytelling

canada day1

JumpStartWriMo!

Every once in a while, we need a jump start for our projects, and one of my favorite ways to do that is to get together with other writers. We see this a lot at NaNoWriMo, but who can wait for November? Plus not everyone wants to write 50,000 words in a month.

JumpStartWriMo, June 2012, photo by arbyreed from FlickrThis month, my friend Julie Coulter Bellon is hosting a “JumpStartWriMo” to jump start whatever you’re working on. You get to set your own goals—challenge yourself and get a move on your project no matter what phase you’re in.

In addition to working on my goals—finish revising this MS and get it ready to go, and take an online class—I’ll be helping Julie out with some pep talks and maybe some other incentives (hint hint). Head on over to her blog to grab the badge, sign up and subscribe to keep up with the awesomeness!

Some fun news!

Hey folks! In case you missed it yesterday, I put out my first PDF writing guide in years, this time on emotion. And my friend and new critique partner, author Julie Coulter Bellon, featured me and my writing guides on her blog today. And man, am I blushing after all the nice things she said. Thanks, Julie!

Also today, it’s the first of March, in case you didn’t notice. That means it’s time for the first ever AI MARCH-A-THON!

!I’m part of the executive committee of a writing community called Authors Incognito (our one and only membership requirement: have attended an LDStorymakers Conference). And this month, we’re setting the bar really high for ourselves. We’re shooting for a Nano-style “31 days of going for the gold”—only instead of 50,000 words, we can set whatever writing-related goals we want.

You don’t have to be a member of AI to join in—come post your goals now and work together with us!

So I dreamed big. I’m already afraid I dreamed too big. But I’m hoping to finish revisions on one book (1/3 of the way through now), read one book, and write one book.

Yeah, a whole one.

See what I mean?

And I’m going to keep up the blog? Oy.

Diving back into my revisions!

All’s Fair by Julie Coulter Bellon – Review

The Shepherd family is going through some tough times. Their son, Brandon, is one of two Army doctors taken prisoner by Iraqi insurgents. Their daughter, Kristen, almost marries a man who was stealing their money, and runs into the childhood friend who broke her heart. And that’s just the beginning of their week.

I’m a big fan of stories with disparate, related storylines that eventually coalesce, so I loved the way these two storylines were woven together. I also really liked how realistic Julie made both main characters and their professions—I know she did her research on Iraq with people on the ground there, and, being a political type (former American Heritage TA, what can I say?), I found Kristen’s job as a political strategist fascinating.

I was, of course, all ready to lecture the Iraqi insurgents about the Human Predicament—the cycle between anarchy and tyranny. This was a textbook example of that cycle (skip to the next paragraph if you don’t want to hear it!): tyranny leads to discontent and revolution, which leads to anarchy. In the power vacuum, the people struggle for basic needs and safety. Groups compete for power, often promising to restore order. Eventually one group emerges supreme and assumes the role of tyrant all over again. (They didn’t listen to me, either, even though I can offer a few solutions.)

I read this book in one evening. However, I wouldn’t have minded if it had been a bit longer—I would have liked more development in the romantic storylines, especially the one in Iraq. Two full storylines like this is a lot to handle in less than 200 pages, of course.

All’s Fair was a fun, fast read—I even got my husband to read it. (I’ll let you know what he thinks.)