RoguesAngels: Tying the Knot by E.C. Bell

Please welcome E.C. Bell author of Tying the Knot

E.C. Bell will be awarding a $20 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

Tying the Knot

byE.C. Bell

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GENRE: Paranormal mystery

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INTERVIEW:

1. What or who inspired you to start writing?

Here’s the pat answer I usually give when asked this question: I have always wanted to write. However…

What I read really inspired me to start writing seriously. I read Margaret Laurence, and Farley Mowatt, and W.P. Kinsella, and fell in love with the stories they told. (Yep. They’re all Canadian.) Reading those writers told me people will read stories set in Canada. Also, those writers told me how entertaining our stories can be!

2. How did you come up with your idea for your novel?

In order to tell you that, I first have to tell you how I came up with the idea for the first book in the series. I usually start all my stories with a character, and the character who popped into my head was a caretaker who died. His death was ruled accidental, but he did not believe for a second that he’d been that careless. He wanted to prove that someone had killed him, but since he was a ghost, he needed help.

I honestly didn’t know what to do with this character, and couldn’t see how I could build a novel around him. But he wouldn’t leave me alone, so, I decided to enter the 3 Day Novel Contest (it’s a bit like a novel writing marathon) and commit three days to him and his story. I figured I could give him three days.

That’s how I wrote the first version of Seeing the Light. The ghost was the main character, and it really didn’t work. But, I saw possibilities, and rewrote it with Marie Jenner as the other point of view character.

That was when I realized I could have a series. I found a publisher forSeeing the Light,and then I pitched the idea of a series, and she went for it. That’s how the Marie Jenner Mystery series was born.

Tying the Knotis the 7th book in the series, and the idea for this novel came from the first book. In Seeing the Light, James Lavall’s uncle dies while gambling in Vegas. I knew that Uncle Jimmy’s spirit would get stuck in Vegas, and I KNEW that Marie Jenner, who can see and interact with ghosts, would eventually have to go there to help him move on.

I also figured she’d probably need a holiday, because I really put her through hell in this series. (Sorry Marie.)

3. As far as your writing goes, what are your future plans?

I’m writing the last novel for the Marie Jenner Mystery series, which is incredibly hard, because I love these characters and this world. After that? I’m not sure. I’ll do some laundry and walk the dog, and see what I come up with!

4. Can you give us a sneak peek into this book?

Sure!

(Add excerpt #2)

5.Do you belong to a critique group? If so how does this help or hinder your writing?

I used to belong to a couple of critiquing groups when I first started wiring seriously, but don’t any longer. They were helpful in the beginning, but I found that it all moved too slowly for me. Usually the groups met once a month… and I was too impatient to wait that long for feedback.

However, I kept in contact with a few of the people that I found in these groups, and they help me if I run into a problem that I can’t see a way out of. (I do the same for them!)

6. When did you first decide to submit your work? Please tell us what or who encouraged you to take this big step?

My English instructor from university was the one who actually helped me make the decision. She and I stayed in contact after I got my degree, and she constantly asked me when I was going to get serious about my writing. At first I put her off, but her even asking me the question made me really think about it.

When I finally told her I’d decided to get serious, she sent me a series of exercises to do. (once a teacher, always a teacher!) The first exercise was to write a 250 word sentence. I wrote five of them, and turned them into an essay. And I got it published!

That was the start.

7. What is the best and worst advice you ever received? (regarding writing or publishing)

The two best pieces of advice I ever got were: “Don’t read reviews,” and “While you’re waiting to hear from a publisher, start on the next novel.” It took me a few years to sell Seeing the Light, the first book in this series. If I’d waited to see if I’d sold it, I would have wasted years of my writing life just waiting.

The worst advice? “You won’t be able to sell that book if you the setting isn’t in the United States.” i wasted a lot of time believing that no one wanted to read my stuff, which is mostly set in Edmonton. (Except for this book! That’s kind of funny.)

8. Do you outline your books or just start writing?

I definitely outline! First, because of the mystery aspect of my novels. (I have to make sure I get that part right.)

Second, I I write two point of view characters in each novel, and if I don’t keep track of where they’re going and what they’re doing, I can end up with a heck of a mess. So, for me, organization is key. (You wouldn’t know that if you saw my desk, but I do try to keep things organized.) Outlining helps me do that.

And finally, I’m writing a series, so I have to make certain to get the long story arcs right. I know how the series is going to end, so I have to outline in order to hit the series ending I want.

9. How do you maintain your creativity?

Believe it or not, I do things that have nothing to do with creativity to fill the well! I walk my dog. I exercise. I do laundry. I clean my house. I garden. These are all soothing non-thinking exercises that gives my mind a chance to work on problems, or come up with new writing ideas.

I also do something I call my ten minute diary. Every morning, before I start work, I free write for ten minutes. I find this helps me clear my head of all the bits of foolishness that can stop my creativity.

10. Who is your favorite character in the book. Can you tell us why?

Crystal Desmoines was my favourite character in this book. She was a lot of fun to write. She’s a psychic who has a nice little business built in Vegas, before Marie gets hold of her.

I liked her because she had her head on pretty straight. She could see ghosts (though she didn’t really interact with them too much before Uncle Jimmy walked into her life) and had built a life around this gift. She didn’t drink too much, or have any real vices other than collecting cats. I liked her, and felt pretty badly about what I did to her and her carefully organized

BLURB:

Marie Jenner just wants a Vegas holiday.

When psychic Crystal Demoines tells James Lavall that his uncle’s spirit is trapped in Las Vegas, Marie is thrilled. All she’ll have to do is help Jimmy “anything for a buck” Lavall move on to the next plane of existence, and then she and James can have the holiday of her dreams.

But she never dreamed that a lieutenant of the drug kingpin from Edmonton would be staying at the same hotel as her and James, and that James would become his new best friend. Or that she’d have to find Jimmy’s girlfriend Rita—who disappeared the same night Jimmy died—before he would finally move on. Or that the most powerful man in the hotel would be looking for Rita too. To find the money she stole.

And Marie never dreamed that she’d be planning a Vegas wedding in the middle of it all. But she is.

Looks like her dream vacation is about to become a nightmare.

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EXCERPT:

WE DROPPED THE rental car off with the valet and got the keys for our room on the sixth floor.

“Can you remember what room your uncle died in?” I asked as we waited in a small crowd at the bank of elevators. A couple of people glanced at us, looking fairly aghast, and I wished I hadn’t said anything.

“Room 214,” James replied. “According to Crystal.”

The crowd around us backed away, and I guessed that people didn’t want to hear about someone dying here. Even though it was the truth.

The elevator opened and two men walked out. They pushed past us like we weren’t even there, and I glared, trying to think of a truly cutting remark to make. But I stopped, because there was something familiar about one of the guys. At least I thought there was.

Seeing people out of context sometimes made it very hard to connect the dots, memory-wise, but I was certain I’d seen him somewhere before. Not recently, but when I opened my mouth to ask James if he recognized him, he gently placed his hand on my arm like he could read my mind.

“Not now,” he said.

So I shut my mouth and watched the men walk past. They were dressed in suits, and I blinked when I realized I could see the outline of a gun under the armpit of one of them.

Who the heck were they?

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

E.C. Bell is the author of the award winning paranormal Marie Jenner Mystery series. She lives in Alberta, Canada, and when she’s not writing, she’s scouting out new locations for her upcoming novels or renovating her round house where she lives with her husband and their two rescue dogs.

That’s right. Her house is round.

Join her mailing list on her website at http://www.eileenbell.com/for news about new books, upcoming appearances and, occasionally, recipes.

Follow her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ecbellmystery/

and Twitter at https://twitter.com/ApocalypseWoman

Marie Jenner Mystery series books, in order:

Seeing the Light

Drowning in Amber

Stalking the Dead

Dying on Second

Hearing Voices

Haunting the Haunted

Tying the Knot