“Don’t let the title fool you; this is a suspenseful tension-inducing read. Yes, there is a touching romantic underlying theme, but my interest was a suspenseful crafted story. This novel meets and exceeds my personal interests in both suspense and romance. The author displays a solid knowledge of police work and captures a cops’ thought process and their dry humor (I know because I was once one).
The main character’s, Catherine, on and off again romantic relationship with Detective Calhoun, is peppered with humorous quick-witted barbs. However, you see a growing relationship with each other. The storyline also draws a line of Christian thought through it. A dynamic, dangerous, and complex novel compels the reader to turn the pages to the very end. And what an ending.”
Been busy, busy. Rewrites on Rules of Engagement and juggling ARC and TBR books, reviews, promoting Romance Under Wraps, have been a challenge.
(promote, promote right here): Find Romance Under Wraps on Amazon. Free on KU and Audible. Also available on Kindle and paperback. Click:
Two people (editor and my husband) have started cracking the whip on me to finish the rewrites ASAP. UH.
ouch!
Truth be told those last chapters will be the hardest.
Truth
Anyone else stuck in that?
I like keeping posts short. My attention falters with long posts. So, off to rewrites or whatever my calendar tells me to do. Maybe I should get a calandar. Hmm.
I’m excited to announce that “Romance Under Wraps” is on sale for 99 cents. One week only. Midnight (PDT) June 30th to 11:59 pm (PDT) July 7th. Alrighty then. I asked the publisher why ‘Romance Under Wraps.”
Romantic suspense, clean read, with a dash of police procedural.
Some folks just can’t stop breaking the law…
I can’t tell you how fun this is. I’ve been looking forward to a near-giveaway for months, and Deb Haggerty from Elk Lake Publishing said, “As you wish.”
Well, you know what I mean. And Deb doesn’t look like Wesley. Which is a good thing.
So this is the perfect time to storm Amazon and pick up a kindle copy for 99 cents!
no, it’s better than a TV!
“Romance Under Wraps” is also available paperback, Audible, and Kindle Unlimited.
She’s an identity thief with partial amnesia impersonating a nurse practitioner—trying to go straight. When one of her patients dies a mysterious death, she is faced with an agonizing decision. When evidence points to murder, she must overcome her fear of prison for the truth. Her biggest problem is the cop who caught her.
Rick Calhoun is a homicide detective who knows more about Cade than she does. When he finds a murder scene and catches up with Cade, the chase begins.
She tries to keep her lies straight, and it’s a job while tending patients and opening a bakery. He has to keep the investigation quiet, tend to his homicide cases, and keep Cade out of trouble.
Cade’s biggest worry is the detective who found her. He’s onto her, and she‘s stuck. Calhoun’s biggest problem, he is in love with her and will sacrifice anything to give her safe passage.
Love means never having to hear your Miranda Rights …
I never thought I’d read about, and like, a scam artist and identity thief. But I just did, and I do! Who wouldn’t like Catherine Cade and her effort to get her memory back, and her witty repartee, and her exploits? And who wouldn’t like Calhoun, her sexy detective boyfriend? “Romance Under Wraps” has as many ups and downs and twists and turns as a rollercoaster and just as much action. If you like fast-paced mysteries laced with romance this is the book for you. A very enjoyable read. I give O’Sullivan 5 stars for this debut novel. ~Nadia
In a heart-wrenching story about losing one’s sense of self while driven with a ferocious instinct to survive, Romance Under Wraps dazzles readers with its exploration of love and redemption. It is insanely relatable for anyone who’s found themselves questioning their faith. Cade and Calhoun work together, albeit not easy at first, to show the world how love, alongside God, brings redemption to even the most cunning of sinners. ~ Kara Kelley
Don’t forget to check out “Romance Under Wraps,” on kindle, KU, audiobook and paperbook on Amazon. Click right ‘chere for details:
In the meantime, I am continuing work on Rules of Engagement, the upcoming military thriller.
Scott (not the governor) Walker and Cheyenne (not the town) Keyes become embroiled in an international disaster. There are those who would benefit from the collapse of civilization. And interference by the Army Ranger and the microbiologist threatens their existence.
The problem comes when the probabilty of obtaining two scientists drops exponentially as plans for their deaths are known, and the only way to obtain information is through kidnapping. Never makes for a good impression.
In the meantime, I am excited to have taken part in ProWritingAid’s Crime Writers Week which was chockfull of information and tips.
I hadn’t tried my string/crime board with the military thriller, but I did this time.
not mine but you get the idea…
And equally as large, I started a trick by Michael Crichton who, when in med school, wrote on 3×5’s when a scene would come to him. He pocketed these 3x5s and at home when he had a break, would shuffle them around on the floor until they made sense. Post-It notes, optional. Once these puppies are all arranged, the dates go there. These go onto another corkboard.
Could I do these online? You bet, but I don’t believe that technology is always there, especially in my neck of the woods, as in, the boonies, where we have rolling blackouts because of fire hazards. Or someone plows into a pole. Or, worse, the computer crashes. That sorta thing.
haha, mine are in order, at least they are now!
Another fun tool I’ve been using is OneStopForWriters.com which has pretty much everything you could ever want to build worlds, characters, emotional/wound/negative/positive/occupation traits, and options to go into depth, and another option? To make your own. Timelines, story map, name something. If that’s not cool, you can add in that everything you plug in, you can save to a pdf and print up (so again, nothing disappears). I’ve tried several programs, and these are my two favorites. If you have one that works great for you, drop a line.
Don’t worry. I have another corkboard to post all of the information I need right there.
Old school? Yes. Don’t hate me ’cause it’s cool…
I don’t often plug 2 programs in one sitting, but ProWritingAid rocks, as does OneStopForWriters.com
And get ready to sign up for beta reading because “Rules of Engagement” is going through the editing process and critique group. You’ll see it before, or maybe after, my editor does!
The author weaves together a story across the lifetime of a marriage/family – falling apart. Secrets kept. Trauma, depression. Human trafficking,
The story of us all, right? No? Think about this. We all have secrets, some worse than others. We all have the goals to help someone. Our families often fall apart because we are 1. trying to protect someone and 2. not communicating.
It’s a fight for his family, for those trafficked, for his nightmares in the military to stop.
This is a real life type novel that will keep you up late at night!
I had the pleasure of listening to The Superior Word’s Easter Message, and Jim Dwyer mentioned “Romance Under Wraps.” Starts at min 4:42… Got the print screen time for ya. 4:42
‘Cause he’s a dude, he sees the cop side more than the romance side, and is almost done reading my first novel.
If you enjoy clean/Christian romantic suspense/police procedure you enjoy “Romance Under Wraps” … with the main character off the rail, Catherine Cade, an identity thief, wholly unlikeable, especially when dealing with Rick Calhoun, homicide detective.
Oh, he has plans for her all right. And she is not amenable to his offer but does she have a choice? Not even. Not if she wants to stay out of prison. And not if she wants to solve a murder — with or without the dirty cop.
How many laws will HE break and what will he sacrifice to keep her safe?
What will she do with that?
And many thanks to Linda Rodante for surprising me with a fantastic meme for one so technically challenged (me).
“Romance Under Wraps” is on sale for Valentine’s Day – from the 14th to the 16th of February (which is the month of … Valentine’s Day. Just a reminder) for 99 cents, Kindle version.
Time to grab it literally while it’s as close to a steal as you can get.
Oh, and don’t forget, authors live on reviews, indie and traditionally published.
Yes, yes I did make this on a meme generator and didn’t pay for the program…
While I determine what to work on with “Alex and the Very Dead Doxy” and “Rules of Engagement,” I had the urge to write down an idea.
Idea? Turned into almost 1800 words. Well, oops, kinda. The whole point of writing is to write, no matter what. Even when editing/rewriting/reading, one should write at least a few minutes (or 1000 words) of something fresh.
So. I wrote something fresh. Out of my genre by a thousand percent. I have no title, but it is kind of fun to tinker with new ideas.
Now it’s time to go back to work. That means, back to editing. Rewriting.
First thing to edit, write in ENGLISH??
My dance card these days are mostly penciled in with doctor’s appointments. BTW that is a fantastic way to market your book. HAHAHA. My doctor looked up my novel, ‘Romance Under Wraps,’ while I sat there… his wife (and the physician’s assistant in the office) was interested in getting his wife the novel!
Yesterday, someone with a long history of working forensics asked me why I write crime fiction. Well, I write a combo of crime/romance or thriller/romance but that’s neither here nor there.
I thought it through and it didn’t take long.
Here it is:
“I write (romantic suspense) crime fiction primarily because of the evil I have seen in the world, the crimes perpetrated by others, and people so hurt, so lost, that they need a message of hope. I write specifically to a crime or serial killer with an obstacle standing in the way of the main character’s ability to find the suspect as well as a subplot for the main character, an obstacle for him/her to overcome emotionally/spiritually.
Everyone has a wound, physically, emotionally, spiritually. Everyone has physical obstacles to overcome whether the huge stack of dishes caked with eggs, cheese, and no dishwasher or a crime, a villain, and the chase. These elevate people (I pray) that they see something in their mundane lives that they can relate to (the chase, the doing of, the dishes, whatever) and give them a message, one of redemption.
I was a nurse practitioner and saw a lot of evil. Patients in need, ignored. I also have taken forensics classes and I give the main character a good pile of evidence for the main character through forensics (which is a lot like performing a history and physical, examining labs, imagining, diagnosing, chasing down the ‘villain’ of the body). Also I understand redemption and prayer, overcoming physical and emotional obstacles, as well as spiritual. And that’s why I write crime fiction.”
She emailed me back and said in her twenties she’d seen much of the same.
Yes, I agreed with her statement, “It’s heartbreaking.” Indeed it is, and folks, even by being entertained, often need a hope, for someone to understand, even if it’s on a subconscious level.
Perhaps some of you could relate on a level of fear from not knowing who you really are. Or running from abuse. The life of indecision or shame? If you are one of many who has backslidden, or never really made a decision, consider reading “Romance Under Wraps.” The message of hope and redemption are within your grasp.
With the debut of “Romance Under Wraps,” promoting, writing “Alex and the Very Dead Doxy” AND “Rules of Engagement,” I am having a riot!
See?
I am pleased to see solid 4s and 5s popping up for “Romance Under Wraps,” and on Kindle, it is on sale in time for Christmas for 99 cents from December 24th to December 30th.
That’s what my main character, Catherine Cade, would call “easy as takin’ candy from a baby.” She’s a thief, and betting within this romantic suspense, she’d tell you to get it while it’s hot enough for the black market!
The good news is that the ebook How to Steal a Romance is on schedule, end of this month (July 31st in case COVID scrambled your calendar brain).
I’ve set up signings in my town, and I’ve been asked for an interview with Inked Voices, who are chock full of new and established authors as well as editors, agents, and publishers.
That said, COVID, oh joy of joys, has slowed the presses enough to kinda tick me off. The paperbacks will be available around September.
Next on my list is Rules of Engagement. Oh yech. I mean, editing goes slowly. Sigh. Since How to Steal a Romance is coming out soon and very soon, I am whipping my way through a novella, a sequel to How to Steal a Romance.
Name? Currently, the name of said WIP is When I Was Dead. It’s How to Steal a Romance from Rick Calhoun’s perspective. Takes place? Of course, in Whiskey River, a small community in Southern Oregon.
Looks dead to me
Then, I will return to finish Rules of Engagement. This is perhaps the most complicated of all of my works, a military/intrigue with plenty of romance and sparks in the middle of a kidnapping. You won’t find one soul in the first-person narrative. Instead, because of the plethora of characters, everything is in the third person, past tense.
Other works, in the works: Glass Slipper, a noir sequel to How to Steal a Romance with the morose medical examiner and a new tech. He doesn’t like her. At all. She thinks he’s a pig. They’ll get along great…
Next is a small town detective with zip experience, working to solve a serial murder. She is totally out of her depth and the only one in town who knows it. Alex must find another detective. Someone who knows what he/she is doing. And, a behavioral analyst. Alex and the Very Dead Doxy takes place in a rural community in Northern Minnesota.
Anyone notice a small town theme?
Next? Murder in the Mist. Takes place, again in Minnesota with one minor difference. Small one. The main character’s only help is from Whiskey River, a woman with a past like hers. That could only mean homicide detective, Catherine Cade Calhoun. With her husband out of town, homicide detective Rick Calhoun, she can take a short leave to help her friend languishing in jail. What could possibly go wrong? Alex doesn’t know what to do with her, and the main character is beside herself, a witness to a murder, as the cultish madman hunts her down.
I have the skeleton of a novel called, The Corpse in the Cupboard, which lives to its name. Kit Russell awakens in a strange town, in a strange house. Alone. Of course, a bit freaked out, she scouts out the digs she was tossed into. Finally, as she seeks coffee, she opens a broom closet and out falls a you-know-what. Most unfortunately she knows who it is. After getting said dead body back in the cupboard, a knock on the door stops her scream and a private detective, seeking shelter from a storm (which conveniently knocks out the power and the phone), walks into the kitchen when Kit’s back is turned. Oh, mercy. When he opens the broom closet he starts yelling. No wonder! So, what happened? How did she get there? Why is the woman dead? And in a cupboard? Can she trust this alleged private investigator? Can he trust her?
Welp. That’s what’s up with me.
How are you doing on your reading and writing?
I LOVE COMMENTS, so gimme a heads up, tell me what you think and how you’re doing!
Catherine Cadehas secrets, ones that she doesn’t know. Reaching those memories has escaped her, and she’s a tool, but for who? And why do so many people want her dead?
A nurse …
And baker …
And a thief …she runs from the only past she knows.
Alone, afraid, forgotten …
A cop, a murder, and Catherine Cade is now a suspect. Rick Calhoun, her nemesis, is the detective haunting her …
In a town too small to hide …
His version is mercy, but she sees blackmail …
Unlocking lost Memories is a nightmare … what is she?
A weapon, a woman, a warrior. But for who?
But with all of that, is she safe?
Anywhere?
Can Calhoun help?
He will do anything, give everything, to keep her from harm.
Because only he knows her truth, but living to see it could be tricky.
The first pass edit of How to Steal a Romance passed the publishing house’s editing team with three whole blips, which I call a win. Fixed in 3 minutes.
Made those corrections and sent the manuscript back, and it is ready for submission to be published.
Whoosh!
And anxiously awaiting to see what the cover will look like. I know what my brain says, but let’s see what their graphics team comes up with!
So, what are you doing during the ‘stay-inside’ plague?
I am thinkin’ I need to distance myself from social media (mercy! I am already social distancing…!) to do some catchup reading and writing.
Expect How to Steal a Romance on the shelves, KDP/Nook, etc., before fall. YEEEEKS!!
Military intrigue. Not my usual genre. Yes… yes. There is some romance. But more of a dude’s novel.
I ‘usually’ write romantic/suspense, however, several years back I started this military thriller/intrigue. By the time I finished ‘How to Steal a Romance,’ it was time to do a rewrite. This is a fictionalized novel loosely based on happenings in 2014.
I’ll leave you to guess what it’s about.
Got a lot done in the past few days on the new novel. I find it truly amazing how much can be accomplished when not on social media… who would have thought.
Anyway, the next steps include: Finishing the last third of the rewrite. Putting this through the paces of my Grammarly and electronic reader. Send it to beta readers (whom I will need, btw, in the event you want a free copy). Then off to my Grammar Nazi who will also rip it to shreds. Then… a copyeditor and off to publishing houses out there and/or agents.
My timeline ‘was’ six months to finish the rewrite. Well, I am almost done. So, the next goal, I continue now at three months to beta readers, six months or thereabouts to copyeditor, minus the copyedit, send off, acceptance by agent/publisher, and their edit requests.
In roughly 5 months Elk Lake will be publishing and I will be launching ‘How to Steal a Romance.’
Team is up and reading/reviewing already. I have one slot open. Just one free copy to give away for a confirmed helper to launch this romantic suspense… Facebook, comment here, or DM on Twitter!
THE UPDATE :
Progress is being made. The publishing house/creative graphics department is working on a cover. Yeeks! Can’t wait to see it!
Next, a professional website is close to done and thanks to Bob Phillips, webmaster. This is Bob (well, not really). I am apparently a pain in the neck with my emails and requests…
I am finally on Instagram. Soooo I don’t really know how to use it yet, gimme time. *AuthorClaire1 – got a few pics up…
Expedition in the garage getting fixed up for some road trips. Yay!
The launch team (minus 1) is so on it and I love you guys, you rock!
… finished a big project oh say like a novel and got a contract and wonder what’s next?
YA.
That’s me. And freakin’ out a bit.
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. If you have ANY wisdom do let me know. That’d be awesome. Novel is ‘supposed’ to be out in about 6 months. How to Steal a Romance, ’cause I know you wanna read it. Right?
For the NanoWrimos among us, I suspect you’ve dented your couch and eschewed Thanksgiving as I have done (but not this year).
50,000 words, one month, fingertips on fire, total focus.
WELL THEN. I am not quite there this year since I decided I really needed to work on those 5 novels already in the works since I began the Nano challenge.
So, after a good chapter + that I worked on, I plowed through Thanksgiving (mostly… foodwise) and didn’t work on it and still was too full to work yesterday.
That’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it.
How are you doing on your WIP? Oh, and I changed the WIP I am working on. Made more sense to me to edit that one.
I should add perhaps… bon chance (GOOD LUCK!). Bon courage (roughly, be happy, don’t worry…).
Have copyeditor, will travel. Before I sent her the MS I found a gazillion gaffs so… I fixed ’em, notified the agent who graciously let me dump the first submission of cover letter/proposal/synopsis/first 50 pages.
That being a big, fat whew, I moved on. Now, it’s a condundrum.
Should I really work on Murder in the Mist?
Or… back to my romantic/comedy/suspense (noir), Glass Slipper? The immediate sequel to HTSR? A tough edit.
(Image courtesy S. Spalletta)
What about the wee town of Olvegaart? Where a romantic/mystery occurs (some suspense)? Where the working title is Alex and the Very Dead Doxy?
Yes… doxy means lady of the night. Or day. Or whatever.
Just needs a cleanup, okay a lotta cleaning up.
AIR, military suspense/romance? Note: Imagination in overdrive. Again.
(Image, courtesy my brain)
I mean, that is done! But not vaguely edited. At. All.
Since I have been procrastinating I haven’t posted.
Because… I have been procrastinating.
Got back into it last night until 2 a.m. My grammar-a-holic I can credit for crackin’ the whip and makin’ me git back to it.
Fearing ProWritingAid’s (PWA) incredibly slow process again, I tried the free Grammarly only to find that punctuation / proofing was not included. Oh, please.
So I plugged the whole MS back into PWA and typed away.
Funny thing happened on the way to (Damascus) this process. I submitted my cover letter/proposal/synopsis/50 pages without the PWA edit — to the agent.
MERCY. Should I tell her? I am hoping she is blind to my gaffs. Otherwise…
I have a full plate, writing included. Driving me crazy. Mostly because I am not writing my fiction.
Reading is my current project to clear my cluttered brain-pan. I had one sitting on my shelf for 5 years (maybe more, like… 8?) so I started reading while I am using a stationary cycle. This gives me an hour of action-packed stuff and I cycle around 16 mph…
While my mph gets me nowhere fast, the read is getting me through chapter after chapter. In Washington, D.C. right now in a pretty decent crime thriller, so perhaps one could say my mph has taken me far.
Lonely writer. Lone (but not so) reader. Sad and lonely blogger.
Cover letter, proposal, synopsis, and first 50 page sent to an agency, and will send more off later.
Whew.
But not yet done. I have my final read-through, proofer, then editor.
… as my Grammar-a-holic says… seriously?
THEN I am done and should it be requested it will be sent into the ether. If not? Meh… I will let it stew in a drawer for another year while I work on AIR. Or Glass Slipper. Maybe finish up Alex and the Very Dead Doxy.
Perhaps why writers get frustrated at themselves, their agents, publishers etc. :
Let me see if I can put it in words that even the inebriated (writer?) might understand. – Tom Robbins
Had a hankerin’ for posting a new WordPress site. WHY? Oh, heck. I don’t know. I was frustrated (wait… am frustrated) with my website, and wanted to blog.
You know, like destroy everything techy in sight. I want to throttle something. Or the infernal internet, but I’d have to talk to the man who invented it and reach the end of the .com .net .org .everything else internet-y.
Here I will not focus on forensics but on writing and interviews. (this is also a picture of an agent’s desk. And you wonder why it takes more than a month to hear back…)
I am almost done with those pesky rewrites for “Rules of Engagement” (working title). The critique group is shredding it like mozzarella for me. My cover? Yet to be determined. However, if you wish to see some of what I envision, keep on reading. No, it’s not about weeping, mozzarrella, or Operation.
Oww
That helpful process is great. Until you realize it’s like going into open heart surgery without anesthesia and car batteries are attached to the surgeon. Routinely zapping him awake or simply for fun. Who is getting his advice from the game, Operation.
Yeah, like that
After that, it may go directly to the editor for giggles. Or I may withhold it until it’s as clean a copy so she doesn’t. Pretty much she will tear it apart. Re-shred.
Editor’s motus operandi
Annnnnd this is me. Once she’s done with it.
That would be me
*The writing life*
Cover ‘in the works.’
“Writing is easy. Just put a sheet of paper in the typewriter and start bleeding.” — Ernest Hemingway
![Romance Under Wraps by [Claire O'Sullivan]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51kapqWMMVL.jpg)
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