I’m delighted to be a stop on the tour for Hidden Island by Angela Corner today! Read on for more information about the book and a fabulous guest post from the author.

About the book: 

Sex. Drugs. Murder.

Hidden behind the crystal seas and beautiful beaches of a Greek Island dark and dangerous secrets lurk. Beckett has had his fill of adrenaline fuelled criminal investigation and with a broken body and damaged career goes to the Greek Island of Farou to head up the Criminal Investigation Bureau. Serious crime is rare, the weather is great and the beer is cold but his ‘retirement’ is cut short when a pagan cult resurrects and bodies start showing up.

With doubts about his mental and physical ability to do the job, a British police detective is sent to help with the investigation. DI Lee Harper is everything Beckett is not – young, ambitious and by the book.

As well as tackling the new case Beckett must overcome the demons from his past.

Family loyalty, power and money are at the source of the investigation where appearance is everything and nothing is what is seems.

Can Beckett and Harper work together to find justice for the victims?
Will the idyllic island ever be the same again?

Sometimes paradise can be hell.

Goodreads|Amazon US|Amazon UK

Guest Post: 

Scriptwriting v novel writing

The Hidden Island is my first venture into novel writing – apart from a Hollyoaks spin off novel I did a few years ago – but I spent nearly ten years writing scripts for soap operas, Hollyoaks mainly and a handful for Eastenders.

So how different is it writing for television and writing a novel?

Scriptwriting for a long running series obviously gives you less creative freedom and input than writing a novel. You are writing about pre-existing characters, their back stories already invented, and sending them down story avenues that you and perhaps twenty other writers have discussed, argued about and eventually agreed over (or not as the case maybe). You can be asked to write about characters you don’t enjoy writing for and to make characters do things you don’t think they would do. But also when you’ve worked on a TV show for a few years there will be characters you have created yourself and storylines that you gave birth to that you and the other writers have developed and breathed life into over many months. There is a huge sense of satisfaction at seeing your ideas explode onto the TV screen as well as frustration if the team decides the story should go in a different direction to the one you intended. There are also practical restrictions when writing for most TV series. You might want to send ten characters on holiday to Barbados for an adventure but finances will only allow you three characters (many actors are only paid per the number of episodes they appear in) on a day trip to Rhyl and they might not be the three characters you want to write about because of actor’s holidays. You also have to contend with censorship – particularly on a pre-watershed show – many words and acts are out of bounds, and the interpretation of the director and the actors. Every TV show is the result of a massive team of people, not always with the same vision as the writer.  

Writing a novel could not be more different. You have total freedom. There are no budget restrictions. Your characters can live and travel anywhere. You can have a cast of thousands – not necessarily a good idea unless you are incredibly good at planning and organising and want to write a 500 pager. You are playing god with a world entirely of your own creation. But this freedom is incredibly scary. Every story needs its own rules and boundaries to make sense. Writing on a TV show means you have other writers to consult, other episodes to fit in around, script editors giving their input every couple of weeks, producers giving notes and asking for changes, and immovable deadlines that you have to hit. Writing for a TV show is a team sport. Writing a novel is like a solo voyage around the world. Exciting, scary, full of potential disasters but incredibly rewarding when you get to the end. Writing on a TV show there isn’t ever an end, though your part in it might finish, there is always someone else to carry it on. It can never be solely yours whereas a novel is the writer’s child. For good and for bad.

Check out the other stops on the tour!

I’m so excited to be a stop on the blog tour for A Composition in Murder today. Read on for more information on the book and hilarious Q & A with the author.

A Composition in Murder Book Tour
A Cherry Tucker Mystery Book 6
By author Larissa Reinhart
Tour Dates: November 15th – 21st, 2016

Blurb:

With a new art teaching gig at Halo House—Halo, Georgia’s posh independent living home—and Halo society scrutinizing her family and her love life, Cherry Tucker needs to stay out of trouble. However, her sleuthing skills are sought by Halo House’s most famous resident: Belvia Brakeman, the ninety-year-old, blind CEO and founder of Meemaw’s Tea. Belvia confides in Cherry that the family tea empire is in jeopardy. The CEO suspects her daughter, the COO, has been murdered and she might be next. Her offer is hard to refuse, but will have Cherry treading on Forks County Sheriff toes, namely her personal Deputy Heartache, Luke Harper.

Amid her town troubles, can Cherry put her reputation, romance, and life on the line for the final request of a sweet tea tycoon? While she juggles senior citizen shenanigans, small town politics, and corporate family scandals, Cherry finds the sweet tea business cutthroat in more ways than one.

Buy the Book:

Amazon
Barnes & Noble

About the Author:

Larissa Reinhart

Bio:

A 2015 Georgia Author of the Year Best Mystery finalist, Larissa writes the Cherry Tucker Mystery series. The first in the series, PORTRAIT OF A DEAD GUY (2012), is a 2012 Daphne du Maurier finalist, 2012 The Emily finalist, and 2011 Dixie Kane Memorial winner. The sixth mystery, A COMPOSITION IN MURDER, is expected to release November 15, 2016. Her family and Cairn Terrier, Biscuit, now live in Nagoya, Japan, but still calls Georgia home. Visit her website, LarissaReinhart.com, find her chatting on Facebook, Instagram, and Goodreads, or join her Facebook street team, The Mystery Minions.

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Amazon

Q & A

Q&A: Larissa Reinhart

 

1. What’s a typical writing day for you look like? Describe your perfect writing environment.

 

My typical day never fits my perfect writing environment because I rarely have a typical day. I’m a mom. I live in Japan. My husband lives away from us during the week. So those three things mean I fit my writing day in the best I can. If I had a perfect writing environment, truthfully, I’d probably not get any writing done. The days I have that are uninterrupted by mom/wife/life-in-Japan duties tend to get frittered away because I think, “Hey, I have time to rinse-and-repeat in the shower,” or “Hey, it’s been a few months since I’ve changed the sheets, I’ve got time for that” and then somehow it’s four o’clock and the children are appearing again.

 

Here’s my real day when I don’t have to be at school or running errands or entertaining children:

 

I plan to begin writing at 7:30 am, ten minutes after the children leave for school, enough time to get dressed and grab a coffee. But first I make a “to-do” list.

At nine o’clock, I look at the clock, say, “Oh crap” and turn off my email and Facebook. I write until about eleven while drinking cold coffee, then think, “Where’s the dog?”

The dog and I walk. I say to him, “Dangit, I forgot about lunch.”

I make lunch, head back to my bedroom where I have a desk, but where I really sit in my faux Eames chair with the comfy footstool. I open my computer and fiddle around with emails and social media again. I look at my “to-do” list. I start one of my “to-dos” but I really want to get back to my manuscript. I go back to my manuscript.

My timer goes off. It’s four o’clock and the children are home. I read out loud, help with homework, take them to lessons, then open my computer. Stare at my undone “to-do.”

The children tell me how mothers are supposed to fix dinner. I fix dinner.

We eat and watch My Little Pony or Disney or play Uno Spin and I force them to bed around nine-ish o’clock.

I open my computer and look at my “to-do” but then switch over to Facebook. I post a funny picture and realize it’s eleven o’clock. Go to bed, read until twelve-thirty, and then suddenly it’s today again.

And I make another “to-do” list and spend another day feeling like I’ve got nothing done.

 

That’s my reality.

 

2. How did you get started writing? Was it something that you’ve always loved?

 

I started with lists of words when I was four. I think the lists became stories around first grade. Stories with pictures. I won my first national writing award in elementary school and then it went downhill until about forty. I blame puberty and boys.

 

3. Who are your favorite writers/inspirations?

 

I have daily inspiration from my writing friends. I have more than I can list, so I’ll name the three I converse with most regularly now, Terri L. Austin, Gretchen Archer, and Ritter Ames. Amazing writers and lovely human beings. They give me emotional writing support and good advice.

 

Back home in Peachtree City, author Debby Giusti was the mentor who encouraged me to get published. I received a lot of encouragement from other Georgia writers, especially through RWA’s Georgia Romance Writers. And with other friends at Henery Press and the larger mystery writing community, like Sisters in Crime. Plus there are bloggers and reviewers like Dru Ann Love of dru’s book musing and Lynn Farris at Hot Mysteries. There are too many people to name, but I enjoy their company, especially on Facebook.

 

My favorite writers who are not my friends include Jennifer Crusie, Meg Cabot, Ira Levin, Elmore Leonard, Nick Hornby, Joshilyn Jackson, Keigo Higashino, Sharyn McCrumb, Agatha Christie, and Mary Stewart. There’s more but, again, too many to mention. But those are the writers who I’ll read anything they’ve published.

 

4. Anything you can tell us about upcoming projects?

Very thrilled to have Cherry Tucker’s sixth mystery out now, A Composition in Murder. And I have a new series, Maizie Albright Star Detective with the first book, 15 Minutes, launching on January 24th. I’m writing the second book in that series now, 16 Millimeters.

 

Maizie Albright’s an ex-teen and reality star who returns to her hometown in Georgia to escape life in Hollywood (also by judge’s orders) to become a detective. She’s trying to emulate her favorite childhood role, Julia Pinkerton, Teen Detective, but also learning how to become her own person after spending a life under the thumb of managers, directors, and producers, particularly her stage-monster mother-manager. It’s been a lot of fun and my experience doing House Hunters International has been great research for the series.

 

 

5. Normally how do you develop plots/characters? Brief us on your process.

 

Generally, characters come before plot and the story comes from a “what if” that has everything to do with the protagonist. The plot tends to work itself out while I write because the characters are reacting to the plot as it happens. I spend more time on character motivation, both the protagonist(s)’ and antagonist(s)’, than I do anything else. And I usually have to write two to three chapters to get to know the characters before I have an idea where the story is going to lead. Sometimes I don’t keep those chapters and usually, they have to be rewritten, but that’s how my brain works. I’m a “hands-on learner.”

 

6. Favorite character from one of your own novels?

 

Remi, short for Remington Marie Spayberry and named for her Daddy’s favorite hunting rifle. She’s the six-year-old stepsister to Maizie Albright in 15 Minutes. One of my favorite books is The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers. Frankie, the heroine in that book, inspired both Cherry Tucker and Remi.

 

7. Preferred method for readers to contact you?

 

Whatever’s easiest for them. They can email me (Larissa at larissareinhart.com), chat with me on Facebook or Instagram, or send me a message on Goodreads. Sometimes Facebook messenger hides my messages, so if you don’t hear back, that’s why. If readers want to keep up with my book news, I’d advise them to join my newsletter at http://smarturl.it/larissanewsletter because I also do giveaways that are only for newsletter subscribers. And if they really want to get to know me, I have a street team which is really just an excuse to chat on a private Facebook page, the Mystery Minions: https://www.facebook.com/groups/mysteryminions/.

 

8. On average, how long does it take you to write a book?

 

If I’m not in the middle of an international move, generally about three months.

 

10. Which one of your characters do you relate to the most?

 

They’re all very different from me, so that’s difficult. Maybe the bartender, Red, from the Cherry Tucker Mystery series. We both like to give out bad advice.

 

11. If writing wasn’t your career what would you be doing?

 

I’d still be a mother. My children don’t pay well, but the hours are good.

 

12. What’s the best compliment that you’ve received about your work?

 

When a reader wrote to say that my books cheered her through a particularly trying time. She’d been sitting in the hospital with her dying father and the books helped her escape from that for a little while. I’ve got similar letters and they inspire and humble me. It’s what motivates me to keep writing. I like to entertain and provide a little escapism for my reading friends.

Check out all the Tour Stops:

November 15th

Steamy Book Momma – Book Promo Post
Imaginary Book Club – Book Review
Hello…Chick Lit – Book Excerpt Post

November 16th

EmmaTheLittleBookworm – Author Guest Post
Writing Pearls – Book Review
Judging More Than Just The Cover – Author Q&A

November 17th

Novelgossip – Author Q&A
The Belgian Reviewer – Author Guest Post

November 18th

Jena Books – Book Review/Excerpt

November 19th

Corinne’s Garden – Book Excerpt/Promo Post

November 20th

Live Laugh and Love Books – Book Review

November 21st

Book Lover in Florida – Book Excerpt Post
Turning Another Page – Book Review/Excerpt

Tour Arranged by: