The Thrill Begins

By Joe Kolman

NAKED OPTION, my first novel, is about a disgraced options trader who tracks a multi-million fraud and a murder through Wall Street’s gay subculture.

I wrote it because I couldn’t find many novels that fit the reality that I saw as a financial journalist. Most of the characters in the Wall Street thriller genre are one-dimensional portraits of greed. There’s certainly plenty of greed on Wall Street, but it’s only one of many powerful emotions — and not necessarily even the dominant one.

I tried to make the plot as exciting as I could – without bending reality. Dave Ackerman, the narrator of NAKED OPTION, is a brilliant young trader, but one day, recklessly trying to one-up his firm’s superstar, he goes naked on an option trade — and loses $112 million in two hours. His career is over. Then he hears about an auditing job at an investment bank. He knows within minutes that something is very wrong, but he’s so desperate he takes the job.

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Publishers Weekly lathered praise on both Jordan Dane’s debut, NO ONE HEARD HER SCREAM, and CJ Lyons’ LIFELINES.

They called NO ONE HEARD HER SCREAM “…a dynamite debut. Dane’s smooth style, believable characters and intense pacing will remind readers of Lisa Jackson, Lisa Gardner and Tami Hoag.”

And PW branded LIFELINES “a spot-on debut….Lyons delivers a breathtakingly fast-paced medical thriller.”

Congratulations, ladies!

ITW Debut Authors members Leighton Gage (BLOOD OF THE WICKED) and Laura Benedict (ISABELLA MOON), as well as four other ITW members whose first novels debuted this year were featured recently in an article by Barbara Hoffert in Library Journal.

“Everybody has a story to tell,” Hoffert writes, “but not everybody can tell it well, which it why some first novels jump to the best sellers lists and others fade away. This year’s crop of successful first novelists come from all walks of life . . . But they share a way with words that allows them to deliver incandescent stories that could change your life.”

ITW members whose debuts were featured alongside John Sargent Sr. First Novel Prize nominees Junot Diaz, Austin Grossman, Mischa Berlinski, Daniel Alarcón and Jon Clinch as well as Quill nominee Pam Jenoff include Marcus Sakey (THE BLADE ITSELF), Brent Gelfi (VOLK’S GAME), Elizabeth Benedek (RED SEA), and Derek Nikitas (PYRES).

You can see the full list at: http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6483884.html

I was about to call the doctor and report my hallucination when I found other reports announcing the same thing. Surely not everyone was on codeine … wow.

Convivium is the first short story I’ve written since I was 16, and while it’s not been an eon yet, let’s just say I can measure the span in dog years. So it’s my first short work as an adult, it’s got a Latin title, Latin words, it features a character who will be making his debut next July in my first novel, NOX DORMIENDA, and it’s got cabbage in it. Not exactly an orthodox combination even in hardboiled, noir or historical, the genres I commingle and flirt with.

I’ve been happy as a clam at having it published in Dave Zeltserman’s wonderful Hardluck Stories, especially among such esteemed company. The fact that anyone actually read it … liked it … and then voted for it … well, I’m still half-suspecting the world drank from my cough syrup bottle.

If you feel so inclined and haven’t read Convivium yet, I’d be delighted if you did. And please exercise your reader’s constitutional right and vote in the Spinetingler Awards. There are many creative categories (best editor; best cover design), and plenty of great nominees to vote for. The deadline is December 30. Details can be found on the Crime Zine Report. I am truly humbled, exceedingly surprised, and very, very grateful to those who nominated me. And I feel a lot better. I think I’ve discovered a new weapon against pneumonia.

CJ Lyons, ITW Debut Author of LIFELINES (March 4, Berkley), has just announced that its sequel, CATALYST, has also been purchased by Berkley.The medical thriller is tentatively scheduled for January, 2009.The plot of CATALYST features a medical student who starts to investigate unexplained patient deaths when she begins to experience the same mysterious symptoms that killed them.Look for CJ’s debut novel LIFELINES in March, and read more about it at her website.

GREAT NEWS! Blackstone Audio has secured the unabridged retail and library audio rights (including digital audio) for Jordan Dane’s NO ONE HEARD HER SCREAM (Avon release April 2008) and NO ONE LEFT TO TELL (Avon release May 2008) for the U.S. and Canada.

One question remains – If no one can hear her scream and there is no one left to tell, why would anyone need audio rights?

By Karen Dionne

January 8, 2007 might not seem like a particularly memorable date to most people, but it will always be a red-letter day for me. That’s the day my thriller about an environmental disaster in Antarctica sold to Berkley. Think Jurassic Park on ice — a solar energy company melting icebergs into drinking water while environmental extremists plot to stop them — neither realizing that the water is contaminated with an unknown, deadly disease. Read the rest of this entry »

By Jordan Dane

I sacrificed a body part to write my debut novel – No One Heard Her Scream. Now that’s commitment. I suspect there are more than a few aspiring authors out there who by now are looking down at their own bodies and wondering what they could do without. Anything for the cause—but let me explain.

While recovering from major surgery, I wrote No One Heard Her Scream in six weeks during a medical leave from my day job. The best remedy for the body is to fill it with passion and I did that. I kept insane hours and my body pumped full of adrenaline instead of pain meds. I wrote and edited until the day prior to my return to work. Since the start of my journey toward publication in 2003, I had completed my fourth manuscript (my second suspense plot). Read the rest of this entry »

by CJ Lyons

Twice a Virgin!

Thought that would get everyone’s attention!

Ask any published author and they can tell you about their first time…first time getting The Call, that is.

They will remember exactly where they were, what the weather was like, who was there. They’ll tell you about that giddy feeling when their editor (or agent) said those magic words: we want to buy your book.

My Call came in 2004. I experienced all the usual spectrum of emotions: elation, terror, skepticism—this must be a joke, right? Or some horrible mistake? Followed by the glow of accomplishment.

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By Julie Kramer

I’ve spent my career as a television news producer, doing investigative stories, field work, live shots and newscasts. Often I’d complain how much easier my work would be if I didn’t have to stick with the facts. So when I tried writing fiction, what a surprise to hear me complain how much easier my work would be if only I had some facts.

My point is, fiction is harder than it looks. For those of us geared in reality, making stuff up can feel like cheating. Once I worked through that issue, I found my news skills to be an excellent foundation for fiction.

First, deadlines didn’t scare me. Read the rest of this entry »