Monday, February 22, 2016

VICTIMS READING ABOUT VICTIMS by Rolynn Anderson



MUSE MONDAY
I'm very happy to welcome Rolynn Anderson to my blog. I've read her books and I know you'll enjoy her post.
One of the books I recently published, FEAR LAND, is centered on the many shades of post traumatic stress suffered by people of all ages and walks of life.  My concern about the malady intensified as I dug deeper into the research, so I decided to give a dollar of my profit on each paperback to a brain research foundation.  I’m considering a dollar donation per book to victims of crime with my seventh novel, CEZANNE’S GHOST, coming out later in the year.  That idea started me thinking about the readership of suspense, mystery and thriller novels.
Do victims of crime read books in my genre?
After their traumatizing experiences, do readers who once enjoyed books in my genre, switch to tamer stories in, say, the contemporary or inspirational categories?  Eventually, given the time/distance to grieve and heal, do victims return to my genre?
Are most of the readers in my genre men and women who have never been victims of crime?
While you ponder these questions, consider FAINT, my last book in the boutique funeral planner suspense series:

FAINT
The Funeral Planner Suspense Series - Book 3
By Award-winning Author, Rolynn Anderson
Their dead clients refuse to rest in peace.
How did small-town boutique funeral planning morph into crime-solving?  Ask freelance embalmer Trudy Solomon, or Pete McDonald, a blind, forensic investigator.  They’re unearthing mysteries of the deceased for their pregnant boss, Jan Keller, while her journalist husband, Roman, is benched by a ten million dollar defamation suit.
A dead client goes missing, and investigating his disappearance forces Trudy and Pete to confront their fiercely independent styles.  When danger stalks them, will they blend brains, brawn and belief in one another to solve crimes and save themselves?

Excerpt from FAINT by Rolynn Anderson:

Guilt consumed her, its toxic waves crashing against her conscience, until she felt hollowed out. Brainless. Thoughtless. But she cried for the loss, an act which gave her hope. To cry for something meant she’d retained a remnant of what was right. If I cry harder, I’ll show everyone I’m a good person.
Good person? Ha!  I criticize my own parents. My interest in cadavers is so intense I keep it a secret. And what I did to Theo? I tell anyone and I’ll not only lose my license, I might go to jail.
Her throat burned, the pounding in her head intensified, and she felt drained from crying.
Trudy opened her eyes to the brown of Pete’s. Thank God, you’re here, she wanted to say, but the thing in her throat wouldn’t let her. Someone grabbed her hand. Bella. ‘Bella Coola,’ Roman had nicknamed his grandmother. She was a cool woman, a friend.

Would they be here if they knew my secrets?


 

16 comments:

  1. What an intense excerpt. Sounds like another winner, Rolynn.

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  2. Intriguing blurb and excerpt! Best of luck with sales, Rolynn :)

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  3. Really love the way you write! Much success to you!

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  4. Thanks, Diane, Joanne and Ilona! I'm having a great time writing my new suspense book, CEZANNE'S GHOST, set in Aix en Provence. I spent a month there last fall, absorbing the setting for this novel. Somebody's got to do it!

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  5. Very intense excerpt. Also very compelling. Makes we want to know more. This one's a keeper!

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    1. Thanks, Margo. It's my third time keeping track of a dog and an old fellow with Alzheimer's; I put a blind man in there as well...Geesh!...way to make this hard!

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  6. I do think people who've suffered trauma read stories similar to their own. It's a way for them to connect to someone with the same feelings and wanting to see how they handle them without actually having to talk about it.
    Faint sounds amazing, Rolynn. Good luck.

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    1. Sandy, your idea makes sense, which means we definitely have to do our research. I was wondering if some traumatized readers avoid such reminders and switch to gentler plots.

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    2. You do try to give yourself a break from those thoughts, but when a book comes along that you identify with, you can't help but check it out. It's good that you research and don't avoid these issues.

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    3. Good point. They say there's something to knowing others have been through such suffering and have come out the other side. Since we are HEA writers...that must help some who were victims.

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  7. I loved your excerpt, Rolynn. PTSD requires a lot of study when writing about it or coming to terms with its effects.

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    1. Thanks for your praise, Vonnie. What got me started on this was a feeling that because I've never been victimized, maybe I'm people like me are too cavalier in our handling of it in our books...treating it more like fantasy then reality.

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  8. Great excerpt - very powerful. I love suspense fiction, and I've never been a victim of crime. However, I was on the phone with my daughter when she was mugged on the street a few years ago. The robber yanked the phone from her hand and pulled out some of her hair in the process. I heard it all from the other end. It was terrifying for a mother, I have to tell you. Neither of us has been the same since.

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    1. Thanks for the compliment, Alison. Now THAT is scary...you must have felt so helpless and fearful. I understand that it changed something in you...and I wager that you can write about this kind of fear better than I can...since I've never suffered from a crime.

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  9. Thanks for hosting me, Brenda! See you on Roses of Prose.

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