WRITING TIPS

Beneath the Skin Coming June 17th

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Calling all readers!

I have just heard. The worldwide release date for my romantic suspense Beneath the Skin is June 17th, 2016. On that date, Beneath the Skin will be available for purchase through Wild Rose Press as well as Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other major book distributors. It will be offered as an e-book and as a paperback. Pre-orders will be available two weeks before the release date.  I will let you know specifically when.

I have lots of exciting book release events planned.

Beneath the Skin Book Trailer: Coming soon to the little screen – Ari and Melissa

Temporary Tattoos for You: A former art student of mine, now an accomplished tattoo artist, will be designing a Beneath the Skin temporary tattoo to be produced by Tattly of Brooklyn. I will be giving these out at book signings.

Facebook Trivia Party: What do you know about tattooing, graffiti, and life in Williamsburg, Brooklyn? This is your chance to share and learn, win prizes and become eligible for future giveaways!

Graffiti Mural Day: Explore the fascinating world of street art. Learn the difference between a tag, a fill, and a one-liner. Design your own tag and add it to our mural. Time and place to be announced.

Meanwhile, here is another excerpt from Beneath the Skin:

“Ari shifted slightly, capturing her roving hand. His long, powerful fingers wrapped around hers. Melissa did not doubt they were capable of breaking bones, but they were also capable of the lightest of touches. She turned her head and looked at him. Ari’s eyes were open, a faint smile curving his lips. A well-satisfied man. A good time to root out his secrets, learn who he really was before she totally lost her heart.”

Let me know what you think…I love your comments!

Love

Zara

heartkiss copy

Beneath the Skin is different

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Now I read a lot of romantic suspense novels. I love them. Why else would I write them? I like the fact that there is mystery and threatening villains along with the love story. I like the complexity of the plot and the challenging of binding the romance so tightly into the suspense plot line that if you took out the romance  or took out the suspense plot the story wouldn’t work.

To do that you need a special type of hero and heroine and a very threatening villain. Most romantic suspenses, therefore, usually have at least one and sometimes both main characters working for the military, especially the SEALs,  or for the police or in some CIA or FBI undercover operation investigating a crime or trying to stop terrorists or other very bad bad people. Blood Code featured the CIA against a crazy Russian premier. Exit Strategy starred an ex-military guy protecting his assigned victim from being assassinated.

Beneath the Skin is different. My heroine is an anthropologist. The hero is a world-renowned artist living the good life. Not military, not undercover, not police. So why don’t they go to the police when Bella Bell is kidnapped? Unfortunately, both have something in their pasts that makes them wary of legal authorities, and by the time, they realize they are in too deep, it’s too late.

The book I am giving away for March is Low Pressure by best selling author Sandra Brown. The hero and heroine in this book are more like mine in Beneath the Skin. In this book, the heroine is a writer and the hero is a pilot. Like Melissa and Ari, they start looking for answers and end up running for their lives.

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Do what characters wear add to the enjoyment of a romantic suspense?

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So what do you think? Does it matter what characters wear in the novels you read? Is it worth the time for writers to search the Internet for just the right outfit?

Today I needed to describe the handbag my character Bella Bell, a tattoo artist, carries. The bag had to fit her flamboyant sense of style and be dumpable because later in the story she spills it and loses important sketches. In my commitment to ethical fashion, I also wanted it to be a fair trade item. Read more about my search for the perfect fit for the character and the story on my main blog for Zara West Suspense. And see some of the handbags I considered.

Click the FOLLOW ZARA button and sign up for my e-newsletter to get a free award winning short story and to be entered in exclusive giveaways. This week in honor of Valentine’s Day, I am giving away a copy of Ooh La La, a Candy Heart Romance by Doreen Alsen which will be released on Amazon tomorrow.