If you make Allison Brennan mad, you might not want to eat or drink anything she prepares for you. Especially beware if she tells you to "pick your poison." She might be speaking literally. That's what happens with romantic suspense authors: We're always looking for ways to kill people. Allison joins us to talk about her new release, If I Should Die, what makes Dean Koontz such a great writer and trying to scare her friends. (I think she might be a little evil.)
HEA: Welcome, Allison! You mention the book 65 Ways to Kill Your Victim in Print on your website. So … what's your favorite way to kill someone in print?
Allison: That's like picking my favorite book! Or my favorite child! : ) …
I'm partial to poison because it can be hard to detect. In the novella Love Is Murder, which is printed as bonus material in If I Should Die, the killer used her knowledge of legal drugs to kill. That was fun to research! In Cutting Edge, the killer used water hemlock to poison her boyfriend.
For the fear factor, anything terrifying works for me. For example, my good friend, historical romance writer Monica McCarty, said my books didn't scare her. I asked her what she was most afraid of. Her response: being buried alive. So I used that in Playing Dead. I hope I scared her!
I don't want to give anything away in If I Should Die, but I'll admit, I really loved the climax scene in this book, using one of my own personal fears.
HEA: What's your favorite Dean Koontz book? Mine is Lightning, followed by Watchers. His characters are so well-drawn – and I love that women have significant, strong roles.
Allison: I love Watchers. To me, it's his definitive work, like The Stand is for Stephen King. Both authors write female characters exceptionally well. All characters, really! My second-favorite Koontz book might be Velocity. I know a lot of people didn't like it, but I absolutely loved the moral dilemma the hero faced, and I read the book in one sitting.
HEA: You say on your website that you collected more than 100 rejections before you sold your first book. Would you like to share your harshest rejection? (Feel free to do a na-na dance!)
Allison: I had one request for my first completed manuscript after sending over 50 queries. I was thrilled — all it takes is one person to say yes! I sent it off with high hopes. A few weeks later, I received a letter from the agent. She'd enclosed only my cover sheet with one word, double-underlined: SUPERFICIAL. Ouch. She was right, but it surprised me. Fortunately, I was already working on my second book. (That, too, didn't sell. I wrote five books before I sold.) Rejection is part of the business. It helps us develop thick skins for bad reviews! LOL.
HEA: What do you do when your characters aren't cooperating or you get stuck?
Allison: Go to Starbucks with my laptop. I've found that a change in environment helps my muse. And the caffeine doesn't hurt, either!
I also re-read the last chapter or two I've written to see where the story derailed. Usually it's because I'm second-guessing myself, or I'm trying to force the story in one direction and not letting my characters be themselves. And if I am REALLY stuck, I kill someone. (In the book!)
HEA: What's your favorite video game or TV show?
Allison: I love video games — particularly Lego StarWars. (When I was a kid, Ms. Pac Man and Centipede were my favorites!) I have games on my iPad and am addicted to Words With Friends, which my pal Toni McGee Causey and I currently have three games going. (And I mastered Plants vs. Zombies — what fun!)
But television is my great reward. When I was working full time and writing at night, I gave up television for three years. So now, I savor it and am very picky. I buy my favorite shows on iTunes, and the rest I record. When I'm done writing for the night, I usually need to unwind and TV is the best. I'm currently watching many shows. Among my favorites: Justified, Haven, Supernatural, Prime Suspect, and Luther. My guilty pleasure is Castle. And I just started watching American Horror Story. At first, I didn't like it at all — I thought it was gross for the sake of being gross. And it had the TSTL factor: Why don't they just leave the damn house?? But by episode three I realized there was more depth than I'd thought, and now I am hooked. It's scary and suspenseful and, yeah, a bit gory. It's all about the characters — and I like the dead characters more than the living! And Jessica Lange — wow.
HEA: What do you think about the self-pubbed e-book revolution?
Allison: You don't have enough room for my opinion! LOL.
I think that every author needs to do what's best for her career. I still sell far more books in print than I do digitally. And while the digital market is growing, the print market is not dead.
If I had the backlist that Barbara Freethy had, or a bunch of unsold manuscripts that just needed a little editing, then I wouldn't hesitate to self-publish them. But I can't write three books a year, plus new, original digital content, and I'm not willing to leave my print readers for the unknown. Self-publishing is a lot of work, and for unknown authors to come in and make a big splash among the tens of thousands digital-only books is as difficult, or more difficult, than getting established in the print world. I don't think we know all that is going to happen over the next year or two. I like that there are more opportunities for writers, and I like the control an author has over their self-published books. When we have multiple books, we tend to know what our readers want and how to market to them. However, too often publishers don't listen. That will change, I think, as publishers realize that we know more than they think we do! I'm hopeful that those of us who continue publishing traditionally, or becoming a hybrid author with both traditional and self-published stories, will develop great partnerships with our publishers and become a true team.
HEA: Please tell is about your Lucy Kincaid series, If I Should Die and what's next for you.
Allison: I was thrilled when my publisher agreed to publish the Lucy Kincaid series. Lucy was a character from my sixth book, Fear No Evil, who I knew needed not only one book, but an entire series.
Lucy was a typical youngest child in a large family when tragedy struck on her high school graduation: She was kidnapped and raped live on the Internet. Fast-forward seven years. Lucy is now an FBI recruit waiting to start at the Academy. She's dedicated and driven to right wrongs and bring predators to justice. She's too serious about life and doesn't know how to have fun – enter former playboy, daredevil PI Sean Rogan! He falls for Lucy and wants to make her laugh.
In IF I Should Die, Lucy and Sean go on a romantic getaway to the Adirondacks, but their vacation is cut short when Sean chases an arsonist and falls down an abandoned mine shaft. There, Lucy finds a well-preserved body posed on a rock. Together, Sean and Lucy uncover secrets that an entire town would rather keep dead and buried.
I'm thrilled that St. Martin's Press picked up the Lucy series! Silenced — Washington sex scandal meets cold-blooded killer — will be out on 4.24.12. I'm finishing up the revisions this week!
HEA: Thanks, Allison!
Allison: Thank you so much for having me as your guest, Joyce!
HEA: My pleasure. To find out more about Allison and her books, you can visit her website, which she has updated to make it easier to find information and to be compatible with mobile devices.
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