The Big Day...

THE PANDORA BOX releases today... and I am very excited about that. It's the book that got me on a boat and sent me off on my next great adventure! 

   By way of celebration, I am giving away an ebook called NIGHT VISITORS. It's the story of how Dee Parker (the main character in THE PANDORA BOX) met the best friend she took along on her amazing adventure. 

You can download it, compliments of the wonderful Pelican Book Group (that I call "home of the great escape"). Just click on the book cover to go there, and get your free copy. Thank you ever so much for being one of my readers, and I'll look forward to hearing what you think about THE PANDORA BOX. 

Meanwhile, Here's the book trailer and a short excerpt to let you know a little more about the story...

A short excerpt...

1

The Assignment

"How will you get me out," I asked my editor, "after I once get in?" 

                                                                          ~ Nellie Bly

It was visiting day in the psychiatric hospital. Dee Parker sat at her usual table in the lounge, next to a foot-wide floor to ceiling window that allowed only a narrow view to the outside lawn. No need to attract any undue attention. It was not an opening window and there was no way of escape. There was that word again. Kept popping up every time she turned around. Honestly, if people could read each other’s minds, they’d all be staring at her right now.

Better get a grip. This was the day. The real deal.

Today, she was going to help Nelson Peterson escape from Wyngate State Hospital. Of course, that was not part of her original assignment, and her editor would probably hit the roof when he found out. But she would deal with that after she got Peterson safely out of here. For weeks now, she only had to come as far as this visitor’s lounge to talk with the old gentleman. Just the thought of having to live here was enough to give her nightmares. But it would soon be over.

Dee felt again for the sprig of miniature roses she had tucked into the band of her straw hat (the smell of roses was supposed to have a calming effect on people) and forced herself not to look around so much. There were too many people here who were getting used to her weekly visits and might engage in conversation if they caught her eye. Today, of all days, she did not want to stand out or be remembered. Except this afternoon, there was something troubling in the atmosphere. She could sense it...

Running With the Idea…

There are a lot of great ideas around. So many, one could say they are as abundant as rain. How many times have I picked up a book with a "great premise" (or idea) and then been disappointed because it didn't pan out the way I first perceived it. 

My most classic example of this was many years ago, when I was hurrying through a library on a busy schedule, and a title on a shelf in the children's section jumped out at me. ONE DROP OF BLOOD. In the children's section? It stopped me in my tracks. Turns out it was about how blood flows through the human body. Which still had my interest enough to page through because I was  taken with the idea of the importance of "one drop of blood." The shear drama of it. But alas! Other than a few good illustrations, it fizzled into something incredibly boring. 

Since then, I have not only seen this happen over and over, I would have to say that it happens (though not as drastic) about eighty percent of the time I read books of any kind. The story does not live up to the original great idea. The one the title put in my head. Truth is, I can see it even in my own books. What's up with that?

Then it occurred to me that the ideas are inspirations. We grab them and run. Excited to see what we can make of them. But I have lately been wondering what would happen if we "hung around" where we got those ideas for awhile to see if there was anything else that might come with them. Like an outline. Or a line or two of instruction. And oh, what I wouldn't pay for a consultation with that source when I'm stuck in a "sagging middle" or all tangled up in plot-knots of my own making.

Hmm… I wonder if that's possible?

And I wonder if the great books that are around (those lasting ones that keep selling generation after generation) aren't so much written by great people, as by those who decided to hang around the source of their inspirations a bit longer than most. Or, maybe even went back there. Seems to me, a relationship of that kind would be priceless to both the writer and the reader.

What an idea!