SUSPENSE WRITING IN ACTION CAN BE A REAL THRILLER

I started a new book today and probably shouldn't have. I finished Jungle Rules last week and the characters and storyline are slopping over to the new story. I need to give myself more time between books. The story line and action from Jungle Rules, are still very vivid in my mind, especially the last two chapters that are loaded with a lot of action and dialogue. The voices are still bouncing around inside my cabasa. The problem is that I need to write, I can't seem to stop. I spent time on face book and worked on my blog trying to make since of the marketing and selling side of our chosen field. I swear, I would rather knock out a couple of suspense-filled chapters than play nice on face book and come up with ways to entice readers to visit my website to make that all important sale. Years ago I took a sales course at UCLA. The entire semester could have been summed up with these four steps.
1. Make the appointment.
2.Sell the product.
3. Sell the price.
4 Ask for the order.
BINGO! Deal closed. Now that I think about my writing career, the same marketing principles apply. Just substitute the first step from "Making the appointment " to "Write the Novel", then follow through with the other three steps. Sounds easy, right? NOT! All kinds of factors jump in to keep one from success. In our industry it is supply verses demand. Too many of us after that Holy Grail, a number one best seller. Thank God for all the new electronic publishing and gizmo's coming out. It gives us a fighting chance against the system. Am I thinking about this right? Let me know what you think. Are we just little critters without a chance or are we lumps of coal turning into diamonds.

JUNGLE RULES

I finally finished Jungle Rules. By far, it has been the toughest book to write in the John Locke Series. Plots, sub-plots, sub-sub-plots, main characters, featured characters, minor walk-ons, and a whole lot of action. Bringing it all together kept me up several nights, tying all the lose ends together. The most interesting part, was the research into voodoo and African Spiritualism, and how it evolved from dozens of tribes, coalesced in Haiti, then spread out to the other Islands, and the American South. The geological research was almost as tough. To find several trillion cubic feet of a gas-oil arousal mix in the Caribbean was quite a feat. In the end , it turned out to be a lot of fun to write. Now, the hard part starts, selling the thing.