Sunday Smatterings

Hello, friends! TEAR ME APART released this week, and it was such a joy to meet up with so many of you on the road! Next up for me is Bouchercon, which I'm so looking forward to. Many friends to see, panels to give, and readers to meet.

I have to say... We had a brilliant time in England.

London was fabulous -- London is always fabulous. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child was wonderful as well. I even indulged and went shopping on Broad Street and Savile Row. I am now in possession of some serious grown-up lady clothes, which are all timeless, a new goal of mine. We also spent a fun evening at the 100 Club, a punk/jazz/blues spot. A wide variety of shows, n'est pas?

And can I mention the food? Dear Lord, the food! With my allergies I was worried, but the Brits have it all figured out. They were incredibly kind and attentive to the parameters we set, and I was so touched.

I have to say, the gluten free scones in Cambridge were among my favorites, but we ate incredibly well the entire trip and didn't get sick once. We had a tour of Cambridge from the back of a '58 Bentley, a lovely punt and managed to beat the rain, too.

I've always had a soft spot for Oxford, since I visited 30 years ago (!) and it held up to my remembrances well. Spent a lot of time in the Bodelian Library and New College, have some great shots of Christ Church. It was fun to turn around and see Hogwarts over my shoulder! 

All in all, it was a fantastic trip. And I returned home to find my book baby waiting for me in stores, capping the week perfectly. Had a blast at Parnassus and Murder by the Book, too. 

Check out my Instagram for lots of photos and stories. 

Enough about me, let's look at the latest and greatest links!

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Here's what happened on the Internets this week: 

Rushing Ahead. A great review of one of this year’s highly anticipated novels from the brilliant Lisa Patton. RUSH is a fabulous read with a timely message, and beautifully written to boot. Go get it!

What Growing Up “Poor” Taught Me About Minimalism. Such a fabulous message. People matter. Things do not. In light of my past two weeks, I would also add experiences matter... 

Quo Vadis products available at Barnes and Noble stores. Exciting news! I am a huge lover of all things Exaclair and Quo Vadis! Best paper out there.

Lessons Learned From Luggage Lost. What a fabulous message. I thought I'd packed perfectly for my trip and turns out, I was wrong. I now have a much better sense of what I want to bring overseas with me. Simply excellent.

14 "First-in-Series" Thrillers Featuring Strong Female Leads. Happy to see A DEEPER DARKNESS included here. What a great list!

When Self-Care Turns into Self-Sabotage. Great advice here! Life adjustments are more important than hot baths, at times. Though never underestimate what 30 minutes of quiet reflective time can do for your soul. 

Stop the Stuff Stream. "Once you’ve decluttered, deowned and donated a large amount of stuff, your home will feel lighter and more enjoyable.The real trick is keeping your home that way. Stuff tends to creep in whether we want it to or not. The best way to protect a peaceful, decuttered home is to stop the stuff stream."

Incredible discovery of cave girl whose parents were different species. So cool! I loved my AWOW talk with Claire Cameron, whose novel predicates on this concept, so was excited to see this update.

I Reached A Minimalist Plateau & This Advice Got Me Through It. I love this idea! 

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And closer to home:

I’ve been so moved by the kind reviews and amazing photos of TEAR ME APART! People are really connecting with this story and I’m so grateful. I was worried about how this book would be perceived, but I needn't have. So far, all the commentary has been very positive and caring. It's hard to lay bare your soul. I'm thrilled so many people are joining me on the journey.

You can read the inspiration behind the story here.

And if you haven't gotten your copy, it's not too late to help those first week sales!

Get the Book

AMAZON 
LIBRARY HARDCOVER 
BARNES & NOBLE 
TARGET 
BOOKS-A-MILLION 
INDIEBOUND 
INDIGO

Download the eBook

KINDLE
NOOK 
iBOOKS 
KOBO 
GOOGLE PLAY

Get the Audiobook

HARPER AUDIO 
AUDIBLE 
BARNES & NOBLE 
TARGET 
iTUNES

A few reviews you can check out to get a different perspective:

• Crime By The Book
• Nashville Scene
• Kourtney's Bookshelf 

My hometown bookstore Parnassus Books hosted my launch party! We had a wonderful time despite the fact I'd only been back in town two hours...

Then I headed to Murder By The Book in Houston, where I got to meet some seriously amazing Bookstagrammers, and a longtime Facebook Friend.

You can find all of my remaining book tour events here.

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That's all for now! Have a wonderful rest of the Labor Day weekend, read some great books, take a long walk without your headphones, and we'll talk again soon.

peace and hugs,
J.T.

The Why Behind TEAR ME APART

God bless National Geographic.

I have had a subscription for decades. I used to keep all the old magazines until it became an issue (stacks and stacks and stacks - all donated, finally), so I switched to the digital version. I always knew I’d find an idea in one of them that would give me the key to a really cool book. 

Enter the July 2016 issue. I was reading it on a plane, and I read a story and felt that incredible tingle all over when I see something I want to incorporate into a book. It was about a new forensic technology called phenotyping. The uses are endless — with a DNA sample, forensic analysts can generate facial features of a suspect. Eye color. Hair color. Ancestry.

I got excited by the possibilities of this new technology. To start, think of the people accused of a crime who are wrongly convicted. Phenotyping will cut down on these cases, for sure. Nothing is infallible, but it’s a cool leap forward. And there’s also a program that can take the DNA and build a 3-D face out of it. Not admissible in court…yet. We’re about to enter the brave new world of criminology, for sure.

When I read the story, I knew immediately I wanted to have a character use these skills to solve a crime. 

But what crime? How about DNA from the crime scene of a missing, day-old baby? Cool, but… What if that baby was now 17 years old and famous? OK, now we’re getting somewhere. You see how this works. This is my process. What if? How about…? Hmmm…..?

I took this concept, married it to the idea I’d been carrying around with me for years about a woman who makes the ultimate sacrifice—her life—for her family, and boom—I had the beginnings of a story. 

In TEAR ME APART's first draft, the book was narrated by a dead woman in heaven. It was very cool, but it wasn’t right. Then I was challenged by one of those Facebook memes where you’re supposed to post the first seven lines of your work in progress (WIP). I took a look, and felt like my first seven lines weren’t shareable. I don’t like to discuss the WIP as it’s being created—you give away the magic when you do that, in my mind. So I cheated. I wrote something totally unrelated to my real opening. (Hey, don’t judge. People pay me to make things up for a living… 😉)

This is what I wrote, tossed off, really, just to satisfy the guilt of a meme:

I remember the day she arrived so clearly. What quirk of fate led her to me? I wondered about this for years. If only I had stepped right instead of left at the corner, or taken the stairs instead of the elevator at the hospital, perhaps ordered chicken instead of steak for my last meal with my father before his death, the principles of chaos—the butterfly effect—would have altered the course of my life enough that she wouldn’t have appeared. But I did step right, and I took the elevator, and I had the steak, and she did appear, and I will never recover from her. 

I posted it, and walked away. When I logged in again, there were a few comments from people who really liked it and wanted to see where the story went.

And I started to think. Who is she? Where DID this story go? Maybe this WAS the real opening of the book. It was a totally new voice, an undiscovered character. I knew one thing. It was a woman speaking. 

And suddenly, there it was. A new frame. A new setting. A new situation. A whole new story.

Magic. The sort of mental razzle-dazzle our creative brains do when we let them.

I love chaos theory; it’s the basis for a number of my stories. With my new frame in place, my new voice, the book… became. Without the meme challenge, would I have found my way into this story? I don’t know. But I am so grateful I did. (Thanks to fellow writers Bryon Quertermous, Allison Brennan, and Brian Tracey who all tagged me. Smooch!)

One last thing about TEAR ME APART: please read the Author’s Note. I was compelled to discuss some pretty dark, scary topics in this book, specifically depression, self-harm, and suicide. All have deeply affected my family, and I hope and pray we can have more open discussions about mental illness, remove the stigmas, and help ourselves, our family, and our friends live a better, happy, joyful, hopeful life. 

I leave you with the symbol of that movement, the humble semi-colon. Look it up. You won’t be sorry.

︔

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Get the Book

AMAZON 
LIBRARY HARDCOVER 
BARNES & NOBLE 
TARGET 
BOOKS-A-MILLION 
INDIEBOUND 
INDIGO

Download the eBook

KINDLE
NOOK 
iBOOKS 
KOBO 
GOOGLE PLAY

Get the Audiobook

HARPER AUDIO 
AUDIBLE 
BARNES & NOBLE 
TARGET

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For every book, I create a soundtrack. This one is dark and evocative. I absolutely love it and hope you do too.

Sunday Smatterings

Hello, chickens. Today I bring you a Very. Special. Smatterings. It's our anniversary! We've been married for 23 years and together 26. Incredible, really. Over half my life with my awesome guy!

Randy and I met the first night of graduate school at George Washington University. He was quite literally the first person I met. He walked into class, sat down next to me, said hi, and I was lost. Blue eyes, black hair, glasses, a smile to die for… yes, I was smitten immediately. He kissed me the next night and that's all she wrote. We dated through school, study dates interspersed with enjoying all the best D.C. had to offer a couple of youngsters, and when we graduated, he put a ring on it. Smart guy, I think….

Seriously, it was love at first sight. It really does exist. And here we are, over a quarter of a century later, happily celebrating our special love story.

So forgive me for the quick intro! And don't forget, TEAR ME APART comes out TUESDAY!!!!

On to the latest and greatest links!

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Here's what happened on the Internets this week: 

14 most anticipated fall romances. I added so many of these to my TBR! Assistant Leigh reports she is especially excited for The Proposal by Jasmine Guillory, A Duke In Disguise by Cat Sebastian, and Their Perfect Melody by Priscilla Oliveras.

Plan A Night In And We'll Tell You Which Literature Lady You Are. Who can resist these quizzes? Not me.

Here's Why Keeping Your Old Journals Can Actually Be Super Useful If You're A Writer. Great ideas!

18 Magical Things From The Harry Potter Universe That Would Be Really Useful In The Muggle World. If only!

17 Books That Combine Food AND Romance With Delicious Results. Such a great list! You can't go wrong with this combination.

13 Reasons Why Libraries are Holding Us All Together. "Libraries are truly holding us all together in ways that we often take for granted." Yes!

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And closer to home:

Here’s where I’ll be headed to celebrate TEAR ME APART’s release. Let me know if I’ll see you there! More details here.

The folks at WriterFest Nashville are offering 20% off the tickets to my readers with the code: JTEllisonWF20. Get your tickets!

Don't forget to enter this giveaway! Win all four of these upcoming fall thrillers: WHEN THE LIGHTS GO OUT by Mary Kubica, FOR BETTER AND WORSE by Margot Hunt, UNDER MY SKIN by Lisa Unger, and TEAR ME APART! US and Canada only. 

This review from Chapter 16 choked me up! I'm so grateful.

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That's all for now! Hug somebody you love and I'll be back Tuesday to celebrate the release of TEAR ME APART!

peace and hugs,
J.T.

Sunday Smatterings

Hello, friends! Hope your Sunday is shaping up well. I'm home today after a whirlwind family trip to celebrate my dad's birthday. Much fun, food, and golf was had. Hmm... something else happened... Oh yeah, Brit in the FBI #6 is in the hands of the master! Which means I am D.O.N.E. with writing for a while. My mantra for the past 18 months has been -- "I can't, I have to work." Ten hour days, 6-7 days a week, I've had my head down, staring at my screen. Ick. I mean, it's fun, don't get me wrong,. But when your knee-jerk reaction to everything is I can't, I have to work... nope. Time to take a step back.

So guess what? My new mantra is -- "yes, let's do it!" Golf. Travel. Reading. Fresh air. Exercise. Friends. I will be refilling my well, one day at a time, until I feel the urge to create again. It's going to be a lovely few months.  

So, in the spirit of all work and no play makes JT a dull girl, I'm outta here. 💂🏻‍♂️

Let's take a look at the latest and greatest links!

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Here's what happened on the Internets this week: 

Reading a Book Takes Time—Deal With It. "Is our obsession with hurrying up getting in the way of our having fun?"

Who Owns Harry Potter? What J.K. Rowling's Series Can Teach Us About Copyright Law. "Culture is better, is more inclusive, is more dynamic (not to mention enjoyable) when the arts are thriving. Copyright law, says Bressler, incentivizes creativity."

Inside J.R.R. Tolkien’s Notebooks, a Glimpse of the Master Philologist at Work. Fascinating! I think every writer eventually wants to create their own language.

Fictional Glimpses of the Past: From the Tudors to the Czars. So many congrats to Ariel Lawhon on this excellent NYT review of I WAS ANASTASIA!

Woman becomes first-ever female infantry platoon commander in Marines. Go, sister, go!  #SemperFi

Emotions run high as Aunt Agatha's in Ann Arbor prepares to say goodbye. A heartbreaking loss to our community.

From Star Trek to Fifty Shades: how fanfiction went mainstream. "What separates these works from the Harry Potter fanfiction you find online may come down to snobbery. There is an undercurrent of misogyny in mainstream criticism of fanfiction, which is widely accepted to be dominated by women; one census of 10,500 AO3 users found that 80% of the users identified as female, with more users identified as genderqueer (6%) than male (4%). Novik has spent a good deal of time fighting against fanfiction’s stigma because she feels it is “an attack on women’s writing, specifically an attack on young women’s writing and the kind of stories that young women like to tell”."

The Writer's Life: Louise Candlish: Domestic Suspense from Across the Pond. Great interview. Such an interesting premise!

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And closer to home:

My publisher is repackaging all the Samantha Owens novels and the new covers are dynamic and story-appropriate. I can't wait until we have all of them out for you. This past week we revealed Samantha Owens #2, EDGE OF BLACK! If you're curious about the origins of this story, check out this post.

What an awesome giveaway! Win all four of these upcoming fall thrillers: WHEN THE LIGHTS GO OUT by Mary Kubica, FOR BETTER AND WORSE by Margot Hunt, UNDER MY SKIN by Lisa Unger, and TEAR ME APART! 

US and Canada only. 

Don't forget! ALL THE PRETTY GIRLS, the first book in my Taylor Jackson series, is on sale for $1.99! 

WHITEOUT, a Taylor Jackson novella is free on Instafreebie this week! Check out the other free thrillers and mysteries while you're over there.

Join Nashville Homicide Lieutenant Taylor Jackson as she races to find a deadly assassin who’s seemingly blended in with the blizzard.

Metro Nashville Homicide Lieutenant Taylor Jackson has reluctantly agreed to take the place of her fiancé, FBI profiler John Baldwin, as a presenter at the annual Freedom Conference, a foreign intelligence initiative attended by the best in the business of “clandestine services.” Then a blizzard effectively isolates their hotel on Chesapeake Bay: no power, no generators, and no possibility of outside help. When two guests go missing, and one of them is found dead in his room, Taylor discovers an assassin amongst the spies—one with a deadly score to settle.

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Lots of fun stuff coming up, including the finalized tour dates for TEAR ME APART. I hope to see some of you on the road! That's all for now! Take a walk, hug your bestie, give your kitties a scratch, and I'll see you next week!

peace and hugs,
J.T.