Suspense, Mystery, Horror and Thriller Fiction January 2013 Kick off 2013 with Brad Meltzer Kay Hooper Brad taylor Kane GilMour Focus on True Crime The sTrange saga of rider John e. haThaway Andrew Peterson & The Kindle Serial ProjecT A Look Inside “Touch and Go” by Lisa Gardner C r e di t s From the Editor John Raab President & Chairman Why do we love to read books? Shannon Raab Creative Director January 2013 is upon us, which means that anybody that believed in the Mayan calendar was Romaine Reeves wrong, which is a good thing. However, now I’m CFO another year older, and that is a bad thing. I had Starr Gardinier Reina another letter written for this month, but like with Executive Editor any good suspense/thriller book we got thrown a major curve ball, and that happened to everyone Terri Ann Armstrong Executive Editor outside of the pages of the book with the horrific tragedy that happened in Newtown, Connecticut. Jim Thomsen When something like this happens, questions Copy Editor start to be asked that will never be answered. We, the readers and authors of this genre, Contributors live in a world filled with violence and horror; however, those are simply the words and Donald Allen Kirch imagination of the author writing them. Mark P. Sadler We read books to get away from everyday life and the negative forces that threaten Susan Santangelo DJ Weaver to harm us. Hearing what happened in Newtown touched me deeply as a parent of four CK Webb children. It affected our family, to realize that anything can happen at any time in a blink Kiki Howell Kaye George of an eye. When we read within the pages the chase scenes of an action-adventure, or the Weldon Burge works of a brilliant detective solving a crime that we thought was not solvable, we would Ashley Wintters rather leave these types of events within the pages of a book. Scott Pearson D.P. Lyle M.D. Since 1995, there have been seventy different school shootings in America, and Claudia Mosley this does not include the shooting in Aurora, Colorado, or the shootings in countless Christopher Nadeau Kathleen Heady workplaces. While one is way too many, seventy is a number that is unconscionable. Stephen Brayton Whatever life throws at you, we as readers at least have an escape for a couple of hours to Brian Blocker leave the world behind and put ourselves into a world of intrigue and suspense. Authors Andrew MacRae Val Conrad spend countless hours on entertaining their audience by creating fictional characters and Laura Alden worlds. And 2013 promises to be another great year for readers as the writing in the genre Melissa Dalton Elliott Capon just keeps getting better. J.M. LeDuc We, the Suspense Magazine team, send our prayers to all the families affected in Holly Price Newtown and all over the United States and the world that have had to live through Kari Wainwright David Ingram a senseless tragedy that took someone we loved and cared about. Remember that we Bill Craig love books because we don’t want the real world in our pages, and vice versa. Let’s also Jodi Hanson Amy Lignor remember to respect and cherish the time we have with each other and keep our families Susan May and friends safe. J.S. McCormick While you might be thinking of a New Year’s resolution to lose weight, stop smoking, Kestrel T. Andersen Cassandra McNeil no more talking on your cell phone while driving, or simply stop holding up the checkout Jenny Hilborne line in the supermarket for a pack of gum (use the self serve line), also think about how Tanya Contois Sharon Salonen you can make a positive difference in someone’s life. If Anthony J. Franze everyone does this, we can make it through this crazy Jeanine Elizalde thing called life in a more uplifting way. Kristin Centorcelli Happy New Year everyone, and we look forward Customer Service and in bringing you the very best books of 2013 and more Subscriptions: For 24/7 service, please use our website, and more author interviews and features not only in the www.suspensemagazine.com or write to: pages of the magazine but also on Suspense Radio. SUSPENSE MAGAZINE at 26500 Agoura Road, #102-474 Calabasas, CA 91302 John Raab Suspense Magazine does not share our CEO/Publisher magazine subscriber list to third-party companies. Suspense Magazine Rates: $24.00 (Electronic Subscrip- “Reviews within this magazine are the opinions of the individual reviewers and are provided solely to provide readers assistance tion) per year. All foreign subscrip- in determining another's thoughts on the book under discussion and shall not be interpreted as professional advice or the opin- tions must be payable in U.S. funds. ion of any other than the individual reviewer. The following reviewers who may appear in this magazine are also individual cli- ents of Suspense Publishing, an imprint of Suspense Magazine: Mark P. Sadler, Starr Gardinier Reina, Ashley Dawn (Wintters), DJ Weaver, CK Webb, Elliott Capon, J.M. LeDuc, Amy Lignor and Terri Ann Armstrong.” SuspenseMagazine.com 1 CONTENT Su Sp E n se M ag a z i n E January 2013 / Vol. 042 Stranger Than Fiction: The Long Second By Donald Allen Kirch . .3 Rules of Fiction with Preston & Child by Anthony J . Franze . .7 Bleeding Heart by Nick Andreychuk . 10 Excerpt of Touch & Go by Lisa Gardner . 13 Becoming the Author you Always Wanted to Be by Joseph Badal . 17 Fresh by Larry Hinkle . 25 Inside the Pages: Suspense Magazine Book Reviews . 30 Suspense Magazine Movie Reviews . 38 Featured Artist: Ana Cruz . 39 Iris by Bryan Paul Rouleau . 45 The End of Days . Again? By CK Webb . 51 OOPArt by Janice Gable Bashman . 53 Focus on True Crime: The Saga of John E . Hathaway by Philip Von Borries . 61 They Didn't Come Cheap by Matthew Iden . 70 Andrew Peterson on the Kindle Serial Project by Helena Markou . 71 The Beach House by Peter Aragno . 74 By Donald Allen Kirch The Long Second “In the year 22, of the 3rd month of winter, sixth hour of the day, the scribes of the House of Life found it was a circle of fire that was coming in the sky. It had no head. The breath of its mouth had a foul odor; its body one rod long and one rod wide. It had no voice. Their hearts became confused through it. Then they laid themselves on their bellies. They went to the Pharaoh to report it. His Majesty ordered an examination of all which is written in the papyrus rolls of the House of Life. His Majesty was meditating upon what happened. Now after some days had passed, these things became more numerous in the skies than ever. They shone more in the sky than the brightness of the sun, and extended to the limits of the four supports of the heavens. Powerful was the position of the fire circles. The army of the Pharaoh looked on with him in their midst. It was after supper. Thereupon, these fire circles ascended higher in the sky towards the south. The Pharaoh caused incense to be brought to make peace on the hearth. And what happened was ordered by the Pharaoh to be written in the annals of the House of Life so that it be remembered forever.” —The FiRST historically recorded report of an “unidentified flying object.”— Egypt, 22 aD. * * * Since before man knew what they were, before the scientific theory of flight and before language was even born, there have been strange and unexplainable things flying through the skies of our planet earth. During World War II, they were called “Foo Fighters.” During the Cold War they were labeled “Flying Saucers” and SuspenseMagazine.com 3 “Unidentified Flying Objects,” “UFOs” for short. When the Air Force had been assigned to investigate these incidents of “high strangeness,” they did so under the arena of “Project Blue Book.” In thousands of catalogued case files, over seven hundred of these encounters were labeled “unexplainable” by the officers of the United States government. There is intelligent life out there in the galaxy, and they have been here before! They have been visiting us, leaving their mark upon history, society, and individual lives. With every unknown, there are an intrepid group of people who seek answers. In the field of UFOs…they are the UFOlogists. These are people who believe in the mathematical formula: n = R* fpne fl fi fc L In other words, there are so many stars in our universe that if only one in a billion is a star such as our sun with planetary bodies orbiting them, and if only one in a billion of these planets are anything CLOSE to our earth, then, by the simple language of math there are at least 2,800,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 planets capable of supporting life as we understand the term—narrowing it down—”oxygen-carbon” life. Even more simplified: Just under three million-million intelligent forms of life in our galaxy—ALONE! Of these life forms at least 10,000 intelligent civilizations exist that can either communicate or are capable of what we understand as “space flight.” No bureaucrat in Washington can ignore this simple truth. * * * Now is when this article starts to sound like an old episode of Dragnet. THE STORY YOU ARE ABOUT TO READ IS TRUE * * * The incident in question had once been a “catalogued” report registered through the UFO organization known as MUFON and NOT confidential.