Reviewers & Bloggers wanted for new Crime Files series Hell To Pay (Crime Files Book 1)

HOW FAR WOULD YOU GO TO GET YOUR REVENGE?

Jenny Thomson and Limitless Publishing would like to invite you to participate

in the release of Hell To Pay.

Book 2 and 3 in the Crime Files series will be out on May 12th and May 26th. 

BLURB:

Nancy Kerr refuses to be a victim—even when she walks in on her parents’ killers and is raped and left for dead…

Fourteen months later, Nancy wakes up in a psychiatric hospital with no knowledge of how she got there.

Slowly, her memory starts to return.

Released from the institution, she has just one thing on her mind—two men brought

hell to her family home.

Now they’re in for some hell of their own…

ARC's are available for review for those who would like one, and all guest posts/packages will be sent prior to the events.

To participate, click HERE

WHAT WOULD YOU DO TO GET REVENGE? Hell To Pay (Crime Files Book 1) is out NOW

An extract from Hell To Pay (Crime Files Book 1) 

She took a few more steps into the living room and walked straight into hell…

Chapter 1

I’m cold, colder than I’ve ever been in my entire life and I don’t know why. Slowly, I open my eyes, tentatively at first because even opening them a fraction feels like someone's shoving red-hot pins into them. The light is so bright.

What’s with the light anyway?

Has Michael wandered in, blootered on some poncy new beer and left the light on, after collapsing in a heap onto the bed?  I’ll brain him if he has. I’m no good to anyone when I don’t get my eight hours.

Pulling myself up in bed, I reach out my arm to nudge him awake so I can give him a right mouthful. My hand finds empty space.

Where is he?

My eyes sting as I prise them open – it’s as though there's been an accident with false lashes and I've glued my eyelashes together - and that’s when I realise I’m not in our flat. The reason I’m freezing is because I’m wearing a tracing paper thin hospital gown: the kind that shows off your backside when you’re being whisked off to x-ray.

A tidal wave of panic hits me and I jerk into full consciousness.

What’s happened to me?

I try to remember, but my brain’s all bunged up as if the top of my head's been removed and the cavity filled with cotton wool.

My arms are bandaged up. Have I been in an accident?  If I have, I don’t remember. Maybe I hit my head.

I take in my surroundings. If I’m in hospital, it’s no ordinary one. For one thing, my room’s more like a cell. There’s a bed and a table bolted to the floor, but no personal stuff: photos, or cards, or stuffed animals from people wishing me well. Does anyone even know I’m here?

I grope for a call button to get a nurse, but there isn’t one. What the hell? This place is a prison.

Staggering out of bed, I fight the wave of nausea and dizziness that make me want to yell at the world to stop moving because I want to get off the carousel. The tile floor is stone cold and there are no slippers by the bed. My feet are ice blocks. Why don’t I have any socks or tights on? 

Before I reach the door, there's a jingle of keys, then a key scrapes in the lock. Holding my breath, I brace myself for what’s coming.

A woman I don’t recognize with brown hair tied back in a ponytail appears. She’s dressed in a nurse’s uniform and there’s a small smile playing on the edge of her lips.

"Good, you’re awake, Nancy."

She sounds pleased, as if we’re bosom buddies, when I’ve never seen her before in my life.

"Where am I?"

My voice comes out as a rasp as though my throat’s been sandpapered down.

The nurse puts a hand on my shoulder. "Let’s get you back into bed, Nancy."

I do as she says. I’m worried if I don’t lie back, I’ll faint.

"You’re in Parkview Hospital," she says, as she fixes the pillows so I can sit upright.

I know all the hospitals in Glasgow, but I haven’t heard of that one. I ask her what kind of hospital it is and she tells me it’s a psychiatric facility. The reason I haven’t heard of it, is because they don’t publicize it. Perhaps because it’s full of nutters they want to keep away from society. The prospect terrifies me because that would mean they must think I’m cuckoo. Why else would I be here? 

I suck in my breath. When I ask her if this is a nut house, she presses her lips tightly together as she tells me no one refers to psychiatric hospitals in that way any more. Suitably chastised, I mumble an apology not because I think one’s needed, but because she’s the one with the keys.

"Why am I here?"

I’m dreading the answer, but I need to know. I don’t feel any different. Surely if I’d lost my mind, I'd know.

"You had a breakdown."

The way she says it, she could be talking about the weather.

She asks me if I want anything and I tell her a pair of proper pajamas, a dressing gown and slippers would be nice because I’m an ice block. If she gets in touch with Mum, she’ll bring me in some stuff.

Her smile’s still there, but breaks down around the corners of her mouth. There’s something she’s not telling me, because she’s worried how I’ll react. There’s fear in her eyes. I notice she’s wearing a lucky heather brooch, the same one I got for Mum. I’m staring at it as she tells me she’s going to fetch a doctor, when a memory stirs inside me and no matter how hard I try to push it away, someone’s taken their finger out the dyke and the water’s rushing in.

Blood, blood everywhere. Dad’s slumped in his favorite armchair, head bent forward as if in prayer (he never prayed a day in his life); a single bullet hole in his head. 

I know it’s him, even although his face has been beaten to a pulp: his blood staining the fireside rug my mum was so fond of. 

Even in death, my dad has a presence. He fills a room with the sheer weight of his personality. 

Discarded nearby is the baseball bat they used on him. It’s covered in blood and something sticky and dark brown, resembling raw mince.

All material is copyright of the author Jenny Thomson (C) 2022

Get it now - Hell to Pay (Crime Files Book 1) on Kindle

Click here to be taken to your country's Amazon store. 

***Books 2 and 3 are also available ***

Throwaways 

Don't Come for me 

CAPTION CONTEST – WIN A $10 or £10 Amazon voucher and a free eBook

It was my rescue dog Benjy’s birthday yesterday. Here’s a picture of him at 17 months old when he first came to live with us. 

As you can see from the pic, we greatly overestimated his size. Hence the huge bone. 
Once you come up with a caption, head over to my book launch party at 

https://www.facebook.com/events/1417899068518517/ and write your entry underneath the same picture on that page. 

I can’t wait to read your entries:) You can enter more than once.

WIN the first book in the Crime Files series, Hell to Pay

Did someone say FREE book?

Hell, yeah.

Enter to win the first book in the Crime Files series, Hell to Pay by Jenny Thomson now. Just click HERE 

Here’s a wee taster –

Nancy Kerr refuses to be a victim—even when she walks in on her parents’ killers and is raped and left for dead…

Fourteen months later, Nancy wakes up in a psychiatric hospital with no knowledge of how she got there.

Slowly, her memory starts to return.

Released from the institution, she has just one thing on her mind—two men brought hell to her family home.

Now they’re in for some hell of their own…

Now available on Amazon –

USA 

UK

CANADA

AUSTRALIA 

Categories: Mystery/Thriller, Pre-Orders. Tags: Crime, Crime Files, Criminal Supense, Detective, Hell To Pay, Jenny Thomson, Murder, Mystery, Revenge, Suspense, Thriller.

This week I needed Liam Neeson

I bet he'd find the phone

"What kind of week have I had?"

The kind that makes you shove in your earphones and play Karma Police so loud, you’re not just listening to it: it’s in your head.  

The kind where you set up a page to talk about your bullying book and folk come onto it and wait for it, start bullying one another. Yeah, really. Couldn’t believe it either.

The kind where you think your downstairs neighbour has opened a brewery because it sounds like he’s been tossing beer barrels about his floor for the past few days.

The kind of week where you despair of human nature because your OH dropped his mobile phone and someone picked it up and pocketed it. We don’t have much but what we do have we’ve worked damned hard for.

Note to the ass wipe who kept it - what you’re meant to do when you find someone’s phone, is ring up one of the numbers and find out who belongs to and return it. At least if you want to belong to the human race. You clearly don’t. Karma police are gonna get you, mate.

Just realised that instead of venting my spleen here, I should have left a Liam Neeson Taken-style message on the phone –

‘I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you.

Obviously, the ‘kill’ in this case means in my novel and not real life.

Only two things have made my life bearable this week –

A wee dog who loves me unconditionally and always wants to play.

Happy as a sand dog (on second thoughts, he looks worried)

Football (that’s soccer to my pals in the good ol’ USA). Non-football fans don’t get it, but there’s a reason this sport is called, the beautiful game.

Few things make you happier when things go right. You see a cracker of a goal. Some brilliant play. Your team (in my case Dundee United) lift that elusive trophy. And, here’s the best thing of all – you get to bawl and shout and it gets your frustrations out. And nothing beats the times when everyone in the crowd is cheering as one, and making something happen on the pitch. The atmosphere is electric and it’s as if you’re riding along on a wave.

But more on that later. I’m now off to hone my CIA skills. ‘I don’t know who you are. I don’t know what you want…’

Guest Bloggers required

I’m doing a release day promo for the first book in my Crime Files series, Hell To Pay and I’m looking for fellow authors and bloggers to post on the day the book is released – April 28^th. Is that something you think you can do?

I could either send you something of your choice or there’s a release day blog post, please sign up here. 

If you sign up there, html will be provided for quick and easy post by the PR company I’m using. I know, I’ve gone all Hollywood, mainly because my head isn’t really in the game. My dad recently passed away and after a long battle with cancer (he was brought home to die and I helped to look after him) and I only got back from looking after my mum a few days ago (my dad's funeral was on April 1st, which would have appealed to his sense of humor).

I’d really appreciate it if you could do a blog post.

Order links for Hell to Pay (Crime Files Book 1) on Kindle

Amazon.com

Amazon.co.uk

Amazon.ca

Amazon.com.au

****Coming soon in paperback***

Books 2 and 3 coming out on May 12th and May 26th.

5 Common novel writing mistakes

This is how I am when I write a novel:)

Writing a novel is hard enough. Writing one that will not only get published, but also sell is harder still.

But, what if you're writing your novel and you think something's missing? Could you be making one of these common mistakes?

1. Writing what you think will sell and not what you want to write - We all want to have a bestseller; to write the book everybody is talking about. But we won't do that if we don't write from the heart, because if we don't enjoy writing our books; if we don't put our heart and soul into our writing, who on earth is going to enjoy reading them?

2. Writing too much back story - Writers need to think like the readers they are and what can be worse than wading through heaps of backstory to get to the real story? You've read 30 pages of a novel and you know every intimate detail of the main character's life but guess what - the story hasn't started yet or its been dragged down by all that mind numbing backstory.

Tip - A little back story is fine, but generally back story should come out in dribs and drabs in the course of telling your story. Not as an avalanche.

3. Using the wrong point of view - Are you telling your story from the right POV? Is first person too restrictive (you can only tell the story through your narrator's eyes) or is third person not intimate enough?

Changing POV can work wonders.

4. Starting the story too late or too early - Every story should begin when something has actually happened or is about to happen. You need to hook the reader from the start, not expect them to skim read through a third of the book before they get to the good part. They won't. They'll put your book down. They won't buy the next.

One of the best books for writing tips.

5. Being too predictable - Have you ever read a book and thought "I feel like I've read this before" when you know you haven't? Why not follow a tip from Stephen King's On Writing and think "what's the most logical thing that should happen next?" then write the opposite.

Isn't it about time women got justice in life and fiction?

Someone I know very well and care about very deeply, was walking to her car in broad daylight just as she'd done so many times before. She'd just put in a 12 hour shift at the hospital where she works as a nursing assistant and was so tired she'd trouble putting one foot in front of the other. She was desperate to get home because her cat hadn't come back the night before and she was worried about him.

She was about 5 steps away from her car when she heard a voice.

"Lady, I think you dropped something."

She didn't think she had, but turned around anyway.

When the fist pummelled into her face she fell and hit her head on the pavement. Too dazed to get up, she could do nothing as the man dragged her into bushes. She was raped and beaten so badly even her own mother didn't recognise her.

She'd scratched her attacker, so she had his blood under her fingernails, but there was a mix up at the forensics lab and the only sample they had got lost. The police made an arrest, but they let the man go because his lawyer argued that her identification of him wouldn't stand up in court because she'd been concussed when she’d fell.

Cathy (not her real name) is not alone in not getting justice.

In the UK, the prosecution rate for rapists is pathetically low. According to official figures in the UK for 2012, only one in 30 victims (the majority of them women) can expect to see their attacker brought to justice. In 2010, Jane Clough was murdered by former boyfriend Jonathon Vass who'd been released on bail whilst awaiting trial for raping her several times.

In the USA, it's more difficult to determine, but it wouldn’t surprise me if most women who are raped don’t get to see their attacker convicted.

I wrote Hell To Pay because I wanted to see an everyday woman turn the table on her attackers after the law failed her. I was sick of seeing strong, brave women like my friend subjected to the vilest of assaults and left with victim's guilt. Cathy once said to me that the police asked her why she didn't ask a male colleague to walk her to her car. The question upset her. She felt as though they were blaming her for being attacked.

In time, she started to think they were right.

In my friend's case she never got justice. She never saw the man (if anything that can be called a man could do such cruel things aimed at achieving the maximum hurt and degradation to another human being) in the dock and never got to tell her story to a court.

The Crime Files books come with a guarantee: that women will always get justice and the bad guys will be punished. Maybe, just maybe, one day that will happen in real life.

Note - this piece first appeared at http://diehardforgirls.weebly.com/1/post/2013/07/isnt-it-about-time-women-got-justice.html

Disclaimer: the Crime Files books are pure, escapist fiction and do not in any way advocate violence.

Order links for Hell to Pay (Crime Files Book 1) on Kindle

Amazon.com

Amazon.co.uk

Amazon.ca

Amazon.com.au

****Coming soon in paperback***

Books 2 and 3 are also available. 

Book 2 

Book 3 

Why is it when women get revenge they're called man-hating bitches, men are called heroes?

We need more strong women like The Walking Dead's Michonne and Carol in fiction.

I wrote Hell To Pay because I was sick of the way women are portrayed in
fiction. Whilst TV shows like The Walking Dead (has there ever been a more kick
ass woman in a TV show as Michonne) and Person of Interest (hey, we're spoilt
with three strong women in one show) have cottoned onto the fact that women are
just as likely to punch a mugger as hand over their handbag, fiction seems to be
trailing behind with far too few exceptions like the excellent Detective DD
Warren series by Lisa Gardner and Tess Gerritsen's Rizzoloi and Isles.

In Hell to Pay, office worker Nancy Kerr comes home to find her parents
tortured and murdered. The culprits, two men repeatedly rape her and leave her
to bleed to death on the floor after they've repeatedly stabbed her. Nancy has a
breakdown and when she recovers she has just one goal - to get revenge on the
men who ruined her life.

The response I've had has fallen into two camps -
the overwhelmingly positive with people saying it's about time women got
revenge just like men (and many of the readers saying that have been men) and
the ones who dismiss Nancy as a man hating bitch.

The second opinion surprises me and after spending time thinking about why a woman who goes after her parents killers and the men who raped her and left her for dead, should be described as "man hating," I've come to the conclusion that women just aren't meant to get their revenge.

Nope, they're meant to turn the other cheek and forgive their attackers and just move on with their lives. They're certainly not allowed to use violence. 

I've interviewed women who've survived rape and the one thing that seems common to
 them all is the guilt they feel. When they were attacked, they were powerless. There was nothing they could do, yet they blamed themselves. They believed there was something they could have done; they should have fought more. For some of them that feeling was so intense that they took their own lives or became terrified to go
out. 

Out on April 28th

That's why I wrote revenge thriller Hell To Pay, the first in a series of books I've
called the Crime Files. I wanted to have some escapist fiction where a woman
does get her own revenge, because let's be honest here, the conviction rates for
rape are pitiful.

Why don't you read Hell To Pay and tell me whether Nancy Kerr is really a "man-hating bitch" or an avenging warrior?

I'd be interested to know what people think.
You can read an excerpt here

Order links for Hell to Pay (Crime Files Book 1) on Kindle

Amazon.com

Amazon.co.uk

Amazon.ca

Amazon.com.au

****Coming soon in paperback***

Books 2 and 3 coming out on May 12th and May 26th.

There's somebody outside the door...Introducing Don't Come for Me (Crime Files #3) (out May 26th)

THERE'S SOMEONE AT THE DOOR...

Crime thriller, Don't Come for Me is based on something that's probably happened to us all.

You're alone at night, in the bathroom when you hear a noise outside the door.

And there's this tiny part of you, the primaeval part of you that thinks there's someone outside that door.

SOMEONE WAITING

TO GRAB YOU

SOMEONE WAITING

TO ROB YOUR HOUSE

In almost every case, there will be nobody outside that door. Or, it'll be your cat/dog who's knocked down some furniture.

But, what if someone is out there?

What do they want?

Who are they?

That's how the idea for Don't Come For Me came about.

You can find out what's outside Nancy Kerr's door, by reading Don't Come for Me.

Released May 26th, 2015 from Limitless Publishing (Book 3 in the Crime Files)

Check out the other books in the Crime File series

Tips for writing a successful novella

I stumbled onto writing novellas by accident. I saw a snippet of news in Writers' News magazine. It said that a publisher was looking for revenge novellas and was struggling to find women to write them. It was one sentence, but it caught my eye.

Three years later, I have a contract for two novellas in my *Die Hard for Girls series and a publisher interested in the first novella I ever wrote. At last, I had found my niche.

*Note - the Die Hard for Girls books  will be relaunched and re-released by my new publisher, Limitless Publishing as the Crime Files in April and May 2015. 

Here's my top 5 tips on writing novella -

1. You need to be able to pitch your novella in one sentence. Any more than that and it's probably a novel you're writing.

2. Short chapters are ideal for novellas. They keep readers interested. 

3. Your main character's goal should be the main theme of the novella. For instance, the theme for Hell To Pay (the book will be relaunched and re-released by my new publisher soon) is revenge and how Nancy Kerr avenges her parents' murder and her rape.

4. End every chapter with a revelation, a question or a shock that will have readers racing to the next chapter.

5. Your main character should be someone readers will want to go on a journey with, usually a heroine or a hero. If he or she is a villain, make some part of them sympathetic. If you don't, it will put readers off.

For more tips on writing a novella, check out the piece I wrote for Words With Jam. To read it click here

Happy writing:)

Whatever you do, don't start your novella like Snoopy.


Book 1 in the Crime Files
Available April 28th

Coming soon from Limitless Publishing - the Crime Files

Introducing the Crime Files

COVER REVEAL - I'm very excited to announce that Limitless Publishing will be bringing out three of my books over the next few months. 

Hell To Pay will be published on April 28th and Throwaways will be out on May 12th. The publication date for the third, Don't Come for Me, will be May 26th. 

The books were formerly known as the Die Hard for Girls series (although half the readers were men) and I'd like to thank everybody who read both books and who took the time to review them. I really appreciate it.

Both books are being relaunched as the Crime Files.  

Check out the covers. What do you think? 

John Steinbeck reviews the reviewers

This is a bit naughty, but I like it:) 

"Unless a reviewer has the courage to give you unqualified praise, 

I say ignore the bastard." - John Steinbeck 

How bad punctuation could kill grandma

Here's the proof that poor puncuation can kill. 

Not just grandma, but anyone.

So, you've written a novel. What next?

You're novel's all written. What do you do next?

First, off step away from the manuscript. Have some fun. Zap zombies on a computer game. Catch up with your favourite TV show. Hey, the whole new season of Orange is the New Black is on Netflix.

Had a break? Feel rested? Now it's time to look at your manuscript again with fresh eyes.

You're looking for -

Spelling mistakes - do not trust spell checkers. They can lull you into a false sense of security and change words. Mine change violet jumpsuit to violent. Don't know what it had against violent.

Plot holes - did you bring a dead character back to life? Not resolve a part of the storyline that needed to be resolved? Don't leave someone standing on the ledge of a building without having them persuaded not to jump, or rappelling down to break into that office.

Look for continuity errors - Did you rename a character halfway through the book or change the spelling of their name? Were they shot or kidnapped, and you carried on writing like they hadn't been?

Get rid of all the fluffy words like just and only as much as you can. They don't read well and are unnecessary.

Did you commit the sin of writing he/she started to (ADD AN ACTION like run) - Have someone run not start to run.

Check for errors you and only you would make - For instance, I had stench the flow of blood instead of staunch the flow in one of my books and I did I even notice. My publisher's copy editor didn't, but the proof reader did. But, she only spotted one, another two instances were left in the book.

Don't have characters doing the same thing all the time -
I found too many taking a deep breath in my latest book. Shake it up. Have characters doing different things.

Please don't send your novel off without the best chance of publishing success. Publishers and agents want you to make it easy for them to say no. Don't hand them that reason.

Happy writing folks. Would love to hear what you are working on.