Suspense Stories Everywhere! by Rolynn Anderson

The scenery on the north coast of Kauai is too glorious for words, a range of spiked green mountains falling to bright blue seas edged by miles of warm sandy beaches.  Dazzling beauty.  Makes me want to buy a house overlooking Hanalei Bay, taking in the Bali Hai vista, forever.

So when I saw an OPEN HOUSE sign beckoning me to check out such a house, I did.  Drove my car right up that driveway. Never mind the house's five million dollar price tag.  Though it's much more fun to view this spectacular place in person, here's the house on a quirky YouTube, in two parts.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5lrwqK_zRU  Wendy's Amazing House

But the house is only one part of my blog topic.  More interesting (since we can't buy the house), is the fact that Wendy, the owner, is the widow of a man who was 'lost' in a desert in California.  Her husband was found much later, dead, in a car, in the Los Angeles river, with his hands chopped off. AND HE WAS A WRITER! The story is being told to us by Wendy's present boyfriend, the real estate agent who is helping her sell the five million dollar house.  Can you believe it?

Even while I drove away from the house and the gobsmacking vista, my novelist brain was awhirl!  Who was this handless man and is there some relationship to who he was and how Wendy became so wealthy? Plots begin forming in my mind.  How about in yours?  The funny thing...I was less interested in the real story than I was in developing scenes and characters that went in directions I controlled.  Is that something peculiar to writers, I wonder?

Once again, with this chance encounter, I learned how truth is stranger than fiction...and how my brain whirls when delicious suspense (and fabulous views) brighten my life.  Question is: based on your experience, do writers experience life in different ways than non-writers (like this need to take real plots in different directions)?

Example for me:  I watched a TV show about savants, including an actor.  These were people who have weird ways of remembering events.  Did I want to learn more about her?  No.  I wanted to develop my own 'savant,' entangled in a suspense plot.  Result:  Lie Catchers, set in Petersburg, Alaska, a heroine with a strange 'filing system.'

Blurb:

Two unsolved murders will tear apart an Alaska fishing town unless a writer and a government agent reveal their secret obsessions.

Treasury agent Parker Browne is working undercover in Petersburg, Alaska to investigate a money scam and a murder. His prime suspect, Liv Hanson, is a freelance writer struggling to save her family’s business. Free spirited, full of life, and with a talent for catching liars, she fascinates Parker.

Trying to prove she’s a legitimate writer who cares about Petersburg’s issues, Liv pens a series of newspaper articles about an old, unsolved murder. When her cold case ties in with Parker’s investigation, bullets start to fly.

Parker understands money trails, and Liv knows the town residents. But he gave up on love two years ago, and she trusts no one, especially with her carefully guarded secret. If they mesh their skills to find the killers, will they survive the fallout?

LOST IN AMERICA: ALASKA by Rolynn Anderson

 Rebel Without a Cause AND Lost in America. These are our August movie prompts.  Since I'm cruising in Southeast Alaska when this blog entry goes live, I chose to write about how good it feels to get lost in this American state.  Think about it: Glacier Bay alone, is bigger than Connecticut.  Alaskans call Texas a cute little state.  This place is BIG and you can easily get lost here.  My husband and I can cruise for days and never see another boat.  We'll put down anchor in a huge cove and no one else will join us.  Passages miles across and miles long...and we're the only trawler taking that route.  A little scary?  Yes.  But neat, as well.  When we anchored below Reid Glacier, all by ourselves, a giant grizzly ambled along the beach, unaffected by our presence.  In Fingers Bay, a moose cow strolled all the way around the cove.  She, not we, owned the beach.  In three years, the population of sea otters has risen from 1000 to 9000 and the humpbacks and crested puffins are everywhere.  Truth is, you want to get lost in the big, beautiful state of Alaska.  We're so glad to be here!

Sidenote:  LIE CATCHERS, my latest novel, set in Petersburg, is being found in America J  Here are the Amazon and Wild Rose Press buy sites:

http://amzn.com/B00HJDS1LG

http://www.wildrosepublishing.com/maincatalog_v151/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=235_236&products_id=5607

WIND...BE GONE! by Rolynn Anderson

Our topic for the month of June...Gone with the Wind.  

I understand that phrase well because I am a boater.  My husband, Steve, and I will live aboard Intrepid, our sweet 42’ Kadey-Krogen, for the four summer months.  Although she’s a big, salty boat, Intrepid is slow, traveling (full rpm’s) at 7.5 knots, or 8.5 mph.  One diesel engine drives a single propeller for this 40,000 pound vessel.  She can’t do anything fast; what’s more she has no stabilizers or brakes.  

It's best, for the sake of Intrepid (and me) that winds 'be gone.'

When the wind is soft, light, even moderate, we're happy boaters.  For example, three days ago, under gorgeous skies, with the current with us and a light wind, we made it from Anacortes, Washington, all the way to Newcastle (outside Nanaimo, BC) in less than ten hours.  Yesterday, we cruised from Newcastle to Desolation Sound in about the same time, the breeze cooling us rather than razing us.  Tomorrow, because of gale force wind, we're hanging back in the Broughtons, before we make our way around Cape Caution.  Strong winds, current and tide, make for a dangerous cocktail against a slow boat with no stabilizers.  Rock and roll?  More like pitch and ralph.

For  a day or two or three, we must be patient...and wait. 

How good are you at taking it slow…at being patient...at waiting for winds to subside?  What parts of your life most demand patience and how good are you at applying the skill?

To see how our cruise progresses, here is our blog site, followed by the SPOT GPS locating system we use to show friends and family our windless route to Alaska.

Intrepid Journeys  -  http://steveandrolynn.blogspot.com/

SPOT  -  http://tinyurl.com/3mhj7gz

Sidenote:  LIE CATCHERS released worldwide April 4th, in all formats.  I’m waiting for kind winds to bring it to lots of readers J  Here are the Amazon and Wild Rose Press buy sites:

http://amzn.com/B00HJDS1LG

http://www.wildrosepublishing.com/maincatalog_v151/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=235_236&products_id=5607

Suspense and Adventure Create Heat in August by Rolynn Anderson

Hot is relative.  A hot August on the Pacific Coast of British Columbia, where I am presently cruising aboard INTREPID (picture, below), is somewhere in the upper 60 degrees.  Smoking hot is a day that reaches the 70’s.  As I write this blog post, what’s really hot is the fishing up here in Ocean Falls, B.C.  It’s a ghost town, a company mill town peopled with 5,000 in the 50’s; presently six people and lots of bears call it home.   My brother, Brian, is with me and he always brings out the fisherwoman in me.  The salmon are running up the Martin River, so we’re catching those lovelies in the day (in the ocean) and smacking down salmon for dinner.  Now, salmon fight on your line…nothing hotter then playing a salmon, especially if they get the notion to head out into the deep, deep ocean.

Hot also is the halibut fishing up here at Ocean Falls.  I’ve been gathering gear and strategies for catching halibut for the last ten years and I’ve practiced by catching all sizes of flounder (which is the halibut’s family).  It seems that the stars and moon are aligned for me to catch one this year, I can feel that heat. (I'm worried about catching too large a halibut, because I'd have to 'subdue' it before I could safely bring it aboard.)  I will report next month about my success (length and poundage cited; subduing described).

We’re having an especially hot old time with dolphins and whales.  Seems like the White-side Pacific Dolphins are particularly playful this year.  When the hum of our boat catches their attention, they ride our bow (we travel 7.5 knots) with glee.  I love it when they turn sideways to look up at me standing on the bow-sprint of our boat.  I wonder what they think of the blond-haired tall woman waving madly at them and squealing when they perform acrobatics.

In the end, I guess it isn’t about temperature as much as it is about the intensity of the fun we have in our summers.  Something new and different…something to write home about.  That’s what’s hot to me.   How about you?
Follow our boat adventures  on http://steveandrolynn.blogspot.com/

You can follow our daily progress, or lack there of, at http://tinyurl.com/3mhj7gz

Check my website at http//www.rolynnanderson.com