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When I started writing fight scenes, I did it by feel. I knew how the fight should go, where the fight should go, and where it should end up. So, as a writer, fight scenes weren't that different from other scenes. But getting them to sound and feel right? That's another level.

I had an advantage: I’m a dancer! I know choreography, movement, contact, lifts, and more.

I had a big disadvantage, too: I’m not a fighter. I spent my time in pointe shoes and tap shoes. When I started, I don’t think I’d ever set foot in a dojo, and I’ve never been in a good brawl.

I did have one more advantage though: I love small textured details in books. So I often found myself on my roof—if that’s where my character was. Or taking notes on a long drive, like my character did. So, when it came time to write a fight scene, I did what my character did.

Clearly, there are caveats. Please don’t murder anyone or beat anyone up for the sake of the book, but do stab a watermelon with a big kitchen knife. Hit a punching bag. Break a full beer bottle on a cement step—it’s probably harder than you think. When you hit like that, you get a reverberation up your arm. When you stab the watermelon, there’s a moment when you break through and suddenly you’re slicing with ease. The beer bottle almost explodes in a blast of foam and glass shards. That’s exactly the kind of detail that brings a fight to blazing life.

So when I get reviews like this one: "I love this author she puts you right in the middle of the fight!" I feel a little like I earned it. 

(Read the books that review came from!)

HAPPY READING!

"He reached under his desk to turn on his Dell computer, then waited while the robot screamed as it connected to the internet. After checking his AOL email account, he logged into MySpace."

How many of you can date that pair of sentences to a year or two time span? Ouch. 

And that's exactly why I won't do it!

As a writer publishing crime thrillers, forensic mysteries, and suspense novels in today's changing world, I try not to stay on top of the science. I work to stay ahead of it.

I won't even tell you how my characters used a GPS! Is it a device they put on their dash with a suction cup? Is it an app on their phone? Google maps? I'm not saying. I don't know what that will look like next year. And I don't think you'll ever hear me naming an email provider or a social media platform! But let's talk about what is coming:

1 - blood analysis. We are getting better and better at analyzing blood and getting more data. We can now reconstruct partial genomes from old DNA and sometimes it's enough for a match! This is helping to solve cold cases like the ones I follow in the Hangman's Shadow series.

2 - We can get more and more information from DNA. We can now tell if the person likely had blue eyes, or curly hair, or was tall. We still don't have a guarantee on those things, but it can help narrow down the subject pool and solve crimes (which is the part I'm mostly interested in! But you probably already guessed that.)

3 - We can get DNA from more and more places. Like half a fingerprint! If we don't cover it in magnetic powder then we can scrape it. Because we are constantly able to get more DNA from smaller samples, this is now enough, and in the future the amount needed will get smaller. Also, there are new methods being pioneered as I write this, to lift the fingerprint and collect the DNA simultaneously, so we don't have to choose. I've been using this in the NightShade Forensic FBI Files books!

4 - We can also now separate multiple blood samples from a single source. I touched on this in the Vendetta Trifecta - when Sin realizes she can't clean the blood evidence she's left, she mixes it. And this is EXACTLY why I write ahead of the science. When I wrote that, it was a game changer. They couldn't find her. But now we can separate blood samples as long as the mix is 20% or greater. Thank God I had her mix it thoroughly and do some confusing spatter.

The story holds. You can read it today, and the science is sound, because I wrote ahead of it.

*There's too much for just one post! I'm going to do a part 2!

If you've read all my books and want more authors who write with science, check out these...

Laura Griffin - She created the fictional Delphi labs in the Tracers series.

Axel Blackwell - is writing more from the police side of things, but stays on top of the evidence and such.

Happy reading!

Friendly neighborhood thriller author and forensic scientist here! Time to answer your questions ☠️🫆

I got questions about this from a reader: "CSI and NCIS do DNA work that seems to get done in minutes - how long does it actually take and how expensive a test is it? Regular people expensive or Elon musk expensive?"

Let's dive in!

Short answer: a few hours. We used to do all this by hand. Add reagents, swirl, let sit, centrifuge, wait... but now we load reagents into a machine, add our sample, push the button and come back to find it done. So that's realllly nice.

Real answer: days and weeks and months even. But this depends on what you need done.

General paternity test? A few weeks. This means you provide the hair, spit, etc samples and you send it to a lab that operates open to the public and it's probably not admissible in court at all.  These are usually less than $100. And you should be able to get it back within a month. However, they aren't as reliable. If you've had bloodwork done at your doctors office, those same places will do paternity and general DNA testing, but you can see the distinction between "at home" and "legal" and the price starts going up to ~$500ish for now.

This is where the back-log comes in. In order to be used in court cases, there must be a known chain of evidence. We have to be able to see if the sample was damaged, mishandled or even purposefully swapped out at any point. Also, this has to go to labs that are certified for evidentiary work and supposedly unbiased. (This isn't always the case! Lots of police stations have their own labs that can do some testing.) But basically no one has a lab that can keep up with the need. The wait is the backlog. (Don't even get me started on rape kits.)

So it's not Elon Musk expensive, but it can climb up there to pay for speed! It might be cheaper to just do a basic DNA testing and get those results if paternity was needed. Paternity tests only check a known sample against another known sample--so you have to first suspect the match to test it, and if you're wrong, you're just wrong. Whereas a DNA testing company is checking the sample against their entire database.

If you're in a court case and in need of evidence to go through the system fast, then yes, being billionaire rich is helpful. The irony is that you wouldn't likely even pay for the push then, just be influential enough to make it happen. You can also go through faster if your case is high priority. So make sure to be splashy if you're gonna need that bloodwork done legally! Get media coverage and hit the social media and make the public demand a timely response. Otherwise, you can wait 6 months or more.

Did you devour Stephen King books as a young adult (or even a kid?) Me, too!

In The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King a young girl lost in the wilderness fights to survive, haunted by fear and unknown dangers.

Go read it if you haven't. But if you devoured that one, what do you read next?

 
The Troop by Nick Cutter
A horrifying survival story involving a group of boys on an island facing a terrifying parasitic threat.
 
The Ritual by Adam Nevill
A group of friends hiking in a remote forest encounter ancient evil and supernatural forces.

 
The Hunted by AJ Scudiere - read FREE
Twins Cage and Joule must figure out what’s hunting their neighbors. Not everyone will survive the night.

Hopefully, this list will keep you up late with plenty of great books to read! 

Raise your hand if you're an e-reader reader 🙋🏼‍♀️🙋🏼‍♀️🙋🏼‍♀️

I wasn't. I was committed to paper. Until my family gifted me a Kindle for Christmas one year. I have since moved to Kobo and Kobo Plus. I will not be caught without my e-reader app now. You can carry it anywhere and take your full library right in your bag. But I also have a degree in human physiology and neuroscience. So grab your e-reader and go to your settings. Let's make it better for your eyes, your brain, and your reading speed!

It doesn't matter which e-reader app you're using, they'll all have most of these. Go to any full page in your book and get set. If you normally read with glasses or contacts in, grab those, too.

↗️ Margins - A bigger screen means fewer page turns and more reading before you loop a line. I put my margins as small as I can make them. Both my kindle and my ipad have edges already. A visual margin already exists

↗️Font Size - Honestly, just play with this until it feels right. There's no magic number here, but it's important to set it where you don't squint or have to hold your e-reader too close or too far. It's simply one of those things most of us set only when it's a problem. Set it now while you're actively choosing the right size!

↗️Brightness - This is a biggie! Set it as low as you can still be comfortable. My computer screen is under 25% brightness. This helps reduce eye strain and you probably already know that eye strain is bad and also interferes with your reading!

↗️Color - I recommend anything except black text on white screen (which is, of course, the default.) Sepia, green, even white on black should give you less eyestrain issues!

🌟🌟🌟 I don't know if you did what I did and tried turning my e-reader sideways to see if more text fit on the screen! Yeah. That made sense. The text would have to loop far less often. Oh, massive fail. Most text settings in the books have spaces and this kills it. I keep my e-reader oriented upright now. You don't have to try that, I did. 🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️

TEAR US APART will be here tomorrow!

IF you pre-ordered from me you'll see it in your ebooks TOMORROW. Want to get in on that (Thursday Sept 4th)? Get TEAR US APART here!

Click that GET IT EARLY button.

If you're reading this after Sept 4th, and you click that button, the book will drop immediately to your ereader! WHOOO HOOO

More from TEAR US APART:

Some days Cindy felt like she'd become an emotional trash can for everyone she touched. Only it didn't lessen the burden for those people either. A burden shared was a burden halved, but a memory shared was bullshit doubled, it seemed.

Sadly, this was just another day that ended in Y, and that bothered her. She shouldn't be so inured to the being murdered. Yet here she was, being brutally stabbed and she was busy trying to catch landmarks around her. Think about seeing the face of the perpetrator. Trying to find evidence they could use, while she was experiencing what felt like her own murder. Good times.

TEAR US APART releases on all retailers on Sept 11th

Grab those here:    KOBO          APPLE           AMAZON          GOOGLE BOOKS          NOOK

What should you read once you've finished The Cold Moon by Jeffery Deaver

If you're ready for another suspenseful crime thriller with a mix of forensic science and dark mysteries, the you should read...

The Graveyard Queen series by Amanda Stevens - The Restorer (Bk #1)
A paranormal thriller featuring a protagonist who communicates with the dead to solve mysteries. 

The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting
A young woman with supernatural abilities helps find murder victims, blending paranormal and mystery. 

Under Dark Skies by AJ Scudiere - The NightShade Forensic FBI Files #1
Two new FBI agents struggle to solve their first case together while still hiding their own odd secrets. Grab your copy for FREE!

Stolen by Kelley Armstrong - The Women of the Otherworld #1
A young woman with supernatural abilities helps find murder victims, blending paranormal and mystery.

My husband and I traveled parts of the UK last September. We toured Wrexham (ifyouknowyouknow). Headed to Liverpool (which felt a LOT like Nashville!) We ate our way through every pub and alehouse. I tried mushy peas. And we took every tour we could.

We were in Nottingham (yes, that Nottingham) when our fabulously knowledgeable tour guide told us about dastardly deeds at the end of the 18th century.

You may have heard me talk about the books in my head. At one time I counted 17 - any of which I had enough character knowledge and had plotted out enough that I was ready to sit down and start writing. I've become a faster writer these days, so I tend to keep about...(let me count)... damn. It was 13. So not that much lower. Oh well.

Sometimes, a thought or an article or a bit of knowledge comes along and I JUST KNOW. (The 2nd and 3rd Vendetta Trifecta books dropped on me that way. BOOM... suddenly, 2 complete books ready to go.) And this was like that. I turned to my husband (I was working on NightShade book 12? maybe?) And I said: "I know what book 15 is!" NightShade #15 will be built on this real, historical group/idea/illegal activity.

So if you want to learn more about the REAL Resurrection Men, you can follow the link or even just search the term. They were a real thing!

I love learning. If there are explosions involved, all the better. Let's discuss Cage and Joule using leftover fireworks to blast their snowmen come late January. Or to blow up the rotting pumpkins come December. (That one set the yard on fire..in multiple places!!! Do not ask me how handy I am with the fire extinguisher)

But this one is about REAL explosions. The kind you can't buy in a Sad Sam's tent in the summer. I've done them myself. Gotten demos just for me. And then, there are ones like this. A full demo by the bomb squad and I'm so grateful to have gotten to attend at a writer's conference.
I've watched (and taken copious notes!) the robot check a suspicious backpack, then detonate it for good measure. I've seen the team blast up everything from flashpaper to C4 to improvised devices. They all make different booms. And I learned how to set them off too. (I do love some det cord! It burns an orange sine wave on your retina as it lights up!)

So here is where I managed to catch the explosion as it was happening! I will say, an author's life is never dull. And if you've read FRACTURE FIVE, some of the things I learned from the blasts are in there!

If you need me, I'll be over here, blowing shit up. You know, for research!