A Writer's View by R.J. Merle

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. The author will be awarding a $50 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops in the tour.

The Author’s View: Inside/Outside

The dual monitor photo is my Inside Author’s View. With the laptop propped on a stand to transform it into a monitor, with a larger monitor by its side, and a detached keyboard at my fingertips, I am ready to write.

On the right, I hopped over to visit Judy Thomas’ Welcome to My World of Dreams blog. Thanks for hosting my visit, Judy!

On the left, the cover for my next book, the first in a series of standalone episodes based on teens on a paranormal investigative Haunting Reality TV show and their haunting adventures. (Overton Manor Poltergeist is scheduled for Spring 2015 release.)

Having both monitors available brings the story up close and personal for me. I might feature a book cover mockup on one screen for inspiration while drafting on the other. Or, I review my list of potential scenes and jot down goals, motivation, conflicts, and disasters (GMCDs) on one monitor, with a bulleted list of potential happenings in the scene, and write until my author’s heart is content on the other.

Savage Winds, along with the rest of the Children of the Elements Series—five full novels, one huge story—was written on this setup. For some reason, the size of the monitors and the intimacy of the closeness of the screens help to immerse me in the story.

The photo from my window, my Outside Author’s View, was taken last spring. (Note the raccoon in the tree, upper middle of the photo.) This most awesome view gives me a break between writing sessions. A glimpse out the window, and for a few moments, my mind takes a relaxing mini-vaca.

Welcome to the Inside and Outside Author’s View of my world!

Savage Winds (Children of the Elements, A Secret City Science Fiction Adventure Series, Book 1)

A dangerous conspiracy unfolds...

In Author R.J. Merle’s whirlwind start of the Children of the Elements series, a clumsy teenage techno-geek struggles to protect kidnapped children from a covert government organization responsible for creating their abilities to control the five elements. A mighty wind…

Eighteen-year-old Stedford Thackett’s conspiracy theorist brother ensnares him in a real life children-as-weapons plot, while a determined scientist grooms happy-go-lucky five-year-old Darcie Lynn Carpenter to use the wind as a deadly weapon.

Out of control...

Despite the firm hand of Scientist Nora Hicks, Stedford struggles to rescue the kids and escape, even as Darcie Lynn fights to gain control of the surging power of the savage winds.

A Word-o-Gram for the series would include descriptions to include Psychic Powers, Telekinesis, Apocalypse, Electro-Magnetic Pulse, Zombies, and Mutants.

Enjoy an excerpt:

Dead men don’t tell tales, yet the late project head’s records held revelations kept from Scientist Nora Hicks for far too long.

In an office deep inside an East Tennessee mountain, Nora snapped a black leather-bound book closed.

Except for the carved stone ceiling, the office mimicked a non-descript working office in Anywhere, USA. Bulky military-issue metal and wood furniture stood as a harsh legacy to the covert Secret City project and to the starkness of her life.

Sitting at the borrowed hulk of a desk in a dank underground office, she asked, “Why was this kept from me?”

Across the desk in a guest chair, General Gardner, with thin hair sprouts sprayed into place, said, “Ever since Oak Ridge existed but did not even appear on a map, the city continues to hold and foster more than its share of secrets. As a trusted senior scientist and manager of the project, Dickenson claimed you and your son were the only ones involved.”

“How long have you known there were more of us?” Her grip on the desk’s metal edge forced her gloved hands to stop shaking. The usual underground chill pressed into the heat of her temples and an off-putting tartness oozed over her tongue.

Were Scientist Daniel Dickenson not already dead, she would kill him with her bare hands.

Slowly.

About the Author:

Author R.J. Merle stepped out of the realm of Top-Secret documents (shh, don’t tell…) to write sci-fi and paranormal fiction.

R.J. survived and escaped both the entertainment field and the government-contracting environment, craves the Walking Dead, and entertains what-if tidbits about “supposed” technological and biological advances.

No stranger to the goings on in the city of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, R.J. Merle blends a down-home flavor with a former in-the-know—hypothetically, of course—technical background to craft the twists and intrigue of Secret City Adventures.

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NOTE: Savage Winds is on sale for $0.99!

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