Tag: Olivia Callahan Suspense Series

Greetings, my bookish peeps. Have you ever given thought to the power of words? Words can make us sad or glad. Words can unite or divide us. Words can incite or excite us. As Margaret Atwood said, “A word after a word after a word is power.” As a lifelong reader, I’m utterly fascinated by words and the fact that most authors may use the same words but combine them in such a manner that they’ve created something wholly new and entertaining. I’m pleased to welcome back Kerry Peresta, author of The Torching. Ms. Peresta will be sharing with us what she has learned during her journey as a wordsmith. Thank you, Ms. Peresta, for taking the time to join us today, I’m looking forward to learning more about your career as a writer.

The Books are Finished, But the Excavation Continues
by Kerry Peresta

I’m blessed, after fourteen years of hard work and persistence, to finally blurt out the words ‘I’m a novelist’, when someone asks me what I do. There was a time, due to insecurity or a false sense of humility, when I could barely say these words.

I’ve been amazed to discover that much of the job of writing (oh yes, definitely an hours-a-day job if one is serious about it!) concerns inner dialogue. Wrestling with lack of confidence. Honing an ability to resist plummeting into the pit of despair when a three-star review occurs. Learning to rip off the cloak of offense when an editor critiques with nary a word of praise.

I’ve been a writer for thirteen years but didn’t break into a decent contract and hand-held into writing a series until 2019. I’d written magazine articles, blog posts, a humor column, advertising copy, blah, blah…everything but books. I certainly wasn’t afraid to attack the process of writing a book…I’d written my first novel in 2010 and it released in 2013. However…it was such a train wreck that I wrung my hands and backed away from the process. I’d jumped the gun. My manuscript was nowhere near ready for publication, so I decided to consider the whole thing a learning experience. Actually, the journey of becoming a novelist is just that…a learning experience. I’ve learned more than I ever thought possible, and grown as a human as well as a writer! Many of the skills a novelist learns bleed over into life. For instance:

1. Enhanced Communication Skills

How many of us stutter and stammer and dig our toes into the ground when we meet a new person? Do you, like me, experience an instant urge to run in the other direction, lest the new person discovers how freaking unstable and weird we are? Well. I’ve found that working on a novel enhances my communication skills like crazy. The dialogue between my characters definitely works out some of the kinks in my psyche that I didn’t discover until I put the words down on the page! Sometimes I have to lift my hands from the keyboard, put them in my lap, and stare at what I’ve dialogued between characters. I spend a few minutes internalizing what just happened. Often, it’s a searing look at my own issues and insecurities. The excavation process of my soul occurs, revealing long-buried data in need of dusting off and examination. Perhaps tossing aside. This process has both solidified and emboldened me as a human.

2. Increased Agility of Mind

The words! The words!

I’m such a lover of words. Writing a novel forces me to leave the thesaurus open and discover new, more delicious words each time I sit down at my desk. I become so bored with writing ‘she smiled’ or ‘he grinned’ or ‘he furrowed his brow’, etc. There are only so many ways to depict these things, but I’m forever searching. Also, many times there is one lovely, perfect, word to replace the four or five useless ones I’ve written. With each book, I strive to keep the reader from becoming bored with repetitive, unnecessary words. My protagonist in the Olivia Callahan Suspense series sustained injuries from an assault that resulted in a traumatic brain injury. She lost her memory and most of her past life. With each book, I must reiterate to a new reader a bit of backstory so they understand the trajectory of the story and why. I’ve come up with many creative and concise ways to implicate what’s happened to her, which has been a thoughtful, nail-biting, experience. Again, I do not want to commit the cardinal sin of boring a reader! The end result of all this mind-bending, wordplay is that my brain is as healthy as a horse.

3. Disaster Avoidance

I’m a suspense author. If pigeonholed further, psychological suspense, because I love the arc of a character and how they evolve under the direst of circumstances. What has this process reaped in me? A clearer and more sober view of how my actions and thoughts dictate an end result. With others, or with myself. An author cannot help but put themselves in the place of their protagonist. We experience the danger and gasps of shock along with them, and our hasty, pecking, fingers pound out the tension, frustration, and despair with heart-wrenching clarity. All this desperate desire to put realism and authenticity on the page results in a taut look at ourselves. At least it does in me. What if I had truly been in that situation? How would I have responded? Would I have made different choices?

(Goodness. I hope so! My characters make terrible choices.)

The list of life lessons as a novelist is endless and ongoing. I’m grateful and humbled by what my characters have taught me, and that my readers respond with such emotion to them. The absolute best feeling as an author is when my hands take over my brain instead of the other way around. That’s when I know I’m on to something. The words almost write themselves, and I think…maybe I am a novelist, after all. ♦

Synopsis:

Mysterious fires. A haunting past. A secret file.

Three years ago, Olivia Callahan endured an assault that resulted in a devastating brain injury. She survived, but she couldn’t remember anything about her life or who she was. Now, she’s determined to build a bridge between the past she lost and the life she must reclaim.

When Olivia crosses paths with PI Tom Stark, she is drawn to the investigative field, and becomes his intern. She finds a heavily redacted, forty-five-year-old file locked in his desk drawer that mentions her mother as a young woman. Why had her mentor hidden the file from her, and why had he never mentioned a case involving her mother?

As Olivia moves forward with her fledgling career, a string of mysterious fires moves through the community, puzzling the Baltimore Arson Investigative Unit. One of the fires strikes Olivia’s beloved farmhouse in rural Maryland. Now, in addition to uncovering the secrets bound within the redacted file, she becomes convinced that the fires happening around the area are disturbing calling cards…and they’re meant for her.

Book Details:

Genre: Traditional Mystery or Suspense
Published by: Level Best Books
Publication Date: March 2023
Number of Pages: 323
ISBN: 9781685123239 (Paperback)
ISBN: 9781685123246 (eBook)
ASIN: B0BX8GZDXN (Kindle edition)
Series: The Olivia Callahan Suspense series, 3 | Each is a Stand Alone Novel
Purchase Links #CommissionEarned: Bookshop.org | Amazon | Amazon Kindle | Barnes and Noble | B&N eBook | Kobo eBook | Goodreads

The Torching Trailer:

Author Bio:

Kerry Peresta is the author of the Olivia Callahan Suspense series. The Torching, book three, was released in March 2023, and books four and five in 2024 and 2025. Her standalone suspense thriller, Back Before Dawn, releases in May 2023. Additional writing credits include a popular newspaper and e-zine humor column, “The Lighter Side,” (2009—2011); the short story “The Day the Migraine Died,” published in Rock, Roll, and Ruin: A Triangle Sisters in Crime Anthology, articles published in Local Life Magazine, The Bluffton Breeze, Lady Lowcountry, and Island Events Magazine. She is past chapter president of the Maryland Writers’ Association and a current member and presenter of the Pat Conroy Literary Center, Hilton Head Island Writers’ Network, South Carolina Writers Association, Sisters in Crime, and International Thriller Writers. Kerry is the mother of four adult children, and spent thirty years in advertising as an account manager, creative director, copywriter, and editor. When she’s not writing, you’ll find her working out, riding her bike or kayaking, enjoying the beaches of Hilton Head Island, or cuddling her two cats, Agnes and Felix. She and her husband moved to Hilton Head Island in 2015.

Catch Up With Kerry Peresta:
www.KerryPeresta.net
Goodreads
BookBub – @kerryperesta
Instagram – @kerryperesta
Twitter – @kerryperesta
Facebook – @klperesta

Tour Participants:

Visit these other great hosts on this tour for more great reviews, interviews, guest posts, and giveaway entries!

ENTER FOR A CHANCE TO WIN:

This is a giveaway hosted by Partners in Crime Tours for Kerry Peresta. See the widget for entry terms and conditions. Void where prohibited.

Get More Great Reads at Partners In Crime Tours