Deadly Deceit by Karen Randau - Virtual Book Tour - Guest Post - Giveaway - Enter Daily!

Hi lovelies! It gives me great pleasure today to host Karen Randau and her new book, “Deadly Deceit”!  For other stops on her Goddess Fish Promotions Book Tour, please click on the banner above.

Be sure to make it to the end of this post to enter to win a $30 Amazon or Barnes & Noble Gift Card.  Also, come back daily to interact with Karen and to increase your chances of winning! 

Thanks for stopping by!  Wishing you lots of luck in this exciting giveaway!

Deadly Deceit

by Karen Randau

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GENRE: Mystery/Thriller

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BLURB:

A cocoon of naiveté shatters on Rita Warren’s thirtieth wedding anniversary, when a terrorist murders her ex-Marine husband Jared and thirteen other movie goers. Ensnarled in a cover-up that puts her in an assassin’s crosshairs, Rita must unravel a web of lies and connections that date back to Jared’s service in the Iraq war – before a mysterious kidnapper returns Rita’s daughter Zoe one body part at a time. This fast-paced story is one you won’t want to put down from beginning to end.

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EXCERPT ONE:

Through a stunned haze, I saw him look down at me and disappear. He returned with Zoe over his shoulder and rushed down the hill toward a black pickup parked on a narrow side road.

At last, I gulped in air and jumped to my feet. I remembered my gun, and pulled it from my purse. While running toward him, I forced a bullet into the chamber and fired. Missed. I continued running until he turned Zoe toward me, and I lowered my gun. He dropped her into the bed of the truck, slipped a gun from under his shirt and pointed it at me.

“Take the antiquities certificates to the same park bench. No tricks this time. You have until noon tomorrow.”

“I’ll do whatever you want, but please don’t take my daughter. She needs a doctor. Take me instead if you think you need a hostage.”

Gunfire cracked behind me, and the man grabbed his left arm. Blood oozed from between his fingers. “If I see any cops, I’ll kill her. Then come after you.” He slid behind the steering wheel, and I turned to see Cliff at the top of the hill, his gun by his side.

I ran toward the dust stirred up by the truck as it sped away and shouted into the wind. “This is about my necklace?”

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GUEST POST:

Inspired By Headlines: How to Put Your Spin on Real Life Events

When I first told my friends that I was writing a story about a woman whose husband was one of fourteen people killed in a theater shooting, people assumed it was a true crime story. Deadly Deceit is a fictional story inspired by news headlines. I made it my own by telling the story from the point of view of someone left behind by a fictional tragedy similar to one that had really happened. I imagined how my main character felt as she reassembled the pieces of her shattered life and emotions.

If the story you’re writing is true crime, do your research. You can put your own spin on it by focusing on something, such as the life or family of a true victim, criminal, or detective. You can also insert a fictional character. Stay true to the facts, but be creative in the way you tell the story.

If you’ve heard a news story that sparks an idea, here are some things you could do to put your own spin on a something you heard but don’t want to tell the facts.

•       Realize you’re not writing true crime. You’re writing fiction. Don’t represent it as something else, and don’t use facts from the true crime.

•       Make a similar story your own. Deadly Deceit is about my fictional movie theater, with the victims being people in my fictional town, and the sequence of events being how I imagined them rather than how the similar news event happened.

•       I told the story of a fictional survivor of a fictional event. You can do the same thing. I didn’t try to say how people actually healed, I told the story about how I imagined I would feel if the same thing happened to me. I gave it the spin of other fictional crimes that led up to the fictional massacre. I did no research into a specific real-life survivor.

If you’re writing true crime, make it true and do the appropriate research. If you’re writing something inspired by actual events, you can put your own spin on it by changing key facts, writing from the point of view from someone not involved in the true event, and spinning it away from the event to the life and backstory of a fictional survivor.

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AUTHOR BIO:

A native of the southwestern U.S., Karen Randau has been writing and telling stories since elementary school. She holds a degree in journalism/public relations from The University of Texas at Austin and has enjoyed a long career in marketing communications. In her work with an international non-profit, she has traveled to numerous developing countries, witnessing famines, violence, and hopeful people working to overcome abject poverty. She loves fast-paced mysteries and thrillers, especially those with intricate plots, lots of action, and rollercoaster-like twists and turns.

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CONNECT WITH KAREN:

Blog:

http://www.karenrandau.com/blog

Facebook Author Page:

http://www.facebook.com/karenrandauauthor

Twitter:

http://www.twitter.com/klrandau

Goodreads Author Page:

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/491463.Karen_Randau

Amazon Author Page:

http://www.amazon.com/author/karenrandau

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GIVEAWAY INFO:

Karen Randau will be awarding a $30 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

**This post contains affiliate links and if clicked and a purchase made I may receive a small commission to help support this blog.  This does not cost you anything, it just helps pay for all those awesome giveaways on here.**

This contest is sponsored by a third party. Fabulous and Brunette is a registered host of Goddess Fish Promotions.  Prizes are given away by the sponsors and not Fabulous and Brunette. The featured author and Goddess Fish Promotions are solely responsible for the giveaway prize.