EXPENDABLE was my first traditionally published
novel. I had published four nonfiction books with NY and London, and many SF short
stories with magazines and anthologies over two decades. But this was my first published
novel.
All my
stories whether short or novel length, are written from my heart. That means it
reflects my joys, concerns, and questions at that time in my life. When I wrote
EXPENDABLE, two things were keeping me up at
night. The first was my eldest son was in the Marine Corps and serving in Iraq
on convoy duty. I was concerned if he would come home at all. If he did make it
home alive, I was concerned about PTSD. Fortunately, he came home alive and
well. The second thing keeping me up at night was all the protests and
discussion around using fetal cells for research. I worked at Oregon Health
& Science University then, and they were one of few research universities
that had a research grant. (Now most medical universities have them).
I’ve
always loved reading thrillers. I love the complex puzzle of the plot, the
character backgrounds, including the villain’s character (if he isn’t all bad).
Of course, the excitement of turning pages to get to the next scene and the
emotional investment in staying up all night to see if the hero and heroine
survive have always made me think that was a great read. In spite of loving to
read them, I had never written a thriller in my short stories (hard to get it
into a short story format) and certainly not in a novel. I’d written action scenes in an SF novel, and
a villain or a nemesis in short stories. The thought of writing a thriller AND
a romance was both exciting and very scary. In the end, it is my most
challenging and rewarding writing experience.
On the
surface, writing a thriller appears to be easier to write than my Women’s
Fiction or Contemporary Romance novels. In a thriller the external plot keeps
the pages turning. Once I had the inciting incident and the problem to be
solved, I never had a problem with wondering what high stakes conflict I had to
develop. The entire situation is a high stakes conflict where both the hero and
heroine are in constant jeopardy, and in this series other people need saving
too. However, the challenging part is to add in the romance and the emotional
journey of the characters.
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| SHADOW FINDERS SERIES |
A romance
requires equal time to exposing the inner journey, the romantic relationship,
all while the hero and heroine are involved in this high stakes where they can
barely take a breath. In my story, a twist that is different from the usual
thriller relationship of violence begets violence mentality, is that the
heroine is someone who hates guns and has never used one, nor does she want to
even touch a gun. The hero is a former Marine who has used them expertly both
in training and in war. He has guns in his home and he won’t think twice about
killing to save a life. The heroine isn’t weak. She is strong and will fight to
save a life, but killing someone in the process is not acceptable. These two
different worldviews—non-violence vs. violence—was as interesting to explore as
the action and getting the bad guy. The acceptance of those differences and
being able to live with them is critical to these two people having a
relationship and finding their HEA.
Romantic
thrillers/suspense, as a genre, is still hot. I quickly learned that when readers
love your story, you better have a series planned. When this book was initially
released with a traditional publisher, I had a plan for three books. But I left
the publisher, went indie, and then had to wait for my rights to be returned. The
good news is during that time I conceived an ongoing series (more than three
books originally planned). When I released the second edition of EXPENDABLE, I included the set up of the Shadow Finders
ongoing series in the ending of the book. The three heroes and their wives will
work together to find and save those who have been forgotten or abandoned—people
doomed to the shadows. I hope to continue to write books in this ongoing series
for as long as readers will buy them.
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| MAGGIE LYNCH |
BIO:
Maggie Lynch
is the author of 20+ published books, as well as numerous short stories and
non-fiction articles. Her fiction tells stories of men and women
making heroic choices one messy moment at a time. Maggie is also the founder of
Windtree Press, an independent publishing cooperative with over 200 titles
among 20 authors.
Maggie and
her musician husband live in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, and are the
slaves of two demanding cats. In 2013, after careers in counseling, the
software industry, academia, and consulting worldwide, Maggie started writing
full time. Her adult fiction spans romance, suspense, and SF titles under the
name Maggie Jaimeson. She writes YA under the name Maggie Faire. Her
non-fiction titles are found under Maggie Lynch.
