A writer's journey...

Here's your chance to read ELEVEN before everyone else!  TWO Kindle version ARCs (Advanced Reading Copies) are up for grabs! The contest will run from October 28th - October 31st.  The winners will be notified and contacted on November 1st. This is all you have to do to qualify: 1) Follow my blog and/or like my FB Author Page  and/or share specified tweets as noted below. 2) If you follow my blog and/or like my FB Author Page, please also leave a comment below to let me know you've done so.  For blog comments, please leave your Twitter handle or other means of contacting you for prize notification in the case you win. 3) Every comment made on my blog and tweet shared will be assigned a number. A random number generator will determine the winners. Here are the specified tweets to qualify (links will shrink and each tweet will fit within the 140 character limit) : Eleven Rooms. Ten Bodies. One Empty Grave. - #Eleven by @Carolyn_Arnold coming 11.11.11 http...

In just over 16 days, my FBI thriller Eleven will be here!  You may have watched the trailer , read the book blurb , or even caught a sneak peek over on my official website. Now, I'm turning to you to help me get the word out even more!  Would you be able and interested in supporting me with my book blog tour? If so, I invite you over to Orangeberry Virtual Book Tours .  At the base of the page is a simple form stating your name and site information.  I'm up for interviews, reviews or even just something as simple as the book cover, blurb and link. If you would like to discuss with me directly you can email me  here . And if you haven't seen the trailer, here it is....

When I was a teenager my father used to tell me, I don’t want to be in the elevator business.   I’d get this line due to my emotional ups and downs.  If you’re a woman, there’s a good chance you understand what I’m referring to - as a teen at one point you were happy, the next tears could be flying.  Really, it’s not much different when you decide to be a writer – although I hope you’re not moved to the point of actually crying. But let’s face it, being a writer is tough.  It’s long hours and there’s usually very little praise for it at the end of the day.  However, it’s not all negative.  There are loads of positives.  You have an outlet to use which allows you to escape your daily life. Writing is a stress relief.  There are people who do enjoy reading what you write. However, with this being said, there are moments you love your writing, and moments you question whether you should even bother.  It doesn’t have to be negative external fee...

It’s true we all fear many things.  In answering the question what do you fear, what is the first thing that comes to mind? When we start analyzing our fears we may find there are more than we originally thought.  We’ll also realize we have different types of fears.  Most of us possess a mortal fear, whether it be mild or strong.  None of us what to die or to lose loved ones. Possibly your first reaction to the question is you’re afraid of spiders, for example.  But as you give thought to your fears no doubt you’ll realize you have a few phobias, maybe even a lot.  Analyze each of those.  Are you equally afraid of each or are some stronger phobias than others? As we pry into our fears, we’ll unearth smaller ones.  Possibly these are financial strains, fear of losing a job or displeasing your boss. Maybe you’re starting to wonder where I’m headed with all of this?  Here’s the thing:  you possess layers of fears, do your characters?

Eleven Rooms. Ten Bodies. One Empty Grave. Brandon Fisher never expected this when he signed up as a Special Agent for the FBI. Working in the shadow of Supervisory Special Agent Jack Harper of the Behavioral Analysis Unit his career seemed set. But when the team is called to a small rural town where the remains of ten victims are found in an underground bunker, buried in an unusual way, Brandon knows he'll never return to his normal life. With one empty grave, and the case touching close to home, he fears he's become the target of a psychotic serial killer who wants to make him number eleven. Only thing is, everything Brandon thinks he knows is far from the truth. Read the 1st Chapter here Watch the book trailer here

One of the most popular posts on this blog was on Serial Killers*.  I can only imagine part of the reason is because the media is obsessed with killers.  They don’t even have to be serial killers, but the thought of someone taking another’s life is far removed from most of our thinking processes.  I believe this is part of the draw to watching shows about them or reading about them.  We’re trying to understand them. Their actions go contrary to most of us and our sense of justice.  Most of us would never dream of inflicting harm on others, let alone killing them.  We want a basis upon which to justify their actions. What pushes a person to kill another?  Is it the shape of their front lobe?  Is it the way their mind works?  Is it because they were raised in a violent home?

Each one of us have a path we came down to get to where we are.  For each of us that course was different.  Some of us took a more direct route, but I believe most of us took one that would more resemble a curvy line. The questions many people ask you as an author are:  When did you start writing?  Did you always want to be a writer?  Was it a lifelong dream? Well, here’s a little bit about my journey. I didn’t start out writing and telling stories as a little girl.  As a teenager I wrote a few novellas and some poetry, and thought it would be amazing to write a novel.  I even wrote to Harlequin for their submission guidelines and remember reading them excitedly when they came in the mail. But things in life changed.  I grew up, fell in love and got married.  Writing seeped to the background.

In honor of #SampleSunday on Twitter, I invite all of you over to my website for a sneak peak of JUSTIFIED, the 2nd in the Madison Knight series. Here's the link . The book blurb: Madison Knight should have ignored the call.  Now she is spending Christmas Eve dealing with her least favorite thing…blood and lots of it. When a female victim is found in her home it has Madison and her partner tapping into the vic’s personal life.   With  a rash of former business partners and lovers, all of whom wanted her dead, there are not enough hours to question them all. But trying to find the person who had the most motive isn't all that's on Madison's mind.  As she struggles to establish balance in her own life, she knows she has to get her focus back.  Justice requires it. JUSTIFIED is slated for release December 2011. You can meet Madison Knight in TIES THAT BIND , available now for Kindle and in Print.

Last week, I started a contest to win a signed paperback copy of TIES THAT BIND.  About a hundred of you entered through blog comments, tweets and sharing on Facebook! Wait no longer!  The winner's name has been chosen.  By assigning numbers to all entries, and using an online random number generator, the winner is... David G Welsh He tweeted on September 25th: The hairs rose on her arms, not from the air conditioning, but from the chill of death.-Excerpt, TIES THAT BIND http://amzn.to/q4SAkj #Kindle Congratulations David!! But that doesn't mean the rest of you have to go without!  You can still get yourself a paperback copy for $11.99 USD, or download for Kindle here . For those of you who have purchased the Kindle version or will be, I also offer Kindlegraph .