The protagonist is Lara Evans, one of the taskforce investigators from my Detective Jackson series. In the fifth book, Dying for Justice, Evans had a major role, and I had such a good time developing her character and writing from her perspective that I knew she needed her own novel. After five Jackson titles, I was ready to take a break and stretch my creative side.

Here’s the short blurb. In 2023, ex-detective Lara Evans just wants to win the Gauntlet, a national endurance competition, but a mysterious assailant wants her dead. Can she stop the killer and survive long enough to claim the victory? Click the cover image for more detail.

The e-book is only $2.99 at Amazon and B&N. Congratulations to Shirley Nienkark, who won a print copy!

Readers: Are you willing to follow a character (or author) into a different genre?
Writers: Have you tried taking a character into a different genre or time period?

I liked Lisa Hutchison too, but then I decided Lisa is too similar to Lara, my protagonist, and they have a long scene together. This is how it goes with naming characters, which is why I often ask readers for help.

So the winning name choice is Sara Fleets submitted by Bobby Crawford-McCoy. And I’ll spell Sarah with an H, so it looks and sounds different from Lara. Another runner up was Suzie Ventola, submitted by Shirley Nienkark, which is also a great last name. Bobby and Shirley, please contact me with your mailing address or format preference.

For those who didn’t win, I’ll probably use many the names you suggested for other characters. I need a lot of names in this story, many for people who don’t have active roles.

Everyone who entered is entitled to an e-book, and I contacted those that I could. But if you didn’t leave me a way to find you, please email meand let me know if you want an epub or mobi (Kindle) file.

Thanks for participating! These contests are fun.

1. Make your main character want something. Desire is the engine that drives both life and narrative. Characters who don’t want anything are rarely interesting.

2. Make your main character do something. Your story can start with a character who is the victim of circumstances, but afterward the character needs to move quickly into action. Readers like characters who take charge.

3. Let your readers know the story’s premise early. If they get to the end of the first chapter and still can’t answer the question—what is the story about?—they might not keep reading.

4. Get conflict into the story early. It doesn’t have to be all-out bickering or deception between characters, but let your readers know things will sticky.

5. Skip the omniscient POV. Let the reader experience as much of the story as possible through the eyes of your main character. This is how readers bond with protagonists. If you shift POVs, at least put in a line break.

6. It’s okay to tell sometimes, instead of show. Not every character reaction has to be described in gut-churning, eyebrow-lifting physical detail. Sometimes it’s okay to simply say, “Jessie panicked.”

7. Introduce characters one at a time with a little background information for each. Too many characters all at once in the first few pages can be overwhelming.

8. Don’t overwrite. Nobody agrees on what constitutes good writing, so trying to make your writing stand out will probably work against you. The best writing doesn’t draw attention to itself; it just gets out of the way of the story.

9. Avoid word repetitions when you can. Read your story out loud. You’re much more likely to hear the repetitions than see them.

10. The components of a novel that readers care about most are, in order: story, characters, theme, setting. If you have to sacrifice something, start at the end of list. Never sacrifice the story for anything else.

Readers: What would you add here? What do you want writers to do more or less of?