Good Morning, Booklovers!
Join me in welcoming this week’s guest author, CJ Shane with her featured suspense thriller, Desert Jade.
It’s great to meet you, CJ! How do you take your coffee?
CJS: I love coffee! I start the day with a big cup enhanced with low-fat milk.
Ally: While I pour, you’ll have time to show readers your bio.
Bio:
I’ve lived in Tucson, Arizona, for many years. My degrees are in journalism, history and library science. I have worked as a newspaper reporter, a college reference librarian, a freelance writer for magazines, and as a book author. I’m also a visual artist, primarily a painter. I’ve traveled a lot, I’m very interested in environmental issues, and I have a special place in my heart for rescue dogs and cats.
Something unique/unusual that isn’t in your regular bio: “Over an eleven year period, I taught ESL in China in summers and autumns. I also took teams of American teachers with me to teach. My experiences teaching in China led to my nonfiction book Voices of New China. Chinese characters regularly appear in my southern Arizona Letty Valdez Mystery novels.”
Contact links:
Email: shane@cjshane.com
Website: https://www.cjshane.com/desert-jade.html
Newsletter signup: https://madmimi.com/signups/120087/join
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/C.-J.-Shane/e/B00N6K9S6S/
Goodreads Author Page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/29448.C_J_Shane
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CJShaneArtBooks
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/cj-shane
I’ve lived in Tucson, Arizona, for many years. My degrees are in journalism, history and library science. I have worked as a newspaper reporter, a college reference librarian, a freelance writer for magazines, and as a book author. I’m also a visual artist, primarily a painter. I’ve traveled a lot, I’m very interested in environmental issues, and I have a special place in my heart for rescue dogs and cats.
Something unique/unusual that isn’t in your regular bio: “Over an eleven year period, I taught ESL in China in summers and autumns. I also took teams of American teachers with me to teach. My experiences teaching in China led to my nonfiction book Voices of New China. Chinese characters regularly appear in my southern Arizona Letty Valdez Mystery novels.”
Contact links:
Email: shane@cjshane.com
Website: https://www.cjshane.com/desert-jade.html
Newsletter signup: https://madmimi.com/signups/120087/join
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/C.-J.-Shane/e/B00N6K9S6S/
Goodreads Author Page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/29448.C_J_Shane
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CJShaneArtBooks
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/cj-shane
INTERVIEW:
Ally: What type of book are you featuring today?
CJS: Desert Jade was named a finalist for Best Suspense-Thriller book, 2018 New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards.
Tucson Chicana/Native American private investigator and Iraq War veteran Letty Valdez joins forces with an unlikely ally, Chinese police Detective Inspector Zhou Liang Wei, in Desert Jade, a fast-paced mystery-suspense thriller with a touch of romance set in the Sonoran Desert.
Ally: Why did you write Desert Jade?
CJS: I realized that there were things I wanted to convey to readers that would best be told in a story, not as nonfiction. Author Richard Powers said, “The best arguments in the world won't change a person's mind. The only thing that can do that is a good story.” I want to tell the story of the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands and the people who live here.
Ally: Do your characters come to you fully formed with names and backgrounds?
CJS: Author Alice Walker said she was a “medium” for her characters in The Color Purple. I didn’t understand this until I started writing about Letty, her family and friends. So yes, fully formed! For example in the second LV Mystery, Dragon’s Revenge, this fellow named Dan appears briefly. In the third LV Mystery (coming in a few months!), Dan will play a much bigger role. He insisted, because he really likes Letty a lot.
Ally: Talk about your main characters. Do they have flaws?
CJS: Tucson private detective Letty Valdez is smart, resourceful, and brave. She’s Chicana/Native American who grew up in poverty. She suffers from PTSD due to her service as a medic in Iraq. Despite challenges, Letty is a true hero, the one you can count on always. Readers have frequently said how much they like her.
Ally: Tell us about your reading habits. Current favorites?
CJS: I read a lot of nonfiction as well as mystery-suspense, romantic suspense and science fiction. I usually read one book every week, both paper and ebooks. The nonfiction book I recently read that really moved me was Francisco Cantú’s The Line Becomes a River. I just finished two terrific sci-fi books in Linked Worlds series, The Babylon Eye and The Real, by South African writer Masha du Toit. I can’t wait to the third in the series, The Strange. My favorite mystery writer is Laura Lippman and her Tess Monaghan series.
Ally: What is your next writing project? Anticipated release date?
CJS: The third Letty Valdez Mystery, Daemon Waters, will come out in the summer of 2019.
Ally: Please respond to these five short answer questions:
Ally: What type of book are you featuring today?
CJS: Desert Jade was named a finalist for Best Suspense-Thriller book, 2018 New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards.
Tucson Chicana/Native American private investigator and Iraq War veteran Letty Valdez joins forces with an unlikely ally, Chinese police Detective Inspector Zhou Liang Wei, in Desert Jade, a fast-paced mystery-suspense thriller with a touch of romance set in the Sonoran Desert.
Ally: Why did you write Desert Jade?
CJS: I realized that there were things I wanted to convey to readers that would best be told in a story, not as nonfiction. Author Richard Powers said, “The best arguments in the world won't change a person's mind. The only thing that can do that is a good story.” I want to tell the story of the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands and the people who live here.
Ally: Do your characters come to you fully formed with names and backgrounds?
CJS: Author Alice Walker said she was a “medium” for her characters in The Color Purple. I didn’t understand this until I started writing about Letty, her family and friends. So yes, fully formed! For example in the second LV Mystery, Dragon’s Revenge, this fellow named Dan appears briefly. In the third LV Mystery (coming in a few months!), Dan will play a much bigger role. He insisted, because he really likes Letty a lot.
Ally: Talk about your main characters. Do they have flaws?
CJS: Tucson private detective Letty Valdez is smart, resourceful, and brave. She’s Chicana/Native American who grew up in poverty. She suffers from PTSD due to her service as a medic in Iraq. Despite challenges, Letty is a true hero, the one you can count on always. Readers have frequently said how much they like her.
Ally: Tell us about your reading habits. Current favorites?
CJS: I read a lot of nonfiction as well as mystery-suspense, romantic suspense and science fiction. I usually read one book every week, both paper and ebooks. The nonfiction book I recently read that really moved me was Francisco Cantú’s The Line Becomes a River. I just finished two terrific sci-fi books in Linked Worlds series, The Babylon Eye and The Real, by South African writer Masha du Toit. I can’t wait to the third in the series, The Strange. My favorite mystery writer is Laura Lippman and her Tess Monaghan series.
Ally: What is your next writing project? Anticipated release date?
CJS: The third Letty Valdez Mystery, Daemon Waters, will come out in the summer of 2019.
Ally: Please respond to these five short answer questions:
- 1. favorite movie: Beasts of the Southern Wild
- 2. favorite song: Antonio Carlos Jobim’s “Aguas de Março” in English translation
- 3. Your pets: Sunday, the rescue pit-bull mix. Sunday is BFFs with fictional Millie, the Pit Bull who is rescued by Letty Valdez in Desert Jade.
- 4. bucket list item: to visit New York City
- 5. If you couldn't write anymore, what would you do? paint and draw
Desert Jade (A Letty Valdez Mystery)
Genre: Suspense Thriller
Tucson Chicana/Native American private investigator and Iraq War veteran Letty Valdez joins forces with an unlikely ally, Chinese police Detective Inspector Zhou Liang Wei, in Desert Jade, a fast-paced mystery-suspense thriller set in the Sonoran Desert.
We meet a migrant lost and out of water in the desert, Chinese triad gangsters engaged in criminal activities on the U.S.-Mexico border, a woman murdered in her backyard, a husband who vanished with a large sum of money, and three abducted young women threatened with sex trafficking.
There's a touch of romance, too, when cop Zhou meets one of Letty's friends. Don't forget Milagro (aka Millie), the runt-sized female pit bull who performs a heroic act and saves a life.
Next after Desert Jade, look for Dragon's Revenge: A Letty Valdez Mystery
Buy Links:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Desert-Jade-Letty-Valdez-Mystery-ebook/dp/B077H4ZBTY/
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/756970
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/desert-jade-cj-shane/1127372739?type=eBook
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/desert-jade/id1306446129?mt=11
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/desert-jade
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