Compelled to Read Justice

"What could oh so easily have been just another fish out of water story full of trite and tired cliché is instead a well thought out and cleverly written page turner."

"Jade Varden is an excellent storyteller with a deft hand at flowing prose. The story is compelling and interesting."

Justice (Deck of Lies, #1) has been reviewed at Twisted Sense. Read the full review, and then get the book free as part of the Stuffed Full of Lies weekend.

Indie Author of November

Verdict Book Reviews has picked me as their indie author of the month of November! Visit the blog to see the post, and find out exactly why I got picked.

Stuffed Full of Lies

Judgment, the fourth and final book in the Deck of Lies series, will be in online bookstores Tuesday, November 27. That's only three days away! 

It gives you just enough time to catch up on all the lies before the series ends. For the rest of this weekend, the first three books in the series will be FREE when you buy them at Smashwords. Get them in any electronic format, and get stuffed full of lies. 

To get Justice (Deck of Lies, #1), use the code PA47C

To get The Tower (Deck of Lies, #2), use the code PW83B

To get Death (Deck of Lies, #3), use the code PM25K

Judgment Trailer

The day of Judgment is coming. Take a peek at the trailer to find out what the fourth and final book in the Deck of Lies series has in store for you...

Check the blog every day this weekend for announcements about Judgment (Deck of Lies, #4), and get the book as soon as it's released!  

Books on Film: Miracle on 34th Street

The holiday season is a special time of year, and plenty of writers have used that to their advantage. Stories about Santa Claus, believing and the holiday spirit are always going to be popular. But few are destined to gain the sort of love and popularity enjoyed by Miracle on 34th Street, one of my all-time favorites. You've probably seen the movie, but what do you know about the book?

The Book

Valentine Davies wrote Miracle on 34th Street in 1947, as a companion novelette for the film released the same year. It was actually published by 20th Century Fox, who also made the film, but it's managed to stand on its own and has sold millions of copies. The book introduces readers to Doris Walker, a rather cold career woman who works for Macy's. She's managing personnel for the famous Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and must fire the Santa Claus she's hired at the last minute when he turns up drunk. She hires bystander Kris to take his place, an elderly gentleman who looks the part. He's so good in the parade that Toy Department head Mr. Shellhammer suggests that Kris play the department store's in-house Santa for the duration of the holiday season. Kris accepts the job and goes to work at Macy's, on 34th Street in New York City. 

Doris has a daughter, 6-year-old Susan, who has been raised in a world without fairy tales, dreams or fantasies. Doris doesn't believe in illusions; apparently she already got her fill of them with her former husband (Susan's father). Once the parade is over she goes to fetch Susan from the apartment of Fred Gailey, a lawyer who lives in the same building, and he manages to wrangle an invite to Thanksgiving dinner with Susan's help. Gailey is single, Doris is pretty, and he's hoping the dinner will only be the beginning.

The dinner goes well, but Doris's next workday does not. It seems that Kris thinks he actually is Santa Claus, like the real one, and this is cause for concern. He is taken to Macy's company psychologist Albert Sawyer, who takes an immediate dislike to Kris. Meanwhile, Kris has managed to strike up a friendship with Fred Gailey, and together the two of them plan to unthaw Doris and Susan. Gailey will work on opening Doris's icy heart, and Kris will teach Susan how to be a child with an imagination she's not afraid to use. 

But Sawyer proves to be a fly in the ointment. He manages to get Kris committed to Bellevue, the famed insane asylum, without Doris's knowledge. Gailey signs on as his lawyer in order to prove that he's sane and get him out of the place. 

Gailey comes up with a truly unique defense. Instead of finding a way to prove that the man who calls himself Kris Kringle is sane, he decides to prove -- in a court of law, mind you -- that Kris actually is Santa Claus. And maybe he is. It's the holiday season, and anything's possible...as Susan will learn at the end of the story.

The Film

The story beautifully comes to life on film, which makes since as the book was created to complement the movie. Natalie Wood stars as the adorable Susan, Maureen O'Hara is gorgeous as Doris, and Edmund Gwenn is Kris Kringle/Santa Claus. He was so good in the role, young Wood actually thought he was Santa, and the Academy agreed. He won an Oscar in the role.

The movie opens with Kris window-shopping on Thanksgiving, where he corrects a store clerk who has put the reindeer pulling Santa's sleigh in the wrong positions. The audience is this taken into the bustling middle of the parade, where Doris is putting out several different fires. We know at once that she's a strong, capable career gal. We find out soon that she's also a single mother who does her best to keep her daughter firmly grounded in reality.

My favorite scene occurs early in the film, when Gailey takes Susan to Macy's to visit Santa. She matter-of-factly tells him that she doesn't want anything for Christmas -- "whatever I need, my mother will buy me, if it's sensible and doesn't cost too much." But when he speaks fluent Dutch and sings a song with a little girl who believes he is Santa, even Susan is touched. I just love it. Another great moment comes later in the film, during the trial, which is filled with absolutely fabulous moments. One of the best is when Gailey calls the prosecutor's own son to the witness stand to testify that Santa does, indeed, exist -- "because my daddy told me so." I adore trial scenes, and the one in this flick is worth watching again and again.

What Got Adapted?

Very little changes from book to film in this one, for obvious reasons. As the story goes, it was originally written around 1944. Davies later adapted the work when Fox thought it would make a great screenplay, and she worked on both the novel and the script with other Fox writers.

The AFI ranks the original film in their Top Ten of classic American films, and it's part of the National Film Registry. Several remakes of the movie do exist, but the 1947 version is still the best by a country mile. Now is the season to watch it, so go and watch it! This story is a delight, both on the page and on the screen.

Cover Reveal: Judgment

The fourth and final book in the Deck of Lies series, Judgment, is nearly here! The book will be available in online bookstores soon. Now, you'll know what to look for. The cover has been officially revealed!

Cashing Out

Do I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?

How can I, when the truth will destroy us all? Now that I've started telling lies, I can't stop. Not until all this is over, and I'm free of the family that never felt like mine. Maybe it's wrong. Maybe I'm a bad person.

But it's definitely the only way I'm ever going to escape them. I have to take this opportunity to end things between us once and for all, no matter what it takes.

Don't I?

And here's a little taste of Judgment (Deck of Lies, #4). You won't find this brief excerpt anywhere else! 

“It’s fine, Rain,” Asher assured me maybe four minutes later. He’d excused himself to leave the room, no doubt to talk to media outside the courthouse, and arrived looking loose and relaxed. At least someone was having a good time. “Warren loves to showboat and grandstand, but he’s never won a case in a head-to-head against me.”

“This isn’t a boxing match,” I answered woodenly. My eyes were still glued to the judge’s bench, though she’d retired to the little room where she hid when court wasn’t in session. I didn’t dare look to the jury; I didn’t know what I would find there if I did.

“You’re wrong about that,” Asher answered. He was actually smiling as he double-checked to make sure his cufflinks were in place and his tie was perfectly straight. He had his briefcase open, and I caught him checking his hair in a tiny mirror secured to the inside corner before he closed it. “It is a boxing match, and you’ve got the better man on your side. Just wait and see,” he added.

Asher came to his feet like he knew the bailiff would choose that moment to enter. The judge followed, and within a minute the court settled down into uneasy silence. Graham Warren’s speech had left its mark on them all.

It was Asher’s job to undo all that work.

“Court is resumed,” the judge tapped her gavel. “Mr. von Shelton, we are now prepared to hear your opening statement.”

Act one of my drama continued as Asher swept gracefully to the center of the room. His brown hair gleamed under the lights, and his light blue silk tie perfectly brought out the golden, tanned tone of his skin.

Check the blog every day this weekend for announcements about Judgment (Deck of Lies, #4), and get the book as soon as it's released! 

Writing 101: Food in Books

Food and books go well together. When you're nice and full from your Thanksgiving feast, there's nothing as sweet as curling up with a good book. They seem to encourage snacking, and sometimes a book is so good it's difficult to pull one's eyes away to bother with looking at dinner. Why not cut right to it, and add food directly into your books? 

Even Characters Have to Eat

Everybody eats. It's one of the universal truths that ties all human beings together. I live in Kentucky, in the United States, and passionately love books and basketball. But when it comes to food, I'm not so different from the boy working on a farm that has no electricity in Asia  -- because I eat it, too. And that brings us right back to why you want to add food to your books. 

• Realism

Anything that makes your characters feel more real to readers is a good thing, and there's nothing like food to do that for you. Have your character eating pizza with friends or stopping at the fast food burger joint; we've all done that, so we can all relate. Use food to help me relate to your characters, because it'll work. 

• Descriptive writing

Food also allows you to be really descriptive, and that's exactly what you want your writing to be.  Describe the smell, the texture, the taste. Put me right there in that moment -- in that booth, eating pizza. Put me at the dinner table, cutting into the steak. 

• Introduce something new

Books allow readers to go to new places, to meet new people...to try new things. Why can't one of those things be food? It can be exciting to read about a food that I've never tasted, to learn about some new dish. I read one book that actually gave me a recipe, and I was delirious about it. I went straight into the kitchen once I got to the end of the chapter, no kidding. Use food to give your readers something new and different, and it will make your writing more memorable and enjoyable.

 Food and Books

Add food to your books, and your readers will eat it up (pun intended). It brings more flavor to the page, and your fans will end up being hungry for more of your writing. I could do this all day, but now I'm the one getting hungry. So think about ways to add more food to your writing while you're eating today, and have a happy Thanksgiving!

Writing 101: Getting Exposure

Exposure is the best way to sell books, because if people can't find you they definitely can't buy. As a self-published author, you've probably got accounts on all those social media sites. You may already have a blog, even a website, to promote your writing and your books. But there's more you can start doing if you want to start getting exposure.

Becoming Noticeable

Blogging and staying active in social media, particularly book-centric sites like Goodreads, is a great way to get exposure for yourself as an author and by extension, your books. But you can always take things up to the next level, too. 

First, you've got to identify what sort of author you are. If you write in a specific genre, you've got a good starting point. If you're a short story author, you're already ahead of the game. 

Expose Yourself

Writing articles for magazines, professional blogs and literary journals is a great way to get exposure among a reading audience. But your stuff is only going to get published if it's really good, and it's only going to help you if you go about it in the right way.  

Here's what you have to do: start thinking about topics that are relevant to your books and your writing. For example, I like to write mystery-romance books. I might write an article about real crimes involving couples who were once romantically linked. Maybe I'll call it Jilted: Real Crimes of Passion. Exciting, right? 

That's the whole point. If you write about erotica, maybe you'll come up with an article about safe sex toys, or how to practice bondage in a safe way, or maybe how to find like-minded sexual partners. If you write children's books, an article about the important of youth literacy might be in order, or maybe something scholarly about how creativity is essential in child development.

If you're going to write articles, write them the right way. Use AP style and write in an engaging, informative tone. If you have a specific website in mind for your submission, read other articles on that site to get a feel for the tone they like. Cite your resources, cite your statistics, cite your quotes. Include an About the Author box! If readers can't find you, all this effort isn't doing any good. Offer your articles for free. They're more likely to get published if they're good and there are no strings attached, and the promotion you'll get in return is well worth the time and effort it takes to write the article. You don't need additional compensation.

Writing non-fiction articles just isn't for everyone, and even the most creative novelists struggle with simple newspaper copy. You can always write short stories, or submit your own short stories, instead. It's best if your short stories are in the same genre as the book you'd like to promote (because if readers like your stories, they're more likely to buy a book that's similar). Always include an About the Author box with the submission, and don't forget to include the contact information to help readers find you.