Free sample of Cheryl Kaye Tardif's latest novelette

You can now read the entire novelette REMOTE CONTROL for free on Textnovel.com.

In this dark, suspenseful and somewhat comical look at one man's desires, Remote Control by bestselling author Cheryl Kaye Tardif delivers a strong message: Be careful what you wish for!

Meet Harold Fielding--plumber by part of the day, slacker/tv addict the rest of the day and night. Harry believes that fame and fortune will come to him if he wishes hard enough. God forbid if he should actually work for it.

Beatrice Fielding is Harry's hardworking wife. She holds down multiple jobs so her husband can laze about on his recliner, eating popcorn and drinking cola while watching his favorite shows. She has many wishes--some aren't so nice.

I hope you'll check it out. If you sign up (FREE) on Textnovel.com you'll also be able to read my suspenseful and creepy short story OUIJA.

And please don't forget to vote by clicking on the "thumbs up" icon. I need all the votes I can get. :)

http://www.textnovel.com/stories_list_detail.php?story_id=309

~Cheryl Kaye Tardif, bestselling author of Divine Intervention, The River and Whale Song



Well, I Had to Start Somewhere

In the world of mystery novels, lawyers, police officers, PIs, FBI agents, and journalists often take leading roles. Few authors choose an accountant as an protagonist but when you’re a beginning writer as I was when I started to write Taxed to Death, the old adage, “write what you know” was sound advice.

I was working as a secretary for a mid-size accounting firm and spent many lunch hours sharing a table with articling students. One day, I found myself talking about my writing (something I still rarely do at work) when one of them said, “How come no one writes about us?” It was a good question. A lot of the accountants I’d known we’re pretty interesting: funny, smart, cocky, shy, arrogant, kind, neurotic, lecherous. Some loved their work, others loathed it, but most were ambivalent.

The idea for Taxed to Death came easily, but the words didn’t. I’d written a few short stories, but I quickly discovered that writing a novel was completely different. Concepts like point of view changes, inner monologue, pace, red herrings, and dialogue were skills that came slowly with practice, workshops, and a helpful agent.

The book took twelve years and ten drafts to complete while I maintained a day job and had two babies. Needless to say, writing time was squeezed between feedings, diaper changes and the hundred household duties most of us have. But I finished it and Taxed to Death was published in 1995. The book received some terrific reviews, one from a CA, no less. I thought the sequel, Fatal Encryption, would go a little faster. Boy, was I wrong. But that’s another story.

To read excerpts of Taxed to Death visit http://www.debrapurdykong.com

Fleshing Out the Truth

Recently, I had the opportunity to observe a hospitalized teenager (someone I didn’t know) suffering from bulimia. It was tough to watch her eat and then regurgitate her food a few minutes later, only to slowly chew and swallow it back down again. It was even tougher to understand why this young woman looked more like a famine victim than the slender, beaming teenager she had been. (I saw a photo by her bed.) The teen seemed to have a lot of things going for her: intelligence, career goals, a loving supportive family who visited every day, and friends. She also happened to have a gorgeous face. But truly, her body was down to the bare bones. Her collar bone and vertebra protruded noticeably; her arms were merely two sticks layered in flesh.

A few weeks later, I was reading a novel as I always do before sleeping. A couple of times, when I put the book down, I thought of the emaciated teen, though I wasn’t sure why. The novel was a sci-fi thriller and none of the characters had an eating disorder. Food was scarcely mentioned in the story. But when I began to analyze the writing, I realized something was missing. Here was a book with an intriguing concept, memorable characters, and a fast pace, yet there was almost no narrative description. The story moved forward on dialogue, a trend I see more often all the time. A trend I’ve also followed.

These days, there’s a certain amount of pressure to tell a quick-paced story to hold readers’ short attention spans. The downside is that the strive for fast, thrill-a-minute reads can take a toll on one’s work. Certainly, there are readers who love the heavy-dialogue style and habitually skip narrative descriptions, and I was one of them. But I’ve begun to look at things differently. Now, I want to flesh out of my work, especially in short stories where the goal to tell a story in as few words as possible can pare a story down to the bare bones, and that’s not always a good thing. I now want to achieve a better balance between narrative and dialogue, and take time to tell a story.

Life is all about balances. And when something goes out of sinc, it reflects on the quality of life and the quality of one’s writing. Sometimes, it’s almost impossible not to succumb to pressure, whether real or imagined. And it’s really tough to look at your work and yourself as a writer, in a different way. But look we must. Painful as it might be. In the long run we’ll be better for it.

To read excerpts of Taxed to Death and Fatal Encryption visit www.debrapurdykong.com

Preparing for winter hibernation

As a writer, I have two main times of the year where I go into a sort of "hibernation mode", one in the winter and one in the summer. During these times I like to focus mainly on writing, so it's a time I really look forward to.

Winter in Edmonton can get quite cold, as some of you may know, and sometimes we get a good dump of snow, the kind you don't want to drive in. In past years my winter hibernation usually ran from January to the end of March, and the summer would run June to the end of August. These can be slower months for book signing events too, so it makes it prime for hibernating.

This year since I didn't have a new book out to promote, I'm able to go into hibernation mode early. It'll start later this month through to March, coming out for just a handful of events, and of course I'll continue blogging, but probably not quite as often.

For my winter hibernation I have to prepare ahead of time, and these are the things I'll be "storing":

• Chai tea mix (hot for winter, cold for summer)
• white hot chocolate mix
• apple cider that I'll heat up
• bread and cheese for grilled cheese sandwiches
• lots of coffee, flavored and Tim Hortons
• towels for when I take breaks in my hot tub--yes, even when I'm surrounded by snow
• lots of books--my to-be-read pile never seems to go down much
• my seat cushion that has heat and massage modes
• my Starbucks card for when I just need to get out
• and of course, my laptop

What do you do to prepare for the winter? :)

Is there anything special you store or crave? What do you eat or drink that is a winter treat?

P.S. Happy new president day to all my wonderful American friends and fans!

~Cheryl Kaye Tardif,

author of Whale Song, The River and Divine Intervention

http://www.cherylktardif.com/

REMOTE CONTROL is now featured on Textnovel.com

For those of you who were following the progress of my serialized novelette titled REMOTE CONTROL, I am not updating it on my website at this time. I was contacted by the founder of Textnovel.com and was asked if I'd consider posting a story there. I've decided to post REMOTE CONTROL from beginning to end, with a new chapter every day.

So if you've been reading about Harold Fielding and his wife Bea and want to read about what happens when Harry's wish for fame and fortune is granted, please visit my novelette's page on Textnovel.com. It has been selected as an Editor's Picks.

REMOTE CONTROL

I hope you enjoy. Please sign up for Textnovel (free) and then you can subscribe so you don't miss a chapter, plus you can leave a review or vote by clicking on the "thumbs up" symbol. :)

~Cheryl Kaye Tardif,
suspense author
http://www.cherylktardif.com/

Learning to Recognize a Gift When I See One

Every time I try something new that involves interacting with other people, be it a job, a book signing, a reading, or even attending a party where I only know the host, I feel a niggling in the pit of my stomach. It's like a silent warning that something might not work out, that I might bomb miserably and be fired, or horribly embarrassed and humiliated by someone who couldn't care less whether I lived or died. It's a common feeling, I think. One most of us feel from time to time, regardless of how much we look forward to an event or how well prepared we are. Hearing war stories from writers who've had book signings with no one showing up doesn't help matters. So, I've learned to attend these things with a view of having fun no matter what. So far, it's always works.

Tuesday night's "Mystery Author Visit" at my local library didn't have a huge turnout despite the library's great publicity efforts, but because I'm an unknown writer, I didn't expect a large number of people. There were about nine attendees in all -- one with an infant who started wailing while I was reading. But the small turnout didn't worry me. I spoke a little about white-collar crime and how my books came to be. I then read the first two chapters of Fatal Encryption which take place on Halloween night. The head librarian asked questions about my work, which prompted more questions from the audience. Afterward, we were served a lovely platter of chocolates from the new shop down the road, plus refreshments.

A short while later, the woman with the baby came up to me and apologized for the interruption, but I told her the truth. I have children and know exactly what it's like. When my kids were babies, I read my work aloud as part of the editing process when they were nearby, and tears and fussing often erupted.

A gentleman and his wife who were seated before I even arrived stayed for the reading. Because of the open area, I thought they might be just resting, but it turned out they came to see me. The gentleman had already read Fatal Encryption in the library and liked it enough to buy a copy plus a copy of Taxed to Death. Another woman approached and said that her daughter wanted to be a writer and asked me how she could help her, so I provided a few tips.

I don't know why the niggling keeps coming back when good things happen so often. Maybe it's just a sign that I should stay on my toes and never ever take any promotion opportunity for granted. Maybe I need to appreciate these moments as the gifts they are. And maybe I should learn not to complain about all the time promotion and marketing takes.

To read excerpts from Fatal Encryption and Taxed to Death, visit www.debrapurdykong.com