CELTICLADY'S REVIEWS: Spotlight of Last Light by C.J.Lyons, With Interview!

Welcome to another exciting tour with Novel Publicity. Today, I'm excited to share with you, my review of Last Light, by CJ Lyons! Also, make sure you check out the rafflecopter, because Novel Publicity & CJ are giving away scented candles, signed hardbacks. . . AND a KINDLE PAPERWHITE!

From New York Times and USA Today bestselling author CJ Lyons. For fans of Lisa Gardner, Tami Hoag, and Jeffery Deaver:

"Everything a great thriller should be--action packed, authentic, and intense." ~#1 New York Times bestselling author Lee Child

After leaving the FBI, life should be easy, right? Wrong--not if you're Lucy Guardino. Lucy has always seen herself as a normal Pittsburgh soccer mom who happened to have a job chasing the worst of the worst. But after a violent predator targets her family and she's injured, Lucy sacrifices her career with the FBI in order to keep her family safe. What is she now that she's no longer a FBI Special Agent? she wonders as she begins her new job with the Beacon Group, a private consulting firm that specializes in cold cases and bringing justice to forgotten victims.

Lucy fears she's traded being a kick-ass law enforcement officer for being a civilian mother hen shepherding a team of amateurs. What is she now that she's no longer a FBI Special Agent? she wonders as she begins her new job with the Beacon Group, a private consulting firm that specializes in cold cases and bringing justice to forgotten victims.Lucy fears she's traded being a kick-ass law enforcement officer for being a civilian mother hen shepherding a team of amateurs. Her fears appear justified when she's partnered with TK O'Connor, a former Marine MP struggling with her transition to life back home, and sent to rural Texas to investigate a case that's more than cold, it's already been closed with the killers behind bars for the past twenty-nine years.

But...who really killed Lily Martin, her infant daughter, and husband? Why was an entire family targeted for annihilation? What price will Lucy pay when she fights to expose a truth people will kill to keep buried? LAST LIGHT is the seventh Lucy Guardino novel, but they can be read out of order. If you enjoy captivating suspense, intelligent storytelling,strong and vulnerable characters, and a freight-train pace, then you'll love this adrenaline rush of a heart-pounding thriller. Join the millions of readers who've fallen for CJ's Thrillers with Heart and grab your copy of LAST LIGHT today!

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In this feature interview, we’d like to take a close look at you as a writer. Be prepared for weird, quirky and fun interview questions!

How long have you been writing & when did you know being an author was something you wanted to pursue?

CJ: I’ve been a storyteller all my life (it got me sentenced to time-outs quite a lot as a child) but I never dreamed of pursuing a career as a writer until fairly recently. Once I did, it was as much of a dream come true as becoming a physician was for this small town girl from Pennsylvania!

Name three of your favorite books and why you love them.

CJ: Mark Helprin’s Winter’s Tale, Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes, and Elizabeth Wein’s Code Name Verity. They may seem an eclectic mix, but I adore them all because they combine emotional honesty with evocative, magical writing that transports you into the worlds they create.

Where do you write best, in the office, on the couch, at night, or early morning? Or none of the above!

CJ: I don’t have a desk (never had) so I write anywhere I can take my laptop—but alone, in my home, because I’m a terrible introvert and can not write around other people, so you’ll never see me working at Starbucks like my extroverted friends!

When you’re writing, what three non-writing things are within reach?
CJ: A stereo remote to keep my tunes flowing in synch with the emotions I’m trying to create with my words, cup of Good Earth tea (I don’t drink black tea or coffee, but stumbled across Good Earth’s original cinnamon/cardamom flavor and loved it), and my Doctor Who mug with the motto: In the end we are all just stories.

Do you have a favorite medium? Pen, pencil, keyboard?

CJ: I love scribbling in a notebook and keep one near my bedside for late night imaginings, but I can’t write as fast as I can type so I prefer my laptop over any other modality.

You’ve written a number of thriller series, such as Lucy Guardino and the Hart and Drake medical suspense. What draws you to writing multiple books in the same universe? Should your books be read in order, or can they be read as stand alones?

CJ: The early Lucy books (her FBI Thrillers:

Snake Skin, Blood Stained, Kill Zone, After Shock, and Hard Fall) are more satisfying when read in order but I do my best to keep readers caught up with what came before in case you start in the middle. Actually, I guess all my series are like that because the characters do change and grow over time—I admire authors who can craft a series where the main character remains the same and there’s no need to read them in order. But just like in real life, my stories evolve and there’s added emotional complexity as the characters and their relationships grow over time. Especially with my new Fatal Insomnia medical thriller series—those books really compromise one epic saga and need to be read in order as each one starts immediately after the last ends.

When you begin a new novel, do you do any sort of planning? If you do, could you tell us a bit about your planning process?

CJ: I need three things to start a novel, but there’s really no planning involved. I need to know the theme—what emotion is driving the story and characters: betrayal, love/hate, vengeance, family, etc. I need to know my characters, especially the main character and their opposition as they are two halves of the same coin on an emotional/motivation level—which goes back to the theme. And I need to know if the ending is happy, tragic, or bitter sweet.

Now for a bit of history, what was the first work you had published, and what’s your favorite memory of writing that work.

CJ: My first published novel was Lifelines, Angels of Mercy #1 in 2008. For that series, the publisher came to me and asked me to create a series featuring women in medicine, kind of an ER meets Grey’s Anatomy motif. And then they set me loose; let me go where I wanted with it. It was such a fun ride! That first book was written in 29 days (a personal record—usually it takes me months to write a novel, a few of them have taken years before I had the writing chops to get them right!) and I remember finishing it on Christmas Eve (it was due Jan 1st) and I was so excited to have it done so I could spend the holidays with my family.

Last one, whew! Have you ever had a book rejected from a publisher, and what advice would you give other authors on rejections?

CJ: Even with a top-notch agent and bestseller, award-winning status I still get proposals rejected. Publishers are running a business and if you’re offering them a cannoli when they’re betting that the hot seller will be cupcakes, then you’re out of luck, even if the editor loves the work. We’re fortunate that in this day and age not publishing with a traditional publisher doesn’t mean not having a successful publishing experience—if they’re willing to put the time and energy (and often money) into bringing their work to the level of any NYC publisher before self-publishing. I guess that would be my advice: keep writing (most traditionally published authors have written at least four novels, or about half a million words before their first deal) and when you think you’re ready to publish, remember that your competition and standard to beat isn’t all the other self-published authors, it’s the NYT bestsellers because, whether self-published or traditionally published, they’ve all proven they know what it takes to engage readers.

Thanks for joining us today Cj!