Psychological women’s suspense that reads like the sharp edge of a dagger…
By Susan Wingate
When Georgette’s old friend, Helen, comes back to Sunnydale, the town begins to sizzle. Is Helen attracted to Hawthorne Biggs, Georgette’s new beau or is it just Georgette’s imagination? But when Helen goes missing, all seems lost.
Will they find Helen dead? Does Hawthorne truly have Georgette’s best interests at heart? HOTTER THAN HELEN is a psychological women’s suspense.
Book Information
Hotter Than Helen (The Bobby’s Diner Series Book 2) by Susan Wingate
Release Date: November 16, 2022
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Soft Cover: ISBN:978-1509243501; 329 pages; $15.99; eBook $4.99
Amazon:
Book Excerpt
Chapter 1
Sunnydale, Arizona, 2009
Steel shackles jangled at his ankles, sounding much like the ghost of Christmas future when he shuffled to a stop on the cold travertine floor. Cabling, the kind used on bicycle locks, wrapped around his thin waist and angled off in a Y, snaring each of his wrists. He held his arms close to his stomach, monk-style as if praying, but unlike a monk, he held his head high, not down.
At a thick, red mahogany podium, the orange-clad prisoner stood next to a smaller-framed bailiff. The bailiff’s hand cupped the man’s elbow when someone called out, “All rise. The Honorable Judge Lindon.” The bailiff stepped back to the right, but the prisoner’s eyes shifted left where his lawyer stepped up. The packed courtroom stood almost in unison.
Everyone watched as the judge walked in from a door along the courtroom wall where his desk sat. Sidling behind the wide bench, a dense desk spanned no less than eight feet long and three feet wide of the same rich mahogany as the podium where the orange-clad
man stood.
The judge sat, pausing midway down to eye the prisoner over his black-rimmed reading glasses, sitting slowly before lifting the docket in front of him and reading from the papers.
He looked pissed.
Once settled, he slid his black leather and wood chair under the bench. Everyone else in the courtroom sat. Everyone except, of course, the prisoner and his lawyer.
The judge wasted no time. “Your sentence, sir…in light of this…” he hesitated briefly, rolling his hand in a circle as he spoke, then continued, “…this new information and these errors,” he glared at the lawyer, “in allowing this new information from reaching the court at the time of your trial.” The judge kept a hard scowl as he looked between both men but mostly at the man’s attorney. “I have no other reasonable choice than to reduce said sentence to a lesser term, no more than two years beginning today.” He slammed his gavel so abruptly he made the stumpy, tightly-combed, gray-haired court recorder jump. She looked up suddenly but went back to typing.
Author Interview
- What do you do when a new idea jumps out at you while you’re still working on a book? Do you chase the squirrel (aka “UP syndrome”) or do you finish your current project first?
- As a creative, I can’t imagine quashing any new ideas. I write new ideas down immediately and then when the time is right, analyze them to see if they are viable or if I’m interested still. But mostly, I finish whatever current project I’m working on and then tackle new ones after that. But I write all my new ideas down right away.
- Who is your favorite character to write, and why is that person your favorite? If picking a favorite character would be like picking a favorite child, which character seems to be the most demanding or your attention and detail as a writer?
- I like writing quirky and flawed characters who are apt to having things go terribly wrong—usually because of their choices. I like writing characters who learn something important about them and about the world.
- The reason I enjoy writing flawed characters is because I’m flawed. Our internal person is rarely the person we would “out” in public life. It’s often someone our families don’t even know about. I think Robert Louis Stevenson got the dichotomy between our external and internal selves best when he wrote The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Interestingly, he also got the external self so exquisitely when he went to lengths exhibiting Dr.Jekyll trying to tamp down the internal self (exhibited as the villain and a real, separate person) of Mr. Hyde.
- Describe your writing process. Do you outline, plot and plan, or is your writing more organic?
- I used to outline when I first began writing novels. Then, as the years passed and I felt more comfortable, went to pantsing. I think pantsing is more difficult, but it’s more creative and fun for me.
- What are some books or authors that you would recommend to our readers?
- There are so many amazing contemporary authors out right now. Here are three of my favorite authors:
- Jenny Offil, Dept. of Speculation
- Kali White, The Monsters We Make
- Mandy Haynes, Walking the Wrong Way Home
- Have you been able to incorporate your previous experience in [jobs/education] in your writing?
- Absolutely! This is how the term, “write what you know,” really works. I’ve used all of my experiences—jobs, relationships, health, food, whatever I’ve experienced into my writing. Doing so brings your scenes and overall stories an authenticity that might be missing if one was to write about something they absolutely know nothing about.
- Do you identify with your main character or did you create a character that is your opposite?
- I usually identify with the main character, but I also identify with the opposition character as well. As writers, if we cannot tap into our naughty selves as well as our good selves, characters will fall flat. We need to stretch our emotional understanding of each character who enters a scene—even a busboy assuming he’s not a primary character. We need to make a secondary character seem like he has the weight of the world on his shoulder or, conversely, he just got the best news ever. We may never know what that weight or best news is, but as readers, we should see it in the busboy’s demeanor, the way he talks, and how he interacts with others.
- To that, we must be ever more critically aware of our main characters and their situation, background, goals, dreams, and needs.
- Describe the [book/series] in 10 words or less for people who are just learning about it.
- Georgette Carlisle wants to live where nobody wants her.
- Is there anything you would like people to take away from your book?
- Forgiveness, truth, and justice will always be a path to understanding others.
- Share some advice for aspiring authors. What advice would you give to your younger self?
- Don’t give up. Don’t listen to negative thoughts and words. Give it all you can. It’s your dream to write, right? What would be worse: trying with all you have and failing, or never having tried at all? Just don’t give up. Don’t live with that regret.
- What is your favorite line from your book?
- And, as if Georgette were standing there with her, she imagined Helen’s nervous frown bridging her forehead, causing a soft fold to form in the skin between her eyebrows; she imagined her glossy lips moving over each fractured word.
About the Author
Susan Wingate writes about big trouble in small towns. She lives with her husband on an island off the coast of Washington State where, against State laws, she feeds the wildlife because she wants them to follow her. Her ukulele playing is, “Coming along,” as her Sitto used to say.
Susan’s eight-time award-winning novel, How the Deer Moon Hungers was chosen by The International Pulpwood Queens and Timber Guys Book Club as their October 2022 Official Book Selection of the Month.
Susan has an insatiable appetite for online word games and puzzles. She thinks it might be obsessive-compulsive but is fine with that.
Susan’s poetry, short stories, and essays have been published in journals such as the Virginia Quarterly Review, the Superstition Review, and Suspense Magazine, as well as several others.
Susan is represented by Chip MacGregor and is a proud member of PENAmerica, Int’l Thriller Writers, Mystery Writers of America, and Women’s Fiction Writers Association.
Her latest book is the mystery thriller, Hotter Than Helen (The Bobby’s Diner Series Book 2).
Visit her website at www.SusanWingate or follow her at Twitter and Facebook.
Thank you for hosting HOTTER THAN HELEN today!