My publisher recently came up with an idea for promoting our writing in a non-sales pitchy way. Each Thursday and Friday, a group of Solstice Publishing authors write a short tweet on Twitter based on the photo of the month. In February, that photo was of a fire. I wrote my tweets as teasers for my upcoming mystery release, Reason to Die. Below are my tweets for each week for those of you who haven’t seen them on Twitter or who haven’t caught them in order.
Courtney couldn’t believe she’d escaped the fire set by the madman the press was calling the Handicapped Strangler. Her subconscious fashioned a dream from the memory with Bill, her handicapped partner, out of his wheelchair in the role of a fireman.
The dream continued. “Thank God you’re safe, Courtney,” Bill said. “I owe you my life.”
“You don’t owe me anything. The fire died out between us before I was shot. That’s why I let you go.”
She woke with a start. Was it true? Was her love in ashes?
After the fire, they still had to solve the crimes. As much as Courtney feared the truth would hurt him, she knew it would be as freeing for Bill as it had been for her. The guilt she’d suffered from that long-ago fire was now behind her.
“You could’ve died,” Mark said. “I don’t blame Bill. I’m thankful to him, but I can’t have you risking your life again. You mean too much to me.”
“I have no choice, Mark. I’m a detective. We now know who set the fire and who is behind the murders.”
Being paired again with Bill made things difficult for Courtney. There’d been too much between them and yet not enough. Despite his handicap, he was hunting the killer, the man who’d set fire to his home and nearly killed them both.
Escaping the fire had helped Courtney overcome her fear of flames, but thinking of Bill and Mark, she wondered which man would complete her healing and which one would burn her.
“You know why I have to do this,” Bill said. “I could care less that my house was burned to the ground, and it’s not for you, Courtney. There’s another man in your life now. I have to move on, but I need to catch the Handicapped Strangler first.”
She didn’t know it would end like this. A killer and a madman holding her hostage in a secluded mountain cabin. If only she’d put the pieces together sooner. None of this would’ve happened including the fire as well as the shot that crippled Bill.
Ruff Drafts 