GFP Guest Blog: Lucky's Charm in the making with Jenn Nixon

Jenn’s love of writing started the year she received her first diary and Nancy Drew novel. Throughout her teenage years, she kept a diary of her personal thoughts and feelings but graduated from Nancy Drew to other mystery suspense novels.

Jenn often adds a thriller and suspense element to anything she writes be it Romance, Science Fiction, or Fantasy. When not writing, she spends her time reading, observing pop culture, playing with her two dogs, and working on various charitable projects in her home state of New Jersey.

Website: www.jennnixon.com

Facebook: facebook.com/JennNixonAuthor

Blog: www.jennafern.blogspot.com

Twitter: @jennnixon

Music/Playlist used to write Lucky's Charm

This is such a great question and I’m a little disappointed. I did have a specific play list that I used to listen to while writing Lucky’s Charm. I started this project in 2005. Every day writing, I played this same list. I called it my “Angst Songs” list. As my luck would have it, my hard drive died about a week before the book release. Thankfully, I had all the important data backed up. Unfortunately, the music wasn’t among it.

I do remember the bands and a few of the songs but I would have loved to share the exact list in the order I listened to it.

One of my favorite bands to listen to while writing is Breaking Benjamin. The lead singer emotes so much into his songs it’s hard not to feel his pain. Whenever I’m writing a scene where the main characters are struggling through tough times or dealing with their own demons, the words just seem to flow out of me with the right song.

During fight scenes, I like to listen to hard rock, like Disturbed or Three Days Grace. (Pandora is awesome!) They too put a lot of emotion into their music and most times the beat is so fast that it gets my heart racing a little faster if the stakes are high for the characters.

Of course, when the tender moments arrive, it’s nice to listen to softer music, like love songs or adult contemporary songs. Sarah MacLauchlan is my go to girl for romantic songs. She is a fabulous songwriter and knows how to pull you in with her wonderful voice too.

Regardless of what I’m writing, I always have music playing in the background. I do have to keep the volume somewhat soft because I love to sing. On occasion, I’ll stop writing just to listen to or sing the songs that play randomly.

One of my favorite songs for Lucky and Kenji is the Sick Puppies song called “All the Same”. There is a push and pull between the singer and the woman he’s speaking to that really struck a chord with me while writing a few tough emotional scenes between them. The opening verse almost sums up their entire relationship:

“I don’t mind where you come from
As long as you come to me
But I don’t like illusions I can’t see
Them clearly
I don’t care, no I wouldn't dare
To fix the twist in you
You've shown me eventually what you'll do
I don’t mind”
I dont care
As long as you're here

Lucky has a tendency to keep people at arm’s length but Kenji isn’t the type to back down when he wants something. And he wants Lucky, scars and all. :)

To protect her family and find a killer, Felicia "Lucky" Fascino assumed her adoptive father's identity and joined the network of moral assassins to finish the job he began. Eliminating the man responsible for murdering her mother has consumed her for the last five years. Completing the job is the only way Lucky and her family can return to a safe and normal life. Lucky's uncle, Stephen Chambers, hasn't come close to tracking the killer. He announces he's stepping down as her handler to concentrate on the investigation and names Elizabeth, his daughter, as successor.

Keeping secrets is a family trait, and Elizabeth's addition to the business tests Lucky's ability to maintain the pretense that the job doesn't affect her despite the fact that all network hits are hardened criminals. While keeping her family at arm's length, Lucky begins to feel the weight of her career choice and reclusive lifestyle. Then a chance encounter with an enigmatic hit man during one of her jobs turns into a provocative and dangerous affair. Distracted by the secret trysts with Kenji Zinn and mounting tension within her family, Lucky starts to make mistakes that threaten her livelihood and almost claim her life. When her family is targeted, Lucky must make several rash decisions she believes can save them and preserve her own sanity.

Excerpt 

Things get complicated for Lucky as her feelings for Kenji bubble to the surface…

“I’m not…good at this anymore.” Lucky puffed out a heavy breath and clutched the phone. “I can’t wrap my mind around it. I’ve really tried to forget you.”

“Why?”

“Because, I can’t want…this.”

“What do you mean?”

“Be with someone while doing what I do. Sharing my life… I haven’t for a long time. I don’t see how I can do it with—”

“Another killer?”

That stopped her cold. Lucky shut her eyes and banged her head against the wall. Not only was it the oddest conversation she’d ever have, it frightened her because he was dead on.

“Why add to the torment?” she snapped.

“Being with you was far from torture.” His reply was husky and saturated with innuendo. Lucky ignored the ripples of electricity on her skin.

“We’re not good people, Kenji. I’ve already accepted that, but I think you’ve still got blinders on.”

“No, I have a sense we are more alike than you realize. I know why you eliminated McKowen. He was a vile man.”

“Yeah… We might be the bad guys, but we’re never the villains.” Lucky softened her tone. “We’re not heroes either, just stuck in the middle somewhere.”

“This is what we do, not who we are. It does not change what happened between us. We should not ignore this.”

“I don’t know….” The contact with him did something to her, but finding the words to explain it seemed impossible. Lucky did want to see him again, though, not for all the right reasons.

“Where are you, right now?”

“Miami,” he said immediately. “Let me come to you, wherever you wish.”

“I….” The confusion twisted through her. He was determined without being forceful.

“The choice is yours. Call me after you complete your task,” he said without demand.

“Okay.”

Giveaway

Jenn will give away one backlist ebook to each of the blog hosts and one backlist book at every stop for one lucky commenter, and she and Wild Child Publishing will be awarding a $10 Wild Child Publishing GC to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour.

October 23:  Queen of all She Reads

October 24:  It's Raining Books

October 25: Rachel Brimble Romance

October 26:  Welcome to My World of Dreams

October 26:  STOP 2  Long and Short Reviews: Mystery/Suspense Guests