Vocal Expressions

This is the first romantic suspense I’ve read by Jane Blythe, and I found her style to be captivating. The storyline revolves around a jewelry store robbery, a traumatized store owner, a crazed stalker, and an ex-husband/FBI agent assigned to track down the culprits.   Let’s meet Hannah Buffy, a divorced jeweler trying to rebuild her life after a traumatic event that shattered her marriage to FBI Agent Tom Drake. Three years ago, they both endured immense pain and decided to go their separate ways.  Fast forward to just a few days before Christmas, when Hannah’s jewelry store is robbed at gunpoint. Overwhelmed by her fear of guns, she fails to give the robbers the safe’s code, resulting in oner of her employees being shot. The FBI is called in to investigate a string of jewelry store robberies across the city, and to Hannah’s shock, the agent assigned to the case is none other than her ex-husband, Tom. Their reunion is fraught with tension, as Tom’s instinct to protect Han...

Author’s Bio:   S​haron J. Burton has actively served as a visual artist, art curator, poet, podcaster, teaching artist and creativity coach for 20 years in the DC, Maryland and Virginia areas.   She is the founder of Spark Your Creative Coaching , where she works with artists, authors, writers and other creatives to unblock and reach their creative potential. She also serves as the host of the Spark Your Creative podcast (SoundCloud) focusing on midlife artists, writers and creatives.   She received her certification in creativity coaching from the Creativity Coaching Association. She completed requirements for the professional certificate in Art Business from New York University. Sharon is also a certified Meditation Instructor and as a Divine Sleep Yoga Nidra Guide .   Sharon has a visual art studio, writing and creativity coaching practice based in Southern, Maryland where she has lived for over 20 years.     Deliah Lawrence: What inspire...

Author’s Bio: S. R. Webster has previously published works under the name Sandra R. Campbell, including paranormal thrillers Butterfly Harvest , Dark Migration , and The Dead Days Journal . Several of her short stories have appeared in Suspense magazine and various horror anthologies. Notably, Chilling Entertainment produced her short story Abandoned for the Simply Scary podcast.   After a brief hiatus, S. R. Webster is back, ready to unleash a new wave of monsters and genre-bending mayhem. A Girl Named Ghost is her debut publication as S. R. Webster. She is a member of the Horror Writers Association, the Maryland Writers’ Association, and the director of an M.W.A. critique group.   Deliah Lawrence: What inspired you to write your book? S. R. Webster: A Girl Named Ghost was not conceived in the typical manner. Most of my stories come to me by disturbing news reports or nightmarish dreams (of which I have many). But this one all started with the title. I was lou...

This is the first legal thriller I’ve read by Freya Atwood, and I found her style captivating. The story revolves around a deranged killer, a determined lawyer fighting to save her client from prison, and a key witness who lives off the grid.  Meet Sam Spencer, a lawyer who has recently inherited her father’s law firm after his passing. Longing to return to her early days of tackling criminal cases, Sam comes across an intriguing newspaper article titled Reluctant Murderer . It details the Golden Lake killer case, where Angie Rose, a 25-year-old woman, was discovered dead on the lake's shore. Though her left wrist was cut open, her actual cause of death was a broken neck.  The prime suspect, Mark Mason, has a violent past and is alleged to have confessed. However, his brother Brett insists that someone else committed the crime. Brett’s certainty comes from a witness, Eve Bryant, who places another individual at the scene. But Eve is threatened with a chilling note, warning he...

This is the first contemporary romance I’ve read by New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Julia Kent, and I found her style to be engaging. This story is a prequel to her new Love You, Maine series. Let’s meet Kellan "Kell" Luview, an environmental policy fellow with an international NGO, the EEC, in Washington, D.C. Kell hails from a quirky small town in Maine called "Love You," where every day feels like Valentine's Day. He's romantically involved with Alissa, his confident and driven supervisor, who is also the head fellow. Recently, though, Alissa has been distant, ignoring his calls and skipping their dates.  Things unravel further when Kell’s friend Rachel—who has a bit of a crush on him—reveals that Alissa has accepted a position with MonDex, a big oil company she refers to as the "Evil Empire." Kell feels blindsided, wondering if Alissa was only dating him to connect with his Uncle Ted, Maine’s Commissioner of Agriculture, Fo...

Author’s Bio: Jeff Elkins is the author of 12 novels, 4 books on the craft of writing, and over 100 short stories. He prides himself in writing engaging stories with dynamic and interesting characters. Almost all of his stories take place in Baltimore. He podcasts and coaches writers as “The Dialogue Doctor.” Currently, he lives north of Baltimore with his wife and 5 children.   Deliah Lawrence: What inspired you to write your books? Jeff Elkins: All of my books have started with a scene. I’ll see in my imagination characters having a conversation or experiencing something emotional. Sometimes these scenes come in a dream, other times they come when I’m wide awake and working. They always carry big emotions. These scenes tend to stick in my brain for days and I can’t let go of them. First, I’ll write them as a short story. Then, if I think there is more to uncover, I’ll turn the short story into a novel.   For example, my most recent novel NRDS: National Recently De...