Red Fish, Dead Fish (Fish out of Water book 2) by Amy Lane blog tour | Guest Post, Author Interview, Excerpt & #giveaway @Dreamspinners @amymaclane

Fish Out of Water: Book Two 

They must work together to stop a psychopath—and save each other. 

Two months ago Jackson Rivers got shot while trying to save Ellery Cramer’s life. Not only is Jackson still suffering from his wounds, the triggerman remains at large—and the body count is mounting. 

Jackson and Ellery have been trying to track down Tim Owens since Jackson got out of the hospital, but Owens’s time as a member of the department makes the DA reluctant to turn over any stones. When Owens starts going after people Jackson knows, Ellery’s instincts hit red alert. Hurt in a scuffle with drug-dealing squatters and trying damned hard not to grieve for a childhood spent in hell, Jackson is weak and vulnerable when Owens strikes. 

Jackson gets away, but the fallout from the encounter might kill him. It’s not doing Ellery any favors either. When a police detective is abducted—and Jackson and Ellery hold the key to finding her—Ellery finds out exactly what he’s made of. He’s not the corporate shark who believes in winning at all costs; he’s the frightened lover trying to keep the man he cares for from self-destructing in his own valor.

Buy links: Dreamspinner | Amazon US | Amazon UK

Okay folks—so, I’m here today to promote Red Fish, Dead Fish, my latest story in the Fish Out of Water series.  Now, usually in a blog tour, we talk about ourselves and our newest book until we can’t hardly stand it—but this time out I decided to do something different. I’m going to talk about other people’s books—because I know some amazing romantic suspense authors, and I wanted to celebrate them instead. 

So Red Fish, Dead Fish is out on Amazon, it’s the second in the series, and I think you’ll like it very much a lot! That being said, let’s talk about Ava Drake.

Now, I first met Ava—in her alter ego form, Cindy Dees—at an RWA convention last year in San Diego.

She was dynamic—a natural storyteller, she had the entire table eating out of the palm of her hand.  My daughter and I were there, and we were enthralled—larger than life, hero material, funny as hell—and then she turned to me and said, “You’re Amy Lane? I so enjoy your work!” 

It was like having Thor tell a carpenter that he did good work with a hammer—I was stunned.  I have since read Ava Drake’s books through Dreamspinner Press, and oh my God! So much fun! Cracky, poppy thrill rides that leave you breathless with chemistry and excited to see what happens next—I can learn a thing or two about writing suspense by reading Ava Drake.  When she agreed to participate in my blog tour, I whooped across the house, scaring the dogs. She’s fun, you guys. You should read her because she’s just damned fun.

Genre expectations are fairly important--in YOUR words, what are the differences between romantic suspense, mystery suspense, cozy, noir, and thrillers?  Which do you feel you write--and why?

Great question! Honestly, the difference between lots of these genres is a matter of percentages. A romantic suspense novel has more relationships in it and less suspense. A thriller likely has more suspense in it and less relationship stuff. These are the two that I tend to gravitate between. After licking cancer a year ago, I find myself leaning more toward relationship elements in my writing than I used to. But this is an ongoing discussion between me and my editors.

Which romantic suspense or mystery author would you recommend and why?

This is like asking someone to pick their favorite child!  Jaqueline Carey is probably my all time favorite, however. I re-read her Kushiel’s Dart series about every other year and marvel every time I read those books.  My wonderful friend, Damon Suede, just tried his hand at a romantic suspense story, and it was outrageously good (and sexy and funny). That book is called Pent Up.

What do you think is the most delicious part of a suspense novel or a mystery?

For me, it’s the opening. I love to smack the reader between the eyes with some surprising and cool set-up they didn’t see coming but get swept up in immediately. I don’t like to mess around with backstory and description and easing into the action. I like to hit the ground going sixty miles per hour and never let up on the gas.

Tell me about body counts--seriously. How many corpses make a good suspense novel, and why?

The most people I’ve ever killed in a book is a bit over 26,000. I used a Zamboni machine to murder an arena full of Olympic figure skating fans. One half of a binary nerve agent was added to the ice weeks before the Olympic games, and my bad guy added the other half of the nerve agent to the hot water the Zamboni sprays on the ice. The nerve agents met and a cloud of poison gas went up. That was also the book where I learned how a Zamboni works—a vital piece of information every author should have at their fingertips!

What's your most creative way to kill someone?  

I have to go with Death by Zamboni.  (And by the way, kudos and thanks to the Zamboni corporation for giving me permission to use the name of their ice resurfacers in my book. They LOVED the idea of their machines being instruments of murder and mayhem!)

Dish about TV shows--which ones do you love and which ones do you hate from a suspense POV? Which TV show/movie do you most want your books to resemble?

Most loved: The Blacklist, Killjoys, Dark Matter. Most hated: Game of Thrones (too squicky for me), and The Walking Dead (so realistic that it scares the bejeebers out of me every time I watch it).  I would love for my books to be like any of the Bourne Identity movies, but with more relationship development in them.

When you read outside your genre, what's your candy? (I ask everybody this--I think it's fascinating!)  

Classic sic-fi/fantasy. Dune is my fave book of all time. Sadly, I spend most of my time reading writing how-to books and research books for my own stories. Now and then I try to sneak in a fiction book in the romance field. I’m a super picky romance reader, though. I mentally edit every book I read. Takes the fun right out of it.

Have you ever freaked yourself right out by writing a suspense scene?  Which scene, and do you think it made the book better?

I recently wrote a scene with a SEAL team climbing onto a container ship that has intentionally had the holds emptied and the cargo containers piled way too high on deck as a hurricane comes. The ship is rolling from side to side and in imminent danger of capsizing. The SEALs have to search the ship to find the bad guy they believe to be aboard. My skin crawls, even now, just thinking about that scene. That book comes out in Feb 2018 under my other name, Cindy Dees, and I think it’s going to be called HER MISSION WITH A SEAL.

Why did you start writing gay romance?

My daughter spent several years as a national youth ambassador for the Human Rights Campaign (the largest LGBT rights lobbying group in the world), and through her work on issues of teen suicide prevention, homelessness, and LGBTQIA issues, I met a ton of the greatest teenagers on earth. My daughter actually challenged me to add gay romances the stories I write because everyone deserves a happily ever after. She told me I should use my skills from all my years of writing M/Fromance to prove that love is love is love in whatever size, shape, or form it comes in. And that’s what I've set out to do!

Excerpt...

“Cottage Park, near the outbuilding. Yeah, I got it. There’s a way to get in there, right? I’m not climbing the fucking fence. Of course there’s cops and crime scene tape. That’s not what I’m asking.” The voice on the other end spoke patiently, and some of Jackson’s defensiveness seeped away. “Okay. Thanks, Mack. Owe you another one. No, sorry—told you. Not paying favors that way anymore, but it’s nice of you to ask.”

“God in heaven,” Ellery muttered.

“Yeah, okay. I’ll be there in half an hour.”

“We’ll be there.” Ellery rolled out of bed and headed for the shower. Thirty seconds to run some soap under his pits and pack a suit for court later that day. He could do it.

“Crap,” he could hear Jackson say as he closed the shower door. “We’ll be there. Thanks.”

Five seconds later, Jackson stepped into the shower with him and grabbed his own shower gel from the corner of the tub. They’d had some nice times in there together—particularly when Jackson was still healing from his gunshot wound and his shattered scapula and needed Ellery’s help.

They’d had a few after that too, but not today.

“Body?” Ellery asked, not really needing confirmation.

“Yeah.” Jackson scrubbed his pits with care but not vigor—moving was still painful and probably would be for a little while. He’d gotten out of the hospital less than six weeks earlier. By all rights he should still be chilling in the fall sunshine, maybe swimming in the pool at the gym—but not Jackson.

Ellery had needed to haul him to San Diego to give himself time to recover.

It was even more infuriating that he was right today. There really was no time to rest.

“Our kind?”

Jackson shook the water from his dark blond hair and squinted at Ellery through eyes as green as bottle glass. “We have a kind of dead body? Most couples just go with favorite song.” 

Ellery soaped his hair efficiently. “You know what I mean.”

Jackson grabbed the shampoo. “Yeah.”

Jackson, the private investigator at Ellery’s defense firm, had gotten shot helping Ellery bring down a ring of corrupt cops. They’d put the ringleaders in prison—but one of the underlings had gotten away.

Turned out he was the one the police should have been chasing all along.

“Young,” Jackson said, ticking off items on the list. “This one’s Hispanic. Male, but slender. Recent involvement with drugs. Maybe a week of turning tricks.”

“Dirty pretty,” Ellery confirmed grimly. They had been Scott Bridger’s words, actually, one of the men they’d brought down, to describe the kind of person who had disappeared on his partner’s watch. Gender hadn’t mattered, nor race. Just a little bit of street dirt and some physical beauty.

Tim Owens liked to take the “dirty pretty” ones and make them not so pretty anymore.

“Mack says there’s something new about this one,” Jackson said, stepping in front of him to rinse his hair.

Ellery wasn’t sure why he did it, except it was not yet four in the morning and he and Jackson were naked together, and that wasn’t something he’d learned to take for granted yet.

He wrapped his arms around Jackson’s shoulders and kissed his neck, softly, gently, with just enough tongue and teeth to make Jackson regret they weren’t making love this morning but going to work instead.

Jackson tensed for a moment, probably caught off guard, but then he relaxed into Ellery’s arms and leaned his head back.

“What?” he asked suspiciously.

Well, Ellery had been known to be an autocratic bastard—that was probably warranted.

“Just….” Ellery couldn’t find words. Or he could find words, but neither of them had said the words yet, and you just didn’t spring those words on a guy whose entire life had been an act of insufficient self-protection.

With a sinuous movement, Jackson turned his head and caught Ellery’s mouth, something he couldn’t have done a month ago, something that felt huge and necessary now.

“Don’t worry about me, Counselor,” Jackson said cheekily, pulling away. “But the cuddle was downright friendly.”

Well, sure. Friendly. Just two friendly lovers getting out of bed extra early to go catch a serial killer. Nothing strange about that at all.

“Just be careful,” Ellery said, trying not to sound bitchy or officious and failing. “He’s got your cell phone. You know that, right?”

“Well, he had it for a couple of hours before it got deactivated,” Jackson said. “And yeah—fuck me for owning an Android with the shitty security. Thank you so much for the iPhone, Ellery. Now I am safe from serial killers everywhere.”

The snark in his voice was the only thing that kept Ellery from conking him over the head and tying him to the bed in a completely non-kinky way.

Amy Lane dodges an EDJ, mothers four children, and writes the occasional book. She, her brood, and her beloved mate, Mack, live in a crumbling mortgage in Citrus Heights, California, which is riddled with spiders, cats, and more than its share of fancy and weirdness. Feel free to visit her at www.greenshill.com orwww.writerslane.blogspot.com, where she will ride the buzz of receiving your e-mail until her head swells and she can no longer leave the house.

Website: http://www.greenshill.com/
Twitter: @amymaclane

For more interviews and author close ups for Romantic Suspense, check out the rest of the blog tour—

July 28 - MM Good Book Reviews Amy Lane

July 28 - Alpha Book Reviews (Just a little about Jackson in Fish Out of Water)

July 31 - Open Skye Book Reviews Andrew Grey

August 1 - Two Chicks Obsessed Kim Fielding

August 2 - My Fiction Nook Rayna Vause

August 3 - Tammy's Two Cents Ava Drake

August 4 - Happily Ever Chapter Melinda Leigh

August 7 - Long and Short Reviews Karen Rose

August 8 - Love Bytes Charlie Cochet

August 10 - The Novel Approach Tere Michaels 

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