Lisa Harris Says, "It's Almost Magical"

                           Lisa Harris

I wanted to be a writer for as long as I can remember. I have chapters of handwritten stories stashed away in a worn box that I started writing while I was in junior high. That love of writing came from a love of reading. Throughout my childhood, I spent every free moment engrossed in books, and those stories spurred my own imagination and made me dream of becoming an author one day. Because I loved mysteries and Nancy Drew, I started with my own version of a teen-girl detective. I read the Diary of Anne Frank, and wrote about a girl caught up in horrors of the holocaust. The first book I actually finished was a gothic novel inspired by Victoria Holt who had an amazing gift of bringing characters and intriguing settings to life. Each book I read imprinted on me the love of story, adventure, romance, tragedy, and redemption. Powerful stories that managed to tug on my heartstrings and kept me turning the page to the very end.


I was hooked.


I quickly discovered, though, that writing isn’t as easy as I thought it would be. The first time I took chapters of my story to a local crit group, I was terrified. Letting other writers get a glimpse of my story ended up being both nerve wracking, and insightful. I was told—nicely—that my characters were cardboard and my wonderful story needed work. I discovered that night that writing is a never-ending learning journey, and forty plus books later, I’m still learning, taking classes, and reading. The process has been both fun and challenging. I love the anticipation of discovering what happens next in a story. (Yes, sometimes even I’m surprised during the writing process.) The process of taking ideas, building on them, and weaving them together can feel almost magical. Some of the characters come unannounced, begging to have their story written down. Others I have to struggle to get to know them. The process of bringing their stories to life, though, always involves layering plotlines, drawing from the setting, developing characters, then editing, brainstorming, lots of scribbled notes, reworking timelines, and more editing. In the end, if I’ve done my job, I can share a story that does exactly what I love about a good book. . .Tugs on readers’ heartstrings and keeps them turning the pages.

My latest series with Revell is a fast-paced, suspense story about two US Marshals, Madison James and Jonas Quinn. While each story is a standalone novel, there are threads that tie the three books together, including their romance and Madison’s hunt for the person who murdered her husband. Book three, The Catch, will tie up the romance between Jonas and Madison—yeah—but Madison will also come face-to-face with the person who murdered her husband.



The Catch starts out with a harrowing attempt on a judge's life at the courthouse, after which Deputy US Marshals Madison James and Jonas Quinn are tasked with finding a missing woman and an endangered child in connection to the murder of the judge's wife. What seems like a fairly straightforward case becomes hopelessly tangled when the marshals discover that the woman they are searching for is in witness protection and the Amber Alert put out for the missing child has put two lives in danger.

Madison and Jonas are forced into a race to find the woman and the child before the men who want her dead discover her location. And in a final showdown that could cost her everything.


Writing for me continues to be an adventure I don’t think I’ll ever tire of. The stories, characters, and settings, the lessons I’ve learned along the way, as well as the friends I’ve made on this journey of both writers and readers. Because who hasn’t in some way been challenged and changed by a good book?

Lisa Harris is a USA Today bestselling author, a Christy Award
winner, and the winner of the Best Inspirational Suspense Novel from Romantic Times for her novels Blood Covenant and Vendetta.

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The author of more than forty books, including The Escape, The Chase, The Traitor’s Pawn, Vanishing Point, A Secret to Die
For, and Deadly Intentions, as well as The Nikki Boyd Files and the Southern Crimes series, Harris and her family have spent over
seventeen years living as missionaries in southern Africa. She is currently stateside in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Learn more at www.LisaHarrisWrites.com.

What Will Be Different?

 

Lisa Harris

What will be different about my writing after going through a pandemic? Will I be able to schedule my writing and my family and other responsibilities and keep them balanced? With my new book do I feel I spent more time developing the story, characters, plots, and dialogue? With this new book, what if anything do I want the reader to know about me as an author?



Like with most people, the pandemic brought a lot of changes for me and my family. I was back home in southern Africa when the pandemic hit. By mid-March, my husband and I had decided that I needed to return to the US. I was able to fly out just hours before South Africa shut its borders. (Sounds a bit like a suspense novel!) With three college-age kids and my mother in assisted living, we had no idea just how much change the following months would bring. My kids lost their jobs in the service industry, and with my mother in isolation, we decided to move her in with us. All of a sudden we were a three-generational home, juggling online college classes, new part time jobs, and the reality of a pandemic. My writing continued, but with so many distractions, it was harder to concentrate. I struggled to focus and to meet deadlines, though I never lost my love for writing or my stories. And as tough as it was, I found it therapeutic to pour my feelings into my writing.



Things have changed again for our family. My daughter got married—after having to change the location three times—and was able to go back to school. Both my boys are moving out of the house (again) in the next few weeks. I’ve realized what a special time it was to have them all back under my roof. I’ve soaked up my time with them playing board games, watching cooking shows, making smores, and cooking out over a fire pit in the back yard.



I think the last year will change my writing. It’s helped to show me more layers of emotion, giving me plot ideas, and a desire to dig deeper into my characters to see how they will react to a situation out of their control. My latest book—The Chase—definitely pushes both my hero and heroine to a place where they can’t control the situation. And they quickly realize that they will have to rely on each other if they hope to survive.

Lisa Harris is a bestselling author, a Christy Award winner, and the

winner of the Best Inspirational Suspense Novel from Romantic

Times for her novels Blood Covenant and Vendetta. The author of more

than forty books, including The Nikki Boyd Files and the Southern

Crimes series, as well as Vanishing Point, A Secret to Die

For, and Deadly Intentions, Harris and her family have spent over

seventeen years living as missionaries in southern Africa. She is

currently stateside in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Visit: www.lisaharriswrites.com

The Story Behind ~The Escape

Lisa Harris

As a reader, I’ve always loved romantic suspense, so when I started writing, choosing this genre was a perfect fit for me. I love the layers involved in creating a novel that reaches deeper than simply solving a crime. It is a process of creating characters with a compelling backstory and romance, as well as building a unique setting around a high-stakes story. I also enjoy knowing that even when everything can’t be tied up in a neat bow at the end, I can still ensure that justice is served and the good guys win. But that doesn’t always mean that the journey to justice is easy, and that certainly holds true for my upcoming novel, The Escape.


The Escape puts two US Marshals in the middle of a dangerous fugitive hunt, but Madison James is also dealing with the death of her husband. It’s been five years since his murder, and she still has no solid leads on who killed him, or who has been sending her one black rose every year on the anniversary of his death. And no idea why this year, a rose was left in her house, on her bed.

Digging Deeper

By Lisa Harris, Author of Deadly Intentions

When I first started writing, I remember taking the first chapter of a story to my critique group and reading it out loud to them. I was unpublished, but somehow knew I had a gripping best-seller on my hands. At least that’s what I thought until they told me the truth. They recommended that I take my chapter home and rewrite it because my characters were nothing more than cardboard figures.

Ouch.

I’ve learned a lot about writing since then, and one of my main goals now is insuring my characters come to life for the reader. But how do you do that? I know many authors who interview their characters before they start writing, or use an excel sheet to keep track of motivations and fears. While I don’t do either of those, I do work hard to get to know my characters while I’m writing, and always insure I know their past, because at some point, I want their past and present to collide. I want to make the story personal. And here’s the reason why.

I watch a lot of police procedural shows and one of the things I’ve noticed is that when the main characters’ lives are at stake, I’m much more involved in the story compared to when it’s just another case to solve. Realizing this has made me think about my own writing. The deeper my hero and heroine are involved in the plot on a personal level, the more they have to lose when things go wrong. And in turn, the deeper my readers will engage with my stories.

For example, in Deadly Intentions, my hero, Josh Solomon, ends up hunting for his wife’s killer. This situation gives him a very haunting backstory that merges the past with the present. The result is a very personal involvement for Josh as he races to find a startling truth that could affect thousands.

There are many questions you can ask to bring out your characters’ personalities using detailed lists that you can find online. Make sure, though, that you move beyond the basic physical appearance and job description. What are their secret dreams and desires? What have they lost in life? What do they fear? What do they want? Do they have any vices? What do they see when they look in the mirror? Then find a way to tie those into the story. In the end, you’ll have story that jumps off the page and into the readers’ hearts!

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Bestselling author LISA HARRIS is a Christy Award finalist for Blood Ransom and Vendetta, Christy Award winner for Dangerous Passage, and the winner of the Best Inspirational Suspense Novel for 2011 (Blood Covenant) and 2015 (Vendetta) from Romantic Times. She has sold over half a million books. She and her family have spent over fourteen years working as missionaries in Africa where she runs a small non-profit organization that works alongside their church-planting ministry. The ECHO Project promotes Education, Compassion, Health, and Opportunity and is a way to "speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves...the poor and helpless, and see that they get justice." (Proverbs 31:8) When she's not working she loves hanging out with her family, cooking different ethnic dishes, photography, and heading into the African bush on safari. For more information about her books and life in Africa visit her website at www.lisaharriswrites.com

FINDING WRITING SUCCESS

By Lisa Harris

For many years I wrote, waiting—hoping—to find publishing success. When the day finally came when I signed a contract with my dream publisher, I was convinced it would change my life.  

And it did.

But not in the way I’d imagined. I was still a basically unknown writer, but all of a sudden there were many more expectations and a whole lot more stress on me to write a series where each book was better than the one before.

Not exactly what I’d imagined.

As a writer, you might be a lot like me. Spending too much time peaking at your Amazon ranking, wondering whythat author got a nominated for an award when you didn’t (and should have), and checking the bestsellers list to see if your name has happened to magically appear. Clearly, our egos have a tendency to become fragile when it comes to stories that are so close to our heart.

My idea of success, though, has changed over the past few years. For a long time, I was convinced that success as a writer would somehow solve all of my problems. But then I met authors who had ‘arrived’, and I realized that their lives were far from perfect. They still dealt with loss, sickness, and hardships with kids, and yes, even feelings of low self-esteem. How was that even possible?

It’s possible because success doesn’t make us immune to the difficulties life throws our way. Success can be a blessing, but it’s not something we can base our happiness on. Because success—as we all know—is fleeting.

We all have different definitions of what success would be to us. Maybe it’s simply to land that first contract. Maybe it’s to get in with our dream publisher. To be nominated for an award, or hit the best seller list. None of these dreams are bad. In fact, we all know that we won’t reach a goal if we don’t set it and go after it. But there are several things we have to remember along the journey.

           

1.     Often what we think we have to have is far less satisfying when we finally get it.  

2.     Don’t let yourself get caught up in things that will be over in a flash.

3.     Don’t let your confidence come from your Amazon rank, or anything else that is temporary.

4.     Don’t neglect your faith, family, and friends in order to find success.  Life is simply too short.

5.     Do set goals and reach for them.

6.     Do celebrate your successes, while keeping in mind that they aren’t what defines you.

7.     When reaching your goals (finding your success) seems impossible, make a list of what you already have that’s important to you.

The bottom line is to learn to dream big, but always be thankful for what you have rather than focusing only on what you wish you had.

Happy writing,

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Lisa Harris is a two-time Christy Award finalist (Blood Ransom and Dangerous Passage) and the winner of the Best Inspirational Suspense Novel for 2011 from Romantic Times for her novel Blood Covenant. She has sold over thirty novels and novella collections, including her latest release, book two in her Southern Crimes series, Fatal Exchange.She and her family have spent over ten years living as missionaries in Africa where she homeschools, leads a women’s group, and runs a non-profit organization that works alongside their church-planting ministry. The ECHO Project works in southern Africa promoting Education, Compassion, Health, and Opportunity and is a way for her to “speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves…the poor and helpless, and see that they get justice.” (Proverbs 31:8)When she’s not working she loves hanging out with her family, cooking different ethnic dishes, photography, and heading into the African bush on safari.  For more information about her books and life in Africa visit her website at www.lisaharriswrites.com or her blog athttp://myblogintheheartofafrica.blogspot.com. For more information about The ECHO Project, please visit www.theECHOproject.org. Love to Read? Free cozy mystery ebook when you sign up for Lisa's author newsletter!