Showing posts with label Mary McFarland. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mary McFarland. Show all posts

Saturday, September 30, 2023

Books by Mary McFarland are featured on Saturday's Blurbs #MFRWAuthor #Exotic dancer #Golden Pen Award #Ghostly obsession


 

1.     Blurb 1: Jump the Line

Exotic dancer and college senior, Alaina Colby, struggles to live down her family's reputation as a notorious crime family, yet loyalty to family and caring for her meth-addicted brother, is what makes her truly rich.

 

When she's not working at her day job and evading her weird scalpel-waving boss, she's keeping creeps at Omar's, where she dances for tips, from sticking their fingers too deep into her G-string, just to survive. But Alaina’s life—and her homegrown ideas about love—are turned upside down, when a string of campus murders involves her and a local homicide detective in the hunt for the killer.

 

The raven-haired coed is rougher than the streets she'll police after she graduates with her criminology degree and becomes a cop, but will she live to graduate? Can her 4.0 GPA, a personal repertoire of criminal tricks learned from her family, and Alaina’s street smarts keep her alive?

 

https://www.amazon.com/Jump-Line-Toein-1/dp/1514333643/ref=sr_1_2?crid=A1G5AF48PAJV&keywords=mary+mcfarland&qid=1695830996&s=books&sprefix=mary+mcca%2Cstripbooks%2C1740&sr=1-2

 

Blurb 2: Van Gogh Syndrome

An Explosive New Thriller by a Golden Pen Award-Winning Suspense Author!!!

“It’s a hunt forward clandestine op,” the president said, “and your target is America’s first home-grown terrorist cell.”

·         THE PRESIDENT'S REQUEST propels brilliant cyber sleuth Zuri Slade into the clandestine world of espionage, where failure can endanger thousands of American lives and blow Zuri’s chance for a career with the CIA.

·         TRACKING THE TERRORISTS leads Zuri from Washington, D.C. to a Midwest backwater, where residents suffer a peculiar illness, the “Van Gogh Syndrome.” Death from radioactive poisoning looms over the stricken community, but there’s an even larger threat, one Zuri could never have anticipated.

·         PSYCHOTIC NUCLEAR SCIENTIST, Dr. Burch Crabtree, is plotting with legendary North Korean spy, Cobra, to blow the nuclear plant, using a chip stolen from the CIA after the Korean War. Only Jesse Stephenson, a former CIA spy, knows where the chip is, but Jesse’s dying of cancer.

Is this fight too personal, or will Zuri confront America’s enemies—and personal demons, her hate for those who murdered her parents—in time?

Mary McFarland’s “Van Gogh Syndrome” pulls readers into the new frontier of war, a war that has ignited in cyberspace but one that will be finished in America’s back yard by terrorists whose identities no one can predict. A thriller for lovers of the chase, “Van Gogh Syndrome” is the series kickoff and an explosive look at conflicts faced by America’s warriors on the cyber war frontier. An action-packed read recommended for Baldacci and Clancy fans.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Van-Gogh-Syndrome-Forensic-Investigator/dp/B0BT7BHGKX/ref=sr_1_1?crid=A1G5AF48PAJV&keywords=mary+mcfarland&qid=1695831213&s=books&sprefix=mary+mcca%2Cstripbooks%2C1740&sr=1-1

 

2.     Blurb 3: Lila’s Ghostly Obsession

Even in death, I feel Link’s love.  Achingly sweet and intense.  “It’s for keeps,” I used to tell him, my lips as close to his—as my soul was to eternity, although I’d no idea just how close.  “It’s forever.”

So . . .

. . . when I awaken dead, I know I’ve no choice.  I must haunt him.  That, or watch from my grave while Marin Vegas steals Link.

 

But  first, acceptance: I’m dead, a ghost.  Yet I must find a way to warn Link of his little brother’s approaching doom—and stop another tragedy like mine—if I can outrun my hostile ancestors’ ghosts.  Big if.  They exist with me in the haunted Gothic mausoleum, and they’ve welcomed me with dark familial intentions to my afterlife.

 

My murder seems cruel.  I’m no longer that young girl in love and running toward my fate—but from it.  Yet fading into black eternity spurs me to a level of courage I never dreamed I had while alive.  So, in this foreboding world I now inhabit, my fight to hold on to the love Link and I promised each other leads me straight to the thugs who put me here—and to a truth we’d planned to share.  It’s a truth I hold onto tight: Love never dies.

Yet the insanity of being able to haunt Link keeps me wondering: Can my plan to keep his love succeed from the grave?  Can we hook up one last bittersweet time?

Maybe.  But only if the dead can speak to the living.

 

So: how do I do that?

 

If Edgar Allan Poe were to rewrite Annabel Lee as a novel, it would read like Lila’s Ghostly Obsession.  It’s darkly poignant, a perfect read for fans of ghost thrillers and paranormal romance novels like Wendy Webb’s The Haunting of Brynn Wilder, Julia Ash’s Mystified, and Stacy McKitrick’s Ghostly Liaison.

 

JANET, THIS BOOK IS GOING UP ON AMAZON OCTOBER 16TH. 

 

 

Friday, September 29, 2023

Mary McFarland is Visiting and talking about Who She Was Before #MFRWAuthor #technical writer #fiction writer #thrillers

 

1.     What were you before you became an author and did this influence your choices as a writer?

 

Before?  Is there a before (crazy laughter in background).  From the moment my mom gave me a piece of chalk and said, “Now, go outside and do something,” and I defaced several sidewalks with “stories,” I knew I was destined to become a writer.  And that’s exactly what happened.  Prior to becoming a fulltime fiction writer, I was a technical writer in the industry, but my passion was always fiction.  In college, I wrote short stories and, afterward, climbing the executive ladder, I kept writing at night, creating wild stories, most of them discarded, and dreaming of the day I could retire and write.  I’ve never stopped.

 

Being a technical writer fueled my belief that humans, not robots, are the creators and the rulers.  I’m an earth mother, a Virgo, so my passion as an eco-justice warrior was always at odds with my life as a geek.  I can way, however, that the conflict definitely influenced my choices as a writer.  My most recent release, Van Gogh Syndrome, is a technothriller that involves a cyberattack on an American nuclear facility.  My understanding of technology supported my research into the technology, while my stance as an eco-justice warrior informs every page and, especially, my main character’s desire to “save” the world.

 

2.     Are you genre specific or general?  I write primarily thrillers; however, I’ve happily genre-hopped at times, including my first novel up on Amazon, Jump the Line, a romantic suspense.  My upcoming release, Lila’s Ghostly Obsession, is a ghost thriller with a YA paranormal romance sub-genre.

 

3.     What is your latest release?

 

My latest release is Lila’s Ghostly Obsession, an October 2023 release.  It’s got all the elements of a ghost thriller, but it’s packed with paranormal and some fantasy elements.  I wrote the novel in 2005, following my nephew’s suicide; hence, it’s tag line, “Love never dies.”  I love the book because, while it does explore dark themes (teen suicide, teen obsessive love), it’s main character, Lila, is just so me when I was eighteen, and very hopeful and focused on overcoming sorrow and personal loss.

 

4.     What are you working on now?

I’m working on three upcoming releases.  My first release in 2024 is in April, and it’s titled Qumran Conspiracy: The Thorny Death of  Jewish Rebel, a historical romance and heist novel that explores the historical Jesus, while following the romance of a philologist and a Mossad agent who go after a heisted grimoire of Solomonic magic, allegedly written by Jesus.

Book two is titled Dread, a psychological suspense about an aging lawyer coping with divorce and a grandson with autism.  The story involves a murder in a derelict New Jersey skate park, and Liz and her grandson, Bently, must work to solve them.  Liz, of course, explores the joys—and ills—of post-divorce dating from her wheelchair.  It’s a rocking story and, I love to imagine, filled with my particular dry humor.   

Book three, slated for a September 2024 release, is The Confessor’s Burden.  It’s a fantasy with a parallel historical timeline, one set in the present day, and the other in Medieval England, during the reign of Edward the Confessor.  My own confession (ahem!): this novel is my favorite ever to write.  It’s about a single mom caring for her diabetic son, Gryffyd, but her evil magician husband from 1065 shows up a thousand years later and kidnaps Gryffyd and holds him ransom—unless Diva Mayhawk hands over the formula for King Authur’s fire.  Diva has no clue, of course, but she must return to those terrifying times and learn how—and if—she ever possessed the fabled elixir of immortality.

5.     Does your reading choices influence your choice of a writing career?

As a writer, one of my biggest challenges has been finding and honoring my own voice, and I’ve reached the point in my career where I’m solidifying those principles with regard to my career.  So: no!

6.     I’m on Facebook and Twitter a lot, so I can always be found there.  For any information about upcoming book signings, or to get to know more about me, my website is the best source of information.  I’ve recently ventured onto Instagram and TikTok, too.  Links below:

 

 

https://www.facebook.com/AuthorMaryMcFarland.author/

https://twitter.com/McFarlandAuthor

https://www.marymcfarlandbooks.com

https://www.instagram.com/mary_mcfarland_thriller_author/

 

Saturday, January 28, 2023

Books by Mary McFarland are featured today on Saturday's Blurbs

 

“It’s a hunt forward op,” the president said, “and your target is America’s first home-grown terrorist cell.”

His request propels brilliant cyber sleuth Zuri Slade into the clandestine world of espionage, where failure can endanger thousands of American lives and blow Zuri’s chance for a career with the CIA.

Tracking the terrorists leads Zuri from Washington, D.C. to a Midwest backwater, where residents suffer a peculiar illness, the “Van Gogh Syndrome.”  Death looms over the stricken community, but there’s an even larger threat, one Zuri could never have anticipated.

Psychotic nuclear scientist, Dr. Burch Crabtree, is plotting with legendary North Korean spy, Cobra, to blow the nuclear plant, using a chip stolen from the CIA after the Korean War.  Only Jesse Stephenson, a former CIA spy, knows where the chip is, but Jesse’s dying of cancer.

Is this fight too personal, or will Zuri confront America’s enemies—and personal demons, her hate for those who murdered her parents—in time?

Mary McFarland’s “Van Gogh Syndrome” pulls readers into the new frontier of war, a war that has ignited in cyberspace but one that will be finished in America’s back yard by terrorists whose identities no one can predict.  A thriller for lovers of the chase, “Van Gogh Syndrome” is the series kickoff and an explosive look at conflicts faced by America’s warriors on the cyber war frontier.  An action-packed read recommended for Baldacci and Clancy fans.

Friday, January 27, 2023

Friday Mary McFarland is visiting and Talking about Who She Was Before #MFRWAuthor #Technical writing #science fiction #thrillers

 1. What were you before you became an author? Did this influence your choices as a writer?

 
Before I forged a path to my dream of writing novels, I needed to pay the bills, so I earned my keep as a technical writer in the software industry.  Being fascinated with technology, I developed a passion for science fiction and wrote several SF short stories novels.  My enduring love for authors like Asimov heavily influenced my choices as a writer.  Today, I write thrillers whose protagonists are in step with the modern world's technological dystopia but yet who are determined to fight it.  My characters understand how technology can damage us and our environment; thus, they are often techno and geeky, or "brainy," but they are also eco-justice warriors.  So, while I view technology as the window into my thrillers, and not the stories themselves, I hope my works influence readers to think about technology and their world and, when necessary, to take action.

2. Are you genre specific or general? I don’t mean major genres but subdivisions or romance, mystery or paranormal.
I couldn't have answered this question a year ago.  Being a multi-genre author has kept me conflicted.  However, I recently had a major breakthrough and discovered that, while I wrote in multiple genres, my work across all genres was connected by recurring tropes and themes.  Voila!  Lightbulbs!  The same was true, I became aware, in the world of publishing.  Okay, so everyone but me seemed to know this.  Lol.  It just took me a little longer than it should've to see it.  

The other important epiphany, however, was the fact that I didn't have to push myself like a demented book production multi-platform author run amok.  I instead had to narrow my genre choices, and I did.  I chose the thriller, mystery, and suspense genres, and now I get my novels written with focus and passion.  In fact, one novel I wrote, and I love "What Happens in The Vegas Cemetery" more than anything I've ever written, is a YA paranormal thriller with a romantic suspense subgenre.  I'd originally had no clue where to put it genre-wise, but now it fits perfectly.  
 
3. What is your latest release?
February 2nd of 2023, I'll be releasing "Van Gogh Syndrome," a thriller.  It's the first in my three-book Hidden Cobra series about a forensic investigator, whose background in cyber forensics helps her stop a terrorist attack on an American nuclear facility.  
 
4. What are you working on now?
 I'm presently working on five novels for 2023 and 2024 release:

  1. First, I'm writing book two in the Hidden Cobra series for a 2024 release, and this thriller's working title is "Starry Night Over Pyongyang."
  2. My second project, being edited and prepped for a 2023 Easter release, is a religious historical fiction called "Only Son: Jesus the Magus (Clan of Solomon Book One). 
  3. Third, in the Clan of Solomon series, I'm researching and drafting book two, titled "First Wife: Mary."  It will be a 2024 release. 
  4. Fourth, I'm prepping "What Happens in the Vegas Cemetery" for a 2023 Halloween release in Salem, Mass at "Gettin' Witchy With It."  "Vegas" is a YA paranormal thriller with a romantic suspense sub-genre.
  5. Fifth, I'm editing "Vengeance Is Mine: the Profiler's Passion" for a 2024 release.  This is a romantic suspense, which won the 2010 Golden Pen contest (third place), but I sat on it, choosing not to publish it, since I wasn't comfortable establishing myself solely as a RS author.  Glad I waited, too.  
Two 2025 projects I'm working on for 2026 release are are: 
  1. Dubai Bones, a stand-alone thriller, 2025 release.
  2. Deeply, Darky, a stand-alone thriller, 2025 release.
  3. Family Affair: Mary and Jesus (Clan of Solomon Book Three), 2025 release.
  4. Black Sheep:  Lazarus the Leper (Clan of Solomon Book Four), 2026 release.

5. Does your reading choices influence your choice of a writing career?
When I'm not writing I'm reading, and I read everything, depending on my whim.  However, as a professional writer I've learned to focus on writing in my primary genres and, of even greater importance, to trust in my own style and voice.  I choose not to be influenced or to follow the literary trend of the day.  In fact, if I'm writing and someone says, "Oh, have you read so and so," I avoid reading so and so. I don't ignore literary trends.  They're important.  But the favorites of the day have their voice, and I have mine.  
  
6. Where can we find you?
I have carefully crafted my author platform to serve my readers by avoiding making them hop like fleas from one social media site to the other to find me.  I want them to know I'll be here, and in a place where we can connect and interact unfailingly.  My decision to limit my presence on the web is all about serving my readers consistently from a very organized platform.  That doesn't mean I won't be on Instagram or TikTok, if I determine I can serve my readers from those places.  However, for now I'm connecting from my author page on Facebook, my author website, and my blog.  Those links are as follows: