James Scott Bell's latest novel keeps you hanging on and begging for more!

When Chuck Samson left for Afghanistan he was a man in love. He returned home broken to a marriage that would never be reconciled, a mother who no longer recognizes him, and to a brother who depends on him as much now as he did when they were children. Then came the morning he collided with “the Mad Russian,” making his already difficult life impossible.

Now on the run and attempting to clear his name in a murder investigation, Chuck must try to put together his jumbled memories from a war he was never supposed to return from and face the shadowy horrors that have haunted him every day since — all while protecting his autistic brother Stan whose greatest fear is that one day Chuck will leave him.

From the very first line of the very first paragraph, readers are set right in the middle of the chaos that is soon to become Chuck’s life. As with much of Jim’s work, Don’t Leave Me is set in the quick pace of the Los Angeles backdrop. The story twists and turns through trumped up charges, mysterious phone calls, abduction, gunfights, and a brief encounter with a hippie playwright — and the story does so without missing a beat as it speeds its way to the explosive conclusion.

One of the most enjoyable aspects of Don’t Leave Me is the multiple viewpoints. Although the bulk of the story is presented through protagonist Chuck Sampson’s eyes, we are also given the opportunity to experience the world through Stan’s unique perspective, as well as gain the insights of a homicide detective, a school principal, and a couple of very unsavory drug lords.

True to his form, Bell creates a realistic and believable world, includes plenty of trans-generational pop culture references, and has just the right mix of humor to add a little spice to the tang of suspense. Even better, Don’t Leave Me is a story that I enjoyed reading just as much the second time.

Don’t Leave Me, is currently available in digital form for Kindle and Nook Readers and Apps. As of this writing, a print edition had not been announced. But if it is, I’ll be one of the first in line to add it to my real-life bookshelf.


Note: I had the privilege of reading an earlier version of the book last summer while Jim was still working through the final edits, so it was especially fun for me going from reading a draft with lots of notes and questions in the margin to reading the fully finished novel complete with revisions that addressed those very concerns. As a newer writer, it was encouraging for me to see that a more experienced writer still goes through the same processes and struggles as I do. Seeing the polished work only encouraged me to keep moving forward with my own fiction writing.

A Novel Approach to Short Story Writing

A short story is simply a novel in condensed form.

I’ve shared several times before that when I really started writing the only thing I wanted to do was publish novels. I wanted the big book on the shelf. In my mind there simply was nothing else to write other than non-fiction. And I was never going there.

Years have passed. I’ve never published that 300-page tome. But it hasn’t kept me from continuing to try. In the meantime, I’ve learned the novel isn’t the only way to go.

Wanting to be a novelist is pretty common among writers. There is a sense of mystery and adventure to it. We’re readers by nature and we want to be just like the writers we’ve grown up loving. We want to create a world people will never forget.

In our rush to publish it’s easy to forget that most of our heroes started out small, then worked their way up to something bigger. Others built their entire career around the short story. As a result this medium is often overlooked.

But that’s beginning to change in both the world of reading and writing.

The Weekend Short Story Challenge

In honor of such literary giants as Charles Dickens, Edgar Allan Poe, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Isaac Assimov, Philip K. Dick, Ray Bradbury, and so many, many more, I propose a challenge to any who read this post.

Let’s write (and complete) something small this weekend!

Like a novel, the story needs a beginning, a middle, and an end. Start with a hook. End with a punch. And pack in the tension. It can be something completely original, or you can tell a well-known story from a different angle. Just make it unique.

For those not familiar with short stories, here are a few options to choose from:

Short: 1,000 – 3,000 words

Flash: 1,000 words or less.

Micro: Less than 300 words.

Nano: Less than 100 words.

As an experiment, I chose a Nano Story similar to Hemmingway’s six-word story “For Sale.”

Wanted: Six-month puppy seeks loving home. Loves Tag and Hide & Seek. Well trained. Missing her little playmate.

It’s my first attempt at Nano fiction, and I plan to try my hand at another this weekend. Whether they’re ever published or not, I’ve come to realize short story writing will help me focus on what’s really important when I go back to my novel.

Want to join me in the challenge? Let me know in the comment section below. Not your thing, but know someone else who might? Please share a link!

30 Days of Thankfulness in Writing – Day 5: Improvising

It’s easy to focus on the negative in the world around us. In observation of a month many dedicate to counting their blessings, I’ve started a 30-day challenge in which I’ll focus on one aspect of my writing life for which I am thankful. I’d love to have you join by sharing about something that has blessed your own writing life in the comments section below. - Jen

Technically it’s the 8th day of the month, but between traveling for a few days and then forgetting my laptop power adapter, it makes it a little difficult to post. So rather than combining days I’ll stick with my original 30-day plan. What does it matter if I go into December? November doesn’t hold the license on Thankfulness any more than February holds the patent on Love, right? Which brings me to another aspect of my writing life I am thankful for: improvising.

Let’s face it — the best-laid plans always have an Achilles Heel, especially when technology is involved. Aside from losing my power cord, my car decided to go on the fritz even though I’d just gotten the all clear from my mechanic. And when visiting with family to celebrate a major milestone it is often frowned upon to hole oneself up to reach a daily word count. (Not to mention you also miss out on creating memories.)

Not writing wasn’t so big a deal. I had ideas and I’d jot them down in my notebook for later, but when it came to handling the car problems I wondered more than once, “What would one of my characters do in this situation?” I ask myself that question a lot when I find myself in a sticky situation. Would they panic? Would they cross their arms, sit down, and quit all together? Or would they come up with something entirely unexpected?

The answer was unequivocally, the latter. My characters would improvise. When a goal is blocked in fiction our characters don’t just give up. We’d stop writing (or reading) if they did. Instead they find a way AROUND the obstacle and then get back on track as quickly as possible. No matter what happens, what delays they face, they never take their eyes off their final goal or destination.

I recently started re-reading The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. It’s about a shepherd boy looking for his personal legend — a treasure he kept dreaming about. In one leg of his journey he joins a caravan to reach the Great Pyramids. There are plenty of obstacles to face along the way but as one of the camel drivers tells him, “Once you get into the desert, there is no going back. And when you can’t go back, you have to worry only about the best way of moving forward.”

Life is a lot like the desert. Especially the writing life. The way forward is rarely straight and direct. There are plenty of rocks to go around, pitfalls to be avoided, and thieves in the night to watch for (I’m looking at you, Facebook!). Sometimes life forces us to improvise. Like our characters, we can’t sit still. There’s no story to tell in that.  So I’m taking a cue from my favorite literary friends and will find a new way around these funky little obstacles. I’ll continue moving forward.

The Professor and the Equation

Image Courtesy of ThinkGeek.com

I had to take a calculus class my sophomore year of college. At the time I was a pre-med major with aspirations of living in a mud hut while saving children’s lives; a noble goal but ultimately not the correct life path for me. Math has never been my strong suit. In school, I could never get past letters being mixed with numbers in algebraic equations. In my mind, X is a letter, not a space holder, and A + B – C holds no numerical value so how can it equal 15?

So there I was, two-thirds of the country away from home, going to class every day trying to bail my sinking grade out with a thimble of understanding when one day the professor didn’t show. Five minutes passed. Ten minutes. Fifteen. At this point about half of the class got up and walked out, thrilled with the prospect of a free afternoon. The only ones who stayed were the brainiacs…and me. Twenty minutes. A few more students who didn’t need to worry about passing with anything less than a 95 slipped out the door, but instead of whooping about playing Frisbee golf, they were planning on filing a report. It was at that point I slipped my own two-hundred-dollar textbook into my thirty-dollar backpack. I no sooner zipped it closed and stood with the remaining four or five students when who should coming running through the door short of breath, loose-tied, disheveled-haired, and red-faced but the professor.

The door slammed closed behind him as he stretched his arms to block our panicked escape. “Nobody move! I’m so sorry I’m late. I got so wrapped up in this equation I’ve been working on I completely lost track of time! I’m giving you all an A for the day for waiting. Now let’s make the most of these last twenty minutes.”

Apart from being relieved about getting a few badly needed extra points, it baffled me how someone could be so engrossed in a math problem he could forget about his class. And then this week came along. Tuesday came and went without me updating my blog, then Wednesday…it’s now Thursday and I realized I’ve been so wrapped up in a new project of my own I’d completely forgotten about you!

I’ve come to realize over the course of the past eight years, it doesn’t matter if its writing, playing music, saving lives, or even solving complex math equations — if you’re truly passionate about something, you’re going to lose all track of time at some point. I loved working as a volunteer in the Emergency Room. I enjoyed helping others and shadowing the doctors as they listened to the patient and tried to determine exactly what was wrong and how to best treat the illness or injury. But looking back, I was never as passionate about medicine as I have become about writing. I have never felt more at home with myself as I do with a pen in my hand and words on a page. And with one other exception, it’s rare that I’ve felt as passionate about a specific project as I do about the one I’m working on right now. A project I hope to share with you very soon.

What are you passionate about when it comes to writing? Do you thrill at the thought of creating a brand new world? Do you forget about the roast in the oven while carefully crafting a devotional article? Or do you tend to seek the truth through non-fiction? Whatever it is, I hope that like my professor, you throw yourself so fully into your writing that everything else is forgotten for a few extra minutes today. And then again tomorrow.

Oh, and by the way, my professor managed to solve that equation by the end of the semester and I walked out of that class with the only C I’ve ever been proud of despite bombing the final, and largely due to the kindness of a man who saw me diligently struggling through the concepts and continually asking for help from him and a couple of other classmates.