KAREN’S KILLER BOOK BENCH: Welcome to Karen’s Killer Book Bench where readers can discover talented new authors and take a peek inside their wonderful books. This is not an age-filtered site so all book peeks are PG-13 or better. Come back and visit often. Happy reading!

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UNTIL DEAD
A Cold Case Suspense
BY DONNELL ANN BELL

Blurb

This killer won’t stop . . . until she’s dead

When Lt. Everett T. Pope is notified of an explosion in downtown Denver close to the judicial buildings, his first instinct is gas leak. No such luck. As Incident Command and Pope’s own Major Crimes unit move in, he discovers he knows the intended victims—an Assistant U. S. Attorney—and Pope’s former partner, now a private investigator, has died shielding the injured AUSA with his body.

As ATF and the FBI take over investigating the bombing and unraveling motives behind the murder attempt, Pope is relegated to a peripheral role. But the injured AUSA’s aunt is a United States senator used to getting results. She turns to the team that solved the Black Pearl Killer murders with a very big ask—find her answers and locate the bomber.

FBI Special Agent Brian DiPietro must recall his entire cold case team from their far-flung assignments knowing he’s being asked to do the impossible. The senator, however, doesn’t know the meaning of the word. All too soon, DiPietro finds his team working alongside ATF on a red-hot mission.  One that uncovers a decades’ old cold case.

UNTIL DEAD
A Cold Case Suspense
BY DONNELL ANN BELL

We All Have to Start Somewhere
By Donnell Ann Bell

Hello everyone! Waving hi to my friend Karen Docter and her wonderful readers. I’ve known Karen for many years now, and I think she’ll agree with me when I say writing is an all-consuming business, fiction writers come from many walks of life, and we all have to start somewhere.

Me, I came from a nonfiction background working for weekly business newspapers and a parenting magazine. I learned a great deal working in the nonfiction world–most importantly, write tight, corroborate the facts, and never editorialize.

I’d always been an avid fiction reader, my favorite genres romantic suspense and mystery, and the day came when a wild idea popped into my head, and I decided to write a book. I mean, how hard could it be? I already wrote articles and spotlight articles several times a week. Writing a fiction novel had to be the proverbial piece of cake.

I was about to spend the next several years being humbled. There’s a reason professionals write books after they’ve completed their education. Fiction writing is hard work. Also, there’s no better teacher for fiction authors than life experience.

I remember distinctly taking my cocky self to my first meeting at Pikes Peak Romance Writers in Colorado Springs. I was the idiot who had the audacity to take my manuscript (Loving Montana—which I’d written in three months) with me. After all, I had finished a book. How many of the poor schmucks in the room could say that?

I wasn’t smart enough to be embarrassed. Tucking my book in an eight-by-eleven box, I pulled open the doors to the Falcon Police Station Community Room and boldly walked in. There were about twenty-five to thirty people present, and I remember being greeted by my future critique partner Valen Cox. She was so warm and welcoming, I was sure she was in awe of the woman carrying a box (a completed manuscript, no less). I would later learn kindness and charm were part of Valen’s nature and most likely she was shaking her head inside.

During the meeting, I met several published authors who would later become lifelong friends. Not only had they written one book, they’d written several, and many were award-winning authors. Further, I would learn if you want to be labeled an amateur, just carry your manuscript with you.

Ah yes, I was humbled, and that was only the beginning. I joined my first critique group made up of Robin Searle, Tracy Mooring Liebchen, and of course, Valen. Robin was a newbie like me. (She had a marketing background and had written her first historical). Valen and Tracy were more advanced, and with their help and expertise, I learned things like:

• Never blow up your point of view character unless you’re writing a ghost story.
• Do not head hop, and stick with one point-of-view character per scene (I was not Sandra Brown or Nora Roberts).
• Never incorporate a three-page scene on ranching and bailing hay (no matter how much research I’d done on the subject.)
• If you’re writing a romantic suspense, introduce your male protagonist before the first half of the book.
• And, if you’re writing a romantic suspense, the hero should save the heroine (not the store clerk because the hero was out of town.)

Those are things I learned within my first few months of writing. I promise you I’ve gotten better. These days I no longer carry a box, but I do carry a business card. I write suspense and romantic suspense and I’d be honored if you’d check out my books.

About Author Donnell Ann Bell…

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Links to Donnell’s website, blog, books, #ad etc.:

Amazon: https://amzn.to/3zEgzID