Saints of Suspense Bookseller/Librarian and Blogger/Reviewer Party!

A big N'Awlins welcome to booksellers, librarians, bloggers and reviewers attending our Romantic Times Saints of Suspense party!

I'm Alex Sokoloff, author of eleven supernatural, paranormal and crime thrillers. I'm a Thriller Award winner and Anthony and Bram Stoker Award nominee, a recovering screenwriter, and the  workshop leader of the internationally acclaimed Screenwriting Tricks for Authors series (and the one on the right in this photo, taken at the historic and haunted Hotel Monteleone in the French Quarter.)

I'm thrilled to be able to introduce my Thriller Award-nominated Huntress/FBI series to you all in my favorite city on the planet — and in a haunted brewery! I like to cross my crime thrillers with a hint of what might be supernatural, so even though the series is set in California and the Western states, New Orleans' natural spookiness is a perfect backdrop for me to talk about the books.

The series follows haunted FBI agent Matthew Roarke on a hunt for what may be that most rare of killers: a female serial.

"This interstate manhunt has plenty of thrills... Sokoloff's choice to present both Roarke's and the killer's points of view keeps the suspense taut and the pages flying."  

-- Kirkus Reviews

I love the suspense and range of cross-country investigations, but I also wanted to explore crimes that are generally perpetrated by men against women - but from a completely different point of view than we usually see from male authors (and filmmakers). I've been very gratified at how readers have responded to the series and by their dedication to my characters.

I first published Books 1 and 2, Huntress Moon and Blood Moon independently (and was nominated for the first-ever ITW Thriller Award for Best e Book Original Novel). Now the Huntress series has been picked up by Thomas & Mercer, and both books will relaunch in June, with brand-new Book 3, Cold Moon, coming in October.

There will be free books available to all who attend the party, but if you don't feel like lugging books back in your suitcase, or if you prefer e books, you can request any of these three books in any format, and we'll get them to you free of charge. Just drop me an e mail at alex AT alexandrasokoloff DOT com with your snail mail and/or email address to request:

    - Huntress Moon (Book 1 of the Huntress/FBI Thrillers):  signed ARC, all e formats
    - Blood Moon (Book 2 of the Huntress/FBI Thrillers): signed ARC, all e formats
    - Cold Moon (Book 3 of the Huntress/FBI Thrillers)  signed ARC, all e formats

Or just download a copy of Huntress Moon here.

Please also feel free to request a signed hardcover of my spooky thriller Book of Shadows.

And if you are a librarian and would like permanent e book copies of any of my books for your library (unlimited loans for all branches for a one-time fee of $4.99) please ask me about E Books Are Forever!

Of course I'm most looking forward to our Saints of Suspense bash, but I'll also be participating in these events throughout the conference.

   > Saints of Suspense party, Tuesday, May 13 6:30-9 p.m.
   > Mardi Gras World party:  Wednesday, May 14, 6:30 p.m
            Parade and booth with Heather Graham (lots of giveaways, and food!)
   > Stealing Hollywood's Magic: panel:  Friday, May 16,  10 a.m.-11 a.m.
   > Heather Graham's Vampire Dinner Theater:  Friday, May 16, 8:45 pm to 12 am
            Mardi Gras Magic and Mayhem. Dinner, show, costume contest, giveaways, dancing

Can't wait to meet everyone at any and all events! It's going to be the best Romantic Times ever....

..... Alex

Bookish recommends the Huntress series!

The Huffington Post Books blog recommends the Huntress series on their "Women You Should Be Reading" list.  (As part of the #ReadWomen2014 movement. Some great authors in all genres, including my friend and Weymouth 7 critique pal Margaret Maron. Very exciting Equinox gift.

Here's the list.

Book II in the Huntress/FBI series, Huntress Moon

Amazon US 

Amazon UK   

Amazon DE

FBI Special Agent Matthew Roarke is closing in on a bust of a major criminal organization in San Francisco when he witnesses an undercover member of his team killed right in front of him on a busy street, an accident Roarke can't believe is coincidental. His suspicions put him on the trail of a mysterious young woman who appears to have been present at each scene of a years-long string of "accidents" and murders, and who may well be that most rare of killers: a female serial.

Roarke's hunt for her takes him across three states...while in a small coastal town, a young father and his five-year old son, both wounded from a recent divorce, encounter a lost and compelling young woman on the beach and strike up an unlikely friendship without realizing how deadly she may be.

As Roarke uncovers the shocking truth of her background, he realizes she is on a mission of her own, and must race to capture her before more blood is shed.

- An ITW Thriller Award Nominee for Best Original E Book Novel

- A Suspense Magazine Pick for Best Thriller of 2012

"This interstate manhunt has plenty of thrills... Sokoloff's choice to present both Roarke's and the killer's perspectives helps keep the drama taut and the pages flying."   -- Kirkus Reviews

Book II in the Huntress/FBI series, Blood Moon

Amazon US
Amazon UK
Amazon DE

Twenty-five years have passed since a savage killer terrorized California, massacring three ordinary families before disappearing without a trace.

The haunted child who was the only surviving victim of his rampage is now wanted by the FBI  for brutal crimes of her own, and Special Agent Matthew Roarke is on an interstate manhunt for her, despite his conflicted sympathies for her history and motives.

But when his search for her unearths evidence of new family slayings, the dangerous woman Roarke seeks - and wants - may be his only hope of preventing another bloodbath.

2014 conference schedule

Yes, conference season has begun, and as usual I'm booked for way too much on both sides of the pond, starting this month with Left Coast Crime in beautiful Monterey, California.

The sad fact is, if it weren't for conferences, I might never leave the house. Almost.

Hope to see you at one of these exciting events!  -- Alex

2014

March 20-23
Left Coast Crime
Montery, CA

May 13-18
Romantic Times Booklovers Convention
New Orleans, LA
Wednesday, May 14, 6:30-9 pm
Saints of Suspense Bookseller/Librarian and Blogger/Reviewer Party
Friday, May 16, 10:00-11:00 am
Stealing Hollywood's Magic: panel
Friday, May 16, 8:45 pm-12:00 am
Heather Graham's Mardi Gras Magic and Mayhem! Dinner Theater

June 9-13
West Texas A&M Writers Academy
Canyon, TX
Five Day Screenwriting Tricks for Authors Workshop
If you're looking for a writing intensive with direct, hands-on feedback, this is the only one I do all year. Class size is limited to 15, and your novel can be at any stage to benefit. Afternoon e-publishing workshop included.

July 9-12
Thrillerfest
New York City, NY
Wednesday, July 9
Screenwriting Tricks for Authors Workshop at Craftfest

July 17-20
Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival
Harrogate, UK

September 19-21
Bloody Scotland
Stirling, Scotland

November 8
Military Book Fair
San Diego, CA
Aboard the USS Midway museum

November 13-16
Bouchercon World Mystery Convention
Long Beach, CA

Huntress Moon, now in trade paperback!

Yes, finally - the first book in my Thriller Award-nominated Huntress/FBI series is available in trade paperback.

 A haunted FBI agent is on the hunt for that most rare of killers... a female serial.

And thanks to Amazon's Matchbook program, if you buy the paperback, you can get the Kindle copy for free! Perfect for the holidays - gift the paperback and keep the e book for yourself!  :)

Buy here:

Huntress Moon

- Trade paperback
- e book


Of course, Book 2 in the series is also available:

Blood Moon

And... stay tuned for an announcement about Book 3: Cold Moon. Coming very soon!

- Alex

October giveaway: BOOK OF SHADOWS

Halloween is coming and to celebrate I'm giving away 31 signed hardcovers of my spooky thriller BOOK OF SHADOWS.

Just sign up for my mailing list on the home page of this website (there's a box on the left) to be automatically entered in the drawing!

And if you don't want to wait, BOOK OF SHADOWS is available on as an e book in the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain, for $3.99 in the US, £1.31 on Amazon.uk, and €3.21 on Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.it, and Amazon.es.





Amazon
Amazon UK
Amazzon DE





“A wonderfully dark thriller with amazing is-it-isn't-it suspense all the way to the end. Highly recommended.”---Lee Child

Homicide detective Adam Garrett is already a rising star in the Boston police department when he and his cynical partner, Carl Landauer, catch a horrifying case that could make their careers: the ritualistic murder of a wealthy college girl that appears to have Satanic elements.

The partners make a quick arrest when all evidence points to another student, a troubled musician in a Goth band who was either dating or stalking the murdered girl. But Garrett’s case is turned upside down when beautiful, mysterious Tanith Cabarrus, a practicing witch from nearby Salem, walks into the homicide bureau and insists that the real perpetrator is still at large. Tanith claims to have had psychic visions that the killer has ritually sacrificed other teenagers in his attempts to summon a powerful, ancient demon.

All Garrett's beliefs about the nature of reality will be tested as he is forced to team up with a woman he is fiercely attracted to but cannot trust, in a race to uncover a psychotic killer before he strikes again.


"Compelling, frightening and exceptionally well-written, Book of Shadows is destined to become another hit for acclaimed horror and suspense writer Sokoloff. The incredibly tense plot and mysterious characters will keep readers up late at night, jumping at every sound, and turning the pages until they've devoured the book." --- Romantic Times Book Reviews, 4 1/2 stars

"Sokoloff successfully melds a classic murder-mystery/whodunit with supernatural occult undertones." --- Library Journal

"As usual, Sokoloff (The Unseen) does a good job keeping the reader guessing whether a supernatural agency is really at work." - Publishers Weekly

Huntress Moon, coming soon in print and audio!

I’m very happy to report that the trade paperback of Huntress Moon will be available in October, and the audiobook in November.

We’re up to over 230 reviews on Amazon (147 five-star reviews!) and still consistently at the top of the Amazon charts in the serial killers and vigilante justice categories. Both Huntress Moon and Blood Moon are the top rated Kindle books in those categories as well.

The great reviews are keeping me going as I’m writing book three, Cold Moon. In which things get even crazier for Roarke and his team. 

Out in December!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Amazon US 

Amazon UK   

Amazon DE

FBI Special Agent Matthew Roarke is closing in on a bust of a major criminal organization in San Francisco when he witnesses an undercover member of his team killed right in front of him on a busy street, an accident Roarke can't believe is coincidental. His suspicions put him on the trail of a mysterious young woman who appears to have been present at each scene of a years-long string of "accidents" and murders, and who may well be that most rare of killers: a female serial.

Roarke's hunt for her takes him across three states...while in a small coastal town, a young father and his five-year old son, both wounded from a recent divorce, encounter a lost and compelling young woman on the beach and strike up an unlikely friendship without realizing how deadly she may be.

As Roarke uncovers the shocking truth of her background, he realizes she is on a mission of her own, and must race to capture her before more blood is shed.

- An ITW Thriller Award Nominee for Best Original E Book Novel

- A Suspense Magazine Pick for Best Thriller of 2012

"This interstate manhunt has plenty of thrills... Sokoloff's choice to present both Roarke's and the killer's perspectives helps keep the drama taut and the pages flying."   -- Kirkus Reviews

Amazon US
Amazon UK
Amazon DE

Twenty-five years have passed since a savage killer terrorized California, massacring three ordinary families before disappearing without a trace.

The haunted child who was the only surviving victim of his rampage is now wanted by the FBI  for brutal crimes of her own, and Special Agent Matthew Roarke is on an interstate manhunt for her, despite his conflicted sympathies for her history and motives.

But when his search for her unearths evidence of new family slayings, the dangerous woman Roarke seeks - and wants - may be his only hope of preventing another bloodbath.

Blood Moon in Top Ten horror and hardboiled mysteries!

I'm happy to report that since its release at the beginning of the month, Blood Moon has been holding steady in Amazon's Top Ten in horror and also in hardboiled mysteries, besides moving in and out of the Top Ten in many other mystery/suspense and horror categories. I've also discovered that at least for the moment, I'm the only woman in Amazon's Top Ten most popular horror authors. I'd kind of argue that the Huntress books belong in horror, but they're a lot scarier than a lot of other books in that category!

I've been going a million interviews on the book and the series this month which I should link to on the website, but here for now, here are some of the most common questions (and one uncommon one!)

Tell us a bit about your latest book, and what inspired you to write such a story.

Blood Moon is the second in my Huntress/FBI thriller series, which follows a haunted FBI agent on the hunt for a female serial killer.  But if you talk to FBI profilers, some will tell you that from a psychological and forensic standpoint, there’s no such thing as a female serial killer.  Women commit homicide, but not sexual homicide.  That’s a little-known fact that has interested me for a long time. For years I’ve been looking for the right story to explore that issue.

Then two years ago I was at the San Francisco Bouchercon, the World Mystery Convention, and there were two back-to-back discussions with several of my favorite authors: Val McDermid interviewing Denise Mina, then Robert Crais interviewing Lee Child. There was a lot of priceless stuff in those two hours, but two things that really struck me from the McDermid/Mina chat were Val saying that crime fiction is the best way to explore societal issues, and Denise saying that she finds powerful inspiration in writing about what makes her angry.

Write about what makes you angry? It doesn't take me a millisecond's thought to make my list. Child sexual abuse is the top, no contest. Violence against women and children. Discrimination of any kind. Religious intolerance. War crimes. Genocide. Torture.

That anger has fueled a lot of my books and scripts over the years.

And then right after that, there was Lee Child talking about Reacher, one of my favorite fictional characters, and it got me thinking about what it would look like if a woman were doing what Reacher was doing. And that was it—instantly I had the whole story of Huntress Moon, the first book in the Huntress series.

What will the reader learn after reading your book?

They’ll learn that there is no such thing as a female serial killer! But the series also seems to force readers to question their own beliefs about justice and punishment and retribution. I am thrilled that so many people find themselves torn about what they want to see happen to my killer, and that they even find themselves hoping for a love that really shouldn’t ever happen.  So I guess what readers learn is that there may be some vast gray areas between good and evil.

Did your book require a lot of research?

Tons. I made this series hard for myself by making the main character an FBI agent, which means I had to cram a lifetime of forensics and law enforcement procedure into several months of catch-up.  Luckily author and former police detective Lee Lofland has created a fabulous program for writers to experience hands-on police and forensics training under the supervision of an incredible professional staff, the annual Writers Police Academy. I couldn’t write this series without it.

How would you describe your creative process while writing this book? Was it stream-of-consciousness writing, or did you first write an outline?

I am a compulsive outliner. I was a screenwriter for eleven years, and there’s no way to do that job without precise outlining.  You need to be able to tell the whole story to the studio long before you get to sit down to write.  I use index cards, the three-act, eight-sequence structure, a story grid, the whole nine yards – all the stuff I teach in my Screenwriting Tricks for Authors workbooks.  But once I have that outline, the first draft can and often does take off in directions I never anticipated. The characters have their own ideas about what needs to happen.  You’d be a fool not to go with the flow in the heat of the moment, to mix a metaphor.

Agatha Christie got her best ideas while eating green apples in the bathtub. Steven Spielberg says he gets his best ideas while driving on the highway. When do you get your best ideas and why do you think this is?

Hmm, I’ve never tried green apples in the bathtub.  Kind of sexy!  I agree with Spielberg, though (who wouldn’t?). Driving is very good for me. Especially for this series, since the books are all about road trips – each book in the series is an interstate manhunt.  More precisely, a womanhunt. 

Night driving is the best. I also get a lot of ideas from dreams.  The shower is good. And dance class.

Were you an avid reader as a child? What type of books did you enjoy reading? 

I was voracious.  I read everything. But I was always most attracted to mysteries, thrillers, and horror.  Anything with a spooky cover, I was all over it. I need the adrenaline rush!  Stephen King, of course, Ira Levin, Ray Bradbury. Early on I discovered that I especially love the feminine perspective on crime and the supernatural – Shirley Jackson, Daphne DuMaurier, Mary Shelley, Agatha Christie, Barbara Vine.  I think women know a lot more than men do about terror.

As an author, what is your greatest reward?

Without question, having readers read my books and experience the world and the characters just as if they’re caught up in a film. And then being able to dialogue with them about the story and characters and their experience of the story. It’s such an intimate relationship. Incomparable.

- Alex

Huntress Moon,  $3.99

Amazon

Amazon UK

Amazon DE

Amazon FR

Amazon ES

Amazon IT

A driven FBI agent is on the hunt for that most rare of all killers:

a female serial.

Blood Moon, on sale now:  99 cents

Amazon US
Amazon UK
Amazon DE