Today begins the book tour for Web of Lies, the final book in the Hidden Faces series by Christian suspense writer Brandilyn Collins.
About Brandilyn Collins. Collins is an award-winning and best-selling novelist, writing “Seatbelt Suspense” for Zondervan, the Christian division of HarperCollins Publishers. She also has written the distinctive book on fiction-writing techniques, Getting Into Character: Seven Secrets a Novelist Can Learn From Actors (John Wiley & Sons).
Brandilyn’s first book, A Question of Innocence, was a true crime published by Avon in 1995. Its promotion landed her on local and national TV and radio, including the Phil Donahue and Leeza talk shows. In 1998, Brandilyn felt a strong calling to write Christian fiction—unpredictable, fast-paced and highly characterized stories interwoven with the message of God’s power and grace. She sold her first novel, Cast a Road Before Me, in 1999. From 2001 through 2004, Brandilyn saw seven more novels published (both suspense and contemporary), plus her non-fiction book Getting Into Character. In 2005, she turned her focus solely to her “Seatbelt Suspense”—harrowing crime thrillers that have earned her the tagline “Don’t forget to breathe…”
In between writing novels, Brandilyn teaches the craft of fiction at writers’ conferences.
About Web of Lies. The final book in the Hidden Faces series, Web of Lies brings together forensic artist Annie Kingston with Chelsea Adams, heroine in Collins’s previous suspense series, to solve a murder but instead snares them in a terrifying battle against time, greed, and a deadly opponent.
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RLM: Brandilyn, thanks so much for agreeing to this interview. I know you are busy with your own blog and other promotional efforts, not to mention working on the next book in your upcoming Kanner Lake series, so it’s gracious of you to give your time.
What did you enjoy most in writing Web of Lies (WoL)?
BC: Finishing! This book was a killer to write, from page one.
RLM: In your author note in the book, you elaborated some about the difficulties of writing from two different points of view—something you chose to do in order to accommodate both your heroines. What besides the two different points of view made WoL a challenge to write?
BC: It’s a convoluted tale, with more than one crime and numerous levels of intrigue. I had to figure out how they all fit together, and keep a thousand and one details in my head. Since I’m always writing to the twist in my stories, many scenes have to be written on more than one level. I try to lead the reader to make certain subconcious assumptions—ergo, the top layer of writing. Then there’s what’s really going on—the layer of writing underneath. But of course, just to make things interesting, some assumptions from the top layer of writing are true, while some red herrings are woven into the level below. I have to remember what’s real and what’s not, plus what the reader knows in any given scene versus what I know as author of all. Sometimes I feel like I’ve entered this huge maze of my own creating, and can’t find the way out myself. I can really drive myself crazy sometimes.
And yeah, mixing the POVs was a bear. In all the Hidden Faces books, I’ve mixed in short third-person POV scenes of the killer. But to have two heroines—well, really a main heroine and a “guest star”—and do one in first and one in third . . . sheesh. But the story absolutely called for it. At first I tried writing it all in first, and it didn’t work. I needed those third person POV scenes, especially in the long build-up of the crisis/climax.
RLM: I understand that once you have a title for a book, the premise begins to unfold. How did you come up with the title for WoL?
BC: Actually, it’s usually the other way around. I write the book and then figure out a title that speaks to the main plot as well as the theme. However, in this case, it was reversed. Zondervan needed the title for marketing copy—and I didn’t have a clue as to the story, so how in the heck was I supposed to know the title? That whole scenario led to a very backward series of events for me in plotting. No doubt another reason why the book was so hard to write. I told his whole sordid tale on my blog, Forensics and Faith [see link above or in the sidebar]. Check out the posts on May 25, ’05 to May 31. These are parts 59-62 of the four-month-long tale of my journey toward publication in fiction. My BGs (bloggees, or blog readers) and I took to calling this tale the NES, for “Never-Ending Saga.”
RLM: As one of the BGs hooked by the NES, I can unqualifyingly recommend your story as a must read. But back to POV, how did you like writing in first person after having written your last series in third? And why did you decide to write the Hidden Faces series from that POV?
BC: First person’s great. The most intimate of POVs. It also can be the hardest, depending upon the type of first person POV you use. Hidden Faces was written in the easier form of first person–the “it just happened” form. The “long look back” form is really difficult, because you have to create the voice of both the older and younger character, and segueway between them smoothly. This is the POV I used in my Bradleyville series, back when I wrote women’s fiction as well as suspense. Now I’ve crossed to the dark side for good.
But I digress.
Why did I use first person? Well, I didn’t plan to. I started in third with the first book, Brink of Death. And the first 20,000 words just bugged me. Wasn’t working. The story called for first. So I changed it. And that’s all there was to it. Story rules, folks. Story rules.
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Part II tomorrow.
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