Rick Treon's Blog

“Divided States” has been named a finalist for a 2022 Silver Falchion Award, given annually at the Killer Nashville International Writers Conference.

Treon’s third novel, “Divided States” (Black Rose, June 2021) is one of seven books nominated in the thriller category by authors attending the conference, and one of 19 thrillers overall. Winners will be announced August 20 at the Killer Nashville Awards Dinner at the Embassy Suites in the Nashville suburb of Franklin, Tennessee.

Treon’s competition includes thrillers written by Paula Hawkins — who wrote mega bestseller “The Girl on the Train” — and Brian Cuban, the brother of Dallas Mavericks owner and billionaire mogul Mark Cuban.

This is the second award nomination for “Divided States,” which was also a finalist for a Best Thriller Book Award in the political thriller category.

It is also the second time one of Treon’s novels have been named a Silver Falchion Award finalist. His second novel, “Let the Guilty Pay” (Fawkes Press, July 2020) was nominated last year in the suspense category.

Treon’s debut novel, “Deep Background,” won the 2020 PenCraft Award for Literary Excellence in Suspense.

“Divided States,” which takes place in a post-secession America and focuses on a conspiracy plot to detonate a stolen nuclear device, is available to purchase in hardcover wherever books are sold.

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I’ve always been one of the luckiest people I know.

As it relates to my writing career, that has manifested itself in the form of nominations and awards, including two noms this year — the 2021 Silver Falchion Award for Best Suspense Novel and 2021 Best Thriller Book Award for best political thriller.

But neither of those compare to what happened yesterday.

A nominating committee of the Texas High Plains Writers — the longest continuously active writing club in the state and one of the oldest in the country — named me the organization’s 2021 Writer of the Year. (Full disclosure: I served as president of the THPW this year; the committee that chose the award neither included me nor was picked by me.)

To put this into a bit of perspective, actively writing members of the THPW include: New York Times and USA Today bestseller Jodi Thomas; NYT and USAT bestseller Linda Broday; bestselling and award-winning author Jennifer Archer; and more than a dozen others whose novels and short stories have been published, most with more titles to their name than mine.

If I’m fortunate enough to earn any more accolades for my writing, none will ever top this one.

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Rick Treon’s action thriller Divided States has been named a finalist in the 2021 Best Thriller Book Awards, according to award sponsor BestThrillers.com.

The novel, released in June by publisher Black Rose, was one of two finalists in the political thriller category.

“Divided States is one of the year’s top books,” said BestThrillers.com. “It’s a must for fans of both political thrillers and conspiracy fiction.”

Bob Van Laerhoven’s “Alejandro’s Lie” (Aug. 5, Next Chapter Publishing) was named the year’s top political thriller. Winners and two finalists each were named in 15 thriller and crime fiction categories.

“It’s incredible any time an organization names your book one of the year’s best,” Treon said. “I’m truly honored.”

With this recognition, each of Treon’s first three novels have been nominated for or won a literary award.

His debut, Deep Background (Dec. 6, 2018; Black Rose), won the PenCraft Award for Literary Excellence in Suspense. Treon’s second novel, Let the Guilty Pay (July 4, 2020; Fawkes Press), was named a finalist for the Silver Falchion Award for Best Suspense novel.

While those awards were for suspense novels, “Divided States” is a speculative action thriller that follows former detective Lori Young, who is kidnapped in the aftermath of a mass shooting in a post-secession America. Lori soon learns she’s the key to stopping a devastating terrorist plot — but she’ll have to confront her own past to ensure the continent’s future.

Signed first-edition hardcover copies are available at a holiday discount through RickTreon.com. Unsigned hardcovers are available to order wherever readers buy their books.

The novel is also available as an Amazon Kindle e-book and in paperback.

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AMARILLO, Texas — Rick Treon’s thriller Let the Guilty Pay has been named a finalist for the 2021 Silver Falchion Award for Best Suspense Novel by literary organization Killer Nashville.

“I am blown away by this nomination,” Treon said. “A Silver Falchion is one of the top awards for authors in the mystery, suspense, and thriller genres. I know it’s cliché to say, but it truly is an honor just to be nominated.”

The awards are given annually at the Killer Nashville International Writers’ Conference at the Embassy Suites in nearby Franklin, Tennessee. This year, the organization will name winners in 13 fiction and nonfiction categories for books released in 2020.

Treon is one of 10 finalists in the Best Suspense category and one of 90 finalists overall.

Winners in each category, plus an award for best overall work, will be announced at the conference’s awards dinner on Aug. 21. All finalists will be recognized there.

“Win or lose, it’ll be a special night for me.” Treon said. “A career highlight.”

The announcement came just as the thriller’s sequel, The Price of Silence, his fourth novel overall, was released Aug. 3 by Fawkes Press in e-book and paperback. Signed copies of both titles in Treon’s Bartholomew Beck series are available for purchase at Burrowing Owl Books in Amarillo and Canyon.

This is the second time Let the Guilty Pay, Treon’s second novel, has been named a finalist for an award.

Prior to being sold to Fawkes Press as part of a two-book deal in the fall of 2019, Let the Guilty Pay was named a finalist for the Writers’ League of Texas Manuscript Contest in the thriller/action-adventure category with the working title Helpers.

Treon’s debut novel, the standalone thriller Deep Background, won the 2019 PenCraft Award for Literary Excellence in Suspense.

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STINNETT, Texas — Jason Collier, the embattled former police chief here, was arrested Thursday on a charge of tampering with a government document, according to the Borger News-Herald.

Texas Rangers arrested Collier after claims he falsified annulment papers. According to a woman claiming to be his girlfriend, Collier, 41, allegedly provided these false government documents to prove he was no longer married.

Court records show he’s married.

Collier was booked into the Hutchinson County Jail on Thursday evening and his bond was set at $10,000, according to Jail Capt. Monica Sepulveda.

The Texas Rangers have not commented on Collier’s arrest.

Collier was hired in February as Chief of Police in Stinnett, about an hour northeast of Amarillo. He previously worked for the nearby Borger Police Department.

The City of Stinnett accepted his resignation Thursday, according to a statement released on the city’s Facebook page shortly after he was arrested. On Wednesday, the city said Collier was on administrative leave after receiving reports of “possible violations of city employment policy.”

Rick Treon is an award-winning novelist and former editor of the Amarillo Globe-News.

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THE TWIST



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Don’t be afraid to use this literary tool.







By Andrew J Brandt

“Every story ever told can be broken down to three parts; the beginning, the middle…and the twist.”
— Jack Black as R.L. Stine in Goosebumps

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If you took a random selection of kids born between the years 1983 and 1989, I would be willing to bet that 90 percent of them grew up reading R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps books. I know I did. In fact, I won a reading competition in the fifth grade solely by devouring every single Goosebumps they had in the school library. When I ran out of those to read, I went to the public library.

At one time, R.L. Stine was selling upwards of 60 million books per year, and doing it year after year. (John Grisham has sold an estimated 60 million books in his entire career. Stine bests Stephen King by at least 100 million books sold over their respective careers.)

Now you are seeing young writers who grew up on those stories and who are using those tropes and plot beats in their own works. I know because I am one of them. One of my favorite story beats is the plot twist.

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Now, a plot twist for the sake of a twist can make a trudging novel seem unimaginative. When the twist is done poorly, all it does is take a boring plot to a boring conclusion. Sure, some readers may gasp at first, but once they read past the surface level, they are left empty and hollow. But, the practice shouldn’t be disdained altogether. One of the greatest plot points in history — “No; I am your father.” — is one of the greatest revelations of all time, and it completely changed the course of the Star Wars story.

Stine uses the plot twist without abandon and usually ends each of his chapters with a cliffhanger. Though as an adult, the spooky-noise-that-turned-out-to-just-be-a-cat can be overplayed, as a child who hasn’t been initiated fully into the horror genre, it is those twists that keep his readers going. It is those twists that catapulted Stine into such enormous sales.

Another great example of the plot twist is Stephen King’s The Shining. Instead of working toward a twist, King employs several twists to keep his story propelled and work toward its inevitable conclusion.

The only means of communication from the Overlook during the winter is a radio…which Jack destroys.The only way off the mountain is by snowmobile…which Jack makes useless by throwing away the key.The only way to stop Jack is to lock him in the pantry…until he is let loose by the Overlook’s ghosts.The only person who knows the Torrances are in trouble is Halloran, who comes at Danny’s beckoning…and is brought down by Jack.Jack is on the verge of killing Danny…until the Overlook is blown to bits because he forgot about the boiler in the basement.



 

Like opening numerous emergency exits, King sets up these twists early, only to slam the doors shut along the way. That is because King has a clear understanding of his story, using the twists as another tool in his storytelling toolbox instead of employing it as a jackhammer at the end. In fact, you could still tell the story of The Shining without those twists, but I’d argue that it would be a dull and boring story.

I employ the same kind of plot twist in The Unwinding Cable Car. I sprinkle in several plot points along the way that culminate in the climax, where I pull the curtain back and show the reader exactly what is going on.

The twist is a tool. Don’t be afraid to use it.

Andrew J Brandt is the author of the Amazon #1 bestselling thrillers Palo Duro and The Treehouse. His other novels include the young adult thriller The Abduction of Sarah Phillips and the supernatural thriller In the Fog. The Unwinding Cable Car is available November 17 everywhere books are sold, including his website.

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Vampire lore and fiction have fascinated me for as long as I can remember. And honestly, who wouldn’t want immortality, superhuman strength, mind control, and all the rest?

Now I know. Her name’s Veronica, and she’s my new favorite vampire.

I will never fully understand what poor Veronica goes through in her perpetually menopausal state (and I won’t understand being 51 for 17 more years), but that didn’t make Pamela Skjolsvik’s main character in Forever 51 any less relatable or dynamic for me.

The trick to writing a monster main character is to humanize them, which Skjolsvik does incredibly well. And, while conscientious vampires using the Twelve Step program to curb their bloodlust is also not wholly unique in the genre, this one has a great concept that turns the trope on its head.

Veronica is one such cruelty-free vamp who siphons her food at a hospice center in North Texas and often helps her patients in pain. But when she falls off the wagon again and leaves video evidence via a botched spray tan (such a great opening chapter), she needs to get out of town. What better destination than reconnecting with her teenage daughter, who was turned by a loathsome man when they all lived in 1800s Dakota? But her daughter’s also her maker who’s been MIA for a century, so the California reunion was far from warm and fuzzy.

But it ends in a revelation that Veronica can regain her mortality via making amends to all the vampires she’s turned. She’s in, and along the way learns some of her lifestyle choices were predicated on false narratives, inherits a new and wonderfully sardonic daughter figure, and uncovers a covert government program.

I don’t think I’ve ever laughed and snickered so much while reading or watching vampires. The genre has such a glut of dark romantic and Southern Gothic fiction, full of angst and melodrama, that a novel with this much sharp wit stands out in a big way.

Forever 51 does for vampires what Santa Clarita Diet did for zombies. And I’m 100 percent here for it.

Forever 51 is available for purchase wherever you buy your books, including Bookshop.org and Amazon.

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Rating: 5 out of 5.

Title: Monarchs of the Northeast Kingdom
Published by: Torrey House Press
Release date: August 18, 2020
Pages: 257
ISBN13: 978-1948814218

Though I thoroughly enjoyed every page of Chera Hammons’ first work of literary fiction, it’s hard for me to focus on what came before the final four chapters of Monarchs of the Northeast Kingdom.

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Which is unfortunate for you, because spoilers prevent me from divulging the wonderful way Hammons leaves readers of her positively superb debut — which Kirkus rightly called “highly satisfying” and “delicately woven.”

But trust me, dear reader, you’ll love getting to the deftly executed climax and denouement. It perfectly matches the first chapter’s setup, as all great literature does. And though you can’t label Monarchs a suspense novel, it is nonetheless taut and exciting throughout.

And that’s just the plot.

Renowned poet Hammons — recipient of a PEN Southwest Book Award for her book of poetry, The Traveler’s Guide to Bomb City — shows that she is just as capable of writing beautiful prose while stitching together the action and memories of her protagonist, Anna.

What I enjoyed most about her writing style was that it wasn’t flashy for flashy’s sake. The words washed over me and, in the end, made me appreciate the gentle hand Hammons used to get me from the image of a riderless mule to … well, you’ll just have to read it.

Monarchs of the Northeast Kingdom is available in paperback and digital formats wherever you buy your books. Signed copies are available at Burrowing Owl Books (Canyon and Amarillo, Texas). Also available through Torrey House Press, Indiebound / Bookshop, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon.

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Award-winning author Rick Treon signed a one-book deal on Thursday with publisher Black Rose for a novel to be released in 2021.

Black Rose also published Treon’s debut thriller, Deep Background, which won the 2019 Pencraft Award for Literary Excellence in Suspense.

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“I’m beyond excited to once again work with the talented team at Black Rose,” Treon said.

Since its release in December 2018, Deep Background has reached more than 26,000 readers combined in paperback, eBook, and audiobook formats, according to Black Rose.

The novel — which is set in the Texas Panhandle and follows the story of two Amarillo reporters covering a brutal small-town murder — has been ranked as high as 16th on Amazon’s U.S. Conspiracy Thrillers chart and peaked at No. 50 on Amazon’s overall Best Sellers list in Canada.

While Deep Background was a suspenseful crime novel, Treon said the new project is more of an action thriller. It’s also set in the near future, he said.

“You might call it a speculative spy thriller,” he said. “It’s The Handmaid’s Tale meets The Man in the High Castle, but written by Brad Taylor.”

That pitch, along with a synopsis and opening pages, sold Black Rose on the novel.

“We are eager to schedule this project on our book calendar,” said Reagan Rothe, publisher at Black Rose, which had a novel nominated for an International Thriller Writers award this year.

A firm release date has not yet been set, and no financial details on the agreement were released.

His deal with Black Rose comes less than three weeks after Treon’s second novel hit bookstore shelves.

Let the Guilty Pay, the first book in the Bartholomew Beck thriller series, was released July 4 by Fawkes Press in Paperback and eBook.

Treon said he’s nearing completion on a sequel to Let the Guilty Pay, which was a BookBub Featured New Release and is in production to be available as an audiobook later this year.

The sequel, which will be the second in a two-book deal Treon signed with Fawkes Press in 2019, is set for release next year.

Fawkes Press also published Treon’s prequel novella to Let the Guilty Pay, titled Live with the Truth, in April.

“For me to have released two titles this year is outstanding, at least to me,” Treon said. “And to know I will have two novels coming out in 2021 feels flat-out amazing.”

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Rick Treon’s latest novel will be released as an audiobook, according to publisher Fawkes Press.

Let the Guilty Pay, which is available to order in paperback and eBook, is currently in production, Fawkes Press publisher Jodi Thompson said.

No release date has been announced.

“I am unbelievably excited to finally let everyone know about this,” Treon said. “I listen to a ton of audiobooks, so it makes me happy to know folks will be able to enjoy Let the Guilty Pay using that medium.”

The thriller — which centers on struggling true crime writer Bartholomew Beck, who finds a dead body while working on a Texas oil pipeline to make ends meet — is expected to be available worldwide on all major audiobook retailers, including Audible, Libro.fm, Chirp, Apple, and more.

Let the Guilty Pay is Treon’s second novel. His first, the award-winning standalone thriller Deep Background, is available as an audiobook on Audible and Apple Books.

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