Debra Erfert's Blog

From the very beginning the story grabbed my attention when a bad guy holding a gun on a professor of Egyptology tries to get him to burn some ancient Egyptian scrolls they found in a tomb thirty feet below the Giza Plateau. It doesn’t work out well for the professor. I then meet Omar Zagouri in Tel Aviv, getting ready for a rendezvous, a date, with his beautiful girlfriend, Mia, an Israeli undercover agent, just like him. On his way to the fancy event, Omar’s boss calls, giving him an assignment after a bomb threat closes down their destination. To make things worse, Mia disappears during the fracas.

I immediately like Omar. He’s not built like a Greek God, tall with bulging muscles that women would fall over, but he’s more of a regular guy. I loved his sarcastic sense of humor. It entertained me throughout the story, as well as his ability to get out of tight situations. His devotion to Mia warmed my heart. They are a good fit together.

Lost King is told in three different point of views that switch up with chapter changes—from Omar’s, from an abducted professor, Kale Jaji’s, and from an ancient Egyptian she-king, Hatshepsut. The first time I was pulled back into Thebes, 1490 BC, I wondered how deep I would fall, and how Hatshepsut’s life would impact Omar and Mia, because I knew it had to. Hatshepsut was the daughter of Thutmose I, Pharaoh of Egypt, whose goal in life was to succeed her father and become Pharaoh.

I enjoyed reading Lost King very much. The expert writing kept me invested in the next moment, and the easy dialogue and banter sounded natural. Well done, HB Moore. I look forward to Omar’s next adventure.

It's been a long time in the works, but it finally happened. A book that I started writing nearly thirteen years ago is finally published, and I'm thrilled to show you my Paranormal Romantic Suspense, WINDOW OF TIME, book one in the Window of Time trilogy.


"CIA courier Lucy James never gets used to seeing innocent people killed, but she copes with it—every day. Cursed with the ability to glimpse into the future when a death is about to happen, she has a short window of time to interfere—risking her life in order to change it. No one knows about her curse, until she saves a handsome Los Angeles firefighter trapped between her and foreign operatives hell-bent on intercepting her current assignment.

LA firefighter Johnny Cartwright’s life changes the moment he meets Lucy. His uncomplicated days flip to dangerously unpredictable after he’s drawn deeper into her secretive world of premonitions. His attraction to Lucy grows as he helps her stop a terroristic plot against the U.S., putting his life between her and certain death."

http://www.amazon.com/WINDOW-TIME-Deb...

In writing contemporary romantic suspense, like any genre, it's hard enough to sit down and write that first paragraph of a new story. But most of us don’t necessarily have a clear plan plotted out all the way to “the end.” At least I usually don't. Why not?

Because I am a “pantser,” or, I tell a story by the seat of my pants, without knowing from one scene to the next what is going to happen. When I first heard that term, I resented being called it, mostly because I have a hard time defending myself against anybody criticizing me. It’s not in my nature to confront anybody. But after I had a chance to think about it, I figured out that I am not a true pantser. No, I am a cross between a plotter and a pantser. I mean, I can clearly “see” exactly how I want certain pivotal scenes to “look like” and all I need is the time to find the right words to describe those scenes, including the ending. I always know how I want the story to end, even before I know how it begins.


I’ve been an artist since I was six or seven years old, and I’ve always been able to “see” the piece of work before I start it—I mean actually see it! It’s called visualization. Every pencil stoke, every swipe of colored pastel brings me closer to that finished product. I don’t do anything to that painting that isn’t advancing my project. Why would I? It would be a complete waste of precious time and energy--and it might ruin the project.

A painting is a single moment caught in time. I think that's why I like writing so much. It takes that moment and makes it move, creating a scene that leads to a whole story. Visualizing each scene as if it were real life is important, but what is more important is having that scene mean something. It needs to work.

Everything you write needs to push your story forward!

Would you have your main character stop and smell a pretty rose if it had absolutely nothing to do with the story or her character other than you wanted to have a chance to describe a rose? I don't think so. It would be a waste of your time in writing it, and a waste of time for your reader to read it. But--if she needed to be there so a handsome hero could push her out of the way of a truck with darkened windows intentionally trying to run her down, then you've just driven home that fact that your character is in mortal danger--and advanced your narrative forward.

Ah, but in the next scene your character clobbers the handsome hero with a solid upper cut to his jaw with a closed fist and tells him she doesn't need or want his help, you've just given us insight to her unappreciative, or even independent nature. This is also moving the narrative forward. As readers, we need to know more than just the action around the characters. We want to know what makes that characters tick, their motives, the desires, their idiosyncrasies. If they are stiff and uninteresting, then we won't care if that truck runs over them, and we most likely won't turn the next page, either.

Make every word count. Make every scene work optimally.