Guest author Eileen Schuh talks about intensifying suspense with secret codes

Today I'd like to welcome my good friend, author Eileen Schuh to my blog. Be sure to read to the end and enter her contest--you might win some fabulous prizes. Take it away, Eileen...

There’s nothing that intensifies suspense like a good secret code.

In my new release, DISPASSIONATE LIES, my heroine, Ladesque, is living that suspense. The mysterious markings that are stymieing her are splashed across the DISPASSIONATE LIES book cover—squiggles and lines that conceal the secrets to her past.

It’s no secret why codes are intriguing. Shrug, one of my beloved characters in the BackTracker series, tells those who listen that knowledge is power and at some deep level we all agree. Since a code implies someone is keeping knowledge from us, we can’t help but believe that if we decipher the code, special powers will be ours.

I’ve used codes in past novels; there are several in FATAL ERROR that Katrina, my genius young BackTracker series protagonist, capably solves. One involves an encrypted message between gang members and another, a password.

The most memorable fictional code for me is in the movie Close Encounters when the aliens begin their communication with humans using colours and music. In fact, I liked that code so much I mention it in DISPASSIONATE LIES.

Codes come in many shapes and sizes. Encryption is what supposedly keeps our secure internet transactions secure. Yes, I know, it doesn’t work too well and works even less effectively in 2035 which is why in DISPASSIONATE LIES Ladesque is battling to give the world an internet system that can’t be breached.

Although they say easily deciphering codes is one of the main benefit mankind would receive from a quantum computer (and there is a futuristic quantum computer in DISPASSIONATE LIES), the mysterious language Ladesque is trying to decode is unrelated to that. She’s trying to uncover the truth about the intrigue, conspiracies and perhaps even murder blemishing her past. Without that knowledge, she’s not prepared to face her future, even if it might hold the massive power of a quantum computer.

It would not just be human codes that a quantum computer could decipher, it might make short work of uncovering the history of the universe as encoded in the stars. It might reveal to us the true nature of gravity, time and space and perhaps even time-travel. It might be able to translate into English, the songs of whales and relics of the past.

Whoever is the master of that first quantum computer will possess unfathomable knowledge—a power that can all be Ladesque’s, should she choose. However, first she must decode the diary that contains the facts about her past.

DISPASSIONATE LIES - Official Launch price ONLY $1.99 July 13 -26, 2014 on Amazon and Smashwords (Use coupon code GS42H on Smashwords for the eFormat of your choice.)

SCHRÖDINGER’S CAT joins the celebration at only 99₵ on Amazon and Smashwords! Smashwords coupon JU57W

About Eileen:

Eileen Schuh has published two adult Science Fiction novellas, SCHRÖDINGER'S CAT and her new near-future release, DISPASSIONATE LIES. She also has authored three novels in her young adult BackTracker series, THE TRAZ, FATAL ERROR and FIREWALLS. THE TRAZ is also available in a School Edition.

Her new near-future release, DISPASSIONATE LIES explores female sexuality against a backdrop of high-tech science, governmental and pharmaceutical conspiracies, espionage, and perhaps even murder.

SCHRÖDINGER'S CAT, with its tangled relationships, weaves intense emotion into the science of multi-universes.

Schuh, born Eileen Fairbrother in Tofield, Alberta, lives in Canada’s northern boreal forests and draws her inspiration from the wilderness, her grandchildren, family and friends, and her adopted community of St. Paul, Alberta.

Visit her online:
Blog: http://eileenschuh.blogspot.com
Website: http://www.eileenschuh.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/EileenSchuhAuthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/eileenschuh

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Guest Author: Eileen Schuh, author of FIREWALLS, talks suspense

"Sergeant Kindle wants us in his office," Syd said. The tension inside her coiled tighter. She glued her eyes to her computer monitor and slipped the black Jack onto the red Queen. Syd’s announcement ended her doubt; she was just moments away from losing her job. “Katrina?”

So begins my newest release, FIREWALLS – Book 3 in the BackTracker Series. It’s an opening that reflects what I’ve learned over the years from my mentor, publisher and best-selling author, Cheryl Kaye Tardif.

Thank you, Cheryl, for inviting me to guest on “The Suspense is Killing Me”, an appropriate title for your blog since you’re the master of the Suspense novel.

Although my books aren’t in the Suspense genre, every good book must have suspense—that ‘what-will-happen-next?’ feeling that drives readers to turn the page, read one more chapter, put dinner on hold, stay up until the sun rises in order to finish the novel.

For FIREWALLS, it’s my hope that Katrina’s coiling tension immediately becomes my readers’, that they will want to walk down the hall with her to Sergeant Kindle’s office—eager to find out what the heck she did that got her fired...if she gets fired.

I hope that by the end of the first page, my readers’ pulses and breathing have quickened, their jaws have tightened and their blood pressures have risen (only to safe levels, though, please).

In this opening chapter of FIREWALLS “What happens next?” is closely related to “What happened before?”—a very useful type of suspense when beginning a tale that requires background information. In writing a series like BackTracker, there’s a lot of back story from THE TRAZ and FATAL ERROR that has to get relayed in an entertaining manner.

Although what Katrina did to put her in danger of losing her job isn’t part of the preceding novels, Sergeant Kindle’s interrogation in the opening chapters of FIREWALLS reveals important details about her past that were. These details will hopefully help those who read previous novels remember the important stuff and make those who haven’t read them, want to.

It’s not just the suspense, though, that is important to a story; the resolution is, too. When the novel ends, the readers must feel satisfied. There has to be a wonderful, glorious, “Ah ha!” feeling when one finds out the past—“Now I know why that happened! Understand why she did that, why he said that, why he didn’t do what she wanted him to...”

And when all the ‘what happens next’s?’ are answered, readers should be left with a sense of fulfillment, of accomplishment and satisfaction—a feeling that reading this book was not a waste of time. That everything makes sense, even the surprises.

It’s not just at the beginning of FIREWALLS that I use the “What happened before?” suspense-building technique, I use it throughout the book, throughout the series. Several of my main characters, most notably Katrina and Shrug, have dark secrets, concealed motives, painful hidden pasts that readers want them to share. Some of those secrets remained veiled for many books to come.

In the BackTracker series, although each novel is a complete story, there are always lingering questions, that arise not from the plot (those questions are all answered) but from the characters themselves. We love them so much we just have to know what happened to them before we met them in THE TRAZ and what happens to them next?

What kind of kid were they? What kind of mother, husband, wife, boss will each of them become? Will the romance last forever? Will lost loves be reignited? Will Katrina ever be safe from the bikers? Will Shrug ever (please!) reveal his past?

Tell me more. Keep telling me more...

FIREWALLS http://mybook.to/firewalls

"Be prepared for a rollercoaster of emotions..."

"Packed with humanity, crafted with insight."

"Schuh has created a character worthy of being called a hero."

"A tale of comfort and hope that we, too, can slay our own dragons."

"A gritty, fast-paced thriller"

* * * * * 

Eileen Schuh, author

http://www.eileenschuh.com

http://eileenschuh.blogspot.com

THE TRAZ viewBook.at/B007JW8RMA

THE TRAZ School Edition viewBook.at/B007JWGHZE

FATAL ERROR viewBook.at/B009P593YU

SCHRODINGER’S CAT http://bookShow.me/B005GLJET6