Sneak Peak - MIND: The Message - Meet Casey Wu! #SFR

I'm not going to lie, Agent Melinda May from Agents of SHIELD and the actress who plays her, Ming-Na Wen is the inspiration for Casey, along with an old detective character I had in another book that will never see the light of day. I have my own Theo in my head and hope you have yours after MIND: The Reckoning because you're in for a treat, they are magic together.

Meet Casey Wu:

The vibrant nightlife of New York pulsed around Casey as she followed the crowd onto the street. She stood at the corner of 33rd Street and 7th Ave debating a stop at the Blarney Club for a drink or two, then decided to head straight home, and have a milkshake instead.

Two quick subway stops later, Casey climbed the stairs and froze on the landing. From here, she had a direct view to her fourth-floor hole in the wall’s window. There was a light on inside. Her heart rate doubled.

Casey pulled her ring off, shoved it in her purse, zipped it shut, and secured the strap across her chest. She darted toward her building, noting her surroundings, and cursing the people on the sidewalks and in doorways, making it impossible for her to do anything yet.

After turning down an alley and finding it empty, Casey spun around and stared up at her fire escape. She didn’t know if she could make the ‘jump’ from here, but she’d been practicing and knew it was possible. All her focus settled on the action, what she wanted to do, and when she blinked, she was standing in front of her bedroom window, safe on top of the fire escape.

Casey didn’t see anyone inside the studio apartment, only the mess they left behind. She sighed as she opened the window and climbed in. Everything she owned was scattered around the room. Not that it was much since she had sold most of her belongings recently so she had extra cash for the down times during her career change.

She tossed her purse onto the bed, frowned at the sight, and picked up her softball bat before heading to the bathroom to make sure it was clear. On her way out, she noticed the front door untouched and locked, so whoever broke in may have used the fire escape, too, and she probably just smudged any viable fingerprints.

Casey shook her head.

After taking off her coat and picking up an overturned kitchen chair, Casey surveyed the room, checking for missing items. Her tiny NetSmartTV wasn’t much of a prize so she wasn’t surprised to see it left behind unharmed. When she noticed her digital mixing tablet, laptop, and antique turntables were all present, along with her thousand plus dollars’ worth of music, Casey knew something was wrong. If the thief wasn’t after items for money, they wanted information.

A shiver ran up her spine. She dashed over to her work desk and pulled open the top drawer. Casey let out a huge sigh seeing all four client flash drives safe and sound. She crinkled her brow, confused.

As she walked back to her bed, she felt a tingling sensation at the back of her head. There was only one person who knew about her gifts. Casey shut her eyes and focused. Mom, can you hear me?

Shen Wu’s scream filled Casey’s mind, making her pulse rocket. She had to get to her mother. Now.

When she opened her eyes, she was standing in the middle of her parent’s living room a hundred miles away in South Jersey. Her head spun and her stomach twisted. Casey stumbled to the kitchen sink and vomited. She quickly rinsed her mouth and got steady on her feet trying not to think how she jumped so far away.

“Mom?” The house, much like hers, appeared ransacked. She didn’t touch anything else as she tiptoed through the dimly lit hallway leading to the rest of the house. Casey balled her hands to stop her fingers from shaking and called again. “Mom?”

More than aware that she should have called the police, Casey held her breath as she peered into the bathroom, the spare room across from it, and sighed when she found them empty. As she approached the last room, her parent’s bedroom, her steps slowed and the dread rose. The moment she saw her mother’s feet, Casey jumped to her side, knelt down, and took her hand to check her pulse. She was alive, but hardly breathing.

“Mom.” Casey squeezed her hand, afraid to do much of anything else. Shen’s eyelids fluttered. Casey fought the tears welling and pulled her cellphone out of her bag. She pressed the nine and felt the tingle in the back of her mind again. Casey glanced down. Mom?

Find Struck!

.99¢ MIND: The Beginning amzn.com/B017M3IJM8

MIND: The Emergence amzn.com/B01E056ANQ

MIND: The Reckoning amzn.com/dp/B01M7TNTVW

MIND: The Message on Sale March 4th 2017!

#NewRelease & SALE! MIND: The Reckoning is HERE!

Fan Favorite, Baldwin Bates, finally gets his own story and HEA in book three MIND: The Reckoning.

To celebrate the new release, books 1 & 2 are both on sale for the rest of the week! You can find all three books here: www.amazon.com/Jenn-Nixon/e/B002BLNBBQ MIND: The Beginning .99c, MIND: The Emergence $1.99

Join the EVENT PARTY Tonight at 6:30 PM EST on Facebook:
facebook.com/events/1862568290637782

MIND: The Reckoning

Baldwin Bates has only wanted one thing since joining MIND, to take care of his friends and keep them all safe. While the Meta-Alien Investigation and Neutralization Department is busy monitoring an emergence of human psychic and alien activity, Bates takes his first solo assignment searching for a woman who claims to see the future, only to botch it up and let her get away.

After helping to destroy an alien device called the Transcender, Lexa Quinn wakes from a two-week coma a very different person than she was before. While her abilities grow stronger, her feelings for Bates begin to interfere with the MIND team's mission, putting everyone at risk. Secrets from her past threaten the present and future, forcing Lexa to decide who she is and where she belongs.

When a powerful, ancient enemy lays claim to the Earth and brings his judgment upon the population, Bates, Lexa, and the entire MIND team must do whatever it takes to save the human race before the reckoning is complete.

Excerpt:

As Bates bypassed the crafters and artists, the scent of Asian BBQ wafted through the air. He grumbled along with his stomach and hoped a few of them stuck around so he could pick something up on his way out.

"How’s it going?" Dina Ranger asked via his earcomm, jolting him.

"Shit! Forgot I had this bloody thing in," he replied, taking a breath and shutting his eyes for a second.

"Have to get used to it if you want to be in the field...alone."

"Unlike your brother, I need some me time, Sherlock." This time, he chuckled when he felt her brush his mind with calming thoughts. "How’s Lexa? Any change?"

"No, nothing. Never changes. I...just don’t get it."

"Me either," he said with a sigh, quickly putting it out of his mind to maintain his focus. "I just got to the park. I’ll check in before I leave."

"Okay. And whatever has you so hungry bring some back. Talk to ya."

Shaking his head, Bates waited for the static of the comm to fade before pushing farther into the park, eyeing the tables and tents, but mostly their occupants, searching for a face. Miss Takashi had a pretty face, although older now, since the photo from the collective Meta-alien Investigation and Neutralization Department database was almost one hundred years old.

When he neared the end of the first row of vendor tents, he took in the sight of the city across the river, and then found the second and final row of vendors left to search.
He politely declined several offers to purchase various items like candles and potholders, wondering why his ‘blah face’—a term his new friend Kim called his usual stern façade—wasn’t working.

Toward the middle of the second row, Bates slowed, eyeing a colorful booth, shrouded in light purple curtains, and a sign that screamed for attention. When a face-painted toddler, followed by a frantic parent, came running out of the booth, he barely sidestepped out of the way. The parent offered Bates a weary shrug. He nodded politely and carried onward, finally seeing a sign for "Madam Takashi" two booths down.

Remember you can follow me online everywhere!
Website: www.jennnixon.com
Facebook: facebook.com/JennNixonAuthor
Blog: www.jennafern.blogspot.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/jennnixon
Amazon: amazon.com/Jenn-Nixon/e/B002BLNBBQ/

Mini Q&A with Jenn Nixon - Hey, that's ME!

I asked a good friend (and writer) to give me some questions to answer for a blog since I've been blogging for so long I'm not sure what people actually want to read about anymore. I've answered her questions below but I would love to do this more often. Do you have any questions related to writing, being an author or blogger, social media, TV, fandom, or well, basically anything? I'm happy to try to answer them all. So post a question in the comments if you have one!!

With so many stories in your head, how do you choose which to write?

This is a great question. The short answer is, no clue. The long answer is, it depends on which story has the best opening chapter in my head. That's usually the one I will write next. Since I am currently working on the third book of a series, the opening of this book was practically done before I finished book 2 because I knew exactly where the story was heading. :-)

If the opening hooks me, I'll keep going. When I get to chapter three or four, I usually set it aside and think about it, a lot. For at least a week. I like to see the characters and scenes in my head. I want to make sure the characters are believable and the world building is solid. At this point, I usually start taking notes if I haven't yet. Yes, even pantsers need notes (sometimes outlines too!). 

Right now, I have four or five ideas rolling around in my brain. I have no idea which one I want to do next. It's possible I can combine those five ideas into three, so that helps, somewhat. I have several projects that I've started and stopped writing because they weren't working for me. I still go back to some of them and reread them to see if they're worth finishing, but I will be honest, that rarely happens. 

What's the weirdest thing that ever inspired a story?

The Wild & Wicked story started out as a dream. Yes, I had a dream I was in a strip club watching some hot chick give an even hotter guy a lap dance. I think I was a bartender or waitress because it wasn't me giving the dance. :-( When I woke up from the dream, most of it had faded but that one moment stayed in my head. I wondered why she was there. Aside from looking like Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who was he? (Hey, it was a dream!) I had to know, so I wrote the opening and BOOM the entire story came to me while writing that first chapter. It took me by surprise, but I kept writing and eventually that first story because a much bigger story than I had originally planned.

People have inspired me as well. Sometimes it's a character on TV or a person walking down the street. A specific quality or feature will often find it's way into a book. I've even used direct quotes from people and put them in my novels. 

I tend to people watch when I'm out among the crowds so I never have a problem creating characters, I'm surrounded by them. :-)

How awesome does writing feels and why you do it?

This one is a trick question, right? Finishing a book feels amazing. Writing it doesn't always feel that way. At times, I can be fighting a backache from sitting too long...Kidding!! Well, not really, writers do spend lots of time sitting and typing, so it is important to make sure you get up and move. Lucky for me I have dogs that need to go for walks three times a day, so regardless of what I'm doing if they need to go outside, we're going outside. 

Often, that little break is good for me. I'll be thinking about what I've just written, where I'd like it to go, and many times other ideas for plot points further along in the story come to me. My brain works in very weird ways. 

I've been writing seriously, with the purpose getting published, for over 15 years now. However, I've been a writer all my life. I've dabbled in poetry, fan fiction, novels, novellas, short stories, content writing, and even screenplays. At this point in my life, I think it's just part of who I am now. I started writing as a means of escaping reality and coping with teenage life, like many kids do. Writing just stayed with me through the years changing from diaries and blogs, but it never left me and probably never will.

How about you? Do you have a hobby that became a part-time job or life long goal? I'd love to hear your story!

New #SciFi #Romance Release MIND: The Beginning

My latest SciFi-Fantasy Romance is out today!! Check out the blurb and excerpt below!

After Dina Ranger loses telepathic contact with her twin brother, Duncan, she breaks into his apartment and stumbles onto a special government unit responsible for monitoring the psychic population. She’s offered a job where she can use her psionic gifts to help people.

Stranded on earth over a hundred years ago, Liam of Shria is searching for a metal needed to repair his ship when he finds Dina inside an alien escape pod and narrowly saves her after she trips the alarm.

As the mystery and their relationship deepens, Liam helps Dina learn the truth behind her abilities while uncovering a plot to rebuild an ancient weapon, exposing dangerous secrets about the alien presence on earth that may change the future forever.

Dina stared into the man’s eyes, trying not to notice how they somehow looked silver under the moon, and focused on linking with him. His gaze narrowed, as if he knew, but it didn’t stop her. She pushed harder, further, forcing the link. She felt a slight connection, concentrated more, felt it grow.

“Who are you?”

“Liam of—stop! Who the . . .?” he spat, stumbling back. “What are you?”

“What the hell was that thing?”

“Most likely an escape pod or module from a larger craft,” Liam said, blinked, and shook his head. His face turned darker, and he snarled, “I’ll answer your questions, Dina Ranger, but not by force. Release my mind!”

The man knew her name. Aside from the invisibility and teleportation, he had some telepathic abilities. He didn’t seem to be the man who had set the fires and wasn’t responsible for that pod in the Gut. He was searching for something else. When she ended the link, the scowl on his face softened, his lips almost curling upward in one corner. His eyes, now a darker shade of gray, swept across the field to the pillar of smoke rising in the air. It grew bigger and darker, stinking up the Gut worse than it already smelled. They really needed to leave.

“Yes, we do.”

Dina grunted and unlocked the car. “Get in.”

They reached the end of the service road without a problem. No sign of sirens when they turned onto Route 9. She hoped the explosion was far enough into the Hook that no one noticed, but it seemed awfully loud to her. Then again, a front row seat would do that.

The man sitting beside her chuckled softly.

“Something funny, buddy?”

“You, you spunky little ball of energy.”

“Seriously? All right, let’s start over. I’m Dina Ranger, thanks for saving me from the exploding escape pod thing.”

“Hi, I’m Liam, and you’re welcome.”

“Why were you there?”

“Same reason as you, the radiation. My scans picked it up.”

“You have radiation data from there?”

“Mostly residual. Now I know why. The pod was covered, leaking bits of radiation into the dirt. Over time, it dissipates into the air, leaving small traces behind, not usually detectible from satellites in space.”

“Do you have readings on anything else?”

“Yes.”

“Are you government?”

“Entrepreneur.”

Dina slammed on the breaks, threw the car in park, and turned sideways. “Who are you?”

“You won’t believe me.”

        “Try me.”

Author Bio: Jenn Nixon’s love of writing started the year she received her first diary and Nancy Drew novel. Throughout her teenage years, she kept a diary of her personal thoughts and feelings but graduated from Nancy Drew to other mystery suspense novels.

Jenn often adds a thriller and suspense element to anything she writes be it Romance, Science Fiction, or Fantasy. When not writing, she spends her time reading, observing pop culture, playing with her two dogs, and working on various charitable projects in her home state of New Jersey.

Website: www.jennnixon.com

Facebook: facebook.com/JennNixonAuthor

Blog: www.jennafern.blogspot.com

Twitter: http://twitter.com/jennnixon

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Jenn-Nixon/e/B002BLNBBQ/