What Are AmberPax™ Collections?

Simply put, AmberPax™ Collections are groups of five stories centered around a specific theme. Each story within an AmberPax™ is released individually, on the same day as the others, and can be purchased separately, but these five stories can also be purchased as a single unit (the full AmberPax™) at a discount, currently 25%. Generally, an AmberPax™ is similar to an "anthology" of stories, but instead of the titles being released in only a single volume (file), they are also available individually. These AmberPax™ Collections are sold exclusively through our website and only in electronic format.

THIS BLOG is for news about the Pax Collections - follow it to keep up with releases, find early news of the upcoming collections, and share Pax fun and chat with the authors!

All Amber Paxes can be bought at Amber Quill HERE.

Wednesday 26 June 2013

The Crimson Cat - Truth IS stranger than fiction by A.J. Llewellyn

I've been writing with the amazing and truly astonishingly talented D. Manly for five years now. People ask us all the time how we do it. The answer is, "And we do it. Every night every day, every possible way..."

Sorry, I'm stealing lines from the old R & J Stone song "And We Do It" but it's not far from the truth. We both have regular jobs and must schedule our first love - writing - around family, pets, work, home, friends, etc. I can work late into the night (or early in the morning depending on your point of view) and so can D.J.

Stories go back and forth via email at odd times. We talk on the phone, we laugh, and thank God we rarely argue (I'm knocking wood as I say this), but one thing is certain.

After five years, we can still surprise each other and that's the real key to a satisfying, ongoing writing relationship. When I receive a new chapter from D.J. I admit I'm sometimes wary because D.J. has a fondness for killing off some of my favorite characters.

I sometimes wonder how such a nice person can do so many mean things to harmless characters in a book! When I sent D.J. the opening chapter of The Crimson Cat, our latest joint release for Amber Allure, we'd discussed the idea of a car accident featuring a classic car, and together researched something unusual, to come up with a Crimson Cat, an old 1983 Mercury vehicle.

There was another piece to the puzzle. Setsubun.

Yes. Setsubun.

I try always to feature fresh subjects and my fondness for Asian culture knows no bounds. When I was invited to my first soybean-throwing ceremony, I found a quirky link to our tale. I simply had to include it. I don't know about other authors, but I find life presents little gifts when I am working on a book. Something unexpected shows up that often fits right into a story.


Setsubun is an annual festival that involves putting on masks and tossing soybeans outside for good luck. I thought the idea was a hoot.

Or is it?

Are there such things as bad demons?

Since this is a mystery and masks, all kinds of masks come into play, I won't give too much away here. I will simply say this. We loved writing this book and as always, D.J. stepped up and blew me away with plot twists I couldn't have predicted.

Here's the synopsis for The Crimson Cat:

When Tomi Hadley and his brother, Ren, make fun of their Japanese-born mom's annual Setsubun bean-throwing celebrations, she's furious. She warns them that their ridicule of her folkloric beliefs could be deadly. As if to prove her words, shortly after leaving her house, the two men are almost killed in a car accident by a hit-and-run driver.

Tomi's whole world collapses. Worried about his brother, whose injuries are severe, Tomi struggles to put the pieces of his life back together. This is nearly impossible, however, since he loses his dream job due to his inability to work, and then there's his mom's insistence that oni, Japanese demons, caused the collision.

But one day, when Tomi sees a man washing his car on the street, he realizes it's the same vehicle that caused the accident—a classic red sports car called a Crimson Cat. And the driver, the surprisingly handsome attorney Dusty Grayson, seems to be a man of hidden depth and many, many secrets... 

People often ask me how I come up with some of my ideas. I always say truth is stranger than fiction, because it is. Life is full of mystery and magic.

You just have to be willing to find it.

For an excerpt and/or purchase of The Crimson Cat, please click this link:

Aloha oe,
AJ
www.ajllewellyn.com
www.facebook/com/aj.llewellyn
www.twitter.com/ajllewellyn

DJ:
www,djmanlyfiction.com
www.facebook.com/dantemanly
www.twitter.com/dj novels

*_*_*_*

If you'd like the chance to win the entire pax collection, just leave a comment on today's post. On Saturday, a winner will be picked at random from all the comments made this week on the blog. Comment on all, and that's multiple chances to win!

1 comment:

  1. I'm a big fan of your writing and the Crimson Cat sounds fun, although there is no real cat :(

    skadlec1@yahoo.com

    ReplyDelete