Cheryl Upchurch ~ first guest post and her novel ~ The Girl and the Gangster

TITLE: The Girl and the Gangster
RELEASE DATE: February 20, 2016
AUTHOR: Cheryl Upchurch
KEYWORDS: mystery, suspense, thriller, romance, gangsters, st. louis, crime
CATEGORIES: Mystery/Suspense/Romance 
PAGE COUNT: 609 
ISBN: 978-1523656059 
IMPRINT: Black Hawk 
BOOK PAGE: http://ravenswoodpublishing.com/bookpages/thegirlandthegangster.html

SYNOPSIS:  

Sara and her twin brother, Jack, run a fledging investigative service in St. Louis, Mo. They are hired by a rich man who inadvertently leads them to the Cunnelli crime family and the boss, Anthony, who is smitten by Sara’s inclination to flirt with danger which includes being shot at, slashed, whacked with a baseball bat and almost jailed for moving a dead body. Sara must wrestle with her conscience when faced with danger while Anthony Cunnelli, a self-professed criminal, comes repeatedly to her aid, unheeded but heartily welcomed. Her sometimes boy friend Agent Dan Brady, chafes at Sara’s relationship with Cunnelli and worries that her morals are being compromised by a slick talking grifter. Sara leans first to the gangster that saves her, comforts her and desperately tries to change his life to keep her.

ONE LINER: The story of one woman’s ambivalence toward a gangster that loves her and the law she holds dear to her heart.

AUTHOR BIO:
Cheryl Upchurch currently lives in Missouri and is a widow with two grown children, Mindi Rowland and John D. Upchurch.

She has a BS in Secondary Education, History and English as duel majors and earned her MA in Counseling. She has worked as a middle school guidance counselor for seventeen years in the Parkway School District in St. Louis County and has been writing all her life. Her first book The Metamorphosis of a Middle School Dweeb was published in 2010 based on the suicide of a child due to bullying.

Guest Post
How did I come up with this crazy idea of an investigative, inquisitive and determined young lady like Sara Kelly?

She is like me, positive in a negative world, tolerant towards divergent ways of life, (In The Girl and The Gangster Sara’s Uncle Ernie is gay) and ambivalent about the effectiveness of justice in America.

As a twenty-three year old woman I thought she should have dual love interests that hate each other but work together to save my heroine from her own folly. I read voraciously and pick up snippets of this and that and weave it into a broader narrative.

I find if I have an idea and leave it alone, let it percolate in my mind; allow it to show its unique colors I can form it into a cohesive story. I wanted a rich arrogant man and his wife, deny they drove home one night in a terrible storm and plowed into a young man running across the street. I wanted the couple to deny it after they were being blackmailed, after they were threatened by the mob, after the wife wrestled Sara on the floor of a Denny Restaurant until Sara Kelly got the truth out of them. I’m not saying they were guilty, but Sara got the truth and carpet burns in the process.

The reader has to identify with the main character, or they will get bored and close the book. Sara Kelly, my protagonist, is flawed, makes lousy decision sometimes, trusts people too quickly, throws pity parties on a regular basis and tries heartily not to love the wrong man.

The reader is fallible and so is the person trying to solve crime. Not every crime fighter has to take her clothes off during a chase, but my girl does when she lands in a pile of spoiled mayonnaise.

I try to put humor in all of my story lines to give the reader a break, to make him smile or even laugh at the lunacy of the situation. Not every crime fighter has to ride in glass strewed bed of a pickup truck while the driver hopped up on Vodka cackles like a witch and throws her the bird through the back window.

Sometimes I toss and turn in bed thinking how I can develop a story that pulls in the reader so thoroughly that he or she is angry when the last page is turned.

Does my girl Sara walk into a park chasing a suspect in an insurance scam? No, she steals a horse from a cop that undresses her with his eyes while making lewd remarks and then has the gall to ask her to watch his horse while he takes a leak.

What is a girl to do? O f course I do not advocate stealing horses so Sara suffers legally when her galloping stead hoofs it over the suspect, leaving him lying in the grass.

I think I might have a devious mind to think of all these weird ways to catch a criminal.

Find me here:
EMAIL: cupchurchjan@yahoo.com
AUTHOR LINKS:
AMAZON US: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01BKODBUK
AMAZON UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01BKODBUK
BARNES & NOBLE: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-girl-and-the-gangster-cheryl-upchurch/1123383901?ean=2940152754964
KOBO: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/the-girl-and-the-gangster
GOOGLE PLAY: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Cheryl_Upchurch_The_Girl_and_the_Gangster?id=ruSHCwAAQBAJ&hl=en
iBOOKS: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1082248098
CREATESPACE: https://www.createspace.com/6019251
PAPERBACK: http://www.amazon.com/Girl-Gangster-Sara-Kelly-Novel/dp/1523656050/ref=sr_1_5_twi_pap_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1454974394&sr=8-5&keywords=the+girl+and+the+gangster+paperback

A reminder to the reader ~ before you leave be sure to take a look at the 

Funny/Stupid and Interesting Tabs