Novel Kicks Writing Room: Journal Entries
Hello and welcome back to the Novel Kicks Writing Room.
Today, I thought it would be fun to write a journal entry from the point of view of your main character from your work in progress.
What I thought would be interesting, is if we write three journal entries in total.
The first entry would be based toward the beginning of your story.
The second entry would be based in the middle of your story.
And, you’ve guessed it, the third entry would be from the end of your story.
With each one, focus on what is happening within that story section. Have your character ask themselves questions like –
What is currently going on?
How am I feeling now?
What is my reaction to what is going on?
How have I changed from the first/last entry?
by 
Book Extract: Assassins By Mike Bond
I’m excited to be welcoming Mike Bond to Novel Kicks and the blog tour for his book, Assassins.
Night drops, covert deals, and consequences that stretch across decades form the backbone of Assassins by Mike Bond. The novel opens the door to a world where intelligence missions rarely end when the operation does, and where personal history becomes inseparable from global conflict.
Jack is a CIA operative sent into the shadows of America’s longest and most complicated conflicts. His work begins with covert missions supporting resistance fighters and expands into intelligence operations shaped by terrorism, retaliation, and shifting political priorities. Along the way, personal bonds formed under humanitarian cover refuse to stay separate from his professional life.
As alliances shift and former partners reemerge as future threats, Jack is repeatedly drawn back into conflicts he helped set in motion. Militants he once trained resurface years later, and decisions made in secrecy return with devastating consequences. Spanning more than three decades, Assassins follows a man caught inside the machinery of covert war, where victory is never clean and the past never truly stays buried.
Mike has kindly shared an extract from Assassins with us today. We hope you enjoy it.
*****beginning of extract*****
An Evening in Paris
November 2015
IT WAS WARM for mid-November. They sat on the terrace of a little restaurant. Anyplace in France, she said, how wonderful the food, the delicious wine, the gentle harmony of others there for love, food, friendship, ideas, freedom, the joys of life.
They had been through the wars together, fallen in love amid the hail of bullets and thud of explosions in cities drenched with blood. Knowing, as the cliché put it, any moment could be their last.
It gave an intensity to love, that this person dearer to you than life itself could be extinguished at any instant. Someone you cherished so completely, composed of neurons, cells, muscles, bone, tissue and memories, could be blown apart, riddled with bullets, any second.
“I love you so much,” she said. “But I think I love you even more in Paris.”
by Book Extract & Giveaway: The Colletta Cassettes By Bruno Noble
Please join me in welcoming Bruno Noble to Novel Kicks and the blog tour for his book, The Colletta Cassettes.
Liguria, Italy. Summer 1978.
The Kentish family are on holiday in idyllic medieval village of Colletta. Sixteen-year-old Sebastian is smitten with Rosetta, the hotel cleaner and waitress, much to his snobbish mother’s dismay, while his younger brother and their fellow hotel guests are obsessed by the World Cup, hosted by the murderous military junta in Argentina.
The boys’ father, Peter Kentish, has very different motivations for the trip. An investigative journalist, he spends much of his time interviewing a mysterious American, a disillusioned ex-CIA agent.
As Kentish uncovers the shocking extent of Operation Gladio, he delves into some of Italy’s darkest secrets. Darker still is the involvement of the USA. Those complicit will do anything to ensure that the truth is buried. For good.
There’s a chance to win a stack of 5 Inkspot books below but first, Bruno has shared an extract from The Colletta Cassettes. We hope you enjoy.
*****beginning of extract*****
Sebastian, aged 16, is on holiday in Liguria, Italy with his parents and his brother in 1978. He is intensely attracted by Rosetta, who works at the hotel as a waitress and chambermaid, much to his mother’s disapproval.
*****
Sebastian heard the door open and there stood Rosetta, with a broom and her mop and her basket again. Against the light, she resembled an Amazon, clutching spears and a shield.
‘Hello,’ he said, resisting the impulse to stand, recalling his mother’s instruction that one stands for a lady but not for a servant.
‘I’ve come to clean,’ she said.
She wore cut-off denim shorts and a blue and white striped man’s shirt rolled up at the arms and tied around her waist.
‘You’re holding it upside down,’ said Rosetta, indicating his book with a nod.
Furiously embarrassed, Sebastian turned the book the other way only to find that he’d been holding it the right way up to begin with.
‘Very funny,’ he said righting the book immediately, now just furious.
Rosetta laughed. ‘So,’ she said and ran her tongue across her top lip, ‘your mother is an artist, your father is a writer and you’re a reader.’
‘What do you know about my father?’ asked Sebastian with interest.
Rosetta shrugged. ‘I saw him yesterday. Everyone is by the pool and he’s there with his typewriter. And you’re here with your book.’
That had been said rather contemptuously, Sebastian felt. ‘And what do you do? When you’re not – working?’ He’d intended to say ‘cleaning’ but he’d been afraid he’d sound like his mother.
She shrugged again.
‘Don’t you have any hobbies?’
‘I fight.’ That was said nonchalantly.
‘You fight?’ Sebastian couldn’t keep the note of astonishment from his voice.
by NK Chats To… Thomas Roehlk
Hello Thomas. Thank you so much for joining me today. What sets your book, Fire Feud, apart from others in your genre?
I consider my genre as thriller, with the sub-genre of legal thriller. I have much respect for women in the corporate law world, and I believe my work shines a light on this type of character in the crowded world of thrillers.
What’s your favorite compliment you’ve received as a writer?
My favorite was from a review I received on my first book, Red Deuce. It was “Red Deuce shows the author’s behind-the-scenes understanding of how corporations work, making it seem all too credible. The plot keeps you guessing until the very end. Just when you think you’ve figured it all out, he throws another curveball that leaves you eagerly flipping pages to uncover the truth.”
Why did you choose this setting/topic?
Choosing Chicago as a setting provides an amazing city with amazing history, and therefore amazing opportunities to build stories. My protagonist is a study in contrasts. She finds herself unable to poke the beast until it reveals its web of intrigue and illegality, and the story of intermingled crime and espionage allows the protagonist to push herself into solving the mystery.
Which author(s) most inspired you?
by Cover Reveal: The Heart-Shaped Box By Lucy Kaufman
I am so excited to be revealing the cover for The Heart-Shaped Box, the upcoming novel by Lucy Kaufman. 
The page-turning psychological thriller novella about infatuation, revenge and the lengths we will go to for love.
“She pressed her nose gingerly to the glass, peering unblinking through the viscous liquid at her gift.”
Victorian, rural Sussex. When headstrong daughter of a rector, Constance Timothy, receives a flurry of gifts in pretty little boxes from the charming, smouldering student doctor Smith Williams, her whole family anticipates a future betrothal.
Yet beneath the exquisite pastel lids and satin bows lie macabre secrets that entice Constance into a private world of obsession and darkness, where morality becomes blurred, loyalties are tested and unthinkable acts are possible.
One secret will shake the genteel world she knows to the core…
The first book of The Carousel of Curiosities series, this haunting novella is perfect for readers of Sarah Waters, Laura Purcell, and Angela Carter.
OK, now we know a bit about the story, it’s time to reveal the cover. Are you ready? Drumroll…3…2…1…
by Book Club
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