Gina Rae Mitchell

Shadows in the Aftermath (Ruby Draker #2) by Marianne Scott | Review, Author Interview, Giveaway

A book blog tour from iRead Book Tours.

Thank you to the author, publisher, & Lauren at iRead for providing me with the information for this tour.

Book Details

Shadows in the Aftermath by Marianne Scott
Series: Ruby Draker #2
Published by FriesenPress on 04/21/2022
Genres: Fiction, International Crime, Literary Fiction, Mystery, Thriller
Format: eBook, Hardcover, Paperback
Pages: 294

Ruby Draker has found new strength and is ready to move on after Felix Szabo devastated the Draker estate in Nice, France.

Three Drakers are dead leaving Ruby in grief and with thoughts of revenge. The Drakers are a family built of survivors; each rescued from Felix Szabo, a psychopath, who sought to murder his former agents at the CIA whom he believed betrayed him.

The Drakers' sole mission is to stop Szabo from adding more victims to his list, and although he also perished during the invasion, his legacy continues to haunt them. When the Drakers learn that Robert Draker, presumed dead since the shoot-out at Robert's farmhouse, may be alive and at a rehab clinic in Portland, Maine, the Drakers know it could be a set up, but they have no choice but to try to find him and bring Robert home.

Shocked that Robert may be alive after all, the family head from France to America to find him. It's only when they arrive in the west that they realize finding Robert won't be as easy as they thought.

Szabo has found a way to terrorize the Draker family, even after death. His outstanding debt with a Corsican crime family mean the Drakers must now find and deliver a shipment of plutonium, which will likely be used by terrorists to create a nuclear bomb, to get Robert back. As Ruby struggles with the decision to save her brother or North America, she must also evade the CIA, who are trying to stop the Drakers from delivering the plutonium.

Source: iRead Book Tours, Received from the author or publisher for review.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Purchase Links for Shadows in the Aftermath

Amazon-OneLink for all countries    BookShop/IndieBound

Friesen Press 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My thoughts on Shadows in the Aftermath

Shadows in the Aftermath continues the tale that started in Finding Ruby Draker. The entire series is gripping, fast-paced, and thrilling, with lots of mystery in the mix.

The blurbs (and my review of Finding Ruby Draker) tell you everything you need to know to add this book to your TBR immediately.

I always recommend reading series in the order written, as I think it provides the reader with a richer experience. That said, there is enough backstory covered in book two to make it entirely enjoyable as a stand-alone read.

The author captivates the reader with a writing style that keeps you on the edge of your seat. I was so intrigued with where the story was going. I did not see all the twists that lay ahead in the road. This is a fascinating conclusion to the story of Ruby Draker, or is it really the end?

I received a copy of the book for the tour. This review is my honest, unbiased opinion.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I love to read books through my  Amazon Kindle Unlimited subscription. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Marianne Scott author of Finding Ruby Draker and Shadows in the Aftermath

 

Why did you decide to become an author?

It’s not always clear what drives a person’s desire to become a writer. But for me, it was a sort of a threat, a way to protest the unprincipled atmosphere of working with people aspiring to claw their way up the chain of command. At best these folks were colourful; at worst they’d tear you to shreds just to get one step higher on the rung. Anyone who has ever worked in the business world ‘knows of which I speak’. “I could write a book,” I would say, every time another preposterous clash of personalities erupted. It always tended to pull you into the vortex.

Originally my intent was to write a ‘tell all’ about the unscrupulous doings of the corporate world. A long corporate career gave me lots of tales to tell. I even started to write that memoire but abandoned the project when I realized that if these people didn’t like what I wrote about them that it would leave me wide open to litigation. But by that time the writing bug had infected me. Keen on the craft, I turned my efforts to fiction.

It didn’t take me long to fall in love fiction, creating stories that came directly out of my imagination. But, fiction is sneaky. It draws on your every experience (good, bad or otherwise) and flavours your content. It’s not unusual to see disguised versions of former workmates. It makes me laugh with vindictive contemp. What is that they say? ‘Be careful what you say to a writer. You might find yourself in his/her next book’.

There are just so many stories to tell. Sometimes I like to bate a person just to see how they’d react. If I get an unexpected reaction, I file it for ‘future reference’. True writers are like that. We absorb the emotion of things. It permeates us, enriching our perspectives to write with intensity, understanding the nuances and motivations that drive people in the situations they find themselves in.

I have a passion for words and how they come together to describe characters and settings. I find words powerful and sentences beautiful. Creating them absorbs me for hours on end. I have stories to tell and one day my voice and name will make it to a best sellers list. In the interim, I’m happy to do what I love.

What can you tell us about yourself other than your involvement with writing?

Before my writing career, I was a businesswoman buying steel for the automotive industry. Just-in-time delivery was the philosophy of the day and that made for a demanding work life. But, it also created a wealth of stories. The industry puts intense demands on its people resulting in very unique and sometimes distressing situations – every incident quite worthy of a story. When you get a feel for daily drama, it stays with you. You learn to recognize the elements and can easily adapt them into an intriguing fictional premise.

There are always many parts to a person. I’m a wife, and mother, now a grandmother to three amazing boys. My grandsons, shall I say, are mischievous characters, but their foibles and follies while distressing to their parents are just more fuel for their Grandmother’s writings. Gosh, I love those guys.

I’m also an active volunteer, advocate, and fundraiser for Kidney Cancer Canada and Cancertainty, an activist group lobbying for equal coverage of oral cancer treatments. My husband has kidney cancer and being involved with support/action groups helps me cope with the stress. Also, part of the proceeds of Finding Ruby, my debut novel, is donated to Kidney Cancer Research to find a cure.

I like to be involved in the community. Hespeler is such a pretty and historic little sub-community of
Cambridge that I boast about it all the time, being a wonderful place to live. I love the wonderful little cafes, the bookstore, and just the general atmosphere. I especially like the artistic graffiti painted in the allies and cement block walls. It’s like Hesperites always have inspiration and fun-loving expression.

What have you struggled with most as an author?

Writing is the fun part of being an author. If all we had to do is create our stories, life would be amazing. The real work begins with getting your book into the hands of people who want to read your story. For a new author without a famous name, it is very challenging to find chains of distribution. Marketing and promotion is tedious and often discouraging, yielding poor results.

We mistakenly think that if our book is on Amazon that the readers will come. The truth is that we get lost among the many thousands of books out there. We may have the best-written book ever but no one will know it. The real trick is to be found in the forest. All the while, your next story never gets written because an author is so busy promoting their first book. The publishing industry doesn’t make it easy to gain entrance.

What genre do you write in and why?

I write genre fiction, spy thrillers. It’s always been a favourite of mine to read, so I aspire to emulate those writers who have blessed me with the distractive pleasure of their books. ‘Ah; to read is to dream’.

It’s an amazing feeling to put your fingers on a keyboard and let that story flow out from inside of you onto a written page. Imagination is a crazy and fun thing, pleasurable like an addition. I feel there is something missing when I’m not writing.

I continue to take workshops in other genres but for now, thrillers have me totally captivated. I find it mysterious, and spooky sometimes how spontaneous the ideas flow. I can have an entire chapter mapped out and then as I type an entirely unexpected idea just materializes. It’s magical – stimulating.

I could see myself doing some non-fiction in the future. It actually seems to be an easier market to get into. But my first love is always mystery/thriller.

What are your books about? If you were going to promote it to someone how would you explain this?

My books take an ordinary situation and turn it on its head into an extraordinary tale. You have to explain it to a person in a way that makes it sound like it really happened. It starts with a question – ‘what if’. What if suddenly your whole life changed and you weren’t the person you once were? How would that happen? What would that look like? What made it happen? How did your protagonist take control and solve that mystery or problem that drives the whole story?

I like to weave the story with many tendrils. It keeps a reader asking enough questions to make them turn the pages – to keep them reading until the pieces fall into place. Ah hah! The villain is nuts and he’s out to kill all the main characters. Then, I like to turn the story in a different direction. Now the reader has to ask, ‘how does the protagonist and her support characters get out of the situation?’

Mystery/thrillers have a structure with specific elements that if followed delight your readers with complex emotional and logistic circumstances.

You’re pretty involved in the writing community, what all are you busy with in that sense?

Cambridge is such a wonderful place and it seems to breed writers. I’ve written a few pieces theorizing why this is so. Yet, as part of the artistic community, Cambridge writers do not have the same recognition and acclaim as fine artists (painters, sculptures, etc) or theatre. To that end, I’m involved with a couple of local writing groups, and book clubs (reading is a must for writers) and participate in author events and local festivals, anything to raise our profiles as local writers.

The Cambridge Writers’ Collective of which I’m president this year, has received a grant and published an Anthology, Simply Because We’re Canadian, which CWC will donate to libraries across Canada. It’s a Canada 150 Project. It’s been well received in the community with a grand book launch at Idea Exchange and CWC presence at the Mayor’s Festival for the Arts. There is also a feature article in the Fall 2017 Cambridge Recreation Plus that talks about our accomplishments.

I have two other projects in the inception stages for 2018 to bring further recognition to our local writers, which include surrounding communities. My goal is to raise our profile and give notoriety to our own authors, to showcase our local talent. We have some very talented writers and poets. If only readers knew about us and our talent they would be delighted to add us to their reading lists.

Starting in September, I will start work on my third novel, also fiction.

What has been the most unexpected lesson you’ve had as an author?

Regrettably, not everyone has your best interest at heart. While most writers are gracious and will help one another, others are protective and introspective. I’ve been hurt by these kind of people. But you cannot get caught up in that. I tell myself that you don’t have to go through brick walls. There are many ways to reach your goals without a beating. You just have to hook up with the right people. Discard those who are toxic. They have their own issues and you are not a babysitter.

But, you’d be surprised at the interest and conversation that happens after you say to a person, “I’ve written a book, a spy thriller.” I keep my short script handy and memorized because you never know who has a connection to an agent or publisher.

My biggest disappointment is self-publishing with a hybrid publisher. These publishers will promise you big success. They will offer services like book design and creating distribution channels for new writers. They promise you a world of success, charge you big dollars for their work, and don’t deliver. Then they tell you it’s because of your book or your own lack of promotion efforts. But for another $500 they will…. Fill in the blank. But don’t be fooled; they will not deliver.

What authors and genres do you like to read?

I belong to Hespeler Idea Exchange book club. Susan Hastings is an amazing librarian and book club leader. She chooses reading material from a wide variety of genres. Originally my reading preference was mystery or fantasy fiction. I loved vampires, werewolves, witches, and a sundry assortment of daemons. With Susan’s help, I’ve widened my reading horizons and now realize that it’s the book and the author that makes for excellent reading. Right now, I pretty much like anything I pick up.

What are you currently working on and how soon are you planning for it to be released?

I currently have a finished manuscript that will be submitted to literary agents and publishing houses. There is no telling how long it might take to find representation but I’m willing to put in the work and time to make it happen. I understand that even after acceptance, a new book can take years before it appears on bookshelves. In the interim, I’ll just keep writing more material. I have so many ideas for stories, enough to spill over into my next life. It’s what I like doing best anyway.

While I’m sending out query letters, I’ll work on book three in my Draker series. I have several other ideas for prequels and I also have a murder mystery in the wings.

Where can your books be found?

I’m available at several local books stores including Book Express, Millpond Records and Books, The Bookshelf in Guelph, and Reflections in Fergus. My book is also available in Libraries across Southern Ontario. I find the consignment process tedious and very non-profitable. I am also available on Kindle as an e-book and Amazon.com and Amazon.ca for paperback copies.

course, I do local author events and community festivals and markets. While I’ve received many 4 and 5-star reviews, I also have readers who have called me personally to tell me that they love Finding Ruby. I love nothing better than hearing from my readers. Yet getting enough book sales is a challenging endeavor. You really have to hustle to sell every book. That can be disappointing. I dream of the day when a real publisher will look after that for me.

Where can we find you on social media?

I have a good following on social media. I have a Facebook account, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram. I have a website that I’ve recently updated.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Purchase Shadows in the Aftermath online from a local bookstore.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Easy Amazon Links

Kindle Paperback Hardcover 

Amazon-OneLink for all countries

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Giveaway!

Win paperback copies of both FINDING RUBY DRAKER and SHADOWS IN THE AFTERMATH (4 winners) (USA only) (ends July 8)

FINDING RUBY DRAKER/SHADOWS IN THE AFTERMATH Book Tour Giveaway

Please visit more stops on the tour for extra chances to win!

Official Tour Page

Full Tour Schedule:

June 6 –Mystery Review Crew – book spotlight of FINDING RUBY DRAKER / author interview / giveaway
June 6 –Rockin’ Book Reviews – book review of FINDING RUBY DRAKER / guest post / giveaway
June 7 – Jazzy Book Reviews – book series spotlight / giveaway
June 7 –She Just Loves Books – book review of FINDING RUBY DRAKER / giveaway
June 8 –Gina Rae Mitchell – book review of FINDING RUBY DRAKER / guest post / giveaway
June 9 –Celticlady’s Reviews – book series spotlight / giveaway
June 9 –Kam’s Place – book review of FINDING RUBY DRAKER
June 10 –Cover Lover Book Review – book review of FINDING RUBY DRAKER / giveaway
June 10 – @booking.with.janelle – book review of FINDING RUBY DRAKER

June 14 –Literary Flits – book review of FINDING RUBY DRAKER / giveaway
June 15 –Novels Alive – book review of FINDING RUBY DRAKER
June 15 – Novels Alive – book series spotlight / giveaway
June 15 – Amy’s Booket List – book review of FINDING RUBY DRAKER / giveaway
June 16 –Bigreadersite – book review of FINDING RUBY DRAKER / giveaway
June 16 –The Momma Spot – book review of FINDING RUBY DRAKER / giveaway
June 17 –Novels Alive – book review of SHADOWS IN THE AFTERMATH
June 20 – Kam’s Place – book spotlight of SHADOWS IN THE AFTERMATH
June 21 – Mystery Review Crew – book spotlight of SHADOWS IN THE AFTERMATH / guest post / giveaway
June 21 – fundinmental – book series spotlight / guest post / giveaway

June 22 –Literary Flits – book review of SHADOWS IN THE AFTERMATH / giveaway
June 23 –Locks, Hooks and Books – book review of FINDING RUBY DRAKER / giveaway
June 24 –Locks, Hooks and Books – book review of SHADOWS IN THE AFTERMATH / giveaway
June 24 –Cover Lover Book Review – book review of SHADOWS IN THE AFTERMATH / giveaway
June 27 – Gina Rae Mitchell – book review of SHADOWS IN THE AFTERMATH / author interview / giveaway
June 28 –The Page Ladies – book review of SHADOWS IN THE AFTERMATH
June 28 – She Just Loves Books – book review of SHADOWS IN THE AFTERMATH / giveaway
June 29 – @booking.with.janelle – book review of SHADOWS IN THE AFTERMATH

June 30 – StoreyBook Reviews – book review of FINDING RUBY DRAKER / giveaway
June 30 – The Momma Spot – book review of SHADOWS IN THE AFTERMATH / giveaway
July 1 – Bigreadersite – book review of SHADOWS IN THE AFTERMATH / giveaway
July 1 – Books for Books – Book Series Spotlight
TBD – My Fictional Oasis – book review of FINDING RUBY DRAKER / giveaway
TBD – My Fictional Oasis – book review of SHADOWS IN THE AFTERMATH / giveaway
TBD- Amy’s Booket List – book review of SHADOWS IN THE AFTERMATH / giveaway

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Shared on:

Twitter

Pinterest

Instagram