The Day Before

The Day Before
by
Liana Brooks

Author Bio

Liana Brooks once read the book GOOD OMENS by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett and noted that both their biographies invited readers to send money (or banana daiquiris). That seems to have worked well for them. Liana prefers strawberry daiquiris (virgin!) and will never say no to large amounts of cash in unmarked bills.
Her books are sweet and humorous with just enough edge to keep you reading past your bedtime.
Liana was born in San Diego after bouncing around the country she's settled (temporarily) in the great wilderness of Alaska. She can be found on Twitter (@LianaBrooks), on FaceBook, and on the web at www.lianabrooks.com.
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Blurb

A body is found in the Alabama wilderness. The question is:
Is it a human corpse … or is it just a piece of discarded property?

Agent Samantha Rose has been exiled to a backwater assignment for the Commonwealth Bureau of Investigation, a death knell for her career. But then Sam catches a break—a murder—that could give her the boost she needs to get her life back on track. There's a snag, though: the body is a clone, and technically that means it's not a homicide. And yet, something about the body raises questions, not only for her, but for coroner Linsey Mackenzie.

The more they dig, the more they realize nothing about this case is what it seems … and for Sam, nothing about Mac is what it seems, either.

This case might be the way out for her, but that way could be in a bodybag.

A thrilling new mystery from Liana Brooks, The Day Before will have you looking over your shoulder and questioning what it means to be human.

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Buy & Social Links

HarperCollins – http://www.harpercollins.com/9780062407658/the-day-before

Amazon – http://www.amazon.com/Day-Before-Jane-Doe-ebook/dp/B00Q33ZRTW/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1417452140&sr=8-7&keywords=liana+brooks

Barnes and Noble – http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-day-before-liana-brooks/1120818378?ean=9780062407658

iTunes – https://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/the-day-before/id945085387?mt=11

Kobo – https://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/the-day-before-2

GoodReads – https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23607748-the-day-before

Website: http://www.lianabrooks.com

FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Liana-Brooks/278779308851471

Twitter: https://twitter.com/lianabrooks

Newsletter: http://lianabrooks.us4.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=675dc6fb70db402b9a2b27c97&id=71396c63a4

Questions for Authors

Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?

Choices matter. People matter. Be very careful what you do with both.

Was there an Author who inspired you to write?

I think I'll blame this on JRR Tolkien. As a kid I rewrote his stories to save my favorite characters. We'd call it fanfic now, but then it was just me retelling the LORD OF THE RINGS. My very first novel was a story about the barrow wights (who were shamefully cut from the movies) and everything evolved from there.

How did you come up with the characters in your books?

Every book is different. Sometimes I picture the character first like I did with THE DAY BEFORE. For the short story Prime Sensations I had the opening scene first, with Lana threatening to vent her oxygen as her ship was boarded. Sometimes the character has to change to fit the plot, sometimes I redo entire plots to fit one character trait. In THE DAY BEFORE Sam doesn't like guns, it was a throw-away line that wasn't intentionally, but I rearranged the plot for that because it made her unique.

What are your current projects?

I'm currently editing CONVERGENCE POINT which is the sequel to THE DAY BEFORE and I'm writing the fourth Heroes and Villains novella for my superhero romance fans.

Do you see writing as a career?

At this point I do. A year ago I hadn't sold a novel yet and I wasn't sure I could keep justifying the time I spent writing when all I was collecting was rejection slips. That all changed very quickly. In the space of about three months I signed with an agent and sold my novel in a three-book deal. I went from, "Ohmigosh, no one will ever read my book!" to "Ohmigosh, I never plotted book three!" But it's a good thing. I love writing and as easy as it is to back out of the publishing ring when the rejections are coming in, it's so much more fun to tough out the bad days and do what you love.

Do you ever picture yourself and one of your heroines?  If so, which one?

No, not from any of my published books. I share a few traits with all of them, but none of them is a portrait of me. Sam is the heroine of THE DAY BEFORE and we share a love of mastiffs and cooking, but I would never wear what she does. She loves pencil skirts and kitten heels while I'm a jeans and t-shirt kind of girl.

Do you have a favorite heroine/hero from one of your books? If so, who?

I am madly in love with Mac from THE DAY BEFORE and totally ship Detective Altin and me as a BROTP. Mac is just fun to write. He's a little crazy, a bit wild, but smart and it's easy to get in his head. Detective Altin is this older gentleman with this sweet as peaches wife and he's the kind of person I'd love to hang out with: funny, generous, well-read, and he sees the good in people. The Altins are the couple you hope live next door so you can barbecue with them every weekend.

What kind of research do you do for your books?

The kind that gets me flagged by the NSA and makes it necessary to erase the search history before my kids use the computer. I spend a lot of time on Google Maps looking for locations. I research poisons, guns, and explosives. I had to track down someone who works with cadavers to ask about decomposition of a body in the summer heat of Alabama... If I'm ever a suspect in a murder I will look guilty as sin. I swear it's for research though!

What is the hardest part of writing your book?

This is a two part answer... the hardest thing is not quitting. It is easy to give up on a book. It is easy to walk away from writing. It is easy to think you suck and shouldn't be an author.

The second hardest thing is knowing when to quit, because if you stick to the book and the writing it's hard to know when you've done all you can. I have published books I still want to edit because I read through and see things I could tweak to make the book just that much better. But, as Tina Fey says, "The show doesn’t go on because it’s ready; it goes on because it’s 11:30."

If you could say anything to your readers what would it be?

YOU ARE THE BEST!!!! My readers are awesome! They are fun, intelligent, eclectic individuals with amazing stories of their own and I am so happy that I've been able to entertain them for a few hours. Never change, my lovelies. You rock!

What is your favorite Genre and why?

Science fiction will always have a special place in my heart. I read widely, but I love sci-fi because it shows a real hope for the future.

Do you prefer to write alone or do you like to collaborate with other authors?

That's a hard one to answer. I don't co-write anything, but at the same time no book is created in a vacuum. I rely very heavily on my team of beta readers and co-conspirators for help fleshing out characters or figuring out scenes. I brain storm with them, bounce ideas off them, and sometimes they'll give me an idea that winds up in the book. I'd never get a book finished without them. Some of them have been with me since I couldn't use a comma correctly in dialog. I'm sure at least one of them will argue I still can't use commas correctly (waves hello to Amy Laurens). But that's why I have them to help me.

Do you ever get writer’s block? If so, how do you get through it?

Writer's Block is defined as "not being able to write the next part of the book" and I think it happens to all authors in some form or another. When this happens to me it means one of two things. Either 1) I'm going to the wrong direction with the plot or 2) I'm burnt out and need to think about the scene.

Creating something takes effort mentally, emotionally, and physically. If you can't write it's because one of those sources is depleted. When I hit that point I save everything, turn off the computer, get some food, read a book, go on a nature hike... anything to get me into a new space both physically and mentally. I might come back and work on another project for a day or two, but usually all I need is to recharge before continuing on.

When you are reading a book, who is your favorite author?

... I only get to pick one? I love so many, but my most recent book binge was Nalini Singh. She's been writing for years and I just caught up on her Psy/Changeling series. It's wonderful paranormal/SF/UF romance set in the near future with werewolves and such. I enjoyed the series immensely, read all thirteen books in a couple of days, and Riley and Mercy are my favorite couple.

Do you come up with the cover or does someone else do it?

Someone else does them! I don't know the artist's name for THE DAY BEFORE, that was handled by HarperCollins. I got to give them some ideas and they politely ignored most of them and gave me my cover. The Heroes and Villains books all have cover art done by the very talented Victoria Miller, whom I adore and treasure. EVEN VILLAINS FALL IN LOVE has my favorite cover. The short story covers were either pre-made and purchased cheap or done by Amy Laurens, who is my twin and partner in writing crime.

If you could change anything in your writing what would that be?

I wish everything was as perfect on paper as it is in my head. Sometimes my skills and the English language fail me. It's usually little things, but there are times I just can't get the words right and it's frustrating.

What book if any would you want to be made into a movie?

THE DAY BEFORE would make an excellent movie! Female, Hispanic, kick butt protagonist with the scary dude for backup... what's not to love? There's conspiracy, corpses, and really fun side characters!

Who would you want to play the hero/heroine?

Natalie Morales who played Lauren Cruz on White Collar and Lucy on Parks & Rec would be a good physical match for Sam. I think she'd be able to pull off Sam's attitude too. For Mac... Clive Standen from Vikings or Jensen Ackles from Supernatural. I think Clive would pull off the world-weary/beaten/self-loathing that Mac has when the book opens, and he would transition well into what Mac eventually becomes.

Idris Elba can play Detective Altin (pretty please?).

Everyone uses computers, tablets, phones and no one uses handwritten form or typewriters, what do you prefer to use?

I write everything on the computer because I hate transcribing from handwritten notes. My first novel was handwritten, in a spiral notebook, in a high school math class. But I do have a whiteboard dedicated to each project I'm working on and I plot out scenes on sticky notes and hang them on the closet door so I can what I need to write next. It's messy, but it works for me.

Is there a ritual you do every time before you begin your book?

Does joking about a plot bunny on Twitter count as a ritual?  'cause, honestly, that's usually where the insanity starts. I'll be talking with friends and someone will say, "That should totally be a book." And I'm like, "I could write that!" And then 30,000 words later I realize I've started another novel and I have five others in the works and I really need to stop and plot out the ending. It's a madness really. Once you catch fiction you can't quite. Writing is addictive.

What do you do when you finish your book and turn it in to the editor?

Take the rest of the night off, play some Super Mario Wii with my husband and kids, gloat on Twitter, clean my office, and start the next book the following morning. I'm juggling the publication schedule of two series and I'm working on writing the first novel in a new series, that isn't anything like down time right now. Maybe when I'm as famous as George R.R. Martin or EL James I can take a few weeks off for vacation between books, but I'm not there yet. J

Coming April 28th, 2015

Available for Pre-Order

Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Kobo | HarperCollins | iTunes | GoodReads

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Excerpt

Friday May 17th, 2069
Alabama District 3
Commonwealth of North America


With an asthmatic wheeze the engine died. It figured. Stuck in a man’s craw, it did. This truck had been his daddy’s and his pappy’s, and before the Commonwealth government forced him to replace the diesel engine with the newfangled water doohickey, he was certain he’d pass the truck onto his son.
He’d been playing under the hood of trucks since he was six and now he was stranded. Embarrassing, that’s what it was. He climbed out of the cab to check the engine out of habit. The ice blue block of modern fuel efficiency stared back. Three hundred bucks it’d cost him, straight from his pocket.
Oh, there was a government subsidy, all right. A priority list. Major Population Centers, they said. Unite the countries of the Commonwealth on a timeline, they said. And what did all that mean?
It meant the damn Yankees got upgraded cities and free cars before the ink was dry on the Constitution and what about the little man? Nobody thought about the working class. No one cared about a man covered in oil and grease anymore.
He thumbed his cellphone on. No reception. Figured.
So much for the era of new prosperity. He’d hoof it. There was a little town about five miles down the road where he could call Ricky to bring a tow truck. It would have been cheaper to pay the diesel fines than get all this fixed.
Off schedule. Over budget. Son of a –
He stared at the distant trees. Well, it wasn’t going to get any cooler.
He grabbed his wallet and keys from the cab of his truck. The tree line looked like a good spot to answer a call from nature, then he’d see if there weren’t a shortcut through to town. A meadowlark sang. Not a bad day for a hike. Would’ve been better if it weren’t so dammed hot, but at least the humidity was low. He wouldn’t like to walk in a summer monsoon, not at his age with arthritis playing up.
Under a sprawling oak he unzipped his pants. As an afterthought, he glanced down to make sure he wouldn’t stir up a hill of fire ants.
A hand lay next to his boots.
He blinked, zipped his pants slowly, and turned around. "Hello?"
Cicadas chirped in answer.
"Are you drunk?" The quiet field that looked so peaceful only moments before was now eerily sinister. He nudged the hand with his foot. It was swollen and pale and crusted with blood, just like a prop out of a horror movie.
Maybe it was a good idea to run to the next town.