Competition can be a killer…
Detective Justin Butler always gets his killer, but this victim
has a stampede of enemies and few leads to go on. Stonewalled by the tight-knit
equestrian world, he looks to Emily for help, but she's strangely reluctant. Is
she hiding something, or is she afraid of their growing attraction?
As the search for the murderer heats up, their hearts become
entangled and their lives at risk, forcing Emily and Justin to work together to
find the killer before they strike again.
Wild Women Authors features
author Marla A. White and Cause For Elimination, a 2022 contemporary
romantic suspense, released by the Wild Rose Press. With Marla is event rider Emily
Conners who will go first.
What
made you choose riding horses for a career? I’ve always loved horses, ever since I was a kid, but it’s a pretty expensive
hobby so I didn’t get back to it until the man I was married to at the time
became an Assistant District Attorney. Since we could afford it, I started
riding again and the next thing I know, Pam asked me to help her out at the
barn. Horses are just so honest, they always let you know what’s on their mind,
and the riders are generally good people who are fun to be around. Riding is
challenging and sometimes pretty scary, but when it goes right there’s nothing
like it.
Knowing
what you know now, if you had it to do over again, would you stick with being a
rider or do something different? The
only thing I’d change would be to make the leap from working my desk job to
working at the barn years earlier. For a
while, after my accident, it was rough but on the whole I couldn’t be happier.
Now if only I can make a profit doing it!
What
is your biggest fear? A while back I
had a rotational fall. That’s when the horse gets hung up going over a fence
and flips ass over teakettle, as my mother likes to say. I was crushed
underneath him and broke a bunch bones. As a result, I became addicted to painkillers.
My biggest fear isn’t falling again, it’s that I’ll get hooked again.
Who
is your favorite fictional character and why? Ooh, good question. It would be a toss up between
Scarlett O’Hara and Jim Butcher’s wizard, Harry Dresden. Scarlett could be a
hot mess and sometimes downright mean, but she never backed away from a fight.
Harry is also a mess, constantly getting on the wrong side of some powerful Fae
or vampire but in the end he figures a way out.
What
is the best piece of advice you ever received? Don’t ever say anything to yourself that you wouldn’t
say to a friend. Sometimes that’s the hardest thing, right? Practicing
compassion for yourself.
Thank you for taking time
away from your horse[s] to speak with us. Now it’s time to chat with Marla.
Which writer or
character[s], from either books or movies, [or both] have had a major impact on
your writing?
I’m with Emily about Scarlett O’Hara.
She could command a room just by cocking her eyebrow! She was the first female character I saw do
more than just be the dance partner or sweet homemaker. She was strong,
ambitious, and never apologized. As far as my writing goes, the late, great
Robert Parker probably had the most impact on me finding my voice.
With regard to research,
where did you start for this novel? Did that lead you down different paths,
thereby changing the original concept? I’m
a plotter, at least with this book, so I had most of it pretty well mapped out as
far as the major storylines went before I started to color in the details. I
was just starting to event but had owned horses for maybe ten years so I lived
the world. As I got more into it, being in the sport did inform the story to
some degree but not a different path.
For this book, the research I did was
mainly mining for details to make the characters and situations feel more real.
For instance, I didn’t know what kind of work my villain did for a living; I
just knew I wanted him to seem like powerful, wealthy guy who wasn’t what he
appeared to be. Then I saw an article about a city official in the Los Angeles
area who was found guilty of taking bribes and it peaked my interest. The
hardest thing was the technology of how spy cams work (LOL), but fortunately I
have a friend who does that sort of thing for a living.
Tell us a bit about your
publisher. How did you hear about them; what influenced you to submit to them Wild Rose Press has just been the best to work with.
I first heard about them when my roommate sold a book to them years ago. A
couple of years ago she encouraged me to submit a cookie book and while I had a
lot of fun writing it, I was stunned to get the email that they were interested
in publishing it. After that, my editor asked if I had written anything else.
At that time, I’d locked “Cause for Elimination” away in a drawer where no one
could see it because I was riddled with doubt that it was any good. It was her belief in me that got it to be the
award-winning book it is today.
What is the turn-around
time from date of query to date of release? The process was probably a little over a year, but that’s because I’d
massively over-written it and it took me quite some time to whittle it down.
The Wild Rose Press team’s response time was always very prompt.
What are you reading right
now? I am currently 679th
in line to get the new Louise Penny book from the library! In the meantime I’m bouncing back and forth
between discovering new cozy authors on BookBub and reading Ilona Andrews’ “Fate’s
Edge,” part of her “Edge” series.
What's next for you? So many things!
I’ve got the sequel to the Cookie Book I wrote last year [The
Starlight Mint Surprise Murder] out to my trusted beta readers and hope to
have it ready to submit in January. I’ve got the outline and about half the
pages for the prequel to this year’s Cookie Book, [Bloodstains and Candy
Canes]. I was thrilled to be able to attend this year’s Kentucky Three-Day event,
one of only two 5 star level events held in the US so naturally thoughts are
swirling around for a sequel to “Cause”. My horse buddies actually came up with
the place the body would pop up . Additionally I have a self-published series
of fantasy books, The Keeper Chronicles, and am editing the third one to
get ready to publish next year.
To learn more about Marla A. White and the stories she creates go to:
Amazon author page: https://amzn.to/3MHIzkB
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/21467766.Marla_A_White
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/marla-a-white
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheScriptFixer
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marlaw825/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarlaAWhiteAuthor
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@marlaw825
To purchase Cause For
Elimination, go to:
Amazon https://amzn.to/3qk7XCP
Books2Read https://books2read.com/u/b6zjM6
BookBub https://www.bookbub.com/books/cause-for-elimination-by-marla-a-white
GoodReads https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62233827-cause-for-elimination
All Author https://allauthor.com/book/70256/cause-for-elimination/
Loved getting to know you! Best on your book.
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