Authorpreneur Dashboard – E Denise Billups
Kalorama Road
Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
There’s something Allie can’t remember; hidden memories that refuse to surface. Until one day, when something brings back images of a forgotten night. A year after graduating from Emsworth University, Allie receives a mysterious email asking a single question. Someone wants her to remember, and they are getting closer. As forgotten memories gradually surface, Allie has to come to terms with her dark past, and a revelation she could have never imagined. What really happened at 1414 Kalorama Road?
Book Bubbles from Kalorama Road
If you feel it, it's real.
In this section, Allison, not a believer in ghosts, questions sensations appearing around her as she revisits a place from her past. About her, dust stirs rapidly, a creeping, cold sensation of another presence she dismisses as tricks of a fearful mind. But she knows the sensations are too real to dismiss. The presence soon shows her what she’s doubted too long.
Writing Murder
Writing murder isn’t as easy as creating it on screen. Providing the reader with descriptive images is important. In this murder scene, the victim’s thoughts took precedence over the violent act. I want the reader to sense what Belle sensed as she entered a dark room. Feel the prick of roses beneath her feet as she took her last step. Smell the honeyed musk of roses laced with her assailant’s orange blossom perfume. What Belle thinks as she lays dying is a defining moment. She watches her assailant’s moist eyes shining in the dark, the moonlit blade dripping with her blood and her last act of defiance, an unflinching gaze into her murderer’s eyes, her dying image—a forever tormenting ghost.
Trust Your Instinct
Someone once said, “Instinct is a marvelous thing. It can neither be explained nor ignored." Allison Bertrand, the protagonist in Kalorama Road, felt something was wrong the moment she accepted an invitation to an off-campus party. What she felt were “gut instincts.” Without conscious reason or logic, her intuition like antennas sensed danger. However, like many, she ignored her inner voice. In this excerpt, Allison is regretting a bad decision made two years ago, which has come back to haunt her. Now consumed with “what ifs,” she ponders her choice and the sinister happening of a night that changed her life. Perhaps Belle’s entry into Allison’s life was divine intervention, but Allison learned a hard lesson—Gut feelings are real and should never be ignored.
