Standing Into Danger: "Kiss of the Assassin" by Joylene Nowell Butler

It's the first Wednesday of the month,
the day that members of the
Insecure Writer's Support Group
share their writing struggles
and writing successes
and offer their encouragement
and support to fellow writers.

To visit the IWSG website, click here.

To become a member of the IWSG, click here.

Our wonderful co-hosts who are volunteering today,
along with IWSG Founder Alex J. Cavanaugh are SE White, Cathrina Constantine, Natalie Aguirre, Joylene Nowell Butler, and, Jacqui Murray!

I hope you have a chance to visit today's hosts and thank them for co-hosting.

I'm sure they would appreciate a visit and an encouraging comment.

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Every month the IWSG announces a question that members can answer
with advice, insight, a personal experience, or a story in their IWSG posts.

Or, the question can inspire members
if they aren't sure what to write about on IWSG Day.

Remember the question is optional.
This month's featured question is:

When the going gets tough writing the story, how do you keep yourself writing to the end? If you have not started the writing yet, why do you think that is and what do you think could help you find your groove and start?

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Happy June, Everyone!

I hope everyone is healthy and doing well.

All is well here, and it's nice to see some of my neighbors out and about.

A Neighbor Enjoying the Sunshine

Before a Surprise Snowstorm

Aurora, Colorado USA

May 19, 2021

Twenty-four Hours Later

During a Surprise Snowstorm

Aurora, Colorado USA

May 20, 2021

This month's question is one that I think about more than a little,

because I have abandoned writing at various times over the years.

I didn't keep writing to the end of a number of things.

A lot of the writing I did complete, I finished

because I had a deadline and the piece had to be completed.

It was a responsibility in some important area of my life.

Over and over, if I had to make a choice

between the pressing requirements of life and career or writing,

I would choose responsibility and duty in my life.

I can't regret it.

Those decisions weren't made lightly.

I am comfortable with my decisions.

Sometimes I indulge in the "What Ifs... ."

But I am who I am, and if I could do it all over again,

I'd likely make the same choices.

I thought I'd accomplish more writing than I have so far in retirement.

I certainly didn't factor in pandemics, political upheavals in my country,

the upending of the western world order that I have known all my life,

and challenging medical issues for my husband and me.

I am the definition for optimism!

I was taking it all for granted on some level,

almost sleepwalking in my false sense of comfort and security.

And it has been shocking to be rousted out of my illusions.

But I'm done with beating myself up over what I haven't achieved in writing so far.

I'm taking pride instead in the writing I have accomplished, especially since I retired:

my blog Standing Into Danger, my journals, my letters,

my short story "Dare Double Dare" in the IWSG Anthology Voyagers: The Third Ghost,

and the progress I have made on my memoir.

And I have several other writing projects in the works.

After flailing and floundering about with erratic writing

during the last two long years, I'm writing daily now.

Steroids are temporarily decreasing the double vision my eyes,

so I'm in a much better place.

I won't say I'm back in my groove, but I'm getting there.

I'd say I'm writing to the end,

but I don't want to tempt the universe to toss something else my way.

Fingers crossed! I have a superstitious bent.

Beginning and end: this stylus will perpetually repeat its spiral journey from outer rim to inner groove, extracting music all along. A tribute to the classic record player.

Wikimedia Commons

And in a complete change of direction!

Another Awesome Book

Another Awesome IWSG Author

Kiss of the Assassin

Joylene Nowell Butler

Amazon

While I was in Hawaii during the late winter,

I had a chance to read a draft of Joylene's latest novel, Kiss of the Assassin,

before it was released by her publisher, The Wild Rose Press, Inc., on March 23, 2022.

I had previously read Joylene's painful, suspenseful, murder mystery

Matowak: Woman Who Cries,

so I knew I was in for a good read.

I was impressed then with Joylene's ability to create a crime novel that felt authentic,

as if she had served in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and had solved crimes herself.

In Kiss of the Assassin, Joylene does it again,

writing an international political thriller that feels authentic, real.

I know that Joylene is a Canadian Métis,

but I'd swear she'd done a tour of duty in Vietnam during the '70s after reading it.

Imagine meeting the love of your life in Cambodia as enemies

on the opposite sides of the tragic war that was Vietnam!

Can Marina, a Soviet-trained assassin charged with killing

American Marine Sargeant Mateo Arcusa, forge a lasting romantic relationship with him?

They crisscross the world, running into each other

over and over again on dangerous missions for their countries.

Are they going to survive their missions?

Will one assassinate the other?

How can they possibly fall in love and find a way to be together?

Questions like these grabbed me from the beginning

and kept me reading long into the night.

Marina is such a compelling character.

On the one hand, she is an unsympathetic professional killer

who murders coolly and efficiently.

On the other, she is the sympathetic survivor of a tragic childhood

in which she had no choice but to become a skillful killer

for the ambitious, manipulative, and ruthless KGB Chairman Vladimir Kurenkov.

I don't want to give any hint of how this all turns out.

I'll only say that the story is impossible to forget.

Twitter.com

Here is an excerpt from the the novel

when Marina learns how truly manipulative and evil Kurenkov is,

this guardian who may ultimately order her death.

“Malyshka …child…there’s no easy way of saying this apart from being honest and direct. I hope you can forgive me, but your father died.”

Marina’s eyes instantly watered, which seemed to surprise Kurenkov. He looked sympathetic.

“When?” The thought that he lived beyond that night and she hadn’t seen him made her ability to keep calm unbearable.

Kurenkov shrugged and admired his cuticles. “You were so young. I was afraid if I told you the truth, you would blame yourself.”

“Why would I—”

“Your father died the night your mother stabbed him. He has been dead for fifteen years.”

“I…I don’t understand, why would I—”

“You were so despondent. Your father asked for your help before he died. What could you do? You were a mere child. I kept the truth from you because I couldn’t bear you taking on all the blame. I knew you would. That night you had already blamed yourself. You told me your papa asked for help and you hadn’t helped him. I’m sure he didn’t mean to abandon you, not as my father abandoned me. Please, Malyshka, please forgive me for shielding you from the truth. I did it to protect[…]"

It was fun to see Joylene's evolution as a writer.

Her writing flows and is so readable.

It pulls you forward page after page.

Her plotting is tight, and her ability to turn good research into great narrative is a given.

I certainly hope you have a chance to read Joylene's book!

KISS OF THE ASSASSIN by Joylene Nowell Butler

The Wild Rose Press, Inc (March 23, 2022)

Paperback: 424 pages, ASIN: B09P7T1ZRS

mcbooktours

Joylene is the author of the suspense novels Dead Witness, Maski: Broken But Not Dead, Break Time, Matowak: Woman Who Cries. Dead Witness was a finalist in the 2012 Global ebook Awards, and Broken But Not Dead won a silver medal in the 2012 IPPY Awards in New York.

For more on Joylene and her writing, visit her website and blog, as well as connect with her on Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, and Amazon.