James LePore practiced law for 25 years before retiring to write novels and become a photographer.  He has written three wonderful novels of suspense, including Sons and Princes, which just released April 5,2011, while also publishing a few short stories, meant to be read in conjunction with his novels.  Below, James has written a great post sharing his experience with his characters.

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I have given Shana two of my short stories to post along with this piece.  One, Till Death Do Us Part, is one of three stories published earlier this year under the title, Anyone Can Die.  In it, Pat Nolan, age twenty-one, and his bride, Lorrie, age twenty, are on their honeymoon in New Mexico in 1974.  Pat is one of the central characters in my first novel, A World I Never Made.  Lorrie appears only briefly in the novel and only in Pat’s memory.  She died in childbirth in 1975.  This event shaped both Pat and their daughter, Megan, and set them on the path to their fatal meeting in the Czech Republic in 2004.  I wrote this story for two reasons.  Both reasons are from the heart, but the first is more logical: I wanted readers to know what it was exactly that Pat lost when Lorrie, his wife of only eleven months, died in a hospital in Uruguay while giving birth to Megan, and perhaps gain some insight into why he became a hard drinker and an absentee father to Megan until it was—almost—too late.  The second reason is not so logical.  I fall in love with my characters, and when my novels are done, I am not quite ready to let them go.  Writing the stories in Anyone Can Die closed the circle for me.

If you write suspense novels, as I do, and you love your characters, as I do (even the secondary ones, but especially the central ones), then you are constantly being pulled in opposite directions as you write, between pace and character development.  Pace is supposed to win.  A suspense novel cannot really slow down for long flashbacks that are meant to fill in the blanks of central characters, no matter how well written they may be.  And so the same thing happened with my second novel, Blood of My Brother, a story of revenge and redemption involving two people very close to despair: Jay Cassio, a loner, and Isabel Perez, an embittered Mexican beauty.  The Land of the Devil, one of three stories I wrote to accompany Blood of My Brother, will give the reader a glimpse of the state of Isabel’s heart when she goes into hiding in Miami in the fall of 2004, just before she meets Jay, whose only real friend, Dan Del Colliano, has been brutally killed while working for Isabel.  I loved Isabel, and I needed to write The Land of the Devil, and now that it’s done, I can let her go as well.

Enjoy the stories and please don’t hesitate to let me know what you think.  You can contact me through my website: http://jamesleporefiction.com.

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This contest is now closed. 

Winner: Phanee of http://funny-wool.blogspot.com/

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Pat Nolan, an American man, is summoned to Paris to claim the body of his estranged daughter Megan, who has committed suicide. The body, however, is not Megan’s and it becomes instantly clear to Pat that Megan staged this, that she is in serious trouble, and that she is calling to him for help.This sends Pat on an odyssey that stretches across France and into the Czech Republic and that makes him the target of both the French police and a band of international terrorists. Joining Pat on his search is Catherine Laurence, a beautiful but tormented Paris detective who sees in Pat something she never thought she’d find–genuine passion and desperate need. As they look for Megan, they come closer to each other’s souls and discover love when both had long given up on it.Juxtaposed against this story is Megan’s story. A freelance journalist, Megan is in Morocco to do research when she meets Abdel Lahani, a Saudi businessman. They begin a torrid affair, a game Megan has played often and well in her adult life. But what she discovers about Lahani puts her in the center of a different kind of game, one with rules she can barely comprehend. Because of her relationship with Lahani, Megan has made some considerable enemies. And she has put the lives of many–maybe even millions–at risk.A World I Never Made is an atmospheric novel of suspense with brilliantly drawn characters and back-stories as compelling as the plot itself. It is the kind of novel that resonates deeply and leaves its traces long after you turn the final page.

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When Jay Cassio’s best friend is murdered in a job clearly done by professionals, the walls that he has built to protect himself from the world of others begin to shatter. Dan Del Colliano had been his confidante and protector since the men were children on the savage streets of Newark, New Jersey. When Dan supports and revives Jay after Jay’s parents die in a plane crash, their bond deepens to something beyond brotherhood, beyond blood. Now Jay, a successful lawyer, must find out why Dan died and find a way to seek justice for his murder.

Isabel Perez has lived a life both tainted and charmed since she was a teenager in Mexico. She holds powerful sway over men and has even more powerful alliances with people no one should ever try to cross. She desperately wants her freedom from the chains these people have placed on her. When Jay catapults into her world, their connection is electric, their alliance is lethal, and their future is anything but certain.

Once again, James LePore has given us a novel of passions, intense moral complexities, and irresistible thrills. Filled with characters you will embrace and characters you will fear, Blood of My Brother is a story about a quest for revenge and redemption you won’t soon forget.

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Chris Massi has been running from his world his entire life. The son of a Mafia assassin and the former son-in-law of a mob kingpin, Massi has tried to stay on the right side of the law, building a prestigious career as an attorney, and insulating his children as much as possible. But now a series of tragedies have left him without a law license and without several of his loved ones. And at the same time, his teenaged son is beginning to gravitate toward the gangster world Chris has tried so hard to protect him from.

Michele Mathias has been running away from her life for more than a decade. Once a promising young woman with a future, she’s now a drug addicted street player living with the knowledge that her daughter – the only bright thing in her life – was taken away from her. When her roommate is murdered in a mob-related hit, her life intersects with Chris’s life – and their worlds change forever.

For Chris, a showdown is coming. The only way for him to save his son and regain his future is to face – and maybe even embrace – the demon he’s always avoided. For Michele, her last chance at redemption has arrived. How their journeys collide with the dark New York underworld is the stuff of the kind of suspenseful, passionate drama we’ve come to expect from James LePore.

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James LePore’s first novel, A World I Never Made earned raves from reviewers, readers, and fellow authors alike. Blogcritics called it, “An outstanding first novel, and a wonderful thriller.” Bella Online said, “I highly recommend this compelling suspense story filled with vivid characters and haunting storylines. A story that will stay with the reader long after the final pages.” And M.J. Rose, the acclaimed author of The Memorist said A World I Never Made was, “A compelling page-turner &mdash one of those wonderful books with characters as strong as the story and a story worth reading. Don’t miss it.”

Now LePore returns to the characters of A World I Never Made to present us with three suspenseful and unforgettable stories:

Till Death Do Us Part: A young Pat Nolan and his wife are on their honeymoon in New Mexico when they find a bond they did not know they had as they are forced to confront trouble in the form of a surly trio of locals.

God’s Warriors: Megan Nolan, a cynical American woman on her own in Europe makes a life-changing decision that both reveals and belies her true character.

Max: Max French, a quirky, deadly and, in his own eyes, oddly lovable FBI agent faces a personal drama that will set the course of his future.

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All James’ novels can be found in eBook format at the following online sellers:

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