Today, I welcome author Joylene Nowell Butler to talk about her latest suspense novel, Matowak Woman Who Cries. Welcome, Joylene.

Why do you write suspense thrillers?
I like novels with an adrenaline rush. I like the thrill of sitting on the edge of my seat as I read through the story. I love it when I forget I’m reading, live the story, care about the characters, and worry about them.  That’s the reaction I want from my readers. I want to hook them into a compelling read that they can’t put down.

Please tell us about your book. What ideas or images inspired this novel?
After I finished the prequel to Matowak: Woman Who Cries, Sally Warner, one of the characters began haunting me. It was as if she had a story to tell and wouldn’t leave me alone until I wrote it. I tried ignoring her, but she wouldn’t go away. I finally agreed because she seemed so desperate. Matowak is about 60-year-old Sally finding her husband dead on the kitchen floor eighteen months after their sons die violently. The investigator, Danny Killian, thinks Sally may have killed her husband; and if that’s so, hopes to find enough evidence to ensure Sally is found not guilty for reasons of spousal abuse. Sally has no idea how to prove she’s innocent.

Do you have an ideal reader in mind when you write? If so, please describe that reader.
I envision a reader like myself, someone who wants what I want: to be moved and changed by what I read. I want my readers to think about my characters long after the story is over.  

Please describe your writing routine.
I spend mornings and evenings with my husband, who, thankfully, is an early bird. As soon as he leaves in the morning, (he sells firewood) I sit down and answer emails. Then I open my latest WIP and work until noon. Before lunch, I go for a 2k bike run, mostly uphill, then I come home and write/edit/revise until around 4pm. I spend evenings with my hubby and don’t return to my computer until 7am the next morning.

What advice do you give new writers just starting out?
Read all the best writing manuals. Read anything by Don Maas, Alexander Sokoloff, or Dwight Swan. Or any books recommended by your mentor. Then apply what you’ve learned while studying your favorite novels. Don’t be afraid to use colored markers on those novels. Highlight active verbs, sentence structure, or sentences that pop out as unique and visual. Study until you understand why this particular novel works. There is no end to what you can learn by reading a best seller.

More about Mâtowak Woman Who Cries:
A murder enveloped in pain and mystery…
When Canada’s retired Minister of National Defense, Leland Warner, is murdered in his home, the case is handed to Corporal Danny Killian, an aboriginal man tortured by his wife’s unsolved murder.
The suspect, 60-year-old Sally Warner, still grieves for the loss of her two sons, dead in a suicide/murder eighteen months earlier. Confused and damaged, she sees in Corporal Killian a friend sympathetic to her grief and suffering and wants more than anything to trust him.
Danny finds himself with a difficult choice—indict his prime suspect, the dead minister’s horribly abused wife or find a way to protect her and risk demotion. Or worse, transfer away from the scene of his wife’s murder and the guilt that haunts him…

Grab your copy here: [amazon text=Amazon&asin=B01K017650]

Mâtowak Woman Who Cries is available in eBook at Amazon.ca and Dancing Lemur Press, L.L.C

The print copy is available at:
Amazon.ca
Amazon.com.

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