Christina Dodd, Culture Shock, and VIRTUE FALLS

SUSAN ELIA MACNEAL: Delighted to introduce Christina Dodd, New York Times-bestselling author of the newly released VIRTUE FALLS, her—get this—fiftieth novel! 

Here's the description:

Twenty-three years ago, in the isolated coastal town of Virtue Falls, Washington, four year old Elizabeth Banner witnessed her mother’s brutal murder. Elizabeth’s father was convicted of killing Misty and sentenced to prison. Elizabeth was sent to live with relatives, and grew from a solitary child to a beautiful woman with a cool scientific mind and an instinctive distrust of love. Now Elizabeth is back in Virtue Falls, a geologist like her father, living cautiously, her life guided by logic and facts. But nothing can help her through the emotional chaos that follows the return of her ex-husband, Garik Jacobsen, an FBI agent on probation and tortured by the guilt of his past deeds. Nor can it help her deal with her father, now stricken with Alzheimer’s and haunted by Misty’s ghost. When a massive earthquake reveals long-concealed secrets, Elizabeth soon discovers her father is innocent. Is the killer still at large, stalking ever closer to the one witness to Misty’s murder? To Elizabeth herself? Elizabeth and Garik investigate, stirring old dark and deadly resentments that could provoke another bloody murder— Elizabeth’s own.

Happy (50th) pub week, Christina!

CHRISTINA DODD: Ten years ago, my husband and I moved from Houston, Texas — conservative, cosmopolitan, friendly, high temperatures — to a small town in NW Washington state — liberal, wild and wooded, peopled with eccentrics. And there's this white stuff … it falls from the sky … it's cold…

We have five and a half acres on a mountain side. Our view includes the town, a lake, a mountain range and, if we walk to the end of the road, the Pacific Ocean. I literally can see Canada from my front door. We're surrounded by forest, fight herds of deer for the right to let our roses bloom, and our dogs treed a bobcat in the backyard. From the very top of the bookshelves in my office, I have a view of a volcano. (We built me a spot up there to write. Yes, I am spoiled.)

I love Houston, but it is so flat you can stand on a box in the middle of downtown and see for fifty miles in any direction. Here, in this corner of Western Washington, the mountains leap out of Puget Sound and everywhere you look, it is beyond belief gorgeous.

You get it, right? Those two parts of the US could not be more different, and moving here involved some culture shock.

But when you're a writer, dealing with culture shock consists of saying to yourself, "What is going on here, and how can I use this in a book?" It took a challenge from my editor before I could put it together.

She said, "Create a town that is in itself a character."

I said, "I'll build Virtue Falls, a small town on the isolated Olympic Peninsula where the investigation of an old unsolved murder raises the specter of a serial killer!"

She said, "Great idea!"

And I said, "I'll start the book with an earthquake!"

To say my editor was dismayed is an understatement. She was horrified.

But the first thing my husband and I realized when we moved to Washington was that the scale of possible disasters changed. Not that Houston doesn't have disasters. In the twenty-one years we lived there, we survived a hurricane, a tornado and far too many tropical storms. 

But in Washington, what lurks the breathtaking beauty is the seething possible of major disaster. In 1980, Mt. St. Helens blew its top. In 2001, the largest earthquake in Washington history registered 6.8 on the Richter Scale. When you drive the coastal highway, low areas have tsunami warning signs. We watched with fascination the footage of the Japanese earthquake and resulting tsunami (think deer in the headlights.) I have actually said to my husband, "If I'm ever in Pike Place Market (in Seattle) and an earthquake occurs, I'm running uphill as fast as I can."

It sounds dramatic, but the Washington population (and on the whole west coast) live with the knowledge earthquakes could happen at any time, tsunamis could quickly follow, and being in the wrong place at the wrong time could be fatal. We don't brood about it (at least, I don't), but we're aware.

After I presented my ideas for the town of Virtue Falls, peopled with eccentrics, tourists and long-buried secrets, my editor agreed an earthquake and tsunami could work, plot-wise, as long as I didn't get too technical. Which is a good thing, because I'm at best an armchair geologist.

You're probably wondering how, after ten years in Washington, we're fitting into this land of grand landscapes where proud eccentrics live off the grid? Turns out we fit in here pretty well. One day about six years ago I looked out our bedroom window at our side yard and suggested we build a stone circle. And…

CHRISTINA DODD: I was born and raised in California. I've lived in Idaho, Oregon, Minnesota (for a summer), Texas and now Washington. Reds and readers, where have you lived?

ABOUT CHRISTINA DODD:

Readers become writers, and Christina Dodd has always been a reader. She reads everything, but because she loves humor, she likes romance best.

A woman wants things like world peace, a clean house, and a deep and meaningful relationship based on mutual understanding and love. A man wants things like a Craftsman router with attachments, undisputed control of the TV remote, and a red Corvette which will miraculously make his bald spot disappear. So when Christina’s first daughter was born, she told her husband she was going to quit work and write a book. It was a good time to start a new career, because how much trouble could one little infant be?

Ha! It took ten years, two children and three completed manuscripts before her first novel, CANDLE IN THE WINDOW, was published. In the twenty-two years since, her novels have been translated into 25 languages, won Romance Writers of America’s prestigious Golden Heart and RITA Awards and been called the year’s best by Library Journal. Christina Dodd herself has been a clue in the Los Angeles Times crossword puzzle (11/18/05, # 13 Down: Romance Novelist named Christina.) With more than 15 million of her books in print, Publishers Weekly praises her style that ‘showcases Dodd’s easy, addictive charm and steamy storytelling.’

Christina’s most recent releases in e-book include four full-length romantic suspenses, the Lost Hearts series:
— JUST THE WAY YOU ARE Enhanced
— ALMOST LIKE BEING IN LOVE Enhanced
— CLOSE TO YOU Enhancedand a stand-alone romantic suspense,
— LADY IN BLACK.

In July, Christina and her publisher, St. Martins Press, launched her all-new suspense series, Virtue Falls, with an e-short story, THE LISTENER. On September 9, a full-length novel, VIRTUE FALLS follows. In September 2015, a second full-length Virtue Falls novel will continue the story of this small tourist town on the wild Washington coast.

Christina is currently working on Caitlin MacLean’s story, a full-length original historical which will be a new book in her beloved series, The Governess Brides, coming late 2014.  Please join her free mailing list for book sales, book news, and entertainment brought right to your inbox! Simply fill out the form in the upper right corner with your name and email (Christina pledges to keep your information private), and you’ll always know about the best in romance and suspense. Join now!

Christina Dodd is married to a man with all his hair and no Corvette, but many Craftsman tools.