We are delighted to welcome author Nichole Christoff to Omnimystery News, courtesy of TLC Book Tours, which is coordinating her current book tour. We encourage you to visit all of the participating host sites; you can find her schedule here.
Nichole's second mystery to feature private investigator Jamie Sinclair is The Kill Shot (Alibi; March 2015 ebook formats) and today she shares with us secrets from her publisher's style sheet.
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Photo provided courtesy of
Nichole Christoff
I love to read mysteries. And like every writer, I adore the challenge of writing them.
The building blocks of the mysteries we devour are the words the writer uses to tell her tale. Those words carry a power all their own. And when they're tied into a storyline that just won't quit, they become fascinating. I, for one, can't imagine Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep without the word shimmering to describe Carmen's gun. Chandler chose that particular word on purpose and it says so much more about Carmen than its three syllables should be allowed to say.
After I've wrestled with words that provoke and inspire me — and I've built a brand new manuscript out of them — I send that completed manuscript to my editor and her team. I can't wait until they read it. They'll send me more words to consider — and they'll send me their official Style Sheet, too.
The Style Sheet is a document detailing such things as fonts, when italics will be inserted, and one more thing. The Style Sheet will also list the official spellings for uncommon words used within the work. In many ways, those words can serve as a kind of snapshot of the novel. On a single page, you can see a hundred hints for the action and intrigue to come. I'd like to share a few such words with you today.
Here are sixteen little words from the official Style Sheet for my latest release, The Kill Shot. Each one says something about the challenges that Jamie will take on. When you read these words, what do they suggest to you? They are:
• Airstrip, banknote, collarbone, and heartsick. Boy, to me, a story with those words must be full of adventure. And avarice. And maybe even heartbreak.
• Façade, flatline, streetwise, and naïve. Do two of those words suggest duality? Maybe they do and maybe they don't!
• Gearshift, jetway, watchdog, and woodworm. Is there anything more insidious than woodworm? And is anything more serious than watchdog? I promise the two come together as Jamie investigates.
• Undercover, on-ramp, mudflats, and eveningwear. That first one is a wonderful word, isn't it? Undercover means secrecy and risk and a close scrape or two. On-ramp suggests a high-speed story. And eveningwear? How elegant is that?
So there you have it. These are my sixteen little words from The Kill Shot's Style Sheet. You'll find all of them and more as Jamie struggles to solve her latest case. I hope you've enjoyed reading them as much as I've enjoyed writing them.
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Nichole Christoff is a writer, broadcaster, and military spouse who has worked on air and behind the scenes producing and promoting content for radio, television news, and the public relations industry across the United States and Canada. She is a lifetime member of Sisters in Crime and the Jane Austen Society of North America, and also belongs to Private Eye Writers of America, International Thriller Writers, Mystery Writers of America, Romance Writers of America, and three of RWA's local chapters where she's served as an officer and a member of the board.
For more information about the author, please visit her website at NicholeChristoff.com and her author page on Goodreads, or find her on Facebook and Twitter.
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The Kill Shot by Nichole Christoff
A Jamie Sinclair Mystery
Publisher: Alibi
P.I. and security specialist Jamie Sinclair finds herself caught in a dangerous game of international cat-and-mouse …
Jamie Sinclair's father has never asked her for a favor in her life. The former two-star general turned senator is more in the habit of giving his only child orders. So when he requests Jamie's expertise as a security specialist, she can't refuse — even though it means slamming the brakes on her burgeoning relationship with military police officer Adam Barrett. Just like that, Jamie hops aboard a flight to London with a U.S. State Department courier carrying a diplomatic pouch in an iron grip.
Jamie doesn't have to wait long to put her unique skills to good use. When she and the courier are jumped by goons outside the Heathrow terminal, Jamie fights them off — but the incident puts her on high alert. Someone's willing to kill for the contents of the bag. Then a would-be assassin opens fire in crowded Covent Garden, and Jamie is stunned to spot a familiar face: Adam Barrett, who saves her life with a single shot and calmly slips away. Jamie's head — and her heart — tell her that something is very wrong. But she's come way too far to turn back now.
— The Kill Shot by Nichole Christoff
