Buy Suspense Novels by Charles J Harwood

Four suspense novels by Charles J Harwood are The Shuttered Room, Falling Awake, Nora and a Hard Lesson. All thrillers are professionally edited. These unforgettable thrillers hold nothing back, with sexual chemistry and taboo themes such as Stockholm Syndrome, voyeurism, insomnia and obsession. With vivid characters, twisty plots and above all, a very different read. Find overview of each thriller below. Purchase by clicking on the image. Reviews appreciated!

The Shuttered Room

Little do they know their captive holds a deadly secret.

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from Amazon

Jess’s life would appear idyllic: privileges, money, a son and a devoted husband. But her life is shattered when she is taken hostage and confined in a bedroom by three thugs demanding a sizeable ransom from her wealthy father. A failed escape attempt spurs her captors to hire a borrowed baby to keep the police off the trail. In desperation, Jess cuts a hole in the bedroom floor with a cutlery knife from where she spies upon her captors downstairs. But as her pastime grow in obsession, Jess finds her sanity jeapardised by a sexual psychological game she finds herself playing with her captors.

Read more about The Shuttered Room on this blog or click image to purchase.

Falling Awake

Insomnia can have the most sinister causes.

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from Amazon

Gemma's home is put under jeopardy after her husband Liam vanishes with an unexplained debt and a creepy-looking doodle. In desperation, she performs erotic routines 'Domestic Bliss' for insomniac, Luke who watches from across the courtyard. But Luke is fussy about what he likes to watch and an uneasy chemistry develops between them after she satirizes her performance. As the ugly truth surrounding Liam’s disappearance unravels, Gemma finds herself trapped into Luke’s obligation. Paranoia takes its grip as she fears the truth surrounding the cause of Luke’s insomnia. Voyeurism is only a part of what Luke likes to participate in.

Read more about Falling Awake on this blog or click image to purchase.

A Hard Lesson

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from Amazon

A teacher takes on the pupil from hell only to learn what treachery means.

Tenacious teacher, Sarah takes on Josh, the worst pupil imaginable. Dyslexic and with behaviour problems, Josh seems intent only upon humiliating her in his well-honed way perfected upon countless teachers before her. But her problems are just beginning after she set Josh an assignment on erotic art. Her boyfriend Frank deserts her to his commitment to a criminal hub headed by psychopath, Kurt. Slowly, Sarah gets drawn into the dark secrets of Josh’s family as well as the inner workings of Kurt’s sinister clique. A tale of shame, betrayal and manipulation, Sarah must ultimately face her greatest fear.

Read more about A Hard Lesson on this blog or click image to purchase

Nora

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from Amazon

Her harsh brand of rehab hides a bitter secret.

Nancy is hurled into the world of celebrity when she finds herself performing a shoot for handsome but odious playboy, Vince, as they walk from one of his nightclubs. The seduction of this other world sours after Nancy overhears Vince make a bet with his PA, Leon on the length of her fifteen minutes of fame.

Her world falls apart after Vince’s limo crashes, propelling Nancy into a nightmare world where her alter ego Nora is born.

Vince’s playboy lifestyle is about to be turned upside down. Hers will never be the same.

Read more about Nora on this blog or click image to purchase.

Want to read this thriller?
The Shuttered Room
(Charles J Harwood)

All novels are professionally edited and formatted for Kindle, Nook, Sony, Apple, paperback and large print.

Note: Three of these books are available within an anthology, entitled, Gone Too Far (3 Psychological Thrillers about Taboo), which is a little cheaper than purchasing the 3 novels singly.

Related links to my author website

Great themes in literary fiction
Stories with taboo themes

Falling Awake by Charles J Harwood: A Psychological Thriller

Falling Awake is a psychological thriller about a woman who takes a late night commission performing for a mysterious client for urgent cash. But she begins to question the nature of who she is performing for. Paranoia soon sets in.

A Psychological Thriller

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Falling Awake, previously titled Domestic Bliss tells the story of Gemma who is faced with the prospect of repossession after her husband Liam vanishes under mysterious circumstances with only a weird doodle as a clue to why. Gemma is in for a nasty shock about her husband.

But her problems are only just beginning when in desperation Gemma takes up an evening job performing routines with Charlene for an insomniac voyeur, Luke, who watches from across the courtyard in his apartment.

Suspense Thriller

Buy from Audible

But her client is rather particular about what he likes to watch and Gemma is anything but a natural performer. An uneasy chemistry develops between them that is not good for her state of mind or the erotic scenarios devised by theatre director, Phil, which he calls ‘Domestic Bliss.’ The negative feedback Gemma gets for her efforts becomes the least of her worries when she suspects Luke is not what he seems.

As the horrifying truth about Liam’s disappearance unfurls, Gemma finds herself obligated to Luke. Gemma begins to suspect her worst fears lie behind the causes of Luke’s insomnia.

Have listen to an audio sample of this dark psychological thriller that centres on paranoia.

Idea behind Falling Awake

A Creepy Psychological Thriller
Charles J Harwood

I had originally written Falling Awake as a screenplay and then decided to flesh out the characters and add a tense subplot, namely the circumstances surrounding Liam’s disappearance. But the story really centres upon the relationship between Gemma and Luke and how her paranoia about him builds.

I wanted to pose the question what it would be like to feel obligated to someone who you fear most, and worse, to become psychologically compromised.

Falling Awake is my third novel after The Shuttered Room and A Hard Lesson.
Read an excerpt from Falling Awake or read an overview of Charles J Harwood novels.
Falling Awake is available in audio, Kindle and paperback.

Note: since publishing this article, this novel can also be found within Eclipse Quartet: Four Psychological Thrillers.

Related links to my author website

Stories with taboo themes
Great themes in literary fiction

I Can't Get my Kindle Novel to Format how I Want

Publishing an enovel on Kindle is quick and easy if you know how. Here are some hints and tips on epublishing that I picked up when publishing my novels on Amazon’s Kindle store and Smashwords.

Epublishing a Novel Made Easy

First of all, make sure the novel is exactly how you want. And this means no typos, no grammatical errors, no flabby paragraphs and no stereotypical characters. The main body of the novel is the most important aspect of epublishing. The first three chapters are even more crucial, as Kindle enables the shopper to upload the first ten percent of the book free. If this fails to grab the reader, then the Amazon customer is unlikely to buy the kindle book.

Formatting the Novel for Kindle

With a shiny, perfect masterpiece at your disposal, it is time to share it with the world, and how exciting is that! But first, here are some tips to take the headache out of formatting a Kindle novel.

Save the novel on Word. It is a good all-round format that can easily be translated by most devices. It must be noted that there are different formats you can save you novel on, but when it comes to Word, there are really two types: Word 2003 XML and Word 1997-2003. Other formats such as PDF file, HTML and a formatting tool known as Mobipocket are available to be used, but from my own personal experience, I have found that none of these format well on the Kindle and I have experienced bugs and all sorts of problems with them (forgive me if you haven’t had this experience.)

Publishing a Kindle Novel

As previously mentioned, there are really two types of word, one more advanced than the other. The XML version has more add-ons and therefore supersedes the other, but Amazon recommends saving the document as the earlier version. Doing this is easy. If you open the document where you novel is saved and click on the “office button” graphic on the upper left of your screen, a drop down menu gives you the option of how to save your novel. Click on save as “Word 1997-2003” and the system will save this version as an additional file. You will notice that the file will end with the suffix .doc. (not .docx, which is the XML version). Of course, if you have already completed your novel on the earlier version of Word, there is no need to do this.

Common Formatting Errors with Kindle

A note of caution here. If you have saved your novel as an XML and then save it as the earlier version, and then notice some formatting issues, for instance, the new paragraphs are not indented enough, and then you correct this issue on the earlier version of the Word file, you might find this problem persists when you view the book on Amazon’s pseudo-Kindle previewer (to be explained in a moment). This is because as mentioned before, the XML supersedes this earlier version of word, and some commands cannot be computed. The only solution is to delete the .doc file, correct this issue on the XML file and save it again as a .doc.

The Perfect Kindle Novel

Kindle recommends the following to be avoided either because they will cause formatting problems or will not translate onto the Kindle device:

• Bullet points.
• Dropped caps (Big fancy capitals at the beginning of each chapter.)
• Fancy fonts.
• Fancy graphics.

Again, make sure these issues are dealt with if working on the XML file before saving it as Word 1997-2003. Bold, italics and headings are fine.

Step by Step Guide to Kindle Formatting

Now you have saved your novel as a .doc (not .docx) it is time to format.

Go through the novel and backspace any superfluous spaces, particularly at the end of each chapter. Insert a page break at the end of every chapter, or you may find consecutive chapters running one after the other on the Kindle previewer. This might be painstaking work, but it is worth it. You will need a title page, copyright matter, and perhaps other elements, such as a dedication page a contents page and backmatter. In all cases, begin the font at the top of the page rather than in the middle. Centre the wording on the page.

Use a basic font, such as Times New Roman or Aerial. I use 12 or 10 point. It doesn’t really matter, as the Kindle device enables the reader to magnify the font one, two or three times the size anyway. Some fancy fonts may not translate on the Kindle.

Inserting Bookmarks to your Novel

Bookmarks can be inserted into the novel to enable the reader to jump to any chapter without having to scroll through the novel to the chapter desired. Bookmarks are really hyperlinks that provide shortcuts just like a link, only within a document. This requires a little explaining, so I have dedicated a separate article on how to insert bookmarks into an enovel, as well as inserting a table to format a list of chapters.

You don’t need to insert page numbers on an ebook, as the Kindle will do this automatically, and having two separate systems of page numbering can be distracting for the reader.

Uploading the Enovel

With everything ready, it is time to upload the novel. Sign into your account on DTP Amazon and navigate to “upload your book file.” (You will need to fill in the other boxes, book title, description. keywords, and book cover but these matters have been covered in other articles on this blog.)

Navigate to the box “upload you book file.” Browse to the file you want and click on the novel. Uploading may take a minute or two. Once the novel has been uploaded, you can view it on a pseudo-Kindle previewer (mentioned earlier). This enables you to see how the novel looks. I click on every page to make sure there are no unwanted spaces, chapters running after another or unwanted formatting problems. It may be necessary to correct the original file and upload again if such a formatting problem shows up.

If all is well, click on save and continue, which moves on to matters of pricing and royalties,which is pretty self-explanatory. The novel will take around 2 to 3 days to show up on the Amazon Kindle store. You can upload a free Kindle for PC previewer (not the same as the pseudo-Kindle previewer on DTP Amazon). You can then send yourself a free sample of your own book and see it how it really looks, colour and all. If the pseudo Kindle previewer shows no problems, neither should the Kindle for PC.

My step by step guide on formatting your kindle book with pictures may compliment this guide.
Plus an UPDATE: Learn how to make the table of contents of your Kindle book to go live by converting your book into an Epub before uploading onto KDP.

Links to my Other Writing Sites

Practical advice on completing a novel
Secrets of writing crime fiction
What won't help your books to sell
Books on writing novels
Basic guide on using Callibre for Epub conversion

A Hard Lesson by Charles Jay Harwood: Games of Teacher and Pupil

A teacher finds herself tutoring a nightmare pupil. Up against a legacy of countless teachers who could not face up to the challenge, this meek fledgling teacher does not fare her chances well. But the trials he throws at her are just the beginning.

Kindle Thriller on Dyslexia

Buy Kindle Edition

A Hard Lesson, now available on audio as well as Kindle, tells the story of, Sarah who is haunted by the memory of her dead brother. She encounters her prospective pupil, Josh, through her then boyfriend, Frank on a routine visit. Sarah falls into the trap of tutoring this ‘obnoxious grunge.' The ensuing scenes describe how he makes things very difficult for Sarah by employing his selection-box of games of Teacher and Pupil, such as Blackmail a Teacher, Compromise a Teacher’s Personal Life and Make a Teacher Grovel. This made the scenes fun to write, but poor Sarah soon realises it doesn’t end with his games.

Download from Audible

Idea for A Hard Lesson

Sarah discovers that there is more to Josh’s family than meets the eye. His mother tenaciously upholds that her son is not dyslexic but merely lazy, and routinely enrols him on literacy courses in the belief he will achieve good grades and move on from his dead-end job. Sarah also finds herself getting drawn into the inner workings of her boyfriend’s tightly-knit gang headed by psychopathic but charismatic, Kurt.

What may at first appear to be separate worlds begin to exhibit connections Sarah didn’t foresee. The story unfolds, testing the callibre of each character to the limit and causing the tension to unfold with gathering momentum. Sarah ultimately must face her greatest fear, not least Kurt himself.

A poignant scene within this novel consists of when Josh becomes a suspect to a stabbing, and Sarah employs kinaesthetic exercises (guiding his hands through the air) to help with his letter-orientation.

The prologue and epilogue of the story gives Frank’s point of view. The main story is told from Sarah’s. Now available as an audiobook,

Take a listen to the opening sequence of the prologue.

A Hard Lesson Story Development

I wrote A Hard Lesson before The Shuttered Room, but published the latter first. A Hard Lesson is a plot idea that had been buzzing around my head since I was a teenager. It began as a short story, evolving into a full length novel. I wanted to explore the idea of a seemingly small and insignificant event having huge consequences upon what would appear to be an unbeatable system. Namely Sarah up against Josh, and ultimately Kurt.

Everything would seem to be up against Sarah: her guilt about her dead brother, her inexperience in teaching a dyslexic pupil, the dark secrets of his family and Frank’s commitment to his cause within Kurt’s criminal gang.

Thankfully, my brief term teaching has never yielded such a horrendous pupil, but my imagination took relish from trying out different scenarios with the object of testing the heroine to the limit.

A Hard Lesson is my second book between the Shuttered Room and Falling Awake.
Read an overview of Charles Jay Harwood novels. Paperback measures 8x5in and 262 pages. Also available in large print.

Note: since publishing this, A Hard Lesson can be found within a four in one thriller bundle book, Eclipse Quartet, 4 Psychological Thrillers, which is a little cheaper than purchasing my four novels singly.

Related links on my author website

How the family dynamics and the hierarchial gang
Stories with taboo themes

A Stockholm Syndrome Romance Novel you Will Never Forget: the Shuttered Room by Charles J Harwood

A psychological thriller about abduction with an unexpected twist, Jessica Fraser finds herself trapped in an upstairs room held to ransom by three nasty thugs. But Jess has a secret, a secret that would have made her abductors think twice before picking her as their target.

Kidnapping Thriller

Click to buy
from Amazon

This novel tells the story of Jessica Fraser, married with a son and with plenty of money would appear to have the sort of perfect life many others crave, but her dark past soon catches up with her when she is abducted by three thugs and held in an upstairs room.

Jess manages to catch the police’s attention in a failed attempt to get away, but the thugs retain their cover by taking on a baby to feign a family setup. With no one to find her, how does Jess while away the hours in a small room?

What to do in a Locked Room

In fact, Jess has more than enough to think about after cutting a hole in the floorboards from where she spies upon her abductor’s everyday lives below. Jess’s spying soon becomes  obsessive until she finds herself playing psychological games with them. With her life in the balance, Jess discovers unsavoury truths about herself and starts to question her own sanity, least of all her growing feelings for one of her captors, Jake. The sort of book I would like to read, you might find yourself reading into the night.

Dynamics of Captive and Captor

Get this audiobook from Audible

The seeds were sown in 2005 after a weird idea for a story kept prodding my mind and refused to go away. (This has happened several times, the results of which are uncompleted manuscripts and screenplays languishing in drawers.)

The idea manifested itself over several months and from many sources: a casual interest in psychology; Freud’s theory on Ego states; Eric Berne’s little known but brilliant book “Games People Play,” the Big Brother phenomenon, and my own life experiences. At the book's heart lies the taboo and repression.

I began to think “what if...?” the story seemed to write itself and the rest is history.

The Shuttered Room: a Tale of Abduction

I put my manuscript in the bottom drawer and then worked on the redraft. After much hard work conceiving the book design, editing, re-editing after producing the audiobook version, my tale of psychological cat-and-mouse is now available in all formats.

Psychological Thrillers in Large Print

If only they knew: Charles J Harwood

Note: since writing this, The Shutttered Room is now available within a 4 in 1 thriller bundle book, Eclipse Quartet: 4 Psychological Thrillers, which supersedes the previous trilogy, Gone Too Far (3 Psychological Thrillers about Taboo).

Read an excerpt from the Shuttered Room on this blog.

I have written three other novels, A Hard Lesson, Falling Awake and Nora also available for purchase on kindle, hard copy and large print. You may also read a brief overview of all the novels written by Charles J Harwood on this blog.

Related links on my author website

The Stockholm syndrome relationship
The inner gremlins of kidnappers
What if human behavior had a voice?
Bernes' Games People Play in the Shuttered Room

OtherArticles on Writing

Practical advice on completing a novel

How to develop characters for films

What are the Top Ten Best Online Magazines to Write For?

Writing articles for money is one of the best ways to earn passive income, but with so many magazines to choose from, which should the writer go for? Here is a rundown of the ten best online magazines to generate money from freelance writing.

Earn Money Writing from Home by Writing Articles

Make Money Writing
click to buy from Amazon

Writing for Magazines Online offers an alternative to blogging or writing for a personal website, as the articles will often rank higher on Google search pages. This is due in part to the size of the site, as it will inevitably be larger than the humble blog or personal website. A system that most often works on revenue share, here is a list of the top ten sites to write for.

Suite 101 Online Magazine

One of the largest online magazines on the Net attracting around 20 million readers every month and rising, and which I write for. Get paid for articles on a host of subjects, from arts education to health and beauty. Articles must be between 400 to 800 words and pass editorial standards. Online tutorials are available to help inform writers on how to SEO their articles and optimise Adsense revenue.

Limited positions are available for featured writers who must write one article per week on a specialist subject for an extra bonus. A friendly and supportive writer’s forum is a plus, as well as helpful editors. As with all online magazines, Suite takes a cut of Google Adsense before passing it one to the writer.

HubPages

Who to Write For

Another opportunity to earn Adsense revenue via online publishing, as well as a cut of Amazon and Ebay affiliation, HubPages is a means for writers to share useful tips, interesting facts, personal reviews or create a fanbase. Writers are able to link back to their own sites if they wish, using HubPages as a sort of promotional space.

Constant Content

Another way to make money writing from home, the writer may create “Constant Content” at will, or sell articles to fulfil a request. Constant Content provides articles for over 10,000 websites, delivered by around 30,000 writers.

Associated Content

Not to be confused with Constant Content, this similarly-named online information resource hosted by Yahoo, enables writers to earn upfront payments from articles which may be posted on Yahoo News, sports or finance. Writers may choose to write on their own topic, or on a subject posted on an “assignment desk.” Payment is tiered to the amount of traffic received.

Ehow

As the title suggests, the writer may earn money online by writing articles on how to do anything from “how to harvest heat in a home” to “how to transfer music from an Iphone to Itunes.” Articles are often formatted in bullet point for quick, easy digestion of information.

Buksia

With an interesting 3-tiered referral system, the writer is able to earn money from articles, as well as articles written by third parties. This means the writer gets paid, and gets paid when referred writers get paid.

Squidoo

A means of making money from affiliate share from writing your own “lens” (a snippet of information or overview on an article, blog or anything you like), or selling your lens to a third party. The writer may create links to a personal website or blog, and get paid for it.

Xombia

Earn Money Freelancing
click to buy from Amazon

The writer, or “Xombie,” gets paid for indepth knowledge on any subject, which may be in the form of snippets, or longer articles. The revenue share is fifty/fifty. Half the time, the writer gets paid, the other half, Xomba receives the share.

Helium

A means of getting paid for writing on what you know, Helium enables the writer to earn money in three ways: daily revenue share from ads, writing contests and upfront payments for writing commissions. Writers may battle for the top spot or win Helium contests.

Update on Writing for Magazines

Many of these websites have been hit heavily by a series of algorythms, namely Google's Panda, which penalises content farming and articles overly-similar to one another. This means the the ranking of the website has gone down as well as the writer's earnings. Some of these websites are trying to regain former rankings but times are difficult. This is not to say that online magazines will not recover in the future.


Article Income Sources

The writer creates informative content and gets paid via contextual advertising. Like Xomba, the writer gets a fifty/fifty share of the revenue earned, but may increase to 70% depending upon the traffic. Article Income have a syndication network of other online magazines on various themes, including sports, shopping and marketing.

Books on How to Earn Money Writing Online

• Top ten questions to ask online magazines
• Book on writing for the web
• My website on writing novels
• My website on writing for film

How can I Get a Producer to Read my Screenplay?

Completing a screenplay is only the beginning of a bumpy journey for the screenwriter. The next step is submitting the script to agents, but other avenues can be explored, including screenwriting competitions, professional readings, screenwriting consultancies and workshops, all presenting possible breakthroughs for a good script to get noticed.

Opportunities for Screenwriters to get Produced

Advice for Screenwriters
click to buy from Amazon

It can be hard to find a film agent or production company to read a screenplay from an unknown writer, and this ma spur the writer to take desperate measures. This warrants a word of caution to always think twice before parting with too much money for the privilege of getting a screenplay read. Avoid screenwriting organisations that make big promises, or services that have not been tried and tested. I always conduct a Google search to establish if there have been issues with a particular company that may not be revealed within its own site.

Opportunity for Screenwriting Submissions

A good place to start is the Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook, which gives good advice on sending a screenplay, what to avoid and a list of agents to contact. Conducting a little research into the submission guidelines and the genre of the film agent is always a good idea.

Establish a contact name and expect a long wait. Some literary publishers also accept submissions from screenwriters. The submission package must be immaculate and well presented to reduce the chances of an out-and-out slush pile rejection. A link on how to submit a screenplay can be found at the foot of this article.

Useful Information for Screenwriters

The slog of breaking into the screenwriting market can nurture disillusionment in the writer, as most film agents are reluctant to read anything unless by an established screenwriter. The following alternative contacts are worth trying, the links of which can be found at the foot of this article.

Submitting Scripts to BBCWritersroom

BBCWritersroom is a great first contact for the newbie screenwriter, as the first ten pages are guaranteed to be read. A three month wait is likely from the receipt of an acknowledgement card. A tiered system is in place where a script is passed on to an ever higher contact if it passes on certain merits. Ultimately, the Beeb are looking for originality rather than a perfectly formatted script. A link to a free screenwriting formatting tool can also be found on their site, as well as current news for scriptwriting opportunities.

EuroScript Consultancy

A reasonably-priced screenwriting consultancy that also aids development of scripts for TV and film. This independent UK based screenwriting contact consists of experienced producers, screenwriters and tutors. Screenwriting workshops are also on offer.

Grants for Filmmakers

The writer may apply for screenwriting funding via bursaries for film development, which can be sought from the following contacts:

• Arts Council England Regional Offices offer grants for scriptwriters within areas of the UK.
• Writers’ Projects offers grants of a few thousand pounds to Scottish writers.
• The Scottish Arts Council finds bursaries for Scottish writers who have a passion for writing plays, as well as other literary works.

Opportunities for Young Scriptwriters

Selling your Screenplay
click to buy form Amazon

The following organisations offer student drama writers to break into TV or film writing.

The BBCWritersroom Future Talent Award for Writers: Partnered with MediaCityUK, an opportunity for fledgling drama writers to submit a drama or comedy script to be professionally read with the chance of production.

International Student Playwright Competition (ISPC): A long-running annual competition for students to submit their play to be read by notable scriptwriters, including Sir Alan Ayckbourn, a prolific playwright, with the chance of having the script professionally read at notable venues and winning a large cash prize.

TC Brian Way Award: Like the ISPC, has been running for many years. The competition offers young talented scriptwriters to be discovered, and the chance to win a large cash prize. The criteria are passion, originality and raising the profile of the issues of young people.

BBC Drama Writers Academy

Writing for TV in the form of a soap episode or a sitcom is often overlooked in preference for that elusive break into writing a feature film, but writing for TV is a lucrative industry and has a bigger demand for new talent. The writer may well do wise to look out for opportunities in writing for TV.

Every year, the BBC provides opportunities for a fledgling writer to write an episode for Doctors, Casualty, Hollyoaks or Eastenders via their Writer Academy event. This could provide possible open doors for the writer if talent is present.

Further Advice for Screenwriters

• How to submit a screenplay to an agent
• How to sell a film pitch
• How to write a screenplay synopsis
• How to copyright a screenplay before submitting
• BBCWritersroom submissions
• BBC Drama Writers Academy
• Screenwriting books