Tell us about Black Sheep.

BLACK SHEEP was one of those books that was total serendipity. I was in an airport shuttle van on my way to a speaking engagement when my agent called and said that we had a bidding war going on for the rights to my NYT Bestseller, Blind Faith, and that several editors had asked if we could turn it into a series.

So there on the phone between the airport and my hotel, we brainstormed a premise for BLACK SHEEP: what if FBI Supervisory Special Agent Caitlyn Tierney (a secondary character in BLIND FAITH) discovered that her father’s suicide, which shaped her entire life and career, wasn’t what it appeared to be?

We decided to take Caitlyn out of her comfort zone, so we sent her to the one place where her FBI skills and prestige would be useless: back home to the small village in the North Carolina mountains that she’d left after her father’s death twenty-six years ago.
Out of that ten minute conversation BLACK SHEEP was born…it turned out to be a much darker and more suspenseful book than I’d anticipated, dealing with betrayals from loved ones, but that resonates with BLIND FAITH’s theme nicely so I think readers will be pleased that I ventured out of my own comfort zone and took a journey to the dark side.

So now that Caitlyn Tierney has taken centre stage, tell us more about her personality.

Caitlyn is a lone wolf—she has a very black and white view of justice and follows her own code of honour rather than the rules, something that makes her a maverick in the very regimented society of the FBI. She gets away with it because her out of the box thinking helps her solve the big cases and make the Bureau look good, but she’s always teetering on the knife-edge.

What kind of readers will this book appeal to?

It’s dark psychological suspense with some violence and twists upon twists, so any thriller/suspense fan should enjoy it.

We’re curious about something; which of the recurring characters that you’ve created is your favourite to write about?

Wow, that is a really tough question! I think my characters have evolved with me—so the characters I write at any given point are the ones I enjoy. Right now I’m having a blast exploring Lucy Guardino—she’s a Pittsburgh soccer mom who is also a kick-ass FBI Agent juggling the demands of work and family, something almost every woman (and most men) can sympathize with.

I’m also loving writing my YA characters. In many ways I can go darker and edgier with them because kids demand more emotional honesty than adults do; adult readers are more interested in entertainment. I have fun providing my readers with both.

You write for kids and adults, so what’s the connecting thread? What would you say is the defining characteristic of a CJ Lyons book?

All my books are Thrillers with Heart. They have thriller pacing (“breathtakingly fast-paced” according to Publishers Weekly) but are character driven, centered on the relationships between the characters. Yes, they have car chases and explosions like most thrillers, but I enjoy exploring the grey areas between the black and white of good and evil and focus on how everyday people become heroes.

You’ve co-authored books with Erin Brockovich. How did that come about?

Erin read my Angels of Mercy medical thrillers and enjoyed the strong female protagonists. She and her publisher called and invited me to work with them on her new suspense series. How could I say no? It was tons of fun working with a personal hero of mine.

You’ve sold truckloads of books – what’s your secret?

I share everything I know about being a bestseller on NoRulesJustWRITE.com but here it is in a nutshell: Write a damn good book, give readers time to find it and tell their friends, then repeat.

Tell us about yourself.

I’m a small town girl from the mountains of central Pennsylvania (the reason why most of my books are set in the rust belt) who worked my way through medical school and practised paediatrics and paediatric emergency medicine for 17 years before taking a leap of faith and following my dream of becoming a full time writer.

Do you have a website where readers can keep up with your work? How can we follow you on social media?

My website is http://cjlyons.net and am on Twitter at @cjlyonswriter and Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/cj.lyons.

What’s next?

BLACK SHEEP is out Feb 26th, 2013, the sequel, HOLLOW BONES comes out in September, followed by my YA thriller debut, BROKEN, in November. In between I hope to release AFTER SHOCK, the fourth Lucy Guardino FBI Thriller as well as EDGE OF SHADOWS, the third Shadow Ops novel in addition to finishing my second YA thriller.

Wow, do you ever rest?!

Oh, and I’m taking my first vacation in seven years!

***
Enjoyed this interview? Then check out our conversation with Jennifer Chase.