The Anchor
The Anchor
by Kevin R. Doyle
GENRE: mystery
The Anchor: Jen has toiled away in television news, just waiting for a big break. And at the same time she finally gets a shot at the promotion opportunity she’s waited years for, head anchor for the nightly newscast, an unseen, shadowy man is desperate for her to notice him. When messages and well wishes don’t do the trick, her mysterious admirer intends to do anything necessary to make Jen a success and snare her attention, even if it means attacking her fiancé and killing off her competition.
Excerpt:
“Package for you,” Aldiss said.
Jen looked down at the plain wrapped bundle lying on her desk.
“Jack do something to make up for?” her deskmate asked.
Jen puffed in exasperation and plopped into her chair.
“What hasn’t he done?” she replied.
Aldiss chuckled and bent over his computer screen.
“How long have you and I shared a desk?” she asked.
“A year or so, give or take,” Aldiss replied, looking up.
“Uh huh. And how long have I been seeing Jack?”
“That you’ve admitted to? Seems like running on a year.”
“Eleven months.”
“Close.” Her coworker turned away and went back to his work.
Jen tapped her fingers on her desk and stared at the bundle. It had a small card attached, but without raising the flap and reading it, it looked like some sort of generic message-type thing.
“And when’s the last time he’s sent me a gift at work?”
Aldiss grinned.
“What’s the package say?” he asked.
“You didn’t look?”
“Hey, bunky, I believe in privacy.”
“Some reporter you are.”
She glanced at the package again, noted that it had come from FedEx, and assumed Tammy had signed for it up at the front desk. Then she flipped the front flap on the little card open.
“Hmm.”
Aldiss glanced up from his work but didn’t say anything.
Jen snared some scissors out of her desk and cut the paper open.
“Obviously, somebody thinks my current diet’s unnecessary.”
He looked up again, his brows raised.
Jen held up a box of Russell Stover chocolates.
“Card not from him?”
Jen shook her head.
“Say who it’s from?”
She held the card up eye level.
“In appreciation of all your service to the community,” she recited.
“Doesn’t sound like a new lover.”
“I hope not. I’d like to think I’d know if I was seeing someone new.”
Aldiss furrowed his brow.
“You done any story lately that’s been big time?”
Jen half glared at him.
“Meaning?”
Aldiss spread his hands out in a placatory gesture.
“Hey, nothing personal. I’m just curious what they mean by service to the community.”
Jen glanced down at the card for a second before looking back up.
“Maybe it’s just a fancier way of saying ‘I like your work.’”
“Or maybe it’s just some creeper who’s got a thing for you. After all, it wouldn’t be the first time a hot news anchor had an admirer.”
Grinning, Jen picked a paper clip off her desk and flipped it at him.
“Far as that goes,” she snorted, “wouldn’t be the first time for me.”
Aldiss picked the clip up from where it had fallen on his desk and tossed it back her way.
“Just imagine if they end up giving you Karyn’s nighttime slot. They’ll be coming out of the woodwork.”
“Thanks,” Jen said. “I’m doing my best not to think of that.”
About the Author:
Kevin R. Doyle’s The Anchor: Jen has toiled away in television news, just waiting for a big break. And at the same time she finally gets a shot at the promotion opportunity she’s waited years for, head anchor for the nightly newscast, an unseen, shadowy man is desperate for her to notice him. When messages and well wishes don’t do the trick, her mysterious admirer intends to do anything necessary to make Jen a success and snare her attention, even if it means attacking her fiancé and killing off her competition.
Author website: www.kevindoylefiction.com
Biography:
A high-school teacher, former college instructor, and fiction writer, Kevin R. Doyle is the author of numerous short horror stories. He’s also written three crime thrillers, The Group, When You Have to Go There, and And the Devil Walks Away, and one horror novel, The Litter. In the last few years, he’s begun working on the Sam Quinton private eye series, published by Camel Press. The first Quinton book, Squatter’s Rights, was nominated for the 2021 Shamus award for Best First PI Novel. The second book, Heel Turn, was released in March of 2021, while the third in the series, Double Frame, came out in March of 2022.
Email: kevinrossdoyle@gmail.com
Facebook address: www.facebook.com/kevindoylefiction
Amazon paperback and Kindle
Smashwords:
Smashwords – The Anchor – a book by Kevin R. Doyle
The Anchor by Kevin R. Doyle | eBook | Barnes & Noble® (barnesandnoble.com)
The Anchor eBook by Kevin R. Doyle - EPUB | Rakuten Kobo United States
Q&A With the Author
What did you enjoy most about writing this book?
Basically, what I enjoyed most was the mere act of completing it. A little context here.
I work as a full-time high school teacher, which despite popular opinion translates out to around a sixty-hour work week. When I first moved into writing novels, it took around a year to eighteen months to complete one. Once I figured out a good working system, it still took about that same amount of time, but I would be working on a couple simultaneously.
When I began the 2019 school year (AKA, six months before Covid appeared), I was contracted for two books to be completed by the following summer. Around this time, I was still not comfortable saying “no” to requests from editors or publishers, with the result over the last three years I’ve begun, completed, and found publishers for five novels, with four already released and one more out early next year. With all of that going on, the mere act of completing The Anchor felt like a major achievement.
To say that my brain is currently fried is an understatement, but at least I got through the period of time more or less intact.
Do you have any other books you are working on that you can tell us about?
Sure. March will see the release of Clean Win, the fourth book in the Sam Quinton series, where private eye Quinton is hired off the books by a police lieutenant to aid in a murder investigation that involves the city’s mayor. After that, I still have two Quinton books to go on the current contract with Camel Press. I also have an older novel, a combination horror and legal mystery, that has a really cool premise, but I was much less experienced when I wrote it and it really does not read very well. For some time now, I’ve had the urge to pull it out, strip it down, and build it back up and see if I can make something of it.
Can you tell us about what you have planned for the future?
Well, not to brag but as I’m writing this I have exactly one hundred days left in my high-school teaching career. After I wrap things up in May, I’m going to stay around the area I live in for a year or so and decide where I want to put down some new roots. And, as I said, I have those two extra Quinton books still to write.
How long have you been writing?
I began in the mid-eighties and had my first short story published in a very tiny magazine called Starsong, out of South Carolina, in 1986. For most of that time, I worked in the short story form, mainly in the horror genre. My first novel, at least first published novel, was The Group in 2013.
Anything more you would like to say to your readers and fans?
I’d like to say a little bit here about the dedication at the front of The Anchor. Without going into too much detail, twenty years ago, the school district I work for came along at the absolute lowest point in my life and threw me a lifeline. I was living in another state and in some fairly dire straights when they offered me employment. While I didn’t tell anyone, at the time I took the job I firmly intended to be there four years, get myself back on my feet, and move on.
I’m now halfway through my twentieth, and final, year, so when I knew this book was coming out in December, it only felt right to dedicate it to the school district and surrounding community that really bailed me out in my time of need.
GIVEAWAY
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Thanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteGood morning. I appeciate you hosting this tour and will check in periodically through the day. Hope you had a good holiday.
ReplyDeleteThe book sounds very intriguing.
ReplyDeleteLove the unique cover. I enjoyed the Q&A With the Author
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a great mystery. I like the cover and excerpt.
ReplyDeleteGreat excerpt and giveaway.
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