So one day, I was thinking. I know - that's never a good start, right (blush)? I wanted to try an experiment. There's a rule in the 'Great Books of HowToWrite' that you want your readers to be able to sympathise with your Main character. At least a little bit, anyway. So I thought, what if I wrote a character who nobody could sympathise with? And then, only at the end, showed them something that... well. That would be a Spoiler, right :-)? So I did it. Or I tried. Thing is, I sent the start of what I'd written to three people who had read most of what I'd written (and weren't actually in therapy as a result (blushes again), and asked what they'd thought. One of them said how, if the character didn't somehow redeem himself before the end of whatever I wrote, she'd never read anything of mine ever again. One said I'd totally blown it - because he was flat out funny. It was the third one who really worried me. At the time she was a retired, 72 year old former teacher. She wanted Jack's phone number. Thing is, he's a heartless assassin, and I didn't know if she wanted to offer him a contract - or date him (blushes again)!

So I did it. I gave in - and carried on writing. And, um, didn't send her Jack's number... This was the result. Who do you think was right? Over to y'all...

Jack Shadow - Shadow Dance (Book 1)

Jack Shadow. He’s heard them – every one of them. The jokes. They all start out the same. "See, this guy walks into a bar..." Well, that's not him. That guy who walked into a bar. He’s the guy who walked out. It's not amnesia. Near as anyone knows, he just doesn’t have a past. Near as anyone knows - or admits to. He doesn’t walk round a corner, and some guy from a car shoots at him because of something he did long ago.

Sure. Guys shoot at him. Hell, women too. But not for long ago. Mostly for last week. Where 'last week' is any week you choose. No, he just walked out of a bar. Were there piles of dead bodies behind him? A stacked deck he was dealing, or one he was dealt? He doesn’t know. Or care. But they were waiting, and they took him. The Dragon. Took him to make a difference. To wait for the time a beat of a gnat's wing could change tomorrow. And Jack’s the gnat. Jack walked out of a bar.

The rest - the rest will be history. Some day. Not that he’ll be in it. Nobody remembers the gnats. Not if they did their job right. And Jack’s the best there is. Jack Shadow. Because some days – the last thing you need is a good guy.