Today it is my pleasure to welcome author C.H. Lyn and her Suspense/Thriller novel Lacey Goes to Tokyo.Author’s description of the book:

International travel means international danger.

Lacey Devaine is a four-year veteran of a spy ring which fronts as an exclusive escort service, Miss Belle’s Travel Guides. Maintaining her cover is Lacey’s number one priority to protect the integrity of the operation she works for.

While on assignment in Tokyo, a nosy newspaper reporter threatens to blow the lid off a scandal that will put dozens of innocent lives at risk. To protect her cover, Miss Belle is called in to act on intelligence Lacey has uncovered.

Can these beautiful, intelligent, and deadly women complete this assignment

C.H. Lyn shares her thoughts with us on creating likeable deadly female protagonists:

The obvious answer for how to create a likeable deadly female protagonist, is to make sure a character is three-dimensional. Too often we are handed female characters who are clearly male characters with a “girl” name. Or, we are given people who are only focused on the mission, the revenge, or the murder. Lacey and Miss Belle have lives. They have friends, passions, and a family; that’s what drives their characters, sometimes to kill.

Creating these two women was incredibly entertaining for a couple reasons. They are such different women, it made writing back and forth between the two of them challenging, but it gave me the relief of never having a dull moment. It also made those pesky writers-block moments a little easier to handle. When one character stopped talking to me, I could often figure out a way to work on the other character’s scenes.

With Lacey we see right away that she is a calm sort of person. She’s the friend who listens when you vent about life, but never seems to have anything worth venting about to you. In fact, until we see her truly angry, it’s hard to imagine she could be anything but the polite young lady she pretends to be. I think this helps the reader relate to her, probably more than Miss Belle. She’s the girl next door, the friendly ear, the relaxing person we all enjoy spending time with. She’s also cunning, athletic, multi-lingual, and more than capable of handling herself in rough situations.

Miss Belle is another story. She curses, throws things, and from the start we know she is a killer. I think her likeability comes from her interactions with the other characters. As a stand-alone, she would be too similar to the plethora of standoffish, angry protagonists who take justice into their own hands. Instead, she tries to do the right thing and finds herself painted into a corner. Miss Belle is harsh throughout the story, and will continue to be harsh as the series progresses. She isn’t necessarily supposed to be liked by every reader, not entirely anyway. But if the reader can see how much she struggles with the deaths around her, namely the ones she is directly responsible for, they will be able to understand her choices, even if they don’t agree with them.

These women each have their own motives, their own histories, and their own voices. Their realness is what makes them likeable. They aren’t always cool under pressure, because no one is. They don’t always make the right decisions, because no one does. And they suffer the consequences of their decisions, because everyone does.

About the Author:

I was born and raised in a small town in Northern California. Growing up in a college town meant I experienced a wide variety of people and opinions. I like to think my stories reflect the vast differences in the people I’ve met.  I love to travel. I want to explore the world around me while writing about the worlds in my mind.

I grew up with a steady diet of wonderful stories set in amazing worlds. I’ve read almost every series Tamora Pierce has written, and I am a crazy fan of the Hunger Games series. My nerdiness also encompasses the Harry Potter series, LOTR, and (to an extent) the worlds of superheros. Though, my husband is really head of DC knowledge in the household. He is also the most amazing source of support I could hope for.

I’m 26 now. My daughter just turned one. She is already so smart, curious, and beautiful. I want the female characters in my writing to be inspiring, not just for her, but for all the little girls who grow up reading.

Find C.H.Lyn at her website, or on Facebook, on Tirgearr Publishing, or on Twitter.

Purchase her book here at the Amazon link for Lacey Goes to Tokyo.

Yes there is a giveaway:

C.H. Lyn will be awarding a $10 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

Enter here to win

My favorite excerpt:

The blade I planted in his shoulder now dangles from his left hand. Fresh blood—my blood—coats the metal. His right arm hangs, useless, at his side.

He snarls at me with yellow teeth. He lunges forward again. The blade swings toward me, and I parry with my machete. The effort sends a burst of pain down my arm and into the left side of my back.

He swings again, and I step to the side, leaning my upper body to the right. We dance now. Circling each other. My left arm will not land a functional blow. Not with blood still dripping down from my shoulder. His right arm continues to swing. More blood pours from him than me.

I reach up my right hand and tug down my handkerchief. I breathe deep, easing the pain in my shoulder and preparing myself for the next attack. I switch my machete back to the right hand.

He shouts something. My grasp of the language is bad—at best—but I know what a cry for help sounds like.

“No one can hear you.” I spit blood at him, laughing.

Laughing during a fight knocks people off their guard, especially if blood is leaking from between your teeth at the same time.

His eyes widen. He says a few words and his gaze darts around in frantic movements. It lands on me. I catch his eyes with mine and don’t blink.

“The rest of your friends? They’re dead.”

This post is part of a tour sponsored by Goddess Fish.

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