by Martha Carr
Lilly didn’t know anything about a thumb drive or the list. She had made that clear, swearing on her life.
Parrish got into the dark blue Ford Explorer that he always kept neat as a pin and drove off to deliver the winnings from the morning bets. It never looked good to miss a deadline.
Pre-order The Traitor’s Revenge December 1st on Amazon.
Will also be available for sale on Amazon and in KU starting December 8th.
Martha’s Notes
The List Conspiracy – The Wallis Jones Series 01: Written October 10, 2016
Thank you for not only picking up this story, the first book in the series, but for reading it all the way to the end, and NOW you are reading this as well. I am very grateful for each and every reader. It’s a great feeling for any author. The next book, The Traitor’s Revenge is up for pre-order on December 1st and will be out for you to read on December 8th, including in KDP. My plan is to have a new book in the series every 22 days and to make sure that happens I’ve already written a few ahead and have run the books through the best readers – Diane and Doreen Velasquez. I’m still hard at work on another book further along in the series, making sure there are must as many plot twists and that the pace keeps your heart racing as the conspiracy grows and grows.
I was set up for the idea of conspiracies from a pretty young age. My very first job was as a fifteen year old teenager selling books to tourists in the East and West portico of the White House during the Ford and Carter administrations. Most favorite memory was helping to set up during Queen Elizabeth’s royal visit in 1976 and getting to stand behind each of the names on the floor in the Blue Room while President Ford welcomed the Queen out on the South Lawn. Eventually the Secret Service ran us out of there. On my way out of the door on the arm of a Marine escort we noticed the Secret Service checking my old jalopy of a car, a blue Ford Galaxy 500, for bombs even though the parking pass for the White House was clearly displayed. While the Marine escort tried not to laugh, I stood up as straight as I could and informed them that was my car, before driving away as quickly as possible. This was all before 9/11 when you could park right by the House.
Second favorite was seeing the Christmas decorations every year. Each of the rooms was redone to match a theme. One year a tourist managed to take a bite out of an apple in a decoration without anyone noticing. The apples were coated in something to make them last, and therefore inedible but we didn’t see anyone collapse.
I could wander through most of the White House and chat with anyone, except the First Family, and learned a lot about the politics inside of politics. The whole town is all about how to get what they want and every deal comes with a lot of conversations no one else ever hears about. Want to really understand why the Secretary of State just made that deal, it helps to wonder what they really wanted in the first place. Then look at what they stand to gain, which is probably what someone wanted all along.
The clues are always there but first you have to believe that nothing is ever what it really seems at first. Otherwise you may end up shaking your fist in exasperation.
The Wallis Jones series is the result of all those years of watching politicians from close range and has been a labor of love and a journey. The inspiration for the series started when I was working in Richmond, Virginia, the setting for all of the books, and I was a stockbroker working inside of the Old Boy Network, marveling that it was something everyone talked about openly and saw as an institution. Sometimes I was even on the inside and was able to use family connections to get ahead. My full name is Martha Randolph Carr and I’m the great-great-great-niece of Thomas Jefferson. It was amazing how that would open doors just as much as a good track record.
Normally, my 200-year-old family history is a fun fact at parties, or has helped in Virginia when trying to get a job but that’s about it.
Sometimes, though I also got to see the Network at work from the outside, watching like a kid with her nose pressed up against a glass window. In either case, it seemed like the way things worked had more to do with the hidden infrastructure rather than the efforts we could all see. The idea of a bigger story started to unfold for me.
I also wanted to bring the whole story down to the level of one pretty average family in Richmond, Virginia – the Wallis Jones family - who don’t see at first how they’re woven into a grand conspiracy, and at first try to run from it. That way, hopefully readers can become a part of the story too, wondering what they would do if they found out the same kinds of things were happening to them.
I started this series a few years ago with an agent, trying to go the traditional route. But first there was the Great Recession and then I was diagnosed with terminal cancer (fortunately, that turned out to be wrong) and ended up having some of the muscle in my left leg by the knee removed. On top of that the book just wasn’t getting picked up by a publisher. Then, a group of friends encouraged me to go the indie route and publish the series myself – their names are listed in the front of this book – and I decided it was a good time to change my entire life. It felt like I was getting a second chance right across the board. I got a better job, lost over eighty pounds, started running and swimming, and decided to publish the series myself. Well, with all of my friends and family.
The story you just read is the first of many in the series. Self-publishing has turned out to be one of the better decisions in a short series of them that I made after the cancer diagnosis. I’ve met so many great people, like Michael Anderle who writes The Kurtherian Gambit series and shares what he’s learned as an indie author with an open heart – always there to answer my questions, or Dave Robbins who has helped me to change the covers – twice. Same goes for Michael Bingham-Hawk who’s helped me to redo the website – twice.
It took a great group of indie authors to help me go over the details of the cover, the titles, the descriptions of the book so that my voice became stronger across all of the platforms. It seems I’ve been walking the same path as the main character, Wallis Jones who’s had to learn what real strength is and that eventually life makes you focus, stand up and do something about it. Of course, her story is mixed in with intrigue, some badass car chases and a few bodies dropping, and a plot that will keep twisting and turning. Fortunately, my life is not that interesting even if I did jump out of a plane to celebrate getting a clean bill of health and then ran a 5k. After everything that had happened it was a great way to celebrate with friends and family. I didn’t finish the race anywhere near the front of the pack but I wasn’t last! Just being there and running was a great victory!
You can pre-order The Traitor’s Revenge, Book Two in the Wallis Jones series starting December 1st, 2016 on Amazon. On sale and available in Kindle Unlimited starting December 8th.
If you enjoyed The List Conspiracy, please consider leaving a good review at Amazon or Goodreads. Your kind words and encouragement help any author.
If you want to help with the end of this series or with future series, please consider becoming part of the Advance Team. Join the Facebook Group and let me know you’re interested.
There’s more – you can sign up for the Wallis Jones newsletter and keep up to date with upcoming books in the series, be the first to hear about publishing dates, giveaways, news items on real conspiracies we live with all the time (and how to avoid them) and other exciting news! You can also hang out with me on Facebook and see what the main characters are pinning at Pinterest plus a few tools of the spy trade. Join in and help to decide on new shoes, a better gun or a high-tech spy tool you just have to share with the rest of us.
I am the author of four books and my newest work, The List Conspiracy is the first in the Wallis Jones series, a six-book series.
I’ve written a weekly, nationally-syndicated column on world affairs and life that has run on such political hotspots as The Moderate Voice.com and Politicus.com. My work has run regularly in such publications as The Washington Post, The New York Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The Ch
icago Tribune and Newsweek.
