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    Stalker Fan (The Rose Garden Arena Incident, Book 5): The Rose Garden Arena Incident, #5
    Stalker Fan (The Rose Garden Arena Incident, Book 5): The Rose Garden Arena Incident, #5
    Stalker Fan (The Rose Garden Arena Incident, Book 5): The Rose Garden Arena Incident, #5
    Ebook120 pages1 hour

    Stalker Fan (The Rose Garden Arena Incident, Book 5): The Rose Garden Arena Incident, #5

    By Michael Hiebert

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    About this ebook

    Stephanie Banner is twenty years old the night Dakota Shane stands center stage while six bullets ring out through the stadium. Five deaths occur from those shots, although only four ever go on record. 

    All four are women. 

    It happens in Portland, Oregon, at the Rose Garden Arena. The show is a sellout. Twenty-two thousand seats gone in less than four hours. 

    For the eight days leading up to the concert, a handful of disparate lives intertwine as their world unravels. Their sanity, their relationships, their work, their children, the law, and even death hangs in the balance. Among them are: the learning-disabled black kid from East St. Louis trying to move past having his little sister die in his arms when she and his Momma become collateral damage during a drive-by; the quick-witted black man who, after losing control of his car on his way to visit family in Portland, finds himself duct-taped to a chair, a hostage to a meth-addled lunatic wanted for a double homicide; the Latino son now desperately struggling to rise above his abusive father and help his mother and sister move on to a better life, while unable to let go of the tremendous guilt he bears over the fate of the other sister he once had; the slash-punk singer who manages to score her band the best gig of its career, only to learn she may not have a band left to play it; the Korean psychiatrist finally confronting how much of her life has slipped by her—how many years she lost—while focussing on far less important things; the ex-LAPD detective now working for the Portland PD finally facing the ghosts that still linger from the time of the Rodney King riots—a past that forced him to drag his family up out of LA; the bitter ex-wife of a disc jockey who still secretly listens to her ex-husband’s midnight radio show as she drinks herself into a whiskey coma; the out of control daughter having unprotected sex with strangers hoping that pregnancy might draw the attention of parents unable to see past themselves… 

    And then, Dakota Shane: chart-topping superstar with a dark secret, caught in a media and tabloid frenzy full of rumor, speculation, and lies. She’s off her meds and grappling to find any semblance of herself that might still exist inside an identity forged over the past five years by an extremely successful record company’s marketing department. 

    Each of these lives is a story and the stories collide with each other like silver balls bouncing off bumpers on a pinball machine. 

    But in the end, The Rose Garden Arena Incident is a tale about passion, about bravery, about redemption, about fixing those things in the world that are fixable and learning to live with the things that are not—A heartbreaking story of tragedy, despair, and loss that still somehow leaves you with a glimmer of faith, love, and hope. 

    The Rose Garden Arena Incident is a “serial thriller." The story takes place over seven separate books, each encompassing a full day or more leading up to the Dakota Shane concert.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMichael Hiebert
    Release dateJan 22, 2017
    ISBN9781927600153
    Stalker Fan (The Rose Garden Arena Incident, Book 5): The Rose Garden Arena Incident, #5

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      Book preview

      Stalker Fan (The Rose Garden Arena Incident, Book 5) - Michael Hiebert

      Contents

      Introduction

      Previously In Rose Garden

      Tuesday, April 6

      Chapter 1

      Chapter 2

      Chapter 3

      Chapter 4

      Chapter 5

      Chapter 6

      Chapter 7

      Chapter 8

      Chapter 9

      Chapter 10

      Chapter 11

      Chapter 12

      Chapter 13

      Chapter 14

      Chapter 15

      Coming Up Next

      Book 6: Cranked

      Sneak Preview

      Acknowledgments

      About Michael Hiebert

      STALKER FAN

      (THE ROSE GARDEN ARENA INCIDENT, BOOK 5)

      Copyright © 2017 by Michael Hiebert.

      All rights reserved.

      Published by Dangerbooks, British Columbia, Canada.

      No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblances to persons living or dead is coincidental.

      Edited by Dawn James Walker

      Cover Design by / © DangerBoy & DogMan, Inc.

      Cover image © Igor Kovalchuk

      ISBN-13: 978-1-927600-15-3

      ISBN-10: 1-927600-15-4

      The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal, and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.

      Book and cover deisgn by www.professionalindie.com.

      Dangerbooks First Edition

      First Printing, January 2017.

      RG5-014

      Also by Michael Hiebert

      Sometimes the Angels Weep—Short Fiction

      Nashville Beaumont (and The Hyperbole Engine)

      DOLLS

      Alvin, Alabama Mystery Novels

      Dream with Little Angels

      Close to the Broken Hearted

      A Thorn Among the Lilies

      Sticks and Stones

      Previously in The Rose Garden Arena Incident

      Mosh Pit

      Media Frenzy

      80 Proof

      Ballads

      Introduction

      WOW, I CAN’T BELIEVE we’re already into book five. So much has happened and yet, still so much more to go. Well, two more books for you and probably another eighty-thousand words for me. Not to mention two more of these introductions.

      As I write this, the first three books have been released and a lot of discussion has been generated by them. One of the things that keeps coming up is how consistent the characters are from book to book and how, even though I’m juggling literally dozens of key cast members, they each have a clear voice that’s their own. In many cases, I think you can come into a chapter and know just from the narrative which character’s point of view it’s being told from. A lot of that comes from having lived with these characters through four books now (and I mean that for you, the reader, as well as myself, the writer), but a lot of it also comes from characterization. Clever characterization, if I do say so myself (he says, sarcastically). Oh, and also I don’t ever bank on the reader having to figure out who’s doing the speaking at the beginning of each new chapter. I am extremely careful to ground you right at the top. This is especially important in the first few books because even the most scrutinizing reader can’t be expected to get the feel of a character when I’m throwing a dozen at them one after another. Readers need to bond with characters. Bonding takes time.

      Before I go on, let me explain why I’m writing an introduction to a fictional suspense thriller on a topic that isn’t really targeted at readers so much as writers. Two reasons. Well, three maybe. First, writers—universally—are avid readers. Huge readers. Second, judging by the folks visiting my website on a regular basis and the emails I get from fans (and critics), tend to support that, for the most part, readers are interested in the writing process, too. I suppose in much the same way that people visiting Disneyland go on the behind the scenes tour that may or may not actually exist. I’m a Disneyland freak. Been to the place many times, and have never seen this so-called tour advertised anywhere. But I’ve heard that it exists from so many people. So it’s either real and so popular people seek it out instead of the tour having to advertise to them, or it’s apocryphal and possibly the biggest urban myth I’ve ever heard, right up there with the alligators in the New York sewage system and that crazy old lady on the corner who hands out razor-blade-filled apples to children each Halloween. And my aforementioned third reason is simply that this is what I feel like writing about and, for better or worse, I’m behind the wheel.

      Side note on that last point: I believe people become very adept at things they enjoy doing and not-so-good at things they don’t. This probably has something to do with them spending more time doing the enjoyable things, so the old practice makes perfect adage comes into play. Whatever it is, me being behind the wheel works fairly well as a metaphor, but in real life I would suggest avoiding getting in a car with me driving. I hate driving. So, yeah, I suck at it. But I really like to write. I’ll leave you to your own conclusions on that.

      Anyway, let’s talk about characterization. I’ll be brief. Then you can dig right into book five of The Rose Garden Arena Incident, Stalker Fan. Or just flip through a few pages and go there now. I won’t mind.

      In earlier introductions, I have mentioned that the books I enjoy writing the most are ones filled with pretty large casts. This is far and away the largest ensemble of characters I’ve ever juggled in one story, but I have other multi-character novels with what most people would consider an indulgent (for want of a better word) –sized cast. I guess what I’m saying is that the fact that the characters in Rose Garden are so distinctive isn’t just a fluke. It’s something that, for the last sixteen years, I’ve worked hard at learning how to do.

      One might ask, "What is characterization, exactly?"

      I asked Google. This is what it told me: Characterization is the process by which the writer reveals the personality of a character. 

      So there. Easy peasy, right? Not really. I think it’s one of the toughest aspects of the craft because characterization is dependent on many different components of the writing process.

      In a nutshell, among other things, characterization is done through dialogue, internal monologue, character voice, and by the way a character responds to events in the story.

      This last one is a tricky one, because it’s not entirely obvious what it means. It’s completely glued to what writers call point of view or, more simply, POV. Generally, in modern fiction, writers use either first person POV (I walked into the store, pulled the Beretta nine-millimeter from my inside jacket pocket, and blew the cashier’s brains all over the withdrawal slips) or close third person POV (Bill, the bank manager, cowered beneath his desk while Sally, the First National’s current Employee of the Month, shot the robber with an AK-47).

      Here’s a secret a lot of people don’t know (including many writers still in their first couple of years of working on their craft): these two POVs are exactly the same.

      You probably believe, at first glance, that the first person POV would be much more personal. After all, the character is directly discussing his actions and his environment to the reader. But the third POV is no different if (and this is a big if) the writer’s doing his job correctly. The key here is that little word close I just sort of stuck in there.

      In close point of view, we’re in the character’s head exactly like we are in first person. Everything that the reader is given (except maybe other character’s dialogue—although, in some cases even that) has to be interpreted through the POV character’s judgments. What this means is that, just like in real life, no two characters should ever see the same scene the same way. And it’s this difference in how their experiences are interpreted that’s the secret to doing good characterization.

      Of course, to do this, you need to know your characters and their differences well and you want them to have distinctive personalities. So you really have to take into account how you’re

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