Night Hawk by Lindsay McKenna…Blog Tour Stop and author Q&A

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Bestselling Author & Founder of Military Romantic Suspense, Lindsey McKenna Shares Her Guilty Pleasure (Chocolate!) and Her Love for Jackson Hole, WY

Be sure to check out her latest release, NIGHT HAWK, available NOW!

Q: What did you choose to set your book in Jackson Hole, Wyoming?

A:  I love the Jackson Hole, Wyoming area, the Grand Tetons National Park is about 12 miles north of the cow town.  And about 40 miles further north is Yellowstone National Park.  I simply love the clean, fresh air, the gorgeous Teton Mountains, the incredible wildlife that you can photograph just from your car.  It’s an exciting area for me and I wanted to infuse my readers with it, as well.

 

Q: What are some of your guilty pleasures?

A:  Looking forward to the one chocolate I can eat a day.  Sitting so much of the time to write makes for easy weight gain.  I love chocolate, but I won’t indulge in more than one a day.  It’s something I usually look forward to mid-afternoon after finishing my scene or chapter for the day.

 

 

About NIGHT HAWK: After losing his comrade, Sergeant Gil Hanford thought a visit to the man’s widow would be the decent way to honor his late friend. But Gil found more than comfort in Kai Tiernan—he had always secretly desired beautiful Kai, but a sudden, mutual passion helped assuage their grief…until duty reared its head, removing him from her arms, seemingly forever.

Four years later, Kai is starting over at the Triple H Ranch in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Born a rancher, she is looking for a new beginning—but her new boss is unforgivably familiar. Kai has tried to move past the memory of what happened between her and Gil, even though she’s never forgiven him for leaving her. But even as they begin their journey toward something new and oh-so-uncertain, a shadow emerges, determined to claim Kai for itself.

 

Praise for NIGHT HAWK:

“Lindsay McKenna has penned another great romance in NIGHT HAWK…Ms. McKenna is a master of the military romance genre.” –Fresh Fiction

“Fans of McKenna will not be disappointed in her latest passion-infused love story.” –RT Book Reviews

“Good plot, likable characters.  Some new ones and plenty of older ones from previous books.  Lots of drama, mystery and romance.” –ReadALot.com

 

unnamed-4About the author: Lindsay McKenna is proud to have served her country in the US Navy as an aerographer’s mate third class—also known as a weather forecaster. She was the creator of the military romance subgenre and loves to combine heart-pounding action with soulful and poignant romance.

True to her military roots, she is the originator of the long-running and reader-favorite Morgan’s Mercenaries series. She does extensive hands-on research, including flying in aircraft such as a P-3B Orion sub-hunter and a B-52 bomber. She was the first romance writer to sign her books in the Pentagon bookstore.

Today, she has created a new military romance−suspense series, Shadow Warriors,

which features romantic and action-packed tales about US Navy SEALs. Visit her online at lindsaymckenna.com, twitter.com/lindsaymckenna and facebook.com/eileen.nauman.

Lindsay McKenna’s TLC Book Tours TOUR STOPS:

Monday, January 4th: Majorly Delicious
Monday, January 4th: The Sassy Bookster
Tuesday, January 5th: Books a la Mode
Wednesday, January 6th: Reading Reality
Friday, January 8th: A Chick Who Reads
Monday, January 11th: Worth Getting in Bed For
Monday, January 11th: From the TBR Pile
Tuesday, January 12th: Bewitched Bookworms
Wednesday, January 13th: Mignon Mykel Reviews
Friday, January 15thRead Love Blog
Monday, January 18thRomantic Reads and Such
Tuesday, January 19thIt’s A Reading Thing
Wednesday, January 20thBook Reviews & More by Kathy
Thursday, January 21stLife is Story
Friday, January 22ndRaven Haired Girl
Monday, January 25thWhat I’m Reading
Tuesday, January 26thBookaholics Not-so-Anonymous
Wednesday, January 27thBibliotica
Friday, January 28thBlack ‘n Gold Girls Book Spot


You Are Dead by Peter James…Book Spotlight and author Q&A

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Synopsis:

You Are Dead is the eleventh thrilling crime novel in Peter James’s Roy Grace series.

The last words Jamie Ball hears from his fiancée, Logan Somerville, are in a terrified cell phone call. She has just driven into the underground car park beneath the block of apartments where they live in Brighton. Then she screams and the phone goes dead. The police are on the scene within minutes, but Logan has vanished, leaving behind her neatly parked car and cell phone.

That same afternoon, workmen digging up a park in another part of the city unearth the remains of a woman in her early twenties…who has been dead for thirty years.

At first these two events seem totally unconnected to Roy Grace and his team. But then another young woman in Brighton goes missing—and yet another body from the past surfaces. Meanwhile, an eminent London psychiatrist meets with a man who claims to know information about Logan. And Roy Grace has the chilling realization that this information holds the key to both the past and present crimes. Does Brighton have its first serial killer in over eighty years?

Author Q&A:

1    Tell us about YOU ARE DEAD–the eleventh novel in the Detective Superintendent Roy Grace series. Does it pick up exactly where WANT YOU DEAD left off?

Sure! You Are Dead is my 11th Roy Grace novel. A young Brighton woman arriving home from work phones her boyfriend, to tell him she has just driven into their underground car park and can see a man acting strangely. Her boyfriend tells her to drive straight back out but before he finishes speaking she screams and the phone goes dead. He calls the police and rushes home himself – and she has vanished.

That same afternoon, workmen digging up a park in another part of the city, unearth the remains of a woman in her early twenties, who has been dead for thirty years. At first, to Roy Grace and his team, these two events seem totally unconnected. But then another young woman in Brighton goes missing – and yet another body from the past surfaces. Detective Superintendent Roy Grace has the chilling realization that there is a connection between the past and the present. Does Brighton have its first serial killer in over eighty years? A monster who has resurfaced after lying low for three decades?

 

  1. You once wrote that you published your first story at 16. What has changed about your writing process between now and then?

I’ve had vastly more experience in life since then. And I think that I probably have a slightly better handle and understanding of the human condition.

 

  1. Is there anything you wish you could say to your 16 year-old writing self?

Have belief in yourself. I think success requires a number of elements – an element of ability, an element of self-belief, an element of perseverance and, always, luck.

 

  1. For fans just starting out in the series, would you suggest they start at the beginning or can they pick up with “You Are Dead”?

Every Roy Grace novel is a standalone, and they can be read in any order, although going through from the beginning of the series readers will get more out of the running threads.

 

  1. Do you ever get writer’s block? If so, how do you deal with it?

I actually believe it is a myth, and it is used as an excuse!  I think it comes out of not having properly worked out an idea, and becomes a self-indulgent excuse.  “Oh my dears, I have writer’s block….”.  Writers are writers and in my view can always write, if they want to.  I’ve come to a dead end sometimes during the course of writing a story, but when I’ve analysed the problem, I realised that I hadn’t thought it through.  A thirty minute walk around the block or across fields with the dogs will normally do the trick!

 

Book Links:

Amazon  |  B&N  |  iBooks  |  Kobo

About the Author
Peter James is the #1 international bestselling author of the Roy Grace thriller series. Before writing full time, James lived in the U.S. for a number of years, producing films including The Merchant of Venice, starring Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons and Joseph Fiennes. A TV adaptation of the Roy Grace series is currently in development, with James overseeing all aspects, including scriptwriting.

James’s novella ‘The Perfect Murder’, started its world stage premiere in 2014, and his first Roy Grace novel Dead Simple has now been adapted for stage, and will tour the UK in 2015. In 1994, in addition to conventional print publishing, James’s novel Host was published on two floppy discs and is now in the Science Museum as the world’s first electronic novel.

Famed for his in-depth research, in 2009 James was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Brighton in recognition of his services to literature and the community, and in 2013 he was awarded an Outstanding Public Service Award by Sussex Police with whom he rides along regularly. He has also been out many times with the NYPD and the LAPD in the US and with many other police forces around the world, as well as doing extensive research with offenders in prisons and psychiatric institutions. He has served as two-times Chair of the Crime Writers’ Association and is a board member of the US International Thriller Writers.

He has won numerous literary awards, including the publicly voted ITV3 Crime Thriller Awards People’s Bestseller Dagger in 2011 and was shortlisted for the Wellcome Trust Book Prize for Perfect People in 2012. James’s novels have been translated into thirty-six languages and three have been turned into films.

All of his novels reflect a deep interest in the world of the police, with whom he does in–depth research and has unprecedented access, as well as science, medicine and the paranormal. A speed junkie, who in his teens was selected to train for the British Olympic Ski Team, he holds an international motor racing license and switches off from work by racing his classic 1965 BMW. James divides his time between his homes in Notting Hill in London and near Brighton in Sussex.

Visit Peter James’s Website: http://www.peterjames.com
Visit Peter James on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/peterjames.roygrace
Visit Peter James on Twitter: https://twitter.com/peterjamesuk

Adam Dunn….Series Spotlight, Excerpt, & Author Q&A

“Dunn has brilliantly tapped into our deepest fear of what tomorrow holds and crafted a unique brand of future noir.”

–John Burdett, author of Bangkok Haunts and Vulture Peak

 


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NEW YORK CITY’S DARKEST FEARS HAVE ARRIVED

It’s the near future and New York City as we know it is an alternate universe away. Violence and corruption lurk around every corner and a new wave of organized crime rules the streets. Author Adam Dunn’s New York is like nothing we know yet possesses an alarming air of familiarity and warning for what might come. Race riots, terrorist threats, a collapsing economy, warring political parties and widespread distrust in all institutions rule the land. Every day is a fight for survival. With his fast-paced new series (Dunn Books; Nov. 15, 2015), Dunn forces readers to wonder—just how close are we to stumbling into the same fate?


RIVERS OF GOLD

“Fans of gritty noir fiction, whether it be mystery or SF, should find this one very much to their liking.”

Booklist

 

In a violent, decaying New York City torn by financial collapse, race riots and a surging crime wave, an underworld economy of illegal nightclubs linked by a web of taxicabs is thriving. But there’s trouble in this dark paradise: Renny, a young fashion photographer who moves drugs through the taxi network for the party circuit, is forced to step up his game to a dangerous degree by his boss, Reza, the local frontman for an international crime syndicate that’s looking to take over the city. Renny is soon in the crosshairs of his boss and Detective Sixto Santiago, who’s part of an experimental unit in the NYPD using undercover taxicabs to try to crack down on the drug trade keeping the prohibited party circuit afloat. But Santiago’s just been partnered with a strange new arrival to the team, Everett More, who, he soon realizes is anything but a cop. From the dank, dark garages of the city’s taxi trade to the glittering playpens of its richest and most powerful, Rivers of Gold is a ride like no other. Climb inside…the meter’s running…

 

THE BIG DOGS

“Exquisitely researched, flawlessly narrated, The Big Dogs is great storytelling. I loved it.”

–Deon Meyer, author of Trackers and Heart of the Hunter

 

In the explosive sequel to Rivers of Gold, the unorthodox team of Santiago and More return to face a more grueling—and gruesome—challenge. In a savage paroxysm of mob violence, the founder of an uber-rich hedge fund is brutally killed, and an encrypted hard drive containing a list of high-profile clients in a highly illegal investment scam goes missing. His death opens a can of worms for both the NYPD and the Treasury Department, as it turns out the victim was already on the radar for a range of financial crimes, including funding terrorism. Now, Santiago and More are thrust into the unwilling embrace of the elite Organized Crime Intelligence Division, along with old comrades the Narc Sharks and an unwelcome Federal femme fatale named Liza Marrone from the treasury department. Santiago’s unwieldy team has to race against the clock to find the hard drive—and its elusive bearer, a 29-year-old hacker named Gianni Gianduja who’s now running for his life—before a plot to place bombs throughout the city’s bus network goes off, killing untold thousands and triggering a stock market crash that will bring the beleaguered city down once and for all. Don’t be caught waiting at the bus stop—The Big Dogs are on the prowl.

 

 

SAINT UNDERGROUND

“Can a thriller be seriously dystopian and fun at the same time? Saint Underground manages to be both, with all the quick, deft aplomb of a literary hat trick.”

–Joseph Kanon, author of Leaving Berlin and The Good German

 

“Saint Underground is a fast-paced, entertaining and an astonishing prediction about the threat to our nation’s political and social institutions… Novelist  Adam Dunn has a financial expert’s grasp of hidden dark money flowing into the U.S. from criminal coffers and the writer’s gift of being able to translate it into an entertaining yarn.”

–James McTague, author of Crapshoot Investing and former “DC Current” columnist for BARRON’S

Election 2016—New York City is ground zero. The Democratic and Republican parties are holding their conventions here—simultaneously. Illicit campaign money sloshes through a new underground bank in the city’s newest subway tunnel. But this campaign isn’t just about votes—the parties are truly at war. Santiago and More have uncovered a plot to hijack not just the presidential conventions, but the nation itself. One party looks to launch a bailout program that will effectively bring New York under total Federal control; the other side has countered by hiring an embittered Special Forces veteran. This high-tech warrior, codenamed ODIN, is More’s nemesis, and Santiago’s team tops his hit list. As the feud between the parties erupts into open warfare, Santiago and More fight their way from the lofty spires of the city’s cathedrals down into the darkest parts of its subway system. There is no judgment, only survival, for both sinners and saints—underground.

EXCERPT FROM THE BIG DOGS

BACK IN THE HIGH LIFE AGAIN

Two months to the day after Thanksgiving, Miss Grace Yunqué, of East Elmhurst, Queens, rose late on her day off, fixed herself brunch, then boarded the westbound M60 bus at 23rd Avenue.

She preferred taking the bus whenever she could. The subways saved time, but were fraught with risk. Despite a heavy police presence underground at key times and terminals, the cop coverage tended to thin out to nothingness towards the outer boroughs, and unless there was someone with a badge and gun on the platform with her, she simply didn’t feel safe on the subways any more.

Besides, the bus was fast, thanks to the Mayor’s enforcement of bus-only lanes across major bridges. And it was comfortable. Miss Grace Yunqué had no idea which kind of bus she rode along the M60 route (a slightly older Orion VII Next Generation semi-low floor hybrid electric built by Daimler Commercial Buses), but it was quite good. She had seen much, much worse in her day.

As usual, the bus looped north through LaGuardia International Airport, meandering by the Marine Air Terminal on Bowery Bay, before settling down for its long westward cruise along Astoria Boulevard. As the bus arced out across the Robert Kennedy Bridge spanning the Hell Gate section of the East River, she looked down upon Wards and Randalls Islands far below, dusted with snow. She was mentally planning her own route. While her main business of the day was routine (a followup visit to Dr. Lazar regarding her condition), the stop she planned to make afterwards was anything but.

Miss Grace Yunqué was a homely, portly Latina of Peruvian descent in her late fifties who was starting to feel gravity’s pull more acutely. Her arches were falling, her heels ached at night, and her ass seemed to spread wider with each passing year. Her husband was dead, her children grown and struggling with families of their own. What little brightness there was in her life came from her grand-nephew José, and her Pomeranian, Hector.

Still, it wasn’t all bad. She had worked for years keeping the books of a small firm that made spare parts for servicing city buses. The benefits were good, and she had her late husband’s small pension coming in as well, which she diligently invested in TIPS, inflation-protected bonds that had been adjusted for the extended period of low rates following the crash. Miss Grace Yunqué did not know when the city’s fortunes would take a turn for the better, but she intended to have a toe in the water when they did. She believed the city would rise again—someday, perhaps not even in her lifetime, but someday—and she wanted to have something to bequeath to her darling little niňo José.

Which was why she was heading into Manhattan this morning, to report the goings-on she’d been seeing in the company’s financial statements for months now. She knew fraud when she saw it, and she intended to cash in by reporting it.

If all went according to plan. The list of things that could go wrong and make life very ugly and perhaps even short for her was long. Thinking about that threatened to aggravate her condition, and she began the series of relaxation exercises Dr. Lazar had taught her.

By the time she alighted from the bus at 106th and Broadway in Manhattan, she was feeling better, although a slightly anxious tingle remained stubbornly in the back of her mind. She walked stiffly, turning the collar of her coat up against the scything wind, along the block and a half to Riverside Drive. She would ride the M5 Limited downtown. There was no way she would ride the M104 bus, infamous throughout the city as a rolling freak barge, upon which legions of the insane rode aimlessly up and down Broadway. And there was no way she was going underground, especially not on her day off.

She was lucky; the bus (a much older C40LF from New Flyer Industries running on compressed natural gas) was less than two blocks away when she reached the stop. There were no protective kiosks along Riverside Drive (she figured the people who lived on it were rich enough to stop the city from erecting them), and the January wind coming across the Hudson River was merciless.

It was slower going in Manhattan. The M5 route took it eastward along West 72nd Street to Broadway, where it joined the slow southbound trudge of traffic to the merry-go-round of Columbus Circle, from whence it chugged down Central Park South to Fifth Avenue (how sad the Plaza looked, she thought, all barricaded against the throngs of homeless people who had built one of the city’s biggest shantytowns here), where it turned southward again, stopping briefly in front of the long-closed Bergdorf-Goodman flagship store before making the long final leg downtown to South Ferry.

The session in Dr. Lazar’s midtown office was uneventful. Fortified with a renewed prescription and Dr. Lazar’s infectious good cheer, she boarded the crosstown M57 bus (an articulated Nova LFS hybrid) for a (free!) ride west, towards the Hudson River.

Her nerve began to flag as she stood outside the station amongst the rows of prowl cars, beaten-up taxicabs, and ugly three-wheeled ATVs parked at a rakish angle that clearly marked the block as a Cop Shop. Still, she had chosen this precinct to be the one furthest from her own, at least on a map. No one she knew worked here; certainly no one she knew could afford to live here. She straightened her back, cinched her coat collar up under her chin, and strode purposefully inside. Miss Grace Yunqué was not a quitter.

The inside of the station (she would reflect later) was a good approximation of her idea of Hell. The floors and walls were a horrid shade of institutional green, the air was rank with a dozen unidentifiable odors, everyone wearing a uniform looked haggard and miserable, and the rest (they must be the criminals!) looked no different from the homeless on the street. She began to reconsider her decision to come here.

No one seemed the slightest bit interested in her, and she could not seem to find the right officer to speak with, despite asking in English and Spanish. She wandered through the precinct unnoticed and unmonitored. No one cared. Eventually she found herself standing in the doorway of what appeared to be a run-down gym. Two raggedy-looking men in leather and combat boots, their badges and guns hanging loosely from their clothing, lay sprawled on the incline benches, watching HGTV on an old cathode-ray TV hanging precariously from the ceiling near a window (through which she could discern the sort of illegal, jerry-rigged cable hookup common in her own neighborhood). Neither cop paid her any attention at all. She approached them with caution, for she noticed that despite their languor, each kept a hand near his pistol. She stopped when she was close enough to read their police IDs, one of which said Liesl, the other Turse. The clean-cut mug shots on their photo IDs looked nothing like the mangy cops who wore them. When she asked them, neither one of them even turned to look at her. Neither even blinked. Her uneasiness was growing, and that threatened her condition. She moved quietly back outside.

At last she was told with whom she should speak. She was directed to a tiny office at the far end of a room full of more scruffy-looking cops (didn’t anyone shave or get haircuts anymore?), several of whom were standing around the fattest, ugliest, most slovenly-looking man she had ever seen, who was talking loudly with his mouth full, freely spilling pieces of whatever he was eating down his shirtfront. He was the only one wearing a tie. She skirted him widely and knocked on the door of the tiny office behind him, to which was tacked a homemade business card that read:

Detective Sixto Santiago CAB Group One NYPD

Upon being bade entry, her anxiety abated somewhat. The policeman sitting behind the desk was a handsome, dark-skinned Latino (Peruvian?), with broad shoulders and large hands. He was clean-shaven and neatly dressed, with a freshly razored haircut. She hoped her José would grow into as fine-looking a specimen as this man someday. He gestured for her to sit, and addressed her in good clear Spanish.

Something was bothering him, she could tell. He seemed hemmed in by the towering piles of paper on his desk and the shelves behind him, but it was more than that. His blasé efficiency seemed carefully orchestrated, his disciplined demeanor (not once did he look up from his computer at her) put on. Miss Grace Yunqué discerned a heaviness of soul in the policeman, a weary resignation and cynicism so unfortunately common to young men today. It was the times they lived in, she wanted to tell him. Don’t let it bring you down. There’s hope, there’s always hope, she yearned to say. She longed to mother him, to hold his big callused hands and tell him everything would be all right.

This mood disintegrated the moment she mentioned the man who had directed her to this office. The policeman’s large hands froze in midair above his keyboard. The man’s eyes (oh, big brown eyes like her little niňo!) grabbed onto hers and held them in a fiery clutch. Slowly and deliberately, he put his hands on the desk and levered his massive upper body over them towards her (grande, mi calidad, she thought, a weight lifter for sure!) in a manner that was anything but friendly. She felt her pulse rising and sweat prickling her scalp. Bad signs for her condition. She tried to affect a nonchalance she did not feel.

“él pareció no diferente que los demás, como estos en el gimnasio,” she said meekly, withering under the detective’s pitiless glare. Her voice was weakening, her knees trembled. She was well into the danger zone now, she knew, but there was nowhere to hide.

“Describe him,” growled the cop, who now seemed to her less hero, more thug. She pressed her legs together and flexed her toes, trying desperately to keep her mind off her condition.

“He looked like a bum,” she managed, “or an NYU student. He said you were definitely the man I should see.”

The clash of expressions now fighting for control of the detective’s face was frightening to her. His jaws clenched, he bared his teeth, and snorted loudly through his nostrils like an enraged bull. He terrified her. And this triggered her condition.

Miss Grace Yunqué suffered from Psychogenic Urination Disorder, or PUD (“Don’t worry, Grace,” Dr. Lazar had assured his jittery patient, “Together, you and me, we’ll beat this thing!”). In her particular case, sudden stress caused her to urinate, copiously. Which she now did, in a darkening downpour from her stockings into her shoes, and thence outward in a spreading puddle on the office floor. The harder she tried to constrict the flow, the greater it became, and adding to her degradation, the asparagus omelette she’d made for herself earlier now betrayed her, filling the room with a brute-force putrescence.

As unnerved as she was, she was appalled by the bizarre nature of what the big detective did next: drawing himself to his full six-and-change height, he cocked his arms, his biceps straining the sleeves of his jacket, balled his hands into huge hard fists and screamed, “MORE!!!”

 

Adam Dunn Q&A

  • Your series has been described as ‘tech-noir.’ What does this genre entail?

This was an invention of one of my early blurbers for ROG. I don’t know if this is an extant category or not. If I had to guess I’d say this was some subset of genre fiction (i.e., “mystery”, “thriller” etc.) featuring content of darker and more gritty variety, wherein contemporary technology merely augments age-old dilemmas of why humans keep finding themselves in the situations they do, and why they keep making the same mistakes they do while trying to get out of them. George Alec Effinger, Philip K. Dick and William Gibson exemplified this and were branded “cyber-punk” for their efforts. Genre is in the eye of the reviewer.

  • What inspired you to write this series?

I married in 2006, and wanted to get some books of my own out into the market following nearly a decade of writing articles on a freelance basis. I’d just had a four-part news series on the taxi industry published by Cobrapost.com, and was considering turning it into a nonfiction book. At the same time, I had an idea for a police procedural featuring a cop in a cab. By this time, I was also writing a blog called The Bunny Papers satirizing the confluence of political and financial bungling that characterized the ’07 real estate crash. When this snowballed into the stock market crash of ’08, I knew I had not just one novel, but a whole series borne of the chaos of those dark days. I knew there would be others who would write nonfiction accounts of the period, and they’d do it better than I could.

  • What research or personal experience allowed you to write so precisely about the New York cab industry?

To do this, I spent a lot of time with garage owners, mini-fleet owners, shop foremen, union reps, medallion loan brokers, top TLC officials, and, of course, cab drivers.

  • There is a shocking degree of excess and debauchery in the New York City streets you created. Is this where we are today—or where we’re headed?

If you think this is shocking you should have seen it in the ‘80s, which were every bit as bad as the ‘70s, just more colorful. My view of things to come, while admittedly dire, derives entirely from current situations, as well as extrapolations of current political, economic, and social trends to what I believe are very plausible, very attainable degrees.

  • What was the inspiration behind the Renny’s character?

In the ‘90s I watched several generations of young men make appalling decisions, about money, about work, about politics and people. They were absolutely convinced they were right, until they weren’t. Renny is for them.

  • What was the inspiration behind Santiago’s character?

Santiago was my original cop in the cab, but at that point he had little form or depth. It was only once the crash and More were fully realized that Santiago took shape as a voice of reason in a time of chaos, and an example of how to thrive in an age of decay. A survivor.

  • There isn’t a clear hero in the story, so who would you consider the ‘hero’?

I leave that to readers to decide. Some have told me that Santiago is a hero, while More is an antihero. Others vote for McKeutchen. Some have even said that NYC itself is the hero, for surviving such a fate as I created for it.

  • Do your characters—particularly Renny—get what they deserve?

They would argue lethally about “deserve”. No one gets entirely what they want, in my books.

  • Is Renny supposed to come across as a misogynist or does he push women like N and La away so they won’t get hurt?

Renny is played and betrayed by the women in his life. He doesn’t push them away—he thinks he’s in control, even as he’s clearly losing it. Such is the privilege of youth.

  • In your writing there is a beautiful, dizzying use of acronyms and technical jargon. What do you value more: plot or presentation?

One cannot exist without the other, not in this form and length.

  • The books seem to cautionary tales of where society might be headed. What feelings do you want readers to walk away with after reading the book?

Don’t be impulsive, reactionary, or thin-skinned. Beware the hidden dynamic of orthodoxy belying any movement trumpeting individuality, rights, special needs or interests. This is an old power game, a long con. Hone your skills, play to your strengths. Vote with your head before your heart, and if you can’t do that, stick with your feet, they may well be your last best resort.

  • If you could change anything about this series, what would it be?

Nothing. Just wish I’d been able to start it sooner.

 

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ADAM DUNN is the author of the novels Rivers of Gold, The Big Dogs, and Saint Underground, the forthcoming novel The Unfathomable Deep, and co-writer (with Eric Anderson) of the forthcoming novel Osiris. He spent years as a freelance writer cultivating an extensive series of networks among the military, intelligence, law enforcement, and financial communities. His byline has appeared in 18 publications in four countries. Some of those include: CNN and BBC News (online); Inc., Paper, SOMA, and Publishers Weekly magazines (glossy); and the San Francisco Chronicle and South China Morning Post (newsprint). He and his family have left New York City.

For more information, visit: http://www.dunnbooks.com/

Looking For Potholes by Joe Wenke….Book Spotlight & Author Q&A

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Looking For Potholes Synopsis:

Finding beauty in ordinary moments

You’ve probably never gone searching for potholes, but Joe Wenke justifies the unusual practice in his new book LOOKING FOR POTHOLES. When you are driving along and hit a pothole, most of the time you and your car simply drive over it. Instead of simply moving past these bumps in the road, Wenke examines these setbacks and obstacles with the clarity of a magnifying glass. Wenke takes a closer look at the potholes people carve out in their lives each day. No detail goes unnoticed in Wenke’s poetry as he tackles questions about identity, complacency, and how to make a home in such a vast world. Wenke’s background in LGBTQI rights activism and social criticism prepared him for this collection of challenging poems. For those who love poetry that leaves you hanging on every line, Wenke’s writing style is nothing short of breathtaking.

 

Book links:

 Amazon  |  B&N

Q &A with Joe Wenke

author of

LOOKING FOR POTHOLES

Why did you decide to title your new collection of poems Looking For Potholes?

 I like to use as a title one of the poems in a collection that captures my attitude or communicates one of the key themes of the collection as a whole. Looking for Potholes is about pushing limits, taking risks, causing trouble, shaking things up. I believe that one of the main purposes of art is to disturb, i.e., moving the reader existentially from one place to another. Poems can do a great job of disturbing in the sense of altering perception and consciousness. I think the poems in Potholes do exactly that.

 

Which poem in this collection resonates with you the most? Why?

 Well, of course, they all do. They’re my babies. Obviously “Looking for Potholes” resonates with me for the reasons I just described, but if I had to single out one other poem in the collection, it would be “Stand Up.” It’s an activist poem about standing up for who we are as human beings, despite the risks—and there are many. I believe that the most radical thing any of us can do is to simply stand up every single day and be who we are. That’s what the poem is saying, and I believe it very deeply.

 

In five words how would you describe your new collection of poetry?

 It’s a book of revelations.

 

What was the biggest challenge while writing Looking For Potholes?

 I had written poems sporadically over the years, but last July I suddenly began writing one poem after another. In September I published my first book of poetry, entitled Free Air. It’s a combination of the poems that I had written over the years and the new ones that just began exploding out of me last summer. By the end of August I had written all of the poems that appear in Looking for Potholes, so the challenge was really just to stay open and relaxed and let the poems come. I’ve since written two more books of poetry, which I’ll be publishing in September and January. Another book is about two-thirds done.

 

In what ways has poetry touched your life? Is there a particular poem that has changed you in some way?

Poetry is an inspiration. It’s epiphanic and revelatory. It can change how we look at ourselves and how we experience the world. One poem that changed me and resonated with me is T. S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land.” I read it when I was young, and it’s of course one of the most powerful poems ever written in terms of the power of its imagery. So it blew my mind, as one would say back in the day, and it told me that, yes, you can use the power of the poetic imagination to capture the essence of human experience. That is a very inspiring thought, and I continue to carry that thought with me every single day.

 

About the author:

Dr Joseph Wenke 25 Sept 13 (2)Joe Wenke is a writer, social critic and LGBTQI rights activist. He is the founder and publisher of Trans Über, a publishing company with a focus on promoting LGBTQ rights, free thought and equality for all people. In addition to Looking for Potholes: Poems, Wenke is the author of, The Human Agenda, The Talk Show, A Novel, Free Air: Poems; Papal Bull: An Ex-Catholic Calls Out the Catholic Church; You Got To Be Kidding! A Radical Satire of the Bible; and Mailer’s America.

 

 

 

Praise for Joe Wenke

“Another collection of poems by Joe Wenke that captures the idiosyncratic, fleeting moments that make up the human experience.”
—L. Giampa on “Looking for Potholes”

“It is now a pleasure to read criticism of my work at the good high level where Mr. Wenke resides.”
—Norman Mailer on “Mailer’s America”

“Joe Wenke here offers up a chilling—albeit humorous—thriller.”
– Lavender Magazine on “The Talk Show”

“A radically funny book.”
—The Advocate on “You Got To Be Kidding!”

The Nashville Series by Inglath Cooper…Spotlight & Author Q&A

Nashville - Part Eight - R U Serious

Synopsis:

The Nashville Series begins when CeCe is stranded on the side of the road with her Walker Hound named Hank Junior, when two football players from Georgia — Holden and Thomas Franklin — come to her rescue. With very little cash in their pockets but their hearts full of dreams, this unlikely trio sets out to discover their fate in Music City.

 

Author Q&A:

What inspired you to write The Nashville Series?

Writing fiction has always been my first love, but several years ago, I decided I wanted to learn how to write lyrics. I had fallen in love with country music because of the way the songs so often tell a story. So I started going to Nashville, taking classes, and eventually meeting other writers I went on to co-write with. I loved everything about the Nashville songwriting community. I don’t think I’ve ever met a more generous group of artistic people. At some point, my fiction writing brain took over again, and a story started to ask to be written.

 

Are your main characters – CeCe, Holden and Thomas – inspired by people in your life?

The characters of CeCe,  Holden and Thomas have become real to me, maybe because they embody many of the qualities I loved about so many of the people I met in Nashville. They each have the dream of making music their life’s work, and they go after it heart and soul.

 

Your love of dogs is evident in your books. Are you involved with rescue dogs?

Hank Junior, CeCe’s Walker hound, is inspired by my dog Roscoe. He was left at our local pound as a young dog, and his life was about to be ended when I got him out. He all but talks and is one of the loves of my life. I became involved with rescue, fostering many dogs and helping to get the first No-Kill Adoption Center in our county built.

 

Where do you get your inspiration for your novels?

In people, I think. I’m always fascinated by people’s stories. Mostly in what’s made them who they are. I believe that we’re shaped by our experiences in life, the things that happen to us, good and bad.

 

Do you have a routine or special place you like to write?

I’ve pretty much taught myself to write anywhere. Starbucks, in the car(as a passenger!), outside. But I do commit myself to writing 2500 words a day at least five days a week. That’s a comfortable pace for me and makes me feel productive.

 

What inspired you to write The Nashville Series?

Writing fiction has always been my first love, but several years ago, I decided I wanted to learn how to write lyrics. I had fallen in love with country music because of the way the songs so often tell a story. So I started going to Nashville, taking classes, and eventually meeting other writers I went on to co-write with. I loved everything about the Nashville songwriting community. I don’t think I’ve ever met a more generous group of artistic people. At some point, my fiction writing brain took over again, and a story started to ask to be written.

 

Are your main characters – CeCe, Holden and Thomas – inspired by people in your life?

The characters of CeCe,  Holden and Thomas have become real to me, maybe because they embody many of the qualities I loved about so many of the people I met in Nashville. They each have the dream of making music their life’s work, and they go after it heart and soul.

 

Your love of dogs is evident in your books. Are you involved with rescue dogs?

Hank Junior, CeCe’s Walker hound, is inspired by my dog Roscoe. He was left at our local pound as a young dog, and his life was about to be ended when I got him out. He all but talks and is one of the loves of my life. I became involved with rescue, fostering many dogs and helping to get the first No-Kill Adoption Center in our county built.

 

Where do you get your inspiration for your novels?

In people, I think. I’m always fascinated by people’s stories. Mostly in what’s made them who they are. I believe that we’re shaped by our experiences in life, the things that happen to us, good and bad.

 

Do you have a routine or special place you like to write?

I’ve pretty much taught myself to write anywhere. Starbucks, in the car(as a passenger!), outside. But I do commit myself to writing 2500 words a day at least five days a week. That’s a comfortable pace for me and makes me feel productive.

 

                                                                     Thanks so much, Inglath! ~Jillian 

 

Learn more about Cooper and her Nashville Series at www.inglathcooper.com and connect on Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads and Pinterest.

The Nashville Series is available on Amazon, BarnesandNoble.com, www.InglathCooper.com, NetGalley and Edelweiss.

 

About the author:

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Inglath Cooper spent several years living in Nashville, TN learning to write lyrics and co-writing with other songwriters. Cooper is the author of the best-selling Nashville Series, and the newly released Blue Wide Sky: A Smith Mountain Lake Novel (Feb. 14, 2015). A graduate of Virginia Tech with a degree in English, Cooper now divides her time between Virginia and Florida. She is also an avid supported of no kill shelters and is on the board of the Franklin County Humane Society.

 

 

 

 

 

Flirting With Fire by Kate Meader…ARC Review and Author Q&A

 

FlirtingWithFire-e1406819069844

 

Synopsis:

The first installment in Hot in Chicago, a brand-new, sizzling series from Kate Meader that follows a group of firefighting foster siblings and their blazing hot love interests!

Savvy PR guru Kinsey Taylor has always defined herself by her career, not her gender. That is, until she moved from San Francisco to Chicago to be with her fiancé who thought she wasn’t taking her “job” of supporting him in his high-powered career seriously enough—and promptly dumped her for a more supportive and “feminine” nurse. Now, as the new assistant press secretary to Chicago’s dynamic mayor, she’s determined to keep her eye on the prize: no time to feel inferior because she’s a strong, kick-ass woman, and certainly no time for men.

But that all changes when she meets Luke Almeida, a firefighter as searingly sexy as he is quick-tempered. He’s also the second oldest of the Firefightin’ Dempseys, a family of foster siblings who have committed their lives to the service—if Luke’s antics don’t get him fired first. When Luke goes one step too far and gets into a bar brawl with the Chicago Police Department, Kinsey marches into Luke’s firehouse and lays down the law on orders from the mayor. But at Engine Co. 6, Luke Almeida is the law. And he’s not about to let Kinsey make the rules.

 

My Review:

Flirting With Fire is the first in a new series from author Kate Meader and after falling in love with Kate’s work in an earlier anthology, I was dying to read this book. Well, to say this book lived up to all of my expectations would be understatement of the year…

Kinsey Taylor and Luke Almeida meet under less than ideal circumstances. He’s gone and gotten into a bar fight with one of Chicago PD’s finest, which was now all over YouTube, and as the Mayor’s PR whiz, she was now charged with showing him in a better public light. Normally, Kinsey would be halfway into the project, but Luke would prove to be no ordinary project. Not only was he part of the infamous Firefighting Dempsey clan, he was drop dead gorgeous and had ego to spare. He was also beyond stubborn. Lucky for her, and equally unlucky for him, she was damned used to working hard to get the job done and she wasn’t going to back down. In fact, she was going to give whatever he threw at her back tenfold and with an extra dash of sass. Let the games begin…

It may have started out as an innocent mission to clean up Luke and his stations’s reputation, but before long the push and pull power play between Luke and Kinsey turns into a heat that will burn hotter and brighter than either one of them has known. Problems are mounting though. Not only because he’s got to behave and she’s got a job to do but because they’ve both been hurt terribly in the past by the one’s who should have loved them most. Could the heat they found burn up all that remains of the past and give them a fresh start through the ashes?

For the love of all things hot and sexy, I loved this book. I loved this book so much. Luckily I started reading this on a day I didn’t have much to do because I actually didn’t stop reading until I had finished it. Read through lunch, read through my son’s algebra homework, and pretty much read through dinner. It was a pizza night here.

Where do I even begin telling you all the things I loved about this book? Why don’t we start with Luke. He is everything I want in a hero. He’s sexy, built, the perfect amount of cocky and sweet, and has a hidden soft side that makes me weak in the knees. That, by far, is my favorite thing about him. He may look like a hard ass on the outside but his heart is huge and reserved for the people he loves. He may be a former foster kid, but he loved his adopted family with a fierceness that was enviable and admirable. From page one, I knew he was going to be a force to be reckoned with…and he didn’t disappoint. Kinsey was the perfect counterpart. So much like him in so many ways. Used to have to work hard to shrug off a label. Strong. Determined. Able to give his ego right back to him and it drove him crazy.

Of course, that just added to that slow burn between them and with every interaction it was stoked into a flame that eventually had to be addressed….and oh my, was it ever. There are two particular scenes that had me melting into a puddle on the floor. So. Hot.

And can I just take a minute to give the cover a mention? I lost count at how many times I paused after reading a delicious Luke scene to take a look at that cover. Whoever that man is, he is the perfect Luke!

Adding even more to this story was the entire Dempsey clan. These are all characters with a beautiful death and multifaceted factor that has me beyond excited for the rest of this series.
Just trust me when I say: Get. This. Book. You will NOT be disappointed! Thank you, Kate, for Luke, Kinsey, and the entire Dempsey crew. I will now be nursing my book hangover with some tequila and a campfire scented candle *dreamy sigh*

 

 Q&A with author Kate Meader:

Thanks so much for having me, Jilly!   

                    Thanks for being here, Kate! This was a lot of fun! 

  1. Do you have any fun plans to celebrate the release of Flirting With Fire? (I always picture Kathleen Turner in Romancing the Stone when she finishes her book and celebrates with tiny bottles of booze and her cat)

Booze might be involved for sure! Every new release is awesome, but I’m thinking this one might be extra special. It’s the start of a brand new series, set in this world of alpha men, strong women, the family we make instead of being born to, and bigger-than-life passion. With burning buildings thrown in to make it interesting. On release day, I’ll probably be curled up in a fetal ball, praying it does well, waiting until it’s “appropriate” to whip out the adult beverages. Sounds like fun, right?

 

  1. I just read that you’re originally from Ireland, what do you miss the most about living there?

My family – my mother and brother still live there, and although I visit and they visit me, it can be tough with an ocean separating us. Next, I miss Irish chocolate. You can’t beat Irish chocolate. Hmm, maybe I miss chocolate more than my family. I mean, I can talk to my family on the phone, I can’t eat chocolate over the airways!

 

  1. I love your “Fun facts about Kate” section on your website. Can you give us another fun fact?

A lot of people don’t know I have a masters degree in medieval history. I studied medieval nuns and holy women who used their connection to God to discover untrodden paths to empowerment in their community. Medieval nuns were probably the first feminists!

 

  1. What has been the most rewarding part of living your dream to write?

Nothing beats seeing your book in a brick-and-mortar bookstore for the first time. That moment is the absolute best, but the most rewarding part is just knowing that people actually like my stories enough to want to buy and read them. I thought I was the only one!

 

  1. Ok, your dream cast for Flirting With Fire is:

Main romance:
Luke Almeida, Irish-Cuban firefighter – Hugh Jackman, looking a bit scruffy
Kinsey Taylor, ice-cool blonde PR guru – Charlize Theron

 

Secondary m/m romance:

Gage “Baby Thor” Simpson, cocky fireman – Chris Hemsworth (of course)

Brady Smith, former marine turned gourmet chef (Gage’s love interest) – Tom Hardy with muscles on his muscles, shaved head, tattoos up the wazoo, and scars. Yum!

 

5LovesRLB

Five Loves

 

Book links:

 Amazon  |  B&N  |  Goodreads 

About the author:

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Originally from Ireland, Kate cut her romance reader teeth on Maeve Binchy and Jilly Cooper novels, with some Mills & Boon thrown in for variety. Give her tales about brooding mill owners, oversexed equestrians, and men who can rock an apron or a fire hose, and she’s there. Now based in Chicago, she writes sexy contemporary romance with alpha heroes and strong heroines who can match their men quip for quip.

 

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