It is my distinct pleasure to host the fabulous Wild Rose Press Author, Kat Duncan on my blog today, who shares with us the story of meeting her significant other Dave, as well as a teaser from her romantic suspense novel Six Days to Midnight. Be sure to read to the end of the blog and leave a comment to be entered into our weekly drawing, where you could win fabulous prizes!
If you know me at all, then you know I'm not shy. But here I was....I'd been divorced for over a year and wasn't looking to start up a new relationship. The writer's meeting room was spacious and full of chatting people. I thought he'd come over to talk with someone else. As we introduced ourselves and talked about our writing, I kept trying to get that other person's attention for him. At last the woman turned around. I introduced him to her. He shook her hand in greeting, and then said, "I came over to talk to Kat."
Is it possible to blush and go pale at the same time? If so, then that's what I did. I'm sure it was delightful looking to him because he smiled. The woman went back to her other conversation. I backed away and said, "Well, it was very nice to meet you, Dave. See you at the next meeting probably." He nodded and smiled and let me run away. Why did I run away? Because I knew by the way he was looking at me he hadn't come over just to talk about writing. He was interested in me. Me! And I wasn't sure I was ready for that.
Luckily for me he's a patient man. If I close my eyes, I can still see that first sweet smile. The same smile he gave me at the next meeting and the next meeting and the next. You might call it a half-smile. But I know him and he's not given to overly expressive smiles in public. That was his I've-found-something-good smile. The same smile he makes when he gets home before I do and as he's scrounging for ingredients to make dinner, finds the little slice of chocolate cake I left for him.
Often mimicking life, first meetings in books can be awkward. But readers are rarely as patient as my David. Books are designed to have conflict. Romances, especially, are designed to have conflict between the hero and heroine. Why? Because overcoming conflict is a good way to show a reader that a couple belongs together. In my romantic suspense Six Days to Midnight, heroine Janet Thompson isn't looking for a relationship. She's trying to complete her PhD in economics.
What you and I might consider deadly boring turns just plain deadly. Brandt Mahler is an economist, too. Hey, it takes one to know one! He's also a fashion plate and rich Euro-playboy. But he's a playboy with a mission to build healthy economies that help ordinary people. Janet could easily buy into that noble mission, except that she's not expecting to be thrust into either the limelight or the gun sights of terrorists. She feels like running away, just as I did.
When the bullets don't stop flying, Janet combats her shyness and let's her long-repressed personality shine through to help Brandt save the day. Brandt doesn't mind being bumped to page two of the tabloids, he just wants to keep Janet safe. In fact, he wants to keep her forever. I can just see the barest hint of a smile on Brandt's face...
Did you feel like running away when you first met your special someone?
A bit about Kat: As a young child, Kat once tried to confess the telling of her stories to her parish priest because she thought they fit the definition the nuns gave for 'telling a lie'. The wise priest asked her if her stories were told to hurt other people. "Oh, no!" she replied, "I only tell them to make people happy." The priest asked her if she had any other sins to confess and when she didn't, he advised her to continue telling her stories and then he assigned her a few prayers to say for those who could not hear them. Kat has been telling her 'lies' ever since and writing stories to entertain and enlighten. After a successful career as a software engineer, Kat decided she needed something different to do. She's now a tutor of adolescents with special needs. With one teenager in high school (home school) and another in college, every moment of her meager spare time is spent creating romances.
Six Days to Midnight Blurb:
The finance mogul thinks Janet Thompson is worth a fortune. The President wants her for revenge. The nuclear arms trader needs her dead. The diplomat is willing to rescue her. And Janet thinks she’s only taking a break from her boring job.
But she’s not the only one in for a surprise. Janet isn’t the easy target they all thought she would be. Her high flying escapes win her media fame, and expose a devious geopolitical conspiracy. Brandt, the haughty magazine cover diplomat soon finds he has been bumped to page two. And likes it. The sweet easy revenge the president thought he would get comes with a price he deserves. Only Anton Zelman, the ruthless investment banker, gets what he asked for, to die in Janet’s arms on world-wide television. What is Janet’s reward? Something she never dared hope for. True love.
Six Days to Midnight combines unusual settings with outrageous characters exchanging snappy dialogue sprinkled with humor at all the wrong places.
Six Days to Midnight Excerpt:The Russian minister's eyes grew hard, and his face stern. With one powerful blow he slammed the desk top with the palm of his hand. The glasses danced. Clear liquid spilled from Janet's glass. The desk groaned and bent under the power of the man, the wooden legs grinding against the cement floor.
He held his two huge hands up before him, turning his wrists and admiring his hands like a sculptor. "These two hands build Transnov. They not happy is without oil. They not want Anechka open it. They want go there and reopen pipepline themselves."
He gestured, turning a huge imaginary valve wheel to release the black gold once again into his pipeline, a satisfied smile overtook his face as he worked.
Then he leaned his weight back into his chair, its wooden frame strained to the limit, creaking like a ship under heavy sail. He rested his two huge feet on top of his desk.
"I've missed my old villa on Caspian Sea." He closed his eyes in dreamy rapture. "Janet, you have chance to enjoy spa?"
"Yes, I did. It was very lovely."
"Yes," the man intoned, his voice sliding into a comfortable sigh. "I will enjoy having my old villa back."
Janet tried to imagine which would be worse, sharing the spa with Nikolai or Andy. It would be equal she decided. They were both the same. Two people divided by a common personality.
"Nikolai," Brandt pleaded. "Your army must not move on Azerbaijan."
"Why?" the man roared. "Give me one reason why I should not."
Brandt's eyes darted back and forth, knowing the man had every reason to invade, and none for restraint. "Your men. Do you want to risk Russian lives?"
"If American recession gets any worse, my men will need target practice Azeris will provide."
Brandt licked his parched lips. "Nikolai, please," Brandt spoke in desperation. "Give me two weeks. I will get the Transnov reopened without the Russian army."
"Two weeks without Russian army. Two days with Russian army."
"Nikolai," Janet interrupted, "what about your legacy? Do you want to be the one who is remembered by history as the man who was duped by Mirza ul-Beg and Zelman to destroy America?"
Nikolai sucked in his cheeks contemplating Janet's words. "One week. You deal with Zelman and relieve ailing economy, or I deal final blow to she-wolf Anechka. But, I promise nothing," he said, standing to end the meeting. "Now go."
Six Days to Midnight Buy Link: http://www.amazon.com/Six-Days-to-Midnight-ebook/dp/B004IPPFXA/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=books&qid=1297710132&sr=8-3
Read on for the Blurb and Excerpt for Kat's novel 58 Faces: Jewel of the Night Series
The finance mogul thinks Janet Thompson is worth a fortune. The President wants her for revenge. The nuclear arms trader needs her dead. The diplomat is willing to rescue her. And Janet thinks she’s only taking a break from her boring job. But she’s not the only one in for a surprise. Janet isn’t the easy target they all thought she would be. Her high flying escapes win her media fame, and expose a devious geopolitical conspiracy. Brandt, the haughty magazine cover diplomat soon finds he has been bumped to page two. And likes it. The sweet easy revenge the president thought he would get comes with a price he deserves. Only Anton Zelman, the ruthless investment banker, gets what he asked for, to die in Janet’s arms on world-wide television. What is Janet’s reward? Something she never dared hope for. True love.
Six Days to Midnight combines unusual settings with outrageous characters exchanging snappy dialogue sprinkled with humor at all the wrong places.
Six Days to Midnight Excerpt:
He held his two huge hands up before him, turning his wrists and admiring his hands like a sculptor. "These two hands build Transnov. They not happy is without oil. They not want Anechka open it. They want go there and reopen pipepline themselves."
He gestured, turning a huge imaginary valve wheel to release the black gold once again into his pipeline, a satisfied smile overtook his face as he worked.
Then he leaned his weight back into his chair, its wooden frame strained to the limit, creaking like a ship under heavy sail. He rested his two huge feet on top of his desk.
"I've missed my old villa on Caspian Sea." He closed his eyes in dreamy rapture. "Janet, you have chance to enjoy spa?"
"Yes, I did. It was very lovely."
"Yes," the man intoned, his voice sliding into a comfortable sigh. "I will enjoy having my old villa back."
Janet tried to imagine which would be worse, sharing the spa with Nikolai or Andy. It would be equal she decided. They were both the same. Two people divided by a common personality.
"Nikolai," Brandt pleaded. "Your army must not move on Azerbaijan."
"Why?" the man roared. "Give me one reason why I should not."
Brandt's eyes darted back and forth, knowing the man had every reason to invade, and none for restraint. "Your men. Do you want to risk Russian lives?"
"If American recession gets any worse, my men will need target practice Azeris will provide."
Brandt licked his parched lips. "Nikolai, please," Brandt spoke in desperation. "Give me two weeks. I will get the Transnov reopened without the Russian army."
"Two weeks without Russian army. Two days with Russian army."
"Nikolai," Janet interrupted, "what about your legacy? Do you want to be the one who is remembered by history as the man who was duped by Mirza ul-Beg and Zelman to destroy America?"
Nikolai sucked in his cheeks contemplating Janet's words. "One week. You deal with Zelman and relieve ailing economy, or I deal final blow to she-wolf Anechka. But, I promise nothing," he said, standing to end the meeting. "Now go."
Six Days to Midnight Buy Link: http://www.amazon.com/Six-Days-to-Midnight-ebook/dp/B004IPPFXA/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=books&qid=1297710132&sr=8-3
Read on for the Blurb and Excerpt for Kat's novel 58 Faces: Jewel of the Night Series
Chief of surgery at a small children's hospital, Caroline's last hope to save it from financial ruin evaporates when she loses the Blue Diamond case to greedy Evan Quinn. When Evan buys the hospital property for high profit condo conversion, Caroline's hatred shifts into full red-alert.
But Evan is not her real enemy. Rolf, the hospital's chief administrator, has had his eye on the blue diamond since he learned of it from his Nazi grandfather. To be the 58th face to possess the Blue Diamond, one for each of its facets, grants the owner unlimited power. Rolf plans to kill the current owners and use the diamond to build his Neo-Nazi regime. Can Caroline give up her hatred and Evan his greed before Rolf kills them both?
58 Faces Excerpt:"If I wasn’t sworn as a doctor, I’d pull this trigger.”
A flash lit the darkness. An ear-shattering echo reverberated in the concrete vault. Evan staggered. Caroline dropped the gun, and its over-sensitized trigger fired again. It spun like a top on the concrete. She rushed forward.
“Evan. Evan. Are you hurt? Where? I didn’t pull the trigger. It just went off in my hand.” She grabbed his shoulders, bracing him, scanning him for a wound.
He steadied himself and pushed her aside. “You missed.” He stared at the gun lying on the floor. He picked it up and hefted it, his brows pinched in thought. Pointing it away from her, he firmly grasped the weapon and gently tapped its side. It fired.
He turned on her, his mouth thinned into a grimace, his eyes squinting.
She put up her hands. “Evan, don’t…”
He tipped the gun toward the ceiling and, with a snap, removed the clip. He tossed the pieces in opposite directions. They spun and clattered on the concrete floor. In a few quick steps, he closed the distance between them. His broad hands engulfed her shoulders, infusing her shivering body with a surge of solid warmth.
“That gun was rigged by an expert. An expert who arranged for us to meet here. Then disappeared.”
Visit our February Valentine’s Blog Tour and leave a comment to win a prize. The more blogs you visit with comments, the better your chances of winning. Prizes begin valued at $20, increasing each week to a Grand Prize of over $50!
Other blogs to visit include:
Thanks to Kat Duncan for being my guest! Great to have you, Kat!!
8 comments:
Meeting your true love can be an unsettling experience. You hear the hum of fate plucking the strings and know something big has happened.
Stephanie Suesan Smith, Ph.D.
http://stephaniesuesansmith.com
Ahh, I like that story. Your David sounds like a rare jewell. Reading all these meet stories on the tour are getting me all excited to write!
I've learned when it's true love, he'll wait. Enjoyed the excerpt.
Hi Stephanie Suesan! Thanks for stopping by! I do believe in fate. In fact I had a dream about dating a man named David several months before I met him...weird...
Hi Linda, yes, My David is a rare and precious guy. I wouldn't trade him for the world...! :)
Hi wlynnchantale! Yes, and I am sooooo glad he waited...and that he thinks I was worth the wait...! :)
Your husband sounds like your soul mate. Great meeting. Loved it.
I can understand the running away from the topsy-turvy, butterflies in the stomach feeling. The whole "this could be so right, or it could be so wrong" kind of thing.
yeah for patient Dave.
Hi Caroline, yup...he's a keeper...! :)
Hi Jill, yeah...who knew falling in love could be so scary...! :)
Hi Kat! Enjoyed your excerpt. And your David sounds lovely. He writes too? How awesome is that? Thanks for sharing!
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