April 24, 2006

MONDAYS = MILESTONES

I think I shall make Monday my blog day to celebrate the achievements of fellow writers near and dear to me. Gotta have SOMETHING fun to do on Mondays.

And this particular Monday also just happens to bookend the week that friend and fellow Vancouverite Mary J. Forbes’ Silhouette Special Edition - TWICE HER HUSBAND – hits most shelves.

This is the last book in Mary’s trilogy on the Tucker brothers of Misty River … but be warned … you’re going to need those tissues for Luke’s emotional reunion with ex-wife Ginny and her two children!

For more on the trilogy, check out Mary’s Website

And this next one is a tad late in coming since the launch date preceded my blog debut:- But get out those tootie horns and top up the Bushmills anyway because  ….. Toni Anderson’s HER SANCTUARY was released as an e-book by  Triskelion Publishing last month and will be out in print in December this year!! (All the more time to party :)) And those old times from eHarlequin’s Subcare will know all about toorie horns and Bushmills. If you don’t … too bad.

HER SANCTUARY was previously known to many out there in cyberspace as Venus’ Slipper and you can find an excerpt on the Trisk site. Toni’s voice is strong, fresh, evocative and her writing deeply atmospheric. You heard it here first — Watch this lady!

April 23, 2006

Desert Warrior

Ah … found my man on a horse. See what I mean?

Now THIS is what I had in mind for Rafiq Zayed.

Friends

Meretta Pater and Toni Anderson 

Have I mentioned how special these two people are?

One of the things I never expected when I when I turned my pen to writing romance instead of news was the people in this business. They’re special. And these are two of the best in the industry. And if I sound sappy, well … that’s because I am

April 22, 2006

TESTOSTERONE-driven

That’s what I was told my Shadow Sodliers trilogy was when Silhouette bought it. And I couldn’t be happier with the verdict. It’s about three mysterious men — dangerous, hard, commanding and cynical men – mercenaries in more ways than one. But they weren’t always that way. In his youth each man was betrayed by love in the most devastating ways conceivable, to the the point he no longer wanted life. They all ended up in the French Foreign Legion where they buried their pasts, and their hearts. Now they run their own private army — they are shadow soldiers in the name of global good — alpha warriors with a fierce bond, no pasts, and armored hearts, and they operate in a new world order of limited intensity conflict and terrorism — the new face of war.

These men are now handed one mission, a seemingly impossible mission. And to meet that mission each man will have to confront one very special woman who will challenge him in the most profound ways possible. And they must learn to love again. They must save themselves and come to terms with their pasts before they can save a president, his nation, and the shape of the future. And the clock will not stop ticking until the job is done ….

Hence the tagline:- Three men. One Mission. Only love will save them.

And now … meet Rafiq Zayed …

Well, okay, he’s not Rafiq — we all know who he really is. But if I had to choose an Alpha’s Alpha to play my hero in A SULTAN’S RANSOM, book two the Shadow Soldiers trilogy, Israeli actor Oded Fehr would be it. Have you seen this guy on a horse?

He’s even a tad Cloonyish, no?

My heroine — Dr Paige Sterling — doesn’t know what hits her when this guy holds a dagger to her throat, kidnaps her from her Level 4 lab in the Nexus compound, and races into the dark desert on camel. But given a few days in Paige’s company, it’s Rafiq who ends up going to end up doing the reeling.

April 21, 2006

Inspiration

Music of the moment: Tindiba - By Samite 

I’m working on my line edits for HEART OF MERCENARY — the first book of my Silhouette Intimate Moments SHADOW SOLDIERS trilogy due out in October this year. It’s set in the dark heart of the Republic of the Congo (Congo-Brazzaville), a land even more primal and unexplored than the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo (or Congo-Kinshasa). It’s a place that challenges my heroine, Sarah, a nurse from Seattle, in the most profound ways possible. A rough mercenary hero with an armored heart doesn’t help. Neither does the fact that Sarah is carrying a biohazard container with an unidentified level 4 pathogen that she has to get out of the jungle and to the CDC in Atlanta at all cost — and because of her deadly cargo, she has unwittingly become a pawn in a lethal global game. And now, with the clock ticking down on a deadly threat that could change the shape of the world’s future, plus a hostile militia on their tail  — never mind the natural hazards of equatorial jungle … the only way my hero and heroine are going to see their way through this is to find common ground … and love.

Trouble is … I woke up to a low grey sky spitting wet snow this morning — a world away from the steamy jungle. I needed to feel the heat, fast :). I think I’m like most authors in that I surround myself with inspiration, or emotional triggers, for each book. For this one it’s a playlist that includes the soundtracks from BEYOND BORDERS (Clive Owen plays a real old school alpha to die for :)) and TEARS OF THE SUN (Monica Belluci plays a doctor with morals close to Sarah’s heart … and, well,  there’s Bruce Willis who fights his attraction for the good doc all the way). I also have music from Samite, Ayub Ogada (CONSTANT GARDNER), Geoffrey Oryema, and Jaluka (a home town favourite from South Africa).

Monica Belluci and Bruce Willis in Tears of the Sun.

But by next week I will need to return to the dry and vast deserts of Arabia for A SULTAN’S RANSOM, followed by a cool New York City, and then the Caymans for RULES OF RE-ENGAGMENT where the clock finally stops ticking in the trilogy’s dramatic showdown. And just wait until I show you my inspiration for Rafiq Zayed … and Jacques Sauvage

April 20, 2006

SPRING??

Does this look like spring?  This is how the family spent Easter Monday — hiking in the Joffre Lakes area.

Me and my girls

And now, back to the steamy heat of the Congo jungle as I tackle line edits for HEART OF A MERCENARY ….