When I scheduled this blog, I wasn't sure what I wanted to write about but anyone who knows me, knows how much I love the research that comes with writing a book and I couldn`t resist sharing a little story with you about my experience in researching my latest novel GONE, released a couple of weeks ago.

Someone once said that the devil is in the details. I'd like to add, so is the depth. But sometimes, a detail can trip you up.

GONE is the story of FBI Agent Clare Marshall who is on a quest to find the sister she was separated from in childhood when their mother tried to kill them. After twenty four years, Clare finally tracks her sister to a small town in South Carolina, but when she goes there, she learns that her sister is missing and that someone from the town is responsible for her disappearance. Enter fellow FBI Agent Jake Sutton, the estranged love of Clare's life, who offers to help with the search, but who has an agenda of his own.

Clare and Jake`s lives as FBI agents, with the danger and intrigue they face daily, are about as far as you can get from my everyday life with my husband and our daughter, living in our house in the 'burbs. Enter: Research. I had a lot to learn about the Bureau and about the job of a federal agent.

I did a lot of reading to get some background on my subject.  For me, the more I know, the more I want to know. *g* This reading only whetted my appetite and I compiled a l-o-n-g list of things I wanted to know more about. Things like - what is a work day for an FBI agent like? In addition to working as a field agent, Jake is also the agent in charge of his office, so I needed details for both a field agent and for duties of an agent supervisor. Answers for that were not going to be found in a book. I needed to go to a source, to someone who experienced this work first hand.

I contacted the Washington Federal Bureau of Investigation office. With help from some very kind and patient people there, I learned what I needed to know and planned how I would use this information in the book. When the book was finished, I was pleased with what I’d gathered and satisfied that I`d used it well in the story. But as I was going over the manuscript for accuracy, I realized I`d made a mistake. In one scene, Clare releases a safety on her gun before using it. That particular weapon, however, does not have a safety feature and I made the correction.

Details are also important to Clare. In the following encounter with Jake, Clare takes in details about him.

Here’s an excerpt from GONE:

Clare left the nursing facility and stepped into bright sunlight. She shielded her eyes with the back of one hand and with the other, reached into her purse dangling from her shoulder, digging for sunglasses. A man was walking across the parking lot toward her. A trick of the light, he looked like . . .

“Jake.”

She hadn’t realized she’d spoken his name aloud until she heard it.

He was close enough to have heard as well, though he didn’t speak. His eyes, narrowed against the sun, fixed on her with an intensity she remembered all too well.

Too late to pretend she hadn’t seen him. It wasn’t too late to walk away, though. She wanted to walk away, really wanted to, and because she did forced herself to stay put and meet his gaze.

Jake now stood in front of her, blocking the sunlight. Clare lowered her hand. His chin was at her eye level. He hadn’t shaved. Black beard shadowed his jaw, made his tanned skin look darker.

The last time she’d seen him, from the other side of her bed, he’d looked a little pale. Tired from working too hard. Tired from going another ten rounds with her.

That was three years ago. He didn’t look to be suffering from sleepless nights anymore. He looked rested and fit. The blue T-shirt he wore over jeans showed his hard, tough body. Was he still with the Bureau? If so, by his casual attire, he wasn’t working today.

“I could say the obvious ‘small world,’” Jake said.

It had been big enough for her until a moment ago. But in response, she said only, “Must be.”

In the awkward silence, a group of women in hospital uniforms dashed by, causing a slight breeze that smelled strongly of spicy perfume.

Jake cleared his throat. “Don’t tell me the Bureau’s sent you to make sure I’m not lazing my days away fishing?”

He said it with a smile, an obvious attempt at lightness. Clare didn’t return the smile.

“You’re assigned to the Columbia office?”she said.

“Resident office in Farley, actually.”

That surprised her. After they’d stopped seeing each other, Jake had put in for a transfer out of the New York office. They’d been members of the same squad for a time and had been paired off. Working together after things ended had strained them both. Jake was very good at what he did and had earned the commendations to prove it. He could have aimed a lot higher than Farley. She couldn’t understand why he hadn’t.

She didn’t know where he’d gone—didn’t want to know—but she would never have imagined him choosing Farley. He was a city boy. She wouldn’t have figured he would come here voluntarily. He must have been desperate to create distance between them for him to accept this post.

“Just me, one other agent, and an admin assistant,” Jake went on. “How about you? What brings you to our fair town?”

When she’d known him, she’d never mentioned Katie. On the nights he’d stayed at her apartment, she’d stored her cork board and files on her sister in a closet. She had no reason not to tell him about Katie at this time. Her being in Farley and the reason for it was likely climbing the town grapevine at lightning speed. But there was no reason to bring Katie up to him now, when she hadn’t before.

“Vacation,” she said simply.

He heard the lie. The humor in Jake’s gaze vanished and in an instant his gaze grew razor sharp.

“I recall you had a preference for sand and surf,” he said.

No doubt he was referring to the one brief getaway they’d taken together—a spur-of-the-moment jaunt following a particularly grueling assignment. They’d both been wound tight. He’d asked her where she’d like to go.

White sand beach. A pounding surf. No one else around for miles.

Her words returned to her. The next morning, she’d awakened and found he’d packed her suitcase and had found the perfect place for them to go. She didn’t care for the reminder of how perfect it had been between them once.

“Not this time,” she said. “Good-bye, Jake.”

Before he could say anything further, Clare walked away from him.

 To read Chapter One of GONE, visit the “Books” page at my website – http://www.karenfenech.com/books.html

 Do leave a comment and be entered in a drawing to win a $20 gift card from Amazon!

Wishing you lots of great books to read,

Karen

http://www.karenfenech.com

Kylie Brant

http://www.kyliebrant.com/

A sexy alpha hero who is part demonic -- part evil, part good. A hero who has the power to read minds and has premonitions.

He’s also a cold-blooded assassin who works for a secret government unit called the Ghosts. And he’s an agent with Homeland Security and hunts bad guys.

But Quinton’s biggest secret is that he is part demonic himself and a demonslayer.On All Hallow’s Eve, the portals between the mortal and supernatural world open and demons flood the Earth. One, the Death Angel, has been sent by Quinton’s father Zion, the new leader of the underworld, to wreak destruction and take lives.

Quinton’s job is to stop him.

So Dark Hunger is steeped with danger, evil demons, spirits, Satan worshippers, bombings, deaths, cops, folk legends, haunted southern cities, a creepy atmosphere, and hot steamy sex, all wrapped up in a fast-paced suspense that should keep you turning the pages.

But then again – it’s really all about the romance.

After all, Quinton is a tortured alpha hero. He doesn’t believe he deserves love, lives alone, and is virtually an island to himself. And he likes it that way.

But the evil, dark side of him is eating away at his soul, and even though he denies it, he needs the love of a good woman to save him.

What kind of woman could save a demon?

Only a strong, gutsy, tenacious one like CNN reporter Annabelle Armstrong.

Of course, there are immediately problems.

Annabelle suspects that he is an assassin and is out to expose his secrets.

Quinton’s orders are to stop her at any costs, even if he has to eliminate her completely.

But one look at Annabelle, one touch, one kiss and he knows he cannot kill her. Frustrating him more, she arouses dark fantasies and desires that are forbidden. And once he learns his father Zion, the leader of the underworld, is trying to trap him, he knows Zion will use anyone he cares about to get to him.

Still, the danger throws them together, and the sparks fly as they chase down the demonic killer.

With all those other interesting elements, why is DARK HUNGER a romance? Because what can be more empowering and inspiring than finding true love? Than watching characters overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles to be together? Because reading about love offers hope and happy endings and this author believes in them!

****

What is your favorite romance story of all time? Have you found romance in your own life, and if so, what obstacles did you have to overcome to find your happily ever after?

Leave a comment or question for Rita today and be entered in a contest for a copy of Rita’s first book in The Demonborn Series: Insatiable Desire. But don’t stop there! There’s a second contest for today’s readers.

Visit Rita at her website www.ritaherron.com and sign up for her newsletter to be entered in a contest to a copy of both books in The Demonborn Series: Insatiable Desire and Dark Hunger. And, by singing up for Rita’s newsletter, you will also be automatically entered in Rita’s regular monthly contests. You can also find extras on the Demonborn series at www.thedemonborn.com. And visit Rita on Facebook, www.Myspace.com/ritaherron, and www.Twitter.com/ritaherron ! Rita loves hearing from her readers.

!

A sexy alpha hero who is part demonic -- part evil, part good. A hero who has the power to read minds and has premonitions.

He’s also a cold-blooded assassin who works for a secret government unit called the Ghosts. And he’s an agent with Homeland Security and hunts bad guys.

But Quinton’s biggest secret is that he is part demonic himself and a demonslayer.On All Hallow’s Eve, the portals between the mortal and supernatural world open and demons flood the Earth. One, the Death Angel, has been sent by Quinton’s father Zion, the new leader of the underworld, to wreak destruction and take lives.

Quinton’s job is to stop him.

So Dark Hunger is steeped with danger, evil demons, spirits, Satan worshippers, bombings, deaths, cops, folk legends, haunted southern cities, a creepy atmosphere, and hot steamy sex, all wrapped up in a fast-paced suspense that should keep you turning the pages.

But then again – it’s really all about the romance.

After all, Quinton is a tortured alpha hero. He doesn’t believe he deserves love, lives alone, and is virtually an island to himself. And he likes it that way.

But the evil, dark side of him is eating away at his soul, and even though he denies it, he needs the love of a good woman to save him.

What kind of woman could save a demon?

Only a strong, gutsy, tenacious one like CNN reporter Annabelle Armstrong.

Of course, there are immediately problems.

Annabelle suspects that he is an assassin and is out to expose his secrets.

Quinton’s orders are to stop her at any costs, even if he has to eliminate her completely.

But one look at Annabelle, one touch, one kiss and he knows he cannot kill her. Frustrating him more, she arouses dark fantasies and desires that are forbidden. And once he learns his father Zion, the leader of the underworld, is trying to trap him, he knows Zion will use anyone he cares about to get to him.

Still, the danger throws them together, and the sparks fly as they chase down the demonic killer.

With all those other interesting elements, why is DARK HUNGER a romance? Because what can be more empowering and inspiring than finding true love? Than watching characters overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles to be together? Because reading about love offers hope and happy endings and this author believes in them!

****

What is your favorite romance story of all time? Have you found romance in your own life, and if so, what obstacles did you have to overcome to find your happily ever after?

Leave a comment or question for Rita today and be entered in a contest for a copy of Rita’s first book in The Demonborn Series: Insatiable Desire. But don’t stop there! There’s a second contest for today’s readers.

Visit Rita at her website www.ritaherron.com and sign up for her newsletter to be entered in a contest to a copy of both books in The Demonborn Series: Insatiable Desire and Dark Hunger. And, by singing up for Rita’s newsletter, you will also be automatically entered in Rita’s regular monthly contests. You can also find extras on the Demonborn series at www.thedemonborn.com. And visit Rita on Facebook, www.Myspace.com/ritaherron, and www.Twitter.com/ritaherron ! Rita loves hearing from her readers.

!

I've spent months with Chloe and Luke and the other residents of Sugar Maple. I know them the way I know members of my own family. I've seen them through triumph and tragedy. I've watched them battle danger. And even though I know they need to make their own mistakes, I can't help wanting to hold them close and protect them.

Laced With Magic is Book #2 in my Sugar Maple Chronicles and it picks up a few months after Casting Spells ends and Chloe's inner sorceress is about to get a wake-up call.

But I'll let her tell you about it in her own words:

Did you ever have the feeling that you were exactly where you were meant to be, that the Fates had finally got it right and the rest of your life was going to be clear sailing? That was how I felt the first time Luke MacKenzie and I kissed: like I was seeing the world through new eyes.

The first time our hands touched over a basket of alpaca roving, sparks flew. Bright silver-white sparks that shot from our fingertips and lit up the night. It was every love story I had ever read, every romantic movie I had ever wept over, all of my hopes and dreams wrapped up into one tall, dark, and handsome package. It didn't even matter that he was one hundred percent human and I was the daughter of a sorceress. I believed that now that I had finally found love, the rest would fall into place like magick.

Crazy? I wouldn't bet against it. Despite all of the evidence to the contrary, I still believed I was on my way to the storybook happy ending none of the women in my family had ever managed to achieve.

I mean, I even made a sweater for him and every knitter on the planet knows you never knit a sweater for the one you love until you had the ring on your finger.

What was I thinking?

I guess the truth is I wasn't thinking at all. All those romantic movies and novels I had devoured over the years hadn't prepared me for the real thing. Luke and I had gone from zero to sixty in a nanosecond, from strangers to lovers to living together in less time than it took most people to shake hands.

But then this wasn't the real world. It just looked like it.

Laced With Magic will hits the bookstores on August 4^th. I hope you'll look for it.

I'm offering a signed set of Casting Spells and Laced With Magic to one lucky winner. All you have to do is send me an email at barbarabretton@gmail.com with SET in the subject header. The winner will be chosen by random number generator on August 15^th. Good luck!

View the Book Trailer

My deep love for history was certainly a strong influence. I’m a journalist by trade – an occupation that delivers history’s first drafts – and after taking my first belly dance lesson about 20 years ago, I began to research the dance form’s origins, especially its migration to the United States. That’s when I discovered the real-life scandal caused by the Egyptian dancers at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair.

Although the dancers who performed in the Egyptian Theatre on the Midway Plaisance wore costumes that were downright modest compared with modern-day belly dance costumes, they were considered risqué by the standards of the time. Polite society was shocked that these foreign women didn’t wear corsets, their skirts rose above their ankles, and they were in the habit of wearing long beaded necklaces and other gaudy jewelry considered to be in bad taste by the fashionable women of the day. Add to that the vigorous, earthy movements of the Middle Eastern dance – the hip drops and rotations, the undulations, the jiggles and wiggles – and you can imagine the sort of public outcry that followed.

But I found it fascinating. I knew there was an interesting story to tell involving the inherent conflict between the ideals of the tight-laced, socially restricted American women and the more freeform, casual attitude of the Egyptian women. I’m a big fan of Kate Chopin (The Awakening, The Story of an Hour) and other authors who write about Victorian women searching for meaning and personal freedom in their lives, and I wondered how a character like one from those stories would react to meeting the belly dancers. I imagined she would be enthralled, but would it end there? How far might it go? Ultimately, would it change her? I believe it would, and that was my starting point for THE BELLY DANCER.

Another major influence for the story was the legend of Little Egypt, believed by many to be the first well-known belly dancer in America. Who she was and where she got her start is debated by historians, but one popular theory suggests she was one of the belly dancers who performed at the World’s Fair, although no written records have been found to confirm it. That mystery sparked my imagination. I found myself imagining a life story for her and the circumstances that brought her to the fair.

Underlying both of these inspirations was my love for the art, history and practice of belly dance, also known as Oriental dance, Middle Eastern dance and raqs sharqi. It’s been part of my life since I took that first class in 1990, yet like most writers I’m more comfortable sitting behind a computer screen than dancing on a stage, even though I have on occasion performed with troupes. For me, the joy of belly dancing is usually experienced in a classroom or in my living room with the shades pulled closed. I also find a tremendous amount of joy in being part of my local belly dance community. I’ve made so many wonderful friends over the years, and I find that belly dance’s roots as a social dance among women is still very much a part of its attraction for me today.

Perhaps my greatest inspiration for writing THE BELLY DANCER, however, was that I simply wanted to write the kind of story I wanted to read. I’m an avid reader who always has at least two or three novels in progress on my bed stand. But when I searched for stories that involved belly dancing, I came up empty. How could that be, I wondered. I didn’t believe I could be the only reader who found belly dancing fascinating, so I sat down at the keyboard and started telling myself a story. It was the first time I’d approached writing this way, and I found it exhilarating. I loved working in all the things I wanted in a story – history! belly dancers! romance! secrets! more belly dancers! I loved developing a heroine who finds herself questioning her assumptions and the expectations placed on her, and taking her destiny into her own hands.

When I reached the end of the final draft of THE BELLY DANCER, I felt satisfied with it in a way I hadn’t with earlier stories I’d written. Those stories tended to be written to please other people – either a writing instructor or mentor, or a workshop or critique group. THE BELLY DANCER was different – it was my story. I loved it whether anyone else ever read it or not. And when I sent it out into the world, it was just that much sweeter when I found there were others who loved it, too.

Question: If you were to write the kind of book you wanted to read, what would it be about? What elements would you include? Leave a comment, and at noon on July 15, I’ll randomly choose a winner to receive either a signed copy of THE BELLY DANCER or a genuine belly dance hip scarf in your choice of colors, winner’s choice.

DeAnna Cameron is the author of THE BELLY DANCER, available now from Berkley Books/Penguin as a trade paperback. ISBN# 978-0425227787/$14.

At the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, the modern, the exotic, and the ground-breaking collide. When Dora Chambers, an aspiring socialite, is charged with the task of enforcing proper conduct at the Egyptian belly dancing exhibition, she finds herself captivated by these marvelous women. And as her eyes are opened to the world beyond a life of social expectations, she finds the courage to break free and discover the truth about her own heart.

Invite THE BELLY DANCER to your next book club meeting. Visit www.DeAnnaCameron.com for recipes, music recommendations, and tips on decorating and activities to complement your reading experience.