8/17/2015

Romantic Book of the Year winner

MEET THE THRILL SEEKER
~ part three ~ 
part one ~ part two  

ANGI’S GOTTA ASK: What is the best scream you’ve experienced? Readers…take a look at Kendall’s website and you’ll understand why I asked.
KENDALL’S GOTTA ANSWER:  Oooo, that’s a great question. I love a good adrenalin rush so it’s hard to pick one, so I’m going to choose two, one quick one and one that lasted much longer. In Rio de Janeiro I hand glided off the top of Tijuca National Park and landed on the sandy Sao Conrado beach. My guide spoke very little English and the safety briefing lasted 60 seconds which is why I screamed so hard when we jumped, that my throat hurt for a day or so.

My second favourite scream happened while scuba diving at Christmas Island. With my husband as my dive buddy, we dropped into the water and gradually cruised down Perpendicular Wall, which is exactly what it is. This dive site is a fathomless vertical wall bustling with enormous coral fans, hundreds of colourful tropical fish of all shapes and sizes, eels that dart out and disappear just as quickly, and of course sharks, turtles and stingrays.

About 40 minutes into our dive, my hubby indicated he was nearly at his air limit. He’s what’s known as an air pig - in that he consumes his air way too quickly. I was a tad annoyed about this as I had at least another 20 minutes of air time remaining. But as every good dive buddy knows, you stick with your partner. So together we gradually floated toward the surface. 
This is when the magic happened.

KENDALL TALBOT
At our decompression stop, five metres below the surface, a four metre long whale shark came over to check us out. The whale shark came right up to us with its mouth wide open and I thought I was going to swallow me whole. Just the surge in the water as it passed was enough to feel its immense size. Thankfully for us, they are filter feeders though and mainly eat plankton. Whale sharks are the largest known fish species and can grow up to 12 metres long and weight as much as 21 tons.

I feel completely blessed to have experienced this rare, close encounter with a gentle giant of the sea, even if it did scare the crap out of me.

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"Kendle Talbot is an author to watch, her stories are varied, amazingly grounded in reality, and she writes from the heart. You won't be disappointed to read a Kendall Talbot book!"
~ T.M. Clark

TREASURED SECRETS
Sept 2015
Treasured Series, Book 1
Read a little, Buy the book
See the feature in Part One

TREASURED LIES
Oct 2015
Treasured Series, Book 2
Read a little, Pre-Order the book
See the feature in Part Two

DOUBLE TAKE

MIRA publishing
available in Australia or to registered Amazon Australia users

The police know a bank will be robbed on Melbourne Cup Day. But they don't know which one, and time is running out.

A fresh, fast-paced cocktail of a heist, a good cause and some seriously unexpected consequences…

Jackson Rich is an unlucky man – he’s lost his job, his house and it looks like he’s going to lose the love of his life. To buy his terminally ill wife Candice more time, he’ll try just about anything. Including robbing a bank, on the one day of the year everything shuts down: Melbourne Cup day.

To do it, Jack calls in a promise from his old gang. It’s been a long time since they were all together, but they'd do anything for him – at least that’s what he’s banking on. Nothing could possibly go wrong. Until a couple of kids overhear Jack and his gang planning the robbery.

Even after thirty-odd years as a cop, Detective Steel has never been presented with a scenario like this, but he has to act upon the tip-off he’s been given. Somewhere in Brisbane, sometime during the running of the 1992 Melbourne Cup, a bank is going to be robbed. But to catch the thieves, Steel must let the heist happen. He’s about to make the quickest bust in history. What could go wrong?

Read a Little, Pre-Order the Book

LOST IN KAKADU
An action adventure novel set in the Australian jungle where two unlikely people prove just how attractive opposites can be...


Winner of the 2014 Romance Writers of Australia RUBY (Romantic Book of the Year) Award for Stories with Romantic Elements!
It’s pretentious socialite Abigail Mulholland’s worst nightmare when her plane crashes into an ancient Australian wilderness. Things go from bad to downright hellish when rescuers never come. As she battles to survive in an environment that’s as brutal as it is beautiful, Abigail finds herself also fighting her unlikely attraction to Mackenzie — another survivor, and a much younger man.
Mackenzie Steel is devastated by his partner’s death in the crash, the only person with whom he shared his painful past. Now, as he confronts his own demons, he finds he has a new battle on his hands: his growing feelings for Abigail, a woman who’s as frustratingly naïve as she is funny.
Fate brought them together, but they’ll need more than luck to escape Kakadu alive. Could the letters of a dead man hold the key to their survival?
Read a little, Buy the book


Abigail was exhausted, hungry and she craved a hot shower and a decent sleep. But that wasn’t going to happen. She stood back as Mackenzie scavenged through the luggage throwing the empty water bottles and a few other bits and pieces into a backpack.
“What do you want me to do?” She heard reluctance in her own voice.
Mackenzie blinked at her as if seeing her for the first time and seemed to agonize over her question. “Just come with me.” Then he threw the pack over his shoulder. “We’ll check out the back of the plane again. Ready?”
She followed him into the bush and with each feral shrub she struggled over, she wished her legs were as long as his. Mackenzie soon stopped at a tree, sliced off a couple of weird looking mushrooms and dropped them into a pocket of the backpack.
“What are those for?”
“We might be able to eat them.”
“But I don’t like mushrooms.”
He spun toward her, his honey coloured eyes darkened to molasses. “You’re kidding, right?” His hands were clenched at his sides.
She frowned. “No.”
“You still don’t get it, do you? We’re lost in the jungle.” He was raising his voice now. “We’ll have to eat all sorts of things to survive. And it won’t matter whether you like it or not, you’ll need to eat it just to stay alive.”
Not impressed with his tone of voice, she glared up at him. “There’s no need to yell at me. I’m right here.”
“But you don’t understand.”
She unclenched her jaw. “I understand our situation fully. My husband is dead, I’m half way through digging his grave and I haven’t showered, slept or eaten anything decent for days.” She put her hands on her hips. “And I still don’t like mushrooms.”
Mackenzie grumbled under his breath, spun on his heel and stomped away. He pushed past a long thin branch and it flicked back like a whip.
Abigail ducked away from the branch just in time. “Ha! You missed,” she yelled, smiling to herself.
Mackenzie’s angry pace ensured he progressed further and further ahead of her, but she was confident she could easily follow the path. She took her time, absorbing her surroundings. The only noise she heard was Mackenzie’s grumbling. The thick air was suffocating and she found it a little difficult to breathe. Sweat burnt her eyes as it trickled off her forehead. A large log lay across the path ahead, its rough bark a spectrum of light and dark green. She cringed as she dusted the log with her fingers. Then she sat on a section clear of moss, removed her handkerchief from her pocket and dabbed sweat from her forehead.
As Abigail breathed in she felt the tightening in her back from the injuries she sustained in the crash. It had been four days since Toni knocked her out. For a fleeting second she felt pity for the young woman, but then it was gone. Abigail had already suffered a lifetime of emotions since the crash and with the way things were going, it didn’t look like the agony was going to end any time soon.

“Four days,” she said aloud. She looked up through the dense canopy in a half-hearted search for a rescue party. She wondered, and not for the first time, if Mackenzie had imagined that helicopter. After all, she hadn’t heard it. Surely, it couldn’t be the only search party they’d send. Her mind drifted to her friends back home and how much gossip would be going on over her disappearance, but then she realised they weren’t even expecting her return for three more days. She sighed.

KENDALL is giving away a digital copy of her cookbook - Rosalina’s Treasured Treats Cookbook. 
International 

UP NEXT ON GLIAS: Beth Williamson
Get Lost on GoodreadsFacebook
or @GetLostInAStory  #GetLostStories

KENDALL WANTS TO KNOW: Treasured Secrets weaves from an Australian tropical reef to historic Tuscany to the luxurious Greek Islands. These are all amazing places I’ve visited. Where is the most amazing place you’ve been to and why did you love it?

7 comments:

  1. I want to live your life, Kendall !!
    Swimming with whale sharks? Parasailing?
    I definitely want to be you!

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    1. Thanks Angi. I live to travel, and when I do I like to step out of my comfort zone. Life's too short to be a couch potato.

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  2. Hi, Kendall! I loved reading about your adventures, especially the one with the shark. Oh my! Thank you for being with the GLIAS ladies today.

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    1. Thanks Vicki, That shark was amazing. We were so lucky. All our dive buddies were a long way below us and every photo they took had Dean and I in it - we totally scored. Like I said it was amazing and scary at the same time.

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  3. Hi Kendall! Wow what amazing stories. I LOVE The shark encounter--holy cow. So--do you not complain about hubby's air hoggedness any more? LOL. I've been fortunate to travel to some fun places, although I'm not quite the adrenaline junkie. We lived in Alaska for three years and that was amazing. But my most spiritual and memorable trip was in 2012 when my husband and I did the Coast to Coast hike in northern England. 192 miles in 16 days. It was stunning and sometimes difficult but one of the most amazing journeys. I felt totally blessed.

    Good luck with your books--they're def on my TBR pile now--they look wonderful!

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    1. Thanks for sharing Lizbeth. I've done some hiking too. I did the 4 day Milford Track in New Zealand and the 5 day Cinque Terre coastline alone the Italian riviera. I love hiking and it sounds like I need to put the Northern England one on my list. I'm heading there in December - but it will be way too cold then. Thank you for buying my books - you're a gem. Oh and my hubby is still an air pig - but I don't complain any more. Cheers

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