Hi, everyone! Please help me give a warm welcome to Maureen Miller! Not only does she write books, but she's also the founder of the Just Romantic Suspense, Just Contemporary Romance, and Just Paranormal Romance websites! I don't know how she does it all, but I'm so glad she took some time out of her day to stop by! :)
Maureen A. Miller:
Title: DUSK
Publisher: Maureen A. Miller
THE STORY BLURB
As a young girl, Amanda Newton witnessed the
brutal murder of her parents. As an adult she is targeted by their murderer.
Beautiful. Reserved. Mysterious. Amanda Newton,
the CEO of BLUE-LINK epitomizes control with her adept handling of the global
company. But that control is threatened with a series of attacks against her.
Ray Gordon, a former Navy SEAL is looking to open
his own security firm. One more contracting job with BLUE-LINK would complete
the funding. When he is hired to protect Amanda Newton, the Ice Queen herself,
he never bargained on falling for her.
Amanda has something her attacker wants, and he
will destroy anyone close to her to get it.
...but he's met his match in Ray Gordon.
EXCERPT
Amanda sat at her office desk with her
arms crossed atop the mahogany surface. She glared at the oversized monitor
facing her. A grid of six faces stared back, some diffident, some determined.
In the upper right-hand corner, Claudia Eichmann from the Berlin office knit
her copper eyebrows together as she spoke over the others. Her words were a
split-second behind the movement of her lips due to the video conferencing
software.
“You are the head of this company. The
backbone. The heart. What if something were to happen to you?”
An imperceptible flaring of Amanda’s
nostrils might disclose her heavy sigh. “Each of you is fully capable of
running BLUE-LINK. You are directors. You are the heart and backbone of
your branch. You are my panel of advisors, and I only surround myself with
skilled personnel.”
“We appreciate that,” Claudia continued,
“but I am sure I speak for the others here in saying that we’re certainly not
your equal. None of us would have wanted to take on that Eclipse lawsuit. At
the end of the day, it is your
company, and you are the one personally vested.”
Several heads bobbed in agreement.
“You need personal security,” Benjamin
Forsyth from Australia inserted. “Not a seventy-five year old man.”
Amanda bristled at the attack on George.
“There is nothing sinister behind the
assault in the alley,” she countered. Or
the attempted break-in. “It’s simply a consequence of being affluent.”
“You are indifferent to your power,”
Gerald Williams from Los Angeles chided, “recklessly walking the streets−stopping at the pub on occasion.”
That the
ebony-eyed man in the center panel was correct didn’t detract from her need for
freedom. She walked a narrow line and she knew it.
One flick of the
power switch to the monitor would eliminate their censure, but it would not
fade the echoes of their points. She respected this panel. They wouldn’t be
facing her right now if she didn’t.
“You recently used a security contractor
with that Eclipse Line mess. He seemed very capable and very discreet,” Gerald
from LA said. “We suggest that you bring him into the office for a consult. If
you don’t speak to him directly, we just may−”
“You’ll call him in on my behalf,”
Amanda quickly tested. Her cheeks burned, but her demeanor remained a practiced
blend of glacial elegance.
Gerald’s shoulders came into view as he
shrugged. “We have a vested interest in your well-being.”
Amanda drew in a long breath and stared
down at the reflection of the sun off her diamond ring. It cast a thousand
microscopic prisms skittering across the polished wood surface.
“I’ll take your suggestion under
advisement. Allow me to confer with the police before I make any rash
decisions.”
“Rash?” Claudia from Berlin hefted a
burnished eyebrow. “This is not rash. This is something that should have been
addressed long ago. To us you have always seemed larger than life.” The eyebrow
fell. “But perhaps you are a tad human after all.”
ABOUT MAUREEN
USA TODAY bestselling author, Maureen A. Miller's
first novel, WIDOW'S TALE earned her a Golden Heart nomination in Romantic
Suspense. Working in the software industry for fifteen years in a job that
required extensive travel, Maureen chose to write during those lengthy airport
layovers. Escapism at its best. She is currently in the middle of a 3-book
Romantic Suspense series featuring SHADOW, MIST and DUSK. Recently, Maureen
branched out into the Young Adult Science Fiction market with Beyond and the
BEYOND Series. She is having fun keeping her head in the stars! When she's not
writing, Maureen enjoys supporting other authors. She is the founder of www.JustRomanticSuspense.com,
and its offspring, www.JustContemporaryRomance.com
and www.JustParanormalRomance.com.
Lara: How often to you get lost in a story?
Maureen: Every time I pick up a book to
read, or every time I sit down to write. Either way I’m easily immersed. We
read for escape. Getting lost in a story is the ultimate goal!
Lara: What’s the first thing you do when you finish writing a book?
Maureen: Eat. Is there such a thing as
“relief eating”? I think I’m tense and preoccupied while I’m writing. When I
type THE END that tension washes away and I do all the things I postponed.
(Like eating). Of course, like any other
writer, that down time is brief before we dive back into the next novel.
Lara: What is your hero’s “kryptonite” – in other words, what will bring him
instantly to his knees?
Maureen: The hero in DUSK has a weakness
for the movie, FROZEN. He had to take his niece to go see it, and now he’s
addicted to LET IT GO. [Lara: That is awesome! :)]
Lara: What could we find in your heroine's purse?
Maureen: Amanda Newton would have a
stack of business cards, three cell phones, several different currencies, and a
passport.
Lara: Can you tell us about a real-life hero you’ve met?
Maureen: This past week I performed my
civic duties. I served as a juror on a murder trial. First, I'll state that I
am humbled by the diligent and thorough process of our law. Everyone in every
role of the court system was professional and informative. Second, I'll state
that there is no comparison to watching something on TV and experiencing it in
person. I walked away from the week-long trial very saddened. I am sad for the
victim. I am sad for the defendant. I am sad for all the families involved. I
spent most of Friday crying. The sheer responsibility for twelve souls is
overwhelming.
When we finally announced our verdict and returned to the sequester
room, we were surprised by a visit from the judge himself. He wanted to thank
us for our service, and to assure us that our verdict was the correct one based
on the material presented to us. By taking a few minutes out of his busy day to
set our minds at ease, that judge became my hero. [Lara: How nice to have that reassurance!]
Lara: What’s your favorite movie of all time?
Maureen: JAWS. I could probably recite
the entire dialogue for you right now. Which character most closely represents
your personality? I am definitely Roy Scheider.
Don't miss the first two books in the BLUE-LINK series!
Where to find Maureen?
MAUREEN WANTS TO KNOW....
In DUSK, Amanda Newton wears a blue diamond ring.
That is the diamond you see on the covers of the BLUE-LINK
books (SHADOW, MIST and DUSK).
As for me, I love opals.
Do you have a favorite gem or stone?
Leave a comment for your chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card!
Thanks for stopping by today, Maureen!
I don't come from a military family. In four generations, just one of my close male relatives has been in battle. The rest were drafted so late in whatever war was on they were still training when it ended, or they got deferments of some kind, or they served in support positions. So, I only have one Memorial Day story to tell.
Jake Carlyle, the hero of Owed: One Wedding Night, has a more personal trauma in his past, one he kept secret from his fiancée, Madison Ellsworth. When Madison comes back into his life three years after leaving him at the altar, Jake agrees to save her family business in exchange for the wedding night they never had, but he doesn't intend to tell Madison his secret -- or to fall in love with his wife.
My father's father served in World War I.
He strung telegraph wire across the trenches in France and was wounded in battle.
Lovingly known to me as Poppie...he was the first of my grandparents to pass on. I was a junior in high school, working, busy...
