A
pretend engagement suddenly becomes very real…and dangerous
When Tahra Edwards sees a
suspicious knapsack near a school yard, she leaps into action…and saves
children from a bomb. But upon awakening in a hospital, Tahra discovers she's
lost her memory—including any recollection of the handsome military captain who
says he's her fiancé. A charming alpha hero who seems to be hiding something…
As a high-level bodyguard,
Marek Zale knows that a ruthless terrorist organization will stop at nothing to
silence Tahra—his ex-girlfriend—permanently. To protect her, he must be by her
side around the clock. And though he may not be telling her the truth about
their engagement, their love for each other was always true…as is the danger
threatening them both!
READ A LITTLE, BUY THE BOOK
READ A LITTLE, BUY THE BOOK
**BOOK GIVEAWAY BELOW**
Award-winning author Amelia Autin is an
inveterate reader who can’t bear to put a good book down…or part with it. Her
bookshelves are crammed with books her husband periodically threatens to donate
to a good cause, but he always relents…eventually.
Amelia is a long-time member of Romance
Writers of America (RWA), and served three years as its treasurer. She
currently resides with her Ph.D. engineer husband in quiet Vail, Arizona, where
they can see the stars at night and have a “million-dollar view” of the Rincon
Mountains from their back yard.
Jan Schliesman: I know you have a day job, but how many hours a week do
you spend writing?
Amelia: One
to two hours per night on the days I work at my day job, and 10 to 12 hours per
day on the days I’m not “working.” I work a 9/80 schedule at my day job (that
is, I work 80 hours in nine work days), which means I get every other Friday
off, which is terrific. I do most of my writing on the weekends. So I’d say I
average about 30 to 40 hours per week writing when I’m on deadline. This would not
be possible if I had small children at home. I don’t know how authors with
children do it.
Jan: Your current release involves
a heroine with amnesia? Is this the first time you’ve written such a heroine?
Amelia: Yes,
but it’s a trope I’ve always loved to read, so I don’t know why this is the
first time I’ve used it in a book. The great thing about amnesia is, it allows
the hero and heroine to have been in love before, and yet fall in love all over
again relatively quickly. Because everything usually happens in a short period
of time in a romantic suspense, it’s problematic to have your hero and heroine
fall in love…really in love…in three
or four days. So I’m always scrambling to find ways to bring my hero and
heroine together in a way that seems realistic and long lasting.
Tahra Edwards
and Captain Marek Zale were already falling in love when I wrote Alec’s Royal Assignment. In fact, in
that book Marek says of Tahra:
“...She is very sweet. A man would have
to look far and wide to find someone like her.”
So he was
already smitten. All I had to do was fast forward eighteen months, wipe out
Tahra’s memory, and voila! I have two people in love with each other, the
lasting kind of love, but one doesn’t remember the other. Which makes for all
sorts of poignant moments, including this one:
“What
have I said to make you cry?” She shook her head and swallowed visibly as first
one tear, then another escaped its banks and trickled down her cheeks. Each
tear was like a dagger in his heart. “Please do not,” he pleaded, brushing her tears
away with his thumb. “I cannot bear it.”
Her
face crumpled and she buried it against his shoulder, weeping quietly. As if
her heart was breaking. He gathered her close and did the only thing he could
think of—he stroked her dark hair and pressed his lips against it, his own
heart breaking for her pain that was also his. He didn’t know why she was
crying, just that she was. And somehow he’d been the unwitting cause.
Words
of comfort flowed out of him in a disjointed stream, followed by entreaties
that she tell him what was wrong. “Hush now, Tahra. Whatever it is, please tell
me so I can make it right. I cannot bear to see you cry this way.”
He
might as well have saved his breath, because it was as if she couldn’t even
hear him. But she clung to him in her misery, and that helped him immeasurably,
knowing that whatever was making her weep, even if he was the proximate cause,
she still sought comfort in his arms.
When
her tears finally ceased, she murmured something into his shoulder he had to
ask her to repeat. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered again, still on the edge of
tears.
“For
what, my darling?” he whispered back, his arms tightening infinitesimally.
She
gulped and drew a sobbing breath. “Because you love me so much, and I…I don’t
remember.”
Jan: Any upcoming vacation plans?
Amelia: Nothing
major. Not like last year, when my husband and I took a land tour/river cruise
through northern China and knocked off several things from our respective
bucket lists. That trip was also research, since it’s the setting for an
upcoming book, Black Ops Warrior
(more about this later).
Next year we
plan to visit Hong Kong again…my mother-in-law will be celebrating her 90th
birthday and we can’t miss that!
Jan: What’s your favorite season
and why?
Amelia: That’s
easy. Fall, because I love the colors and the smells. Alas, we don’t really
have fall in Vail, AZ. Just summer and not-summer. Last year my husband and I
visited Massachusetts in October, and I loved it! His hobby is photography, and
he snapped these pictures.
Jan: The Bodyguard’s Bride-To-Be involves domestic terrorism. Do you have an opinion on how to make situations like these less commonplace?
Amelia: I
wish! Every time I hear of another incident, I ask myself, why can’t we all
just get along?
I dedicated The Bodyguard’s Bride-To-Be in part to
Shannon Johnson, a true hero of the San Bernardino massacre. For those who
might not remember, he shielded a co-worker with his body, saying, “I got you.”
Taking the bullets meant for her. It still brings tears to my eyes that there
are everyday heroes like Mr. Johnson, people who do what they have to do at the
moment they have to do it…even at the cost of their own lives.
Jan: What surprised you most about writing this story?
Amelia: I’m
always surprised by how my stories turn out. I’m a pantser, not a plotter
(i.e., I write by the seat of my pants as opposed to plotting things out). This
means my synopsis rarely bears a strong resemblance to the final product, but
if I want to sell on proposal (synopsis and the first three chapters), a
synopsis is a must. (Sigh). In the case of The
Bodyguard’s Bride-To-Be, I changed the villain’s goal mid-stream, which
(eek!) wasn’t the easiest thing to sell to my editor. But it was absolutely
necessary and made for a much stronger plot. My editor’s biggest concern was
that I not let the plot overwhelm the romance, which I didn’t (at least I don’t
think I did—I’ll have to ask my readers to render a verdict on that!) I think
the plot change allowed for a much more romantic storyline.
It also
surprised me how very different two sisters can be. Shy Tahra is eight years
younger than her outgoing sister, Carly (heroine of Killer Countdown) and as different from her as chalk is from
cheese. I actually used those differences in The Bodyguard’s Bride-To-Be as something that allows Tahra to grow
within the story.
That brings
me to something I see as problematic, especially when you’re writing sibling
books—the covers. The heroine on the cover of Killer Countdown looks more the way I envisioned Tahra (sweet, shy,
innocent, and in her twenties). And the heroine on the cover of The Bodyguard’s Bride-To-Be looks more
the way I envisioned Carly (sophisticated, self-assured, and in her thirties).
Don’t get me wrong, I love the Killer
Countdown cover. But…
I had a
similar issue with the covers for Liam’s
Witness Protection and Alec’s Royal
Assignment. Alec and Liam had been described in McKinnon’s Royal Mission this way:
Trace
rendezvoused with the Jones brothers Alec and Liam in the privacy of the sun
room. A year apart in ages, they looked like two peas in a pod—tall, rangy;
honed to muscle, sinew, and bone, just as he was. Both had that competent air
instilled in them by their years in the US Marine Corps and the Diplomatic
Security Service. And both had auburn hair, which they kept close cropped. Not
for them their sister’s red-gold tangle of curls, although neither had the
milky complexion and freckles that usually accompanied hair that color.
Alec
at thirty-four was a year older and a shade taller than his brother, whereas
Liam was a tad broader in the shoulders. But both inspired confidence on sight,
something Trace had been relieved to see. They were Keira’s brothers and former
marines, so they had to be
damned good, but still...
Based on this
description I envisioned them as nearly identical twins, don’t you agree? But
that’s not how the covers turned out. And neither man appears to have
close-cropped auburn hair. Again, don’t misunderstand. I love the cover for Liam’s Witness Protection (mostly
because they nailed the expression on the heroine’s face), but still…
Jan: I’m not much of a cook. How
about you? Any favorite dishes that will tempt you away from the keyboard and
into the kitchen?
Amelia: Hah!
I have two “party dishes” that I can make for dinner…my mother’s pot roast and
my sister’s chicken and rice casserole. Other than that my guests are out of
luck. On the other hand, breakfast is my forte—my grits are to die for.
<g>
Jan: When readers contact you, what sort of questions do they
ask?
Amelia: Readers
contact you with questions? (Just kidding!) One reader asked how I pronounced
Mei-li (heroine from A Father’s Desperate
Rescue), because she wanted to be able to think of the name correctly. That
actually posed a dilemma for me. Since the story takes place in Hong Kong,
where Cantonese is spoken, Mei-li would be pronounced May-Lie. But I’ve always thought of her name as
May-Lee, which is the Mandarin pronunciation. I think it’s much prettier, and I
explained that to the reader.
That’s really
the only question I can think of. I’ve
had several readers write and ask me if I intended to write a book for this
person or that person, someone who’d been a secondary character in a previous
book. Often the answer is an emphatic yes! But a couple of times the answer was
no. For instance, one reader wanted me to write the love story of Juliana’s
parents (she was the heroine of King’s
Ransom). Problem was, her mother died when she was four. That kinda sorta
breaks the paradigm of a romance, if you know in advance someone is going to
die before too long. We all want to think of heroes and heroines in books living
happily ever after.
The character
whose story I had the most requests for was Dirk DeWinter, from King’s Ransom. I’d been planning to
write his story, but first I had to write two contracted books, Alec’s Royal Assignment and Liam’s Witness Protection. Then I was
free to write Dirk’s story in A Father’s
Desperate Rescue. And unusual for me, I already knew what his deep, dark
secret was way back when I wrote this paragraph in King’s Ransom:
“This
is my punishment,” he’d told Juliana, his eyes wild with grief
when she’d gone to see him the day before. “God is punishing me, but she paid
the price.” And nothing Juliana said to him made the
slightest difference. Nothing she said seemed to break through that
impenetrable barrier. And now Dirk had shuttered himself against everyone and
everything. Against friendship. Against every human emotion. Even against
fatherhood—he’d only visited his tiny daughters twice in the neonatal ICU, both
times for less than ten minutes.
I actually
had a reader tell me she wanted to hurt Dirk for his initial attitude towards
his daughters (as depicted in the above paragraph), but she said she understood
when I explained the only way Dirk could deal with his grief was to shut off all
emotions…temporarily.
This brings
me to something I’ve noticed about myself…my characters are real people to me.
And based on the feedback I’ve gotten from some readers, my characters are real
people to them, too. That’s a wonderful feeling.
Jan’s GOTTA ASK: What’s your biggest pet peeve?
Amelia’s GOTTA ANSWER: Texting. I hate it and avoid it like the
plague. We just added texting to our cell phone plan this spring when my
husband’s youngest daughter said her college wanted to be able to text her, so
pretty please could we add it? Which we did.
I know
texting is here to stay, so of course my characters text. Just not me if I can
help it. My antipathy doesn’t have anything to do with avoiding technology—I’m
a techno-geek at my day job. I think it has more to do with the fact that I
have a cell phone for my convenience,
not to make it convenient for others to contact me. Besides, I love the human interaction
of a phone call. Texting is too impersonal for me.
FIND AMELIA
AUTIN:
THANKS
SO MUCH, AMELIA, FOR SHARING MORE OF YOUR WRITING WORLD WITH US!
UP
NEXT:
Covert
Ops Rescue and Black Ops Warrior (working titles, but I’m
keeping my fingers crossed!)
Covert
Ops Rescue is Jason
Moore’s story (Mei-li Moore’s brother from A
Father’s Desperate Rescue), and is set in Hong Kong. I turned that
completed manuscript in three weeks early (it was due October 31st).
My editor asked me to make one substantive change that filtered throughout the
manuscript, but I’ve already done it. Now it’s just a matter of reading through
the manuscript one last time to make sure I caught and changed everything that
needed to be changed before I submit it again. But I should still be a week
early (pats self on the back, lol).
Black
Ops Warrior is Niall
Jones’s story (the second oldest of the Jones clan, and the last sibling to
have his story told). That book is set mostly in northern China on a land
tour/river cruise similar to the one I took myself last year. But I couldn’t
write about Niall as a hero until he suddenly appeared as a secondary character
in Killer Countdown. Neither book is
scheduled yet, so I have no idea when they’ll be released. In the meantime, I’m
working on other ideas, and not just romantic suspense.
PLEASE NOTE: Seven of my backlist titles (ebook versions) are on
sale for $1.99 until October 25, 2016. This is a great time to try one of my
books if you haven’t already. I have Kindle and Nook links to Amazon and Barnes
& Noble on my website, as well as links to the ebooks on Harlequin’s
website, at:
PREVIOUS
RELEASES:
Man on a Mission miniseries
Killer Countdown (HRS August 2016) Check it out on
YouTube! https://youtu.be/NcJRtTphUpg
A Father’s Desperate Rescue (HRS April 2016)
Liam’s Witness Protection (HRS October 2015)
Alec’s Royal Assignment (HRS August 2015)
King’s Ransom (HRS June 2015)
McKinnon’s Royal Mission (HRS April 2015)
Cody Walker’s Woman (HRS October 2014)
Coltons of Texas miniseries
Her Colton P.I. (HRS May 2015)
PLEASE NOTE: Seven of my backlist titles (ebook versions) are on
sale for $1.99 until October 25, 2016. This is a great time to try one of my
books if you haven’t already. I have Kindle and Nook links to Amazon and Barnes
& Noble on my website, as well as links to the ebooks on Harlequin’s
website, at:
