Over the next two days, you're in for a special treat! We're spotlighting a new release from award-winning military romance author Heather Ashby, and her writing partner retired Marine Maj. Christopher Bergeron. This fascinating partnership puts readers in the pilot's seat for a thrilling, romantic ride you won't want to miss. We'll chat with Heather today, and Chris will join us tomorrow.
In the meantime, here's a peek at Unforgettable:
In the meantime, here's a peek at Unforgettable:
The 9/11
spirits aboard USS New York are back! Their mission: help Adam, Gwyn, Mike, and
Cate find their happily ever afters—and stay alive. As the only person who can
see them, Lieutenant Gwyn Pritchard tries to help the spirits move on to the
light. That is, when she’s not helping Gunnery Sergeant Adam Connor heal from
his PTSD—or falling madly in love with him.
Captain Cate Hawkins, has run from her unconventional childhood by
becoming a Marine Corps pilot. But when a mission in East Africa goes awry, she
finds herself in a race for her life. After burying the hatchet with Cate, Navy
pilot Mike Nikolopoulos wants nothing more than to rescue his new love. If the
spirits help him save her, they’ll finally be free to move on. But can Mike
overcome a sudden fear of flying to find his way to Cate before terrorists
repeat “Black Hawk Down”—with a female American pilot this time?
Excerpt:
What had
Adam Connor been thinking when he’d agreed to hypnotherapy to heal his
inner-freaking-child?
“You
promised,” Gwyn said. “If I gave up the intelligence to your Colonel, you
agreed to talk with my mum.”
Adam raked
his fingers through his short Marine Corps haircut as he paced in the confines
of their hotel room. After the successful rescue of forty hostages in Tangiers,
the sailors and Marines of the USS New
York had earned liberty in Rota, Spain. And when the hot British exchange
officer had suggested getting a room together? Well, what was Gunny Connor to
do? Turn her down?
He stopped
pacing and knelt by the bed. Gwyn sat cross-legged, giving him the stink eye.
Maybe he could distract her from this whole healing
thing. He took her chin in his hands. “Look, baby,” he said, laying on his
Oklahoma accent as thickly as possible, because he knew she liked it.
She pushed
his hands away. “Don’t you baby me,
Gunnery Sergeant. You promised.”
Dang, he
loved it when she called him by his full rank with that British accent of hers.
Always made him feel like a schoolboy who was in trouble with a sexy teacher.
And he usually countered with his pet name for her, the British pronunciation
of her rank. “Come on, Left-tenant,
be reasonable.” He pointed to her laptop computer, open on the bureau. “I’m not
going to spill my guts to your mum
with you sitting here listening. Maybe it would be better to wait until the
deployment is over. Then I could fly to Wales and talk with her in person, or
something.”
“You’re
stalling, Adam. It’s either here or aboard ship. If you think you’re nervous
with me leaning over your shoulder, imagine trying to do it with sailors and
Marines scurrying about.” She stood and pulled down the tails of her shirt in
indignation. This only served to highlight the breasts he had had the good
fortune to get to know in the past—although it wasn’t looking like he’d get
reacquainted with them any time soon. Especially if he refused to Skype with
her mama.
“I’ll set
you up with Mum and then I’ll leave. You can text me when you’re done. I told
Cate Hawkins I’d meet her for a beer.”
“You mean,
that Osprey pilot drinks? Good. Maybe it’ll loosen that pole she’s got—”
“Be nice,
Adam.” Gwyn touched him on the nose with her fingertip before grabbing her
phone and key card. “Everyone is carrying some kind of burden. You, of all
people, should know that.”
“And if I talk with your mama, then what?” He waggled his eyebrows. “Can we use this room for what it’s intended for?”
“And if I talk with your mama, then what?” He waggled his eyebrows. “Can we use this room for what it’s intended for?”
“One hour,
Adam. Talk with her for one hour. And then we can discuss what this room was
intended for.”
He threw his
head back, let out a sigh of resignation, and accepted there’d be no lovemaking
if he didn’t let Gwyn’s mum dig through his overloaded brain and peer into his
bruised and battered soul. Unless he could get Gwyn to listen to reason. Adam
pulled her into his embrace, lifted her chin, and kissed her long and hard.
Then he gazed at her with what she called his bedroom eyes and gave it his best
shot. “Come on, baby, you know it’s not going to be easy for me to let down my
guard and share my stuff with the Voodoo Queen.”
“Well, guess what, Adam,” she replied. “It wasn’t exactly a piece of cake for me to talk to a Marine Lieutenant Colonel and share intelligence I received from ghosts.”
“Well, guess what, Adam,” she replied. “It wasn’t exactly a piece of cake for me to talk to a Marine Lieutenant Colonel and share intelligence I received from ghosts.”
Meet the Authors
HEATHER ASHBY
Award
winning author, Heather Ashby is a Navy veteran who taught school and raised a
family while accompanying her Navy husband around the United States, Japan, and
the Middle East. In gratitude for their Army son’s safe return from Afghanistan
and Iraq, she now writes military romance novels, donating half her royalties to
Fisher House Foundation in support of wounded warriors and their families. Her
son serves as her cover model, helping to raise money for Fisher Houses around
the world. Heather lives in Atlantic Beach, Florida with her retired Navy
husband. Unforgettable is the fourth
and final book in the “Love in the Fleet” series.
Website: www.heatherashby.com
Twitter: www.@HAshbyAuthor
Christopher
Bergeron is a retired Major in the United States Marine Corps, with twenty-four
years of service. His ten deployments include combat tours in Desert
Shield/Desert Storm; Somalia; Kosovo; Haiti; Fallujah, Iraq; and Helmand
Province, Afghanistan. Chris’s travels have covered the globe, including more
than twenty countries. He lives with his wife and son in Rockford, Michigan,
where he is currently a Communications/Marketing student at Grand Valley State
University. Unforgettable is his
first novel.
Heather, let's chat with you first. Tomorrow, we'll bring Chris in and grill him!
E.E.: What do you do to unwind and relax?
HEATHER: Sleep. In the fall I was pulled out
of retirement and asked to teach middle school. Therefore, I have been teaching
Gifted Language Arts this year, while completing Unforgettable. I haven’t been this tired since boot camp. But,
unlike some years in my life, all the stress I’m facing right now is positive
stress. I love writing, I have a fabulous co-author and editor, and my students
are the best! I remind myself that I chose
everything that is happening right now, so I don’t allow myself to complain.
Sometimes all we need to do is to put things in perspective, and remember to be
grateful for the good in our lives. I try to run on the beach after school, but
often take a nap instead.
E.E.: How did you come up with the idea for your book?
HEATHER: Unforgettable features two love stories.
My awesome USMC co-author, Christopher Bergeron, and I each brought one of the
story lines to the table. I am going to focus on one hero and heroine today and
Chris will discuss the other couple and their harrowing adventure tomorrow. My Marine
hero and his issues are introduced in Book 3, Never Forget, and he is healed in Unforgettable by a hypnotherapist. Before you scoff, let me
explain. 9/11 occurred a month after the unexpected death of my only sibling.
My Army son left for war several months later, and I assumed care of my
eccentric, elderly mother—while I was teaching elementary school. I resumed
smoking cigarettes, a habit I had kicked twenty years earlier. After my son was
safely home and the dust had settled, I went to a hypnotherapist as I had
become a completely addicted smoker again. She not only removed smoking from my
life in one day, but healed all the reasons I ever smoked in the first place!
My immediate reaction was: “Can this heal combat PTSD?” To which she replied,
“Absolutely.” Then and there, I knew I had to write this story. For more
information, check out my interview on NPR: http://closingtheloopradio.com/?s=heather+ashby
E.E. What is your hero’s “Kryptonite?” What will bring him to his knees.
HEATHER: Sharing. Marine Gunnery Sergeant Adam
Connor hates the word and he hates sharing
his pain even more. This is typical of those with emotional burdens—especially
men. I had to ensure that Adam’s healing rang true, so I had him drag his feet
about seeking help. The heroine sort of tricks him into trying hypnotherapy,
because no way is he going to do this on his own…Until his emotional pain gets
so bad that he utters the statement that leads many to seek healing: “I’ll do
whatever it takes to heal my life.”
E.E.: What has been your most rewarding publishing moment?
HEATHER: In February I
was signing books at the Amelia Island Book Festival here in Florida. A woman approached my table and
thanked me for the healing properties in my books. She said she was a physician
in the Washington, D.C. area and that she recommends Book 2 in my “Love in the
Fleet” series, Forget Me Not, to her
military couples dealing with PTSD. My jaw dropped and the following words
echoed in my head: Mission accomplished.
She said that not only were there psychological steps to healing in the book,
but “it is told in story form, not preaching to the reader. And it appeals to female
and male readers—both the romance and
the military action. Plus, much of it is told from a male point of view.” Not
only have I spent a lot of time around military men—my retired Navy husband
being one of them—but the military advisors for all my books are male. One
recently said, “You’ve created a new genre, Heather: The
technically-correct-modern-warfare-self-help-romance novel.”
E.E.: Can you tell us about a real-life hero you’ve met?
HEATHER: Besides my awesome Marine Corps
co-author, Christopher Bergeron, I have another special Marine in my life. I
met Staff Sergeant Shawn Garrett, USMC (ret), through social networking. When I
read that he had healed his PTSD through writing fiction, I was hooked. I got
in touch with him and we talked. He is not only a hero to me for serving his
country and figuring out how to “get back to normal,” but he wrote a novel to
help other troops do the same thing. However, it was when the teacher in me
learned that Shawn is dyslexic and struggled in special classes all through
school, that he truly won my respect. He told me, “Growing up, I did battle
with the English language. Now I come to find that it saved my life. I truly
fell in love with writing and wish I had found this passion as a young person.”
I have been mentoring Shawn with
some of his marketing. He, in turn, mentors me. Shawn is a strong, yet humble
man. When I get caught up in numbers and sales and reviews, he reminds me of
our writing mission—to help others. I thanked him once for showing me how to be
humble. He replied, “I’m just a man trying to do what God put me on this earth
to do.” His book, 500 Miles An Hour,
released in January and is making quite a statement in the Marine Corps. Shawn
has been asked to speak about his healing journey and we are thrilled to see
his book appearing on military and law enforcement reading lists. Ooh-Rah,
Shawn!
E.E.: What is your favorite tradition from
childhood that you would love to pass on or did pass on to your children?
HEATHER: On Easter
morning, my parents used to hide our Easter eggs and write riddles for us,
giving clues as to where to find them. I continued this for my own children, as
we moved around the world as a Navy family. Our clues often had to do with
unique features in a particular home, like our Japanese house with the tatami floors, sliding paper doors, and butsudan, a household altar. Another
year we were at the Pyramids for Easter. THAT made for some fun clues! When my
oldest left for college, my high school son still wanted me to do the clues.
So, a few years later when he was serving in Afghanistan, I continued the
tradition. Here are some of the clues I sent in plastic eggs, along with Easter
candy in 2003:
To find the next clue for can-dee, look in the bottom of your
MRE (Meals Ready to Eat).
Too much candy makes you toot. Look for a clue in your combat
boot.
The next clue for a candy bar is on the road to Kandahar.
He wrote back.
“Thanks for the clues and the candy, Mom. We all enjoyed them. Some of these
guys don’t even get mail, let alone care packages.” I’m hoping my children will
pass on “The Easter Clues” to their children.
Thanks for inviting me today, E.E. and for letting me share our
story with your readers. Since I’m writing about the healing aspect of Unforgettable, I’d like to close with
Christopher Bergeron’s closing words in the acknowledgements: “Last, thanks to
all my brothers and sisters who came home wounded in ways no one could see. I
hope you find the healing I have found. Never give up the fight to be you again. It’s the most important
battle. Semper Fi to all.”
Please
join Chris tomorrow when he will share the adventure and suspense in Unforgettable on Get Lost in A Story.
Now, I have a question for your readers. Who is a real live hero you know?
Just comment and enter the raffle for your chance to win a $25 Amazon gift card from publisher, Amber House Books.
