Winter Newsletter 2013

Thanks to Harlequin, 2013 has been quite a year for me book-wise. I’ve had more books out this year than ever before. The cherry on top of this cake occurs in December with Down Range, HQN.

Down Range is book 2 of my new Shadow Warriors series.  Dorothy Fontana, of Star Trek fame (she wrote for the series) has optioned my book for a film script.  It’s taken about a year to write the script, but I’m hoping that by early 2014, it will be ready to hand over to her Hollywood agent.  Fingers crossed, that it might be bought! If it is, you’ll be the first to know.

Down Range is about SEAL Lieutenant Jake Ramsey and Marine Corps Captain Morgan Boland.  If you have read Danger Close (Harlequin eBook only), it is Book 1 of the series.  And the two characters, Captain Jim Boland and Corporal Cathy Fremont, eventually find love.  They have a daughter later on, Morgan Boland. Down Range is the sequel and Morgan’s book.

With the advent of the U.S. Department of Defense opening up combat slots to women,  I wanted to write about this event.  The series will cover men and women in combat situations, but also, their intense love for one another, despite the threats that surround them.

Jake Ramsey and Morgan Boland are fated lovers, but so much stands in their collective way.  Jake, from age ten through eighteen, had to become a care giver to this chronically ill mother.  His father was a SEAL and rarely home.  And Jake sees all women as weak, as a result of his experience.  And when he enters the Naval Academy and meets red haired Morgan Boland, she dazzles him with her strength and confidence.  She is a complete antithesis of Jake’s mother who has now passed on.  Their fiery relationship with one another dissolves in heart break and hurt.  Years later, they get together in an Afghan village during a blizzard.  Their three days together once more show how right they are for one another.  But Jake’s attitude persists and Morgan refuses to be defined by how he sees her.

Two years later, when a Pentagon computer pairs them up for a sniper op in Afghanistan, the two couldn’t be more surprised.  But like the warriors they are, they put their personal baggage aside to bring down an opium drug lord in the Hindu Kush mountains near the Pakistan border.

The twists and turns that come up with a dangerous mission like this drive them together.  And sometimes, it takes powerful events beyond their control, to get them to rise above their entrenched positions, and see one another through the eyes of their hearts, instead.

Shadow Warriors stories are about men and women in jeopardy and in love with one another.  These books are emotionally intense, powerful love stories on the edgy backdrop of black ops missions.  Each will be different.  They will take place around the world, not just in a known theater of war (such as Iraq or Afghanistan).  And sometimes, they will be stories about security contractors who were in the military, but now serve outside of it in just as dangerous scenarios.  Above all, there is a great love story wound through the pages of each novel.  These are characters you aren’t likely to forget soon.  And you will find yourself sympathetic to each of them, as well as cheering them on.

Powerful stories of love, adventure, danger and suspense.  That is the promise of the Shadow Warrior series.

In February, 2014, Risk Taker, Harlequin Romantic Suspense, will arrive.  This is a Shadow Warriors series book #3.  It has a sequel, DEGREE OF RISK, which comes out in March 2014 and is book #4.

Risk Taker is the story of US Navy SEAL Ethan Quinn and Army Chief Warrant Officer, Sarah Benson.  At Forward Operating Base Bravo, thirty miles from the Pakistan border, Sarah is an Army medevac pilot and the only woman in her squadron.  She is called “risk taker” by her commanding officer.  He wants to get rid of her because she flies in to rescue men and women who would otherwise die.  Sarah doesn’t care if it means her Black Hawk helicopter gets shot up and has to be repaired later. But the CO does.

SEAL Ethan Quinn is a communications specialist and shooter in his platoon.  Since arriving two weeks earlier, he’s heard of “Blue Eyes,” the beautiful medevac pilot.  Every man on the base wishes she would choose him.  But she stays away from men in general.  Until Ethan and another SEAL eat lunch at the canteen and he accidentally sees Blue Eyes alone at a corner table.  He is mesmerized by the color of her eyes and it reminds him of a calving glacier up in Alaska.

Later, being one of seventy women on the FOB of a thousand men, Sarah is attacked by a male.  And it is Ethan who saves her.  She doesn’t trust men for good reason, but she’s drawn to the quiet, thoughtful SEAL. As a medevac pilot, Sarah has a fierce-some and courageous reputation for saving lives.  And yet, when out of the cockpit, she’s a shadow of her former self.  This is a story of discovery between these two warriors, and how Ethan eventually finds out about Sarah’s painful past.  Over time, Ethan becomes the healing agent for her. And the love that he gives her, opens her up so that she trusts him with her life.  Sarah comes to understand that giving her heart and allowing herself to love Ethan in return, is the happiest moment of her life.

Degree of Risk, March 2014, HRS, is a continuation of Ethan and Sarah’s story.  The sequel takes them into passionate territory with one another, their love powerful and deep.  But they live in combat where nothing is ever safe.  The pressures and stresses on both of them is tremendous; each in their own realm.  Sarah flies into firefights  and Ethan is on the ground confronting Taliban.

Only when they can find a time and place in their chaotic lives, does their love see them through these many challenges.   And their love will be tested in a life-and-death trial where the outcome can cost one or both of them their lives.  Ultimately, it is the love Ethan holds for Sarah that will galvanize an entire SEAL team to come to her rescue. And Sarah’s love for Ethan will give her the courage to face her deepest fears that she thought she left behind in her broken childhood.  Love can knit a person together in ways that fuels them to move beyond what they thought they were capable of doing, to achieve strength to not only survive.  But thrive.

These two books for HRS are going to be an emotional roller coaster ride for my readers.  And that is why I enjoy writing about love because even in the darkest of moments, it is the one human emotion that will pull us through.  To a happy ending.

And this brings me to an end of my winter newsletter than spans from December 2013 through March 2014.  I hope you truly enjoy the Shadow Warrior series.  Do drop me a line and let me know.  I have always valued your insights, feedback and suggestions.

Happy Holidays to one and all!

And Happy NEW YEAR!

Warmly,

Lindsay