I love doing outdoor things. Horseback
riding, hiking, ATVing, target shooting, SCUBA diving, cross-country skiing… I’m
up for pretty much any outdoor activity. When I’m done, however, when I’m
sweaty and wind-burned and hungry and tired and a tiny bit cranky, I don’t want
to have to pee in the woods. Plus, I really hate ticks. Like, loathe them. What I do want is a soft bed and indoor plumbing, and I don’t
care if that makes me a princess. Plop that tiara down on my head, because
I will claim that crown. Just don’t make me camp.
This caused a conundrum for me when I was
writing Gone Too Deep, the third book
in the Search and Rescue series (out on August 2nd). Not only do the characters have to camp in the
mountains for several days, but they have to do it in the snow. For most of
this series, I threw myself into the research wholeheartedly (and sometimes
quite literally, such as when I jumped into a frozen reservoir during
cold-water rescue training, similar to what Lou experienced in Hold Your Breath…except minus the dead
body). Fan the Flames taught me about
guns and Doomsday Prepper-dom and firefighting and safe rooms. But camping? I
just couldn’t work up the enthusiasm.
It had to be done, though. Instead of leaping
in the camping research with both feet, like with all my other books, I stomped,
muttering the entire time. I must admit, though, that I cheated a little, pulling from my friends’ account of their two years in a tepee while building their
mountain home (the one where I eventually lived), and the winters I spent in an
attic apartment that was so cold I’d wear a stocking hat to bed, and other, more professional people's opinions on what was the best winter-camping gear, so I could minimize my
actual, real-life, do-it-myself, winter-camping research.
George and Ellie’s story is done, and I
survived it, un-frostbitten and tick-free (thank goodness). As you read it, I
hope you appreciate my sacrifice. All tents have been given to camping-loving friends, and my tiara is firmly back in place. After my next outdoor adventure, you'll find me at a nearby hotel, thoroughly enjoying a hot shower.
Out August 2nd, 2016
In the
remote Rocky Mountains, lives depend on the Search & Rescue brotherhood.
But in a place this far off the map, trust is hard to come by and secrets can
be murder…
George Holloway has spent his life alone, exploring the
treacherous beauty of the Colorado Rockies. He’s the best survival expert
Search and Rescue has, which makes him the obvious choice to lead Ellie Price
through deadly terrain to find her missing father. There’s just one
problem—Ellie’s everything George isn’t. She’s a city girl,
charming, gregarious, delicate, small. And when she looks up at
him with those big, dark eyes, he swears he would tear the world apart to keep
her safe.
With a killer on the loose, he may have no choice.
Ellie’s determined to find her father no matter the cost. But as
she and her gorgeous mountain of a guide fight their way through an unforgiving
wilderness, they find themselves in the crosshairs of a dangerous man in search
of revenge. And they are now his prey…
Preorder your copy of Gone Too Deep at Amazon or Barnes & Noble!
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