Stanalei Fletcher @StanaleiFletch Proving Ground #Audiobook #Suspense

RW:    Tell us about yourself, your family, where you live.

SL:     I’m old enough have 8 grandchildren ranging in ages 6 months to 18 years old, but young enough to still have to work a day job. I live with my soulmate of over 23 years near the heart of the Rocky Mountains. We enjoy all four seasons and especially enjoy working a garden for fresh vegetables during the spring, summer, and fall.

RW:    How many hours a day do you spend writing?

SL:     I don’t spend nearly enough hours a day writing. I end up counting my hours by the week. I do strive for at least 8 hours a week. This is an area I need to vastly improve upon.

RW:    What is the best thing about being a writer?

SL:     The very best thing about being a writer is getting use all those great baby names. You know; the one you couldn’t use for your own kids? I LOVE that part.

RW:    Who are your favorite authors?

SL:    My favorite authors: Alistair MacLean, Tom Clancy, Kristan Higgins, RaeAnne Thayne, James Rollins, Christopher Moore, and Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens.

RW:    What makes a good book?

SL:     For me what makes a book good is a great hook that draws me in, solid plot logic, and last but certainly not least—heart. The story needs characters that I care about.

RW:    Why did you decide to write?

SL:     I didn’t just decide to write one day. I think it’s been in my make-up since a child. But I did decide I’d try to learn the craft better and write for the purpose of publication. That decision came from the realization that I loved the process of creating story. Being a writer was something I wanted to become.

RW:    How much of your personality and life experiences are in your writing?

SL:     Much of who I am informs my characters and the plot lines in my books. Drawing from familiar backgrounds keeps the story foundation strong for me.

RW:   What about your family? Do they know not to bother you when you are writing, or are there constant interruptions?

SL:    It’s just my husband and I in the house and I have designated days that are set aside for my writing time. He is very supportive and respectful of that time. If there are family interruptions, then they are usually of an urgent nature or it because I allow the occasional baseball game to divert my attention.

RW:    What do you do to relax and recharge your batteries?

SL:     I sleep to recharge my batteries. There’s nothing like a good power nap. J

RW:    What is your secret guilty pleasure?

SL:     Chocolate. Except that’s really not a secret.

 PROVING GROUND

Northstar Security Series book 1.

Now available in audio. Narrated by Charles Henderson Norman.

Screw-ups don’t get second chances. That’s what Caitlin Malone believes when she returns to Oregon after failing her first Northstar Security assignment. When she inadvertently stumbles across a plot to steal deadly pathogens from the bio-lab near her hometown, she sees a chance at redemption.

USDA Forest Ranger, John ‘Mac’ MacAlistair, doesn’t want to babysit the motorcycle club holding their annual rally in his national forest. To make matters worse, Caitlin is attending the rally with Mac’s estranged uncle. Having her home again brings up feelings that are better left buried.

It’s early September. Any spark will send the dry timber into a raging fire. The terrorists are counting on that distraction to work in their favor. When Caitlin is trapped by the wildfire, her only hope of rescue is pinned on Mac, the man she’s tried two years to forget. Before they can share their feelings, Mac and Caitlin must first escape the burning forest and stop the terrorists from releasing the deadly pathogens.

Excerpt:

The fear Mac had carried since Sean’s call lifted, was replaced by a sensation of overwhelming relief that took him by surprise. He’d been on search and rescue missions before and was always glad when they found a missing hiker. But finding Caitlin was like finding a lost treasure, one so precious, he never wanted to let her out of his sight again. He smiled, but it faded as he shined the light on her face. “You look like hell.”

Her face was completely covered in dirt and soot. The whites of her eyes looked huge and stark in the beam of the flashlight. A red bandana across her forehead kept most of her hair out of her eyes, but her braid had unraveled and hung in wild disarray down her back. Twigs and grass tangled in the long strands spoke volumes of her race for safety. Mac couldn’t recall when he’d seen a woman look more bedraggled, yet utterly breathtaking.

Stanalei Fletcher

Stanalei Fletcher is the award-winning author of the Northstar Security Series. She has over twenty years of training in the martial arts and holds the rank of Sandan, a third-degree black belt, in Aikido.

After a taste of life on both U.S. coasts, she now resides near the beautiful Wasatch Mountain Range with her husband. Together they enjoy backcountry dirt trails on a RZR, visiting our National Parks, or exploring museums and ghost towns.

Contacts:

Author Website: http://www.stanaleifletcher.com/

Blog: http://www.stanaleifletcher.com/blog/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/StanaleiFletcher

Twitter: https://twitter.com/StanaleiFletch

Amazon Page: http://www.amazon.com/Stanalei-Fletcher/e/B00AGK42W6/

Buy Links:

Audible: https://www.audible.com/pd/Romance/Proving-Ground-Audiobook/B0798356PP

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Proving-Ground-Northstar-Security-Book/dp/B07982KXP8/

iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/audiobook/proving-ground-northstar-security-series-book-1-unabridged/id1340388890

The Wild Rose Press

https://catalog.thewildrosepress.com/audio-books/5707-proving-ground.html

Hannah Meredith, Song of the Nightpiper, #Fantasy, #Magic, #Suspense

I’d like to welcome Hannah Meredith, author of Song of the Nightpiper, to my blog today.

RW:        What’s your most embarrassing experience?

HM:     I’ve worn glasses since I was a child. Without correction, I see only different colored blurs. But when I entered high school, I decided “being seen” was more important than “seeing.” I wanted to look as alluring as a chunky fifteen-year-old could, so wore my glasses only for classwork. This led to much awkwardness. Every morning I greeted a little boy waiting for his bus, only to discover, weeks later, it was a child-shaped sign holding a School Zone placard. I sat on a girl who was wearing a flowered dress and sitting in a floral upholstered chair. Of course, if she’d been more animated, she would have been safe. But it was when I couldn’t find my date at a school dance—every boy there seemed to have on the same blue-shirt, khaki-pants combination—that I gave up on vanity and put my glasses back on.

RW:        If you were stranded on a tropical island, who would it be with? You can choose any living, deceased or mythical figure.

HM:       My husband! Yeah, this sounds like a cop-out, but the man I married fifty years ago would be my choice. He’s the kindest, most interesting, most understanding man I have ever met. He “gets” me. He makes me laugh. And I suspect together we could figure out how to get off that island.

RW:     What do you do to relax and recharge your batteries?

HM:        Travel! I’m infected with wanderlust and simply must know what is on the far side of the hill. I’ve been fortunate enough to visit all fifty states and to travel to six of the seven continents. Sorry, Antarctica is not on my list—too cold. But all the different people and places get my imagination working. And my creativity is exercised figuring out how to do all this on the cheap. 😊

RW:       Tell us about your latest book. Where do your story ideas usually come from?

HM:      My latest solo novel is Song of the Nightpiper, a fantasy romance with a quasi-medieval setting. Although this is a departure from my usual, straight historical romance novels, the characters of Faulk and Anlin arrived in my head fully formed and I couldn’t resist writing their tale.

Most of my story ideas just pop into my mind in this manner, most often when I’m doing some necessary but mindless task like vacuuming or folding laundry. I clearly envision characters involved in a specific situation—in the case of Nightpiper, this was in the middle of the tournament that starts the book—and then I expand from there by asking a series of “what if” questions. I suspect I have primed the pump by a lifetime of reading and imagining,

RW:        What kind of research do you do for a book?

HM:      Probably way too much. 😊 I have an inquisitive mind that wants to know everything my characters know, even if most of this will never appear in a book. The internet has made all this information easily retrievable, although I still like to use period books. For instance, I used my antique copy of Paterson’s Roads (a Regency era travel guide) to carefully trace the journeys of both main characters to “the house by the sea” in Home for Christmas which appears in Christmas Revels IV. I know what they saw, where they could have stopped, etc. But none of this minutia appears to bore the reader silly.

RW:   Those are all the questions I have for you. Thank you for speaking to me.

HM:    You’re very welcome. It was a pleasure.

SONG OF THE NIGHTPIPER

The Plot

Magic is disappearing from Fallucia and Rennic. Each country blames the other and hoards what power remains.

In a world where only Magical Talent is prized, Lady Anlin and Sir Faulk lack any ability—yet their unlikely alliance will reshape nations and challenge long-held beliefs.

Although she’s finally free, years of enslavement in Rennic forged Anlin’s iron will. She is determined to rescue the half-Rennish son who was taken from her. But to do so, she needs one thing—a champion.

Faulk is a landless knight whose life has stripped him of all illusions. But he still harbors two impossible dreams—to have a fief of his own and to find someone to love who will love him in return.

His fighting skills have given him the first of these dreams. The journey into a hostile land with Anlin may give him the second.

An Excerpt:

The two men met with a tremendous clash of metal. The surrounding crowd quieted. It breathed in and out like a great beast in time with the laboring combatants.

Sir Charl logically kept pressing the advantage of his greater reach, making the smaller man move back. Then the green-clothed knight appeared to stumble, and Sir Charl lunged. Anlin, like most of the spectators, gasped. This must be the end.

But the smaller man deftly sidestepped the blow and returned with his own stoke, low and across the legs. Even with the swords padded, the stroke must have been punishing. Sir Charl’s knees buckled and he crumpled to the ground. The green knight moved to a dominant position over his opponent and the referee called an end to the match.

The spectators broke into a frenzy of cheering. Anlin remained frozen in place. This, then, was the man who would have command of her body until the day she died. Cold uncertainty leached into her bones. Then she reminded herself this could only happen if this warrior agreed to bend to her will. She felt her shoulders relax as the man approached. She yet had control of the pieces in play.

HANNAH MEREDITH

Bio

Hannah Meredith has a BA and MA in English from Southern Methodist University. For over a dozen years, she taught at the high school and university level. Then she discovered more people wanted houses than grammar and switched to a career in real estate. She remained a successful real estate broker for the next thirty years.

After retiring, she returned to her love of words and began writing. Under another name, she initially wrote award-winning short fiction for many of the major science fiction and fantasy magazines. Now as Hannah Meredith, she writes primarily historical romance. She has five individual books available, as well as a novella in each of the four Christmas Revels anthologies.

As an historical romance author, Hannah has found her niche. She loves the history. She loves the HEA. She’s always been a storyteller, and these are the stories she was meant to tell.

Book Links:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074JY6QL5

BN: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/1127258459

Contact Hannah At:

Website: http://www.hannahmeredith.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HannahMeredithAuthor

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Hannah-Meredith/e/B00E5FZLG4