This could work, whispered the little voice in the back of her mind, the voice that had been silent for seven years...
SHE SOUGHT SOLACE IN SOLITUDE
Years ago, former Marine Captain Cecily Knight fled her dark past and the nightmares forever haunting her nights. Alone in the remote Canadian wilderness, she survives day to day...until Ian Fairchild comes storming into her life and shatters her protective seclusion.
UNTIL ONE TOUCH BARED HER SOUL
Aloof but intriguing, defensive but undeniable, Ian is everything Cecily shouldn't want but can't ignore. He watches her with shrewd blue eyes, as if determined to decipher her secrets...and for the first time in years, she finds herself coming alive beneath the hands of a man with too many scars to count.
As the hushed and harsh winter closes in around them, two lost souls find themselves on the precipice of a love that could save their lives...or destroy them forever.
Introduction to Kara - Kara writes from her home office just outside Phoenix, Arizona and other than writing, spends her time hiding from the heat and sunlight. She lives with her US Air Force veteran husband and their children, also known as their cats and dogs.
Interview: Hi Kara, thanks for taking the time out to have a chat with us. You are officially our very first author interview and on the eve of your debut book being released - it must be kismet.
Hi! I’m really excited to be here. I absolutely love the blog name!
I understand before you took up writing full time you used to write labs and learning materials for auto/diesel mechanics. How was the leap to writing contemporary romance novels and did it bring many complexities with it?
I’d like to think it helped me learn to pay very, very close attention to detail and how to choose my words carefully. I really try to avoid flowery, overblown language, rather than bogging my readers down with my word choices. Ideally, my readers will forget they’re reading a book and instead experience the story.
So can you tell us a little about your debut novel, The Longest Night, due out July 1st?
The Longest Night is the story of a relationship distilled down to its bare essence. It’s a cabin romance in the most literal sense, and neither our hero, Ian Fairchild, nor our heroine, Cecily Knight, are prepared for romance or even looking for it.
Ian’s a hotshot criminal attorney from Manhattan. He survived a car crash, but ended up having to endure back surgery and physical therapy. Unfortunately, he ended up abusing painkillers so he could get back to work, and even after most of his back problems were healed, he kept taking them. Rehab wasn't working for him, so his brother, Preston, took matters into his own hands. Ian wasn’t staying off painkillers in Manhattan, so it was time to send him somewhere he couldn't get his hands on them, no matter what.
Enter Cecily Knight, a former Captain in the Marine Corps, who’d fled into isolation as a way to cope with her PTSD, after coming home from Iraq. Because she owed Preston a debt, she allowed him to send his little brother to stay with her, but she wasn’t expecting what she got! Gorgeous and exasperating in equal measure, Ian challenged everything she believed about herself — and she challenged him right back.
You could almost say they dared each other to face love and life together.
There seems to be a lot of different interpretation to the term "indie author" - Can you define what it means to you?
For me, an indie author is one who breaks the mold. When I first got into writing romance, people laughed at me for “writing to a formula" but the only formula you’ll see in my books is two people who fall in love and find it’s worth the risk and heartache to fight for their happily-ever-after. There’s no “first kiss by chapter 4, first sex by chapter 8” in my world! It’s all about a natural, realistic, believable progression from first sight to forevermore.
Who or what are your inspirations for writing?
The strangest things inspire me. If I see a cute couple holding hands, I won’t necessarily see a story, but show me a guy sitting in the museum sketching feathered dinosaurs, and suddenly I’m trying to think of who his ideal love-match would be. My muse really responds to offbeat, unusual things. For example, there was a recent news story about a New Zealand bachelor party that went looking for dinosaur fossils instead of hitting up a strip club. How awesome would that be for a romance novel?
What are you reading at the moment?
I’m in pre-release stress-mode, so I’ve turned to books that make me smile. My go-to book for that is Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. It’s the story of the almost-apocalypse, averted by a slightly confused angel who runs a bookstore and his best friend, the demon Crowley.
Other than The Deepest Night do you have any other works in progress you can share with us?
Preston’s love story is percolating in the back of my mind, but he’s still not ready to give up the memory of Lilit, his lost love from so many years ago. But while Preston continues to grieve, there’s a whole flock of unattached men and women working for Samaritan International. Right now, I’m sketching out a story about Jake Campbell, who runs a coffee shop down the road from Samaritan, and the “teacher” who comes in to get her morning coffee. He thinks she’s a kindergarten teacher or something, because she’s bright and cheery and adorable. I can’t wait until he finds out what she really teaches...
and just to finish up a quickfire ten questions for fun:
- What's your favorite ice cream flavor? Vanilla, mostly because you can drown it in caramel!
- If you could be any animal what would you be? Velociraptor, definitely. Feathers, claws, an instant pack of friends to hunt down prey... What’s not to love?
- What is your favorite season? Winter! That’s self-preservation, though, since I live in Arizona.
- Do you prefer the beach or the city? The beach, as long as it’s a dog beach. Because dogs + waves are a blast.
- What are your favorite clothes to wear? Soft, lazy clothes. Yoga pants and my husband’s old T-shirts are the best. Otherwise, jeans.
- What was the last film you saw? Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Talk about a gorgeous story with an even more gorgeous cast!
- Do you have a nickname? The closest I have is “k” for people who are too lazy to type “Kara,” which is actually adorable. And it means the other Kara is “kk,” so people don’t get us mixed up.
- What kind of vehicle do you drive? Currently, a big ol’ Ford Expedition that has lots of room for the dogs in back, though I secretly want to drive a tank. Yes, a tank. Treads and all.
- What do you eat for breakfast usually? Burritos with hash browns, eggs, and cheese. Plus coffee. Lots of coffee.
- What is the most spontaneous thing you've done? I’d have to say putting my profile out on an internet dating site. But it worked for me. That’s how I met my husband!
Big thanks to Kara for taking the time out to break our author interview cherry. To get The Longest Night please follow the pre-order links below:
Amazon UK
Kobo
Barnes & Noble
iTunes
Be sure to follow our page on Facebook 101 Ways To Make Love To A Spoon and Kara Braden. Be sure to tell Kara the Spooners sent you. Join us July 1st where we will be celebrating the release of The Longest Night a couple of giveaways and some fun.
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