#authorinterview – Avonna Loves Genres

Friday Feature Author Interview with Elise Cooper: The House for Lost Children and The German Sisters by Marty Wingate

Elise’s Thoughts and Book Descriptions

The House for Lost Children and The German Sisters by Marty Wingate take readers on an emotional roller coaster ride. People will realize how kindness, compassion, and security can help in restoring hope to those who have experienced severe trauma and heartache.

The plot of The House for Lost Children has divorced Lady Louisa Brightford and her best friend/cook, Iris, alone in a countryside mansion. David, her son, is away flying Spitfires for the British Air Force. Trying to keep relevant, she learns of a group of children and their two teachers displaced by a bombing in London. Realizing Oxburrow Manor can be a boarding school for the nine evacuee children, she calls the family lawyer and asks for his assistance in moving them to the mansion.

One of the children, Gracie, is traumatized to the point of becoming mute after being buried in the rubble with her dead mother. Louisa adores all the children and does everything she can to give them a good home but takes a special interest in Gracie. She has not spoken since she lost her mother, but clings to Louisa who continues to offer her love. Louisa also finds herself becoming closer to Jack Barry, one of the teachers. So, when the governors of the charity that run the school threaten to take the children away because she is a divorced woman, she will do everything in her power to keep them.

The second book in the series, The German Sisters, was inspired by the true events surrounding Kindertransport. It’s a bitter- sweet story. The girls, Dagmar and Heike, were sent to an unknown country, England, to escape the horrors of the Nazi persecution of the Jews yet while at Oxburrow with Louisa they have fellowship, love, and begin to heal.

Louisa and Dagmar form a bond and offer each other love and understanding, drawing from each other’s strength. Dagmar realizes as the older child she must be responsible for Heike, but once at Oxburrow a lot of that responsibility is no longer needed. Now Dagmar must try to find out what happened to her parents and does so with Louisa’s help.

These stories seem very realistic. They are both heart wrenching and heartwarming. Readers will take the emotional journey with the endearing characters. The only fault with these books is that there are no more books to read in the series.

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Author Interview

Elise Cooper: Did you do research about the evacuees?

Marty Wingate: I had read about the evacuees while doing research for my other book Glamour Girls. I had also, in my own reading that I’m interested in, come across references to evacuees and where they went. I’ve seen stories on television about it. There’s one of my favorite wartime series, “Foyle’s War,” a British series which had a boy featured, who was an evacuating. So, I knew about the evacuees. And I thought this would be fun having her take in a bunch of children and animals. The idea where a lot of different people stuffed in one house is always fun. In the second book, The German Sisters, readers will see how the children adapted during the book. There are a couple of them that stayed including Gracie, Athena and George.

EC: In the first book, The House for Lost Children, there was a scene where Louisa, the female lead, was worried about losing her mansion. Please explain.

MW: I knew houses had taken in evacuees, and some country houses could be used for any purpose in the war. Sometimes the army would take them. That was what she was afraid of. Her ex-husband would want to burn the place down so he could get it back again, get the land back. They could also be used for hospitals as well.

EC: How would you describe Louisa?

MW: She is a very generous person and considered herself a part of the village. She was not a snobby entitled person. When the children came to live with her, she had welcoming arms along with her cook who happened to be her best friend, Iris. Both women were generous, loving people. Her mom had died and her father was not around a lot because he had to work, so she was pretty much left on her own. She missed having that home life. I think that Louisa was always looking for an opportunity to have that big family that she always wanted. The way she fulfilled the need of hers was to invite all these children and adults to stay at Oxburrow Manor.

EC: How would you describe the setting of Oxburrow?

MC: The village Debden Ash is made up, but Suffolk, of course, is not made up. Suffolk is a real county. And a lot of it is very flat. I love Suffolk. We go to England a lot, and we are always staying, either at the coast in Suffolk or in, western Suffolk inland. I saw a manor and like some characters, the setting just came to me. I pictured it as a country house, but early Victorian, and after several generations of not having a whole lot of money around, getting to be a little shabby. Also, there’s a book by Robert Bly titled Akenfield, which is about a village of the same name. There was a reference in that book of how Akenfield was really hidden away, because it wasn’t on the main road, but a Roman road running by it. Where there was a little fold of land, and so people almost didn’t notice it. People wouldn’t even realize they were passing it because it wasn’t on the main road. So that’s how I created my vision of Oxburrow.

EC: What was the impact of Oxburrow?

MW: It was a place to heal, where children could thrive in both books. It became a home and a family to the children. It helped them with their trauma. And it was mystic. The children felt safe and protected there. I wrote how not only the children, but the adults as well, were disparate people who have their own stories and their own secrets and how they interacted within Oxburrow.

EC: What about Louisa’s relationship with one of the children, Gracie?

MW: The House for Lost Children is Gracie’s story too. Her backstory is that in the bombing, several of the children’s mothers died. Gracie and her mother were buried for two days before they were found in the rubble. This was an actual news story I read of the time. It was just heartbreaking, because they find Gracie’s mother dead, and there’s Gracie holding her hand, and will not let go. Obviously, Gracie has an enormous amount of trauma, thinking her mother’s death is her fault. When she first comes to Oxburrow she is not talking. And of all the children, Louisa sees the trauma in her more clearly. The other children miss their mothers, and they act out a little bit in other ways, but Louisa realizes she can help, and that’s how she and Gracie bond.

EC: Did Louisa in Gracie’s mind become her new mom?

MW: Gracie wears Louisa’s clothes because it soothes Gracie and helps her feel safe. Gracie’s mother loved her daughter and now that love, that support, and that security is gone. She knows her real mother died, but has a good replacement in Louisa, realizing she has security and love once again. I can’t say that Gracie would ever get rid of all that guilt, but it becomes understandable, just like grief does after a while, it doesn’t hurt as much.

EC: Why was divorce considered so bad?

MW: I turned in the first draft of the manuscript I had a conversation with my editor who is younger than I am. She said, ‘I don’t understand why that’s bad.’ I realized that I had to paint a better picture about what divorce looked like during those times. Louisa couldn’t get remarried in the Church of England at that time. There was still a huge stigma. Louisa and Jack grow close but she was afraid to commit to marriage. I think she did not face up to her hidden fear. that maybe she was the one that wrecked her marriage. She questions if it was her fault. We take on guilt that we shouldn’t a lot of times, and that’s what had happened to her.

EC: Divorce played a role for Mrs. Harrison, the children’s guardian and head mistress. Do you agree?

MW: Mrs. Harrison did not look beyond the person, because Louisa divorced. I think that she acts in that way because believes she is right. I think she’s a very caring person. She’s a very good teacher and always good with the children. She could not imagine letting the children share a house with a woman who had broken the rules, whether they were moral rules or the rule of law. She’s just too strait-laced, and it was very difficult for her to get through that. She did, but it was very difficult.

EC: What about Jack Berrie?

MW: The First World War was an awful war, where he lost friends, and was traumatized. He got married, had a baby, and his wife died, which certainly didn’t make it any better for Jack. He had a rough life, until he ended up falling into what he had always wanted to do in the first place, and that’s be a teacher. He’s a diamond in the rough.

EC: The second book, The German Sisters, has a powerful scene about the children having to leave their parents. Please discuss this.

MW: There’s a wonderful documentary from a few years ago called “Into the Arms of Strangers.” There were interviews with adults who had been part of the children’s transport coming out of Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Germany. They told amazing stories of how children had to say goodbye to their parents. The scene on the platform and on the train, came from one of those actual stories. The parents were devastated in having to give up their children and send them to a foreign country, England, but they wanted them to be safe. They wondered if they will ever see each other again.

EC: In the second book, Louisa eventually takes in two Jewish German evacuees. Can you describe the older sister, Dagmar?

MW: Dagmar and her sister Heike were two children who were part of the British rescue operation known as the Kindertransport. She’s responsible. She grows up too soon. She’s calm, fearful, a worrier, feels guilty, an observer, and is afraid for her parents. At the beginning of the story, she is ten years old when her parents say goodbye to them on the platform. The parents explained, ‘We must do this, we must get you out, but don’t forget to write the letters.’ Well, Dagmar took this on, literally, feeling she was the only one that could do this. And so that’s what follows her through the story.

EC: How would you describe the younger sister, Heike?

MW: She is sociable, attentive, sweet, happy, and rambunctious. She just bounces back. She’s tearful at first. She misses their parents, yet she thrives at Oxburrow. I think the two sisters are quite a contrast. She just fell in with Gracie and Athena, the two girls from the first book. It’s like, they are a threesome now, that she’s just that kind of girl.

EC: How would you describe George?

MW: I love George. He’s a bookworm. He was quiet in the house when there were a lot of children, but in the second book he gets a bigger part. He and Dagmar both have a way of ordering their world. They want things in the right place. I was so pleased that George had a friend. He and Dagmar are both inquisitive and love to learn, especially about maps. George and Athena have their mothers die in the bombing in the first book, but their fathers are still alive. Athena’s father is a jazz musician in London. Sometimes she thinks she hears him on the radio playing in his orchestra. And George’s father is in the merchant navy on some ship somewhere. They have that hope that they will be a family, but in the meantime, they are quite content to be with Louisa.

EC: What role does Rebecca play in the story?

MW: She has secrets and is too direct at times, can be abrupt. She works for the Jewish Refugee Committee. Her sister, Mrs. Gedge, is a Quaker and Rebecca is not. She is caring and responsible.

EC: Next book?

MW: I got a two-book deal for the historical fiction. So, it looks like these are going to be the only two. I’ve really enjoyed writing them, and I love writing about World War II.

My next book is a Christmas mystery, titled A Murder is Rehearsed, coming out in November. Its set in England and Scotland, maybe in Wales too. There is a tradition going back to early Victorian times to put on a pantomime at Christmas. They’re comedy parodies that are hugely popular even today in theaters at Christmas time. I’ve decided to set this murder mystery at a production of Cinderella in a little town in Kent in England, in 1952. Cinderella’s coach, is on a fly rigging, up above the stage and then comes down when it’s time for Cinderella to look as if she’s getting in her coach to go to the ball. But someone releases the brake on the fly rigging and it falls and hits the actor who is playing the fairy godmother and kills him.

THANK YOU!!

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BIO: Elise Cooper has written book reviews and interviewed best-selling authors since 2009. Her reviews have covered several different genres, including thrillers, mysteries, women’s fiction, romance and cozy mysteries. An avid reader, she engages authors to discuss their works, and to focus on the descriptions of their characters and the plot. While not writing reviews, Elise loves to watch baseball and visit the ocean in Southern California, with her dog and husband.

Friday Feature Author Interview with Elise Cooper: The Cowboy’s Accidental Bride and Winning the Bull Rider’s Heart by Melinda Curtis

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The Cowboy’s Accidental Bride by Melinda Curtis not a single but a home run. All of Melinda’s books blends romance, humor, and relationship issues.

Book Description

Hayden Bennett is done with love. After being left at the altar, the Montana rancher returned home determined to protect his heart and honor his grandfather’s final wishes. But dividing the family ranch five ways, managing a wandering grandmother, and holding everything together alone is more than even a stubborn cowboy can handle.

Single mom Eve Atkinsonis done with marriage, too. Recently divorced and rebuilding her life in Bentwood Creek, the licensed vocational nurse is juggling long shifts, a spirited toddler, and an ex-husband who uses custody threats to control her future. Becoming a registered nurse feels like a dream she may never reach.

When childhood friends Hayden and Eve strike a marriage-of-convenience bargain, it solves more than one problem. She gains stability and protection. He gains the help he desperately needs.

But sharing a home brings buried feelings to the surface. What begins as a practical arrangement soon tests their guarded hearts.

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Elise’s Thoughts

In The Cowboy’s Accidental Bride, Hayden Bennett has returned home after years away to settle his grandfather’s estate. Along with that chore comes the very real concern for his grandmother’s fading memory, especially when she manages to wander off and needs closer supervision. Then he is stunned when Eve Fisher, desperately said that Hayden was her fiancé and that she and Katie would be living on his ranch. She did it to escape her controlling ex-husband who wants her and Katie to return home. Yet, it soon becomes apparent that a marriage of convenience would benefit them both, and she would help him with his grandmother and he would help her deal with her selfish ex-husband. There is also the problem that he was jilted by Evie’s sister at the alter and she had a huge crush on him that she is trying to hide.

The Cowboy’s Accidental Bride is one of those special books where readers will be disappointed when it is over. These characters leap off the page and face real-life situations that need answers as they struggle with their emotions about each other. Katie stole every scene she was in, and Hayden’s grandmother’s situation felt realistic. In all, this is an excellent start to the new series.

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Winning The Bull Rider’s Heart is a fun, second chance romance story. It is a sweet, uplifting romance full of banter, humor, and drama.

Book Description

Bull rider Noel Emerson left Clementine, Oklahoma—and the girl he loved—to chase his rodeo dreams. When his foster mom’s birthday brings him home four years later, he’s stunned to find that his beautiful ex Sophie Jean is a bigger part of his family than he is. His jealousy chafes worse than a new pair of chaps. But what starts off as a fierce rivalry turns into a sweet reunion. Beautician Sophie Jean Shearer has turned into a fine cowgirl thanks to her ex’s family. And she’s found her own dreams, but will she saddle up for a second chance at forever with her unpredictable cowboy?

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Elise’s Thoughts

Winning The Bull Rider’s Heart story is emotional, full of laughter and tears, assumptions and revelations as they rebuild their relationship. The plot begins with bull rider Noel Emerson coming home to Clementine, Oklahoma, four years later, for his foster mother’s birthday but he is really coming home because of a bad concussion. He tries to keep it a secret but there is no hiding it from his former girlfriend Sophie Jean. They thought their past romance would go the distance, but their opposing views on his career pulled them apart. He struggles with how to fit Sophie Jean and his bull riding career into the same orbit, while Sophie Jean has other ideas. Although she too still loves Noel, she wants him to commit to settling down in Clementine, TX before the bulls he loves to ride end not just his career but his life. Now he must decide which is more important to him, Sophie or his career as a bull rider.

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Author Interview

Elise Cooper: How did you get the idea for The Cowboy’s Accidental Bride?

Melinda Curtis: I hadn’t written a marriage of convenience in a long time, and I like them. I was trying to figure out how I could get a marriage of convenience, and I thought, ‘Oh, well, it would be fun if she had a crush on him, a taboo crush, so how could I do a taboo crush?’ Then I thought, ‘he needs to date her sister, her older sister, and what if they didn’t get married?’ This is the way it kind of started. I enjoy that trope, and I really wanted to do another one.

EC: How would you describe Hayden?

MC: He felt jilted. He has grudges. He’s organized. He broods. He’s cool. Um, He’s a teaser and guarded. He let that one event define him, for 10 years, what happened with his grandfather.

EC: How would you describe Evie?

MC: Evie, is a chatterbox, brazen, naive, impulsive, determined, brave, compassionate, and lonely. She comes home to start over and kind of lay that foundation where this is going to be the one place I can put a stake in the ground against her ex.

EC: Speaking of Evie’s ex, Steven, how would you describe him?

MC: Steven is a workaholic. He seems indifferent to his wife and daughter, selfish. He is sharp tongued, never really gave compliments to Evie, and was possessive. I did not like him although he was unhappy with his choices. But he was a jerk. I wanted to show how managing divorces and child custody, all that stuff is messy, and I didn’t want to gloss over it too much.

EC: What was the role of Katie, Evie’s daughter, and Hayden’s grandmother, Irene, in the story?

MC: Katie kind of worshipped Hayden and she appeared sometimes like she was the boss. Katie is such a girly girl pistol as the boss being an only child. And then the grandmother, she kind of pushed Hayden. The grandmother had a stroke and was trying to recover. It was sort of based on my mother-in-law, who had a stroke and then dementia, but she has not come back. I wanted to write a character where she came back from dementia because it’s been so draining on all of us with my mother-in-law. The doctor kept saying, ‘You know, we’re going to give it another six months.’ Well, it’s been a year now. And I just needed, for myself, to write a character that has hope, and I find that Irene was so plucky, with this love of her chickens. It’s been fun to write a continuing character that has dementia that is managing it with drugs. You know how I love my humor. And so, I do like to have an older character that says unexpected things. She is my outlet, because of the thing in real life that I can’t fix, and then, my, my need to have humor.

EC: What about the relationship between Evie and Hayden?

MC: Hayden and Evie were soulmates who maybe got along better now than when Hayden was dating her sister. They just needed to come back together at the right time, and now were forced into it. He doesn’t believe in love, and that upsets her, because she had a crush on him and realizes when they had to get married, it was based supposedly on friendship. He did not want to get too close because he was afraid of a broken heart again after what happened with Evie’s sister.

EC: In Winning the Bull Riders’ heart, how did you get the idea for the story?

MC: Well, funny enough, I was talking with my editor about what the next series would be. And we talked about the bull riding teams, which are getting more popular. The Bull Riding Association decided to be like other professional sports and find a way to train their athletes along with having them make money. So, they’ve created these bull riding teams that had a draft. And it’s kind of fascinating., Winning the Bull Riders Heart, had these coaches of these bull riding teams that were retired bull riders. So, this book is kind of the prequel to the new series, and I did stay in Clementine. This allowed me to have a bridge between the two series, even though I have two more books that are coming out in the series.

EC: How would you describe Noel?

MC: Family oriented, cool, has composure, a perfectionist, competitive, cutthroat, witty, and humorous.

EC: How would you describe Sophie?

MC: Fearful of opening her own business, and scared to make choices.

EC: What about the relationship between Sophie and Noel?

MC: They would probably still have been together if she hadn’t put her foot down and said, ‘I need I need you to commit’, and that ended things. And I think they had lots of unresolved issues. There was a lot of time spent on kind of feeling their way back to each other.

EC: Next books?

MC: The next book in “The Bennetts of Brentwood Creek Series” will have Irene, the grandmother, playing a key part in book two, and a key part in book three. Book two will be Cult’s story because I’m doing them in order of their age. So, Cult is the next oldest brother, and he’s a Bronx rider that’s injured, so he comes back to town, and he’s going to discover that he has some kids that he didn’t know about, having made promises to come back, that he didn’t keep. And then I’m just finishing up Rhett’s book now. Colt’s book comes out in October, and Rhett’s book comes out next April.

The next book in the bull riding series is Cowboys Christmas Twins that comes out in October. In December, I have Snowed in with the Cowboy.

THANK YOU!!

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Friday Feature Author Interview with Elise Cooper: Murder at the Campfire Cookout by Darci Hannah

Book Description

Converting the old Beacon Point lighthouse into a bakery is as adventurous as Lindsey cares to get. Her mother, Ellie, a former 80s fashion model, likes her creature comforts even more—until she sees a business opportunity for her Beacon Harbor fashion boutique when she’s invited by the Mitten Kittens Glamping Club on a woodsy getaway.

Far from roughing it, the ladies will be warm and cozy in chic vintage campers. Ellie insists Lindsey come along to win the campfire cookout contest. Campfire cooking has come a long way from bacon and beans. Soon Lindsey is making pizza, berry cobbler, and gooey Carmelita camping bars.

But the festive spirit is soon dampened when a body is found in Ellie’s camper. It seems like an accidental death until everyone’s tires are slashed and it’s clear the glampsite has become a crime scene. With no cell service to call for help, it’s up to Lindsey to smoke out the killer around the campfire . . .

Because no one is out of the woods yet.

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Elise’s Thoughts

Murder At the Campfire Cookout by Darci Hannah will be the last in this series, kind of, because there will be a spinoff. This series is ending, but the characters readers have come to love will be back in a spinoff, still set in Beacon Harbor.

The author had the characters step out of their comfort zones, away from the bakery. Lindsey left her boyfriend Rory at home but also Welly, her Newfoundland dog. Lindsey, her friends Kennedy and Colleen, Lindsey’s Mom Ellie, and Ellie’s friend Betty all go glamping. Far from roughing it, the ladies will be warm and cozy in chic vintage campers and Lindsey was chosen to participate in the campfire cooking contest. The campground is way off the grid. Not long after they arrive, bad things begin to happen. Their cars are vandalized and they are stuck there with no phones or internet. Then one of the campers is found dead and soon everyone realizes it was not an accident.

One of the fellow glampers ends up dead from a sabotaged oven. Lindsey and her friends are determined to put the pieces together so they can escape the horror show unfolding at the glamping site and get home. The women realize they need to find who among them could have done this horrible act. They are also worrying about their own safety since a series of suspicious acts also occurs, adding to the tension.

Readers will get the feeling of a locked room mystery with the claustrophobia atmosphere of the isolated campground, a suspicious death, tires slashed, no phone service, and surrounded by trees and a lake in the woods. Everyone quickly realizes they are stranded in the woods with a killer and before others get hurt or killed, they need to find the murderer, with Lindsey knowing she must ‘smoke out the killer.’

As with the previous books, the ending has a twist, but unlike the others, the tension slowly ratchets up over the course of the story. Since this is a cozy mystery, the tone is lighter than a typical suspense, thriller, or mystery. There are funny moments, but the story also will have readers getting edgy with the feeling of those telling ghost stories around a campfire.

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Author Interview

Elise Cooper: How did you get the idea for the story?

Darci Hannah: I thought it would be fun to take the girls away on their special trip, and travel to the Upper Peninsula in Michigan, which is a very beautiful area. I went to school up there. It’s very remote. I’ve been camping up there when I was younger. And it’s just pristine and gorgeous and very isolated. There’s still some dense wilderness up there. So, I thought I wanted to take them camping.

EC: Why glamping?

DH: I used to work at our library, near my town, gosh, years ago. This woman came in, and she had this old historic license plate, but it had never been registered to a car. It was from 1976. And she asked if we could register it. She said, ‘Well, I’m in a glamping club, and I have a glamper, and I want to put it on that.’ What they would do is get these old Airstreams very cheaply or campers, and they would gut them. She was showing me all these pictures of her camper, that she had renovated. And then they would rebuild them by themselves, or maybe with their husband’s help, and just make them almost like she sheds. I thought I would like to write about this someday. And this was probably in 2018.

EC: What is a She Shed?

DH: A she shed is often converted from a garden shed. These spaces serve as cozy areas for relaxation, creativity, or hobbies, providing a sanctuary away from daily responsibilities, specifically for women. It was just a very feminine space. And so that’s what these things are.

EC: How did you incorporate glamping into the story?

DH: I figure that my characters are kind of fancy girls especially, Lindsay’s mother, Ellie. She’s not the type of person who would ever go camping, but glamping would work. And so, I thought it would just kind of be fun to have them go on this isolated trip, to just get away and work on some new ideas for a line of clothing.

EC: Kennedy, the best friend, also went on the trip, but seemed out of place?

DH: She is one of those city gals who is overconfident, a diva, overwhelmed where she is right now. High maintenance, likes to be the center of attention, impatient, obstinate, foolhardy, and brazen. And she’s also a loyal friend. She is just so loyal to Lindsey. That’s why their friendship works, because she’s opposite of Lindsey. And in this story, she can’t deal with their situation.

EC: What about the stalker?

DH: They are the motivation behind everything that’s going on. They have a driving need to connect with the person they target. wanting to be a part of their lives through manipulation and controls. It’s a one-sided attraction. But a stalker doesn’t believe it, because they’re delusional.

EC: How does the setting play a role?

DH: I want the reader to be submersed in this beautiful, almost pristine environment. It’s almost like a closed room murder, with a finite number of people, and then, there could be somebody out there. So that’s always a danger in the woods. You don’t know who’s out there. You don’t know what’s out there. You don’t know what animals are around us who’ve been in that area.

EC: Why didn’t you have Wellington, the dog, go with them on the trip?

DH: If I brought Welly, he would sniff out the murder right away. Dogs know things. They have senses and so I didn’t want to cheat. I had to make it tough for the characters. and uncomfortable so they would push themselves to these limits.

EC: Is this the last in the series?

DH: Yes, because the publisher decided it, probably when I started this book. These books came out in mass market but bookstores do not want to carry mass market. And it’s very heartbreaking, because the reason this series ended was strictly because of the format. They told me if I wrote another one, that the bookstores would not carry it, and if the bookstores aren’t going to carry your book, there would be a loss of sales.

EC: So, what about the next book?

DH: It will be a spinoff of this series: same character, same setting, and they didn’t give me much to go on. They wanted what I’m writing, but they wanted it with just a new hook, so they could remark it and repackage it. And so, finally, one day, I thought the next logical step would be just branching Lindsey into catering. There will be a little bit of a break before the next book. It’s going to be the same type with just a little different spin. I hope it works. It’ll be a trade paperback.

THANK YOU!!

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Friday Feature Author Interview with Elise Cooper: Insurgent by Brian Andrews & Jeffrey Wilson

Book Description

After rescuing a teammate from a covert detention facility in East Asia, it’s back to business as usual for John Dempsey and Task Force Ember: conducting counterterrorism operations in denied areas.

An opportunity to strike a master Houthi drone engineer sends the team to Yemen, but things start to go wrong almost as soon as their boots hit the ground. What is their local contact hiding, and why didn’t their CIA contact show up to the rendezvous? Meanwhile, First Lady Petra Jarvis’s job—juggling the roles of wife, first lady, and Ember liaison—is about to get a lot harder. The Presidential Election is only two weeks away, and President Kelso Jarvis’s SEAL instincts are failing him. Good in the heat of battle and in the situation room, Jarvis is floundering in debate prep, allowing his political rival to paint him as a caricature of the war mongering, hot-tempered SEAL.

What neither Petra nor Dempsey know is that they are both in the sights of a master spy operating right under their noses in DC—a spy with orders to sow chaos. As Election night nears, Dempsey and Petra are drawn further into his web, and soon it’s hard to tell who is manipulating whom.

A dangerous game is afoot, and to win Dempsey and Ember may well be forced into a bargain with the devil.

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Elise’s Thoughts

Insurgent by Andrews & Wilson has everything readers love about these stories including fast-paced action, suspense, and an intense plot with a level of realism that makes people think these authors have a crystal ball.

The plot has John Dempsey and the Ember task force having an opportunity to strike a master Houthi drone engineer in Yemen. It appears that Task Force Ember’s technology might have been infiltrated by foreign adversaries leading to a cat and mouse between Ember and a psychotic Chinese operative who has grandiose plans to strike massive blows to the United States and Dempsey personally. Meanwhile, First Lady Petra Jarvis’s job of juggling the roles of wife, first lady, and Ember liaison puts her in danger.

High stakes, geopolitically and personally, with life and death consequences has Petra and Dempsey intent on finding the Chinese agent and making sure he fails. Readers will be on the edge of their seats as the tension level builds.

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Author Interview

Elise Cooper: What is new on the television front?

Brian Andrews: We have a project over at Amblin Entertainment, which is Steven Spielberg’s company. We’re excited about that. It is based on one of the short stories that we have coming out later this year. We’ve had a little bit of musical chairs with the showrunners for the “Shepherd Series” and “Tier One.” We’re on the hunt for our third showrunner for the Shepherd series right now. Still hoping that that will get some movement. We’re interviewing a showrunner for another series called Strike Group that we’re developing, which is about an aircraft carrier, a mystery.

EC: How did you get the idea for this story?

BA: Insurgent is book ten in the “Tier One series” and felt like it is an important book. It was time to circle back almost like an anniversary. We circled back and revisited some of the themes that we introduced in the first book. I think the savvy reader will pick up on that right out of the gate. It opens in Yemen, where Operation Crusader went down with John Dempsey losing his team, which is when Jack Kemper became John Dempsey. He hasn’t been back to Yemen since the Jabouri base was blown up. And, so for him, this is a homecoming, an emotional one, because he’s coming back to this place where it all started. This is why we kicked off the book here.

EC: But the Chinese play a major role in the story?

BA: The world is now interconnected. The Yemenis aren’t just making their drones and their anti-aircraft systems and missiles by themselves. It is not happening in a vacuum. They’re getting help when they’re getting supplied by the Chinese and they’re receiving aid from the Iranians. We’re starting to see that the Chinese, especially over the last five years, are becoming a defense contracting hub. They’re building drones, missiles, and helicopters. They have a guidance system. They’re starting to export the types of products and weapon systems that were previously only in the purview of the United States. Soviets, and the European defense contractors. Now they’ve got a foot in that game.

EC: Does the title mean anything?

BA: It is the origin. We think of an insurgent as an assaulter or somebody who’s coming at you on your home turf with a gun. This title is sort of metaphorical. We’re dealing with a more complicated insurgent. We dealing with a Chinese effort to infiltrate American defense, industrial complex, and our politics on multiple levels.

EC: The structure of this book is different?

BA: We’ve never done this before. in any of our novels. And we were excited and curious to see if people recognize the flash forward open, and then what people think of it. The book is started at the end, and then we come back and bring you back up to that point. You see all the events that led up to the climax.

EC: How would you describe Ren, the Chinese agent?

BA: He is evil, a threat, a psychopath, manipulative, adaptable, sadistic, and loves chaos. This antagonist has got a screw loose. And so that’s something else that we haven’t really explored since Malik, the Russian Zeta, part of the secret Russian task force. He was a little bit sociopathic and on the edge. He went against Dempsey in Red Specter, that was book five.

EC: It’s like the story has a word of warning about the Chinese?

BA: Before, we could exert a certain element of control over bad actors, by depriving them of access to arms and technology. Iran, Pakistan, Yemen, along with terrorist organizations if they couldn’t develop them, their weapons in house, or buy them from the Russians, or get them off the black market, they couldn’t get them. And now the Chinese are happy to supply them with weapons, but not just weapons. It’s not just guns, it’s technology and guidance systems along with drones, engines, and components they couldn’t make themselves.

EC: There is a book quote that says it is hard to kill only with air strikes. Can you explain?

BA: There’s going to be people who are going to question the value of special operations, of teams like our fictional task force, Ember, and operators, like John Dempsey, who must go in on the ground to execute missions and deny areas. People question, why should we take the risk? We can just drop bombs. We can launch a missile, we can blow up their warehouse, or target the home where the guy lives. But just look at Iran. It’s clear the regime is still in control. We could bomb them into oblivion, and if they’re hiding underground, and we don’t have any boots on the ground, we don’t eliminate the regime, the regime will rise again. I think we’ll always have to have boots on the ground whether they’re overt or covert.

EC: Can you explain the book quote, “politicians were the easiest adversaries to manipulate because they lacked principles and acted only in their own self-interest.”

BA: Our goal was to be apolitical in these stories and not pick a side, but we live in a policy driven world, in the geopolitical world. I think it’s okay for characters to call out certain frustrations that we the authors are observing in real life. In American politics that’s driven by self-interest and power. The way that our politicians can change their opinion, and their votes on a dime should be concerning to people. You elect somebody based on what you perceive to be their platform and how they convey to you their belief systems and you’re doing that because you’re hoping that that person will represent you, the voter, and the constituency’s interest when it comes to making important decisions. And then they get in office, and you realize, oh, they don’t care. That was all just a bunch of gaslighting. They just said what they thought they needed to say, and what the voters need to hear to get elected. Then they get in there, and they do what they’re told, or what money buys, or whatever. And I think that this is something that we’re all seeing that politicians are maybe emboldened to even not hide it anymore, because there’s no consequences in their behaviors.

EC: Do you have wishful thinking when you put this quote in by President Jarvis? “I don’t make decisions based on the political climate polling. Whatever the pundits may or may not want or criticize me.”

BA: I think it’s very clear, and should be clear to anyone who reads this book, that President Jarvis is the president that we all want. And President Jarvis is the type of president that all presidents should aspire to. It should be an act of service to be President of the United States. It should be a burden. It should be difficult when you should have sleepless nights because you’re having to put the needs of the country ahead of your own. And as president, you should have to serve your entire constituency. that means people who don’t agree with you on everything that you say. In the Tier One series we want to entertain. But also, we want to present characters who represent a higher purpose. They should be models of heroism. People who do the right thing, do the hard thing, and put country, mission, and team before self.

EC: What’s the importance of First Lady Petra?

BA: She had a military, and an intelligence career. She was chief of staff to the DNI, who was Jarvis. She’s the president’s sounding board, confidant, knows national security, and a woman of action. What the US has never had is a First Lady who came from a background of military service or in the intelligence community. Because in her mind, she brings something different to the table. Jarvis needs her. He appreciates her counsel and her input. She is sort of a counterbalance to him, especially with his Parkinson’s now. Petra would say, ‘I’m going to do both. Why do I have to limit myself? You know, why can’t I be the first lady and continue to be Petra.’ So that’s kind of what we did in this book, her refusing to be put into a box and told that you must do this, because that’s what all the other first ladies did. And there’s this expectation, I hope we communicated in the text, in the story, there’s an expectation that she will behave and be quiet, and go off and do the things that other first ladies do.? But she is not going to do that. She’s supposed to function as the shadow firewall between Director Casey of Tier One, and the Office of the President, to provide a certain level of possible deniability and keep Jarvis at arm’s length from the operation of the task force. The exact role that he filled for President Warner. What we started to put into that subplot in this book is this idea that Jarvis is struggling to give up power and knowledge, the task force decision making. She calls him out on it saying, ‘This was your idea. So, you know, you can’t, you can’t have it both ways. You gotta pick.’ And he lets her be in charge and make the decision making.

EC: The next books?

BA: The next Tier One, book 11 we have not thought about yet. And have not written another Shepherd book.

The next Sons of Valor is what we’re writing right now, starting a new trilogy. It will take “Chunk” Redman, who leads a covert team of elite operators, and Whitney Watts, and the Gold Squadron south of the border, where they’re going to be up against Mexican cartels for the next 3 books. It is titled for now, Sons of Valor 5 and will be out sometime next year.

But we do have a book coming out in November titled Dark Horse. It is a standalone novel. It’s a sort of a modern retelling of Three days at the Condor. It’s about a secret program that the CIA runs where they have a think tank, and the members of the think tank come up with predictive scenarios about things that our adversaries could do. And they feed those scenarios into the analysis machinery of the CIA. And they get discovered and targeted by bad guys with everyone getting killed except one person. And that character is Eva Dasher, and Eva is on the run, being hunted, trying to figure out who’s responsible for this.

We are also writing a short story every month, for the entire year. The first short story was released last December, titled First Ranger. And then we did one a month since. Each of these stories was written to be a potential vehicle that Anderson/Wilson could develop for film and television. It gives our readers and listeners a preview of some non-Tier One and Sons of Valor projects that we’re trying to develop for TV and movies and features. They’re completely different. First Ranger is historical. fiction. It’s the story of Thomas Knowlton, who was America’s first army ranger. He’s a real guy, but we fictionalize the story about how he was recruited by General Washington to form America’s first special forces unit, which were known as Knowlton’s Rangers, covert operations in 1776. Another example is Sledgehammer, that has a retired ground branch operator, Matt Holland. This is a story about a guy who’s retired. He’s in his early 70s and realizes that his daughter who he thought died is still alive. He puts together a team from his past, and they go into Syria to rescue her.

THANK YOU!!

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Friday Feature Author Interview with Elise Cooper: A Dark Path by Linda Castillo

Book Description

For the first time in print comes a collection of five short stories in the Edgar award-winning Kate Burkholder series, PLUS one new, never-before-published story, from New York Times bestselling author Linda Castillo.

When two young boys don’t return home from an innocent afternoon of fishing, Chief of Police Kate Burkholder must track them down before the first winter storm of the season bears down on Painters Mill in THE PACT.

In DISAPPEARED, Kate races against the clock to find a two-year-old who has vanished during a violent thunderstorm. Was the little boy swept away in the rising creek waters? Or is his disappearance even more sinister?

In BLOOD MOON, a man is brutally attacked by a large beast in the woods. Throughout the night, reports of similar incidents escalate and Kate must confront the creature terrorizing the town before violence tips over into tragedy.

When a family dog brings home a human bone, Kate finds herself on a desperate search for answers to end the macabre rumors and ghost stories inundating Painters Mill in the Edgar award-winning short story HALLOWED GROUND.

In DARK STORM RISING, Kate must brave a dangerous blizzard to save an elderly Amish woman from a sinister foe. Will Kate reach her in time to save her life?

In A DARK PATH, a brand-new story, an Amish couple disappears while enroute to town. They’d recently been threatened by their granddaughter’s troubled boyfriend—and there’s heavy weather moving in. Kate rushes toward their remote farm, but a dog on the road causes her to crash into a ravine, where she discovers a shattered buggy. Together, she and her new canine friend must find the couple before it’s too late.

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Elise’s Thoughts

A Dark Path by Linda Castillo has her trademark writing style even though the stories are not as dark as her novels. All six stories feature her blend of twists, mystery, kind-heartedness, some humor, and sometimes violence.

There are five short stories written as novellas plus a new short story that has as its title the same name as the book compilation. In “A Dark Path,” a brand-new story, an Amish couple disappears enroute to town. They’d recently been threatened by their granddaughter’s troubled boyfriend with a storm moving in. Kate rushes toward their remote farm, but a dog causes her to crash into a ravine, where she discovers a shattered buggy. Together, she and her new canine friend, Sherlock, must find the couple before it’s too late.

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Author Interview

Elise Cooper: Why have a collection of short stories?

Linda Castillo: Charlie, my editor, asked me to write that first short story many years ago. I had never read a short story. And his advice to me was, just get to the point. And make them a little bit lighter. I would write a short story, and that short story would be released on Kindle, or, another digital device right before the release of a novel. And I started getting a lot of mail from readers who were saying, ‘I don’t use an e- reader. I like to have a book. I need a physical book. Now I can’t read your short stories.’ Because they’ve only been available on Kindle or another device, Charlie, my editor at St. Martin’s Press, said, let’s do a collection of six or seven stories. And that’s what we did. You know, the first collection was titled A Simple Murder, and since it was very well received, we did this one. Because each individual short story is too short to do a novel, so we did a collection.

EC: Is it different to write a short story than the books?

LC: I would say the biggest difference, of course, is the pacing. Things must happen very quickly. And one of the things that I also try to do, and as you well know, the novels get very dark sometimes. There’s a murder involved, and there are some dark elements in some of the Kate Burkholder novels, especially the early novels. And the short stories, even though some of them deal with darker topics, some of them are fun, some of them are cozier than the Kate novels. For me, as a writer, it was really a nice change. It was a different pace. It’s faster, and, you know, you don’t really have time to develop your characters as much. So maybe it’s a little bit more topical, but in a fun way.

EC: I usually don’t like the short stories because the plots are not detailed enough and there is not much character development. But if a reader has read the Kate books, they will enjoy these short stories. Do you agree?

LC: I have a funny story. There was one reader, and I think she gave A Dark Path a pretty good review, but she said, ‘I’ve not read any of the novels, but these are way too innocent for me.’ And I was dying to respond to her. I wanted to tell her, but the novels are not that innocent. No. I guarantee you’re going to get a murder. But some of them I wouldn’t call them lighthearted stories. But just, a little bit more lighthearted than the, than the novels.

EC: What was your favorite short story?

LC: “Blood Moon.” This is the story with the hog. Anyone who has been out camping or, having a tent in the yard or whatever, sleeping out in the barn or something like that can relate. Telling ghost stories and then hearing a noise and you’re like, what was that? And to me, that’s so much fun and that was kind of the whole idea behind that short story. It was just, really a lot of fun, and, you know, kind of one of those adventures. It was a little quirky, but I really did enjoy that story.

EC: Did the stories have a lesson to them?

LC: I think some had a theme of tolerance. “The Pact,” with the two little boys who did the whole blood brother, cutting the wrist in the beginning. You know, there really is a lesson in that. And then the other one is “Hallowed Ground,” where the Mennonite woman wants to give tours of an Amish cemetery. “Disappeared” also has a theme of tolerance where the Amish girl falls in love and gets pregnant by the English boy and her parents try to separate him from the baby and love of his life. I think one of the things that I always try to do, maybe not in the same way with every story, is that tolerance works both ways. In “The Pact” the Amish parents weren’t exactly wild about those two kids being best friends. These are probably the little moral lessons that we learn as children, and I think, you know, it’s not always a bad thing to have that reiterated as an adult.

EC: Did the setting play a role?

LC: My settings always seem to have stormy weather in them too. Me and weather. I hope readers are okay with that. I’m a huge fan of weather. The first book, Sworn Silence, took place during a long, cold Ohio winter. That was such a big part of the book. It made everything more difficult as far as the investigation and the story. If you add the weather element, you have a man against man, and then you also have man against nature. It adds a little element of moodiness or, just a little something extra that I love, I’m a huge weather fan.

EC: What about the new short story, “A Dark Path?”

LC: There’s a Labrador in the story. We had a yellow Labrador too. I found him when I was living in Dallas where we lived. It was very sad, and the day that I had one of my dogs put down, a woman carried in this emaciated animal, just skin and bones. No hair, just bloody, bloody skin. I thought it was a pit bull. And I told Dr. Williams, I will take that animal. I thought, I just put Blue down and I’m here at this moment because I need to save this other animal. We took him, and we had to feed him. He almost died because he was starved to death. We had to feed him every hour, He got his hair back and his head was no longer bigger than his body, he turned into a gorgeous, sweet tempered yellow Labrador. His name was Nutmeg, and we gave him a very, very good life. And we lost him, a few years ago now. That is who I based the Labrador in “A Dark Path.” I didn’t name him after Nutmeg, but named him Sherlock. I gave the lab in the story the look of the yellow lab Nutmeg.

EC: Will you have Sherlock as a rescue dog working for the police department?

LC: Sherlock bonded with Kate. He has the personality of a lab. He will be a supporting character in future stories. And I don’t know if you remember, but Tomesetti brought home a cat. The books deal with heavy topics of murder. I think the cat and Sherlock bring a level of comfort. And so that’s kind of what I try to do with that. Sherlock will be just a home family member. This story combines the abusive boyfriend with Sherlock saving Kate.

EC: What about the next book?

LC: It’s called The Betrayed and will be out in July 2027. I absolutely love this story. The plot has an ordinary Amish woman, with a family, a husband, and suddenly finds herself the target. Kate comes in blind, having no idea why, why would somebody be trying to murder her. She does not lead a reckless lifestyle, she’s not a risk taker, and she’s lives in Painters Mill. It has some dark moments.

THANK YOU!!

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Friday Feature Author Interview with Elise Cooper: The Next Wife by Liz Lawler

Book Description

My husband is everything I ever dreamed of. A handsome, successful doctor who swept me off my feet.

Our new life together is perfect.

He’s perfect.

But am I good enough for him? I never seem to get anything right. And I’m starting to feel a little afraid of the man I married.

He’s taken away my bank card and my phone. I don’t know what to think or what to do. I gave up everything for him and now I’m trapped.

Then a stranger comes to our door. She tells me that I can’t trust my husband.

That I should ask him what happened to his first wife.

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Elise’s Thoughts

The Next Wife by Liz Lawler explores domestic violence, that includes physical, sexual, mental, and emotional.

The plot explains that Tess Myers met her husband, Daniel, while they worked together in an English hospital. He is a doctor, she a nurse. They got married quickly and then moved to Bath England. After they moved into the house, Tess notices the change in Daniel as he becomes increasingly controlling. As he escalates his abuse Tess knows she must leave him. This is confirmed when a woman in her 80s, Martha King, comes to her doorstep and warns Tess about Daniel’s first wife.

Daniel is a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. He is a psychopath, cruel, nasty, evil and makes Tess’s life unbearable. Yet, outsiders see him as a great surgeon, charismatic, caring, and nice. Daniel is a monster to her and the abuse he inflicted is appalling.

Tess is not the same person she was before she married Daniel. She has become timid, scared, and fearful for her life, being reduced to a shell of her former self.

The relationship between them shows how Daniel uses his power over her, whether at their work or in their home. As Tess’s abuse, sexual, physical and mental, gets worse she feels increasingly alone. Readers wonder if Tess will be able to survive and how she will be able to leave Daniel.

People will be captivated by this story and riveted to their seats as they turn the page. This book begins with a bang of a mysterious murder and ends with a bang of a twist that many will not see coming.

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Author Interview

Elise Cooper: Idea for the story?

Liz Lawler: Well, the germ of the idea came to me from one of my previous jobs of working at a railway station as a customer ambassador for Great Western Railway, which is one of the main network railways in England. Part of my job was dealing with distressed customers and being mindful of passengers on the platform. Over the time I was there, I did come across a few attempted suicides. I remember this one lady, a businesswoman, beautifully dressed, and I got a feeling about her. Unfortunately, my gut was right, and it was telling me that she was far too close to the yellow line. Basically, what I wanted to do with The Next Wife was really, explore coercive control, the kind of abuse that often starts so subtly.

EC: Was this woman the inspiration for the main female lead, the wife Tess?

LL: She was, although not her character, but the situation. Her character was completely different to Tess’s. It was sad. She was a woman probably in her early, early 40s, maybe late 30s.

EC: Did your nursing career help you to write this story?

LL: Very much so because I was able to pull on all the experiences as a nurse. and almost walk Tess’s line, you know, every part of Tess’s journey in the hospital setting. My nursing background is my solid career background, and that influenced me greatly in everything that I liked because of all the experiences of dealing with people. I predominantly worked in the emergency department. The scene in the surgery, with Tess and Daniel, that’s very realistic. What happened to Tess could possibly have happened. I’m very fortunate to have people that I’ve been in contact, and one of the people that I contacted to make sure I got everything correct, is a vascular surgeon. I got him to read the passages that I wanted him to check and he said, he felt he was there. What happened won’t happen to many people, thank goodness. But yes, situations like that can happen.

EC: How would you describe Tess?

LL: Tess is sensitive, wants to belong. She’s a loner and anxious. Before Daniel, her abusive husband, she was chatty and confident, and somewhat bossy. Now she’s guarded, and feels that she’s in a world of darkness and secrets.

EC: What about the husband, Daniel?

LL: He’s a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. To Tess, he’s a Dr. Jekyll and to everyone else a Mr. Hyde. He has a facade of an attentive husband, that he’s kind and considerate to her. He is charismatic. To her, he’s power hungry. Tess doesn’t know anything about him. She doesn’t know anything about his past, about his childhood, all the things that make Daniel’s character what it is. She hasn’t got a clue.

EC: What about the setting of Bath London?

LL: She’s in a new place where she should feel safe. Bath city is considered probably one of the safest cities, not only in the UK, but possibly in the world. It’s a beautiful, calm place, and this is one place where Tess should have felt safe. And it doesn’t pan out like that at all.

EC: What about the relationship between Tess and Daniel?

LL: His behavior escalates little by little. Daniel makes her feel off kilter. He is such a betrayal from someone she loves. To her, he’s critical. He humiliates her. He’s abusive, controlling, cold, cruel, brutal, with no compassion. She feels powerless, really, without answers, without anybody telling her anything.

EC: What was the role of Martha in the story?

LL: She has a real life happening within our own head. But it’s in a different time zone. So, everything she things she is experiencing in the now is something that she’s experienced in the past. What she’s seen, she thinks this is the present, what she’s witnessing. She can’t grasp why Daniel has moved back into this house. Now he’s there, and the only thing that he’s changed is his name. He’s hiding in plain sight with this new wife. Martha is convinced that she knows his first wife. And then she’s convinced that this new wife must be warned. Because unless she warns her, this young new bride is in danger. Martha’s, my favorite character who I fell in love with. When I was writing Martha, my mum was always in my head. My mum would have been out there, rain, snow, trying to warn this new young wife of Daniel’s, that she was in a dangerous situation, because she knew everything that had happened. in the past.

EC: Next book?

LL: The story is set in London. The main character is a nurse that works on the surgical ward. A patient is brought in and he’s a prisoner that has a spinal injury. He tells her that he’s not guilty of the crime sent to prison for and who is the real criminal. She is shocked she knows them. The working title is The Hospital Prisoner and it is due to be published on January 27th.

THANK YOU!!

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