Thursday, March 1, 2012

Today's Special - - Kat Martin




We're delighted to welcome back Kat Martin today!  The newest book in Kat's romantic suspense The Raines of Wind Canyon series, Against the Night was released February 28th and is already gathering terrific reviews. You can find more information about Kat and her books at her website.  She's on facebook too.  "Like" her page here.   Take it away, Kat...






Do you love to travel?
Blog by Kat Martin

I’ve always loved to travel.  I was fortunate to marry a man who enjoyed seeing the world as much as I did...or maybe being adventurous was an unspoken quality I was looking for in a man. 
I especially love Europe.  I’ve been to England, of course, since back then I was writing historicals set in the Regency and Victorian periods.  I’ve also been to France, Spain, Austria, Germany, Italy, the Chech Republic, Hungary, Ireland, Scotland, the Caribbean, and miscellaneous places I can barely recall.

On a cruise we took to Mexico a few years back with twenty-five other authors and six hundred and fifty readers (Wow! Was that fun!), one of the stops we made was in Belize.
I mention this particularly because I used my experiences in Belize when I was writing AGAINST THE NIGHT, my newest AGAINST novel, released the end of February. 

Our ship anchored offshore and we took a launch boat to the mainland.  We spent the hundred degree, ninety percent humidity day with a couple of our favorite friends, Kathleen and Michael Gear, the anthropologist/archeologists who write the PEOPLE books set 10,000 years ago.

The heat was unbelievable!  And unbearable!  I had never experienced anything like it and hope I never do again.  But the tropical landscape and the people who live there left a lasting imprint on my mind that I was able to use when I was writing AGAINST THE NIGHT. 

I did, however, leave out the part about our trip to a non-tourist, locals restaurant where we ordered native food (the Gears insisted, though there was no air conditioning and it must have been a hundred and twenty degrees inside!  I’ll pay them back for that someday.)

At any rate, we wanted to eat local cooking so we ordered capybara, a meat and rice dish that tasted pretty good but was spicy and hot, like everything else.  The bad news was, it turns out a capybara is the largest rodent in the world!  A rat about two feet long!

Oh, yeah.  We ate it and never forgot the experience.

So you can see where the adventures you have in life make great fodder for stories. 
Lots of authors use a journal.  I think it’s a great idea.  Or just keep a few photos, anything that reminds you of the experiences you had when you were there.  And it doesn’t really matter where you go.  Anyplace can bring you excitement, adventure, or just simple insight into a place different from where you live.    

Along with the memories I had of Belize, I did research on the country, even used Google Earth to give me a fresh look at the tropical landscape I describe in AGAINST THE NIGHT. 
It’s Johnnie Riggs’ story, an ex-Army Ranger turn P.I whose specialty is the underbelly of the city.  In a place called the Kitty Cat Club where he’s working on an assignment, Johnnie first spots Angel Fontaine, a petite blond exotic dancer. 

From the moment he sees her, Johnnie wants her in his bed.  The problem is that Angel Fontaine is really Amy Brewer, a kindergarten teacher from Michigan, a young woman risking her life to find her missing sister, whose job she has taken in the club.




I hope you’ll watch for AGAINST THE NIGHT and that you enjoy it.  After that, AGAINST THE SUN, with Jake Cantrell and Sage Dumont, will be out the end of May. 

Till then, all best and happy reading.  

Warmest, Kat    




AGAINST THE NIGHT

Back cover copy

He knows what goes on in the dark.

She’s got the face of an angel and the body of…well, isn’t that what he’d expect from an exotic dancer? But there’s something about this girl that Johnnie Riggs can’t shake. The former army ranger is hot on the trail of an elusive drug lord—and suddenly very hot under the collar, as well.

Amy’s got her own agenda to pursue: her sister is missing and Amy seems to be the only one who cares. She’ll enlist Johnnie's help and do her best to ignore her growing attraction to finally get some answers. But when the two trails begin to converge and reveal something even more sinister than they imagined, their mutual desire is the least of their problems. They’ll bring the truth to light…or die trying.



11 comments:

  1. I've enjoyed the Against books and can't wait to read "Against the Night."

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  2. Hi Kat, Thanks for the terrific guest blog; I look forward to reading AGAINST THE NIGHT. I also love to travel. My latest trip was in January when my husband and son planned a dream trip to Bellevue, Washington to meet five of my favorite authors: Eloisa James, Julia Quinn, Connie Brockway, Christina Dodd and Lisa Kleypas! It was a dream come true for me and was made even more exciting when PJ asked me to do a guest blog here on TRD.

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    1. We all enjoyed the trip right along with you, Flora!

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  3. We were military so we got to do a lot of traveling, at least in the U.S. Did a lot of sightseeing on each tour. Kids got a great view of just how beautiful and different each state is. Love the Against series.

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    1. TrishJ, there are so many wonderful sites to visit here in the U.S. Do you have a favorite area?

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  4. It's fabulous that you can use your love of travel & places you have visited in your writing.

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  5. Hi, Kat! Welcome back and congrats on your new release!

    I enjoy traveling and have been to much of the US, but never out of the country. This summer, though, my family and I will be taking a cruise and one of the places we will stop is Belize. I'll make sure NOT to order the capybara. LOL!

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  6. Wow,I am not the only one who loves to travel! I really hope you all like the new books. This one was especially fun to write. love ya'll kat

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  7. Most of the Kat MArtin books I have read are the historicals. I have been following the release of the AGAINST books and look forward to reading them all.

    I have always wanted to travel and have done as much as I could. I was in the Peace Corps and got to see a bit of South East Asia. I married a military man, but we only had assignments in the US - with 7 years in my home town. That was not the way it was supposed to work out. We took advantage of every assignment we had, seeing as much of the country as we could. It was a great experience for the children. Since retiring from the AF, we have traveled whenever we could. We are looking forward to our "real" retirement so we can do some serious traveling. If I just make it to Ireland, Scotland, and England I'll be happy.

    Thanks for an interesting post and thanks for the great books you write.

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  8. Hi Kat, Love your books and already have "Against the Night" and "Against the Sun" on my wish list. I have already read "Against the Fire, "Against the Storm and "Against the Wind" plus others and really looking forward to reading both Against the Night and Against the Sun when released.
    I love to travel but have not done so in 2 yrs. Do hope 2012 will be a traveling yr for me. There are so many states I have not had an opportunity to visit.
    Thanks for the opportunity to enter giveaway.

    misskallie2000 at yahoo dot com

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