Kylie Brant Winner

Thanks to everyone who came by to visit with Kylie Brant earlier this week.  Random.org has made its selection and the winner of Kylie's book is:

LISA

Congratulations, Lisa!  Please send your full name and mailing address to us at theromancedishATgmailDOTcom to claim your prize.  Remember to put "Kylie Brant Winner" in the subject line. 

Today's Special - - Kylie Brant

It's my pleasure to welcome contemporary romantic suspense author, Kylie Brant back to The Romance Dish!  It's been almost twenty years since Kylie's first book was published and, in that time, she's written twenty-five romantic suspense novels for Silhouette Intimate Moments and five romantic suspense novels for Berkley.  That's a lot of good reading for those of us who enjoy romantic suspense thrillers!  When she's not writing, Kylie is a busy special education teacher who also enjoys traveling, reading, flower gardening and, believe it or not, exercising!  She's also a regular blogger at the multi-author blog,  Riding With the Top Down.  You can find more information about Kylie and her books at her website and connect with her at facebook and myspace.  Please welcome Kylie as she talks about the fourth book in her Mindhunters series, DEADLY INTENT, an intensely emotional and suspense-filled thriller that kept me awake reading long past midnight! 

Deadly Intent
by Kylie Brant

Thanks so much, Dishers, for having me back on the blog to discuss my newest release, DEADLY INTENT! I was thrilled and excited when my editor asked for three more Mindhunters books. DEADLY INTENT  is book 4 and continues to follow investigators for Raiker’s Forensics as they consult with law enforcement on urgent high profile crimes.

And it doesn’t come more urgent than a child kidnapping.

I was a bit squeamish about telling this story, despite its insistent demand in my imagination. Readers don’t like books about children in danger, I told myself. They aren’t going to want to hear about the trauma eleven-year-old Ellie Mulder has encountered in her short life. Sure I write dark romantic suspense, but how dark is too dark? I toyed with going in a different direction with it. Changing it completely. But the character of Ellie wouldn’t let me. She insisted on being heard.

She refused to be a victim.

This is the first time in thirty books that a secondary character has taken over like that. I’ve had minor skirmishes with a hero or heroine who wanted to dictate their storyline along the way. Usually we work out a compromise.   But Ellie is too young to have learned the art of give and take. So with a lot of self-doubt and trepidation, I began to write this story. And fell a little more in love with it with every chapter.

Ellie wasn’t the only one who revealed a stubborn streak as I wrote the story. The heroine, Macy Reid, didn’t turn out to be the quiet unassuming character I had first thought either. Turns out she’s used to being underestimated. People meeting her for the first time are charmed by her quiet competent air and faint British accent. They don’t see the strength beneath. They don’t suspect the sort of trauma in her past that has forged it.

Kellan Burke comes head to head with that strength over the course of the story. He hasn’t been able to get their one-night stand six months ago out of his head. It might be pride—he’s used to female attention, after all—but he hasn’t been able to forget her. The investigation requires them to work closely together, and being a multi-tasker, he’s more than up to the challenge of working the case and working to shred Macy’s defenses at the same time. Except that the more he learns of the woman the more intrigued he becomes. He wants to protect her at all costs, but learns that a person can’t be protected from their past. They can only be supported as they confront it.

It occurs to me that if there’s one common theme running through this book, it’s the danger of underestimating people. Colorado Bureau of Investigation Assistant Director Calvin Whitman makes that mistake with Kell. He sees only the rogue wise-cracker and doesn’t recognize the keen mind beneath until it’s almost too late. Kell, in turn doesn’t immediately realize that Macy is far more than a delicate English rose born with a silver spoon.

And as for Ellie…no one suspects the sort of courage a young girl can exhibit when she’s already been to hell and back. Or how the chilling circumstances of her captivity can wind up bringing her a bit of closure…and healing.

Since I’m not a plotter, it goes without saying that I love to be surprised by developments in my stories. Ellie surprised me time and again! Do you like your characters to follow a predictable pattern of development or do you enjoy twists along the way? How have you been surprised by your favorite author’s story people?

Readers can read an excerpt of DEADLY INTENT on my site at http://kyliebrant.com/current_excerpts.html#intent

One randomly selected person leaving a comment today will win one of Kylie's books.  You must have a U.S. or Canadian mailing address or live in a country where bookdepository.com mails in order to be eligible for this giveaway.   

Guest Author Kylie Brant Wakes the Dead

We are happy to have romantic suspense author Kylie Brant with us today! Kylie states that she started writing out of sheer desperation because her favorite authors didn't write fast enough to keep her in reading material. She is an elementary special education teacher whose idea of relaxing includes dreaming up new ways to kill and maim her characters. Hey, a girl's got to have a hobby, right? Please help us welcome Kylie to The Romance Dish!

The title of my November release resonates with memories of the past. Except back when my kids were home, Waking the Dead was more reminiscent of getting them up in the morning in time for school :)

Waking the Dead is the third book in a back-to-back trilogy entitled The Mindhunters. Each features a different investigator from a private forensics firm, headed by the legendary ex-FBI profiler, Adam Raiker. In this book, seven sets of skeletal remains have shown up in a remote cave in the Oregon wilderness. All bear the mark of their killer. All are missing their skull.

Forensic anthropologist Caitlin Fleming is called in to help the sheriff's investigation into the case. Wilderness guide Zach Sharper is her unwilling assistant as he shows her through the Willamette Forest in search for clues. Despite the attraction that burns between them, Cait will let nothing shake her focus. Until the killer closes in to terminate the search--and the two on the verge of unmasking him.

I had a lot of fun with the characters in this book, because no one is what he or she seems. Cait is a former teen model, whose looks are often a detriment in her chosen forensic field. Zach Sharper is all rough edges and sex appeal :) who sought solace in the Oregon mountains after too many tours in Afghanistan.

And the killer...well, I'm going to be perfectly frank--the villain in this book creeped me out :) Or maybe I was more spooked by how well I understood him. The background and experiences that shaped him into the monster he is were very clear to me as I was writing the book. And in a perverse way, that's a good thing. The story people breathe life into the plot. Without depth, the characters are dull and lifeless. That goes double for the villain. To engage in a suspense book, the reader must feel fear. And that fear can only be experienced when the threat is real; if the villain comes across as capable of truly horrendous acts. And the better we understand him or her, the more intrigued we become. Because, let's face it--evil is compelling.

The scenes with the villain are always my favorite to write. I love delving into the darkness that exists inside the character. But they don't haunt me. When I'm asked how I can write such dark plots, or if my writing ever gives me nightmares my answer is usually something along the lines of: I raised five kids, four of them boys. It takes *a lot* to scare me.

Check out my website at http://www.kyliebrant.com/ for more on Waking the Dead, and the other two books in the series, Waking Nightmare and Waking Evil.