It's our pleasure to welcome HelenKay Dimon to the Romance Dish today! This multi-published, award-winning author took several other careers for test drives before settling into full-time writing. Following time spent in journalism, politics and divorce law, HelenKay now scripts happy endings for a living. HelenKay writes contemporary romance novels, many of which have an element of suspense. Her most recent release, LEAN ON ME, is the second book in her Holloway small town contemporary romance series.
Find more information about HelenKay at her website and connect with her at Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.
Please give her a warm welcome!
Thank you for having me here today to talk about my newest release, LEAN ON ME. It just came out, so I'm thrilled to talk about it.
I'm going to tell you a little secret…I like talking about this book, specifically this heroine, Cassidy, because I can pretend (for a second) to have her bravery. See, she's a Himalayan mountain climber. Well, she was until an illness sidelined her high-altitude mountaineering career. Her goal was to be the first U.S. woman to climb all fourteen of the highest peaks in the world.
When it comes to heights, my goal is to get to the top of a step ladder without melting into a puddle of tears. Yes, I am terrified of heights. Actually, is there a word that's stronger than terrified? Whatever that word is, that's what I am. With this fear it's hard to believe that in high school I was a member of a high adventure explorer group. I blame my then best friend, Missy, for convincing me to join the group. Missy was the fearless one. Even now, she a forester and fights forest fires in her off time. By the way, go ahead and add fires to the list of things that scare the crap out of me. Anyway…as part of this group we went caving, camping, hiking, kayaking and a whole bunch of –ing things that the grown-up me is stunned she once did.
Reading LEAN ONE ME, you'll see the hero, Mitch, has trouble with heights. He's a guy so he doesn't admit to things like being terrified. But he doesn't like them and I feel his pain. There's a scene where he sees the Cassidy on a ladder and is panicked for her, never mind the woman once climbed Mount Everest. Take a look:
"You should not be crawling around up there. You could fall or slide."
She didn't show any signs of moving. Didn't even come down a step. "I'm standing on a ladder, not hanging off a cliff by a rope."
That visual image made his stomach flip. "On the fourth step."
Those dark eyes widened. "Mitch, are you afraid of heights?"
"Did I use the word fear?"
"I did, but it was an educated guess based on the color of your face and wild terror in your eyes."
As far as he was concerned, this was a matter of common sense not fear. "I'm not scared of anything. But if I were, plunging to my death would be at the top of the list."
And if you need proof that I was once this high-adventure queen, you can look here – I'm in the left front (but please ignore my taste in hairstyles and clothes – it was the 80s after all).
HelenKay is giving a digital copy of LEAN ON ME to one randomly selected person leaving a comment on today's blog. (Open to everyone!) So tell us, dear readers, are you a high adventure queen, able to climb high mountains...or to the fourth step of a ladder? Or do you prefer to leave the adventure seeking to the characters in the books you read?
