PERFECT HEROES FOR ROMANCE

Friend and author Marilyn Donohue once published an article called “There’s More to a Library than Books.” The point being that there’s a story behind the writing of every book. I’ve always thought how clever she was to come up with that idea, and today I’m sharing the story behind the writing of AMEN TO LOVE…

Men of the sea and their ships hold a special place in my heart because I grew up in Navy country, had sailors as friends and dated officers.

My high school boyfriend’s father was a naval commander, and one night, when his dad’s ship was in port, we sat in silence on the bluffs watching its lights dance on the black water below. The poignancy of those moments are clear to me now that I’m older. In a way I didn’t then, I realize how proud he was of his father, but, unlike mine, who was always home, his was away too much. The lights may have evoked feelings of pride, but the vastness of the dark waters reflected a hurtful longing to see more of his dad.

As news of the exploits of SEALs began to hit the news in recent years, I became enthralled with these superheroes, these elite of the elite Special Forces warriors. They truly do make perfect heroes for a romance. As I thought about writing Awaking the Alpha–my January 2014 All Romance eBooks and Amber Allure best seller–I happened on a TV interview of a highly decorated SEAL who for all his twenty years in the service hid the fact his brain told him he was really female. I drew partly on this idea of hiding your real identity in creating Blaze Canis, a retired SEAL whose teammates never guessed he was gay, much less a werewolf.

As I began writing Amen To Love, I wasn’t interested in doing another shifter story, but I was not quite through with the SEALs. This new release is part of the medical AmberPax, A Cure For What Ails You, and since I have bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing, it was fun to step back into the medical field and create Bond Bergstrom, a closeted and retired Navy SEAL, the new chief of surgery at Weatherton Mountain Hospital. For Bond, I drew on that sense of loss my high school boyfriend felt about missing his dad because newly retired Bond misses his former teammates at times.

I hope you enjoy him and his retired Delta Force operative counterpart, sexy Irish American Rory O’Shea.

I’m a member of the Orange County, CA chapter of Romance Writers of America and the Los Angeles chapter of Sisters in Crime. The murder mystery in the plot springs out of my interest in the crime genres.

I’ve read that people who read crime fiction pretty much ignore other genres, while romance readers tend to enjoy a broad and diverse range of books. I hope combining genres adds to your reading pleasure. Even if you don’t usually care for crime fiction, I hope you’ll find the love story in Amen To Love sizzlingly satisfying.

To purchase or read excerpt see
http://www.amberquill.com/store/m/78-Carolina-Valdez.aspx

Happy New Year!

Love you all!

Carolina Valdez

http://www.CarolinaValdez.com

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For a FREE copy of the first chapter of Amen To Love, contact me by leaving a comment here or using the Contact form on the menu above.