Karlene Blakemore-Mowle: Operation Summer Storm

Please welcome fabulous Aussie author Karly Blakemore-Mowle to WGW, here to talk about her brand new military romantic suspense, Operation Summer Storm. Karly's giving away a digital version, so please leave a comment to enter the contest and the winner will be announced Friday October 29th (official release day).

Blurb:
Tate Maddox is a wanted man, accused of a crime he didn’t commit.

Summer Sheldon holds the key to his freedom—for a price.

Her demands are simple–rescue her journalist sister from a rebel hostage camp and she’ll hand over the evidence to clear his name. There’s just one small catch. He has to take her with him. From the depths of a Cambodian jungle to the tropical paradise of the Philippines, two unlikely allies are forced to learn how to coexist or lose everything each holds dear, as exposing the truth leaves them both vulnerable to the ruthless killer behind Tate’s nightmare.

Murder, blackmail, and injustice brought them together. Will Tate and Summer save Willow and restore Tate’s reputation in time, or will they pay the ultimate price for honour?

Excerpt:

He wanted her to what?

She’d seen enough TV reports on tandem sky jumping to know just how close the two jumpers got. She didn’t have time to give it more than a brief thought though, because all of a sudden it was time to do it.

A large door opened and the noise she’d thought couldn’t get any louder did. The others were busy throwing the equipment through the doorway when Tate leant close to her ear so she could hear him.

“Usually this would be a half-hour run through before your jump—but we don’t have time—so here’s the condensed version. When I tap your shoulder, spread out your arms and legs, and when I tap again to land, bring them in again. Okay?”

Summer stared back at him in disbelief, her thoughts bordering on hysteria. He expected her to jump out of a plane with thirty seconds of training?

They moved closer to the doorway and she panicked. She now stood in the open doorway of a moving aircraft. Her brain registered the fact as her body instinctively tried to back away from the danger.

Tate put his arms around her and coaxed her frozen fingers from the side of the doorframe. “Just relax. I’ll take care of you,” his deep voice promised as he shouted over the thundering noise around them into her ear.

She could feel his big body pressed tightly against her back. “You better not be doing this for some kind of cheap thrill, buddy, because I swear if we make it down there alive you’ll live to regret every moment,” she shouted back at him.

“Darlin’, there ain’t nothing cheap about the thrill I’m getting at the moment,” he assured her. “And if we don’t make it,” he added with a deep drawl, “just know I’ve died a happy man.”
*End of excerpt*

KC: Hi Karly! Great excerpt, and we're glad to have you back here with us at WGW. This new book features another sexy military hero of yours. What branch does he serve in?



It actually features four sexy military hero's, but the main character is Tate Maddox and he and his men are in Recon, with is the reconnaissance branch of the US Marines.

Ooh, Force Recon. The guys with the mako shark tats. See? I'm a font of useless military knowledge. So...I'm obsessed with the U.S. military because I'm odd. What's your excuse?


Well, since we seem to have so many similarities—I'd prefer to call it…unique! Besides, I can never work out why everyone else doesn't have a thing for the military!

What's not to love about a military man? They're disciplined, they stand for honour and bravery and they put their lives on the line for all of us, so that we don't have to…they're like our very own guardian angels.

Unique. Yeah, let's go with that! All right, so when you were plotting out the book, which character came first to you, the hero or the heroine?

Oh, I just love your optimism, ha! Me and plotting have just never seemed to see eye to eye! However, Summer came to me first, or rather the situation she finds herself in, from there I needed to find two characters who would be complete opposites.

*rubs chin* I actually think that sounds like a cool technique. What research did you have to do for the book?

I had to research Marines (which was a terrible hardship…. NOT!) being Australian, I had no idea how the US military system worked. It was a huge stroke of luck or maybe it was some kind of premonition, but at the time I began the process of writing and rewriting this book, we actually had two US naval ships dock at Townsville up where I lived, near the Great Barrier Reef. Thousands of US navy and along with them, Marines, invaded our town- I can honestly say—I thought I was in heaven!

My heart bleeds for you (in case you can't tell, that's dripping with sarcasm, folks). I hear you have some other exciting publishing news going on Down Under. Can you tell us a bit about that?

I do. I've been picked up by a large Australian Publisher here, Allen & Unwin, and they're going to publish the first of my new rural fiction books, which are books set in small rural communities here in Australia. No helicopters or Marines in these ones—but they do have a hunky policeman and a really nice sense of the Australian outback!

Kudos to you, my friend! Are you working on a sequel for OSS?

I have a completed sequel, although it could be a stand alone title. It's titled Operation Willow Quest, and is Del and Willow's story. Willow is Summer's sister and Del is another of the four Marines. It hasn't been contracted yet, so may not eventuate, we'll just have to wait and see.

I know it will get published. Can you give us some of your best tricks and tips for writing action scenes?


I tend to picture the scene as a movie, and try and figure out how I'd get out of a situation (if I weren't the worlds biggest scaredy cat and cry baby!) then make sure what I have the characters do is physically possible—can't stress that little bit of advice strongly enough, some writers can get away with their characters suddenly developing super hero powers and doing things the human body was not designed to do, but I think in particularly, romantic suspense, you need to have your characters action scenes at least believable. Having said that, if you can get hold of any book written by one of my favourite authors, Mathew Reilly—you'll see he's, in my opinion, one of the only people who can write unbelievable action scenes that somehow work! But I wouldn't try this at home folks! He's the exception! He also has US Marines as his heroes…just sayin…

Good call. How do you figure out the plotting and pacing of the book as you write?


When I start throwing things around, I know it's not working and I really should have taken the time to sit down and write out the damn plot in the beginning…however, I'm not known for my patience, and so I always end up rushing in writing like a mad woman…then having to go back and work out where it's supposed to go after I get to the middle! You would think I should have learnt my lesson by now…

What are you being for Halloween?

We don't actually have Halloween here in Australia—however, I did have one traumatic experience with Halloween when I visited the US a few years ago; it involved a corn field, a maze, and someone wearing a mask, chasing me with a chain saw…for the life of me, I can't work out Americans and their bizarre need to terrify themselves once a year! Crazy!

I never knew that! And I agree, because Halloween isn't my favorite holiday. But I'm trying hard to get into it for my kids. Hey, when are we finally going to meet in person?

The second I win the lotto, I'm booking a flight to Canada! Unless you come down under first! But where ever the event happens, all I can say to the locals is…LOOK OUT!

Yeah! Wait, what were we talking about? Oh, right. Being wild ;) Thanks for coming by, Karly.

Karly loves to hear from readers, so please drop by her website to see the trailer for Operation Summer Storm or drop her a line. But first, leave a comment so we can enter you into the contest for Friday's draw.

Happy reading!
Kaylea Cross :)