Book Tour: FORGED IN FIRE by Trish McCallan

I am so excited to be part of this book tour (and just look that this book cover!)  Go ahead, read the blurb below – I know you will be hooked too :)

Forged in Fire

By Trish McCallan
Genre: paranormal romantic suspense

Beth Brown doesn’t believe in premonitions until she dreams a sexy stranger is gunned down during the brutal hijacking of a commercial airliner. When events in her dream start coming true, she heads to the flight’s departure gate. To her shock, she recognizes the man she’d watched die the night before.

Lieutenant Commander Zane Winters comes from a bloodline of elite warriors with psychic abilities. When Zane and two of his platoon buddies arrive at Sea-Tac Airport, he has a vision of his teammates’ corpses. Then she arrives—a leggy blonde who sets off a different kind of alarm.

As Beth teams up with Zane, they discover the hijacking is the first step in a secret cartel’s deadly global agenda and that key personnel within the FBI are compromised. To survive the forces mobilizing against them, Beth will need to open herself to a psychic connection with the sexy SEAL who claims to be her soul mate.

"Forged In Fire is a smoking hot adventure with an irresistible alpha hero. Danger, action, suspense, and a steamy romance make a story that's impossible to put down!" ~Patti O'Shea, National Bestselling Author of Through a Crimson Veil

Available at Amazon  B&N Smashwords

Trish has agreed to answer a few of my questions – so let’s get started!

When did you start writing? I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember. As a kid back in the second and third grades I used to write little picture books and illustrate the pictures with crayons. As I got older my writing evolved and I wrote short novellas usually following the trials and tribulations of some animal. I wrote short stories and poetry through high school and then switched to novels again in college. I wrote my first romance my second year in college, but never revised it. Then I got busy with life, and jobs and writing took a backseat. I talked about writing constantly, but never actually wrote. Then in early 2000 I decided enough was enough and started pursuing it much more seriously. I joined RWA, various writers groups and started writing every day. I haven’t looked back since.

Does your family support you in your writing? My family has always supported my writing. Back when I was a kid, my dad would take me to the library, find a list of publishing houses and help me send my books in for submission. I actually received several personal rejections from those kind people at the publishing houses. (My mom and dad swore they didn’t send the letters. LOL) We lost my mother three years ago to breast cancer. But I know she would have been thrilled with how well Forged in Fire is doing. My Dad, Grandmother and brothers and sister are constantly asking me how many books I’ve sold now. Lol

What would be able to distract you from your writing? Television and reading are my two big distractions. I’ve learned not to read a book until the weekend. I get the bulk of my writing in early in the morning before my day job. I try to be sitting down at the computer ready to work by 4 am so I can get a solid three hours in before I have to get ready for work. But if I start a book at night, I’m incapable of putting it down in time to go to bed early enough to get up at my scheduled time. The same thing happens if I sit down to watch a sitcom or movie. So I’ve learned to DVR any show I’m interested in and watch it over the weekend—after my daily writing is done.

What inspired you to write this book? This book was actually inspired by a dream. I dreamed the opening sequence (although at the time the opening was the second scene where Beth shows up at the departure gate and sees the three heroes, I added the current opening during revisions) But the dream was inspired by a Black Dagger Brotherhood reading glut. I’d just finished the series, and the heroes of the BDB were constantly on my mind when I had the dream and my focus shifted to these dream heroes.

What kind of research did you have to do? I did a ton of research on Navy SEALs. I spent weeks reading article after article on everything from their training to their weapons to the structure of the teams. I also found two legitimate forums that current and retired Navy SEALs posted on and I lurked for a year. I still lurk. I soaked up everything they said, how they interacted with each other, the terms and phrases they used. If I didn’t understand a term they were using, I researched it. I spent hours and hours and hours lurking, but I didn’t post once. After the book was finished I had a lot of questions, but I didn’t want to post them to the forums. Those guys have no patience for writers. But I needed my questions answers. Through my crime scene loop, I was put in contact with retired EOD diver who had actually worked with ST7. This contact has been an absolute Godsend and has helped me retain as much of the authenticity of the series as possible without affecting creativity or plot. I also did a lot of research both online and through contacting a couple of active FBI agents about the FBI elements in the plot.

Who designed cover? Laura Morrigan created the sexy cover for Forged in Fire

What is your next project? I’m revising Yesterday’s Child, the book I had written prior to Forged in Fire. I’m hoping to have this book up for sale sometime around the first of the year. As soon as revisions and edits are finished on Yesterday’s Child, I’ll start on Forged in Ice, the second book in my Forged Series. I keep getting emails from readers asking me to “write faster.” I assure everybody, I’m writing as fast as I can. LOL

If you could meet any of your characters, who would it be and why? I would want to meet all the guys in my Forged Series, because I think they are incredibly Sexy. *bg

A typical day in your life. My life is incredibly boring, which is probably why I am drawn to thrillers and romantic suspense. My day starts at 3:00 am. I get coffee going, shower, read email, answer email, and then head into the office at 4:00 am. I write until 7:00 am. Feed dogs, get ready for work. Work from 8 to 5, come home, walk dogs- read email and answer email, eat, do some housework and then go to bed. Yeah, such an exciting life I lead. lol

What is the hardest thing about being an author? The hardest thing is transferring my vision of the characters and story down onto the page. I really hate the first draft, because it never comes close to the vision I have of the story in my head. It’s only during the revision process that I can get the scene to read the way I want. I spend ten times the amount of time on revisions as I do on the first draft. I’ve trained myself to just slam out that first draft as fast as I can without agonizing over it, that way I have a blueprint to work with. Then I agonize over the revisions, rewriting until the scene on the page, matches what’s in my mind.

Do you hear from your readers much? What do they say? It’s been incredible how many readers have been emailing me to say how much they loved the book, and asking me to write faster. LOL. I get about an email a day either through the email I have listed in the back of the book, or through the contact page on my website. It’s been incredibly uplifting and motivating. Keep them coming! *bg

Who are some of the authors that inspire you? JR Ward, and Linda Howard for their sexy, alpha heroes and their ability to write men who think and talk like men. Guy Gavriel Kay for his ability to craft such real, rich character I become invested in their lives and hurt when they hurt.

What is in your own TBR pile? All of Ward’s Fallen Angels series, a book called The Power of The Moon-although I forget the author’s name, Caris Roane’s Guardian’s of Ascension, Christy Reece’s Sweet Revenge, and Pamela Clare’s latest romantic suspense.

About the Author:

Trish McCallan has been writing for as long as she can remember.

In grade school she wrote children’s stories, illustrating them with crayons and binding the sheets together with pencil-punched holes and red yarn. She used to sell these masterpieces at her lemonade stand for a nickel a book. Surprisingly, people actually bought them. Like, all of them. Every night she would have to write a new batch for her basket.

As she got older her interest changed to boys and horses. The focus of her literary masterpieces followed this shift. Her first full length novel was written in seventh grade by pencil in a notebook and featured a girl, a horse and a boy. At the end of the book the teenage heroine rode off into the sunset . . . with the horse.

These days she sticks to romantic suspense with hot alpha heroes and roller-coaster plots. Since she is a fan of all things bizarre, paranormal elements always seem to find a way into her fiction. Her current release, Forged in Fire, was the result of a Black Dagger Brotherhood reading binge, a cold, a bottle of NyQuil and a vivid dream.

Find Trish Online:

www.trishmccallan.com

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/profile.php?id=100001292925346

http://twitter.com/#!/TrishMcCallan