My guest is romantic suspense writer, M.L. (Matt) Buchman. I love his books. The romance is great but what I love is the action, danger, kick-ass solutions, and of course a happy ever after. What's not to like?
Today Matt talks about the challenges of writing romantic suspense based on real life heroes.
Hi
and thanks for coming aboard for a short flight.
I
have this friend who says he likes writing romance because it gives so much
structure which he can than hang his story on. And I see his point: her, him,
love interest, love challenge, love resolution, HEA! Voila!
After
15 published romance novels, I've concluded that my friend is a lunatic.
Totally! Why? (So glad you asked!)
Most
of my novels aren't just romance, they’re romantic suspense, including my
latest release Pure
Heat which
launches my new Firehawks series. Rom
Sus means I've set myself a tough challenge, winding together a love story and
a suspense story in such a way that one drives the other and neither can be
removed without the whole thing falling apart.
 |
| LA County Fire Department's S-70 Firehawk |
But
was that enough for me?
Nooo! Fool M.L. Writer had to set a higher challenge of writing about real world heroes and heroines. I struggle to be as accurate as possible, though not as realistic as possible. (Military battle and fighting forest fires are much too ugly and scary to include all of the details and at the core I want to tell a love story; so I clean it up a little.)
Nooo! Fool M.L. Writer had to set a higher challenge of writing about real world heroes and heroines. I struggle to be as accurate as possible, though not as realistic as possible. (Military battle and fighting forest fires are much too ugly and scary to include all of the details and at the core I want to tell a love story; so I clean it up a little.)
That
means that one of the major tasks I set for myself is research. Oh, I’m fine
with reading books, blogs, and following the news. I did two years of that
before I even tried to start my Night Stalkers or my Firehawks series. My
trouble is that I’m pretty shy in new situations with people.
Drop
me into a corporate environment, and I can rock-and-roll; I spent over 25 years
there. However, on my very first day in corporate, I was assigned to copy a
large box of court documents. As I squatted down, I blew the seam out of my
pants from the bottom of the zipper all the way up to my back belt loop. I was
too terrified to do anything, so I didn't take lunch, I didn't take breaks, I
spent the whole day with my butt facing a wall and then snuck out with my suit
coat held just so.
Every
interview I do for my writing is like that. Over the years I've conducted
hundreds of job interviews as well. But when it comes down to my writing, not
so much. For example, I had a change to talk with a Coast Guard heli-rescue
pilot, who was at an airshow with his chopper specifically to answer questions.
I fell mute. It can take me weeks or even months to gear up for an interview.
And
oddly, instead of getting easier with time as it did in corporate, I find
personal interviews for my stories keeps getting harder. The more book-based
knowledge I acquire, the more I am daunted by the men and women who fly to the
rescue—military or fire. I once had the opportunity to interview a woman who
flew two tours in Iraq as a Black Hawk crew chief. She was an incredibly shy
and soft-spoken woman half my age, and I was so daunted by her that, if my
friends had not dragged me in, I would never have managed to do it. (She was
awesome and immensely helpful, by the way.)
Oddly,
my reaction has become one of the key features of my books in both of these
series. I am in true awe of the real life versions of these people and I
attempt to capture that, yet show the real people that I came to know and
several of whom I now count as friends. These are the men and women of Pure Heat!
Let's chat
I’d love to hear who are the people you go gob-smacked mute in front of?
One commenter will win a copy of Pure Heat, and I'll announce the winner Friday's blog.
These daredevil smokejumpers fight more than fires.
The elite fire experts of Mount Hood Aviation fly into places even the CIA can’t penetrate.
She lives to fight fires
Carly Thomas could read burn patterns before she knew the alphabet. A third-generation forest fire specialist who lost both her father and her fiancé to the flames, she’s learned to live life like she fights fires: with emotions shut down.
But he’s lit an inferno she can’t quench
Former smokejumper Steve "Merks" Mercer can no longer fight fires up close and personal, but he can still use his intimate knowledge of wildland burns as a spotter and drone specialist. Assigned to copilot a Firehawk with Carly, they take to the skies to battle the worst wildfire in decades and discover a terrorist threat hidden deep in the Oregon wilderness—but it’s the heat between them that really sizzles. Download chapter excerpt
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THANKS
M. L. Buchman has over a dozen romances and more than 20 books in print (he also writes science fiction and fantasy). His full name, Matthew Lieber Buchman, translates as Matthew Beloved Book Man, no wonder he’s a writer.
He is now making his living full-time as a writer, scribbling away with his wife on the Oregon Coast.
M. L. Buchman has over a dozen romances and more than 20 books in print (he also writes science fiction and fantasy). His full name, Matthew Lieber Buchman, translates as Matthew Beloved Book Man, no wonder he’s a writer.He is now making his living full-time as a writer, scribbling away with his wife on the Oregon Coast.
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