ICED COFFEE FOR A HOT DAY |
My guest is romantic suspense author, Carol Kilgore. Carol hails originally from Texas, seems overly fond of Tiki Huts, has a great sense of humor, and a heart the size of Texas. I first met her as a fellow blogger and I've enjoyed reading her blog and getting to know her. This is not her first visit to Over Coffee. You may remember reading a story she wrote, SECRETS OF CHRISTMAS, as part of my Holiday Shorts I do each December.
It's my pleasure to have Carol back with us and this time with her debut, In Name Only.
Thank you, Sia, for hosting me today. I'm very happy to be
here and to share some things about me and about my debut novel, IN NAME ONLY.
My personal style is eclectic. I like to mix it up. If I
wore a uniform, I would most likely pair it with frilly and/or colorful undies.
I would know.
Bear with me. You'll see where this is going.
If our home came close to having a design style, it would be
something like eclectic coastal contemporary, even though we no longer live at
the coast. We have art and accessories from other places we've lived—like the
New Mexico mountains and New York City—and a few family pieces mingled with an
overall contemporary look.
It's the same with my blog, Under the Tiki Hut. It's all
about the beach, which I love. I'm a Native Texan and write stories set in
Texas, so the beach I most often see in my mind is a Texas beach, where tiki
huts are also called palapas. But that doesn't mean you see my beach. I try to maintain a Tiki Hut feel for any beach
anywhere. From Fiji to Oregon to Maine to the Irish Coast and back again.
So it follows that this eclectic mix extends into my writing
as well. I mix a cup of this, a dash of that, a spoonful of the other into a
blend I call Crime Fiction with a Kiss. Always at least one crime; always a
love story.
Besides being eclectic, I'm also a little OCD about
research. Not only do I love the process, I want to make sure all the facts in
my fiction are correct. I don't claim to be perfect—no doubt readers will find
things I got wrong. And there may be other things that slip past.
Here are a few of the many things I researched for IN NAME
ONLY:
Local Trees. In
Chapter One of IN NAME ONLY, Summer leans against a palm tree. The palm started
out as a mesquite
tree (pronounced mess-KEET) and
would have remained a mesquite except for one tiny problem—I learned mesquites
have long thorns. Ouch!
- Shark Fishing. A lot of guys in South Texas fish for shark from the Padre Island National Seashore beach. You can watch a short video at Texas Shark Fishing to see the last part of the process of bringing the shark to shore. It's a catch and release video of a 12-foot tiger shark. It may take the fisherman hours to reach this point. Look at the size of the man and look at all his gear. I spent the better part of a couple of days researching equipment for this sport, which ended up having only a few mentions in the story. But it was fun to learn!
- Firefighters. Lots of information on firefighters is available on the web. I spent many days reading. I also talked one-to-one with some real firefighters with the Corpus Christi Fire Department who told me how they do things there.
- The Federal Witness Security Program. Not much out there, and nobody was talking. Which would make me pretty darn happy if I were in the program. So I felt free to draw upon my imagination.
- Padre Island. And of course, I spent time on Padre figuring out where everything in the story would physically be located. You'll need to make your own visit to the Island to find out which locations are real and which are specially created for IN NAME ONLY.
If you happen to see Summer Newcombe while you're there, say
hi for me!
BUY: AMAZON |
IN NAME ONLY
No home. No family. No place to hide. For Summer Newcombe, that's only the beginning.
No home. No family. No place to hide. For Summer Newcombe, that's only the beginning.
The
night Summer escapes from a burning Padre Island eatery and discovers the
arsonist is stalking her, is the same night she meets Fire Captain Gabriel
Duran. As much as she's attracted to Gabe, five years in the Federal Witness
Security Program because of her father’s testimony against a mob boss have
taught her the importance of being alone and invisible.
No
matter how much she yearns for a real home, Summer relinquished that option the
night she killed the man who murdered her father. But Gabe breaks down her
guard and places both of them in danger. Summer has vowed never to kill again,
but she's frantic she'll cost Gabe his life unless she stops running and fights
for the future she wants with the man she loves.
~*~*~*~
Carol Kilgore is a Texas native
who has lived in locations across the U.S. as the wife of a Coast Guard
officer. Back under the hot Texas sun in San Antonio, Carol writes a blend of
mystery, suspense, and romance she calls Crime
Fiction with a Kiss. She and her husband share their home and patio with
two active herding dogs, and every so often the dogs let them sit on the sofa.
Learn more about Carol and follow her here:
Blog: http://www.underthetikihut.blogspot.com
Learn more about Carol and follow her here:
Blog: http://www.underthetikihut.blogspot.com
Website: http://www.carolkilgore.net
Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads:
Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads: