Hi everyone! Thanks for allowing me back on the playground! I guess that means I must have played nice the last time I was here. Or at the very least, Playground Monitor never caught me when I was kicking sand around :-). I’m sure she’ll have her eye on me this time, though!
Remember when you were a kid, and you waited forever for Christmas? I’d start moaning about June regarding how far off it was and my mom would start moaning for a very different reason—it was only six months away. Hah! A lot adults knew. Six months was a lifetime!
Well, that’s sort of how I’ve felt waiting for my dark romantic thriller trilogy to be released from Berkley. I signed the contract in 2007, almost exactly two years ago. My editor wanted to release the books back to back as quickly as possible. The problem was, I was still under contract to Silhouette and owed them two more books. That meant I had four books to write as quickly as possible. There was also the little matter of my teaching job to tend to, as well :-).
So excuse me while I squee and happy dance a bit because my first release date is here! Waking Nightmare hit the shelves at bookstores yesterday. And I’m happy to say reviewers have said nice things about it (so far :-) ).
The book is the first release in The Mindhunter series coming out Sept-Oct-Nov this fall. The name is a nickname for a private forensics firm headed by the legendary former FBI profiler Adam Raiker. It’s staffed with some of the best criminologists in the country, and each book features a specialist who’s called in to consult with law enforcement on particularly puzzling or high profile crimes.
Waking Nightmare pairs criminal profiler Abbie Phillips and Savannah detective Ryne Robel as they trail a sadistic serial rapist. He’s initially skeptical about what she can add to his task force. But skepticism turns to respect when Abbie discovers that the seeming random acts of torture are actually calculated to match each victim’s darkest fears. And the stakes are rising. While they study the devious psychopath, he’s watching them—the next objects of his terrifying obsession.
I’ve been doing lots of blogs and interviews recently and once I describe the books I’m invariably asked how an elementary teacher ended up writing about forensics, serial rapists, defleshing bones, and extracting DNA from skeletal remains.
The answer is simply that I’m fascinated by people. What they do and their motivation for doing it. How some attempt to justify actions that seem unjustifiable to most of us. And the resiliency of the human spirit, that enables people to endure tragedy and trauma and come out it stronger.
Whether writing shorter books for Silhouette or longer mass-market books, ultimately I’m writing about the characters, back-dropped against some larger than life suspense. Engaging the readers in their stories, rooting for their happy endings, and bringing down a few bad guys along the way.
You can read more at my website:
http://www.kyliebrant.com/ or check out the excerpts posted for each story at
http://www.kyliebrant.com/current_releases.html#nightmare.
Do you like your romance with suspense? How dark is too dark? Are there limits to what you want to see the protagonists suffer on the way to their HEA? How much romance do you want to see in a romantic suspense / thriller book?
I’m giving away a signed copy of WAKING NIGHTMARE to one lucky commenter today!
