Laura Simcox's Blog, page 4
September 11, 2012
A Fiery Read!
I wanted to look over my shoulder last night, because I’d forgotten to close the blinds, and the large window behind my desk was black as the cloudy night. But I was focused on my computer, reading the blurb for a delicious sounding romantic suspense novel titled ‘Black Creek Burning’. When the motion light snapped on in the driveway, I jumped about a foot. Ok, it was only my husband parking the Jeep, but still. I was creeped out. So I guess without even cracking that novel open, author R.T. Wolfe was able to hook me. ‘Black Creek Burning’ debuts September 25, 2012 from Crimson Romance and I can’t wait to get my hands on it. Here’s the blurb I was talking about:
Brianna Chapman learns to handle just about anything. Witnessing the murder of her parents had that effect. Knowing the unsolved arson had been meant for her is the one thing she can’t handle. Instead of dwelling, she stuffs her guilt soundly into her subconscious through diving into the teaching job she loves by day and the dirt of the landscaping business she owns by night. Her habit of remaining aloof to personal relationships is, well, working.
Will her guilt be as easy to keep buried if the killer comes back to finish the job?
In the midst of juggling a scorched yard, dead animals on her doorstep and her vandalized car, the one thing she didn’t count on was the staggering Nathan Reed. A nationally renowned woodworking artist, Nathan and his two priceless nephews move into the run-down historical house behind her and over Black Creek. They have a canny way of maneuvering around her aloof demeanor and into her heart. Will they still want to be part of her life when they discover she is haunted by past memories and hunted by present dangers?
‘Black Creek Burning’ is now available for pre-order on Amazon. It will also be available in the near future on Barnes and Noble and iTunes. Check Crimson Romance for more information.
R.T. Wolfe is my guest today on the blog and I am excited to feature her and learn more about her novel.
Thank you, Laura, for having me today.
You’re welcome. So tell me, what inspired you to choose the setting for your ‘Black Creek Burning’? (Awesome title, by the way.)
Brie Chapman uses what she loves as a sort of therapy and a way to escape painful memories. She loves her landscape designing business. Therefore, I chose a setting in a place where I’m familiar with the landscape. I decided on upstate New York because of its beauty and because it has nearly the same climate as my hometown. Mostly, I needed a setting with four complete seasons. I use subliminal metaphors quite a bit when I write. Black Creek Burning begins in the dead of winter and continues through mid-summer. Brie’s character development grows in conjunction with the changing of the seasons.
That’s a thoughtful approach to character development. And upstate New York is a great setting. I used it, too for my second book.
How do Brie and Nathan meet?
Nathan finds what he considers the perfect house for him and his nephews. It’s a rundown historic farm house that he plans to fix up together with the boys. As they rebuild the home, Nathan plans to build a lifetime of lasting memories for the kids. Behind the house is Black Creek. Behind Black Creek is the Victorian home Brie lives in. It’s the house she inherited from her parents and the same house she had rebuilt after much of it burned in the fire that killed her parents. The catalyst for their first actual meeting, however, is their dogs. Brie has a well-trained golden retriever. Nathan owns a young and unruly golden Labrador mix who knows how to open closed doors with his teeth. I’ll let the rest lie in your visitors imagination.
Ha! I can picture it. I love surprise meetings. 
If Brie could go anywhere in the world, where would that be?
She would go back in time to the night her parents were murdered. Brie carries a heavy load of guilt from that night. In her eyes, there were many things she could have/should have done that would have saved them. The killer wanted Brie dead. Her parents were mistakenly in her place.
I feel for her already. She’s a complex young woman. Tell us about Nathan. What makes him laugh?
I can’t think of a time when Nathan actually out-right laughs, but he absolutely adores watching Brie when she is beside herself over something he sees as easy. A number of times, she places her outstretched hands on the sides of her head, paces back and forth in a short, quick path and talks to herself. He generally leans back, crosses one ankle over the other and lifts a corner of his mouth until she’s done.
So…he’s hot. Well, at least that description certainly appeals to me!
What about your secondary characters? A favorite?
Hmm. Can I pick two?
Of course!
Nathan Reed inherited his two young nephews after the death of his only brother and sister-in-law. For the first few years, he did a terrible job raising them. He had been buried in his nationally renowned woodworking artistry and rubbing noses with the rich and the famous. Determined to keep his promise to his brother and to the young boys, he sells his woodworking studio and moves to his hometown in Northridge, New York in order to be closer to the boys’ only other living relatives, their grandparents. I will choose the older of the two nephews as my favorite secondary character. He is eight-years-old in Black Creek Burning and is filled with suspicion, pain and protectiveness for his younger brother. He is much like the heroine, Brie. He is my favorite because of his bravery and the changes he goes through. His adult self is also the main character of the third book in this trilogy. So fun.
Oh, cool. Tell us about the trilogy.
Black Creek Burning is book one in the Black Creek Trilogy. Book two is titled To Fly in the Shadows. This book is about the younger of Nathan’s nephews. The novels covers three major time periods as he grows up, the last of which is when he is an adult. In To Fly in the Shadows, we find out if a lifelong need for one another is enough to allow a conservation biologist and Nathan’s nephew who is a building developer to find compromise as their livelihoods and her violent past work to rip them apart.
There’s a lot of heart in these stories, I can tell. I want to know more about you as well. What would you do with a million bucks?
That’s easy. I’ve thought about that before actually. I guess who hasn’t? Although I’ve stopped short from playing the lotto. Can you believe I’ve never once in my life bought a ticket? Ha! I would use my million to fix up the parsonage at my church, donate hundreds of trees to the war torn country of Liberia, give to Operation Migration—the non-for-profit group that hand raises endangered Whooping cranes and teaches them to fly behind their human ‘mama’ in her glider plane –and to the east coast Center for Conservation and Biology. With what is left over, I would get out of debt, allow my boys to go to the colleges they want/not just the ones we can afford and I would become a full-time author. Hmm. That may have been more than one million!
You have a lot of heart, too.
To learn more, visit her on the web in any of these places:
Thanks for joining me today. It was fun chatting with you.
Happy Reading!
Laura
