Heart or Head? with Paty Jager

Heart or Head?
by Paty Jager
Thank you for having me here Carrie Ann. Each person who comments on this post will be entered to win a $5 egift certificate from Amazon.When I decided to write Secrets of a Mayan Moon I had an idea of the heroine in my mind. She was super smart, could figure things out, and had inept social skills. At first I wanted her to be bumbling and dorky, but as I wrote her story and came to know her as a person, she had a playful side, but her logical side would keep her from being over the top silly. I gave her some great foibles, like idolizing Indiana Jones and trying to use a whip. You’ll have to read her story to find out how that ended. She also has a “survival vest”. It’s my hat tip to MacGyver. And she uses the items in her vest several times, once to save the hero. Her inept social skills come from living in boarding schools and always being younger than the rest of her classmates. She started college at fourteen and when she was seventeen realized she wanted to be an anthropologist and began the studies and graduated with her doctorate at twenty-two.All her life she has felt different and outside everything. Her parents worked constantly and only saw her on holidays and her birthday. Her classmates were always older and excluded her and then when she finally breaks into the anthropology world; the other anthropologists believe she only made it because of her family’s acquaintance with her mentor, Doctor Virgil Martin.The fun part writing this book was having her logical side at war with her emotions once hunky Tino Kostas comes into her life as her guide to the dig. She’s been scorned before and told she’s just a stick with a brain. She can’t help her metabolism uses the food she consumes faster than it can make fat. Or that she can figure and memorize things others can’t even comprehend. She has often hated her gift. It’s what sets her apart from others when she wants desperately to belong. Tino finds her intelligence interesting and her body, while not as curvaceous as his usual lovers, intriguing. His attention confuses her. He’s a gorgeous Latin man and he acts interested. Her logical mind determines he has been in the jungle too long. But her heart yearns for the connection they are both fighting. Have you ever had to deal with your heart over your head? If so, did you make the right choice?Blurb for Secrets of a Mayan Moon Child prodigy and now Doctor of Anthropology, Isabella Mumphrey, is about to lose her job at the university. In the world of publish or perish, her mentor’s request for her assistance on a dig is just the opportunity she’s been seeking. If she can decipher an ancient stone table—and she can—she’ll keep her department. She heads to Guatemala, but drug trafficking bad guys, artifact thieves, and her infatuation for her handsome guide wreak havoc on her scholarly intentions.
DEA agent Tino Kosta, is out to avenge the deaths of his family. He’s deep undercover as a jaguar tracker and sometimes jungle guide, but the appearance of a beautiful, brainy anthropologist heats his Latin blood taking him on a dangerous detour that could leave them both casualties of the jungle.ExcerptIsabella climbed out of the boat, keeping as much distance between her and Tino as possible. He’d humiliated her, and she couldn’t get away from him. They were stuck together tonight and all of tomorrow until he delivered her to the dig. His taunting her with a kiss and then drawing away as if she were some vile creature hurt as deeply as the things Darrell Rutley had said to her face in grad school. She walked into the forest, hunting for a place to have a few moments to herself. “Do not go far,” Tino called in his seductive Latin accent. She cursed her reaction to his voice, raised a hand acknowledging his order, and tromped deeper into the trees. The murmur of the river faded away in the steady drone of mosquitoes. She slapped at the leaves on the plants and wandered deeper. Rustling in the underbrush shot her heart into her throat. Jaguars were nocturnal weren’t they? A small, furry, pig-like animal trotted across her path, followed by five smaller versions. She giggled at her jumpy nerves and the animals’ comical parade as she watched the last one disappear through the greenery. The waning light enlarged the shadows. Reluctance played war with her logical self. She should return to the boat before darkness descended and she couldn’t find her way back. But her pride, something she usually didn’t consider, wouldn’t let her face Tino. Not yet. It was stupid to believe he wanted to kiss her. Tino was handsome, virile, and so unlike any of the men she’d met during her college days or professionally. Exactly the type who toy with women like me. His chivalry and her attraction to him made her feel attractive, something she rarely experienced. But the way he brushed her off after he’d initiated the kiss... He’d only proved he could kiss her and not that he wanted her. She mentally slapped herself at her stupidity and virginal cravings.The walk hadn’t settled her anger. Reliving the event only escalated her rage. How could one be a genius yet stupid about life lessons?She pulled out what she now considered her knife and hacked at the plants along the way. With each swing she lopped off something of Tino’s. Blue penetrating eyes. Devastating smile. A hand, so good at soothing her. The other hand. Her smile grew, and her frustration turned to the healthy exhaustion of an extensive taekwondo class. Isabella wiped a sleeve across her sweaty brow and heaved a sigh of contentment. The vigorous exercise worked wonders on her disposition. A fierce roar vibrated through the trees.
Secrets of a Mayan Moon is available at Kindle, Nook, and Smashwords. Bio:Wife, mother, grandmother, and the one who cleans pens and delivers the hay; award winning author Paty Jager and her husband currently ranch 350 acres when not dashing around visiting their children and grandchildren. She not only writes the western lifestyle, she lives it.Her contemporary Western, Perfectly Good Nanny won the 2008 Eppie for Best Contemporary Romance, Spirit of the Mountain, a historical paranormal set among the Nez Perce, garnered 1st place in the paranormal category of the Lories Best Published Book Contest, and Spirit of the Lake, the second book of the spirit trilogy, was a finalist in the Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence. You can learn more about Paty at her blog; www.patyjager.blogspot.com  her website; http://www.patyjager.net or on Facebook; https://www.facebook.com/#!/paty.jagerand twitter;  @patyjag.