Authors: Dee Davis
Tags: #Fiction / Romance - General, #Fiction / Romance - Suspense, #Fiction / Romance - Contemporary
06 Double Danger (37 page)
Lady Andrena MacFarlan, heroine of THE LAIRD’S CHOICE, the first book in my Lairds of the Loch trilogy, is just such a lass; and escaped Highland-galley slave and warrior Magnus “Mag” Galbraith is such a man. He is also dutiful and believes that his first duty is to the King.
I decided to set the trilogy in the Highlands west of Loch Lomond and soon realized that I wanted a mythological theme and three heroines with mysterious gifts, none of which was Second Sight. We authors have exploited the Sight for years. In doing so, many of us have endowed our characters with gifts far beyond the original meaning, which to Highlanders was the rare ability of a person to “see” an event while it was happening (usually the death of a loved one in distant battle).
It occurred to me, however, that many of us today possess mysterious “gifts.” We can set a time in our heads to waken, and we wake right on time. Others enjoy flawless memories or hearing so acute that they hear sounds above and/or below normal ranges—bats’ cries, for example. How about those who, without reason, dream of dangers to loved ones, then learn that such things have happened? Or those who sense in the midst of an event that they have dreamed the whole thing before and know what will happen?
Why do some people seem to communicate easily with animals when others cannot? Many can time baking without a timer, but what about those truly spooky types who walk to the oven door just
before
the timer goes—every
time—as if the thing had whispered that it was about to go off?
Warriors develop extraordinary abilities. Their hearing becomes more acute; their sense of smell grows stronger. Prisoners of war find that all their senses increase. Their peripheral vision even widens.
In days of old, certain phenomena that we do not understand today might well have been more common and more closely heeded.
Lady Andrena reads (most) people with uncanny ease and communicates with the birds and beasts of her family’s remaining estate. That estate itself holds secrets and seems to protect her family.
Her younger sisters have their own gifts.
And as for Mag Galbraith… Well, let’s just say he has “gifts” of his own that make the sparks fly.
I hope you’ll enjoy THE LAIRD’S CHOICE. Meantime,
suas Alba!
Dear Reader,
Sometimes we meet someone and there is an instant connection, that indefinable something that creates sparks between two people. And sometimes that leads almost immediately to a happily ever after. Or at least the path taken seems to be straight and true. But sometimes life intervenes. Mistakes are made, secrets are kept, and that light is extinguished. But we rarely ever forget. That magical moment is too rare to dismiss out of turn, and, if given the right opportunity, it always has the potential to spring back to life again.
That’s the basis of Simon and Jillian’s story. Two people separated by pride and circumstance. Mistakes made that aren’t easily undone. But the two of them have been given a second chance. And this time, just maybe they’ll get it right. Of course to do that, they’ll have to overcome their fears. And they’ll have to find a way to confront their past with honesty and compassion. Easily said—not so easily done. But part of reading romance, I think, is the chance to see that in the end, no matter what has happened, it all can come right again.
And at least as far as I’m concerned, Jillian and Simon deserve their happy ending. It’s just that they’ll have to work together to actually get it.
As always, this book is filled with places that actually exist. I love the Fulton Seaport and have always been
fascinated with the helipads along the East River. The buildings along the river that span the FDR highway have always been a pull. How much fun to know that people are whizzing along underneath you as you stare out your window and watch the barges roll by. The brownstone that members of A-Tac use during their investigation is based on a real one near the corner of Sutton Place and 57th Street.
The busy area around Union Square is also one of my favorite hang-outs in the city. And so it seemed appropriate to put Lester’s apartment there. His gallery, too, is based on reality—specifically, the old wrought-iron clad buildings in SoHo. As to the harbor warehouses, while I confess to never having actually been in one, I have passed them several times when out on a boat, and they always intrigue me. So it isn’t surprising that one should show up in a book.
And I must confess to being an avid Yankees fan. So it wasn’t much of a hardship to send the team off to the stadium during a fictional World Series win. I was lucky enough to be there for the ticker-tape parade when they won in 2009. And Boone Logan is indeed a relief pitcher for the Yankees.
I also gave my love of roses to Michael Brecht, dead-heading being a very satisfying way to spend a morning. And finally, the train tunnel that the young Jillian and Simon dare to cross in the middle of the night truly does exist, near Hendrix College in Arkansas. (And it was, in fact, great sport to try and make it all the way through!)
Hopefully you’ll enjoy reading Jillian and Simon’s story as much as I enjoyed writing it.
For insight into both of them, here are some songs I listened to while writing DOUBLE DANGER:
“Stronger,” by Kelly Clarkson
“All the Rowboats,” by Regina Spektor
“Take My Hand,” by Simple Plan
And as always, check out
www.deedavis.com
for more inside info about my writing and my books.
Happy Reading!
Dear Reader,
I have an obsession with history. And as a re-enactor, that obsession frequently comes down to a delight in the minutia of day-to-day life and a deep love of true events that seem stranger than fiction. And we all know that real life is stranger than fiction, don’t we?
RIPE FOR SEDUCTION grew out of just such a real-life story. Lady Mary, daughter of the Duke of Argyll, married Edward, Viscount Coke (heir to the Earl of Leicester). It was not a happy marriage. He left her alone on their wedding night, imprisoned her at his family estate, and in the end she refused him his marital rights and went to live with her mother again. Lucky for her, the
viscount died three years later when she was twenty-six. And while I can see how wonderful it might be to rewrite that story, letting the viscount live and making him come groveling back, it was not the story that inspired me. No, it was what happened after her husband’s death. Upon returning to town after her mourning period was over, Lady Mary received a most indecent proposal… and the man who made it was fool enough to put it in writing. Lady Mary’s revenge was swift, brutal, and brilliant. I stole it for my heroine, Lady Olivia, who like Lady Mary had suffered a great and public humiliation at the hands of her husband, and who, also like Lady Mary, eventually found herself a widow.
And don’t try finding out just what the poor man did or what Lady Mary’s response was by Googling it. That story isn’t on Wikipedia (though maybe I should add it). You’ll have to come let Roland show you what it means to be RIPE FOR SEDUCTION if you want to find out.
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Raves for Dee Davis’s A-Tac Series
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2012 by Dee Davis Oberwetter
Excerpt from
Dire Distraction
© 2012 by Dee Davis Oberwetter
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