PLEASE WELCOME TERRI REED!

Today, I'm pleased to welcome Terri Reed to my blog!

BIO
Terri is an award winning, multi-published author. She discovered the wonderful world of fiction at an early age and declared she would one day write a book. Now she is fulfilling that dream and enjoys writing for Harlequin’s Love Inspired. She is an active member of both Romance Writers of America and American Christian Fiction Writers. She resides in the Pacific Northwest with her college-sweetheart husband, two wonderful children, and an array of critters. When not writing, she enjoys spending time with her family and friends, gardening and playing tennis.


INTERVIEW
What is the name of your series of books?  How many books are in the series?

Right now I have two different ones coming out.

(A) My June release is book six of the Fitzgerald Bay Continuity series by Harlequin’s Love Inspired Suspense. The Deputy’s Duty--Law enforcement siblings fight for justice and family. Deputy Chief Ryan Fitzgerald will do anything to bring home a missing little girl, even work with a nosy female reporter bent on destroying his family.

(B) In October the third book in my Protection Specialists series will be released. The Doctor’s Defender--bodyguard Kyle Martin must protect a beautiful doctor from increasing danger, but will he be able to protect his heart?

So far there are four books in the Protection Specialists series, but I’m sure there will be more.

What's the genre/subgenre of your series?
Inspirational Romantic Suspense

What is the premise of your series? What ties it together? Are the characters related, have the same career, live in the same town, etc.?

(A) The Deputy’s Duty--The Fitzgerald clan is rocked by a tragic murder, a missing toddler and a family secret. Each book focuses on a different sibling as clues are revealed until book six when the mystery is solved, the murderer captured and love finds all the siblings.

(B) The Doctor’s Defender--Protection Specialists. In this series, bodyguards employed by Trent Associates in Boston are featured in each book. Their mission is to guard the innocent. The bodyguards will go wherever they are needed and do whatever it takes to protect their clients.

Why write a series? What are the pros and cons?
I like having connected books because you can build characters from book to book even if the character is not the main hero or heroine of the specific book I’m writing. The con is trying to remember what I’ve written about the character when I go to write their story. I have to go back and rediscover the character in previously written novels. Also whatever has come before is now set in stone so there is no changing the character. The plus side is readers look for the next story in a series.  Readers like to see what happens to the characters they’ve met in previous books and catch up on characters that have already had their own story.

What's your next project? Is there another series in your writing future?
I’m working on two books right now.
(1) The Cowboy Target, the fourth Protection Specialists book will be a March 2013 release.   Rancher Wyatt Monroe is being targeted. First framed for murder, then his ranch is sabotaged and his life threatened. Feisty bodyguard, Jackie Blain, will protect the handsome widowed father with her life, but will she give him her heart?
(2) Scent of Danger, book five of Texas K-9 Unit continuity series will be a May 2013 release. I have a drug-sniffing Beagle name Sherlock and his handsome partner Parker Adams working to break up a drug ring in the fictional town of Sagebrush Texas. They are helped by Cold Case Detective Melody Zachary. Working together brings them closer, but each must decide to let down their guard and risk their hearts before it's too late.

Any contests or giveaways related to this blog post or that you are running?
I’ll be giving away a signed copy of my June release and a $10 Amazon gift card.

Any other information you would like to add?
I’d love to hear from your readers what they look for in a book? What makes you decide to devote the time and energy to reading one book over another? Is it the cover? The blurb on the back? Author recognition? Subject of the story?

[NOTE: As a gift to readers, there is a bonus novella by Jillian Hart at the end of The Deputy's Duty.]

EXCERPT

Ryan was supposed to have protected them.  She glared at him.  “This shouldn’t have happened.”

He met her gaze, his icy blue eyes dark with fury. “No, it shouldn’t have.”  He shook his head, his face filled with self-loathing.  “I let myself be distracted.”

She frowned.  “Distracted?  By what?”

His gaze cut over her before he looked away.  The muscle at the side of his jaw visibly pulsed. For a long moment she stared at his profile, at the angular lines of his cheekbone and straight nose, until something clicked in her mind.  Did he mean he’d been distracted by her?

Her pulse tripped over itself.  Her thoughts rewound to the moment inside the house when she’d been holding Georgina. Meghan had looked up to find Ryan in the doorway. She’d heard his voice long before he appeared, so seeing him wasn’t a surprise. But the look on his face...that had left her reeling.
She’d known from the get-go that this man was dangerous, on so many levels. It didn’t help that every time she saw him she felt a flutter of feminine excitement.

Men in uniform could do that to a girl. And admittedly, Ryan filled out his blue uniform in a very eye-catching way that any woman with blood in her veins would notice.

But that didn’t mean Meghan would repeat her past mistakes. She’d gone down the hunky guy road before with disastrous results.

Not going there again. Especially, not with a Fitzgerald. She didn’t trust him.  Couldn’t even say she liked him.

Though admittedly, the wistful, almost yearning expression on Ryan’s handsome face as he watched her holding Georgina had both confused her and sent her pulse skittering.

Then he’d opened his mouth and all she’d registered at the time was the cold blue eyes and the hard set to his jaw that she’d grown used to seeing over the last six months in her campaign for more to be done in bringing her cousin’s murderer to justice.  

 “Have you given any consideration to what could have happened had Christina and her thug returned before I got here?” Ryan asked, his blue gaze drilling through her.

She lifted a shoulder in a slight shrug.  “But she didn’t.”

“Dumb luck.”

Her gaze narrowed.  “I don’t believe in luck, Deputy Chief.  I wouldn’t have thought you did either, considering you’re a church going man.”

“My faith isn’t the issue here.  What concerns me is your lack of regard for your safety.  For the safety of little Georgina.”


His words drilled a hole through her anger.  Guilt wormed its way to the surface.  She probably had been too rash in coming here alone.  “I should have called you,” she conceded.

“You think?” he muttered. “If you hadn’t been here, I would have been able to control the situation.”

The censure in his tone dug at her, setting her defenses firing.  “You don’t know that. Control’s an illusion.”

Saying the words aloud felt like stepping into rush hour traffic. She and Ryan had no control; they didn’t know when they’d be hit. Little Georgina’s life hung in the balance at the hands of an unhinged gun-toting woman and a muscle-bound criminal with no aversion to pounding on people.

She squeezed her eyes tight.  Tears leaked from the corners.  “Please, dear Lord, keep Georgina safe.  Please let us find her.”

When she opened her eyes, she found Ryan staring at her with an arrested look on his face.

Not one to usually pray aloud in public, the heat of a blush crept up her neck and into her cheeks.  But she wouldn’t apologize.  She’d worked hard to reclaim her faith after having spent too many years feeling lost and abandoned by God.

“Why is Georgina so important to you?” Ryan asked.  “It’s more than just chasing a story. So what gives?”

The squall of siren’s filled the air and an ambulance roared to a halt a few feet away, followed by a Revere police cruiser, saving her from answering.

She was chasing a story, that much was true. Working freelance, meant pitching ideas to various news sources and hoping something stuck.  The editor at the Boston City News had been enthused by the hooks she’d dangled: murder, small town police corruption, a baby without a home.

But there was more, much more to this tale.

And soon she’d have to tell Ryan. Not a conversation she was looking forward to, however necessary.  She wasn’t sure how the deputy chief would take the news.


CONTACT TERRI
You can write to Terri at P.O. Box 19555 Portland, OR 97280
Visit her online at www.loveinspiredauthors.com
E-mail her at terrireed@sterling.net
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