Thursday, April 03, 2008

Guest Blogger Denise A. Agnew


WATCH OUT! THE HOT ZONE IS COMING!

No, I’m not talking about global warming, a great day spent on a tropical beach, or a heavy duty survival reality show where you’re stuck for weeks on end with hunky men who can make a raft out of palm trees and sunscreen out of an exotic combination of plant and herb. I’m talking about my series at Samhain Publishing http://www.samhainpublishing.com/.

My first story with Samhain Publishing was released in May 2007 and is called MALE CALL. At that time I didn’t have a notion of writing anything in a connected story or series. Bang! One day an idea just came to me. After writing the first story about an Army reservist overseas in Iraq falling in love with his pen pal back home, I knew I had to write about more men who experienced wartime and the women they would love. So, the HOT ZONE series was launched, and I haven’t looked back. All of these stories are set in the fictional small city of Clarksville, Wyoming. Let me give you preliminary blurbs on all the stories in the series.

In October 2007 the next novella came out and it’s called UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER. She’s archaeology, he’s Special Ops, and both of them teeter on the edge of stepping into the HOT ZONE. She wants the adventure of a lifetime and isn’t willing to sacrifice it for any man.

Archaeologist Fredricka “Freddie” Bodine returns to her hometown for her twentieth high school reunion, unaware that her old crush, Keith Wallace, has blown back into town. A single memory is etched deeply on her brain—the high school prom where she shared an emotionally revealing dance with him. They’d both left town after graduation, feelings unresolved and teen angst firmly in place. All he wants is to keep the girl he loved and lost safe, even if she hates him for it. Keith doesn’t want her to travel to Los Diablos, a lawless area near ancient ruins that he’s visited during his Special Forces ops, and the place where his sister was killed years ago. As they grapple with family pressures and the exploding passion between them, their battle of wills may just lead them to the truth living in both their hearts.

April 1 Samhain is releasing PRIVATE MANEUVERS. Sometimes a woman craves, sometimes a man wants… When the two collide, its guarantee to pitch them straight into the danger lurking within the HOT ZONE. Marisa Clyde wants nothing to do with the soldier who is acting as a temporary bouncer in her uncle’s tavern. Stoic and over six feet of smoldering masculinity, the hunk helped rescue her during a tour gone bad in Mexico. During those few short moments after she first met him, the tension between them screamed off the charts. A devastating hurt in the past blocks her willingness to surrender to him. If she can wait him out now, he’ll only be in town a month and then he’s out of her life. Jake Sullivan watches Marisa like a hawk, well aware his need to protect is messing with his mind and making him care for Marisa way more than he should. Priding himself on clinical detachment in the game between man and woman, he figures once he’s slept with her, she’ll be out of his system for good. But that’s before he experiences her on a deeper level and learns she just might be in danger again.

In May Samhain releases CLOSE QUARTERS. When all hell breaks loose, sometimes you just need someone to cover you. Neena Williamson struggles to keep her high-pressure job from overwhelming her, and she thinks the demons of her past have long since disappeared. One night, she sees a man wearing the most hideous Hawaiian shirt on earth and vows he’d never fit her image of a hot bod for a local charity’s new hot male calendar. Then the evening erupts in violence, and he proves that first impressions can be dead wrong. Sometimes having a simple cup of coffee can turn into a complicated situation…Mitch Gilroy hides in plain sight, enjoying his low-key handyman job. His former life isn’t open for discussion, and Clarksville, Wyoming is the perfect place to find peace. Then a gunman forces his hand, and Mitch must remember everything he’s tried so hard to forget. Thrown together, Neena and Mitch quickly discover how tangled their emotions can become, and only by working together can they banish the monsters that haunt them and heal a lifetime of regrets.

There should be at least one more story in the HOT ZONE series. Stay tuned to my web page at http://www.deniseagnew.com/ and www.myspace.com/deniseagnew for all the news on this series and my other series and stand alone novels.

Hope you enjoyed a little sneak peek into what’s coming from the HOT ZONE. With these novellas I tried to convey a sense of homecoming and what that can mean to someone who has survived a dangerous situation. Plus, I wanted the character’s pasts to catch up with them in some way, to have them stretch and grow and discover it is possible to find love even when you least expect it. What types of stories make your blood race? Do you like stories set in dangerous situations, or do you prefer the more mundane and often more realistic home fire settings?

3 comments:

Melissa Alvarez said...

Thanks for being my guest blogger today Denise! Your series sounds like it's steaming! I like books set in both dangerous and mundane places as long as the author can keep me turning the pages.

Smiles,

Melissa

Denise A. Agnew said...

Melissa,
Thanks! It's great to be here. These stories are novella size so they don't have the suspense of one of my larger books, but I loved exploring the inner worlds of the characters and putting them into a physical and mental hot zone. :)

Denise A. Agnew

Cathy M said...

I love a great romantic suspense story with lots of heat, sexual chemistry, some danger, and of course, a wee bit of humor.