I’ve had an inspiring week.  Blasted myself out of hibernation and went to a book signing at Piedmont Hospital’s Cancer Wellness Center.  Nancy Waldeck, author of the Taste and Savor Cookbook, had a wonderful mini-buffet of her recipes as well as shared her path toward making her book-dream come true.  I highly recommend this tasty treasure and will be using the delicious, healthy recipes and wine tips myself daily.  They are that easy.  Writing doesn’t leave time for hours in the kitchen, nor for blogging either.  So, here’s the seven suspenseful sentences from Collateral Damage for today and I will be back later this week with some great news and the fabulous cover for my April release, a historical suspense, Midnight Secrets.

“Jack frowned and fisted his hands, feeling as frustrated with his current situation as he did with his flashbacks to Lebanon.
Lauren looked up at him. “You’re serious about going to Brazil?”

“I think I’ll call her first, see what she says, how she reacts to my questions, okay.”

Lauren nodded, her relief evident. Suddenly pain stabbed a hot dagger into Jack’s brain followed by a loud pop. The bullet plowing into his skull had come out of nowhere, his knees buckled, and a dark tunnel swallowed him alive.”

With Jack shot, and a killer walking her way, Lauren will have to think fast.

Who is watching the Grammy’s tonight?

As Always,

Go Forth. Dream. Believe. Create. Inspire. Love.

Jenni

The post Suspenseful Seven Sentence Sunday Week Six appeared first on USA Today Bestselling Author Jennifer St. Giles.

Quietly she slipped the chain on and cracked the door open. She was in no mood to be polite. “I’m sorry. I’m not interested in anything you might be selling. There is a no solicitation ordinance in this neighborhood, so I suggest you leave before I call the police.”

“Lauren Collins?” The man faced her and arched an amused brow over his sharply intent green gaze.

Rough didn’t even begin to describe the man’s hard edge, or reveal the almost frightening freshness of the reddened scar on his right temple. His physique and square jaw cut a determined line as did his buzzed black hair and stiff bearing. Military, she thought, immediately reminded of her brother’s demeanor. Her breath caught with hope and trepidation that he was a friend of Jason’s with news.

“I’m Lauren,” she whispered.

“I realize this is a difficult time, but I need to speak with you about your deceased husband, Bill Collins. My name is Jack Hunter. I’m stationed at Fort Bragg.” He slipped a business card into the door crack.

Their fingers touched when she took the card and she practically jerked away from the heat that shot up her arm and flushed her face. The man narrowed his gaze at her, intensifying the green of his eyes. His look was almost suspicious.

She blinked and directed her focus to his card. Sergeant First Class meant the man had about twenty years of experience under his belt. Though he wore jeans and a black polo shirt that hugged well-honed muscle and not an official uniform, his boots were the kind a military man preferred.

Now that you have read the description let’s have a little fun with my fictional heroes. The lucky ladies who have read the stories might have a bit of an advantage because they have a good idea what my heroes look like…everywhere. For those who haven’t read the stories, don’t worry, just imagine what the rest of my hero looks like.

Here’s the challenge. You’ve just inherited your long lost relative’s business in Hollywood. This book is being made into a movie. Below are the actors you have to choose from to be the hero of this story. Which one would you choose and why?

The post Jack Hunter as described by Lauren Collins appeared first on USA Today Bestselling Author Jennifer St. Giles.

The promised winter storm arrived in Georgia last Sunday and us Atlantans have been iced in for almost a week.  Iced in and snowed in are two different animals and I hope you never have an encounter with black ice.  He is a deceptively mean SOB who lurks in the dark of the night to steal your traction right out from under your wheels and sends you spinning out of control.  I, myself, did a 180 in the middle of a five lane highway at midnight on Friday going to pick my son up from work.   I count it a complete miracle that I and my car did not suffer damage.  When I came to a stop, I didn’t even have room to open my car door, the bridge’s guardrail was so close.  There was a reason no one was out.  The South is uniquely cursed.  Whenever we get a snowfall, because it almost always warms up just enough then freezes again to form a hard ice on top of everything.  And it is slick.  But enough about me…

This week I introduce you to the heroine of Collateral Damage, Lauren Collins, a mother of six year old twins who lives in suburban Atlanta.   In the middle of the night she gets a call from an American Embassy in Brazil.  Her soon to be ex’s body, Bill Collins, was found floating in the lake of a five star resort.  She hangs up the phone stunned and…

Suddenly glass shattered and Sasha and Sam started barking. Fearing the boys were up and in the kitchen, Lauren ran down the hall.
A quick glance in their room brought her racing heart to a stop before it thundered painfully harder. Both Matt and Mitch were asleep in their beds. Then who was downstairs? Had Sasha and Sam broken something? Halfway down the steps she caught sight of a black clad hulking figure standing just inside the kitchen French doors.

From this point on everything that Lauren believes about her life and the world around her starts to unravel.  She and her sons run for their lives.  One man puts himself between her family and a killer.  That man is Jack Hunter, a wounded soldier with blood on his hands.  Jack is determined to find the truth.  He killed Bill Collins two weeks ago in Lebanon, so how did the man’s body end up in Brazil reportedly murdered just yesterday?  What he discovers could not only destroy the world as we know it, but could cost him everything.  What does a man do when he falls in love with the woman whose husband he killed?

For those of you who tuned in last week, I was in the middle of writing the dreaded synopsis for book two of my Silent Warrior Series, titled Tactical Deception.  I am happy to say that Tactical Deception will be released in the Fall of 2011, provided that everything goes well.  This is the story of Lt. Col. Roger Weston and Mari Dalton who are secondary characters in Collateral Damage.

Here is a taste of their story in Collateral Damage

Now that Neil was gone, had fate landed her back into the death that she had escaped? For once again, Mari was imprisoned in a windowless room, and death was banging on her door.

She told the emergency operator where she was located streetwise, but couldn’t remember the name of the food mart. After hanging up, she began to wonder what would happen when the police did come. She hadn’t thought about anything but her grief and the baby since Neil was killed. Was she even allowed to remain in the United States now? Her application for citizenship hadn’t been approved yet. Would the police lock her behind bars and accuse her of wrongdoing? She had hit the man with the door first.

Heart pounding impossibly faster, she searched through her incoming calls, found the one number she swore she would never use and hit the send button, and prayed Lt. Col Roger Weston answered.  She was out of time and as good as dead.

Stay tuned for more.  As soon as I get my dreaded taxes done I will be writing Tactical Deception and giving you a taste of that as well.

Go forth and be thankful for every blessed moment that you are alive!

P.S. The Golden Globes are on tonight and a very special lady will be the Golden Globe lady!  Gia Mantegna!  Check her out!

J.L. Saint, aka Jennifer St. Giles, aka Jennifer Saints.

The post Week Two: Suspenseful Seven Sentence Sunday appeared first on USA Today Bestselling Author Jennifer St. Giles.