What do you get when you take a good-hearted nurse who wants to save the world, and strand her in the desert with a betrayed black-ops agent who's been forced into a corner to complete a mission? As Nina Bruhns proves with her debut thriller, SHOOT TO THRILL, you get sparks, thrills and chills as they go on the ride of their life. KYLE "KICK" JACKSON is a bona fide bad-ass. The product of a rough childhood and a youth spent proving how tough he was, Kick was the perfect CIA black-ops operative. Right up until the fateful mission that left his best friend dead and Kick in the hospital for months. They were betrayed...from the inside. Now his former bosses will stop at nothing, including kidnapping, to get him back to complete his mission. Unfortunately, there is a complication. A big one. LORRAINE "RAINIE" MARTIN is a fiercely dedicated ER nurse--a vocation decided upon when her parents were killed in a brutal carjacking. But the impenetrable fortress of safety she has erected around herself and her heart do no good when she finds herself stranded in the unforgiving desert, dependent on a dangerous man without mercy for her very survival...and the only way home is to confront her worst fears.
Big Thrill contributing editor Cathy Clamp sat down with the author to talk about this debut book on the thriller shelves and where the world will be going:
This is the first in a new series for you. What gave you the idea for this new reality?
SHOOT TO THRILL is a story that's been banging around in my head for quite a long time. It was inspired by bits from several different movies I've seen over the years which I found intriguing when put together. An outsider hero, terribly wounded, addicted, being chased down by former allies wanting him to do something he desperately doesn't want to but knows he must in order to move beyond his past. Powerful ingredients. Then throw in one of the harshest settings in the world with the nastiest bad guys. It was just something I had to write!
You have a heroine who's an ER nurse. Did you have to research that, or do you know someone in the field to get answers from?Well, there isn't a lot of nursing going on in the book, although the heroine definitely had to be a nurse in order to deal with the addiction thread. Luckily, one of my good friends is thriller writer CJ Lyons, who is a pediatric doctor, and her help with the few medical elements of the story, great references, etc, was invaluable.
Same question for your Black Ops hero.
I've been writing romantic suspense for over ten years and have done a ton of hands-on, in-person law enforcement type research throughout my career. I am also a member of the Kiss of Death mystery/suspense chapter of RWA, and every year we go on a fabulous tour before the National Conference, which has been a wealth of resources. We've been to DHS, ATF, USCG, FBI, FEMA, Texas Rangers, a bunch of local PDs, just to name a few. This year we spent a day at Quantico and one at Langley, had a briefing by the US State Department Office of Counterterrorism, and visited the US Postal Inspection Service facility where 22 inspectors showed us what they do. The chapter also has regular guests, such as PIs, spooks, mercenaries, doctors, etc, on our email loop to answer questions. Needless to say, with amazing resources like those, there's always someone I can call or email with questions. But by now, mostly I only need to research very specific things, like what kind of seats are on an F-16. Hopefully I get most details right!
What was the strangest thing you learned while you were researching?
Hmm. For this book there weren't any big surprises research-wise. But I did discover the NASA World Wind site, and really delved into Google Earth for the first time. OMG, what a huge resource those are! I could actually see roads and even individual huts in the middle of the Sudanese desert. And hello? Street View? Boy does all that help with getting the setting exactly right!
Will this be the only book featuring these two, or are they going to become an investigative team in future books?
Because I write romantic thrillers, which require a happy, committed ending for the main couple, it's not possible to focus on the same hero and heroine over and over...unless they keep breaking up in-between (not terribly romantic)! However, most of the same characters appear in all three books in this series. So, a secondary character in SHOOT TO THRILL will become the hero of book 2, IF LOOKS COULD CHILL, and for book 3, A KISS TO KILL, characters who have gone through hell for the first two books will finally get their happy endings. You will continue to see quite a bit of the previous heroes and heroines, although they aren't the main focus of the subsequent books. I love keeping the familiar characters, but having a new love story (or two) to explore in each new book. I think I'd get bored writing about the same couple over and over...
Most authors have quirks about writing. What's yours? Certain music, location, time of day?
I really need silence when I write. I guess I get distracted easily! I write mostly in the afternoon and evening. I am so not a morning person in any way, shape, or form. I love looking out over the woods behind my house as I write, with the birds and squirrels and rustling leaves. It's very calming. Probably the weirdest thing about me when I'm in full-out writing mode is that the more I write, the more I read. I have a book next to my computer, and when I feel myself losing focus, I'll stop and read a scene or two to get my brain pulled back and going in one direction. It's amazing how it works, shutting out all the distractions and letting me concentrate. Of course, the danger is that you get lost in the book you're reading!!!
What's something that even frequent visitors to your website don't know about you?
I'm learning how to scuba dive! No mean feat, since I'm a bit claustrophobic... Argh.
Will you be touring for the release of this book? What's your schedule?
No tour this time. I honestly don't do a lot of in-person book signings. As fun as they are, I find it takes too much time away from writing. Plus, one is fiendishly dependent on the bookstore to publicize the event, and let's just say some are better at it than others... But I do quite a bit of online stuff, such as guest blogs and the like, which is also fun. I do love chatting with my readers.
What would readers be interested to know about the book that didn't actually make it into the book (or the Author Notes?)
There is so much going on in the Sudan (the setting of part of the book), terrible stuff. It was so tempting to get derailed from the romance and the thrills to talk about the many horrors taking place over there, because most Westerners simply don't know about the systematic rape, the female circumcision, the genocide, the famine and starvation. It's just heartwrenching. The Sudanese people are so amazing, among the finest, kindest people I've had the pleasure of visiting, and it's awful what has been happening to their country (especially the women) for so many years. But that wasn't what the book was about, so I only hinted at some of those things. Hopefully, if readers are curious they will Google it and learn more on their own.
Anything else you want to add? Where can readers get a glimpse of the book?
Thanks so much to ITW for this opportunity to talk about SHOOT TO THRILL, a book that's very dear to my heart! I loved writing this twisty page-turner, and hope readers will give my debut thriller a chance and pick it up! Readers can find out more about it on my website, at: http://www.NinaBruhns.com Thanks so much!
Contributing editor and USA Today bestselling author Cathy Clamp
has co-authored nearly a dozen award winning paranormal romantic
thrillers for Tor Books with C.T. Adams, along with multiple short
stories and outdoor articles for magazines and anthologies. The duo's
next urban fantasy thriller, MAGIC'S DESIGN, under a new joint pen name
of CAT ADAMS hits the shelves in February, 2009. She and her husband
live in the Texas hill country where they raise goats--which (usually)
keeps them out of trouble.
