At each stop, Ryshia will award one commenter an ebook copy of From the Dust, a historical romance set in Depression Era Saskatchewan. The grand prize for the tour will be an autographed copy of From the Dust, a book unique bookmark, and a Region 1 DVD of East of Borneo, a 1931 B&W movie.
Please leave a comment!
Fatal Intent
by Ryshia Kennie
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BLURB:
Leading
a scientific excursion into the Borneo rain forest is a life long dream for
entomologist, Garrett Cole. But when her
guide turns up dead and headless, her abilities are tested. As the dense foliage pushes her team further
from the river, they are lost. Every
shimmer of sound is a threat, and when a blonde haired, half-naked giant
emerges from nowhere, she wants to run.
But there are no options – she needs help.
Raised
in the lush cradle of the Borneo jungle, Aidan is as unconventional as the fact
that he has no last name. While the city
is home, he returns to the jungle for peace and solitude. As a PI, how can he ignore the mystery this
group and their dead guide poses?
Leading them in a convoluted trek in a bid for answers he soon finds
himself in a clash of wills with their alluring leader and answers that slide
dangerously close to the tribe he loves.
In
the jungle’s torrid heat they find unexpected solace in each others arms. But faced with death and betrayal, in a
battle of wits that puts lives on the edge, can anyone be trusted?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
INTERVIEW:
1. What or who inspired you to start
writing? I
always loved books, paper and pens, and words.
I remember my father did too and so did my grandfather. My grandfather was a voracious reader and
fluent in three languages, and my father had a way of spinning words and
phrases that made him in high demand whenever a school essay was due. As a child, my mother read endlessly to me
and in grade school an English teacher read one of my earlier efforts and encouraged me to keep writing. So I suppose, in a way all of that combined
to inspire me to write.
2. How did you come up with ideas for
your books? It’s usually an event in life that triggers the
story, not so much the plot but the opening line from where the story will take
a life of its own. For my first book it
was a family story of a long-ago, tragic death.
For Fatal Intent it was a trip to Borneo and seeing a skull hanging from
the rafters of an Iban longhouse and then hearing the tale of how it got there.
3. What components are necessary for
the genre of this novel? Besides having engaging protagonists who can’t help but fall in love
with each other despite every stumbling block to prevent this, you also need a
threat and a great antagonist, possibly even likeable, that not only exacerbates
or even is the threat, but makes the danger more palpable and makes you worry
for the protagonists and ultimately cheer them on. And, of course, a resolution that ends with
the protagonists happily in each other’s arms.
With Garrett and Aidan, they were attracted to each other and resistant
all at the same time. The situation,
lost in the Borneo jungle combined with the murdered guide and the threat of
further danger, was not conducive to romance and yet their attraction to each
other wasn’t going away. Even I wondered
at times how this romance was ever going to happen.
4. As far as your writing goes, what
are your future plans? My future plans are
to keep writing romantic suspense, and set in places where I’ve often been and
that I find every bit as intriguing as Fatal Intent’s Borneo. And I also write women’s fiction and have a
couple of projects in various stages of completion.
5. If you could be one of the
characters from any of your books, who would it be and why? You know, I don’t
think I’d want to be any of my characters.
I don’t like what happens to them in order for them to get to the happy
ever after. In fact I don’t know if I’d
handle their predicaments as well as any of them do. I know that if I was lost in a jungle and
faced with the gruesome death of my guide I wouldn’t be as calm as Garrett
was. And as much as I find entomology a
fascinating science, scrounging in molding vegetation for oversized insects
isn’t my idea of great ways to make a living.
6. Do you belong to a critique group?
If so how does this help or hinder your writing? I belonged to a
critique group a number of years ago.
Their advise and encouragement, as well as seeing their talent and
sharing their journey kept me going through the early years when publication
seemed a long way off. The group has
since dissolved but I still hear from some of them from time to time and it’s
inspiring to know that they haven’t lost the dream that we held in common –
writing full time.
7. When did you first decide to submit
your work? Please tell us what or who encouraged you to take this big
step? No one
encouraged me to submit my work. Writing
was something I did from the time I was in grade school. I submitted work as a teenager – poems and
children’s stories. I received some
encouraging rejections at the time but life and finding a career intersected
and for a time over-shadowed the writing dream.
It was a birthday, you know one of those ones that reminds you that
you’re just not getting any younger, that really encouraged me to start
submitting again. It was then that I
realized that I could write in the margins for the rest of my life or I could
get serious, put some time and sweat into writing, and start seriously
submitting again. It was on that day
that the beginning of my first completed and later, published book was born.
8. Do you outline your books or just
start writing? I try to outline but I’ve discovered that other
than a synopsis, after about chapter six the outline just isn’t working. So now I create what you might call a vague
outline, nothing caste in stone and definitely not the whole book.
9. Do you have any hobbies and does
the knowledge you've gained from these carry over into your characters or the
plot of your books? Throughout my life I’ve had a wide range of hobbies or maybe more aptly
named interests, and they’ve all influenced my writing in one way or
another. Now writing, research and the
business of writing takes a good chunk of time so other than reading and the
sporadic game of golf and twinges of regret at my forgotten yoga practice,
let’s say I used to have hobbies.
Seriously, I love to travel and would call that a hobby. I think each of my books have been influenced
by that love as I set many of my stories in various places in the world. I know traveling to Borneo definitely
influenced my decision to set Fatal Intent there. Setting a story in a travel destination is a
wonderful opportunity to go back in time and revisit the trip.
10. Do you have an all time favorite
book? My all-time favourite book is Heidi not so much
because of the story as it’s a children’s book and I haven’t read it in a very
long time but because of the memories.
The copy I have is an ancient – red cloth bound, no dust jacket,
version. I got it for my ninth birthday
and my mother had to scour the city to find it as Heidi had fallen off the
publishing radar in those years and was basically out of print. Otherwise, I have a whole cluster of
favourites that I’ll pick up and re-read from time to time.
11. What is your favorite reality
show? Ack! I don’t even want to admit I watch reality
shows – I don’t, I’m not going to – I’m closing my ears. Okay, I have to admit, I’m a sucker for
Sister Wives – don’t ask me why, maybe because it’s so far from any norm I can
relate to. And I watch nineteen kids and
counting. When Survivor first started I
loved it – I have to admit that was my favourite reality television show,
through the first seasons anyway.
12. If you were a casting director for
the film version of your book, who would play your lead roles? If Jodie Foster were
a bit younger – I’d pick her for Garrett.
As for picking someone that would fit today as far as age etc. for
either of my characters, you know I can walk by an entertainment magazine in
the grocery store and nine out of ten times I couldn’t tell you who the actor
on the cover might be. So, I suppose
based on that I probably shouldn’t pick the leads. Although I’d definitely want a say in the
ultimate choice. Wait, what am I
saying? Who cares who would play the
leads. Film version…my book – what a
dream.
EXCERPTS:
Aidan
moved vines back, exposing his face. They only had to look in his direction.
He
was so close he could have reached out and touched her. She was delicate, out
of place here in the midst of this wilderness. Her skin, even beneath the sweat
and exertion-stained flush, was fair. She wasn’t built to be here, she was too
slight to survive, too weak, too . . .
She
glanced up. A frown immediately seared her face.
“Who
the hell are you?” she snarled.
He
bit back a smile. She should have screamed. She hadn’t. All tiny limbs and
fragile beauty, and yet she attacked first.
He
let his gaze rove over the group, refusing to be corralled by her attack.
One
of the men looked panicked, the others seriously stressed. He shifted his spear
to his other hand and waited, taking the warrior advantage of time and observation.
The silent often learned much about their enemy.
“Put
that down.” She gestured to his spear.
His
fingers loosened for a millisecond before gripping the spear tighter. Was she
out of her mind? Green, innocent, and totally forest-illiterate, but she was
feisty.
Feisty?
She was seething, hot, absolutely pissed—about what, he wasn’t sure. Her anger
didn’t make much sense. Nothing about this afternoon made much sense.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Ryshia Kennie is the author
of two published romances. From the
Dust, is a romance set during the Great Depression. Her second book, Ring of Desire, was set
against a backdrop of magic and mystery, in medieval England. An award winning author, her recent novels
now focus on suspense and women’s
fiction – always with a hint or even a dollop, of romance. The Canadian
prairies are home where she lives with her husband and one opinionated Irish
Terrier.
Visit her website at http://www.ryshiakennie.com.
Author blog: ryshia.blogspot.com
Author on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ryshia.kennie
Author on Twitter: twitter.com/ryshia
Author at Goodreads:
www.goodreads.com/author/show/1400598.Ryshia_Kennie
4 comments:
Thank you for hosting today.
Hi Christine - thanks for having me on your site. There's nothing better than a day spent talking about writing and books.
Welcome to my blog. I hope you have a great tour.
Lovely inspiration.
bn100candg(at)hotmail(dot)com
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