United By Books is pleased to have Joan Swan back on the blog today to answer a few questions about Blaze.
Welcome back Joan as always its awesome to have you here!
Thank you! Love being here!
1~ With "Fever" being such a big hit amongst readers, what will "Blaze " bring to the table in this next installment?
In the Phoenix Rising
series, a mysterious explosion
at a military warehouse injuries a team of seven hazmat firefighters, killing
one. The contents of the
building—extremely
confidential and dangerous radioactive chemicals used by the Department of
Defense in secret scientific experiments—have inflicted the
team with various paranormal abilities. Abilities the government wants to study
covertly. Abilities the team wants to understand and expose. With military
advancement and national power at risk on one side and personal health and
freedom at stake on the other, each group is fighting for precious
stakes.
In FEVER the Phoenix Rising
team makes the first deep crack in the enemy’s façade. FEVER shows just how
powerful their enemy is, how far and how deep they can reach and how desperate
they are to keep their screw-up’s a secret. The love story in FEVER is between
the two people in the book who should trust each other the least, but when its
right…
BLAZE is all about
discovering that just when you thought everything was as bad as
it could get…it gets
worse. In BLAZE both the
team and the enemy up the stakes and expose and even greater breadth and more
twisted depth the existing conspiracy, things the team never imagined possible.
Complicating this scenario, the love story in BLAZE is a reunion between two
tortured and damaged members of the former team who were torn apart in the
aftermath of the incident, but who haven’t been able to move
on.
In my opinion, BLAZE is an even better book with more intrigue, dynamic and deep characters, and twisted and meaningful plots and subplots. The two main characters, Luke and Keira, are fire on the page – in and out of bed, and incredibly entertaining to watch.
2~ How would you describe Keira and Luke's relationship?
Hot. Mentally, emotionally and definitely physically HOT.
Keira and Luke each have individual paranormal abilities from the fire. Keira is clairaudient, which means she can hear what people are thinking through touching that person, a photograph of that person or an item belong to that person. Luke is fireproof; his skin doesn’t burn. But when they are together, their individual abilities heighten and multiply. Keira’s clairaudience expands into empathic abilities. Luke becomes not only fireproof, but bulletproof. And after a bit of extra time, Luke even becomes able to communicate with Keira telepathically.
Keira and Luke are each other’s strength and each other’s weakness. They both have strong, rich personalities, not to mention tempers, which flare when they’re hurt. And each is still completely in love with the other, so their three year separation has left painful scars. When they meet again with all these unresolved feelings stirring between them, flash fire is the immediate result. And the more time they spend together, the hotter they burn.
3~ What's in store next for your readers?
Next up in the Phoenix Rising series is RUSH.
Events in BLAZE lead the team to evidence of the possible existence of their fallen teammate, Quaid Legend. Quaid’s wife, Jessica, has never gotten over his death and has gone through extremely rough patches over the last five years in her efforts to cope, including drug and alcohol abuse. She’s been clean for over a year and managed to save the career as a lobbyist she’s built for herself after she left firefighting, but she’s far from home free.
When her team comes to her with the news that Quaid may have been alive all this time, her rickety world starts shaking again. But when she discovers this man has been used as a test subject for experimental paranormal warfare and that he has no memory of his life outside his cell walls, both Jessica’s love for her husband and her commitment to sobriety will be tested.
4~ If you had a choice between Teague ( from Fever) or Luke (from Blaze) who would you play strip poker with ?
Me? Strip Poker? With them?
No…I’ll leave that to Alyssa and Keira…or a few of my illustrious readers who I swear would walk across broken glass for these guys!
5~ Can you please share an excerpt from "Blaze" ?
Oooooh, I’d love to!! How about a fun little taste of our feisty Mitch?
Keira climbed into
the backseat with Alyssa. Mateo cozied up between them while
Luke drove and Mitch took shotgun. Nelson rolled into the rear cargo space as if
he were on a training maneuver.
Keira hadn’t even
closed the door before Alyssa started in. “Why does it take a crisis for us to
get to see you?”
Mitch shot a look
over his shoulder from the front seat. “Yeah.”
“You have no room to
talk.” Alyssa cut her attention back to Keira. “So? Why are you avoiding
us?”
There was a myriad of
reasons Keira kept her distance from Teague and Alyssa. She loved them. Dearly.
Would fight to the death for them or either of their children. But their
seemingly perfect life increasingly reminded Keira of all her own life lacked.
And the less she saw Teague and Alyssa, the less she had to be reminded of what
she’d lost, what she still didn’t have, and what she’d seriously begun to doubt
she’d ever find.
“Don’t even think
about using Sacramento as an excuse,” Alyssa said. “It’s only two hours
away.”
“I’m working a
lot.”
“She’s too busy doing
that surgeon in Davis,” Mitch said.
A disgusted sound
gurgled from Keira’s throat. “Mitchell
Foster—”
“What the fuck?” Luke
cut in.
“Luke,” Alyssa
chastised, then turned to Keira. “Is that what’s keeping you so
busy?”
“No.” Keira sent
Mitch an I’ll-kill-you-later glare. “I told you
he is the husband of another agent.”
“Being married never
stopped anyone from screwing around.” The darkness in Mitch’s tone stemmed from
something deep and painful. Keira recognized the signs. But it didn’t erase her
anger over his bringing this up in front of Luke, which she knew he’d done on
purpose. “I saw how he was looking at you that night at dinner. He’d have been
feeling you up under the table if I hadn’t sat between you.”
“Dinner?” Luke said.
“When did you two have dinner together? And who the hell is this
surgeon?”
“We get together
every month, Ransom,” Mitch said. “Just ’cause you’re too stupid to realize how
hot she is doesn’t mean all men are.”
“There is no
surgeon.” Keira rubbed at the pain in her forehead. There was nobody. There
hadn’t been anybody since her pathetic attempts at dating shortly after breaking
up with Luke. Even the thought of trying again made her queasy. Until she’d set
eyes on Luke, of course. Why was the universe so damn cruel?
“Stop stirring the
shit, Mitch,” Alyssa said.
“Holy crap.” Mitch’s
gorgeous hazel eyes whipped around to land on his sister. “Did you just swear?”
He turned to Luke. “Did you hear that?”
“I heard
it.”
“I think that might
wipe out our debt. What do you think?”
“I
agree.”
“I hate to be a wet
blanket,” Keira said, “but can you two stop screwing around before I choke you
both?”
“Oh, baby.” Mitch
slanted her a grin. “Promises, promises.”
Luke’s fist hit Mitch
dead center in the chest. Mitch sputtered a pained laugh.
“Mi malónete.” Mateo’s voice
brought everyone’s gaze around to the boy’s worried face. “Lucas,
mi malónete.”
“That’s what you
need, Ransom.” Still grinning, Mitch rubbed his chest. “A five-year-old to keep
you in line.”
They pulled into a
parking lot alongside the rural community hospital and stopped at a wing of
office-type buildings.
“Pull up to that
second building on the right.” Alyssa pointed over Luke’s shoulder. “There’s a
side door . . . yeah, right there. My friend owns the building and he turned the
alarm off remotely from his home and said there’s a spare key attached to the
corner of the building between the foundation and the
framing.”
Nelson exited the
vehicle first, his gaze sweeping the area, weapon held ready. The parking lot
was deserted, dimly illuminated by sparse overhead lighting. He retrieved the
key, unlocked the door, and disappeared inside.
“Are you sure no one
will see us?” Keira asked.
“It’s a
nine-to-five-type place,” Alyssa said. “No one will be here until tomorrow
morning.”
Nelson emerged and
waved them in. Outside the car, Keira handed Mateo over to Luke and drew one of
the Glocks from the Jeep. Mitch
held a weapon he’d dragged from somewhere beneath his leather jacket and
followed Alyssa and Nelson inside. Luke waited for Keira, then scanned the area
before closing and locking the door behind him.
Inside an exam room,
Alyssa unpackaged medical supplies and set up a procedure
tray.
Keira crossed her
arms, scanning all the white and blue–wrapped bundles. “How bad is this going to
hurt?”
Mitch wandered to the
counter across the room and opened cabinets. “She’s not cutting on you,
Pixie.”
Luke’s brow went up.
“Pixie?”
“Yeah, she looks like
a pixie.” He picked up an object from a shelf and fiddled with it. “You know,
like one of those things with wings in Kat’s books.”
“You mean a fairy,”
Luke said. “Hence the term fairytale.”
“Should have known
you’d be a fairy expert.” Mitch lifted his chin at Keira. “Look at her. That
little nose, the angle of her eyes, those freckles. She looks like a
pixie.”
Luke shot her a
scowl. “Too bad she doesn’t have their sugar plum
personality.”
“You two
are so not funny.” Keira
was ready to pop out of her skin. Something about being cooped up in that room
with all those supplies and instruments, knowing there were people outside who
wanted them all dead, just didn’t bring out the jokester in
her.
Unlike Mitch. Who
approached the exam table with a mischievous grin and an anatomical model in his
hands. A detailed, three-dimensional, life-size model of a penis and
testicles.
“What in the hell?”
Keira sputtered.
“You don’t recognize
Big Jim and the Twins?” Mitch pulled pieces out, put them back, pulled others
out, looked inside. “I can fix that, sweetheart.”
“Mitch, put that
down,” Alyssa scolded. “I swear, if you break something—”
“Why does this guy
have a puzzle like this in his office? Is he gay? Not that I care. I mean I’m a
San Franciscan transplant. Besides, gay guys have the
hottest girl
friends.”
“I swear he was
switched at birth.” Alyssa glared at her twin brother.
“Doctor Henle is a urologist. I’m
sure if you ask nicely he’ll give you a free prostate exam, Mitch. Now put
that very expensive
anatomical model down.”
Mitch set the model
back on the counter. “Killjoy.”
Phoenix Rising Series
FEVER
Book
1
Dr. Alyssa Foster will admit to a
bad boy fetish…
But when she finds herself face to face with a convicted
murderer with a ripped body, a determination for freedom and an eye on her as
his get out of jail free card, Alyssa knows she’s in deep trouble…. Not just
because Teague Creek is a prisoner desperate for freedom, but because his every
touch makes her desperate for more.
A man with a life sentence has
nothing to lose…
Teague Creek has one shot at freedom, but his plan to escape
with a hostage develops a fatal flaw: Alyssa. On the run from both the law and
deadly undercover operatives who know of his strange abilities, he needs to
avoid trouble, but every heated kiss tells him the fire between them could be
just as devastating as the flames that changed him forever.
Purchase
Links:
BLAZE
Book 2
The hotter they
come, the harder they fall…
With a man like him,
every mission becomes personal…
Ever since FBI
agent Keira O’Shay started tracking a young boy named
Mateo, she’s felt a connection even her empathic abilities can’t
explain.Sheneeds to save Mateo from the cult leader
holding him hostage. Nothing can interfere with that—not even the reappearance
of Luke Ransom, the hot-as-hell fire captain she’s regretted walking out on for
three long years.
Losing Keira left Luke vulnerable—in every way.
When they were together, the powers each possesses were mysteriously enhanced.
But it’s the sexy, surprising woman beneath the tough exterior that Luke’s
really missed. Even if she betrayed him utterly. And even if agreeing to help
her uncover a government conspiracy means watching his life and his heart go up
in flames again…
Purchase
Links:
I was never a star English student or a Literature buff, but I’ve
always had a creative soul and an active imagination. Writing was a natural
culmination of those two talents.
Sexy romantic suspense is my genre of choice, and, occasionally, I like to dabble in the lighter side of paranormal as
well. I write the Phoenix Rising Series, FEVER, BLAZE,and two more books coming in 2013, for Kensington and the Covert
Affairs Series, INTIMATE
ENEMIES, independently.
A triple RWA Golden Heart finalist, I am a lover of craft and
closet-hoarder of writing craft how-to books. I’m a
recovering OCD perfectionist…bet you
can just imagine how well that’s going.
In my day job, I work as a sonographer at UCSF Medical Center, rated one of the top ten best medical centers in
the nation – a location with an intensity that makes me
slightly—okay majorly—insane. This seems to
work well with my inner writer. Access
to abundant character
material—and I’m not only talking about my patients—is a fringe benefit
.I’m married to my own personal hero, a veteran
firefighter, we have two beautiful daughters and are blessed to live in the
heart of wine country on the gorgeous Central Coast of California.
To keep up with my latest news & releases please visit me online:
********* GIVEAWAY *********
Joan has graciously offered up a paperback copy of Blaze (US/Canada Only)
Just fill out the rafflecopter below to be entered.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
