Virtual Book Tour: The Tempest Murders

Please welcome author p.m. terrell, who is going to answer my questions and talk about her newest release, The Tempest Murders.  p.m. will be awarding a Celtic bracelet to a random commenter (US only) during the tour. The more often you comment, the greater your chancesof winning. To find out where the other stops on the tour are, go here.

The Questions

1)      You’re marooned on a small island with one person and one item of your choice—who is that person and what item do you have?

I would want to be marooned with my twin soul, just as Ryan and Cait found each other in The Tempest

The item would be electricity. Let’s face it, there’s a lot we could figure out if we had the means to power it!

Murders. There is something about finding someone who was always destined to be your other half that is romantic and oh-so-fulfilling.

  2)     Which musical would you say best exemplifies your life – and which character in that musical are you?

Mama Mia and I would most definitely be Donna!

   3)    Take these three words and give me a 100 word or less scenario using them:  insurance, owed, talk

His eyes locked onto mine, compelling me, begging me, to talk to him. I owed him an explanation but I couldn’t come clean—not yet. Not when keeping him in the dark was just the insurance I needed to keep me alive.

4)      What is your idea of how to spend romantic time with your significant other?

A candlelit dinner in a romantic restaurant at a table in a darkened corner… Followed by a walk along the

beach in the moonlight as we hold hands, occasionally stopping to kiss and hold one another… Walking home to find a bottle of chilled wine, strawberries dipped in chocolate, music playing softly, and a warm, soft, cozy bed to fall into…

5)      When you start a new story, do you begin with a character, or a plot?

I usually begin with the plot. Then I determine who best could tell that story—male or female, their role in the plot, and what they will need and know every step of the way.

6)      If they were to make the story of your life into a movie, who should play you?

If I could reach back to anyone, alive or deceased, I’d choose Vivien Leigh. She could always play roles in which the main character should have had it all but lost everything, and then rose from the ashes to become stronger than before.

7)      Who’s your favorite horror villain and why?

Robert DeNiro in Cape Fear really freaked me out… He took someone who looked like anyone else and

who could act completely normal when the circumstances warranted it—but in whom lurked a rage, the desire for revenge, and a hatred so deep that it felt Satanic. After all, it’s not the ones who look different that are the most dangerous, but those who can blend into our inner circles before we realize the monster they truly are.

8)      Do you have an historical crush and if so, who is it?

Historical… Hmm. It would have to be Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. He was a college professor who joined the United States Army during the Civil War, and who found himself at Gettysburg and instructed to hold Little Round Top at any cost. The fighting was ferocious and the Confederates kept charging the hill, until Chamberlain’s men were completely out of ammunition.  Desperate, he reached into his mind to every lesson he’d been taught and then ordered his men to fix bayonets. As they charged down the hill to meet the men charging up, they horrified the Confederates and turned the tide of the battle. It’s ordinary people who do extraordinary things that have always intrigued me.

9)      Is there a story that you’d like to tell but you think the world isn’t ready to receive it?

I’ve been asked to write my autobiography numerous times, but I’ve been reluctant to do so. I think for every person who has judged this book by its cover, they’d be surprised to learn of my true and amazing journey.

The Tempest Murders

by p.m. Terrell

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BLURB:

A provocative story of a love that spans centuries, of soul mates found, lost and reunited… and the lengths to which one man will go to change their destiny.

Irish Detective Ryan O’Clery is working a series of homicides in America when he discovers a journal written by an uncle, Constable Rian Kelly, five generations earlier. The journal detailed the same type of murders as the worst storm in Ireland’s history slammed into the island in 1839.

As Hurricane Irene barrels toward the North Carolina coastline, Ryan discovers even the killer’s description matches his cases exactly. And as he falls in love with television reporter Cathleen Reilly, he begins to wonder if she is the reincarnation of Caitlin O’Conor, Rian Kelly’s lover—the woman who was lost to the killer as the storm raged in Ireland—and if he is the reincarnation of Constable Rian Kelly.

Now he’s in a race to rescue Cathleen before the killer finds her—or is history destined to repeat itself?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

EXCERPT:

They were bites away from finishing their meal when the sky opened up. There might have been a warning, had he been by himself and able to observe his surroundings; but by the time he noticed the trees bending deeply and the gray clouds roiling, the rain had descended on them in a torrent. Within seconds, their food was floating.

A tiny shriek escaped Cathleen’s lips as she vainly tried to keep the rain off her head.

Ryan jumped up, grabbed her wrist and in one fluid movement, had her on her feet. They raced for the back door, managing to rush inside just as a wicked clap of thunder sounded, followed almost instantly by a white streak of lightning.

Once inside, he closed the door, plunging them both into relative silence. He turned around, an offer to get her a towel on his lips. But when he laid eyes on her, the words froze. She was completely drenched. Her hair was hanging in folds from which water streamed until it formed a puddle on the hardwood floor. Her thin blouse was plastered to her body and seemed to highlight the black lace bra beneath. It further accentuated a slender waist before giving way to jeans that she now appeared to have been poured into. Her feet were soaked and as he took in the petite toes peeking out, he found himself staring at the pink polish and a Celtic toe ring before his eyes moved back up her body.

By the time they reached her eyes, he felt as if he was on automatic pilot. His mind was completely blank, his emotions swept away. He stepped toward her at the exact moment he reached out and pulled her to him, the wet blouse teasing his chest. He didn’t look in her eyes but closed his as his lips locked onto hers.

They were everything he’d dreamed about; full and moist and soft. But she wasn’t kissing him.

He stopped and took a step backward, separating them. She stood perfectly still and stared at him with eyes that had grown round and huge. Her face had lost its color and as she continued staring at him, he realized she was in shock.

Horrified with his own boorish behavior, he stumbled over his words. “I am so sorry. I’ve never done anything like that in my life—”

She rushed at him and for the briefest of moments, he didn’t know if she planned to slap him or pummel him or push him to the side to rush out the door. He staggered backward to get out of her way but when she descended on him her arms encircled his neck, pulling his head down to hers. When their lips met again, hers were slightly open and she met his mouth with a passion he had only dreamed about but had never fully experienced.

Ryan’s arms wrapped around her; pulling her to him so tightly he had to contain himself to keep from bruising her. She tasted sweet and fresh, the raindrops mingling with perspiration and a fragrance that was both soothing and wild and which seemed to envelop them both in a sensual cocoon.

His large hand found her face, the palm cupping her chin while his fingers stroked her jaw. Her skin was as soft as silk and moist from the rain; and as her lips parted further to allow him in, he thought he could never get enough of her. As one hand wandered to her hair, weaving his fingers through the long tresses, a mingled scent of citrus and florals wafted upward, growing in intensity as he fondled her locks.

He pressed his body against her, tightening his hold on her as his other hand explored her back, kneading her skin through the thin, wet blouse. Her breath was coming in short shallow bursts now and he could feel her heart quickening as he pressed ever closer. When she sighed softly, he opened his eyes and when she moaned, he reluctantly drew back from her, his muscled chest rising and falling and yearning.

Her face was flushed, the heat rising in her cheeks in a way that tantalized him. Her plump lips remained slightly parted and as he gazed at them, he realized he might have bruised them despite his efforts to control his passion. As his eyes found hers, he discovered them staring at him in a way that disarmed him. The gold flecks he had seen earlier appeared to have grown and now they nearly glowed as she looked at him. They were tumultuous, the colors dancing under her long, curved black lashes. But it was the raw emotion in them that gripped his soul; he’d seen desire before and had witnessed passion but there was something more—something deeper. It was trust, he realized with a start. As if she was standing before him, naked to the soul and she was entrusting herself to his care.

In his peripheral vision, he could see her chest rising and falling with her jagged breath and each rise threatened to take him closer to the peak of desire.

.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

p.m.terrell is the pen name for Patricia McClelland Terrell, the award-winning, internationally acclaimed author of more than eighteen books in four genres: contemporary suspense, historical suspense, computer how-to and non-fiction.

Prior to writing full-time, she founded two computer companies in the Washington, DC Metropolitan Area: McClelland Enterprises, Inc. and Continental Software Development Corporation. Among her clients were the Central Intelligence Agency, United States Secret Service, U.S. Information Agency, and Department of Defense. Her specialties were in white collar computer crimes and computer intelligence.

Vicki’s Key was a top five finalist in the 2012 International Book Awards and 2012 USA Book Awards nominee and her historical suspense, River Passage, was a 2010 Best Fiction and Drama Winner. It was determined to be so historically accurate that a copy of the book resides at the Nashville Government Metropolitan Archives in Nashville, Tennessee.

She is also the co-founder of The Book ‘Em Foundation, an organization committed to raising public awareness of the correlation between high crime rates and high illiteracy rates. She is the organizer of Book ‘Em North Carolina, an annual event held in Lumberton, North Carolina, to raise funds to increase literacy and reduce crime. For more information on this event and the literacy campaigns funded by it, visit www.bookemnc.org. 

She sits on the boards of the Friends of the Robeson County Public Library and the Robeson County Arts Council. She has also served on the boards of Crime Stoppers and Crime Solvers and became the first female president of the Chesterfield County-Colonial Heights Crime Solvers in Virginia.

For more information visit the author’s website at www.pmterrell.com, follow her on Twitter at @pmterrell, her blog at www.pmterrell.blogspot.com, and on Facebook under author.p.m.terrell.

Buy Links:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Tempest-Murders-ebook/dp/B00EOAFTYY/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1377895714&sr=1-2&keywords=the+tempest+murders