Please welcome author S.D. Skye, who is here to tell us about her newest release, Son of a Itch. She will be awarding a Kindle Fire HD and a $25 Kindle Gift card to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour (US only). The more you comment, the better your chances of winning. To find out where the other stops in the tour are, go
here. Look for the rafflecopter at the end of this post.
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?
A freezer loaded with Ben and Jerry’s (an
assortment but strawberry cheesecake at a minimum) and Henry Cavill because…well,
do I really need to explain? Actually I would be good with a MacBook. A MacBook
and Henry Cavill because I can’t live without writing. I can live without Ben
and Jerry’s…even though I won’t be happy about it.
2) Which
musical would you say best exemplifies your life – and which character in that
musical are you?
My Fair Lady and Eliza Doolitle. I selected
this musical because I have really evolved a lot as a woman,
writer, and a
person—but I’ve still got a long way to go. So I’d say I’m about half way
through the film. I’ve always been a tomboy and not particularly ladylike all
my life. I’ve never been into buying shoes which is sacrilegious in some
circles, but slowly I’m finding my girly qualities and I own lots of shoes
now…even though I regularly rotate between two or three pairs. What? Babysteps.
I’m getting there.
3) Take
these three words and give me a 100 word or less scenario using them: night, union,
minute
Liza’s bare, honey-colored back collapsed
against the pillow, her skin drenched in his perspiration and her thoughts
equally soaked in disappointment. She listened as he struggled to catch his
breath, her eyebrows furled in confusion at the notion that his thirsty dog
panting had resulted from a union that had lasted just short of a minute.
Smothering him with goose-filled mound of fluff behind her back during the
blackness of night seemed a better far better option than looking at his sorry
mug in the light of dawn.
4) You’ve
just been let loose in the world of fiction, with permission to make love to
anyone you want. Who do you choose and why?
Oh my! Who would I choose? Hmmm…maybe Jack
Reacher because I love tall men and he’s like 6’3” and a badass. I like
badasses. Not the Tom Cruise version though…although if Tom were a few inches
taller I might consider him as well.
5) What
is your idea of how to spend romantic time with your significant other?
Honestly, I’m the kind of girl who just
like to chill, eat pizza and watch movies and sports (see #2). The more
comfortable I am and the better the conversation, the more romantic I feel.
I’ve just come to realize I’m a bit of a nerd magnet. I don’t like fake scenes
and I’m not keen on non-jewelry related surprises. The more we can enjoy an
evening according to the K.I.S.S. principle (Keep It Simple, Stupid), the more
romantic it will be for me.
6) When
you start a new story, do you begin with a character, or a plot?
I always begin with the characters. In this
J.J. McCall series, the first thing that came to me was the character’s name.
It was only after weeks of thought that I came up with the idea to model the
character after one of the agents I worked with at the FBI. The name J.J.
McCall just sounded like it belonged to a no-nonsense badass woman who gets the
job done, and that’s really what she turned out to be…even though she has her
softer side when it comes to the love triangle and her relationship with Tony
Donato. In every book I’ve written, I
hear the voices first and then basically I follow them in my thoughts and
transcribe.
7) If
they were to make the story of your life into a movie, who should play you?
This is a tough one. I don’t know if
there’s a woman out there who can pull off the quasi-schizophrenic
tomboy,
single mom, novelist, proposal writer, daughter, friend, and all around smarty
pants. Who is the actress that played Sybil? I want to say it was Sally Field.
So her. We know she can handle multiple personalities.
8) Who’s
your favorite horror villain and why?
This is a trick question because horror is
the one genre I don’t watch or read. The last one I saw was in the 90s when
Jason and Freddy were popular. If I had to choose one of them, I’d have to go
with Freddy. He had a lot more personality. And there’s nothing better than
having a psychotic killer deliver a comedic line before he slashes your throat.
What’s not to love about that?
9) Do
you have an historical crush and if so, who is it?
I would have to say the Kennedys,
especially JFK. Again, I’ve always been attracted to badasses (see #4) and he
was a political badass at a critical time in U.S. history. As a former
intelligence analyst in the Russian program, outmaneuvering Khrushchev during
the Cuban missile crisis was pretty darn impressive.
10) Is
there a story that you’d like to tell but you think the world isn’t ready to
receive it?
J.J. McCall is THE story I decided to write
but that I’m not sure the world is ready to receive. It has everything in the
world going against it because it’s unfamiliar territory and features unfamiliar
characters all around.
I mean, we start with a non-traditional
lead character—an African American female FBI agent targeting Russian spies—and
her father is former Black Panther, of all things. And she has a superpower of
sorts in that she’s a human lie detector.
Her
love interest’s family is part of the Italian Mob “royal family” and he’s done
the unthinkable in becoming an FBI agent. Then you have an African American
male, Grayson “Six” Chance, as a CIA case officer. When’s the last time you saw
that kind of character in a book or movie? Then you have this melting pot of
secondary Caucasian Americans, African Americans, Russians and Russian
Americans, Italian Americans cast in the
spy/mob/romance/action/suspense/mystery novel. It doesn’t fit neatly into
anyone’s category. It’s not a white book or an African American book. It’s a
spy thriller but not only a spy thriller. It’s a romance, but not only a
romance. It’s got humor, but not only humor. It’s got suspense and mystery…but,
well you get the drift. Sometimes I look at myself in the mirror and wonder
what in the world I was smoking when I came up with this idea. I mean, I
could’ve easily gone with a simple romance and it probably would’ve found a
wider audience. Sometimes women are afraid to read it because they think it’ll
be too manly…and men are afraid to read it because they think it’ll be too
girly. But no one would believe it’s the perfect balance of both—and men have
actually been the most faithful readers of the series.
At the end of the day, I cannot even begin to
express how proud I am of this character, these stories, and how incredibly fun
they are to write. I can only hope my energy and enthusiasm for the characters
and stories bleed through every word on the page and the readers get hooked.
Son of a Itch
by S. D.
Skye
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BLURB:
On
the lam from the FBI, the ICE PHANTOM continues with plans to defect to Moscow
but not before seeking revenge on J.J. McCall. Meanwhile, the FBI commences
Task Force PHANTOM HUNTER, a team ordered by Director Russell Freeman to track
down suspected Russian illegals within the U.S. Intelligence Community—and not
a moment too soon. An agent of the Russian Intelligence Services is targeting
the nerve center of U.S. national security, taking the lie-detecting FBI Agent
and her cohorts’ next mole hunt to the highest echelons of the U.S. government.
J.J.
and her co-case agent lead the motley crew of spy catchers while she struggles
to deal with sobriety, conflicting feelings for Tony and Six, and an egotistical
Secret Service agent whose jurisdictional stonewalling complicates her every
effort to identify the culprit before he gets away—with murder.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
EXCERPT:
Exactly three moments defined the entire course of J.J.’s
being —the day she got “the itch,” the generational curse that sparked random
irritating tingles through her body anytime she heard a lie; the day her mother
died; and this one, the day in which she grasped the fragility of life and how
it could slip away in an instant.
The ambulance siren blared down Pennsylvania Avenue through
the remnants of rush hour traffic as she stared down at his tearful eyes, his
face shredded with pain, his body curled with anguish. Slowly, his lids opened
to expose a bloodshot blank stare. She saw her mother’s eyes in his, and his
last breath whispered in the distance, drawing ever near.
“I’m here. You’re going to be okay. We’re almost there,” she
said as her voice shook.
George Washington University Hospital was just a few minutes
away and had one of the best trauma centers in the D.C. area.
He placed his trembling hand on hers and struggled to speak.
“There…something…you should…kn—”
“Shhhh. Save your strength,” J.J. shook her head to dissuade
him from speaking. She stroked his fingers and tried to maintain a steady
front. “You’re gonna be okay. You can tell me everything when you’re better.”
Her mind whirred as the ambulance zipped into the circular
driveway beneath the overhang and masked emergency personnel in blue and green
scrubs swarmed the doors. They pulled the gurney out and wheeling him inside,
beyond her view. She’d never felt so alone in her life. She had calls to make,
people to notify, but her mind was still foggy from the shock.
She searched her purse for the flask, the reminder of just
how far she’d come and how much further she had to go.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
S.D. Skye is a former FBI Russian Counterintelligence Program
Intelligence Analyst and supported two major programs during her 12-year tenure
at the Bureau. She has personally witnessed the blowback the Intelligence
Community suffered due to the most significant compromises in U.S. history,
including the arrests of former CIA Case Officer Aldrich Ames and Robert Hanssen. She spent 20+ years supporting
military and intelligence missions in the U.S. Intelligence Community.
Skye, an award winning author, is a member of the Maryland
Writer’s Association, Romance Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and
International Thriller Writers. She’s addicted to writing and chocolate—not
necessarily in that order—and currently lives in the Washington D.C. area with
her son. Skye is hard at work on several projects, including the next
installment of this exciting series.
Blog: www.authorsdskye.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/authorsdskye
Twitter: www.twitter.com/sdskye1
Buy Links
S.D. Skye Novels on Amazon – Kindle and Paperback
http://www.amazon.com/S.D.-Skye/e/B00AMAUFK8/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1
S.D. Skye Novels on Kindle – Worldwide Links
http://authl.it/zn
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