Taking Fire by @lindsaymckenna Guest Post & Giveaway! @TastyBookTours

Taking Fire
Shadow Warriors #7

By: Lindsay McKenna

Releasing February 24^th, 2015

HQN Books

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She dances on the edge of life…and death

Not all are meant to walk in the light. Marine Corps Sergeant Khat Shinwari lives among the shadows of the rocky Afghani hills, a Shadow Warrior by name and by nature. She works alone, undercover and undetected—until a small team of US Navy SEALs are set upon by the Taliban…and Khat is forced to disobey orders to save their lives.

To go rogue.

Now, hidden deep in the hills with injured SEAL Michael Tarik in her care, Khat learns that he's more than just a soldier. In him, she sees something of herself and of what she could be. Now duty faces off against the raw, overwhelming attraction she has for Mike. And she must decide between the safety of the shadows…and risking everything by stepping into the light. 

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Title: A #Shelfie by Lindsay McKenna on TAKING FIRE

Every writer has a bookshelf.  I have several.  Some are in my office.  Some are in my second office.  Some are in another building where I have most of my older books stored safely.

If you look closely at the photos, you’ll see a lot of unexpected titles.  Many of them are on medical area because I was a registered EMT, Emergency Medical Technician, in the state of Arizona from 1996-2000.  And part of remaining current in that field, I was constantly reading a lot of manuals on a lot of medical topics.  I keep them all because very frequently, I’ll put medical info into one of my books and I go back to these books to double check my info before writing about it.

                For example in TAKING FIRE, US Navy SEAL Petty Officer First Class, Mike Tarik, gets wounded in a firefight.   A deep black ops sergeant, US Marine Corps, finds him before the Taliban does.  She’s a paramedic by training, so knows what to do with a head wound.  And being a paramedic plays a strong part in her deep undercover work in the Hindu Kush Mountains of Afghanistan.  

                I don’t want to give the plot away, but suffice to say, I study up on the medical side of my books so that treatment of his head wound, and of him under that circumstance, is how anyone in the medical community, would do the same thing.  Whenever I write about anything medical, it comes from reliable and up-to-date sources because I never want to “fictionalize” medicine or emergency medicine to a reader.

                I have one shelf of nothing but English, another full of language dictionary’s.  Wherever I set a book, and if the primary or secondary character is from another country other than English speaking ones, then I need the bilingual dictionary to help me out.

                In TAKING FIRE, Mike speaks Arabic and Khat, the heroine, speaks Pashto.  I have an English-Arabic dictionary, which is a big help.  As for Pashto? Well, there is no such thing that I can find as an English-Pashto dictionary available to the public.  I’m sure the military language schools have ‘em, but they sure aren’t readily available to writers like me.   I did get a few words of Pashto from the Internet and hope that they are correct.  

                Another shelf in my bookcase has what I call “slang” books.  Ever notice if you’ve driven across the USA that different regions have different sayings?  Not to mention, how they speak a word?  Any time I drive through a state, I break at a truck stop and go through their paperback rack, looking for local sayings, slang or other quaint stories.  For example, in TAKING FIRE, a secondary character, SEAL Travis Cooper (his book is COURSE OF ACTION, Harlequin Romantic Suspense, November 2013) is from Texas.  Travis has some good scenes with the heroine and yep, pardoner, he has a Texas drawl and speaks to her in his Texas slang.  The saying he used came from a book I have that’s titled:  Don Squat With Yer Spurs On! by Texas Bix Bender.

Lindsay McKenna is proud to have served her country in the U.S. Navy as an aerographer’s mate third class—also known as a weather forecaster. She is one of the original founders of the military romance subgenre and loves to combine heart-pounding action with soulful and poignant romance. Her latest book is the romantic suspense Taking Fire.

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