IMHO Welcomes Roxanne St. Claire!

Roxanne St. Claire grew up in Pittsburgh, moved away at 17 to attend UCLA, led a colorful existence in California where she legally changed her last name from Zink to St. Claire because a TV producer asked her to, had bit parts in two well-known sitcoms (also because a TV producer asked her to), took off to Boston for a fabulous career in PR, met her husband in an elevator while she was climbing the corporate ladder, and moved from Massachusetts to Florida in a moment of insanity that she claims hasn’t ended.

After spending most of her adult life promoting and publicizing everything from solid state rectifiers (they are not what you think) to Free Fry-days at Burger King (they are what you think), she realized she didn’t want to write about target audiences, strategic objectives, or public relations tactics anymore. She wanted to write about love and danger and a cast of characters who existed only in her mind. So she quit her day job, shredded her Bloomingdale’s credit card, and spent the pre-dawn hours of the next six months writing her first book before her children opened their eyes and demanded her attention.

She eventually won enough writing contests to attract the attention of a literary agent and in 2002 got the call from Simon & Schuster’s Pocket Books, who wanted to publish her romantic suspense. Since then, she's written more than twenty books for two publishers, in three sub-genres, under two slightly different names.

 

Publisher's Weekly says, “St. Claire will likely be one of the most talked about authors in the genre. This is an author who’s on the fast [track] to making her name a household one.” Her novels have been selected for the Doubleday and Rhapsody Book Club, have been translated into dozens of languages and routinely spend time on the Walden Books Bestseller List, including two consecutive weeks at number one.

Her Bullet Catchers series features an elite group of security and protection specialists who are considered the cream of the crop of contract bodyguards, and they are, according to their tag line, "Trained to protect. Able to kill. Willing to die. And drop-dead gorgeous."  To our delight, Roxanne is putting not one, but two of the Bullet Catchers books in the series--Hunt Her Down (Sep 09) and Make Her Pay (Oct 09)--in our "Love is Scary!" tote bags, so each of our winners will have their very own signed copy of one of Roxanne's books.

IMHO: So, Rocki, tell us what makes love scary for a Bullet Catcher, hmmmm?

RSC: Thank you so much for having me here, TJ and for putting together such a clever theme and giveaway for October! I personally don’t think Love Is Scary…not, like, say thunderstorms and giant bugs. (Amazing that I live in Florida where we have killer versions of both.) I do think that the physical and emotional rollercoaster that attraction, desire, and love put our poor li’l hearts through is definitely some scary stuff. And that’s why I love to write about it!

In my back-to-back September and October Bullet Catchers series releases, the hero and heroines are certainly sent on that ride for about 400 pages, and it never lets up. First of all, these heroes are no strangers to physical danger – a “Bullet Catcher” is a slang term for bodyguard, so my elite cadre of security specialists are never more than a page away from a gunshot, car chase, boat wreck, helicopter save, or an explosion. But these alpha dudes have soft hearts, especially when that one woman who can bring them to their knees is the one they have to protect.

In the September release, Hunt Her Down, fan favorite Bullet Catcher Dan Gallagher heads off to find a woman from his past just to make sure she’s all right, as a drug dealer she’d unwittingly helped to imprison is free and looking for revenge. Dan finds her…and a big, fat surprise in the form of a thirteen-year-old boy who is his carbon copy. For a commitmentphobe like Dan, nothing – and I mean nothing – is scarier than the ties that bind a parent to a child. Well, one thing is scarier…the way that child’s mother makes him feel. Taking Dan on that particular journey of discovery, all the while escaping bullets and baddies to protect his woman and child, was some of the most fun I’ve ever had in front of a computer.

That is, until I got to write about the Con Man – former thief Constantine Xenakis who only wants one thing: to redeem himself and become a Bullet Catcher once again. In Make Her Pay, the only way he can do this is to pass a simple test: go onboard a salvage recovery dive and discover who is stealing treasure. Simple enough…especially when he gets his hands on the thief ten minutes after he arrives. The only problem? Once his hands are on her, he doesn’t want to take them off. And she’s not really a “thief”…she’s taking what rightfully belongs to her family. Help her, and he loses his job. Do his job, and he loses her. This is one scary emotional dilemma of sink or swim.

I hope readers love both these stories and all of the men and women of my Bullet Catchers!

IMHO: Thanks, Rocki! Nothing scarier than love when the bullets are flying, is there?  Okay, IMHO followers, since we're talking dangerous men, tell Roxanne what was the most dangerous or kooky stunt you or someone you know ever pulled. Do this for a chance to win one of Roxanne St. Claire's books, one of my historical romances, and at least one other guest host's books and a $20 gift certificate to Amazon.com. Leave your comments for Roxanne as well as at least one other guest this month to increase your chances of winning. You can always check out my contest rules for more details.

Let the danger begin!

TJB