Interview with Kaylea Cross

Not very long ago I was lucky to discover this fantastic writer Kaylea Cross, and today I am so happy to be hosting her on my blog. I hope you have a look for her books- they really are a great read. I am so excited about this new series and can't wait to get my hands on the entire set!
So here's a few questions I threw at Kaylea, grab that cuppa, make yourself comfy and I hoe you enjoy learning a little bit more about this wonderful writer.


Karly- Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Kaylea- I’m a stay at home mom of two little boys (2 half days of preschool + half-day Kindergarten = less and less time for mom to write!), a part time Registered Massage therapist, and an author. Oh yeah, and a wife too. Jeez, poor hubby. No wonder he resents my laptop! I live in Vancouver, B.C., and right now the whole city is in an Olympic hangover.

Karly- How many books do you have published?

Kaylea- I’ve got two out right now. The first, Out of Her League, just won an RWA Laurel Wreath award for best romantic suspense of 2009, so I was tickled pink. It features a softball player on the cusp of making the Olympic team when an obsessed fan threatens everything she’s worked for, and her life.

Karly- Can you tell us about your latest book, Cover of Darkness?

Kaylea- It’s the second of my romantic suspense series with The Wild Rose Press, and features a tough social worker fighting for her life alongside a Navy SEAL.

Blurb: Targeted by a terrorist cell, Bryn McAllister survives a bombing at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut only to be left to die in a desert cellar. When she is rescued by Navy SEAL Lieutenant Declan McCabe and his team, Bryn must rely on the handsome officer to get her to safety. But just when she thinks the nightmare is over, family friend and legendary CIA operative Luke Hutchinson recruits her and McCabe to help track down the terrorist mastermind responsible for the attack.

With Bryn determined to see the terrorist brought to justice, Dec joins up to protect her, prepared to do whatever it takes to keep her safe during their dangerous mission. Battling the explosive attraction between them, Dec fights to keep his distance from her so he can do his job and keep her alive. But when plans falls apart and Bryn is captured, he must make the agonizing choice between his duty as a SEAL and the life of the woman he loves.



Karly- For those readers who aren’t familiar with your background, can you explain your passion for writing military based stories?


Kaylea- You know, there’s really no explanation for this obsession that I’m aware of. It started when I was twelve and I got heavily into the Civil War era for some reason. Later I started becoming interested in other military campaigns, and before I knew it I was hooked on special ops non-fiction. *shrugs* What can I say? I’m quirky :)
I routinely research each of my heroes’ military specialties and the theatre they fight/fought in before I start outlining the story. If possible I want to teach my readers what these incredible men do, highlight the skill sets they have as well as why the heck someone would want to do it for a living. Personally I wouldn’t last five minutes, but that only makes me respect them more.




Karly- Can you tell us what else you enjoy doing when you’re not writing? Maybe a little about where you live?


Kaylea- Obviously most of my “free time” (*cough*) is taken up with my kids, but in my down time I love to garden, paint, and belly dance. The dancing started out as research for Cover of Darkness, but I kept at it because I loved it so much.
I also play softball with my hubby in a mixed league for fun. Once upon a time I used to be a pretty damn good women’s fast pitch pitcher, but then I got to face your Aussie Olympic team during the Canada Cup here in my hometown. That was an um...humbling moment. Jeez, I don’t know what you feed your athletes down under, but man, were those women huge! I have a vague memory of leaving the park in a neck brace from watching all the homeruns go rocketing over the outfield fence, but it might be my traumatized imagination. Chalk it up to shell shock, I guess :) So I retired a few years later and now just play slo-pitch. To this day I can’t even see a green and yellow jacket without shuddering.


I live in the “burbs” of Vancouver, and my picturesque little town of White Rock is nestled against the U.S. border between two beautiful beaches where we spend a lot of our time in the spring and summer (and on warm fall and winter days too). Not sure if any of you watched the coverage on TV, but the patriotic spirit here during the Olympics was nothing short of magical. Never seen anything like it, and probably won’t ever again. We Canucks aren’t exactly known for showing national pride, so it was amazing to witness and be a part of.


Karly- I’ve noticed you have a few other novels coming up for release, so can you tell us what they are about? And what are you working on now?


Kaylea- Sure can. All the remaining books deal with trying to capture the terrorist introduced in Cover of Darkness (he’s damn hard to catch), and are set in the Middle East as well as North America.
The next is book 3 of the series, called No Turning Back (out in May). It features one of the twin brothers introduced in Cover of Darkness. Ben Sinclair’s a former Army Ranger. Book 4 is Relentless (out in July), and features his fraternal twin, Rhys. He’s former Delta Force. And book 5 is Absolution (out in fall), featuring my favorite character of all, Luke Hutchinson, a CIA contractor and former SEAL. He’s in all five books, and from start to finish it took me less than three months to plot, write and polish his book. I was so revved to tell his story! His voice was the clearest to me of all my characters, right from the start. He’s dreamy. OMG, I love him to pieces and miss him already even though I’ve still got edits coming up so at least I’ll get to see him one last time.
Right now I’m working (slowly but surely) on the second of a trilogy featuring Air Force Special Operations heroes and aviator heroines out of Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. The first matched a female medevac pilot with a Pararescue Jumper (now that’s a hero. Trust me. Gives me goose bumps just to think about them.). The second is about a Combat Controller and gunship pilot heroine. I’ve loved researching this series! If you’re at all interested, you can check out my adventure on my blog later. And if you’d like a list of the awesome non-fiction titles I’ve used for research, I’d be happy to give one to you. Heck, I’d be happy just to talk about them! My husband doesn’t share my interest in special ops military or history, so his eyes instantly glaze over if I start talking about it :).


Karly- Can you play a little word association game with us? I promise it’s relatively painless!
I give you a word and you write the first thing that pops into your head…

Kaylea--

Sleep—sex (am I allowed to say that here?)


Romance—cuddles


Writing—torture :) (But I still love it.)


Deadlines—motivation


Editors—final word


Uniforms—sexy


A hero—PJ (Pararescue Jumper). I don’t even care what they look like! OMG. Yum.






Thanks for having me, Karly! Looking forward to reading your next book. I love to hear from readers, so feel free to drop me a line.


Kaylea :)


www.kayleacross.com


www.kayleacross.blogspot.com


www.thewildrosepress.com


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