An Interview and Giveaway with Rebecca York

The Reading Cafe is happy to welcome Rebecca York as our guest today.  Rebecca has just released, Bad Nights, the first book in her new, Rockfort Security series.

She is here today to discuss her new book, and to tell us a little bit about  herself.

Let’s meet Rebecca.

TRC: Hi Rebecca.  Thank you for taking the time to answer some questions today.

We are always looking forward to reading about the author behind the book; it is a pleasure to have you here at The Reading Café.

Rebecca: I’m excited to be here.

TRC: Would you please tell us about yourself?

Rebecca: I had kind of a rocky start in school because I’m dyslexic and couldn’t read or spell very well.  In fifth grade something clicked in my brain, and I finally “got” reading.  Spelling, not so much.  I always loved making up stories, but I thought I couldn’t be a writer because of the spelling problem.  However, my husband encouraged me to give it a try and said he’d proofread my work.  I started writing news and feature stories for a local paper and gradually slopped into books.  I spend most of my day in front of the computer, and I even manage to work when we’re traveling.

TRC: When and how did you become interested in writing? 

Rebecca:  I always thought up stories, which I acted out with my doll, but I didn’t start writing until I was a stay-at-home mom with two toddlers.  Writing newspaper articles was something I could do in short spurts between all my other obligations.  I took a seminar at my local community college where people came and read what they were working on.  Sitting and listening to some people read chapters of their novels, made me want to write one of my own.  I had always read fantasy and science fiction as a kid, so I started in that genre.  And I decided to try a children’s book because I knew that would be shorter than an adult novel.  It was Invasion of the Blue Lights, and I sold it to Scholastic.  Recently I reprinted it as an e-book on Amazon.

TRC: You just released your first book in your Rockfort Security Series, Bad Nights.  Can you please tell us the premise of Rockfort Security?  How did you come up with the idea of this series, and how many books are you planning for this series?

Rebecca:  I wanted to do a romantic suspense series focused on the men working for a detective agency and the women who come to love them.  Each hero stars in his own story and appears in the other books to keep the continuity going.  In each novel, the hero of the next book will play a strong secondary role, so that the reader is drawn into the Rockfort community.

All the Rockfort agents are strong, sexy alpha males, formerly in the military or the police.  Each is fighting emotional wounds that only a loving relationship with the right woman can heal.  Each story focuses on how these men learn to let down their guard with a woman who comes to mean more to them than they thought possible.

The agents are:

Jack Brandt, former Navy Seal

Shane Gallagher, former Army MP

Max Lyon, former police detective

The men met when they were swept up in the raid of a Miami nightclub.  They spent the night keeping order among a bunch of tough, dangerous guys in a police holding cell.  When they were released in the morning, they went out for beers and got to talking—and ended up forming the Rockfort Security Agency.

Each book capitalizes on the special talents and background of the hero.  How many books?  Of course I’m hoping that Sourcebooks will want more after the initial three, but we’ll have to see how they do!

TRC: Can you please give us a description about Bad Nights, which was released a couple of days ago? 

Rebecca: This is the story of Jack Brandt and Morgan Rains.  He’s a former Navy SEAL who feels guilty that he was the only man who came back from a mission in Afghanistan.  She’s a widow who can’t imagine falling in love again.  They never would have met if Jack hadn’t escaped from the militia compound where he was being tortured to make him tell who sent him to infiltrate the organization.  He makes it to Morgan’s isolated mountain cabin where she finds him stumbling around naked in the woods.  She takes him in and treats his wounds, but the militia track him to her cabin, and they barely escape with their lives. On the run, they get to know each other a whole lot better.  But can these two people who are so different forge a relationship?  And can Jack and partners save Morgan’s life when the militia leader captures her and gives him twenty-four hours to trade himself for her?

TRC: You also write a series of novellas: A Fantasy & Futuristic Short Story.  Can you tell us a little about this series?

Rebecca: My first passion was science fiction and fantasy, and this series is giving me a chance to write in that genre.  But since I love romance, all of the books are relationship stories.  The first two, Conquest and Hero’s Welcome, deal with men and women from different species falling in love and working out their complicated relationships.

In the third story, I’m having fun writing a guy who’s tough and effective, and also a virgin.  When all-male plague survivors landed on the planet Palomar, no one knew if humans could thrive in the hostile environment. Now it’s twenty years later, and the planetary authority has finally authorized a shipment of brides. Homesteader Caleb Raider has won a wife in the lottery, but he hasn’t seen a woman since childhood—except in a porn vid. His new wife, Beka Gunnarson, knows he’s a virgin. What’s the best way to introduce him to the pleasures of married love, while hiding the secret she thinks will destroy their new relationship? And is she up to living on a nearly lawless planet where savage wildlife roams?  I’m almost finished with this novella and hope to have it out in October.  And I think I will be setting more stories on the planet Palomar.

TRC: You write a few different genres, such as Romance Suspense, Paranormal, Sci-Fi, and Fantasy.  Do you have a preference?  How challenging is it to switch gears when writing another genre?

Rebecca:  I feel sorry for people who are forced by their publishers to write only one kind of book.  I love getting to switch from romantic suspense to paranormal to science fiction.  And I don’t have any trouble doing it.  But I do think the core of my writing is “men and women falling in love against a backdrop of suspense and danger.”

TRC: Would you like to share with us on what else you have planned in 2013/2014?

Rebecca:  I’m currently finishing up the second book in the Rockfort Security Series, Betrayed, which will be out next spring.  It’s Shane Gallagher’s story, and I’m enjoying writing about him and Elena Reyes.  Shane’s working undercover trying to discover who’s stealing company secrets from S&D Systems, and Elena’s his prime suspect; yet at the same time, he’s attracted to her. As I said, I’m also getting Nightfall ready.  And I have two Harlequin Intrigues scheduled for March and April, Bride’s Jeopardy and Urgent.  Both are paranormal romantic suspense, part of my sexually-linked telepaths series, Mindbenders.

TRC: What is your writing process?  Do you have a favorite place or time you like to write?

Rebecca:  I always work on a laptop, and I move around the house frequently.  Right now I’m on the screened porch (or the “catio”) with one of my three cats.  I also like working in the sunroom with my orchids for inspiration and the bedroom, which I’ve decorated like a beach cottage.   I don’t feel comfortable writing a book unless I have a pretty complete outline.  After I know the story, I start writing and get to know the characters better during the first few chapters.  I try to write ten pages a day, and I try to finish a book quickly and put it away while I work on something else.  When I come back to the original project, it’s like someone else wrote it, and I can be very objective about it.  I used to write slowly and then edit a lot.  I figured out I could write fast, then do the same amount of editing.  After I edit on screen, I always have to print out a book so I can see it on paper—where it always looks different.

TRC: Would you like to add anything else?

Rebecca:  I’d like to die at my computer, still working.

LIGHTNING ROUND

Favorite Food:   Soup (many kinds: Lobster Bisque, Split Pea, Cauliflower and Cheese, Sweet Potato and Peanut).  I often start a pot of soup in the afternoon while I’m working.

Favorite Dessert:  Chocolate soda with vanilla ice cream.  (We always have this on New Year’s Eve.)

Favorite Author: I can’t pick just one.  I like Ken Follett, Clive Cussler, Terry Pratchett

Favorite Movie:  Star Man.  It’s just my kind of thing: paranormal romantic suspense

Favorite TV Show:  The Sopranos

Milk or Dark Chocolate:  Dark

Favorite character (male & female) not written by you:  Michael Gallatin from The Wolf’s Hour, by Robert McCammon.  Women characters don’t stick with me as long as the guys.  I guess a recent woman I’ve liked a lot is Juliette in Hugh Howey’s Wool.

TRC: Thank you, Rebecca, for giving us an update on Bad Nights, as well as what we can look forward to in the future.   It was a pleasure having you visit us, and we hope to do this again in the future.

Rebecca: Thank you for interviewing me.

Bad Nights
By Rebecca York
Book #1 – Rockfort Security
Release Date: September 3,.2013

Links to order Bad Nights: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo / The Book Depository

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Rebecca York’s newest series will keep you on the edge of your seat

When Professor Morgan Rains goes out to investigate a strange sound coming from her backyard, the last thing she expects to see is a naked man covered with burns and bruises. Jack Brandt is a former Navy SEAL on an undercover mission, and he’s barely managed to escape from a terrorist militia’s torture. Jack and Morgan are thrown into a pressure cooker of danger and intrigue, and they soon find themselves falling in love. When Morgan is captured by the terrorists, Jack must rescue the woman whose life now means more to him than his own.

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Rebecca York’s writing has been compared to Dick Francis, Sherrilyn Kenyon and Maggie Shayne. Her books have been translated into twenty-two languages and optioned for film. She lives in Maryland, near Washington, D.C., which is often the setting of her romantic suspense novels. Rebecca’s next romantic suspense novel from Sourcebooks Casablanca, Betrayed, will be in stores in July 2014. For more information, please visit http://rebeccayork.com/, Facebook. Twitter, Goodreads




Rebecca and her publisher, Sourcebooks have graciously offered one lucky member of The Reading Cafe a copy of her new release, Bad Nights.

1.  You must be a member at The Reading Cafe. If you are not a member, please register using the Log-In at the top of the page, or by using one of our social log-ins.

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3.  Giveaway open  US & Canada Only

4.  Contests runs from September 5 to September 8, 2013