Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Author Cate Beauman - The Bodyguards of L.A. County Series

Random Fun Facts About Romantic Suspense Author 

Cate Beauman


1.     Most of my story ideas come from watching hours of crime television/documentaries.
2.     Music is a major part of my writing process. Great songs are very motivating—kind of like when you find an amazing jam to exercise to.
3.     My family and I currently reside in North Carolina. We love it here. We get the opportunity to experience four seasons with winter being the shortest. I’m not a huge fan of cold weather, so that works out well!
4.     We have two huge Saint Bernards.  Over 300 pounds of big fury love!
5.     For most of my adult life, I worked with children with moderate to severe special needs. I loved it.
6.     I like to try recipes I think my characters would want to eat.
7.     I often dream that my finger is stuck on the delete key or that I’m rewriting scenes that are perfectly fine.
8.     When I’m writing the first draft of a new book, I hardly sleep.
9.     I think Homeport by Nora Roberts was pretty important to my writing/reading life. I was never a big reader until one of my girlfriends made me promise to give Ms. Robert’s book a try. I fell in love and devoured every romantic suspense novel I could get my hands on after that.
10.  I also love the book He’s Just Not That Into You by Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo. I love the honesty among the pages of that book. Why would anyone want to spend time with someone who doesn’t value you and want to spend time with you?

Short Excerpt: Finding Lyla


Collin settled beneath the covers on his temporary bed as the dim glow of city lights radiated through the windows. He reached out, grabbing the remote off the coffee table he’d pushed off to the side, and flipped through several channels, stopping on SportsCenter. Scores and updates ticked by on the bottom of the screen, and he moved on, not all that interested in hockey stats. 
He stopped again when the live footage from Saint Petersburg, Russia caught his attention. With the volume on mute, he searched for the closed caption button and sat up, reading the news report while the station switched back and forth between the newscaster and images of the police surrounding a trolleybus in the middle of a downtown street. The reporter spoke of a bomb discovered during the busy morning rush hour, mere miles from the plaza where dozens had been killed on New Year’s Eve. Luckily a citizen had been paying attention, and the explosive device had been deactivated, stopping another disaster.
Early reports were suggesting that the same rebel group responsible for the December thirty-first bombing, Chechen Freedom, had attempted to strike again. The news segment switched to snippets of the video released weeks ago, shortly after the slaughter of innocent civilians, where the masked men promised more violence in retaliation for The Federation killing one of their leaders. The man pointed at the camera, vowing to continue with his plans to destroy Russia until the regime relented and gave the Chechens back their country.
Sighing, Collin rubbed at his jaw. Why did he feel like he was walking into a losing situation? Everyday there was something new going on over there. If it wasn’t bomb threats and anti-American rallies, it was anti-Putin demonstrations outside the Kremlin walls, which often ended with tear gas and riot gear. And he and Lyla were only hours away from their late-afternoon flight.
The issues in Saint Petersburg weren’t necessarily one of his concerns. The city was a good nine hours away from their destination. It was the possibility of terrorist attacks in Moscow and Russia’s discord with the United States in general that had him on edge. The fact that Lyla was a dual citizen of two countries at odds had the potential to work for her…or very much against her. Only time would tell which way things were going to go, and they would be along for the ride while they waited to figure it out.


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