A Warm Welcome to Harlequin author Linda Conrad

Linda Conrad’s

many occupations have included being a stockbroker and certified financial planner, an apartment building manager, a sales assistant and a first grade teacher.  Her family has lived in seven states, though for a couple of years their home was in a travel trailer, traveling around the US.  All of which helped prepare her to write romantic suspense stories.  Linda and her husband and their lovable Bichon Frieze puppy now live in south Florida near where she was raised.  Her hobbies include boating, gardening and Tai Chi.

Linda was first published in 2002 and has since published thirty-two novels, all for Harlequin/Silhouette.  Her novels have been translated into over twenty languages and sold around the world, and they’ve been honored as winners of the Reader’s Choice Award, Write Touch Readers Award, Holt Medallion Award of Merit, Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Award, and the Maggie Award for Short Contemporary Romance. 

 She loves to hear from readers and can be contacted at www.LindaConrad.com

Linda Reveals... her brand new TEXAS series 

I’ve written about FBI agents, lawyers, American Indians and sheikhs, but my all time favorite heroes are cowboys and ranchers.  

My brand new series for Harlequin Romantic Suspense, called Chance, Texas, debuts this spring with the first two books, TEXAS BABY SANCTUARY and TEXAS MANHUNT out now.  The series features a huge Texas ranch and the men and women who live and work there.  I’ve gone back to my contemporary western roots and I love it. 

Finding unique plots and interesting characters is always a challenge for authors.  Yet I know those are the very things that make readers happiest.  The romance of the great American west stirs a passion in my soul.  I’ve told many of my stories from a contemporary western perspective because I think it’s so romantic for a hero and heroine to face challenges from Mother Nature along with challenges of the heart.  I also love the state of Texas as a setting because my family and I lived there for nearly twenty years and I know it so well.

Western settings intrigue me as a reader too.  But the other day I was reading a book where the western hero and heroine were making love while seated astride a horse.  Now, really.  Even if you’ve never been on the back of the horse you should laugh at that scenario.  Think about it.  A horse is a living entity, with needs and urges it cannot completely control.  A horse would never stand perfectly still while all that moaning, groaning, squirming and quick movements were going on next to its head.

Come to think of it, I’ve read many other ridiculous western sex scene settings too.  I believe in their quest to come up with something unique, authors sometimes get carried away.  I don’t know about where you live, but in much of the south and southwest the lands have been infested with fire ants.  I am intimately familiar with the little devils from gardening in both Texas and Florida.  So when I read about a couple making love outside on the ground in the west, I can’t help but thinking of fire ants.  In my books I try to find safer spots for a couple in love and I usually succeed. 

The first book, TEXAS BABY SANCTUARY, is available now in both print and digital wherever books are sold.  It highlights hero, Sam Chance, the oldest brother in a large ranching family.  A strong, quiet man of the United States Secret Service, Sam’s job is to guard witnesses in their protection and security program.  The one witness that gets to him, running from his protection and changing his life, is Grace Brown.  She hiding from the Mexican drug king, who kidnapped her, killed her parents and then made her his mistress. Grace wants to learn how to protect her baby son by herself.  But she soon discovers she must also learn to trust Sam.                                                                                   HERE'S THE BLURB-      
        There was nowhere safe for Grace Baker and her baby to run.  Even the law was no match for the ruthless drug lord who’d fathered her child.  Serrano had spies everywhere and wouldn’t stop till he captured his son and killed Grace.  Now Marshal Sam Chance was suddenly back in her life offering protection…could she dare to refuse?

        Sam believed his family ranch was the one place Grace would be safe.  Here they found refuge in each other’s arms.  But returning home only reminded Sam of his past failure to protect those he loved.  This time had to be different.  Because Grace and her baby meant more to him than life itself. 

The second book in the series, TEXAS MANHUNT, is available now in print and in digital on May 1. It features Travis, the second eldest brother who stayed home and now runs the mega Bar-C ranch along with most of the town.                                                                                                                                                                      HERE'S THE BLURB -                                                                                                                                                                              Rancher Travis Chance has a soft spot for lost souls.  Stranded and broke in Chance, Texas, Summer Wheeler ignites in him a fierce desire to protect her.  Clearly the fragile beauty is hiding something.  But despite his disastrous romantic history, Travis knows in his gut he can trust her.
             Summer comes to Chance looking for one of the men who devastated her life.  Though she hates lying to him, Travis’s job offer provides a means to her end.  But she never counted on falling for the sexy rancher and his troubled little girl.  Then “accidents” start happening at the family homestead.  Has Summer brought the danger to the two people who are teaching her to love again?                                                                                                                                                               Now for  A Taste of Linda

Linda is treating us to an excerpt from the first book, TEXAS BABY SANCTUARY, to give the flavor of the stories. Enjoy!

 Stinging cold rain ran off the brim of his hat and dripped down the back of U.S. Marshal Sam Chance’s neck.

 Shrugging deeper into his lambskin coat, Sam felt chilled through and bone-weary.  So flipping bone-weary, in fact, that he figured sleeping for a hundred years would make a great way to spend his next time off—whenever that might happen.

           But as he stood on the pavement in the rough March drizzle staring through the smudged front window of a run-down highway café, his body got a shot of much needed adrenaline.  And suddenly, he had no need for sleep anytime soon. 

           She was there.  Bending over to wipe down an empty table.  After searching for the last six weeks, he’d finally found his woman.

           The information he obtained from those truck drivers a few days ago had been the key to finding her.  They’d said she was working as a waitress in this dingy joint.  And there she was.

          But look at how fragile she seemed from this distance.  He’d never known her to be so thin.  And she’d changed her hair color again.  He had grown rather partial to the bright red, but he supposed honey-blond was not all bad—if what you needed the most from your hair color was a temporary disguise.

           Where was her baby?  Did she bring him to work with her?  Was the child in the backroom of the café?

           Wanting to go to her, to hear her voice again, he fisted his hands at his sides instead and tried to clear his mind.

           But he didn’t move.  He didn’t as much as blink an eyelash.  Focusing his eyes past the left-over Christmas decorations on the window, that were by now looking pretty ratty, he simply gazed at her.   

          He shouldn’t be here.  Never should have started this quest to find her in the first place.  He’d taken a leave from his job in order to begin the search.  But now that he’d found her, he couldn’t take his eyes off her.  That she was still well and breathing free air felt like such a relief he could barely think.

* * *

            Grace hauled her last load of dishes into the kitchen, trying her best to put one foot in front of the other.  The feet that were killing her.  Ten more minutes until closing time.  Charlie, the cook and her boss, had left five minutes ago and she was supposed to lock up.  She could make it.

            She’d never done much manual labor, not until the last six months when her whole life had been tossed in the air like a salad.  But this was good honest work.  And it almost provided a living for her and her baby.  Grace was proud of what she’d accomplished so far.

            And she didn’t mind living here in Ft. Stockton.  The kind couple who ran the café had given her a job and a temporary place to live, hadn’t they?  Even the customers were not too bad.  The long-haul drivers left great tips and the locals spoke to her like they’d known her all their lives.

            Knowing she couldn’t linger in this town indefinitely, there were still times when Grace wished she could stay.  Stay somewhere.  Anywhere where she and the baby would be safe.

            She’d better stop wishing for the impossible and finish off her shift.  Pushing back through the swinging kitchen door into the dining room, she noticed the café had a new customer and he was standing with his back to the door.  As she opened her mouth to tell him the café was almost closed, he lifted his chin and their eyes met.  Her breath caught in her throat. 

            Only one pair of sky-blue eyes in the whole world could affect her that way.  Brooding and unreadable, those eyes stared at her from beneath the brim of a soaked white Stetson.  They belonged to a man she recognized all too well.

            Sam Chance.  Marshal Sam Chance.  She froze in place, not knowing whether to feel relief or to turn and run.  He’d found her—after all her efforts to stay lost.

            “Evening, Grace.  We need to talk.”  Sam’s voice still carried that slow, deep, sensual tone that had hypnotized her from the beginning.

            Her mouth went dry.  Her skin tingled.  She was torn with indecision. 

            Sam represented security and a chance for a real life.  But it was also possible that he represented a huge threat to her well-being and to the safety of her son.  Much as she didn’t want to think it, Sam may have been the leak, the one that had brought danger ever closer to her and Mikey six weeks ago.

            Just at that moment, the door at Sam’s back opened and her worst nightmare stepped inside.  Two dark men holding big menacing-looking guns.  And they were definitely coming in her direction. 

            Sam led the wolves right to her door!

* * *

A final word from Linda: There you go! Just a taste of Sam and Grace’s journey.  From here the story takes a fast turn and becomes a grand adventure right to the end.  If you love a good romance mixed with suspense and adventure, I think you’re going to love meeting Sam and Grace and her baby.  Then reading Travis and Summer’s story will be another bonus.  I know I loved writing both these stories.

 Looks like a must read! Thank you so much for regaling us today, Linda.
Pleasure to meet you and I wish you huge success with your new Texas series.

So what do you think of books about Texas?  Like them or hate them?  Linda will give signed copies of TEXAS BABY SANCTUARY and TEXAS MANHUNT to one person drawn at random from those who comment. *

*US/Canada only – digital copies of TEXAS BABY SANCTUARY and TEXAS MANHUNT will be substituted for any international winner.

You can find out more about Linda and her books and sign up for Linda’s newsletter at:  www.LindaConrad.com
or catch up with her on facebook and twitter.  http://www.facebook.com/LindaConradauthor https://twitter.com/#!/LindaConrad

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