Guest Author Joan Swan Back to Blog
Winners!! Update: The winners of 3 Kindle copies of FEVER are…Minna, Marianne, and Shannon. Congrats, ladies!!
So…I told you that guest authors would be coming soon–and today I’ve got the lovely and talented Joan Swan as my guest! Joan is one of my Brava sisters. She writes pulse-pounding romantic suspense (with some very cool paranormal touches). I hope you enjoy her post–and, Joan, thanks for visiting!
One of my favorite turning points in a story is when my hero and heroine encounter the point of no return. That place where one or both make the decision to do something that changes everything in their existing relationship. From that point on, there is no going back to the way things were.
In FEVER, my debut novel, Alyssa makes that choice in a pet store. I know. It happens in the damnedest places!
I’m sharing that excerpt with you here in celebration of Amazon’s inclusion of my debut novel, FEVER, in their Top 100 program.
That means FEVER is sale priced at $3.99 for the month of May! Now you can try a new-to-you author (me) at very low risk! If you’re interested to know what others think of FEVER, there are many in-depth reviews on Amazon.
For everyone (FEVER fans included), I’m happy to offer the chance to win 1 of 3 Amazon Gift Cards ($25, $15 and $10) for your help in spreading the word about this great promotion!
Everyone can enter! All you have to do is follow the instructions on the Rafflecopter below.
Good luck!
Teague led Alyssa past the cash register where a young man sat talking on the phone, a newspaper spread out on the counter in front of him. He glanced up as they passed and returned his gaze to the paper, hardly more than an uninterested blink. Just as Alyssa looked away, the man’s eyes jumped up again. She continued to watch him from the corner of her eye as the conversation on his end of the phone ceased, and he slowly pushed to his feet.
They turned down an aisle and Alyssa lost sight of him, but by the way his eyes grew wide as they’d disappeared, she was sure he’d recognized them. Instead of excitement, the sighting brought apprehension.
Creek turned and looked down at her, his steps slowing. “What?”
“Wh-what do you mean, what?”
“You squeezed my hand.”
“I didn’t… I mean, I didn’t mean to…” She was torn between pulling him from the store and stalling to keep them there as long as possible. This was exactly what she’d been silently begging for at Wal-mart and here it had been handed to her without even trying. “Never mind. Nothing.”
She turned her attention to the shelves where he’d stopped and stared at the contents in disbelief. “You brought me in here to buy fish food?”
“Little trivia for you, doc.” He crouched and picked up a bottle. “Fish ailments are treated with human medications. Antibiotics.”
Her mouth dropped open and her mind temporarily veered from her turmoil. “You expect me to take off-the-shelf medication for fish? Okay, this nails it, Cr—“ She stopped herself and forced his first name out of her mouth. “Teague. You are officially certifiable.”
A grin tilted his mouth as he looked up at her and something strange and uncomfortable twisted in her chest. His teeth were straight and white, his eyes a sparkling blue beneath the hat’s dark brim. A glimpse of someone else shone out at her. Maybe the man he was beneath the fear and desperation. Maybe the man he’d been before he’d gone to prison. She didn’t know, but whoever it was touched her in a way she hadn’t been touched in a long, long time. Maybe ever.
“Here’s the thing,” he said. “The emergency room would have asked too many questions and then called the cops to report a knife wound. Internet sources would take too long, and I’m not in the mood to knock off a vet’s office. So.” He pointed at two more bottles on the shelf. “You have your choice of Amoxicillin, Erythromycin or a sulfa-combo. What’ll it be?”
Curiosity won out and Alyssa took one of the bottles from him. Sure enough, as far as she could tell, it was the same stuff she’d given out prescriptions for in the past. “How is this legal?”
“Let’s not worry about that right now. Just tell me which one you can take and we’ll get back on the road.”
That comment had her looking up and toward the front of the store. The two young clerks loitered there talking, their heads together, body language hunched and tight.
“Well?” Teague prodded.
He’d truly made this stop to help her. He’d risked being seen just to find antibiotics for her infection. So many thoughts zoomed through her head at the same time she couldn’t prioritize or sift. She looked back at him. “Do you have that gun on you or is it in the car?”
His face tensed, eyes sharpened. He glanced the direction she’d been looking and watched the clerks. “I have it on me. Why?”
Let me make one thing very clear: I am not going back to prison. Ever. I’ll die first.
“I think we should go.” Alyssa pulled him toward the opposite end of the aisle.
He resisted. “Why the rush?”
“Come on.”
He pulled on her hand until she was forced to turn back around and face him. “Talk to me first.”
She lowered her voice to a whisper. “I think they recognized us.”
Teague’s mouth went stone hard. His bright eyes scoured the store and he urged Alyssa toward the rear corner of the building.
“Where are you going? The front doors are that way.”
“Which is exactly where the cops will come in if they’ve been called.”
They reached a single rear door with a banner reading, No exit. Fire alarm will sound. Teague tinkered with a lever on the big red bell over the door then pressed the metal bar. Alyssa cringed, expecting an ear piercing alarm, but it never came. Teague poked his head out the door, took a quick look around then pulled her out behind him.
**Skipping over another unrelated occurrence in the scene…**
He remained silent as he drove, his hands busy in a familiar wringing of the steering wheel, his brow heavy in thought.
As Alyssa’s mind turned back to the fiasco they’d just fled, nausea rolled in her belly. She’d just walked away from her chance to escape, and she wasn’t sure if the queasiness stemmed from missing the opportunity or from nearly getting the opportunity.
At the first exit, Teague veered off the freeway and drove half a block to a gas station-slash-mini mart. Her muscles tensed, jutting another round of pain through her torso.
“Can we stop somewhere else?” Alyssa asked. “Anywhere else? I think I’m suffering PTSD.”
He parked around the corner from the front door, jammed the car in park and got out without a word. The slam of the door made Alyssa flinch. Instead of coming to her side of the car, he walked directly into the store without looking back.
A fresh sense of uncertainty tightened her chest. He’d left her in the car unattended and uncuffed. She looked out the window at a vacant office building with a ‘for rent’ sign out front, then to a darkened church next door, the parking lot empty. There was no immediate shelter within running distance, but she should still run. She should. So what kept her sitting there?
He wasn’t gone long enough for Alyssa’s heart to slow to a regular rhythm let alone give her time to form an answer to the question. He approached her side of the car carrying a bottle of water and a newspaper. Popping the door open, he pulled the antibiotics from his pocket and twisted the top off then held both out to her. When she took them, he closed the door without saying a word and walked around to the driver’s side.
He slid into his seat and sat there staring straight ahead without turning the car on. His fingers fiddled with the edge of the newspaper in his lap.
Alyssa downed a healthy dose of the fish meds, hoping they didn’t kill her, then looked at him again. “You’re kind of freaking me out.”
“What the hell is PTSD?”
“Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.”
He rolled his eyes then turned to look at her with a quick snap of his head. “Why’d you do that? At the pet store?”
“I just… I don’t know. You made it clear you’d die before you went back to prison. I… I…” Didn’t want to watch you die. “I didn’t want to see anyone get hurt.”
You can read the entire first chapter of FEVER on my website.
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a Rafflecopter giveaway (please click link)
Note from Cynthia: And I’d like to add to the giveaway fun. I’ll giveaway 3 Kindle copies of FEVER to random winners. Want to win? Then ask Joan a question or leave a comment. Thanks! Enjoy your weekend!
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Great, great excerpt! Congratulations on Fever being in the Amazon Top 100 program. That is so cool!
Thanks so much, Edie! Great to see you at RT!!
Thanks for visiting, Joan! 😉 I look forward to reading more of your stories.
Ditto sweetie!! Thanks for having me! Can’t wait to see you in July!
Yay, I can’t wait to read this book! I have never read suspense, but this excerpt has me intrigued… I can’t wait to read more!
Hi Catherine!
I’ve had many of my readers say this as well. Many of my newest readers have been die hard historical fans and loved FEVER. 🙂 Which thrills me, though doesn’t particularly surprise me. After all, I love historicals even though I write suspense. So many of us read across sub genre and genre, which is awesome. More to love!! Hope you LOVE Fever!!
Sounds like a good read!
Thanks Barbarita!
I cannot wait to read this, sounds amazing!!!!!
Thanks Jolene! Hope you love it!
Hi Joan! I have been looking at your book for awhile now (love the cover)! I have it on my TBR list but haven’t purchased it yet (I am a Nook owner, but do read Kindle books on my phone or tablet through the Kindle app). Thanks for your hard work on this book and can’t wait to read it! Thanks, Cynthia, for offering a giveaway, too!
Hi Amy!! Sorry the offer isn’t available through other retailers :(. It is awesome that the app is available through small devices like your phone…cause it would be rather cumbersome to carry around a laptop just to read a book…right? My daughter LOVES to read books on her phone. She’s a Nook girl as well. 🙂
One more book I need to add on my ever growing TBB list!
Hi Minna! I know how that is.
Congrats! I have heard lots of good things about your book!
Thanks May! It’s great to hear that good news is getting around :).
Hi ladies! I love the excerpt! I hope you both have a wonderful weekend. 🙂
Hey Rebecca! Thanks for stopping by! Congrats on your fabulous successes. For others here…Rebecca is another of our Brava sisters and has a FABOULOUS series out — DARK PROTECTORS. The most recent book in the series released recently: HUNTED. Check it out!! Rebecca ROCKS!!
http://rebeccazanetti.com/bookshelf/hunted/
HI Joan, I read you exert it looks very good,and I can’t wait to see what the “paranormal” is and because it was on sale this month,I might have gone ahead and tried it,but because it was redommeded by Cynthia Eden, even if the exerpt would have only been mediocre,I would have gotten it anyway,
cause Cynthis Eden is my most favorite author of all time,so if she recommends somebody,then I buy it just because she recommended it. So I will wait to see if I won and if not I wil buy it later on today because it looks very good!!!!! And plese feel free to tell Cynthia Eden that I am buying this book on her recommending itJGood Luck and I hope sucess comes to you,I’ll be ooking forward to it because I read a book a day and this one looks like a good book!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! When I finish it ,I will send you a review on your fan page. Good Luck for both of us\
Aw, Sharon, that’s so sweet!!
Cynthia is one of my favorite authors of all time too (and I’m not even saying that because I’m here!!) Have you met Cynthia in person? If you haven’t I can only say if you think you love her now, you’ll absolutely adore her after you meet her. She’s definitely a treasure!!
Hope you enjoy FEVER!! Would love to know what you think (good or mediocre :))
Hi Joan 🙂
Follow you on your blog and know that you have 3 books slated for this series. You have BLAZE listed to be out this fall, do you have a tentative date for INFERNO?
Hi Michele!
I need to update my website 🙂 I recently agreed to extend the series with Kensington with two more books, which will be Book 3 (working title INFERNO), release date Oct 2013, and Book 4 (untitled) release date Apr 2014.
Since there will be a year break between book 2 and book 3, I’ll be releasing an Enovella omt in the series April 2013.
The releases look like this:
FEVER: March 2012
BLAZE: Oct 2012
Enovella: April 2013
INFERNO w/t: Oct 2013
BOOK 4: April 2014
🙂 🙂 🙂
So I already have Fever in print (because it just looked so good) but I would LOVE it in Kindle because it is literally next up on my TBR list and I prefer to read on my Kindle. It just makes everything better! I will not lug a print book around but my Kindle goes EVRYWHERE with me. So I end up reading two books at once when I read a print book.
Thanks for the chance!
Maria
PS…anyone else having trouble getting the link to the rafflecopter to work?
Hey Maria!
Try that link again, we replaced it — on my home page of my website. 🙂
Very cool about your Kindle. I could see that. I’m not there yet, though I do have my Kindle. 🙂 Still prefer my paper or my audio.
Ooops, nope, not working. Go here: http://www.joanswan.com. It’s a tiny ways down.
Hi Joan –
I am so happy for all of your success with FEVER. What a fantastic read! It really was worth the wait. Now I can’t wait for BLAZE :).
It’s nice to see that so many of my favorite authors are friends. I love Cynthia. I’ve noticed that you both right very realistic story lines. It’s appears that you both do extensive field research. Makes for very good reads :).
Much continued success to you!
Hi Viki!!
I just wish A) Cynthia lived closer to me or B) I had unlimited time and money so I could fly out and join her for all the COOL stuff she does!!!!
No need to enter me since I have Fever. I rather try to let someone who hasn’t read it get a chance. Though I do have a few friends I know interested in reading it.
Can’t wait for Blaze and yes for Mitchy to get a book. LOL – So not giving up on that
LOL, no need to give up, Rachel! He’ll be getting his book!
Joan,
Sounds like a winner! Congrats on the Amazon status and continued success to you!
Thanks Marianne, it’s been a lot of fun!
wow that excerpt is amazing i’m gripped already i’m mesmerised 🙂
i love finding new authors and i always love what Cynthia recommends as she has cool tastes.
the other books you’ve written look good too i can see you being added to my kindle wish list Joan 🙂
Fabulous, Lindsay!! Cynthia is rather amazing! I concur!! 🙂
Hi Joan & Cynthia! I haven’t had a chance to pick up Fever yet, and it has been on my TBB list for quite some time. I loved the excerpt, it was amazing. Thanks for the awesome giveaway. I want to add though that I can’t get the RaffleCopter to work! Has anyone else had trouble, or is it just me? So hopefully you’ll throw me in for the contest without it. Thanks!
That’s awesome Barb! Great time to get it if you don’t win it here!!
Ooops, nope, not working. Go here: http://www.joanswan.com. It’s a tiny ways down.
Okay, the Rafflecopter widget is not working for me.
In any case, FEVER was an awesome read! Lots of action and enough suspense to keep me reading!
Thanks Sheree!! xo
here is the rafflecopter link: http://www.joanswan.com. It’s a tiny ways down.
Cute excerpt! Can’t wait to read it! Thanks. –Taylor Z (lovemusicgirlx94@aol.com)
Thanks Taylor! (Love your name! Will have to use for heroine!)
Hmm, Joan, I didn’t see a rafflecopter set up for this so I hope my comment suffices… I’ve been hearing great buzz about this book and many are waiting to see Blaze too. I can’t wait to get my hands on it.
bas1chsemail at gmail dot com
Hi Shannon! Yes, I will add your comment as an entry!
If you’d like more entries 🙂 can we ever have too many?? You can go here for the form: http://www.joanswan.com. It’s a tiny ways down.
Thanks! Hope you love FEVER!
I can’t believe that I still haven’t got this book! I really need to get it. I’ve heard wonderful things about, and Joan is awesome!
LOL! Now is the time Jennifer!!
I just bought the book Joan because I’ve been wanting to read since it first came out. Congrats!
Aw, thanks Sherry! Hope you love it!!
Oh & Joan I could not get the rafflecopter thing to work. So I hope you count my comments as an entry. Thanks!
Hi Sherry! Yes, I will add your comment as an entry!
If you’d like more entries can we ever have too many?? You can go here for the form: http://www.joanswan.com. It’s a tiny ways down.
Couldn’t figure out how to post links to my google+ or facebook comments. But that’s okay 🙂 Excerpt was great going to have to check out your other books as well now 🙂
‘Paranormal’ is not something that normally catches my attention, but this? Absolutely adding it to my epic TBR queue and reading it as soon as I emerge from the pile of science papers I’m currently buried under (I hate science papers! Should’ve thought of that before I started my doctorate, haha). Also, can I please have your cover model? 😛
I’ve heard so much good stuff about this book I can’t figure out why i haven’t read it yet. Soon i hope. Joan what’s up next for you book wise? Congrats on Fever. I loved what i read in the excerpts.
Lisa B
Fever sounds amazing. I love the cover. 🙂
Great excerpt! The book sounds good.
fantastic interview…look forward to reading the book
sandy@thereadingcafe.com
Great interview! I love the cover for Fever and I am dying to read it. It sounds so good!!
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