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GENRE: Romance Suspense
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BLURB: Six years later, Trent Wayland still isn’t over his spring fling. Probably because he was convinced when he married Captain Leila O’Neil, their fling would go on a lifetime. Leila is his soul mate and Trent knows it. He might not admit it on a regular basis, but that doesn’t negate the raw emotion she draws out of him each and every time he thinks about her. Forget the fact his heart splits in two all over again when he’s afforded the luxury of hearing her voice. That doesn’t happen often, however. Leila only tosses a handful of words his way when she initiates the weekly video calls he’s allowed with the other love of his life, their daughter Lucy. Once upon a time, Leila O’Neil wanted to be a Marine when she grew up. She worked hard, she landed a seat at the Academy, and she was the head of her class. Then her dream was destroyed and she traded it in for a new one at the nearest Coterie portal. She wears so many faces and so many hats, at some point she lost track of her soul. That didn’t really bother her until Trent Wayland came along and almost peeled her dressing room curtain back nearly exposing her innermost person. The real person, the real Leila, who once upon a time wanted to be a Marine when she grew up. Leila misses the real person, and realizes it at the worst possible moment. With her daughter’s life on the line and Trent on the scene of the crime, Leila figures out she’s been using her hurt and anger to fuel all the wrong goals. In a daring move, she puts it all on the line, hoping it’s enough to gain her freedom from her handlers and her husband’s forgiveness.
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EXCERPT: “Can this wait?” she asked, clearing her throat and speaking in a much lower, calmer voice than she felt like using on him at the moment. “I need to compartmentalize everything that’s coming at me all at once so I can process it in some sort of orderly fashion and manage to not get us killed before we get the chance to talk about what may or may not be going on between us.” “Do you have a label for that box?” Trent drilled, glaring at her. “Which one?” She tapped her fingernails against the table and pursed her lips, trying to stay the wellspring of anger bubbling up at his completely inappropriate timing. And if he only knew. Leila had so many boxes she neatly placed things in it’d be easy to completely lose track of the exact number and location inside her head of all them. “The one you stuff us in every time things reach a point you might actually have to say it.” When his nostrils flared, Leila could no longer hold back the sarcastic cynic she could be so easily. “Say what?” She quirked one side of her mouth up and all but batted her lashes, daring him to continue down this path. “You know very well what,” Trent roared, slamming a fist against the table causing the silverware still setting on the edges of plates on the other end of it to rattle and tea to spill out over the top of her unfinished cup, which was most likely cold and bitter by now. “You’ve not said it in a long while, either, you know.” Leila pulled her now drying hair behind her ears and gnawed on the inside of her lip. Trent didn’t answer, instead just sat back down and grabbed his phone. “I have my reasons but they’re not the same as yours, you coward. You’re afraid.”
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From The Author:
Through My Eyes
First, I’d like to thank Gimme the Scoop Reviews for hosting my tour today. It’s a pleasure to be here!
One of the things I get asked most about are the things that inspire me and help me build the world in which my characters live. That leads me to remember the first, and best, piece of advice I got when I first began my journey to publication. Write what you know, and if you don’t know it, learn it. That bit of advice rings true today, yesterday, and forever. Researching, honestly, is one of my favorite parts of the job. I love learning knew things and I love digging around for facts.
For the most part, I do write what I know and put a spin on it. It is fiction, after all, so stretching the truth creatively but still within reason is totally acceptable. And what is it I write that I know? The military aspects I incorporate into my romantic suspense stories. My husband recently retired after thirty years of service in the Marine Corps, and if there’s anything I know, it’s military life. That life also took us on many adventures. I routinely use my knowledge of people, places, and things to draw inspiration and do lend realism to my writing.
The S3 series is a bit different from my other more mainstream military romances in that I’ve created a world in which there are dark ops agencies playing by their own rules. That gave me the latitude to create situations and consequences that might not hold true in real life but work in a fictitious world of my creating. In Parallax, book one of the series, it was also fun making the heroine the star of the show through Leila O’Neil who’s a kick-butt kind of gal who can hold her own in a firefight and still manage to look pretty at the end of the day. She’s a collage of hard-charging female marines I was acquainted with during my husband’s active duty days. We don’t often see the female lead in romantic suspense taking on the role of being the one to save the day and take names. I wanted to expand on that twist and thus Leila was born.
The places Parallax is set in include the east coast of North Carolina, the Middle East, Spain and Morocco. I spent many years on the east coast of North Carolina so it’s a favorite backdrop of mine to use since I’m so familiar with it. While I’ve not visited the Middle East, Spain, or Morocco, my husband has ported all over the world at one point or other and is a great research consultant when it comes to locations. Having all the travels under our belt helps in being able to describe things accurately.
I’d say, overall, I try to let my characters live through my eyes and see, feel, smell, taste, and hear everything I have over the years, which gives them a wide-ranging collection of experiences.
Thanks again for hosting me today and thanks to the readers for dropping in to chat with me.
Dixie Jackson
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AUTHOR Bio and Links: Born and raised in the heart of the Ozarks, Dixie Jackson learned a love of the written word at a young age. She remembers spinning tales before she could even write them down, but it was the encouragement of her sixth-grade creative writing teacher which would plant the idea that just never seemed to go away. She wanted to someday see her works in print. Dixie makes her home in the Great Smoky Mountains with her retired Marine husband, two rescue dogs, and her beloved chickens. When she’s not writing, you can find her digging in the dirt and nurturing her plants while plotting the next step in one story line or another. She also loves experimenting in her kitchen, embroidering, quilting, crocheting, tracing her family’s twisted tree, and of course reading.
You can find Dixie at:
Blog: https://www.dixiejackson.net
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/sweetteamafia/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/19160992
Instagram: @dixiejwriter
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dixiejacksonauthor/
Amazon: amazon.com/author/dixiejackson
BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/dixie-jackson
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Dixie Jackson will be awarding a $50 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.
RAFFLECOPTER: a Rafflecopter giveaway
