TALL, DARK, AND DETERMINED - Kelly Eileen Hake - Free Book

Why do you write the kind of books you do?

It’s no great secret that my mom (Cathy Marie Hake) also writes Inspirational Historical Romance. Most people assume that’s the reason I write what I do—and let’s face it; I was raised to love the Lord, history, and books. It’s only natural to combine them, and I started doing so early on. After reading a short story I wrote about a young woman on a voyage to the Americas, my fourth grade teacher, Miss Mary Meek, was the first person to tell me I should write!

Besides when you came to know the Lord, what is the happiest day in your life?

I’d always been nearsighted and worn coke-bottle glasses for everything except reading, but by my early twenties I was two degrees away from legal blindness. I had a powerful fear of anything happening to my eyes, but I prayed and gathered every ounce of courage to undergo LASIK surgery. The day of the surgery, I went home with bandages on my eyes. The second day things were a little blurry and I was light sensitive. By day three… I could see! That clarity and freedom is a continual blessing J

How has being published changed your life?

Since I began early, when I was in high school, I don’t know that it changed my life so much as shaped it!

What are you reading right now?

Reader’s Digest: How to Do Just About Anything

I love this book! Over 400 pages, it’s like an instruction manual for basics on a wide range of skills, from butchering to building, gardening to baking, old tips and tricks for almost every topic. Just leafing through gives me ideas.

What would be your dream vacation?

A castle tour through Ireland and Scotland! And I mean the whole thing, where you sleep in the castles and get to wander around up in the turrets. Maybe someday when I’m retired I’ll be able to enjoy something like that. I hope so!

How do you choose your settings for each book?

Since my books are historicals, the time and place are always vital elements. Sometimes the setting itself and/or an historic event is the impetus behind the story. Sometimes the story is more character driven, but requires certain criteria from a setting, so I have to find the right one. It just depends on which tale I’m telling!  

If you could spend an evening with one person who is currently alive, who would it be and why?

I keep looking at this question and something inside me crumples a little. My grandfather passed away two weeks ago. He’s no longer alive, so he’s not a valid answer. Nevertheless, he’s the one I’d want.

What are your hobbies, besides writing and reading?

I collect and repair vintage jewelry—particularly rhinestones!

What is your most difficult writing obstacle, and how do you overcome it?

Deadlines—and I don’t think I overcome them. At best, they overcome me. But they make for great motivation J

What advice would you give to a beginning author?

The first (and often hardest) thing is to stop plotting and researching and actually write the story. Then (probably the next hardest) you have to let someone else read it and (this is absolutely key) take in the honest feedback. Never stop trying to improve your writing and your story!

Tell us about the featured book.

When Short and Bubbly

 Lacey Lyman led a sheltered life for the past eighteen-plus years. Only in the past few months has she been able to really step beyond the role of social decoration to plan amazing adventures and embark upon them with her friends. Nevermind that things aren’t quite going the way she’d hoped when she sent out the ad for their husbands, or that her brother isn’t thrilled with her scheme to renovate the fallen mining town into a booming sawmill…this is her chance to prove she’s more than just a pretty face.

Meets Tall and Dark,

Chase Dunstan sees Lacey as more than just a pretty face. She’s also a chatterbox. And too curious for her own good. Which makes her the worst thing of all: In His Way. Nevermind that her steady babbling drives away every animal he’s supposed to be hunting to earn his keep—and keep his cover. How is a man supposed to hunt for clues into a suspicious mine collapse with a beribboned, parasol-toting tagalong?  

Will Pride or Love Determine Their Future?

With Lacey determined to learn independence from a man desperate to be free of her, sparks fly in the fertile forest surrounding Hopefalls. Will Chase be honest about what he’s really hunting in the Rocky Mountains and accept Lacey’s help in uncovering the truth? Or will deception tear apart their shared adventure—and the love God nurtured through it? It all depends on which heart knows best, and which is most determined…

Please give us the first page of the book.

Chapter One 

Colorado Territory, May 1887

Dead men told no tales, but jailbirds sang aplenty. Chase Dunstan knew Braden Lyman, victim of a mine collapse, wouldn’t be telling anything. Neither had anyone associated with the man Chase once respected and worked with.

            Which brought him to the jailbird; an associate foolish enough to miss their rendezvous four days and three counties back. Getting thrown in a cell was no excuse for failure.

“What did you find out?” Chase waited while his quarry paced the small room, still not responding. He waited while the other man drank a dipperful of water and almost choked. A dry throat and slippery nerves made anything hard to swallow, and the man before him dealt lies thick enough to block a bison.

            But Chase knew what all good trackers knew; waiting was the longest part of the hunt. So he tested his patience against man instead of an animal until Robert Kane faltered.

            “You’re not going to like it.” When Kane finally spoke, Chase didn’t so much as shift on the hard wooden seat he’d chosen. “That much, I can tell you plain and simple.”

            “That much, I already knew when I found you in a cell.”

I can hardly wait to read it. How can readers find you on the Internet?

KellyEileenHake.com 

Thank you, Kelly, for the fun interview.


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Tall, Dark, and Determined (Husbands for Hire)


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