SHADES OF TRUTH - Sandra Orchard - Free Book

Why do you write the kind of books you do?

I’d been a member of the Steeplehill Love Inspired Romance book club, and had been gearing my writing toward them as a publisher, but I also enjoyed reading authors like Dee Henderson and Terri Blackstock, so when Love Inspired launched its Suspense line, I signed up for the new book club immediately. I soon decided that I enjoy the extra plot elements and faster pace of romantic suspense over a straight inspirational romance and gravitated to writing those types of stories. I enjoy the challenge of creating a mystery/suspense thread without sacrificing the romance.

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

Oh, it’s impossible to choose. The Lord has blessed me with many special days I treasure. These days, any day I get to spend with my adorable new grandbaby is a wonderful day.

That is so true. How has being published changed your life?

I’ve gotten to know a lot of wonderful people through blogging and speaking engagements and letters from readers. They’ve enriched my life, and bring a smile to my face on a daily basis. Hearing how something I’ve written has spoken to a reader is especially encouraging on those days when “new” words elude me.

What are you reading right now?

How to Disappear Doing research for my next book.

What is your current work in progress?

I just finished line edits for the third book in my Undercover Cops series, Critical Condition, which releases in October. The hero was introduced in Deep Cover, and I’ve been eager to tell his story ever since. It's about a nurse, an undercover cop, and a murderer who’ll stop at nothing to avoid being caught. 

Now…I’m brainstorming the second book in a trade-length romantic suspense series for which I recently received an offer! Details will have to wait until the ink on the contract is dry.  

How exciting. You must contact me to schedule an interview when you have the pub date.What would be your dream vacation?

That’s a tough question. My husband and I have been mulling it for weeks as we try to decide where to go for our 25^th anniversary. Hawaii and Alaska are both places I think I’d like to see. But anywhere with beautiful vistas, my husband at my side, and no crowds would suit me just fine.

Both of those are on my wish list. How do you choose your settings for each book?

All of my published and contracted novels are set in fictional towns situated in the Niagara region, because it’s an area I know and love. Creating fictional towns allows me to blend the elements of various real towns that I need for my one-town setting.

What are your hobbies, besides writing and reading?

I used to x-stitch and knit and paint and sew and do woodworking and construction projects and other crafts, but not so much these days. I love to go for walks with my dog, and kayaking with my hubby.

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

Pacing is my biggest challenge. I tend to focus on the suspense plot in first drafts, especially on ending my chapters with cliffhangers. But…sometimes those just-came-to-me cliffhangers cause me to write myself into a corner, or to barrel through the story without adequately building the romantic tension along the way.

What advice would you give to a beginning author?

Don’t be in a hurry to publish. Take time to learn the craft well. Persevere.

Tell us about the featured book.

Shades of Truth is the second book in my Love Inspired Suspense series, Undercover Cops: Fighting for justice puts their lives—and hearts—on the line. However, you won’t be lost if you haven’t read the first novel. Each story stands alone. They are linked by setting, theme and characters. For example, the heroine in this book was the friend of Deep Cover’s heroine. 

Back Cover Blurb: Big city detective Ethan Reed is working deep undercover at a Christian youth detention center. The kind of place he spent some harrowing time in as a kid. Ethan’s mission: ferret out who’s recruiting resident teens for a drug ring. He expects help from the lovely, devoted director of Hope Manor. But Kim Corbett won’t tell Ethan anything— even when she’s threatened and attacked. When Ethan discovers what Kim is protecting, his guarded heart opens just a bit wider. Enough to make this the most dangerous assignment of his career. 

Please give us the first page of the book.

Taking this undercover assignment in Miller’s Bay, Ontario was a bad idea. Too many reminders of his own screwed-up youth.

Ethan Reed trailed Darryl Corbett, the son of the detention facility’s founder, into the yard full of teen boys. The mixed teams of staff and residents on the baseball field underscored the center’s buddy-like approach to rehabilitation, but the barbed wire perimeter glinting in the summer sun hammered home the reality.

While Darryl itemized the characteristics that set Hope Manor apart from government-run facilities, Ethan’s thoughts drifted to the reason for his secret recruitment from outside the Canadian border town’s tight-knit police force. Whoever was luring residents into becoming drug pushers had inside connections. Inside the manor. And inside the police force.

At first glance the youths looked like average kids in their saggy pants and oversized T-shirts, minus iPods dangling from their ears and ball caps askew on their heads. But Ethan didn’t miss the hand signals gang members flashed when they thought no one was watching, or the scars on their faces from fighting, or the burns on their skin from initiations.

The facility forbade wearing gang colors, but restrained rivalry was evident in their defiant swaggers and icy stare-downs. They tried to look tough, but most of them were cowards who saw nothing wrong with three guys swarming a lone stray, like a pack of wolves circling their dinner.

A foul ball bounced in front of Darryl who tossed it to the kid on the pitcher’s mound. “Basically, you’re expected to engage the residents in whatever activity interest them. If you’re any good at coaxing them to open up to you and talk out their problems, all the better.”

Ethan grunted. He’d better be good at getting the boys to talk, because whoever was recruiting these kids had neglected to mention short life expectancy in the job description.

An engine’s roar ricocheted off the brick building. Then a scream—urgent, terrified, and female—pierced the air.

Ethan’s attention snapped to the perimeter, but a wall of pine trees blocked his view.

“That sounded like Kim,” Darryl said. “My sister.”
 

Ethan sprinted for the gate and yanked on the lock. “You got a key?”

“No!” Darryl raced for the building.

Ethan pictured the maze of locked corridors between them and the front exit and dug his fingers into the chain link. “I’ll meet you out front.” He bolted up the fifteen foot fence, crushed the slanted barbed wire in his fist, and vaulted overtop.

How can readers find you on the Internet?

I’ve created “novel extras” to enhance readers’ experience of my books. You can check out these and other resources for both readers and writers at my website: http://www.SandraOrchard.com.

For updates on new releases, special subscriber-only reads and giveaway opportunities, I invite people to sign up for my newsletter at http://bit.ly/OrchardNews

And I’d love for those on FB to connect at: http://www.Facebook.com/SandraOrchard

And invite everyone to join in the conversations about characters on my blog at http://www.SandraOrchard.blogspot.com

Giveaway: I’m giving away a print copy of Deep Cover, the first novel in my Undercover Cops series. Only a few retailers have any copies left, after which it will only be available in Ebook or used. If you’re intrigued by the sound of my newest story, I encourage you to look for it in your local stores this month before they’re gone.


Readers, here are links to the book. By using one when you order, you help support this blog.
Shades of Truth (Love Inspired Suspense) - paperback
Shades of Truth (Love Inspired Suspense) - Kindle


Leave a comment for a chance to win a free copy of the book. Please tell us where you live, at least the state or territory. (Comments containing links may be subject to removal by blog owner.)

Void where prohibited; the odds of winning depend on the number of entrants. Entering the giveaway is considered a confirmation of eligibility on behalf of the enterer in accord with these rules and any pertaining local/federal/international laws.

The only notification you’ll receive is the winner post on this blog. So be sure to check back a week from Saturday to see if you won. You will have 4 weeks from the posting of the winners to claim your book.

If you’re reading this on Feedblitz, Facebook, or Amazon, please come to the blog to leave your comment if you want to be included in the drawing. Here’s a link.
Http://lenanelsondooley.blogspot.com

DEEP COVER - Sandra Orchard - Free Book

Welcome, Sandra. Tell us how much of yourself you write into your characters.

I don’t think that I do, although it will be interesting to hear what my family think when they read the novel.

What is the quirkiest thing you have ever done?

You know what they say…I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you. Let me just say, I was young and in love and had probably just seen a BBC version of some Jane Austin character swooning over the love of her life. And for the record, he’s now my hubby.

Now we’ll imagine all kinds of things. When did you first discover that you were a writer?

I loved to write from the moment I put crayon to paper. (Okay, chalk board…How was I supposed to know it wouldn’t rub off?! I was only three!) In grade one, two of my stories were included in the school yearbook. One was a couple of paragraphs long whereas, the other first grade excerpts were a couple of sentences. That’s when I really knew.

Tell us the range of the kinds of books you enjoy reading.

For the better part of my adult life, I read non-fiction books of the how to be a better wife, mother, or home-educator variety. Now I prefer fast-paced novels that are engaging and don’t leave graphic images in my mind. I lean toward romantic suspense, contemporary and historical romances. I also enjoy the occasional light-hearted novel or mystery. Although I must confess that I do miss the days of reading novels such as The Trumpeter Swan and The Indian in the Cupboard to my young children.

How do you keep your sanity in our run, run, run world?

I live in the country so I enjoy long walks with my dog and neighbor, or visit with my new grandbaby and just enjoy her—something that was hard to do the first time around, what with the sleep-deprivation and all.

Yes, grandchildren are a special blessing from God. I’ve enjoyed every one of mine. How do you choose your characters’ names?

I try to have each character’s name start with a different letter of the alphabet to avoid confusion. I use the telephone book for last names, and a baby book for ideas for first names. I try to choose heroic-sounding names for the hero and heroine, and villainous or character-suited names for the others.

What is the accomplishment that you are most proud of?

Raising and educating three wonderful, hard-working children who love the Lord (and their mom ).

If you were an animal, which one would you be, and why?

A beaver. I’m highly task oriented. I’m contest to build my home—literal construction, not cleaning! I prefer to have “working” visits with friends, whether helping to hang wallpaper or rearrange furniture or brainstorm a new novel, rather than just sitting around and chatting.

What is your favorite food?

Pizza—all the important food groups J

What is the problem with writing that was your greatest roadblock, and how did you overcome it?

My biggest challenge has been grounding my scenes. As a reader, I didn’t have patience for paragraphs of description of characters and setting. But I swung too far the other way and wrote far too little. I had to learn to portray the setting from the point of view of the character the scene is written in and infuse the description with the emotions that character feels at that moment.

Tell us about the featured book.

Deep Cover is the first book in my Undercover Cop Series with Love Inspired Suspense. Undercover Cops: Fighting for justice puts their lives—and hearts—on the line.

Is it possible to be a man of honor and live a life of lies?

Rick Gray hopes so, because as an undercover cop, he’s had to make too many sacrifices, including a future with Ginny Bryson, the woman he loves.

Ginny Bryson never really knew Rick--he never gave her the chance. Not then, and not now, when he's back with a new alias to gather evidence against Ginny's uncle. The man's crimes led to Rick's partner's death, and Rick wants justice to be served. But his investigation is stirring up trouble, and Ginny is in the middle of it. But how can Rick protect her without blowing his cover, jeopardizing his assignment...and risking both their lives?

Sounds like a book I'd love to read. Please give us the first page of the book.

STOP NOW, OR ELSE.

Rick Gray strode toward the spray-painted warning inside the half-framed building. The sawdust-strewn floor groaned under his weight, then suddenly gave way, dropping him ten feet onto his back in basement mud. His hard hat cracked against a rock and the air rushed from his lungs. Pain streaked through his body. He tried to suck in a breath, but his chest seized.

He willed his muscles to relax and tried again. This time a gasp squeaked through.

He squinted past the flashes of color dancing in front of his eyes and focused on the floor joists that dangled over his head. He might be an undercover cop just posing as the foreman on this group-home project, but he didn’t have to be the real thing to spot the clean saw-lines bisecting three of the struts.

Fury blazed through his veins. If the basement slab had been poured yesterday as planned, he’d be a dead man.

Holding his breath against the throbbing pain, Rick crawled up the ladder to the main floor. Last night’s rain had turned the Southern Ontario sandy loam into a soupy mess, and the late winter chill layering the air around Miller’s Bay bit through his damp jeans. Bit like the suspicion nipping at his thoughts that this wasn’t the handiwork of another disgruntled neighbor.

The warning to stop construction on the controversial home for the mentally challenged might be from an angry Not-In-My-Back-Yarder, but if his “boss” had figured out why Rick really took this job, staging an accident that looked like the work of local protestors was an inspired way to take him out.

Two shiny leather shoes, enveloped in thin rubber sole guards, met his nose at the top of the ladder. Rick shot out his hand and dug his fingers into the floorboards, bracing himself for the push that would send the ladder, and him, toppling back to the ground.

I know I have to read it now. How can readers find you on the Internet?

Blog: http://SandraOrchard.blogspot.com

Facebook: www.Facebook.com/SandraOrchard

Goodreads:http://bit.ly/Goodreads_SandraO

Website: www.SandraOrchard.com


Thank you, Sandra, for visiting with us today.


Readers, here's a link to the book. By using it when you order, you help support this blog.


Leave a comment for a chance to win a free copy of the book. Please tell us where you live, at least the state or territory. (Comments containing links may be subject to removal by blog owner.)

Void where prohibited; the odds of winning depend on the number of entrants. Entering the giveaway is considered a confirmation of eligibility on behalf of the enterer in accord with these rules and any pertaining local/federal/international laws.

The only notification you’ll receive is the winner post on this blog. So be sure to check back a week from Saturday to see if you won. You will have 4 weeks from the posting of the winners to claim your book.

If you’re reading this on Feedblitz, Facebook, or Amazon, please come to the blog to leave your comment if you want to be included in the drawing. Here’s a link.
Http://lenanelsondooley.blogspot.com