Thank you for inviting me here today to talk about my newest release, COPY THAT. I love talking about romantic suspense almost as much as I love writing it.

I'm a huge fan of books where things explode, chases happen, shoot-outs are the norm and everyone is on the run. Basically, I'm an adrenalin junkie. Well, in fiction. In real life if someone tried any of those things I'd be in a ball in the corner of closet crying. Sure, I'd like to think I'd stand up and throw a lamp then run like I've never run before. I fear that wouldn't be the case.

When I write romantic suspense I can do whatever I want. In my newest, COPY THAT, my heroine is a kindergarten teacher. Honestly, teaching was the most physically demanding career I could think of other than law enforcement and military. But I wanted Meredith to be the girl next door – someone thrown into an extraordinary situation who manages not only to survive but thrive. She has a bit more of an advantage than some of us. Thanks to a difficult former relationship, she can shoot a gun. Well. It's a surprise to the hero, Jeremy, but a happy one.

But before she can show her kick-butt side, she has to run into trouble, and that part is so much fun to write. Here is a short excerpt from the beginning of the book. Poor Meredith is going downstairs to check out the noise in her neighbor's apartment on the bottom of the house. And, well, it doesn't go well…

She knocked twice. On the second rap, the door slipped open as if the wind had pushed it. Since the air stood deadly still today and Garrett was a bit of a security freak, a ball of anxiety started spinning in her chest. With her past, she didn't scare easily but this scene had Bad Horror Film written all over it.

If she lived anywhere other than low-crime-military-presence-everywhere Coronado, she might have bolted. Instead, she eased the door open. "Garrett?"

Only silence bounced back at her.

Her foot crossed the threshold and she heard a small crack. Looking down, she didn't see anything other than sturdy wood painted a bright shiny white.

When she looked up again, there he was. Not Garrett. He was tall and muscular but this guy, the non-Garrett, was enormous. Like, size-of-a-truck enormous. He had blond hair and wore all black to match his dark frown.

Alarm bells chimed in her head. She couldn’t breathe over the clanking and dinging.

She turned to run and that fast he was on her. A strong arm wrapped around her waist, trapping her arms against her side as a hand clamped over her mouth. The oversized dial on his watch dug into her stomach as her spun her around to face the family room again and her feet went airborne.

HelenKay will give away a digital copy of COPY THAT to someone who comments!!

helenkaydimon.com

 HelenKay Dimon is an award-winning author of more than a dozen novels and novellas. Her first single title, Your Mouth Drives Me Crazy, was excerpted in Cosmopolitan magazine in August '07 and spotlighted at E! Online. She made Cosmopolitan a second time in December 2009 with her novella "It's Hotter At Christmas" from the Kissing Santa Claus anthology. Her books also have been published by Doubleday Book Club and Rhapsody Book Club and translated into several languages.

HelenKay's road to publication took a few turns. She's not one of those authors who burst out of the womb with a notepad in one hand and a pen in the other. She didn’t know she wanted to write until much later in life. She tried international travel and journalism and enjoyed careers in politics and law first. After graduating from Syracuse University with a double major in newspaper journalism and political science, she landed in Washington, D.C. A few years as a legislative assistant to a member of the House of Representatives convinced her law school might be a good idea. Three years at Wake Forest University and one bar exam later and HelenKay moved back to the D.C. metro area as a lawyer. General civil litigation gave way to a specialty in family law and an eventual partnership in a highly respected boutique firm.

After twelve years as a divorce lawyer specializing in unhappy endings, HelenKay now writes romance for a living. The sudden career change resulted from her husband getting one of those "can't turn it down" job offers. With only a few months' notice, his work took the family from Maryland to their current home in California. So, instead of days filled with court, clients and a great deal of whining and complaining, HelenKay now writes for a living. She thinks of herself as a "recovering lawyer" and is grateful every day for the ability to write full time.