CAT JOHNSON’S RED HOT & TRUE BLUE MILITARY HEROES
I get asked the same question a
lot—why did I start writing military romance? The answer is easy. I loved
reading military romance. Suzanne Brockmann and Alison Kent were fixtures on my
keeper shelf, so when I got my first romance contract in 2006, I asked my then
editor, if I tried my hand at a military romance would she be interested? Her
answer was yes.
That was the birth of the Red,
Hot, & Blue series, currently releasing with Samhain Publishing. It started
out with a team of SpecOps, but as I began researching the details for those
first stories and came in contact with actual deployed troops, my ideas and
story began to focus more on the tankers, the infantry, the boots on the
ground. And as the war changed, the hot spots moving from Ramadi, Iraq to the
border provinces in the mountains separating Pakistan from Afghanistan, so did
my settings change to reflect the reality. Reading through my series from book 1 the reader will notice
the shifts—from the elite BlackOps, to the soldiers dodging snipers in Ramadi,
to the slight side turn the series takes when I focus on the hometown and the
family members of some of the military heroes, to the eventual move to the new
hotspots in Afghanistan.
I hope the readers enjoy the
journey as much as I enjoyed getting to know those real life men who inspired
the stories.
Cat Johnson
A FEW GOOD MEN (Red,
Hot, & Blue Novel) by CAT JOHNSON
eBook release
June 19, 2012, PREORDER now from:
Please enjoy the following excerpt from A FEW GOOD MEN…
He has met the enemy…but he’s never
fought desire like this.
Deployed in the deadliest place on
earth, Army Staff Sergeant John Blake relies on caffeine, adrenaline,
years of training and sheer force of will to get through his days. He has
no problem with his tank crew passing around a sexy romance novel, but John’s
a fighter, not a lover. He’ll pass. Winding up as the author’s accidental pen
pal wasn’t in his plan, but there’s something about her sweet, caring
emails that has him looking forward to checking his inbox.
Week after week, Maureen Mullen, aka
erotic romance writer Summer Winters, has dated one loser after another in
a quest to find the last decent man on earth. Now it seems she’s found
him—halfway around the world. When it comes to falling for unavailable
men, she’s batting a thousand.
Gradually, the emails between the
war-hardened warrior and the writer of passionate prose heat up to the
point of keeping them up warm and wanting at night. Soon they’re wondering
if it’s possible to build something solid out of cyberspace, or if it’s
just an emotional mirage that will dissolve in the heat of reality.
Warning: Contains some steamy phone
calls from the war zone and one hell of a sexy first meeting between two
strangers who are already in love.
Excerpt:
Jazzy had been alive when
the medevac helicopter took him away, but now that John knew he would be fine,
he was pretty sure he wanted to kill him.
John ran his hands over his
face. “Why can’t you wait to email her when you get out of here?”
“Because the docs say I
can’t leave this hospital bed for almost a week, and then I have to go straight
to my bunk and not move for another week except to go to the head. So you have
to do it. I can’t be wandering around the MWR. I might collapse and injure
myself.” He held a hand to his ribcage and looked pitiful.
“Look. I have no problem
calling your wife for you. Hell, I’ll even contact your grandmother and dear
old aunt if you want, but I am not emailing your sex-writer pen pal, Summer
Winters.” John was sticking to this resolution even though Jazzy was giving him
the hurt puppy eyes.
He watched the man in the
bed before him shrug and then wince in spite of the large number of painkillers
John knew was coursing through his veins. The areas covered with white gauze
bandages outnumbered those without, making the concussion and contusions seem
worse. But John was well aware that with explosions it was the internal
injuries that could kill you, no matter how good or bad the exterior looked.
“That’s okay, sir. It’s not
like I got injured following an order you, my superior officer, gave me or
anything—oh wait. It is exactly that.” Jazzy couldn’t suppress the grin that
crossed his lips.
He was trying guilt now?
Dammit, though, it was the truth. Jazzy had been out of that tank and in harm’s
way following his order.
John growled, a low
rumbling sound of frustration and defeat. “I really hate you right about now.
You do know that, don’t you?”
Jazzy smiled wider. “Yes,
sir. And might I add you’re not the first superior officer I’ve had say that.
So her email address is summer at summer winters dot com. Do you want me to
write that down?” Jazzy picked up the pad of paper and pen he kept on his bed
so he could write his wife daily.
“No, thank you. I believe I
can remember that very complicated address.” John scowled until his lips formed
one tight line.
Don’t miss the rest of The Red,
Hot, & Blue Series from Samhain
Publishing
Available Now:
Red Blooded
(a print compilation of the eBooks Trey, Jack and Jimmy)
Coming Soon:
Model Soldier (Book 8)
A Prince Among Men (Book 9)
If you enjoy military romance, comment
and tell us why!
Contest:
Cat will be giving away to one lucky
commenter their choice of the following Red, Hot & Blue series eBooks:
Choose from Trey, Jack, Jimmy, Jared, Cole or Bobby. (International entries
included)
