Paranormal Romance author Sarah Raplee’s debut novel, BLINDSIGHT,
will be available from Windtree Press and all major online booksellers February 29th.(Yes, she's taking the leap on Leap Day!) This book is the first in her Psychic Agents Series.
Welcome, Sarah. Can
you tell us what your book is about in a sentence or two?
A tenacious undercover FBI Psychic Agent and a lonely blind
wedding singer with a wild psychic Talent must escape from a drug lord’s compound
and traverse the wilderness while pursued by a relentless enemy.
Briefly, tell us what
led you to write BLINDSIGHT. What
else have you published?
I have three published Paranormal Romance stories. Curse of the Neahkahnnie Treasure takes place in the 1880s on the Oregon Coast. Enchanted Protector is loosely based on the fairy tale Snow White and Rose Red. (Love and Magick anthology, Windtree Press.) The Telltale Heart is a Young Adult Paranormal Romance story for Valentine’s Day. (Gifts from the Heart anthology, Windtree Press.)
I’m drawn to writing Romantic Suspense and Paranormal
Romance, so combining those genres came naturally. After reading ‘para-ops’
series by Kay Hooper and Jayne Ann Krentz, I began to brainstorm and world
build my Psychic Agents Series.
BLINDSIGHT’s characters and plot evolved and matured over a
couple years. For example, I had the opportunity to attend an event for writers
where a real psychic who works with law enforcement discussed her work. She avoids
eye contact with people because she gets bombarded with psychic impressions.
That got me thinking. What if someone’s Talent was to project their emotions as
energy? How difficult would her life be? Thus my heroine Melisenda’s Talent was
conceived. I’d been wanting to try writing a blind character, so although she
was born with her Talent, Meli was blinded in the car accident that
killed her parents when she was sixteen. Her Guide Dog, Freddy, is her only
family.
The psychic also explained how she uses map dowsing in her
work. My hero, Hector, refers to that technique in BLINDSIGHT. Hector is a
Master Dowser. He came to me in a brainstorming rush, “the man who can find
anything or anyone, anywhere.” Sounds simple, but it’s not. (Don’t’ tell Hector
I said that. He’s too cocky already.) We have a family joke that I can lose
anything and my husband can find anything. That played into choosing dowsing as
Hector’s Talent as well.
What kind of research
did you do for this book?
I learned and continue to do research into real world
psychic abilities like Dowsing. I had to learn how the FBI is structured and
how they operate. I had to learn about drug cartels. I learned a lot of history
for the world building I needed to do for this and two spin-off series.
Visiting Guide Dogs for the Blind to learn about how dogs
are chosen and trained to be Guides was essential. I interviewed a volunteer about her
relationship with her Guide. And I did a lot of online research to learn what kinds
of lives blind people are living today. I had the pleasure of meeting a blind
writer who gave me pointers specific to my book.
Visiting Mount Saint Helens was a high point in my setting research. I
used this magnificent volcano and the surrounding wilderness as a guide for my
fictional Mount Astor.
Is the Psychic Agents
Series an open-ended series at this point, or do you have an end-point in mind?
The series is open-ended at this point, with three more
books and one short story already under development.
What are you working
on now?
OUT OF SIGHT, Book 2 in the Psychic Agents Series. This book
builds on BLINDSIGHT, having recurring characters. The hero and heroine were
secondary characters in the first book.
What are you reading
now?
I’m starting Playing House by Tammy Palmer. I was
smitten by her novella, Cousin Q. She’s an
amazing Contemporary Romance writer.
What is your favorite
piece of writing advice?
“Never give up! Never surrender!” Persistence and the long
tail are the name of the game.
Please share an
excerpt from BLINDSIGHT with us.
Excerpt
Hector
couldn’t see Meli’s face in the darkness or hear her breath over the sounds of
the storm, but the tension in her muscles gradually slipped away and her
breathing grew slow and even.
The
storm moved on. Thunder transmuted into low-pitched vibrations that buzzed
through the rocks and made his bones ache. Every bruise he’d suffered in the
last twenty-four hours hurt anew. The hard ground leached the heat from his
body like a refrigerator.
Meli’s
knees fell sideways onto his legs. She stirred, clasped his shirt in one hand,
and burrowed into his armpit. He tightened his hold on her and laid his cheek
against her hair. So fragile and defenseless, so—warm?
His face
was heating up. In fact, warmth flowed through him from their point of direct
physical contact. The cold that had wracked his body was banished. Pain
receded. He held a piece of heaven in his arms.
What would it be like to make
love to Meli?
Fred
growled as if he could read Hector’s impure thoughts.
Was her
Talent influencing his emotions? Hector lifted his head. The flow of Meli’s
energy halted.
Fred
huffed and then sighed.
Only
direct body-to-body contact broke through Meli’s shield when she was
unconscious. That was good. A Talent’s psychic shield should remain active
whenever they slept. She wouldn’t give herself away to Killingsworth in her
sleep.
Fred
started to snore like an old man.
Hector
leaned his head back against the cave wall and closed his eyes. His impure
thoughts about Meli returned. He tried to distract himself by thinking about
how to make the cave more comfortable. The three of them would have to lie together
again tonight to share body heat. He’d gather pine boughs for a mattress.
Although truth be told, having Meli snuggled up against him made up for most of
the discomfort he was feeling right now.
The
muted sounds of the tempest receded. A puff of rain-soaked breeze stirred the
air with the scents of wet dog, baby powder and vanilla. His lips twitched. The
woman was full of contradictions. First, there was her virginal performance at
the wedding, followed by a kiss so hot it practically fried his brain. She’d
abandoned him in the gazebo, but then attacked Killingsworth on his behalf and
saved his ass in the torture chamber. She’d been ready to push him off the
cliff after he’d tossed Fred into the river, but had panicked when she thought
he’d drowned.
Why did
she share renewing energy with him whenever they touched? As far as she knew,
he was a drug lord’s bodyguard. Yet she tried to take care of him, whether he
liked it or not. Lucky for him she trusted him when common sense said she
shouldn’t.
He
pressed a secret kiss to the top of her head. His lips tingled. All day long,
she’d been a trooper. Not that she hadn’t argued with him a few times.
Following orders wasn’t one of her strong suits.
Not one of mine, either.
Closing
his eyes, he bolstered his shields and indulged in piss-off-Fred fantasies
about Meli.
© 2016 Sarah Raplee All Rights Reserved
