Welcome back to Beyond Romance, M.T.! Can you tell my readers a bit about the genesis of the book? Where did you get the idea? Do you have personal experience with the worlds of Article 15?
There
was a series of movies in the 80s & 90s which featured very
strong, sensual, and, shall we say, somewhat morally questionable
women. Lawrence Kasdan, Ron Dahl, and Joe Esterhas led us down dark
paths fraught with lustful terror in Body
Heat, The Last Seduction
and Basic
Instinct. I
loved those movies and those characters, so a big thank you to
Kathleen Turner, Linda Fiorentino and Sharon Stone for the opening
line of Article
15:
“She
was one in a million and the day I met her I should have bought a
lottery ticket instead.”
I
sat on that line for a long, long time. The real problem was not so
much the femme
fatale. It
was her adversary. I wanted more of a challenge for her. More of an
equal than Ned Racine or Mike Swale. That and the fact that I still
had no clue what the story would be.
I
was actually piling up the words for a completely different book, a
sequel to my first novel, My
Brother’s Keeper, when
all the pieces just fell into place like a backwards film of a Jenga
game a year or so ago. Not only that, but for the very first time, I
had a contemporary story. I’ve set my books in the 1940s, 1950s,
1960s & 1970s. Then I skipped way ahead in my Munchausen Series
into the future. But nothing in the here and now. So I set aside
Jungleland
and started in on the story of Helena and Griff.
She
is a modern “face that launched a thousand ships” with a half a
billion dollars in the bank and some ugly suspicions about her
father’s death, a billionaire tech sector investor.
He’s
a Wyoming cowboy who served in the Navy SEALs and operates as a
“fixer” for his high powered Chicago lawyer buddy Lance Baylor.
She
owes her wealth to Google and Facebook.
He’s
free range, off the Facebook feedlot.
But
who’s playing who?
Most
of what happens in Article
15
is way over my pay grade, though most of Griff’s flying experiences
can be found scattered about in my pilot log book from the times I
lived and flew out west.
Blurb
“She
was one in a million…and the day I met her I should have bought a
lottery ticket instead.”
Griffith Crowe, the "fixer" for a Chicago law firm, falls for his current assignment, Helena Nicholson, the beautiful heir of a Tech Sector venture capitalist who perished in a helicopter crash leaving her half a billion dollars, a Learjet 31, and unsavory suspicions about her father's death. As he investigates, the ex-Navy SEAL crosses swords with Helena’s step-brother, the Pentagon’s Highlands Forum, and an All-Star bad guy somebody has hired to stop him. When Griff finds himself on the wrong side of an arrest warrant he wonders: Is he a player or being played?
Lawyers and Lovers and Guns…Oh, my!
Griffith Crowe, the "fixer" for a Chicago law firm, falls for his current assignment, Helena Nicholson, the beautiful heir of a Tech Sector venture capitalist who perished in a helicopter crash leaving her half a billion dollars, a Learjet 31, and unsavory suspicions about her father's death. As he investigates, the ex-Navy SEAL crosses swords with Helena’s step-brother, the Pentagon’s Highlands Forum, and an All-Star bad guy somebody has hired to stop him. When Griff finds himself on the wrong side of an arrest warrant he wonders: Is he a player or being played?
Lawyers and Lovers and Guns…Oh, my!
Excerpt
The
low, almost husky yet honey smooth female voice poured seductively
over Griff and blanked his mind as he turned into the pilot’s
lounge. Though dimly lit, as they all were to facilitate napping, her
red dress glowed like a hearth, yet she still wore her sunglasses as
she studied her iPhone’s screen, slouching and sitting askew in one
of the La-Z-Boy recliners with her legs crossed. Griff’s eye was
drawn to the slow but rhythmic bounce of her stiletto heel. Predator
had become prey. She took off her Jackie Ohhs, looked Griff up and
down, then took a deep breath.
“Mmmm…tall,
dark and dangerous…just the way I like them.”
Griff
locked onto her blue-gray eyes and surrendered. He leaned against the
door jam. His inside voice taunted, No plan survives contact with the
enemy.
“I
couldn’t help but notice Lance’s Escalade on the ramp. He is a
conniving bastard, isn’t he? Of course, he is a lawyer, but he does
excel at it. Not to mention the unseemly delight he takes in it.”
“Always
has,” Griff said. “As long as I’ve known him.”
“Then,
you really shouldn’t be surprised.”
Griff
smiled, realizing it wasn’t Mayor Daley’s fault that he was still
on the ground in Chicago. “Name’s Griff.”
“Yes.
I know.”
He
waited, his face an implacable facade, one molded and hammered into
place on the Coronado Beach while enduring BUD/S training. “You got
a name? Or will you answer to minx or vixen?”
“Hmmm…you
like the ‘X’ words. I prefer Helena.”
“So…how
long will we be playing Three Card Monte with modern art…Helena?
About
the Author
M.T. Bass is a scribbler of fiction who holds fast to the notion that while victors may get to write history, novelists get to write/right reality. He lives, writes, flies and makes music in Mudcat Falls, USA.
Born
in Athens, Ohio, M.T. Bass grew up in St. Louis, Missouri. He
graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University, majoring in English and
Philosophy, then worked in the private sector (where they expect
“results”) mainly in the Aerospace and Defense manufacturing
market. During those years, Bass continued to write fiction. He is
the author of eight novels: My Brother’s Keeper, Crossroads, In the
Black, Somethin’ for Nothin’, Murder by Munchausen, The Darknet
(Murder by Munchausen Mystery #2), The Invisible Mind (Murder by
Munchausen Mystery #3) and Article 15. His writing spans various
genres, including Mystery, Adventure, Romance, Black Comedy and
TechnoThrillers. A Commercial Pilot and Certified Flight Instructor,
airplanes and pilots are featured in many of his stories. Bass
currently lives on the shores of Lake Erie near Lorain, Ohio.
M.T.
Bass Author Links
Website:
https://www.mtbass.net
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/owlworks/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Owlworks
Article
15 Purchase Links
Author
Web Site Info Page:
https://mtbassauthor.wordpress.com/scribblings/article-15-griffith-crowe-1/
M.T.
Bass will be awarding a $50 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a
randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
11 comments:
Thanks for hosting!
Hello, MT!
Glad to have you back. Thanks for a great post and a very generous giveaway. I hope my readers appreciate it!
(Love your author photo, too!)
Where do you do most of your writing?
Thanks so much for sharing your terrific book. I sure enjoyed reading about it and appreciate you taking the time to share it with us.
Sounds like a good read.
Hi Lisabet --
Thanks for having me on the Article 15 Blog Tour.
Glad to have space for my guest post.
Thanks.
~Mudcat
I am always looking for new authors to read. This book sounds like the kind I enjoy reading.
jwisley(at)aol(dot)com
Great post!
Hi Bernie --
I really don't know where they all come from. Sometimes it's different scenes. Sometimes it's a different character.
You never know.
~Mudcat
Thank you for sharing an excerpt
I really enjoyed the excerpt.
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