Welcome back to Beyond Romance, Seelie! It’s exciting that you have yet another new release to celebrate. Can you tell my readers about the genesis of Saint Con?
It all began when I woke up to an AMBER and SENIOR alert on my phone. For some reason, I began to wonder why I never saw an alert for an able-bodied adult gone missing. I did a little research and found that in Wisconsin, only proof of harm or the passage of 72 hours will trigger a missing person’s investigation. The burden of finding an able-bodied adult falls on friends and family. That just seems wrong, because most people don’t have the skill or resources to conduct an investigation. However, as you learn from crime shows, the first 72 hours are critical to gathering evidence and finding a missing person. Suddenly, I had the plot, and I knew I wanted to incorporate a character I had been playing with, a street lawyer for the homeless. “Saint Con” was born.
You almost always use lawyers as your main characters. Why?
It’s what I know. After 30 years, the law and the legal world are so firmly embedded in my brain that I can’t flush them out. That has become the lens through which I view the world and that naturally guides my characters and plots. Injustice infuriates me, but it also leads me to great stories. Even in this book, I find a way to explore social and criminal justice issues.
So tell us more about the book, please!
Saint Con is romantic suspense, three flames, about 150 pages, from my steady publisher Extasy books. It came out last Friday, August 4th, and it’s available from them now in both ebook and print . The book will be on sale at other outlets soon.
Here’s the blurb and an excerpt.
Blurb
It was a night dreams are made of, until the man of Jessica Knight’s dreams disappears.
When self-proclaimed good girl Jessica Knight literally bumps into apparent bad boy Connor O’Brien in a suburban Milwaukee wine bar, she is skeptical—of his intentions and the prospect for real love. A former priest, Saint Con is now a street lawyer for Milwaukee’s homeless. After a night of sizzling romance, Jess begins to thaw, and in the days that follow, she is so charmed by Con that she allows herself to start falling in love. Unfortunately, on their first real date, Con fails to appear. Jess doesn’t know if she’s been ghosted or if Con was unavoidably detained, but she leaves their meeting spot devastated. Until she discovers that Con is missing. Really missing. The police won’t help because he’s not a vulnerable adult nor is there proof that he has been harmed. So, it falls to Jess and her friends to find him. After surmounting numerous obstacles, Con is finally found, gravely injured and in a coma. Suddenly, it appears a promising love match may be over before it really began.
Excerpt
Her best friend, Sadie English, who had been waiting for her return, giggled. “I’ve heard about catching diseases from public toilets, but I’ve never heard about catching a man.” A sly expression crossed her sweet face, and she extended her hand to Connor. “Hello, I’m Sadie. What apple cart did you fall off of?” She tossed her head of burgundy pink-tipped curls and her stylishly trimmed eyebrows pitched up over curious brown eyes.
Connor rolled his eyes as he took the stool next to Jessica. “Name’s Con.” He shook her hand. “Both lawyers?”
Sadie burst out laughing. “Hell, no. I enjoy my life. You won’t find me trapped in some windowless office working sixty hours a week. I’m into bagels.” Sadie pointed at the tee shirt she was wearing, bearing the words, bagels are my everything.
Con made a face. “Bagels?”
Sadie grinned. “My family owns Bagels & More. We make twenty kinds of bagels daily.”
Jessica nodded. “Not just bagels, but bagelwiches and bagel cakes and stuffed bagels. My favorite is the egg-in-the-hole bagel.”
Connor studied Sadie. “I think I know your father. Tall, thin, gray hair? Name of Jeb?”
Sadie stared at him. “How the heck do you know my father? I’ve never seen you in the store and believe me, I’d remember.”
“St. Ben’s Social Justice Committee. I’m the chair.”
Sadie’s jaw dropped. “You’re the guy with the traveling justice center? The guy who got kicked out of the seminary and became a lawyer?”
“Or, as your father claims, got dumped into the devil’s lair.”
Sadie bounced up and down on her stool, her eyes wide with excitement. “My God, I can’t believe it.” She grabbed onto Jessica to steady herself. “Jess, this is the guy I told you about. He travels around Milwaukee County offering legal services to the unhoused. In an old food truck.” She bounced again. “And you have a motorcycle. You’re a biker. Not that kind of biker, but a member of God’s Warriors. You guys are amazing. You do so much good, but in secret.” Sadie pounded on Jessica’s back. “I can’t believe he’s that guy.”
Jessica’s eyes narrowed, and she stared at Con. “She’s kidding, right? You’re not Saint Con.” She shook her head in disbelief. Even she had heard of the guy. She nudged Sadie. “Trust me, he’s no saint. He hit on me.”
Book trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocq4PDUUpuk
Buy Links
Publisher: https://www.extasybooks.com/Saint-Con
Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CDW5SXDZ
Barnes & Noble:
Kobo:
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/186313179-saint-con
BookBub:
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Award-winning author Seelie Kay writes about lawyers in love.
Writing under a nom de plume, the former lawyer and journalist draws her stories from more than 30 years in the legal world. Seelie’s creative pen has resulted in more than twenty tales of contemporary, erotic, and paranormal romance, and romantic suspense.
Seelie resides in a bucolic exurb outside Milwaukee, WI, where she enjoys opera, the Green Bay Packers, gourmet cooking, organic gardening, and an occasional bottle of red wine.
She is also an MS warrior and ruthlessly battles the disease on a daily basis.
Seelie can be found on most social media, including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. To subscribe to her newsletter, please visit https://rb.gy/w69pim.
Author Links
Website: https://www.seeliekay.com
Blog: https://www.seeliekay.blogspot.com
Twitter: @SeelieKay https://twitter.com/SeelieKay
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/seelie.kay.77
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seeliekay51/
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Seelie-Kay/e/B074RDRWNZ/
BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/seelie-kay
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16492565.Seelie_Kay
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@authorseeliekay
Newsletter sign-up: https://rb.gy/w69pim
3 comments:
Hello, Seelie,
Thanks for being my guest. This sounds really excellent. The cover is amazing!
Hope the book does really well.
Thanks for hosting "Saint Con" today! I have to admit the guy on this cover made me sit up straight and purr, "Well, hello there!" I should also mention that "Saint Con" is now live on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CDW5SXDZ.
Added to the post! But it doesn't seem to be on BN or Kobo yet.
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