True Confession

My name is Marie Force and I am guilty of ignoring my blog. There. I said it out loud. I can't believe it's been almost three months since I posted here! You'd think I had nothing to say, which couldn't be further from the truth. If you've gotten to know me at all, you know I've always got plenty to say! So what's new?

FATAL DECEPTION, book 5 in my FATAL SERIES, will be out on November 12. I'm really excited about this book, which in my humble opinion, is the best one yet. Sam and Nick are back with more married adventures. You'll see more of series favorites Freddie, Gonzo, Jeannie, Skip, Graham, Laine and of course, SCOTTY! I've also come up with what I think is a fun way to get our superstar wedding planner, Shelby Faircloth, back onto the canvas in a more enduring role. She was so damned fun to write and her dynamic with Sam made me laugh out loud more than once, so how could I not find a way to get her back into the series? If you haven't already pre-ordered your copy, you can do so now at:


Kindle
Nook
Apple

More retailers coming soon! Here's a bit about what you can expect in FATAL DECEPTION: 

The wife of the White House deputy chief of staff has been beaten to death, and their one-year-old daughter is missing. D.C. Police Lieutenant Sam Holland is in charge of the murder investigation, but she's forced to collaborate with Special Victims Unit detectives as well as thorn-in-her-side FBI Special Agent Avery Hill. Then, a cold case of her father's resurrects old hurts—a distraction Sam cannot afford. 

As Sam's investigation heats up, so does Nick's political career—and the heat carries over to their bedroom. Will Sam put the pieces in time to catch a killer and find the baby, or will ambition, greed and lies prove fatal?

Read an excerpt here.

I get a lot of questions about the Fatal Series, so let me answer a few of them here.

How many books do you plan to write in the Fatal Series?

I don't know yet. I figure as long as I'm having fun with Sam and Nick and readers are enjoying their adventures, I'll keep writing the series. 

What will the next book be called and when will it be out?

Book Six will be called Fatal Mistake, and I believe it's scheduled to be out in June 2013. 

Will the Fatal Series be coming to print?

YES! I'm pleased to report that books 1 and 2, FATAL AFFAIR and FATAL JUSTICE, will be out in  2013 in what's called mass market paperback format (meaning they will be in bookstores and retail outlets close to your homes) from HQN, which is a Harlequin imprint. I'm hoping the rest of the books will follow soon after. In the meantime, the series has been coming to print via eHarlequin.com. Fatal Consequences is currently available there in print.

Will Sam ever have a baby?

I'm not sure yet how that will play out. I do know that bringing a newborn in their lives would vastly change the landscape of the series, and not necessarily for the better. So if and when Sam has a baby, I do expect it to be much later in the series. 

Will we ever find out who shot Skip?

I believe we will, but I'm not sure when yet!

If you have other questions about the Fatal Series, please feel free to post them in the comments. I'm happy to provide the answers—if I have them!

In other news...

Right now I'm working on two books at the same time. COMING HOME, book 4 in the Treading Water Series, will hopefully be out by Christmas, and WAITING FOR LOVE, book 8 in the McCarthys of Gansett Island Series, will be out early next year. Right after that, I'll be diving into FATAL MISTAKE as well as book 1 in my new Green Mountain Country Store Series that's coming in late 2013. If you're interested in audio books, watch for the McCarthy Series coming to audio in 2013!

So that's what is keeping me busy at the moment! Hope you're doing well and getting lots of reading time! 

Catching Up

So I had this big idea about blogging every day, and then I wake up to realize a month has gone by with no posts. I continue to be committed to blogging more often, but the best laid plans...

It's been a busy month around here! In April, I ventured with the family to Spain, where our daughter was born nearly 17 years ago when my husband was stationed there in the Navy. We had a great time showing off our old stomping grounds to the kids. At 16 and 13, they were at the perfect ages to appreciate the adventure of visiting a foreign country. One side benefit I hadn't expect is that Jake, who will be in 8th grade next year, will be more interested in starting Spanish classes than he might've been before the trip. We'll do whatever we can to interest him in school, so that was a plus. Emily loved seeing where she was born as well as the first home and the beach boardwalk that was the site of her very first outing.

For our part, we were surprised by how environmentally conscious Spain has become since we were there. Hundreds and hundreds of wind turbines and solar farms dot the landscape. The car we rented, a jazzy Mercedes (mama loved that car!), had a fuel-efficient feature that shut it down when idling. Hotel room keys are required to get lights in the rooms. We were surprised to realize Europe is so far ahead of the U.S. on these things. Because the European Union came into existence after we lived there, we had to figure out the ins and outs of the Euro, which was an adventure. Dan and I were both surprised that our rusty Spanish came back as if it had been yesterday when we last used it. The funniest episode I had occurred when ordering room service in Spanish and getting all the way to the end and not comprehending a question. So I said, En ingles? And he says, "Anything else?" LOL! Then he said, Room number? I said, "839." He growls, En español! He wouldn't let me cop out at the end, which I thought was hilarious! Then there was the trip to the farmacia to get cold medicine for Jake. Since I didn't know how to say sneeze or cough in Spanish, I worked around that with fake sneezes and coughs. The pharmacist says, "AH!" Jake and I got a good laugh out of that. When in doubt, improvise!

The other lasting impression is how very, very nice the Spanish people are. There's an old-world courtliness that you don't see very often anymore, and even the kids commented on how nice everyone was. We felt very welcome and totally safe everywhere we went. Well, I didn't feel very safe sitting in the midst of a rowdy group of bachelor party revelers on the flight from London to Madrid, but I was thoroughly entertained!

In other news, I've had an exciting month on the book front! We sold the French rights to the McCarthy Series at auction, Fatal Consequences won a Bean Pot Award (left), Fatal Destiny won a Holt Medallion while Fatal Justice and Everyone Loves a Hero received Awards of Merit from the Virginia Romance Writers, and I had the honor of delivering one of the keynotes at the Romance Writers of America New England Chapter conference in late April, which was a real thrill.

I'm hard at work on Season for Love, book 6 in the McCarthys of Gansett Island Series, and I'm still hoping to get that out in June. After that, I'll be finishing Fatal Attack and then turning to McCarthy book 7, Longing for Love, featuring Tiffany and Blaine. I also plan to write the much-requested fourth book in the Treading Water Trilogy (which will ruin the whole "trilogy" concept--haha), called Coming Home. It will feature Kate Harrington and Reid Matthews, closing the circle left open in Marking Time. I know a lot of you have wanted to see closure for Kate and Reid, and I'm all about giving my readers what they want. :-)

Back to work I go! Tell me what you've been up to lately!
xoxo
Marie