For as long as he can remember, hockey has ruled his life. He’s chased pucks across more than a dozen countries, and had his pick of women in any town he visits.
Then he met HER. And now, he’s about to turn his life upside down because of HER. Because he can’t get the one night of passion he shared with a smokin’ hot biker babe out of his head. Unfortunately, DeeDee wasn’t interested in anything long term, and she’s gone before he’s ready.
Life becomes complicated and difficult when Jase is traded to another team, and as he tries to settle in his new hometown, everything seems to conspire against him, determined to go wrong.
Dancing around their mutual attraction, one day he and DeeDee find themselves face-to-face and body-to-body, but will they be able to set aside their past pain and focus on the future they could make together? Can he make her reconsider her relationship fears and trust him?
Jase is on a mission to show her what they have together is worth fighting for, to convince her to take a chance on him. His attempts will bring him squarely into the path of a motorcycle club, earning him the attention of Mason, president of the Rebel Wayfarers MC.
Jase says, “Bring it on.”
You miss 100% of the shots you never take. – Wayne Gretzky
Oatmeal is her comfort food. She hates gardening but loves flowers; not cut arrangements, but in the wild, outside. She has a deep and abiding respect for our military. Her dad was career Air Force, and flew during the Cuban Missile Crisis, Korean Conflict and Vietnam War. Parades make her cry. Walking Dead is about the only TV she watches anymore, don’t bother her on Walking Dead night, when she’s been known to shout, “Go Team Darryl!” Yes, she’s still sad about Firefly.
She’s a hockey fan, like … a serious hockey fan. She’s loyal to the Edmonton Oilers, but asks that we don’t judge her about that. She also likes the Nashville Predators and Ottawa Senators. The local ECHL team, the Fort Wayne Komets, are a fav of hers, and she has season tickets. She’ll also generally try to hit the road games within a hundred-mile radius.
She’s a wanna-be hiker, working on a “bucket list” of hikes like Knobstone (completed in four days mid-April 2014 – whoooo!), sectioning parts of the AT (51 miles in Georgia in early-May 2014), and now and then looking west towards PCT.
She embraces her inner geek; MariaLisa has been working in the tech field for a couple decades. A sometime PC gamer, she still plays EverQuest after all these years. She says, “What can I say, I’m loyal (see above, I’m an Oilers fan LOL). Yes, I’ve heard of WoW, and have a coupla toons there, too.”
On music, she says, “I love music of nearly any kind—jazz, country, rock, alt rock, metal, classical, bluegrass, rap, gangstergrass, hip hop—you name the type, I probably listen to it. I can often be seen dancing through the house in the early mornings. But what I really, REALLY love is live music. My favorite way to experience live music is seeing bands in small, dive bars [read: small, intimate venues]. If said bar [venue] has a good selection of premium tequila, then that’s a definite plus!”
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?:
List five adjectives to describe yourself.
Ohh. Let’s see … amusing, which I know as people laugh at me all the time; excitable, because I get all squishy about things; miserly, since I hold onto my affections to tightly; orderly, as a list-maker extraordinaire, I believe I could hold this as a title; frightened, I wish this wasn’t one of the correct words, because I would like to use courageous instead, but this is keeping it real.
Name one funny trait you have, that you would like others to know.
Funny quirky, or funny weird … we’ll go with quirky, because that’s more fun, yeah? I grew up in East Texas, but quickly lost the accent when I moved away, because my daddy told me to talk like the news anchors on TV so people didn’t make assumptions based on my speech patterns. However, you put me on the phone with my sister, or one of my friends and I immediately develop the biggest drawl. You’d think I never left the Piney Woods!
What made you want to become a writer?
This one is easy. I didn’t. For a long time, I ignored the stories rumbling around in my head, and even when I began to put them on paper, mostly in self-defense, I did it for me. Even before the stories started pouring out onto the keyboard, any writing I did was entirely self-directed venting, about my son’s autism and the struggles we faced, or it was technical in nature because I can document processes with the best of them. I did not aspire to be a writer, but I have read for pleasure my entire life. I learned how to read at four, and started first grade at five, and by third grade was reading at a high school freshman level. But you asked about writing, didn’t you. While I didn’t “want” to become a writer, now I cannot imagine my life without it being enriched by these people who populate the stories in my head. Maybe that’s the thing, I’m not “writing” but “reading” their stories, and putting the results into sentences and paragraphs?
Do you have a day job as well?
I do! For about sixty hours a week I’m the technology director for a publishing company, but not in my genre. I’m over the IT and Web development departments, and my favorite thing to tell people is if it goes online or plugs into the wall, it’s mine!
Name 2 things you consider yourself to be very good at.
Very good? Like … anything? Okay. I’m a very good driver. /nodnods/ I drove a truck for years, and loved it, and have driven in the 48 contiguous states, Canada, Mexico, and Alaska. Two things … crap. I’m an excellent project manager, that’s how I wound up where I am now in the company ranks. My best skill is knowing the people to bring to the table for the discussions. I don’t have to know how to do everyone’s job, just what their job is, and if they are good at it. I’m a very good judge of character. Wait, that’s three things. Sorry!
Name 2 things you consider yourself to be very bad at.
See above? Following the rules! I’m terrible at following the rules. I’m a pot stirrer, because it doesn’t matter if something is under my purview or not, if it needs attention, I’ll work on it outside the range of defined responsibilities. Terrible rule follower! Second, I’m a terrible cook. Plus I hate it. I can fry things passably well, but that whole thing under the burners? That big box that gets hot? Yeah, I’m kinda afraid of that, so it typically is a storage place for things. Not plastic or paper, learned that lesson the hard way!
When people look at me, they would never guess that I:
Was divorced and working in a biker bar by the time I turned 17.
Am terrified of people. I’d say it’s a fear of large groups, but that’s not truthful, because sometimes two people in a room can be too many.
Have had something like 35 jobs in my life. Longest is the one I am at now, with 19 years. Shortest, you actually can read about in Slate, because it was sheep dipping. I lasted four hours, fell in the dip twice, and the rancher and I agreed I should call it quits.
Tell us about your book.
Where do you get your ideas?
For Jase, the idea came from the comedic character in the first book, Mica. He’s a hockey player, because that is something I love. He finds his salvation in the motorcycle club, because that’s how I see MCs. I wanted to expand on his character and initially planned on having his story be book #2, but after I got into it a bit, I needed people to believe in the draw of the club. For someone coming from outside, why in the world would a normal guy, much less a professional athlete be interested in a law-skirting motorcycle club? By developing the idea of the club over two books in between (this is book #4), the seductive nature of the club becomes authentic…real.
Are experiences in the book based on someone you know, or events in your own life?
Yes. Can I leave it at that? No? Crap, okay. So, yes. I’ve been friends with people in the life for decades, and I’ve seen how invested they are with each other, how supportive the families can be within and without the club. DeeDee’s experiences aren’t a single person, but more an aggregate of responses and circumstances collected over decades of association. Some of the other books in the series, both published and upcoming, have slices of my life woven in, because honestly? It’s been a damn full one, and I’m blessed to have met and loved so many wonderful folks over the years.
Is there any particular author or book that influenced you in any way either growing up or as an adult?
Stephen King. I read him voraciously for years, soaking up everything he had to put out there. The ability he has to describe a scene always allowed me to “see” it in my head. That bit in Pet Cemetery about the little boy’s hat in the middle of the road with blood in it? Clear and bone-chilling to imagine.
I love Disney movies so If you can be a Disney character, who would you be and why?
Kuzco. Definitely Kuzco, from The Emperor’s New Groove. He’s fearful and sheltered, surrounded by people who want things of and for him, good or bad. Plus llamas! LLAMAS!! Have you people heard the llama song? https://youtu.be/cKBnAV1bpRE
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