Interview with Brenda Novak

I’d like to welcome our guest today, USA Today and NYTimes Bestselling author Brenda Novak. It’s a pleasure having you come visit us at Much Cheaper Than Therapy, where chocolate is plentiful and advice is free. So grab some chocolate and a lounge chair. Your therapy session has begun.

I understand you have two new releases out--TRUST ME and STOP ME. Can you tell us a little bit about your fabulous new books?

These books are part of my brand new romantic suspense series set in Sacramento, California. Together with WATCH ME, which will be out July 27th, they involve three women who met several years earlier in a victim’s support group. Although they experienced different kinds of trauma, they easily identified with each other and developed a deep and abiding friendship. But they’re still struggling to get beyond the incidents that sent them in search of a support group in the first place. So they decide to fight back, to try to heal by helping others who might be suffering as they’ve suffered. They do this by starting a charity together--The Last Stand, a non-profit organization where victims can turn when the police can’t offer relief or they’re falling through the cracks of the system. Through The Last Stand, Skye, Jasmine and Sheridan raise money for counseling and relocation. They help battered women go into hiding. They pay for investigators to assist with the prosecution of certain cases. They provide bodyguards for those who feel threatened. They even do a little investigating themselves.

In TRUST ME, Skye Kellerman learns that man who attacked her in her own bed is about to get out of prison. It was her testimony that put the supposedly mild-mannered dentist away in the first place, and she knows he hasn’t forgotten what it cost him. In STOP ME, widower Romain Fornier lost his reason for living the day his daughter was kidnapped and murdered. When the killer got off on a technicality, Romain used a gun to mete out his own justice. Now that he’s finally out of prison, free to return to his Cajun roots, the last thing he wants to learn is that he might've killed the wrong man. But that’s exactly what Jasmine Stratford of The Last Stand has come all the way from California to tell him.

TRUST ME/STOP ME are very interesting titles. How did you arrive at those names?

I came up with TRUST ME because so many people do trust Oliver Burke (the villain). As a mild-mannered dentist and a family man, he comes off like the guy-next-door. Also, trust (or the lack there of) is a reoccurring theme in the story. Skye must learn to trust David, and the other way around, in order for their relationship to develop.

I came up with STOP ME because the heroine receives a note in the opening pages from the villain. Her sister has been missing for years. She’s searched for so long, she’s all but given up. Then, out of the blue, she receives a box with her sister’s bracelet, the one she gave her sister for her sister’s 8th birthday that she was wearing when she was taken. With it is a note that is written in blood. It says, “Stop me….”

Did you have to do a lot of research for these books?

Definitely. Each new book requires research on police procedures, profiling techniques and what I call vocational training. LOL I have to know exactly what it is like to be whatever I say my characters are. The setting also required research. TRUST ME was easy because it’s set in Sacramento where I live. But much of STOP ME is set in Louisiana (Cajun Country), and I wanted to be sure I got the details of that environment right.

What character did you like writing about the most, and why?

I think I enjoyed Romain Fornier the most. He does something many of us would be tempted to do (kills the man he believes to have murdered his child), and so it was interesting working through those issues with him.

If your book was made into a movie, what actor would you like to fill your hero’s shoes?

Oh boy. I’m terrible at this question because I don’t watch any TV and see very few movies. I only know the really Big Name Actors and none of them seem to match the man in my imagination.

Do you have any authors that inspired you?

Lots! I really admire Susan Elizabeth Phillips for her amazing characterization. Diana Gabaldon and Philippa Gregory and Brenda Rickman Vantrease all inspire me. The list is really too long to name everyone. LOL

What do we have to look forward next?

WATCH ME, the third book in The Last Stand series, will be out July 27th. This is Sheridan’s story. She was just a teenager parked at the lake in Whiterock, Tennesse with a boy named Jason when a stranger wearing a ski mask shot them both. Sheridan lived, but Jason died—and the stranger was never caught. Twelve years later, by working at The Last Stand, Sheridan has learned a thing or two about investigating crime. She returns to Whiterock, intent on achieving answers at last. But someone doesn’t want the truth to come out. Someone unexpected. Someone who is willing to resort to murder. Again.

Thanks, Brenda!

To celebrate her book release, Brenda is offering a free ebook of TRUST ME to one lucky commenter on today's blog. She will be around part of the day today. I'm sure some of you have questions or comments for her, so please ask away...

Bio.
A NYTimes Bestselling Author, Brenda Novak has 25 novels to her credit. Visit her Web site at http://www.brendanovak.com/ to learn more about her and her work, or to enter her “That’s What Friends are For Contest,” where you could win a Caribbean Cruise for Two.

Check out author’s website at http://www.brendanovak.com/

Buy TRUST ME or STOP ME at http://www.amazon.com/.

TRUST ME, RT TOP PICK, USA Today and NYTimes Bestseller, Available Now!