1) What is the title of your book?
EDGE OF MIDNIGHT, The McClouds & Friends Series, Book 4.
2) Give us your elevator pitch.
Sean, the youngest McCloud brother, has a bad habit of running headlong into deadly danger. Years ago, he was forced to drive away his true love, Liv, to protect her from that danger. Now Fate has put her on his path once again …and the danger is back, too. But nothing on Heaven or earth will keep him away from her this time…
3) How did you decide where your book would take place?
From the very first book in the series, I knew it was the Cascade Mountains. That’s where I grew up, deep in the backwoods. My parents did the back-to-the-land thing, so I gave that exact weird and complicated backstory to my McCloud brothers, times a thousand! I based all of the city plot stuff in the series near Seattle, which I think is a gorgeous town. Those colors, those skyscrapers, those snowcapped mountains, the Puget Sound, Mt. Rainier looming over it all, the misty rain, the flowers…ahhh.
4) Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life?
Hell, yeah! Sean is the most charming and funny of all the McCloud brothers. And Liv, my heroine just wants to read and run her bookstore, which of course is one of my own possible alternate lives, in the string theory multiverse. They are my people.
5) Give us three words to describe your protagonist.
Only three? For Sean, I would say, irrepressible, over-the-top, and I just have to say it—oversexed. My heroine Liv, is bookish and controlled, but secretly rebellious. Oops, I sneaked more auxiliary words than allowed. I’ve never been able to stick to a word count.
6) Tell us something you learned while writing this book.
I learned something about myself that came very clear in this book. My heroines are usually mild-mannered librarian types (with the notable exception of Tam in Ultimate Weapon, coming up in a few months! She is anything but!) But I am a mild-mannered librarian type as well, and in every book, my mellow tea-and-crumpets heroine has to pull out of herself a capacity for mayhem and a drive for self-preservation that surprises the living hell out of her. And I realize these must be my own deeply repressed aggressive tendencies, as Raine bashes the bad guy with a printer (Behind Closed Doors) or as Erin stabs one in the neck with a Celtic dagger (Standing In The Shadows) or when Liv bonks one over the head with a tree branch (Edge Of Midnight.) Heh. I got myself some anger issues there, I guess. Who knew? But Edge Of Midnight is when I started pondering that in a more conscious way! I started wondering how to integrate that hidden aggressive energy with my milquetoast outer image. These are the kinds of things I think about while staring at the ceiling at night.
7) Do you edit as you draft, or wait until the end?
I try not to edit, but I end up doing it anyway. But even if I do, in the end, I will edit everything again, about a hundred million times at least. I try to adhere to some really good advice I read—I don’t remember who said it, but the gist of it was, just get that first draft written, because everything in the first draft will be all wrong anyway, so what the hell, just be wrong faster! And Nora Roberts famously said, “I can edit a bad page. I can’t edit a blank page.” Wise, wise words! I can never stop fiddling. Plus, I handwrite and then enter the words into the computer, which is an insanely inefficient process. I keep trying to learn to compose on the keyboard but it’s just so hard. That connection to my imagination seems to run through my arm and a pen, not through my fingers onto a keyboard. I am stumped by the mysteries of my stubborn brain sometimes.
8) What is your favorite food indulgence?
Oh, you mean I have to pick one? That’s hard! Let’s see, I live in the land of fabulous seafood, pizza, and focaccia. I also adore Venchi chocolate, so dark, so creamy. And fresh figs. And Aperol champagne spritzers. Love those on a hot summer day. And gelato.
9) Describe your writing space.
I was tempted to just lie, and tell you about a clean, lemon-scented, wood-paneled, a frequently dusted haven full of books, but the truth is far messier. My writing studio is the place where people in my family tend to drop stuff they don’t know what to do with. So I bitch and moan and whine about it, but despite my complaints, the ironing board always looms over my shoulder behind my desk, a charming detail in a Zoom call, and the couch behind me is always piled with unfolded clean laundry. My battered, scarred Ikea desk is covered with towering stacks of unmade decisions. Someday, I will fix it. I swear.
10) Who is an author you admire?
Oh, there are so many! There are the usual suspects, like L.M.M. Montgomery, George R. R. Martin, and Diana Gabaldon. There are the romance greats, my faves were always Linda Howard, Jayne Ann Krentz, Nora Roberts, and Maya Banks. I have been enjoying Annika Martin, for a crisp romantic comedy. Lately, I have been loving thrillers by Nick Petrie, the Peter Ash series. I’ve been reading Tana French for mystery, and Guy Gavriel Kay for fantasy, and Laini Taylor for YA fantasy. Great stuff, all of it, and only the most random tip of the iceberg.
11) Is there a book that changed your life?
I can’t immediately think of a specific book that changed my life, but I would say that books in general saved my life. They were my haven, my refuge, and my antidepressant. I don’t know what I would have done in my childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood without romance novels to give me that endorphin lift I needed to just keep going. I am so grateful to all of those writers who pulled me through the darker times in my life. And that’s exactly the reason I wanted to become a writer myself, to offer that precious relief and escape for someone else when they need it the most.
12) Tell us about “The Call.”
The Call was an email, for me! I was living in Italy, and the editor who had decided to buy my book called the number I had provided, and the answering machine message was in Italian, which in retrospect was super silly of me. But she persevered, and sent me an email, back at the very beginning of the email. Oops, I’m dating myself. I was so thrilled. It was a Kensington Precious Gem novel, an imprint of category romances that were destined specifically for Walmart! That was what got me started. I’m so grateful to her, and to Kensington, for that opportunity!
13) What is your favorite genre?
I’m a hopeless omnivore. I like thrillers. I Lee Child’s Jack Reacher series, for instance. I enjoy romance, and sometimes historical romance. I like some literary fiction, and some science fiction, some fantasy, and some YA. I’m a sucker for a good inspirational self-help book. Or a diet book. Or an exercise book. Or cookbooks. All those pictures of food. Yum.
14) What’s your favorite movie?
I love so many. But I will tell you one that I think was seminal—the 1979 Dracula movie, the one with Frank Langella as Dracula. He was so seductive and mysterious and relentless and dangerous. I fell madly in love and started having vampire fantasies decades before they became cool or fashionable. For me, Dracula was my original super-bad bad boy, the one that the heroine can’t resist even though she knows it’s a terrible idea. That movie warped me into craving unredeemable bad boys, and I’ve been lost to all hope ever since. Beyond that, I have to mention my big faves, which are some of the historic blockbusters that defined my adolescence, like the Indiana Jones movies, the original Star Wars, The Terminator, the first two, anyway, and the first two Alien movies. The Sixth Sense was amazing. The latest Dune was great, and I can’t wait for the sequel. I know there are hundreds more equally important, but those are the first that come to mind!
15) What is your favorite season?
I have wonderful moments in all of them, but despite the cruel heat and the blazing sun, I have to say summer, because I love swimming so much. It’s just my favorite thing, floating in the sea, or jumping in a rushing stream, preferably with a waterfall nearby, or a mysterious mountain lake. Best. Thing. Ever. Other seasons don’t offer that, not unless I were made of sterner stuff. I’m not one of those people who carve holes in the ice and jump in. I like cuddly blankets and hot chocolate when it’s cold.
16) How do you celebrate your birthday?
Well, turns out my kid was born the day after my birthday, so ever since that happy event, my birthday has been subsumed into my child’s birthday! How can you plan two parties, cakes, outings, etc, back to back? Can’t do it. Not enough juice. So I haven’t celebrated my birthday in years! Still, I find other ways to treat myself, heh.
17) Name a recent TV show, movie, or podcast that you recommend.
I LOVED the Jack Reacher series! I also really went crazy for The Expanse. And Vikings, that was fun. I usually get to things years after they drop, but happily, with streaming, they wait for me patiently, until I have the time.
18) What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
Of course I love Italian food, fortunately for me, but what I crave sometimes is Mexican, Indian, Thai, and Japanese. There is some sushi, but not the best, not where I live. Italians are very chauvinistic about their cuisine, and justly so since it’s amazing. So it’s not like I can complain.
19) What do you do when you have free time?
I read when I can. I love singing and listening to music. I want to get out more, for long walks and hikes, but I haven’t made it happen yet. I love doing yoga. I love walking my young dog, who looks like a bouncy white fox. I love movies. I love eating out but don’t do it much. The pandemic got me out of the habit. And I also like to cook. I am self-taught, so I don’t have much technique, but I blunder along in my experimental way, and sometimes things turn out great.
20) What can readers expect from you next?
The rest of my McClouds & Friends series will be coming out steadily over the coming months, and another four-book series of Harlequin Desires is coming out as well! One is out already, Their Marriage Bargain, Book 1 of The Tech Tycoons series. I’m excited about those, and I’m also pondering some new sexy dark romantic suspense trilogies, so look for new things from me very soon!
Thanks so much to Fresh Fiction for inviting me to hold forth about my books and myself in their lovely space! I appreciate the hospitality and the interest with all my heart.
Happy reading to you all! Do let me know what you think of the books! I love to hear from readers.
All best!
Shannon McKenna
The McClouds & Friends #4
We’ve met Seth, Connor and Davy already...now it’s wild boy Sean McCloud’s turn to take center stage in the McClouds & Friends series…
He tried to forget her…
Sean McCloud tried to put the past behind him, but he’s haunted by that disastrous day, years ago, that he lost his twin brother and was forced to brutally drive away Liv Endicott, the girl he loved, to protect her from a ruthless killer. It almost broke him…but he did what he had to do…and she lived.
Then Sean discovers that Liv is coming home to open a bookstore in their hometown. The news electrifies and terrifies him, and nothing on earth can keep him from going to her.
She can’t help wanting him…
What were the odds? The very day that a stalker arsonist torches her brand new bookstore, Sean McCloud appears, striding through the smoke and rubble like an avenging angel.
It doesn’t help that the bastard is as stunning and charismatic as he ever was. Liv still craves his touch, but she knows better than to trust him, ever again.
But the ruthless killer from their past has finally caught Liv’s scent, after all these years. He won’t stop until she’s dead, and now the only way for Sean and Liv to survive is to join forces and somehow trust each other, to uncover the shocking truth before it’s too late…
Romance Suspense [Oliver-Heber Books, On Sale: August 9, 2022, e-Book, ISBN: 2940166415752 / ]
Shannon McKenna is the NYT bestselling author of seventeen action packed, turbocharged romantic thrillers, among which are the stories of the wildly popular McCloud series and the brand new romantic suspense series, The Obsidian Files. She loves tough and heroic alpha males, heroines with the brains and guts to match them, villains who challenge them to their utmost, adventure, scorching sensuality, and most of all, the redemptive power of true love. Since she was small she has loved abandoning herself to the magic of a good book, and her fond childhood fantasy was that writing would be just like that, but with the added benefit of being able to take credit for the story at the end. Alas, the alchemy of writing turned out to be messier than she'd ever dreamed. But what the hell, she loves it anyway, and hopes that readers enjoy the results of her alchemical experiments.
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