Liliana Hart | How To Meet And Marry A Real Life Romance Hero
I should probably start off with the caveat that I canโt guarantee your Happily
Ever After, even if you follow my super awesome instructions word for word.
Becauseโฆwellโฆbecause of something I like to call men. Theyโre unpredictable at
times. Especially the alpha ones. Am I right, ladies?
My husband likes to tell his own version of our love story to strangers and
acquaintances alike. Most special ops alphas have a unique personality. It takes
some getting used to. Iโll intersperse his version with the truth below.
Choose Your Mark
HIS VERSION: I met my husband in a class I took about police
procedural stuff. The details arenโt important because I donโt even remember
what he was talking about. All I could focus on were his rippling muscles and
the tight tshirt he wore. And as soon as he mentioned the fact that he had a
PhD, in anthropology of all things (how sexy is that?), then I was basically a
puddle in my desk. I decided then and there that he would be mine. He was also a
Chief of Police, had been a SWAT cop for 16 years, and had worked undercover for
12 years.
TRUTH: I did meet my husband while he was teaching a class on
cop culture and how to write great alpha heroes. Iโd have been blind not to
notice the rippling muscles and tight tshirt, but I have a confession to makeโI
Iโm a bit of a workaholic. Nothing is going to come in between my need to absorb
as much information as possible and my need to write. Not even a smoking hot man
with a PhD in anthropology.
I took pages of notes, and during his class, I realized that my future husband
had an almost identical backstory to my hero in my JJ Graves Mystery Series
(Jack Lawson for those who read the series). I was fascinated by the
similarities and decided I needed a one-on-one interview.
Attract His Attention
HIS VERSION: I sashayed up to him after class, wearing a
low-cut shirt that showed plenty of cleavage and tossing a wild mane of hair (as
one does when itโs a hundred degrees outside and youโve spent the last eight
hours trekking across a college campus to different research classes). And then
I delivered the best pick up line in the history of pick up lines: โExcuse me?โ
I said, batting impossibly long eyelashes. โDr. Silverii? I really need to talk
to you. You are exactly like one of my characters in my series. Iโd
really appreciate it if we could have a long conversation, preferably over
drinks, and maybe we could have breakfast the next morning.โ
TRUTH: Seriouslyโฆit was a hundred degrees outside. I wore khaki
shorts and a red Stanford tshirt. My wild mane of hair was up in a ponytail
because thatโs the only way I could tame the beast. I approached him, wilted and
exhausted, and said, โYour background is just like one of my characters. Iโd
like to talk to you if youโve got the time.โ
โWhy donโt you come visit my agency?โ he said. โIโve got an open door policy.
Youโre welcome to stay at my house.โ
โIโll stay at a hotel, thanks,โ I said.
โNo, really. Itโs southern hospitality. I canโt let a guest of the city, a
female traveling alone, stay in a hotel. It would be rude.โ
โUh, huh,โ and then I made my way to my next class.
Put a Ring on It
HIS VERSION: I visited his agency during the worst ice storm in
the New Orleans areaโs history. The entire city was shut down and the roads
closed. But I just really had to get there because I couldnโt stand to be away
from my real life romance hero any longer. I rented a car and braved the icy
roads, driving an hour south of NOLA to get to his police department.
I stayed for five days, doing ride-alongs with several of his cops, shooting
machine guns at the range, going on patrol with the bike cops (in uniform),
answering calls, and heading out with the K9 officers. We ate breakfast, lunch,
and dinner together (and made a couple of late night ice cream runs), and we had
great conversations. He was impressed that he kept throwing tasks at me and I
never quit. I was impressed by his agency and how well respected he was in the
community. He was very proper and gentlemanly. It must have been a terrible
strain on him (he is an alpha hero after all).
TRUTH: It was the worst ice storm in the cityโs history.
ButโฆIโm from Dallas. There was no ice in Dallas and the plane took off as
scheduled. I had no idea about the weather conditions once in NOLA. The New
Orleans airport had just opened back up, and mine was one of the first flights
to land. I went about my business as usual, unknowing that my future husband had
it in his head that I just wanted him that bad.
The second paragraph is actually all true, and I left his city with a notebook
full of new story ideas, including The Darkest Corner, the first book in my
Gravediggers Series (out this week!). I also left with the realization that I
should maybe put my notebook down every once in a while a take notice when alpha
heroes are working really hard to get your notice.
I left his city with a chaste hug and headed back to NOLA for a booksigning. It
wasnโt but a couple of hours until he texted. And then the next day he texted
again. And the day after that, and so on and so on. And then one sunny day,
several months later, he stared deep into my eyes and said, โWeโre going to get
married.โ And that was that. We were married a couple of months later.
Soโฆ easy, right? Thatโs all you have to do to meet and marry a real life romance
hero!
Liliana Hart is a New York Times, USA Today, and Publisher's Weekly
Bestselling Author of more than 40 titles. After starting her first novel her
freshman year of college, she immediately became addicted to writing and knew
she'd found what she was meant to do with her life. She has no idea why she
majored in music. Since self-publishing in June of 2011, Liliana has sold more
than 3 million ebooks and been translated into eight languages. She's appeared
at #1 on lists all over the world and all three of her series have appeared on
the New York Times list. Liliana is a sought after speaker and she's given
keynote speeches and self-publishing workshops to standing-room-only crowds from
California to New York to London. Liliana can almost always be found at her
computer writing or on the road giving workshops for SilverHart International, a
company she founded with her partner, Scott Silverii, where they provide law
enforcement, military, and fire resources for writers so they can write it
right. Liliana is a recent transplant to Southern Louisiana, where she's getting
used to the humidity and hurricane season, and plotting murders (for her books,
of course).
New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author Liliana Hartโs
first book in her suspenseful Gravediggers series, featuring an elite group of
mysterious men who might be dead to the world, but are also tasked with saving
itโand no one can ever know.
The Gravediggers arenโt exactly what they seem. Theyโre the most elite of
the worldโs fighting forcesโand all they have in common is that theyโve been
betrayed by the countries theyโve died for. Because they are dead. To their
country, their military, and their families.
Sometimes the dead do rise...
Deacon Tucker is a dead man walking. A former black ops agent, he was
disavowed and stripped of all honor before being recruited as a Gravedigger. But
his honor and good name no longer matter, because no one knows heโs alive, and
heโll never get the recognition he deserves. His mission is simple: save the
world or die trying. And for Godโs sake, donโt ever fall in love. Thatโs a rule
punishable by death. The kind of death a man canโt be brought back from.
Tess Sherman is the only mortician in Last Stop, Texas. She has no idea how
Deacon Tucker ended up in her funeral home, but sheโll eat her hat if heโs
only a funeral home assistant. Deacon is dangerous, deadly, and gorgeous.
And she knows her attraction to him can only end in heartache.
Deacon is on a mission to stop the most fatal terror attack the world has
ever knownโwhatโs known as The Day of Destinyโa terroristโs dream. But when he
discovers Tess has skills he can use to stop them, he has to decide if he can
trust her with secrets worth dying for. And, most important, he has to decide if
he can trust her with his heart.
Romance Suspense | Suspense [Pocket
Books, On Sale: May 23, 2017, Mass Market
Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9781501150036 / eISBN: 9781501150043]
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