Don't Let Go (21 page)

From the desk of Marliss Melton

Dear Reader,

It has been said that every novelist draws on what she knows and that her stories are, in some ways, autobiographical. So, reading any author’s work is a bit like glimpsing the skeletons in her closet or her underwear hanging out to dry! This often-embarrassing phenomenon couldn’t be truer for me than it is in DON’T LET GO (available now), the fifth book in my Navy SEAL series.

I’ve never been to Venezuela to do mission work like Jordan (the heroine of DON’T LET GO), but I did study abroad in Ecuador during college. I never adopted a child like the little boy Jordan wants to adopt, but I cherished my little Thai foster sister, who went on to be adopted in the United States. I’ve stood in her sister Jillian Sander’s shoes, a widow with young children, hoping to carry her boys through their grief in the most positive way possible. I’ve watched a relationship develop between a fatherless boy and a man willing to fill a giant’s shoes. But, most obviously, I’ve loved a man like Solomon McGuire, a man who is passionate in all things, secretly romantic, and sometimes hard to live with.

My second chance at love, my husband, most profoundly influenced the development of Solomon’s character, from his black moustache to his New England dialect. Of course, I had to pair Solomon with a woman who resembles me, at least in regards to her hair color and the speed at which her baby was born. Not every reader is going to fall head over heels with this commanding character, but there’ll be plenty who do. All I can say, ladies, is, “Sorry, Solomon is all mine.”

To see a real–life photo of my inspiration, just check out the photos page on my Web site
www.marlissmelton.com
. And while you’re there, check out a preview of my next SEAL Team Twelve book, featuring the blue-eyed, baldheaded Chief Sean Harlan.

Did I mention that my husband is also bald?

Yours truly,

From the desk of Elizabeth Jennings

Dear Reader,

Charlotte Court, the heroine in PURSUIT (available now), is a truly gifted artist, who perfected her craft in Florence, Italy. Art is her entire life until a murderer comes after her and she has to go on the run to Baja California. That’s where she meets Matt, a former Navy SEAL, a rough, tough guy, who falls head over heels for her and is blown away by her talent.

Like Charlotte, I spent a number of years in Florence, Italy, immersed in an artistic environment. My mom worked at a US graduate school of fine arts—now, alas, defunct—in a beautiful villa nestled in the green hills just below Fiesole, Villa Schifanoia. Legend has it that this was the villa where the young Florentine noblemen and women fled to avoid the plague in Boccaccio’s
Decameron.

We lived around the corner from a fabulous international art school that was in itself a small masterpiece. It was in a 16th century deconsecrated church in the Borgo San Frediano, simply a stunning place to study art. Just a glimpse inside felt like being magically transported back to a Greek or a Roman temple.

I’m arty, but not visually gifted like the students I grew up around. I love words. At the time, I was learning characterization, hooks, and motivation, studying the masters, going over the writing again and again and again, revising and rewriting until I got it right.

I founded a writer’s group in Florence that met in the basement of the American church—quite an eclectic group of people. I was the only one writing romance and it did me good to pit myself against those who had no sympathy for or knowledge of the genre. It stiffened my spine. And, boy, did I learn how to tighten up my writing.

Since I was putting myself through this intense apprenticeship, exactly as a young Renaissance artisan working in a
bottega
or the young artists in that beautiful school, I had an enormous amount of sympathy for the work involved in becoming proficient at an art.

Charlotte Court was born then in my mind, all those years ago. A beautiful woman, exceedingly gifted and hardworking, who lives for her art. I had her study at this wonderful art school. She was alive to me—her drive to paint and draw almost obsessive, yet totally understandable.

I have held Charlotte in my head and heart all these years, and in this, my eighth book, I have finally given her life.

She is put to the test in PURSUIT. Wounded and hunted, she shows immense courage and fortitude. I like to think that her art gives her strength and grace.

Happy reading!

Dear Reader,

I hope you enjoyed reading DON’T LET GO as much as I enjoyed writing it. Between the gut-wrenching drama and the heart-thudding action, this book reminded me of a roller coaster.

So, on to the next wild ride . . .

Did you happen to notice Sean “Harley” Harlan again in this book? His gorgeous baldness first appeared in NEXT TO DIE when he gave Joe a dressing–down for taking his place on that fated mission. In uniform, Sean is all business flashing blue eyes, and he can out-perform any officer on the teams. In DON’T LET GO, we see Sean in his civilian-mode: a laughing, teasing hunk of fun, as laid-back as a guy can get. And he loves kids, taking immediately to Ellie Stuart’s fatherless boys. But Ellie herself is off limits. Sean has learned the hard way not to date women with children, regardless of their appeal. He hates breaking little hearts when his relationships end. But there’s something about Ellie that keeps Sean coming back. And when Ellie’s three boys are mysteriously kidnapped and Ellie herself is being framed, Sean spearheads a wild and ultimately deadly search to reunite mother and children. But with Ellie constantly at his side, his self-restraint is wearing thin. Will he violate his rule and sleep with her? Will he break the hearts of the boys he’s determined to save? Read the next rollercoaster ride in my SEAL series, coming in Spring 2009.

Enjoy!

http://www.marlissmelton.com/