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| Memorial for the Granite Mountain Hotshots |
The hero of my book, Patrick “Psycho” Callahan, isn’t a
hotshot, but he has all the training to become one, along with heli-rappelling
skills. He leaves the firehouse in San Gabriel, California for Nevada, where a huge wildfire threatening his hometown. His role is to rappel out of
a helicopter behind the fire lines. It’s dangerous, risky work, and what
happened to the Granite Mountain hotshots could easily have happened to him.
Which is why the tragedy of the 19 hotshots struck home for
me. I’d immersed myself in the world of wildland firefighting while working on
HOW TO TAME A WILD FIREMAN, I’d spoken to guys like those hotshots. I know how grueling and difficult their work is.
I was
horrified by such an awful loss and wanted to do something to show my support.
I immediately emailed my editor, hoping I could include the Granite Mountain Hotshot
crew in my dedication, or make a reference to them somewhere in the text. But
it was too late for any of that.
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| Hot Shot crew |
So instead, I decided to try something different. I
researched ways to help the families of those fallen 19, and found a website run by the Prescott Firefighters themselves. Of course I donated right away,
but then it occurred to me that I could get more people involved – at no cost
to them.
So for every comment on this blog post, I’ll donate another
dollar to the Prescott Firefighters Charities. The last time I did this, I got
a great response and gave a nice, hefty donation. So let’s keep the momentum
going! And to add some motivation, I’ll also give one commenter a signed copy
of any book in the Bachelor Firemen of San Gabriel series – your choice.
Here’s a little bit about HOW TO TAME A WILD FIREMAN, and a
short snippet. Don’t forget to leave a comment! I'll keep the giveaway open until midnight EST on October 3.
Thank you for your support. :-)
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The Bachelor Firemen of
San Gabriel have a rebel among them, and there's only one woman who
can put his flames
out.
Firefighter Patrick
“Psycho” Callahan earns his nickname every day. Fast, fit, and a furious
worker, he thrives on the danger which helps him forget a near-tragedy that
changed his life forever. But when his off-duty carousing gets out of hand,
Patrick is sent back to Loveless, Nevada, where the wildfire threatening his
hometown has nothing on sizzling Dr. Lara Nelson.
Lara would rather be
thought of as the physician who returned to Loveless than as the misfit brought
up at a hippie New Age commune. But right now she’s focused on her job at hand,
patching up injured firemen...until the past hits her in the hard-muscled,
blue-eyed form of Patrick Callahan. Now, the embers of their decade-old
attraction have ignited into a full-on inferno, as the bad-boy firefighter and
the good doctor take a walk on the wild side they'll never forget.
EXCERPT
Fury carried her the rest of the way into the belly
of the chopper. As she rolled onto the steel floor, warm from the flames still
only a few yards beneath the helicopter, Patrick reached over and pulled the
door shut.
Immediately the terrible roar of the wind and flames
lessened. Lara lay panting on the floor until Patrick hauled her into one of
the pull-down seats. “I hate you, Patrick Callahan IV.”
“If I had a nickel for every time I heard that from a
woman whose life I just saved, I’d … well, I’d have a nickel. Most women want
to kiss me.”
“You didn’t save my life,” she ground out. She
checked the gash on her shin. Sure enough, blood dripped onto her boots.
From the chair next to her, Patrick fixed his vivid
blue gaze on her.
“Fine. Thanks for that part,” she said grudgingly.
“But I’m really pissed about the rest of it. You had no right to come onto
Haven property and—”
He shrugged, grabbing two water bottles and tossing
one to her. “I couldn’t have if I wanted to. Your aunt was pretty strict with
her security.”
“You mean … ” She gaped at him. The water bottle felt
cool in her hands. She pressed it against her hot cheek.
“I lied. I was trying to piss you off. You always
moved faster when you were fired up.”
He gave her a diabolical wink. God, she wanted to rip
his head off. Smash his face in. Scratch his eyes out. It took her right back
to her teenage years, before she’d claimed her life as a rational med student.
“Congratulations,” she gritted. “I didn’t think I
could hate you more, but I do.”
“What’s that they say about the thin line?” He
toasted her with his water bottle, then glugged from it. She watched his Adam’s
apple move under the stubbly, tanned, filthy skin of his neck. Dirt and sweat
shouldn’t be this sexy, should it? Her gaze traveled to the other side of the
chopper, where Grant sat opposite them, head tilted back, eyes shut. Even
though he too was handsome—and almost as dirty as Patrick—he didn’t have a
fraction of Patrick’s impact on her.
She ground her teeth. “In this case, that thin line
is the size of a superhighway.”
“Then I think it’s time for you to cross to the other
side. In return for saving your life—for which I have yet to receive a decent
thank-you—you’re going to do something for me.”
“Dream on.”
“Can you deny that you owe me?”
“Don’t I get any thanks for risking my life in the
first place? I’m not a firefighter. Someone owes me!”
He jerked his head toward the injured man. “On his
behalf, thank you. He’ll be your love slave as soon as he wakes up.”
Lara ground her teeth.
“Come on, it’s not that hard. All you have to do is
go to dinner with me.”
Jennifer Bernard is the author of the Bachelor Firemen of San Gabriel series, which Romantic Times says is full of "quick wit and sizzling love scenes," and Romance Junkies calls "a captivating series." Visit her at JenniferBernard.net or JenniferBernardBooks on Facebook.
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