Dangerous Desires by Dee Davis

Stranded in the Colombian jungle after a mission goes bad, Drake has only one objective: evade the mercenaries hot on his trail and deliver "the package" to U.S. officials. But "the package" has a mind of her own, and she has no intention of trading one set of captors for another. Madeline Reynard is beautiful, headstrong, and hell-bent on escape after years as a crime lord's pawn. She'll risk everything for freedom, even if it means deceiving the dark, handsome operative who now holds her life in his hands.

Drake has been burned too many times to let a woman manipulate him, especially a secretive one like Madeline. Even so, they cannot deny the attraction between them. Now as enemy forces close in, Drake and Madeline must trust each other with their lives-or face certain death.

I was lucky enough to snag one of these babies from Anna at Hatchette Books. What was really fun about the story is the action, intelligence, and connection between the characters. The author develops each character to a degree that the reader really cares about the outcome. It was such a well developed story that I wondered how Dee came up with it.

So I asked her.

What is your modus operandi for writing a book? Does the idea come to you late at night, do you mull it over for a few months, write out an outline, or just start writing?

Ideas for writing a book come from everywhere—a place, an event, or even a person. Sometimes an article in a newspaper will prompt an idea for a book. I actually keep a file with notes I’ve jotted down, or articles I’ve saved. And sometimes these ideas actually do grow into a full blown plot. And often times the ideas tend to come at times when I’m not prepared to take a note so to speak, which means that I have little notepads everywhere, in my purse, in my car (when I had one), and other strategic places like an end table by the sofa and my bedside table, although usually notes written in the dark in the middle of the night are pretty undecipherable. (My husband, for understandable reasons, is against sudden middle of the night bedroom lighting.)

The full idea for a book, however, may stem from something quick and unexpected, but for me at least, it takes a while for it to percolate into a full blown plot, which means that often times I’m thinking of the next book, at least in the back of my mind, while writing the current one. For instance, as I was writing Dark Deceptions, I knew already that Drake Flynn was going to be my next hero, and so as I set him up as a character, I began to formulate an idea of what I wanted to put him through in his book, Dangerous Desires. Then after finishing the Dark Deceptions, I began to formulate my ideas about Madeline Reynard, Dangerous Desires’ heroine.

When you begin a new book, there are endless possibilities. But each time you make a decision about the plot or characters, you narrow the focus until by the end there’s only one choice left to make. I always start a book from a short blurb, usually written in advance of the actual plotting for the book. So when it comes time to finalize details, I have a rough sketch of where we’re going. I know where we’re beginning. And usually where I think we’ll end up. And maybe a few plot points along the way. It’s kind of like a roadmap. I know I’m in Dallas. And I know I want to go to Waco. And I know I want to stop in West for kolaches along the way. That means I must follow a route that takes me from point A to point C, with a quick stop at point B. The rest of the journey is usually decided as I go along. Part of the joy of writing is discovering where the characters are taking me. But without the basic road map…well, there’s no telling where we’d wind up.

So as a writer, or maybe just in your everyday life, are you a seat of the pants kind of girl or do you prefer to have a plan of action?

Answer this question in the comment section for an entry for one of two copies of this book. 

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Contest ends July 12th

P.S. Between us, I really wanted to ask her where she got her material for the sex scene. But I thought it would be rude, as we'd just met. You can skip it if you want.

P.P.S. Don't skip it.