Wednesday, September 26, 2018

Cabin 12 By Freya Barker

Title: Cabin 12 (Rock Point #2)

Author: Freya Barker

Genre: Romantic Suspense

Release Date: September 13, 2018

Cover Designer: Freya Barker

Hosted by: Buoni Amici Press, LLC.

Even at thirty seven, with a challenging but rewarding career as a paramedic, Bella Gomez is treated as the baby of the family. It’s made her allergic to anyone meddling, so she chooses to keep mostly to herself. Unfortunately that doesn’t stop her family from inserting themselves in her life. Nor does it deter the one man she knows she shouldn’t get close to from showing up on her doorstep.

Jasper Greene, an FBI agent with the La Plata County field office, doesn’t even know the meaning of family. His team is his family, which is why—when his boss asks him to keep an eye on his baby sister—Jasper readily complies. Even when the sister in question is a spectacularly developed princess with plenty of attitude.

With a shooter on the loose and corruption running rampant, Bella is a magnet for trouble, and Jasper finds himself with his hands full—in more ways than one.

What kind of research do you do, and how long do you spend researching before beginning a book?

Writing realistic fiction is kind of my claim to fame (snort), and in order to do that believably, I have to make sure what I write is accurate.

I love doing research.

I spend most of my time on it when writing romantic suspense involving law enforcement. Those plots tend to be intricate and often deal with different departments, and therefore different procedures and methods of investigation. In order to accurately reflect those, I’ll first need to know which department has jurisdiction over a particular crime.

My resources for that type of information include a retired FBI agent, a retired journalist, a virtual bible of law enforcement websites, and good old Google.

I generally do this type of research before I start writing. However, since I am a pantser (that means I have at best a vague outline of the plot before I start writing), there is tons of research I do during writing as well.

Sometimes research I do can lead to adding twists to the plot. An example is my new release, Cabin 12, an FBI story. In the story I describe the use of a silencer specific to a particular kind of gun, and I discovered through research that silencer has a rubber lining that can leave traces on the expelled bullet. I was able to use that as a way for law enforcement to ultimately lead them to the culprit.

For all my stories I have Google maps open. I love using the satellite function to give me a feel of the surroundings the story plays in. I look for businesses, stores, restaurants I can refer to. I even scout locations for my characters to work and live, as detailed as a specific building on a particular street. I love the idea a reader who might live in that town or city can recognize certain landmarks I mention, making it feel even more realistic to them.

As to how long research takes me, the answer is easy: it takes from the moment a story starts taking shape, to the moment I hit publish.

And I love every minute of it!

Freya Barker loves writing about ordinary people with extraordinary stories. Driven to make her books about 'real' people; with characters who are perhaps less than perfect, but just as deserving of romance, thrills and chills, and their own slice of happy. A recipient of the RomCon “Reader’s Choice” Award for best first book, “Slim To None”, and Finalist for the Kindle Book Award with “From Dust”, Freya has not slowed down. She continues to add to her rapidly growing collection of published novels as she spins story after story with an endless supply of bruised and dented characters, vying for attention!