Guest Post with Author Marianne Harden and Giveaway

Meet Marianne Harden, author of Malicious Mischief.

I love making people laugh. True, I should probably spend time on an analyst’s couch, but I’d rather spill loads of fun into my books. I’m rarely at a loss for words, which is wicked cool for a writer. And it would be poppycock to say I didn’t laze away my wonder years dreaming of far-off places.

Over the years, I’ve traversed the insanely fun back roads of Australia and New Zealand, trekked the wildly exotic landscapes of Asia and Africa, soaked up the blistering Caribbean sun, survived bitter Arctic cold to witness the Northern Lights, and lost a wee bit of my heart to the awesomeness of Europe.

My goals in life are simple: do more good than harm and someday master the do-not-mess-with-me look. I roost in Washington State with my husband and our two children.

Places to find Marianne:

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“YOUR FEAR BECOMES YOU”

We can run, but we can’t hide from our fears. Neither can characters in books. Writers won’t let them. Thus, I decided, to better acquaint you with several character in MALICIOUS MISCHIEF, 1st in the Rylie Keyes romantic mystery series, I would share what scares the heck out of them.

~ Marianne Harden

RYLIE KEYES: Rylie faints at the sight of blood. Bam! She’s out cold. I had fun with this phobia. I hope you’ll agree once you read the hilarious, but tragic disaster I wreaked on her.

SOLOSOLO NAMULAU’ULU: Like the mighty elephant fears the humble mouse, Solo is terrified of honeybees. How often do I make him suffer? Never. But you don’t believe that, do you?

OFFICER ZACH O’NEIL: Zach shot and killed a thief in the line of duty, so the idea of taking another life haunts him. However, one thing disturbs this gorgeous man even more: the possibility of hurting a woman who shares his bed should he experience while asleep a PTSD flashback, a condition he’s suffered since the fatal robbery.

DETECTIVE THAD TALON: True enough, this hunky Scotsman shows no fear. But it seems to me that most people with a secret life would reel at having to choose between their covert, yet crucial objective and much desired love.

DETECTIVE KARL LIPSCHITZ: You won’t like him. I know I don’t. What a pain he was to write. So I’m happy to report that I gave him a ridiculous fear by which he would garner no sympathy from anyone. Lipschitz, the asshat, is afraid of butterflies. I think it’s a riot. Rylie does, too.

HAWTHORNE KEYES, Rylie’s granddad: Though he doesn’t know how to show much emotion, Hawthorne fears loosing Rylie as he did his daughter, Rylie’s mother, when she abandoned Rylie as a baby and disappeared, never to be heard from again.

GILAD KUPPER: Senior citizen Gilad worries over contracting a disease. He’s a germaphobe to the max. He even has a germ-killing wand.

CRAZY WALTER: Those voices in his head, he dreads them. They keep him up at night; they taunt him, and because of this, he will do something horrible. Just wait.

TITA IGLESIAS: Tita, a classic tough girl and former gang member, is now a talented chef and loving mother. Nonetheless, she fears coming off as weak and vulnerable. She won’t allow it. She can’t allow it.

I hope you enjoyed a sneak peek into the fears torturing the lives of some of the characters in MALICIOUS MISCHIEF, 1st in the Rylie Keyes romantic mystery series. What do you fear? How does it control you? 

~Marianne Harden

Is it strange to have the unemployment office on speed dial? Not for twenty-four-year-old college dropout Rylie Keyes. However, her current job at a small retirement home is worlds more important than all her past gigs. Fact is, if she loses this job, she’ll fail to stop the forced sale of her grandfather’s home, a modest lakeside bungalow that has been in the family for ages. But to keep her job she needs to figure out the truth behind the death of a senior citizen found murdered in her care.

The victim was thought to be a penniless man with a silly grudge against Rylie. However, his enemies will do whatever it takes to keep their part in his murder secret.

Forced to dust off the PI training she must keep hidden from her ex-detective grandfather, Rylie has to juggle the attentions of two very sexy, very different cops who both arouse and fluster her at the same time. And as she trudges through the case, she has no idea that along the way she just might win, or lose, a little piece of her heart.

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I turned, my doubt about solving this case rising. I walked into Detective Talon.

I stumbled back, apologizing as he reached out, steadying me with a gentle hand.

“Thank you,” I said awkwardly, shocked by the comfort I found in his touch.

There came a lengthening silence as he stared down at me. His handsome face folded in, brooding, deep into a frown.

I looked at him in bewilderment. “Is something wrong?”

“It’s the way Lipschitz talks of you. It isn’t right and proper,” he said. “You do know he was once in love with you. And dammit, he quite possibly still is.”

Such concern, he must have written the Bintliff note. “There was never anything between us—why dammit?”

“A detective on a power trip, a vulnerable suspect, and an axe to grind—never ye mind, I suspect it’s better if I say no more,” he said, his voice steady but worried.

His assertion intrigued me on many levels. Though loosely exercised, it was a breach of the age-old police code of silence. Even when guilty of wrongdoing, cops don’t talk bad about other cops.

“I never encouraged Lipschitz,” I said. “He was too busy calling me bastard baby to realize that at the time. You should know something else. I had nothing to do with Otto’s death.”

“No mind, I already knew you weren’t involved,” he said. “Though it makes no sense to me, you trying to persuade your grandfather by solving Otto’s murder.”

I raised my brows, figuring he had learned this from Leland. “I need his blessing.”

“Answer me this: does the grape ask the yeast what type of wine it should be?”

Puzzled by this man, by how he talked in riddles, I stepped back, clumsily turning on an ankle. He didn’t steady me this time, didn’t touch me. It shamed me how much I had wanted him to. “I find you so confusing,” I said self-conscious, a bit shy.

“I cannae fault you for that. I’m up to my neck in confusion. There is no rhyme or reason in why I’m willing to break a dozen department rules to discuss this case with you.”

“Don’t risk your career for me,” I said too hastily, too coolly, as one does when skeptical, for police officers carried another burden, the binding pressure of their code of conduct.

He picked up on my doubt and gave me a half-amused smile. “My career will survive, though my ego may not be as blessed.”

I forced myself to say, “Ego complicates things.”

“Aye, while laughing last and loudest. Petulant thing, ego.”

He continued to look at me with his dramatic eyes. I saw the soulfulness in them and thought back to his anger over Lipschitz’s contempt for me. I wondered why it bothered him, why he felt the need to write the anonymous Bintliff note. Surely, he had more to worry about than me. He was a man of contrasts; I could see that now. The dangerous detective with a discerning stare, concerned stranger abhorring the ways of a hateful partner. I smiled, oddly becoming more at ease with him. But there was something baffling, even staggering about the suddenness of this change. I was entering dangerous grounds, I knew I was, but still I said, “Maybe yours just got out of bed on the wrong side.”

“Innuendo?”

“No,” I said, but it had been, and I turned cold all over at my boldness. I was acting harebrained. It had to stop. “Talon, why are you doing this? I’m more often the friend than lover.”

Check out what's up for grabs.

Up For Grabs:

• 1 Nook HD

To Enter: 

• Please answer Marianne's question: What do you fear? How does it control you? 
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Special thanks to Marianne Harden & Sizzling PR for sponsoring this tour-wide giveaway.

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