Teresa Reasor visits with an Interview and Excerpt

Today I would like to welcome Teresa Reasor to my blog. Teresa and I are in two writers groups together. In March, we roomed together at a workshop and she told me about her fascinating series with Navy SEALS. Like me, she puts readers through a roller coaster of emotion as she digs into the nitty-gritty of love. She also likes to break some of the "rules" of the Romance genre (as set by New York publishers), which is why we are both self-publishing probably. 

K: Teresa, could you tell us a bit about yourself?

T: I grew up on Naval and Marine Corps bases all over the country. But home base was the hills of Southeastern Kentucky. I married a Kentucky boy in 1975 and raised a family, now scattered to the four winds.

I am a Teacher, Writer, and Artist. I teach part-time for Eastern Kentucky University and am the author of four romantic suspense novels, Highland Moonlight, Captive Hearts, Timeless, and Breaking Free (SEAL Team Heartbreakers #1).

I am a prolific artist. My artwork focuses on my roots in Kentucky, because no matter where my family is stationed, Kentucky was and is home.

K: How did you come up with the title?

I needed a word or phrase that I’d be able to be used in each book’s title, since I’m writing a series. And the first book Breaking Free was about my characters, First Lieutenant Adam “Hawk” Yazzie and  Zoe Weaver, breaking free of the major physical and emotional issues that made it difficult for them to find love and happiness.

Blurb:

When LIEUTENANT ADAM “HAWK” YAZZIE rescues ENSIGN BRETT “CUTTER” WEAVER during a mission in Iraq, his faith in his team’s loyalty is shaken. Someone in the team attacked Cutter and left him for dead. But who?

ZOE WEAVER races to her brother Brett’s bedside. He stood by her while she fought her way back from a devastating injury, and she’s determined to do the same for him. Though drawn to Hawk’s good looks and steady strength, she’s reluctant to get involved with a man in uniform. But with Brett lying in a coma, Hawk may prove the key to what happened to her brother.

Hawk is torn between loyalty to his men and his need to see justice done. When he tries to save a troubled teammate’s career, he unwittingly puts Zoe’s life in danger. Can he lead the rest of the team in a rescue operation to save her? Or will one of Hawk's brothers in arms destroy the woman he loves?

The second book in the series, my current Work in Progress (coming out this summer), is titled Breaking Through. Brett, my hero, is breaking through the barriers of his memory loss and his PTSD to find the truth about his injury so he can heal, while Tess, the woman he loves, is breaking through her issues caused by her need for her absentee, journalist father’s love and approval.

Blurb for Breaking Through (Book 2) 

Ensign Brett Weaver wakes up from a month-long coma to discover that he and his SEAL team swim buddy are being investigated for murder. And that his friend and comrade may have tried to kill him.


Reporter Tess Kelly is working hard to live up to her journalist father's expectations, so when Brett offers her some information in exchange for an introduction to her father she jumps at the chance. The explosive international situation Brett lobs into her father's lap is a major scoop.  But the secret she's discovered about Brett Weaver could be just as controversial.


Will her feelings for this wounded warrior win out, or will she choose to follow her father's path and release a story that will destroy Brett's SEAL career?

The rest of the books in the series will be:

Breaking Away–2^nd Lieutenant Harold Carney Flash’s book: He’s Hawk’s executive officer and the team’s sniper.

Breaking Out–Ensign Zack O’Connor: Doc’s Book, the Medic of the team.

Breaking Hearts–Ensign Dan Rivera: Bowie’s Book. He’s the Team ladies' man and Communications officer. I thought that was especially appropriate.

Breaking Chains–Ensign Derrick Armstrong: Strong Man’s Book. Derrick’s book will be the last book of the series and possibly the most difficult to write. He has to overcome some really tough anger issues and face some hard things about what has made him into the man he is. And he has to redeem himself. A tough thing to do because he’s abused the woman he loves and betrayed the men of his team. And he’s gone to prison because of it. He has to own what he’s done and try and look for forgiveness from the people he’s wrong in order to heal.

Somewhere in there I wanted to write a short story or novella about Ensign Oliver Shaker the only married man in the team and the team member who guarded the team’s back door during the mission that kicked off the whole series. I’ll title it Breaking Over.

K: Describe your hero and tell us a little about him.

T: Ensign Brett Weaver is from Lexington Kentucky. He’s soon to turn 29. His mother is a retired teacher and his father was a 1st Sergeant in the Marine Corps who was killed by friendly fire during Desert Storm. 

Brett is a SEAL. It’s all he’s ever wanted to be.  But he’s spent a month in a coma due to an injury he sustained during the last mission they went on in Iraq. Now that he’s home and finally awake and back physically, he’s hitting some roadblocks to getting back to his team. He’s been diagnosed with PTSD because he has a speech glitch that comes out when he’s under stress. His Commanding Officer is throwing challenges in his path to try and force him to resign because he views Brett’s brain injury as a permanent stumbling block to his coming back to his team. And the worse thing Brett faces is that he’s under suspicion of murdering an Iraqi citizen.

K: Describe your heroine and tell us a little about her.

 T: Tess Kelly is a reporter. She’s originally from New York, but her father was an award-winning journalist who’s traveled the globe so she’s lived in several places as a child, but now San Diego, California, is her home.

Tess has a difficult relationship with her father, Ian Kelly, and it has left her with unresolved issues. He and Tess’s mother divorced when she was six, and he’s been an absentee father who’s moved on with his life and left his daughter behind.

Despite that, Tess has followed in her father’s footsteps and become a reporter, but she knows she’s not cut out to cover the high-risk stories her father writes about. 

Tess is attempting to carve out her own niche in the writing world. All she wants is for her father to acknowledge her and be proud of her. But Ian is too wrapped up in his own need for international recognition to view her as his daughter. To him she’s young, motivated, and competition to the aging reporter.

Because of her father’s abandonment and his constant confrontational challenges of how and what she’s doing with her writing, Tess has self-esteem issues and it’s made her fearful of being abandoned. Thus she puts up barriers that hold men at a distance.

K: If you’re writing a series, have you kept the same characters throughout?

T: Yes, I will keep the same characters in this series, but with the focus on a different hero and heroine in each. But each book is tied to the others by the inciting incident in the first book, the team’s last mission in Iraq before they were transported home, and Brett Weaver’s injury. But each book has it’s own standalone plot line that spins off of that. Each hero has to work through his own demons caused by what happened during that last mission. And their romantic interests, the ladies, all have issues to work through, as well. There is always a suspense angle in the books, too.

K: And what through line or theme have you used to tie your series together?

T: Of course there’s a Navy SEAL theme throughout. But the through line that ties the series together and that will not be ended until the last book is written is the incident in Iraq that kicked off the series. Brett Weaver’s injury and what Derrick Armstrong did or didn’t have to do with it.

K: Where can readers reach you and find out about your books?

T: My website address is Teresa Reasor.com
My blog is My Muse’s Musings

My books are available at Amazon    

Barnes and Noble

The Wild Rose Press (Highland Moonlight & Captive     
Hearts)

Smashwords

Books are also available at Apple, Kobo, etc.

I love to hear from readers! My email address is teresareasor@msn.com

Excerpt from Breaking Through (Book 2)

Sunlight lanced off the scar on his temple. The reason behind the hesitation in his speech suddenly struck her like a blow. An ache settled in her chest, and quick tears burned her eyes.

He’d stood up there on stage in front of two hundred women. Knowing his speech might freeze up. Knowing he’d feel humiliated if it did. The courage it must have taken.

And how hard had he worked in the past two months to get this far? Probably harder than she’d ever worked at anything in her life.

“Doc Stewart thought being back with my team might smooth things out for me. I convinced him of it. And now I’m just stuck.” He thrust his hands out, palms up.

“Whose idea was it for you to do the public relations thing, Brett?” she asked.

Confusion flickered across his face. “My CO’s.”

That asshole. Outrage tumbled through her.

The need to touch Brett, to offer him comfort rose like a tide. She raised a hand to his cheek. The warmth of his skin seeped into her fingertips. His pale blue gaze focused on her.

“You’re going to get through this, just as you have everything else.” If it was humanly possible, he would. But what if he didn’t?

His muscular bulk, the strength of his personality and the focus he projected made her more aware of his vulnerability than she’d ever been anyone’s. She rose on tiptoe to slide her arms around his neck and hold him.

His arms went around her and he stepped into the embrace, bringing their bodies close. His heart beat against her hard and fast. Too hard. Too fast. And his skin felt feverish.

She caressed the back of his neck soothing him. “We’re going to find the kid. I know we will.” She rested her cheek against his and breathed in the clean scent of soap and man.

The longer she held him, the more she relived those moments when they’d danced, but the memory was a sad substitute. Her breasts ached with the need to be touched. The row of bars and medals on his uniform pressed into her, stiff, unyielding. She shifted, and his arms tightened. The thrust of his erection lay like a tormenting promise against her belly. Oh God, if she raised herself on tiptoe, it would be so close.

“Brett—” her voice came out breathy and weak. She drew back to look up at him and his mouth was there covering hers, his arm tightening around her even while his hand ran down over her buttocks to mold her against him. At the open hunger he exhibited, her heart thundered against her ribs. Her mouth parted offering him access and his tongue thrust forward to find hers.

I have to stop this. I have to. The kiss went on and on. Oh God, had she ever been kissed like this? He cupped her breast and ran his thumb over the erect nipple pushing against the fabric of her blouse. Her will wavered, and she pushed against his touch, encouraging him. And when his mouth left hers to follow the line of her cheek and jaw to her throat, all she could do was drag in enough air for a sigh instead of the words she needed to say.

The stiff ribbons on his shirt snagged the neckline of her blouse. Brett hastened to unbutton his shirt one handed and dragged it free of his pants and shook free of it and pealed his t-shirt over his head.

Wasn’t that what she’d wanted? Yes.

Her breathing grew choppy at all the golden-hued skin laid open to her view, her touch. And as his lips took hers again, she stroked her palms over the patch of light brown hair on his chest, then over his wide shoulders layered with muscle.

She wanted—more. She wanted him inside her, moving.

His hand trailed upward beneath her shirt and found her bare breast. He seemed to know just how to touch her, how much pressure to exert as he kneaded and caressed her.

“I want your legs around me, Tess.” His voice sounded deeper, huskier.

She wanted them there too, but—Her father’s accusation, ‘Are you sleeping with this guy?’ rose up to slap her out of her sensual haze. If she did this, he’d know. He already thought so little of her as a journalist— “We can’t— I can’t—”

Brett nibbled at the sensitive area between her shoulder and neck. She shivered and caught her breath. His heart was thundering again, but so was hers.

Tears stung her eyes. “I can’t, Brett.”

He froze, and for a moment continued just to cradle her breast in his hand. The warmth of his touch seeped into her flesh, and it took all her self-control not to move against it in response. His breath was hot against her shoulder, and her nerves seemed to quiver beneath that, too. She’d never been so aroused in her life.

He withdrew his touch, but continued to hold her. When he drew back his cheeks were flushed and his pale eyes looked dark. The open expression of desire in his gaze triggered a rush of heat to her cheeks.

“I need to cool down a minute,” he said. He scooped up his shirts and disappeared down the only hallway in the apartment. A few seconds later she heard water running in the bathroom.

Tess clenched her hands and pressed them hard against her cheeks. “Damnit.” This couldn’t happen again. And why the hell did she feel like crying? This is what she wanted.

She’d apologize to him. She stepped toward the hallway and her foot kicked something soft ahead of her. Was that a ponytail scrunchie? She bent and picked it up. The soft fabric spread out as she hooked her fingers in the elastic. A pair of black thongs spread damningly between her hands. What the — Shock hammered her heart. Color once again surged into her face hot on the heels of the anger that sang in her ears.

The whole time he’d been kissing her, he’d had a trophy from some other woman, where? In his pocket? A sound half screech, half growl thrust up into her throat, but she choked it back.

Apologize hell.

She was going to kill him.

Get started on this series right away by purchasing Breaking Free

Check out these other books by Teresa Reasor

Kally here. Thanks so much, Teresa, for visiting my blog! 


Be sure to visit me over at Teresa's Blog today (June 20) for the kick off to my Perfect Blog Tour. Lots of chances to win every day –with more than $300 in gift-card prizes!