Interview and giveaway: ML Buchman - Wait until dark

Please help me welcome ML Buchman to my blog today. There will also be a giveaway of two books.

Welcome!

1. Could you introduce yourself to my readers?

MB: I’ve built computer systems, managed million-dollar projects many times in a variety of industries, developed and delivered corporate training, and was VP of a firm that consulted in data architecture for a Fortune 100. I’ve also run sound for professional theater, rebuilt a fifty-foot sailboat, designed and built two houses, and bicycled solo around the world during a mid-life crisis on wheels.  I’m an East Coast refugee who has spent recent years ensconced happily in the Pacific Northwest. My passion is to tell story that champion the human spirit (it says so, right there on the wall of my office).

2. Your new book is called Wait Until Dark. Could you tell me about it?

MB: Wait Until Dark is a stand-alone book that also sits as third in my “Night Stalkers” series. The real-life Night Stalkers are the Special Forces helicopter unit for the U.S. Army. Grenada, Panama, Takur Ghar, the take-down of bin Laden… these were the folks that were in the air. Others were as well, but the very nastiest places always belong to the 160th SOAR(a), Special Operations Aviation Regiment (airborne). 

I became fascinated by the people, why they served, why they chose to stay, what they cared about. The more I learned about them, the more I came to respect their choices and their action. I became overwhelmed by them until I simply had to try and tell even a small part of their story. The tiny slice I selected is that they fly a very unique version of the Black Hawk called the DAP, or Direct Action Penetrator. It is made specifically for them alone. There are very few DAPs, a dozen or so of the thousands of Black Hawks flying for the military. It is probably the most sophisticated and lethal helicopter ever launched into the night sky.

The DAP has four seats and the first four books are centered on the first women to ever fly for SOAR (there aren’t any at present). Book three finds the first three women of SOAR, along with the men they just happen to deserve, facing their greatest challenge yet. And, as with any good romance, they first and last thing they have to face are themselves and the person they love.

3. I found it interesting that you are actually a man. You do not find many men that write romance. How did you start writing in this genre?

MB: Oddly enough, I sold my first science fiction novel to a small romance publisher. I’d never read a romance nor been to a writer’s conference. She took me to my first one at the Romance Writers of America (RWA) national conference. Eighteen hundred women and seven men, most were assumed to be someone’s boyfriend, come together to talk about the business and craft of writing love stories. I read a half-dozen during the conference, I didn’t sleep much, and I was hooked. It would be years before I understood enough to write a romance, they’re much harder than they look, but I was fascinated by the challenges of telling the stories about falling in love. I mean what better moment is there?

As to why there aren’t more men writing romance? You’ve got me. I just have so much fun doing it I can’t stop. I get to think about women and love and sex and happiness. What guy on the planet wouldn’t want to spend his days thinking about such things? I just don’t get it.

4. This series is a mix of romance, suspense, and military life. Does it make it harder or easier to put some romance in?

MB: For me, the romance is at the core, everything else plays off that. The military setting allows me to explore several things. Soldiers are in many ways outside of a civilian’s norm. If somebody at work were shot, you’d just be glad to be the one alive. If a member of a helicopter crew is shot, everyone has a really hard time that it wasn’t them instead. There are values of what defines duty and family that a civilian wouldn’t normally consider.

The suspense pushes against the romance as well. I find that it centers even drives my attention on the couple, bringing a focus and a stress that when applied, reveals true character and true feelings. It is the integration of the three that brings these characters and these books to life for me.

5. Tell me why Connie and John make a great couple to read about? =)

MB: Hmm… How to answer that without giving away anything? This is a romance, we know in the end that they will be together, it is the journey that is so intriguing. Connie is so introverted that she can barely speak in public, but she is also brilliant in her own way, so much so that everyone is eventually forced to notice her, including John. I have talked to so many women over the years who have learned to hide some piece of themselves, sometimes even large pieces, behind a veneer so that others can’t see through.

I brought Connie to life to learn more of what that might be like. And who will she be least comfortable around? I gave her Big John. He’s an outspoken man filled with joy and caring. The storyteller who can make everyone laugh at his stories. It is their differences that make them interesting, it is what they can allow to come forth in the other that brings them together. We always want to be a better person in our significant other’s presence. That’s Connie and John all over.

6. And last, what is coming next from you?

MB: So many things that my head is spinning. Book #4 in “The Night Stalkers” series Take Over at Midnight will be out this fall. Sourcebooks has also contracted for two more Night Stalker novels and a spin-off series. “Firehawk” follows a team of aerial forest firefighters who fly the Black Hawk fitted with firefighting equipment. There are some crossover characters and it will be an immense amount of fun.

I’ve also recently taken the jump to writing full-time so I will finally be adding the next books in my “Angelo’s Hearth” contemporary romance series, as well as other launches in fantasy (almost done as Matthew Lieber Buchman), thrillers (the idea is sketched out as Matthew J. Booker), and of course, always another romance.

Thanks!

GIVEAWAY

A prize pack of I own the dawn and The Night is mine

1. US and Canada
2. Ends Feb 24^th
3.  Just enter J

WAIT UNTIL DARK BY M.L. BUCHMAN – IN STORES FEBRUARY 2013

Name: Big John Wallace

Rank: Staff Sergeant, Chief Mechanic and Gunner

Mission: To serve and protect his crew and country.

Name: Connie Davis

Rank: Sergeant, Flight Engineer, Mechanical Wizard

Mission: To be the best...and survive.

Two Crack Mechanics, One Impossible Mission…

Being in The Night Stalkers is Connie Davis’s way of facing her demons head-on, but mountain-strong John Wallace is a threat on all fronts. Their passion is explosive, but their conflicts are insurmountable. When duty calls them to a mission no one else could survive, they’ll fly into the night together—ready or not.

Praise for I Own the Dawn:

“A rousing mix of romance and military action thrills...Buchman blends tender feelings with military politics to keep readers riveted.”—Publishers Weekly

“I can’t wait for the next book.”—RT Book Reviews, 4 Stars

“Filled with action, adventure, and danger.”—Booklist Starred Review

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

M. L. Buchman has worked in fast food, theater, computers, publishing, and light manufacturing. It's amazing what you can do with a degree in geophysics. At one point he sold everything and spent 18-months riding a bicycle around the world. In 11,000 miles, he touched 15 countries and hundreds of amazing people. Since then, he has acquired a loving lady, the coolest kid on the planet, and lives in Portland, OR. For more information, please visit http://www.mlbuchman.com/.

To Purchase Wait Until Dark:

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Books-a-Million

IndieBound

Chapters/Indigo

Sourcebooks

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