Friday, September 7, 2012

Book Tour for Dangerous Shift by Jill James (Guest Post & GIVEAWAY)


The paranormal genre just welcomed a new author and book to the family with this intriguing take on shapeshifters.  Dangerous Shift brings together two individuals with very different personalities, one of whom carries deeply ingrained prejudices towards non-shifters, brought together in a life or death situation that could result in complete genocide.  Today I give you the chance to learn more about this book as well as giving you the chance to win a copy along with an Amazon gift card.  So let's learn more tantalizing tidbits about Dangerous Shift...... 

The Cop’s Wife

Hi, so thrilled to be on your blog today talking about my new release, Dangerous Shift.

When I sat down to write my paranormal romantic suspense I know I wanted to add tidbits of police life and work but knew I wasn’t knowledgeable enough to do a police procedural. But, I knew my 25 years of life as a cop’s wife would at least allow me to bring a decent view of police work and the police life environment. I think I accomplished that in the story.

It is also set slightly in the near-future so I wanted to use equipment the public was comfortable with but add some nice gadgets that might come to be. So, the police have ear-pieces instead of heavy radios and those cute, flashy red/blue lights in the car grill instead of on top of the roof. I’m just a little computer geeky, so I didn’t go there to try to make advanced alternatives to the computers we use today.

I did try to stay true to the state of resources in police departments everywhere, so in my fictional town of San Laura, California the office is the standard bland gray and the CSI lab is nice, but not high-tech.

Hopefully, most of the cop stuff is close. I’m not a cop, just married to one.

HE IS MR. BY-THE-BOOK, WITH A SECRET...

Shapeshifters live among us but remain unknown to most people except for the highest echelons of law enforcement, the military, science, and medical fields—until now.

SHE IS A LOOSE CANNON WITH AN ATTITUDE PROBLEM...

When a fatal virus strikes Shapeshifters all over the West coast, including members of the Shapeshifter Task Force in San Laura, California, reinforcements are called in from around the United States.

TOGETHER, THEY JUST MIGHT CATCH A KILLER

Lt. Nikki Hill of Missouri comes to San Laura and is partnered up with Lt. Sean Evans. They quickly butt heads on everything from proper police procedures to the moral ethics of euthanasia. They can’t seem to get a lead on the serial killer even as members of their own families are stricken with the virus. In their grief they turn to each other and hope they have time to discover if their relationship stands a chance or if they might just be the next victims of the species extinction disease.

EXCERPT:

Prologue

Fort San Laura Army Base
San Laura, California
May 2017

Sean Evans turned away as tears rolled down his ex-partner Colin Rodriguez’s face. The man sat by his fiancée’s bedside, her hand clasped in his, waiting for her to die. The sound of boot heels echoed up and down the hospital corridor. All marched past the closed door, none brave enough to stop at this room.

Sean stared at the dying woman. Paulette’s red hair was the only color in the monochrome-toned hospital room. Colin’s hand shook as he brushed the hair back from Paulette’s sweaty face. The virus wreaked havoc on the young woman.

Sean swallowed bile rising in his throat as the young Shapeshifter in the bed screamed. Her flesh boiled, roiling beneath the surface, and she screamed again. Her back arched off the bed. For months now, the Shapeshifter Task Force had been working to track down the cause of the virus and it struck close to home, killing two of their own. First, his own partner, Barry, and now, Paulette.

Her fingers turned into talons that dug into Colin’s hand. Blood dripped from the cuts onto the crisp, white sheet. Colin held her hand; the only sign of his pain was the grimace on his tanned face.

Sean rubbed his burning eyes, surprised to find tears on his own cheeks. He scrubbed the wetness away and raked his fingers through his hair. His tears wouldn’t help Paulette or Colin. Nothing could help them now. His hands clenched into fists at his side. He ached to punch a wall, anything to kill the tension in the room.

A scream built in his throat. Just last week he had sat here, forced to watch the young man, new to the task force, breathe his last. He stared into the ceiling lights, his eyes watered with the brightness. He repeated his personal mantra of calm and cool until his emotions mellowed, until they no longer threatened to overwhelm him.

He turned his head back as Paulette’s screams died down to whimpers. She had lost all control of her shifting. She grew fur and it disappeared. Her head changed shape as she shifted into a canine form, then a feline form, then back to her own. Her limbs flopped against the mattress as she convulsed. The shifting now happened every few seconds.

Colin threw himself across her body as if he could stop the tragedy from its conclusion.

“Noooo.” His voice ricocheted across the room and down the hall.

Sean rushed to his best friend’s side and ripped him up off of the dying Shifter. No one had discovered yet how the virus was transmitted. They didn’t need masks and gloves anymore, not in the last several months at least, but no one wanted to find out what full-body contact might do.

Colin struggled against Sean’s hold. Tears blurred Sean’s vision as Paulette struggled to breathe, and Colin’s cries became anguished sobs. His shoulders shook under Sean’s hands.

The monitor blared as Sean searched Paulette for any life signs and found none. Her chest didn’t move. She was gone. Just like Barry. Just like all the other Shifters in the past few months.

Sean turned away as Paulette’s flesh jellified and sank into the mattress, only a slight bump under the covers to show a living being had been there.

Colin’s anguish pierced his soul, and when Colin threw himself across the bed again.  Sean didn’t bother to stop him.  What did it matter when his friend had just lost his partner and the love of his life?

The sounds of harsh breaths and sobs still echoed in Sean’s ears when the door opened and the Captain of the Task Force rushed in. Sean turned to the man and shook his head.

Captain Connors motioned for Sean to talk to him outside. Sean shot a quick look to Colin and followed the captain outside to the hallway.

“Lieutenant Evans, with Robertson’s death today, added to the others, the task force is low on numbers. We will need to send word to the other task forces and ask for reinforcements.”

Sean’s hands formed into fists at his side. The human captain made no bones about his dislike of Shapeshifters, but Paulette’s body wasn’t even cold yet and he drudged up business decisions.

He took deep breaths and relaxed his hands. As the Lead Lieutenant in the task force, business took priority. Even over death.

“Will you send a request to the Southwest office in Las Vegas?” Their own task force office covered the Northwest—Northern California, part of Nevada, and all of Oregon, Washington state, and Idaho.

The captain shook his head. “A few cases have been reported in Los Angeles. We can’t risk it. I’ll request someone from the Midwest. No cases have been reported yet out there. There is a small task force in Columbia, Missouri, an hour outside St. Louis.”

TO BUY LINKS:   Amazon   B&N    Smashwords   ARe

AUTHOR BIO:

Jill James didn’t start out wanting to be an author. Along the way she wanted to be an astronaut, President of the United States, a lawyer, and a doctor. Once married with children she realized she could be all those things in the pages of the stories she wrote.

She lives in Northern California with her husband, who is the inspiration for all her romance novel heroes.

http://www.jilljameswrites.com
http://www.twitter.com/jill_james
http://www.facebook.com/Jill.James.author
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4654661.Jill_James

**********GIVEAWAY**********

There are 2 Giveaways!!!!!  One is strictly for my site and with the prize being 1 ebook copy of Dangerous Shift.  The other giveaway is tour wide and is for 2 print copies of this book and 1 $25 Amazon gift card.

*****To enter my giveaway, leave a comment below along with your email addy.

*****To enter the tour wide giveaway, fill out the rafflecopter form below.

*****Both giveaways end at 11:59pm CST on 9/10.

8 comments:

  1. Congrats on the new release. This book sounds intriguing. Can't wait to read it. It seems your years as a cop's wife came in handy when writing this book.

    e.balinski(at)att(dot)net

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  2. Joanne, thank you for commenting. Yes, being a cop's wife is a unique experience I never imagined I would live.

    Good luck in the giveaway.

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  3. Thanks so much for coming by today Jill and for writing such an enjoyable story. I'd planned on posting my review for this book today but had major computer problems last night and still today. I'm using my iPad now and will get my review up by tomorrow. Will there be any sequels to this book because I'd love to revisit this world?

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  4. What a dramatic excerpt! It doesn't sound like a light summer "fluff" read!
    catherinelee100 at gmail dot com

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  5. Joder, thanks. I've started plotting a sequel to Dangerous Shift. Maybe end of year, beginning of next.

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  6. Thanks, Catherine. Thanks for commenting.

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  7. Sounds really good!! Thanks for the excerpt and the chance to win!
    natasha_donohoo_8 at hotmail dot com

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  8. This sounds great!! Id love to read it! Thanks for sharing and for the great giveaway!
    shadowluvs2read(at)gmail(dot)com

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