Behind The Words welcomes author Lisa Harris to the blog!! Lisa is talking about her latest release THE CATCH featuring the U.S. Marshals.
First, where you’re from, where you live? Is writing your full-time job?
Thanks so much for having me! My family and I have lived in southern Africa for the past two decades, but I’m back in the states temporarily caring for my mother. Writing is my (first? second?) full-time job which is great, because I can write no matter where I am at the moment!
How long have you been writing?
I started writing when my oldest—who is almost twenty-five—was a baby. And never stopped. It took me a few years to get published, but I just kept writing and learning the craft. It’s been a tough and at the same time fantastic journey.
Give us a look at your writing day and little peek at your latest release.
I typically have a to-do list ready to tackle in the morning. That includes hitting a word count, research, marketing, and whatever else might be on the agenda for the day. The Catch is book three in my US Marshal series. It will not only bring readers an explosive manhunt for my readers as they search for a missing woman and an endangered child, but will send my heroine on a chilling encounter with the person who shot her and killed her husband!
What inspired this book?
I decided to do a series on US Marshals because I find them interesting and hadn’t seen many fiction books featuring them. I also choose the Northwest as a setting because I grew up there and it’s the perfect backdrop for a suspense series.
What has been your hardest scene to write?
I always find fight scenes, along with action scenes, very difficult. Translating what you see in your mind to the page takes slowing down and blocking out the scene. Once I do that (and watch a few youtube videos) they usually come together.
Who has been the most difficult character for you to write?
When I ended my Nikki Boyd File series, my publisher asked me to write a final book in the series that dealt with the death of Nikki’s sister and what happened to her. It might sound odd, but while I love romantic suspense, I don’t like the darkness of serial killers, and avoid those in my stories, but in this last book, Vanishing Point, I had to write Sarah’s story. (Don’t want to give any spoilers. ☺)
If you could be one of your characters for a day which character would it be? Why?
Honestly. . .none of them. I’m not an adrenaline rush kind of girl, and these heroines of mine face way too much. I’ll happily stay behind the keyboard!!
Are there any particular authors that have influenced how you write and, if so, how have they influenced you?
I started out reading romance, but always slipped in a thread of suspense because I preferred the conflict coming from life threatening situations, rather than the drama of couples fighting until the end. (I know they aren’t all that, but those were the ones I seemed to pick up) I started reading Dee Henderson’s book and loved the way she dealt with the suspense and romance threads where the couples actually liked each other and it was the suspense that pushed them apart.
Do you have a secret talent readers would be surprised by?
I do share this some, but I love photography. Living in Africa has allowed us to spend time out in the bush photographing animals. My latest interest is photographing birds.
Your favorite go to drink or food when the world goes crazy!
I have to avoid caffeine, and have never been much of a coffee or tea drinker, but I stumbled on matcha tea recently, love it, and have found myself a tea drinker!
And what is your writing Kryptonite?
Savory things, like chips and dip. I have to keep them out of the house so I don’t just munch through my word count! ☺
Thank you for joining us today!! I’d love to see your African bird photos!!
Here’s a look at Lisa’s latest release THE CATCH:
After a harrowing attempt on a judge’s life at the courthouse, Deputy US Marshals Madison James and Jonas Quinn are tasked with finding a missing woman and an endangered child in connection to the murder of the judge’s wife. What seems like a fairly straightforward case becomes hopelessly tangled when the marshals discover that the woman they are searching for is in witness protection and the Amber Alert put out for the missing child has put two lives in danger.
Madison and Jonas are forced into a race to find the woman and the child before the men who want her dead discover her location. And in a final showdown that could cost her everything, Madison will come face-to-face with the person who murdered her husband.
USA Today bestselling author Lisa Harris concludes her thrilling US Marshals series with this breathless tale of secrets kept, lies exposed, and ultimately, justice prevailing.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Lisa Harris is a USA Today bestselling author, a Christy Award winner, and the winner of the Best Inspirational Suspense Novel from Romantic Times for her novels Blood Covenant and Vendetta. The author of more than forty books, including The Escape, The Chase, The Traitor’s Pawn, Vanishing Point, A Secret to Die For, and Deadly Intentions, as well as The Nikki Boyd Files and the Southern Crimes series, Harris and her family have spent over
seventeen years living as missionaries in southern Africa. She is currently stateside in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Learn more at www.LisaHarrisWrites.com.
