Today we welcome Shona Husk to the blog to celebrate the release of her hot new contemporary romance, Diving into Trouble. A multi-talented author across four genres, Shona lives up to her tagline of: Goblins, fairies, rock stars & aliens…just another day at the office. None of those beasties here today, but did I mention there’s submariner? Here’s Shona to tell you more:
Diving into Trouble—preparing to set sail
Part of my love of paranormal romance is the world building. In contemporary romance not much of that happens, but for Diving into Trouble I had to bring to life a submarine and its crew for people who may not know anything about the navy or boats.
The first thing I did was research (the navy has a great website full of all kinds of information) I also spoke to friends who are still in the navy. For the purpose of the story I made up a fictional boat, but I still had to fill it with crew (yes, I drew up a chart with names ranks and jobs for an entire crew). This had two advantages the first being I now have a pile of characters I can work with and the second one was I didn’t have to wonder who my characters would be interacting with as it was all there in front of me.
The dilemma that Kurt faces is one that many face after doing several years, stay in or get out. Some people want to make a career out of like the heroine of the story. It would have been easy, and probably expected, to have Rainy be the cook thinking about getting out but I thought it was a more interesting story to have the hero as the cook. As a female marine technician in what is still very much a male dominated job, Rainy has plenty of other battles.
With the boat crewed and my characters ready to go the only thing I still needed to do was work out how they were going to meet. If they met on the boat there was no way anything would’ve happened. So they needed to meet away from the boat. I like the sleeping with the wrong person trope (I also love relationship of convenience) so that was my way into the story.
As I wrote a few of the side characters started whispering in my ear, and I really need to write Blue’s story (okay, I’ve started). I have plans to write a few more submariner stories. While there are plenty of military romances out there, there aren’t many that focus on submariners. It takes a pretty special person to be able to do what they do.
A submarine, a one-night-stand, and a forbidden workplace romance…
Kurt Garland is at a crossroads: sign for another two years as a submariner or leave and rejoin civilian life. With only weeks to make up his mind, he’s torn between the financial stability and mateship of life in the Navy, and the freedom and balance outside of the military. With big life decisions on the line, Kurt needs space to think, so a one-night-stand with a sexy stranger is all he can commit to. Until his sexy stranger shows up on his submarine…
Getting accepted into the Submarine Corps was an enormous career goal for Rainy Miller, and she has no intention of screwing it up. A Marine Technician for the last eight years in the surface fleet, Rainy craves the new challenges of a submariner. With her training complete, she’s about to join a boat for the first time, and her career relies on a good impression. When her one night stand shows up in the galley, she has to shut it down, walk away, pretend it never happened. But all submariners know that secrets don’t stay secret for long on a sub.
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