Today I am so pleased to welcome Cate Ashwood to Joyfully Jay. Cate has come to talk to us about her latest release, A Forced Silence: Zero Hour Book 1. She has also brought along an exclusive excerpt and a great giveaway.  Please join me in giving Cate a big welcome!

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I am so happy to be here today to talk about my new book, A Forced Silence, so thank you so much to Jay for hosting me!

Anyone who knows me knows I have a little thing for paramedics. I’m married to one. I’ve wanted to write my own man-in-uniform novel for a while, but it took me a long time to work up the guts. A Forced Silence is the first book in a series that a team of emergency responders.

When I was writing, I was torn over how closely I should stick to reality with the EMT crew. It’s not like you see in the movies and on TV. There are definitely high adrenaline days—a while ago my husband was called to confirm a dead body, followed by a pediatric cardiac arrest, followed by a fairly serious MVA, all within a few hours—but most days aren’t like that.

There are days he spends doing nothing but picking people up off the floors. A lot of the time he feels like a glorified taxi service. He deals with abuse from patients, from patients’ families. He spends more days away from his family than with them. His twelve-hour, no break shifts often turn into fourteen or fifteen when a call comes in ten minutes before he’s supposed to be off for the night.

As with all jobs, there are good days and bad days. A good day, he might save someone’s life. A bad, he doesn’t get there in time, or there’s nothing he can do for his patient. Most of the time, he never knows what ultimately happens to them. Once they arrive at the hospital, their care is out of his hands. The majority of his days, though, fall somewhere in the middle.

With this book, I tried to keep it somewhat realistic, but allowed room for creative license to spice things up a bit. Some of the information is based on real things that have happened to my husband or other medics, and some are completely fictional.

I hope I’ve done them justice.


Excerpt

“Do you have to work tomorrow?” Dex asked, lifting his glass in a silent “Cheers.”

Adam shook his head before he slammed back his drink. “Nope. Supervisor gave me the rest of the block off. I’m not due back at the station for almost a week. Other than for the critical-incident meeting, that is.”

“What’s that?”

“Workplace health’s solution for difficult calls. They think the best way for medics to deal with the stuff they see is to talk it all out in a feelings circle with some idiot shrink who can’t even fathom the shit we see. She sits there in her expensive suit and coaches us to ‘share our emotions’ and shit, like she understands when the most awful thing she’s seen this month is when her manicurist botched one of the nails on her set of french tips.”

This time Dex didn’t bother asking. He picked up the bottle and poured another for both of them. “You have a better way of dealing with things, I take it?”

Adam grinned mischievously, one eyebrow lifting. “Oh yeah. There are much better ways of dealing with stress.”

“I see,” Dex said. “So how come you’re not out tonight, dick buried in some woman, forgetting all about today?”

“I don’t do that.”

“Sorry, I thought that’s what you were implying when you said you had better ways of dealing.”

“No, Dex. I mean I don’t fuck women. At all. I’m gay.”

As Dex lifted his glass, it stopped just shy of his lips as Adam’s words registered. A beat passed, the tension in the room growing thick, Dex frozen in place. Adam stood slowly, his body erasing the space between them as he rose, then took a step forward.

He leaned in and set his glass down on the desk behind Dex before lifting his hand to take Dex’s as well.

Dex stayed, unmoving, as Adam brought their bodies into alignment. Slowly he moved his hand from the rim of Dex’s glass to Dex’s back, sliding his fingers gently along his spine. He could feel the muscles bunching and tightening under the thin cotton of Dex’s shirt.

“This okay?” Adam asked, his voice low and heavy.

Dex nodded once, his gaze flickering between Adam’s eyes and his mouth. Adam could feel how much Dex wanted him, like a physical force he couldn’t have fought, even if he wanted to.


Blurb

A Forced SilenceFor paramedic Adam Carson, his world is lights and sirens and saving lives. Pressures at work keep him firmly in the closet, and life is too busy to contend with the complications that come with dating and relationships. When a familiar face from his past turns up where he least expects it, Adam starts to question whether or not there is room in his life for those complications.

The last person forensic pathologist Sam McKenna expects to see at pub night is Adam, the guy who made his life hell in high school. The attraction is instant, but Adam isn’t gay and Sam has no interest in pursuing him. Still, the leftover animosity from their teenage years isn’t enough to extinguish the lust growing between them. After both are called to the scene of a horrific murder, Adam admits he’s not as straight as he led Sam to believe and they seek comfort and distraction in each other’s arms. One night becomes many as the murder investigation intensifies, but when Adam is faced with losing

Sam, he is forced to make a choice: to break his silence, or to give up everything for the job he loves.


Bio

Cate Ashwood wrote her very first story in a hot pink binder when she was in the second grade and found her passion for writing. Her first successful foray into romance writing came five years later when she wrote her best friend, who was experiencing a case of unrequited love, her own happily ever after.

Cate’s life has taken a number of different and adventurous roads. She now lives a stone’s throw from the ocean, just outside of Vancouver, British Columbia with her husband, son, and two cats. Her life is filled with family and friends, travel, and, of course, books.

Where you can find Cate:


Giveaway

Cate has brought a choice of backlist ebook and a $25 Amazon gift card to give away to one lucky reader on her tour. Just follow the Rafflecopter link below to enter. e to extend the contest deadline to allow for additional entries.

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