Author Beverley Bateman is here today with #4FunFacts About Hunted, her romantic suspense novel. Note: If you’ve ever been to Victoria, on Vancouver Island, you are familiar with the Empress Hotel. It’s a beautiful old building.
4 Fun Facts About Hunted
Empress Hotel, Victoria B.D.
1. The setting and the idea came from a visit to Victoria, BC. We were staying at the Empress Hotel, a hundred year old railway hotel and my first scene is set there.
2. I was on the mezzanine floor of the Empress and looking down into the lobby when the idea of the story came to me and I sat down on the floor behind those marble columns and started to make notes.
3. I had a proof reader tell me I couldn’t have a suspect work for the Witness Protection Program in the Marshal’s office. I’ve read many books where Witness Protection has been involved in crooked activities. She was really upset because I wouldn’t change my books.
4. It’s the first book in the Hawkins Family series, but I wrote this one second. The town of Duster and many of the characters were developed first in MISSING.
Blurb for Hunted
Staying alive wasn’t Maggie McGonagall’s first concern. Her first concern was to convince the man she hadn’t planned on ever seeing again, to accept and protect, a son he didn’t know about. And she had to do it quickly before the hit men found her and her son. They’d already attempted to kill her three times. She was running out of time. Once Matt was safe, hopefully she’d figure out how to keep herself from getting killed.
Cody Hawkins came running when the woman he wanted to forget called him for help. He’d never quit loving her, but could he help her, and walk away?
When he found out the trouble she was in and that someone was trying to kill her, he kidnapped her and her son and took them back to Duster, Montana where he felt he and his family could protect her, better than Witness Protection could. But could he keep her alive and convince her he still loved her?
Excerpt from Hunted
Maggie McGonigal scrunched herself into a ball on the mezzanine floor to prevent being seen from the lobby below. She peered around the marble pillar into the reception area of Victoria, British Columbia’s grand Empress Hotel. Because wealthy international tourists flooded the hotel every year, she hoped to hide in the crowd from the unknown killers.
A man in a dark suit and hat paused on the gleaming gray marble floor under the nineteenth century crystal chandelier and stared up at the mezzanine.
She held her breath. Her heart thumped loudly in her chest. Was he looking for her? Could he see her? Was he the person who’d been hired to kill her? She had no idea what the shooter looked like as she stared down at the man.
A woman standing a few feet from Maggie waved her hand wildly.
The man smiled and waved back.
Maggie slowly released her breath. Not him, but any one of the tourists below could be the one who wanted to kill her.
The hundred-year old ornate Empress was one of ten railroad hotels built across Canada. The stone structure stood guard over Victoria’s inner harbor amid beautiful English gardens and the bustle of tourism. Horse-drawn carriages, street artists, carts selling various souvenirs and docks for departing whale watching tours added to the charm. Her hope was that it would also stand guard over her and her son, Matt.
She’d chosen it because of the layout and hoped the large number of tourists who swarmed through might give her the cover she needed. Also, it hadn’t taken that long to get there, just a ferry ride from Seattle.
No one would pull out a gun in the middle of this crowd and shoot her, would they? The possibility of dying right here on the mezzanine sent a shiver reverberating through her body.
Hunted is available at Amazon, Nook, Kobo and most other e-reader stores.
Bio
I’m a Canadian author and live in the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia, BC. It’s beautiful country with lots of large lakes, beautiful beaches, orchards of apples, pears, peaches plus raspberries, blueberries and lots of other fresh produce. And of course, it’s wine country. We have world class wines which I feel is my obligation to taste.
Social links:
Facebook Authorpage http://www.facebook.com/AuthorBeverleyBateman
Twitter @kelownawriter
Blog http://beverleybateman.blogspot.ca/
Pinterest http://pinterest.com/okwriter
Amazon author page http://www.amazon.com/Beverley-Bateman/e/B008M01F5E
BLOG – http://beverleybateman.blogspot.ca/
Facebook –https://www.facebook.com/beverley.bateman.18
Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7052567.Beverley_Bateman
Web page http://www.beverleybateman.com
Thanks for being my guest today, Bev. I’ve been inside the Empress, though I never stayed there. My husband and I took the ferry from Seattle, just like Maggie and Matt did, though no one was after us. Hunted sounds like an exciting read.
Butchart Gardens, Victoria, BC
Have any of you been to Victoria? It’s a lovely small city with lots of flowers, including the amazing Butchart Gardens. Leave a comment to be entered in my July drawing for a $15.00 Starbucks e-gift card.
Linda / Lyndi