We have liftoff: One Marine, Hero releases! #gayromance #military @dreamspinners
Amazon — All Romance — B&N — Dreamspinner Press
Finally, One Marine, Hero is here. It’s not just the story of a (sizzling) romance between a Marine helicopter pilot and a Washington DC reporter; there’s much more going on here! This has been one of my favorite books to write, and I love both Jake and Beau and I won’t soon forget either of them. I hope you’ll love them just as much.
THE SEEDS of this story are scattered far in the past.
I’ve never followed politics much, but like nearly everyone around the world who watches international news, I had a strong image of the President of the United States getting into a green-and-white helicopter on the South Lawn of the White House and being whisked away to attend to some vital presidential business. I had a vague notion of the helicopter being called Marine One, but beyond that, I never thought much about it.
That changed when I was lucky enough to get a job at the White House Council of Economic Advisers. Though the offices are located in the Old Executive Office next to the White House, we were part of the White House complex. It was a thrill to be so close to the inner workings of Washington.
Even more exciting were the perks that came with the job, including attending any ceremony on the White House lawn, including welcoming receptions for visiting heads of state where the president and the foreign leader would inspect US troops and color guards and military bands.
But I will always remember the first time I received a phone call from my boss’s secretary telling me to head out to the South Lawn to wait for Marine One to land. Everyone in our department who wasn’t in a meeting or facing a deadline would head downstairs and across the yard to the White House and wait on the South Lawn waving little American flags the staffers handed out. To one side was a row of press with cameras, ready to catch the helicopter landing and the president as he stepped down, waved to everyone, and then walked inside.
Despite repeating the same process every time, it was always a thrill. There is a lot of ceremony around nearly everything the president does, and even in the age of the Internet, the press corps need to be on hand to photograph and film it.
Flash forward to the fall of 2014.
October brings Fleet Week to San Francisco. A dozen ships, even more aircraft, and tens of thousands of sailors and Marines. I love visiting the ships during Fleet Week. This year I visited the newly commissioned USS America, an amphibious assault ship. I didn’t know quite what that meant until I arrived. Basically, this ship serves as a support base for Marine units to stage an attack.
After making my way past displays of armored vehicles and light assault vehicles (tanks, to the rest of us), I arrived on the lower deck, where a number of helicopters were displayed. Pilots and members of the air crew answered questions from visitors. I was listening to other people (mostly men) asking questions, when it hit me that helicopters were a hell of a lot more interesting than I’d realized.
In fact, a helicopter pilot would make a fantastic main character for a book.
Up on the flight deck, about a dozen smaller helicopters were on display. Now I started taking notes and asking my own questions. To my surprise, the pilots were really thrilled to answer questions, talk about the capabilities of their aircraft, and even let visitors climb inside a few different ones. I happily spent about three hours moving between Cobras, Hueys, Super Stallions, and more. I took a lot of photos and, of course, asked how I could get to fly on a Marine helo. (The answer is, you can’t. Even the pilots’ families can’t get on board, partly for security reasons and partly because the demand would be incredible.)
By the time I got home, I was dying to include a Marine pilot in a story.
And that’s when I got the idea of writing about a former combat pilot who comes home to fly Marine One, ferrying US government officials around and dealing with the drastic transition between those two jobs.
Which is when my real research began, up to and including taking a few beginner’s helicopter flying lessons to know exactly what it feels like to pilot one of these fascinating rotary wing aircraft. I was immediately hooked and definitely would love to take more, maybe even get a helicopter pilot’s license.
What that means is that you just might see another story starring a helicopter pilot.
I hope you enjoy the taste of the inner workings of Washington and the
White House in One Marine, Hero. I’ve been lucky enough to attend White House holiday parties and other staff events, and it’s such a pleasure to share these incredible experiences with readers.
About the Book
One Marine, Hero
He’s a hero to everyone but himself.
Marine helicopter pilot Captain Jake Woodley struggles after receiving the Medal of Honor for a mission where he didn’t bring every man back alive. Being called a hero and having his photo plastered across the news makes him hate himself more. He despises his cushy job flying with the Marine One squadron, carrying the president and other officials, when he’d rather risk something, even death. He gets his wish when he’s ordered to fly a series of classified trips.
Matt “Beau” Beaumont has been relegated to covering the fashion beat after getting downsized from a hard-news position. But an unexpected invitation to a White House dinner might be the boost his career needs. Offering a hot marine an after-dinner blowjob wasn’t on Beau’s agenda, but when Jake takes him up on the proposition, some phenomenal casual sex soon blossoms into a relationship both of them crave.
When Beau’s extracurricular research uncovers defense department funding anomalies, he soon discovers the trouble goes higher than he imagined. Just as events start to make sense, the investigation puts Beau and Jake in deadly danger. It takes a daring play by Jake—risking everything he loves—to uncover the truth.
Amazon — All Romance — B&N — Dreamspinner Press
Read the first 4 chapters now
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