For the sake of argument, everything I’m about to share with you is absolutely my opinion unless I am citing a statistic, in which case, I’ll tell you where I got it from. Cool? Great.

What makes the best stories tick? How much we, the audience, empathize with the characters. Take a step back with me for a moment as I roll the clock back to 1984. I could go back farther, but I am specifically going back to the day I saw the first Terminator movie. I was 12, and I saw it on a Saturday afternoon at my favorite theatre. Me, my popcorn, and my mom settled in to watch the movie.

As a side point, I love sci-fi movies, and Terminator had time travel, so check! I loved big action pieces, with lots of booms, and the film definitely had those. I loved characters I could invest in, and go on this journey with—and guess what, yep, Terminator had that in spades.

More, it had characters I empathized with. Sarah Connor didn’t seem to be particularly special. She was a waitress and had a roommate and was just trying to make ends meet. She could have been my neighbor, or my friends or even one of my parents. My mom was a waitress. So right away, I’m invested in her. Now she spends half the movie getting chased by some unstoppable killing machine and kidnapped by a guy who feeds her this story about being from the future.

Her reaction is what any one of us would have. Are you crazy?

Yet, in the end, she falls in love (or at least some mad survival lust) with Reese, and then in a final battle, manages to kill the Terminator. She does it. Reese keeps her alive long enough to help, and he survives long enough to do some damage, but Sarah rescues herself at the end.

Holy crap. This was like when Princess Leia grabbed the blaster and started shooting. Or when she told them all to jump into the garbage chute. Leia, who’d been held captive, actively participated in her own rescue. In later films, Leia is part of the strategy, the straight-up fights, and eventually strangles Jabba the Hutt during the rescue of Han. Leia was a bad ass.

Sarah Connor inherited that mantle.

Now I can go on and on about the badass heroines of action movies (trust me, I could), but here’s the thing—too often I heard when I was growing up that action movies were for guys. Rom coms were for chicks. We even call them “chick flicks”. My parents wouldn’t get me Star Wars toys, cause those were for boys. But I could have this pretty pink Barbie, cause it was for girls.

Action-Adventure whether it’s Terminator, or The Bourne Identity, or The Avengers isn’t just for “boys.” In fact, according to Deadline.com (see I told you I’d cite the data), Avengers: Infinity War had an audience of 40% women. Of course, it also had a huge audience period as culmination of 10 years of franchise building. A franchise I have wholly supported and am a tremendous fan of.

Why?

Cause I can empathize with those characters whether he’s a king of a hidden country with mystical powers or a narcissistic billionaire in a suit or a remnant of the cold war era spy with varying shades of gray to her morality. I can empathize because the writing, and the action, and the characters themselves have invited us along on this journey.

At the end of the day though, my love of action adventure with elements of romance or not, dates back to that Saturday afternoon in a theater as the end credits began to roll on Terminator. The film didn’t have a happily ever after, if anything, the ending was ominous. A promise that all the horrible things Reese warned her of were coming, yet we also had this sense of hope and Sarah was invested in saving her son and eventually the future.

I love writing these types of stories in some fashion whether it’s a paranormal adventure about wolves on the hunt or military insertion to save someone or a humorous romp of royals trying to deal with life. It’s about the adventure, and yeah, the action. I love reading them, too. Or watching them. Sometimes we’ll pick up a book or go to the movie because it looks cool, but we only stick around or come back for more if it takes us deeper.

Whether it’s saving your kids, saving your house—hell saving the cat—we can live vicariously through the heroes and heroines in our books, and our movies. I love multi-dimensional heroes and heroines. My heroes are not all alphas, and my heroines are not all helpless, needing to be saved. Sometimes the battle is intense and physical, sometimes it’s haunting and emotional.

It’s always about the journey.

Okay, and the hot guys. Yeah, I’m a little shallow.

Sometimes.

What do you love about action/adventure and romance? Do you have a favorite film?

Don’t Miss Heather’s Brand New Releases in the Special Forces & Brotherhood Protectors series:

Shielding Shayna

Honor comes in all sizes.

Shayna Morgan has been a little bit of everything in her life—a daughter, a niece, a sailor, an investigator, and homeless. Nerve damage has left her with only partial feeling on her right side, and pain threatened to cripple her. Family pulled her home from where she slept in her car outside of DC, but it was the men and women of the Brotherhood Protectors who inspired her and gave her a purpose. She may not be able to fire a gun with any accuracy, but her new project fulfills her in so many other ways—helping other female vets just like her. It’s all hard, honest work and good sweat until a shadowy threat takes aim at her ranch.

Purpose comes in all shapes.

Fergus “Oddjob” Roper went into the Air Force at 18, before making a lateral move to the Navy, and then left the SEALs when he was 33. After 15 years of service, two wars, multiple deployments and 3 degrees, he’s looking for his next mission. After a year in Texas working with a horse trainer specializing in equine support animals, he’s heading to Montana to visit with old friends. He came for the beer, and stayed for the women…one woman in particular. Oddjob doesn’t mind mucking stalls, or helping out on the project—but what he wants is to shield the woman who saved his life, even if she doesn’t know it.

Link: https://heatherlong.net/books/military/special-forces-brotherhood-protectors-kindle-worlds/brotherhood-protectors-shielding-shayna/

Covering Coco

Life between the cross hairs

Retired Navy SEAL John Jacob “Jacko” Johnson earned a reputation for being cool under pressure, having more kills from behind the scope of a sniper rifle than anyone else active on the teams, and being a total smartass. Some things don’t change, and not even a traumatic brain injury sidelining him keeps him from kicking in when his friends need it—most recently a top-secret mission to retrieve a lost asset.

Bolt action is louder than words

Coco Adler’s military career ended abruptly on a dishonorable discharge. Or so reads her military file. Recruited for a top-secret program, she digs in deep. When her cover is nearly compromised and she can’t reach her handler, she goes dark but stays on mission. The last thing she expects is a lunatic in a Hawaiian shirt to take her down a moment before a sniper’s bullet would have.

Forced to work together, Jacko will do everything to cover Coco’s extraction—even if it kills him.

Link: https://heatherlong.net/books/military/special-forces-brotherhood-protectors-kindle-worlds/special-forces-operation-alpha-covering-coco/

I thought you might like to see what’s coming! All are part of the Montana Bounty Hunters series, so you know they’re going to be fun!

Coming June 26th!

Former Army sniper, Cochise Mercier, left Denver SWAT under a cloud of controversy, which was why he ended up back home in Montana, and where he heard about the Montana Bounty Hunters. The “cloud” didn’t seem to bother his new boss, so he’s all in and finding he enjoys hunting down fugitives for bounties, encumbered by fewer rules.

Sammy McCallister is a by-the-book sheriff’s deputy, who has a beef with bounty hunters. Forced to stand by with her gun in her holster, while hunters take down scumbags, she’s particularly irked by the new guy in town. Cochise, with his long black hair and thousand-yard-stare makes her uncomfortable, itchy in ways she’s never felt before. When she finds herself needing his help, the reason for her irritation becomes all too clear. She wants him. But first, they must make it out of the mountains alive…

Pre-order your copy here!

*~*~*

Coming August 21st!

Former Army Ranger, Dylan “Hook” Hoecker, has a new job along with a new prosthetic arm. Being a bounty hunter is the closest career field he could find as a civilian that gives him the adrenaline rush that is his addiction. So, when his first solo assignment is to keep an eye on a flight risk the boss bonded out of jail, he’s not thrilled. However, he soon discovers a fresh addiction–one mouthy, nerdy redhead, who resists his attempts to keep her out of trouble.

Felicity Gronkowski is grateful for the bone the head of Montana Bounty Hunter threw her. She didn’t have the money to pay for bail, but he has a soft spot for former military, and she bartered to install a new computer system in his satellite office in Bear Lodge. Being on the outside of jail was her first imperative because she has to figure out who framed her for a series of high-end robberies while she worked installing home security systems. However, her bounty-hunting babysitter isn’t giving her any slack. Every time she thinks she’s given him the slip, he’s one step ahead of her. Either she has to find the perfect method of distraction to escape him or she has to enlist his help to clear her name.

Pre-order your copy here!

*~*~*

Coming September 11th!

Navy SEAL Carson Walsh is ready to live the good life. After surviving fifteen deployments in ten years, he bailed on the SEALs figuring this cat had run out of lives. Now living in Cabo San Lucas, the only danger he faces is choking on an oyster or drowning in beer–and then he meets her.

Gina Tripp is the Calamity Jane of bounty hunters. She’s the stand-in for an absent groom on her girlfriend’s honeymoon in Cabo when she meets a cute guy with nothing but sex on the beach in mind. But she has her sights set on scoring a huge bounty–an ex-pat skip hiding out in Mexico. All she has to do is figure out how to perform her own extradition of her target. One drunken night later and a wild ride on a drug-runner’s plane, she’s pretty relieved she hijacked a Navy SEAL to help her with the job, even if he’s an unwilling participant who has to put his rusty skills to use to keep them both alive.

Pre-order your copy here!

UPDATE: The winners are Colleen, Pat, and Debra!
*~*~*

Summer’s nearly here! I’m excited. I’m planning to stick close to home. No travel. Just work, swimming, and maybe a little junking (flea-market shopping—one of my favorite pastimes!). I’m also making plans for several mass giveaways. Some will happen here. Some will be conducted through my newsletter. So, if you aren’t already subscribing to my newsletter, look to the left where it says “Get My Newsletter” and subscribe!

Today, I’d like to remind you that I have a ton of short stories, very reasonably priced, and very, very sexy. My favorite series inside a series is my Stepbrothers Stepping Out: With His SEAL Team series. If you love a quick read with military heroes and love ménage stories, this one’s for you! Currently, there are five stories in this subset series, but there will be at least one more. At the moment, I’m working on Stepbrothers Stepping Out: With His Client—an ultra-hot office-slave shorty. Be watching for it!

Contest

I’ll give away a short story to three commenters—any short story from my Short Story page, so go take a look at my offerings! Recently, my site was updated, so take your time looking around. 🙂

To win your choice of short story, answer me this…

What are your summer plans?

With His SEAL Team

When Sara’s stepbrother surprises her with an early return from a mission, he brings two of his Navy SEAL teammates along…

Of course, there are more stories in this series. Think I could write just one?
Click on the covers to learn more about these stories!

 

 

“Baby, ready to get down and dirty? I’m gonna make you so wet…”

I didn’t have to fake my enthusiastic, “Oh, please, daddy. I’ve been waiting so long for your call…” Andrew was one of my regulars, and thankfully, all he ever wanted was straight up, shared masturbatory sex with just a touch of domination. After “spanking” the old man whose wife thought he was sick because he couldn’t get it up unless he was punished, and stroking the ego of a dude with a whiny voice who claimed to be hung like donkey, but who likely had a teeny weenie, I was ready to have some fun.

Just one of the perks of my new job. I blew out a deep breath. “Lord, it’s hot in here.” I fanned myself, something he couldn’t see, but which helped me make the roleplaying real.

“Maybe you should take something off…”

“Mmm…” I glanced down at my thin tank and cotton shorts. They didn’t exactly fit the fantasy we were about to enact. “You caught me just as I stepped out of my shower, daddy. I took a cold one.” I pulled my shirt over my head, careful not to jostle my headset, then walked to the sink. I turned on the faucet, letting cool water run over my fingers. Then I stroked the water over the tops of my breasts. I rubbed away the moisture with my castoff shirt. “Oh!” I gasped. “I can’t stand it when a towel scrapes my nipples.”

“Are they aroused?” he asked, his voice deepening.

“Into tight little points. Umm… My towel hurts,” I said, injecting some little girl crankiness into my tone. “Wish someone was here to lick them dry.”

He groaned then chuckled. “Let me help. How about you do exactly what I tell you?” Read the rest of this entry »

I just got back from Hawaii and a wonderful writer’s retreat! I spent time with my sister Delilah Devlin, J.M Madden, Susan Stoker and my daughter Megan. We swam, snorkeled, saw a turtle and lot of fish, rode ATVs through Kualoa Ranch where they filmed Jurassic Park, Jumanji, Skull Island and 50 First Dates. We visited the Polynesian Cultural center where many of the Pacific island cultures were represented like Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, Tahiti, Hawaii and New Zealand. I wrote 24000 words on my 6th book in the Mission Six Series while there. The first one is live today! All in all, I refilled my creative well with ideas. Now to get back to work! Get a copy of ONE INTREPID SEAL and start reading the series!

One Intrepid SEAL

Amazon | Kobo | Nook | iBooks | GooglePlay | Print

I may be on vacation, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been busy! And you may be getting ready to entertain family, but that doesn’t mean you won’t need stress breaks! I have the perfect suggestion. Something short, super hot, and fun! Yes, another Stepbrothers Stepping Out story, and in particular, another With His SEAL Team installment! Check it out!

I’m Sara, and most days my life is wonderful—better than wonderful. I live with three handsome, sexy Navy SEALs, who see to my every need—one of whom is now my fiancé. My stepbrother, Hunter, is the love of my life. Everything couldn’t be better, but two things worry me. I wonder whether our open arrangement with Hunter’s buddies will end after we tie the knot…and our parents are coming for a visit! Will my SEALs be able to pretend we’re only housemates? Will our parents approve our wedding? After all, Hunter and I were raised as siblings…

Get your copy here!

I’m thinking there will be only one more installment of Hunter and Sara’s story. After you read this one, you’ll guess exactly where we’re going—right to a satisfying end!

In case you’ve missed a story…

My sister, Elle James, has a new release! She’s in Portugal at the moment, so I’m posting this without her intro. If she remembers she should send me pictures, I’ll update this post. In the meantime, you have plenty of eye candy to enjoy with Montana Rescue! ~DD

Navy SEAL teams with a sexy CIA Assassin to smoke out a terrorist in the Crazy Mountains of Montana

Plagued by survivor’s guilt and a bad knee, SEAL Mad Dog Maddox left the Navy and buried himself in a mountain cabin in Colorado where the only creatures he hunts now are those he puts on his table. Slowly going out of his mind with boredom, he’s on the verge of throwing himself off a cliff when an old friend, his former commander gives him a reason to live. His mission: Team with special CIA operative and assassin to reveal a terrorist on home soil.

Amazon: https://amzn.to/2j9yVNX
iBooks: https://bit.ly/BP8MontRescueiTunes
B&N: https://bit.ly/bp8MontRescueNook
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/montana-rescue
Googleplay: https://bit.ly/BPMRGPLAY
Print: https://amzn.to/2AuDBlX
Audio coming soon!!

Military romance has been, and will always be close to my heart. Up until now I’ve primarily written Marines, my affection for them is well documented in nearly 30 books including the Always a Marine series, Lone Star Leathernecks, and of course, When Danger Bites, the first book of Bravo Team WOLF—marrying my love of Marines to my love of Shifters.

When Susan Stoker invited me to come and play in her Special Forces: Operation Alpha Kindle World, I didn’t hesitate to say yes! What did give me pause was writing a SEAL, I’d written Marines, but SEALs are different. I wanted to be accurate, and I wanted to be entertaining—but most of all I wanted to be honest.

Operation Research

I’ve met SEALs in the past, but there are only so many questions you can ask. Instead, I relied on observation. It’s easy to forget these men are some of the toughest men around, not because they hide it—but because they are usually very comfortable in their own skin. They know what they are capable of and they don’t need to prove it to anyone.

Their training is brutal, and it’s not just about physical capability but mental discipline. Their service is often classified or top secret, and they are always training, or prepping, or on a mission. It’s rather humbling to realize that they need downtime after a mission because days of being on and focused and pumped with adrenaline requires decompression time before they can come back to the civilian world.

Admiring the fortitude required for all of the above is only the first step to getting a grip on the character.

What About Movies and Television?

Why not watch television shows or movies featuring special operations? We can do that, and I have, but entertainment always takes a certain amount of dramatic license just like I do in my books. FYI, currently I enjoy The Brave of all the latest offerings on television. Liking it doesn’t mean I can rely on those shows to do my research for me.

So you interview who you can, ask questions and recognize that you can’t always get all the answers, but you might get hypotheticals. Then you respect the work they do and focus on your character—I’m not going to write about every minute of his training or every hour of his missions, but I can take the long view and see how all of these will inform the character’s development.

SEAL, Now and Forever?

Mickey is a SEAL, that is very much a part of his identity, but he’s no longer active duty. In the Marines, once a Marine, always a Marine. For SEALs? They’re always SEALs, it’s something they earn, they become, and retirement or not, the experience is theirs forever.

The best part of a writing SEALs? What makes them dangerous isn’t their weapons or their combat skills—it’s what it took to make them SEALs in the first place—their mental discipline and strength of character. Those elements are amazing to combine into a character I create.

What is your favorite part of a SEAL? Real or fictional?

Securing Arizona

James “Mickey” MacBride retired from the teams with a solid record of mission accomplished. Now at odds and ends, he accepts the request of his retired Petty Officer grandfather. They want to gather the children of the USS Arizona—the descendants of the 355 survivors—for a special event. No problem, how hard can finding one woman named Arizona Kensington be?

Ari King has been on the run for over a year. No matter where she goes, her stalker finds her. She’s changed her name, her hair color, and even gave up the job she loved. When Mickey walks into the restaurant and asks for her by the name she surrendered, she takes his order then leaves via the back door, running for her life. Only she can’t shake him.

Securing Arizona was supposed to be a favor, but Mickey soon discovers it’s the mission of his life, and the men after her will have to go through this SEAL to get her.

Get your copy here: https://amzn.to/2heiufp