Kristy McCaffrey's Blog: Author Kristy McCaffrey - Posts Tagged "deep-blue"
Resolve Your Resolutions
By Kristy McCaffrey
It’s that time of year again.
I recently came across the concept of Sankalpa from the yoga tradition. A sankalpa practice begins with the premise that you are already enough to fulfill your life’s dharma. The trick, then, is to focus your mind, connect to your most heartfelt desires, and channel the divine energy within. Sounds easy enough. Hah.
My writing goals last year were lofty and I didn’t reach them. My latest release (The Bluebird) was a cool ten months late. So, as I look at what I want to accomplish in 2017, I’m feeling both ambitious and cautiously guarded, knowing how easy it is for such plans to go out the window.
A few items on my to-do list for 2017:
**A new website.
**Distribute my Wings series at multiple vendors (they are currently exclusive on Amazon and the Kindle Unlimited program, but that will end this week; my goal has always been for wider distribution).
**Create an audio option of Alice: Bride of Rhode Island (if all goes well with this book, I’ll move on to the Wings series).
**Create a newsletter-exclusive novella tied to my Wings series (this is almost complete and is titled Song Of The Wren—it features Matt, Molly, Nathan, and Emma two years after The Wren and The Sparrow, with a cameo from Cale—be sure to sign up for my newsletter to get all the deets as soon as they’re available—this story will be FREE to newsletter subscribers).
**Release the first book in a new contemporary series. The first novel is titled Deep Blue and features a marine biologist studying great white sharks. It’s a sexy, adventurous story that I hope to release in the spring. It will be followed by two more books, tentatively titled Cold Horizon (about high-altitude mountain climbers on K2) and Ancient Winds (a female archaeologist in Bolivia). These three titles will be tied together with siblings, but I hope to write more books that will be loosely linked to these characters as well. I’ve been sitting on these story ideas for quite a while; with my Wings series now complete, I decided it was finally time to focus on these books. Creative concepts tend to gnaw on a writer and make them irritable if not eventually released.
I have a few more goals, but I’m not going to overload myself. I owe it to my husband to not be so burdened by work that I’m a grump all the time. So, I will focus on the new books, which are truly a desire of my heart, thus allowing the writing muse an easier path (and maybe an easier flow during the first drafts).
If we accept that we already have the tools we need to succeed, then the inner path of resistance can be quieted and we can simply get to work.
Here's to a productive 2017!
Connect with Kristy
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Blog ~ Pathways
Newsletter
It’s that time of year again.
I recently came across the concept of Sankalpa from the yoga tradition. A sankalpa practice begins with the premise that you are already enough to fulfill your life’s dharma. The trick, then, is to focus your mind, connect to your most heartfelt desires, and channel the divine energy within. Sounds easy enough. Hah.
My writing goals last year were lofty and I didn’t reach them. My latest release (The Bluebird) was a cool ten months late. So, as I look at what I want to accomplish in 2017, I’m feeling both ambitious and cautiously guarded, knowing how easy it is for such plans to go out the window.
A few items on my to-do list for 2017:
**A new website.
**Distribute my Wings series at multiple vendors (they are currently exclusive on Amazon and the Kindle Unlimited program, but that will end this week; my goal has always been for wider distribution).
**Create an audio option of Alice: Bride of Rhode Island (if all goes well with this book, I’ll move on to the Wings series).
**Create a newsletter-exclusive novella tied to my Wings series (this is almost complete and is titled Song Of The Wren—it features Matt, Molly, Nathan, and Emma two years after The Wren and The Sparrow, with a cameo from Cale—be sure to sign up for my newsletter to get all the deets as soon as they’re available—this story will be FREE to newsletter subscribers).
**Release the first book in a new contemporary series. The first novel is titled Deep Blue and features a marine biologist studying great white sharks. It’s a sexy, adventurous story that I hope to release in the spring. It will be followed by two more books, tentatively titled Cold Horizon (about high-altitude mountain climbers on K2) and Ancient Winds (a female archaeologist in Bolivia). These three titles will be tied together with siblings, but I hope to write more books that will be loosely linked to these characters as well. I’ve been sitting on these story ideas for quite a while; with my Wings series now complete, I decided it was finally time to focus on these books. Creative concepts tend to gnaw on a writer and make them irritable if not eventually released.
I have a few more goals, but I’m not going to overload myself. I owe it to my husband to not be so burdened by work that I’m a grump all the time. So, I will focus on the new books, which are truly a desire of my heart, thus allowing the writing muse an easier path (and maybe an easier flow during the first drafts).
If we accept that we already have the tools we need to succeed, then the inner path of resistance can be quieted and we can simply get to work.
Here's to a productive 2017!
Connect with Kristy
Website
Blog ~ Pathways
Newsletter
A Thank You To My Readers #giveaways #treats
As 2017 comes to a close, I have to thank each and every one of you -- my dear readers. I've had an amazing year in which I was able to get my books into the hands of so many more people than I'd ever imagined. And the response has truly warmed my heart. Along with a big fat smooshy THANK YOU, I've also got some holiday treats for you all.
How about a free Wings short story featuring Molly and her sister Emma? (And, of course, Matt and Nathan also make an appearance.) This BRAND NEW TALE is available exclusively to my newsletter subscribers.
Christmas Eve 1878
Molly Hart Ryan and her sister, Emma Blackmore, return to the abandoned Hart Ranch to visit the gravesites of their folks. While confronting the past revives a deep heartache and sadness that has long been buried, it also offers an unexpected gift.
Sign up for Kristy's newsletter here and get the download code today!! (Note: If you're already a subscriber, the email with the download code went out on December 1.)
You'll also receive the short novella SONG OF THE WREN, not available anywhere else. (I recommend that you read THE WREN before grabbing these freebies.) THE WREN is permafree at all ebook outlets.
Two years after THE WREN, Matt Ryan finds more than rustlers when his cattle begin disappearing. Forced to confront an enemy he thought long gone, he must ready for a fight, but he’s never faced a battlefield like this before, and only his wife, Molly, can save him this time.
*****
I'm giving away 2 complete print sets of the Wings of the West series (all 5 novels). To be eligible, send an email to kristy@kristymccaffrey.com with CONTEST in the memo line. Winners must be U.S. residents (I'm not excluding international winners, but a comparable digital prize will be substituted -- either ebooks or giftcards). Contest closes December 7. Winners will be notified December 8.
*****
I've got an awesome Amazon giveaway happening right now that you don't want to miss!! Enter for a chance to win 1 of 4 sherpa blanket throws decorated with dog bones. To be eligible, you must 'follow' me at Amazon. All that means is that when I have a new release, you'll receive an email notifying you.
Click HERE to enter. You must be a U.S. resident.
Winners will be chosen December 7 ~ you'll receive your prize right on time for Christmas.
I chose the blanket in honor of my sweet chocolate lab Ranger. I recently lost my baby boy just one week after his 13th birthday to a broken leg caused by a tumor (and, unfortunately, indicative of bone cancer). The decision to let him go absolutely crushed me. He loved swimming every day, going anywhere in the car, and he was the ultimate homebody. Despite his declining health in the months leading up to his death, he was always a happy, cheerful guy. We still have his sister, Lily (age 10), and are slowly adjusting to his absence, but life will never be the same without him.
*****
Next year, I'll be launching a new contemporary adventure romance series (The Pathway Series).
The first book, DEEP BLUE, has an updated release date of February 26, 2018. It was supposed to be out this month, but for marketing purposes I need a bit more time to prepare. While I know many of you are here because you love my historical western romances, I do hope you'll give this new series a try. I plan to release the first 3 books (DEEP BLUE, COLD HORIZON, and ANCIENT WINDS) in 2018 and then I've got a new western trilogy I want to write. Have no fear, I haven't abandoned the Old West for good.
To satisfy your cowboy fix in the meantime, have you read my standalone novel INTO THE LAND OF SHADOWS? This is available in print and digital through Amazon, as well as included in the Kindle Unlimited program. However, since I have a bunch of Nook readers (and a few Kobo, iBooks, and Google Play peeps), I want to offer a special deal for the month of December. For only $5 (this includes S&H -- U.S. residents only), I'll send you an autographed print copy of SHADOWS. Email me at kristy@kristymccaffrey.com to make arrangements.
*****
And lastly, I'm over at author Andrea Downing's Blog this month chatting about Christmas stuff (my short essay is about the attachment we moms have to the ornaments on our tree), along with Patti Sherry-Crews and Devon McKay. I had the pleasure of working on an anthology earlier this year with these wonderful ladies. Please stop by and leave a comment for a chance to win a few book goodies. Visit Andrea's blog here.
Here's the collection, in case you're interested.
Available at Amazon for 99 cents or FREE in Kindle Unlimited
I wish you all the happiest of holidays. May you be surrounded by those you love, and comforted by the memories of those who have passed, as we ring in 2018.
God Bless,
Kristy
New Year, New Books: Kristy McCaffrey’s Writing Schedule for 2018
By Kristy McCaffrey
I must admit up front that I don’t usually share my writing goals/schedule for the year. It’s not that I don’t have them, it’s just that in the past I’ve often failed to meet these objectives, and I naturally like to keep my disappointment in myself to myself. But it occurred to me that maybe some of you might like to know what my plans are for the year, so I will swallow my trepidation and lay it all out. I can’t guarantee that each endeavor will reach fruition, but I will certainly try. My New Year’s resolution is to have a more structured writing schedule; fingers crossed that this will lead to the completion of more projects.
My biggest obstacle is/has been the wrestling matches I often have with the creative process. And fear. Most of you have never seen a first draft. Neither had I until I wrote my first one years ago. They can be terrifying things to behold, filled with bad prose, plot holes, and idiotic characters who say idiotic things. Editing fixes all of this, but each project must enter this realm, and there is still a part of me that will sometimes avoid a story (aka procrastinate) because a niggling voice will whisper, “You’re never going to get this to work.” That’s my other resolution this year: to forge ahead despite the fear.
So, here’s my 2018 schedule. I have an ambitious goal, which is to launch a new series in a new genre. The Pathway Series—contemporary adventure romances—will encompass full-length novels (and eventually tie-in novellas). I’m releasing Book 1 on February 26 (My husband’s birthday!! Happy birthday, honey!!). DEEP BLUE features Dr. Grace Mann as she attempts to freedive with great white sharks in Baja Mexico. Underwater filmmaker Alec Galloway is along to film a documentary about her. Despite my usual writerly insecurities, I had such fun developing this. If you like sexy, suspenseful stories that touch on relevant issues (the conservation of sharks), then I think you’ll enjoy this one. There will also be a tie-in novella, DEEP BLUE: AUSTRALIA (an additional adventure starring Grace and Alec), available exclusively at no cost to my newsletter subscribers.
The second Pathway novel, COLD HORIZON, should be out in the summer of 2018. It will follow Ty Galloway (Alec’s brother) as he attempts to summit the second highest mountain in the world—K2. On his team is Lindsey Coulson, a climber who is reentering the world of high-altitude climbing after a tragic accident. Because I had initially planned COLD HORIZON as Book 1, it’s already 2/3rds complete. But once I started mapping the series (there will be many books), I decided to write Alec and Grace’s story first. If all goes well, I’m shooting for a July release for CH.
I’ll be working on the third Pathway novel later in the year, ANCIENT WINDS. I really hope I can publish it by the end of 2018, but I’ll have to see how the writing progresses. This one will feature Brynn Galloway (Alec and Ty’s sister), an anthropologist who travels to Bolivia to locate a mysterious artifact. She’ll need the help of mercenary and all-around rogue Tristan Magee. (I’ve long wanted to write an Indiana Jones-themed novel, and this will finally be my chance.) I only have a bare outline for this story, so I’m not sure how long it will take to flesh out the details. I like to think I can fast track my writing, but that’s never been the case for me. It always seems that if I apply too much pressure to my creative well, it dries up quickly, flowing like molasses rather than a raging river. I may have to disappear come September to work on this one.
I didn’t want to completely abandon my western readers, so I’ve got a few small projects in the works. I’m in the process of sketching out a long novella in my Wings series featuring all the couples (except Molly Rose and Jake). I’d started working on this last year and couldn’t get it going, but I have plans to work more diligently on it in 2018. It’s tentatively titled THE SONGBIRD. Anticipated release date unknown at this point.
I’ve also wanted to write the third short novella in my Crow series. If you’ve read the first two (The Crow and the Coyote and The Crow and the Bear), then you might remember bounty hunter Kit Boggs, brother to Jack and Callum. The working title is A Whisper of Crows. If I can get it to my publisher by April, then you should have that one by Halloween.
And finally, I’ll be working once again on a contemporary cowboy anthology. This one will be Christmas-themed (so will be released some time in the fall) and will include the group of ladies I worked with in 2017 on A COWBOY TO KEEP, which featured my story Blue Sage. I’m currently throwing around ideas in my head for this long novella. More to come, so stay tuned.
There you have it—my schedule for 2018. It’s ambitious since I’ve never been a fast writer, but I’m ever hopeful that inspiration will visit me daily. Nah, I’m just kidding. Writing is a lot of work and the most important avenue to success has always been one thing—to consistently write every day.
I want to give a shout-out to my readers—you guys are so awesome, and I appreciate all your encouragement and support.
To stay updated on the completion of my 2018 projects, check my website, follow me on Twitter or Facebook, or better yet, sign up for my newsletter. I only send news when I have news.
Now, it’s time to shoo self-doubt out the door and get to work. And I wish the same for each and every one of you.
Kristy
xoxo
Connect with Kristy
Website
Facebook
Twitter
Blog ~ Pathways
Newsletter
I must admit up front that I don’t usually share my writing goals/schedule for the year. It’s not that I don’t have them, it’s just that in the past I’ve often failed to meet these objectives, and I naturally like to keep my disappointment in myself to myself. But it occurred to me that maybe some of you might like to know what my plans are for the year, so I will swallow my trepidation and lay it all out. I can’t guarantee that each endeavor will reach fruition, but I will certainly try. My New Year’s resolution is to have a more structured writing schedule; fingers crossed that this will lead to the completion of more projects.
My biggest obstacle is/has been the wrestling matches I often have with the creative process. And fear. Most of you have never seen a first draft. Neither had I until I wrote my first one years ago. They can be terrifying things to behold, filled with bad prose, plot holes, and idiotic characters who say idiotic things. Editing fixes all of this, but each project must enter this realm, and there is still a part of me that will sometimes avoid a story (aka procrastinate) because a niggling voice will whisper, “You’re never going to get this to work.” That’s my other resolution this year: to forge ahead despite the fear.
So, here’s my 2018 schedule. I have an ambitious goal, which is to launch a new series in a new genre. The Pathway Series—contemporary adventure romances—will encompass full-length novels (and eventually tie-in novellas). I’m releasing Book 1 on February 26 (My husband’s birthday!! Happy birthday, honey!!). DEEP BLUE features Dr. Grace Mann as she attempts to freedive with great white sharks in Baja Mexico. Underwater filmmaker Alec Galloway is along to film a documentary about her. Despite my usual writerly insecurities, I had such fun developing this. If you like sexy, suspenseful stories that touch on relevant issues (the conservation of sharks), then I think you’ll enjoy this one. There will also be a tie-in novella, DEEP BLUE: AUSTRALIA (an additional adventure starring Grace and Alec), available exclusively at no cost to my newsletter subscribers.
The second Pathway novel, COLD HORIZON, should be out in the summer of 2018. It will follow Ty Galloway (Alec’s brother) as he attempts to summit the second highest mountain in the world—K2. On his team is Lindsey Coulson, a climber who is reentering the world of high-altitude climbing after a tragic accident. Because I had initially planned COLD HORIZON as Book 1, it’s already 2/3rds complete. But once I started mapping the series (there will be many books), I decided to write Alec and Grace’s story first. If all goes well, I’m shooting for a July release for CH.
I’ll be working on the third Pathway novel later in the year, ANCIENT WINDS. I really hope I can publish it by the end of 2018, but I’ll have to see how the writing progresses. This one will feature Brynn Galloway (Alec and Ty’s sister), an anthropologist who travels to Bolivia to locate a mysterious artifact. She’ll need the help of mercenary and all-around rogue Tristan Magee. (I’ve long wanted to write an Indiana Jones-themed novel, and this will finally be my chance.) I only have a bare outline for this story, so I’m not sure how long it will take to flesh out the details. I like to think I can fast track my writing, but that’s never been the case for me. It always seems that if I apply too much pressure to my creative well, it dries up quickly, flowing like molasses rather than a raging river. I may have to disappear come September to work on this one.
I didn’t want to completely abandon my western readers, so I’ve got a few small projects in the works. I’m in the process of sketching out a long novella in my Wings series featuring all the couples (except Molly Rose and Jake). I’d started working on this last year and couldn’t get it going, but I have plans to work more diligently on it in 2018. It’s tentatively titled THE SONGBIRD. Anticipated release date unknown at this point.
I’ve also wanted to write the third short novella in my Crow series. If you’ve read the first two (The Crow and the Coyote and The Crow and the Bear), then you might remember bounty hunter Kit Boggs, brother to Jack and Callum. The working title is A Whisper of Crows. If I can get it to my publisher by April, then you should have that one by Halloween.
And finally, I’ll be working once again on a contemporary cowboy anthology. This one will be Christmas-themed (so will be released some time in the fall) and will include the group of ladies I worked with in 2017 on A COWBOY TO KEEP, which featured my story Blue Sage. I’m currently throwing around ideas in my head for this long novella. More to come, so stay tuned.
There you have it—my schedule for 2018. It’s ambitious since I’ve never been a fast writer, but I’m ever hopeful that inspiration will visit me daily. Nah, I’m just kidding. Writing is a lot of work and the most important avenue to success has always been one thing—to consistently write every day.
I want to give a shout-out to my readers—you guys are so awesome, and I appreciate all your encouragement and support.
To stay updated on the completion of my 2018 projects, check my website, follow me on Twitter or Facebook, or better yet, sign up for my newsletter. I only send news when I have news.
Now, it’s time to shoo self-doubt out the door and get to work. And I wish the same for each and every one of you.
Kristy
xoxo
Connect with Kristy
Website
Blog ~ Pathways
Newsletter
Pre-Order DEEP BLUE by Kristy McCaffrey
I'm excited to share that DEEP BLUE is now available for pre-order at all e-book vendors!! Buy now and it will automatically load onto your e-reader on February 26.
Don’t miss this first book in a sexy and suspenseful new series!!
In the deep blue ocean lives an ancient predator…
Dr. Grace Mann knows great white sharks. As the daughter of an obsessed shark researcher based at the Farallon Islands, Grace spent her childhood in the company of these elegant and massive creatures. When a photo of her freediving with a great white goes viral, the institute where she works seeks to capitalize on her new-found fame by producing a documentary about her work.
Underwater filmmaker Alec Galloway admires Dr. Mann and jumps at the opportunity to create a film showcasing the pretty biologist. As he heads to Guadalupe Island in Baja California Sur for a three-week expedition, it’s clear that his fan-boy crush on Grace is turning into something more serious. But even more pressing—Grace’s passionate focus on the sharks just might get her killed.
Contains strong language and sexual content.
Read Chapter One at my website.
Additional Excerpt
“Have you ever been filmed before?” Alec asked.
“For a full-blown feature?” Grace lifted her glass to her mouth again and downed a big gulp. Either she was very thirsty or nervous. If it was the latter—and he hoped it was—then maybe she wasn’t immune to him after all.
All the bullshit about workplace romances circled inside his head for a brief, annoying moment. If she gave him a chance, would it be worth the risk of screwing up their professional relationship? Would he have the strength to say no to a woman like her?
“No.” She answered her own question.
Shaking off his randy thoughts, he said, “I’ll want to film just about everything you do, and we’ll likely need to set up shots as well. And I’ll do direct interviews as we go.”
“Just like The Bachelorette.”
“I do want you to speak openly about your feelings for every shark,” he teased.
“I don’t know. It’s usually better not to show all your cards at once.”
Alec loosened his tie. “But then you might lose that one special fish.” He unbuttoned his left cuff link and rolled the sleeve to his forearm.
“There’re plenty more where he came from.”
He repeated the action on his right arm. “The best ones are always endangered.”
He enjoyed the sparkle in her eye as she gave a slight smirk and a blush crept up her face.
She definitely wasn’t immune to him. He couldn’t keep the shit-eating grin from his face.
“Don’t get too happy, Galloway.” She leaned back in her seat and crossed her arms. “Stewart said he hasn’t told you everything about the expedition.”
“And?”
She paused, pressing her lips together. “I’m planning to do something I’ve never done before at Guadalupe. I’m going to freedive with the whites. I know you have a lot of experience filming sharks, but this will be different. You’ll likely have to leave the cage. I need to know that you’re up for it.”
Alec watched her. The dark burgundy lipstick was long gone, and she hadn’t bothered to replace it. He preferred women without a lot of fluff, but when Grace cleaned up, she was nothing short of stunning. But what really grabbed him, especially now, was the gleam in her eyes as she spoke about her work.
“My partners and I can use rebreathers.” The lack of bubbles and noise from a rebreather was exactly why Alec used one for long dives, but they were riskier than normal scuba equipment, so he didn’t operate one unless needed. “And I’ve been outside the cage before. How many times have you freedived with whites?”
Grace cleared her throat and licked her lips. “Including my famous photo? Once.”
Copyright © 2018 K. McCaffrey LLC
Purchase Links
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Amazon CA
Amazon AU
Amazon IN
iBooks
Nook
Kobo
Google Play
Print Coming Soon
Don’t miss this first book in a sexy and suspenseful new series!!
In the deep blue ocean lives an ancient predator…
Dr. Grace Mann knows great white sharks. As the daughter of an obsessed shark researcher based at the Farallon Islands, Grace spent her childhood in the company of these elegant and massive creatures. When a photo of her freediving with a great white goes viral, the institute where she works seeks to capitalize on her new-found fame by producing a documentary about her work.
Underwater filmmaker Alec Galloway admires Dr. Mann and jumps at the opportunity to create a film showcasing the pretty biologist. As he heads to Guadalupe Island in Baja California Sur for a three-week expedition, it’s clear that his fan-boy crush on Grace is turning into something more serious. But even more pressing—Grace’s passionate focus on the sharks just might get her killed.
Contains strong language and sexual content.
Read Chapter One at my website.
Additional Excerpt
“Have you ever been filmed before?” Alec asked.
“For a full-blown feature?” Grace lifted her glass to her mouth again and downed a big gulp. Either she was very thirsty or nervous. If it was the latter—and he hoped it was—then maybe she wasn’t immune to him after all.
All the bullshit about workplace romances circled inside his head for a brief, annoying moment. If she gave him a chance, would it be worth the risk of screwing up their professional relationship? Would he have the strength to say no to a woman like her?
“No.” She answered her own question.
Shaking off his randy thoughts, he said, “I’ll want to film just about everything you do, and we’ll likely need to set up shots as well. And I’ll do direct interviews as we go.”
“Just like The Bachelorette.”
“I do want you to speak openly about your feelings for every shark,” he teased.
“I don’t know. It’s usually better not to show all your cards at once.”
Alec loosened his tie. “But then you might lose that one special fish.” He unbuttoned his left cuff link and rolled the sleeve to his forearm.
“There’re plenty more where he came from.”
He repeated the action on his right arm. “The best ones are always endangered.”
He enjoyed the sparkle in her eye as she gave a slight smirk and a blush crept up her face.
She definitely wasn’t immune to him. He couldn’t keep the shit-eating grin from his face.
“Don’t get too happy, Galloway.” She leaned back in her seat and crossed her arms. “Stewart said he hasn’t told you everything about the expedition.”
“And?”
She paused, pressing her lips together. “I’m planning to do something I’ve never done before at Guadalupe. I’m going to freedive with the whites. I know you have a lot of experience filming sharks, but this will be different. You’ll likely have to leave the cage. I need to know that you’re up for it.”
Alec watched her. The dark burgundy lipstick was long gone, and she hadn’t bothered to replace it. He preferred women without a lot of fluff, but when Grace cleaned up, she was nothing short of stunning. But what really grabbed him, especially now, was the gleam in her eyes as she spoke about her work.
“My partners and I can use rebreathers.” The lack of bubbles and noise from a rebreather was exactly why Alec used one for long dives, but they were riskier than normal scuba equipment, so he didn’t operate one unless needed. “And I’ve been outside the cage before. How many times have you freedived with whites?”
Grace cleared her throat and licked her lips. “Including my famous photo? Once.”
Copyright © 2018 K. McCaffrey LLC
Purchase Links
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Amazon CA
Amazon AU
Amazon IN
iBooks
Nook
Kobo
Google Play
Print Coming Soon
DEEP BLUE releases today!! @McCaffreyKristy #romance #oceanadventure
It's here!! I hope you'll join me on an ocean adventure with a determined shark researcher, a hunky underwater filmmaker, and a bevy of great white sharks.
In the deep blue ocean lives an ancient predator…
Dr. Grace Mann knows great white sharks. As the daughter of an obsessed shark researcher based at the Farallon Islands, Grace spent her childhood in the company of these elegant and massive creatures. When a photo of her freediving with a great white goes viral, the institute where she works seeks to capitalize on her new-found fame by producing a documentary about her work.
Underwater filmmaker Alec Galloway admires Dr. Mann and jumps at the opportunity to create a film showcasing the pretty biologist. As he heads to Guadalupe Island in Baja California Sur for a three-week expedition, it’s clear that his fan-boy crush on Grace is turning into something more serious. But even more pressing—Grace’s passionate focus on the sharks just might get her killed.
How about another excerpt?
“I’ve only had one ex who drew blood,” Alec said. “How’d you get the bite?”
The waitress reappeared with two more tall beakers of beer. She also set a basket of wings on the table. “It’s from John.”
“Thank you,” Grace said, a hungry glint in her gaze as she looked at the food.
The waitress grabbed the previous glasses, now empty, then left them alone once again. Grace unrolled her napkin and removed the silverware tucked inside, then pushed the edge of the white cloth into the neckline of her dress. She grabbed a wing, dipped it into the accompanying cup of ranch dressing, and ate like a ravenous teenage boy.
“Why didn’t you say something?” Alec said.
“What do you mean?” Barbecue sauce smeared her upper lip.
“I’ll buy you dinner if you’re hungry.”
“This isn’t a date, Galloway.”
No, it wasn’t. “Got it,” he said, annoyed by the sting of her comment.
Apparently with Dr. Mann it was two steps forward and one step back. He snatched a wing since she was already on her second one. At the rate she was going, he’d be lucky to get another.
“So?” he prompted, biting into the spicy meat. “The scar?”
“Right. It was a great white.”
“But you said you only freedived that one time in the presence of a white.”
She dropped a carcass of bones back into the basket and licked her fingers. “It happened when I was a kid. My dad spent several months each year stationed at the Farallon Islands researching the whites.” She removed the napkin at her neck, wiped her mouth, then her hands. “Once Chloe and I were old enough, he’d bring us along for a week or two at a time.” She laughed. “My mom hated it. She didn’t think it was safe. My dad and I agreed never to tell her how bad it was when I got bit, but Chloe eventually spilled it. After that, Mom threatened to never let us go again, but Dad eventually wore her down.”
Alec stared at her, slack-jawed. The Farallones—a collection of granite peaks jutting from the Pacific Ocean and known as the Devil’s Teeth—were just a hop, skip, and a jump from San Francisco Bay. The water was undeniably cold year-round, not to mention murky, and the weather was hell most of the time. “You got in the water around the Farallones?” he uttered in stunned disbelief. “When you were a kid?”
She’d finally wiped most of the wing sauce from her appendages, although a faint smear still rested on her cheek. When she looked at him again, she paused, noticing his shock. “It wasn’t on purpose. I was out with Dad on the small outboard he used to visit shark attacks on the seals when the love of his life bumped us. I was perched on the gunwale. It was entirely bad luck.”
“No shit,” he choked out.
“I fell in, and a big beautiful sister sideswiped me, ripping off my lifejacket like it was a piece of tissue. Her teeth grazed my neck enough to slice it open, but thankfully it wasn’t a deep wound.”
“A sister?”
“It’s what the researchers call the large females, the twenty-footers. There’s only ever been a handful of them documented over the years. They generally travel alone and always dominate the feeding grounds.” Her eyes went glassy. “There’s nothing like them anywhere on earth. They’re a sight to behold.”
“How old were you?”
“Twelve. Dad yanked me out before Bonnie came around for another pass.”
Where had he heard that name before?
Recognition surfaced. “I think I know your shark.”
“Really?” Excitement animated her face.
Overcome with an urge to touch her, Alec grabbed his napkin and wiped the sauce from her face. She immediately brushed her fingers across both cheeks, attempting to find anything else left behind.
“You’re good,” he muttered, reluctantly withdrawing his hand.
“Well?” she prompted, her complexion flush in a rosy glow.
But he knew it wasn’t for him. If he’d learned anything about Grace Mann in the last day and a half, it was that it wasn’t just her father who’d had a love affair with great whites—his daughter was head over heels as well.
“I dived the Farallones once, and only once, two years ago. Even now, it still makes my heart skip a beat and my palms sweat.”
Copyright © 2018 K. McCaffrey LLC
Purchase Links for Digital Copies
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Amazon CA
Amazon AU
Amazon IN
iBooks
Nook
Kobo
Google Play
Also available in print.
And I've got a special treat for my newsletter subscribers - an exclusive novella not available anywhere else.
When shark researcher Grace Mann accompanies her boyfriend, underwater filmmaker Alec Galloway, to Western Australia for a commercial shoot with great whites, she envisions relaxing days in the sun and smoldering nights between the sheets. But as Alec’s mood becomes increasingly distant, Grace worries that maybe the chemistry they shared—so effortless in the beginning—was starting to fizzle. Is his reticence related to her, or something else? And can she find a way to help him get the footage he needs before his behavior places his life in danger?
Current newsletter subscribers will receive the download code this week. Keep an eye on your inbox. If you're not a subscriber, sign-up here.
In the deep blue ocean lives an ancient predator…
Dr. Grace Mann knows great white sharks. As the daughter of an obsessed shark researcher based at the Farallon Islands, Grace spent her childhood in the company of these elegant and massive creatures. When a photo of her freediving with a great white goes viral, the institute where she works seeks to capitalize on her new-found fame by producing a documentary about her work.
Underwater filmmaker Alec Galloway admires Dr. Mann and jumps at the opportunity to create a film showcasing the pretty biologist. As he heads to Guadalupe Island in Baja California Sur for a three-week expedition, it’s clear that his fan-boy crush on Grace is turning into something more serious. But even more pressing—Grace’s passionate focus on the sharks just might get her killed.
How about another excerpt?
“I’ve only had one ex who drew blood,” Alec said. “How’d you get the bite?”
The waitress reappeared with two more tall beakers of beer. She also set a basket of wings on the table. “It’s from John.”
“Thank you,” Grace said, a hungry glint in her gaze as she looked at the food.
The waitress grabbed the previous glasses, now empty, then left them alone once again. Grace unrolled her napkin and removed the silverware tucked inside, then pushed the edge of the white cloth into the neckline of her dress. She grabbed a wing, dipped it into the accompanying cup of ranch dressing, and ate like a ravenous teenage boy.
“Why didn’t you say something?” Alec said.
“What do you mean?” Barbecue sauce smeared her upper lip.
“I’ll buy you dinner if you’re hungry.”
“This isn’t a date, Galloway.”
No, it wasn’t. “Got it,” he said, annoyed by the sting of her comment.
Apparently with Dr. Mann it was two steps forward and one step back. He snatched a wing since she was already on her second one. At the rate she was going, he’d be lucky to get another.
“So?” he prompted, biting into the spicy meat. “The scar?”
“Right. It was a great white.”
“But you said you only freedived that one time in the presence of a white.”
She dropped a carcass of bones back into the basket and licked her fingers. “It happened when I was a kid. My dad spent several months each year stationed at the Farallon Islands researching the whites.” She removed the napkin at her neck, wiped her mouth, then her hands. “Once Chloe and I were old enough, he’d bring us along for a week or two at a time.” She laughed. “My mom hated it. She didn’t think it was safe. My dad and I agreed never to tell her how bad it was when I got bit, but Chloe eventually spilled it. After that, Mom threatened to never let us go again, but Dad eventually wore her down.”
Alec stared at her, slack-jawed. The Farallones—a collection of granite peaks jutting from the Pacific Ocean and known as the Devil’s Teeth—were just a hop, skip, and a jump from San Francisco Bay. The water was undeniably cold year-round, not to mention murky, and the weather was hell most of the time. “You got in the water around the Farallones?” he uttered in stunned disbelief. “When you were a kid?”
She’d finally wiped most of the wing sauce from her appendages, although a faint smear still rested on her cheek. When she looked at him again, she paused, noticing his shock. “It wasn’t on purpose. I was out with Dad on the small outboard he used to visit shark attacks on the seals when the love of his life bumped us. I was perched on the gunwale. It was entirely bad luck.”
“No shit,” he choked out.
“I fell in, and a big beautiful sister sideswiped me, ripping off my lifejacket like it was a piece of tissue. Her teeth grazed my neck enough to slice it open, but thankfully it wasn’t a deep wound.”
“A sister?”
“It’s what the researchers call the large females, the twenty-footers. There’s only ever been a handful of them documented over the years. They generally travel alone and always dominate the feeding grounds.” Her eyes went glassy. “There’s nothing like them anywhere on earth. They’re a sight to behold.”
“How old were you?”
“Twelve. Dad yanked me out before Bonnie came around for another pass.”
Where had he heard that name before?
Recognition surfaced. “I think I know your shark.”
“Really?” Excitement animated her face.
Overcome with an urge to touch her, Alec grabbed his napkin and wiped the sauce from her face. She immediately brushed her fingers across both cheeks, attempting to find anything else left behind.
“You’re good,” he muttered, reluctantly withdrawing his hand.
“Well?” she prompted, her complexion flush in a rosy glow.
But he knew it wasn’t for him. If he’d learned anything about Grace Mann in the last day and a half, it was that it wasn’t just her father who’d had a love affair with great whites—his daughter was head over heels as well.
“I dived the Farallones once, and only once, two years ago. Even now, it still makes my heart skip a beat and my palms sweat.”
Copyright © 2018 K. McCaffrey LLC
Purchase Links for Digital Copies
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Amazon CA
Amazon AU
Amazon IN
iBooks
Nook
Kobo
Google Play
Also available in print.
And I've got a special treat for my newsletter subscribers - an exclusive novella not available anywhere else.
When shark researcher Grace Mann accompanies her boyfriend, underwater filmmaker Alec Galloway, to Western Australia for a commercial shoot with great whites, she envisions relaxing days in the sun and smoldering nights between the sheets. But as Alec’s mood becomes increasingly distant, Grace worries that maybe the chemistry they shared—so effortless in the beginning—was starting to fizzle. Is his reticence related to her, or something else? And can she find a way to help him get the footage he needs before his behavior places his life in danger?
Current newsletter subscribers will receive the download code this week. Keep an eye on your inbox. If you're not a subscriber, sign-up here.
DEEP BLUE is on sale!! Enter my giveaway!! #sharkweek @mccaffreykristy
Every year, I avidly watch SHARK WEEK on the Discovery Channel. I knew one day I would write a book about sharks and share my passion for the ocean. And that dream finally came true when I released DEEP BLUE earlier this year. So, in honor of Shark Week, my shark book baby is on sale. All this week, digital copies of DEEP BLUE are only 99 cents.
Underwater filmmaker Alec Galloway is hired to produce a documentary of Dr. Grace Mann freediving with great whites, but can he keep her safe when her passionate focus on the sharks just might get her killed?
Learn more and read Chapter One here.
“… like shark week in a book …” ~ Rachel H., reader
“An…engaging tale…” ~ Kirkus Reviews
“… a compelling dance between two very likeable characters …” ~ D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review
“… vivid and realistic …” ~ Romancing the Book
“A hunky filmmaker and great whites, what’s not to love?” ~ Lynne Bryant, InD’tale Magazine
And be sure to enter my giveaway!! (U.S. residents only.) 12 chances to win.
Prizes include:
Shark Week mug
Shark Week totebag
"We're gonna need a bigger boat" totebag
"My spirit animal is a great white shark" Large t-shirt
Great White Shark baseball cap
Shark corn-on-the-cob holders
"You're gonna need a bigger boat!" blank notebook
DEEP BLUE totebag
2 print copies of DEEP BLUE
2 $10 Amazon gift cards
Click here to enter.
Winners chosen July 30, 2018.
Deep Blue: Réunion Island Correction
My apologies. If you purchased Deep Blue: Réunion Island at the end of July, you may have noticed that Alec confessed something to Grace that he'd already shared in Deep Blue: Australia. Sometimes discrepancies slip through despite my rigorous editorial process. I'm happy to say that as of August 1, all Deep Blue: Réunion Island files have been updated to maintain consistency from the previous novella. If you purchased the book before that date from Amazon and would like to have the updated version, you'll need to contact Amazon customer service and have them push the new file onto your device. Unfortunately, it won't automatically update. I'm not sure how it works on the other eBook platforms (Apple, Nook, Kobo, and Google Play). If you're purchasing the book after August 1, then you should receive the updated file and can ignore this notice.
Thank you to everyone! My readers are awesome (and forgiving). I'm working on another Deep Blue novella, which I hope to have out this fall. Stay tuned!
What’s New On The Writing Front
By Kristy McCaffrey
It’s a strange and heartbreaking time we’re going through, filled with anguish, boredom, sadness, irritation and fear. During this unprecedented worldwide quarantine, my family and I have been taking it one day at a time. Admittedly, some of those days have been better than others. It’s been a challenge for me to write, because I’m a worrier, and times like these have raised the anxiety level for many of us.
I had hoped to have my next novel, ANCIENT WINDS, completed by now, but I’m still mired in plot shenanigans that I’ve been meticulously unraveling. I need more time with Brynn Galloway and Dr. Tristan Magee and their adventure in the Amazon jungle, so I hope you’ll bear with me. Hopefully by June I’ll have an idea on a release date. I had planned to immediately dive into Book 4 in the Pathway series (COBALT SEA), but I’ve decided to set that aside for now and instead, once ANCIENT WINDS is done, I’ll begin working on COPPER CANYON, a new historical western romance.
In the meantime, I do have a fun treat coming – a new DEEP BLUE short. It’s currently with my editor but should be ready in a few weeks. Here’s the blurb:
DEEP BLUE COCOS ISLAND – A Pathway Short Adventure
Dr. Grace Mann is invited to participate in a documentary alongside several distinguished female marine scientists, and Alec Galloway, Double D, and Stephie come along to film them in the waters off Cocos Island near Costa Rica. Grace is still dealing with recent criticism of the film Alec made of her last year diving with great white sharks, and in the company of such accomplished women, she struggles to keep her insecurities at bay. When differing viewpoints lead to friction, Grace must learn to stand up for herself, but a bright spot emerges when Alec makes a surprise decision about their relationship.
So far, the DEEP BLUE shorts have only been available digitally, but I’ll be grouping all of them together (AUSTRALIA, REUNION ISLAND and COCOS ISLAND) for a paperback edition for those of you that prefer print.
As always, to receive the most up-to-date info on my projects, subscribe to my newsletter. (I’ll be sharing the cover for ANCIENT WINDS soon. I love it! I hope you will too, and subscribers will see it first.) You can also catch my latest news at my Facebook and Twitter pages.
I’m still working on a Wings of the West novella, THE SONGBIRD. I’ve got a bit written, but right now I’m only writing on it when I have a spare moment here and there. I’m hoping this summer to set aside some time to give it the focus it deserves. My creative well is a funny thing – it doesn’t always cooperate when I switch gears too much.
I’m also exploring a new COLD HORIZON short adventure starring Ty and Lindsey. If you recall, they spoke about a mountain called Hkakabo Razi in the short story COLD HORIZON TELLURIDE, and it keeps nudging me. I think I’ll have to write this one soon, but preliminary research has shown me that this journey will be a bit complicated, so I’m not gonna dive in just yet.
I hope you and your families are well, and if that isn’t the case then I send you my heartfelt prayers.
Brighten the day with music (and maybe a nice hot cup of orange-cinnamon tea)!! What I’m listening to: Thriller, YMCA, One Night in Bangkok, Marrakesh Express, Sweet Emotion, Sultans of Swing, Take Me Home Country Roads.
I wanted to share a favorite recipe that I frequently make because it’s so easy.
Spaghetti with Lemon and Basil
½ lb. uncooked spaghetti
2/3 cup olive oil
1 tsp. lemon zest, plus ½ cup fresh juice (from 3 lemons), divided
5 oz. Parmesan cheese, finely grated (about 3 1/3 cups)
¼ tsp. finely ground sea salt
¼ tsp. black pepper
½ cup chopped fresh basil (if I can’t find basil, I substitute fresh spinach)
Bring a large pot of generously salted water to a boil over high heat. Add spaghetti, and cook until al dente, 9 to 11 minutes. Drain spaghetti, reserving ¼ cooking water. Return drained spaghetti to pot; cover and set aside.
Whisk together oil, lemon juice and reserved ¼ cup cooking water in a medium bowl; add cheese, and stir until mixture is thick and creamy. Stir in salt and pepper.
Add lemon sauce to spaghetti in pot; toss until pasta is evenly coated with sauce. Stir in basil and lemon zest; serve immediately.
Serves 6. Total prep time: 15 minutes.
So delicious and the citrus is great for the immune system.
Be Well. Be Safe.
Connect with Kristy
Website
Facebook
Twitter
Blog ~ Pathways
Newsletter
It’s a strange and heartbreaking time we’re going through, filled with anguish, boredom, sadness, irritation and fear. During this unprecedented worldwide quarantine, my family and I have been taking it one day at a time. Admittedly, some of those days have been better than others. It’s been a challenge for me to write, because I’m a worrier, and times like these have raised the anxiety level for many of us.
I had hoped to have my next novel, ANCIENT WINDS, completed by now, but I’m still mired in plot shenanigans that I’ve been meticulously unraveling. I need more time with Brynn Galloway and Dr. Tristan Magee and their adventure in the Amazon jungle, so I hope you’ll bear with me. Hopefully by June I’ll have an idea on a release date. I had planned to immediately dive into Book 4 in the Pathway series (COBALT SEA), but I’ve decided to set that aside for now and instead, once ANCIENT WINDS is done, I’ll begin working on COPPER CANYON, a new historical western romance.
In the meantime, I do have a fun treat coming – a new DEEP BLUE short. It’s currently with my editor but should be ready in a few weeks. Here’s the blurb:
DEEP BLUE COCOS ISLAND – A Pathway Short Adventure
Dr. Grace Mann is invited to participate in a documentary alongside several distinguished female marine scientists, and Alec Galloway, Double D, and Stephie come along to film them in the waters off Cocos Island near Costa Rica. Grace is still dealing with recent criticism of the film Alec made of her last year diving with great white sharks, and in the company of such accomplished women, she struggles to keep her insecurities at bay. When differing viewpoints lead to friction, Grace must learn to stand up for herself, but a bright spot emerges when Alec makes a surprise decision about their relationship.
So far, the DEEP BLUE shorts have only been available digitally, but I’ll be grouping all of them together (AUSTRALIA, REUNION ISLAND and COCOS ISLAND) for a paperback edition for those of you that prefer print.
As always, to receive the most up-to-date info on my projects, subscribe to my newsletter. (I’ll be sharing the cover for ANCIENT WINDS soon. I love it! I hope you will too, and subscribers will see it first.) You can also catch my latest news at my Facebook and Twitter pages.
I’m still working on a Wings of the West novella, THE SONGBIRD. I’ve got a bit written, but right now I’m only writing on it when I have a spare moment here and there. I’m hoping this summer to set aside some time to give it the focus it deserves. My creative well is a funny thing – it doesn’t always cooperate when I switch gears too much.
I’m also exploring a new COLD HORIZON short adventure starring Ty and Lindsey. If you recall, they spoke about a mountain called Hkakabo Razi in the short story COLD HORIZON TELLURIDE, and it keeps nudging me. I think I’ll have to write this one soon, but preliminary research has shown me that this journey will be a bit complicated, so I’m not gonna dive in just yet.
I hope you and your families are well, and if that isn’t the case then I send you my heartfelt prayers.
Brighten the day with music (and maybe a nice hot cup of orange-cinnamon tea)!! What I’m listening to: Thriller, YMCA, One Night in Bangkok, Marrakesh Express, Sweet Emotion, Sultans of Swing, Take Me Home Country Roads.
I wanted to share a favorite recipe that I frequently make because it’s so easy.
Spaghetti with Lemon and Basil
½ lb. uncooked spaghetti
2/3 cup olive oil
1 tsp. lemon zest, plus ½ cup fresh juice (from 3 lemons), divided
5 oz. Parmesan cheese, finely grated (about 3 1/3 cups)
¼ tsp. finely ground sea salt
¼ tsp. black pepper
½ cup chopped fresh basil (if I can’t find basil, I substitute fresh spinach)
Bring a large pot of generously salted water to a boil over high heat. Add spaghetti, and cook until al dente, 9 to 11 minutes. Drain spaghetti, reserving ¼ cooking water. Return drained spaghetti to pot; cover and set aside.
Whisk together oil, lemon juice and reserved ¼ cup cooking water in a medium bowl; add cheese, and stir until mixture is thick and creamy. Stir in salt and pepper.
Add lemon sauce to spaghetti in pot; toss until pasta is evenly coated with sauce. Stir in basil and lemon zest; serve immediately.
Serves 6. Total prep time: 15 minutes.
So delicious and the citrus is great for the immune system.
Be Well. Be Safe.
Connect with Kristy
Website
Blog ~ Pathways
Newsletter
A New DEEP BLUE Short Adventure
By Kristy McCaffrey
Travel to Cocos Island with Alec and Grace in a new DEEP BLUE short adventure.
Grace is invited to participate in a documentary alongside several distinguished female marine scientists, and Alec, Double D, and Stephie come along to film them in the waters off Cocos Island near Costa Rica. Grace is still dealing with recent criticism of the film Alec made of her last year diving with great white sharks, and in the company of such accomplished women, she struggles to keep her insecurities at bay. When differing viewpoints lead to friction, Grace must learn to stand up for herself, but a bright spot emerges when Alec makes a surprise decision about their relationship.
All three Deep Blue shorts are now available in one collection. Grab a digital copy for only 99 cents. (Hurry - the price will increase on May 18th.)
Kindle
Nook
Kobo
Apple Books
Google Play
Smashwords
Print
Please note: the individual shorts are no longer available. By putting them together, I was able to create a paperback version for those of you who don't use e-readers.
I hope you enjoy these mini-adventures. I do love spending time with Grace and Alec, and have a few more tales brewing in my imagination.
Stay safe. Be well.
Kristy
xoxo
Travel to Cocos Island with Alec and Grace in a new DEEP BLUE short adventure.
Grace is invited to participate in a documentary alongside several distinguished female marine scientists, and Alec, Double D, and Stephie come along to film them in the waters off Cocos Island near Costa Rica. Grace is still dealing with recent criticism of the film Alec made of her last year diving with great white sharks, and in the company of such accomplished women, she struggles to keep her insecurities at bay. When differing viewpoints lead to friction, Grace must learn to stand up for herself, but a bright spot emerges when Alec makes a surprise decision about their relationship.
All three Deep Blue shorts are now available in one collection. Grab a digital copy for only 99 cents. (Hurry - the price will increase on May 18th.)
Kindle
Nook
Kobo
Apple Books
Google Play
Smashwords
Please note: the individual shorts are no longer available. By putting them together, I was able to create a paperback version for those of you who don't use e-readers.
I hope you enjoy these mini-adventures. I do love spending time with Grace and Alec, and have a few more tales brewing in my imagination.
Stay safe. Be well.
Kristy
xoxo
Writing Deep Blue
By Kristy McCaffrey
All this week I’ve been sharing background info on the creation of my romantic suspense novel DEEP BLUE on Facebook, so I thought I’d group it all into a blog post in case any of you missed it and might be interested in my thought process while writing it.
I began my writing career with historical western romances, but I’d always been fascinated by sharks so had long entertained story ideas around them. About 3 years ago, I decided to finally write the book I had been thinking of. Initially, I saw it as more of a thriller (going back to an outline I’d written over 15 years prior), but in light of the devastation to the shark population due to overfishing and shark finning, I knew I wanted to write a story that showed more love to the shark than was usually the case in shark books and movies. I’m a great fan of the movie JAWS, but I wanted to explore the subject deeper than simply the abject fear that people experience when it comes to these often misunderstood fish.
Enter Dr. Grace Mann, my main character. It took a few drafts to smooth her out because at first she was smart but aloof and all business. A bit too cold, unfortunately. When I backtracked and built up her childhood, that’s when I found her overwhelming love for sharks, and the story began to click. (She accompanied her shark researcher father to the Farallon Islands as a child, bringing out her wild nature, an aspect I find really important when excavating a character.) She’s also a computer geek and that played into her rather obsessive nature regarding her work and the underwater sonar array she’s trying to develop.
Part of the backstory for my underwater filmmaker hero Alec Galloway is related to surfing. I read up on big wave surfing (THE WAVE by Susan Casey is an amazing book about giant waves, rogue waves, ship-crushing waves, and she includes chapters about the men who try to surf them – Jaws in Maui, Mavericks in Northern California, and Teahupoo in Tahiti)
I was so intrigued by this that I decided the Galloway family, led by Alec’s dad, Big Jim Galloway, would not only be a surfing family, but Big Wave surfers to boot. This includes Alec’s younger siblings, Tyler (who stars in Book 2, COLD HORIZON) and Brynn (star of upcoming Book 3, ANCIENT WINDS).
While they no longer do this in the present time of their stories, it was a piece of their backstory that showcased the drive and nerve that each of them possessed. It also informs Alec’s character in that he’s a fairly cautious guy because of some of the crazy stuff he’s seen and done. This created some clashes with Grace in DEEP BLUE, since he believes her actions are reckless at times. Grace, of course, doesn’t see it that way.
Photo by Juan Oliphant
How do you feel about this picture? This is Ocean Ramsey, a biologist and shark conservation advocate who spends nearly every day in the water with sharks. She is also the target of much criticism due to her interactions with sharks, especially great whites. I state at the end of DEEP BLUE that my character Dr. Grace Mann was inspired by Ms. Ramsey, and this is true. Ramsey’s interactions and knowledge of marine life, and especially sharks, shows us what’s possible when it comes to human/fish interactions. I find her work fascinating, and it informed Grace in the sense that I knew these types of encounters were possible. I write fiction, and I certainly take poetic license at times, but I do try to couch my storylines in a thread of truth. There’s no easy answers as to whether interacting with wildlife – and in the case of great white sharks, very dangerous wildlife – should or shouldn’t happen. I did explore this further with Grace and another marine scientist in DEEP BLUE: COCOS ISLAND, a follow-up short story. It’s an interesting discussion that I will continue to follow, both in the real world and in my work.
One reason I enjoy writing romances is the fun in creating a scenario for two people to fall in love and following along on that journey. DEEP BLUE, and the second book COLD HORIZON, aren’t strictly romances—these books are more action oriented and I made an effort to make them more readable to a broader audience by not following the standard romance plot, which is generally filled with more internal character musings and structure. Still, at the center of these stories are two people finding their way to each other.
The key to a good romance is finding the inherent obstacle between the couple. For Alec and Grace, it boiled down to a clash between Grace’s love and confidence in the water with sharks and Alec’s caution around such dangerous creatures. I built up these viewpoints by giving each of them specific experiences from their past. For Grace, it was growing up at the feet of her shark researcher dad and absorbing his obsession and respect for great white sharks; for Alec, it was having a healthy respect for the ocean, whether it be via big wave surfing or the loss of a close friend to a great white attack that has continued to haunt him.
From there, it became great fun to write their scenes and let the sparks fly.
During early drafts of DEEP BLUE, I was swamped with shark info that I’d been collecting. I usually take different passes on a manuscript – one to lay out the general outline and pacing, one to add layers to the characters, one to beef up the romantic tension between the hero and heroine, one to add descriptive details. It didn’t really occur to me that I should have a shark main character (as I said, brain overload) but near the end of one of the drafts Bonnie showed up, and it stopped me cold in my writing tracks. She was a very large and very mature female great white shark. An alpha. A true alpha of any creature on earth. I immediately began moving around scenes and rewriting the beginning of the book because Bonnie needed to be present throughout the story. There’s also a secondary shark named Felix, a randy youngin’ who causes all sorts of trouble. If you’ve ever met a teenage boy, then you know what I’m talking about.
While the gist of the story of DEEP BLUE is Grace freediving with great sharks in an effort to observe their behavior without the impediment and noise of scuba equipment, a side story is the testing of a prototype shark sonar array she designed in an effort to detect sharks in a specified grid area. Her goal is to have such an apparatus installed at ‘sharky’ beaches around the world as an early warning system to swimmers and surfers. So, is this a real thing?
I studied shark deterrents already in use and their effectiveness varied. It included such things as repellants (sonar, chemical), underwater nets (as you can imagine, these devastate more than sharks by trapping and killing everything else), and aerial spotters. The sonar array that Grace builds using artificial intelligence was a work of wishful fiction on my part. The idea is that there are multiple layers of code identifying creatures as they enter the grid area. This type of neural network is a “deep learning” program that becomes better over time as it acquires more and more data points. My son Sam, a data engineer, was a huge help as I developed this for the story, explaining to me how this would work. One exciting development was that after the book was published, I came across scientists working on a similar apparatus. So maybe one day you’ll go to the beach and pull up an app on your phone that tells you immediately what’s in the ocean you’re about to step into.
How did I research Guadalupe Island?
DEEP BLUE opens in Monterey, California, but the bulk of the story takes place on a boat off the coast of Guadalupe Island, located on the Pacific Ocean side of Baja California. It’s a fairly uninhabited island, with a handful of fisherman and scientists in residence, and from August until about January, it’s a hotspot of great white shark activity. The males arrive first, and then in October the very large females make an appearance. It’s unknown why the sharks congregate here, but it’s thought that they mate and feed, since there’s a large seal population. (And for the record, no one has ever seen or filmed white sharks mating or giving birth.) There are several companies that ferry customers on live-aboard boats to cage-dive with the sharks, with departures from San Diego, and if you’ve ever watched Shark Week on Discovery Channel, many of the shows have been filmed here.
Still, I found it a challenge to find information about the area so that I could realistically write about it (and since I was unable to go myself). Internet searches turned up general info, but I’m always in search of smaller, more interesting tidbits, the kind of stuff that isn’t on a Wikipedia page. It took me a while, but I finally located several blogs written by people who had visited the area, offering raw first impressions that made the writer in me squeal with delight.
I’ve envisioned the Pathway series as loosely connected standalones, which has been both a pro and a con when it comes to marketing. Because the series isn’t deep, meaning I only have two books currently available, advertising them has been a challenge. Eventually when I have the planned 6-8 books published, it will be easier to do more extensive marketing.
The main reason I wrote DEEP BLUE: AUSTRALIA was to offer a free but exclusive read to my newsletter subscribers, giving them another chance to hang out with Grace and Alec. An author’s newsletter list is a beloved holy grail because it offers us the chance to reach our readers directly (Amazon and Facebook greatly throttle that ability). But … if readers are signed up for too many newsletters, they can be rightly overwhelmed by the email volume in their inbox. It was my hope to sweeten the pot by offering something they couldn’t get anywhere else in exchange for their valuable time.
Last year, I managed to get a coveted BookBub Feature Deal for Deep Blue, but I had to make the book free. The key to making this type of advertising work is to have follow-up books in which to recoup your losses. BookBub deals aren’t cheap and generally run in the hundreds of dollars. I had COLD HORIZON out, but with its mountain climbing theme it was a very different book than DEEP BLUE, so in an effort to compensate for a low read-through rate, I decided to publish AUSTRALIA and charge $2.99 for digital downloads. This is an aggressive price for this type of short, and while other authors do use this price point successfully, I didn’t have the name recognition to pull it off. The result was reader backlash. Being an indie author means I’m able to pivot and switch gears quickly, so I did. I wrote two more short adventures – REUNION ISLAND and COCOS ISLAND – so that I could package all three together for $2.99, giving readers a little more bang for their buck. While I must always consider the economics of creating and pricing my projects, I strive to balance that with reader expectations.
Some people have asked for another novel starring Grace and Alec, but since that can take me upwards of a year to write, these shorts were a way to continue their story while I work on other books in the Pathway universe. I sure hope you enjoy them!
Did you know there’s a bonus scene of Alec’s first impression of Grace over at Book+Main Bites? You can read it here.
To learn more about DEEP BLUE, visit my website.
All this week I’ve been sharing background info on the creation of my romantic suspense novel DEEP BLUE on Facebook, so I thought I’d group it all into a blog post in case any of you missed it and might be interested in my thought process while writing it.
I began my writing career with historical western romances, but I’d always been fascinated by sharks so had long entertained story ideas around them. About 3 years ago, I decided to finally write the book I had been thinking of. Initially, I saw it as more of a thriller (going back to an outline I’d written over 15 years prior), but in light of the devastation to the shark population due to overfishing and shark finning, I knew I wanted to write a story that showed more love to the shark than was usually the case in shark books and movies. I’m a great fan of the movie JAWS, but I wanted to explore the subject deeper than simply the abject fear that people experience when it comes to these often misunderstood fish.
Enter Dr. Grace Mann, my main character. It took a few drafts to smooth her out because at first she was smart but aloof and all business. A bit too cold, unfortunately. When I backtracked and built up her childhood, that’s when I found her overwhelming love for sharks, and the story began to click. (She accompanied her shark researcher father to the Farallon Islands as a child, bringing out her wild nature, an aspect I find really important when excavating a character.) She’s also a computer geek and that played into her rather obsessive nature regarding her work and the underwater sonar array she’s trying to develop.
Part of the backstory for my underwater filmmaker hero Alec Galloway is related to surfing. I read up on big wave surfing (THE WAVE by Susan Casey is an amazing book about giant waves, rogue waves, ship-crushing waves, and she includes chapters about the men who try to surf them – Jaws in Maui, Mavericks in Northern California, and Teahupoo in Tahiti)
I was so intrigued by this that I decided the Galloway family, led by Alec’s dad, Big Jim Galloway, would not only be a surfing family, but Big Wave surfers to boot. This includes Alec’s younger siblings, Tyler (who stars in Book 2, COLD HORIZON) and Brynn (star of upcoming Book 3, ANCIENT WINDS).
While they no longer do this in the present time of their stories, it was a piece of their backstory that showcased the drive and nerve that each of them possessed. It also informs Alec’s character in that he’s a fairly cautious guy because of some of the crazy stuff he’s seen and done. This created some clashes with Grace in DEEP BLUE, since he believes her actions are reckless at times. Grace, of course, doesn’t see it that way.
Photo by Juan Oliphant
How do you feel about this picture? This is Ocean Ramsey, a biologist and shark conservation advocate who spends nearly every day in the water with sharks. She is also the target of much criticism due to her interactions with sharks, especially great whites. I state at the end of DEEP BLUE that my character Dr. Grace Mann was inspired by Ms. Ramsey, and this is true. Ramsey’s interactions and knowledge of marine life, and especially sharks, shows us what’s possible when it comes to human/fish interactions. I find her work fascinating, and it informed Grace in the sense that I knew these types of encounters were possible. I write fiction, and I certainly take poetic license at times, but I do try to couch my storylines in a thread of truth. There’s no easy answers as to whether interacting with wildlife – and in the case of great white sharks, very dangerous wildlife – should or shouldn’t happen. I did explore this further with Grace and another marine scientist in DEEP BLUE: COCOS ISLAND, a follow-up short story. It’s an interesting discussion that I will continue to follow, both in the real world and in my work.
One reason I enjoy writing romances is the fun in creating a scenario for two people to fall in love and following along on that journey. DEEP BLUE, and the second book COLD HORIZON, aren’t strictly romances—these books are more action oriented and I made an effort to make them more readable to a broader audience by not following the standard romance plot, which is generally filled with more internal character musings and structure. Still, at the center of these stories are two people finding their way to each other.
The key to a good romance is finding the inherent obstacle between the couple. For Alec and Grace, it boiled down to a clash between Grace’s love and confidence in the water with sharks and Alec’s caution around such dangerous creatures. I built up these viewpoints by giving each of them specific experiences from their past. For Grace, it was growing up at the feet of her shark researcher dad and absorbing his obsession and respect for great white sharks; for Alec, it was having a healthy respect for the ocean, whether it be via big wave surfing or the loss of a close friend to a great white attack that has continued to haunt him.
From there, it became great fun to write their scenes and let the sparks fly.
During early drafts of DEEP BLUE, I was swamped with shark info that I’d been collecting. I usually take different passes on a manuscript – one to lay out the general outline and pacing, one to add layers to the characters, one to beef up the romantic tension between the hero and heroine, one to add descriptive details. It didn’t really occur to me that I should have a shark main character (as I said, brain overload) but near the end of one of the drafts Bonnie showed up, and it stopped me cold in my writing tracks. She was a very large and very mature female great white shark. An alpha. A true alpha of any creature on earth. I immediately began moving around scenes and rewriting the beginning of the book because Bonnie needed to be present throughout the story. There’s also a secondary shark named Felix, a randy youngin’ who causes all sorts of trouble. If you’ve ever met a teenage boy, then you know what I’m talking about.
While the gist of the story of DEEP BLUE is Grace freediving with great sharks in an effort to observe their behavior without the impediment and noise of scuba equipment, a side story is the testing of a prototype shark sonar array she designed in an effort to detect sharks in a specified grid area. Her goal is to have such an apparatus installed at ‘sharky’ beaches around the world as an early warning system to swimmers and surfers. So, is this a real thing?
I studied shark deterrents already in use and their effectiveness varied. It included such things as repellants (sonar, chemical), underwater nets (as you can imagine, these devastate more than sharks by trapping and killing everything else), and aerial spotters. The sonar array that Grace builds using artificial intelligence was a work of wishful fiction on my part. The idea is that there are multiple layers of code identifying creatures as they enter the grid area. This type of neural network is a “deep learning” program that becomes better over time as it acquires more and more data points. My son Sam, a data engineer, was a huge help as I developed this for the story, explaining to me how this would work. One exciting development was that after the book was published, I came across scientists working on a similar apparatus. So maybe one day you’ll go to the beach and pull up an app on your phone that tells you immediately what’s in the ocean you’re about to step into.
How did I research Guadalupe Island?
DEEP BLUE opens in Monterey, California, but the bulk of the story takes place on a boat off the coast of Guadalupe Island, located on the Pacific Ocean side of Baja California. It’s a fairly uninhabited island, with a handful of fisherman and scientists in residence, and from August until about January, it’s a hotspot of great white shark activity. The males arrive first, and then in October the very large females make an appearance. It’s unknown why the sharks congregate here, but it’s thought that they mate and feed, since there’s a large seal population. (And for the record, no one has ever seen or filmed white sharks mating or giving birth.) There are several companies that ferry customers on live-aboard boats to cage-dive with the sharks, with departures from San Diego, and if you’ve ever watched Shark Week on Discovery Channel, many of the shows have been filmed here.
Still, I found it a challenge to find information about the area so that I could realistically write about it (and since I was unable to go myself). Internet searches turned up general info, but I’m always in search of smaller, more interesting tidbits, the kind of stuff that isn’t on a Wikipedia page. It took me a while, but I finally located several blogs written by people who had visited the area, offering raw first impressions that made the writer in me squeal with delight.
I’ve envisioned the Pathway series as loosely connected standalones, which has been both a pro and a con when it comes to marketing. Because the series isn’t deep, meaning I only have two books currently available, advertising them has been a challenge. Eventually when I have the planned 6-8 books published, it will be easier to do more extensive marketing.
The main reason I wrote DEEP BLUE: AUSTRALIA was to offer a free but exclusive read to my newsletter subscribers, giving them another chance to hang out with Grace and Alec. An author’s newsletter list is a beloved holy grail because it offers us the chance to reach our readers directly (Amazon and Facebook greatly throttle that ability). But … if readers are signed up for too many newsletters, they can be rightly overwhelmed by the email volume in their inbox. It was my hope to sweeten the pot by offering something they couldn’t get anywhere else in exchange for their valuable time.
Last year, I managed to get a coveted BookBub Feature Deal for Deep Blue, but I had to make the book free. The key to making this type of advertising work is to have follow-up books in which to recoup your losses. BookBub deals aren’t cheap and generally run in the hundreds of dollars. I had COLD HORIZON out, but with its mountain climbing theme it was a very different book than DEEP BLUE, so in an effort to compensate for a low read-through rate, I decided to publish AUSTRALIA and charge $2.99 for digital downloads. This is an aggressive price for this type of short, and while other authors do use this price point successfully, I didn’t have the name recognition to pull it off. The result was reader backlash. Being an indie author means I’m able to pivot and switch gears quickly, so I did. I wrote two more short adventures – REUNION ISLAND and COCOS ISLAND – so that I could package all three together for $2.99, giving readers a little more bang for their buck. While I must always consider the economics of creating and pricing my projects, I strive to balance that with reader expectations.
Some people have asked for another novel starring Grace and Alec, but since that can take me upwards of a year to write, these shorts were a way to continue their story while I work on other books in the Pathway universe. I sure hope you enjoy them!
Did you know there’s a bonus scene of Alec’s first impression of Grace over at Book+Main Bites? You can read it here.
To learn more about DEEP BLUE, visit my website.
Author Kristy McCaffrey
Kristy McCaffrey writes western historical and contemporary romances. She and her husband live in Arizona with their two dogs. Visit her online at kristymccaffrey.com.
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