What
do wwoofers, Stephen King and psychic spies have in common?
The
book, Vicki’s Key, began to take form
when I was speaking with a wwoofer about her job. The term wwoof stands for
WorldWide Opportunities on Organic Farms. People can sign up to work on a farm
for a specified period of time, during which they are provided with all their
room and board while providing free labor. I made the comment to my friend that
while I admired her ability to travel throughout the world doing this, I could
never do it myself. It would be my luck, I said, to get at my first assignment
only to discover the owner of the farm was an axe murderer.
As
Fate would have it, I came down with the flu shortly after that conversation. I
remember reading Stephen King’s book On
Writing in which he admitted that he was drinking a case of tallboys every
night while writing Cujo, and he
could barely remember writing the book at all. Well, as straight as I am (I
don’t drink or do drugs and wouldn’t know a marijuana leaf if it fell in my
lap) I dutifully began taking the medicine my doctor prescribed for the flu.
The unexpected result was I fell into a stupor that kept me flat on my back for
nearly 24 hours—during which time I dreamed the entire plot of Vicki’s Key from beginning to end.
The
plot involves a young woman named Vicki Boyd who takes a job assisting an
elderly woman with her angelfish breeding business. But when she arrives, she
finds that Laurel Maguire has suffered a stroke and is confined to her third
floor bedroom in an old, rambling house. Her nephew, Dylan, has just arrived
from Ireland to care for her. Vicki very quickly falls in love with the
charming, handsome Irishman. But all is not what it seems to be in Aunt
Laurel’s house.
I
wanted this book to be part of the Black
Swamp Mysteries series, however, and I knew a layer was missing—a layer
that would take Vicki from one book to the next and would, as it turns out,
also bind her to Dylan Maguire throughout the series.
I
was combing through declassified government information when I stumbled upon
the psychic spy program. It had begun during the Cold War when U.S.
intelligence discovered the Soviet Union was employing psychic spies to
infiltrate our highest level meetings, nuclear facilities, weapons facilities
and top secret cases. The U.S. began its own program which is still in use
today.
That
turned out to be the missing ingredient. In Vicki’s
Key, Vicki is a psychic spy whose last mission goes horribly wrong. Trying
to begin a new life away from the CIA, she turns to Laurel Maguire’s
advertisement and makes the move to a small town where nothing ever happens. And
as the old house comes alive with dark secrets, the CIA locates Vicki for one
last mission. Her past and her future are about to collide—in murder.
And
is there an axe murderer in the house, after all? No—but something just as
terrifying.
p.m. will award one randomly drawn commenter a Celtic Shamrock Necklace.
BLURB:
Following a failed mission, Vicki Boyd leaves
her job as a psychic spy with the CIA, determined to start her life over in a
small town assisting an elderly lady. But when she arrives, she finds that
Laurel Maguire has suffered a stroke and is confined to the third floor of her
home and her nephew Dylan has recently arrived from Ireland to care for her.
Vicki very quickly falls in love with the charming, handsome Irishman. But all
is not what it seems in Aunt Laurel’s old, rambling home. And when the CIA
arrive on her doorstep to convince her to accept one last mission, she finds
her past and her future are about to collide… In murder.
Excerpt
Vicki let the end of the towel
drop so it brushed against her knees as she held the top against her
breastbone. With one hand, she pulled the shower curtain back.
Dylan stood barefoot in the
doorway, his back against the doorframe, his long legs stretching toward the
opposite side, one hand planted against the opposite doorframe as though he’d
been semi-reclining there for some time.
She gasped instinctively.
He returned her stare
silently.
“How long have you been
there?” she asked, tugging the towel to cover her breasts.
“Long enough.”
She felt exposed, though the
towel was doing an adequate job of covering the front of her body. But his eyes
didn’t waver from her face while his own remained entirely expressionless. The
rage he’d displayed earlier was gone, and so was his broad smile. He simply
looked at her impassively as though he was immersed in his private thoughts.
“What are you doin’ here?” he
asked, finally breaking the silence.
She clasped the towel to her.
“I—I was taking a shower.”
“No,” he said, his voice
measured, “what are you doin’ in here?”
She thought of the shower in
her own private bathroom, and how insensitive she must appear to have let
herself into his private space without asking. She opened her mouth to respond
but the words would not come. “I—I” was all she could manage.
He dropped his hand from the
doorframe. Without taking his eyes off hers, he moved deliberately across the
bathroom until he stood in front of her. His eyes wandered to her hair, and
Vicki realized she was trembling from the air conditioning against her wet
skin. Without speaking, he took her towel and wrapped it around her. As the
bath sheet was draped around her slender body, he took the corner and began to
gently rub her hair with it. He stopped after a moment, his hand against her
face and gazed at her cheek as he brushed it with his thumb.
“What were you cryin’ for,
Woman?” he asked.
“I don’t know.”
“‘I don’t know,’ she says. Same
thin’ me mum used to say. ‘What are you cryin’ for, Mum?’ I’d say. ‘I don’t
know.’ ‘Well, you do it every night. Seems like you’d have figured it out by
now.’”
AUTHOR
INFORMATION:
p.m.terrell
is the award-winning, internationally acclaimed author of more than 18 books in
4 genres. A full-time author since 2002, she previously opened and operated two
computer companies in the Washington, DC area. Her specialties were in the
areas of computer crime and computer intelligence and her clients included the
Secret Service, CIA and Department of Defense as well as local law enforcement.
Computer and spy technology are two themes that recur
throughout her books. She is the co-founder of The Book 'Em Foundation,
whose mission is to raise awareness of the link between high illiteracy rates
and high crime rates. And she founded the annual Book 'Em North Carolina
Writers Conference and Book Fair which takes place each February.
Author's
website: www.pmterrell.com
Author's
blogs: www.pmterrell.blogspot.com and www.vickisangelfish.com (inspired by the angelfish
"front" used by the CIA in the Black Swamp Mysteries series)
Twitter:
@pmterrell
Amazon
Links: Paperback: http://www.amazon.com/Vickis-Key-Black-Mysteries-Series/dp/1935970038/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1366120530&sr=8-1&keywords=vicki%27s+key Ebook: http://www.amazon.com/Vickis-Black-Mysteries-Series-ebook/dp/B007F1PWBY/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1366120530&sr=8-1
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/121018
Nook
(Barnes and Noble): http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/vickis-key-p-m-terrell/1105875534
