This Week's Special Guest Barbara Clark

This week's special guest at the Tiki Hut is author Barbara Clark.  Barbara stops by this week to talk about her paranormal romance series and to celebrate her 80th birthday with us!

"All dreams lie beyond defeat." That quote has inspired Barbara Clark to keep writing and creating new stories set in a variety of locations from California to a glittering penthouse in New York City, a working cattle rance in Arizona, the Sahara Desert, and the heat and danger of a Brazilian Rain Forest.

Writing as April Reid, her erotic romances plunge into fantasy worlds where dragons speak and magic rules. Her readers have come to expect deep emotions, simple joys, and heart-stopping peril in her award-winning books.

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I’m pleased to spend this week at the Tiki Hut writing about my contemporary paranormal romance series, Sons of Earth and Wind. You could meet the main characters in these stories on any street and not know they have paranormal abilities. Just remember they’re all human and for each psychic gift there’s a vulnerability.

I’ll start with, TEARS OF THE HAWK; Sons of Earth and Wind, Book I

TEARS OF THE HAWK by Barbara Clark 

Sons of Earth and Wind Book I  

Security specialist, Hawk Adams, will brave any danger to protect a woman, but he'll never trust one. So when he rescues Charity Starr from kidnappers, he's stunned by the tenderness and passion she ignites in him.

Born with psychic gifts, Charity has locked them away in self-protection. Hawk not only opens her paranormal abilities, but also expands them. Because of his unconscious ability, his very presence endangers her life.

But as Hawk takes on the self-appointed task to protect Charity from her ruthless enemies, they grow closer, and Hawk learns he can't protect his wounded heart from her healing love.
 

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Hawk actually began as a secondary character in, A BREATH OF HEATHER. He opened the door of a friend’s house for Heather who was fleeing from some gang bangers. While Heather tried to gather her composure, Karen (the woman who lives there)…

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turned to the tall, stern man who stood to one side of the window, gazing out. “Hawk, what do you see?”  

“Trouble.”  

“How did you know?”  

“Felt it. Saw her face.” His steely gaze shifted to Heather, and she sensed the leashed potency in him, the same power she’d felt in Quinn.

~~
 

With that short part of a scene, Hawk Adams’ personality began to grow in my mind. I knew he ran a security agency; that he, Quinn Archer, and Michael Forest had been warriors and comrades in shadow wars years earlier. And as the relationship grew between Quinn and Heather, Hawk became more important to the plot until he almost took over the story.  

I distinctly recall driving my blue ’91 Pontiac down our street, thinking about Hawk more than Quinn, who’s the hero of his and Heather’s story. Finally, I said, “Okay, Hawk, I’ll give you your own book after I finish this one.” 

Of course, Hawk needed a woman who could match his courage, and bring joy and love to his wounded soul. Enter Charity Starr, astrophysicist, an empath, gentle, brave; the one woman Hawk will learn to trust with his heart and soul. 

Later, I was standing in my classroom one morning before my students arrived, looking across the playground to the park adjoining our school. In my imagination, I saw a man walk across the grass through a low ground fog, and settle under a pine tree.  

That image led to the opening of, “Tears of the Hawk.”

~~~

He’d dreamed again last night. Dreamed of ripping terror, destruction, and death.  

Days and nights of violence years earlier still had the power to shatter Hawk Adams’ peace of mind. Here, half a world away on the coast of Southern California, the spectre of his past had brought him to a park in the first pale light of a new day.
 

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I like to use familiar settings in my books.

My husband and I used to drive south to Laguna Beach to enjoy the scenery and time with each other. Remembering those days, I sent Hawk and Charity to Laguna beach to climb down the cliffs on a path, wade in the ocean by moonlight—and learn more about each other. 

When Charity, an astrophysicist gave a seminar, I set it at Cal Tech where my husband, a graduate from there, and I had attended lectures over the years. 

Hawk, there to protect her, muses…

~~~

Her hair, sable-brown and gleaming like spun silk, was swept into a smooth knot at the nape of her graceful neck. Hawk had a sudden urge to pick her up, carry her home to safety, then pull the pins out of her hair and see it fanned out on his pillow. Heat spread through his body as he fantasized. He’d remove each piece of her clothing, stroking and kissing the treasures hidden beneath the silk and linen.  

Bits of conversation between two men seated nearby caught his attention.  

“Is that broad the lecturer today?”  

“Yeah. I wouldn’t mind a private demonstration from her.”  

“Woman with her body should be dancing topless at Bernie’s. What a waste.”  

They snickered.  

Hawk moved deliberately to attract their attention, then speared them with the narrow-eyed look he used on troublemakers.  

They glanced at each other and hastily launched into a discussion of particle physics.

~~~

This book, published in 1999, was my first ebook and my second one in print. It’s still selling in both formats at www.amberquill.com/TearsHawk.html 

 
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WIN - Leave a question or comment anytime this week to get your name in the hat for a box full of of items from assorted authors--things Barbara picked up for this purpose at the RWA National conference this summer. Each box includes a tote bag, water bottle, and books. Barbara will also include an autographed copy of one of her books! 

Come back tomorrow for inside information about the story behind the second book in this contemporary paranormal romance series, Sons of Earth and Wind.