Virtual Tour + #Giveaway: Casablanca: Appointment at Dawn by Linda Bennett Pennell @LindaPennell @GoddessFish

Casablanca: Appointment at Dawn

by Linda Bennett Pennell

GENRE: historical fiction with romantic elements

BLURB:

Casablanca, 1943: a viper’s nest of double agents and spies where OSS Officer Kurt Heinz finds his skill in covert operations pushed to the limit. Allied success in North Africa and the fate of the First Allied Conference—perhaps the outcome of the war—hang on Kurt’s next mission. The nature of his work makes relationships impossible. Nonetheless, he is increasingly torn between duty and the beautiful girl who desperately needs his protection and help.

Sarah Barrett, U.S. Army R.N., is finished with wartime romance. Determined to protect her recently broken heart, she throws all of her time and energy into caring for her patients, but when she is given a coded message by a mysterious dying civilian, she is sucked into a vortex of danger and intrigue that threatens her very survival. The one person who can help Sarah is Kurt Heinz, a man with too many secrets to be trusted.

Books:

Al Capone at the Blanche Hotel from Soul Mate Publishing

Confederado do Norte from Soul Mate Publishing

When War Came Home from real Cypress Press

Casablanca: Appointment at Dawn available 8/28/15 from the Wild Rose Press

Buy link for Al Capone at the Blanche Hotel: Amazon

Buy link for Confederado do Norte: Amazon

Buy ink for When War Came Home: Amazon

Buy link for Casablanca: Appointment at Dawn: Amazon

EXCERPT:

“I’m Heinz. What do you want?”

“Oh. It’s you.”

“Yeah?”

“From the restaurant on New Year’s Eve.”

Kurt was silent for a moment, then it came back to him. “I remember. Sarah, right? You’re the girl who refused to dance with me.”

A red flush crawled from her throat onto the apples of her cheeks. “Yes. I’m sorry if I was rude.”

“I’ve been cut dead before. I got over it.”

The girl’s eyes glittered. “I’m sure you did. Are you going to keep me standing here on the doorstep for everyone to see?”

“Why? I’m not expecting company. Would it be a problem?”

“It certainly might if the people who tore my apartment apart followed me here.”

Kurt looked into her eyes with complete attention for the first time since opening the door. Whatever had happened to this girl, she looked terrified and angry. Not a particularly good combination for the covert activities he and Phelps were up to.

Kurt made a quick decision. He stepped back and pulled the door wide while raising his voice.

“You better come inside and tell me why you think what happened to your apartment has anything to do with me.”

When they stepped into the living area, Phelps had disappeared. Kurt gestured toward the sofa and the girl sat down.

Propping himself on the sofa’s arm, he looked down into her frightened eyes.

“Now tell me how I can help you, Miss, uh…” “Barrett, Sarah. US Army. RN.”

“Well, Nurse Barrett, what can I do for you?”

The girl stuck her hand in her coat pocket and whipped out a scrap of paper that she waved in his face.

“By telling me what’s on this paper and why it’s so important that somebody took a knife to my furniture.”

Author Interview:

10 favorite places to visit

Only ten? Shoot, this is easy as I love to travel! In the UK: London, Yorkshire Dales, York, the English Lake District, Cotswolds, Scotland (all parts) In Europe proper: Germany: Telgte, Rotenburg; Austria: Strasburg; Czech Republic: Prague; Norway: Oslo, Geiranger   So many places, so little time!  

What is your favorite time period?

I love the late 19^th through mid-20th centuries, but if the historical story is interesting, I will like it regardless of period.

What is your writing process? For instance do you do an outline first? Do you do the chapters first?

I am a plotter with pantser tendencies. Before I begin writing a novel, I generally have the main character arc(s), story arc, ending, and some major scenes set. The remaining details and inclusions simply reveal themselves as I write. I begin at chapter one and go through to the end. This is not to say that nothing previously written ever gets changed. If I get a great idea while writing a later chapter that affects earlier action, I go back and make the appropriate changes. This is why I love Scrivener. The chapters and their summaries are all right at hand; therefore, changes are easily made.

Do the characters all come to you at the same time or do some of them come to you as you write?

The main characters are in place before I start. Secondary characters often reveal themselves during the writing process.

Pick a favorite event in time that you would like to visit. 

Example: Salem Witch Trials, Civil War, The shooting of Abraham Lincoln ect…..

Tell us why you would like to visit this event. Would you like to visit just to see and know what really happened or would you like to visit as a participate in the event?

I would love to have been a fly on the wall during that First Allied Conference in Casablanca in 1943. This is where Roosevelt convinced the other Allies that there could only be unconditional surrender by the Axis powers. I would love to hear the discussion about how Roosevelt envisioned what would happen if the Allies were to accept any other type of surrender. Even in 1943, there were highly placed German officials and generals who wanted to sue for peace terms. Scary thought that without the policy of unconditional surrender, Hitler might have been allowed to return to a regular life after serving a little POW time. YIKES!

I also would like to have been a fly on the wall when it was discovered that a German translator had made a critical mistake with an intercepted Allied communication. The communication talked about the conference’s location, but the translator got it mixed up. He decided Casablanca, Spanish for white house, was the White House in Washington, D.C. Can’t you just see the temper tantrums that must have ensued after the mistake was discovered? I wonder if the translator survived.

Taking historical events, like I did in Casablanca: Appointment at Dawn, and playing “what if” with the facts is what makes writing historical fiction so much fun!  

AUTHOR BIO:

I have been in love with the past for as long as I can remember. Anything with a history, whether shabby or majestic, recent or ancient, instantly draws me in. I suppose it comes from being part of a large extended family that spanned several generations. Long summer afternoons on my grandmother's porch or winter evenings gathered around her fireplace were filled with stories both entertaining and poignant. Of course being set in the American South, those stories were also peopled by some very interesting characters, some of whom have found their way into my work.

As for my venture in writing, it has allowed me to reinvent myself. We humans are truly multifaceted creatures, but unfortunately we tend to sort and categorize each other into neat, easily understood packages that rarely reveal the whole person. Perhaps you, too, want to step out of the box in which you find yourself. I encourage you to look at the possibilities and imagine. Be filled with childlike wonder in your mental wanderings. Envision what might be, not simply what is. Let us never forget, all good fiction begins when someone says to her or himself, "Let's pretend."

I reside in the Houston area with one sweet husband and one adorable German Shorthaired Pointer who is quite certain she’s a little girl.

"History is filled with the sound of silken slippers going downstairs and wooden shoes coming up." Voltaire 

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