Counting on Trust, Audio Book
by Mary
Ferguson Powers
GENRE: Mystery,
Suspense
BLURB:
In
this suspense-charged, touching novel, Counting on Trust, information is stolen
from a U.S. genetic engineering company (Omniprotein) by an employee promised
payment by a Chinese general who wants to profit from selling the company’s
technologies in the military region of China he commands.
• To force quick
payment the thief attacks fellow employees and threatens to continue until his
money arrives. Will his next targets be: young lovers, computer geek Gabriel
and gorgeous biologist Selena, who are discovering loving sex while trying to
overcome post-traumatic effects of Selena’s girlhood rape.
• Company president,
Eleanor, who’s determined to keep some privacy and intimacy although her job’s
high profile and her husband, Charley, has just had prostate cancer surgery.
• Venture capitalist,
John, who plans to duplicate Omniprotein’s facility in China and reunite with
his ex-wife, fashion designer Ziyi, who returned to Shanghai after their only
child died.
The personal stories
of these couples explore how privacy, intimacy and trust are changing in our
social-media age. They paint a compelling portrait of our time.
Listen to an Excerpt of Counting on Trust, Bad Day on Facebook
Interview with Mary Ferguson
What was the hardest
scene from your book to write?
The most difficult scene was probably the love scene between
Selena and Gabe. Selena had been raped as a child, and has had a fear of men
ever since. Yet she and Gabe love each other deeply. She struggles to overcome
her fear of physical intimacy. The scene required managing her conflicting emotions,
Gabe’s attempt to support her, and the uncertainty they both have about whether
the relationship can work.
Why did you choose to
write in your particular field or genre?
I wrote Counting on
Trust out of my career interest in globalization and its impacts and
microbiology. I also have been
personally interested in how relationships have evolved in an age of social
media and limited privacy. The suspense thriller genre seemed like the right
way to weave those interests together.
If you write in more
than one genre, how do you balance them?
My first book was
Each Unique and Fascinating nad my
second book was OrcaSpeak which is
actually the sequel to Counting on Trust.
Both of these stories take place in the Pacific Northwest and involve themes of
love intermixed with eco-activism. Those
these stories were in a somewhat different genre, they still drew on my primary
career and personal interests and that made transitioning between genres
easier.
What did you enjoy
most about writing this book?
Creating the dynamics of the 3 love stories was the most
interesting and challenging part of writing the book for me. The couples were
of different ages and this meant different perspectives on love and
relationships, as well as different life concerns / problems. Their stories
then had to be told against the background of corporate intrigue.
What book that you
have read has most influenced your life?
I don’t think I can pin it down to just one book. But
certainly the biggest inspiration for my writing was the work ofJane Austen. I
appreciated the way she deconstructed relationships and the social norms around
romance and marriage in her day. Counting
on Trust follows three couples of different ages and background, each
struggling with issues of trust.
Tell us a little about
yourself? Perhaps something not many people know?
I grew up in the Great Depression, one of several children
in a family with just a single parent -
my mother. She had to work very hard to support us. I admire her deeply, and
she was, in some sense, a model for some of the strong women who appear in my
writing.
Can you tell us
something about your book that is not in the summary?
My husband and I lived in Nebraska for a number of years and
it serves as the setting for Counting on
Trust. The story involves people
with ties to Nebraska State University at Lincoln. There is no such university.
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Themes
of novels by M. Ferguson Powers reflect the author’s varied interests,
including preservation of the natural world and its creatures;
Challenges
of building and maintaining loving relationships in a culture with decreasing
respect for personal boundaries and privacy
Influences
of globalization on world events and how the U. S. and other nations relate to
one another
Public
policy issues such as controlling the military-industrial-political complex and
requiring the health care industry to be more respectful of its clients
The
need for cooperation across governments, cultures, and societies to address
global challenges such as climate change
Developments
in business and university administration and management
Powers
has taught microbiology, headed a university office of research, served as executive
director of two university-business partnership programs, and co-authored two
books on university administration. She has a bachelor of science degree in
bacteriology from The Pennsylvania State University, a master’s in experimental
psychology from George Mason University, and a doctorate in educational
leadership from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul.
She
lives on an island near Seattle with husband David R. Powers and their two
shelties. Her first novel, Each Unique and Fascinating, about a bullied young
girl whose father has gone to war, was published in 2012. OrcaSpeak, a novel of relationships and
suspense, was published in 2013, and its prequel, Counting on Trust, was
published in 2017.
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