Now, here’s something fun and lighthearted for your end-of-the summer, and a little different for the ol’ Military Spouse Book review:

I’ve been introduced to a romance writer and Air Force wife, Emmy Curtis, who’s written three books as part of a series called Alpha Ops. I always love hearing about mil spouses who are writers, so I wanted to know more! She was kind enough to answer a few questions.

The first installment, a novella called Dangerous Territory, was released August 4th. The official blurb seems steamy indeed, and the cover speaks, well, a thousand words!

A SEXY STRANGER

Flirting with danger is reporter Grace Grainger’s modus operandi. But she’s learned the hard way not to grow attached to the soldiers she’s embedded with in Afghanistan. To escape from her pain and loneliness, she fantasizes about the hot night she spent with a gorgeous stranger three years before in D.C. Grace never thought she’d see him again—let alone need him to rescue her . . .

Dangerous_bigWell, hello there, Josh Travers

AN EXPLOSIVE NIGHT

Air Force Master Sergeant Josh Travers knows journalists are nothing but trouble. So when he has to risk his team’s lives to save some reporter who’s been separated from her patrol, he’s not happy—until he recognizes her stunning eyes and delicious curves. Josh has never wanted a woman like he wants Grace. He needs her—even in an Afghan cave with a sandstorm and enemy troops closing in. This might be the end for both of them—or one hell of a beginning.

Whew! Stunning eyes, delicious curves, a cave tryst in Afghanistan, pecs that could kill. What more could you want for some frothy beach-side fun? I confess that I have never actually read a romance novel (now I feel really boring), but Emmy Curtis had some interesting answers to my questions (below). Dangerous Territory has been getting excellent reviews on Goodreads (“I was on the edge of my seat”… “sizzling romance”…”heart-stopping action”). Maybe if any series can be my gateway drug into romance novels, it’s Alpha Ops.

I loved hearing what Curtis had to say about being a military spouse who writes, and how she chose the characters and situations for her novels. Enjoy, folks.

1. Mil Spouse Book Review: Emmy, you are both a military spouse and a romance writer who recently signed a three-book deal, so there’s a lot I want to know!

Can you start by telling a little bit about yourself — you are an ex-pat Brit who’s lived all over the world, I understand, so how did you come to be an American military wife?

Emmy Curtis: I hate saying so, but I met my husband in a bar in Savannah, Georgia while I was on vacation with my friend, Sarah. I was managing a busy London airport terminal, he was already making a career in the Air Force. We kissed, and then exchanged very infrequent emails for close to ten years. Then we got back together and…the rest is history.
The strange thing is, once I’d finished my three books, I realized that the beginning of all three romances I’d written had the hero and heroine meeting, and then not seeing each other for ages, and then finding each other unexpectedly. It was totally unconscious, but now I see that I wrote my own relationship path!

2. How has being a military spouse informed your reading and writing? Has it been difficult to combine the mil spouse life with a writing life?

The military life has totally informed my writing. I realized that a lot of romance authors write military heroes, but 99% of the time they write about Navy SEALs or Marines (especially snipers for some reason!)… and I know, as many of your blog’s readers do, that there are many more real-life heroes in the military than just SEALs and Marines. I wanted to write about those who rarely get page-time, but who put their lives on the line every day during a deployment.
As far as combining a military life with writing, I’d say that my husband’s job has enabled me to write. I don’t have children in the house, so aside from that underlying unease that you could get PCS orders any time, the life his job has given me has only enhanced my opportunity to write.

3. Can you tell us a little bit about your book series, and how you got the idea for them?

The books are about the lesser-known units in the military. The first book, Dangerous Territory, is about an Air Force Pararescuer (or PJ) who gets stuck behind enemy lines with a journalist. It’s a novella, and introduces the series that the publisher has called Alpha Ops.
The second book, which is a full-length novel, is about an Air Force TACP and a female special forces soldier, and the third is about a former EOD technician who is now a part of the JPAC team that recovers human remains from previous conflict zones.
As for the idea, I just asked my husband for some Air Force combat jobs other than his, because…well, as I said, SEALs and Marines!

4. May I ask if your husband has read your books, and what he thinks of them? Is he your fact-checker in any way?

*Laughs* Let’s face it, what I’ve written isn’t literary military fiction! The books are more like a fantasy version of real-life. Would a Pararescuer allow himself to be seduced on a mission? Probably not (I hope!) but by equal parts, do some women have a fantasy of being alone with a gorgeous, honorable military man in close proximity in a tense situation? Yes, yes they do! (Or, *looks around* is that just me?)

Mil Spouse Review: Um, no, that is not just you.

So my husband has fact-checked the logistics, the way different teams work, and the hardware they use. When I told him that the Pararescuer was rescuing someone he’d ‘known’ a few years previously and crazy romance would ensue, he just raised his eyebrow and said “Okaaaaay?”

He hasn’t read the books yet, mostly because I want him to see the dedication in real-time, not as a draft! I’m sappy like that!

That’s so sweet. You’ll have to keep us posted on what he thinks of them! And in the meantime, let’s just say I’m not averse to letting a little Josh Travers into my life.

Thanks so much for stopping by, Emmy!

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Image009Emmy Curtis is an Air Force wife and writer currently living in North Carolina. You can follow her at http://www.emmycurtis.com and on Twitter: @EmmyCurtis19.

You can buy Dangerous Territory here, here, or here!