Biker Bodyguard follows a fiery career woman who stumbles into a terrorist conspiracy and a brooding ex-soldier tasked with keeping her safe as sparks fly in this action-packed romance. What inspired you to combine a high-stakes terrorist plot with a romantic enemies-to-lovers arc?

Biker Bodyguard is Part One of Soldier Banker, a four-book set; 1 story  across 4 books. Basically, because I write at the saga end of the book spectrum, my stories are all quite long and involved, and usually broken down into a set of 4, or occasionally 5, books with lots of cliffhangers to keep the reader engaged and a couple of sub-plots involving secondary characters. That means there has to be more meat in the story than a straightforward enemies-to-lovers tale, and in this case that involves a terrorist plot with an unusual rationale behind it and how this impacts several individual characters as well as the hero and heroine.  Actually, I’ve never really planned out any of the stories I’ve written. The ideas just seem to come to me as I write and that’s how the tales get embellished and progress with all their twists and turns. I’ve never suffered from writer’s block and where all my inspiration comes from I’ve absolutely no idea! I blame my cat, because I discuss them with him as I type… so there you are!!

How did you approach balancing humor, like Alex’s witty banter and Rhett Butler the cat, with the darker suspense elements?

I like to offer some light relief to the reader as my stories progress, along with melodrama, action, adventure and the inevitable passionate romance; I feel it makes the tale more rounded and offers more variety and enjoyment to their reading experience, and again, as I write the ideas just come to me as I type and the scene lends itself to a bit of humour. As far as this four-parter, Soldier Banker, is concerned, I’ve had various pets in my life, including a slightly brainless, very fluffy cat at present, so know how they bring pleasure, humour and comfort to both single people or indeed to whole families.  In fact, further on in the story, in part 4, the hero is left by himself all day to babysit a delinquent toddler, Rhett the cat and an energetic new puppy, and the chaos and despair it causes him was a delight to write and I hope that chapter makes readers laugh out loud at this one time dangerous soldier’s hopeless efforts to cope with them all! I feel if there wasn’t any light relief, the story would be too intense and a bit grim, and that’s not how I write at all. I’m deeply into escapist literature, I leave the reality, doom and gloom to other authors.

What do you hope readers take away from the dynamic between Alex’s fierce independence and Marcus’s protective nature?

As you can probably tell from all my various books, I’m a hopeless romantic, yet have always been a curious student of people, what motivates them and how everyone has an individual persona and personality . And how both are often influenced and develop as a result of their childhood, their upbringing, as well as events in their life and work.  But balancing that, the influence of being in a long-term, loving relationship, or even a short-term, all-encompassing and intense love affair, can change people – both for good and bad, depending on the influence each party exerts on the other. As I’ve wandered down life’s various pathways during my own life and career, I continue to find it fascinating how events or relationships change or shape people’s outlook or lives, and what might have been if things had been different, and I often wonder where my own life would have ended up if I had had parents with different views on how to raise me. But at the end of the day, when people are in love, it affects them and influences them in all sorts of ways… and that is what happens to Alex and Marcus. I just hope the dynamic these two characters have, and the influence of their childhood, their parents, and life’s ups and downs, makes them more believable and empathetic and readers find it both interesting and thought-provoking.

Marcus and Alex have strong, distinct personalities. Did you base them on anyone in particular or draw from personal experiences?

They’re not based on any one individual in particular, more of a mix of several people I’ve met or known over the years, like a lot of the other characters in the story. However, I did spend part of my career working in a PR agency in London, just like the one where Alex works, so that world and her work, and the people who populate the media world, are very familiar to me. I’m definitely not an ex special forces soldier or assassin, but, as I’ve said, I’ve come across all sorts of interesting individuals during my life… and I’ll leave it at that!

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