Pain Games follows the member of a Female Engagement Team on her journey from enlistment through boot camp to deployment in Iraq, capturing the brutality, absurdity, and dark humor of military life. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

Kate Molsin, the main character, is a Military Police Officer who’s hand-selected to lead a Female Engagement Team (FET). The original idea for what became Adrenaline Rush actually started when I was in middle school. Back then, I was sketching out the blueprints for a story about service, sacrifice, and adrenaline—but I set it aside when I enlisted in the Air National Guard. The concept stayed in the back of my mind for years, though, simmering until I found the inspiration I needed to bring it to life.

That spark came after I transferred to active-duty Army three years later. I was stationed in South Korea as a Military Police Officer, and being in that environment—serving with so many incredible men and women who became like family—gave me clarity on what I wanted the story to become. That’s when Adrenaline Rush evolved from a single story into what’s now a full series.

During my time in service, I realized how few military stories are told from a female perspective. We go into combat alongside our brothers-in-arms, shoulder-to-shoulder as equals, but we process war, trauma, and resilience differently. That contrast stuck with me, and I wanted to explore it honestly. In many ways, this series is my version of a Tom Clancy or Jack Reacher story—told through a woman’s lens. Because the truth is, men aren’t the only ones who like to blow stuff up, tote guns, and fight for their team.

Ultimately, I hope Adrenaline Rush serves as both a platform and a conversation starter—to educate, entertain, and shed light on what all soldiers and veterans experience, especially women whose stories too often go untold.

Your characters are wonderfully emotive and relatable. Were you able to use anything from your own life to inform their character development?

Yes, absolutely. Kate Molsin is a blend of all the incredible women I’ve served with—myself included. She embodies our strength, humor, resilience, and the emotional depth that comes from serving in uniform. Many of the other characters are inspired by the remarkable men I’ve had the privilege to work alongside. Their personalities, quirks, and unspoken camaraderie helped shape the realism behind each scene. In many ways, these characters are tributes to the people who’ve stood beside me through chaos and calm—the brothers and sisters who became family through shared hardship and service.  

What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?

Oh man, there are so many. The main themes I wanted to highlight in the lives of soldiers are honor, courage, commitment, and resilience.

Honor—for us, it means living by the core values instilled in you from day one of boot camp: loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, integrity. It’s about making a vow to use those values as your moral compass, both in and out of uniform. We don’t always get it right—we’re human—but honor is a cornerstone of what it means to be a soldier.

Courage—it’s doing what’s right, whether you’re on the battlefield or navigating your personal life. It’s having the courage to walk into the darkness, sometimes alone, because you made a vow and you stand by it.

Commitment—as a soldier, you’re committed. Bottom line. To the mission, to your team, to your values. It’s that unbreakable drive to show up, even when everything in you wants to quit.

Resilience—the military will test you in every possible way: emotionally, psychologically, and physically. You have to take care of yourself so you can keep completing the mission. You have to learn to get back up after being knocked down, again and again. This life isn’t for the faint of heart—war doesn’t care about your feelings—but resilience is what separates those who endure from those who fade.

Can you tell us more about what’s in store for Katie and the direction of the second book?

Actually, the third book—Adrenaline Rush: Operation Homefront—will be coming out soon, and I’m really excited about it. Like the rest of the series, it’s packed with non-stop action, but it also dives deeper into the emotional and psychological battles soldiers face once they return home. It explores what it’s like to transition back into what we call the “civilian division,” or civ div—that uneasy process of trying to fit back into a world that feels both familiar and foreign.

This book highlights the reality that the fight doesn’t always end when the deployment does. Sometimes, the toughest battles are the ones you face after the war—when you’re trying to rebuild, reconnect, and rediscover who you are outside the uniform.

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