Yours Sinisterly

Some exciting news! I am pleased to announce that Incognito has won the Silver for AuthorsDB Book Cover Contest 2017. Thanks to everyone who voted for it.

I thought it would be fun to create a music playlist for Gun Kiss. Hope you enjoy it.  You’ll find the new and old of various genres, both in English and Spanish.  If I were to pick a main theme song, it would be Shaun Escoffery’s “Perfect Love Affair.” 

On a long drive, I tried to tell someone who was the original singer of this song, Besame Mucho. She was none other than Consuelo Velāzquez.  I replicated the scene except in the story the car trip is from California to Tijuana. 

Happy listening.

Gun Kiss Music Playlist_Deezer

A chat with Goldie St. Helen from Gun Kiss!

Get a glimpse inside the world of Goldie St. Helen, the A-list Hollywood movie star as she talks from her Los Feliz bungalow about career, life, and current issues.

Khaled: Thanks for agreeing to do this interview.
Goldie [smiling]: My pleasure. Nice jacket, by the way. Love Mauve.

Khaled: Thanks, I bought it for this special occasion.
Goldie: I’m flattered.

Khaled: I love the house. Did you decorate the place yourself?
Goldie: Thank you. Yes, I did, with some advice from a designer, though I wish the kitchen was bigger. The only way was to cut into the back garden, which I refused.

Khaled: The kitchen looks perfect.
Goldie [laughing]: Are you kidding me? I need room for a bigger refrigerator. Hey, I host lots of parties!

Khaled: So, tell me, have you always wanted to be a movie star?
Goldie [grinning]: I wanted to be an actress. I never thought of myself as a star. One thing led to another, so here I am today.

Khaled: Were your parents supportive of your career choice?
Goldie [smiling]: My father didn’t speak to me for six months. He wanted me to be an architect, just like him. But it’s my life. Follow your dream, right?

Khaled: So, you would’ve been an architect if you weren’t an actress?
Goldie: Hell, no. I would’ve been a botanist. I love flowers and plants. That explains the solarium at the back.

Khaled: Many have tried to break into Hollywood, but failed. What’s your secret of success?
Goldie: I joined the industry because I was passionate about acting. I wasn’t looking for fame, money, and glamor. The perks that came with being a star were bonus points. I have no expectations. I’m not afraid of competition, even from someone younger. It’s one day at a time for me. C’est la vie.

Khaled: What words of wisdom would you give aspiring actors?
Goldie: All that glitters is not gold. Be prepared to work hard. How badly do you want it? Watch every step you take. Be careful of predators.

Khaled: How do you handle sexual predators in the industry?
Goldie [smiling]: If they grab you by the pussy, kick em in the balls.

Khaled: Easier said than done. You had a tough time doing that in the book, didn’t you?
Goldie: Hey, you wrote the book! I was just doing the acting for you! If it was real life, I would’ve kicked him so hard.

Khaled: Would you do a stage play or indie movie for little or no money?
Goldie: Of course! If the script is great, yes.

Khaled: Do you ever get tired of the fame game?
Goldie: I hate the attention… but I love my fans.

Khaled: What makes you happy?
Goldie [smiling]: Myself, friends, family, and desserts.

Khaled: Is the future beautiful?
Goldie: Que Sera Sera. Maybe I’ll start a family… I still want to work. I love my job.

Khaled: Chocolate or cookie?
A: Chocolate.

Khaled: A handsome face or a good-heart?
A: A good heart.

Khaled: Love or money?
A: Love.

P.S. I’ll be hosting a Facebook party in December with lots of prizes to be won. I hope to see you there. Sign up for my newsletter at the CONTACT PAGE to know when. 

For the first time ever, my friend and fellow author, Donna Galanti, is offering on sale Book 1 in her Imajin Books paranormal suspense Element Trilogy, A Human Element. The book is available on Kindle for $0.99 cents.

As a bonus Book 2 A Hidden Element, is up for free (US and UK only). Valid from October 27 till October 31st.

You can also join the Rafflecopter Giveaway and stand a chance to win a $25 Amazon Gift Card (click the Rafflecopter link below to participate).

Excerpt for Human Element…

The man in black waited at the facility's back door holding an envelope and a small bundle wrapped in a ragged towel. His long coat kept his muscular girth dry from the storm's deluge. His wide-brimmed hat slung low over his jagged face, as water poured off its edge in a steady stream. This weather did not bother him. He waited patiently in the chilled spring night to deliver his packages and receive one in return. The door opened, spilling fluorescent light onto his feet. A plain-looking nurse held a crying bundle in her arms.
The man could hear the child's bellowing cries coming from underneath the blanket covering it. She pushed the child into his arms as if eager to be rid of it. He reached down and hung his head lower, to shield the bundle from the rain and his own face from the glaring light. He took the bundle and handed the nurse his packages. The nurse grabbed the envelope but quickly placed the lump on the ground as if the contents were distasteful. The nurse began to close the door when he heard another far away cry.
The man wedged his foot in the door.
"What was that?" He had to nearly shout over the din of the rain.
"Nothing." The nurse looked up.
The man risked looking her in the eye.
"The girl is in pain and won't keep quiet." She clutched the envelope and folded her arms across her sagging bosom.
"It sounded like another baby," he said.
"It's just the whimpering slut. Now she's paid double for what she's done."
The nurse took a step back as if aware she had said too much already. She
glared at him. "Now go on. You have what you wanted. And so do I." She picked up the lump from the ground and shut the door in his face.
The man in black stood there for a long moment, considering the woman's choice of words. He was sure he had heard another baby. What if another child had been delivered and the frigid woman and country doctor kept it secret? Fascinating. He decided to keep this information to himself. He would find the opportune time to use it. He was a patient man.
But first, he had to see for himself.
He peeled back the child's bunting and looked for the first time into its yellow eyes. For that moment, the baby fell silent.
"Welcome to Earth X-10."
The baby resumed its wailing.
The man turned with his noisy package and melted into the darkness satisfied, as the doctor had been, that the night's events had provided him with more than he had asked for.

About A Human Element: 

One by one, Laura Armstrong’s friends and adoptive family members are being murdered, and despite her unique healing powers, she can do nothing to stop it. The savage killer haunts her dreams, tormenting her with the promise that she is next. Determined to find the killer, she follows her visions to the site of a crashed meteorite–her hometown. There, she meets Ben Fieldstone, who seeks answers about his parents’ death the night the meteorite struck. In a race to stop a mad man, they unravel a frightening secret that binds them together. But the killer’s desire to destroy Laura face-to-face leads to a showdown that puts Laura and Ben’s emotional relationship and Laura’s pure spirit to the test. With the killer closing in, Laura discovers her destiny is linked to his and she has two choices–redeem him or kill him.

Praise for A Human Element:

“A Human Element is an elegant and haunting first novel. Unrelenting, devious but full of heart. Highly recommended.” – Jonathan Maberry, New York Times best-selling author.

Praise for A Hidden Element:

“Fascinating…a haunting story about just how far parents will go to protect, or destroy, their children in the name of love.”—Rebecca Cantrell, New York Times best-selling author.

Purchase A Human Element here: On sale for just $0.99 10/27 – 11/2!
 http://mybook.to/AHumanElement

Purchase A Hidden Element here: On sale for FREE 10/27 – 10/31!
http://myBook.to/AHiddenElement

Meet the Author

Donna Galantii is the author of the paranormal suspense Element Trilogy and the children’s fantasy adventure Joshua and The Lightning Road series. Donna is a contributing editor for International Thriller Writers the Big Thrill magazine and blogs with other middle grade authors at Project Middle Grade Mayhem. She’s lived from England as a child, to Hawaii as a U.S. Navy photographer. Donna enjoys teaching at conferences on the writing craft and marketing and also presenting as a guest author at elementary and middle schools. Visit her at: http://www.elementtrilogy.com and http://www.donnagalanti.com She also loves building writer community @ http://www.yourawesomeauthorlife.com

Connect with Donna:
Twitter https://twitter.com/DonnaGalanti
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/DonnaGalantiAuthor/
Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5767306.Donna_Galanti

Enter to win a $25 Amazon Gift Card:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I used to do some freelance copywriting work for an ad agency in Cairo. One of the agency’s clients was an international hotel located by the River Nile.

One day, the MD turned on the phone intercom to let everyone hear a voice at the other end screaming. It was the hotel’s marketing director who wasn’t pleased with the quality of the hotel’s newsletter the agency had produced.

So the agency’s MD arranged for a new team to take over the newsletter’s account. I was included in the project along with an Egyptian-Greek lady who was a graphic designer.

The three of us visited the hotel’s marketing executive. During the meeting, the client took out a glossy magazine from her bookshelf and raised it as a sample of what she was expecting from us.

Now, this hotel executive had no clue who I am and where I come from. As she was flipping the pages of the magazine, praising its quality and writing style, I wondered if I should say something. Here was someone in power who could, at any moment, break the agency’s contract if she so desired.

No one else was doing the talking, but I couldn’t help myself; I was too excited to remain silent.

So I asked the client if I could have a closer look at the magazine. When she handed it over, I flipped the pages to a feature article. Then I stood up, took a step forward, and pointed to the writer’s byline. With a smile, I said, “This is me… that’s my name. I’m from Singapore. I used to work for this magazine.”

We kept the contract and I got a free lunch.

The above description is not a teaser for my next novel, but a sampling of the dangerous world that Kris Herzog lives in as an American security expert.  The owner of The Bodyguard Group of Beverly Hills manages a team of specialist bodyguards that include honorable police officers, ex-Navy Seals, and U.S. vets.

Kris’s clients have included  Jon Voight, Angelina Jolie, Jack Nicholson, Lindsay Lohan, Jessica Alba, Britney Spears, Taylor Swift, Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian. He has also managed the security detail of several presidents, royalties, and top business people.

The perils of his thirty-five-year career include saving a celeb from an assassin’s bullet (he got shot in the course), preventing the kidnapping of a porn-star, stopping an explosive-laden vehicle and countering a sniper. Everything that Kris told me during our phone conversation sounded like how I had described the secondary bodyguard characters in my novel, Gun Kiss. They were assigned to protect a fictional movie star.

What makes Kris’s service different from the regular bodyguards is that he and his team offer a range of real-level protection portfolio. Services include threat assessments, K-9 security,  protecting children, and Navy Seal-escort for domestic and international travel.

Here are some of the questions I asked Kris, which he kindly answered:

Your services include screening mails, packages, and emails. What were some of the scary stuff you found sent to celebs?

Kris: For national security purposes I can’t go into details, but what I can say is that I’ve found poison, bloodied clothes, severed penises, dead animals, and child pornography. They were sent anonymously. These sick people do it for various reasons — some are obsessed fans, others want to intimidate.

How do you protect celebs if you accompany them on holiday?

Kris: Depending on the threat level, we’ll set up a protection “bubble” every step of the way.  It’s a security measure that involves every level of checking. We’ll check the background of every hotel guest staying on the same floor as our client. We’ll also make sure that we are nearby. We’ll occupy the rooms above, below and beside our client as part of that measure.

Do you hire female bodyguards? What’s the advantage of having them?

Kris: They make great undercover bodyguards. They can also accompany our clients into the restroom with no hassle.

What were some of your crazy experiences protecting celebs?

Kris: We shot a male suspect pretending to be a female in a burqa as he was about to detonate a suicide explosive vest.  We also shot a sniper who tried to kill a celeb. Once, we even rammed an explosive-laden car just as it came toward us.

How did you know there was a sniper in the vicinity?

Kris:  Our counter-sniper team includes “spotters” to expose the sniper’s location. That Las Vegas shooting, for example, could have been prevented. Had we been hired, we would have rolled out precautionary steps to counter any potential threat in the vicinity.

You are not a fan of the paparazzi. How do you protect your clients from them?

Kris:  Protecting our clients from the paparazzi is a small gig compared to the bigger assignments that we do. However, if need be, there are many ways to dodge these guys. We disguise our clients, maybe in a waiter’s attire, or use a decoy vehicle to get away from them.  At times, the assignment can be tricky as anyone can pretend to be a paparazzo.  Faces change daily, so we are always on the alert; we do not want to be caught by surprise.

What kind of barriers do you set up to protect celebs at an event, for example, an autograph signing?

Kris: It’s not possible to have full barriers, but we’ve never had a client injury. In a crowd, we place undercover people or what we call “Body-Men” to look out for potential threats. We also have “movers” whose role is to ingress and egress among the crowd, checking out suspicious behavior. We also use sniffer dogs to deter anyone carrying firearms.

 What if a stubborn client refuses to comply with your security detail?

Kris: We’ll assess the client before agreeing to take up the assignment. If we expect problems, the greatest tool in our hand is to ask for money in advance. It’s in their favor to listen to us. Otherwise, we’ll just tell them goodbye, and keep the money. It’s really a case where we’ll have to slap the crap or pull the needle out of their arm to get the message across.

Are you close to any celebs?

Kris: I’ve dated some of them. They do call me from time to time asking for security advice.

Thanks, Kris.

Images courtesy of Kris Herzog

If you like the cover of Incognito, please vote for it.

AuthorsDB Cover Contest 

Thanks,

KT

I said no to romance, but then I changed my mind. Even so, I wrote it my style minus the fluff.

This is a video I made to explain why I wrote Gun Kiss the way I did. But I’ve explained myself in this blog post.

https://iloveromanceblog.wordpress.com/tag/khaled-talib/

Ask any author what’s it like to wait for their book’s first review, and you’ll probably get a nervous answer. But I’m excited that Gun Kiss’s first review is now out, from Midwest Book Review, and it’s a nice one.  Take a peek:

“The mark of a superior thriller lies in its ability to seamlessly transcend borders, boundaries, and special interests to provide a series of interwoven subplots that all come together in a satisfying crescendo of intrigue designed to keep readers on edge right up to the end.

“Take a deep breath before reading Gun Kiss. Its special brand of activity and complex personal and criminal interactions makes it hard to put down, and highly recommended for thriller and crime readers alike.” 

Some famous wartime cats who performed above and beyond their duty.

Simon
Simon’s efforts for Britain’s Royal Navy didn’t go unnoticed during World War II. He first survived a brutal attack that killed his caretaker, and proceeded to annihilate rats and raise the morale of his crew. He became a national hero, which earned him the prestigious Dickin Medal. He is the only cat ever to receive the award.

Crimean Tom 
In 1854, when British and French troops occupied the Russian port town of Sevastopol, Tom led the famished troops to caches of food beneath a rubble hidden along the waterfront by the Russians. Tom was adopted as a mascot by the grateful soldiers. He was later taken back to England when the troops were called back.

Tiddles
Born and raised a ship cat, Tiddles served a few Royal Navy aircraft carriers, including the HMS Victorious in the early 1940s as the official Captain’s Cat. He traveled over 30,000 miles during his naval service.

Faith
She made her home at Saint Augustine’s Church in London in 1936. On September 6, 1940, the mother of one apparently instinctively moved her recently born kitten from the warm upper floors to the basement. The church was bombed by the Germans a day later. Faith and her kitten, Panda, were rescued from beneath the rubble by Father Henry Ross. The cat was later awarded a special medal for “steadfast courage in the Battle of London.”

Pitouchi
The kitten was born in the Belgian trenches during World War I. After his mother was killed, Lieutenant Lekeux of the 3rd Regiment Artillery, decided to adopt Pitouchi, the only survivor of the litter. The Germans were up to something, throwing dirt near a thicket. Lekeux decided to investigate. With Pitoutchi on his shoulder, he left the trenches. He hid in a nearby shell hole to sketch their activity. He didn’t notice the enemy soldiers approaching. When he finally did, it was too late for him to run.
Lekeux hoped the Germans would not see him. When they came closer, he heard one of them say, “He’s in the hole.” Pitouchi jumped out of the shell hole. Startled, the Nazi soldiers fired twice at the cat, but thankfully missed. The cat managed to jump back into the hole. The Nazi soldiers laughed it off thinking they had mistaken the cat for a man. Lekeux returned safely behind the Belgian lines with his unharmed cat.