Countdown to

Hot Target

12/01/04

27 days (and counting to Hot Target, in stores on December 28th)

Cast of Characters       Gay 101

Note from Suz:  Welcome to the first countdown page for Hot Target.  Join me here on my website each Monday through Friday for a short (or long! <g>) excerpt, for photos, thoughts, reviews, musings, recommended reads, trivia quizzes (with cool prizes!) and other potentially interesting ways to pass the time until Hot Target's December  28th release date!  

(Special note:  I realize that some readers don't like to read excerpts -- I'll be including a special "excerpt buffer" on the days that I post an excerpt, so that those readers can enjoy the countdown, too!) 

Traditionally, we start the countdown with a list of characters who appear in the coming book.  

Why break with tradition now, huh?  <g>

And oh, yeah, POV characters are highlighted in PURPLE.  (Click here if this makes you go "Huh?")

Hot Target's Cast of Characters:

From SEAL Team Sixteen:

Chief Petty Officer Cosmo Richter -- Our hero.  The SEAL with the mirrored sunglasses.  Taciturn.  Mysterious.  Cos takes a temporary assignment with Tommy Paoletti's Troubleshooters Incorporated while on leave.  (His mother falls and fractures both wrists, and taking leave is the only way to be sure that he'll stay Stateside while she breaks in her home health aide.)  He's got an enormous amount of disdain for the so-very-L.A. Hollywood producer whom he's supposed to help protect.  She may be gorgeous, with a body to die for, but she doesn't take the death threats she's been receiving at all seriously, and he's got no patience with that.  But a job's a job, and this one keeps him close to his mom...

You'll see glimpses of other Team Sixteen regulars in the book's prologue, too.  (You don't want me to give everything away, do you?)

From Troubleshooters Incorporated:  

Tom Paoletti -- CEO and CO of Troubleshooters Incorporated, a team of civilians specializing in personal and corporate security.  The former Commanding Officer of SEAL Team Sixteen, Tom chose to resign from the Navy rather than ride a desk.  His organization is made up of former military personnel -- including SEALs, Rangers, Marines and SAS among others -- and former law enforcement agents -- CIA, FBI, police -- as well as an ex-con wildcard or two.  Recently married to his long-time live-in love, Kelly Ashton, Tom's phone hasn't stopped ringing since he created TS Inc., and he's actively recruiting.  When Cosmo calls, he welcomes the chief with open arms.

Lawrence Decker -- Troubleshooters Incorporated Team Leader.  A former Navy SEAL senior chief, Decker left the teams back in 1996, and went to work for the top-secret government organization known only as "the Agency."  A quiet man, capable of blending into the background, Deck and his longtime Agency partner, Nash, recently signed on with Troubleshooters Incorporated.  In Hot Target, Deck finds himself in charge of a team hired to protect a Hollywood film producer -- which turns out to be far less of a cushy silver bullet assignment than he might have hoped.

Vinh Murphy -- Murph spent ten years with the Marines before joining TS Inc.  Recently returned from his honeymoon after marrying his girlfriend Angelina, he's part African-American, part Vietnamese, with just enough Irish thrown in to make things completely confusing to anyone walking into a room and looking for a guy named Murphy.

PJ Prescott -- Former Air Force PJ (hence the nickname), PJ's a helo pilot, complete with gum-snapping helo-pilot attitude.  

Lindsey Fontaine -- Former LAPD.  She may shop in the petite department, but don't let looks deceive.  She could certainly kick my ass. <g>

Dave Malkoff -- Former CIA, and still not completely recovered from all those years of wearing dark suits. 

Sophia Ghaffari -- Currently on staff at TS Inc., her specialty is corporate accounts.  Is it her imagination, or is Decker avoiding her...?

Jimmy Nash -- Decker's Team XO (Executive Officer, or second in command).  

Tess Bailey -- Decker's other Team XO.  She shares the job with Nash on what is supposed to be an easy assignment, close to home.  

From the cast and crew of American Hero:

J. Mercedes Chadwick -- Our heroine.  Hollywood is the only place in the world where a 26-year-old movie producer could be having a "come back."  After writing and producing a smash hit movie in film school at age 19, Jane's next few pictures failed and investors vanished.  When she reinvents herself as J. Mercedes Chadwick, "Party Girl Producer," things once again pick up.  Now she's written and produced a movie that dares to reveal the truth about celebrated World War II hero Harold Lord's homosexuality, and a hate-based group called the "Freedom Network" has targeted her for death.  Jane is exhausted by the idea of a round-the-clock security team -- it's hard enough work being the "Party Girl Producer" when she's out in public.  But if bodyguards move into her house, she'll be forced to continue the masquerade, 24/7.  And darn it, she's got a movie to make.

Robin Chadwick -- Jane's little brother.  With his über-handsome face and first rate acting chops, he's about to super-nova and become a major, bankable Hollywood player.  In fact, his star-making role of Hal Lord is likely to get him a best supporting actor Oscar nod.  Now, if only he could curb his impulses when it comes to women and wine...

Patty Leshane -- Jane's new college-intern-slash-personal-assistant.  Fresh off the Oklahoma farm -- or so she seems to the rest of the production team.  Freckled and blond, she wears kneesocks and means it.  She's got a major jones for handsome Robin Chadwick.

Adam Wyndham -- An aspiring Hollywood actor, Adam is FBI agent Jules Cassidy's former live-in partner.  A few years ago, Adam left Jules and moved to L.A. with some guy named Branford.   Now the undeniably talented Adam is single again -- and nothing but trouble for Jules, who shows up in L.A. to handle the Mercedes Chadwick death threat case.  (And you knew Adam was gonna play a part in this story.  Come on, admit it...)

Jack Shelton -- The elderly Hollywood set designer and WWII veteran, upon whose life -- and secret relationship with Hal Lord -- the movie American Hero is based.  

From Max Bhagat's FBI Team:

Max Bhagat -- You'll only get a brief glimpse of Max during Hot Target.  And the legendary FBI negotiator is very cranky, too.  (Can you guess why?)

Jules Cassidy -- Jules puts the fabulous in FBI.  When J. Mercedes Chadwick starts receiving death threats, our favorite gay FBI agent is assigned to be agent-in-charge, and heads off to the City of Angels.  The FBI has reasons to take the threats very seriously, but getting Mercedes Chadwick to cooperate is like pulling teeth.  And then there's the distracting fact that L.A. is where Jules' ex-significant other Adam ended up after their tumultuous on-again-off-again relationship finally detonated.  Jules knows that the last thing he should do is let Adam back into his life in any way, shape or form.  But -- gay, straight or bi --  love doesn't always make you smarter.

POV is writer's code for point of view.  I use something that I call "deep point of view" in my books.  This means that I get deep inside of the characters' heads and tell the story through their eyes, using their voices -- their words and thoughts -- as well as their interpretations of various events.  I stay in one single character's POV for each scene in this book (and in other books in the TS/Team 16 series, too).  But I do get inside a number of characters' heads to tell Hot Target's story.  Those characters' names are highlighted in purple on the list above.  (Back to top)

Gay 101:  Tolerance is a Fabulous Value!

Studies on youth suicide consistently find that lesbian and gay youth are 2 - 6 times more likely to attempt suicide than other youth and may account for 30% of all completed suicides among teens. Source: Report of the Secretary's Task Force on Youth Suicide, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1989.

In a study of students in public high schools, 97% report regularly hearing homophobic remarks from their peers. Source: Making Schools Safe for Gay and Lesbian Youth: Report of the Massachusetts Governor's Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth, 1993.

These facts taken from the PFLAG (Parents, Friends and Families of Lesbians and Gays) website, at  http://www.pflag.org/education/schools.html 

Note from Suz:  In Hot Target, I will be letting my readers have a much more detailed look at gay FBI agent Jules Cassidy's life.  This character held sidekick status for years as Alyssa Locke's FBI partner in The Defiant Hero, Over the Edge, Out of Control, Into the Night and Gone Too Far.  But now Alyssa's no longer working for the FBI, so, as befitting a sidekick who's moved up to the "Character deserving of a subplot of his own" level, I've made a point to make Jules' Hot Target subplot a romantic one.  

Now, I realize that writing a romantic subplot for a gay character may lose me a reader or two.  I hope not, but if so, so be it.  I hold tightly to my belief that people are people and love is love.  I feel that a good love story about well-developed, realistic characters should be a solidly satisfying read -- no matter who those characters are.  

I've been accused of "waving my rainbow flag" in Hot Target.  LOL!  I happen to disagree.  Yes, this book features Jules Cassidy, who is gay.  Yes, this book features other characters who are gay.  Yes, this book goes into those characters' backstories (their childhoods, their histories) in some detail -- just as I do for all my characters in this book and in every other book I've ever written.  And yes, the backstories for these gay characters probably deal with their "coming out" -- which (as is the case for all gay people) required enormous courage for them to do.  

I believe strongly that my books are entertainment.  I hope you might learn a thing or two while reading them, but first and foremost, my job is to entertain you.  

If I'm waving a flag in Hot Target, it's the same flag I've always waved in all my books -- the American flag.  A flag that's supposed to stand for tolerance and understanding.  For freedom for ALL -- and not just freedom for all Americans, but freedom for all of the diverse and wonderful people living on this planet; freedom to live their lives according to their definitions of freedom.  It's a flag that supposed to stand for honoring real American values like honor and honesty and peace and love and hope.

I'm a firm believer that the only way to conquer intolerance and hatred is through education and enlightenment.  So, here on my website, each day during the Hot Target countdown, I give you "Gay 101."  My hope is to provide you with information (some facts, some fun stuff) about being gay in America -- info that you should feel free to pass along.  Maybe, together, we can help America shine a little brighter.  

Extra note from Suz:  Today, December 1st, is Worlds AIDS Awareness Day.  Visit the Department of Health and Human Services website at http://www.omhrc.gov/hivaidsobservances/ to find out more.

That's all for now!  Be sure to come back for tomorrow's installment in the Countdown to HOT TARGET!

(Note from Suz:  I'm going to try to post each new day's countdown page before 10:00 a.m. eastern time.  Please be patient if I'm a little late...)

See you tomorrow!