Sarah Kades Interview - Wild Not Broken ~ JeanBookNerd

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Sarah Kades writes eco-thrillers, and narrative non-fiction as Sarah Graham. Her writing is largely inspired by her previous career as an archaeologist where she routinely lived in tents, caught rides in helicopters and adored the awesomeness of the landscapes around her. Sarah is a two-time Energy Futures Lab Banff Summit storyteller, a recipient of the Calgary Arts Development individual artist grant, and has presented at the British Society of Criminology conference on the application of using arts-based approaches. When she’s not writing you can find her running, bumping into her next adventure, or trying to figure out where in the garden to put the makeshift wood-fired pizza oven.

Tell us your most rewarding experience since being published.
Helping YouthLink in Calgary, Canada raise $25,000 for youth crime prevention programs through several in-person author events with my nonfiction co-author, an active duty homicide detective (Skeletons in My Closet, Life Lessons from a Homicide Detective, Mischievous Books 2018)…that was pretty cool, to make a positive difference in our community.

What is the best piece of advice you ever received from another author?
Trust your writing voice.

Beyond your own work (of course), what is your all-time favorite book?
Tied between Bellewether and Desperate Fortune by Susanna Kearsley.

Greatest thing you learned in school.
One of my biology teachers said, “You can’t actually prove anything.” She meant what we think we know now, may be proven wrong or inconclusive at some point in the future with new technologies or new theories, etc., so basically stay agile and keep an open mind.

What are some of your current and future projects that you can share with us?
The third book of the Hearthstone Series, Not an Easy Truce is releasing June 2022, and the fourth, Loyal to You, in November 2022…weeeeeee!!!

In your newest book; WILD NOT BROKEN, can you tell my Book Nerd community a little about it.
It’s MI6 meets the contemporary eco-Wild West…with heat. Lillian Morgan is a disgraced British war correspondent. Scotland Yard has cleared her of all treason charges, but her career as a journalist, and MI6 courier, didn’t survive being duped by a double-agent. The rediscovery of a family heirloom, a New World fur trade journal from the eighteenth century, gives Lillian a story to chase while she tries to pick up the pieces of her life and heart. Colt Tanner is a world champion bull rider, old enough to know his time on the circuit is coming to a close, but too skittish to settle down anywhere. He likes life one adrenaline high after another, never stopping long enough to feel anything. But a career-ending injury has left him with time to notice the unanswered questions about his family are starting to pile up. A week in the wilderness to write an eco-inn’s marketing material is not Lillian’s idea of professional glory, but her job prospects are limited. She needs a guide and Colt’s schedule is now wide open. Sparks and bullets fly when these two stumble into deadly family secrets and international spies holding grudges. Will they find what they’re looking for, or die trying?

What do you hope for readers to be thinking when they read your novel?
I hope they are feeling each twist and turn, and then, only after they’ve finished, exhausted, do they contemplate the novel and what it, and the characters, mean to them. I suspect each reader will experience something different. For some, they’ll wonder what hydrogen has to do with our energy futures. For others, what does being safe and a woman look like? Others will wonder how much Americana or Canadiana are sitting in private collections across the pond, and still others will consider the notions of supportive masculinity and femininity. Still others will wonder if being a bull rider or courier for MI6 are feasible life paths. And that’s why I love this medium—the same novel can mean so many different things to readers.

Which of your characters do you feel has grown the most since book one and in what way have they changed?
Gabe. I liked how he came through in Wild Not Broken, almost like an antagonist.

What was your unforgettable moment while writing WILD NOT BROKEN?
Realizing this book was an exercise in trusting the void. It was a wild ride writing it!

TEN RANDOM THINGS ABOUT ME

1. I was once passed by a barge while canoeing on the Mississippi River.
2. I love helicopter surveys.
3. I played rugby for a club team in Scotland.
4. I was in a cartography class in university when the U.S. military turned off the satellite scramblers…and a shout out to anyone who knows what that means.
5. Best seafood chowder I ever had was a rosé one in Yellowknife, Canada.
6. I threw hammer in university.
7. Being stalked by a bear sucks.
8. I studied in 3 different countries.
9. I lived in a tent for 5 summers on academic archaeology digs.
10. I stumbled across a copy of the Magna Carta in Lincoln, England.

Choose a unique item from your wallet and explain why you carry it around.
My library card—always have your library card ready! Libraries, in person or online, are one of my happy places.

If you could live anywhere in the world for a year, where would it be?
I adored living in Scotland and would love to live there again.

Best date you've ever had?
That’s tough question…I’ll go with the outdoor dinner we had at an Agri-tourism place in Italy, in the hills above the Mediterranean—everything was a sensory delight.

Most memorable birthday?
Thinking back, I feel a sea of happy…so any birthday, mine or others, where we were surrounded by love and people we care about.

Your Favorite Quotes/Scenes from WILD NOT BROKEN
This excerpt is from one of my favorite scenes to write in Wild Not Broken:

“Something’s up, guys,” she said into her earpiece.

Indecision could get a person killed. Lillian was ready to run, she just didn’t know in which direction to flee. Her car was at least sixteen kilometers away. She had just decided to make a bolt for the trees when her earpiece sounded.

“Copy that. There’s a large herd of cattle in the next valley over.”

She swung her gaze back to where the road crested, and a brown furry body flashed. Another brown body came into view. Soft lowing followed and a small herd of dusty brown cows ambled a few steps before stopping and staring at her. She exhaled and let her stance relax. She had been scared by a few cows. Not arms traders, drug lords, renegade soldiers, or Fernando’s crew.

Chagrined, Lillian took a step forward and the cows turned, heading back where they had come from.

“We can share the road,” Lillian called after them, but the cows disappeared over the rise.

Lillian smiled; the cows were kinda cute. She’d check out the view from the top of the hill and then turn back.

Sprinting up the last few meters to the crest of the hill, Lillian shrieked as a gigantic horse shied in front of her. The large animal reared, sharp hooves windmilled precariously close to her face. Instinctively she threw herself back. Stumbling, she hit the dirt hard. She let momentum carry her and rolled into a back shoulder roll before springing to her feet in a fight-ready position.

The horse was now stamping instead of rearing, and she noticed he had a rider.

The cowboy had kept his seat, although how was beyond Lillian. He was built like his horse, taller than most with corded strength to match. He spoke in low, soothing tones to his mount, his body moving in concert with the animal he had quieted with remarkable speed.

Lillian stared and let her hands drop from their battle-ready position to her sides. She was no longer in danger from the horse, the rider was competent. Her earpiece had gone off as soon as Lillian had shrieked, but she wasn’t listening. What was going on in front of her? The horse pawed again, once, before blowing out a big gust of air. It stood still, at ease and waiting for its rider’s next direction. Lillian wasn’t often awed—she had seen too much—but the pair before her were magnificent.

“What the hell are you doing?”

“I beg your pardon?”

The cowboy gave a fast glance behind him and cursed. “You. Here. Why?”

His speech was positively barbaric. Lillian held her hand over her brow to block the glare of sunlight and followed his gaze down the other side of the rise to see what all the fuss was about.

Lillian didn’t know cows particularly well, but a sea of bobbing heads, like a wave of motley-colored browns flowing in the sunshine, were headed straight for them. There must have been hundreds of them.

She watched as the handful that had previously crested the rise and turned back around, met the oncoming herd. Those at the front of the herd, started to turn when met with the now-oncoming traffic. Lillian watched in awe as the handful that had turned around became a dozen. Then twenty. The tidal wave of beasts was literally going back out. And gaining momentum.

The cowboy cursed again. “Get on.” He kicked his boot out of his stir-up and offered his left hand. “Now.”

Lillian did not trust strange men. She barely trusted known men anymore.

“Are there more of you?” he asked, his hand still out for her to take but he wasn’t looking at her. His gaze was locked behind them again.

She didn’t understand his distress, and her attention had snagged on his profile. Did she know him?

He turned back to her. “Look lady, I need to know you’re not going to get trampled. Is there anyone else who could be in danger?”

The brief moment of recognition passed. Lillian could see four riders in the distance urging the gigantic herd to stay on course—straight for them.

Holy fuck, was she in the middle of a cattle drive?

Her earpiece buzzed. “Roger that. This guy’s clean. Exit now. I repeat, you’re clear to exit now.”

The cowboy in front of her wasn’t carrying a firearm and his face didn’t ping any immediate threats from the intel her detail could access from the field. The easiest way for Lillian to get to safety was via the outstretched hand. If needed, at least one of her detail would be a sharpshooter. Her security detail still did not have official permission to be here. The paperwork alone was enough for her to grab the stranger’s offered hand. “It’s just me.”

Lillian Morgan is a disgraced British war correspondent. Scotland Yard has cleared her of all treason charges, but her career didn't survive being duped by a double-agent. The rediscovery of a family heirloom, a New World fur trade journal from the eighteenth century, gives Lillian a story to chase while she tries to pick up the pieces of her life.

Colt Tanner is a world champion bull rider, old enough to know his time on the circuit is coming to a close, but too skittish to settle down anywhere. He likes life one adrenaline high after another, never stopping long enough to feel anything. But a career-ending injury has left him with time to notice there are unanswered questions about his family that are starting to pile up.

A week in the wilderness to write an eco-inn's marketing material is not Lillian's idea of professional glory, but her job prospects are limited. She needs a guide and Colt's schedule is now wide open. Sparks and bullets fly when these two stumble into deadly family secrets and international spies holding grudges. Will they find what they're looking for, or die trying? It's MI6 meets the Rocky Mountains…with heat.

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