Gail, please tell us five random things we might not know about
you.
My first published book
contracted on my 40th birthday
I have owned many pets
but I have never had a cat
My car is a manual
transmission
My favorite color is
green
I've always wanted to
play the violin
Why
did you choose to write this book?
This book is based on a true story, with
my husband as one of the affected victims. I thought it was intriguing, and so
I built a story around it.
What one thing about writing do you wish non-writers would understand?
The easier a book is to
read, the harder it was to write.
What is the toughest test you've faced as a writer?
Short deadlines
What
do you hope readers to take away from your novel?
Hope, because life is full of happy
endings.
What accomplishment(s)
are you most proud of, writing-related or not?
That I'm self-taught on the bass guitar, because I don't
play guitar, my first instrument is piano.
Please give us
the first page of the book.
CHAPTER 1
When he
first joined the FBI, Steve Gableman had anticipated a life of action and
intrigue. International espionage. Secret missions. Dangerous liaisons. But
this wasn’t one of them. After the fallout from his last assignment, he’d been
downgraded. Just surveillance.
Although,
he couldn’t complain. It wasn’t often an agent got running water with indoor
plumbing on a stakeout, much less a whole house with comfortable furniture, a
full fridge, and not a rodent in sight.
An
elderly lady had called the FBI’s tip line after a bomb threat at her
grandson’s school, saying the teen tried his luck on the Internet to see how
difficult, or easy, it would be to build a bomb. While researching, the boy
read a post from Jeff Schuster, the owner of a hydroponics store, also asking
questions on building a bomb and then planting one. Except, unlike the boy,
Schuster’s enquiries were serious. The FBI sent a mole into Schuster’s store,
confirming that Jeff Schuster was indeed collecting the components to construct
a bomb.
However,
so far they hadn’t uncovered his target or his timeline.
When the
FBI began their surveillance of Schuster’s home, they’d observed a group of
four men who visited him at least three times a week, using different cars on
rotation. They came and went quietly, returned a few days later in a different
car, and the cycle repeated.
Schuster’s cohorts were quite an
eclectic group. A couple of them had prison records, and only one had a real
job. Steve’s team had a number of good leads, and they were following them.
Then
there was Schuster’s neighbor, Cheryl Richardson, in the other half of
Schuster’s duplex. Every second day, Schuster quietly knocked on her door and
gave her a bag of unknown contents from his store. She always accepted it then
quickly went back inside.
It had
taken a month, but Steve finally managed to discover the contents of the bags.
Tomatoes.
Grown in his hydroponics store to demonstrate his equipment.
She
wasn’t helping Schuster make a bomb. She was making salad. His surveillance of
her showed that other than accepting the unknown bags from Schuster, she led a
clean and relatively boring life. She was a florist. She went to church
faithfully. The highlight of her week was taking her small, fluffy dog to the
library.
Tonight,
here he sat, alone in a dark house, documenting the cleanest suspect he’d ever
had the misfortune to be assigned. His report concluded that Cheryl Anne
Richardson had no part in the operation. He could now re-join his team to
research the real suspect.
He
checked the monitors one more time. He'd planted two surveillance cameras to
watch her, both planted in his own yard, so he had visual, but not audio. The
camera in the front caught both Cheryl and Schuster's front doors in front of
the duplex, allowing both Steve and his team, depending on who was on duty to
watch, to capture images of who came and went. The second was mounted on a tree
in his back yard, for now aimed both rear patio doors which exited to the
shared porch. Cheryl Richardson had gone back in the house, and the pattern of
lights turning off showed that she’d gone to bed.
He would
complete his report in the morning.
His head
had barely touched the pillow when his monitor beeped. Steve grumbled and
trudged to his display to see what she was doing. The panel indicated movement,
so he flipped on the view screen. The sliding door to the back yard was open.
Cheryl stood in the gap, bundled in her housecoat. He turned the camera
remotely, to watch the same thing that he did every night at this same time.
Her fuzzy little dog made his way to a tree in the middle of the back
yard, did his business, and hobbled back
into the house.
Steve
nearly groaned. The most exciting thing the woman had done in twenty-four hours
was let the dog out.
When the
door closed, he reached to aim the camera back at the house, and then he'd turn
off the monitor. His finger had begun its downward path to press the button
when the light on the motion detector flashed again. He froze. He couldn’t see
what, but something in the yard had moved, and it wasn’t her dog.
What do
you do for fun when not writing?
I play bass in a local
jazz band as well as an Elton John tribute band, and I play piano for a
community jazz band.
What are you working on now?
A five book series
featuring five members of the Kozlowski family, starting when four of Zac
Kozlowski's relatives move in to his house for different reasons, all at once,
and his neighbor tries her best to help. Or does she?
Where else can readers find you online?
Visit Gail Sattler's website at
www.gailsattler.com - and click on her blog to see what goes on in the mind
of a writer
Facebook -
https://www.facebook.com/gail.sattler.3
Gail Sattler's author page at
https://www.facebook.com/Gail-Sattler-author-568988573496833/?modal=admin_todo_tour
Bio
Gail Sattler lives in Vancouver
BC Canada, where you don't have to shovel rain. When she's not feverently
writing (Gail Sattler has over 40 published novels and novellas, plus a few
works of non-fiction) she plays bass in an Elton John tribute band and a
community jazz band, as well as piano in
a smaller private jazz band. When she's not writing or making music (or at her
day job) Gail likes to sit back and read a book written by someone else, along
with a good cup of hot coffee.
Back cover blurb
Mercury Rising - by Gail Sattler
Michael wants to
save his daughter, but first he’s got to save the world.
Michael and Charlotte meet when Michael is trying to find Ashley, his missing daughter who has fallen into drug abuse, and Charlotte is searching for her son Jon, a brilliant and aspiring young scientist who has also gone missing.
Ashley and Jon should have nothing in common, but after the murder of Jon’s favorite professor, they become ensnared in a tangled web that becomes worse with every new discovery.
When Michael and Charlotte join together to figure what their children have become involved with, they, too, are sucked into a sinkhole for which there are no answers, only more questions.
When all seems lost, will they all recognize the source of strength offered to them, and… will they take it?
Michael and Charlotte meet when Michael is trying to find Ashley, his missing daughter who has fallen into drug abuse, and Charlotte is searching for her son Jon, a brilliant and aspiring young scientist who has also gone missing.
Ashley and Jon should have nothing in common, but after the murder of Jon’s favorite professor, they become ensnared in a tangled web that becomes worse with every new discovery.
When Michael and Charlotte join together to figure what their children have become involved with, they, too, are sucked into a sinkhole for which there are no answers, only more questions.
When all seems lost, will they all recognize the source of strength offered to them, and… will they take it?
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