Let's Soar Like an Eagle

One soars like an eagle. One strikes like a thunderbird. But for both hearts, revenge can be deadly when it's nourished.

          Anomaly Defense Director and shapeshifter Bert Blackfeather doesn't need a boss with no experience. So what if she's beautiful or gives him a jolt when she shakes his hand? He never plans to get seriously involved with another woman―not in this lifetime.

          Phoebe Wagner, an empath with psychometric abilities and an advocate for the deaf, gets more than she bargained for with Bert. One touch and she relives his IED injuries. So what if he's handsome and hot? She doesn't need to add his secrets to her own. Phoebe's are bad enough.

          When his niece goes missing from Hotel LaBelle, Bert goes to Montana to help―and Phoebe insists on going with him. Can these two hard-headed people share their darkest secrets in order to work together? It may be the only way to save an endangered child―and their own hearts when Bert's past rears its ugly head.

Wild Women Authors is pleased to feature Eye of The Eagle, a contemporary fantasy romance by Sharon Buchbinder out of The Wild Rose Press. First up is Bert Blackfeather.

Where are you from? I was born and raised on the Crow Reservation in Montana, an hour away from Billings, Montana. My father died in Viet Nam when I was a toddler and my mother died from cancer when I was in high school. My sister, Emma, and I were lucky because our grandmother took us in. Without our grandmother, we probably would have been separated and placed in foster homes. Emma and I have an extraordinary connection―she knew when I lost my legs in Iraq and I knew when she was in danger when a killer drone shot at her.

What did you think the first time you saw Phoebe Wagner? Beautiful, remote, haughty Ice Queen born with a silver spoon in her mouth.. Totally unprepared to be Under Secretary for Homeland Security.

Uh huh. And your second thought? Very capable in her own way. She attended Gallaudet University and Georgetown Law School. She even won a Fulbright to work for deaf children in Mexico. None of which has anything to do with Homeland Security. Her mother, Senator Wagner, got her the job. She’s beautiful, smart, sassy―and has no right being Under Secretary for Homeland. She won’t last long. My plan? Lay low, avoid her like the plague, and wait for her to quit. After that, she won’t be my boss and I’ll ask her out for a good-bye drink. See where that goes.

As that “first drink” entailed a drag queen competition, did you feel it was love at first sight? Well, I definitely felt a jolt when we shook hands. Damn near shifted into my eagle right on the spot. Not love. But a connection I’d never felt before with any other woman.

What do you like most about Phoebe? She’s smart, sassy, feisty. I really admire how she takes no crap from anyone―not even a hard ass like me. She’s sexy as hell and makes my eagle want to take her on flying lessons when we touch.

How would you describe her? Determined. Persistent. Maybe stubborn. But in a good way.

Works for us. How would she describe you? Determined. Persistent. Maybe stubborn. But in a good way. We are a lot more alike than I first thought.

What made you choose law enforcement―specifically Director of the Anomaly Defense Division of Homeland Security as a career? It chose me. I went into the military after law school, became a JAG. Lost my legs to an IED in Iraq. In my division are remote viewers, empaths, telepaths, precogs, jinni hunters--you name the psychic or paranormal talent, my division has someone with it. Like me, many, but not all, come from previous roles in law enforcement. Psychic spies and soldiers used to be under the CIA and DOD. After 9-11, based on the top-secret recommendations of the Senate Intelligence Committee and the House Committee on Homeland Security, those units were consolidated and moved into my division. I manage these talented agents and deploy them on missions to protect our country from acts of terror, both foreign and domestic.

With all that going on, what is your biggest fear? Losing a family member. Even though I’m in DC, my ties are close to everyone back home in Montana. We are connected in so many ways. We watch out for each other. And when one of us is in danger, we all go to work.

How do you relax? I like to go the gym and swim laps, do some bench presses, and other core and upper body workouts. But even more than that, I love to go flying in my eagle form. There is nothing more freeing than being in the sky riding an updraft, arrowing down to grab a fish, or lazily circling the clouds.

Who is your favorite fictional character? We have so many great warriors who are real, like Chief Plenty Coups, it would be hard for any fictional characters to live up to them.

What is the best piece of advice you ever received? My sister, Emma, said, “Remember, bald eagles mate for life, but when one dies, the survivor takes a new mate. Don’t let your eagle die of loneliness.”

Bert brought along an excerpt from Eye of The Eagle:

          His heart stuttered and heat flushed his face. “You sure you’re ready to see me―in the daylight?”

          She frowned and pursed her lips. “Do I look like someone afraid of taking on a challenge?”

          “No. You look like a kick ass heroine named Thunder Heart, and I would be honored and privileged to share your bed.”

          “You promised me flying lessons.”

          “And you shall have them. Now, where did we leave off?”

          She stood, placed her hands on the sides of his chair and leaned in for a long passionate kiss. He closed his eyes and gave her a preview, taking her with him in his memories, soaring over the hotel, and then swirling and swooping down to the river to grab a fat flopping trout in his talons.

          She pulled back, breaking the connection, blue eyes wide, her full red lips agape. “Amazing. I want more.”

          “Advanced flying lessons require both of us to be naked—and in bed, as close as two people can get.”

          Phoebe stood back. “What are you waiting for? Let’s get going.”

          He chuckled. “Well, you are my boss. I don’t want anyone to say you coerced me or I forced you. Do we need to put this in writing?” 

          She tilted her head and gave him a puzzled look. “A legal document perhaps? I, Phoebe Wagner, hereby enter into consensual sex freely and without coercion with one Bert Blackfeather…”

          She stomped her foot. “Give me your phone.” 

          He handed her his cell.

To purchase Eye of The Eagle, go to:

The Wild Rose Press https://catalog.thewildrosepress.com/all-titles/6251-eye-of-the-eagle.html?search_query=eye+of+the+eagle&results=2

Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07HLSGYW6

Barnes & Noble https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/eye-of-the-eagle-sharon-buchbinder/1129689525?ean=2940161597996

iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/eye-of-the-eagle/id1436346614?mt=11

Bookstrand https://www.bookstrand.com/eye-of-the-eagle

KOBO https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/eye-of-the-eagle-3

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Thanks for spending time with us, Bert. We'd like to chat with Sharon for a moment.

What movies or books have had an impact on your career as a writer? Katherine Neville’s The Eight, a cult classic about a magical chess set, was told in contemporary and historical times. I was fascinated by both story lines and wanted to become a great story teller like her.

What event in your private life were you able to bring to this story and how do you feel it impacted the novel? Many would say it should have been easier to write than the first two books in the series, but in fact, it was my most challenging to write. The reason is that out of all my books, the heroine in this story is my most personal. Phoebe Wagner, who is deaf, is based on my deaf grandmother, Bessie T. Engelman, who gave me unconditional love when I needed it most. She taught me that the most important of all abilities are persistence, hope, compassion, and love. I know she is my guardian angel, always looking out for me and my family. Eye of the Eagle is my love story for my grandmother, inspired by her love for me.

Tell us a bit about your publisher: how did you hear about them and what influenced your decision to submit to them? I’ve been with The Wild Rose Press for over ten years. They were willing to work with new romance authors and to help them develop. I am very grateful to TWRP for everything they have done for me.

What book[s] currently rest on your TBR pile? My Kindle, desk, and audiobook stack is teetering with non-fiction. I’m in the middle of working on the 4th edition of a textbook and researching my next book in the Hotel LaBelle Series, so it’s a mountain.

Lastly, what's up next and when can we expect to see it on the shelves? I’m starting to work on the fourth book in the Hotel LaBelle Series, which is tentatively titled Cry of the Wolf. I hope it will be out in 2019. Here’s my blurb:

. . . . The raven-haired Chief of Tribal Police on the Crow Reservation Jacob Graywolf with quicksilver eyes is a wolf shape-shifter and keeps it very much to himself. His nearly perfect clearance rate is due, in equal parts, to his unique tracker skills and to his education and training as a police officer.

. . . . When a task force crossing tribal and non-tribal law enforcement officers is convened to investigate the disappearance and murders of indigenous women in Montana, Jacob is called upon to work with other local and state law enforcement agencies. When a Crow woman is found dead on the reservation, as the first officer on the scene, the case belongs to Jacob. But when another woman is found killed in a similar manner in on non-tribal lands, Jacob and his Billings Police Force colleagues suspect they have a serial killer on their lands.

 . . . . Forced to call in the FBI, Jacob is shocked that the agent sent in to help them is neither Native American, nor a male. With her red hair, green eyes, and petite frame, Special Agent Zena Adalwolf is the physical antithesis of everything he expected. He’s also disconcerted by the fact that she has a master’s degree in Legal Anthropology and a JD with a focus on Native American Rights. What Jacob has yet to discover is his distractingly attractive new colleague has some paranormal abilities up her sleeves.

 . . . . Can Jacob and Zena work together to bring the serial killer to justice? Or will the killer get to one of them first? The clock is ticking, and no one knows who will be next―their lives or their hearts.

A bit more about our featured author:

          Sharon Buchbinder has been writing fiction since middle school and has the rejection slips to prove it. An RN, she provided health care delivery, became a researcher, association executive, and obtained a PhD in Public Health. 

          She is the author of the Hotel LaBelle Series, the Jinni Hunter Series, and the Obsession Series.When not attempting to make students and colleagues laugh or writing, she can be found fishing, walking her dogs, herding cats, or breaking bread and laughing with family and friends in Baltimore, MD and Punta Gorda, FL.

To learn more about Sharon and the books she creates, go to:

Amazon Page https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B001IODIE2

BookBub https://www.bookbub.com/authors/sharon-buchbinder

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