With us today is Chaselynn Pierce. Chaselynn, I love your premise.
Can you tell us where the idea for Fire of Thieves came from?
It came to me in my sleep—I know
that's so original. So I want to clarify and say that the "spark" of
the story came to me in my sleep but it didn't fully become something tangible
until I hunkered down and pulled out all the ammo. Movies and music are what
made The Fire of Thieves. Snatch, the Ocean's trilogy, The Thomas Crown
Affair, and even Salt, helped me solidify the story.
What are your
thoughts on self-publishing?
I believe for some it has worked
wonderfully. I think it's a great avenue if you do it correctly with proper
editing. I have a few titles that I would like to see self-published.
What is your favorite
genre to write in?
Paranormal Fantasy, hands down.
There is nothing like creating a world full of monsters that may or may not
like each other. There is romance when there shouldn't be, gangs/pack/coven
disputes, human killings, and one big bad boss wanting to rule them all. That
gets my heart racing and my fingers twitchy to create something new.
What is your
favorite genre to read?
I'm a Paranormal and Fantasy geek.
Everyone says it's shocking that my first release is a Contemporary because
I've always got my head buried into an otherworldly book.
What tips would you
give someone trying to break into the writing industry?
Don't do it alone. I did the solo
thing and it doesn't work. You need to outsource and you need input and
critiques from people that have been in the business for a while.
Title: The Fire of Thieves
Author: Chacelyn
Pierce
Publisher: Silver
Publishing
Length: 37,000
words
Genre: Romance
Sub-Genre: Contemporary
Romance
Sub-Categories: Action/Adventure
Available at:
Blurb:
Caitlyn McCollum and Katie Summerly have radically different
lives. Caitlyn is a jet-setting thief, traveling the world with the handsome,
uncompromising Jerrick. Katie curates art exhibits and just moved in with
Ethan, her dependable new boyfriend. Katie and Caitlyn are two sides of the
same woman, sharing a single heart with separate yearnings. Caitlyn lives for
the adrenaline rush of her secret life, the passionate nights she shares with
Jerrick, and her unyielding dedication to her first love. Katie wants a simple
life with Ethan, free of Jerrick's manipulations and emotional distance. Her
heart must choose or risk losing both men. Yet, as her last adventure unfolds,
Caitlyn finds that love itself is the price of her final heist.
Excerpt:
Waiting gave her too much time to think--time to second
guess herself. However, there was nothing she could do about it now. Already
committed, she had a job to do. A cold bead of sweat licked down her spine like
a lover's tongue, which was ridiculous because the heat could've put Hell to
shame. Her spandex suit clung to her curves like cellophane, and a restless
breath escaped her lips as she stood within the shadows of a cobblestone wall.
Caitlyn focused on the task at hand as she watched a young driver pull the limo
around to the front of the mansion. Scanning the large acre of front lawn, she
contemplated the time it would take to clear it. The yard would be a lot of
ground to cover, more than she was used to, but nothing she couldn't handle.
Everything had been mapped out and she'd gone over the blueprints beforehand.
Twice. She could do this, had been born to do this. She studied the man she'd
be thieving from, a typical blue-blood with inherited money, too much to spend
in any one lifetime.
On Friday nights Mr Guillory had the habit of taking a young
date out to the theater, then to dinner which normally lasted four to five
hours. A good window of opportunity for Caitlyn to get what she needed and be
home before Guillory knew he'd been robbed.
Tonight, Mr Guillory's date was a busty blonde whose phony
laugh carried over the wind. Cheap happiness, and he had to know it. Yet, a
fifty-year-old billionaire toting a twenty-something jewel was a statement to
his peers. He guided her with an overeager hand to the limo's back door, and
the driver opened it hastily. The blonde bent over to get into the back,
probably offering a clear crotch shot to the two men. Guillory slid in next to
her, licking his lips as if he could taste her heady musk before dinner.
From the dark shadows of the mansion wall, the exchange
seemed too ridiculous for Caitlyn to watch any further. When the black stretch
limo traveled through the iron gates, she stealthily made her way across an
acre of manicured lawn. She scampered like a high-strung ballerina, her
well-muscled legs made a faint swishing noise as her spandex-covered thighs
skimmed each other. To anyone watching, she probably looked utterly ridiculous
with a ski mask covering her face.
She went to the left side of the mansion, knowing this had
been the only way for her to go up. Climbing wasn't going to be easy, she could
barely grip the ledges but it was too late to change her strategy now. She had
a well-made plan and she needed to stick with it.
Caitlyn unlatched the heavy hiker's backpack she toted and
dropped it in the damp grass. Unzipping it quickly, she retrieved her climbing
shoes. The soles would grab the stucco exterior with ease. Next, she took out
her small grappling hook gun and, without hesitation, shot the anchor over the
top of the mansion. She cringed when it made a loud "cling" as it
snagged a groove on the roof. Caitlyn paused, glancing up and down the sides of
the mansion. Glad the guards hadn't heard, she slowly pulled the rope with a
solid tug and smiled with satisfaction when it latched firmly to the overhang.
Moving stealthily up the mansion's exterior, her gloved
hands kept a grip on the rope while her shoes dug into shallow grooves, rails,
and gutter drains. Caitlyn panted with spent energy as more sweat poured down
her spine.
She was a little unsteady and off-balance as she came to a
window ledge on the third floor. It had been a few months since she'd so
exerted herself, and she started to realize that too much time out of action
had left her easily winded. But she had a pretty damn good reason for the long
hiatus. Yet thinking about him wouldn't do her a bit of good while hanging
thirty feet in the air.
She leaned to the side and peeked through the window which
opened into Guillory's enormous office. The lights were off inside and the
grounds below seemed clear of patrolling security, but she knew better. She had
scoped this place out long enough to know he had an alarm through Sure-Safe,
and that two well-paid personal guards made the rounds of his compound. It had
been essential to know everything about Guillory and his home security. Since
the age of seventeen, she'd been taught to always be prepared and organized
with her jobs. Get the object, and call it a night.
She looked at the windowsill and saw the thin wire of
Guillory's alarm system trailing along the frame. There was always a way to
bypass an alarm, cameras, or even personal guards, but being the lone person on
the job, it was impossible to do it all. At least not in the brief timeframe
she allotted herself. In this case, she picked two tasks to focus on. For her,
the main concern had always been the cameras, which had been one reason she
wore the mask that covered everything but her full lips and caramel colored
eyes. That left her to focus most of her attention on either the guards or the
alarm. Cracking alarms wasn't her specialty and, since she wanted to do this
heist alone, the alarm would be the one thing she couldn't waste time on.
She would focus on the guards.
Since Guillory's guards made him overconfident, the office
safe should be easy to crack. Yet, it was a risk to rely wholly on that theory.
Guillory could very easily have a safe that took hours to crack, but she bet
against those odds. A room with a hidden safe would certainly be the first
place the guards searched. She'd been in the thievery business for long enough
to pick up on things like that. Feeling confident that Guillory's safe would be
easy to crack, once inside, she focused instead on the guards. When the alarms
began chiming, it wouldn't leave her much time before the police came, so she
had to be quick.
Cutting the glass on the window, Caitlyn watched it tilt and
crash into the room. Guillory had motion sensors throughout the house and the
minute she slipped in, the countdown began. As anticipated, the alarm screamed
from various hidden speakers on the property, floodlights shone radiantly on
the shadowy yard below, and she heard the distant, muffled shouts of men inside
the house. The small corner she had used to climb up was shielded from the
flood lights but not for long, especially if the mounted cameras decided to
make a tight scan.
Caitlyn dropped into the dark office and knocked the fake
Monet painting off the wall behind Guillory's dark cherry wood desk. She
quickly went to work on the safe, letting a small device scan the security code
for the sequence of correct numbers. The process took time and could not be
disrupted or she'd have to begin all over again.
She heard shouting and heavy footsteps, signaling that the
guards were close by and heading her direction. Shrugging off her heavy
backpack, she leaned it against the office desk she planned to use as a shield.
Caitlyn didn't like to kill. She relished the jobs that
allowed her to go in, take an item, and leave lives intact. Using deterrents
was another matter entirely. As the door to the room opened, the first
mammoth-sized guard burst through, his gun aimed and ready to shoot anything
that moved. Caitlyn's first dart hit his chest. He grunted, plucked the dart
out, and stared in wonder at the empty vial at the end of it. The amount of
tranquilizer in a single dart had been calibrated for a large animal, so it
wouldn't take long before the serum caused him to black out, especially with
his heart pumping adrenaline. He swayed slightly, took a backward step, tried
to catch his footing, and went down with a heavy thud.
Wasting no time, Caitlyn took cover behind Guillory's heavy
wooden desk. She still had a second armed guard to deal with. The tank of a man
opened fire, shooting blindly into the room. Debris rained down as he unloaded
his semi-automatic. When he ceased fire, Caitlyn peeked around the desk and
watched as the man came warily inside.
About the Author:
A rocker by heart, Chacelyn Pierce is constantly ear plugged
with heavy tunes blaring to stir up the phantom personalities that swarm her
mind. It’s no surprise that she enjoys writing and reading to satiate her
appetite for the male antagonist in a story. Married to a blatant redhead and
mothering a diva, there is never a dull moment in the house. As a native Texan,
she doesn’t personally own a horse but follows the unwritten southern rule of
knowing how to ride one. When she’s not testing the emotional capacity of her
characters, she works part time as a dog groomer.
Linda will be awarding a hand-painted fan to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour.
