Champagne Books Announces Release of Veil of Deception by Candace Morehouse and Michael Davis

Deception

Deception
Michael Davis
Davisstories.com
Author of the Year, 2008

Sometimes, the story behind how a novel came about can be interesting as well. Here's an explanation for how our new release VEIL OF DECEPTION was born and its connection between myself and co-author Candace Morehouse. Hope you enjoy it.

It was a gorgeous day in early spring and I was seating on my porch watching a brood of freshly hatched ducklings trail behind a pair of mallards in front of my dock. There were two mourning doves cooing in my cinder tree, the bass were spawning at the back of my cove, and I was sipping on a Killian’s Red in a frosty mug. Live was looking good.

On my radio, I heard a reminder of a horrifying unsolved mystery still haunting the county adjacent to where I lived. It reminded me of the evil that waits on the borders of our civilized world for the opportunity to reach out and destroy innocent lives. At that instant, there was a splash in my cove. When I turned back, where there had been a line of five sets of small paddling feet, now there were only four. Nature, with all her exacting reality had taken a life from an unsuspecting family to feed the blind hunger of another of her beasts.

The parallel between what I had heard on the radio and what was unfolding in my small cove as two parent mallards searched for an offspring they would never find, was quite moving. The juices began to flow for a new story, one based on the hidden dangers all around us, but it had to be anchored in truth and blended with a romantic core, otherwise, why write it. Then it hit me. In many relationships, deception can be the match that burns love to a cinder. Whether it’s an attempt to deceive our mate, or a lie to fool ourselves, deception can only foster pain. In the same way, evil deeds are generally carried out through a veil of deception, and the plot for a gut wrenching romantic suspense was born.

I had previously discussed the opportunity to collaborate on a novel with an author friend. The concept was that I would write from the male POV and she from the female POV. Both of us recognized the difficulty to realistically reflect what was in the mind of the opposite gender. So I offered we attack the VEIL OF DECEPTION as our first project. Problem was, she thought it was too sweet from my verbal explanation. So, I prepared a detailed outline with the finality chapter, sent it to Candace and it knocked her socks off, and we began.

We both recognized the pitfalls of two authors, especially a man and woman, hammering at the others work. Fortunately, we were professional enough to accept constructive offerings, plus didn’t hurt to establish a few rules. Bottom line was, two separate minds were more capable of spotting flaws in a script and we had a ball. We were no longer isolated in a cave visualizing some fiction world, we were there together, and it was better than writing alone. No, it was actually fun. I would write a chapter, she would read it and laugh her butt off, write a response, and I’d wet my pants reading her characters reaction to my character. And the bedroom scene, oh boy did that get hot.

Was the collaboration effective? We thought so, until the publisher submission reviewers read the script and they literally raved about the story. That was a first and validated that the experiment had worked. The romantic suspense VEIL OF DECEPTION will be released in Jan/2010. For a preview, check out the excerpts provided at Davisstories.com or CandaceMorehouse.com, and remember: Sometimes truth cuts deeper than a lie.

Excerpt - Veil of Deception by Michael Davis and Candace Morehouse

BLURB

There’s something suspicious going on at Spenser Lake. People are disappearing and their bodies are never found. The fear and uncertainty of who will be next is affecting every resident of the tranquil community, but especially Kurt Hawkins. Two years after his wife goes missing, there are no clues, only the nightmares of what happened in her last moments. The constant guilt that somehow he was responsible precludes any thought of a normal life until he meets Danielle Gillette, a reclusive author with a rather large skeleton in her own closet. When the secret is finally revealed, they both discover that sometimes the truth cuts deeper than a lie.

EXCERPT 1

He walked past the lat machine to the open doorway and scanned the empty hallway beyond. Muffled sounds, like distorted voices, emanated from the end of the corridor. He inched along the wall, pausing at each step, until he recognized the noise as a television blaring in the distant room. His shoulder brushed a framed poem on the wall. It jarred loose and leapt for the solid oak floor, but his skillful fingers darted out and intercepted the unintended alarm before it could signal his approach. He examined the cross-stitched writing, To my Beloved Wife, Crystal, and grinned. He placed the frame on the floor against the wall and continued his journey quietly, deliberately, toward his objective ten feet away. Finally, he peered cautiously through the crack provided by the partially opened door, but quickly pulled back when he saw a shapely female tying the reflective laces on a pair of pink tennis shoes. He watched her pull long, silky, blonde hair back into a ponytail, then start a series of stretching exercises while she paid partial attention to the local news report on the wide screen television.
The mysterious disappearance of twenty-one-year-old Amber Campbell from the Brandon College campus four months ago still baffles the Piedmont County Sheriff’s Department. Yesterday, I interviewed Sheriff Lundgren regarding leads as to the whereabouts of Ms. Campbell.
“Sheriff, is there anything you can share about this case with our viewers?”
“Nothing substantive. We’ve investigated dozens of phone calls and potential sightings, but they all resulted in dead ends.”
“Can you speculate on the cause of her disappearance or give us some idea as to what might have happened?”
“Nothing solid. It’s possible Ms. Campbell was suffering from some emotional stress, perhaps the tension of her heavy course load, a fight with her boyfriend – who knows. We’ve seen it before where a young girl runs offs and reappears months later in some other state.”
“Is that what you think happened: that she ran away?”
“We just don’t know at this time.”
“What about her boyfriend, is he a suspect?”
“We’re not ruling anything out at the moment.”
“No leads, only dead ends; just more sad words for the waiting parents of a beautiful young girl with a promising future. This is Jamie Davis, local reporter for WSDY, channel 12.”
His eyes locked on the swaying motion of her rear taunting him to reach out and stroke those feminine curves. Then something penetrated his nose. Even from this distance, he sensed a sweet fragrance; a faint blend of tangerine and lime: her shampoo.
The lure of her tiny waist and firm buttocks contorting with each bending motion worked their magic. He could no longer deny his thoughts, or his fantasies. She would resist at first, wrestle against his superior strength. Finally she would accept his offering and they would merge as one. The vision of her smooth, shaved legs entangled around his waist flooded his brain along with the sensation of her muscles tightening while she squeezed and surged in rhythm with each thrust, further, deeper. The thought of it was too much.
He wanted her. No, he needed her. Beneath him. He needed to take her completely and resolve the urge racing through his loins. The buzzing in his ears and the blood throbbing in his temples drummed out all reason.
Without a sound, he edged forward. As she started to turn, he reached out and locked her tightly around the waist from behind, his massive arms gripping like a vise. She gasped and tried to escape, but it was useless. His warm hand slid down inside the elastic band of her jogging shorts, and the sensation of her cool, smooth flesh drove more blood straight into his groin.