Shannon here: Laurie Wood shares her inspiration for her latest Romantic Suspense, Northern Protector. Comment or answer the question in this post to enter the drawing for an e-book copy. Deadline: Feb 12th, 11:59 pm central time. Here’s Laurie:
Behind the Scenes with Northern Protector (Heroes of the Tundra Book 3):
This book is the book of my heart. My series takes place in the actual town of Churchill, Manitoba, which lies on the shore of Hudson Bay, at the gateway to Canada’s arctic. It’s called the Polar Bear Capitol of the World because it’s on the migratory route of polar bears who come in from the arctic sea ice when it breaks up, and they cross through and around the town to go inland for the summer months.
In the first book in the series, Northern Deception, the town RCMP officer, Ben Koper, is mauled by a polar bear in town. He’s saved by his best friend, as well as by the female Natural Resources Officer, and has to have several surgeries to save his life. That book is set in the winter, but I set Northern Protector, Ben’s story, in the summer, nine months after his bear mauling when he’s returning to work.
In July 2019, my husband and I flew the two thousand kilometers from our home city up to Churchill so that I could do more research in the town and take a couple of tours offered to tourists. We took a “Tundra Buggy” tour and saw a mother polar bear and her two cubs from a distance as they were coming in from Hudson Bay, and we took a boat tour out on the massive Churchill River to see the beluga whales that come back every summer to have their calves.
When I started writing the book, I’d matched Ben Kopec up with Sarah Thorvald, the female Natural Resources Officer who’d saved his life as his romantic partner. I tried everything, but they just weren’t gelling on the page. Nothing I wrote made them connect, and I couldn’t figure out why until another author friend told me she’d had similar experiences with characters who just won’t cooperate and fall in love. She advised me to “park” Sarah for the time being and come up with a different heroine for Ben.
I’d written two one-sentence references in Northern Deception that referred to a main character’s daughter, and a nurse at the Health Centre. They were two different people, but I had the light bulb moment of “hey! Let’s make them the same person and SHE can help Ben overcome his addiction to painkillers and PTSD!”
After I did that, and came up with the backstory for Joy Gallagher, head nurse of the ER, and single mom of a six-year-old daughter, the book practically wrote itself. I knew I wanted Ben to be grappling with a prescription painkiller addiction, because it’s a more common problem than people realize. And, of course, he had PTSD from being mauled by a polar bear.
Joy has great range as a heroine because she’s medically trained. She’s grown up in Churchill and can
survive in the harsh environment and she knows her way around guns and bear encounters. And her backstory of being a single parent who was abandoned and left to raise her daughter on her own gave her an inner strength to draw on that helped Ben face his challenges.
When writing a romantic suspense, I love having the two plots to draw off each other. Building up the tension in one plot and then having the romance come into play gives the reader a break. I’d had Ben and Joy communicating before he returns to town so that they had a friendship foundation but made Joy more ready for a love relationship than Ben. The story is how he overcomes his challenges and how they both figure out the two murder mysteries in the story and come to realize that falling in love in your thirties differs greatly from falling in love in your twenties.
I’ve never had a painkiller addiction, but I have dealt with PTSD from my own time as a police officer, so it was something I wanted to write about and explore with Ben. And giving him an equally strong heroine was so gratifying. I just love them as a couple, along with their little girl, and I wish I could keep writing books about them. Maybe some day my publisher will let me!
About Laurie: Laurie Wood has followed her RCAF serving husband across Canada, raising their two special needs children to adulthood while she began her writing career. She’s a member of Sisters in Crime International and SinC Canada West, as well as Faith, Hope & Love Christian Writers.
Laurie writes both romantic suspense and historical novels and is currently working on her next book. Learn more & connect:
Laurie’s Website Laurie’s Facebook Laurie’s Twitter
About the book – Constable Ben Koper is still healing from the bear attack that almost killed him. Nine months after it happened, he returns to Churchill, Manitoba, a changed man—scarred more than just physically. PTSD is his new shadow, haunting his every step, and he can’t seem to kick the pain meds he shouldn’t need anymore. He’s determined to prove, to himself and his colleagues, that he’s still up to his job. Failure isn’t an option.
ER nurse Joy Gallagher spent the entire last winter texting with a healing Constable Koper. What started as friendly concern from this single mother has grown into full-fledged romantic feelings, and she’s eager to level up their friendship and introduce him to the idyllic comfort of small-town life. Until a teenager is murdered at a summer party. The crime is strikingly similar to the cold case murder of Joy’s foster sister, stirring old trauma Joy has never fully dealt with.
When another victim is snatched in town, Ben and Joy must confront their own demons, and join forces to track down an elusive killer. The race to rescue the next victim before it’s too late will test Ben and Joy to their limits. Can they survive their encounter with this heinous killer, or will the past destroy them?
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Question for Readers: As a a reader, do you enjoy books that have a slow-burn romance between two people who already know each other as friends, or do you enjoy a romance between people who’ve just met and are discovering each other in the book?
Come back Feb 4th for Linda Shenton Matchett!
I like stories that have a slow burn romance better than those where the people just meet.
I like both, but a slow burn between friends makes for great reading.
I like both slow burn romance between friends and romances between people who just meet.I like romances with single parents between two people that were a couple years ago and just meet again and the man just learns he has a child with that person
I like friendship that turns into love stories. With your background and research, your book sounds very interesting.
I like both, whether it be first time meeting each other or
between old friends.
I like the slow burn romances between people who’ve been friends.
I like both. The story that keeps your intetest and pulls you in is the best story, no matter what the trope is.
depends how it’s written
I have a winner! Glenda Quinlan won the drawing. I appreciate Laurie for being my guest and everyone else for stopping by.