Today we have Kaylea Cross, one of MY favorite Romantic Suspense authors here to talk with us about researching for her new series, Bagram Special Ops. Take it away Kaylea!
Researching Different Jobs Within the Military
I’m Kaylea Cross, and for those of you who don’t know me, I’m a military junkie. No one’s really sure how this came to be, but I think it started with my love of history from a really early age and grew from there. I write mostly military romantic suspense, and one of my favorite parts of being an author is the research I get to do about my characters.
Now, being a civilian, I guarantee I won’t always get all the military details right. Sometimes I simply can’t find the information I’m looking for and have to make my best guess, or sometimes I have to manipulate a scenario to fit the plot better. At any rate, I love learning about what my military characters do out there, and I hope readers can tell that I gave it my best shot.
In my Bagram Special Ops series, I featured both military heroes and heroines, all of whom serve overseas in Afghanistan. I have Pararescuemen and Combat Controller heroes, and pilot and Security Forces heroines. Aside from reading non-fiction titles and scouring the Internet for info, I have one or two awesome inside sources I can go to with specific questions. One’s a recently retired Pararescueman, and he’s been awesome to me even though he knows I’m writing romance books (I love that guy!). I’ve interviewed pilots and other Air Force members, and even tried to ask something on a Spooky gunship crew FB page, but got shot down hard. Wasn’t my finest moment, and I think they’re still grumbling about me over there. Lesson learned!
On the whole though, people have been very helpful. Because I’m such a fan of the military, it’s important to me to portray our men and women in uniform in a positive light, and I love it even more when I can add in little nuggets of information I’ve learned during my research efforts. I hope readers will learn something new about various branches of the military with each of my books. Hey, it’s interesting stuff!
Tactical Strike is the second book of the Bagram Special Ops series. The first is Deadly Descent, and the third, Lethal Pursuit, will be out in September.
I hope you enjoy the book!
Kaylea Cross
I love your books, Kaylea!! I’ve read all of them! And can’t wait to read this one
Hi, Michelle! Thank you so much :). Hope you enjoy Ryan and Ace’s story too. (I love Ryan.)
This sounds fantastic! And that’s great that you have a source so willing to answer your questions!
Rebe, I’ve been very lucky so far. It makes such a difference to me, that I have “go-to” people I can check details with.
I actually have not read read any of your books (yet), but they do awsome! I can’t wait to read this!
Thanks for hosting Kaylea today! 🙂
Hey, Melanie! I hope you like ’em. I have another series with ex-military contractors, but this Bagram series is very heavy on the military aspect/detail. Hope you enjoy them!
When I was in high school, I was hanging around a lot of military people. I love to listen to their stories of World War II, Korean War, and the Vietnam War. One of the people I love hanging around is the Sergeant Major. He’s a Native American serving through the three wars. Hearing his stories, is just so interesting. If my parents didn’t threaten to disown me, I would have went into the military due to his influence.
Congrats Kaylea on the new release! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Sound like a nice series
I really want to read this series. It sounds really good. I would love to read this book. Please enter me in contest. Tore923@aol.com
Kai, I bet you learned so much! Not to mention gain a healthy dose of respect for our veterans. Good for you.
Thanks, Erin. And I’m happy to share about my heroes and heroines :).
Bn, I hope so! I gave it my best shot.
Victoria, done!
You are a new author for me, so I would give it a try.
Thank you for the giveaway!
Elena, hello. Thanks for stopping by.
Sounds great.
i love romance about people in the military. thanks for the giveaway 🙂
Thanks, Donna.
Alexa, me too! I hope you’ll learn something new and interesting in my books.
With all those alpha heroes you can’t go wrong. All my children are military except one and I love to read books about the military.
Hi, Debbie! Thanks so much to your family for their service.