Today we are very proud and happy to have stopping by Love Bytes Miss Renae Kaye!
She talks about here new release Safe in His Arms and also offers a giveaway to one love bytes reader!

welcome Renae! 🙂

An introduction to Safe In His Arms

My newest book was released on Friday, and I’m so excited.  Not only is this my fourth full-length novel, I’m excited to be bringing readers another taste of my home.  I live in Perth, Western Australia, which is a unique little part of Australia.

When I started on “this writing gig” as I like to think of it, I wondered if I should base my book in a more well-known part of the world.  I thought about it, but in the end, I chose to go with the familiar landscape of Perth and the rest of my state, because I really don’t have the confidence to write about places I’ve never visited.  I wondered if publishers and readers would be reluctant to pick up a book that was based in somewhere that is so foreign to most of my readers.  I hoped that readers, like me, liked to “travel the world” in their books and would love the unique location.

I am therefore ever awed and ever so thankful that this is my fourth novel (and fifth story) to be published this year that brings the spotlight (just a touch) on my tiny little hometown.

To give readers across the world a little bit of an idea of Perth, you must remember that the port city of Fremantle, where Safe in His Arms is set, was “settled” by the Europeans in 1829.  Perth (further up the river) was settled two years later.  Compared to the “modern era” history that places in Europe have, we are in our infancy.

There are about two million people who live in the capital city of Perth, while another 0.5 million people live in the rest of the state of Western Australia.  92% of our population live in the tiny south-west corner.

Perth is geographically cut off from the rest of Australia by a bloody big desert that lies between us and the other cities.  The yellow and orange regions of Australia in the map below show the deserts.  Perth is to the left in the pink, and our nearest city is Adelaide 2700kms away by road (1670 miles).

And it is in the middle of this desert that my character of Lon works, as a FIFO miner.

What is FIFO you ask?  FIFO stands for Fly In Fly Out.  In the middle of that huge desert are hundreds of mines.  After the Global Financial Crisis of 2009, Perth businesses were hit hard.  This lasted for about 6-9 months, until the demand from China for iron ore suddenly sent the state into overdrive.  There is no infrastructure in the middle of the desert, so the huge mining companies fly their workers in and out (FIFO), on rosters.  It’s become a way of life to Perth.

Our airport is a beehive of activity, and flights to the Pilbara are booked solid.  It is estimated that approximately 60,000 people are currently employed in FIFO work in WA across around 400 mines.  Lon works at a mine in Newman, which is about where the “W” in Western Australia sits in the map above.

Lon is suffering from a family tragedy that has yet to be completely resolved.  For the past eight years his life has been in limbo, waiting and mourning.  During that time he’s been emotionally stuck.  He works FIFO, enjoying its long hours to take him away from his life.  He lives in a caravan (mobile home) because he doesn’t want a permanence of a home that may once again be shattered.  He lives his life in the present, never holding on to anything other than a single friendship that has survived from high school.

Casey is running from demons.  A victim of child sex abuse, he is slowly working his way into coping with everyday life, although a simple thing like a news report can set him off.  He has moved from the other side of the country to escape those demons, only to find they have followed him.  He’s looking for safety, but not trusting his own responses to people.

When these two meet, they are opposites in most ways.  Lon, a huge muscled hulk of a guy who spends his time in the gym and looks like he belongs in a gang, and Casey, a young man, so small and needy, who displays an inner strength that is at odds with his past.  Casey brings the light and love to Lon’s life he was missing, whereas Lon provides the anchor and safety Casey was missing.  But first they must resolve the issues between them – sex and trust.

Then, together they just may be safe.

Renae Kaye is a lover and hoarder of books who thinks libraries are devilish places because they make you give the books back. She consumed her first adult romance book at the tender age of thirteen and hasn’t stopped since. After years—and thousands of stories!—of not having book characters do what she wants, she decided she would write her own novel and found the characters still didn’t do what she wanted. It hasn’t stopped her though. She believes that maybe one day the world will create a perfect couple—and it will be the most boring story ever. So until then she is stuck with quirky, snarky, and imperfect characters who just want their story told.

 

Renae lives in Perth, Western Australia, and writes in five minute snatches between the demands of two kids, a forbearing husband, too many pets, too much housework, and her beloved veggie garden. She is a survivor of being the youngest in a large family and believes that laughter (and a good book) can cure anything.

 

You can e-mail her at renaekaye@iinet.net.au, view her website at http://renaekaye.weebly.com, and follow her on Twitter @renaekkaye.

 

How to contact Renae:

Email:  renaekaye@iinet.net.au

Website:  www.renaekaye.weebly.com

FB:  www.facebook.com/renae.kaye.9

Twitter:  @renaekkaye

 

I’m offering a giveaway of an eBook copy of my new book, Safe in His Arms to one very, very lucky Love Bytes reader.  Simply post a comment below and let me know which character in my books you would love to read more about?  Would you like a sequel, or would you like a secondary character in one book to have a story?

If you haven’t read any of my books, don’t worry!  You won’t miss out on entering.  Just comment with which of my books you would most like to read.

Read Donna’s review HERE!