A warm welcome to author L.J. Hayward joining us today for you blog tour on newest release “When Death Frees the Devil”. the final part of the succesfull Death and the Devil series.

Check out L.J. ‘s post below and have a change to win a wonderful giveaway.

Welcome L.J 🙂

Hello! I’m L.J. Hayward and I’ll be your author for this blog tour. Thank you for being here with me as I introduce the third, and last for this story arc, Death and the Devil book. Jack and Ethan have faced off against a rogue assassin, hidden enemies and each other. This time they’re going up against the shadowy, global organisation behind every danger to threaten them and their life together.

For a chance to win a US$15 Amazon gift card, please leave a comment and a winner will be randomly chosen at the end of the blog tour.

Thank you to Love Bytes Reviews for hosting this stop on the tour. WHEN DEATH FREES THE DEVIL is released tomorrow. Finally, right? I certainly meant to have this book finished and in your hands well before now, but, well . . . it turned out this story was bigger than I thought. Longer, yes, but also more epic. And with more epic, comes more research.

I’ve learned some interesting and fun things while writing these books. Some of the most interesting, if not exactly fun, things were about serial murderers and how they’re tracked and caught, and I’ll definitely want to revisit that research at a later time. For this book, there were a couple of big events that I reached out to the experts for . . .

I’m not a fan of flying. I like take-off and landing. It’s the speed and how you can feel it pressing you into your seat. The bit in between, though? Yeah, not a fan. Also, heights. Don’t do them gracefully at all. So basically getting me in a helicopter isn’t going to happen any time soon. Imagine my response when one of the Rotorheads—helicopter pilots who helped me with a certain scene—suggested the best way for me to learn how to crash a helicopter was to learn to fly one. Anyway, the Rotorheads were very helpful with my weird scenario. I won’t go into details here because spoilers, but here’s a few things I learned . . .

• Serious pilots don’t call helicopters choppers. Luckily Jack isn’t a serious pilot, right?
• In case of an engine failure, helicopters have this thing called autorotation. It means the blades keep spinning, giving the craft enough lift to let the pilot safely land it, even in as small a space as a tennis court. It’s still a very fast descent but controlled and totally survivable.
• When the pilots talk about ‘soundtrack’ in regards to helicopters they aren’t talking about Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyrie. Several of the Rotorheads asked me to ensure that if this book was made into a movie, that they get the sound of the helicopter right. I, of course, assured them that I would. 😉

The other big research item was India. Yes, we go to India, finally! But our time there isn’t peaceful. It’s fast paced and blurry, but still the details had to be there. I read (travel guides are essential!), studied images, and watched documentaries. I saw a goat sitting on a motorcycle and so desperately wanted to put that image into the book (you’ll have to read to see if I did).

But that isn’t enough. I had the basic concepts down, so I needed an expert to refine them. In comes the Sensitivity Reader. They looked at my book and pointed out the things that didn’t ring true, that were out-right wrong and the things that needed a bit of tweaking to feel authentic. There was not one thing the sensitivity reader said that I didn’t agree with. They are, after all, the expert. Even when it’s a comment like “This make of car wouldn’t be seen there, this one would,” then it gets changed.

Even more than learning, on paper, how to crash a helicopter, getting the India portion of this book was vital. Sensitivity readers, the best thing since editors.

As with anything though, any factual errors regarding either of these topics in the book are purely my own.

You can find me and information about my books at http://www.ljhayward.com/

Blurb:

Ethan is finally free. He’s left the Cabal behind and embraced a civilian life with Jack, the man he loves. The only problem is that the Cabal isn’t willing to let him go. A call in the middle of the night and a threat to Jack’s family, and Ethan is back in the game. The only way out is to take on the organization that spent years warping his life.

Jack’s boyfriend has a way of vanishing on him, but this time Ethan’s disappearance is more frightening than ever. A trail of mysterious clues, a hit against his family, and the handprint of the Cabal on everything means the greatest test of love and determination Jack has ever endured.

Torn apart by forces greater than they are, Jack and Ethan must fight harrowing battles to get back to each other. The Cabal is the greatest foe either of them has had to face. Ethan is willing to throw away everything to bring an end to the Cabal’s evil. And Jack is willing to do the same to make sure Ethan comes out the other side alive.

AMAZON

L.J. Hayward has been telling stories for most of her life, a good deal of them of the tall variety. She loves reading but doesn’t seem to have enough time between wanting to be a more disciplined writer, being the actual erratic writer she is, and working for dollars in a dungeon laboratory. She also lives on the Gold Coast in Queensland, but rarely sees a beach and can’t surf, though she thinks living on a houseboat might be fun. At least then she’d have an excuse to get a cat.