Get ready for some fun in the sun with our Summer BBQ Recipe Roundup! All week we’re featuring a different author each day who is sharing info about her latest book release, as well as a delicious recipe perfect to take to your next get together. Be sure to check back tomorrow (and all week) for another awesome author’s mouthwatering summer recipe! We’re getting things started with romantic suspense author Kendra Elliot, who has an appetizing appetizer to share! Her latest book, A MERCIFUL PROMISE, hits stores tomorrow. Remember, come back tomorrow for more! *** FBI Special Agent Mercy Kilpatrick has a secret. She was raised in Central 
Oregon as a prepper and survivalist and hides that she continues to practice that way of life. Her fiancé Truman Daly is the chief of police in the rural town where she grew up. He knows about and supports her secret because she is the woman he loves. In A Merciful Promise, Mercy uses her survivalist skills to infiltrate a militia amassing stolen firearms in an isolated forest community. It requires that she relinquish all contact with the outside world and live in a culture where suspicion is second nature. While she is…

She leaned across the table and held his gaze. “I heard they found a murdered body not too far away.” Her voice was appropriately quiet, but fascination burned in her eyes. Alarms rang in Ollie’s head. “Do you know if that’s true?” Tabitha asked. “Or are people making stuff up?” “It’s true,” he admitted. Her eyes widened. “Oh! How scary … Did they catch who did it?” “It happened a long time ago,” Ollie informed her, feeling a little guilty for talking about the dead. “It wasn’t really a body … Just a skeleton was left.” An image of the skull’s bullet hole flashed in his mind. “Do they know who it was? Or how long ago it happened?” She took another bite, her gaze never leaving his as she hung on every word. Melted soft serve dripped on the table. “Well … don’t tell anyone, but they think it’s related to a big robbery that happened in Portland a long time ago.” “You’re not talking about the Gamble-Helmet Heist, are you?” Ollie froze. “How’d you know?” “Everyone knows about it.” She shrugged and looked at her parfait as she scooped up fudge and peanuts. “If it’s related to that,…

How old were you when you started writing? I was 38 when I started my first book. I had no intention of being an author when I started; I simply wanted to see if I could finish a book. I found a community of like-minded people and learned a ton about the creative process and the business side of writing. Once I finished that first book, I wondered if it was publish-worthy. It wasn’t. So I wrote another and another. My third book—after being rewritten a half-dozen times—finally sold. I didn’t enjoy writing in high school and college. My teachers had a way of destroying the pleasure of putting words on paper. I wrote to please them, not myself. What’s the most difficult part of being a full-time writer? What’s the most rewarding? Self-discipline. I write a novel every six months. I plan out my weeks of research, writing, and editing. I must stick to my schedule, or else I find myself in a stressful rush for the last month or two. The current book is always hanging over my head—it’s a cloud that never leaves. When I turn the book in, it’s immediately replaced by the next book. I…

A MERCIFUL SECRET is the third book in my Mercy Kilpatrick series about an FBI agent who was raised in rural Oregon by survivalists. In SECRET, Mercy is caught up in two related murder investigations hundreds of miles apart. Here’s an interview with my heroine: How would you describe yourself? Mercy Kilpatrick: I’m independent and strive to be prepared for everything. Rational. Reliable. You were raised ‘off the grid’ with your family. How did this influence the person you have become? Mercy: Being raised off the grid, taught me that I am the only person I can rely on. People forget that grocery stores can run out of food, power can be permanently cut off, and that when desperate, your most trusted neighbor will turn their back on you. I never forget. You left home in order to become an FBI agent. This had to be a pretty big change for you. What made you want to join the government? Mercy: I saw it as a challenge. I’d been raised to believe that government constantly oversteps its bounds and that our population should never trust it. I was taught that the world was black and white. When I left home,…