Please help me welcome Suzanne Perazzini to my blog today. Suzanne in addition to giving me a great interview is generously giving away a $10 Amazon gift card to one lucky commentor, so be sure and comment.

Tell us about yourself.

Since a child, I have been driven to explore, look beyond and seek change. This took me to the Fiji Islands on Volunteer Service Abroad at eighteen and after graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Auckland, to Italy, where I stayed for the next decade. I had been out to conquer the world but instead met the man who was to become my lifelong companion. While he studied and did military service, I taught English and travelled.
But the settling down bug caught up with me. I returned to New Zealand, husband in tow, bought a house, started up a business in the fashion industry and had a baby.

For many years we worked, worried, renovated houses and homeschooled our son who now has a degree in architecture and is studying for a second degree in design, specialising in photography.

We currently live in a house overlooking the Pacific Ocean and I work in real estate.

In my free time, I am a photographer and food blogger. www.strandsofmylife.com is a blog about my food journey towards great health.

In my other free time, I write books. Writing is a channel for ideas and feelings which manifest themselves in words to create a story with the ability to make readers feel. I hope I manage to stir the emotions in readers which I experience while writing my novels.

I now have eight published books. I read all the time – anything from women’s fiction to thrillers. If I don’t have a book on the go, I feel bereft and centreless. Yes, that’s a word – I think.

If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be, and why?

I have travelled extensively to over 40 countries and have lived in New Zealand, Italy and the Fiji Islands. I probably already live in the ideal country – New Zealand. I would prefer it to be a little less windy and warmer in winter but otherwise I don’t believe any of us here can complain too much about this country.

Are you a full time writer or do you have a “day job”?

I have a full time job but would love to be able to concentrate on my writing and my food blog and maybe that will happen before too long but for now I divide my time between work, my family, my writing and my food blog.

Do you have other talents? Or is there a talent you don’t have that you wish you did?

I have been a fashion designer, teacher and now work in real estate but currently I split my spare time between marketing my published novels and my food blog, which gets around 60,000 views a month: www.strandsofmylife.com It does cause a constant dilemma of where to focus my attention but I can’t decide between these outside-work interests and so feel constantly harried but all the pressing matters that assail me like a very full inbox.

How did you get started writing?

I started writing my first novel when I was in my early twenties but I gave it to a friend to read and she said it sounded like a Mills & Boon book and that put me off writing for a long time. I now have a profound respect for the talent of romance writers but, at the time, I felt like a failure because that wasn’t what I was trying to write. I started again a little over a decade ago and had some immediate success which encouraged me and kept me wiring through all the ups and downs that are a part of this industry.

What genre(s) do you write in and why?

I am an eclectic writer and love trying different genres from thrillers to Young Adult but there is always a suspense thread through all my books. Romance is often present but can be of secondary importance to the action.

How many books have you written? Do you have a favorite?

I have written about 18 books, both fiction and non-fiction about my travels. I had three published but have since got the rights back for two and am working on getting the third back and have self-published seven. My favourite should be Beneath the Surface which won the Romance Writers of Australia R*by Award in the Romantic Elements category a few years back but actually it is Merciless Truth, which is hard-hitting story about the war of secession of Katanga from the Congo in the 1960s. It is a tough story based on extensive research and conversations with my uncle who lives in Zambia and who was a mercenary pilot in that war. The story centers around a woman journalist and a mercenary pilot whose wife had been killed in the war. It is also now available in print as well as a kindle download.

All self-pubbed books are rumoured to be shoddily edited. What do you say to that?

I think many self-published books could do with a bit of a polish but many are already professionally published and on a par with any traditionally published books. I am an ex-English teacher and do a better job of editing than any professional so I am very confident that my books can hold their own against the best of them.

Was your road to publication difficult or a walk in the park?

It was very difficult and one than can still bring me to tears and spanned ten years of acceptance and rejection. This can be a cruel industry that can destroy the weaker among us but, if it is a passion, we can now take our fate into our own hands by self-publishing.

Where can readers find you?

Readers can find all my books on my Amazon Author’s page here: http://www.amazon.com/Suzanne-Perazzini/e/B00D40FWHO
They could also find me on my website: www.suzanneperazzini.com or my new Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorSuzannePerazzini

They can buy Merciless Truth on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Merciless-Truth-Suzanne-Perazzini/dp/1490561307/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1375262424&sr=1-1

CHAPTER ONE

KATANGA, THE CONGO
EARLY DECEMBER 1962

‘Return to base, repeat, return to base,’ Dan’s voice crackled across the air space between his Harvard and the other three planes.

‘Roger, out,’ came back the replies.

Dan glanced below at the mushrooming cloud of dust and smoke – the legacy their bombs had bestowed upon the column of ANC soldiers who had dared to venture beyond the Katangan border. He felt no pleasure at the mayhem he had helped to create below but he had a job to do, and that was to keep the Central Congolese Army out of the independent state of Katanga. It was two and a half years since Tshombe had proclaimed the state’s secession. When the hell would they give up and go home? Still, it was bloody good money flying for Tshombe, so it was of little consequence to him if it continued for years. Most of the ground force mercenaries burnt out before their six-month contracts expired, but up here in the air, above the claustrophobia of the jungle, he could detach his emotions and fly for flying’s sake.

‘Rats at four o’clock, angels one.’ Nick’s voice tore through Dan’s thoughts. He glanced behind, up to the right. There they were. In the distance, two sleek Canberra jets, as long as they were wide, turning towards them. They were primarily bombers, but could be looking for a bit of action – trying to spook them.

‘Bloody do-gooders!’ Dan’s sweaty palms slipped against the control column. ‘Evasive action only. Turnabout right when I say go.’ He held course, his head turned towards the United Nations jets as they lined them up from behind. ‘They’re coming in now…steady…hold your position.’

Shafts of white light pierced the air as the sun reflected off the cold metal of the planes.
‘Turnabout right. Go! Go! Go!’ Dan bellowed.

In unison they turned. Steep and tight. Almost one-eighty degrees. Dead ahead the jets were startled by the counterattack of their prey and banked steeply, forced to break away. Their underbellies flashed pale and racks of bombs glinted like teeth as they swooped silently past, their sound far behind.

Again Dan yelled, ‘Turnabout right. Go!’

As they turned to follow the retreating jets, Dan saw them climb and bank back around towards them. He wouldn’t fire. Goddamn it. He wouldn’t fire. They were the United Nations after all – a peacekeeping force. Peacekeeping? Like hell. Perspiration trickled down his cheek. Why were they interfering anyway? Bastards!

He shook his head to remove the image of Ashley lying dead on that bed in the hotel. It had been their fault.

The Canberras were closing in. No, he refused to shoot. A mercenary he might be, but there were limits.

‘Line astern formation,’ he called over the radio.

The pilots maneuvered their planes one in behind the other, obedient, trusting their leader’s judgment. Dan watched the enemy close the distance between them.

‘Form defensive circle. Go!’ He banked steeply, the others following into a tight, closed circle like wagon trains defending against a horde of Red Indians. Confused, the jets wheeled sharply to their left. They would be forced to attack from above, at right angles to an elusive target. In frustration, the lead jet dropped its nose and let loose its rockets.

‘Hold formation,’ Dan ordered.

The rockets shot past them trailed by streams of white vapor. As the pilot peeled off to his left, Dan could make out the dark features of the pilot, see his resignation that this was not his day for a kill.

As both jets twisted and climbed into the distance, Dan wiped his hands on his trouser legs and kept an eye out for the return of the planes.

‘The rats are yellow,’ Nick laughed over the radio, the relief clear in his voice.

Dan grinned. ‘Head for Kolwezi. I’m late for an appointment,’ he replied.

‘What? No time for a beer?’

‘Nope. Got a lady to meet. Over and out.