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01 February 2013

'Byzantine Gold' by Chris Karlsen ( @GoddessFish #FF )

Today I'd like to welcome, Chris Karlsen. She's here to share information on her book Byzantine Gold.

A bit about Chris...
* Chris is a retired police detective. She spent twenty-five years in the law enforcement with two different agencies.
* The daughter of a history professor and a voracious reader, she grew up with a love for history and books.
* She has traveled extensively throughout Europe, the Near East, and Northern Africa satisfying her passion for seeing the places she read about.
* A Chicago native, Chris has lived in Paris, Los Angeles, and now resides with her husband, and five rescue dogs in the Pacific Northwest.

~ Blurb ~
* A sunken warship from the Byzantine Era carrying an unusual cargo of gold has been found off the coast of Northern Cyprus. News of the valuable cache has attracted the attention of a terrorist cell. They plan to attack the recovery team’s campsite and steal the artifacts. On the Black Market, the sale of the relics will buy them additional weapons.
* Charlotte Dashiell, an American archaeologist, and her lover, Atakan Vadim, a Turkish government agent, are scheduled to be part of the recovery team that brings up the artifacts. While en route to Cyprus, they find themselves caught in the crosshairs of Maksym Tischenko, a Ukrainian contract killer bent on revenge. Charlotte, Atakan and Tischenko share a grim history. As a result, Tischenko is a man who will stop at nothing to achieve his goal—seeing them both dead.

~ Excerpt ~
* Atakan didn’t answer as he sped out of camp, spraying dirt and stones behind them.
* “What’s going on? Why are you in such a hurry?”
* He stared straight ahead, silent.
* “Atakan?”
* Tight-jawed, he continued down the side road that paralleled the beach, ramming the stick shift into place as he went through the gears and ignoring her questions. She’d never seen him this tense, not with her at least. A bad feeling crept over her. She had a sick sense his mood involved her plan to leave.
* They’d gone a kilometer from the camp when he came to a stop. He hopped out, slammed the driver’s door shut and came to her side.
* Opening her door, he said, “Get out.”
* She did.
* “Atakan,” Charlotte started to ask the same questions again, but he was already turned and walking toward the sea.
* She followed. He finally stopped near the water’s edge with his back to the surf and faced her. She stopped a couple of yards away.
* “When were you going to tell me?”
* She knew exactly what he was asking about. Who told him? It wasn’t Nick. He’d honor the twenty-four hour rule.
* “Who told you?”
* “That’s not an answer.” He stood still as a statue, arms crossed, feet apart.
* She hesitated, trying to choose her words so he’d understand and not be hurt. She gazed out at the incoming tide. The blue-green waves, effervescent with bubbles, rushed toward shore in rapid succession. White foam droplets filled the air as they crested, framing him like a new, angry version of Poseidon.
* “Answer me.”
* “Today.”
* “You weren’t going to tell me until today, although you’ve been planning to leave me for awhile.”
* “Not awhile.”
* “Long enough to send job inquiries to several museums.”
* So that was how he knew. One of the museums contacted MIAR and they must’ve sent the questionnaire to Refik and he told Atakan. She hadn’t considered the possibility. She’d thought any contact from the museums would be handled by MIAR’s headquarters.
* “I’m so sorry you had to find out this way. I intended to tell you if it looked like I’d definitely leave. If none of the museums showed interest, then you never had to know what I’d done.”
* “And you believe that is acceptable?”
* It killed her to see the look of disgust on his face with the question. “Yes...” she said low.
* “Why?”
* “Because I’m bad luck for you—everyone can see it, even your--, it’s obvious. There’s something about me, and God knows, I don’t know what, but I’m like a magnet for Tischenko.”
* She never cried and she wouldn’t cry now, but she was close. “I can’t bear to see you hurt again, or worse. There are people that bad luck follows, even Iskender thinks so.”
* Atakan inhaled deeply and let out a slow breath. Uncrossing his arms, he closed the short distance to where she stood.
* “It’s not forever,” she offered, “I’ll return.”
* He shook his head. “If you go, you cannot return. You’re either in my life or out of my life. There’s no in between.”

~ Where to find Chris Karlsen... ~
Website
Pinterest
Video for Byzantine Gold

~ Where to buy Chris Karlsen's books... ~
Amazon
Barnes & Noble

Giveaway! Chris will award one randomly drawn commenter at every stop an ebook copy of Golden Chariot, and one randomly drawn commenter will be awarded a $50 Amazon gift card during the tour. So be sure to leave your name and email on this blog and other blogs on the tour so you can be contacted if you win! Click here: for tour stops. Remember ~ the more you comment the better your chances of winning!

17 comments:

Goddess Fish Promotions said...

Thank you for hosting today.

Leah said...

This is a great excerpt. You can really see the emotions between the two. :)

Lena said...

Charlotte must be under a lot of pressure to take such a drastic decision and try and leave her lover. You did a marvelous job to potraying the tension between the both of them!

lennasloud[at]gmail[dot]com

Catherine Lee said...

Chris...I enjoyed Golden Chariot and look forward to reading Byzantine Gold!
catherinelee100 at gmail dot com

MomJane said...

This story sounds so thrilling and dangerous. I loved the excerpt.

Gala said...

What is your favorite genre?

galaschick78(at)gmail(dot)com

Chris Karlsen said...

HI Leah & Lena,

Charlotte is under a great deal of pressure from an outside source. That source has a lot of influence with her.
Chris K.

Chris Karlsen said...

Hi Catherine Lee,
Since you saw in Golden Chariot how the relationship between Charlotte and Atakan blossomed, I think you'll like seeing how it has grown in a year.
Chris K

Chris Karlsen said...

H MomJane,

I tossed a lot at Charlotte and Atakan in this story. I wanted to keep the action and tension ramped up.
Chris K

Ami said...

Hi Chris,
how do you go about developing evil characters?

shadowrunner1987(AT)gmail(DOT)com

Chris Karlsen said...

Hi Gala,

I read different genres but my favorite is romance. I like thrillers and read Connelly, Sandford & Wambaugh. In this series, I combined my liking of both romance and thrillers. I write another series, my Knights in Time, that is paranormal romance (time travel) and I'm working on book three in that series.
Chris K

Chelsea B. said...

Oh, gosh! That excerpt! Eek! What will happen?? ;-)

justforswag(AT)yahoo(DOT)com

Chris Karlsen said...

Hi Chelsea,

I can't tell you what will happen but things get worse before they get better!!Mwaaaaa.
Chris

Sarah Perry said...

So excited to read this book!! :) Love learning about the authors as well
oddball2003 at hotmail dot com

Chris Karlsen said...

Hi Let it be,

I love your enthusiasm. Thank you for your interest in me. I don't get that as much as the interest in the stories.
Chris

Chris Karlsen said...

HI Ami,
I craft the evil person to fit the plot. I don't care to write a Texas Chainsaw flatout psycho. The evil characters in all my stories have an agenda. In Golden Chariot, two of the villains feel justified in their wickedness. I also try to make the evil characters wicked in varying degrees depending on the story.
Chris

Anonymous said...

Enjoyed the excerpt. No one likes to find out their lover is planning on leaving them.

strive4bst(At) yahoo(Dot) com