Hero Interview from In Too Deep by Mary Connealy

This week I’m hosting Rita Gerlach with Before the Scarlet Dawn, Mary Connealy with In Too Deep, Rebecca Carey Lyles with Winds of Wyoming (ebook), and Roseanna White with Love Finds You in Annapolis, Maryland. If you want to enter the drawings for the books, please leave a comment on one of the post during the week with your email address. I will not enter you without an email address (my way to contact you if you win). If you don’t want to leave an email address, another way you can enter is to email me at margaretdaley@gmail.com. The drawings end Sunday (February 12th) evening.

Interview with the hero from In Too Deep by Mary Connealy:

Ethan Kincaid, tell me the most interesting thing about you.

The most interesting thing about me is the worst thing. I drove my little brother, Seth crazy. He was always reckless, doing things that near about scared me to death, but when he finally got himself in a real bad spot I had to fight through his pain and panic to get him to save himself because I couldn’t do it. And I was too hard on him. I pushed him past what he could stand. I saw my little brother lose his mind right before my eyes.

What do you do for fun?

Fun is what I’m best at. I don’t want to take anything too seriously. After what happened to my little brother I’ve been real careful to not let anyone get to close. So it’s easy to laugh. I’m quick with a joke or a smile. I’ve learned it’s easy to take off when things get tough, too.  But now, without me hardly knowing how it happened, I’m married to a woman who seems to be able to sneak around and make me care. about her and want to protect her.

What do you put off doing because you dread it?

I’ve got my own ranch now but it used to be run by my bossy big brother, Rafe. I’m still working with the cowhands he hired. I get told how Rafe did things about ten times an hour and I oughta have it out with my hired me, make sure they know I’m running this outfit. But Rafe usually did things right and it’d be stupid to fire a good cowpoke just because I want to be in charge. So I hold my tongue and smile when I’d like to put my fist right through my foreman’s face.

What are you afraid of most in life?

Fear ain’t something a man can ever be proud of. And he sure as certain don’t want to admit to being afraid of nothin’. But that cavern, the one where Seth almost died, it’s got it’s hooks in the deepest fear in my gut and I can’t stand the thought of going down there. Until my baby daughter gets lost in that cavern and I’ve got to go down to save her. That kind of fear is a shameful thing.

What do you want out of life?

For most of my life I’d have told you I wanted my brothers and my ranch. But watching Seth risk his neck in that cavern, even after he’d been hurt so bad, was too hard. Now, I want that sweet little woman I married to be safe. Protecting her is the most important job I’ve got. You’d think there was enough trouble to be had on a Colorado ranch in the Rocky Mountains. But there’s lots worse trouble following my pretty Audra. Men, hunting a lost treasure, think she knows where it is and they won’t quit coming.

What is the most important thing to you?

I’d like a peaceful life. I’d like to be near my family. I’d like Rafe to stop bossing me and Seth to stop being so crazy I can’t sleep for worrying. And I’d like to have my wife by my side day and night, without it being a life and death business to get through each day. Where in tarnation did that stupid treasure, stolen by my wife’s dead husband, get to? So which is that? My brothers giving me a break? My wife being safe? That treasure turning up. And while I’m listing important things, I’d like that blasted cavern to collapse and disappear for good.

Do you read books? If so, what is your favorite type of book?

Don’t reckon I’m much of a reader, what with there being no school for a hundred miles when I was growing up. I’ve learned to read some, it’s right handy to know how. I can fetch around to understand a newspaper, if I ever get near one. And I’ve read my share of the Bible, Ma taught us what little we knew about reading from that. But I can read sign. Follow the trail of a man or beast in the woods, over rocky soil, across a racing stream—anywhere—better’n any man I know.

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

I’d have more guts. I’d face my fears. I’d climb down in that cavern and take a long walk and look at the pretty rocks, with out feeling like I’m sliding down the throat of a monster straight to Hades.

Do you have a pet? If so, what is it and why that pet?

Don’t reckon I’ve got a pet, there isn’t even a dog around the place. But I brought a real pretty mare home with me and she’s expecting a baby, bred from a fancy thoroughbred stallion. I’m looking forward to seeing that little foal born.

If you could travel back in time, where would you go and why?

I know right where I’d go. I’d go two minutes before I hurt my little brother and do everything different. I panicked. If I’d have just stayed back from the edge of that pit…if I’d known it was going to collapse…a little fall that would’ve left Seth with a few bruises, turned into a life and death struggle that drove him crazy and destroyed my family. Oh, yeah, if I could just do that over again and keep my head. I would’ve changed everything.