This week I’m hosting Liz Johnson with A Promise to Protect, Lacy Williams with Counterfeit Cowboy, Steven Hunt with Chasing Christmas and Murray Pura with Ashton Park. 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 (December 16th) evening.
Interview with the hero from A Promise to Protect by Liz Johnson:
1. Matt, tell me the most interesting thing about you.
Some people seem to think the most interesting thing about me is that I’m a United States Navy SEAL. That does make me part of a select group of elite warriors, but there’s more to me than that. I just don’t spend a lot of time thinking about myself like that.
2. What do you do for fun?
I like to work out, which is a really good thing because I spend a lot of time keeping in shape. I like running and swimming, but I haven’t been able to do much of that since I was injured on a recent mission. My leg is almost completely healed, and I’m looking forward getting back to my training regimen.
3. What do you put off doing because you dread it?
I don’t put off much. I’d rather face whatever’s ahead. But I have always been hesitant to pursue a serious relationship with a woman. It’s not that I’ve dreaded it. In fact, I really like the idea of sharing my life with a spunky and spirited woman. I just know that my past makes me a bad candidate for any relationship, and my job—leaving at a moment’s notice for dangerous missions—makes it even worse.
4. What are you afraid of most in life?
Letting down the people I care about most—my best friend Tristan, his little sister Ashley, and their mom. Since my last foster parents passed away just after I joined the Navy, Tristan’s family has become my only family, and I’d do anything to keep them safe.
5. What do you want out of life?
I don’t spend a lot of time thinking into the future. My life is pretty much one op at a time. One deployment at a time. I want to do my job well for every other man on the SEAL teams, to know that I’ve done everything I can to accomplish my mission. Keeping my focus tight keeps me from wishing for things that aren’t safe—like what life might be like if I could share it with Ashley.
6. What is the most important thing to you?
The most important thing to me is taking care of those who can’t take care of themselves. Growing up with foster dads who picked on easy targets left me ready to stand up to bullies and protect the ones who couldn’t protect themselves.
7. Do you read books? If so, what is your favorite type of book?
I’m more of a magazine kind of guy. I like ESPN The Magazine and things like that. But when I do read books, I like military history and biographies.
8. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
If I can dream big, I’d like to be injury-proof. I’ve been shot twice in the ten years I’ve been on the teams. Add to that the knife wounds like the one I’m recovering from now, and I’ve spent too much time recovering from injuries when I should have been on ops. Of course, if I couldn’t be injured, I wouldn’t have been sent to check up on Ashley and get to spend so much time with her and the women at her shelter.
9. Do you have a pet? If so, what is it and why that pet?
I’d like to have a dog. A big, slobbering mutt to run the beach with me. But I’m deployed too often, and I don’t have any family to leave him with while I’m out of the country. Maybe when I retire from the teams, I’ll adopt one.
10. If you could travel back in time, where would you go and why?
I’d like to go back to the 1940s and spend time with the greatest generation. The men and women who served during WWII are heroes of mine, and I’d like to spend time with them.
