Heroine Interview from Collateral Damage by Hannah Alexander with a Giveaway

This week I’m hosting Hannah Alexander with Collateral Damage (US only) and Carol Cox with Truth Be Told (US only). If you want to enter the drawings for the books, please leave a comment on your post 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 (June 22nd) evening.

Interview with the heroine from Collateral Damage by Hannah Alexander:

1. Sarah Russell, tell me the most interesting thing about you.

I’m a twin whose twin sister will barely speak to me because I gave birth out of wedlock. I mean, really, she resents me even though she knows our drinks were spiked with ecstasy that night? So anyway, I have a daughter, Emma, but everyone thinks she’s my baby sister, who was adopted by my parents when I gave birth to her. Oh, and my parents? They were killed in an explosion three weeks ago. Interesting? I’d love for my life to be far more boring.

2. What do you do for fun?

Um…I’m a kindergarten teacher who writes novels on the side. I’d like to have a nice, peaceful life and spend most of my time staying as close to my daughter as I can…but then she ran away when she heard Mom and Dad were murdered. Naturally, I followed. NOT my idea of fun.

3. What do you put off doing because you dread it?

Oh, that’s a very easy one! Out of deference to my parents, I’ve put off telling Emma she’s my daughter for sixteen years. I’ve also put off telling her father, Nick Tyler, that he probably has a daughter—since we were both spiked with ecstasy, neither of us remember much, but he was the only one for me. Ever.

4. What are you afraid of most in life?

I’m terrified I’ll lose Emma when she learns the truth. I’m terrified Nick will try to “do the right thing” by me, but will never love me, once he discovers Emma’s his child. Sometimes, after everything that’s happened to me—things I couldn’t control—I’m just terrified of life. But I’m determined to live it to the best of my ability, despite my fear.

5. What do you want out of life?

I love teaching, but my dream is to make a living with my novels. That’s a wild dream, I know. It’s a hard thing to do. But someday I’d love to be able to call myself a published novelist.

6. What is the most important thing to you?

Teaching Emma that just because there are horrible people in the world doesn’t mean God’s happy about that. I want her to have more faith than I did when I was her age, and I want her to feel the love of her real father, even if I’m never included in that love.

7. Do you read? If so, what is your favorite type of book to read?

I love to read romantic suspense, but I don’t like them too suspenseful because I read at night, and don’t like to have nightmares. I think I’d like to read a mixture of Jan Karon and Dean Koontz. Crazy, huh?

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

I would be an extravert. I never wanted to be like my twin sister, who was the most popular girl in class, so I went out of my way to be different when I didn’t really need to. I’m more of an intellectual, whereas she’s more of a people person. It wasn’t necessary for me to dress in Goth clothing and wear Goth makeup to be different from my twin, but it would have been nice to be more comfortable around people, the way she is, even though I always wanted people to see us differently.

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

I’d love to have a horse. I used to ride my friend’s horse when I lived in Jolly Mill, before my father got transferred and I got pregnant. I love horses.

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

If I could travel back in time and change what happened the night I got pregnant with Emma, then Emma wouldn’t be alive, would she? But I would have argued with my parents when I gave birth, and I would have made sure everyone knew the truth about my child from the very beginning, instead of hiding behind the safety of my parents. The truth is always best.