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Chasing Midnight

                   ~2007 RWA® Golden Heart Nominee~

                    Novel with Strong Romantic Elements

   Winner of the 2006 Southern Heat contest ::Best Paranormal

Present Day

Friday, 5:18 pm

     Someone--hell, he didn't know who--once said the Phoenix wasn't a mythical creature at all.  Instead, a crow sacrificed itself on the dying embers of fire, spreading its wings while flames torched parasites in his black feathers.  A rebirth, out of reach.

     Ryan Beck stood on the shoreline of Evergreen Lake.  Above the distant cove, the last rays of daylight blazed red and gold.  Night shadows stalked the white-barked aspen, stiff ghosts of their autumn glory.  He checked his watch.

     Ten minutes.  To become a Phoenix or die reaching.

     From his pocket, he withdrew a photograph and studied it for the hundredth time that day.  He knew the target's image as well as the symbol branded on his neck.  Ripe and swollen, the ink barely dried.  The mark of unity to an organization he'd grown to despise.  A strip of flesh he'd gladly given up for a chance at freedom.

     His thumb brushed the subtle contour of the woman's face.  He searched for the atrocities in the shadows of her eyes.  Proof of the lengths she'd gone to test her theories.  Each time he studied her, something far more disturbing ached within him.

     None of his hits ever looked this innocent.

---

Ryan Beck, a former Special Ops soldier, is an agent assassin for the Assembly, a rogue government organization he's grown to despise.  His allegiance to their top-secret agenda marked his descent from patriot to criminal and cost him his wife and his honor.  He wants out, but must complete one last assignment to stay alive. 

The mission:  Obtain a serum from a ruthless scientist and use it as a bargaining chip for freedom.

Emma Parrish, a Pollyanna-minded researcher, believes the formula her brilliant but misunderstood father never completed is the holy grail of medicine.  Yearning for a connection to a father she never understood, she finds the exact chemical sequence to perfect time travel.  To protect herself and the serum from the men who'd hunted her father, she must track down four scholars in a mysterious photo.  One of them is Phoenix, a trusted confidant of her father and powerful enough to regulate time travel for society's benefit.

Micah Jones, a genius from the year 2051, obtains the serum in its imperfect state.  He leaves behind a political holocaust, rife with unspeakable atrocities, to return to the present day.  He'll stop at nothing to acquire the perfect formula and take over the Assembly, a group capable of altering the course of history.

---

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 Awards/Nominations

 

2008

1st Place Winner ~ Best Paranormal

"The Night Caller"

Great Expectations Contest

 

 

2007

RWA® Golden Heart Nominee

"Chasing Midnight"

Novel with Strong Romantic Elements

 

 

2006

1st Place Winner ~ Best Paranormal

"Chasing Midnight"

Southern Heat Contest

East Texas Chapter RWA®