#Interview ~ Do Not Assume By Kasey Riley ~ @authorkcriley

Do Not Assume

By Kasey Riley

Interview with Kasey Riley:

Crystal: Today I have the pleasure of hosting Kasey Riley. Welcome Kasey! I'm so happy have you here today. Would you share a little bit about yourself with us today?

Kasey: My name is Kasey Riley and I’ve been writing for the past 5 years. I began writing after reading a horribly written book on a subject the author knew nothing about. I knew the subject and felt I could write a better novel using it – so I did. Now, my subjects tend to be things I know, but I’m not afraid of doing research to make the book more real. If anyone ever checked out what I’ve been researching…I might be in trouble. Everything from arson, chemicals, and guns, to Romania, Germany and Serbia.

Crystal: What are you currently working on?

Kasey:  My current WIP goes back to Riverview and tells the story of Megan and Aaron while also solving a crime involving smuggling diamonds in a dog. I introduced Megan in Skeleton Trail, used her in August Fire and felt it was time to tell her story since she is one of my favorite characters.

Crystal: Where did you come up with the idea for either your current release or your current WIP?

Kasey:  My latest release, Do Not Assume, was a traveling brainchild. It’s a twelve-hour drive between SE Oklahoma and Central Tennessee and music only keeps you awake so long. My husband and I were tossing a plot around when a commercial came on for DNA testing. That did it. DNA became central to the plot and we needed to work out the details. Luckily, we drove that route four more times in the next three months, so we had lots of time to work out the kinks. Due to the move, it did take me longer to put the book together, but my current WIP will be out before the end of the year…it’s that close.

Crystal: Do you have a favorite snack that you like to munch on while writing? If so would you mind sharing what it is with us?

Kasey: I love hard candy – the kind you only find at Christmas. After the new year when the stores no longer offer it, I switch to jelly beans. I pull out all the black to give away, and put the remainder of two bags into the empty hard candy can. I will also use beef jerky if I’m needing protein…but jelly beans are easier to eat.

Crystal:  Do you have a favorite scene you would like to share with us?

Kasey:  My most favorite is the final scene, but I’m not giving that away. The prolog to Do Not Assume was the most powerful scene I’ve written so far and I’m proud of that. After the prolog the book jumps almost 23 years to the present day and the baby in the prolog becomes the protagonist in the novel. I’m willing to share the prolog of Do Not Assume.

Do Not Assume Prolog
The garish lights from the Las Vegas Strip shone through the slit in the room-darkening curtain, which did little to either dim the light in the room or soften the sounds from the Strip. The only sound in the room was the soft voice of the young woman singing to her new daughter whom she held to her breast. Her loving eyes watched her baby nurse greedily.
“Nicoleta Sofia, va creste înţelept, puternic şi frumos. Chiar daca nu pot viziona, veţi şti că te iubesc…puteţi simţi, nu poti nici iubirea mea?” “Nicoleta Sofia, you shall grow up wise, strong, and beautiful. Even though I can’t watch it, you’ll know I love you. You can feel it, can’t you, my love?” The baby responded with a gurgle and waved her hands—the growing bond with her mother exciting her.
Bianca began singing the Romanian lullaby again, continuing till her baby’s eyes drifted closed and she no longer suckled. Wrapping her daughter in the last clean blanket in the room, she placed the sleeping child in the middle of the queen-sized bed. Lovingly, she placed pillows on either side. Yesterday, alone in this room, she’d given birth. The labor thankfully had been short. The premature baby was born small but grew stronger by the hour. Bianca smiled. Perhaps her daughter would be able to heal as fast as her mother, as it was the one ability Bianca didn’t regret.
Turning to the paper on the desk, Bianca wrote down her baby’s name. Nicoleta, in honor of her own mother and Sofia, in honor of her grandmother. Deliberately, she left off the surname. If she wanted her child raised without danger from their enemies, she must make certain none knew of Nicoleta’s existence. Block letters: NICOLETA SOFIA. She would put the paper in the baby’s blanket when she left her.
When she escaped, no one knew of her pregnancy. Bianca would need to place Nicoleta with strangers before the searchers found her. With the last of her money spent, Bianca knew time was limited. Tonight would be her last night to hold her baby. Her stomach grumbled, complaining she had yet to eat today. Searching the room, she found the last remaining slice of stale bread, remnants of yesterday’s dinner. Giving in to her hunger, she wolfed it down. Walking painfully into the bathroom, she rinsed out a dirty plastic cup. Draining it twice, she hoped to ease the emptiness in her belly. She prayed it would help to create enough milk to feed Nicoleta.
Picking up her discarded clothing, she stepped into her now-baggy leggings. Their bulk under her tunic tops had hidden her pregnancy well, but now she couldn’t keep them up. Panicked, she searched the room finding only her shoelaces to use as a belt. Her long-sleeved, oversized knitted top hung past her hips to rest against the tops of her thighs. Looking in the mirror, she nodded at the pale woman standing there. Bianca felt her own mother wouldn’t recognize her with her light blonde hair blackened, dark circles smudging her thin cheeks, and contacts hiding the blue of her eyes. She prayed those searching for her wouldn’t either.
Discarding her now useless, comfortable, tennis shoes, she pulled her four-inch spike heeled boots from her bag. She hadn’t been able to wear them for the past two months. Originally purchased to confuse the searchers, she’d put them away when pregnancy caused her feet to swell. Sighing, she began stuffing her puffy feet into the tight boots. The zippers rebelled, but her stubborn efforts soon prevailed and she managed to get them zipped.

The effort cost her. Her ability to heal fast, hampered by her lack of food, didn’t help the weakness and exhaustion of childbirth. She couldn’t seek medical help; the searchers would find her and Nicoleta. Bianca knew she would gladly die before letting those searching for her, or even Nicoleta’s biological father, find her.
She needed to find a safe place to leave her baby. A place where Nicoleta would be discovered and cared for without a search for her mother. She kissed her sleeping baby and headed out to find such a place. She left the “Do not disturb” sign hanging on the door where she’d placed it after her water broke.
Like all casinos, to get outside she had to pass through the gaming floor. This particular gaming floor had all the games and a full-scale circus and carnival midway. After ten minutes of wandering, trying to find her way out, Bianca stopped a staff member.
“Unde este o biserica?” Bianca brought her hands together in the universal shape of prayer.
“Sweetie, I pray too. Every day,” the brassy woman laughed. “You want to go to church?” At Bianca’s nod, the server took a good look at the girl/woman in front of her.
“Catholic?” she guessed.
“Catholic, da.” Bianca smiled and nodded.
Putting down her tray, the server took Bianca’s shoulders and turned her toward the closest door. With broad hand signals and raising her voice, she directed, “Out this door, turn right. Guardian Angel Cathedral will be just before Desert Inn Parkway on your left. You’ll see Cathedral Drive on the left.” With a final wave of her arm to first the right then the left, the server nodded encouragement. “Hope those boots are comfortable. She’s got a long walk ahead of her,” she muttered to herself as she picked up her tray and continued on to the bar with her orders.
Out in the blinding sun, Bianca dimmed her high powered sight. Before she did, she could see the spire of the cathedral in the distance to the right. Sighing, she headed down the broad four-lane road. Honking cars zoomed past, forcing her to control her oversensitive hearing too. Then she moved as far to the right as she could get. Within a few blocks, her feet hurt but she could see the cathedral spire getting closer ahead and her heart soared at the sight.
Her attention on the distant church, she failed to notice a man of medium height following her, drawing closer as fatigue slowed Bianca’s steps. With her hearing muffled, she failed to sense him closing in. Silently, he drew a switchblade knife, the sounds of traffic covering the click of its opening. With it hidden by his hand, he walked faster to catch her.
Catching movement out of the corner of her eye, Bianca managed to avoid his reaching hand. Reflex and past training had her sidestepping, flinging her leg upward in a powerful, adrenaline-fueled, martial arts kick, she aimed her spiked heel at his throat. She connected with his trachea just below the larynx, crushing both. His arms windmilling, his knife hand came up, slicing her leg from her inner thigh diagonally across both the superficial and deep femoral arteries as he fell.
Feeling her life draining away, Bianca cried for her newborn child. “Nicoleta Sofia, inima mea este cu tine, Dumnezeu vezi că veţi găsi un iubitor de acasa. Viata mea este de peste, a ta este început—Nicoleta Sofia, my heart is with you. May God find you a loving home. My life is over, but yours has just begun.” Her voice faltered as blackness engulfed her in the bright Las Vegas sun. The gathering crowd of onlookers could do nothing to save her while the wail of approaching medical help seemed to crawl toward them.
Up in hotel room 474, Nicoleta woke screaming at her mother’s last breath.

Crystal: When you are not busy writing wonderful stories to keep us lucky readers entertained, what do you like to do? Do you have a hobby?

Kasey:  Horses are my salvation and sometimes my writing downfall. I have two and now that I can ride from my back door…I tend to ride when I should be writing. However, I come up with some of my best plot twists on horseback and my riding buddies are often my sounding board when I’m stuck. Without the break of riding, I’m afraid my writing would suffer. It just takes longer to finish my WIP here in Tennessee than it did in Oklahoma where I could only ride about once a week.

Crystal: Do you have a favorite background noise you like to having going while you write (TV, Music, kids playing)?

Kasey:  The funny thing is that I prefer silence (or as close to silence as you can come with dogs playing etc.) in the background…but my sweet husband has a sound system wired into the house and no matter how many times I take my bedroom/office off the “group” – the next day it’s back on again. So I most often have music softly in the background. Country Western or Enya or classical, whatever he chooses for the day. I work through it and seldom ask him to change the variety – until I can tell exactly which “random” song is next.

Crystal: Thanks for visiting. It has been a pleasure having you visit today. Can you think of anything else you would like to share with us today?

Kasey:  Everyone has to start somewhere and if any of your followers want to write, my advice is to do it. Sit down and write, anytime you can, for as much as you can, no matter what suits your interests. Write what you know, find an editor and publish it. Write for yourself, but don’t be afraid to share it with the world. Enjoy the writing…if it becomes a chore – walk away from it and try something else. Life is too short to have regrets, just do it.

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BLURB: 

Orphaned at birth, a nurturing couple adopts Nicoleta in her eleventh summer. As much as she loves her adopted parents, she wants to know her heritage. Which parent is responsible for her emphatic gift? At her college graduation, her fathers give her a DNA test kit and the police reports of her mother's murder.

Do Not Assume is a story exploring the statement; "be careful what you wish for". Nicoleta wishes for information and what she finds amazes her. Her genetic makeup is beyond unique.

Little does she realize the information she craves is being shared with others who have been searching for someone of her specially modified genetic makeup. How can she escape those who are seeking to capture her, use her in their inhuman experiments?

Native American James Woodruff has his own special traits that he has never developed. His Shaman Grandfather has taught him how to handle his innate skills, but James left home before he learned what he now needs to know. Can he help Nicoleta in her quest?

Amazon Buy Link

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About the Author: 

With over twenty years of horse ownership and Endurance riding to her credit, Kasey Riley (Kim) brings a wealth of knowledge to her novels. Her love of the trail, outdoors, and rural living give color and vibrancy to her books. This realism has drawn many readers to her novels. She strives to make readers see through the eyes of her characters and imagine themselves enmeshed in the plot.

She plans on each book being a stand-alone novel that can be read in any sequence without the reader missing details of the story. However, that could change in the future, if she feels the need to link novels. Do Not Assume could be the beginning of a series. It stands alone, but could have sequels which would need the reader to start with Do Not Assume. Do Not Assume came from a discussion between Kasey and her husband, Jeff, in one of the several drives between Oklahoma and their new home in Tennessee. Tossing around an idea about a young woman who keeps being involved in mysterious violence. Coming up with an idea as to why she’s involved and solving the situation kept them occupied for many miles. Kasey’s mind sees every news article as a possible story plot for her characters to endure. She loves alone time on the trail to work her way through the next plot and create new characters.

When not writing or riding, she enjoys reading a wide variety of genre novels and sounding out new plots on her husband of 40+ years. Together, they moved two horses, four dogs, two cats and all their assorted belongings from SE Oklahoma to Central Tennessee in 2016. Starting with a fall 2015 trip to scope out the country, simply because neither had ever been to TN, the state drew them back and the small town on the Cumberland Plateau lured them into moving there. Now able to ride out the back door, Kasey finds less time to write, but has many viable ideas to work from.

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