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Book Excerpt

My run instinctively slows to a slow jog. I can’t seem to find the guy who fell off the board. I don’t want to go into the storm swell without a swimming aid, but I will if I have to. His friend paddles in the direction where I last saw his buddy, his paddles getting increasingly frantic. My heartbeat speeds up as I come to a stop.

“Dolphins?” Another jogger stops and searches the tumultuous sea to see what I’m watching.

I shake my head. “Surfer. Think he might be in trouble.” I watch as the shorter-haired guy hauls his limp friend onto his board and starts paddling towards the shore.

“Nah, he’s just riding his friend in because he broke his board. See the pieces?” The other jogger assesses the situation. Did he not see that he had to haul him onto the board or notice he’s limp like a rag doll? His friend’s strokes as he works them towards the shore on his board are quick and sloppy. Harried even.

I grew up surfing these beaches and sometimes still do, but I don’t dare jump in. The storm surge has made the rip currents unpredictable. Instead, I start jogging towards the area of shore where the surfers will hit the beach. His friend doesn’t move as he lies across the board like a noodle.

Please be breathing. Please just be knocked out. 

But I know better. He was likely out before he hit the water. I couldn’t tell for sure, but it looked like the edge of the board clipped him in the head. When someone goes into the water unconscious, they don’t know to hold their breath. As the surfers get closer to the shore, I can sense the panic from the one paddling. He’s hollering at his friend and his paddle is big and erratic. It sounds something like, “Come on, man. Wake up.”

When he gets far enough in that he can touch the bottom, he abandons his board and hauls his friend over his shoulder and starts wading as fast as he can towards the shore; no easy task in currents like these.

I turn to the other jogger. “Call 911.”

“I’m not from here. How do I tell them where we are?” He pulls out his phone but doesn’t dial.

“Venice beach. Adjacent to the skate park. CALL NOW!” I toe off my running shoes and quickly slide my phone off my cuff and into my shoe. I jog into the surf towards the surfers.

“I gotcha, man. I gotcha.” The surfer in the solid black wetsuit is huffing and muttering at his friend. His eyes are large as he wildly sloshes through the surf towards the beach. He’s so panicked he doesn’t realize I’m running next to him in the surf. His friend’s lips are blue as he hangs over his shoulder like a wet dishrag. I try to assess him the best I can as he hangs over his friend’s shoulder, and that’s when it hits me. The surfer that reminded me of a boy I knew, is the boy I knew. Sampson Denton, now the drummer for the Blind Rebels. My former high school sweetheart.

Our feet splash in about a foot of water. The ebbing water pulling the sand from under our feet, making it difficult to stand.

“I’m Mel. I’m an off-duty paramedic. Set him down in that the first area of dry sand.” He’s not hearing me and keeps jogging. I grab his arm. “Set your buddy down. Now.” He finally looks over at me. “I’m a paramedic. Let me help. Set him down.” I point to the dry sand.

Q&A with Amy Kaybach

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Q: Can you tell me a bit about yourself and how became an author?

A: I always loved writing. I had an aunt who was a poet so I think it is just in my dna. My mom still has my first poem tucked away somewhere. It was something about a butterfly and rainbow. Typical four-year-old girl type of thing. But I have always loved writing. It’s been something I have always done. I wrote fanfic before I knew what fanfic was. I had a friend who said, I really think you need to publish some of these stories you’re writing. So when I started this book, book three,  I finally decided it was time to start looking into self-publishing.

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Q: What is your writing process like?

A: Generally, I’ll get an idea in the form of a picture in my head. With my first book Bridging the Silence I had the vision of Mav the lead singer of The Blind Rebels walking through a lobby of a hotel, all cocky, with his sunglasses on his head. This ended up being a scene in the book where he’s walking Kady through the lobby of her apartment building. Then my brain starts to build a story around this character, which usually just ends up being a scene or two. And then I just start writing. I’m a total pantser and don’t plot anything- so sometimes I am just as surprised as my readers are when characters reveal things about themselves through the story.

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Q: What do you like to do when you are not writing?

A: 

I like to travel with my best friend, or at the very least travel to her and hang out. Go to some concerts because I love to support live music. 

I read a lot. As a matter of fact, I write because I read.

I like to take pictures. Sometimes I like to paint, but I’m not very good at it.

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Q: How do you celebrate when you are finished writing a book?

A: Usually I take a picture of THE END…just because I love to take pictures of things and sometimes I’ll post it on instagram. Then I stay away from writing anything for a couple of days.

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Q: How do you celebrate when your books are released?

A: This is only my first book so I am still figuring this out. The first two book releases I was working and it was mostly just me checking my Amazon dashboard and social media because I was crazy nervous about the whole process. With book one I was just terrified no one would want to read it. With book two I was nervous that everyone would be disappointed with book two. I think I was almost more nervous. This time I just want a smooth release. 

I might take this one off and celebrate by sleeping in and go out to breakfast and not check on my amazon dashboard until at least noon (who am I kidding- I’ll be there at 6:00 am refreshing refreshing refreshing).

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Q: Can you tell me how the book/series came about?

A: I listen to music on my drive to work. I can’t listen to pod casts or talk radio- it HAS to be music. And my genre of preference is rock. So I was driving to work one day listening to the radio (and I don’t remember exactly what song it was).  It’s no surprise I got the picture of Mav Slater from book one in my head and he wouldn’t leave me be. So I started writing down his story, but then his heroine Kady started saying really this story is about me and started showing me who she is.

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Q: Are any of your characters similar to real-life friends or family?

A: My best friend would tell you yes, but it’s not done consciously for the most part. There are small pieces of me in the characters though - that’s done purposely.

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Q: What was the most challenging part of writing this book?

A: I really had trouble connecting with Melody, Sammy’s girl,when I wrote this book. She underwent major character development during editing and I get her much better now. There is also a scene that my editor really had to push me to write more…viscerally. In the end I think the scene worked better this way…but it was hard for me to write that. You’ll know it when you read it. 

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Q: What part of writing this book was the most fun for you?

A: Getting into Sammy’s head was fun. He’s very open for the most part. And of course I really loved the scenes involving Gibson, who has grown up a little and is starting to really be fun to write. Gibson’s a child who’s been in all the books and been getting older. He’s the son of guitarist Callum Donogue. Gibson has strong bonds with all the members of the band, but especially Sammy.

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Q: What Authors or other Books have inspired you to write this book?

A: There are quite a few authors who’ve inspired me to write and actually push publish. Most of them probably have no idea.  They are: K. Bromberg, Carian Cole, J Bengtsson (I think she might have an idea), and Adriana Locke (I strive to be like her to my fans). .

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Q: What is your favorite passage from this book?

A: With this book in particular I can narrow it down to a single line: “I want to kiss you Mel, for reals this time.”  This is the only book of the series that I can drill it down to a single line.

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Q: If you could meet any of your characters, who would it be and what would you say to them?

A: Killian (book 4 will be his book) and I’d want to give him a hug and tell him “I see you Killian Donogue. I see you.”