Please help me welcome author D.V. Stone with an interview and her new release…
Hi, I’m D. V. Stone. Currently, I’m in Northern Florida living the life of a Snowbird in my 5th Wheel Camper with my husband of twenty-eight years, Pete, Hali, my doggo, and an almost twenty-year-old camp cat, Baby, who loves traveling and camping. We’ll be home in Northern New Jersey in April.
Sea Hunter is book four of The Mortar & Pestle Series. This is my first cooperative writing with six other amazing authors. It was a pleasure working with them. We are made up of international authors of different genres and vast backgrounds who came together and are offering this exciting, often humorous series. From world travelers, teachers, bloggers, magazine editors, and award winners, there’s something for everyone in this series. Paranormal to contemporary and various heat-levels, but we made it work.
Interview:
~Do you collect anything?
I have a parliament of owls. Yes, a flock of owls is a parliament. At home, in my camper, the décor is owlish. When choosing one to add to my collection, it’s all about the eyes. Sometimes they are just weird. My most recent addition is a mercury-glass owl who stands about a foot high. Small figurines that stand on a pile of books are my favorite. I’m always on the lookout.
~What was your first job?
I’ve worked at least one, if not two, paying jobs since I was sixteen. But I’m going to count before that. I lived on a dairy farm and milked cows and goats. Mucking out the barns. Feeding all the livestock. In the summer, we plowed, planted, harvested, mowed, baled, etc. Farming is hard work, and even little kids pitched in by feeding chickens and collecting eggs.
~ What do you want readers to come away with after they read [your book]?
I want readers to find hope and happiness in my work. Life is tough. If we can escape for a little while and enjoy a great story with a happy ending, I’ve done my job.
~ What is your favorite quote?
Your thoughts of God are too human. Martin Luther
~What celebrity would you most like to be stranded on an island with?
Lassie. She’d snuggle and help me out of bad situations.
~What do you want your tombstone to say?
Even when it was scary, she did it.
Or— She made a difference.
~How much of the book is realistic?
Sea Hunter is my first book set in historical reality. Post WWII. I did so much research and even traveled to Maine and Cape Cod to visit naval museums. I spent time on the computer reading about underwater archeology, diving, sea life, and the dangers of diving off the east coast due to mines. My favorite part was learning the vernacular popular in the post-war era.
GIVEAWAY:
I’m giving away a free sample of all the books in the Mortar & Pestle Series via Bookfunnel at https://dl.bookfunnel.com/b1ytv2r7nq no requirements
On the turbulent high seas, an archeologist must protect a historic shipwreck from treasure hunters—not fall for one.
Series Blurb
A wisp of smoke, a swirl of promise, a breath of destiny…a message within the Mortar & Pestle for those who want to believe. Throughout time people have sought their heart’s desire. But true love is often elusive. Carved with ancient Norse runes, the Mortar & Pestle shows paths to happily-ever-afters. Once you capture the Mortar & Pestle’s scent of magic, you’ll want to read all seven individual romances.
Sea Hunter: Blurb
Zahra Corbyn.
I’m a Sea Hunter. As an underwater archeologist and professor of antiquities, it is my duty to stop treasure hunters and looters from raiding Sea Wraith. But fate is a funny thing. Now I find myself working with Jack Alexander, a treasure hunter, to protect history from a known looter. Did my heart’s desire change?
Captain Jack Alexander.
I’ve been told women on a ship are unlucky, but this one has the two pieces of the map I need to finally claim Sea Wraith. Now I find myself in a deal that makes me one-third partner with her and a known scoundrel.
Can the two unlikely allies work together while safeguarding their hearts against the power of the Mortar and Pestle?
If you like Lara Croft and Indiana Jones, you’ll love Zahra Corbyn and Jack Alexander.
Excerpt:
Zahra flailed when he pitched her over the rail of the steamer.
The sneering smile got smaller, and he saluted before the frigid Atlantic water closed over her.
Splashing into the rough water, she suppressed her initial gasp. As an experienced diver, she understood the peril of aspirating saltwater. However, her heartbeat was out of control. When the disorienting shock of hitting the cold ocean in the darkness dissipated, she kicked toward the surface, following the bubbles up. Gasping and sputtering, she stared at the disappearing ship while treading water in its wake.
The fall hurt, but it hadn’t killed her, not like the cold water would. Already her arms and legs were becoming uncoordinated. Tingling along the nerves turned into stabs of pain. Her muscles contracted. Thinking became muddled.
In the distance, a lighthouse flashed a beacon before another wave swamped her.
Zahra kicked her way back to the surface, but a current dragged at her legs like a sea monster’s tendrils.
So close to home, and she would die out here. Alone. Killed by the elements she loved and researched. Maybe another underwater archaeologist would find and study pieces of her clothes and jewelry.
She’d survived two ocean crossings, a world war, and a stint working for the Office of Strategic Services.
Boston was only about fifty nautical miles away.
She’d read most deadly accidents happened close to home.
Stop and focus, Zahra.
Surfacing once more, she coughed and turned three hundred sixty degrees, looking for anything to help her. A buoy, a plank, floating garbage.
She wasn’t shivering anymore. Uh-oh, this was it. Her body was shutting down. Slowly, she descended below the surface. A flicker of light caught her attention. Was that a ship? Or rather the wreck of one? She must be hallucinating.
The depth of the water here wasn’t bad, considering. Only about twenty to thirty feet. Could it be Sea Wraith? Archeologists and fortune hunters had been searching for her for years. The figurehead poking from the sand and silt resembled a specter with its gaping maw and tendrils like an octopus. Spots developed in her vision. The last thing she saw was the shape of a man standing on the ship’s figurehead.
Buy link(s):
Purchase link Sea Hunter https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BRYJLLW1
Link to series https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BS42PKHZ
Bio:
D. V. Stone is an award-winning, multi-genre, traditionally and independently published author. She writes books people want to read. Whether romance or fantasy, contemporary or mid-grade, her stories are about the importance of friends and family. About overcoming obstacles while often with humor.
Around the Fire is a popular weekly blog where she introduces both established and new authors giving an insider’s look into their lives and books as well as tidbits about her own life.
Now retired, she is a full-time author and incorporates her life experiences into her books.
A former Emergency Medical Technician, she volunteered in both New Jersey and Pennsylvania. At the same time, she worked as a professional EMT in a women’s state prison. She was the proprietor of a coffee shop, and a small restaurant/ice cream stand in the years that followed. The years following were as a manager in an animal emergency hospital, while her last position was in a human medical office.
When not behind the wheel of 2Hoots—a 41-foot long 13.2 feet high 5th Wheel camper, she rambles around town in Northern New Jersey in a white Camaro. She also loves travel and history.
D.V. is a wife to an amazing husband, mother to one son, and not your average grandma to three beautiful grands. A woman of faith, she believes and trusts in God.
“My greatest pleasures are spending time outside with friends and family, cooking over the open fire, sipping a glass of wine, and reading.”
Hali, her rescue dog, always reminds her to let readers know, “Woof, woof.” Which is loosely translated as support your local animal rescue.”
https://www.dvstoneauthor.com/
https://mailchi.mp/bb4a75d3c449/mortar-pestle-free-sample-book
https://t.co/MUVW91E2iB
https://www.instagram.com/d.v.stone/
https://www.facebook.com/dv.stone.1
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16344100.D_V_Stone
https://www.bookbub.com/authors/d-v-stone
https://www.tiktok.com/@dvstoneauthor
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoWqGJB3WxpUCV2OUE2VN_w
Author Alicia Dean 