Once when my husband went out to fight a fire, he was on the ladder, shooting water through a window, not realizing in the noise and chaos that the window below him blew. He felt hot, even in his protective clothing, but, well, he was fighting a fire. He didn’t think much of the heat, just focused on his job. Until the chief started yelling in the radio for him to look down. Flames were shooting out the window below him, engulfing him to the waist.

Oddly, he went back to this the next day, and the next, up until I lost my job and we move to a different state. The area where we lived when we got married was fairly poor, no money for a paid fire department. All the men were volunteers. The ambulance was staffed by volunteers, too, because people simply couldn’t afford a $500 ride to the hospital. My husband worked for them, too. The radio would go off at 2 a.m. and he would grab his bag and rush off to whatever address given, to save whoever needed to be saved. For free. Did I mention he was working twelve-hour shifts lifting hundred-pound bundles of metal at the wire mill to pay the bills? But I’ve never seen him ignore a call for help. Never.
He was in the Army, but he’d never been a commando soldier, or in Special Forces like most of the heroes of my novels. He was a soldier in a time of relative peace and didn’t see active combat. My heroes are not modelled after him, yet I do think of him when I think of heroism. Maybe not the Purple Heart kind, but the quiet, small-town, doing what needs to be done to help someone else even if you’re bone tired kind of attitude.

I know “big concept” books sell well, and international thrillers, and larger than life characters, but I have to confess, I love small towns (have lived in them most of my life), and I find something special about small town people. So my new series, Broslin Creek, is about small town people, average people with scars and baggage who step up to the plate when there’s a need.

In Deathwatch, Murph Dolan comes home from his second deployment with the U.S. Army Reserves. He’s injured. He’s tired to the bone. All he wants is to rest and get better, get his life back on track. But when he finds a mysterious woman hiding in his house, on the run from an assassin, he decides to help her.
Every time I write a Broslin Creek book, it’s like coming home. I feel like I know the characters. It’s amazing to see reviews on Amazon where readers say the same. Nothing makes me happier.

So are you a small town gal or a city girl? Let me know for a chance to win a free ebook, my last Broslin Creek suspense, Deathtrap.

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LINKS:
Visit Dana on Facebook
Dana Marton’s Website
Amazon Link for Deathwatch
Amazon link for Deathscape
Amazon link for Deathtrap