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Smokejumpers, terrorists and sizzle...oh my!

Smokejumpers, firefighters who parachute into remote locations to battle wildfires, have one of the most dangerous jobs you can do. I’ve long been fascinated by these heroes of wilderness firefighting, and writing a book about a smokejumper was inevitable for me. I relished the idea!

But hurtling out of an airplane at 90 miles an hour, parachuting into areas where tall trees and rocks pose deadly landing hazards, and working endless hours felling trees with chain saws to stop raging infernos wasn’t enough danger for my characters…oh no! I had to add the unexpected threat of terrorists, a sniper, and a loss of communication off a mountain top to the mix! Now we’re talking danger!

UNDER FIRE , a romantic suspense releasing today in ebook format from Samhain, is the product of many months of research, a full year of writing, and plenty of personal investment in the characters. Writing this book was a challenge and a blessing. The more I poured into the process, the more I loved the story I was creating.

I’m thrilled to say the early response from reviewers has been overwhelmingly positive. The Romance Studio gave UNDER FIRE five stars and said, “Beth Cornelison has written an excellent tale of suspense…. Many authors can do a great suspense story but not all of them do the kind of job this author does in weaving the terrorists with heroic smokejumpers and the budding love story between Jackson and Lauren.… Beth Cornelison does a great job of keeping each segment of the tale running smoothly in parallel then brings it all together for a powerful ending.”

Here’s the full review:
http://www.theromancestudio.com/reviews/reviews/underfirecornelison.htm

And Joyfully Reviewed gave UNDER FIRE their coveted “Joyfully recommended” status, saying, Under Fire opens up emotionally charged, and the tension and suspense continues through to the last page. Along the journey, secrets are revealed and new conflicts arise. This is a fantastic novel and Beth Cornelison is a fantastic suspense writer. Her characters were so well-written that they all felt like major characters, no matter how small their presence in the book was. None of her characters were one-dimensional.”

But don’t take these reviewers word for it! If you’re looking for nail-biting action and adventure, sizzling romance, and a hot summer read, why not try UNDER FIRE for yourself!?

Oh, and did I mention that today is my husband’s birthday? Yep! All the more reason to celebrate! What better way to celebrate the release of UNDER FIRE and my hubby’s b-day than…gifts! Check out the contest on my website www.bethcornelison.com for a chance to win a copy of one of my backlist books, a $10 gift card to Barnes and Noble and…well, probably some other surprises too! In the meantime, here’s an excerpt to enjoy…

Happy Tuesday and happy reading!!

“Under Fire” by Beth Cornelison
Read An Excerpt Online
Genre: Romantic Suspense

ISBN: 978-1-60504-054-7
Length: Novel
Price: 5.50
Publication Date: June 24, 2008
Cover art by Natalie Winters

A terrorist plot puts their lives—and hearts—on the line.

***********************************

Lauren Michaels careened toward the earth at ninety miles an hour. Freefalling. Spinning. Below her, the landscape twirled and tilted in a disorienting brown and green blur. She had no more than twenty seconds to live if she screwed up now.

Jump thousand.

Adrenaline buzzed through her veins. Acid bit her gut.

Despite the strap squeezing her chest, she dragged in a lungful of thin, smoke-tinged air. Think. Stay focused.

Look thousand.

Waves of heat rolled up to greet her from the conflagration below. Thirty-foot flames reached skyward from the head of the fire like wicked, writhing hands waiting to snatch her from the air. The whip of wind streaming past roared in her ears.

The eighty-five pounds of dead weight strapped to her body pulled her toward the flaming trees. She forced training to the forefront.

Reach thousand.

Lauren grabbed the green ring near her left shoulder with her right hand.

Wait thousand.

Anticipation danced along every synapse.

Pull!

With a firm yank, she drew her arm across her chest and flung it outward. A hard jerk at her shoulders snapped her upright. Lauren squeezed her eyes shut. Prayed.

Looking up, she watched the billow of white and orange splay overhead. Thank God.

The team was fanatical about checking chutes, but the off chance existed…

She craned her head until she spotted Boomer, her jump partner, drifting along to her left. Below them, she located the first stick of jumpers. Riley’s and Birdman’s rectangular canopies drifted smoothly toward earth. As Lauren sailed down, she scanned the ground for the tiny clearing that was her target.

“Over there! Top of that ridge!” Boomer shouted in the loud, deep voice that was the source of his nickname.

Lauren gave him a thumbs up. Jump spot in sight.

God, she loved her job!

Suddenly her view of the burning forest began turning dizzily. Something was wrong.

Lauren tugged on her left toggle to correct her spin. Once stabilized, she cocked her head back to check her chute again.

Dread slammed her stomach. A suspension cord had wrapped around the corner of her canopy and hung up. A tension knot.

“Damn it!” She grabbed the suspension line with both hands and jerked hard, working to free it. No luck. Another tug.

She started spiraling again and had to release the tangled line in order to pull her toggle. But she continued twirling, losing precious seconds.

“Mike! Cut away!” Boomer shouted.

Still whirling like a human fire devil as the earth rushed toward her, Lauren gave up her toggles and yanked again on the hung line. “Come on, you sorry sonofa—!”

“Mike!” She heard an uncharacteristic note of panic in Boomer’s voice.

Lauren knew she had to be close to five hundred feet. The point of no return. Cut away or face death. Below five hundred feet, the reserve chute wouldn’t have time to deploy for a safe landing speed. Not to mention how far she’d, no doubt, drifted off course.

One more hard tug. Nothing.

With the dense and unforgiving treetops getting closer by the second, she had no choice. She jerked the cutaway clutch. Again the tug of a canopy filling jerked her harness, this time from her chest.

“Shit, woman! You ’bout gave me a heart attack!” Boomer yelled.

“Piece of cake!”

Boomer laughed. “You’re a wild woman, Mike!”

She allowed herself a quick cleansing breath then started her checks. Canopy. Airspace. Toggles.

The jump spot was too far to the left now, and the treetops too close to clear. Damn. So much for her perfect record.

As she dropped into the forest, sharp branches jabbed at her and snagged her canopy. A veil of dark green pine boughs obscured her view. She heard the snap and tear as her canopy settled in the branches of a black spruce, suspending her forty feet in the air. She groaned. Boomer was sure to give her hell about this.

Her two-way radio sputtered, and from the plane, their spotter called. “Jump 49, Michaels. You okay?”

She fumbled for her radio and put it to her lips. “I’m in a frigging tree, but I’m okay. I’ll let you know when I’m on the ground.”

“How’s the view from up there, Mike?” Boomer said over the radio.

“Bite me, Boom,” she radioed back.

Even without the radio, she could hear Boomer’s answering hoot of laughter. She grinned and shook her head as she secured her radio and assessed her situation.

Checking her risers, she discovered her plight wasn’t as bad as it could have been. Without wasting any more time, she started working through the letdown procedure. Rope in leg pocket. Feed through D-rings. Tie off to tight riser.

She paused to make sure she had no lines or straps around her neck then released her cutaway clutch and rappelled to the forest floor.

“Jump 49, Michaels,” the spotter called over the radio. The rumble of the Twin Otter aircraft filtered through the transmission.

She dug her radio out again. “Go ahead.”

“We’re low on fuel and need to head back. You down yet?”

“Roger that. I’m on the ground. Go on home.”

“Jump 49, Fire Boss,” the spotter said, addressing Birdman.

“Go ahead,” Birdman’s melodic voice answered.

As she listened to the radio exchange between the jumpship and Birdman, Lauren shed her harness and helmet, leaving them in a heap to collect when she returned for her chute.

“We’ve just dropped your cargo. If everybody’s accounted for, we’re outta here. How on that?”

“Roger that. Fire Boss clear.”

Lauren was working to free herself from her jumpsuit when Birdman called her over the radio. “Whenever you’re through playing monkey in the trees, Mike, we could use you over here.”

Lauren rolled her eyes. “Don’t get your boxers in a knot. I’m coming.”

“I want you helping Boomer start a scratch line up the right flank.”

“Roger that.” After shucking out of her jumpsuit, she clipped her radio to her hip, gathered her personal gear bag and plodded through the brush toward the jump spot.

They only had a small fire to catch, but from what she could see from the air before she started spinning, the head was already heating up and getting ready to run. They’d have to work fast to contain it by nightfall.

When a loud crack splintered the air, Lauren stopped in her tracks. Another pop followed. And another. Her initial thought was that boiling sap had caused a few trees to explode. But the pitch was wrong. The sound too close.

“What the hell?” Boomer shouted from a distance.

After a brief pause, another crack echoed through the woods.

And Boomer screamed. In pain. A hoarse, anguished sound that knotted Lauren’s stomach.

“Boomer! What happened?” Her own voice didn’t carry as well as her partner’s, but visions of all forms of disaster added volume to her cry. Smokejumping was inherently rife with danger. The most lethal threat was the unexpected, untrained-for, fluke happening.

“Lauren, look out!” Boomer called over the radio. “They’re shooting at us!”

Shooting? Who?

“Riley! Oh God, no! Jump 49, mayday! Are you there? Mayday! There’s a sniper out here!” Boomer’s horrified cry wrenched inside Lauren.

She dug in her personal gear, or PG, bag and wrapped her fingers around the .357 Magnum the Bureau of Land Management allowed jumpers to carry in case of bear attack. She’d never imagined one day she’d use the weapon to defend against a human assailant.

Heart thumping, she flicked the safety off and headed toward the jump spot. She stayed in the thickest brush and behind fat tree trunks whenever possible. As she inched forward, hiding from the shooter, she scoped the terrain before moving to the next spot that provided cover.

Jitters scrambled through her. Her fingers trembled around the gun, and she prayed she didn’t have to use it. A ninety-foot wall of fire she could handle. This game of cat and mouse with an unseen sniper spooked the hell out of her.

Finally she spotted a yellow jumpsuit at the edge of the narrow clearing that had been their jump spot. From her distance, she thought it looked like Boomer. Lying on the grass. Unmoving. Her pulse leaped.

She checked for signs of the shooter once more. Seeing no one, she gauged the distance to her fallen friend. Prepared to dash across the clearing…

A hand snaked from behind and clapped over her mouth. She spun, met the hard brown glare of a stranger.

A muffled scream rattled in her throat.

***********************