Flash e-sale for The Unsung Hero

Hey, Readers!

Here’s another publisher-launched ebook sale, FYI!

This one is for The Unsung Hero, the first book in my long-running Troubleshooters series. (Long-running and yeah, on-going! I’m not dead yet! Read that last bit in your best Monty Python voice!)

The Unsung Hero is on sale in the U.S. for $1.99 for today only, so grab it fast if you want/need it for your ebook archives.

I’ve been told by some readers that it’s a good time to do a re-read of the early books in my TS series, since those books have World War II subplots—which involves lots of kicking of Nazi ass and fighting fascism. (Things that should remain at the top of our minds these dangerous days!)

You can find ebookseller links on my website’s page for The Unsung Hero: https://suzannebrockmann.com/books/troubleshooters/the-unsung-hero/

Yeah, that’s the original, first printing cover, above.

Here’s what the e-book looks like these days:

I miss the OG cover, but hey, maybe that’s just me!

For readers who are going “Unsung Hero, Unsung Hero, which book is that again?”

The Unsung Hero is LT Tom Paoletti’s and Dr. Kelly Ashton’s book. It’s set in the fictional New England town of Baldwin’s Bridge in August of 2000. (Think: pre-9/11.) There’s a WWII subplot set in Nazi-occupied France, and a secondary romance between Tom’s niece Mallory and a graphic novelist named David Sullivan. (More about David in a second.)

Cool trivia: My original title for this book was The Hero of Baldwin’s Bridge, but somewhere down the line, I changed it to The Unsung Hero. I intended for the series to follow that pattern: “The _____ Hero.” The second book did—The Defiant Hero. My working title for the third book (Senior Chief Stan Wolchonok) was The Steadfast Hero, before that got nixed and the book became Over the Edge. So much for patterns. (I really like patterns and the lack of it still makes me wince, but again, maybe that’s just me!)

Oh, and here’s a “look at how far we’ve come here in Romancelandia” story about The Unsung Hero. About secondary point-of-view character David Sullivan, our college-aged graphic novel artist mentioned above.

I created David for his role in The Unsung Hero after I was expressly told something stupidly racist by A Different Publisher for a different romance novel. See, a few months before I outlined TUH, I wrote a book that was titled Love with the Proper Stranger, (my title: Black Widow).

I was told to make a rather large and disturbing change to LWTPS’s hero’s sidekick, who was a young Asian American man named Daniel Tanaka. I was asked, pointblank, to de-Asian him and make him a white man. “Unless you do, you will not be asked to write a sequel.” They said those exact words. Right into my ear on what was an eye-opening phone call. (Category romances were all about creating secondary characters who would then become the hero of the next book, ensuring you’d get a new contract and be able to continue to feed your children. So that threat was not made or taken lightly.)

Reader, I did not make that change.

Daniel was one of my favorite characters, and I loved him very much exactly as he was. (His relationship with the hero, who was also his boss at the FBI, is an early prototype of the Jules/Max relationship in my Troubleshooters series!!)

And yes, sadly, just as the publisher promised, I was not asked to write Daniel’s book.

So when it came time to start my next project (for a different publisher!!), I created David Sullivan. He’s an Asian American man who was adopted. (Can I keep him in this book if his last name is Sullivan? Maybe I can sneak him in if I do that!) David is a bit of an unsung hero himself, and in his subplot (which remains to this day a reader favorite!) he wins the heart of the young woman he loves, and gets to have lots of awesome sex, too!

Turns out Ballantine Books, my wonderful anti-racist publisher for the Troubleshooters books, had no problem with David—or with characters who might be gay—one of the main reasons why I focused more and more on writing books for them. They also didn’t have any problem with my creating a hero, Tom Paoletti, who was losing his hair. A balding hero? He’s a Navy SEAL, enough said. (My editor at Ballantine was awesome!)

One last thing to mention: TUH is the book in which Navy SEAL Sam Starrett and future FBI Agent and current Navy sharpshooter Alyssa Locke first meet, about midway through the story. So yeah, it all starts here.

Again here’s where you can find out more about The Unsung Hero (blurb! excerpt! more trivia! ebookseller links!): https://suzannebrockmann.com/books/troubleshooters/the-unsung-hero/

One last thing before you go! (Well, two, you know me, but one last romance-reading thing!)

Fake Flame, by Adele Buck, a rom-com that I really enjoyed, is finally available for your romance reading pleasure!

I read an ARC, which is always fun, but then I had to wait months and months until I could shout about the book!

Book shouting time is finally here! Here’s my official sound-bite for Fake Flame:

Fake Flame has a firefighter hero and a professor heroine, and both are slightly older—the heroine more so—which is always refreshing to read!

Go over to Adele’s website to find out more (blurb! links to ebooksellers!) about this fun and funny book: https://adelebuck.com/books/fake-flame/

Fake Flame is funny, it’s sweet and sexy, it’s fast-paced, it’s lighthearted—AKA the perfect book to read when the world is a dumpster fire.

Which brings us to the “world is a dumpster fire” part of my email.

I’ve found another great email newsletter to help you feel connected to the very large (and growing!) part of America that is rising up to say “Hell no!” to the hate-encrusted guy who wants to be a dictator on day one, and the party who wants to put him in the White House.

It’s called Chop Wood, Carry Water, and it includes things we all can do daily (quickly, too!) to help preserve our freedom and our democracy, and to fight the very real threat of authoritarianism.

Here’s the link to the Chop Wood, Carry Water archive page: https://chopwoodcarrywaterdailyactions.substack.com/archive

And here’s a link to a recent edition of the newsletter: Chop Wood, Carry Water 4/25 to give you a taste of what you’ll get in your email inbox nearly every day. (It’s inspiring, and includes important tasks like calling your member of congress, which are simple to do. Making those calls and leaving voicemail messages gets easier when you do it daily!) FYI, I’m a free subscriber to Chop Wood, Carry Water.

And I’m also always talking up Simon Rosenberg’s Hopium Chronicles community. I have found Simon to be steadfast in his resolve—and his belief that freedom and democracy can win in November if we do the work. (I am one of tens of thousands who are doing the work! Join us!!) Simon’s emails are inspiring and invigorating, as well as calming—he lives in the real world where facts and truth matter! It’s been great to get his calm determination in my inbox daily, to counter the noise. I’m on the “Do more, worry less!” train!

Here’s a link to his latest newsletter. Again, sign up as a free subscriber.

Okay, that’s all the news from me for now!

Love and hugs—and remember that love always wins!

Don't stop fighting for our freedom, for our democracy, for equality, equity, peace, love, and hope,

Suz