Monday Mentions Welcomes Alana Lorens

Chatting today with author Alana Lorens about pets, music, characters, and Encounter. 

Welcome to the blog today, Alana! Let's get right to the questions because I know lots of people are looking forward to getting to know you. 

Do you have any pets? 

I’ve been a foster mom for a local animal rescue for several years, and as a result I have several kitties from that, as well as the other four rescued felines, including our latest, a 20-year-old lady whose hooman momma went into a home. Kitty Lou is so sweet and peers through her cataracts like any old woman. 

Do you have a favorite movie? 

Ever since AVATAR came out, I’ve loved to just immerse in that universe, its richness of color and flora and fauna. The music is also wonderful, and I’ve written several novels to it. The story itself may be an old rug, but Cameron’s vision is a wonderful dream-like masterpiece. Now if he’d only get the other ones out!!

Are there any book characters who have stayed with you long after you've finished reading the book? 

Not so much reading, but in writing Encounter, I’d have to say Jake Patrin, the Sherman Ranch caretaker, has been one of my favorite characters to write ever. His addiction was brought on after a bad accident and the usual opioid need, moving on through alcohol once the pills were hard to get. He’s working very hard to remain sober, even living so far from society. When the lawyers having the retreat bring every kind of alcohol imaginable, and the danger and stress ratchet up, he needs to hang on by his fingernails.

Speaking of Encounter, let's give readers a peek with its blurb: 

Teo Haroun and the other lawyers in his firm look forward in varying degrees to the retreat at the Sherman Ranch in northern New Mexico. The boss has laid down some rules-no phones, no computers, no communication with the outside world-that makes them uneasy. But the corporate team-building exercises are necessary for this firm to survive its inner sniping and turmoil-and to protect the secrets they hold.

Inez Suela and thirty other Mexicans have paid a coyote hundreds of pesos to take them across the border into the United States, where they hope to make a better life. The crowded truck heads north into New Mexico to meet their local driver, the occupants unaware that a freak March snowstorm is waiting in its path.

Jake Patrin, the caretaker of the Ranch, fights demons of his own as he struggles daily with addiction. Working far from the city on the lonely Ranch, hosting those who rent the facility, is his protection and solace. But he's about to lose the only peace he's been able to grasp.

Davi Pilar needs to make some fast money to appease a couple of St. Louis loan sharks, so he agrees to pick up a truckload of illegals and take them to St. Louis. He drives to New Mexico, not knowing that Inez, the woman who rejected him years before, is one of those on that truck.

The intersection of these people, the collision of their cultures, the revelation of their secrets-all these things lead to violence, death, and even redemption in their New Mexico ENCOUNTER. 

Thank you so much for visiting today, Alana. Loved having you on Monday Mentions! 

Readers, you can pick up your copy of Encounter wherever great books are sold, including Amazon and Barnes and Noble!