Welcome to Tyndale Fiction’s Road Trip Scavenger Hunt! We’re so happy you are here. To participate, collect the key words through all 13 stops in order, so you can enter to win our grand prize giveaway!

Some details:

• The adventure begins on Wednesday, August 1. You’ll have two weeks to make your way through all the stops (giveaways will close on Tuesday, August 14).
• While you do not have to start at Stop #1, keep in mind that the grand prize giveaway phrase will begin with the word you collect at that first stop.
• To complete your submission for the grand prize giveaway, be sure to collect the key word within each author’s blog post, submitting the final, completed phrase in the form hosted on this page.
• Also, be sure to enter the giveaways these authors are hosting on their blogs!

Enjoy the journey—we hope you’ll discover new books along the way as you hear from Tyndale Fiction authors about road trips, the settings of their novels, and more!

Happy road tripping!

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Please welcome award-winning author DiAnn Mills to my blog today — I’ve admired both her writing and her heart for mentoring writers for years! DiAnn is a bestselling author whose novels have appeared on the CBA and ECPA bestseller lists; won two Christy Awards; and been finalists for the RITA, Daphne du Maurier, and Carol Award contests. Her latest romantic-suspense novel is about an assassination plot against a Saudi prince on US soil and the FBI Special Agents who head up a task force to keep the prince safe—and find those responsible in order to avoid an international incident that could have devastating consequences.

With DiAnn you can always expect an adventure! Please welcome DiAnn!

 

 

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The Winding Road That Can Lead to High Treason

Living in Houston allows me to create settings where I can walk the same path as my heroes and heroines. High Treason placed me on a roller-coaster ride. The dramatic events before and during the story challenged me to take readers where they’d never been before in a DiAnn Mills novel.

For those ups, downs, twists, and sharp turns to happen, I scooted into my car on the passenger side armed with my iPad and a vivid imagination. While my husband drove, I kept my eyes glued to the happenings in every direction while hoping my fingers hit the right keys to record details. I’d like to take you on the same adventure. Hold tight!

The story opens with FBI Special Agent Kord Davidson accompanying his good friend Saudi Prince Omar bin Talal in a limo from Houston’s Hobby Airport to the royal family’s home in River Oaks. A favorite stop for ice cream near the family home is in order, but when the head guard steps from the limo to ensure the prince’s safety, he is assassinated. Think about the repercussions of a dignitary’s death on American soil. Not good for foreign relations.

The CIA joins forces with the FBI to not only protect but also find who’s behind the killing and suspected assassination attempt on the prince. CIA operative Monica Alden is assigned to work with Kord. Neither one is happy about working together. The reasons are too many to list, but let’s just say Monica is stepping into a man’s world, and Kord feels responsible for the crime since the prince is his friend.

Setting plays a dynamic role in every one of my stories. The ice cream shop where the shooting occurs is located across the street from a real school near River Oaks where construction is taking place. Just like the story. Sensory perception climbed a construction ladder into my imagination. Even the weather partnered with a ferocious thunderstorm, creating an authentic suspenseful environment.

I’ve never been inside a mansion in River Oaks, only driven by and awed at the splendor. So I looked at a real estate site for the area. The perfect home I needed was listed for sale! No, sadly enough, I didn’t attempt to buy it, but the description and photo tours were vivid. There were more pics on Pinterest. The rooms needed for various scenes were depicted in color and purpose. Those images, as well as food, coffee, quotes, and actors who could play the characters, helped me create my own High Treason Pinterest board.

This story was the most difficult of all I’ve written, which also makes it a favorite. I struggled with research, characterization, and plot, which endeared the story to my heart. I know that sounds strange. Viewing the story through Saudi Arabian eyes challenged me. The process took hours of online research about topics like cultural dress, mannerisms, and food, interviewing those who’d worked with Saudi men and women, and discovering how the Saudis view the world and politics. Every drop of perspiration and frustrated tears brought me closer to entertaining readers with a powerful story.

The climax occurs at a favorite yearly entertainment event, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, which lasts three weeks. How grand the book released at the same time. The sights, smells, sounds, tastes, and touches of this mix of yesterday’s and today’s cowboys and cowgirls are unique to Houston and its people.

 

 

 

 

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Here’s the Stop #6 Important Information:

• You can purchase DiAnn’s book, High Treason, here. 
• Clue to write down: to
• Link to Stop #7, the next stop in the scavenger hunt, on DiAnn’s Site!

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Extra Giveaway!

Thanks for being part of our summer road trip. I’m offering visitors a chance to win a hard copy of my “Little Women gone wrong”  novel about the four Thatcher sisters, Things I Never Told You, as well as a canvas hummingbird bag.

Join me over at award-winning author Tessa Afshar’s blog, Stop #5 along the scavenger hunt.