Guest Author Maggie Jaimeson

I am THRILLED to have my good friend and critique partner, Maggie Jaimeson, come guest with us today.  Her new book EXPENDABLE just came out and I am so excited!  I've known Maggie for years and had the pleasure of reading several of her works, but his one is her gem.  I highly recommend it to anyone who loves romantic suspense.  She's giving away a signed copy of EXPENDABLE to one poster today, so show her some Killer Fiction love, ladies!  Take it away, Maggie...

Middle Age is the Beginning of Life...Again


by Maggie Jaimeson



As a child, and as a teen, I had lots of lofty dreams. I spent plenty of time imagining myself as a singer, an actress, and even an astronaut. As a child I carried a staff book with me, wrote music in my head as I walked along the street and then tried to notate it before I got home so I could play it on the piano. As a teen I was in theater, performed in plays and musicals. As a young adult I went to college and tried to balance my creative side with music and my "realistic" side with a degree in psychology. I continued that balance into my late twenties and early thirties with a lot of creative writing balanced by work in psychology as a family counselor. For five years I attempted to balance the passions of my youth with the practicality of having an adult career. I regularly published short stories in SF and Romance. I performed in summer stock theater when I could squeeze it in between counseling clients. When I decided to leave counseling, I even enjoyed being cast in a couple B movie parts which paid my bills for several months.


Then one day (at about age 34 years old) I woke and said: "It's time to put away childish dreams and become a 100% adult." AAACCCCCCCCKKKKKKKK!!!


For the next twenty years, I did a reasonable facsimile of acting like a 100% adult. I got a series of good jobs, worked my way up the corporate ladder, became a manager, took on corporate leadership roles, made a good salary. I obeyed all the rules, did all the practical things. When I decided the corporate world was to black and white, I decided to enter Academia. in my late forties, I returned to college to get a doctorate degree and joined the professoriat and then college management and again worked my way up the ladder. It's a great career and I've developed a passion for good education.

For the most part life was fine and dandy--a couple health scares, a divorce, a new marriage--nothing I couldn't handle. I did everything right. Everyone was proud of me and my accomplishments. I was proud of me. I was passionate about my work in education. I was happy on a daily basis. I had no complaints, except ... something was missing.

I know, I know. I wasn't supposed to want more. I had everything most people dream of--a career, a great family, financial stability. It's just downright selfish to want more. But I did and I couldn't let the feeling go.

The problem was I had invested all my creativity into my profession and my passion for education. But a part of my soul had taken an extended vacation when I "put away childish things." For twenty years I no longer made time to write, to act, to play music. Every moment was filled with work or family. I was satisfied with life, but I still yearned for something that was missing. Honestly, for the longest time I didn't know what it was because I'd very successfully suppressed those "childish" things.

During my fiftieth year I woke and said: "How did I get to be this age and never make time for those dreams that were part of my foundation?" That's when I returned to writing. At the ripe young age of 50 I went back to my roots. Back to creativity without an agenda or an expected end product. Back to my true soul--the soul I knew in my youth. And it has been renewing on a spiritual level I thought I had lost.

I'm still an "adult." I still work a day job, make good money, and help people get an education. But I've also integrated my "youth" into my day-to-day to life. My soul has renewed its vigor by no longer ignoring the other side--the passionate, imagineering, no rules side. The side that creates the world in an image that is interesting and empowering. A world where the good guys struggle but always prevail in the end. My youthful side is not jaded or distrustful. My youthful side is still filled with idealism and the true belief that love will prevail. It's a great journey to make. Now I'm happy for both sides of me--the adult and the young person. I've learned to embrace them into one me.

In my book, EXPENDABLE, Reed Adler has lived a life defined by duty--the duty of a Marine with Special Operations training. After retiring from the military, Reed finds himself in a middle age journey--one frought with bouts of PTSD and wondering what he should do next, what kind of man he is and how that differs from the man he wants to be. Then he meets Jenna Mosier, a woman who has given up hope for family, for love, for anything beyond her business and career. When Jenna learns of her estranged sister's death, she is brought face-to-face with her past and needs to determine how much of that past will shape her future. Yes, there is murder and evil science masquerading as life changing help. But at its foundation, EXPENDABLE is about finding one's way both in childhood and adulthood. It's about determining what is important, what you can give up, and what you can't accept no matter how hard you try. It is a difficult journey, but one that in the end renews life.

What makes your soul sing? What takes you back to the passions of your youth? What do you want to be sure to bring forward as an adult? Make the time to nourish your soul.


EXPENDABLE BY MAGGIE JAIMESON —AVAILABLE NOW IN PRINT AND EBOOK


After a bitter fight, Jenna Mosier's pregnant sister ran away. Now ten years later, Tanya is dead—murdered. A bloody note clutched in her hand pleads for someone to rescue her baby—a child Jenna must find to make up for not saving her sister.


Former Marine Reed Adler thought he left danger behind when he retired from Special Ops command. But faced with a dead body and a terrified ten-year-old boy in his Backyard—and a mesmerizing woman who's tied to both—Reed finds himself pulled into his most complex mission yet.


Ensnared in a dangerous mystery involving biogenetics research and children with no identities, Jenna and Reed must rely on each other for survival. Yet the closer they get to danger, the more intense their feelings for each other become. The cost of saving her nephew may be their hearts...and their lives.