Guest: Patricia Mason is giving away FREE books!

Patricia Mason is the award-winning author of steamy romantic suspense and thriller fiction. She also writes young adult paranormal romance and urban fantasy under the pen name P.R. Mason. Pat escaped from the Midwest winters of her youth by moving, in 2001, to the strange and wonderful city of Savannah, Georgia. She now lives there, happily spending her days as the subject of her cat overlord's mind control experimentation. You can learn more about Pat and her work at her websites www.patriciamason.net and www.prmason.net. You can also find her on twitter @prmason

Q: Please tell us about your latest release, In Deep Shitake. 

Overview Take one devastatingly handsome movie star. Add in one outrageously sexy female private eye with a penchant for food-word obscenities. Mix in a dose of mistaken identity and a handful of Russian mobsters. And they're all In Deep Shitake.

Q: Do you have a review you could share with us?

A: "Once you pick up this great story, you won’t be able to put it down." - Lois Lavrisa, Amazon Kindle Top 100 Author

Q: This sounds fantastic! I also noticed this book has 15 five star reviews at Amazon! Wow congratulations! What inspired this story?

A: Ha ha. I laugh now, but the inspiration came from a particularly embarrassing incident. A few years ago, I was traveling a long distance by car with my two dogs and was trapped in a sudden white out. My car spun 360 degrees on the highway and came to rest off the road in the midst of a snow bank. I was towed out and got back on the road, but by the time I got home a few hours later, the doors of the car were frozen and I couldn't get them open. I was able to roll my window down to about the half-way point. From there, I climbed out, squeezing through the narrow opening. Since I was dressed for comfort in a skirt with slouchy socks and clogs, by the time I got halfway out the window, the socks and shoes had come off and my skirt was about up to my waist. My skirt snagged on something and I was stuck for a few minutes trying to work it free. All the while, I was praying that my neighbors didn't have a video camera or, if they did that it was broken, or....you get the idea. I used this incident, in a fictionalized way, in my new romantic suspense, IN DEEP SHITAKE. My heroine is trying to break INTO the car instead of out when she becomes stuck in a humiliating position.

Q: Oh no! LOL I would hate to be caught in that situation. How did your story’s setting impact your plot or characters?

A: My story is set in Savannah, Georgia, which is a weird and wonderful city. It's my home and I love it here. Savannah is so rich in texture and character that the setting is almost a character all on its own.

Q: I love Savannah! Why did you choose your setting and why was it perfect for your book?

A: The hero of the story is an actor who is extremely famous for one role he played about ten years before the story opens. Savannah is a city where many films and television shows are filmed. So Savannah was a perfect setting for the story not only because of it's great quirkiness but also because it's a plausible place for my hero to be making a comeback film. Savannah also comes into play in that hosts an annual St. Patrick's Day celebration that is one of the biggest in the U.S. The parade becomes a big part of the final part of the story.

Q: Did you choose the title of your book and if so how did you do it?

A:  I did choose the title. It comes from the fact that the main character, Imogene "Mo" uses food words as substitutes for obscenities. Hence the use of shitake mushroom. I though long and hard about the spelling and decided since one i in shitake is an acceptable variant, I would go with it because it is after all supposed to be her substitute for the more crass word.

Q: Please tell us about your favorite character in the book.

A: I love all the characters but my favorite has to be the cat since he is modeled on one of my babies. The cat's cameo was really fun to write and I love what the cover designer did in integrating the cat into the cover art. That cover cat looks so much like my kitty I can't help but smile when I see it.

Q: Please tell us about your other books.

A:  Imogene "Mo", the sexy In Deep Shitake private eye has a short story in the thriller anthology: Bullets, Brass and Babes. The story is called It Keeps Getting Shitakier and follows Mo's efforts to catch a suspected insurance fraud. 

In Deep Shitake and Bullets Brass and Babes are FREE (along with dozens of other ebooks) May 7-9th as part of the Spring Fling Free Par-Tay. Romances (sweet to hot), thrillers, mysteries and more by award-winning and best-selling authors are all free at amazon.com. Readers can go to http://www.freepartay.com for more details on all the books included in the par-tay.

Q: Wow! Readers are definitely going to partay and celebrate such a wonderful giveaway! :) What’s next for you?

A: I am writing a book called Cemetery Tree, which I hope to release in July. Cemetery Tree is a paranormal with more of a horror bent, but it also has romance.

Thank you so much for having my on your blog and for giving me the opportunity to connect with your readers.

Thanks so much Patricia, for being our guest today! And thanks also for the wonderful free books!

Everyone, please go grab those free books at Amazon (links above)!! Also please remember to visit Free Partay May 7 - 9th to find even more FREE books!!