Dead To Rights Book Tour

• Genre: Paranormal romance
  Format: ebook (846 KB)
  Print Length: 168 pages
  Publisher: Decadent Publishing Company, LLC (March 13, 2012)
Blurb: Identity theft sucks. But it’s worse when someone steals your life—body included. All memory of her life before waking up in a mental facility has vanished. Or was erased. Now she has to figure out how to get it all back…. 

Her only hope of learning the truth lies with one man. Problem is, he’s the leader of a cult.

Her only choice is to follow him into his sordid world, where a darker evil lurks.

With a little help from an archangel hell bent on revenge, she may have a chance to learn the truth. But will it force her to make the hardest decision of her life…or death? 


An interview with Cate Masters
What a great cover for Dead to Rights. Can you tell us a little about this book?
Thank you! I love that cover, too. And thanks so much for having me at Reader Girls today.

Dead to Rights came about after I read a few disturbing news articles, one about the inner workkings of an underground militia and the other about a fanatic church, seemingly unrelated except to a writer’s convoluted brain. After interweaving the paranormal aspect of the Eternal Transit Station of the Soul, and a woman whose untimely death resulted from a disgruntled worker at the Transit Station, Dead to Rights was born. Well, not quite so simply. It took probably a year to write and go through critiques and revisions. *grins* It took a little longer to get the heroine’s snarky voice out of my head! Although it contains some romantic tension between the H/H, it’s not a romance. The heat level was bumped up because of a few violent scenes, and some language.

Fantasy, paranormal, historical, you have written quite a collection of books. How do you do it? What else can we expect to see from you in 2012?
I’ve always been an eclectic reader, everything from literary and mainstream to fantasy/paranormal and scifi, nonfiction to speculative fiction. But I also loved newspapers and magazines, and the writings of the New York Times Sunday Magazine journalists always struck me as lyrical, and I’d often find a compelling read in those pages that kept me glued to it even as a girl. For me, it’s less about genre than about telling a great story. Some of the best stories transcend genre, I think. I often mash them up a bit.

2012 is shaping up to be a busy year. In March, Decadent Publishing released Dead to Rights, which is a dark paranormal novel, and two 1NS short stories, Tonight You Belong to Me, a contemporary, and A Hard Day’s Knight, an Arthurian-themed contemporary fantasy, both in February. At this writing, I’m waiting for a release date from Decadent for Death Is A Bitch, another dark paranormal novella with humorous/erotic elements. Book Strand will release a Western historical with a Shakespearean twist, A Midwest Summer Night’s Dream, in mid April. I self-pubbed a dark paranormal, Dancing With the Devil, as book 2 in The Goddess Connection series. Two literary short stories will be published as part of a fundraising anthology this year. I’m awaiting word on two other subs, a ghost story set in nearby Gettysburg, and a collection of literary shorts and poetry.

What makes a hero/heroine appealing to you? Are there some attributes your heroes have to have?
I only have two rules about crafting heroes and heroines. First, they can never be based on people I know personally (although I occasionally do name them after people I know). Second, they should be relatable to readers, like reading about friends they haven’t met yet. This means they’ll have either quirky character traits, or more likely, flaws that make them interesting. As a reader, I will put down a book if the characters are one-dimensional stereotypes, too good to be true, or too stupid to live.

Who are some of your favorite authors?
It’s difficult for me to ever pick favorites because I love so many authors. As a teen, I loved Ray Bradbury, Edgar Allen Poe, H.P. Lovecraft and J.R.R. Tolkien. Later I fell in love with the magical realism of Alice Hoffman, and the literary stories of Michael Chabon, T.C. Boyle and others. More recently I’ve been trying to catch up with some of the excellent authors I’ve become acquainted with through online publishing. Way too many to list! My bookshelves, and now my Kindle, are jammed full.

Do you have any favorite scenes from the story? Which ones truly got to you?
This was one of those “gift” stories that pretty much fell out of my head and I wrote to keep up with the unfolding narrative. When you read about a heroine’s journey to “find” herself, it’s usually not literal – but in this case, it is. Her decision to join a cult because it was the only clue to follow, even though she despised the group, made me proud of her. And there are several scenes in which she shows her true mettle by enduring terrible suffering, which also made me so proud of her. She’s definitely one of the strongest female characters I’ve ever written.


If a movie version was being made, who do you imagine playing your main characters?
Oh, I have a full cast already assembled! I do a blog series called Casting Call, in which I reveal who I imagined in each role. You can see it here.

Because of the somewhat complicated plot, Dead to Rights is difficult to explain without giving too much away, but I will say that Sam Worthington is Michael, and Roselyn Sanchez is Alana Martinez.

Thanks again for having me at Reader Girls! It’s been a pleasure.

Dead to Rights is available from Decadent Publishing.

An excerpt from Dead to Rights:

“Get off me,” I hissed, but somehow felt safe when he instead lifted his elbows on either side, shielding me.

A dangerous illusion. He was one of them, a weird ninja warrior. This smacked of a setup.

He murmured, “I told you, play along. No one will bother us if they think we’re making out.”

Oh, that’s a new one. But it held a ring of truth, though I worried he’d relay everything I said in person. “What the hell’s going on?”

He scanned the compound. “You’re lucky they didn’t shoot you.”

Funny, at close range, he couldn’t seem to look me in the eye. “No one ever said we couldn’t go for a freaking walk.”

“Not at night,” he said, “and never into the woods.”

Sounded like a bad Halloween flick. “Oh, seriously.” I shifted between his raised arms.

His eyes flashed bright in the darkness. “Fine. You want to know why not? Because all along the outer perimeter, camouflaged guards hide. Armed with automatic machine guns. That is, if you make it past the traps.”

So it had been the click of a gun. What the hell kind of traps? Too many questions raced through my head, so I simply asked, “Why?”

Sounding bemused, he said, “The reverend doesn’t like unannounced visitors.”

Except for horny females. “Or followers who stray, I guess.”

He went on. “In this area, no one questions gunfire, whether single shots or rapid fire, day or dead of night. No other member would question someone’s disappearance.”

Cold crawled across my skin. “So we’re prisoners.”

This seemed to cheer him. “Only technically.”

A laugh burst out. “Oh, I love your positive spin on the situation. But I take issue with its accuracy.” I studied him in the dim light. “If we’re not allowed in the woods, what were you doing out there?”

His voice deadpan, he said, “Saving you.”

Oh, that couldn’t have been the only reason. “You risked your life to follow me? Why?”

He grinned. “No one should be shot for ignorance.”
About the author: Cate Masters loves romance with a dash of magic and mayhem! Multi-published in contemporary to historical, sweet to erotic, fantasy/dark fantasy to speculative, she sometimes mashes genres. Reviewers have described her stories as “so compelling, I did not want to put it down,” and “such romantic tales that really touch your soul.”

When not spending time with her family, she can be found in her lair, concocting a magical brew of contemporary, historical, and fantasy/paranormal stories with her cat Chairman Maiow and dog Lily as company. Look for her at http://catemasters.blogspot.com, and in strange nooks and far-flung corners of the web.

Cate loves to hear from readers! If you’re too shy to post here, friend her on Facebook or Goodreads, or email her at: cate.masters@gmail.com

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