Guest Post (and a Giveaway!): Natalie Walters & Lights Out

Natalie Walters has quickly become one of my favorite romantic suspense authors, so I’m super excited about her new book, Lights Out, which released yesterday! And I’m delighted to have Natalie on the blog today to talk about her real-life experiences that shaped her new book.

LIGHTS OUT
SERIES: The SNAP Agency #1
GENRE: Inspirational Romantic Suspense
PUBLISHER: Revell
RELEASE DATE: November 2, 2021
PAGES: 316

CIA analyst Brynn Taylor developed a new program to combat terrorism, and she invited members of foreign intelligence agencies to America to foster cooperation between countries. Now one of them, Egyptian spy Remon Riad, is missing.

Jack Hudson has been working for the Strategic Neutralization and Protection Agency (SNAP) for almost nine years and takes the lead in hunting down the missing spy. But he isn’t at all pleased to find out Brynn is involved. It’s hard to trust a woman who’s already betrayed you.

Every lead they follow draws them dangerously deeper into an international plot. Kidnapping, murder, explosions, poisoning–the terrorists will do anything to accomplish their goal of causing a digital blackout that will blind a strategic US military communications center and throw the world into chaos.

Can Brynn surrender control to a man who doesn’t trust her? And can Jack ever get over what she did to him? The fate of the world–and their hearts–hangs in the balance.

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Egyptian Adventure through Lights Out

by Natalie Walters, author of Lights Out

More than ten years ago my family and I experienced history firsthand. Assigned to live in Egypt, we arrived a few weeks before the Arab Spring that took the current Egyptian President out of office, and caused the evacuation of my family and ex-pats from other countries to leave our homes. We returned five months later and I used that experience to begin penning my first manuscript—a thrilling suspense story…that will never see the light of day! While that story will remain carefully tucked away in a file somewhere on a zip drive, the time I poured into those 90k words wasn’t for nothing. It wasn’t until I began working on my newest story, Lights Out, that I was able to take inspired characters and a setting I was personally familiar with and bring them back to life.

Egypt doesn’t play a starring role in my book, but it does play an important one. So, I thought it’d be fun to share some photos of the country, culture, and people who forever implanted themselves in my heart.

Most everyone thinks about the pyramids when they think of Egypt and I’ll admit they are just awe-inducing in real life than you can imagine. Among the ancient tombs with their hieroglyphics you almost don’t hear the cacophony of noise happening on the busy Egyptian streets a few minutes away. One of the things I was unprepared for was the Egyptian traffic. There are no lights, no true traffic rules (at least none that drivers followed), and as our driver told us the night we arrived in country, we honk to say hello. Our family learned they say ‘hello’ a lot. Like a lot, a lot. I loved being able to add some of these cultural nuances to my new book, Lights Out, to bring a level of authenticity to the story.

One of the plot points revolves around the recently elected Egyptian president and how the country is responding to his relationship with the United States. The Arab Spring introduced me to foreign politics and how the election process works for Egypt—it was fascinating.

I used our family’s experience during that time, which brought lots of uncertainty, to heighten the global tension throughout the pages. I played with a lot of conspiracy theories to pinpoint just the right motivation for my antagonist but also to bring those twists and turns I love in a good thriller. It wasn’t hard to do when the tear gas filled our home, gunshots peppered the air, and tanks rolled along our street in an attempt to control the unrest. Once the dust settled and our family returned to Egypt, we were embraced by the community that quickly became our family. The setting is as diverse as the culture with vast wadis (desert) to the cerulean blue waters of the Red Sea, Egypt never stopped surprising us. Traveling was always an adventure and in the opening scene of Lights Out you’ll discover a few of the questions I had pop into the mind of one of the characters as he travels into unfamiliar territory. Whether it was a street vendor selling candy or the serene sunset casting its orange glow across the Nile, Egypt offered me a wealth of gold (and I don’t mean the kind in King Tut’s tomb) to use that I hope brings Lights Out to life for the reader.

Natalie Walters is the author of Lights Out, as well as the Harbored Secrets series. A military wife, she currently resides in Texas with her soldier husband and is the proud mom of three. She loves traveling, spending time with her family, and connecting with readers on Instagram and Facebook. Learn more at www.nataliewalterswriter.com.

Revell is offering a print copy of Lights Out by Natalie Walters to THREE of my readers! (US only. Void where prohibited by law or logistics.) This giveaway is subject to Reading Is My SuperPower’s giveaway policies which can be found here. Enter via the Rafflecopter form below.

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What about you? What makes you want to read Lights Out by Natalie Walters? Have you ever been to Egypt?