Guest Blogger Chris Redding

[Peg Herring]

Today my guest is Chris Redding, author of INCENDIARY. Thanks for giving us a peek at your book, Chris! It sounds hot! (Oh, I'm sorry, I just couldn't resist!)

Chelsea James, captain of her local first aid squad, is trying to keep the organization afloat, but someone is sabotaging her. The squad is her father’s legacy and she feels responsible to keep it going.
     Jake Sweeney, back in town after a decade, is investigating the arsons he was accused of long ago.        When they start again Chelsea and Jake must join forces to defeat their mutual enemy.
Jake would like to rekindle what they had before he left town, but his departure left Chelsea hurt and bewildered. To begin again, she must learn to trust him.
     Her life could depend on it.

Here's an excerpt: The electricity of an impending storm raised the hair on Chelsea James’ arms. She stood, barefoot, on her wide front porch, watching the wind almost blowing the trees back and forth. And through it all, her dead sister’s voice played in her mind. ‘It’s like nature has to violently clean up,’ Morgan used to say when they stood in this very spot. They’d both loved storms then.


The power of nature impressed Chelsea while Morgan concentrated on the aftermath. Odd that Morgan never thought of the aftermath of her own actions.

‘How so?’ Chelsea would ask her older-by-a-few-minutes sister.

Morgan’s eyes would be wide. ‘Because a storm gives the trees a haircut, gets rid of the ones that are weak. And on top of that, the rain helps the ones that do survive,’ Morgan had answered.

Chelsea nodded.

But this storm didn’t bring with it the same renewal. Somewhere deep in Chelsea, she knew this storm was different. This storm could bring destruction.

Or worse, this storm might not bring the wanted rain for those trees that survived.

Chelsea sighed. Right now she missed her sister more than anything.

Then her firehouse pager went off. “Unit 37, you have a fully involved structure fire on Briar Lane.”