The Twins

Please say hi to Karla Brandenburg! She’s sharing about her newest release, The Twins!

Karla Brandenburg is the author of contemporary romance, including her award-winning paranormal MIST series. Raised on the gothic romances of Victoria Holt and the horror of Stephen King, she is an avid reader and is a member of the Romance Writers of America. Karla is a card-carrying cookie-holic, enjoys baking and travel.

Five on Friday – The Research Phase: what I learned while writing—and what inspired—THE TWINS.

I wrote this book while I was recovering from hip surgery. What I DIDN’T know was that my surgery was completely different from a broken hip, and therefore the “write what you know” part of the recovery didn’t apply to what my hero had to go through. MORE RESEARCH! Thank heaven for helpful physical therapists and doctors!
While I was recovering, I was given an app to use from the hospital. Imagine my surprise when I got a response to one of the comments I wrote as a note for my doctor! (They’d told me it was not interactive.) Visions of “You’ve Got Mail” danced in my head. I got on the phone with the app developer and learned how they’d developed it and that other applications it was being used for. Very interesting information, or at least I thought so.
After I received the “push notification” from the nurse monitoring my progress with the app—the person behind the curtain in a manner of speaking—I also interviewed her to find out what her job was like. She was very gracious and offered me a lot of information that helped me to shape the job for the character I’d created.
Palo Santo wood is protected where it grows (primarily Central and South America). Because it has been overharvested, growers have to prove that it is produced in a sustainable way. Products and scents can only be harvested from dead trees. Apparently, the scent is stronger after the tree dies. I ordered a talisman while I was writing and now own a cat carved from Palo Santo wood (did I mention I’m a cat lover?).
I wanted to get the New Orleans dialect right. After watching an episode of Criminal Minds that featured “Will,” JJ’s husband, I loved the soft, sing-song way he spoke, but I needed more to add that Cajun flavor. I hunted down You Tube videos of Justin Wilson and picked up some distinct phrases, my ear for dialects and accents tuning in to the speech patterns to apply to my hero.

Karla’s latest book, THE TWINS, is the second in the EPITAPH series.

Although she vowed never to go back, nurse Siobhan McCormick returns home after two family members have died and her brother’s life is threatened. Her new job introduces her to accident victim Jared Pierce, a man whose casual charm tempts her with the same bad decisions she made in high school.

Haunted houses don’t sell, and Jared Pierce’s family sends him from Louisiana to Illinois to make sure there aren’t any ghosts lingering in his great-aunt’s house. An accident on an icy road extends his visit from a few days to a few months.

Though the house is ghost-free when Jared arrives, a violent ice storm breaks apart a tree and releases the spirits of twin boys who were buried in the backyard. Temporarily disabled by his injuries, Jared needs his nurse’s help to give the ghosts peace. There’s only one problem. Siobhan doesn’t believe in ghosts. Will Jared earn her trust and affection or will Siobhan retreat into the safety of her job?