Authorpreneur Dashboard – Lynn Blackmar
Surfer Girl
Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
College student Arena Schmidt never wanted to be a secret agent. She interferes in a priority mission and steals a coveted technology, but is caught and imprisoned. Threatened with permanent menial employment unless she joins the CIA, she surrenders herself to the life of spy. Assigned to a geeky unit of CIA spies known as "The Misfits", she struggles to recover the technology. Each Misfit offers a unique perspective and unconventional methods, from martial arts master Nate to enigmatic analyst Sterling to bubbly, enthusiastic Lorna. Slowly the Misfits win her over with their charm and their loyalty. Sinister organizations move against the CIA to capture more than just the technology, fragmenting the Misfits and shattering their resolve. Arena finds herself in the middle of gunfights and high-speed chases, on the run from the organization's treacherous double agent out to claim her and the technology for their own.
Book Bubbles from Surfer Girl
Who are the Misfits?
I originally dreamed the Misfits. There are a few characters I added that were not in the dream, the primary one being Nate, but the rest were described exactly as I dreamed them. In my dream, I was in Arena's head, though I often only saw her arms and feet. But when she was introduced to the Misfits, how she sees them is how I saw them while I was dreaming. And I remember the thought "These people don't look like spies." Most media turns people who don't fit in into underdogs who either have to do a complete makeover to become a winner, or they win by accident, bumbling into a solution. That wasn't how I wanted to see my heroes. I wanted them to use who they were to be fantastic at what they did, despite what everybody else saw in them.
The Agent
This excerpt originally came later in the book, but I decided to move it to the front to show what kind of people the Misfits, our group of spies, were confronting. "The Agent" is a secondary, but crucial, character in Surfer Girl, and you meet him in the first ten chapters or so. Later in the book, the incident is recalled to Arena, our title character, and this experience also comes up later in the series for him, as he battles a lot of doubt about being a CIA agent. The Agent also becomes the title character of his own book as the series progresses.
Rebel
Teens
Nate Johnson traveled from superstar darling of the CIA to discredited misfit and back. Offers arrive from every level of the CIA, pulling Nate away from his unit STATUS, known as the Misfits, now his family and his home. Nate wrestles with moving up in the agency, but maybe it's time to leave espionage behind in exchange for a peaceful life. Suspicion grows that the Misfits are behind a massive government scandal. With the help of a beautiful Washington DC analyst, Nate battles personal demons and political corruption in the CIA, uncovering a startling and very powerful enemy in the process.
Book Bubbles from Rebel
The Misfits Return
It's been a year since Arena joined the Misfits and became a spy, however, Rebel switches focus to her trainer and handler, Nate Johnson. Nate's quite proud to have trained Arena, and it shows in this passage, where they are confronting the goons of old rival Adam Rignall. Rignall keeps slipping through their fingers, and they keep chasing him. Someone asked me if there was going to be more guns in Rebel. Yes, there will be, but Nate doesn't really like them. He's known for his martial arts skill, and his attackers know it. It becomes a game in this scene, and not only shows of Nate's abilities, but Arena's as well, now that she's had a year to train under Nate and take paramilitary training at the Farm.
