Love on the Run by Dean C. Moore ♥ Fun Facts, Book Tour & GIVEAWAY ♥ (Romantic Comedy)

Husband and wife thieves are on a mission. Just not the same one. He’s out to pay for her cancer therapy–at any costs. She’s out to humanize him, and make him less of a self-absorbed jerk.

The fast-talking, fast-acting, adrenaline seeking duo pick up a few on-again off-again sidekicks along their way, despite staunch protests from Zinio. But with all they’re up against–not the least of which being one smart, hound-dog of a lady detective–the question is: Can love conquer all?

“The story is smart and funny.” R. D. Hale, Sky City: The Rise of an Orphan
“For the booklover that doesn’t like having his or her time wasted.” Jack Heath, Remote Control
“This would make a brilliant movie or TV series.” Demelza Carlton, Ocean’s Gift
“Reminded me of The Thomas Crown Affair, down to the whip-cracking humor, the snazzy plot turns, and the character dynamics between the leads and the hotshot female detective on their tales.” Rhys Jones, The Whispering Void
“Only if you want an action packed read with fully developed and interesting characters.” Victor Longshanks, One Big Problem

I remember when I wrote Love on the Run, I thought, if they ever turn this into a movie, they’re going to have to tone it down. No one’s seen whip-cracking humor this fast paced since the Howard Hawks ditty, His Girl Friday. Other screwball film comedies came to mind, not the least of them, Bringing Up Baby. But it was the Dick Powell and Myrna Loy pair ups in The Thin Man movies that most seemed to capture the flavor of Zinio’s and Delaney’s relationship. Once again I had a wave of dread sweep over me. I thought, “Man, there’s a reason comedy dramas are on the wane in films. The precise timing between the two players has to be so spot on, the chemistry so right, that it’s a tall order when you think of the amount of rehearsal time modern day actors get before they have to roll camera. One of the reasons, for instance, why Will and Grace was so successful as a TV series was that the actors lived on the set and breathed the same air for months before the show began. Without that kind of dedication, it’s just too difficult to pull off quality comedy drama these days. Yep, for sure, they’ll have to tone it down. But then I’m not that guy. I’m the guy you bring in for a dialogue polish when the script is just dead on arrival. Luckily for me, translating from the novel to film will be someone else’s job.
What’s more, I felt justified for writing Love on the Run as I did, as one of the ways this husband and wife duo raise life to the level of art is by keeping one another in that altered state of consciousness necessary to the task. They have more than choice one-liners to keep each other in the zone, but it goes to the core of who they are; they will not accept life on life’s terms.
It’s true that in today’s world, few are this verbally sophisticated, this witty, but I’ve met people who are. Sure, we’re not the hyper-verbal culture we once were. These days, smart people come, if anything, pre-literate in English, communicating instead in any number of computer languages. I had one reader say, “Whoa, this would play great on stage where the words are needed to carry the drama so much more, but on film, forgeddaabout it. If anything, film tends to migrate to the other end of the spectrum, with deadpan one liners like, ‘I’ll be back’.” I hope he’s wrong, but he’s probably right.
I have other things I love about Zinio and Delaney, of course. One of them is that even when they’re driving one another out of their skulls or going at each other with the carving knives (metaphorically speaking), there’s no denying the connection between them and the love they have for one another. Still, I wanted to keep the drama light, in the spirit of the aforementioned films; this isn’t Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Can two such colorful—and more to the point—incorrigible people plot and scheme their way into reforming one another? I guess you’ll have to read to see for yourself. Whatever the outcome, I promise you plenty of laughs, tears, and drama along the way. It might be their agenda to convert one another, but it’s the mission in life of the hotshot FBI profiler hounding them to put them forever behind bars. You could say she has some demons of her own to exorcise, and is only too happy to direct her cleverness and wit to the task or exorcising them on Zinio and Delaney.
Other fun, behind the scenes stuff about Love on the Run…
I submitted an early draft of it, back when it was still in screenplay form, before I decided I needed more room for my ensemble cast to blossom, to a screenplay contest. The reviewers loved it, but said, “They couldn’t afford the cost in bullets.” Lol. I kid you not. Granted this particular contest specialized in launching very low budget films (two people pile in a car and drive cross country kind of thing.) And me thinking bullets were cheap!
I had one writer in my critique circle say, “You can’t have them rob a bank on Thanksgiving Day! All the banks are closed.” And I thought, “But then I’d have to get rid of that awesome Thanksgiving Day parade sequence. Not going to happen. So I devised some fun plot workarounds I’ll leave for you to enjoy without the spoilers.
Here’s hoping I don’t make you laugh too hard, or cry too much. Oh, hell, here’s hoping I do.

“Any big ideas, bright guy?” Delaney said, holding the broken rearview mirror in her hand to check out what was going on overhead, to avoid giving those inside the chase helicopter the satisfaction of her looking up.

“Just drive straight into the ocean.”

“Please tell me you’re joking.”

“Why would I be joking at a time like this?”

“Okay, fine, I’m sorry for picking on you so much. I know you’re doing the best you know how. There, I said it. You happy?”

“I’m not depressed, Delaney. I just need you to drive into the ocean.”

“A psychotic break? Is that it? You picked now for a psychotic break? Why not all those times I chewed off your male appendage, metaphorically speaking—not to make myself out as a man-eating black widow?”

“You dragged along the equipment I asked you to, right?”

“Yeah.”

“So, you get it now?”

“Yeah, duh. God, that just makes so much more sense in context.”

***
Kerry looked up from the photos of the couple to the big screen again. Her jaw dropped as she watched Delaney drive the convertible Thunderbird straight into the ocean. They made no attempt to get out of the vehicle; they let the sea swallow them up along with the car.

“Are we finally rid of them?” Carter said.

Kerry started chuckling slowly. The guffawing grew into a geyser of loud laughter, which finally subsided. “No, Carter, not yet.” She glanced back up at the screen. “God, that’s clever.”

I write sci-fi, fantasy, action-adventures and thrillers, or some combination thereof—usually with a strong vein of dark humor. Though, my works are dramas first; the humor is there to take the edge off as with the Raiders of the Lost Ark, Transformers, and Jurassic Park franchises.

I wrote screenplays for a while, and while enjoying them, I found them a bit confining. After a while you just need the extra page count to flesh out characters better and do additional world building, especially when considering doing anything epic in scope. I also took a run at future forecasting and trend tracking, being as I always had my head in the future, things like Alvin Toffler’s Future Shock. I also relished this, and can certainly see myself releasing a few titles accordingly in the nonfiction area. But since delving into novels, short and long, I’ve definitely found my home and my voice. For the first time I feel the restraints have been taken off of my imagination. I suppose all mediums have their limits, so I may end up doing a mix of things, but I suspect I will continue to spend most of my time with novels. Series add an additional dimension, allowing for even more depth and development both in the character and world building departments. But I remain at heart a divergent thinker, so, no surprise, I seem to have more series going than follow up installments at this point. That too may change over time; we’ll see. Until then, it may be best to just think of these books as one-offs if you’re fond of my writing style and some of the themes I work with.

My current catalog of twelve books represents a little over five years' worth of work. I'm currently averaging a couple books annually. Of my existing franchises with multiple installments, The Hundred Year Clone books can be read in any order, while the 5 books of Renaissance 2.0 must be read in sequence as they form part of a singular story arc (much as with A Game of Thrones.)

I live in the country where I breed bluebirds, which are endangered in these parts, as my small contribution to restoring nature's balance. When I'm not writing, or researching my next book, I may also be found socializing with friends, or working in my organic garden.