Parallax by Dixie Jackson 💕 Fun Facts, Book Tour & Gift Card Giveaway 💕 (Romantic Suspense)

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Six years later, Trent Wayland still isn’t over his spring fling. Probably because he was convinced when he married Captain Leila O’Neil, their fling would go on a lifetime. Leila is his soul mate and Trent knows it. He might not admit it on a regular basis, but that doesn’t negate the raw emotion she draws out of him each and every time he thinks about her. Forget the fact his heart splits in two all over again when he’s afforded the luxury of hearing her voice. That doesn’t happen often, however. Leila only tosses a handful of words his way when she initiates the weekly video calls he’s allowed with the other love of his life, their daughter Lucy.

Once upon a time, Leila O’Neil wanted to be a Marine when she grew up. She worked hard, she landed a seat at the Academy, and she was the head of her class. Then her dream was destroyed and she traded it in for a new one at the nearest Coterie portal. She wears so many faces and so many hats, at some point she lost track of her soul. That didn’t really bother her until Trent Wayland came along and almost peeled her dressing room curtain back nearly exposing her innermost person. The real person, the real Leila, who once upon a time wanted to be a Marine when she grew up.

Leila misses the real person, and realizes it at the worst possible moment. With her daughter’s life on the line and Trent on the scene of the crime, Leila figures out she’s been using her hurt and anger to fuel all the wrong goals. In a daring move, she puts it all on the line, hoping it’s enough to gain her freedom from her handlers and her husband’s forgiveness.

A huge thank you to Romance Novel Giveaways for hosting me today. I’m exited to be here and be able to interact with your audience!

I was asked just the other day by another interviewer if there was any interesting trivia I wanted to share about Parallax. I kept the one question answer a bit on the short side, but I’m excited today to be able to expound upon this topic.

One of the foreign operators in the story is known in certain circles only by his operator identification number. It’s 2905. I’ve often used numbers of significance in my life in my books. Once I used our base housing address as the place of residence for a character. I’ve used birthdays of various relatives for phone numbers and anniversaries for some of my characters. In this case, the number 2905 is actually the last four digits of the last phone number I had before my husband retired from the Marine Corps.

While much of the story is set in foreign locations, it begins and ends on the east coast of North Carolina. I’m very familiar with that area as it’s where we lived for much of my husband’s military career, in fact, over half his years in service were spent either at Camp Lejeune or Cherry Point. One of the river’s I refer to in the S3 series, starting in book one, Parallax, is actually based on the Neuse River. I also set some of the scenes in and around Wilmington, North Carolina which isn’t far from Camp Lejeune.

Leila, the female lead in Parallax, is a collage of many of the female marines I met during our time as a military family. She embodies their strength and tenacity. During the height of the Middle East campaigns there were females who would go out with patrols who were specially chosen to speak to females in the villages who might have information. I based Leila’s character partly on this notion of the toughness of these gals in their respective field.

I chose Morocco as one of the locations for my characters to pass through because I simply love the movie Casablanca. It’s one of our favorite date night movies and the most romantic place I could think of them to take some much needed down time, although it doesn’t last long.

Leila’s grandparents are from my husband’s hometown and they live in a Colonial home on the Nanticoke River in Delaware. This is an area I know well so it was easy for me to portray her love of it well.

And last, but not least, Leila loves SpaghettiOs. They hold special childhood memories for her. I loved those things growing up, as well. Comfort food in a can was what I considered them. My kid loved them, too, so I must have passed on the SpaghettiOs gene. It seemed fitting to work them in the story somehow.

Again, thanks so much for having me here today!

Dixie Jackson

“Does your mother know?” Trent asked. “Does she at least know you’re alive?”

“No. No one in the real world does. Well, except you.” Leila waved one hand toward him then jerked it back and tucked her hair behind her ear. “Now you do.”

For a few bloated moments, Trent just stared at her with a look in his eyes which told Leila he was trying hard to wrap his head around what she’d just revealed, but was having a hard time making two ends meet.

“You need to pack.” Standing, Trent stuffed his hands in his pockets and shrugged. “We’re moving out of here within the hour.”

With his eyes to the floor, he shuffled away, left the room, and didn’t look back.

Leila pulled her hands down her face, growled, and flopped back onto the bed. Insufferable daddy issues. Why hadn’t she just sought the counsel of a good therapist instead of trying to be super daughter? But no. Absolutely not. She couldn’t let life be that easy. Leila had to take the hardest route she could map out. Except now she was lost along the road in a blinding snow storm with no GPS. Honestly, at this point, she didn’t even have a Cracker Jack box compass.

Easing back up, Leila palmed the top of her head and sighed. Pack? A half-chuckle popped out of her. When was the last time she’d been on assignment without Lucy and a situation presented itself requiring her to bug out?

She didn’t want to do this anymore.

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Born and raised in the heart of the Ozarks, Dixie Jackson learned a love of the written word at a young age. She remembers spinning tales before she could even write them down, but it was the encouragement of her sixth-grade creative writing teacher which would plant the idea that just never seemed to go away. She wanted to someday see her works in print.

Dixie makes her home in the Great Smoky Mountains with her retired Marine husband, two rescue dogs, and her beloved chickens. When she’s not writing, you can find her digging in the dirt and nurturing her plants while plotting the next step in one story line or another. She also loves experimenting in her kitchen, embroidering, quilting, crocheting, tracing her family’s twisted tree, and of course reading.