Guest Blogger: Stephen Tremp

The two settings of my novel BREAKTHROUGH take place in sunny southern California and in frigid Boston during February and March. It’s a tale of two cities. After a long day of chasing bad guys around the world through wormholes, my characters sure could use detour to the Tiki Hut! You know, to relax and chill out. Lay in a hammock. Dig their toes deep into the warm, white sand and drink a few Mai Tais.

Problem is, duty calls and interrupts their dreams. No rest for the weary. And what the heck is a good night’s sleep anyway?

Chase Manhattan, my protagonist of the BREAKTHROUGH Series, was raised in Newport Beach, California and currently resides in nearby Laguna Beach, one city to the south in Orange County. Chase loves the surf and sand.

Excerpt from BREAKTHROUGH:

“Chase drove down Coast Highway with the top down. He was thankful for the blue skies, warm weather, and the women walking in shorts that showed off their tanned legs. He shivered as he thought of the unforgiving cold in Boston. He loved the city and its people, but he was no match for the subfreezing temperatures.”

Chase, a twenty-six year old associate professor of physics at the University of California – Irvine, likes to jog on the beach a few times a week. It’s a great way to stay in shape and clear his mind from chasing bad guys and saving the world. However, it’s also a place of great danger, where an awesomely sexy female assassin plants her seeds of seduction and finds an open door into his life, tears his house apart, and tries to kill him. Yeah, Chase could definitely use a Mai Tai at the Tiki Hut after that deadly encounter.

Not only Chase has an affinity with the sea-green ocean and soft salty sea breezes. My supporting characters would also love to visit the Tiki Hut. Fred Merrill and Nancy Hudgins, two of Chase’s close friends who are helping him, certainly feel so. They were to take an island-hopping vacation, only to have to put it off in order to help Chase save the world.

Nancy chewed on her lower lip. “Hmm.” She shook her head. “I can’t believe we signed on for this.”

“It’s for the greater good,” he said, reaching out and cupping her hands.

“You were officially retired from the business. We were supposed to take a long vacation, island hopping around the South Pacific and drinking Mai Tais.”

“That was until I met Chase.”

At least Fred and Nancy retain their sense of humor through the adventure. Their trademark calling card after a major victory is to email Nicky and his friends a picture of themselves holding Mai Tai’s, waving and smiling wide, standing in front of a life guard tower on Laguna Beach. I think Chase owes Fred and Nancy a one-month stay at the Tiki Hut! What do you think?

My antagonists, Nicholas Fischer, Jr. and his psychotic cohorts, live in Cambridge, Massachusetts and it’s colder than $#@#&#^%% in greater Boston when the story takes place. I’m confident Nicky and his friends would appreciate a stop at the Tiki Hut. But he’d better come incognito and have a wormhole ready for his escape. Otherwise, Chase and Fred might spot him and beat the hell out of him.

Stephen Tremp is the author of the BREAKTHROUGH Series. Check out a synopsis of his next book Opening, coming January 2012!