Spotlight on Mickey J Corrigan & X-Treme!

This week's Spotlight on Author is on Mickey J Corrigan and her latest release, X-Treme Measures!

Originally from Boston, Mickey J. Corrigan lives and writes and gets into trouble in South Florida, where the men run guns and the women run after them. The tropics provide a lush, steamy setting for hot Florida pulp. Books include the edgy novellas in The Hard Stuff series from the Wild Rose Press (Whiskey Sour Noir, Vodka Warrior, Tequila Dirty, and RealLife Rum); the spoofy Geekus Interruptus and F*ck Normal from Australia's Bottom Drawer Publications; and the thriller Sugar Babies from Champagne Books. Her urban crime novel, Songs of the Maniacs, was released by Salt Publications in the UK.

Visit at:

www.mickeyjcorrigan.com

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5828647.Mickey_J_Corrigan

http://mickeyjcorrigan.tumblr.com/

When I came up with the idea for the book, I was in the middle of a divorce epidemic. Maybe it was my age, maybe it's just our era, but it seemed like all my friends were facing divorce. This one had been married for 23 years. That one for 21. And this one for more than 30!

The women were devastated. Weak from crying. They felt betrayed. Rejected. Deeply wounded. And angry. Very very angry.

I was still married, but I understood what fueled my friends' rage. Their husbands had cheated on them. With younger women. The bastards! These men were scum. They deserved to be castrated. Tarred and feathered. Boiled in oil. Buried at sea, their cheesy girlfriends dumped overboard with them.

I could see that.

The thing about my friends was, despite the emotional, financial, and everyday toll their divorces were taking on them, all had managed to hang onto a sense of humor. Over a few glasses of wine or a latte between crying spells, they could still laugh. And when they laughed, they looked beautiful. And full of hope.

That's when I thought of the perfect solution to their anger and loss. What if they could hire a hitwoman to kill their cheating spouse? Would that do it?

Just thinking about it made my friends laugh. Which served as inspiration for me to write a short story on the subject. Which I published with Akashic Books as "When You Need to Outsource Revenge."

My friends read the short fiction and laughed. By this time, some were thinking about dating. Others had yet to move on.

I kept writing the story. The hitwoman, Vanna Treme, had her own issues. She'd married the perfect guy, then he cheated on her. As their marriage went downhill, she lost her sense of self. Despite her own success as a private investigator, she felt rejected. Yet she was still hooked on the man. And unable to let go. Even though she no longer respected her almost-ex. And even though she was kind of in love with her partner, a hunky ex-cop named Ringo.

The novel took time. From first draft to publication, a few years passed. In the meantime, my friends continued to grow and love and laugh. One remarried. Another went through a second divorce. Others fell in love again, and are happier than they've ever been.

So the audience I had in mind may be gone. Still, I think there are women out there who might just want to read a book like Ex-Treme Measures. Sometimes fantasy is the perfect solution to your woes. Especially if it makes you laugh, and fills you with hope.

                X-Treme Measures

Vanna Treme runs a domestic investigations agency in downscale Deport Beach, Florida. She spies on cheating spouses while struggling to recover from her own imploded marriage. Vanna's unique PI firm also offers Ex-Treme Measures, special services designed to get rid of the marital problem.

Forever. Ringo, Vanna's trusted assistant, a hunky ex-cop, is worried. Their clients are lying to them, local competition is moving in, and everyone in South Florida is crazy or untrustworthy—or both.

But Vanna refuses to listen. She heads for the superficial glitter of Palm Beach, where the hits just keep on coming her way. Ex-Treme Measures combines humor, action, and evolutionary biology to investigate some of our culture's most pressing mysteries, including why men act like men, and why the hell women put up with it.

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