{"id":575,"date":"2016-03-09T05:30:00","date_gmt":"2016-03-09T05:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/box5379.temp.domains\/~pjmaclay\/mari-manning-stranger-at-my-door-egg-cerpt-exchange\/"},"modified":"2016-03-09T05:30:00","modified_gmt":"2016-03-09T05:30:00","slug":"mari-manning-stranger-at-my-door-egg-cerpt-exchange","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pjmaclayne.com\/?p=575","title":{"rendered":"Mari Manning & Stranger at My Door\u2014#Egg-cerpt Exchange"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a><\/div>\n

It’s Mari Manning’s turn today for the Egg-Cerpt Exchange. She’s brought along her book, Stranger at My Door. Welcome, Mari!<\/p>\n

First, the interview.<\/p>\n

Dinah Pittman, heroine of Stranger at My Door
Where did you grow up?
I grew up in a small town in Texas. I\u2019ll tell you the name, but it doesn\u2019t matter since no one\u2019s ever heard of it. It\u2019s El Royo. For the first 17 years of my life, I loved it, then a crime destroyed my family, and I couldn\u2019t get away fast enough.
When is your birthday?
I\u2019m 25, so you do the math. I was born on November 1, and my mother, who believed in the stars, painted the night sky at it appeared the day I was born on the ceiling of my bedroom.
What would you do if you won the lottery?
Pay back the money my father stole.<\/p>\n

Rafe Morales, hero of Stranger at My Door
Where did you grow up?
I grew up on Hacienda Osito, which means Little Bear Ranch in Spanish.
Worst fear or nightmare?
I\u2019ve lived through my worst fear \u2013 I watched someone I love die before my eyes. Something broke in me that night. Most people call it my nerve. My mother swears it\u2019s my alma, which means soul. Whatever it is, I hope it mends, but I don\u2019t believe I will ever be whole again.<\/p>\n

About \u201cStranger at My Door\u201d by Mari Manning
The only thing standing between Dinah Pittman and a murderer is a man she\u2019s afraid to trust \u2026
As far as Dinah Pittman is concerned, men can\u2019t be trusted. Especially cops. Her own father was a cop and a convicted felon who stole a small fortune before dying in prison. The best part? No one knows where the money is\u2026and someone is willing to kill off everyone who knows anything about it.
And Dinah is next.
Rafe Morales left the Dallas police force to settle down to a simpler life in the small Texas town of El Royo. Instead, he finds himself protecting an infuriating, tough-as-nails, oh-so-sexy victim\u2014and driving himself crazy with a thoroughly unprofessional desire.
But as the body count rises, Rafe and Dinah must find a way to trust each other\u2026before they both end up dead.<\/p>\n

From the book:
The front door rebounded and clipped Rafe\u2019s shoulder. He kicked it closed with his boot before raking his flashlight beam across the unlit entryway. The hall was clear. His heart thumping against ribs, he burst into the living room. His light hit the figure of a woman, and his feet froze. He tilted the beam up and framed Dinah Pittman\u2019s expressionless face.
Most girls would have screamed or hid when he kicked in the door. Not this one. She had balls, he\u2019d give her that.
<\/a>Her forearm lifted to shield her eyes from the light. \u201cWho are you? What do you want?\u201d She sounded tired. \u201cI already told Teke, I don\u2019t know where the money is.\u201d
Rafe lowered the flashlight and rolled his shoulder to loosen a tight muscle. There were about two dozen abandoned bungalows in this part of town. When he saw a candle flickering in the window, he\u2019d expected a confrontation with teenagers or maybe a squatter.
He stepped into the candlelight. \u201cOfficer Morales, ma\u2019am. Got something against electricity?\u201d As soon as the words were out, he regretted them. The pink flyers. She\u2019d needed money to turn on the lights.
Her mouth tightened. \u201cGet out.\u201d Turning to a small table by the window, she gathered up scattered cards, probably her tarot cards. Had she found customers already?
He studied her as he summoned up an appropriate apology. She wore cut-offs and a white T-shirt. His eyes swept down her slim legs to her bare feet and red toenails before he could stop himself. Why were pain-in-the-ass women always hot?
\u201cI didn\u2019t mean to upset you\u2014\u201d
\u201cDon\u2019t flatter yourself.\u201d
\u201cThat\u2019s tough to do with you around.\u201d
Her hand stilled for a moment, then returned to its task. \u201cYou could have knocked.\u201d
\u201cSometimes we get squatters in these abandoned houses. They\u2019re more likely to be discouraged by a show of force.\u201d
\u201cI could have been a mass murderer. Aren\u2019t you supposed to call for backup?\u201d She glanced down at his flashlight. \u201cIf I was a bad guy with a gun, you\u2019d be dead, Officer Morales.\u201d
\u201cRafe.\u201d
She\u2019d read him right. He\u2019d tried to pull out his service revolver when he broke down the door, but\u2014predictably\u2014his hand had turned to Jell-O. After two years, he still couldn\u2019t get past the night in Dallas when his beautiful, daring Sam\u2019s luck ran out, and he\u2019d avenged her but failed to live up to his own lofty ideals. So he relied on the element of surprise and big fists.
Gathering up the cards, she set them in a neat stack. \u201cAs you can see, I am not a squatter.\u201d Her gaze flickered to his flashlight, then back up to his face. \u201cThere\u2019s an empty house about two blocks down if you\u2019re determined to rescue one.\u201d
The corner of his mouth inched up. She\u2019d be a handful\u2026for the right man, which sure as hell wasn\u2019t him. Not anymore. \u201cThanks for the tip.\u201d<\/p>\n

About Mari Manning
<\/a>Let\u2019s start with the fun stuff. I love small towns, mysteries, quiet men, laughter, old-fashioned spaghetti dinners. I love boots and shopping and jokes and Hershey\u2019s dark chocolate and white wine. I love lots of things. But my first love is reading.
I love to read. Just about anything, but it has to be well-written. I go through periods where I am into historical novels or romance or mystery or history or biography. I never know when my desires will suddenly change.
Now for the writer-ish, official stuff: Mari Manning is the author of several contemporary romances and three romantic suspense novels set in the Texas Hill Country. Stranger at My Door is the first in her A Murder in Teas series. The second, Stranger in My House will be published by Entangled later this year. The third book in the series is Stranger in My Bed. Currently Mari is working on a series of cozy mysteries.
She and her husband live in Chicago.
Buy links to all the major electronic sites are here: http:\/\/www.entangledpublishing.com\/stranger-at-my-door\/<\/a>
Contact Mari at manningillinois@gmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Visit my website at www.marimanning.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Follow me @mari_manning on Twitter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s Mari Manning’s turn today for the Egg-Cerpt Exchange. She’s brought along her book, Stranger at My Door. Welcome, Mari! First, the interview. Dinah Pittman, heroine of Stranger at My DoorWhere did you grow up?I grew up in a small town in Texas. I\u2019ll tell you the name, but it… Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paJdTo-9h","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pjmaclayne.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pjmaclayne.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pjmaclayne.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pjmaclayne.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pjmaclayne.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pjmaclayne.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pjmaclayne.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pjmaclayne.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pjmaclayne.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}