Shooter in the Crosshairs author Rick Portier Joins Me for Cocktails

Good evening, dear readers! 
Thank you for joining me for Happy Hour tonight! This is the first of a new feature I will have on Thursday evenings now and then to introduce you to my friends who write in genres other than romance. I for one adore true crime and suspense, which is why I am moving into the romantic suspense sub-genre myself, so I know I cannot be the only reader who may on occasion set aside a romance for a chilling thriller! 

I am excited to introduce as my first gentleman caller Rick Portier, the author of Shooter in the Crosshairs. This novel had me hooked from page one, and I read it in two days! (Damn that soul-sucking day job...)  Ever since I read it, I've wanted him to come on my blog and give you the inside scoop (I can't believe he says I got him drunk - that makes me sound like such a bed influence!), and he finally agreed! So check out what Rick has to tell you, then be sure to add this one to the top of your TBR list!

~Colette

Colette has been after me to do this forever, and she finally poured enough beer down my throat to convince me.

Ya see, romance ain’t exactly my thing. I’ve got nothing against flowers, sunsets, or a horseback ride under a canopy of live oaks. I’m just more of a passion guy. . . . And not the kind that starts as a slow, aching desire in your naughty parts.

Passion, for me, is something more than desire. Passion defines who we are. It is the reason we get up on cold, rainy mornings when we would rather be in bed with a good book. It is what lifts us up each time we are knocked down. It is the one thing that makes life worth living.

If I asked my wife what she was most passionate about, she would probably say a good merlot. (I think I rank somewhere between yard work and shaving her legs.) For me, it would have to be storytelling. I guess that’s how I ended up as a television news photographer and starving author. (Thankfully my wife is also passionate about eating and holds a real job.)

My passion for stories and the news is what drove me down the path of my first novel, Shooter in the Crosshairs. Well, passion and a burning desire to pull every hair follicle from my scalp. Ya see, passionate characters don’t always behave like writers plan. Brock Nicholls is no different.

Brock is a brash, television news photographer. (Gee, I wonder where I got that idea?) And he screwed up.

When his television career went down in flames on the steps of a Dallas courthouse, it made national news and earned the TV photog a night in lock-up. Now, Brock’s stuck in the place where it all started, Baton Rouge, working for a mental midget like Percy Finch and his “Good News” strategy. An idea that has viewers flocking to the competition. If that weren’t bad enough, Finch has Brock locked into shooting pet parades for Katie Couric wannabes like Nancy Patrick.

Against his better judgment, Brock drags Nancy to the scene of a fire where he is plunged into the world that originally ignited his passion for this business—a world before cookie-cutter anchors and Barbie doll reporters. There he finds something that has been sorely missing in his life—the first real person he’s met in years, Ida Mae Christophe. Miss Ida is sure the man burning the
homes in her neighborhood is connected to former Grand Dragon, Raphe Whitney.

She has reason to fear. Miss Ida and the Klan have crossed paths before. And when she sees the arsonist leaving a house just before it goes up in flames, she fears she’ll be next. Brock is sure that, through her eyes, he can tell the story of a neglected corner of the metro wallowing in poverty, crime, and fear. A story so intense, it will catapult him back to the top. In order to do it, he and Nancy will have to find the arsonist hiding in the circle of lighted torches around the burning cross.

Shooter in the Crosshairs is a lightning-fast tale of a guy who lives for the chase and will do whatever it takes to tell the story—including camping out in a crackhouse hoping to catch a glimpse of the arsonist. Along the way, Brock reveals newsroom secrets and rails against everything that is wrong with the business he loves, a business that’s cost him every relationship he’s ever had.

When he finally comes face-to-face with the man behind the sheet, Brock discovers he has one more demon to exorcise—one from his youth. In order to do that, he’ll have to decide between telling the story of a lifetime and sending a murderer to jail.

For two-and-a-half years, Brock, Nancy, and the rest were my passion—the reason I woke from fitful dreams drenched in sweat, and scratched cryptic messages to myself in the dark. Things like: “Vienna sausage fingers!” “Shakes McPan-N-Zoom.” And, “On cue, my pants began to vibrate.” I’m still not sure what any of it meant, but that’s what passion will do to you.

You may not find a whole lot of romance in Shooter, (unless you consider Brock referring to the news business as a seductive little slut), but you will find a whole lot of passionate people. Just like those who bring you the news every night.

Shooter in the Crosshairs is Now Available in Paperback and eBook from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other locations.

About the Author

After more than twenty years behind the camera, Rick decided to take a crack in front of it . . . or rather, the conditions of the business forced him there. Most of his television stories hang out near the end of the newscast with the 400-pound watermelons and the water skiing squirrels, but that’s just fine by him. It’s the people he meets every day that are important. Rick believes everyone has a story to tell, and it’s his job to help them tell it. He doesn't have the kind of face you might want staring back at you from the TV screen, (that's why he spends so much time behind the camera) but it pays the bills, and no one has called his boss to say he's scaring their children . . . yet.

Fiction is a hobby. Rick figured, “Hey, how hard can it be?  I already make stories out of stuff people tell me. With fiction, I can make them do what I want.”  He quickly learned just how wrong he could be. Characters have a mind of their own, and he found that getting them to bend to his will is even harder than pinning down a politician. Writing is not paying the bills yet, but Rick started writing as a hobby, so that's okay. He and has two books under his belt: The fictional Shooter in the Crosshairs about (what else) a television news photographer, and Broadcast Journalism Pocket Checklist: A Daily Guide for Photographers and One-Man-Bands, which is exactly what it sounds like.

Rick now works, writes, and plays in Baton Rouge Louisiana with his wife who holds a real job that allows him to follow his passion--telling people's stories whether they be real or figments of his fertile imagination.

 Here's how you can get in touch with Rick:

Blog: turdpolishertv.wordpress.com/turd-fiction

Facebook: rick.portier.9

Twitter: @turdpolisher

Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/author/show/5417446.Rick_Portier

Amazon Author's Page: www.amazon.com/Rick-Portier/e/B006QD54FQ/

Contact: rportier@cox.net