Jeannée Sacken opens our world...plus a book giveaway

We're pleased to welcome Jeannée Sacken to CLC today. Her latest novel, Double Exposure, is a gripping tale of an American woman’s continuing search for redemption in war-torn Afghanistan. Blending romance and suspense and cultural and religious divides, Double Exposure brims with tension. While this is the second book in a series, it can be read on its own. However, you should definitely check out Behind the Lens to learn more about Annie Hawkins Green. Thanks to Get Red PR, we have one copy of Double Exposure to give away!

A former English professor at Rochester Institute of Technology, Jeannée Sacken is now a photojournalist who travels throughout Asia, Africa, and South America, documenting the lives of women and children. She also photographs wildlife and is deeply committed to the conservation of endangered species through enhancement of life for indigenous peoples. She’s done her share of adventure travel as well, summiting Mt. Kilimanjaro, trekking the Andes, kayaking the South Atlantic, and canoeing the Zambezi River. Her journeys always include visits to schools, whether a boarding school in the Gobi Desert, a two-room building in the desert of southern Madagascar, or a stick hut in Tanzania. She believes that with education come peace, health, and empowerment. When not traveling, she lives with her husband and three cats in Shorewood, Wisconsin, where she’s hard at work on the next novel in the award-winning Annie Hawkins Green series.

Visit Jeannée online:

Website * Facebook * Instagram

Synopsis:

2015—Seasoned war photojournalist Annie Hawkins returns home after an assignment to find her life falling apart. She’s under investigation for an incident that happened six months earlier in Afghanistan. Her best friend’s daughter, Seema, is still missing, apparently with her Taliban boyfriend. Her daughter Mel and friends are busy fundraising to rebuild the Wad Qol Secondary School for Girls and expect Annie to deliver the money. To make matters worse, she has a major argument with the love of her life, Finn Cerelli, and they’re no longer speaking.

When Annie returns to Afghanistan to cover peace talks between the government and the Taliban, she takes a side trip to Wad Qol, where she discovers that not everyone wants the new school. Sabotage delays construction, and when a worker ends up dead, it’s clear the militants are to blame. It’s also obvious that they know exactly where Annie is.

“With smart narration, nuanced characters, and thought-provoking situations reminiscent of Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns, Sacken brilliantly explores the story of Annie Hawkins, a photojournalist torn between the needs of her teenage daughter back home and her own deep-seated desire to change the lives of the women in a small Afghan village.”
—Maggie Smith, author of Truth and Other Lie

“Jeannée Sacken has done it again. A well-researched story and intriguing suspense that grips you till the end.”
—Kathryn Gauci, best-selling author of The Secret of the Grand Hôtel du Lac

In one sentence, what was the journey to publishing like for you?
After years of submitting to agents and publishers with limited success, I signed a traditional contract with a small regional press and was able to work with an amazing editor and art designer, ending up with an award-winning series of which Double Exposure is the latest.

What is something interesting you learned while doing research for Double Exposure?
Pure serendipity, I stumbled across landays—short poems composed by women in Afghanistan for their “forbidden beloved.” Often described as “the cry of eternal separation,” these poems are sung or spoken as part of an oral literary tradition because Pashtun women have been forbidden to learn to read or write.  I subsequently incorporated landays into Double Exposure as a plot device.  

What is a favorite compliment you have received on your writing?
That my writing is cinematic.

What is your favorite autumn activity?
If I’m at home in Wisconsin, I love to go apple picking, which includes a hayride, hot cider, freshly made donuts, and leaf peeping. But I’m often away on photoshoots—in Africa, Asia, or South American where I document the lives of women and children. I also photograph wildlife.

What is the last book you read that you would recommend?
I’m on a historical mystery binge right now and particularly like Anna Lee Huber’s “Lady Darby” series. I’d recommend her most recent book, A Wicked Conceit.

Thanks to Jeannée for visiting with us and to Get Red PR for sharing her book with our readers.

How to win: Use Rafflecopter to enter the giveaway. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us. If you have trouble using Rafflecopter on our blog, enter the giveaway here. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Giveaway ends October 18th at midnight EST.

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