Connie Mann

I'm so excited to welcome Connie Mann to Sleuths and Suspects today. When I first asked Connie for an interview it was a few hours before I received a response because she was working her other job as a boat captain.


First question for me and our readers is ...Tell us about being a boat captain.

Hi Jackie, thanks so much for the opportunity to be a guest on your blog! What fun.

I LOVE being a boat captain. We have been blessed to live on a small lake in Central Florida for 16 years, so our kids grew up tubing, water skiing, and wake boarding behind our “vintage” (read: really old) boat. Because of that, getting a job as a captain wasn’t too big a leap. I worked for Silver Springs – Nature’s Theme Park, from 2006-2011 where I piloted glass bottom boats on the Silver River. (That’s when I got my USCG-issued captain’s license.)There is something incredible about a guest’s first look at those springs!

In 2008, I started working for the Silver River Museum & Environmental Education Center, part of our local school system. Several days a week, I get to take curious 5th graders on a 33-foot pontoon boat on the Silver River and show many of them their very first alligator. How cool is that?

How long have you been writing? Do you always write romantic suspense? Do you have a favorite author you like to read?


I started freelancing when we moved to Central Florida. I wrote for a parenting magazine and eventually became the editor. I also wrote a parenting book, ghostwrote books for clients and wrote dozens of articles. But my first love has always been fiction, especially romantic suspense. I wrote a novel, which was soundly rejected. So I wrote another, and another. Finally, I thought my time had come. Angel Falls was under contract, but months before release, the publisher changed their mind. Honestly, the discouragement got to me—and the loneliness of being in my house all day—so I quit writing and became a boat captain. I found I loved being outside around people.

Of course, like most writers, the stories wouldn’t leave me alone, so I eventually started writing again. My Florida-set romantic suspense, Trapped! came out in 2009 and when Angel Falls releases, it will be TEN years from the time I first wrote it. (If you’d like to know more, stop by my blog (www.BusyWomenBigDreams.com) and read my post: “When Stubborn is a Good Thing.”)

I read lots of romantic suspense—and books of all kinds—so asking about a favorite author is like asking me to pick a favorite child. I can’t choose. But I will say I was blessed to have several of my favorite authors write wonderful endorsements for Angel Falls.

Tell us about Angel Falls.

My father is from Porto Alegre, Brazil, and the story idea was born on a trip there. For years, street children swarmed the downtown area and I started wondering what kind of person you’d become if you’d grown up that way. That’s how my heroine, fiercely protective orphanage director Regina da Silva, was born. I also got to see Iguacu Falls—one of the largest waterfalls in the world—and knew the story’s climax scene had to happen there.

Here’s a bit about the story:

Two pasts collide in a deadly race to save an orphaned baby…

She’ll do whatever it takes to protect her best friend’s baby.

He won’t protect anyone ever again. The last time he tried, they died.

But when bullets fly, orphanage director Regina da Silva and burned-out Army Ranger Brooks Anderson dive headlong into danger to protect one defenseless child.

As the danger closes in, they’ll have to trust each other to stay alive.

Will that be enough to save their little angel--and themselves—from certain death?

Thanks again for the opportunity to stop by. I’ve enjoyed it very much!

Thank you, Connie.

Connie has agreed to give away a copy of Angel Falls if we get twelve comments. If we pick a US resident you can have your choice of print or e-book. If you're outside the US, you'll get a free digital copy. Please leave your email address with your comment. Thanks!







Connie Mann