Romantic suspense author Lori Matthews likes putting strong women up against tough-guy protectors – but not so they’ll race in and save anybody. Not at all.  The strong women learn to save themselves – with a little help from their friends – and readers enjoy seeing two alpha personalities get together and learn to work it out.br /

br /

br /

br /

Hi there, I’m your host Jenny Wheeler and in today’s episode Lori talks about her latest book, Hit and Run, number three in the Callahan Security series, with a cutting edge plotline about the race to prevent state of the art facial recognition software from falling into the wrong hands.br /

br /

br /

br /

Six things you’ll learn from this Joys of Binge Reading episode:br /

br /

br /

br /

A would-be writer from teenage yearsPitting alpha personalities against each otherFiner points in facial recognition softwarePlotting and 'pantsing'Lori's theory of 'romantic equalization'The writers Lori admires mostbr /

br /

br /

br /

Where to find Lori Matthews: br /

br /

br /

br /

Website: www.lorimatthewsbooks.combr /

br /

br /

br /

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LoriMatthewsBooksbr /

br /

br /

br /

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lorimatthewsbooks/br /

br /

br /

br /

 Twitter: @_lorimatthews_br /

br /

br /

br /

What follows is a near as transcript of our conversation, not word for word but pretty close to it, with links to important mentions.br /

br /

br /

br /

Jenny Wheeler: But now here’s Lori. Hi there Lori, and welcome to the show. It's great to have you with us.br /

br /

br /

br /

Lori Matthews: Hi Jenny. It's so great to be here. Thanks for having me on your show.br /

br /

br /

br /

Introducing Lori Matthewsbr /

br /

br /

br /

Jenny Wheeler: Beginning at the beginning, as I always like to, was there a Once Upon A Time moment when you decided you wanted to write fiction and if so, was there any sort of catalyst for it?br /

br /

br /

br /

Lori Matthews - mystery authorbr /

br /

br /

br /

Lori Matthews: My Grade 11 English teacher had this assignment where we had to write a short story fiction and it had to be suspenseful, and that ticked something with me. I remember writing the story and I did well in the story, but it just clicked in my brain.br /

br /

br /

br /

I sat down and tried to write my first suspense novel, which I'm sure died silently somewhere in a computer recycling facility, I'm hoping, because it was awful, but that was what started the whole thing. From there I always knew I would write.br /

br /

br /

br /

Jenny Wheeler: For people in New Zealand, how old is Grade 11?br /

br /

br /

br /

Lori Matthews: About 16, 17.br /

br /

br /

br /

Jenny Wheeler: Okay. That's a good time to know what you're wanting to do. You have now got three books published in the Callahan Brothers series, but I know that there was probably a bit of a gap between that light bulb moment in your teens and actually getting published. We'll get to that a little while, but you've now got three books published in the Callahan series and I noticed that you've also got a new book in a new series that's going to be out soon. We'll talk about that a little bit later too.br /

br /

br /

br /

Strong male protectors...br /

br /

br /

br /

They've got something in common, both of these series that you've tackled, and that's tough guy men, often former military people, who are now in the private protection business. I wondered if there was something about that idea that got your creative juices pumping, whether you liked the idea of strong men protecting us.br /

br /

br /

br /

Lori Matthews: It’s so interesting. I love the idea because what I like to do is put strong women up against them. You have the idea of that natural hero tough guy, he's in every sort of action movie and those types of things,