Today it is my pleasure to Welcome author Rachel Moore to HJ!
Hi Rachel and welcome to HJ! We’re so excited to chat with you about your new release, Safari Murder Party!
Please summarize the book for the readers here:
Safari Murder Party follows Fletcher Spence, a burnt-out executive assistant for the head of a publishing conglomerate, who is desperate for a promotion. After initially being overlooked, she vies for a spot on the company retreat to a private island safari, but arrives to discover her boss has been eaten by lions and will cede the company to whoever survives the week. Fletcher’s coworkers quickly prove just as deadly as the wild animals, and she’s forced to team up with Waylon Cartwright, her boss’s son—and her professional nemesis—if she hopes to make it out alive.
Please share your favorite line(s) or quote from this book:
– I feel like the beginning of chapter 11 perfectly captures the energy this book brings to the table: “Also, Molly had a machete.”
– This commentary from Fletcher never fails to make me laugh: “Here, under the last drops of sun, while she puked her guts out to the soundtrack of the afternoon savanna with Waylon hovering nearby, she was resolutely certain this trip deserved the Guinness World Record for All-Time Worst Company Retreats.”
– And lastly, I also love this emotional beat from Fletcher during an argument with Waylon: “Fletcher blinked. Indignance reared in her chest. Spiked and ugly, like a porcupine wearing jeggings.”
I had such a blast writing this book, and I hope it shows.
Please share a few Fun facts about this book…
- When I realized Richard Connell’s “The Most Dangerous Game” was entering the public domain, I knew I wanted to reimagine it for the modern age. It’s such a huge inspiration for Safari Murder Party!
- While revising, I listened to KiNG MALA’s album “SPILT MILK” on repeat so many countless times. I can’t hear “never wanna know” without thinking about Fletcher. (Other playlist faves include “Find an Island” by BENEE, “All My Friends Are Rich” by UPSAHL, and “Wishful Drinking” by Tessa Violet.)
- This book’s title has never been anything other than Safari Murder Party—I used it as a working title, and it just stuck!
What first attracts your Hero to the Heroine and vice versa?
When Waylon meets Fletcher, he admires her diligent work ethic—she’s someone who doesn’t expect things to be handed to her and is willing to work her way to where she wants to be, which isn’t something he encounters very often as the heir to a multibillion-dollar company. For Fletcher, Waylon is the first person who she feels like truly sees her and acknowledges her dreams. Of course, he then nearly sabotages her career with his buffoonery shortly thereafter and they fall into a mutual hatred, but, hey, who’s keeping score?
Did any scene have you blushing, crying or laughing while writing it? And Why?
There’s a moment where Waylon is being attacked by one of the safari’s most vicious predators—a fluffball of a primate called a bush baby—and it was easily one of the most fun scenes to write in the whole book. Here’s a look at that encounter!
The blob of fur skittered up Waylon’s pants, his shirt, and onto his shoulder. More primate than rodent, actually. Long tail, saucer-wide eyes, a ball of brown-gray fluff…
“I think it’s a bush baby,” she said.
Waylon scowled as he tried—and failed—to shrug off the creature now eating citrus on his head. “Don’t call me baby when I’m being attacked.”
Fletcher flushed. “Not you. The tiny monkey. It’s called a bush baby.”
“I don’t care what it’s called—ow, ow, ow!” The bush baby dug its little critter hands into Waylon’s scalp, holding on for dear life. “Get rid of it.”
Readers should read this book….
If you want to scream, laugh, and swoon all in under 400 pages. Safari Murder Party has something for everyone—a chaotic, satirical look at the wilderness of the corporate world, a thrilling battle royale, and a romance with an HEA.
What are you currently working on? What other releases do you have in the works?
I’ve got another thriller with Berkley up my sleeve! Hopefully it’ll be just as hilariously high octane and surprisingly romantic as Safari Murder Party.
Thanks for blogging at HJ!
Giveaway: A print copy of SAFARI MURDER PARTY by Rachel Moore.
To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and Post a comment to this Q: How do you balance your work and personal lives, and have you ever worked a job that felt a little too much like the high-intensity world of Cartwright Media? (I hope not!)
Book Info:
In this darkly funny, slightly unhinged, heart-pounding thriller, two office rivals must team up to escape wild animals and even wilder coworkers on a corporate retreat gone wrong.
Fletcher Spence is dying for a promotion. And her colleagues are more than happy to oblige.
After three years working seventy-hour weeks as assistant to the most terrifying CEO in the magazine world, Fletcher finally finagled a spot on Cartwright Media’s annual corporate retreat—a famously luxurious week on the Cartwrights’ private island, where promotions are handed out like party favors. And her plan to snag her dream job as a travel magazine photographer was going great…until her boss’s dramatic death reveals his last will and testament: Whoever survives the week will inherit the company.
So now she’s stuck on her billionaire boss’s safari park island, surrounded by wild animals and on the run from coworkers who’ve swapped coffee cups for machetes and briefcases for hunting rifles.
To Fletcher’s dismay, her only ally might be her boss’s insufferably gorgeous son, Waylon Cartwright. Despite their hostile history, Fletcher is at least 80 percent sure he won’t try to kill her this week. Plus, his experience on the island might come in handy while they fend off lions and tigers and…marketing executives? Oh my.
While Fletcher battles her own ambitions and her unexpected attraction to Waylon, her power-hungry, bloodthirsty colleagues will do anything to stop them from escaping with their lives. Everyone knows the media industry is cutthroat, but in this safari party, it’s never been more true.
Book Links: Amazon |
Meet the Author:
Rachel Moore is the author of high-stakes, genre-blending novels, including her forthcoming adult debut, Safari Murder Party. She currently lives in Tennessee with her husband and two cats she’s violently allergic to. (The cats, not the husband.) On the rare occasion she isn’t writing happy endings, you can find her collecting dictionaries, drinking entirely too much coffee, and drifting through the library stacks.
Instagram |
Please leave a comment