ZANE TOLLISON'S wife is running through their cash faster than he can make it. A "Hail Mary" contract with Clearwater Tobacco arrives in the nick of time to keep his fledgling, consulting firm afloat and to unchain him once and for all from his narcissistic wife. Beautiful, brilliant and estranged, KATHY DAVIS is desperate for a new beginning. The feisty post doc bio-geneticist jumps at an offer from Clearwater, pouring her soul into a development that will revolutionize the tobacco industry.
The two are unwittingly reeled into a convoluted plan to steal $12 million; Zane is changing into a carbon copy of Kathy, a pawn in a bizarre genetic metamorphosis, entangling Kathy in a sinewy web of seduction and deceit. Forging a bond that will set the course of their destiny, they fight to overpower the diabolic hold that has taken over their lives.
I'll admit it, I'm a geek! But setting a romance in the framework of high tech intrigue, my technical background turned out to be my best friend. I wanted a heroine who would stand toe to toe with the leading man and a plot that would keep a reader on the edge of their seat. The Twist is only the beginning.
~ Lee ~
Reviews for The Twist
"A clever and witty sci-fi romp through big corporations, marriage and the gender wars." - Dee S. Knight, author of Heat Wave
Lee grew up in the rolling farmland outside of historic Valley Forge, PA. Neighbors were few and far between, and with no sisters or brothers she spent hours in her room daydreaming about the world outside her rural community. Cramming nine months of fun into summer vacations, Lee lived for the trips she took with her family to their place on the Delaware shore.
She graduated as her high school class salutatorian and went on to earn a BS in engineering from Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA. After several years of writing specification manuals for the Navy, Lee returned to school full-time to earn her graduate degree from Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA. She has spent the majority of her career as a professional engineer.
Lee has always enjoyed writing. Challenged with a series of health problems in the late 1990's, she turned her technical experience to creative writing. The Twist is her first published novel.
Lee has spent most of her adult life in Tidewater, Virginia. She and her husband of 16 years live in a renovated Victorian on the Chesapeake Bay. Lee enjoys reading and relaxing on the beach at their summer home in Ocean City, MD.
An Interview with Lee Silver
By Holly Hewson for The Romance Studio
HH: Lee, thank you for talking with us at TRS. Please tell us about your featured work, The Twist.
LS: Hi Holly! Thank you for inviting me. It's really great to be here with all my friends at The Romance Studio. My new romantic suspense, The Twist came out last month and is a BookStrand #1 Bestseller! I wanted a heroine who would stand toe to toe with the leading man and a plot that would keep the reader on the edge of his seat. The Twist a fun blend of romance and high tech intrigue. The hero, Zane Tollison actually turns into a carbon copy of the leading lady!
I really had to get into Zane's head to write The Twist. I mean, women are so different...our emotions, what's important to us, how we relate to each other. And then there's the things we take for granted. Hair, nails, putting on your face, the whole bit. It would all have to be pretty strange for a guy.
Trying to stuff all of that into a guy's head was a challenge. Male characters just don't have the range of emotion for you to work with. I guess that's part of what makes them guys. As Zane begins his transformation, everything he is grappling with bubbles to the top as a confused mix of humor and rage. After the change it's like he's got the hormones of a squad of teenage cheerleaders.
Yup, we finally get our revenge on the guys in The Twist =)
HH: A man on the edge of a knife and a woman obsessed with her work. Both caught up in a high tech web of intrigue. Where did you get the idea for this thrilling story?
LS: You hear some strange things standing in the ladies' room line on the Ocean City boardwalk. A cute little thing in a halter top and a pair of Daisy Dukes behind me was arguing with her purple-haired boy friend about her smoking. He was going on about what a filthy habit it was and how he might as well be kissing an ashtray. Fumbling in her purse for a Virginia Slim, all she could come up with in her defense was "You have no idea how hard it is for a girl to quit smoking!" I've always been fascinated by transformation stories, but they never seem to have a happy ending. Hum, that sounded like a story to me.
HH: How did you own technical background serve you in the writing of this story?
LS: The key to pulling off something as zany as a guy turning into a woman was to make it believable for the reader. As an engineer, I'm trained to come up with a way to make things work. The transformation in The Twist is pure sci-fi, but what if it were possible? My technical background gives me the tools to imagine and describe the things a scientist would need to actually make it happen.
HH: What did you enjoy most about Zane and Kathy?
LS: Zane met his match with Kathy. He's full of himself in a typical guy sort of way. But Kathy, with all her feminine charm, let Zane know from the minute they met at the elevator, she'd stand toe to toe with for the full nine rounds. Its mutual respect like this that turns to love that will last a life time.
HH: How did you get your start as a fiction writer?
LS: I was pulling my hair out for an idea for a topic for our car club's newsletter when I rather accidentally started to write a tongue-in-cheek article about all the problems we'd had with our 1979 Corvette. What an amazing change from the technical writing at my job for the last 25 years! I discovered a whole world of writing I never knew existed and have never looked back.
HH: How has life changed for you since publishing?
LS: Well, for one, I'm not sure I have time to answer that!
HH: What else can readers look forward to from you?
LS: When I wrote The Twist, I had considered it to be a one book story. Working on my edits, I realized there might be enough open ends for another book. I just started working on a sequel to The Twist so we can see what everybody's favorite feisty female scientist is up to next. =)
HH: At this point, what goals have you set for yourself in your writing career?
LS: If my stories can pull my reader's away from the hustle and bustle of their lives long enough to put a smile on their faces when they head back to the real world, I couldn't ask for more.
HH: How do you get away from it all?
LS: My parents used to have a travel trailer on the Delaware shore. I grew up outside of Philadelphia, so it was only about 3 hours away. We spent weekends there all summer long for years. I loved to go crabbing and fishing with my dad. LOL, I used to be such a tomboy! On rainy days, we'd all pile into my girlfriend's mom's old Buick station wagon. She'd haul us giggling and laughing into Ocean City, MD for pizza and let us go wild on the boardwalk.
I've been a car girl for as long as I can remember. I actually had a Suzuki 50 Trail Rider I used all through high school. I went everywhere on that darn thing! Somewhere along the line I realized that motorcycles and skirts don't mix and got a blue MG Midget. My hubby is a car guy and we have a Model A hotrod. I'm not into all the grease and engine stuff but can hold a pretty mean flashlight. I love the people and the cruising. It gives me an excuse to get all dolled up and wear a pair of tight pants or a poodle skirt.
Anyway, my husband's family also vacationed in Ocean City, and we went there with our son when he was growing up. We have our own place there now. It's only a couple hours from Norfolk, VA, so we try to go whenever we can. I cherish our time in Ocean City. We both run so hard, it's the only time we have for each other. I'm lucky to have a special place with so many memories from all the times of my life. I wish we could live there all the time.
HH: What's your favorite way to network with readers?
LS: I've never been the kind of person who does very well at big parties. Sitting down with a few close friends for the evening to talk about what's going on in each other's lives has always been more important to me than the casual hob-knobbing with people who don't care any more about me than I do about them. The same goes for networking with my reader buddies. I love the intimacy of the author-reader groups like the new TRS forum!
