Cozy Up With Kathy: Meet Meg Reed - Guest Post & Giveaway

Friday, December 2, 2016

Meet Meg Reed - Guest Post & Giveaway

Meet Meg Reed

by Kate Dyer-Seeley

Meet Meg Reed. She’s a spunky (and more than slightly klutzy) twenty-something who is navigating a world of firsts with a little murder thrown in. Meg is a bit like Bridget Jones in the wild. She loves all things pink, vintage fashion, artisan coffee, and great microbrew. Her idea of sport is climbing onto the couch without spilling her latte, so when she lands her first official gig writing for Northwest Extreme magazine, let’s just say that she’s in over her head. Way over her head.

From clawing her way to the top of a two-thousand foot peak to getting stranded in a blizzard on the slopes of Mt. Hood to trying to catch big air on a windsurfing board in the middle of the mighty Columbia River, Meg has had a rough go of it. In First Degree Mudder (the 4th book in the Pacific Northwest Mysteries) she thinks she could actually be in for a break. Her assignment is simple—train and run a fun 5k run: Mud, Sweat, and Beers. What could be so tough about that?

However she quickly realizes that getting in shape for the grueling run is going to take every ounce of strengthen and endurance that she can muster. This isn’t just a jaunt around a track or a mild sprint through the park. Mud, Sweat, and Beers is going to test every muscle in her body. She’ll have to slog through thick and gooey mud, navigate under barbed wire trenches, and scale a twenty foot wall. As if that wasn’t difficult enough, Meg discovers Billy the Tank, a retired Army drill sergeant tasked with training Meg and her motley crew, murdered in the steam room. Not only will she have to find a way to finish the race on her own, but if she’s not careful she could have a killer on her tail and have to run for her life.

When I’m working on one of Meg’s adventures (or misadventures) I try to put myself in her shoes both literally and figuratively. I spent hours researching and watching mud runs which have become quite the craze not just here in the Pacific Northwest but all over the globe. Racers pay upwards of one-hundred dollars to be put through a brutal and punishing course coated in a layer of mud. I was curious about the personalities attracted to extreme races, so when my kiddo who is a natural runner handed me a flier for an Insane Inflatable Race coming to town, I signed us up.

Call it a twist of fate or plain crummy luck but a week before the race I was out for my daily walk, tripped on the sidewalk, and broke my wrist. For the record my daily walk is about as tame as possible. My route takes me over even ground and along a family friendly waterfront path. I simply tripped over my own feet and landed on my wrist. It was a classic Meg move that landed me with a pink cast and a front row seat to cheer on my son when he crossed the finish line.

Maybe this is a sign that I should stick to fiction, or maybe it’s my fiction coming to life. Either way I hope you enjoy Meg’s muddy adventure and look for a pink cast to work its way into a future book!

*****************************************************************************