Lisa Nicholas gets inspired by a classic!
“I couldn’t stop thinking about you. I even read one of your books.”
It’s funny the things that stick with us and influence us years later. In 1984, a movie came out called Romancing the Stone, staring Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas. You’re probably familiar with it: Joan Wilder is a reclusive but wildly popular romance novelist, and when her sister gets kidnapped in Colombia, Joan has to face everything she fears about the outside world (which is pretty much everything) to go save her. Along the way, she meets the dashing (if somewhat crude) Jack Colton and they wind up having adventures and eventually falling in love.
Little did I realize I’d be writing a bit of an homage to it thirty years later, with my new book, As Lost as I Get.
Make no mistake: Zoe, my heroine, isn’t a romance novelist, and she’s much tougher than Joan Wilder. Zoe’s hero Lee isn’t nearly as uncouth as Jack Colton. (His mother would never tolerate such behavior!) But one of the first things I knew about As Lost as I Get was that I wanted my hero and heroine to wind up lost together in the jungle. That’s when I remembered Joan and Jack, and knew I had to write my own version of the infamous mud slide scene:
They were pushing their way up a particularly steep slope, the water running down her face and turning the ground beneath her feet to treacherous black mud. Her feet started to slip in slow motion. Her first instinct was to push forward harder, to try and get past the slippery spot. It just succeeded in making her fall faster, and the world sped up when she landed face first and started to slide down the slope. “Lee!” was all she managed before she had to close her mouth to avoid a mouthful of mud.
It was like sledding, if snow were black instead of white, and warm instead of cold. She tried to turn over, tried to grab at roots and tree saplings to stop her fall, but she was moving too fast. Mud filled her shoes and pushed up her pant legs, soaked through her shirt. When she finally slid to a stop—at the bottom of the slope she’d just climbed—it felt like the entire fall had taken an hour. Despair pushed her down into the mud like a bully’s hand, and she didn’t try to get up at first.
Unfortunately, Lee doesn’t wind up following her down the hill (or landing with his face in an intimate spot–that happens later ;)), but I was able to use the moment to make the two of them stop and consider their feelings for each other, and it’s a major turning point in their relationship.
That moment was, I swear, the only intentional reference to the movie. It wasn’t until after the book was finished that I spotted other similarities too, like the setting, Colombia. I also had the awkward realization that, like Joan, I’m a single romance writer who’s much more interested in writing about dangerous adventures than having them–and is pretty attached to her cat (cats, in my case, and a dog). Like I said, it’s funny what sticks with you.
Thankfully (?) I don’t have a sister. And if my Jack or Lee want to find me, they’re going to have to look, not in the wilds of Colombia, but in the neighborhood coffee shop where I’ll be working on my next book.
About Lisa Nicholas: 
Lisa Nicholas is the author of The Farther I Fall. If she’s not writing, she’s feeding her story addiction any way she can: raiding Netflix, pillaging her local bookstore and library, and (most recently) tearing her way through the comics archive at Marvel.
Connect with Lisa at her website | blog | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads
AS LOST AS I GET by Lisa Nicholas is the perfect mix of hot romance and thrilling adventure. A doctor working in rural Colombia is shocked to run into the CIA agent who saved her life two years before. After an impetuous night of passion, she vows to stay away from him. But when her job takes her deeper into the jungle, he may be the only one who can save her from a new threat… If readers liked STRIKING DISTANCE by Pamela Clare they’ll be thrilled by this romantic suspense.
Title: As Lost as I Get
Author: LisaNicholas
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Release Date: August 18, 2015
Publisher: Berkley Intermix
Print Length: 72k
Format: Digital ONLY
Digital ISBN: 9780698191464
Synopsis:
From the author of The Farther I Fall comes an action-filled romance in which two lovers discover that the best thing about being lost is having someone find you…
CIA operative Lee Wheeler is glad to be back in the field, even if the assignment is at a backwater station in Colombia—what he considers punishment for crossing lines in an attempt to save his brother’s life. Either way, he’s ready for action. But he never could have predicted the action he’s about to get…
Doctor Zoe Rodriguez is in charge of a clinic in a tiny town on the edge of the rain forest. She’s still dealing with a traumatic experience she had in Mexico—a trauma she wouldn’t have survived if it weren’t for Lee. So when they unexpectedly cross paths again, unresolved wounds rise to the surface, and their mutual passion flares to life.
But when a new threat reveals itself, Lee and Zoe’s reunion takes on echoes of the past that may ruin their chance for a future.
Find out more at: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | iBooks | Books-a-Million
Other Books from Lisa Nicholas:
THE FARTHER I FALL
Sometimes when you fall, you land just where you need to be…
Gwen Tennison got out of Afghanistan alive but scarred–and then got stuck on her sister’s couch. When she’s offered a job managing the U.S. tour for rock music’s hottest, most troubled star, it seems like just the thing to snap her out of her post-injury funk. Her instructions are simple: start the shows on time, and keep him clean.
But Lucas Wheeler may be more than she can handle. Though he’s drug-free, he still feels the need, and his gorgeous, capable new tour manager is a challenge he can’t ignore. Fame and infamy have forced Lucas to protect his heart, but soon he finds himself craving Gwen’s touch, and yearning to give her control. And Gwen might feel the same way.
But it’s not just the mutual heat between them that is keeping Gwen on her toes. Someone is following Lucas from city to city. With more than just her job on the line Gwen must decide how much she’s willing to risk to keep Lucas safe.
Available at: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | iBooks | Books-a-Million