Category: Showcase

Guest Author SHEILA DEETH

WELCOME BACK SHEILA DEETH

SHEILA DEETH

Sheila Deeth grew up in the UK and has a Bachelors and Masters in mathematics from Cambridge University, England. Now living in the States near Portland Oregon, she enjoys reading, writing, drawing, telling stories and meeting her neighbors’ dogs on the green.
Connect with Sheila at these sites:

WEBSITE        TWITTER   

GUEST POST

I love dogs, especially those mixed-up mongrel tykes with the best of everything. I love math, especially playing with patterns and logic and turning science into art. I love writing. And I love the Bible. I’m an English American, Catholic Protestant, mongrel Christian mathematician with a growing collection of five-minute Bible stories for children to my name. I also write spiritual speculative novellas, contemporary novels, short stories in multiple genres, and way way way too many book reviews.

I thought I was hopeless at gardening until a friend introduced me to dahlias. This year I’ve grown real flowers, much to everyone’s shock and amazement, so I thought I’d share some lessons learned.

1.       Collect your seeds, tubors, or whatever the garden center calls them. These can be purchased wholesale and free whenever you walk out the door. In fact, you can buy them free on the internet whenever you surf the web, or from your kids, or your dogs, or your dreams, or your latest argument with the mechanic at the garage. Seeds for the stories in Bethlehem’s Baby came from a mixture of familiar Bible stories, snippets of history, and everyday life with kids.

2.       Choose your flower bed. The best flower beds get plenty of light—otherwise known as sales. So research your markets and try to decide who you’re going to write your stories for. Then make sure you create them the right length, with the right type of words, to fit the market.

3.       Dig holes. Dig into your memories, dreams, favorite snippets of song, or scattered bits of glorious scenery. After a while a character or location might sneak into your mind saying, “Write about me.”

4.       Plant seeds into holes. Ask your character why you’d want to write about him/her/it. If the answer makes sense, you’ll let this seed grow. If it needs some supporting story-seeds, do some more digging until you find them.

5.       Bury the seeds. Your story’s not a lecture or a lesson. It’s meant to entertain. So bury the echoing harangue of “author’s voice” until only the rich dark soil of character, location and plot remain on view.

6.       Water them. Write, rewrite, add, subtract, edit, rethink, review. Everything you’ve done may still be thrown away when the seed begins to grow, but everything you’ve done is still worthwhile. It’s either compost, rich and warm to help the next seed grow, or it’s a story of its own.

7.       Prune. Otherwise known as editing. This is where your stems and leaves, otherwise known as words, start to wilt in the heat of a summer’s day. Read the story aloud and when it doesn’t sound right, it most probably isn’t.

8.       Water some more. Cut back the surrounding foliage so your plant gets plenty of sun. Provide shade at the hottest time of review, and rest secure in the knowledge you planted and watered, but it’s the seed that grew.

9.       Cut the flower, because you really really want someone else to see your story and read it, so it has to go to market.

10.   Arrange in vase, or in a book. Then arrange the book on as many websites as you can find and announce to the world. THIS IS MY BOOK. READ IT

 

ABOUT THE BOOK

Meet the Emperor Augustus’s advisors, the quiet research student helping wise men study stars, the shepherd whose granddad keeps complaining, an Egyptian fisherboy, a Roman soldier, and more in this set of 40 5-minute read-aloud stories based around the events of the Christ Child’s birth in Bethlehem.

BOOK DETAILS:

Genre: children’s Biblical fiction
Publisher: Cape Arago Press
Publication date: 2 September 2013
Number of Pages: 123
ASIN: B00EY172MA

PURCHASE LINKS:

   

 
DISCLAIMER
I received a copy of this book, at no charge to me, in exchange for my honest review. No items that I receive are ever sold…they are kept by me, or given to family and/or friends.
ADDENDUM
I do not have any affiliation with Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble. I am an IndieBound affiliate. I am providing link(s) solely for visitors that may be interested in purchasing this Book/EBook.

 

Harlequin Presents: ANDREA LAURENCE showcase & giveaway ENDED

WELCOME ANDREA LAURENCE

ANDREA LAURENCE

Andrea is an award winning author of contemporary and paranormal romance. She has been devouring books since she learned to read at the age of three. An old portable typewriter got her started writing in her room at eight and she’s been writing ever since. Her practical nature led her to pursue a master’s degree and a career that would pay the bills, but the writing bug continued to bite. She started working ferociously in her spare time to become a published author and has become an active member of her local RWA chapter, Heart of Dixie.

After eight years and eleven completed manuscripts, she finally made the leap and got ‘the call’ from Harlequin Desire on May 31, 2011. She always dreamed of seeing her work in print and is thrilled to finally be able to share her special blend of sensuality and dry, sarcastic humor with the world.

A dedicated West Coast girl transplanted into the Deep South, Andrea is working on her real-life “happily ever after” with her boyfriend of ten years and their collection of animals including two cats, two mutts and a Siberian Husky that sheds like nobody’s business.
Connect with Andrea at these sites:

WEBSITE        TWITTER   

 

ABOUT THE BOOK

A beastly boss is tamed in this Secrets of Eden book from Andrea Laurence…

CEO Brody Eden is a loner. The brooding billionaire has secrets that he refuses to unveil to anyone…until he meets his new assistant, Samantha Davis. She’s temptation personified, and she’s sitting right outside his door.

Samantha’s never met a man as guarded—and gorgeous—as Brody. She doesn’t want to fall for her boss, but there’s something about Brody…. Beneath his gruff manner, Sam senses tenderness—and an intense passion waiting to be unleashed. And she’ll make it her mission to enter his lair…and his bed.

BOOK DETAILS:

Genre: Contemporary Romance
Number of pages: 184
Publisher: Harlequin
Publication Date: October 1, 2013
ISBN-10: 0373732724
ISBN-13: 978-0373732722

PURCHASE LINKS:

           

THANKS TO ANNA AT HARLEQUIN,
I
HAVE ONE (1) COPY TO GIVE AWAY.
OPEN TO U.S and CANADA RESIDENTS
FILL OUT RAFFLECOPTER ENTRY FORM BELOW
GIVEAWAY ENDS NOVEMBER 19th AT 6PM EST

WINNER WILL BE CHOSEN BY RAFFLECOPTER AND NOTIFIED
VIA EMAIL AND WILL HAVE 48 HOURS TO RESPOND
OR ANOTHER NAME WILL BE CHOSEN

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YOUR JAVA SCRIPT MAY NEED TO BE UPDATED
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DISCLAIMER
No items that I receive are ever sold…they are kept by me, or given to family and/or friends.
ADDENDUM
I do not have any affiliation with Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble. I am an IndieBound affiliate. I am providing link(s) solely for visitors that may be interested in purchasing this Book/EBook.

 

ROXANNE ST. CLAIRE Guest Author showcase & giveaway ENDED

 

WELCOME BACK ROXANNE ST. CLAIRE

ROXANNE ST. CLAIRE

First published in 2003, Roxanne St. Claire is a RITA® Award-winning author of thirty novels, including her bestselling Bullet Catchers and Guardian Angelinos series. Her critically acclaimed books have been published in numerous languages and recognized with multiple awards including the National Readers’ Choice Award, the Daphne du Maurier Award, and the HOLT Medallion, all for best romantic suspense. She currently lives on the east coast of Florida with her husband and two teenagers.
Connect with Roxanne at these sites:

WEBSITE        TWITTER   

Q&A with Roxanne St. Claire

Your heroines are great friends. Are they inspired by women you know?
None of the Barefoot Bay characters are based on “real” people but the concept of how powerful and life-changing female friendships can be is at the core of the series.  I’m blessed that I definitely drawn from my real life in that regard.  I simply can’t put into words what my girlfriends mean to me — I would get all teary talking about it.  I have “BFF” from THIRD GRADE who I talk to every week, I have friends from college, my single years, my young mom years, and now, writer friends.  My girlfriends are a source of joy, laughter, comfort, and stability that I treasure as much as family. I wanted every book in the Barefoot Bay series to capture the sense of completion we get from girlfriends.

What’s been the secret to keeping the Barefoot Bay series fresh and interesting, both for fans and for you as the author?
I hope I do! The island seems to be ever-expanding, so that helps to introduce more secondary characters and give the whole place more color.  Also, each book MUST stand alone — that is absolutely essential for me.  And I refuse to delve deeply into the other characters’ stories because I don’t like when series books slow down for “recaps” of what happened in earlier books.  That is just my approach to a series and I hope it works for readers.  I want the books to all have the same tone/feel so readers start to know what to expect…but every story is completely different and every romance has its own pace and passion.  More than anything, I want to tap into a wide range of emotions and issues, so that readers never get bored on their visits to Barefoot Bay.

 

ABOUT THE BOOK

When you think you know your heart’s desire . . . 

Tessa Galloway is a gifted nurturer-her verdant garden at Barefoot Bay’s new resort is living proof. If only the woman who can grow anything could grow what she wants most: a baby. Her friends think the right guy will come along, but Tessa doesn’t want to wait. All she needs is the perfect donor to make her dream come true. Then John Brown is hired at the resort. If anyone could make beautiful babies, it’s this gorgeous, mysterious man. So why does Tessa suddenly find herself wanting so much more?

Can you give up all your dreams for love?

It’s been three long years since John Brown had to leave his old life. Forced into the witness protection program, he’s desperate to be reunited with his toddler twins. When he gets that chance, there’s a catch-he must prove he’s got a steady job and a new wife. Landing a gig as a chef in Barefoot Bay is easy enough. And falling for lovely Tessa is even easier. The hard part? Can he win the heart of a woman who prizes honesty-when the truth may shatter it?

Read an excerpt

“Tessa,” he said softly, looking from side to side for a second. “I have to tell you something about me. Something you didn’t ask in your interview.”

Interesting, since he didn’t even answer the questions she did ask. Still, she waited, dying to see where he’d go with this.

“I don’t shy away from anything,” he finally said. “When I see something I want, I get it.” He gave her a hard, straight look.

Did he mean the job as chef or…her?

“So, what are you here to get?”

“My plan is that we start all over again.” Reaching down, he lifted her hand and very slowly drew off the gardening glove, sliding one finger out at a time out of the rough canvas. She couldn’t do anything but stare at his large, tanned, masculine hand undressing her much smaller one, her throat parched and every nerve ending dancing at the touch.

“We could shake on it,” he said, dropping the glove to the ground but still holding her hand. His skin was warm. A little rough, a little dry, but very warm. “But I’d rather do this.”

He lifted her fingers to his lips, barely brushing the knuckles, the sensation shooting fireworks down her arms. “To new beginnings, pretty Tessa. A new job, and a new…” He looked up from her hand and met her gaze, his own so serious she forgot to breathe again. “Friendship.”

For a moment, she stared at him, a thousand emotions erupting like a volcano in her chest. Disbelief and excitement and desire and disbelief and longing and—yeah, mostly disbelief.

“What is it?” he asked.

“Well, I’m not really trusting by nature, so I’m fighting the sensation that you might be full of shit.”

He laughed. “I deserve a chance.”

Did he? “And you’ll probably get one, but what happened?”

He lifted both brows. “I want the job.”

“So you’re suddenly Prince Charming? After being guarded, evasive, and walking out in the middle of an interview?”

He curled his fingers around her hand and sighed with resignation. “I guess I’m going to have to do some seriously high-quality groveling.”

“Major high,” she agreed.

“Let’s start with dinner tonight. We can finish the interview.”

Obviously, he didn’t know she’d called all his references and they glowed like polished gold, and he certainly didn’t know about the wedding planners and the urgent need for a chef. Instead, he’d come to grovel and take her to dinner.

“I’ll give you time to clean up and change for our date,” he said, as if she might be looking for an excuse to say no.

As if a groveling man offering dinner and looking like a sex god fell into her lap on a daily basis.

“I thought it was an interview,” she said.

He shrugged. “You call it an interview, I call it a date.”

“I call it a pretty remarkable turnaround for the guy who suggested a one-night stand of tongue-tattooing the last time we talked about going out.”

His smile was sinfully slow and so damn confident. “Haven’t you ever changed your mind about something,Tessa? Ever looked at a situation in the light of day and realized you’d need a new approach to get what you want?”

She tried to ignore the little thrill of his words and be smart about this. “What about trust?”

He lifted his brows. “What about it?”

“Did you change your mind about the advice you gave me in the bar? Or don’t you remember when your one                word about trusting you was ‘Don’t’?”

She could have sworn a little bit of color left his face.

“How else are you going to know if you should or not unless you have dinner with me?”

She couldn’t argue with that logic. Or maybe she just didn’t want to.

BOOK DETAILS:

Genre: Romance – Contemporary
Publisher: Forever
Publication Date: October 29, 2013
Series: Barefoot Bay (Book 4)
Number of Pages: 448 pages
ISBN-10: 1455508233
ISBN-13: 978-1455508235

PURCHASE LINKS:

            

Roxanne is also offering SIGNED copies of BAREFOOT BY THE SEA through her local bookstore- found here

THANKS TO JESSICA AT GCP/FOREVER,
I
HAVE ONE (1) SET TO GIVE AWAY.
OPEN TO U.S. RESIDENTS

FILL OUT RAFFLECOPTER ENTRY FORM BELOW
GIVEAWAY ENDS NOVEMBER 19th AT 6PM EST

foreverreadingromance

WINNER WILL BE CHOSEN BY RAFFLECOPTER AND NOTIFIED
VIA EMAIL AND WILL HAVE 48 HOURS TO RESPOND
OR ANOTHER NAME WILL BE CHOSEN

a Rafflecopter giveaway

YOUR JAVA SCRIPT MAY NEED TO BE UPDATED
IF YOU AR EXPERIENCING DIFFICULTY
USING THE RAFFLECOPTER ENTRY FORM

DISCLAIMER
I received a copy of this book, at no charge to me, in exchange for my honest review. No items that I receive are ever sold…they are kept by me, or given to family and/or friends.
ADDENDUM
I do not have any affiliation with Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble. I am an IndieBound affiliate. I am providing link(s) solely for visitors that may be interested in purchasing this Book/EBook.

 

Guest Author JESSICA SANKIEWICZ Showcase & giveaway ENDED

WELCOME JESSICA SANKIEWICZ

JESSICA SANKIEWICZ

Jessica is the 28 year old author of IF ONLY WE, a YA contemporary coming out in October 2013. You can often find her either reading or marathon watching TV on DVD, her favorites being Castle and Veronica Mars. She frequently mismatches her clothes and giggles uncontrollably. She knows almost every Billy Joel song by heart. She collects books and toys, and she has an intense love of cats and lemurs. Currently in the midst of her quarter-life-crisis, she is still takin’ names and getting very close to reaching an epiphany.
Connect with Jessica at these sites:

WEBSITE        TWITTER   

Q&A with Jessica Sankiewicz
Writing and Reading:
Do you draw from personal experiences and/or current events?
~~A lot of my writing comes from personal experience. Some of the feelings Adrienne has in If Only We are feelings I’ve had, and a couple of the scenes were similar to things that happened in real life. Many writers inadvertently write characters that are similar to themselves, and I think Adrienne is a lot like me in certain ways.
Do you start with the conclusion and plot in reverse or start from the beginning and see where the story line brings you?
~~If Only We started with the opening scene between Adrienne and Chevy. The original premise didn’t make much sense, but after I worked out the details to what it became now, I could really picture the beginning and the end. The middle was harder to fill in. With other story ideas, I come up with a plot and then try to figure out where it can start and where I want it to finish.
Your routine when writing?  Any idiosyncrasies?
~~I usually just sit down, put on some background music, and write. I almost always have to have music playing but sometimes if I’m having trouble with a scene I’ll pause it for a couple minutes so I can work it out without my brain being distracted by lyrics. I usually have to have some sort of snack at hand for writing fuel, often chocolate or chocolate related.
Is writing your full time job?  If not, may I ask what you do by day?
~~Nope, but I would love it to be someday. Right now I’m working full-time as a pharmacy technician in a retail store but I’m starting a new job (same field) that is all data entry and no retail soon.
Who are some of your favorite authors?
~~Oh, let’s see if I can narrow it down. Gayle Forman, Ellen Hopkins, Sonya Sones, Kirsten Hubbard, Kody Kepplinger, Jennifer Echols, and Marie Landry. There are so many more but I chose these since I’ve read more than one book by them and continue to be amazed.
What are you reading now?
~~I’m in the middle of four books right now… To Be Perfectly Honest by Sonya Sones, Smoke by Ellen Hopkins, Wicked Heat by Nicola Marsh, and Becoming Bryn by Angela Carling.
Are you working on your next novel?  Can you tell us a little about it?
~~Yes! I’m working on a couple things. My next full-length novel is called With One Glance. It will be New Adult Contemporary with coming of age feel and a forbidden romance. I also have a novella in the works called Our Chances Are that centers around the theme of serendipity.
Fun questions:
Your novel will be a movie.  Who would you cast?
~~Oh wow. I never really put much thought into this. You’d think I would since so many authors do! I would cast Felicity Jones as Adrienne, Jason Dohring as Chevy, Amanda Bynes as Lyndsay, AnnaSophia Robb as Kaitlin, Jennifer Connelly as Joy, and Evangeline Lilly as Faith.
Manuscript/Notes: hand written or keyboard?
~~Both! If I come up with a scene idea, I write it on paper in a notebook. Sometimes, if I’m on the run, it gets written as a note on my phone, then copied into the notebook later. When I’m actually writing the story, I have to do it on the computer. I type a lot faster than I write. Well, I can write fast, it’s just not legible enough.
Favorite leisure activity/hobby? 
~~I love to crochet. I kinda just wing it since I have no idea how to follow patterns. I’ve made stuff like catnip mice and a couple plushies.
Favorite meal?
~~Stuffing. Otherwise, I’m not picky. Give me a nice heaping serving of stuffing by the main course and I’m happy!

ABOUT THE BOOK

They say all it takes is one wrong move and you lose the game. One false step and you’re trapped. One slip-up in your choice of words and you ruin a friendship forever. That is what they say. They say I lost.

I do not believe them.

At the end of the summer after graduation, Adrienne wonders what happened to cause her life to be in ruins. She isn’t getting along with her mom, her stepsister isn’t talking to her, and, to top it off, the boy she’s been in love with doesn’t want anything to do with her. She believes the turning point was a choice she made at graduation. When she wakes up the next day, she has been transported back three months to that moment, the one where everything started to fall apart.

Adrienne realizes she has been given a second chance—and this time she doesn’t want to mess anything up. Reliving the entire summer, though, turns out to be a lot harder than she thought. As the same days and weeks go by, she starts to see how simple decisions can make a huge impact on the world around her. Despite knowing some of what lies ahead, there are some things she didn’t anticipate. She thought she knew what mistake led her to where she ended up the first time. She was wrong.

And by the time summer is over, she discovers what was really at stake.

BOOK DETAILS:

Genre: Young Adult Contemporary
Published by: Smashwords
Publication date: October 27th 2013
Pages: 126
ISBN: 9781301918249

PURCHASE LINKS:

THANKS TO AUTHOR, JESSICA SANKIEWICZ,
I
HAVE TWO (2) EBOOKS TO GIVE AWAY.
EBOOKS~~OPEN TO ALL
FILL OUT RAFFLECOPTER ENTRY FORM BELOW
GIVEAWAY ENDS NOVEMBER 19th AT 6PM EST
WINNER WILL BE CHOSEN BY RAFFLECOPTER AND NOTIFIED
VIA EMAIL AND WILL HAVE 48 HOURS TO RESPOND
OR ANOTHER NAME WILL BE CHOSEN

a Rafflecopter giveaway

YOUR JAVA SCRIPT MAY NEED TO BE UPDATED
IF YOU AR EXPERIENCING DIFFICULTY
USING THE RAFFLECOPTER ENTRY FORM

DISCLAIMER
I received a copy of this book, at no charge to me, in exchange for my honest review. No items that I receive are ever sold…they are kept by me, or given to family and/or friends.
ADDENDUM
I do not have any affiliation with Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble. I am an IndieBound affiliate. I am providing link(s) solely for visitors that may be interested in purchasing this Book/EBook.

 

Guest Author BERNARD BESSON showcase & giveaway ENDED

WELCOME BERNARD BESSON

BERNARD BESSON

Award-winning thriller writer Bernard Besson, who was born in Lyon, France, in 1949, is a former top-level chief of staff of the French intelligence services, an eminent specialist in economic intelligence and Honorary General Controller of the French National Police. He was involved in dismantling Soviet spy rings in France and Western Europe when the USSR fell and has real inside knowledge from his work auditing intelligence services and the police. He has also written a number of prize-winning thrillers and several works of nonfiction. He currently lives in the fourteenth arrondissement of Paris, right down the street from his heroes.

Julie Rose is a prize-winning, world-renowned translator of major French thinkers, known for, among other works, her acclaimed translation of Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables, which was published by Random House in 2008. She has translated twenty-eight books, including many French classics, and writes on the side. She lives in her hometown of Sydney, Australia, with her husband, dog and two cats.
Connect with Bernard at these sites:

WEBSITE    

GUEST POST

7 insane—but true—things about French thrillers
by Anne Trager, founder of Le French Book

Ah, ze French! Who doesn’t love to dream about being in France? But how much do we really know about French thrillers? Here are some key things everyone should know about them. OK, they are not all that insane, but hey I did get your attention. 😉

–          First of all, the French call a thriller a “thriller”—pronounced “TREE-lair.”

–          French crime fiction has the same categories as you find elsewhere: action/suspense, detective and procedural, and noir.

–          There tends to be more crossover between these subcategories.

–          Historical novels are often less esoteric, and more focused on historical detail.

–          Criminal suspense novels often concentrate more on confrontation with the bad guy, rather than with some shadow terrorist organization or mafia.

–          The French love psychology and terror, can be more intellectual, and, surprisingly, less noir.

–          Thriller crime writing in France has always been diverse. In the past you could find pulp spy thrillers by Gérard de Villiers and classic detective novels by Simenon, just like today you can fin quirky police procedurals by Fred Vargas, psychological thrillers by Sylvie Granotier, American-influenced suspense by Maxime Chattam, Nazi-conspiracy action by David Khara, and geopolitical eco-thrillers by Bernard Besson, just to name a few.

–          According to the French specialist of all things noir and thrilleresque, the blogger Claude Le Nocher (http://action-suspense.over-blog.com/), “French suspense, noir and action novels seem to be getting closer to American-style thrillers, but without losing their French identity. French writers do not want to imitate North American or Scandinavian writers. Their imagination is linked to French culture and French society, with its qualities and faults.”

These are some of the reasons why we at Le French Book (http://www.lefrenchbook.com) are working to bring this very vibrant creative French culture to new readers.

ABOUT THE BOOK

A stylish, fast-paced spy thriller about the intrigue, economic warfare and struggles for natural resources promised by global warming. The Arctic ice caps are breaking up. Europe and the East Coast of the Unites States brace for a tidal wave. Meanwhile, former French intelligence officer John Spencer Larivière, his karate-trained, steamy Eurasian partner, Victoire, and their bisexual computer-genius sidekick, Luc, pick up an ordinary freelance assignment that quickly leads them into the glacial silence of the great north, where a merciless war is being waged for control of discoveries that will change the future of humanity.

BOOK DETAILS:

Release date: October 30, 2013
List price: $9.99
Direct-to-digital translation (all major ebook outlets)
Isbn: 978-1-939474-94-0 (Kindle)/ 978-1-939474-95-7 (epub)
113,000 words/285 pages

PURCHASE LINKS:

    

THANKS TO FRANCE BOOK TORS,
I
HAVE ONE (1) EBOOK COPY TO GIVE AWAY.
EBOOK-OPEN TO ALL
FILL OUT RAFFLECOPTER ENTRY FORM BELOW
GIVEAWAY ENDS NOVEMBER 7th AT 6PM EST
WINNER WILL BE CHOSEN BY RAFFLECOPTER AND NOTIFIED
VIA EMAIL AND WILL HAVE 48 HOURS TO RESPOND
OR ANOTHER NAME WILL BE CHOSEN

a Rafflecopter giveaway

YOUR JAVA SCRIPT MAY NEED TO BE UPDATED
IF YOU AR EXPERIENCING DIFFICULTY
USING THE RAFFLECOPTER ENTRY FORM

DISCLAIMER
No items that I receive are ever sold…they are kept by me, or given to family and/or friends.
ADDENDUM
I do not have any affiliation with Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble. I am an IndieBound affiliate. I am providing link(s) solely for visitors that may be interested in purchasing this Book/EBook.

 

Guest Author SONJA LEWIS showcase & giveaway ENDED

WELCOME SONJA LEWIS

SONJA LEWIS

Sonja Lewis is a former newspaper journalist for The Albany Herald, in Georgia USA. Now living in Battersea, London, Sonja is a full time writer. She blogs at www.sonjalewis.com and also for the Huffington Post www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/ sonja-lewis When Lewis moved to London fifteen years ago she set up and managed a successful communications consultancy, where she worked with high profile clients including The Royal National Institute for the Blind. She also freelanced for The Guardian and studied for an MA degree in journalism. Lewis was later accepted on to a range of writing courses with the Arvon Foundation where she met her mentor Jacob Ross, who later became heavily involved in the proofreading and editing process of her novels. Lewis’ first novel The Barrenness was incredibly well received, appearing in The Voice, and WM Magazine in the UK, US national media including CNN, Black Enterprise and The Tom Joyner Morning Show along with a host of regional media across Canada and the US. The Blindsided Prophet by Sonja Lewis is available now as an eBook RRP £2.99, and will be available in paperback from mid October 2013 (published by Prymus Publications, RRP £8.99) online at retailers including Amazon.
Connect with Sonja at these sites:

WEBSITE        TWITTER   

Q&A with Sonja Lewis

Writing and Reading:  
-Do you draw from personal experiences and/or current events?
Sure I do. The fact that I didn’t have children and was perceived as being unhappy sometimes, prompted me to write The Barrenness. I don’t have a specific connection as such to The Blindsided Prophet, although I find the theme of thinking and taking responsibility for one’s thoughts intriguing. I wanted to create a larger than life character, a global thinker, to demonstrate the importance of thinking as a communications skill.

-Do you start with the conclusion and plot in reverse or start from the beginning and see where the story line brings you?
I often start with the engine of the story—the main reason for writing it, the compelling event that drives it. I want the reader to know upfront what the story is about and why they should read it. This is often not the beginning of the story so to speak but answers the question why the story is worth telling in the first place.

-Your routine when writing?  Any idiosyncrasies?
I need to be committed to a story before I decide to write it. I am often in full flow in my head but when I sit down to write, poof it goes away, which is why I try to write several chapters and imagine even more before I commit to an idea and do research, unless it is the research that has grabbed my attention.

I do like to imagine that I am in my own room of sorts, my writing sanctuary in my head, a bit odd to some. And when I’m writing I don’t like anyone around me, not even in the house, although I can write in cafes. I have noticed though that I do more thinking and planning in public places than actual writing.

-Is writing your full time job?  If not, may I ask what you do by day?
Yes, writing is what I do full-time now, though I do still serve as a communications advisor with Pocket Living.

-Who are some of your favorite authors?
I enjoy reading Tony Morrison, James Baldwin, Gloria Naylor, Amy Tan, Claire Keegan, Andrea Levy, Andrea Lee, Zoe Heller, Maggie Gee, just to name a few. As for non-fiction, I am a big Malcolm Gladwell fan.

-What are you reading now?
I have two books on the go – Mary Munroe’s Mama Ruby & Pam Grout’s E-Squared: Nine Do-It-Yourself Energy Experiments That Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality.

-Are you working on your next novel?  Can you tell us a little about it?
Uncharacteristically, I haven’t started yet because I haven’t decided what to do next. I have two novels that I plan to re-work, one with the Voting Rights Act at the centre, and the other, racism in the southern US in the 80s.

A year ago, however, after losing both my in-laws, I kicked around the idea of doing my first novel set in England, perhaps a historical romance. My mother-in-law’s story, in particular, is quite intriguing, major joys and pains. What a fascinating woman!

Fun questions:
-Your novel will be a movie.  Who would you cast?
Will Smith as Isaiah, who is the main character – although maybe he is a bit old now but yeah, sounds good!

Jill Scott  – Mae Cook, who is his mother figure.

Freema Agyeman as the beautiful, reckless Lucky Lee. Freema and I go to the same hairdresser and though I have never been a fan of Law & Order or seen her in anything else, I was struck by her presence.

-Manuscript/Notes: hand written or keyboard?
Keyboard or no one would be able to decipher. My handwriting has deteriorated over the years. Sometimes I can’t read it, but I do take pen to paper in the middle of the night quite often.

-Favorite leisure activity/hobby?
That is a hard call but going to great restaurants need not be a leisure activity but I do so enjoy as well as catching plays in London. But for me, just me, I love running.

-Favorite meal?
Pan fried fish, seabass, salmon, etc., with risotto and spinach. If no risotto on the go, give me chips (French fries). Simple pleasures are the best! Oh yes, fish has to be filleted. If not, have to choose duck!

ABOUT THE BOOK

1980 was the year of an unforgettable tragedy in Coffee, a small town in Georgia, when a mass killing at a church claimed the lives of twelve innocent people. Fourteen-year-old prophet Isaiah Brown, failed to predict the massacre that took the lives of his beloved mother and grandfather. Traumatised and inconsolable, young Isaiah fled the scene, disappearing into a woods close by, where he went blind. Fifteen years later, at God’s bidding, Isaiah must return to Coffee, to repent and free himself from the years of guilt he has endured. God has entrusted him with the knowledge that will save the people of Coffee from an even worse trauma than they encountered in 1980.
Days before he is due back in the town where he was an outcast for so many years, he experiences a vision from the past; he sees his mother and father’s forbidden love-story and his miraculous birth. He goes ahead with his trip back to Coffee, where he is faced with a town that has been unable to move on from the nightmare of the 1980 devastation. Visions continue to haunt him; not only from his family’s past, but also from the town’s past. Soon he learns the shocking and inconceivable secret that has been hidden from him. Isaiah knows what he has been sent to do but he starts to defy his own nature, whilst falling for the reckless Lucky Lee, and he ultimately begins to question whether he can remain a prophet. Will he be blindsided by the discovery about his past and his love for Lucky Lee? Or will he be able to prevent the impending tragedy?

The Blindsided Prophet explores thinking at the deepest level and whether we have a say in shaping our thoughts, ideas and beliefs, or whether we are at God’s mercy. The idea that we must take responsibility for our thoughts and actions is a powerful theme. The Blindsided Prophet employs science and religion, whilst not mutually exclusive, to unravel themes of prophecy, incest, pain and love. Sonja Lewis conducted extensive biblical and scientific research whilst writing the book, and drew inspiration from a number of non-fiction authors including Joseph Murphy and Robert Waggoner as well as the fiction works of Tony Morrison and Gloria Naylor.

BOOK DETAILS:

Publisher: SDL Communications
Publication date: 9/20/2013
Pages: 384
ISBN: 978-0-9567105-3-6 (trade paperback)
ISBN: 978-0-9567105-5-0 (e-book Amazon)
ISBN: 978-0-9567105-4-3 (e-book Smashwords, Sony, Apple, Kobo, Diesel, Barnes & Noble, etc…)

PURCHASE LINKS:

           

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Guest Author JAMES BARNEY

WELCOME JAMES BARNEY


JAMES BARNEY

James Barney is the critically acclaimed author of The Genesis Key. He is an attorney who lives outside Washington, D.C., with his wife and two children.
Connect with James at these sites:

WEBSITE       

Q&A with James Barney

Do you draw from personal experiences and/or current events?
— I definitely draw from personal experience.  For instance, some of the action in the opening chapter of The Joshua Stone was inspired by my experiences as an engineering officer aboard a fast-attack nuclear submarine.  The scenes in Russia were inspired by my visit to Moscow a few years ago.  And the descriptions of particular buildings and locations in Washington, DC were all based on my personal observations.

Do you start with the conclusion and plot in reverse or start from the beginning and see where the storyline brings you?
— More of the latter.  I have a rough idea where the story will go, and I generally know how it will end.  But I let each chapter develop on its own and allow the story to change as necessary to keep it interesting and exciting.

Your routine when writing?  Any idiosyncrasies?
— For me, it’s catch-as-catch-can.  I write when I can find the time and have the inspiration.  My favorite time to write is early in the morning when the house is quiet and my mind is clear.

Is writing your full time job?  If not, may I ask what you do by day?
— I’m a lawyer by day.

Who are some of your favorite authors?
— Michael Crichton, Stephen King, Douglas Preston, Lee Child, Steve Berry, James Rollins, John Grisham, Scott Turow, and others.

What are you reading now?
— “Our Kind of Traitor” by John Le Carre’

Are you working on your next novel?  Can you tell us a little about it?
— Yes.  All I can say is it will be another exciting adventure for Mike Califano and Ana Thorne.

Your novel will be a movie.  Who would you cast?
— Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Would you rather read or watch TV/movie?
— Depends on my mood.

ABOUT THE BOOK
Some secrets belong to the past. Others refuse to stay there…
In 1959, in an underground laboratory in a remote region of West Virginia, a secret government experiment went terribly awry. Half a dozen scientists mysteriously disappeared, and all subsequent efforts to rescue them failed. In desperation, President Eisenhower ordered the lab sealed shut and all records of its existence destroyed. Now, fifty-four years later, something from the lab has emerged.
When mysterious events begin occurring along the New River Valley in West Virginia, government agents Mike Califano and Ana Thorne are sent to investigate. What they discover will shake the foundations of science and religion and put both agents in the crosshairs of a deadly, worldwide conspiracy. A powerful and mysterious force has been unleashed, and it’s about to fall into the wrong hands. To prevent a global catastrophe, Califano and Thorne must work together to solve a biblical mystery that has confounded scholars for centuries. And they must do so quickly, before time runs out . . . forever.
READ AN EXCERPT
PROLOGUE
Thurmond, West Virginia
October 5, 1959
IT was time. Dr. Franz Holzberg stood at the security desk of the Thurmond National Laboratory and waited patiently for the guard to buzz him through the heavy steel door that provided access to the lab. Funny, he thought as he waited. They don’t even know what they’re guarding. He shook his head and considered that thought for a moment.
If they only knew . . .
A second later, the door opened with a loud buzz, and Holzberg stepped into a steel enclosure about five feet square and seven feet tall. He turned to face the guard and pulled a chain-link safety gate across the opening.
“Ready?” asked the guard.
Holzberg nodded, and the compartment in which he stood suddenly lurched downward and began its long descent toward the laboratory spaces, nine hundred feet below the ground.
Two minutes later, the elevator shuddered to a halt, and Dr. Holzberg exited into a wide, empty passageway, about twenty feet across and two hundred feet long. The cracked, concrete floor was sparsely illuminated by overhead industrial lighting. A pair of rusty trolley rails ran down the middle of the corridor—a remnant of the mining operations that had once taken place there decades earlier.
Holzberg took a deep breath and savored the pungent smell of sulfur and stagnant water. After three long years of working on this project, he actually felt more at home underground than in the charmless cinder-block rambler that the government had provided for him “up top,” in Thurmond.
He started off toward the laboratory at the end of the corridor, his footsteps echoing loudly throughout the vast space. As he walked, the protocol for Experiment TNL-213 streamed through his mind for the thousandth time. Today is the day, he reminded himself, allowing just the faintest of smiles. Today, God would heed his command. Just as God heeded Joshua’s command at Gibeon.
Holzberg passed through the laboratory’s heavy security door and entered a long, rectangular room resembling a tunnel, with unpainted cement walls, ceiling, and floor.
The middle of the room was dominated by a large pool of water, twenty by thirty feet across and thirty feet deep, with a steel catwalk extending across it. A sturdy steel railing circumscribed the edge of the pool. Overhead, four long rows of incandescent bulbs illuminated the entire room with bright, white light. High up on the walls, thick, multicolored bundles of wires and cables snaked like garlands across sturdy brackets, with smaller bundles dropping down at uneven intervals to various lab equipment and workstations around the room.
Holzberg spotted four technicians in white lab coats busily preparing the lab for the upcoming experiment. He acknowledged them with a nod and then quickly made his way to an elevated control room overlooking the pool. He entered without knocking and greeted the room’s sole occupant, a bespectacled man in a white lab coat. “Good morning, Irwin,” said Holzberg in a thick German accent. “How are the modifications coming along?”
Dr. Irwin Michelson swiveled on his stool. He was a wiry man in his midthirties, with disheveled black hair and a two-day- old beard. He pushed his glasses up on his nose.
“They’re done,” he said.
“Done? You’ve tested it?”
“We changed out the power supply, like you suggested, and increased the cooling flow to two hundred gallons per minute. We tested it last night and were able to generate a ninety tesla pulse for twenty-five seconds with no overheating. We probably could go higher if we needed to.”
“Good. And the sensors and transducers?”
“All set.”
Holzberg nodded appreciatively to his tireless assistant.
“Sehr gut. Then let’s proceed.”
It took nearly three hours for Holzberg, Michelson, and their team of four technicians to complete the exhaustive checklist for TNL-213.
This experiment had taken three years to plan and had required millions of dollars in upgrades and modifications to the lab.
Nothing would be left to chance today.
By early afternoon they’d finished their thorough inspection of the equipment. They’d checked, double-checked, and triple-checked each of the hundreds of valves, levers, and switches associated with the lab’s “swimming pool” test rig. Everything was positioned according to a detailed test protocol that Dr. Holzberg carried in a thick binder prominently marked top secret—winter solstice.
Michelson knelt on the steel catwalk that bridged the 160,000-gallon pool of water and carefully inspected a rectangular steel chamber that was suspended above the water by four thick cables. Numerous electrical sensors were welded to the exterior of this chamber, and a rainbow of waterproof wires radiated out from it, coiling upward toward a thick, retractable wiring harness above the catwalk.
“Transducers are secure,” Michelson said over his shoulder.
“Good,” said Holzberg from the railing. He made a checkmark in his notebook and read the next step of the protocol aloud. “Mount the seed.”
Michelson stood and turned slowly to face his mentor.
“So it’s time?”
Holzberg nodded.
Michelson dragged a hand over his unshaven face and cracked a smile. “God, this . . . this is incredible.” He was barely able to contain his excitement. “This’ll give us a whole new understanding of the universe.”
“Perhaps,” said Holzberg.
“Right, perhaps. And perhaps the Nobel Prize, too.”
“No,” said Holzberg firmly, his expression suddenly turning dark.
“But . . . if this works, we could publish our findings. By then the government—”
“Irwin, no. We’ve had this discussion before.”
Michelson sighed and looked deflated. “Right, I know. Not until the world is ready.”
Holzberg inched closer to his protégé. “Irwin, this is a responsibility you must accept. Einstein himself was confounded by this material.”
“Einstein was overrated,” Michelson mumbled.
“Perhaps. But that does not change the fact that we have been entrusted with something very special here. We must study and solve it. Until we do, it is simply too dangerous to expose to the world. That is our burden. Do you understand?”
Michelson nodded sheepishly. Holzberg patted his younger colleague’s shoulder.
“Good. Now, let’s get the seed.”
The two men made their way to the far end of the room, where a circular vault was mounted flush with the cement wall. The vault door was protected by a bank-grade, dual-combination lock with twin tumblers. “Ready?” Holzberg asked.
Michelson nodded.
One after the other, the two men turned the pair of dials on the vault door four times each, alternating clockwise and counterclockwise. When the last of the eight numbers had been entered, Michelson pulled down hard on the heavy handle in the center of the door, and the vault opened with a metallic ka-chunk. He swung the door open slowly, and, as he did, the vault’s lights flickered, illuminating the interior with an ethereal blue light.
There was only one object in the vault: a clear glass cylinder about eight inches high and four inches in diameter housing an irregular black clump about the size of a golf ball. “The seed,” Holzberg whispered as he reached inside and retrieved the cylinder, cradling it carefully in both hands. He held it up to the light and peered inside. “Your secrets unfold today.”
Thirty minutes later, with the seed securely mounted in its special test chamber, and the chamber lowered deep into the pool, the two scientists returned to the control room for their final preparations.
“Transducer twenty-one?” said Holzberg, reading aloud from the test protocol.
Michelson pressed a button on the complex control panel and verified that transducer 21 was providing an appropriate signal. “Check.”
“Transducer twenty-two?”
Michelson repeated the procedure for transducer 22.
“Check.”
“That’s it then,” said Holzberg, turning to a new page in his notebook. “We’re ready.”
He checked his watch, which indicated 4:15 p.m. Then he picked up a microphone that was attached to the control panel by a long wire. “Gentlemen,” he announced over the lab’s PA system. “We are ready to commence experiment 213. Please take your positions.”
In the lab space below, the four technicians quickly took up positions at their various workstations. One after another, they gave the thumbs-up signal that they were ready.
“Energize the steady-field magnet,” announced Holzberg.
A loud, steady hum suddenly filled the lab, followed by the sound of rotating equipment slowly whirring to life.
Several seconds later, Michelson quietly reported over his shoulder that the steady-field magnet was energized and warming up.
“Remember,” Holzberg said, “bring it up slowly.”
Michelson nodded. “We’re at thirteen teslas and rising,” he said, his attention focused on a circular dial on the control panel.
“And the cooling water outlet temperature?”
Michelson glanced at another gauge. “Sixty-two degrees.”
Eight minutes later, Michelson announced they were at 25 teslas, the peak field for the steady-field magnet.
“Outlet temperature’s creeping up slightly,” he added with a hint of caution.
“What about delta T?”
Michelson pushed a button and read from a gauge on his panel. “Nothing yet. Zero point zero.”
Holzberg pressed the microphone button and announced to the lab, “Prepare to energize the pulse magnet.”
There was a flurry of activity in the lab space below as the technicians quickly went about opening valves, flipping switches, and starting various pumps and other equipment. Eventually, all four gave the thumbs-up signal.
“Ready,” reported Michelson.
Holzberg swallowed hard. This was it. He paused for a moment before giving the final command. “Energize it now.”
Michelson pulled down on an electrical breaker until it clicked loudly into place. A deep buzzing sound immediately permeated the entire laboratory. The overhead lights dimmed momentarily and then slowly returned to their original intensity. “Energized,” he reported nervously.
“Bring it up slowly.”
“Total field is twenty-seven point three teslas.” Michelson was slowly turning a large knob in the center of the control panel.
“Outlet temperature?”
“Seventy-eight degrees.”
“Keep going.”
Michelson continued turning the knob slowly until the magnetic-field strength had reached 70 teslas. There he paused and quickly checked his instruments.
“Outlet temperature is one hundred twenty-two degrees and rising,” he said nervously. “We don’t have much more room.”
“Any delta T?”
Michelson checked again and shook his head. “No. Still zero point zero.”
“Keep going,” said Holzberg.
Michelson nodded and again twisted the dial clockwise. He read out the magnetic-field strengths as he went.
“Seventy-six point four. Seventy-eight point zero. Eighty point two . . .”
“Temperatures, Irwin.”
Michelson quickly turned his attention to the outlet temperature gauge. “One hundred forty-five degrees and rising.”
“Keep going,” Holzberg said.
“Eighty-one teslas,” said Michelson nervously. “Eighty-two. Eighty-three.”
His voice cracked slightly. “Uh . . . we’re getting close to the outlet limit.”
“Any delta T yet?”
Michelson quickly checked. “No. Zero point zero.”
“We need a higher field.” Holzberg touched Michelson’s shoulder and nodded emphatically for him to continue.
Michelson’s voice grew increasingly nervous as he continued reporting the rising magnetic-flux levels. “Eighty-seven point three. Eighty-eight point four. Eighty-nine point six . . . ninety point one.”
Suddenly, there was a loud beep, and an amber light began flashing on the control panel.
“Outlet temperature alarm,” Michelson reported. “One hundred seventy-five degrees and still rising. Should I bring it back down?”
“No,” said Holzberg firmly. “We need a higher field.”
Michelson started to protest, but Holzberg cut him off.
“Irwin, the flux levels!”
Michelson snapped his attention back to the control panel. “Ninety-three point one . . . ninety-four point four . . .shit.”
Another shrill alarm sounded on the panel.
“Core temperature alarm!” Michelson shouted above the noise. “We’ve got to shut it down!” He began turning the knob counterclockwise.
“No!” Holzberg barked, grabbing his arm. “Check the delta T.”
Michelson wiped his brow and checked. “Delta T is . . . zero point one seconds.”
“My God,” Holzberg whispered. “It’s working!”
“Zero point two seconds,” Michelson reported, still holding down the button. “Zero point three . . . zero point four.”
“Bring it up just a bit more,” said Holzberg over the constant noise of the two alarms.
“But—”
“Do it!” Holzberg snapped.
Michelson swallowed hard and slowly tweaked the knob clockwise to increase the power to the pulse magnet.
“We’re gonna lift a relief valve.”
“What’s the reading?”
Michelson pushed the delta T button. “Whoa . . .”
“What is it?”
“Ten point five seconds. That’s incredible.” He continued holding the button down. “Fourteen seconds . . . twenty . . . thirty . . . fifty . . .”
“We’ve done it!” Holzberg exclaimed, patting Michelson on the back. “Okay, you can bring it back down now.”
Michelson quickly began twisting the knob counterclockwise. After several seconds, however, he suddenly looked confused.
“What is it?”
“Outlet temperature’s . . . still going up.” Michelson quickly pushed the button for delta T again. “Holy shit.”
Holzberg leaned in close and observed that the dial for delta T was now spinning rapidly clockwise. An odometer-style counter below the dial indicated that the accumulated value was now at 500 seconds . . . 600 seconds . . . 700 seconds.. . . The dial was spinning faster and faster.
“Shut it down!” Holzberg bellowed.
“I am. Look!” Michelson showed that he had already twisted the knob for the pulse magnet all the way to the left.
“Cut the power!”
At that moment, a thunderous scream erupted in the lab space below, and thick plumes of steam instantly billowed up from the pool. The technicians could be heard screaming emphatically to each other.
“Relief valves are lifting!” Michelson yelled over the cacophony.
Holzberg was just about to say something when suddenly there was a blinding flash of white light below. Instinctively, he shielded his eyes.
“My God,” Michelson shouted. “Look at that!”
Holzberg uncovered his eyes and gazed in awe at the spectacle now occurring in the lab below him. A brilliant aura of light was hovering directly above the reactor pool, swirling in undulating patterns of blue, green, red, and yellow. The aura lasted for several seconds before giving way to a violent, blinding column of light that shot suddenly out of the pool, straight to the ceiling.
Holzberg again shielded his eyes.
A split second later, there was a loud whoosh and the entire lab filled with blinding white light. The control room windows shattered instantly, and Dr. Holzberg hit the floor.
The blinding light and whooshing sound subsided after several seconds, leaving in their place a terrifying jumble of alarm sirens and horns and the panicked shouts of the technicians below. Holzberg groped on hands and knees through the broken glass until he found the prone body of Dr. Michelson, who was either unconscious or dead.
“Irwin!” said Dr. Holzberg.
There was no response.
With effort, Holzberg pulled himself to his feet and gazed in utter disbelief at the chaos unfolding below him.
“Mein Gott,” he whispered. “What have we done?”
A second later, a man in a black leather coat suddenly appeared in the lab space below, seemingly from nowhere. Who is that? Holzberg wondered, utterly confused. And why does he look familiar?
BOOK DETAILS:

Genre: Thriller/Suspense
Published by: William Morrow Paperbacks
Publication Date: 10/8/2013
Number of Pages: 416
ISBN: 978006202139

PURCHASE LINKS:

           

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DISCLAIMER
I received a copy of this book, at no charge to me, in exchange for my honest review. No items that I receive are ever sold…they are kept by me, or given to family and/or friends.
ADDENDUM
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Guest Author LORI FOSTER showcase & giveaway ENDED

WELCOME BACK LORI FOSTER

LORI FOSTER

Since first publishing in January 1996, Lori Foster has become a Waldenbooks, Borders, USA TODAY, Publishers Weekly and New York Times bestselling author. She also received the Romantic Times “Career Achievement Award” for Series Romantic Fantasy and Contemporary Romance.

Lori believes it is important to give back to the community as much as possible, so she routinely arranges events among authors and readers to gather donations for various organizations.
Connect with Lori at these sites:

WEBSITE        TWITTER   

Q&A with Lori Foster

Do you start with the conclusion and plot in reverse or start from the beginning and see where the story line brings you?
The ideas are just… there. I’m so amazed by authors who can teach this stuff, because it’s impossible for me. I’ll be minding my own business (often working on a different book) and bam! I get hid upside the head with characters who want on the page – or sometimes they just show up on the page without even introducing themselves first – and sometimes that’s not enough for them. They want their own books too!

It’s almost magical to me. I could never dissect the process or explain it.

It just is.

Once the characters are there, THEY tell me what the idea is. They lead me through the plot, sometimes page by page – although sometimes they tell me the whole story right up front.

Your routine when writing?  Any idiosyncrasies?
I prefer to write at my desk at the lake house and I write from the morning, say around 10 am (after I’ve finished emails and online stuff) until 5 or 6pm. When I’m under a close deadline that expands with me starting earlier and going later in the day. I’m only at the lake house during mild/warm weather though, and I like my office space at home too. At the lake house, my desk overlooks the lake, and at home my desk faces French doors that lead to the pond. Water inspires me!

I LOVE my music playlist. I have a lot of Kid Rock on there. He’s my fave. Also KORN. Lots & lots of KORN. Some Marilyn Manson. Cage the Elephant. Nirvana. I have a few artists where I like only one song – like “Rumour” by Adele, or “List of Demands” from Saul Williams.  Overall I have around 200 songs on my playlist.

What is your favorite book?
Of my own? Hmmm. Probably “My House, My Rules,” from one of the Bad Boy anthologies.

Of others? Well, I love the Sherbrook series by Catherine Coulter.  If I can only pick one, maybe “Perfect Partners” by Jayne Ann Krentz. It was so brilliant!

What’s on your nightstand right now?
Clock, lamp, decorative tissue box, plug for my iPad, a pair of eye glasses (I have several around the house) and CRASH INTO YOU by Katie McGarry. It’s *amazing.* I’d have finished reading it by now, except we just welcomed our 3rd grandson into the world and that occupied me for a few days.

What are you working on next?
I just finished Dash’s story. Dash is the brother of the hero from the first book, RUN THE RISK. I think readers will be surprised with Dash now that it’s his turn to reveal his soul. I know I was surprised! I kept thinking, Dash, you devil! Lol.

And now I’m ready to get started on Cannon’s book. Cannon (You met him in GETTING ROWDY) will actually star in the first book of a new series set for Sept 2014.  I really enjoyed him in GETTING ROWDY, and he has a larger role in Dash’s book, DASH OF PERIL (April 2014) so I hope readers like him as much as I do!

Favorite leisure activity/hobby?
My favorite pastime is anything with family. We have big family parties at my house. I look for reasons to invite all 60+ people over.

I also love, love, love going to movies. Horror and action are my favorite movie genres, but I can comedy and romance in a pinch. Drama… almost never. Who needs more drama? How is that entertainment?

Also really love the outdoors for relaxing. Hubby and I love to go to Hocking Hills (Fantastic place! Look it up!) or Cumberland Falls or The Natural Bridge. We have a small lake house and I spend much of the summer there. Boating, swimming, skiing… just being outside and seeing the birds and fish and hearing the breeze in the trees and feeling the sun on my skin… Love it.

Favorite meal?
I love roast and mashed potatoes, stuffed pork chops, beef stew and bean soup and sauerkraut with ribs… I’m a country girl.

ABOUT THE BOOK

An alpha hero’s attraction to the one woman he can’t have could draw him into a killer’s snare.

Charismatic bar owner Rowdy Yates isn’t the kind of man women say no to. So when he approaches waitress Avery Mullins, he fully expects to get her number. However, the elusive beauty has her reasons for keeping her distance— including a past that might come back to haunt them both.

Avery spends her nights working for tips…and trying to forget the secret Rowdy is determined to unearth. But when history threatens to repeat itself, Avery grows to rely on Rowdy’s protective presence. As the sparks between them ignite, she will be forced to choose between the security she’s finally found…and the passion she’s always wanted.

BOOK DETAILS:

Genre: Contemp. Romance
Publisher: Harlequin HQN Books
Publication Date: October 2013
Number of Pages: 400
ISBN-13: 978-0-373-77779-2

PURCHASE LINKS:

           

Watch the trailer

 
THANKS TO VERONICA AT MEDIA MUSCLE/THE BOOK TRIB,
I
HAVE ONE (1) COPY TO GIVE AWAY.
OPEN TO US and CANADA RESIDENTS
FILL OUT RAFFLECOPTER ENTRY FORM BELOW
GIVEAWAY ENDS NOVEMBER 8th AT 6PM EST

WINNER WILL BE CHOSEN BY RAFFLECOPTER AND NOTIFIED
VIA EMAIL AND WILL HAVE 48 HOURS TO RESPOND
OR ANOTHER NAME WILL BE CHOSEN

a Rafflecopter giveaway

YOUR JAVA SCRIPT MAY NEED TO BE UPDATED
IF YOU AR EXPERIENCING DIFFICULTY
USING THE RAFFLECOPTER ENTRY FORM

DISCLAIMER
I received a copy of this book, at no charge to me, in exchange for my honest review. No items that I receive are ever sold…they are kept by me, or given to family and/or friends.
ADDENDUM
I do not have any affiliation with Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble. I am an IndieBound affiliate. I am providing link(s) solely for visitors that may be interested in purchasing this Book/EBook.