Tuesday, July 26, 2011

SPOTLIGHT ON........

CARIBBEAN SCOT by Kimberly Killion

Forced to flee Scotland, renegade Reid MacGregor prospers as a fortune hunter int he rich waters of the Caribbean. But there are two treasures he has yet to claim - the lost library of an ancient Mayan priestess and the wild lass he left behind.

BUY LINK: http://www.amazon.com/Caribbean-Scot-ebook/dp/B0050VQCH4/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1311737143&sr=1-1
Also available in Print.

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Friday Free For All - Meet Author Vonnie Davis!!

Please help me welcome the wonderfully delightful Vonnie Davis. You might recognize the last name; her husband Calvin was my guest last Friday. (How wonderful to share something like the love of writing with the one you love)
Vonnie is a fellow Wild Rose Press author and I've had great fun getting to know her. She brought her wonderful new release, STORM'S INTERLUDE, so anyone of you ladies who love a sexy cowboy, here's your story!
You can find out about Vonnie at her website www.vonniedavis.com
but please come back and visit with us!
Thanks so much for being here today, Vonnie.

 Was your road to publication a delightful stroll in the park or a tiring jog over hot coals?
I’d have to say it was more like a roller-coaster ride. I was eleven when I decided I wanted to write. My family told me I had no talent and to stop hanging onto the silly idea of writing. So, I folded my dream and tucked it into that secret, yearning place of my heart where private dreams are warehoused. Every so often, I’d take the treasured dream out, unfold it and wonder. And like that long, slow, eerily quiet ride up the steep first hill of a giant roller-coaster, I kept asking myself could do it? Could I? Could I?

Two years ago, I finished my first book and was able to get an agent. Too bad we couldn’t get a publisher. I set the project aside and started Storm’s Interlude on the 4th of July last year. The story just flowed, and I had it written in 3 months. Once my agent got around to reading it, she sent me a text saying she was “loving it.” Dawn read it in two days. We did two back-and-forth’s with Tract Changes before she felt it was ready to “shop out.”

Then the roller-coaster executed its first dip, leading to a wild ride of twists and turns. Dawn started shopping it out on a Monday to a list of publishers of varied sizes that we’d agreed upon. A small publisher sent a contract the following Monday. Dawn and I talked on the phone for over an hour about the pros and cons of their offer. I told her I was hoping we’d hear from The Wild Rose Press. Her reply? “If that’s the one you want, let me see what I can do.” Not only did she contact TWRP, but she also emailed all the publishers she queried and told them I’d been offered a contract, but that she’d hold me off from signing for two weeks to give other publishers a chance to offer. I thought at the time she was being very ballsy; I mean, I’m a nobody—and an unpublished nobody, at that. Almost all of them agreed to the two-week deadline. My nerves were a mess. What if no one wanted it? What if the first publisher got miffed because I was stalling on signing and rescinded their offer? Then I’d have nothing. I was living on Tums.

One week later, TWRP offered. So I had two contract offers in two weeks. I was ready to sign to end the angst, believe me. Dawn wanted me to wait—just to see. Calvin went to the drugstore for more Tums.

No more contracts were offered, but I did get the nicest rejection from an editor at Harlequin, who said she loved my characters and story. But since I wrote similar to Linda Lael Miller, she’d have a hard time convincing the acquisitions committee to take on another writer in the same vein. I cried. I mean, just the thought of Ms. Miller and me in the same sentence was overwhelming. Just between us, I was in the ladies room at the local theater when Dawn’s text, with the forward of the Harlequin editor’s remarks, came through. I sat on the “throne” and cried. When I exited and walked toward Calvin, he said, “Angel what’s wrong? You’ve been crying!” I told him and, in his typical laidback manner, he asked, “Who’s Linda ‘Liar’ Miller?” He is a trip!

So from the time I typed “Chapter One” to the day I held the book in my hands exactly one year passed. One wild, exceptional, lovely year.
 
  Where is your favorite place to write?

You’ll laugh. One day a week, we go to Bob Evans for breakfast. The waitress hooks me up to a coffee IV, and I write. We camp out there for a couple hours. Then we go to McDonalds for several hours, where I write and Calvin reads his newspapers on the Kindle. When the janitor starts mopping around our feet, we pack up and head to one of our favorite restaurants. We eat and write some more. I can write between 2500-3000 words on those days. The rest of the days, I write in the living room in my recliner.

  Do you have critique partners?

Yes, I do! Sue Fineman. What a help she’s been. She can zoom in on plot holes in an instant. She also pointed out that although my h/h talked quite differently at the beginning of the book, by the end I had them sounding alike. Yikes! She also says I have the strangest uses for commas. I laugh as I write this, because she is SO right. I am comma challenged.

 What was the best advice you were given leading you to getting published?

Calvin took me by the shoulders one day and said, “Time to stop making excuses. Write. Write what you’d like to read. But, for God’s sake, write!”

 Tell us a little about your WIP.

I have a romantic suspense Mona Lisa’s Room, set in Paris and a little seaside community on the Normandy coast, that’s under consideration with an editor at TWRP. It’s the first book in The Red Hand Conspiracy. I’m starting the research on book number two, which will take place in Paris and Budapest.
  
Tropical or European vacation?

I’ll take Europe. Calvin and I have been to Paris and Berlin several times. Calvin’s only child, Kelly, lives in Berlin with his wife, a native Berliner. Paris is my favorite city in the whole world. Expensive, with the US dollar devalued so, but beautiful. I could easily live there, but my checkbook squeaks, “Are you kidding me?”

Blurb for Storm’s Interlude:

Nurse Rachel Dennison comes to Texas determined to prepare her new patient for a second round of chemo. What she isn’t counting on is her patient’s twin brother, Storm Masterson. Despite her initial attraction, Storm has two things Rachel can’t abide: a domineering personality and a fiancĂ©e. Half Native American, with the ability to have "vision dreams," Storm dreams about Rachel for three nights before her arrival. Both are unprepared for the firestorm of emotions their first chance encounter ignites. Ultimately, it is Rachel’s past—an abusive, maniacal ex-boyfriend—that threatens to keep them apart…and Storm’s dreams that bring them together again.


Excerpt:
Rachel fisted her hands on her hips. “Don’t you have an imagination?”
Storm’s eyes swept down her body, over her sleek, lime green one-piece swimsuit. A slow smile spread across his handsome face and his dimples flashed. She felt her nipples tighten in response—damn them anyhow.
His eyes swept back up to lock on hers. “Oh, believe me, I’ve got a very vivid imagination.” He reached out and lightly ran a fingertip up her arm. A frisson of desire flooded her system so fast it nearly buckled her knees. For one second they were oblivious to their surroundings. Storm stepped closer. Her breathing quickened. Her tongue licked her bottom lip in nervousness, and she swore she heard him groan.
Sawyer shot past, jarring them from their private sensual cocoon. “Gotta go bafroom!”
Storm stepped back, shaking his head. “Kid’s got perfect timing.”
Please come visit me at Vintage Vonnie sometime.



Buy Links:

The Wild Rose Press -- http://bit.ly/rcCIMa

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Spotlight On..........

TORMENTED HEARTS by 
Loreen Augeri

An earl devastated by his wife’s death and the part he played in it; a commoner fleeing from her abusive, aristocratic husband.  Both want to be left alone to deal with life as best they can, but circumstances and the earl’s scheming brother constantly throw them together.


The link to buy the paperback is http://tiny.cc/lcqa2
The link to buy the e-book is http://tiny.cc/04n8n

www.loreenaugeri.com

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Free For All Friday -- And I Have A SURPRISE!!

I'm so excited to host my first MALE author here on the blog! Please help me welcome CALVIN DAVIS. We'll try to go easy on you, Calvin, tho' your lovely wife tells me you are a true southern charmer, so maybe I should tell you to go easy on my readers;)  LOL  You might leave a trail of broken hearts after today!
Ladies, Calvin has brought THE PHANTOM LADY OF PARIS, a romantic suspense! Here are the links to find out more about Calvin's work,
but be sure to come back and leave a comment for this brave guinea -- I mean man;)  Thanks again for joining me here today, Calvin!

Jennifer, thank you for having a guy on your lovely blog. I understand you are a historical author. Well, at my age, I am a piece of history, so be gentle with me.

What is the most difficult for you to write: Characters, conflict, emotions?
Emotion. To write an emotional scene, one must make a withdrawal from a character’s emotional bank. To do that, the writer must know the amounts and types of deposits to that character’s account. Were they shown love with total abandon? Were they constantly criticized? Compared to others? Were they spurned? Abused? For example, it’s often hard for me to put myself into a female’s head. Take sexual harassment on a job, for example. Or a sexual assault. I have no clue what that would do to the female psyche. For sure, I have a general idea, but I struggle with all the nuances of the emotional scars such acts would leave. Men think in generalities. Women, in the details. I can walk down a dark street at night with zero fear. Not so for a woman. I have to stretch to understand her fears, how her heart would pound, how every noise would up her stress ante. Thank goodness, I can talk it over with Vonnie and gain her insight.

If you were going to cast the hero of your book, what actor would get the part?
Ben Affleck. I like his intensity; it matches Paul’s, I think.

What was the best advice you were given leading you to getting published?
I have two good pieces of advice. The first came from my brother when he got his PhD from Harvard. It’s not always the smartest or most talented who succeed, but those who refuse to give up. The second I heard in a writers’ group years ago: Don’t be afraid to kill off your children. Sometimes sentences have to go, no matter how well-written or poetic they are.

Favorite romance movie?
Woody Allen’s recent release, “Midnight in Paris.” Most of it was filmed on the Left Bank. The scenery was like going back home. I lived on the Left Bank for a year in 1968-69. I sat at sidewalk cafes for hours and wrote, sipped espressos and absorbed French culture. An interesting note: I’d taken French in high school, college and graduate school, plus a Berlitz immersion class prior to taking my sabbatical. When I stepped off the plane and heard French people speak, I thought the plane had landed in the wrong country. Conversational French is miles apart from classroom French.

Do you believe in love at first sight or just lust at first sight?
Now is this a fair question knowing my wife will read this post? You’re killing me here. First, let’s define lust. I think physical attraction is important initially. For example, I’m a sucker for a nice smile or pretty eyes. Vonnie and I met on an internet dating site. We emailed and instant messaged every night for a couple months. So we knew a lot about each other. We’d formed a tentative bond. The first time I saw Vonnie, I thought “Look at that pretty smile.” But I have to admit, it was that first hug that sealed the deal. She melted into me, and I was lost. Then, as we grew closer, I realized we had a lot in common. I realized she was a very gentle, compassionate person. I also learned she’d go up against a bully in the blink of an eye if she saw someone being pushed around—and if that someone were a child, God help the bully. I knew I’d found a good-hearted woman in a cold-hearted world. Lucky me.

If you could time travel would you go forward or backward?
Backward. I’ve had some good times in my life. It would be nice to go back and relive them. Calling back the good times of yesterday would be sweet. Would I want to go back further in time? No.

What music are you listening to lately?
Tom Jones new album “Rain,” Charles Asnovour’s  “Le Bohme,” Anything by Willie Nelson and, of course, The  Beatles.

Blurb for The Phantom Lady of Paris
A suspense-filled love story, The Phantom Lady of Paris, tells of American Paul Lasser and his sojourn in the City of Light, where he meets the mysterious Phantom Lady, Bonnie Silver a woman who is more question marks than periods. Why is she in Paris and why do French pilice investigate her and her “persons-of-interest” friends? One friend, a flower child, overdoses on drugs. Another morphs into a terrorist, bombing cafes. Is a communist agitator an associate of Bonne’s? Slowly, Paul unearths answers and while they quench his need to know, they will forever haunt him.

Excerpt –
The Phantom Lady of Paris? I knew her well. On the other hand—as I later discovered—I didn’t know her at all. The woman did everything wrong. She did nothing wrong. She was a Jezebel, deceptive in every way. I’ve never known a more honest and straightforward person. During our relationship, she kept me constantly jittery and perturbed. The happiest days of my life were those I shared with the Phantom Lady of Paris. They were the golden days, the good times, good, that is, until…
Don’t let her name mislead. She was not an apparition, nor a creation of some writer’s fantasy, a fiend-like character in, say, an Edgar Allen Poe tale or one by Stephen King or Franz Kafka. No, she was real all right and, above all, she was human, more human than anyone I’d known and, I’m sure, will ever know again. And in spite of my blundering ways, she taught me what it really means to be a human being.
The Phantom Lady was a down-to-earth mortal possessing a unique dream, one fabricated from her passion for living, some of which passion she shared with me and with others fortunate enough to have known her.    
As her name suggests, she lived in Paris, lived there during the most turbulent times the city has known since the bloodletting and mayhem of the French Revolution. She resided in The City of Light during the Vietnam War and peace protests in the United States and Europe, Sorbonne student riots on the Left Bank and worldwide clashes between “The Establishment” and “The Flower Generation.” It was an era of cataclysmic social eruption and revolutionary clashes of ideas and age groups.
I was a grown man when I met the Phantom Lady. All was going well with me. My life was in balance, and I knew how to live it. In spite of that, the moment the Phantom Lady and I met marked the real beginning of my life. Everything preceding that instant was meaningless prologue. During our initial chat, which lasted about three hours--though it seemed a fleeting moment--I learned for the first time what life is all about and how I should live mine.
On the morning we met, she taught me many things about myself that were, until then, mysteries. And what did I learn about her? Very little. Basically, I learned that she was more question marks than periods, and that something mysterious lurked behind each question mark. I wasn’t prepared for what the hidden thing turned out to be. But looking back at what happened the morning I met her and everything that ensued, I wonder, what human being could have possibly been prepared for the startling revelation that developed and how it would change not only my life, but hers…and change both forever?
            Who could have been prepared?                          
No one.

LINKS:
BUY LINKS:

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Spotlight On........

ANCIENT BLOOD: Book 2 in the Rhodes End Series by BARBARA EDWARDS

Lily Alban might deny her growing desire for Cole, but she seeks his help to find her stalker. She soon discovers the man she loves is not a man at all.
Werewolf Cole Benedict is determined to protect Lily from her stalker as well as himself even in human form, but instinct takes over when he changes to his inner beast.
Revealing their secrets to one another could destroy their growing love or save them both.
 
Author Website:www.barbaraedwards.net  

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Friday Free For All - Meet Author Marie Tuhart!


Hello everyone! Help me welcome a fellow Wild Rose Press author, the talented MARIE TUHART. She's brought a wonderful excerpt from her latest release, SADDLE UP. (That is one hot cover, Marie!)
And who doesn't love a sexy cowboy?? 
You can find out more about Marie and her work at  www.marietuhart.com but then come on back and learn more about Marie;)

Thanks for joining us today, Marie!


Q: Was your road to publication a delightful stroll in the park or a tiring job over hot coals?
A: I would really like to say it was a delightful stroll, but it wasn't.  I spend years writing before I found the right publisher with the right book.
Q: Do you have critique partners?
A: Yes, I have two.  We got together the year I published, they pushed me to take some hard looks at my career.
Q: What was the best advice you were given leading you to getting published?
A: Keep writing not matter who rejects you, keep moving forward
Q: Do you believe in love at first sight or just lust at first sight?
A: I believe in both.  I've been in lust at first sight and love at first sight, so they both apply.
Q: Tropical or European vacation?
A: European, I so want to visit Europe again.

Quick Silver Ranch: Saddle Up – Blurb:
At loose ends after her best friend's wedding, Angie Davidson needs a vacation, so when the gorgeous yet aloof co-owner of the Quick Silver Ranch insists she stay to explore their sexual attraction, she agrees. Though she eagerly bows to his commanding touch in the bedroom, Jared's distant air after lovemaking sparks too many bad memories. Dare she yield to his sexy persuasion and prove he has nothing to fear or will he abandon her like everyone else in her life? 

Eager to explore Angie’s vulnerable, submissive nature, Jared plans two weeks of toys and other naughty play. However, the last time he reached for a woman—mentally and physically—she rejected his dominant streak. Jared has no intention of letting Angie that close, no matter how sweetly she shivers beneath his hands. 

Can two bruised hearts discover a way to make their tantalizing escape into the perfect way of life?

Quick Silver Ranch: Saddle Up – Excerpt:
Angie drank in the feeling of his body against hers. His hardness to her softness, and part of her wanted to melt in a puddle at his feet, another part wanted to be bold and daring. 

“Becca mentioned that you're closing down the ranch for a while.” Maybe a little flirting would work. 

“Two weeks. There needs to be some renovations done, and the staff needs some downtime. It was a good time to do it with Tyler gone.” 

“How much can be done in two weeks?” She thought back to when they were renovating the offices she now worked in, it seemed like it took months and with every little problem the workmen came to her. 

“A lot, if you know how to motivate people.” 

“Really?” Angie tilted her head up and fluttered her eyelashes. “And how would you do that?” 

The corners of Jared's lips tilted up. “Lots of money.” 

Okay, subtle flirting wasn't working with him. Her fingers trailed over his broad shoulder, to his neck, where she stroked his dark brown hair. His hand tightened on her lower back, bringing their hips together. And Angie swore she could feel his hard erection. Good, he wasn't immune to her. 

She let her fingers skim from his neck, down over his shoulder blade, down his spine, over his well-defined ass, until she could rest her palm over his butt cheek. Then she squeezed it. 

“Behave.” His breath brushed her ear and he swatted her ass. 

“You hit me.” She couldn't believe it; he actually smacked her on the ass. Not that it hurt, but heat flowed through her body making her nipples grow harder. She’d never realized a little swat could make her so hot. 

“I'll do worse if you don't behave yourself, Angie.” 

“Promise?” The word was out of her mouth before she even realized it. The music ended, Jared escorted her back to the table and pulled out her chair. 

His palms cupped her cheeks, tilting her face up to his. “We'll talk later.” He dropped a hard brief kiss on her lips before striding away. 

Angie's heart skipped several beats while she observed Jared cross the room. She put her fingers to her lips and sank down onto the chair with her core pulsing with need and her panties wet. If he met her later, they wouldn't be talking if she had anything to say about it.
Marie's website: www.marietuhart.com
Marie is on Facebook and twitter under: Marie Tuhart – avatar Tiger