The Mystery of Egypt

My guest is award winning author who describes herself as a woman with a varied and checkered past. And boy, oh boy, she has. Nina Bruhns writes about dangerous passions whether it is in her romantic thriller trilogy Passion For Danger series (Berkley Sensation), Nocturne, or romance for Silhouette and Harlequin. It’s her trademark or brand, if you will. She does an excellent job with it.

Nina admits, “…I like to push the envelope in my stories. I think much of the appeal of romance is the seductive fantasy it allows women to indulge in safely. A woman whose days are filled with diapers or spreadsheets, PTA or sales meetings, wants to be swept away in a romantic fantasy for a few hours, into a world where she can quench her thirst for love and romantic adventure, and fulfill her dreams of a man who instinctively satisfies her deepest yearnings. I love writing about feisty heroines who do things I would never dare to do in real life. My heroes are dark and dangerous men who ooze sensuality–but who know how to treat a lady.”

I had the opportunity to attend a workshop she was part of about writing danger. It was a lot of fun and I learned so much. Applying the knowledge is a bit more difficult, but I’m getting it down. I had the opportunity to meet Nina. She has a lovely smile, a savvy knowledge of writing and the market. Nina is also a fun person to talk to with a great sense of humor—which is also reflected in her writing.

Nina says the trilogy she’s written for Nocturne is one she’s wanted to write for sometime. And by the way, she really is an archaeologist (an Egyptologist).


Thank you so much to Sia for having me as a guest here at Over Coffee!

Many of my readers don’t know that I am an Egyptologist—-I’d say in real life, except that it’s kind of the other way around. Writing novels is my real life these days, and despite the three college degrees, traveling around Egypt doing archaeological digs and surveys has been relegated to the realm of my imagination. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing...

This week the second book in my IMMORTAL SHEIKHS trilogy, SHADOW OF THE SHEIKH, was released by Harlequin Nocturne (book 1, LORD OF THE DESERT, came out in August).

The series takes place in modern Egypt, in a setting filled with all sorts of fun mythological and paranormal elements. These are truly books of my heart. You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to write these stories! But when I first started writing romance my editor would not even look at ideas with exotic settings, let alone ancient gods, immortals, and shape-shifters. Wow, how things have changed!

In this series, I have absolutely loved being able to use my knowledge of this amazing ancient culture to bring it back to life for my readers...with a cool twist. It is all still happening today. My strong, independent heroines, three American sisters, become immersed in the mysterious world of the last surviving Egyptian demigods. And boy, do they find things they never imagined existed. Including, of course, love.

Did I mention the vampire?

When I was on my first archaeological expedition to northern Sudan (which was part of Egypt in ancient times) we stayed in a tiny village on the Nile. The area around this village was supposed to have the most vampires in all of Africa. Okay, then. Freaked out? Me? Just a little.

Trust me, I’m no vampire expert. But when my editor suggested I make one of my lead characters a vampire (the hero of book 3, VAMPIRE SHEIKH, coming in February, who appears in all three books), I remembered that village (who could forget!), and thought how interesting it would be to incorporate the incredibly sexy archetype of the vampire lord into the ancient Egyptian pantheon. So I took the few references I found to vampirism in Pharaonic times and shaped them into a plausible addition to the existing mythology, which I then used to build the paranormal world in the trilogy.

The result is a blend of vamp and Egyptian mystery which I think make the stories really unusual and interesting. When you combine that with three hunky shape-shifting sheikhs and three sizzling hot romances, I think my readers will really enjoy this trilogy!

I hope you’ll let me know what you think!
~*~*~*~

Series Premise: The Immortal Sheikhs…

The three Haliday sisters are not afraid of mummies. Nor of silly ancient Egyptian curses. Get real. This is the twenty-first century! Besides, anthropologist Gemma, historian Gillian, and archaeologist Josslyn Haliday spent their childhoods sharing their sleeping tent with mummies and telling each other stories of fantastic shapeshifters and vampires, as they accompanied their Egyptologist father on his digs…ever since the fateful day their mother mysteriously disappeared into the sands of Egypt twenty years ago.

Brave, modern women all three, it would never occur to any of them to fear the dead…or the living dead.

But that is all about to change…

Shadow Of The Sheikh Back Cover Blurb:


Sheikh Shahin Aswadi—the harbinger of death, a ghostly figure who rides the wind in the form of a powerful black hawk. No mortal has dared approach his hidden oasis encampment for nearly a century. They are all terrified by the ruthless legend of al Shahin.

All but intrepid anthropologist Gemma Haliday. Determined to find her missing sister, Gemma has foolishly disregarded the dire warnings of local villagers…and walks straight into a trap Shahin has laid for her.

He takes the beautiful mortal captive, determined to use her, then gift her to his vampire lord, Seth-Aziz, as a blood sacrifice.

But one taste of Gemma’s lips and he knows he must possess her for fully and for all time. And he wants her to burn for him as he burns for her, with a desire as hot and vast as his desert home. Excerpt  TRAILER



Buy: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Chapters Indigo.ca

Is an avid world traveler and adventurer with two graduate degrees in archaeology -- all great fodder for her stories, giving them broad dimension, vivid settings and characters that are out of the ordinary. Her novels have earned two RITA nominations, and won numerous other awards, including three prestigious Daphne du Maurier Awards of Excellence for Overall Best Mystery Suspense Novel of the Year, five Dorothy Parker Awards, several RT BookClub Awards and a National Readers Choice Award.

A native of Canada, Nina grew up in California and currently resides in beautiful Charleston, South Carolina.

Monday Musings "I'm Late, I'm Late, I'm Late"

I got a bit of a late start on this article. Blame it on insanity and an incredibly busy life of late, lol! Today’s sort of a hodgepodge of stuff. I have some great guest visiting over the next couple weeks.

This past Saturday, I had the chance to spend time with a friend, Olivia Cunning, part of my incredible online writing group, The Writing Wombats. I’ve met quite of few of the Wombats at conferences and events.

Saturday was Olivia’s first book signing with Backstage Pass, and the first book in the hot new series, Sinners On Tour. What a great time! Olivia had wonderful hosts (Doug and Shannon Wilson) at Village Book Store in Columbia. Doug Wilson was hamming it up in the store—I get the impression he does this on a regular basis, in fact I have it on good authority he can be a lovable dork. I loved meeting him. I did see him with his semi serious face recommending various books to an avid reader and was impressed with both his love and knowledge of various genres and authors.

The fabulous Becky is standing

Becky Asher was fabulous as well. She had read Backstage Pass, not once but several times. She not only talks it up but also was able to pull together a huge group to stop by while Olivia was there, some from online (like Facebook), the Village reading group, and the normal walk in customers that stopped by to see what was going on in our section of the store. I’m sure all the laughter and high-jinx drew some as well. And we did have lots of laughter. She was a grand hostess, running for drinks and goodies, making sure everyone had something to munch on or drink. I took a wrong turn getting to the store and had to call—only to find out I was merely a couple of blocks away—but she waited outside the door for me to arrive! Wow! I have a great deal of respect for her knowledge of genres and authors who write them and book industry in general. Part of the Village reading group was there and the discussion that ensued was remarkable as was the span of ages of the visitors in addition to having both males and females participating in the lively discussions.

Olivia knows well how to handle a crowd but I brought her chocolate just in case she needed an extra boost. I’m thinking I should have brought some Motrin or Aleve to for her arm and hand. She signed so many books it’s a wonder it didn’t fall off. The good news was she sold all the books the store had on hand and the extras ordered in for the signing event. The only thing that would have made this a better event was if we could have had the Sinners with us, lol!

If you you’re anywhere near Village Book Store, do stop by and visit with the amazing staff. It’s well worth the trip!

Upcoming guests: Glenda Larke, Stormlord Rising, Sheila Roberts , The Snow Globe, Donna Grant, Wicked Highlander, Nina Bruhn, Shadow of the Sheik (Immortal Sheiks Trilogy), Caridad Piñeiro , Stronger Than Sin.

So be sure to stop by and visit with us!