“There is a thin line that separates laughter and pain, comedy and tragedy, humor and hurt.”
My guest is women's fiction author, Leanna Ellis. Her forte is handling subjects and emotion with humor.
We all hit different forms of writer's block. I think it comes with the territory. How we deal with it is also individualist. I'm a firm believer that God never allows us to face an obstacle alone. He always makes the way out for us. The secret is to see the path provided and then have enough trust to follow it, especially given the fact that humans tend to have *eye* problems. You know what I mean; I think, I feel,I want?
I love Leanna's article of running out of words, dealing with grief and grayness of spirit. It resonated with me as I have faced similar issues this year. Leanna was provided an unlikely hero, Hilo. But I'll let her tell you all about that.
What happens when you run out of words? Recently I came back from a writer’s conference, and I was frankly all talked out. Usually I sit in the quiet (or near quiet, except for my barking dogs, meowing cat and children coming and going, okay not-so-quiet) of my house and write my books. But what happens when an author runs out of words?
This happened to me not too long ago. Right when I was supposed to begin writing my book, FACELIFT. No words. They just wouldn’t come. You see, my father had just passed away. To make matters worse, I write books with a big dose of humor and I frankly didn’t feel very humorous. Erma Bombeck once said, “There is a thin line that separates laughter and pain, comedy and tragedy, humor and hurt.” Those words are so true, and actually describe my writing pretty well. I write about deep subjects, difficult subjects, deep in the heart subjects, and package it all up in humor. But after my father died, humor was hard to come by. And the well of words I’d been drawing from for almost twenty years was dry.
What’s an author to do? First of all, I tried to be patient with myself. When I could only write ‘Chapter Five’ one day, not the chapter, just those two words: chapter five, I breathed deeply, tried not to panic, and said, “Maybe tomorrow.” Cue in the music from Annie here, right?
The words still didn’t come. Day after day I had no words to put on the page. But I was busy helping my children through their grief and as they finished up the school year. There were lots of activities to keep us busy and kept me moving even when there were days that I didn’t want to get out of bed.
But the one thing that really got me moving was my crazy labradoodle, Hilo, named after our favorite vacation spot on the big island of Hawaii. She was a puppy, not quite one year old, and she had more energy than all of my other animals and children combined. I’d raised several animals in my time but never had I experienced a dog like this. Think Marley and Me…but worse! She could jump in one bound onto my dining room table. And she did regularly. She also ate everything in sight, including ten pairs of eyeglasses. She ate half a turkey, a pound of butter, a bunch of grapes, nine spicy chicken wings (bones included), numerous boxes of tissues, rolls of toilet paper, shoes and who knows what else. So to start each day, in my pathetic effort to wear her out (at least for a while) I would take her for a walk. But I soon realized that the blue sky, sun, and soft breeze blew away the gloom I often woke with in the mornings. Now, walking wasn’t an easy task, Hilo liked to bark and lunge at anyone and any dog or cat she saw. She reminded me a bit of Tramp in Lady and the Tramp, the way Tramp could stir up those chickens was the way Hilo liked to stir up the neighborhood. She also loved to go after cars and school buses. But those exhausting walks (more so for me than her) took my mind off my sorrow for a few minutes at least.
I began writing about Hilo’s antics on my Facebook page (still do!). Then one day, I thought maybe I would write her into a scene in my novel, Facelift, just for the fun of it. Of course, I had to change her name to protect the not-so-innocent. So she became Cousin It. And soon words were flowing more easily. Suddenly scenes were coming together for me.
Through the humor of Hilo, I was able to face the heartache in my own heart but also in my characters’. I don’t think it was a coincidence that FACELIFT was about finding hope and joy in spite of painful circumstances and situations.
FACELIFT Blurb:
A ‘can do’ kind of woman runs her own business, raises her teenage daughter, and takes care of her ex-mother-in-law after a botched facelift. But Kaye learns a facelift is more than skin deep. Joy is more than tacking on a happy face. It's relying on her sovereign God who has a plan for her life. Download first chapter excerpt. Trailer
In Facelift, Kaye feels like her life is out of control. Have you ever felt that way?
I’ll be happy to provide a book for a giveaway. Please limit to the U.S. Thanks!
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Winner of the National Readers Choice Award, Leanna Ellis writes women’s fiction and is known for her quirky characters and wacky plots as in her current novel, FACELIFT. But don’t let the quirkiness fool you, Ellis probes the heart and plucks at the heart strings. Next year will debut FORSAKEN, the first of an Amish/vampire series. Now that is wacky!
My guest is comedic mystery author, Joelle Charbonneau. Joelle has worn several hats in her career; performer in a variety of Operas, Operettas and Musicals, teaching acting classes and private voice lessons, wife, mom, and now author. Joelle is still teaching voice lessons and sings for the occasional professional event.
Performing made her very familiar with rejections and how to handle them as well as learn lessons from them. She talks a bit about that with us.
I must be a glutton for punishment. That’s the only explanation for my career choices. I’m a professional singer and actress. I might even dance for you if you pay me enough. All are fields filled with rejection. So, of course, I decide to pursue the next obvious choice - an author.
What was I thinking? Well, to be honest I’m not sure I was thinking at all. Becoming an author was never one of my childhood dreams. I was a reader not a writer. Then one day, I sat down one day with an idea for an opening line for a novel in my head and I started writing for my own pleasure. To see if I could. To see what would happen next.
What happened next was that I learned I liked the challenge of filling a blank page. (Yep, there’s that ‘glutton for punishment’ theme again.) So, I decided to try to write a real book. Once that book was done I decided to start submitting it to editors and agents. That’s when the rejection started. I wrote another book. More rejections.
Funny, but my other professions made me ideally suited to the rejection that inevitably comes along with writing. Sure, there are some writers who get their first manuscripts published. (This was so not me. It took me five attempts to finally get the call.) But even those published-out-of-the-gate writers get rejections on later manuscripts or in the form of bad reviews. Rejection is something that comes with the territory. And I traveled lots of that not so happy territory.
I am not one to count or keep all my rejection letters, although the idea of creating a bonfire with them and roasting marshmallows to soothe my wounds was more than a little tempting. It is hard being told that your work isn’t what someone is looking for. In fact, it hurts. A lot.
Funny, but I’m really grateful for those rejections. (Go ahead and throw tomatoes. I’m good at ducking.) They made me a better writer. They also gave me time to figure out what kind of stories I really wanted to write. See, when I started writing, I decided I was going to write emotionally driven women’s fiction. Perhaps because some of my favorite books are ones that tug at my heart strings and make me cry. Well, I tried. I really did. I wanted to make people sigh and weep and feel as if the author was a close friend who understood their problems. Some of my best author friends are fabulous at making me read with a box of tissues close at hand. I wanted to be them when I grew up.
Instead, I wrote about a dead body in a roller rink toilet, an ex-circus camel that wears hats and a grandfather that is looking for love in all the wrong places. Yeah – so much for growing up into a hard-hitting women’s fiction writer. Trying to become one was like putting a triangular peg into a round hole. A miracle girdle hasn’t been invented yet that could squash me enough into the right shape and size. The agents and editors who read those attempts probably understood that.
Today, I sit behind my computer screen and write whatever off-the-wall thing pops into my head and I enjoy every minute of it. I am also proud of every rejection that I got along the way. They created the writer I am today.
What's the best advice would you give an aspiring writer?
Write an entire book. That seems simplistic, but it isn't. It is the very first step in the process. If you have an idea for a story, write it. Get to the end. Then you can figure out what your strengths and weaknesses are. Many writers get so caught up in making their writing perfect that they never get to the end of a novel. They are too busy revising the beginning. Often, once the novel is written, the beginning changes or gets cut. You won't know if this is true for you until the book is written and you know where the story is going. Once you have the book finished, I recommend joining a professional writing group like RWA to help improve your writing and help you learn the business.
Win a copy a new erotic series of sexy warriors and magical heroines.
My guest is historical romance author, Christina Phillips. She hails from Western Australia (by way of the UK) and writes about sexy Romans and Druids.
The road to being published is not an easy one. Somehow there is the thought of you write a book, query it, and it's published. The reality is much different. It's fraught with many rejections, perfecting your writing, and finding a story that excites both you and publishers.
Christina tells us a bit about her road.
Thank you, Sia, for inviting me to Over Coffee today!
I was very excited to read the other day that a possibly habitable planet has been found orbiting a nearby star. Well, nearby in astronomical terms – twenty light years or roughly 190 trillion kilometers away from Earth. So I don’t think we’ll be visiting any time soon!
The scientists had been observing the red dwarf star Gilese 581 for eleven years before they discovered this planet in the system, which they’ve called Gilese 581g. With a hundred billion stars in our galaxy, and having studied in detail a couple of thousand stars, I can only imagine the excitement when a planet was discovered with the capability of having water on its surface – a prerequisite for life as we know it.
Two other planets had already been discovered in this system – one too near the sun so it was too hot to sustain life and one so far away it was way too cold. Gilese 581g is just the right distance away from its sun – in the so-called Goldilocks Zone.
Eleven years. That got me thinking. It was eleven years ago that, after immigrating to Australia from the UK, I decided to get serious about my writing. I started off without a clue about the craft, my efforts boomeranging into deep space (aka the slush pile and form rejections). After a few years I graduated to personal rejections on my work and then onto revisions. The black hole receded. I was finally entering a solar system!
But like so many solar systems in this breathtaking galaxy, just because it looks right and feels right doesn’t necessarily mean it is right. My efforts at writing contemporary romance hovered in the cold zone. My paranormal romances caught the attention of several agents, but ultimately none led to representation. I like to think of these as incinerating in the too hot Zone!
Eventually, after nine years, I sold two erotic novelettes to a small e-press. I had written them as an experiment to stretch my writing muscles, but it was as if a mini-supernova illuminated my muse. I discovered I loved writing the darker, erotic stories. I would write a full length erotic romance with the aim of hooking an agent!
Vampires, demons and bad-ass angels were hot. I would write an erotic paranormal romance. And into my imagination stormed a Roman warrior searching for his Druid princess lover.
Uh, what? No, that would never fall into the Goldilocks Zone! But it was no good. My hero, Maximus, refused to leave. And within five minutes I didn’t want him to leave, because who on earth was this Roman Centurion and why would a princess – a Druid and, as such, one of Rome’s bitterest enemies – have fallen in love with him?
It took me nine months to write FORBIDDEN, my debut ancient historical romance and a genre I hadn’t written about since high school. There was an honorable warrior, a brave princess and an insane villain, and threaded throughout a fantasy element involving vindictive gods and goddesses.
I loved writing this book. I knew it was a long-shot because of its unusual time period – AD 50 – its protagonists – a Druid princess and Roman Centurion – and even its setting – ancient Wales.
But within a month of first querying agents, I was offered representation. And while I know signing with your dream agent and discovering a possibly habitable planet are hardly comparable, I’m not convinced the scientists who found Gilese 581g could have been much more excited than I was the night I realized I had finally found my very own Goldilocks Zone :-)
What about you? Have you had an idea storm into your imagination and not want to leave?
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Forbidden Blurb
He was a master of seduction - but no match for the magical allure of the woman he wanted most...
Carys knew from the moment she first spied on Maximus in his naked barbarian glory that he was a dangerous Roman centurion - his taut, battle-scarred flesh marking him as a fearless warrior. But her desire for him was as undeniable as it was illicit.
Charged by his emperor to eliminate a clan of powerful Druids in Britain, Maximus never expects his mission to be thwarted by the clan's ethereal princess, Carys, his daring voyeur. Falling under her spell, he doesn't realize her true heritage - until he captures her heart as well as her body. As Carys's loyalties are twisted, and freedom is no longer her single-minded obsession, an avenging former lover threatens to crush Maximus's people into oblivion. Now Carys and Maximus must overcome the devastation of war and face the ultimate sacrifice if their forbidden love is to survive. EXCERPT
"Set in the time of the Roman Empire, Phillips' wonderful story of the romance between a Roman soldier and a Celt is more than entertaining"
Christina Phillips has always loved writing, and while her efforts in eighth grade usually involved space ships, time travel and unfortunate endings, as soon as she discovered romance novels a whole new world opened up. She now writes ancient historical romances about strong heroines and gorgeous warrior heroes who, no matter how torturous the journey, are guaranteed their happily-ever-after. Christina was born in the United Kingdom, but now lives in sunny Western Australia with her real-life hero and their three children.
It’s my pleasure to have as my guest, Olivia Cunning, erotic romance author. Olivia has brought along lead guitarist of Sinners, the delectable, Brian Sinclair. Ladies he’s lookin’ hawt! (I’d still love to donate my body, in the name of ecology, of course, for him to use. Sigh, but one must be professional when conducting interviews.)
Brian, welcome to Over Coffee. It wonderful to have you and Olivia here and I’ve been so looking forward to this interview.
Since you're short on time, we'll get right to it.
Tell me a bit about Sinners. How did you guys come together?
Hard to believe, but Sinners has been together for ten years now. Well, most of us have. Jace Seymour took over for our previous bassist just two years ago. I’ve known Trey Mills, our rhythm guitarist, since before he grew pubes. Met Eric Sticks at a party in high school. Trey and I were playing a gig with our band, Crysys, and Eric thought we sucked. Actually, Eric and Trey got in a fistfight over it, which somehow ended with Eric joining the band. He was trying to decrease our suck. Did a pretty good job with that actually. Crysys did suck until Eric joined us.
The three of us played together for a couple years, then Sed Lionheart decided he wanted to be our lead singer, took over, and rearranged things. He’s the one who renamed the group Sinners.
So even though he wasn’t an original member, Sed just took over?
Yeah, Sed is like that. He told Eric that he was hurting the band by being lead singer and that he should play drums instead. Eric sings pretty good actually, but he doesn’t have much star quality. Sed’s got both the pipes and the stage presence. He’s a great front man. And Eric wails on the drums. So win/win for Sinners. Right?
I suppose so. As long as there were no hard feelings.
Now I didn’t say that.
Your father was also a famous lead guitarist in his day. Was he the one who encouraged you to pick up the guitar?
Not really. When I was a kid, he’d go out on tour and I’d sneak into his studio to play his guitars. I don’t know how he knew I was messing with them, but man, that made him mad. No one touches Malcolm O’Neil’s guitars. Eventually, Mom bought me my own guitar, so I’d stop upsetting Dad. And despite all my success in Sinners, I’m still not good enough to impress the old man.
Can we talk about something else?
Sure. Whose music influenced you, Master Sinclair, to become the iconic guitarist you are today?
I do have a few influences, but I tried to find my own sound early on. You can’t be a great musician if you copy others your whole career. I think Hendrix was my biggest influence. I started trying to copy his sound when I was eight. I also learned from fast-fingered soloists like Randy Rhodes and Eddie Van Halen, as well as, masters of the metal riff, like Metallica and Pantera’s Dimebag Darrell Abbot. You’ll hear bits of all of them in me. I guess my dad influenced me, too. People say I sound like him. I don’t hear it.
Hey, did you know Olivia Cunning dedicated her novel, Backstage Pass, to Dimebag?
Yes, I saw that. He was an awesome guitarist.
I suggested it to her. His loss was a terrible tragedy. Playing Cowboys from Hell helped me build up my speed. Great workout for the fingers. Sick song! Uh, sick meaning good.
I really like the song too, Brian. I think I’ll let anyone who wants hear it give it a play.
If you had to pick a band on today’s scene you respect for their songwriting or music ability, who would it be and why?
There are lots of great bands out there right now. I don’t think I can pick just one. I do respect bands who aren’t afraid to vary their song structures and sound. Variety is good as long as you don’t go overboard.
We’re going to try to add even more variety to Sinners’ next album. So says Eric Sticks.
As a popular band, what are some of the good things that have come your way? What are some of the not so great things?
Fans are great. Performing live is great. Getting paid to do what I love is amazing. Living on a tour bus with four other slobs sucks. Just kidding, the guys are great. Just don’t feed them chili. I beg you.
I read on your website that you had some problems this past year with losing your creative spark or your muse. That must have been hard. Was it burn out?
Sed has a big frickin’ mouth. I don’t know why he posted that on our website. I’m not sure what the problem was. We’ve been on the road for a long time, but that usually inspires me. Maybe it was the pressure. Everyone always being on my case to write something. I think I just needed to relax and let the music come. Not force it, you know? I’m over it now. I’ve written a lot of new stuff recently. Great stuff.
So how did you finally find a way to relax and let it come? Come? Ummm.... Why, Brian Sinclair, are you blushing?
Psssh, no.
If you say so, lol! So what exactly inspired your creative spark? You can tell us.
Might as well. It’s all being published in the novel, Backstage Pass, anyway. There’s this woman. This amazing, sexy, wonderful, brilliant, beautiful, intelligent woman. When we, uhhh... how do I put this, get it on, I hear music in my head. It’s as if we were destined to be together. I think I’m being rewarded for finding her. Now I just have to figure out how to keep her.
Speaking of getting it on, how does it feel to have your sex life made public in a novel?
Hey, it's not so bad. Olivia Cunning makes me look like a total stud in the book. Well, except that part on page 253. I was just too excited before I started, you know, and Myrna had me all worked up and I just got off stage and...
Brian, you're looking a little flushed again, would you like some ice water?
Actually, I'd appreciate it if everyone would just skip that part.
Myrna? She the one who revived your muse, right? Is she traveling with the band?
Yeah, Myrna’s doing this research project on our groupies. Trying to figure out why they keep ripping off Sed’s shirt or something. She’s a human sexuality professor. I think she got her degree in how to make me a very happy man.
How do the other band members get along with her?
Oh, they love her. She busts their balls on a regular basis and they get off on it. Not many chicks feel comfortable bossing around a bunch of famous rock stars, you know. Myrna tells it like it is, so they respect her. Even Sed, who has no respect for women.
Being the significant other of one of the hottest band members can’t be easy. How does she deal with all the women who come on to you?
Women come on to me? [laughing]
Actually, though Myrna is still researching everyone else’s groupies, she stopped interviewing mine. I think she might be jealous. She has absolutely nothing to worry about. I’m a one-woman kind of man.
Unlike Sinners’ lead vocalist, Sed Lionheart. Or so I’ve heard.
Never fails. No matter who interviews me, they bring up Sed’s rep.
That’s because he tends to boldly flaunt it, Brian.
Crap, I gotta go. I’d love to stay and chat, but I’ve got to get on the tour bus now and head out for our next show. I’ll try to stop by your blog later and answer any questions.
Brian, it’s been a pleasure talking with you. I really appreciate you and Olivia taking time out of your busy schedule for the interview.
Sia. You’re a real sweetheart for having me. Olivia said she’ll stop by sometime, too. And maybe the rest of Sinners. You never know.
Oh, that would be fun.
~*~*~*~
For him, life is all music and no play...
When Brian Sinclair, lead songwriter and guitarist of the hottest metal band on the scene, loses his creative spark, it will take nights of downright sinful passion to release his pent-up genius...
She's the one to call the tune...When sexy psychologist Myrna Evans goes on tour with the Sinners, every boy in the band tries to seduce her. But Brian is the only one she wants to get her hands on...
Then the two lovers' wildly shocking behavior sparks the whole band to new heights of glory...and sin... EXCERPT:Adult or PG-13 Read my review
My guest is romantic suspense author Cherish D’Angelo (aka Cheryl Kaye Tardif).
She was quite the encouragement to me when I began this blog, almost two years ago, and relatively unknown. Cheryl encouraged me to be bold in using my promotion/PR background with launching this blog and was a guest during the first month I was live.
Cheryl also spurred me on to be persistent in my writing. If it’s your passion, keep writing and the magic will come together. A writer writes.
I’m fortunate to have many friends who are authors and have encouraged me to keep writing despite rejections and all have their tales of their own.
Cherish touches upon the need of having a support system as a writer because, “[the] world of creating, writing, promoting and keeping up with all the industry changes isn't something easily shared with family or friends.” But I’ll let Cherish tell you a bit more about that.
Thank you, Sia, for hosting me during my Cherish the Romance Virtual Book Tour.
riting and the pursuit of publication, for the most part, is a singular venture fraught with ups and downs that only other writers truly understand, and it's because of this lonely world we write in that we must strive to make time for ourselves, our families and our friends. Sometimes that's easier said than done.
I've often found myself in my office for hours without speaking to another human being. While I'm there, I'm quite happy. I'm creating. Imagining. Fantasizing. I'm anywhere other than standing in my kitchen doing dishes or vacuuming the living room. In this respect, it's not a difficult choice to stay in my office and write. Dishes and vacuuming don't exist there. I don't think any of my characters have ever picked up a cloth and dusted.
But I'll admit something. I am sometimes lonely. It's not just the aloneness of my work that gets to me; it's the aloneness that comes with others not quite understanding what I'm doing or attempting to do. It's easy for a friend or spouse to say, "Find another publisher." Or "Find another agent." Or "Maybe you should quit, do something else." What they don't get is that it's NOT that easy. As for doing something else, there's nothing I'd rather do than write, no matter what challenges I may face.
What others may not understand is it's not as easy as "quitting". A writer's brain rarely shuts off; we're constantly creating stories, some of us more than others. I get novel ideas anywhere―while shopping, going to the bank, standing in line at the post office, driving down the road, while I'm sleeping, eating, breathing...
I write full time and I know I'm blessed to be able to do that. Many writers juggle full time or part time jobs―and young children. I don't have either. My daughter, though still at home, is twenty. Even she has a hard time appreciating that I work full time, regardless if I'm multi-tasking with the TV on, which I sometimes do if I'm working on promotional stuff. She doesn't understand my schedule or my goals or that they change daily. She has no idea what I go through every day in my endeavor to become successful or that what I do now could pay off for her in the future. My writing is her inheritance and this is one of the reasons I work so hard.
My career isn't always about being holed up in a room working on killing someone off in the next thriller. Besides working on a novel, there is article writing, research, book promotion, interviews, ISBN registering, keeping up with industry news, website updating, blog updating, guest blogging, Facebooking, Tweeting, etc. There are times when I'm busy organizing events such as physical book signings or virtual events. I work about 10 hours a day, 6-7 days a week. By choice.
Because I'm considered to be an expert in book marketing, I coach other writers. I'm often asked how I do it all. Belief, persistence, organization and the openness to learn is key to promoting anything. My former job background was a mix of advertising, sales, marketing, business management and public speaking. I wasn't completely fulfilled, but these jobs prepared me for what I'd do later―find my passion. In writing.
I've always loved writing. I'd tried for years in my late teens and early twenties to learn everything I could about writing and publishing, and many a query went out to publishers, only to return months later with a neatly typed, generic form rejection letter. I have enough of those to wallpaper my office. Maybe twice.
Once I was published, I never looked back. I can't imagine doing anything else, regardless of the long hours and hard work. Emails from fans tell me I'm on the right track. The fact that schools have brought in my novel Whale Song as novel study material tells me I accomplished something even bigger than I'd set out to do. Hitting Amazon bestsellers' lists tells me my work sells. Having film producers and directors contact me because they're interested in turning my works into films means I am closer to the "big picture". I have big dreams!
But every now and then, a bit of loneliness creeps in. My world of creating, writing, promoting and keeping up with all the industry changes isn't something easily shared with family or friends, even though I really do have a wonderful support system. It would be the same if one of my friends tried sharing information on her job studying bio-engineering or anything completely over my head. There are times when the only people I see for days are my husband, daughter and her boyfriend.
However, aloneness doesn't have to be lonely. As a writer, it's important to not only feed the body and mind, but also the spirit. For me, this means seeking out a friend and getting out of the house every now and then. Sometimes we'll meet for coffee or lunch. Sometimes I'll go shopping with a friend or by myself. Sometimes I’ll head to the spa...and wish I could stay all day.
I've learned to treat myself, reward myself. After all, I'm a self-employed writer. There's no boss to pat me on the head and tell me I did good (expect maybe a publisher or my awesome agent). No one gives me a Christmas bonus. There's no company Christmas party. No pension plan. No yearly raise. The hours I work are long and sometimes grueling.
But in the end, I wouldn't change a thing. I'm a writer. And I love it!
Writers, commit to taking time out for yourself even if only for one hour a week. Do something fun! What do you think you'll do this week?
Non-writers: how did you perceive a writer's life to be?
Leave a comment here, with email address, to be entered into the prize draws. You're guaranteed to receive at least 1 free ebook just for doing so. Plus you'll be entered to win a Kobo ereader. Winners will be announced after October 10th.
Lancelot's Lady Blurb:
A Bahamas holiday from dying billionaire JT Lance, a man with a dark secret, leads palliative nurse Rhianna McLeod to Jonathan, a man with his own troubled past, and Rhianna finds herself drawn to the handsome recluse, while unbeknownst to her, someone with a horrific plan is hunting her down. When palliative care nurse Rhianna McLeod is given a gift of a dream holiday to the Bahamas from her dying patient, billionaire JT Lance, Rhianna has no idea that her 'holiday' will include being stranded on a private island with Jonathan, an irritating but irresistibly handsome recluse. Or that she'll fall head over heels for the man. Jonathan isn't happy to discover a drop-dead gorgeous redhead has invaded his island. But his anger soon turns to attraction. After one failed marriage, he has guarded his heart, but Rhianna's sudden appearance makes him yearn to throw caution to the wind. To live fully in the present, Rhianna must resolve her own murky past, unravel the secret that haunts JT, foil the plans of a sleazy, blackmailing private investigator and help Jonathan find his muse. Only then can Rhianna find the love she's been searching for, and finally become...Lancelot's Lady. ExcerptBook Trailer
When romance author Cherish D'Angelo is not busy relaxing in her hot tub, sipping champagne, eating chocolate-covered strawberries or plotting romantic suspense with scintillating sensuality, she is ruthlessly killing people off in her thrillers as bestselling Canadian suspense author, Cheryl Kaye Tardif. Cherish's debut romance, Lancelot's Lady placed in the semi-finals of Dorchester Publishing's "Next Best Celler" contest and went on to win an Editor's Choice Award from Textnovel. Currently living in Edmonton, Alberta, she enjoys long walks on the beach, except there aren't any around so she has to make do with trips around the hot tub or a vacation to a tropical paradise. And margaritas.
Five stunning guys, one hot woman, and a feverish romance...
Backstage Pass By: Olivia Cunning Product ISBN: 9781402244421Publication Date: October 2010 Available formats: Trade Paperback, Adobe ebook, ePub.
Backstage Pass Blurb:
For him, life is all music and no play... When Brian Sinclair, lead songwriter and guitarist of the hottest metal band on the scene, loses his creative spark, it will take nights of downright sinful passion to release his pent-up genius...
She's the one to call the tune... When sexy psychologist Myrna Evans goes on tour with the Sinners, every boy in the band tries to seduce her. But Brian is the only one she wants to get her hands on... Then the two lovers' wildly shocking behavior sparks the whole band to new heights of glory...and sin... EXCERPT: Adult or PG-13
~ * ~ * ~
Dr. Myrna Evans, a Human Sexuality professor, had been talked into presenting her work by her boss to a “group of professors in her field [who] wouldn’t know an innovative idea if it stood on its head and sang The Star Spangled Banner.” As one of her colleagues told her, “Who would ever think to use guitar riffs in discussions of human psychology?” Pompous Ass.
Myrna decides rather than hide out in her hotel room she’d seek a diversion, which happens to literally fall at her feet in the guise of Brian Sinclair, Sinners’ sensual lead guitarist.
“Hello, Mr. Welcome Diversion.”
I loved this story for several reasons.
One: Olivia Cunning is superb at creating sexual chemistry between Brian and Myrna. The sex is hot, creative, and frequent. It’s also well written but doesn’t have the feel of gratuitous filler.
Two: Backstage Pass has a very strong, well-put together story of the romance between the two main characters. Well-paced and realistic with clearly defined character conflict; Myrna is looking for hot, no-strings-attached sex and Brian Sinclair is looking for something more permanent than a one-night stand. Ms. Cunning also uses a liberal amount of humor in telling the story and I found myself chuckling and laughing as I read.
Ms. Cunning flawlessly weaves into the story the members of the band so each is a distinct personality and very real. She shows the close-knit relationship between this group of wild and rowdy men but she doesn’t gloss over the natural conflicts, which come from close quarter living months on end. The guys are raucous, can be a bit raunchy, but they’re also a lot of fun and by the end of the book you fall in love with them all.
Three: Ms. Cunning’s love and knowledge of rock bands and their music give an authentic feel to the story. It makes you feel like you are in the presence of a real rock band—the grueling tours, the groupies and sex, and the partying. You see it all, but you also see the hot men behind the rock personas, including their vulnerabilities as well as their strengths.
This is not your average erotica romance; it’s oh SO much better. This series is going to be a big hit with readers who like strong stories, hot sex, and a wild ride to their happily ever after!
My rating: 5 stars
Friday, October 1st, you'll have a chance to talk further with Olivia and learn much more about Brian "Master" Sinclair.
Combining her love for romantic fiction and rock ‘n roll, Olivia Cunning writes erotic romance centered around rock musicians.
Raised on hard rock music from the cradle, she attended her first Styx concert at age six and fell instantly in love with live music. She's been known to travel over a thousand miles just to see a favorite band in concert. As a teen, she discovered her second love, romantic fiction -- first, voraciously reading steamy romance novels and then penning her own.
Upcoming authors: Wednesday, Cherish D'Angelo Lancelot’s Lady
Friday, Olivia Cunning, Backstage Pass, Monday, 10/4, Christina Phillips, Forbidden
Today, we step back into a gentler time period. One peopled with beloved characters, The Ton, balls, Almacks, sharing the latest on-dits, diamonds of the first water, and all those dangerously sexy rakes.
Haven’t you thought of stepping into a world where fortunes won or lost on a card, dress in the lovely gowns of the time, go riding in a phaeton, walk through the shops of Bond Street, or go to huge house parties or attend balls during the London season? My guest, Abigail Reynolds, creates that sort of world set in the Regency period of England, that authors like Georgette Heyer and Jane Austen made so popular. Abigail says writing about that world, and when you’re in the zone, everything fades away but the world being created. Unless something wrenches you abruptly two hundred years forward…but we’ll let Abigail tell you about it.
Writing is the ultimate escape from me. When I’m writing – as opposed to trying to write, which is a horse of a different color – the whole world fades away. Dishes don’t need to be done, the house doesn’t need to be cleaned, and I don’t have to worry about the latest front-page news, because none of it exists. It’s a haven, a safe harbor from the shoals of life, full of the sunshine of creativity and abundant possibilities in every blank page.
But it’s a very temporary haven, which brings me to the bane of my writing existence: interruptions. A few hours ago I was deep in the throes of powerful fight scene, almost in tears myself along with the heroine, and my son came down, distraught because he had lost one of his games in the war zone we refer to as his room. Now, before you tell me I should set some limits and tell him to look for it himself, let me mention that my son has autism and that for him, this truly was a disaster of cosmic importance. And, since I have a vested interest in him being able to complete his homework without a meltdown, I helped him find his game and came racing back to the computer.
The inspiration wasn’t there. I couldn’t feel my heroine’s sense of betrayal or get inside the head of the hero who is desperately trying to explain himself. But because I really wanted to write, I sat down and wrote. Bland, boring, excruciatingly dull sentences free of any spark of life. They even bored me. And I know from experience that it’s likely to be a couple of days before the characters come alive for me again.
That’s what happens when I get ripped out of the story. Little interruptions are annoying but tolerable – letting the dog out, getting a drink of water, closing the windows to keep out the rain. My characters will usually keep talking in my head through something minor that doesn’t require much thought. But when I have to do something that requires planning and interaction with real life people, they vanish without a trace. To make matters worse, it’s almost painful to be torn out of story when I’m deep inside it. I usually surface with an intense desire to murder the source of the interruption, and while I manage to put that aside, my family will happily tell you – at length – that I am very testy indeed under those circumstances.
That’s why I have my office, which isn’t actually an office. It’s a comfortable coffee shop nearby where nobody interrupts me, plus they provide great tea and dainties on request, something that never seems to happen at home! But that’s not all, because I’m not the only one who uses my office to write. There are a half dozen familiar faces that I’m likely to spot there, hunched over their laptops and typing away with that distant look in their eyes. I don’t actually know most of them beyond a first name and that they’re a writer, too, but I do know one thing about them. When I walk in this evening, I can go up to any one of them and say, “I am going to kill my son,” and they’ll look up and nod sympathetically, perhaps even making the suggestion of using a very sharp knife. We’ve all been there, and that makes us comrades at arms.
Then we smile at each other, and the coffee shop reverts to its other plane of existence as Pemberley, a London alleyway, the sewers of Paris (not for my books!) , and a multitude of other places. All of them with good coffee.
How do you handle interruptions?
Mr Darcy's Obsession Blurb:
What if Mr. Darcy never had the opportunity to propose to Elizabeth Bennet at Hunsford, and did not meet her again until her circumstances were reduced? In Mr. Darcy's Obsession, Mr. Darcy has an even greater social distance to bridge if he wishes to marry Elizabeth. Add in some Fitzwilliam relations with links to the Prince Regent and the loose morals typical of Regency high society who feel that Elizabeth is the material of which mistresses, not wives, are made, and Mr. Darcy has to make a painful choice between the demands of a decadent society and his personal moral sense. The background of this novel is the morally bankrupt ton which Jane Austen knew well, but did not describe in detail in her novels, perhaps because it was a given to her and her contemporaneous readers. Against this backdrop, the characters of Mr. Darcy and Miss Bennet shine brightly as they seek to find an alternative to the bounds of decorum that constrain Darcy's usual marital prospects. Excerpt
The more he tries to stay away from her, the more his obsession grows... "[Reynolds] has creatively blended a classic love story with a saucy romance novel."-Austenprose
Abigail Reynolds is a lifelong Jane Austen enthusiast and a physician. In addition to writing, she has a part-time private practice and enjoys spending time with her family. Originally from upstate New York, she studied Russian, theater, and marine biology before deciding to attend medical school. She began writing From Lambton to Longbourn in 2001 to spend more time with her favorite characters from Pride & Prejudice. Encouragement from fellow Austen fans convinced her to continue asking ‘What if…?’, which led to five other Pemberley Variations and her modern novel, The Man Who Loved Pride & Prejudice. She is currently at work on another Pemberley Variation and sequels to The Man Who Loved Pride & Prejudice. Her newest release is Mr. Darcy’s Obsession, available October 1, 2010.She is a lifetime member of JASNA and lives in Wisconsin with her husband, two teenaged children, and a menagerie of pets.
