Tag: Interview

Welcome to Scarlett Scott w/ #Historical #Romance ‘Reckless Need’ @scarscoromance @GoddessFish

On By Casey's CornerIn Authors & Books, Goddess Fish Promotions3 Comments

Today we have author Scarlett Scott visiting. Welcome!

What would you like to tell readers about yourself?

* Award-winning author Scarlett Scott writes historical and contemporary romance with heat, heart, and happily ever afters. Since publishing her first book in 2010, she has become a wife, mother to adorable identical twins and one TV-loving dog, and a killer karaoke singer. Well, maybe not the last part, but that’s what she’d like to think.
* A self-professed literary junkie and nerd, she loves reading anything but especially romance novels, poetry, and Middle English verse. When she’s not reading, writing, wrangling toddlers, or camping, you can catch up with her on her website, where her complete book list and information about upcoming releases can be found. Hearing from readers never fails to make her day.

Today Scarlett Scott will be talking about the best piece of writing advice she’s received and how it helped her.
* The best writing advice I ever received was back in college from my favorite professor, and it was not to be afraid to cut my writing, to pare it down into the leanest, most efficient prose it can be. As writers, we work so hard for those words on the page that the idea of removing any of them is enough to induce separation anxiety. But we’re not doing ourselves any favors by clinging to words—or even sentences and pages—that aren’t as good as they need to be. This advice has held true and strong for me over the years, and I’ve never regretted cutting a single thing from any of my books when it wasn’t good enough.

Find Scarlett Scott here…
Facebook | Pinterest | Twitter | Website

A look into…

~ Blurb ~

A staid duke
* Heath, the Duke of Devonshire, has been living a passionless life of penance after losing the woman he loved. Determined to do his duty, he’s in search of an innocent bride with a sterling reputation. A bride who’s nothing at all like Tia, Lady Stokey.
A bold lady
* The Duke of Devonshire may be handsome, but he’s as boring as a bowl of porridge. Or so Tia thinks until he carries her to her chamber and undoes half her buttons while kissing her senseless.
A decadent desire
* The moment he scoops the delectable Tia into his arms, Heath wants her in his bed, and he’ll stop at nothing to have her there. When they unleash the scandal of the century, they must face consequences that are deeper and far more dangerous to their hearts than either of them imagined. Will they find love, or was the reckless need between them doomed from the start?

~ Excerpt ~

* He opened the door and froze on the threshold.
* She was within, all right. And she was bloody well half-naked, standing before a crackling fire in nothing but her corset and chemise. Her lovely hair was unbound, hanging to her waist, her delicious curves on full display from nipped waist to lush hips and bosom.
* Her gaze caught his. “Heath,” she said softly. “I should have expected it would be you.”
* He wasn’t certain if she meant that in a good sense or in a bad sense. Belatedly becoming aware of the wind and rain at his back, he stepped all the way into the cabin and closed the door behind him.
* “Are you injured?” he demanded, closing the distance between them easily.
* Relief coursed through him, banishing the very real fear that had taken up residence within him ever since learning of her disappearance. He wanted to take her in his arms, but after their last discussion, he hardly knew where they stood.
* She caught her lower lip between her teeth in that way she had that he already found mesmerizing. “Once again, I landed with an appalling lack of grace. I’m afraid my bad ankle rather bore the brunt of it.”
* She convulsed with a violent shiver then, her teeth chattering. To hell with the walls she wanted to build between them. “You’re cold.” He shucked his wet coat and wrapped his arms around her, drawing her into the warmth of his body. She didn’t protest, snuggling against him like a little kitten. He tucked her head beneath his chin, the sweet perfume of violets wafting up to tease him. “Better?”
* “I suppose it depends upon one’s definition of the word,” she quipped.
* He was grateful that she didn’t seem at all rattled. She was herself, with a rapier-sharp tongue always at the ready. He’d never met a woman quite like her, and he was increasingly drawn to her despite his every good intention. “Are you warmer?” he clarified.
* “A bit.” Her teeth chattered again. “How did you find me?”
* “Luck.”Or perhaps a lack thereof, because surely the fates were laughing at him now.

Buy Reckless Need here…
Amazon

Thank you for joining us here today, Scarlett Scott! It was a pleasure getting to know you and your story.

ANNOUNCEMENT! Scarlett Scott will be awarding a Kindle or paperback copy of Books 1 & 2 in this series to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour! So be sure to leave a comment AND use this RAFFLECOPTER LINK to enter the drawing. Also, visit the other tour stops for a greater chance of winning!

Welcome to Emily Mims w/ #RomanticSuspense ‘Smoke’ @EmilyMimsAuthor @GoddessFish

On By Casey's CornerIn Authors & Books5 Comments

Today we have author Emily Mims visiting. Welcome!

What would you like to tell readers about yourself?

* Author of thirty romance novels, Emily Mims combined her writing career with a career in public education until leaving the classroom to write full time. The mother of two sons and grandmother of six, she and her husband Charles live in central Texas but frequently visit grandchildren in eastern Tennessee and Georgia. She plays the piano, organ, dulcimer, and ukulele and belongs to two performing bands. She says, “I love to write romances because I believe in them. Romance happened to me and it can happen to any woman-if she’ll just let it.”

Today Emily Mims will be talking about the first book she read that had an impact on her.
* When asked to do a blog on the first book I read that had an impact on me, I had to do some thinking. I can hardly remember a time when I could not read. I was one of those lucky kids who learned quickly easily, and was already reading for fun by the time I was in the second grade. I of course read a lot of ‘good stuff’-children’s classics like Johnny Gruelle’s Raggedy Ann series, the Bobbsey Twin mysteries, all the little blue biographies offered by my elementary teachers. I was also taught out of the Bible and other religious material. But the book that had the greatest impact on me as a future romance author was a Reader’s Digest condensed version of Victoria Holt’s ‘Mistress of Mellyn’. It was my first romantic suspense novel, and firmly cemented my love for the genre.
* I encountered this book on one of my summer vacations at my Granny Johnson’s house in the tiny town of Waelder, Texas. Granny’s house in Waelder was a magical spot for a city kid. Granny and Grandaddy were cattle ranchers. They no longer lived out on the ranch itself, but there was a five-acre lot behind their big Victorian house where they kept a mean old milk cow and their cow ponies that Daddy would saddle up for me to ride. There were cousins to play with, and I spent many a happy hour riding around in the back of my cousin’s three-wheeled scooter. I shelled peas and looked at old picture albums and sewed doll clothes and thoroughly enjoyed being spoiled to death by my loving grandparents.
* There was down time, too. It was during that down time one summer that I found Granny’s Reader’s Digest book and picked it up to read. I must have been eleven or twelve by then, old enough to have grown out of the comic books she bought me and ready for something a little more mature. I picked up the book and sat down and started reading…and I was hooked! I loved everything about the story-the innocent young governess, the handsome, broody hero, the lonely child, the wife who died under mysterious circumstances, and the haunted old mansion. I didn’t know it at the time, but in retrospect I can see that Victoria Holt successfully incorporated every element that made for a good gothic romance and wove them into magic. Or at least what was magic to me, a young, first time reader. It’s been over fifty years, but I can still remember the shocking ending to that book as though I read it yesterday.
* I didn’t stop reading with just that one. I became a steadfast fan of Victoria Holt and others who wrote like her. As the years went by, I sought out more books in both the mystery and the romance genres. I love a straight mystery a la Faye Kellerman and Linda Fairstein, where I’m pitting my brain against the author’s and trying to successfully predict the ending. But when it came time for me to try my hand at writing, it was romance that I wrote. I started with straight love stories, but started adding elements of suspense when I wanted to write a longer book. All the longer books in the Texas Hill Country series have suspense in them, as do the first two of the Smoky Blue series. And while my heroines are not virginal governesses and my heroes bear only a passing resemblance to Connan TreMellyn, I have Victoria Holt and her wonderful story to thank for introducing me to world of romance and romantic suspense between the pages of a book.

A look into…

~ Blurb ~

* A concert violinist and musical prodigy, Francesca Giordano is internationally acclaimed and always in the spotlight—right where she doesn’t want to be. Not after she’s witnessed a murder. Suddenly on the run, she finds her way to Bristol, Tennessee, and to the music club Acoustics. There, as “ Chessie Hope,” she can hide out in the open. But with this newest gig comes a different kind of danger. Older and impossibly sexy, bluegrass singer Cooper Barstow is everything she’s ever wanted in a man, and his daughters are just as easy to love. Yet Francesca cannot enjoy the luxury of such a relationship, not even if he could protect her from the men on her trail or if she could be honest with him about who she is. Cooper is as wounded as he is strong, and he needs someone who will stay by his side for the rest of his life. Just as Francesca does. And the smoke on the mountains and the haze of desire almost make her believe that could happen.

~ Excerpt ~

* Cooper hit his front door and took the quickest shower on record. Still, he was almost a half hour late by the time he pulled into Chessie’s driveway. Hopefully she would understand. He was about halfway across the yard when he heard music coming from somewhere inside the house. He slowed down and stopped, listening in astonishment to the outpouring of a violin, a violin in the hands of an incredibly gifted musician. Who was playing the violin? Was Chessie a closet classical music fan? Was that a recording, or was that Chessie herself making this incredible music?
* Cooper glanced in the window and his mouth fell open. It was Chessie. She was standing in front of the window in her pink cotton robe, her fingers flying over the strings so fast they were a blur and her bow moving nimbly over the strings as she made that violin sing. It was Chessie making that incredible music. Music that Jake never in a million years could have made. Music that he himself could never have made. Music that required more talent and technique that she would ever need as a bluegrass fiddler. Music that somehow seemed strangely familiar, even though he didn’t think he’d ever heard it before. Cooper suddenly thought back to his initial reaction to her, the first time he heard her play. He wondered then why a woman of her talent played bluegrass music.
* Now he knew. She didn’t play just bluegrass music. She played classical music too. And she played it wonderfully.
* Chessie Hope was not the simple bluegrass musician she presented herself to be.

Buy Smoke here…
Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Find Emily Mims here…
Amazon Author Page | Facebook | Twitter | Website

Thank you for joining us here today, Emily Mims! It was a pleasure getting to know you and your story.

ANNOUNCEMENT! Emily Mims will be awarding a $10 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour! So be sure to leave a comment AND use this RAFFLECOPTER LINK to enter the drawing. Also, visit the other tour stops for a greater chance of winning!

Welcome to Tawny Weber w/ #ContemporaryRomance ‘Call to Honor’ @TawnyWeber @GoddessFish

On By Casey's CornerIn Authors & Books, Goddess Fish Promotions5 Comments

tourbanner_calltohonor

Today we have author Tawny Weber visiting. Welcome!

What would you like to tell readers about yourself?
mediakit_authorphoto_calltohonor

* New York Times and USA TODAY Bestselling author of more than forty books, Tawny Weber loves writing about sexy heroes, most notably her popular Navy SEALs series. Her sassy, emotional romances are filled with men dedicated to being the best—and women determined to have the best. Tawny credits her ex-military alpha husband for inspiration in her writing, and in her life. The recipient of numerous writing accolades, including Romantic Times Reviewers Choice and in addition to the NY Times and USA Today bestseller lists, Tawny has also hit the number one spot on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
* A homeschooling mom, Tawny enjoys scrapbooking, gardening and spending time with her family and dogs in her Northern California home.
* You can find Tawny on Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest.

Today we have an interview with Tawny Weber!
What is your favorite ice cream flavor?
* Ben & Jerry’s Toffee Bar Crunch is my absolute favorite, which is why we rarely have it in the house.
Which mythological creature are you most like?
* Ohh, that’s a great question. I wish I was like a dragon. I really do. There is so much intensity and power there. I don’t know which character I actually am like, but will go with a dragon as my goal. One day, I’ll breathe fire!
First book you remember making an indelible impression on you.
* Little Women. It’s the first book I remember hooking me so tight that I had to re-read it over and over. I read it until the binding broke, then I taped it together with electrical tape (all I had on hand). Little Women tugged at so many emotions and to this day makes me sigh and smile.
How do you develop your plot and characters?
* I usually start with a ‘what if’ type question that builds the plot. ‘What if a SEAL mission leaves one man dead. But what if he isn’t’ is the foundation of CALL TO HONOR and the Team Poseidon series. From that, the characters grow. The characters are more complex for me to develop. I usually start with a general idea of their challenge or the type of issues the plot will bring to light (if I discover the plot first, as I did with the Team Poseidon stories) and then layer from there. I always start a book thinking I know who my characters are, but it takes writing those first few chapters over and over and over until I feel that I know my characters. Its in the process of writing them that I discover their personality, their voice and their fears and issues. Once I have an handle on that, the rest of the story generally flies pretty quickly because for me, characters drive everything.
Describe your writing space.
* I’m in the middle of renovating my office since we’re pulling up carpet to put in hardwood floors through the entire house. So my office is that place I visit for maybe an hour or so each day to backup my cloud drive, do any graphic work and imagine what it’ll be like to work in here after everything is put back where I can find it LOL. Because of the renovations, my current writing space is the comfiest chair in the house, next to the fireplace where I craft my stories on my iPad Pro while cuddled up next to the dogs.

A look into…

mediakit_bookcover_calltohonor

~ Blurb ~

* “No man left behind” is inscribed in the DNA of every SEAL and Lieutenant Diego Torres is no exception. But with a team member killed—and the body missing— Diego’s honor is sorely tested. Now his career and reputation are on the line, and a traitor is hiding among them. Diego wants answers…and only one woman has them.
* Single mom Harper Maclean has two priorities—raising her son Nathan and starting a new life. Her mysterious new neighbor may be impossibly charming, but Diego asks too many questions about her past—and about the father of her child. Questions she fears will reveal her burning attraction for Diego, and ultimately put them all in danger’s path.

~ Excerpt ~

* Harper’s frown intensified. All of this dating and sex talk was stupid. All it did was stir up thoughts of Brandon, bad memories and hurt feelings. And like anything to do with Brandon Ramsey, the second one thought occurred, a million followed. He was the poster boy for taking a mile when an inch was all she’d offered.
* No more, she ordered herself. He wasn’t a part of her now, and her past was over.
* “Registered letter for one Mr. Nathan Ramsey, care of Harper Maclean,” Andi said, coming back waving a large envelope. “Who’d get his name wrong?”
* The bowl of cleaned berries suddenly shaking in her hands, Harper set it on the bar with care and stared. Her chest hurt. She couldn’t think for the buzzing in her ears.
* Ramsey.
* Harper’s heart raced so fast, it tripped over itself. How was that possible? Why would Brandon contact Nathan? As far as he knew, she’d followed his instructions to end the pregnancy. How did he know she’d had the baby? How did he know Nathan’s name? Had he always known?
* The air locked in Harper’s chest, vicious and tight, cutting off her breath, sending shards of pain knifing through her.
* Why was he contacting her? Contacting Nathan? Was he going to try to get custody?
* Or had his parents gotten wind of unaccounted Ramsey DNA and tracked down their heir apparent?
* Harper looked toward the stairs with a desperate gaze. She should get Nathan. They should go. Now.
* As soon as she thought that, Harper squared her shoulders.
* To hell with that. Nathan was her son. This was her home. She’d be damned if Brandon or his rich parents were going to screw with either.
* Still, her hand trembled so much as she took the letter that she dropped it onto the marble countertop as if it were on fire.
* “Harper,” Andi moaned. “You’re killing me. Open. Open. Open.”
* Knowing Andi would keep it up until she did, she huffed out a hot breath. Sliding her thumbnail under the flap, Harper reluctantly tugged the paper out.
* She noted the official-looking insignia and the fancy lettering denoting it to be from Admiral H. M. Cree, Special Ops commander.
* Her brow creased as she read.
* The room narrowed, and all the air disappeared. The words spun into a swirling blur of black on white. She needed to sit down. But she managed only a single step before her legs gave out and she sank to the floor, the letter clutched in her hands.
* “What is it?” Instead of pulling her back up, Andi dropped down next to her, gathering Harper into her arms. She tried to read the paper, but Harper couldn’t let it go. “Sweetie, what does it say?”
* “He’s dead,” Harper murmured, her voice sounding as if it were coming from the other end of a long tunnel. “Brandon is dead.”

Buy Call to Honor: A SEAL Brotherhood Novel, #1 here…
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Harlequin | iTunes | Kobo

Find Tawny Weber here…
Facebook | Goodreads | Pinterest | Twitter | Website

Thank you for joining us here today, Tawny Weber! It was a pleasure getting to know you and your story.

ANNOUNCEMENT! Tawny Weber will be awarding a $20 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour! So be sure to leave a comment AND use this RAFFLECOPTER LINK to enter the drawing. Also, visit the other tour stops for a greater chance of winning!