Welcome to Ellen Dye w/ #WomensFiction #Romance ‘Relatively Crazy’ @GoddessFish

On January 2, 2018December 3, 2017 By Casey's CornerIn Authors & Books, Book Tours8 Comments

Today we have author Ellen Dye visiting. Welcome!

What would you like to tell readers about yourself?

* At the age of nine Ellen Dye decided she was going to be a writer when she found her Aunt Nettie’s trunk of True Confessions magazines and spent untold hours reading the lot, a bag of Munchos potato chips and a frosty RC Cola at her side. Then, being nine, she promptly forgot all about it as she got lost in the pesky business of growing up, And then one very lucky day she spotted a confession magazine on the grocery store shelf and began to tap out her own stories which were a delight to see published. Now she spends her days tapping out her characters’ happily-ever-afters for The Wild Rose Press.

A look into…

~ Blurb ~

* On her fortieth birthday housewife Wanda Jo Ashton is expecting her husband’s standard gift of an E and E from T-that being Elegant and Expensive from Tiffany’s. However, what she gets is the news that her formerly successful, dependable corporate attorney husband is leaving her to pursue the rich life of a kept man. Left with nothing she has no choice but to escape the San Francisco area, with her sixteen-year-old daughter in tow and head toward the mountains of West Virginia and the quirky family she left behind twenty years ago. Here Wanda Jo must carve out a future, complete with career and home in the midst of family feuds, computer phobias and the occasional homebrewing explosion before she finally figures out life can indeed being again at forty.

~ Excerpt ~

* No sooner had I placed my half-empty mug on the counter than I heard a distantly familiar hissing sound. But before I could remember when I’d last heard it there was the unmistakable groan of old wood followed by an explosion loud enough to rival cannon fire and then the sound of splintering wood.
* Olivia looked at me, eyes wide with shock. I looked at Sam. We both looked at Nettie, who sat with her eyes wide and one hand over her mouth. “Oops,” she squeeked.
* Mama just sighed and kept washing dishes.
* Sam and I hurried to the front door. He got there first and shoved it open with one massive shoulder. I stared out in stunned disbelief. The right side of the porch had been reduced to a pile of splintered boards, sprinkled here and there with, broken glass. One of the posts and collapsed and the other dangled from its gingerbread trim.
* The usually fresh morning air reeked of fermenting apples.
* “A tad too much yeast.” Nettie tsked from somewhere near my elbow, before turning to toddle back toward the kitchen lost in thought.
* Well, it was official. We were home and had just survived another of Aunt Nettie’s homebrewing explosions.

Buy Relatively Crazy here…
Amazon

Find Ellen Dye here…
Website

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

ANNOUNCEMENT! Ellen Dye will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN 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 Rachel Brimble w/ #RomanticSuspense ‘If I Want You’ @RachelBrimble @GoddessFish

On December 1, 2017November 13, 2017 By Casey's CornerIn Authors & Books, Book Tours4 Comments

Today we have author Rachel Brimble visiting. Welcome!

What would you like to tell readers about yourself?

* Rachel lives with her husband and two teenage daughters in a small town near Bath in the UK. After having several novels published by small US presses, she secured agent representation in 2011. Since 2013, she has had seven books published by Harlequin Superromance (Templeton Cove Stories) and an eighth coming in Feb 2018. She also has four Victorian romances with eKensington/Lyrical Press.
* Rachel is a member of the Romantic Novelists Association and Romance Writers of America, and was selected to mentor the Superromance finalist of So You Think You Can Write 2014 contest. When she isn’t writing, you’ll find Rachel with her head in a book or walking the beautiful English countryside with her family. Her dream place to live is Bourton-on-the-Water in South West England.
* She likes nothing more than connecting and chatting with her readers and fellow romance writers. Rachel would love to hear from you!

Today Rachel Brimble will be talking about the best writing advice she ever received and how it helped her.
“Give yourself permission to write a ‘crappy’ first draft…” Julie Cohen
* This was it! This single line of advice changed my career and output in one glorious blow. I was at a resident writing course and the tutor (and fabulous women’s fiction author!), Julie Cohen said this to her avid students and the lightbulb didn’t just go off in my head, it darn near exploded!
* By nature, I am a worrier of ridiculous proportions – added to the often introvert nature of most writers, and I was struggling to move forward with my work. Instead, I was constantly battling the continuing self-doubt that the writing was good enough…that I was good enough.
* I think I received this advice in 2010 and since then I’ve heard it been given many times in one form or another. So, what does it really mean and how did it help me?
* Well, it’s not exactly encouraging you to write a ‘crappy’ first draft – what it is encouraging is freedom. Liberty to write how you want, what you want, and go with the characters action/reactions/wants/desires. Once I started writing this way and finally destroyed that pesky internal editor once and for all, not only did I fall in love with writing again, but my output quadrupled overnight.
* That first draft is still my favourite place to be – I am a plotter, I make character sketches, chapter plans and even write a synopsis before I start the actual writing. However, once I start, I really start. Bells, whistles, foghorns, you name it, everything pours out of me in that first draft and if things turn away from my plan, I run with it. After all, my characters know themselves better than I do!
* So, several weeks later I’m done. The first draft is in the bag. THE END is written.
* What next?
* The hard part, of course! Did I say writing was easy? Did I say the ‘crappy’ first draft means you’ll never sweat, cry or bleed again? Nope. Writing is hard, will always be hard and there’s no shortcut to getting it right, BUT this is a great way to produce a finished book, to get to that all-important end so you have pages and pages of good (and not so good) material to edit, tweak and change.
* It’s a process – one that I absolutely love and, God willing, I won’t have to do anything for a living ever again.
* Happy writing!
* Rachel x

A look into…

~ Blurb ~

* When local journalist, Tori Peterson, fails to prevent a child abduction outside her niece’s school, her horror and guilt sparks a vow to do whatever it takes to get little Abby Brady home to her parents.
* While Tori battles the vile memories of her own kidnapping as a child, she accepts the help of widowed father, Mark Bolton. As he and Tori join forces with the local police, their attraction and intimacy grows…along with their fears for Abby.
* Links are uncovered between Abby’s disappearance and Tori’s kidnapping, and Tori is forced to accept the monster who held her captive is back. But this time, Tori is all grown up, and there is no way she will let him hurt another little girl.

~ Excerpt ~

* Sensing her discomfort, he stopped and leaned against the bureau. God, did he frighten her? Surely not, or she wouldn’t be here. Or did she sense his attraction toward her and would do all she could to deflect it? He didn’t doubt for one minute his eyes gave away his appreciation whenever he looked at her.
* He lifted the can to his lips. “So, what have you been thinking about?”
* She tapped a peach-painted nail on the bureau. “This.”
* “The bureau?”
* “Principal White’s bureau.”
* He frowned. “How did you know it was hers?”
* “She mentioned you were working on a bureau for her when I was in the school office. I assumed this is it.”
* “It is.”
* “Good, because that makes it all the easier for me to give you your first assignment.”
* “You want me to talk to her.”
* She smiled, took a few tentative steps closer to him. “Got it in one, Watson.”
* He smiled, pleased to see genuine mischief shining in her eyes. “I’m Watson?”
* “Yep.”
* “So that makes you Holmes. Not sure I like being anyone’s sidekick.”
* Another couple of steps closer until no more than a couple of feet separated them. She met his eyes and his heart kicked. Her V-neck shirt was just the right side of professional. Yet, the way it revealed her collarbones and hugged her full breasts made him want to reach out and pull her into his arms, kiss her, taste her…
* “You’re staring, Watson.”
* He blinked and snapped his gaze from her breasts, rare heat hitting his face. “Sorry. You look nice.”
* “Thanks.” She raised her eyebrows and nodded toward his chest. “So do you.”
* He smiled. “Why don’t we go inside? It’s way too hot out here.”

Buy If I Want You here…
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Wild Rose Press

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

ANNOUNCEMENT! Rachel Brimble will be awarding a $20 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 Anni Fife w/ #RomanticSuspense ‘Luke’s Redemption’ @AnniFifeAuthor @GoddessFish

On February 1, 2017January 18, 2017 By Casey's CornerIn Authors & Books, Goddess Fish Promotions33 Comments

nbtm_tourbanner_lukesredemption

Today we have author Anni Fife visiting. Welcome!

What would you like to tell readers about yourself?

* Last year, Anni Fife closed the door on a twenty-year successful career in television production, to fulfill her lifelong passion, writing. In the space of one month, she closed her business, packed up her city life and moved to a small seaside village. ‘My writing has always been constrained by client briefs,’ Anni says. ‘Now, I finally have the opportunity to write to the beat of my own heart.’ LUKE’s Redemption is Anni’s debut novel and she hopes you enjoy it as much as she loved writing it. Anni loves to spend hours walking on the beach searching for pansy shells, more hours drinking red wine with her gal posse, and the most hours writing romance novels filled with women you can relate to and men you love to dream about. She is currently working on her second novel, GRAY’s Promise.
* Anni is published by The Wild Rose Press.

Today Anni Fife has answered the question: What is the best piece of writing advice you ever received and how did it help you?
* There is a lot of advice that is freely offered by best-selling authors and various other entities. But one particular piece of advice is repeated extensively by near everybody—as soon as you finish writing your book, start writing the next book!
* I’m a total believer in this philosophy. I’m lucky enough to have an excellent publisher—The Wild Rose Press—but even so, as a new author I have to do all of the marketing and publicity on my own. This takes up a chunk of time. You have to be careful to prioritize your writing as the social media & publicity demands can take over. But I’ve learned quickly that NOTHING grows your readership as much as releasing another book. If a reader reads your book and likes it, what is the first thing they are going to do? Right! Look up what other books you have written. So you need to get writing.
* I tried hard to follow this advice last year but as I am a debut author, I spent a lot of time building momentum for my brand, and when I finally released Luke’s Redemption, I appeared on over sixty blogs during the release period. It was as exhilarating as it was exhausting, because all my time was spent writing content for guest posts and then pushing social media to maximize reach for the blogs I appeared on. And then we had a family emergency. So finishing my book ended up at the end of the queue. Not good! Because any fans I’ve managed to secure are waiting for my next book…so I need to get on and deliver.
* But I am delighted to report that I’m now in the final chapters of Gray’s Promise, book two in my King Security Series. (Luke’s Redemption is Book One.) It’s set in New York and Denton, Texas. Grayson Walker is Luke’s best friend, and he’s a wicked charmer. Zoey Morgan is his one-and-only. Torn apart by horrific tragedy, Gray and Zoey still carry the emotional scars fourteen years later. We follow their fraught reconciliation, and the unknown evil stalking them. Their journey is filled with pain, and a heart-wrenching beauty. And, of course, sexual chemistry so scorching it still gets me in a hot sweat when I think about it. I hope to release Gray’s Promise in July 2017.
* Please don’t hesitate to ask any questions in the comments section. I’m around most of the day and am happy to answer whatever you toss my way. ~ Anni xx

A look into…

mediakit_bookcover_lukesredemption

~ Blurb ~

* Chased by her criminal kingpin father, Katya Dalca runs to New Orleans and straight into the arms of Luke Hunter. Sucked into the carnal world of the French Quarter, she succumbs to Luke’s potent sexuality. He not only steals her breath, he steals her heart and the only leverage she has against her father. She is left with no choice except to pick up the pieces and rebuild her life alone.
* Undercover DEA agent Luke Hunter thought his newest assignment—recover a stolen flash drive to gain the trust of the Russian mob—was like any other. But his target brings him to his knees, and after one taste of her intoxicating beauty, he’s in too deep. Doing his job means walking away, leaving his heart behind with nothing but a promise to reunite. It’s a promise he can’t keep.
* When Katya’s past reaches out and her world unravels, her only hope is the one man she is most vulnerable to—Luke.

~ Excerpt ~

* We pulled into the underground parking at King Security and Luke parked the SUV in line with several other huge black Ford Expeditions. It appeared King Security had its own fleet.
* Unable to stop myself, I blurted, “You were with Anna when you were undercover with my father, weren’t you?”
* Luke pulled the keys from the ignition. In the deafening silence I didn’t think he was going to answer. Then he turned to me and bit out. “Yes!”
* Wow! I didn’t expect him to be so honest. I sat back and folded my arms, tight. Damn, his answer hurt me. “So you make a habit of lying to your women? Being with them while you’re pretending to be someone you’re not? Is that your thing?”
* “She wasn’t my woman,” Luke growled. “She was just a woman. She was there, I was there. It was never deep and it sure as hell wasn’t forever. Then it was over, and I made certain she was clear of the investigation. That was it.” He leaned towards me and said impatiently, “That tell you what you want to know?”
* “Not even close. You made love to her didn’t you?”
* “Hell no!” Luke snarled. “I fucked her. Like I have all the other women in my life. There’s only one woman I ever made love to Katya. And that was you.”
* I went rigid, stunned into silence. Luke turned to open his car door. “You didn’t make love to me, Michael did,” I whispered.

Find Anni Fife here…
Amazon Author Page | Facebook | Twitter | Website

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

ANNOUNCEMENT! Anni Fife will be awarding $25 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!