All Things Romantic Book Tour....Jess Anastasi...I'm late..Sorry

So peeps this was supposed to go up Friday...sorry...but what a great way to start off Monday. Jess has been a ball to talk to and actually hosted me at her blog as well. Instead of doing the regular interview or guest post we decided to feature some of her books. So without further ado here is Jess Anastasi and her fabulous novels. (side note to my christian fiction followers these are sensual romances.)

I started writing seriously in 2001. Since then I've studied a Diploma in Professional Writing and Editing, joined Romance Writers Australia, had more rejections than I care to think about and find this industry more of a challenge every day. Since I'm stubborn and couldn't comprehend any other outcome besides success, I worked hard, and in 2010, got my first publishing contract.


Wow Jess that's perseverance. You rock girl. Australia. I want to hear you talk now. 

 
SEVERANCE BLURB
Nakita Branson made a deal with a demon to rescue her best friend. But when things don't go the demon's way, he dumps her off on a derelict spacestation with no money and no way of getting home.
A year later, Nakita is still searching for her friend, but finds trouble instead. And the only thing worse than the possibility of getting killed by a fanatical jerk? A familiar, green-eyed demon turning up just in time to save her.
Alastor is back with news that the contract they agreed to is still intact, and until he can find a way to break it, he is compelled to protect her.
The last thing Nakita wants to do is go anywhere with the demon who has a history of screwing her over. Not only that, but when he looks at her with that emerald gaze, intense enough to burn, she feels something she shouldn't for the gorgeous demon.
With the demon monarchy in chaos and enemies all over the universe, they are forced to rely on each other while unraveling the mystery of two sacred relics, and the contract that still binds them. But, by the time Alastor and Nakita find a way to sever their deal, the idea of being apart may no longer be what either of them wants.

All Things Romantic Blog Tour...Week 7...

I'm very pleased to introduce S.R. Claridge author Tetterbaum' sTruth and No Easy Way. 
SR has been kind enough to share some information on herself and her books. Let's make her feel welcomed. 

Bio

S.R. Claridge grew up in St.Louis, Missouri where she graduated from Lindbergh High School and furthered her education at the University of Missouri, Columbia, with a Bachelors Degree in Psychology. She now resides in Colorado with her husband, two children and dog named Gigi.

She began her writing career being published for her poetry, lyrics and greeting cards, expounding into script writing and has found her niche in the fiction world of mystery and romantic suspense. She says it is her background in theatre and psychology that help her fill the pages of each novel with enough dramatic suspense to keep readers guessing until the very end.

Similar to the writing style of best-selling authors, Janet Evanovich and Mary Higgins Clark, S.R. Claridge's novels are sure 


(FYI I just love your author photo. Very lovely and professional)


Interview

1.       Have you considered self publishing?If so elaborate on whatever your decision was.  Though it is a viable option for many writers, I never considered it for myself.  I desperately needed an outsider to read my work and love it enough to publish it.  It may sound strange, but I needed to feel “believed in” by someone outside of family and friends so that I could truly believe in myself. ( I can understand that. It's commendable and admirable)

2.       What’s the best/worst writing advice you have ever received?  One of the best pieces of advice I received was to enter contests and have my work critiqued.  These score sheets from publishers and editors were invaluable in helping me improve my skills as a writer. (I like that advice as well. I've entered contests and it's like with anything experience building is key to growing.)

3.       Do you feel that a romance has to have sex in order for it to be great?  Absolutely not! Sometimes I think sexual tension between two characters can be way hotter than the actual act of sexual contact.

4.      
           What draws you into a book?  An easy read, not too descriptive… I want to be able to use my own imagination and not have every teeny-tiny detail explained to me.  Likeable or humorous characters and a story that isn’t predictable.  (I agree. I love the tension in a story.)

5.       Where do you project to see yourself one year from now?  Wherever God wants me… I’m just along for the ride.  

6.       How would you define your writing career as a “success” and have you achieved it?  I have had some success in signing with a great publisher and jumped that hurdle of getting published.  Now, I think I determine my success in how people are responding to my books and how many books I can get out into the open market.  I don’t want my books only in the hands of a couple hundred people… I want them to go viral.  




Now for the Books...

NO EASY WAY  by S.R.Claridge  

BOOK BLURB

Swerving with the kind of deliberate precision only blind rage can empower, the black pick-up crushes Kansas Oil Tycoon, Lou Martin Miller, leaving Miller’s widow with an impossible choice:  Cover the sin that lead to her husband’s death and conceal the identity of his killer, or risk the destruction of her family.  She carefully weaves a net of protection around her family, but the day she dies it begins to unravel, leaving her grandson, Tom, and his soon-to-be-ex-wife, Kate, in grave danger.   

Missing evidence, mistaken identity and manipulation leave private investigator, Stephen Braznovich, trapped between white lies and dark lusts, as he races to piece together a family secret before the next victim falls prey to deep-rooted revenge.  The trouble is anyone who gets close to the truth winds up dead. 

On the verge of an unwanted divorce, Tom must decide between a confession that could save his marriage or lie to save himself.  Tension mounts as Tom and Kate’s lives hang in a twisted balance of crossed lines and misunderstood motives, all pointing to one simple truth.  There is No Easy Way.

BUY LINKS

VHP Author Page

http://www.vanillaheartbooksandauthors.com/S.R.html

AMAZON Paperback  -  NO EASY WAY

http://tinyurl.com/23tpk6a

Amazon Kindle US Edition

http://www.amazon.com/No-Easy-Way-ebook/dp/B00452V850

Barnes & Noble Paperback

http://tiny.cc/agxzg

Smashwords Multiformat (Kobo, Sony, Diesel, B&N ebooks, iPad, etc)

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/25512

http://tiny.cc/9g2cr

OmniLit 

http://www.omnilit.com/product-noeasyway-469029-152.html

AllRomanceEbooks

http://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-noeasyway-469029-152.html

 Book Blurb

Angel Martin plans to marry Tony and live happily ever after… until Tony disappears.  Nursing a broken heart, she takes a job at Tetterbaum’s Pub, unaware it is the most prestigious Mafia hangout in Chicago. 

In a world filled with a pretense of innocence and a past filled with iniquity, Angel’s life hangs in a twisted balance of deception and revenge. Through an unlikely turn of events, Angel discovers her entire life has been a carefully orchestrated lie. No one is who they say they are and everyone has an agenda of their own. 

  Finding herself in the middle of a revengeful scheme from a past she’s never known and a Mafia blackmail scandal that’s already left several dead, Angel races to find answers.  The trouble is, the closer she gets to hidden evidence and tainted truths, the more the crime families want her out of the way.  With her true identity now exposed, learning who she can trust becomes a matter of life and death and unraveling the past is her only hope for staying alive. 

Video

Tetterbaum’s Truth Video Trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxAUn0ksn58

Buy Links

AMAZON TETTERBAUM’S TRUTH kindle edition

http://tinyurl.com/4kgdqg9

AMAZON TETTERBAUM’S TRUTH paperback edition

http://tinyurl.com/4p6yb2n

SMASHWORDS

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/39486

http://tinyurl.com/47ur7dw

Thank you so much for visiting and answering my questions. I'm excited to have more books on my TBR list. I vow never to have it conquered.

Cassie Exline...A Modern Day "She" Holmes...

I'm truly delighted to introduce Cassie Exline to the blog today. She is a multifaceted author combining suspense, mystery and even erotica into her books. I am truly impressed and excited to see her take a classic story like Sherlocke Holmes and Watson and put her own spin on it, creating the characters "Sheryl Locke Holmes" and "Dot Watson." Here is a little background on Cassie, then we will have an interview and (so excited) an exerts from  Ruby's Deadly Secret.

 Cassie works for a small town newspaper along the east coast of the United States. Writing has been her passion. Writing contemporary romance, erotica,  and mysteries have become her joy. Real life inspires much of Cassie’s erotic fiction. Her stories have been published at Ruthie’s Club, The Erotic Woman, Justus Roux, and Erotic Bookworm. Her two ebooks in the Sheryl Locke Holmes Series, Amber's Mysterious Death and Ruby's Deadly Secret, can be purchased at Wild Child Publishing. Currently in editing is the third book in the Holmes series, Opal's Disappearance. She also has a story, Fire & Ice, published in the anthology Coming Together: With Pride, available in ebook & print at Amazon. She’s a member of Erotica Author’s Association, Erotica Readers & Writers Association and Desdmona’s FishTank. 

1.       Have you ever googled yourself?  Yes. If so what did you see? That I’ve been busy.

2.       Do you have a mentor/s? If so who and what have you gained from their relationship? Oh yes, I work with a crit partner.  He makes me work hard and my most toughest critic, next to me, that I’ve encountered. I’m just glad he’s too far away to strangle. There are moments, but he is a great taskmaster and keeps me out of a rut.

3.       Have you considered self publishing? Yes. If so elaborate on whatever your decision was. I have self-published and am pleased with having total control. This was done under a different name. I think some misconceptions of self-publishing are that the writer couldn’t find anyone to buy her/his work. So wrong in a lot of cases. I’ve sold lots of short stories and have been under contract with several publishing houses. The key is to have fresh eyes and polish, polish, polish that self-published work. I’ve found mistakes in ebooks sold from reputable publishing houses. So no one is perfect.

4.       Do you follow writing blogs? If so which ones and why? Not writing blogs. I follow Four Strong Women, Wicked Writers, CJ England, Coffee Fueled Erotica, Willsin Rowe, Sommer Marsden. The why is because they are interesting blogs and friends I’ve had online. I do stop by other blogs and always on the look-out for anything interesting.

5.       How/where do you gather inspiration? From anything and everything. Songs, movies, my mind running wild.

6.       How do you gather information/research for a book? What’s the most significant experience you had with research? Research online of course. And if I know of anyone local I can talk to I do that and have done that. The most significant experience was I gathered ideas to enhance the character or for other books or scenes.

7.       Do you feel that a romance has to have sex in order for it to be great? No, but it needs suspense to make it great.

8.       What are you reading now? Just finished reading Guise and Dolls by Deb Baker. Her ebooks are on Smashwords.

9.       What draws you into a book? Great characters.

10.   Where were you in your career a year ago? Writing. I’m always writing. I’ve been published since 2005.

11.   Where do you project to see yourself one year from now? Writing.

   

Sheryl Locke Holmes:

Book 2: Ruby's Deadly Secret

By C.L. Exline

What do you get when you add a ruby, diary, secrets, and a mansion? A motive for murder. Sheryl Locke Holmes and her best friend, Dot Watson, have been offered an exciting opportunity to explore Bridgeside, a Victorian mansion, to search for items for their antique shop. Their adventure is short-lived when they discover a diary containing dark secrets and a newspaper clipping with a warning written in what appears to be blood. They get trapped in the attic, Dot is attacked and they find out the owner died inside the house. As if that isn't enough, Jake is spotted with another woman. Clues are pointing to Sheryl as the next target, no matter who gets in the way.

Ruby’s Deadly Secret came in number eight in Top Mystery Book of 2010 at Preditors & Editors Poll.

Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts, beautiful cover art and exert from your book Cassie. I'm just truly impressed with the whole Sherlocke Holmes ideas and your cover art is amazing. Congrats and much more success. If anyone would like info no where to purchase Cassie's books or find out more info no her please check out the links below. 

Bri

Website: www.cassieexline.com

Blog: http://cassieexline.blogspot.com

Buy Link: http://www.wildchildpublishing.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=83&products_id=329

Website: http://www.cassieexline.com
Blogs at: http://cassieexline.blogspot.com
Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/cassie.exline

Twitter:  http://twitter.com/CassieExline

 

Guest Post By UK Author Rachele Brimble

 

I am so happy to be here as part of the Romantic Suspense blog tour I am taking part in along with Bri and fifteen other authors. It gives me a chance to talk about the one sub-genre of romance I write that, to be honest, I haven’t ventured into for over two years now.

I intend to remedy that in 2011!

Romantic suspense is my favorite genre to read and so the first book I wrote was also romantic suspense. After all, the one of the best piece of writing advice to new and aspiring authors is ‘write what you love to read’. This worked for me and in 2007, my debut novel, ‘Searching For Sophie’ was contracted by The Wild Rose Press, followed by my second romantic suspense novel in 2008, Reluctant Witness.

I love both of these books (and will be giving away a free pdf of either one to a random commenter) yet haven’t felt the spark of another romantic suspense story until recently. So what have I been doing in between? Writing other sub-genres of romance, of course!

After Reluctant Witness, I wrote a romantic comedy, followed by an historical and since then two straight contemporary romances. All of which have sold, yay! But as I started writing novel number seven (my second historical), the germ of an idea for a new romantic suspense formulated in my mind.

I scribbled it down in very sketchy detail but basically, it was the hero’s voice asking for help that I heard first. He was talking to the heroine and asking her to provide him with a false alibi. Hmm, not exactly heroic behavior, is it? But then I wondered why he was asking such a thing? What has happened to him? Why doesn’t he plead innocence? Why does he feel the need to ask the heroine to lie for him?

All great questions that have led to my basic story idea of a man falsely accused of murder and the woman who helps him catch the real killer before he is due to appear before judge and jury. I am not sure if will work out like that, but it’s a start and I’m excited to be re-visiting the sub-genre of romantic suspense after such a long absence, (even if all my books seem to have some kind of villainous character in them!).

So look out for a new romantic suspense title some time soon, but in the meantime here is the blurb for my latest contemporary romance, published by Lyrical Press. Enjoy!

Getting It Right This Time

 She's back, but this time she’s a mother…intent on protecting her young.

Two years after her husband’s death, Kate Marshall returns home seeking security and stability for her three-year-old daughter. But when her path crosses with ‘the one who got away’…her husband’s best friend, she has to fight the desire to be with him for the sake of further heartbreak for her and her daughter.

A tough, straight talking theatrical agent, Mark Johnston is dangerously handsome, exceedingly rich, irresistibly charming – and branded by the tabloids as one of the UK’s most eligible bachelors. So even though Mark lost the girl of his dreams to his best friend, he finds no hardship in being single. Or so he thought.

Determined not to lose her a second time, Mark has to find a way to convince her they can work.  But can Kate cope with the media interest and ruthless, money-hungry clients surrounding him, being anywhere near her daughter?  Or accept that Mark Johnston is really the family man he claims to be?

Rachel’s Buy Links:

http://thewildrosepress.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=89_78&products_id=427

http://thewildrosepress.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=89_78&products_id=1011

http://www.lyricalpress.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=3_25&products_id=296

Rachel’s Personal Links

www.rachelbrimble.com

www.rachelbrimble.blogspot.com

www.twitter.com/rachelbrimble

 

Rachel lives with her husband and two young daughters in a small town near Bath in the UK.  Having always believed there’s someone for everyone, Rachel started writing her own tales of love once her children were at school.  Since then, she’s had several books published with The Wild Rose Press, Eternal Press and Lyrical Press.  She aspires to secure an agent in the near future.  A member of the Romantic Novelists Association and Romance Writers of America, Rachel cannot imagine her life without romance or writing!

When she isn’t writing, you’ll find Rachel with her head in a book or walking the beautiful English countryside with her family.  And in the evening?  Well, a well-deserved glass of wine is never, ever refused…


Thank you kindly Rachel for visiting and sharing your thoughts and experiences in the romance genre and sub genre's. Also thank you for offering up the chance to win a free PDF book. So just leave a comment below dear readers and you could be the winner. I'm so glad to have met you Rachele and delight in your continued success.

Bri 

Week One of 17 weeks of Fantastic Romantic Suspense...Author Leanne Dyck

Welcome Dear Readers to the first interview  in a 17 week series where we will visit and talk with different Romantic Suspense authors. Something that I have learned in my journey through in the romance genre is that you really can't judge a book by it's cover. (But you can get a pretty good idea!)

Just because there is a half naked man or woman on the cover does not mean that it is necessarily erotica, or what would be rated R if it was a movie....

Take The Sweater Curse by Leanne Dyck (published by Decadence Publishing on January 10, 2011) for example. It's more of a thriller than a romance. The premise is new and intriguing and I'm very excited to have it on TBR pile.

Aspiring knitwear designer Gwen Bjarnson is stuck in Purgatory. To escape, she must re-examine her life, journey through her past and right a wrong.

But which wrong?

Young and in love, she works to establish her career, except fate has different plans. One rash act and she loses everything. Never resting, always seeking, and yearning for what she can no longer have, Gwen faces the truth:  if she remains, others are destined to die.

How will she solve the mystery before it is too late?

Preface...

This isn't Heaven. It isn't Hell. And I'm not alive.

Picture this:  a bus stop, tons of people packed into the same small space all waiting to continue their journey. Many buses stop here. Some passengers get off, others get on. Young children with sickly white complexions huddle together in the shelter. Teenagers with rope burns around their necks get off the bus. Old men with bullet holes climb on.

Throughout this confusion, the only constant is me. I remain alone.

Why?

I don't know, but I must find the reason. I must examine my life to discover the momentary lapse. The wrong I've committed. The task I've neglected. It's my only means of escape.

Now to meet the talented Leanne Dyck.....

Author Bio:  Leanne Dyck began her knitwear design career in August 2002. Her patterns have sold in North America and internationally. Shortly after The Sweater Curse is published, Leanne plans to close this business to write full-time.

She earned her first writer's paycheck for an article published in a knitting magazine and is a member of the Mayne Island Writers Group, the Victoria Writer Society, and Crime Writers of Canada.

 

      

 1.  Have you ever googled yourself? If so what did you see?

Yes, I’ve googled ‘Leanne Dyck’. The first entry on page was “Author Leanne Dyck knows her craft, her audience, and her setting” (wow that's awesome)

2.      Have you considered self publishing? If so elaborate on whatever your decision was.

Yes, I have self published an audiobook short story collection and a mystery.

I’ve written an article about my experience. If you like, in a future blog visit, I could share the article with you and your readers.( well ain't she slick...of course we want you to come back girl)

3.      Do you follow writing blogs? If so which ones and why?

Following writing blogs is an affordable means of learning the craft. Some of the blogs I faithfully follow are:  Story Fix, Story Flip, The Creative Penn and Writers Unboxed.

4.      How/where do you gather inspiration?

I’m inspired by things I’ve heard, books I’ve read, movies I’ve watched, songs I’ve enjoyed, dreams I’ve had and on and on…

5.      How do you gather information/research for a book? What’s the most significant experience you had with research? 

I gather information by reading books, talking with people and by using search engines.

6.      What’s the best/worst writing advice you have ever received?

A gem I gathered from a writing magazine was a writer’s job is to write and submit.

7.      What’s the best/worst marketing advice?

Once upon a time, I had a craft supply store. One fateful day in walked a tourist. He spent hours examining all the merchandise, finally he found me hiding in a corner—knitting. “Your store is so well stocked. You should be very proud. If it were mine, everyone within in a 50 mile radius would know I was here and what I had to offer.”

Now, as a writer, I try to follow his advice. (I'd call this a gem too.)

8.      Is there anything you want to share or wished that were asked that hasn’t been?

I’d like to thank my readers for their kind support. (Talented, beautiful, intelligent and well mannered, we will definitely be inviting Mrs. Dyck back.)

For more information on The Sweater Curse click the highlighted link. To purchase The Sweater Curse click here.

Grazi, Grazi, Grazi!!! to Leanne for spending time with us today and I hope to have her back again soon to talk more.

Bri