Featured Author: Julie Moffett

CLP Blog Tours brings Julie Moffett here today to talk about her fourth Lexi Carmichael mystery novel, No Place Like Rome, published by Carina Press (Harlequin).

About the book:

A Lexi Carmichael Mystery: Italy might seem like a long way to go to hide after a disastrous date. But when sexy uberhacker Slash (no, that’s not his real name) asks me to go with him to Rome on an investigation, the timing is sort of perfect. My messed up love life becomes the least of my worries though, after the dead body, the near-kidnapping, and the discovery of a top-secret encrypted file that even I can’t hack. With time running out, there’s only one thing to do: call in the legendary Zimmerman twins and my best fluent-in-Italian friend, Basia, to crack the code. Now if only someone could help me solve the mystery of whether Slash is flirting, or if all the kissing is just one of those “when in Rome” things… But when we finally uncover the secret someone would kill to keep, it’s up to me to solve the case and save the lives of my best friends. Just another week in the life of geek-girl Lexi Carmichael. Read about Lexi’s previous adventures in No One Lives Twice, No One To Trust and No Money Down.

Excerpt from No Place Like Rome

I’ve loved listening to music since I was a little girl. Not because I’m musically gifted, but because notes, themes, chords and tempo all have an intrinsic mathematical logic that speaks to me. After all, music is defined by its numeric divisions, such as a beat, a measure or a bar. Musical scales are actually harmonics based on the numerical ratios present in the Fibonacci series, which are a sequence of integers beginning at zero and one and continuing with each new number being the sum of the previous two.

I know all of this because I’m a geek first-class. My name is Lexi Carmichael and I’m a mild-mannered twenty-five-year old who, thankfully for music aficionados, is not employed in any part of the music industry. By day, I work as the Director of Information Security at a hot new cyber-intelligence firm just outside of Washington, D.C. By night, I’m a gamer, book nerd and fangirl (Bond, Star Wars, Dr. Who, Lord of the Rings). I’ve got long brown hair, no discernible curves and zip in the social skills department. I double-majored in mathematics and computer science at Georgetown University with a specialty in cybersecurity. Ask me to talk about a rigorous axiomatic framework or computational complexity theory, and I’m all over it. Ask me to make small talk and I’ll imagine myself jumping off a bridge.

Yet here I am, dressed in my fanciest dress—okay, it’s my only dress—and attending an opera at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., with a man whose social skills and intellect far exceed my own. Small talk is inevitable, and I have a sad feeling that my observations on the Fibonacci series in Don Giovanni won’t fill more than a few minutes.

My acquaintance’s name is Slash, which is short for “backslash” in hacker lingo. I’m pretty decent myself at the keyboard, but Slash is a hacker of extraordinary ability. Of course, Slash isn’t his real name but so far he’s never felt compelled to tell me what his family named him at birth. In fact everything about Slash is a mystery, except that he assures me he’s Italian-American and he works, at least partially, for the NSA, where I was once gainfully employed. He’s so good at what he does that he’s watched around the clock by a team of FBI agents who I’m pretty sure are instructed to kill him rather than let him fall into enemy hands.

Tonight, Slash looked jaw-droppingly handsome in three piece suit and tie. I’m pretty sure this isn’t a date because I’m quasi-seeing my boss, Finn Shaughnessy, and Slash knows that. But Finn’s and my situation is fraught with complications and I’m having a hard time sorting it all out. Maybe Slash doesn’t care about Finn or maybe he does. I wouldn’t know either way. Technically, the word date wasn’t mentioned once in relation to our evening. So, as far as I know, this is just Slash’s goodwill gesture to expand my personal horizons into areas, up until now, unexplored.

Interview with Julie Moffett

Julie, you have thirteen published novels--wow! How long have you been writing, and how did you start?

Well, I published my first book in 1993. I wrote it because publishing a novel was something I’d always wanted to do. It was a Scottish historical romance with a strong heroine and two leading men. It wasn’t overly sexy, just an unusual romance featuring a woman who had to choose one man, even though she loved them both. Luckily, I was clueless that this was not standard at the time, and sent in the manuscript on my own to several New York publishing houses. I had two offers on the book within two weeks.

I actually wrote my first book in the second grade when I penned a love story between Prince Valen and Princess Tina who met, fell in love and got married on Valentine’s Day. I still have it. It was a big hit with all the girls in my class. The boys held their noses. After that I won a 3rd grade poem contest about a haunted house. I followed up that with a stint on my college newspaper, and later moved into international journalism. Eventually I got brave enough to pen a novel for publication purposes.

What do you like best about writing?

I love writing because the voices in my head finally get heard! It’s a wonderful, magical, frustrating and agonizing process.

What’s your least favorite thing?

My least favorite part is putting my bottom in a chair and writing every day. Writing and wrestling with my Muse is really hard work.

How did you come up with the title No Place Like Rome?

My first novel in the Lexi Carmichael series, No One Lives Twice, is a word play on a Bond movie because my heroine, Lexi, is a Bond geek (and in the spirit of full disclosure, so am I). Since then, I have kept NO as the first word in all the titles in the series. I love the title of the latest book, No Place Like Rome. One of the main characters in the series, a sexy uberhacker named Slash, is Italian-American. He enlists Lexi to go with him to Rome to help his uncle who is accused of hacking money from the Vatican Bank. I’m not sure Rome will be the same after a visit from Lexi!

Do you have another job outside of writing?

I do. I am a proposal writer for a defense contractor in the Washington, DC area. Proposal writing is quite similar to fiction on occasion! 

How would you describe your book in a tweet? (140 characters or less.)

Get your geek on in No Place Like Rome with hacker extraordinaire, Lexi Carmichael. Spies, Geeks, and Lies, oh, my! #mystery #romance #adventure

Do you outline, write by the seat of your pants, or let your characters tell you what to write?

I write with an outline. I know, boring. I’m a total plotter. Think Dragnet: “Just the facts ma'am.” I need to know the plot up front and all the way to the end, including the series arc. That doesn’t mean things don’t sometimes take an unexpected turn. They do. But I’ve always got a goal in mind. I really wish I could write by the seat of my pants, have curly hair (it’s as straight as it gets), and brush my teeth with my eyes closed. But we are who we are.

Do you have imaginary friends? When do they talk to you? Do they tell you what to write or do you poke them with a Q-tip?

My first imaginary friends were the Chipmunks when I was three years old. I kid you not, Alvin was my closest buddy. My mom said the Chipmunks hung around for some time. As I grew up, I just replaced the Chipmunks with other characters in my head. Finally, I decided to write stories about them. My characters talk to me all the time, no Q-tip required. The first time I heard an audio book of one of my novels was surreal. The voices in my head were actually talking aloud! That was a real ‘whoa’ moment for me.
 
Sophie’s choice: Do you have a favorite of your characters?

I think my favorite character is Lexi herself. She’s such a conundrum. She’s smart enough to know she needs people and a life outside her “virtual existence,” but she doesn’t know quite how to go about it. Enter her best friend, Basia, who is essentially the expositional character in the series. She plays off Lexi’s inexperience and offers suggestions to help bring her out of her geek shell with sometimes—-well, most of the time—unexpected results.

Are any of your characters inspired by real people?

Honestly, things, people, and events in real life inspire me. A lot. So, to know me is to be in danger! You could be in my next novel in one form or the other.

Are you like any of your characters?

I think there are definitely parts of me in Lexi. I’m also a lot like her best friend, Basia, but much less of a fashionista!

What song would you pick to go with your book?

Here is the soundtrack that I typically listen to while I’m trying to write... “Mommy, play with me, please,” “Can I have a popsicle?” “Mom, he’s in my stuff again!” “He breathed on me.” “MOM!!!” 

I'm not sure that's on YouTube, but I've heard it often! Who are your favorite authors?

Okay, I like Michael Crichton, Robert Crais, Dean Koontz, Lisa Gardner, Stephen King, Tess Gerritsen and Nora Roberts/JD Robb, among a thousand others. Favorite book of all time: Watership Down by Richard Adams. The rabbit fantasy thing just does it for me every time.

Which author would you most like to invite to dinner, and what would you fix him?

Oh, Lexi and I would have a blast at dinner eating cookie dough ice cream and chocolate éclairs. But a dinner with Slash would be eventful to say the least. A good Italian wine, some spicy pasta, all while playing a game of strip poker. Hmmm...

What book are you currently reading and in what format (e-book/paperback/hardcover)?

I just finished The Farm by Emily McKay. It’s a young adult vampire novel. It’s not my typical reading fare, but someone whose taste I trust highly recommended it to me, and I enjoyed every page. I just purchased I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban. I’m looking forward to reading that book, too. Both of them are in e-book format.


Do you have a routine for writing? Do you work better at night, in the afternoon, or in the morning?

Are writers with young children allowed to have a writing routine? I simply snatch every writing moment I can find. Someday, I’ll have a real writing schedule, or at least I hope so!

If you could take a trip anywhere in the world, where would you go? (Don’t worry about the money. Your publisher is paying.

Egypt. It’s on my bucket list to see the pyramids. Then I could know for sure if they were engineered by aliens or not.

What are you working on now?

Just finished up the next book in the Lexi Carmichael series, tentatively titled, No Biz Like Show Biz, and should be sending it out to my editor any moment now. Lexi goes undercover on a reality television dating show to catch a hacker. Hilarity ensues, of course!

Of course! And I'm looking forward to hearing more about it!

About the author:

Julie Moffett is the award-winning author of thirteen published novels in the genres of historical, paranormal fantasy, and time travel romances, and action/adventure mysteries.

She grew up as a military brat (Air Force) and has traveled extensively. Her more exciting exploits include attending Kubasaki High School in Okinawa, Japan, backpacking around Europe and Scandinavia for several months, a year-long college graduate study in Warsaw, Poland, and a wonderful trip to Scotland and Ireland where she fell in love with castles, kilts and brogues.

Julie has a B.A. in Political Science and Russian Language from Colorado College, a M.A. in International Affairs from George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and is nearly finished with her M.Ed. Able to speak Russian and Polish, she worked as a journalist for the international radio station, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Washington, D.C. for eleven years, publishing hundreds of articles. She now works as a proposal writer and research advisor for a defense contractor in the Washington, D.C. area.

Julie is a single mom with two sons, who keep her quite busy. She belongs to Romance Writers of America and Washington Romance Writers where she served six years on the organization’s Board of Directors. She was also the Market News Columnist and Feature’s Editor for the organization’s monthly newsletter, Update, for eleven years.


Connect with Julie:
Website | Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads 


Buy the Book:
Amazon  

Featured Author: Christine Meunier

Christine Meunier is treating us to excerpts from two of her books today. New Beginnings is book 1 in the Free Rein series for pre-teens, and In Pursuit of a Horse is book 2. And check out my interview with Christine from when she was here in June to talk about her book, Horse Country--A World of Horses.

Book 1: New Beginnings:

A job transfer for Jacqui King’s father means that the 10 year old and her family have moved interstate. Jacqui is excited that the move has allowed her family to take up a lease on a large property.

Since she could remember, Jacqui King has had a love for horses. Now with the family’s move she wonders if her dream to learn to horse ride could come true. Jacqui’s mum Kate plans to turn the property into a place where they can offer horse agistment, only concreting Jacqui’s desire to have a horse of her own.

On a property titled Genesis, it does indeed seem that the new beginnings for the King family are looking promising.

Excerpt from New Beginnings

Jacqui hurriedly finished her breakfast, keen to see all of the property that morning.  It was half past eight already and her mother had told her that rain was forecast for the afternoon – she needed to get moving!

Pulling on a jacket and a pair of gumboots she stepped off the front porch, running to the back of the house.  Here were the two paddocks she’d looked out at through her bedroom window.  She unlocked the large gate into the first paddock, being sure to lock it after her in spite of there being no horses on the property.

Jacqui dodged puddles as she walked the perimeter of the paddock, looking at the fences.  She patted the pen and paper in her jacket pocket, making sure that they were where she’d put them.  The fencing looked old but ok to her, but she wasn’t sure what horse fencing should look like.  She made a note to ask her mother if she knew.

Jacqui made it to the end of the first paddock and decided to go through the gate into the second.  She wanted to turn right and continue around the perimeter of this first paddock she’d entered, but to the left of the next paddock in front of her it looked like there was an arena of sorts and a few figures riding horses.

Curious, she climbed over a small hill that was made up of a large concrete pipe covered over with soil.  Water trickled through the pipe and into a large ditch that lined the paddock fence.  Jacqui made a note on her piece of paper to tell her mum about it later.
She left the gate open to this second paddock, wanting to get closer to the arena quickly.  She grinned as she watched three people riding their horses around an arena at the trot, being instructed by another figure standing in the middle of them.

A horse riding school?  We live next to a horse riding school!

Jacqui ran closer, standing at the fence line to watch the three moving across the middle of the arena and then changing direction.

“Don’t forget to change your diagonal as you change direction!” their instructor called out, correcting one rider.

Jacqui looked at the three horses, two brown in colour and one a reddish colour.  This she knew to be chestnut because of her mother’s gift of a horse book a year ago.  The horses looked so lovely to Jacqui that she lost track of time watching them.  She sighed when the lesson seemed to come to an end, the instructor letting the group of three out of the arena where they disappeared from view.

Jacqui watched for awhile longer but it seemed that no one else was coming to ride in the arena for her to watch.  Shrugging her shoulders she continued on down the fence line, knowing that this paddock was the end of their property in one direction.

New Beginnings is the first book in the Free Rein Series.  For purchase details and updates on the series, visit www.freereinseries.com. The books can be ordered directly from http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/christinemeunier

Book 2: In Pursuit of a Horse:

Jacqui King has settled in well at her family’s new property Genesis. She has even made some horsey friends.

Jacqui’s two close friends Hannah Johnston and Geordie Smith have been told by their parents that they are allowed to each get a pony. It so happens that Hannah has an Aunt Jan who breeds and trains ponies for a living.

An invitation is extended to the girls to come to Jan’s place for a short stay to ride her ponies and find two to buy. Jacqui is thrilled at the idea of learning to ride better.

Even more exciting is the fact that at the end of their stay, her two close friends will be brining their ponies back to agist at Genesis. Even if she isn’t getting her own pony, Jacqui is delighted for her friends and eager to help them each find their perfect first pony.

Excerpt from In Pursuit of a Horse

“So!  Who’s ready to meet the horses?” Jan asked in a businesslike manner.

Three excited girls exclaimed yes very quickly.  Jan laughed and led the way to one of her closer paddocks.  The four stood at the gate as she pointed out the four ponies that lived here.  Jan described their colours and markings first so that the girls knew which she was talking about.  Then she detailed their personalities, ages and gender.

Jacqui loved that she knew each one individually and was able to provide so much information about them.  She decided she wanted to be able to do this with any horses that were agisted at their property Genesis.

The group moved on to the next paddock as Jan led the way.  This one housed six ponies and again the girls were introduced to each one.

Jan also showed the girls the two stallions that she had on the property and used to breed her mares to each year.  She explained that she kept her broodmares – the ones she used for breeding – separate from the riding ponies that she introduced to saddle and then sold on to other people.

Jacqui loved the set up of the whole property and excitedly talked about this with Hannah and Geordie that night as they lay in bed.  Hannah knew her aunt’s place well but it had been a little while since she had visited and she was just as excited about this adventure as her two friends were.

They discussed in the dark of their room that night which ponies they would try out first.  Jacqui had a dream of owning a little grey pony so she’d chosen one of the two grey horses to ride first.

Geordie had chosen a little chestnut mare that reminded her of the horse she rode at the East Riding School where she had lessons.  Hannah hadn’t minded which horse she rode first, so had asked her aunt if she could recommend one.

Jan had pointed out that the six horses in the second paddock she’d shown to them were all between the ages of six and ten and that they were all fairly quiet.  She said she’d be happy with the girls riding any.  She’d obliged Hannah however, and pointed out a little bay pony for her to try first.

Excited about their ride the next morning, the three fell asleep talking of all the ponies they’d been introduced to that afternoon.  Jacqui managed to thank God for this time with her friends and riding horses before she succumbed to slumber.

In Pursuit of a Horse is the second book in the Free Rein Series. For purchase details and updates on the series, visit www.freereinseries.com. The books can be ordered directly from http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/christinemeunier.

About the Author:

Christine Meunier considers herself introduced to the wonderful world of horses at the late age of 13 when her parents agreed to lease a horse for her. She started experiencing horses via books from a young age and continues to do so, but recognises that horses cannot be learnt solely from books.
She has been studying horses from age 16, starting with the Certificate II in Horse Studies and is currently undertaking her Bachelor of Equine Science via distance education.


Christine has worked at numerous thoroughbred studs in Australia as well as overseas in Ireland for a breeding season.
She then gained experience in a couple of Melbourne based horse riding schools, instructing at a basic level before heading off overseas again, this time to South Africa to spend hours in the saddle of endurance and trail horses on the Wild Coast.
Particularly passionate about the world of breeding horses, she teaches equine studies focused on breeding, at a TAFE, Victoria, Australia.

Christine writes a blog about equine education which you can view at equus-blog.
You can also check out her debut novel which was released in July 2013 at horsecountrybook.com and the Facebook page for Horse Country, or visit the Free Rein series on Facebook.

Release Day Party: The Migraine Mafia

Welcome to the Release Day Party & Giveaway for

The Migraine Mafia

By: Maia Sepp Genre: Humor, Contemporary,Women's Fiction
Release Date: December 13th, 2013

About the book: 

On paper, Viive McBroome lives the perfect life--a key player in a fast-paced, technical field, one promotion away from real success--but that's only if you ignore one little problem.

Sandwiched between one migraine and the next, Viive's life is like those choose-your-own-adventure books you read as a kid, only less fun and with a lot more drugs. And lately, as her bosses politely march her toward a vacation that might never end, even the good days feel like a struggle for survival.

Faced with frustration from her loved ones and the dark machinations of a new colleague, Viive feels herself getting pulled under by guilt, apologies, and workplace shenanigans. But then she meets the Migraine Mafia, a quirky, vibrant support group, and her fragile camouflage begins to crumble. She discovers that a room full of strangers just might be able to change the way she views her illness--and realizes that if she doesn't learn to ask for help, her health isn't the only thing she stands to lose.

Sometimes painful, frequently hilarious, always entertaining, The Migraine Mafia is the story of one woman's life-altering decision to thrive in the face of chronic illness.

Where to Purchase The Migraine Mafia:

Amazon | iTunes  || Kobo  | Barnes & Noble 

About the Author, Maia Sepp:

Maia left the tech sector to write about sock thievery, migraines, and...the tech sector.

The Sock Wars is her debut novel. The first chapter of The Sock Wars was published as a short story/novel excerpt titled Irish Drinking Socks, and became a Kobo bestselling short story. The Sock Wars has been a top-100 digital bestseller on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and the iBookstore, as well as a genre bestseller on Kobo.

Maia's next novel will be released in December 2013: The Migraine Mafia, a story about a nerdy thirtysomething's quest to come to terms with a chronic illness. 

Connect with Maia:
Website  | Facebook |  Twitter 

Giveaways!

There are two giveaways for the Release Day Party...

Giveaway #1
Maia Sepp will be giving away a $50 Amazon gift card to a lucky winner via the Rafflecopter below!

Giveaway #2

Plus, one lucky commenter at each stop will win an eCopy of The Migraine Mafia. To enter to win simply leave a comment below. One commenter will be randomly selected! Good Luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Feaured Author: Natalie Damschroder

Multi-published author Natalie Damschroder is here today to talk about her romantic suspense novel, A Kiss of Revenge. Find out about Mary, her writing tips, books she loves, and where she would go if she could go anywhere in the world. And don't miss an excerpt from the book after Natalie's interview.

About the book:

Marriage is completely over-rated, especially after Reese Templeton’s quadratic failure. She’d rather settle down to a solitary life of owning a bakery—after she tracks down the man responsible for her husband’s death and making her a human tazer full of enough electricity to short out a city block or send a man into cardiac arrest with just one kiss.

But the alluring P.I. Griffin Chase is stirring up those feelings of need again. Only this time, her desire to be in his arms has nothing to do with her fear of loneliness and everything to do with the current charging through her body every time he looks at her...touches her.

Griffin hasn’t remained at Reese’s side just because of the spark that has nothing to do with her super-human talents. He’s willing to compromise his rock-solid principles so she can find closure. But before they can move on, he must help her catch her late husband’s killer, staying on track before she has a chance to exact her revenge. Because leading Reese to jail in handcuffs may just break his heart for the final time.

Interview with Natalie Damschroder

Natalie, you've published 15 novels, 7 novellas, and 15 short stories. Wow! How long have you been writing, and how did you start?

I’ve been writing for about 20 years, since right after I graduated from college and got married. I’d slowly come to the realization that writing was my main skill, I lived in an area where it was impossible to use my degree in geography and environmental studies, and I loved to read romance more than pretty much anything else. My mother was a writer, and I’d spent a lot of time rebelling against the idea, but that probably also made it easier to embrace when the time came. :)

So you write full time?

I do freelance editing and proofreading for a few clients and work part time in a chiropractor’s office. It’s a juggling act, but gives me some stability as well as flexibility.

How would you describe your book in a tweet? (140 characters or less.)

She’ll stop at nothing to find her husband’s killer. But will vengeance set her free, or become a darker trap?

Do you outline, write by the seat of your pants, or let your characters tell you what to write?

My favorite analogy is flying (by the seat of my pants) in the dark. I plan about as far ahead as the headlights show me. If I get an idea far enough in advance of when I can actually try to write it, I’ll brainstorm pieces of it—-mostly backstory and broad concepts. The characters are whole to me in the sense that I feel as if I am them, though of course I don’t know much about them until it’s uncovered. The plot almost always evolves as I go.

What books have you read more than once or want to read again?

Before I had kids, I had a lot of books I read over and over. The Little House books more than anything, and then Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys and Carolyn Keene, and then Sandra Brown and Nora Roberts. And then I just didn’t have time to read stuff more than once, and now there are always so many new books out there it’s just impossible. :)

The one current exception is the Harry Potter series, which I listen to on my iPod every year after the football season is over.

When you start a new book, do you know what the entire cast will be?

Nope. Most of the time I know the hero and heroine, and the rest of the cast pops up when they’re called for. It’s one of the most fun parts of the job, discovering their importance unexpectedly. I often don’t know who the villain is until the book is a fourth done, and sometimes they’ve been there all along!

I’m constantly on the lookout for new names. How do you name your characters?

I, too, am on the constant lookout for new names! I really love unique names, though I force myself to use normal once sometimes. :) I used to work for a workers’ compensation case management company, and when I came across cool first or last names I jotted them in a journal. If that’s not handy and I need a name, I use Name Shake (an app on my iPod) or the phone book.

I'm definitely going to check out Name Shake! Thanks for the tip! Do you have a routine for writing? Do you work better at night, in the afternoon, or in the morning?

I used to. I don’t know what the heck I’m doing anymore! LOL I used to be a night owl and had my most productive time between 9 p.m. and 1 a.m., even though my brain always seems to want to write mid-morning, no matter what else I’m doing.

I’m still a night owl, but I have to get up at 5 or 6 and can’t handle that little amount of sleep anymore. So when I write it's all haphazard, depending on the work schedule, client projects, and deadlines.

Where and when do you prefer to do your writing?

On retreat! Unfortunately, that’s only once a year. My local writing group goes to a convention center out in the boondocks where we can do nothing but write and relax for 3+ days. It’s such a luxury not to feel guilty for writing. :) Every couple of years, a few of us get together at a friend’s beach house (in January LOL) and do the same thing.

Sounds wonderful. Where’s home for you?

I love this question. It’s more complicated than you’d think! LOL I grew up in Western Massachusetts, and New England is home. I feel different when I visit the Rhode Island beaches or drive up I-95 in Connecticut or visit family (or my daughter, who is now in college in Boston). But when I was 16 we moved to a tiny village halfway between Albany and Hudson, NY. We lived in a renovated 200-year-old colonial while I was a senior in college, and I LOVED that house. I want that house. I lonnnng for that house!

And now I’ve lived in central Pennsylvania longer than I ever lived anywhere else (21 years). It’s where my kids were born and grew up, and is literally home.

What three books have you read recently and would recommend?

The Whole Truth by Jody Wallace. I love her brand of humor and clever hand with the paranormal.

Spirit and Dust by Rosemary Clement-Moore. Her voice is so compelling, and I adore her characters.

Out of Control by Stephanie Feagan. She has fast-paced romantic adventures set in really unusual places. This one is set in the world of oil drilling.

What do you like to do when you’re not writing?

Favorite things (besides reading): Watching NFL football; going to local pro soccer games with my kids; going to the movies.

If you could take a trip anywhere in the world, where would you go? (Don’t worry about the money. Your publisher is paying!)

I would really like to visit the cottage where I was born, in South Ruislip, England. My dad was in the Air Force, and I was a year old when they came home. My mother always wanted to take me back, but she died about 10 years ago, and we never made it. I think it will be heartbreaking to do it without her, but I want to see it, anyway. (Or at least the town, since the cottage might be gone by now.)

I hope you get there. So what are you working on now?

We’re in the final stages of my next Entangled Ignite, Hearts Under Siege, which will be out in February. It’s a best-friends-to-lovers story with a spy twist and is full of secrets and angst. It might be my favorite book!

It sounds fantastic! I hope you'll be back to tell us about it.

Excerpt from A Kiss of Revenge:

Griff smiled, and Reese’s stomach did a whole flippin’ somersault.

“I had meetings at the office in Boston and was headed back to DC. I thought I’d stop in and see how you’re doing.”

She grabbed a towel to wipe off her ice-cream-sticky hands. “Crestview is not on the way to DC from Boston.”

He shrugged and pointed at the butter croissants in the bakery display case. “Close enough.”

With a pair of tongs, she selected the biggest croissant and put it on a plate. “Coffee?”

“Of course.” He leaned against the counter and folded his arms. “You have anything for me to check out?”

She shook her head. “Not at the moment.”

“What about him?” He jerked his head toward the sidewalk outside, where Andrew Laine stood talking to the couple who owned the hardware store. “He giving you any trouble?”

“Not anymore. I told him I was married.”

She cursed herself as soon as the words were out of her mouth. Griff’s gray-blue eyes darkened, his rock-solid chin tightening. He’d obviously meant “trouble” because of Reese breaking the law, not because the chief of police had asked her out.

“You’re not thinking—”

“No!” She grabbed the towel again and swept it over the few crumbs and coffee drips on the counter, scrubbing vigorously at one dried spot. “I didn’t want to shove him too far away, that’s all. As long as he had an interest, I could keep track of what he knew.” Even if it kept her on edge and fried her equipment. “Anyway, he knows now. It’s fine. You don’t have to worry.”

“You pay me to worry.”

That wasn’t strictly true. Griff was co-owner of a multi-city private detective firm. He ran Chase Investigations in Washington, DC, where Reese had lived before the plane crash. Reese had hired him to help her track down clues about whoever had tried to kill her. But they’d become friends. He’d helped her through physical therapy, been a sounding board while she dealt with her new reality, and was the only person on earth who knew what that lightning strike had done to her body.

“I’m paying you to do research,” she reminded him. “You choose to worry.”

He grinned and shook back his shaggy dark-blond hair. “You make it hard not to.”

Another group came in, and he retreated to a table with his breakfast. Reese saw Kimmie eyeing him, and the young woman flushed at his greeting. Reese couldn’t blame her. He had the classic “hunk” build, with a broad chest, narrow waist, and shoulders shown off by a tight gray T-shirt. His gray-blue eyes were nothing special at first glance, but they sparkled at everyone and made his charming smile even brighter. No doubt that smile was what pinned Kimmie in place now, wearing a slightly stunned expression.

Reese wasn’t immune, but her friendship with Griff had become one of the most important things in her life. It was something she’d never had before, and she was going to treasure it as long as it lasted.

About the author:

Natalie J. Damschroder is an award-winning author of contemporary and paranormal romance—-Love with a Shot of Adrenaline. She sold her first book in 1999, and 2014 will see the publication of her 15th novel. She grew up in Massachusetts and loves the New England Patriots more than anything. (Except her family. And writing and reading. And popcorn.) When she's not writing, revising, proofreading, or promoting her work, she does freelance editing and works part time as a chiropractic assistant. She and her husband have two daughters she's dubbed "the anti-teenagers," one of whom is also a novelist. (The other one prefers math. Smart kid. Practical.) You can learn more about her and her books at http://nataliedamschroder.com.

Connect with Natalie:
Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Entangled Publishing

Buy the book:
Amazon | Natalie's Amazon page

Featured Author: Welcome Cole

Virtualbookworm.com brings Welcome Cole here to promote his fantasy/adventure novel, The Pleasure of Memory, Volume One of the Blood Caeyl Memories. Today Cole has a guest post and an excerpt from the book.

About the book: 



Beam is a smuggler, a murderer, and a rogue, who lives by the age-old rules of "Finders, keepers" and "To thy own self be true". Abandoned by his family and raised in a run-down priory by an old monk, he is consumed by his anger. He measures the worth of the world's citizens less by the character of their hearts than the gold he can pick from their pockets.

However, when he receives a mysterious message from his long dead mother, his carefully constructed rules of priority and self-interest are changed forever. Wrapped within that message is an ancient map that leads him far south to the reservations of the Vaemyn, a race of savages forcefully sequestered from the world by the civilized Allied Nations. Once there, he searches through a burial ground the size of a small city where he finds an ancient artifact called the Blood Caeyl, a rare red crystal carved in the image of a sensuous eye that he believes will make him rich beyond his dreams.

In his flight, he crosses paths with Chance Gnoman, a powerful Water Caeyl Mage. When Chance recognizes the Blood Caeyl, he explains the importance of the artifact in the war that is about to ensue. The artifact begins to change Beam, awakening the memories of a thousand lifetimes, and with those memories, the powers of a god.

Guest Post by Welcome Cole

The Evolution of the Blood Caeyl Memories:

The Pleasure of Memory was born from a dare. Or perhaps challenge is the better description. Years back, I was discussing the art of writing with a dear friend, a fellow devotee and author of fantastic fiction. We were discussing the evolution of The Story. The conversation was something akin to a literary version of the creation versus evolution debate. Did the best stories evolve through careful structuring of the plot and characters prior to the actual writing, similar to God’s Seven Day Plan? Or did they grow organically from the kernel of a planted idea, flowing initially as a kind of free association that gradually evolves into a life form?

I clearly favored the latter.

To prove his point, my friend then initiated the challenge. He provided me with an opening sentence, and double dog dared me to grow it into a story. The opening line he graciously delivered to me was “It’s a good day to be you,” written as a quote. Looking at that seed, I was pretty certain it wasn’t an acorn that could grow a mighty oak. I figured I’d be fortunate if it grew a milkweed.

After several fruitless months of writing, wadding, trashing, writing, wadding, and trashing, I decided to take a more scholarly tack. I cheated. I took a concept I’d been playing in my head for about a year, but hadn’t yet started on, and I placed the dare sentence at the beginning of it. Now, in all fairness to myself, I have to say that I still wrote this story organically from a simple premise and without benefit of a storyboard, but while starting from a different seed. However, in using his second dare seed, the concept of my original premise was dramatically changed. You might say this story arose from genetically modified stock.

Three books later, the project has evolved into a complex story of good versus evil, of a man forced outside the comfort zone of his own greed and self-importance, of the allies he unwittingly finds among his enemies, of his metamorphosis into the human and, ultimately, god he was destined to be.

Excerpt from The Pleasure of Memory

Beam landed on his hands and knees in the wet, muddy grass.

It was dark. Shadowy figures encircled him, but he couldn’t make out the details through the pouring rain and cloak of night. He tried to stand up, but the pressure of a sharp point in the back of his neck convinced him to stay where he was.

He grudgingly settled back on his knees and gave a silent curse. He didn’t need to see anything. He knew exactly where he was. The bastards finally had him.

He squinted up through the hammering rain. A clap of thunder rocked the night, followed by a several brief pulses of light. He couldn’t make out their faces, but the shimmer of their mail against the distant lightning was unmistakable.

He dropped forward and slapped the wet grass. “Stinking savages!” he cursed into the rain.
“Stand up, skeechka!” someone called over the crackling roar of the downpour. The voice was female. This warrior was a Vaemyd, a female Vaemyn, though there was nothing feminine in her tenor.

Beam spit some water back into the grass and again squinted up into the rain, aiming in the direction of the voice. “I’m comfortable right here, thanks,” he called back, though he could barely see her.

“I told you to stand up!” she yelled, “I’m not inclined to tell you twice!”

The sword point twisted viciously against his neck. Beam disappointed himself by wincing. He was confident it’d drawn blood. His mind drifted back to his own sword nestled snugly in its scabbard on the stone floor of the tunnel five minutes below him.

Another peal of thunder rocked the night. A lingering flash of lightning briefly unveiled the silhouette of the Vaemyd standing directly above him, illuminating her long enough to reveal her sleeveless armor and her bare, muscular arms glistening against the rain. He tried to look off to the sides, to evaluate the odds, but the sword in his neck convincingly dissuaded him. Still, he was certain there were at least three others.

He again slapped the wet grass. “Bad bloody luck!” he cursed.

“Nay, you’re wrong there,” she called through the rain, “Luck isn’t even in the equation.”

“Get that damned blade out of my neck. I'm unarmed.”

An explosion rocked the night. Beam flinched. It was too loud to be thunder. Despite the sword pinned to his neck, he managed a peek back behind him. The savages had opened the other half of the lid to the tunnel. The open round hatch gaped up into the dark rain like a radiant, mocking laugh.

A second sword found his right flank, and a third dug into his left. The blade on the right twisted a little harder than it needed to.

“Easy!” he yelled up at the offending savage, “Do that again, and I’ll slap you back into diapers!”

Something struck the back of the head. He collapsed into the grass. He wasn’t sure if he was hearing another peal of thunder or just the ringing in his ears. Before he could recover, the warriors dragged him up to his feet. His skull was throbbing. His legs felt weak as wind.

The Vaemyd pressed in close. “You’re damned mouthy for a man with three blades against his flesh,” she said into his face, “You’re either fearless or stupid. Which is it?”

She was nearly his height and as solid as an oak. Another rip of lightning threw her wet face into light. Her features were chiseled and commanding, betraying neither compassion nor humor. She wore her pale hair bound back in the severe Vaemysh tradition, laced up so tight even the rain seemed unable to penetrate it. Water streamed down her face and dribbled from the sharp horns curling up from under her earlobes, but it did nothing to diminish the malice in her eyes, which were as blue and cold as ice.

“Strange,” she said to him, “I’d expected you to be bigger. All this fuss about such a little man. I find it rather disappointing.” Her eyes looked almost serpentine in the greenish light radiating from the open hatch behind him.

“Don’t flatter yourself,” Beam said back, “A Parhronii dandy could’ve evaded your girls.”

“Have your laugh, skeechka. It’ll be your last pleasure.”

Beam shook the rain from his face. “I’ve heard that from your kind before,” he said, “You threaten and threaten but never seem to follow up. I was beginning to think you weren’t really trying.” He spit more water into the grass.

The blade on his right twisted into his ribs again. This time it stole his breath away. He tried to turn on the man, but was quickly subdued. The bastards had a solid lock on his arms, cocking them mercilessly behind him.

“Keep it up, you savage prick!” he snarled over his shoulder, “I’ll feed your jewels to you before we’re done!”

“You’ll have to excuse their zeal,” the Vaemyd said, “My trackers thirst for your blood. You’ve been a monumental irritation to them these past months, jh’ven?”

Beam again flipped the rain from his face, but said nothing.

“However, I do have an offer for you,” she continued, “I give you my word that if you answer my questions directly, I’ll make your death quick and painless.”

“And if I’m stubborn?” he said through the rain.

“I let my warriors have their way with you. You look strong enough that you might last a week or more before their fires.”

The fear that statement left in its wake disappointed him. “Do you really think I’m intimidated by you?” he forced himself to say.

She smiled at that, and leaned closer, whispering, “I’m confident of it.”

About the Author:

Welcome Cole is a writer of fantasy, contemporary novels, and urban fiction. He spends his time in the lakes and forests of Traverse City, Michigan and in the desert and mountains of Castle Rock, Colorado. He has degrees in Nursing and Business Administration, and writes at every opportunity. His book, The Pleasure of Memory, will be followed up shortly with his contemporary fiction novel, Henry’s Re-entry. The second volume of the Blood Caeyl Memories, The Shadows of Memory, will be released in early 2014.

Buy the book:
Caelstone Press | Amazon | Virtualbookworm.com
ISBN 978-0-9894249-1-2 (softcover) $16.95. ISBN 978-0-9894249-2-9 (hardcover)

Featured Author: John Halbert

John Halbert is here today with a guest post and an excerpt from his novel, published in July 2013. The conspiracy thrillers, Arbat Square (551 pages) and Plaza Mayor (617 pages) are two stories combined, published by Virtualbookworm.com.

Guest Post by John Halbert

    Thank you for this opportunity to discuss my two novels, Arbat Square and Plaza Mayor.   

    These multi-volume “Conspiracy Thrillers” had their origins in a  business journey I took to Nigeria several years ago, where I encountered people and places who became excellent prototypes for the settings and the characters in these novels. As I told others about the incredible happenings during that pressure-packed visit, they insisted that I write about it. After starting what was intended to be a short story, I realized that here was the germ of a much larger story that became these two novels. In due course, it became a heavily-researched account of the founding of a crime Cartel, worldwide in scope, supplying arms, funding, and training to  international criminals, human traffickers, renegade governments and the beginnings of a terrorist organization that closely resembled the founding of Al Qaeda.

    The first five chapters of Arabet Square mirror my own experiences through the “Kip Leeds” character.

     This two-book set takes the reader to the inner workings of the “other side” through action, intrigue, adventure and romance. 

    In the first volume, Arabet Square, oil trader Kip Leeds goes on a dangerous journey to Africa where he comes into twenty million dollars of black money. 

   
    In Moscow, Terenty Suslov, a rising young Soviet Military Intelligence officer, attends a secret Special Forces academy, training for an intense mission to penetrate the United States. Leonid Retchkio, an unprincipled former Soviet general, masterminds an international crime cartel that supplies weapons and training to subversive terrorist groups whose influence will extend all the way to the Twin Towers of Manhattan.

    Plaza Mayor, the second volume in the series, tracks Larry Landay, a young California marketing executive taking a shipment of sophisticated electronics to Africa. While there, he encounters a crime cartel supplying weapons and training to international terrorists. The American Investigation Agency joins forces with the Russian Security Service and International Police to try to stop the cartel’s mastermind.

    These “Conspiracy Thrillers” offer surprising perspectives of the “other side”, where the subjects – most of whom do not know each other but are nevertheless inexorably intertwined – are brought together at historic “Plaza Mayor” for the world-shaking climax.       

Chapter Excerpt:

    Kip pulled his bag from the overhead bin and joined the jostling passengers exiting the airliner down a set of wheeled steps. Inside the Lagos terminal, the scene he came upon was about like any other airport he had ever seen, except that this crowd was made up almost entirely of Africans in native dress.

    Then, it hit him―the soggy, sponge-like humidity and the smells―of sweat and strange fragrances. A squad of soldiers in full battle gear with rifles on their shoulders goose-stepped past; their jarring jackboots whamming down in thunderous cadence.

    Up ahead were tables with uniformed officers standing behind them. With a chill of alarm he realized they were directing him toward the Customs inspectors! Were the Nigerians about to find the fifty-thousand dollars strapped underneath his clothes?

    At that moment, a very dark, fierce-looking man in khaki pants and a white, open-collar shirt stepped in front of him, blocking his way. “Kip Leeds?” the man intoned in a heavy, accented voice, his piercing black eyes boring straight into Kip’s.

    With a start, the American realized he must be his airport contact! Kip nodded, swallowing.

    “Identification?”

    With nervous fingers Kip pulled out the pasted-on card Masobe Busa had faxed him.

    The muscular African thrust a card he was holding at the one in Kip’s hand. The serrated edges were a perfect match. “Follow me!” he ordered.

    Kip’s heart was pounding as the man led him around a corner of the shadowy concourse to a bench. “Put two-hundred dollars in your passport and sit right there,” he said. “I will be back to get you in a few minutes.”

    The man took his precious passport with the money inside it and headed back in the direction from which they had just come.

     Kip sat down on the bench and looked around at his dingy surroundings. No one else was nearby, a fact he was not sure was to his benefit or not. The odor of humid sweat hung in the air. On the paint-peeled wall right across from where he sat hung a huge ‘Pepsi’ poster. From a loudspeaker came a continuous jabber of announcements in accented English―was ‘English’ the language of Nigeria? Kip had more or less assumed that everyone would be speaking in some sort of native tongue.

    While he was pondering this, the man in the khaki pants and the white shirt came back. To Kip’s relief, he was holding the passport. The American stuffed it into his back pocket.    

    “Come with me!” the African motioned, “everything is arranged!”

    Kip grabbed his bag and followed him past the immigration area, through the vast main terminal, to the outside. At once, they were surrounded by gawking, chattering beggars and others not so impoverished-looking. “Give this woman twenty dollars!” the man said, pointing to a wizened crone, “she is with us!” Kip pulled out a twenty and handed it to her. The doddering old female snatched it and stepped back, cackling and grinning. She had no teeth.

    The man glared at the rest of the bunch, who shrank back into the shadows.

    The two went down a long, curving, grass-lined sidewalk to the street. Under a street lamp at the curb, Kip turned about and stared at the huge terminal building, with its big lighted sign on the front: ‘MURTALA MOHAMMED AIRPORT LAGOS’. He could see that others were being shaken-down for money just as the old woman had done to him. It looked like an extortion racket was in full swing back there.

    A half-dozen youngsters, including a one-legged boy hobbling on a tree-limb crutch, came up with their hands outstretched. The man swore at them; they turned and fled.
There was a scruff of tires and a blue, older-model, four-door Toyota swept up to the curb. “Get in!” the man said, opening a rear door, “these men will take you to the hotel.”
Kip tossed his gear onto the floorboard and ducked into the right-rear seat. The car pulled away into the traffic. By the flickering light of other cars’ headlamps and intermittent street lights, he could see that two men were in the front seats. Both stared straight ahead.

    They had gone about a block when a police officer in a “Colonial-style” uniform stepped off the curb. WHAM! His hand slammed onto the car’s hood like a thunderclap! The driver jammed on the brakes and gaped at the scowling lawman, who was pointing at Kip. “I want to see that backseat passenger, outside!” He repeated the demands. “You! Get out of that car! That is an order!” Kip’s eyes were wide―should the officer find all that money on him, the American knew he might have but moments to live.

    The officer pulled out a billy-club and lunged at the door. Just as his fingers gripped the handle, the driver floorboarded the gas pedal and the Toyota shot forward! The policeman spun around and fell, yelling, to the pavement! Kip looked back, aghast, and saw the officer reach for his gun. The driver jerked the car around a corner, out of the policeman’s line of fire, and they sped off into the night!

    “Oh! Oh!” Kip gasped, as the sedan careened down a shadowy back street at the outskirts of the airport.

    The African male in the front passenger’s seat spoke. “We will be all right―this happens all the time.” They were the first words either of the two men had said. “Mister Busa is waiting for you at the hotel,” the fellow went on in a heavy accent, “everything is arranged.”

    Kip remembered the white-shirt-khaki-pants man at the airport had also said, “everything is arranged.” Everything, what? he wondered. And what had the front-seat man meant by, “this happens all the time”?

    While he was still thinking about this, they came to a ramp and the driver whipped the Toyota up onto a divided highway.

    As they raced along, Kip looked closely at the two men. In the flickering lights of the road, he could tell that the driver appeared to be the younger of the two―probably in his late-twenties; the other man was stocky and middle-aged. Both had very dark complexions. Neither had much to say, but he got the impression they were following someone else’s orders.

    After they had been on the freeway-like thoroughfare for about ten minutes, the driver twisted the wheel and they bounded down an exit ramp onto a rutted service road, where the sedan presently drove up in front of a brightly-lighted, modern-looking six-story building. According to the marquee the establishment was the “Roomland Hotel.”

    The front-seat passenger yanked open the rear door while the driver hopped from the other side.

    Kip tugged his luggage bag from the floorboard and got out.

    “Come!” the stocky one said, “the man is waiting for us.” Kip guessed he meant Busa.   

About the author:

John is a former Radio-TV News Director, Internet Commentator on the World Talk Network, newspaper columnist, and he worked in the oil trading and chemical business. He  still does occasional voiceover commercials for radio, television, and other promotions, and he's currently involved in property development and construction. He lives with his wife, Cecilia, in Katy, Texas.

Sold as a two-book set, Arbat Square and Plaza Mayor: Two Stories of Our Time is available in softcover  and ebook 
from Virtualbookworm.com, Amazon.com, and Barnesandnoble.com. This set can also be ordered from most bookstores around the United States and United Kingdom. More information can be found at John's website.

Featured Author: Connie Smith

When I interviewed Connie Smith I was happily surprised to find out we're fellow Kentuckians. It's my pleasure to have her here to talk about her young adult novel, Essenced (The Division Chronicles: Book One), and to give you a sneak peak at the book.

About the book:

Years ago, demons were forced out of the earth’s realm by a band of supernatural fighters, banished from the place and its people in the aftermath of a horrific war. It should’ve ended there – would’ve – if not for the final demon’s claw snagging on the open portal. What felt like victory became only a reprieve, the winning warriors understanding that the tear would spread, and the demons eventually would escape exile. It was only a matter of time, and a need for future defense – a question of genetics and essences, magic and power. 

Now, centuries later, a new army must bind together – one of teenagers with inhuman potentials and abilities… 


AJ went to bed Sunday night an average teenage girl, clumsy and athletically lacking. So when she wakes up Monday morning with super-strength, she does what any rational person would do: She goes into denial. When a smoking hot guy in a suit shows up, rambling about the end of the war and demons spilling through some kind of rift, she refuses to listen, telling herself he’s insane. Except weird things just won’t quit happening, and the guy keeps popping up in her life, trying to explain the changes suddenly happening within her. Is she crazy, or is this guy… not so crazy after all?


Connie, how long have you been writing, and how did you start?

I’ve been writing since I was in elementary school, but I actually started off writing song lyrics. Of course, in single-digit ages, my songs tended to be highly plagiarized, but I got better! I visited that off and on, and really invested myself into it in high school. I can remember being excited about short stories I’d written for school – the first memorable one in fifth grade – and I liked having that creative outlet. I didn’t seriously attempt to write an actual novel until last year – the beginnings of which have been temporarily abandoned. Essenced is my first dedicated effort to see one through.

What’s the story behind the title of your book?

Essenced is a term used heavily in the book. As you can tell by the blurb, certain humans are carrying the essences of mythological creatures within them, and minus a prologue, the story starts when the magic has already brought those essences to life. Those people changed are referred to as Essenced. It’s also used for individual packs – Dragon-Essenced, Fairy-Essenced, Thunderbird-Essenced...

What’s your favorite line from a book?

I don’t know if it’s my favorite, but I do have a Terry Pratchett quote at the top of my blog. It’s from The Light Fantastic: “Inside every sane person there's a madman struggling to get out... No one goes mad quicker than a totally sane person.”

How do you get to know your characters?

For this book, I needed to begin – for the most part – with the mythological creatures and work my way back. Aside from the handful of humans and angels in the trilogy, it was pretty open territory to pick and choose any type of creature I wanted. Obviously I used the standard ones – vampires, werewolves, fairies – but I really wanted to bring some myths to the story that readers might’ve never known about. So that’s where a good chunk of my characters started – searching for the right creature and building from there. Their personalities have a tendency to reflect the creature.

Which character did you most enjoy writing?

I honestly enjoyed writing so many of these characters, because their side effects (the transition to Essenced wasn’t as flawless as they’d hoped!) were so fun. There’s a skirt-chasing Incubus-Essenced, an emo-poetry spouting Necromancer-Essenced, a balding Thunderbird-Essenced, a thieving Dragon-Essenced...I don’t know that I could pick one specifically just based on how much fun they are to write. (I say ‘are’ because book three isn’t complete.) My favorite character though, is Johnny. I have a bit of a crush on him – I won’t lie – and his story is really something that snagged my attention. Plus his side effect is fun!

Are any of your characters inspired by real people? Who?

Not really, no. Parts of them might come from different people, or maybe conversations I’ve had. Like Ray-Ray’s obsession with Wheel of Fortune. That definitely reminded me of one of my friends – my BFFFFFFFFFFF, actually. But the characters as a whole, no.

One of your characters has just found out you’re about to kill him off. He/she decides to beat you to the punch. How would he kill you?

If this happened, I would be in trouble. These characters – the soldiers and angels – are pretty hardcore and have some magically-infused weapons. My only shot would be to hide.

If you could be one of your characters, which one would you choose?

Lexia! She’s Fairy-Essenced! Sparkly wings!

What song would you pick to go with your book?

I’m actually planning on posting a soundtrack list to my blog in the near future! For now, I will say this. If AJ and Julius had a song, it would have to be “True Love” by Pink. It’s like she wrote the song about them.

You get to decide who would read your audiobook. Who would you choose?

Misha Collins, but he has to do the whole thing in Castiel’s voice.

I don’t claim to be an expert on writing, but there are some writing techniques (or mistakes) that stand out to me when I read (e.g. when an author switches POV mid-scene). What’s one pet peeve you have when you read?

I HATE when dialogue doesn’t sound like a person actually talking. If it’s an omniscient narrator, I’ll accept some fancy language. But if it’s an average character...If you can’t picture a person saying something, you really shouldn’t make your character say it.


Where’s home for you?

Harlan, Kentucky. I moved around A LOT when I was a kid, and Harlan’s the place where I ended up spending most of my years in total. I wasn’t born here, but it’s my hometown.

Oh my gosh! You're a fellow Kentuckian! That's so cool! Okay, back on track. Neil Gaiman said, “Picking five favorite books is like picking five body parts you'd most like not to lose.” So...what are your five favorite books and your five body parts you’d most like not to lose?

Books: Small Gods by Terry Pratchett, Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins, Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick, Beyond the Shadows by Brent Weeks (just because it’s the last book of the AWESOME trilogy), and Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay. I still have others I want to mention...

Body parts: If I say ‘eyes,’ does that count as two??? I’ll pretend not. I’ll pick eyes, ears, mouth, hands, and feet. By extension, my arms and legs would have to remain intact. Unless I’m going all Jaime Lannister...

Very smart! You can be any fictional character for one day. Who would you be?

Belle! She has a drool-worthy library, and she gets to randomly burst into song! Or Rogue, if it’s the cartoon version. She was my childhood hero!

What steps to publication did you personally do, and what did you hire someone to do? Is there anyone you’d recommend for a particular service?

I hired someone to make the cover, and I’m taking this opportunity to brag on her. The cover was designed by Laura Gordon, and she had very little detail from me about what I wanted. I gave her a few guidelines, and she worked on the project until I was happy with the final product – which only took a handful of changes. In fact, she made a second option for the cover. I loved it so much that it’s waiting to be the cover for the second book of the trilogy. The prices are good, and the work is phenomenal. Check out her site: http://bookcovermachine.wordpress.com/.

What’s your favorite candy bar? And don’t tell me you don’t have one!

BUTTERFINGER! I snatch them out of the bowl intended for trick-or-treaters!

What three books have you read recently and would recommend?

Abel by Elizabeth Reyes. I fell in love with her books when I first read Forever Mine, and I’m only listing this one because it’s a recent read. She has some wonderful stories.

A Brush of Darkness by Allison Pang was good, but I haven’t read the other books. I can’t make any claims for the whole series.

Boundless by Cynthia Hand. I love the trilogy, even though I think my dear Christian got a bad deal :)

What are you working on now?

Emblazed, the second book the trilogy, is in the edit stage, with a planned release the week of February 24, 2014. The third book of the trilogy’s rough draft is about halfway through (maybe a bit more). I also have a novella scheduled to come out around December. It’s a Paranormal Romance prequel to The Division Chronicles called In Your Wings. And I’m starting a new project for NaNoWriMo.

Is that all?! Seriously, good luck with all your projects, and come back soon to tell us more.

Excerpt from Essenced

Even as she thought about those things, gathering her empty water bottles to leave the endurance room, she felt his eyes on her, so intense she both cringed and shivered. Both good and bad, beautiful and bothersome. That’s Julius, alright. Turning to him, seeing the intensity for herself, made her pause as an involuntary gasp escaped her.

“What?” she finally demanded.

He kept staring. “I’m deciding something.”

“Okay…” She elevated an eyebrow, drawing the word out. “Well, I’m gonna go eat, so just… keep deciding.”

“I’m deciding about you.”

She stopped, gawking at him with wide eyes. Deciding about her? What did he mean exactly? Surely he hadn’t bridged the topic of them out in the open for everyone to overhear.

They’d done so well these last days, pleasantly ignoring all the complications the topic brought, playing selective memory. If he meant to change that – which she couldn’t decide if she wanted or not – the endurance room certainly didn’t seem the ideal setting.

“Deciding what about me?”

He gazed a moment longer, biting the inside of his mouth as he thought through his answer. “You fought against Nicholai longer than the other alphas today.”

Well, this definitely didn’t sound like it concerned them. She argued with herself that she held no disappointment with that fact. “Yeah, I managed a pitiful defense for a little over a minute.”

“More than the others did.”

“Well, then, we all need help.”

He nodded. “So you do. And so you’re getting it. Lesson learned, I think. Today you all pushed. A lot.”

Although she appreciated the compliment, she wondered what this had to do with her specifically. If he wished to congratulate her on a job well done, and all the students had increased their focus and determination, shouldn’t he be addressing a crowd rather than just her? “Is there something you’re wanting to say here? Because I really am hungry. And tired. And I really, really stink….”

“You outlasted the rest of them.” He looked her up and down, again causing her to cringe and shiver, nodding once when his eyes locked with hers. “You’re ready.”

She lifted an eyebrow. “In case you aren’t aware, that’s exactly the attitude that got us all in trouble in the first place.”

He laughed, shaking his head. “Not ready for the war. But you’re ready for the next room.”

She tried to understand his words, but their meaning evaded her. “Next room?”

He nodded, then jerked his chin toward the door, intending her to follow him. Though nervous, and not a little unsure, she kept to her self-promise of acquiesce and walked behind him. “Where are we going?”

“You’ll know in a minute.”

“But I don’t get it. You gave me the tour the day after I got here. I’ve seen all the rooms already.”

Glancing over his shoulder at her, that annoying smirk spread across his lips. “You sure about that?”

He stopped in front of the supplies room, checking to see if anyone could see his actions. When he noticed a clear coast, he opened the door and ushered her hurriedly into the dark room, flipping on a light switch seconds later.

“This is where you wanted to take me? ‘Cause I gotta say, Julius. I’ve kind of been here.”

“Shut up and keep walking.” He gently shoved her toward the area’s opposite end, grinning at her unease. As they neared the back door, leading to the desert circling the facility, he pointed to the left.

Glancing there, AJ only saw boxes piled high, layers of training materials that, although organized, hardly seemed like a destination worth finding. She turned to him, confusion and concern etched on her expression. “You’ve brought me here to kill me, haven’t you?”

He rolled his eyes, though with a smile on his lips. “I told you once before. If I was gonna kill you, it would’ve been when you wouldn’t quit with the adrenaline thing. Just walk over there.”

She tilted her head to the side, eyes suspicious. “To the piles of supplies? In the supplies room?”

“Yes.” He considered the uncertainty on her face, sighing and shaking his head. “Just this morning you were shown how this hardheaded mentality works against your training. Do you really wanna hold to it before you fight the demons?”

She winced, then glared. “That was low.”

“It was necessary. Even with your newfound determination to not be stubborn, you can’t help but be stubborn with me.”

“Well, the other trainers didn’t drag me off to show me the wonders of supply organization. I could be eating right now, you know. We walked right by the cafeteria…”

“…And the sooner you go along with this, the sooner you can eat.”

“And get rid of you…” She thought it over, then agreed. “Solid reasoning. Let’s get on with this.”

Watching her spin toward the piles of boxes, Julius smiled to himself.

Once they reached the stacks, he maneuvered one to the right, leaving just enough space between two of them for a person to fit through. He grinned at her, mockingly, and strode through the path.

“He’s so gonna kill me,” she mumbled to herself.

“I’m not gonna kill you! Just come on already!”

She did as instructed, stepping in between the mess of provisions, inching forward a few feet until she reached her trainer, finding him waiting – and smirking – beside a door she hadn’t previously seen.

“Where did that come from?”

“Do you want the construction plans?”

She scowled at him, though obviously intrigued with the unfamiliar part of the facility.
He opened the door, holding his hand out to motion her through. As she stepped over the threshold, her eyes widened at the wondrous vision, somehow stashed away behind the clutter of the supplies room.

About the author:

Connie L. Smith spends far too much time with her mind wandering in fictional places. She reads too much, likes to bake, and will be forever sad that she doesn’t have fairy wings. And that she can’t swing dance. When she isn’t reading or writing, there’s a good chance she’s goofing off with her amazing, wonderful, incredible, fabulous nieces and nephew, or listening to music that is severely outdated. She has her BA from Northern Kentucky University in Speech Communication and History (she doesn’t totally get the connection either) and likes to snap photos. Oh, and she likes apples a whole big bunch.

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