$30 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway: Lady In Deed by Ann Montclair

Original Title: Lady In Deed
Author: Ann Montclair
Publisher: Musa Publishing
Release Date: December 7th 2012
Genre: Historical Romance

Piety or passion… What’s a lady to do?

Lady Mary Rutherford believed she would live her entire life as a nun. But  when King Henry VIII’s reformist movement makes practicing religion a  dangerous proposition, Mary is forced to begin a new life with a family  she doesn't know. Worse, she must become lady of the manor, a role for which she feels sorely unprepared.

After a decade of service to his king, Lord Trenton Stanley returns home  to find his estate in ruins, his fortune depleted, and his doddering  father drooling over Mary—a woman Trent fears has been installed to  replace his mother. Trent strives to rebuild his life, but his desire for Mary becomes a serious distraction he can’t seem to ignore.

Though Mary is anxious to prove she’s a worthy lady, she’s tempted by the rakish Trent into deeds most unladylike…

EXCERPT

He wanted to reach out and touch her soft yellow hair, move it from her proud shoulders, and hold her closely. Her outrage evoked a strange tenderness in Trent, but also bitterness. Who was this chit, and why did she act like he’d done her harm? They rode in his coach with his driver, and she was, what, a guest, a ward? An unwelcome one if she kept glaring with those icy eyes. Trent couldn’t help it. He actually found her unbelievably attractive, even if her gaze promised no reward.

“And you are my ward? How so? Do tell, my ‘lady.’” He exaggerated the last to reinforce he doubted her assertion. His lifted brow named her a liar. The woman drew a deep and ragged breath, and pounded on the coach top to indicate to James this journey had come to a most unfavourable end.

As the carriage slowed to stop, she flung the door wide, and escaped like a songbird from its cage in one swift movement. The snow had subsided, but the accumulated flakes softened her landing. Her little satin slippers proved no match for the slushy stuff, and her whole body shifted and sagged onto the frozen earth. Trent bounded to her side and hoisted her rigid body into the coach.

James began to clamber down. “What has happened? What have I done?”

“James, on to Stanley Hall. This woman claims it is our mutual destination.”

“She is correct, my lord, and her name is the Lady Mary Rutherford.”

“Roll on!”

Trent set Mary upon the carriage bench with care. She slumped onto the seat and pulled her feet under her like a curled cat with claws finally retracted. With the rich fur he gently placed over her shoulders, she seemed small and vulnerable, but the rosy lips and flashing eyes revealed a fire within. He attempted a conciliatory smile, but her round eyes narrowed, and she sniffed and turned up her nose. She would not be mollified much less appeased. Was the little temptress ward to his father? Trent cringed with embarrassment that he had violated her with much vigour. Passion had clouded his judgment.

“Damn this to hell!” His temper exploded.

Mary flinched and then looked at him with utter disbelief. “Do not speak so. God bless you, my lord.”

Her words sounded more curse than blessing.

“Lady…Mary, is it?”

“Yes,” she hissed. “I am your cousin come to be your ward. Not by choice, I was recently turned out of a nunnery — ”

Trent guffawed. “A nunnery, miss? Truly?”

Lady Mary continued stiffly as if Trent hadn’t spoken. “I assure you my leave was due to the state of the kingdom and not any wrongdoing on my part.” She shook her head as if scolding a naughty schoolboy, and she caught her lower lip between her teeth, staring at him with frank puzzlement. He was struck by the innocent yet sensual gesture.

“Do go on with your winsome tale.”

Mary turned her back, and before he could elicit more information or explain his honest error, the coach stopped again. They’d arrived at his family’s estate.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ann Montclair writes contemporary and historical fiction and is an English professor at a small, rural community college. She was born in Los Angeles, California, where her parents and grown daughter now reside. Ann currently lives in the Finger Lakes region of New York with her husband, son, and a pile of dogs and cats. She enjoys listening to live music, hiking, cycling, cooking, and gardening. She hates dieting but spends a lot of time ruminating on the topic. Her biggest wish is that each of her readers will be inspired to believe in and find their own happily-ever-after, no matter their fears and insecurities. Her motto is Love triumphs! Ann has three published contemporary romance novels: The Billionaire’s Bauble (Soul Mate Publishing 2011), One Wet Summer (Musa Publishing 2012), and Good Things Come in Tall Packages (Musa Publishing 2012). Lady in Deed (Musa Publishing 2012) is her first historical romance. Lady is the Law, another Tudor historical romance, is forthcoming 2013.

AUTHOR ONLINE: Website | Blog | Facebook | Twitter

OTHER BOOKS BY THE AUTHOR:

• Good Things Come in Tall Packages - Musa Publishing | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
• One Wet Summer - Musa Publishing | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
• The Billionaire’s Bauble - Soulmate Publishing | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

GIVEAWAY

Ann will be awarding a $30.00 Amazon GC to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour.

Giveaway is open INTERNATIONALLY and ends February 22nd 2013!  To enter this giveaway, all you have to do is COMMENT in this post.

Why Writing is a Form of Personal Therapy

- Guest Post by Rachel Thompson

I’ve been writing since I was in the fifth grade. However, it wasn’t until 2011 that I published my first book of essays, A Walk In The Snark. A good portion of that book is based on my blog, in particular the differences between men and women. Though primarily known as the funny girl, a small portion of that book is dedicated to something decidedly sad and real.

As I began writing more material to add to that book, an ex-love of mine killed himself. We’d been in touch the last few months, and in fact, I spoke with him on what would turn out to be his final day. His final hours.

I poured my shock and grief into my writing. Many people had opinions about how I should feel, but I found that writing was my true salvation. Listening to my own voice was what mattered the most. No matter that I hadn’t seen him in over twenty years – to me, a person who I gave my heart to at one point had now vanished from the earth. Suicide leaves so many questions unanswered.

It took about nine months until Snark finally ranked on a major list: Motherhood, and sales started to kick in. During this time, I started writing my next book, where I focused strictly on the humor aspect that people came to know: deconstructing stereotypes with satire. Mancode: Exposed came out just before Christmas of 2012 and shot to the #1 paid spot on Parenting and Families! Having two books out, both ranked and selling well, was a dream come true for me.

As I sat down to write my next humor book, the thoughts of dealing with the grief of my ex’s death, along with the powerful experiences I’d had growing up (molestation, attempted date rape, abuse), kept running through my head. I decided not to argue with my muse and began writing what would become Broken Pieces (released December, 2012). So far, reviewers have loved it.

In order to get my audience prepped for this change in subject matter, from light to dark, I began asking guests to share their own real-life experiences that helped shape them. The guest stories are compelling and terrifying—stories of kidnapping, stalking, rape. I highly recommend you read them.

The most fascinating aspect of asking people to write for me was this: many had never shared what they’d been through before, had never written down what had happened with them. Giving them permission, giving ourselves permission, is a wonderful way to mine those universal truths many of us have experienced.

I’m an advocate of finding those bonds that exist between all of us. There’s no shame in sharing our experiences. If nothing else, it makes us better able to deal with our own realities, knowing we’re never truly alone.

Buy Now @ Amazon

Genre – NonFiction

Rating – PG13

More details about the author & the book

Connect with Rachel Thompson on Twitter & Facebook

Interview with Andy Gavin: Author of "Untimed"

Original Title: Untimed
Author: Andy Gavin
Publisher: Mascherato
Release Date: December 17th 2012
Genre: Young-adult, Romance

Charlie’s the kind of boy that no one notices. Hell, even his own mother can’t remember his name. And girls? The invisible man gets more dates.

As if that weren’t enough, when a mysterious clockwork man tries to kill him in modern day Philadelphia, and they tumble through a hole into 1725 London, Charlie realizes even the laws of time don’t take him seriously.

Still, this isn’t all bad. In fact, there’s this girl, another time traveler, who not only remembers his name, but might even like him! Unfortunately, Yvaine carries more than her share of baggage: like a baby boy and at least two ex-boyfriends! One’s famous, the other’s murderous, and Charlie doesn’t know who is the bigger problem.

When one kills the other — and the other is nineteen year-old Ben Franklin — things get really crazy. Can their relationship survive? Can the future? Charlie and Yvaine are time travelers, they can fix this — theoretically — but the rules are complicated and the stakes are history as we know it.

And there's one more wrinkle: he can only travel into the past, and she can only travel into the future!(

INTERVIEW WITH ANDY GAVIN

What do you consider the most challenging about writing a novel, or about writing in general?

The endless re-reading and careful editing is quite tedious (although I do a lot of it!). Sitting down to read the entire book again for the 50th time takes some serious will power. But overall, I’d say the hardest part was trying to balance my desire for prose minimalism with the need to “tell” the reader what they are supposed to know/feel. Ideally, one doesn’t tell them much of anything, but instead shows and implies. I love when a beat subtly betrays the emotions of a character, but at the same time, not all readers pick up on these niceties. My style is much closer to hard boiled early or mid twentieth century writers than it is to the type of melodramatic prose sometimes found in today’s YA hits (Twilight, here’s looking at you!).

How did you come up with the title?

I wanted a single word title, and I wanted it to imply time travel, so I bounced words and phrases around in my head until I came up with UNTIMED. It seemed pretty good immediately.

Can you tell us about your main character?

Charlie’s the kind of boy that no one notices. Hell, his own mother can’t remember his name. So when a mysterious clockwork man tries to kill him in modern day Philadelphia, and they tumble through a hole into 1725 London, Charlie realizes even the laws of time don’t take him seriously. Still, this isn’t all bad. Who needs school when you can learn about history first hand, like from Ben Franklin himself. And there’s this girl… Yvaine… another time traveler. All good. Except for the rules: boys only travel into the past and girls only into the future. And the baggage: Yvaine’s got a baby boy and more than her share of ex-boyfriends. Still, even if they screw up history — like accidentally let the founding father be killed — they can just time travel and fix it, right? But the future they return to is nothing like Charlie remembers. To set things right, he and his scrappy new girlfriend will have to race across the centuries, battling murderous machines from the future, jealous lovers, reluctant parents, and time itself.

Who designed the cover?

The cover photo-illustration is by award winning fantasy artist Cliff Nielsen. I found him originally for my first novel, The Darkening Dream. Back then, I combed through the more recent books in my 10,000 novel collection and put aside ones with covers I liked. Going through those I found like eight (including the new edition of Narnia!) with covers by Cliff. But it was really the Map of Time cover that totally sold me. I had to have him do mine. So I called.

What was the hardest part about writing this book?

With Untimed, the hardest parts had to do with the time travel. First of all, I had to come up with a unique new system that allowed multiple visits to the same time period, but wasn’t too overpowered. If your characters are too powerful, there is no jeopardy. So I had to invent all the restrictions and deal with the issues of paradox (and I think I have a crafty new solution there). Then I had to figure out how to make returning to the SAME action actually interesting for the reader. That was even harder.

Will you write others in this same genre?

For sure, I’m already at work on the sequel.

Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?

I wanted to show people that the past didn’t have to be boring, and that while situations and society changes, people stay the same. I also wanted to illustrate that while people in the past are just as human, things really have improved in many ways. By having Charlie, who as a contemporary kid is our representative, experience different times first hand, it’s easy to contrast them.

How much of the book is realistic?

Everything but the time travel and the Tick-Tocks is as realistic as I could make it. I did a tremendous amount of research on all my periods and if anything, I understate the zany and shocking quality they probably would have had on a modern.

How important do you think villains are in a story?

As a writer, I adore villains and I think Untimed has some pretty good ones. Donnie, as the human villain, is clearly more realistic. He’s a nasty bastard, very self centered and temperamental, but at the same time I wanted to make him likeable, or at least charismatic. Guys like him would have been charming – some of the time. But the Tick-Tocks are cool tool in their more archetypal way. Rapier is like a kind of Boogie-man. He’s always in the wrong place at the right time (for him!).

What are your goals as a writer?

I want to tell commercial and fun tales that have some depth to them. This means balancing character and traditional drama (not melodrama) with cool scenarios and rapid pacing. Fundamentally, I want to entertain.

$50 Amazon Gift Card Giveaway: Byzantine Gold (Dangerous Waters #2) by Chris Karlsen

Original Title: Byzantine Gold
Series: Dangerous Waters #2
Author: Chris Karlsen
Publisher: Books to Go Now
Release Date: December 31st 2012
Genre: Romantic Thriller

The sequel novel to the best-selling, thriller, Golden Chariot.

A sunken warship from the Byzantine Era carrying an unusual cargo of gold has been found off the coast of Northern Cyprus. News of the valuable cache has attracted the attention of a terrorist cell. They plan to attack the recovery team’s campsite and steal the artifacts. On the Black Market, the sale of the relics will buy them additional weapons.

Charlotte Dashiell, an American archaeologist, and her lover, Atakan Vadim, a Turkish government agent, are scheduled to be part of the recovery team that brings up the artifacts. While en route to Cyprus, they find themselves caught in the crosshairs of Maksym Tischenko, a Ukrainian contract killer bent on revenge. Charlotte, Atakan and Tischenko share a grim history. As a result, Tischenko is a man who will stop at nothing to achieve his goal—seeing them both dead.

EXCERPT

Atakan didn’t answer as he sped out of camp, spraying dirt and stones behind them.

“What’s going on? Why are you in such a hurry?”

He stared straight ahead, silent.

“Atakan?”

Tight-jawed, he continued down the side road that paralleled the beach, ramming the stick shift into place as he went through the gears and ignoring her questions. She’d never seen him this tense, not with her at least. A bad feeling crept over her. She had a sick sense his mood involved her plan to leave.

They’d gone a kilometer from the camp when he came to a stop. He hopped out, slammed the driver’s door shut and came to her side.

Opening her door, he said, “Get out.”

She did.

“Atakan,” Charlotte started to ask the same questions again, but he was already turned and walking toward the sea.

She followed. He finally stopped near the water’s edge with his back to the surf and faced her. She stopped a couple of yards away.

“When were you going to tell me?”

She knew exactly what he was asking about. Who told him? It wasn’t Nick. He’d honor the twenty-four hour rule.

“Who told you?”

“That’s not an answer.” He stood still as a statue, arms crossed, feet apart.

She hesitated, trying to choose her words so he’d understand and not be hurt. She gazed out at the incoming tide. The blue-green waves, effervescent with bubbles, rushed toward shore in rapid succession. White foam droplets filled the air as they crested, framing him like a new, angry version of Poseidon.

“Answer me.”

“Today.”

“You weren’t going to tell me until today, although you’ve been planning to leave me for awhile.”

“Not awhile.”

“Long enough to send job inquiries to several museums.”

So that was how he knew. One of the museums contacted MIAR and they must’ve sent the questionnaire to Refik and he told Atakan. She hadn’t considered the possibility. She’d thought any contact from the museums would be handled by MIAR’s headquarters.

“I’m so sorry you had to find out this way. I intended to tell you if it looked like I’d definitely leave. If none of the museums showed interest, then you never had to know what I’d done.”

“And you believe that is acceptable?”

It killed her to see the look of disgust on his face with the question. “Yes...” she said low.

“Why?”

“Because I’m bad luck for you—everyone can see it, even your--, it’s obvious. There’s something about me, and God knows, I don’t know what, but I’m like a magnet for Tischenko.”

She never cried and she wouldn’t cry now, but she was close. “I can’t bear to see you hurt again, or worse. There are people that bad luck follows, even Iskender thinks so.”

Atakan inhaled deeply and let out a slow breath. Uncrossing his arms, he closed the short distance to where she stood.

“It’s not forever,” she offered, “I’ll return.”

He shook his head. “If you go, you cannot return. You’re either in my life or out of my life. There’s no in between.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Chris is a retired police detective. She spent twenty-five years in the law enforcement with two different agencies.

The daughter of a history professor and a voracious reader, she grew up with a love for history and books.

She has traveled extensively throughout Europe, the Near East, and Northern Africa satisfying her passion for seeing the places she read about.

A Chicago native, Chris has lived in Paris, Los Angeles, and now resides with her husband, and five rescue dogs in the Pacific Northwest.

AUTHOR ONLINE: Website | Pinterest

BOOK TRAILER

GIVEAWAY

Chris will award one randomly drawn commenter at every stop an ebook copy of Golden Chariot, and one randomly drawn commenter will be awarded a $50 Amazon gift card during the tour. A $25 Amazon gift card will be awarded to a randomly drawn host.

Giveaway is open INTERNATIONALLY and ends February 8th 2013!