More About the Calendar Men Project

by | Dec 27, 2013 | | 0 Comments

christmas promo cal menHi everyone,

If you stopped by here or at ARe Cafe on Christmas Day (and if you didn’t, the link is here), you’ll know there was an exclusive reveal of a very exciting multi-author project.

Calendar Men is something that’s been in the pipeline for several months. Basically, there are twelve authors taking part, and each of us was assigned a month. We were to write an erotic romance novella set in that month, and what links each story is a charity calendar, in which our sexy male leads appear. Each book will release on the first day of the corresponding month. Decadent Publishing is the publisher.

I got June, so my story, The Other Brother, is set in June, as you may expect, in New York City. I’ve never been, so it took an awful lot of research to put the story together, but I think it was worth it. Thank God for Google Maps!

Here’s the blurb, and an another exclusive for you… the cover! Hot or what?! 😀

Photographer Melodie Carr moved to New York City to escape and make a fresh start. Her soldier fiancé was killed in a friendly-fire incident in Iraq, and she has been struggling to come to terms with it ever since. She still feels strongly about needless death and those left behind, so when she sees a call for photographs for a calendar of topless men, with profits going to the Fallen Warriors Family Fund, she’s eager to help out. Unfortunately, she doesn’t know any men that fit the profile, so she gives up on the idea. That is, until Patrick Brogan—her late fiance’s brother—turns up in New York. Seeing him brings up all kinds of memories, but she’s determined to push them aside and be friends with Patrick. She also realizes he’d be perfect for the calendar. But can she persuade him to take part?

For more information on the other authors and their books,  head over to the Calendar Men blog. We’re all very excited about this project, especially since book one, Outback Dirty, by JoAnne Kenrick will be available in a matter of days!

Happy Reading,

Lucy x

Interview with Zee Monodee

by | Dec 9, 2013 | | 0 Comments

Bad Luck With BestiesTell us about yourself. Both your writing self and your non-writing self. What are your interests and hobbies? Do you have a day job, etc?

Hello everyone! Pleasure to be here; thanks to lovely Lucy for inviting me over. 🙂

Okay, about me… I’m 30 years old, and sometimes it feels like I finished secondary school yesterday. But I just need to glance at my 10-yr-old son to know that cannot be the case, and then into the picture comes the husband, this man I’ve been with for almost 12 years now without throttling him (or vice versa, lol!) I live in Mauritius, born and raised here actually, and despite a stint abroad in England, home is where the heart is and mine was always on my island (especially when I met my husband here while trying to get over a very bad divorce. Yep, you read that right – I was already married and divorced at 18).

So basically, I’m your typical fun-loving gal – I love pop music, fashion, movies, TV shows, soap operas. I’m of Indian origin, so anything with drama draws me like a magnet to iron. 🙂 And of course, I love to read. I could spend all my time in my reading corner downing book after book, but sadly, that’s not real life.

As for the day job, well I’m firstly a freelance editor, but since July 2012, I have been managing the Ubuntu line (geared to romance set in Africa and/or with African characters) at Decadent Publishing. It’s a challenging post but I relish a good challenge and there’s nothing I love more than finding a gem in the submissions and getting to bring an author into the spotlight.

And of course, I’m an author. I write mainly contemporary romance. Some of these works are set in Mauritius, where I showcase the culture I grew up in. Lately, a lot of my work is veering toward small town romances set in rural England – there’s something lovely and romantically magical to me about village life in the UK. Then I indulge my love of the paranormal (Uh, hello? I’m Zee and I’m a Supernatural junkie. Yes, the TV show) through the self-published Eternelles series I co-write with my bestie, Natalie G. Owens.

 

Give us the background on your latest release.

Well, I totally did not see this one veering into a series. It started as a thought a couple years back – I’d just finished dealing with a second bout of cancer (yes, 2x survivor of breast cancer here, and yes, too – it hit me twice in my 20s. Cancer doesn’t wait for later, so ladies, please take heed and check your boobies every month! It can save your life, like it did mine).

So yeah, there I was like a veritable encyclopaedia of first-hand cancer knowledge, and my bestie suggested: why not exploit all this and turn it into a story?

That’s how the character of Megha Saran was born, and her romance meant she fell in love with the most unlikely man ever – her super-playboy boss, Magnus Tramell. Now, Magnus’ family is very rich and in the village where they hail from, they’re almost considered like royalty. Since I’ve always loved the county of Surrey, it came as no surprise that I invented a small village there called Daimsbury.

Then life butted in and deadlines on other works crept up, so this story got relegated to the backburner. But sometime this year, one of the editors at Decadent Publishing mentioned a new line starting. In a nutshell, these would be category-style stories in a short length. Needless to say, I was intrigued. What could I write to submit to that line?

And the idea of Daimsbury popped inside my head again. Like, why not use a setting I’ve already created and peopled with some intriguing characters?

Now I’m a huge – and I really mean huge – fan of the TV show Supernatural. Jensen Ackles (considered by many, especially in the fandom, to be the hottest man alive) and Jared Padalecki (the hottest nerd alive, at least in the show, coz he’s no nerd in real life, lol) play two brothers fighting against Evil. So far, neither has got even the hint of a happy ending. It got me thinking – what if Dean and Sam (as they are known in the show) were regular blokes who also got a happy ending?

Jensen/Dean being the eldest, I had to start with him. J I wanted the characters in this series to be young, around their thirties. What sort of conflict can you give an early 30s bloke? Oooh, what if he had a teenage daughter? And what if this being-involved-in-a-teenage-pregnancy angle meant he lost the girl he really loved and wanted to marry all along? And what happened to this girl? That’s how Liam Morelli and Honor Whelan were born, and theirs became a story of former best friends finding themselves and a second chance at love over a Christmas season.

 

How did you get started with writing? And what was your route to publication like?

I have to say thanks to cancer for getting me to pursue my dream of writing. So there I was, just-turned 22. I was happily married, had an adorable toddler, and even my then-5-yr-old stepson seemed to like me and didn’t see me as an evil stepmum or something. 🙂 I’d taken a break from corporate work (I used to be an after-sales department coordinator) to bring up my son, and was pursuing my degree via distance learning on the side. Life couldn’t get any better. Then the lump came, seemingly overnight. Less than 2 weeks later, I had a diagnosis of super-aggressive malignant breast cancer and it was a miracle I was still alive.

You know when they say that facing death and getting away with it gives you a different outlook, like a second chance at life? I was alive, and wanted to celebrate that fact every single moment of my life. It had always been my dream to write ‘one day’, but when I told my husband about this, he told me this: ‘One day is now. You make it happen.’

So that’s how I picked up the pen (and the keyboard) to start my first story. Writing this tale of divorce in Mauritius and a second chance at love became an anchor to me, and it kept me going and powering on between chemotherapy sessions and all the other treatments for the cancer.

That story was first published in Mauritius, in print. But my writing proficiency didn’t match the local market’s pace, so I turned to e-pubs in the US to push my work through. And that’s been it. Never looked back again. 🙂

 

What are you currently working on?

Well, I just finished my first NaNoWriMo, and the novel I penned for that challenge ended into a longer, single-title romance. Set in a rural village in North Yorkshire, it’s the tale of an anorexic supermodel whose family kidnaps her from backstage at a fashion week and forces her to lay low in this village until she’s realised how much she’s putting her life in danger because of the anorexia. On the first morning there, the model tries to break out…only to land onto the path of the very handsome, Viking-god-like pub owner and chef. Suddenly, staying in this sleepy place doesn’t look like Purgatory anymore.

It’s Book 1 in a series I’ve titled Havisham Park. I am now editing and polishing before I can submit this to a publisher. It’s fun, because I had to learn how to speak Yorkshire (which is a veritable other language from English, lol!) and then the village and its inhabitants came to life while I was writing. I’ve totally fallen in love with this world and cannot wait to get back to it.

 

Do you have a particular Muse for your writing? Do any of your characters bear startling resemblances to sexy celebrities or people you admire?

Muse? No, not really. I do hear ‘the voices’ though *grin* Authors will know what I mean. But yeah, characters scream to be written, and that’s muse enough for me.

And yes – almost every time, my characters will bear striking physical resemblances to sexy celebrities, especially men I’ve ogled/found hunky. The heroines, too, will look like someone famous. For example, in Bad Luck With Besties, Book 1 in The Daimsbury Chronicles, you already know that Liam Morelli, the hero, is templated off actor Jensen Ackles. Honor Whelan looks a lot like Katie Perry (especially with her blunt-cut fringe and those big eyes).

I prefer to work with a physical likeness because I always visualize my scenes before I write them, and this is easier to do when I have a definite physical image in my head, like an actor/puppet I’m having play out the scene. Helps keep my focus and consistency, then.

And yes, too – creating hunky romance heroes is a perfect excuse to indulge in eye candy research 🙂

 

Where do you see yourself in five years? Both writing-wise and non-writing-wise?

Writing-wise: a few series under my belt, and hopefully, these will be successful ones so I’ll still get to indulge in dabbling into those worlds and bringing their inhabitants to life for the length of a story. I hope to be a ‘recognised’ name by then, and readers seeking my stories for a good time.

Non-writing-wise: …to tell you the truth, I have absolutely no clue here. 🙂 Hopefully, still married to my wonderful husband and watching the kids grow. My stepson will be out of the house/an adult by then, while my son will be in the last years of secondary school. I hope both will have grown into decent, respectable men and beautiful human beings. And yeah – me celebrating another 5 years of being cancer free.

 

And now for some silly questions…

Muscled or skinny?

Muscled. Not the bodybuilder type coz that’s a bit freaky, but some muscle even on a lean frame is, imo, necessary (and yeah, a man cannot, I repeat, cannot, have smaller hips than I do!)

 

Tall or short?

Tall. At 5’2, almost any male will tower over me, but I love my high heels so my man’s got to be tall for us not to look like Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise 🙂

 

Boxers or briefs?

Doesn’t matter. He’ll lose either when it matters *wink*

 

Moustache or beard?

Beard + moustache or nothing at all. I find moustache-alone rather creepy 🙂 And beards can be sexy

 

Long hair or shaven head?

Hmmm… Both have their particular allure. I’d go with shaven head, though, coz I tend to find balding men sexy (hello, Jason Statham!)

 

Tattoos or piercings?

Tattoos! Piercings are scary, like, what if I hurt him without meaning to because of that scrap of metal in whatever-body part? 🙂

 

Intelligent or funny?

I’d go with funny. Nobody likes a bore, even if he’s super intelligent. 🙂 That being said, nerds are sexy, though…

 

Blond, brunette or red head?

Being of Indian origin and living in a land where almost everyone has dark hair, I have a definite propensity to like blond men (half my heroes, or more, are blond…)

 

Hottest celebrity (tell us why, if you like)?

Hmmm, now that’s a very tough one…. So many to choose; do I have to settle for just one? It’s a tossup between Hugh Jackman and Chris Hemsworth. Yes, they’re both gorgeous men with adorable smiles and voices to make you swoon, but what attracts me most on top of all that is they’re both family men. I find that the epitome of hotness – a man dedicated to his wife and children.

 

Top same-sex crush (or opposite sex if you already like same-sex!)

Another tough one…. Charlize Theron. That woman kicks arse and she is gorgeous! 🙂

 

Most disliked celebrity (tell us why, if you like)

Kim Kardashian. Do I really need to state out the obvious why? 🙂

 

Favourite food

Hands-down, pizza!

 

Favourite book (tell us why, if you like)

The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella. It is funny and smart and somehow, real, because this could totally happen, and I love the way the heroine’s eyes become open to what really matters in life. And yes, the laughter. 🙂

 

Favourite place in the world (tell us why, if you like)

My home country, Mauritius. It’s got beauty and what I cherish most – tolerance. I’m a “covered” Muslim woman yet nobody gives me a second glance or calls me a potential terrorist here despite my conservative dressing-type.

 

Anything else you’d like to add?

Lol – I think I’ve rambled enough. *wink*

 

Now give us the blurb, an extract and buy links for your latest release.

 

Title: Bad Luck with Besties

Series: The Daimsbury Chronicles

Book #: 1

Genre: Contemporary romance

Heat level: Sweet

Publisher: Decadent Publishing, LLC

 

Blurb:

Honor Whelan always trips into bad luck with male best friends. Abandoned by her bestie of eleven years who got her pregnant during a one-night-stand, she finds herself destitute and alone, with no other choice but to head home to the Surrey village of Daimsbury.

Fifteen years earlier, Honor left Daimsbury because her then best friend and the boy she loved, Liam Morelli, got another friend pregnant.

Honor had run…but today, she can no longer hide. Especially not when fate knocks her straight into Liam’s path, and he starts to show signs of wanting a second chance.

Will her luck finally change or will she continue to fight bad luck with besties?

 

Excerpt:

She let her gaze travel to the dining table, bare except for the two white documents in stark contrast against the mahogany wood. Which one should she contemplate first? Not that she hadn’t spent the past three months pouring over them. Glancing at the papers shocked her with solid punch to the gut. Every single time.

What had she expected, really? Jonathan might have gotten her up the duff during one drunken night, yet he still remained totally gay. The flat and all its contents belonged to him. He wouldn’t get his hands on her book collection, that was for sure. Everything else, he’d ditched, like a person picked up a rotten sock with the barest pinch of fingers and tossed the smelly rag in the rubbish bin.

A flutter, akin to something pulling inside, started in her belly. She placed a hand on the spot where a baby grew in her. She could almost feel the kid calming from the touch. Doctors could say whatever they wanted; she knew her body. Her baby was alive and proud to exist. Why couldn’t Jonathan see that?

She sighed. Her gaze landed on the eviction papers. Her three months’ notice would run up tomorrow, and she no longer held hope that Jonathan would come round and tell her everything had been a mistake, that he hadn’t meant to eject her, and his child, out of his life and throw her out on her arse, to boot.

She’d been an idiot. The minute she’d confessed about her pregnancy, all shades of her best friend for the past eleven years had vanished. The cold, hard man she’d faced had turned tail and run to his former lover, the same one who had dumped him like a rotten sock, too. The most misogynistic bastard Honor had ever encountered. No wonder Jonathan, under his influence, sent her not only an eviction notice, but also the papers wherein he renounced all rights to the baby and requested she never bother him with anything pertaining to the child.

How could she have been so wrong about him? A tear rolled down her cheek. She should know, shouldn’t she, having an awful track record with male best friends. Hadn’t Liam Morelli gotten Rose Payne, the other member of their trinity, pregnant when they’d been seventeen?

And speaking of Liam. No, she couldn’t think of him. He’d returned to Daimsbury where she was headed, but no other choice lay before her. She had to go back, because the family house in that Surrey village was her only remaining possession.

Buy Links:

Amazon UK
Amazon US
Decadent Publishing

 

Now give us your author bio and website/social media links.

ProfilePicStories about love, life, relationships… in a melting-pot of culture

Zee is an author who grew up on a fence – on one side there was modernity and the global world, on the other there was culture and traditions. Putting up with the culture for half of her life, one day she decided she’d stand tall on her wall and dip toes every now and then into both sides of her non-conventional upbringing.

From this resolution spanned a world of adaptation and learning to live on said wall. The realization also came that many other young women of the world were on their own fence.

This particular position became her favourite when she decided to pursue her lifelong dream of writing – her heroines all sit ‘on a fence’, whether cultural or societal, in today’s world or in times past, and face dilemmas about life and love.

Hailing from the multicultural island of Mauritius, Zee is a degree holder in Communications Science. She is married, mum to a tween son, & stepmum to a teenage lad.

Website & blog: http://zeemonodee.blogspot.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/ZeeMonodee
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/#!/zee.monodee
Goodreads:  http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4836171.Zee_Monodee
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/zeemonodee/

Thanks again for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed this interview and wish you the best of luck with your latest release. Many sales!

The Allure of the CEO and an Office Romance by Sara Daniel

by | Sep 30, 2013 | | 1 Comment

Captivating the CEOThe stereotypical CEO is rich, powerful, alpha, take charge, ambitious, industrious, smart, and well-dressed. Who wouldn’t want to snag a man who has it all? Even better, he’s attracted to you.

When you meet him in the office, you’re in his domain—the king in his castle. But it’s a workplace, so there is an element of forbidden to the relationship. You shouldn’t be doing that. Especially there.

The forbidden man in his element—could anything be more irresistible? Willow Jeffries thinks the workaholic CEO she’s been assigned to give massages to is hot but plenty resistible, but if she could loosen him up on a personal level, he might have some potential. Plus, she’ll be doing her part to make the world a better place and make him a well-rounded person.

He might have all the power, but she’s not intimidated by him. After all, she’s a woman with nothing to lose.

 

Captivating the CEO

By Sara Daniel

Genres: contemporary romance, office romance, medical romance, new adult

Decadent Publishing
Amazon
All Romance eBooks
Smashwords

He only plans for the future. She might not have a future.

When live-for-the-moment massage therapist Willow Jeffries bursts into Colin Vanderhayden’s office, she makes it her mission to loosen up the future-focused CEO, knowing each moment of the present is too precious to waste. Despite her immediate attraction, the only future she can offer is one full of heartache.

The last thing Colin needs is a flighty woman messing up his carefully-constructed plans, but her heavenly massages and addictive personality prove hard to resist. But he has no idea how sick she is.

No longer able to ignore her life-threatening medical condition, Willow slips away to spare Colin a miserable future with her. Is Colin willing to sacrifice his well-laid future plans to get Willow back?

 

Excerpt:

Cupping her face with his hands and angling his mouth, he poured the intensity she’d previously only seen him devote to his work into turning her body into a tingling, craving mass of need. She loved the way he cradled her-so gentle, yet firm.

Stars danced in front of her eyes, but she willed them away to press her tongue between his lips. No matter how light-headed she became, she refused to miss a moment of the kiss. Colin’s mouth made the opportunity to enjoy worth the risk of passing out.

But, too soon, he broke off, panting, his eyes dilated with desire. “I have to get that.”

“Get what?” His words made no sense, then her ears started ringing. No, not her ears. His damned phone.

“Of course you do.”

But he’d already turned his attention to a conversation he gave far more importance to than anything she offered.

Sinking onto the couch, she pressed her fingers to her still tingling lips. Dear God, she hoped she didn’t affect him as strongly as he affected her. If he became emotionally invested, she’d bring pain and misery into his life.

 

Sara DanielAuthor Bio:

Sara Daniel writes irresistible romance, from sweet to erotic and everything in between. On the personal side, she’s a frazzled maid, chef, chauffeur, tutor, and personal assistant. She battles a serious NASCAR addiction and was once a landlord of two uninvited squirrels. She follows research and new developments concerning tricuspid atresia and other congenital heart defects, and she holds a special place in her heart for “heart kids” and their families.

Contact Details:

Website: http://www.saradaniel.com
Blog: http://saradanielromance.blogspot.com
Email: sarashafer@rocketmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SaraDanielSaraShafer
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SSaraDaniel
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/ssaradaniel/captivating-the-ceo/

 

Giveaway:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Guest Blogger: Dakota Trace

by | Sep 25, 2013 | | 3 Comments

Wyk'sScavengerHuntBadge“Come on! Quit your lollygagging.”  I placed my hands on my hips. “And don’t even look at me that way. It was your dumbass that gave away the toy to Lucy.”

Livvy trudged in, a former shade of her vibrant self.  “Well, I wasn’t expecting you to drag me all the way back here. I thought that you and Wyk were going to be the ones retrieving the toys. Not me.”

“Excuse me? You thought you were going to get off scot free and have me do your dirty work. I don’t think so!”  I shoved the box of chocolate covered cherries at her. “Carry these and so help me God if you even take a single one, I’m going to break your fn’ fingers.”

Tossing her messy braid over her shoulder, Livvy pouted. “No need to be a bitch, slave. It’s not like you haven’t had to clean up my messes before.”

Counting to ten wasn’t going to do any good.  I just knew it. “I should be writing, Livvy. Not chasing all over half of kingdom come retrieving the toys you stole. You’re supposed to be my inspiration not my object of frustration.”

Livvy actually laughed at me. “Don’t you realize that they are one in the same? If I didn’t keep your life hopping you’d…”

“I’d actually get something done!”  I stomped further into the room, ignoring Livvy. “Okay peeps, we’ve made the long journey across the sea to Ms. Felthouse’s blog, so if you followed us from Sexy Erotic Xciting Reviews yesterday – Great!  If not, this is the scoop-” I pointed to the muse behind me, fiddling with the bow on the chocolates. “Don’t even think it, Livvy.  Anyway my muse decided it would be a good idea to hide the toys from Mistress Venus’s toy bag on several of her blogging friends’ sites.  So we’re out to find them.  That’s where you come in.  See the graphic below? Enter it into the rafflecopter thingie for a chance to win the grand prize basket. It includes a flogger, a pair of pleather cuffs, a sleep mask and a e-copy of Wyk’s Surrender. I’ll be announcing the winner on Wrap-up party on October 2nd.  We’ll be hanging out from 7pm-9pm CST on Facebook.”

“Don’t forget to mention the second prize, slave.”  Livvy edged the ribbon off.

LucyFelthouseCorsetWord“The second place prize will be a $10 gift certificate to one lucky person who collects the toys from all eight stops – so don’t forget to hit up the previous stops if you haven’t.” Seeing her slip off the ribbon from box, I come unglued. “Give me that!”  I snatched it away from her.  “This is supposed to be for Lucy. It’s part of the ransom to get back the toy you stashed here!”

Livvy stuck her lower lip out.  It should’ve looked utterly ridiculous with her fuchsia pink corset and leggings but as always she looked irresistible.

“Spoilsport.”  Livvy grumbled.

I strove for a patience I didn’t feel. “Anyway. The second part of the ransom is a quote from Wyk’s Surrender.”  (Keep track of these, because they will earn you entries for the door prize at the wrap up party :D)

Anyway, thank you Lucy for having me and Livvy stop by and enjoy the chocolates. If you have time, please check out the blurb below.”

Quote:

“Yes, Mistress. I hope this will prepare me for what she needs.” ~Wyk’s admission to why he’s using 1NightStand.

*****

DT_Wyk's Surrender_200She wants to mark him and make him hers…

Mistress “V” lusts after her boss. She wants him at her mercy, begging for her touch, but he only knows her as his very capable assistant Venus. When an off-hand comment dashes her hopes, the sexy domme turns to Madame Eve at 1Night Stand for help…

He isn’t sure he can handle the dark pleasure she promises…

Living up to his father’s expectations has driven Wyk Havas to the edge. His curvaceous assistant Venus wants to push him past those limits, and he’s damn near attracted enough to try. But Venus’s preference for men to submit to her threw him for a loop. Can a date from 1Night Stand show him if he’s able to submit to a woman?

Can Wyk truly surrender to Mistress V’s pleasure or were they doomed from the start?

Available from:
Amazon UK
Amazon US
Decadent Publishing

*****

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Guest Blogger: Taryn Kincaid

by | Aug 15, 2013 | | 3 Comments

1. Tell us about yourself. Both your writing self and your non-writing self. What are your interests and hobbies? Do you have a day job, etc?

My non-writing self is a reformed cannibal who now chews whale blubber to keep the carnivorous cravings away. I speak 300 languages and have 49 pets, none of which are cats. Or dogs. Hounds, maybe. The U. S. State Department sends me here and there on matters I cannot divulge to you. Suffice it to say that I am on a first-name basis with Daniel Craig and Pierce Brosnan. The Brits have bestowed upon me honorary double-O numbers. I have a license to, um, drive an automobile. I like my martinis…well, actually I don’t really like martinis at all. But I do like olives.

You want to know about my writing self now? Hmm. See the preceding paragraph.

2. Give us the background on your latest release.

HEAT WAVE is part of the hot and simmering Sleepy Hollow series of 1Night Stand stories for Decadent Publishing. It’s what happens when a hot-as-sin hunk of a male demon goes into heat and is attracted against his will to the absolutely wrong female.

3. How did you get started with writing? And what was your route to publication like?

Well, before I was drafted by various federal agencies known better by their initials, I was a newspaper writer. So…yeah, like everyone always says in interviews…I’ve always done it. My first published work, when I was six or seven or so, was The Weatherman’s Revenge, featuring the Itsy-Bitsy Spider. So weather has always been a factor, as can be seen by a check of my very sexy titles: LIGHTNING, THUNDER, FROST, BLIZZARD, HEAT WAVE.

4. What are you currently working on?

George Clooney. He’s single again, you know.

5. Do you have a particular Muse for your writing? Do any of your characters bear startling resemblances to sexy celebrities or people you admire?

No. No. A thousand times no.

6. Where do you see yourself in five years? Both writing-wise and non-writing-wise?

Comfortably esconced in a villa in Tuscany.

And now for some silly questions…

7. Muscled or skinny?
Seriously? That’s a question?

8. Tall or short?
See #7, above.

9. Boxers or briefs?
Boxers. More room. If you get my drift…

10. Moustache or beard?
On the hero or the heroine?

11. Long hair or shaven head?
Hair. Definitely. Unless we’re talking a three-month-old with a binky.

12. Tattoos or piercings?
Not so much. Thanks, anyway.

13. Intelligent or funny?
Both.

14. Blond, brunette or red head?
Brunette.

15. Hottest celebrity (tell us why, if you like)?
Joe Manganiello, the guy who plays hunky werewolf Alcide on True Blood. The man sells ice cream!

16. Top same-sex crush (or opposite sex if you already like same-sex!)
Helena Bonham Carter. Have no idea why. Maybe it’s the Johnny Depp factor.

17. Most disliked celebrity (tell us why, if you like)
Justin Bieber. Seriously? That needs to be explained?

18. Favourite food
Yes. All of them. (Well, not liver. Or sweetbreads.)

19. Favourite book (tell us why, if you like)
Currently, it’s the J.R. Ward Black Dagger Brotherhood series. I love what she does with words.

20. Favourite place in the world (tell us why, if you like)
A beach. Anywhere.

21. Anything else you’d like to add?
Hi, peeps! Thanks for reading this far!

Now give us the blurb, an extract and buy links for your latest release.

Heat WaveBLURB:
Sent into the human realm to retrieve prodigal princess, Zena Night, Bhyrne Raines is shocked and unprepared for his carnal reaction to the sexy succubus. In service to the succubus queen, the rugged enforcer must stifle the instant passion exploding within him. Fulfilling his royal duty doesn’t allow for quickie dalliances. His biological clock is ticking, and he begins to enter breedspawn, an intense and unstoppable frenzy of mating all fire-demon males must endure. But the more he wants to avoid Zena, the more he’s drawn to her.

Reluctant to give up her carefree life of partying among the mortals when the hot-as-sin Bhyrne comes to fetch her for the queen, Zena uses her succubus wiles to entice him, or at least delay the inevitable trip to the royal court. Once in the demon stronghold, hidden deep within the Catskill mountains, she learns the reason for the summons: she must choose a consort within two days.
Zena needs a mate. Bhyrne needs to mate. With time running out for both of them, they each turn to 1Night Stand. With time running out, can Madame Eve come to the rescue?

EXCERPT:
Holy freeze gun, Batman. The words died before she managed to expose them to air. Her mouth snapped shut.

One of the Queen’s guards stood before her, huge and tall, nearly twice the size of most of the other males in the joint, a hella hunka supernatural male. Clearly not human, although Hugo Boss’d to his Adam’s apple in an apparent bid to fit in among the humans trolling for hot sex, illicit drugs, watered-down booze and loud music. Beneath the fabric of the unstructured designer suit, the toned muscles of a demonic warrior rolled like tidal waves. Even without the small lapel pin the uninformed might mistake for the The Rolling Stones’ logo, she’d recognize him for a captain of the guard. Maybe the Queen’s own Captain.

Hellfire and cotton candy. Trouble. T-R-O-U-B-L-E.

But, by the goddess, whattahottie! Despite her certainty that his presence in the club corridor boded ill for her, the force of her sudden hunger shook her.

Like lightning.

Thunder.

A desperate bolt out of the blue.

Instant connection to him on the paranormal plane, as if he’d wrapped her aura in gold chains and tugged her to him. But did that fast lane to heaven run one way or two?

A grim expression straightened the lines of what otherwise might have been a generous, sensuous mouth. A military buzz cut had weed-whacked hair the color of iron. And it didn’t stop there. Without doubt, metal fortified every single cell in the massive male’s body, pure titanium flowing in his veins. The stern planes and angles of a hard-edged, swoon-worthy face set grimly as cement. Though he lounged in the hallway like any Archie or Jughead waiting in line to discharge his rented beer in a urinal, he exuded authority, his carriage and bearing such that he made the others look like a pack of Twizzlers. Oh. Yeah. More than a mere guardsman, she guessed. An enforcer.

Ruh-roh.

BUY LINKS:

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Now give us your author bio and website/social media links.

Taryn is an Olympic caliber athlete egg roller and spends a great deal of her time petitioning the U.S.O.C. to introduce a fantail shrimp competition. When she’s not bungee jumping off the Palisades or parasailing up and down the Hudson River, she devotes her time to caring for her aging pet walrus, arranging her voodoo doll-pin collection and practicing rhythmic chants. At this moment, she is busy sweeping up the loose masala chai tea leaves she spilled all over the kitchen floor. (Probably because she needs COFFEE.) Wait. Is that something…sparkly?

Taryn hangs around a lot on Facebook and Twitter with her trillions of fans and pops in at Goodreads from time to time. You can catch her on her website, http://tarynkincaid.com, and her blog, http://dreamvoyagers.blogspot.com where she lives for comments!

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Amazon

 

Thanks again for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed this interview and wish you the best of luck with your latest release. Many sales!

The Other Side: Book #1 in the Island Girls Trilogy by Zee Monodee

by | Jul 30, 2013 | | 0 Comments

The Other SideBlurb:

Divorce paints a scarlet letter on her back when she returns to the culture-driven society of Mauritius. This same spotlight shines as a beacon of hope for the man who never stopped loving her. Can the second time around be the right one for these former teenage sweethearts?

Indian-origin Lara Reddy left London after her husband dumps her for a more accommodating uterus—at least, that’s what his desertion feels like. Bumping into him and his pregnant new missus doesn’t help matters any, and she thus jumps on a prestigious job offer. The kicker? The job is in Mauritius, the homeland of her parents, and a society she ran away from over a decade earlier.

But once there, Lara has no escape. Not from the gossip, the contempt, the harassing matchmaking…and certainly not from the man she hoped never to meet again. The boy she’d loved and lost—white Mauritian native, Eric Marivaux.

Back when they were teens, Eric left her, and Lara vowed she’d never let herself be hurt again. Today, they are both adults, and facing the same crossroads they’d stood at so many years earlier.

Lara now stands on the other side of Mauritian society. Will this be the impetus she needs to take a chance on Eric and love again?

Buy Links:
Decadent Publishing
Amazon US
Amazon UK

*****

Excerpt:

She shouldn’t have come. The sound of her mother’s high-pitched voice crept over the din, asking if someone had heard a car stop in the driveway. They’d come out in the next minute.

Picking up her courage, and wishing it were Dutch courage despite her not being a drinker, she tore her fingers and head from the wheel and threw the door open. Lara peeled herself out of the vehicle at the same time a chorus of gasps resounded in the garden.

All three older women were over her like a bad rash. Hugging and kissing her cheeks, holding her face in their hands while they exclaimed how beautiful she had become. All of which were simply tactics to lull her into complacency for when they’d really pounce on the meaty topic—her divorce.

With their deceptively frail-looking hands on her shoulders, they pushed her toward the back door to the kitchen. A memory of being pushed around in the same way toward the altar on her wedding day, the glittery gold and red veil over her eyes, assaulted her. She stopped in her tracks, the pain coming in from nowhere to slice through her heart. The biddies must not have noticed her stilling; they simply continued to steer her inside until she was seated at the table. A plate of towering hot bhadias appeared in front her, along with a bowl of satini cotomili, the coriander, tomato, and chili paste-like dip Mauritians ate with all their fried foods.

Auntie Ruby, resident gossipmonger, lived up to her reputation. She had been the first to mention Lara’s failed marriage before they made it back into the house.

The sound of the grating voice droned on, Lara choosing to ignore it, before her mother gave her a small slap on her shoulder.

“You wicked girl. You said you were coming on Monday, and here you are surprising us now.”

She sighed. This was code for “how could you have kept this a secret and made me lose face in front of everyone, when I’ve been telling them you are coming on Monday?” Her mother lived for hearsay and the general idea of “what will people say.” In fact, most people in Mauritius lived by the standard. Whoever said the ton and all its silly rules had died in the Regency era had not taken a trip to Mauritius, in eighteen-ten or the year two thousand.

“But my poor little girl,” Auntie Ruby said in a cajoling tone bringing nothing but danger to mind. “Of course you wanted to come home earlier. Who wouldn’t? Look what that awful, awful man has done to you.”

Translation: “And here’s your cue to air out the laundry, from the sheets to the knickers, you silly goose.”

“Our hearts went out to you, dearest girl, you who are like a daughter to us,” Auntie Zubeida chimed in. “We never saw this coming. How could you not have told a soul you and that scoundrel were having problems? We would’ve spoken to him, set him right, showed him this is not how he is supposed to treat our daughter.”

“Tsk-tsk. And what a beautiful couple you two made. How could anyone have thought you would break up?” Auntie Ruby added.

Lara forced a small smile. Damn, how she wanted to be out of here. She had a duty to do, though—the sooner she was done, the better, so she could run back to Grand Baie and leave those old cows behind. And yes, in that lot, she included her mother, who had yet to speak out. Bad vibe.

“I’m doing fine, Auntie,” she said. “That’s what matters.”

All three women watched her with narrowed eyes. No way was she doing away with the Inquisition.

“How can you be fine?” Auntie Ruby asked. “We have been so preoccupied with your plight. How on earth are you going to get along? How will your parents bear all this? To think they still have an unmarried daughter on their hands, now they are ending up with two daughters. Oh what fate God has dealt them.”

Lara bit her lip to keep from answering back. Right, the ton must’ve been more solicitous than this. The aunts were simply nosing for gossip. But then, that’s what Jane Austen wrote in her subtext, too. The concern was merely the polite way of enquiring about gossip in their society.

*****

Trailer:

*****

Random Facts:

– The Other Side is Zee’s first-ever penned novel, written in the year 2005, when she was diagnosed with breast cancer and thus decided to live her dream of writing a book. She drafted this book mostly during sleepless nights between chemotherapy sessions, the outpouring of this tale becoming her therapy to cope with her treatments.

– The book trailer features images of locations mentioned in the story. The second image, at 0.08, is of the Grand Baie beach, where Lara lives. At 0.58 is the Swami Vivekananda International Conventions Centre located inland in Pailles, that Zee used as the inspiration for the centre Lara manages in Grand Baie. 2.09 features the Coin de Mire Island, a visual that can be admired from the terrace of Eric’s residence in Cap Malheureux.

*****

The Other Side About the Author:

Stories about love, life, relationships… in a melting-pot of culture

Zee is an author who grew up on a fence – on one side there was modernity and the global world, on the other there was culture and traditions. Putting up with the culture for half of her life, one day she decided she’d stand tall on her wall and dip toes every now and then into both sides of her non-conventional upbringing.

From this resolution spanned a world of adaptation and learning to live on said wall. The realization also came that many other young women of the world were on their own fence.

This particular position became her favorite when she decided to pursue her lifelong dream of writing – her heroines all sit ‘on a fence’, whether cultural or societal, in today’s world or in times past, and face dilemmas about life and love.

Hailing from the multicultural island of Mauritius, Zee is a degree holder in Communications Science. She is a head-over-heels wife, in-over-her-head mum to a tween son, best-buddy-stepmum to a teenage lad, an incompetent domestic goddess, eternal dreamer, and an absolute, shameless bookholic. When she isn’t penning more stories and/or managing the Ubuntu line at Decadent Publishing, you can bet you’ll find her with her nose in her tablet, ‘drinking in’ a good book.

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