Tag: blog tours

Author Interview with Blair McDowell

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Author Interviews> Author Q&A> blog tours

Today is a very special day for author Blair McDowell. June 7 is the Release Day Blitz for her delightful (sorry, couldn’t resist) time-travel ghost romance, Delighting in Your Company (review here). Blair is popping up all over the blogosphere today, but I managed to sit her down (virtually, at least) to answer a few questions about her writing and this haunting story.

Please tell us a little bit about yourself. Who is Blair McDowell when she isn’t writing about ghosts?

I run a B&B in the small fishing village of Gibsons Landing on Canada’s spectacular west coast. After the tourist season ends I go traveling—usually to Italy or Greece for a month. Then down to the Caribbean to a small island where I’ve had a house for 40 years. Then back to Gibsons to start the whole cycle again. Through all of this I try to write at least 4 hours a day. I’m retired from my day job so all of this is now possible.

Delighting In Your Company takes place on the island of St. Clement’s in the Carribean. Is there a real St. Clement’s? Or was there a particular place that served as the inspiration for the setting?

There is indeed a real island on which St. Clement’s is based. It’s St. Eustatius, and I built a house there some forty years ago. The legends and stories I heard there over the years were the inspiration for Delighting In Your Company.

It feels like a lot of research went into Delighting, about the legends of the West Indies, and about the “Triangle Trade” of rum, molasses and slaves. Would you like to share some of the interesting things that you found while you were researching the book?

I think some of the facts I discovered about the slave trade were the most interesting—and the most appalling. I made my hero, Jonathan, anti-slavery. I think one of the facts that struck me deeply was that although the slave trade was outlawed by Parliament in 1807, the actual ownership of slaves—the abolition of slavery in the British Isles — didn’t happen until some thirty years later. All the outlawing of transport did was result in a flourishing business for ships that could outrun the law.

Delighting is both a ghost-romance, and a time-travel romance. How did you decide to mix the two?

I couldn’t have done one without the other in this case. The story seemed to come from out of nowhere except my knowledge of the islands and their folk tales. It just arrived in my head, quite complete.

Who first introduced you to the love of reading?

Odd. I can’t even remember learning to read. I’ve always loved reading and read in every spare moment. When other children were playing ball, I was off in a corner reading.

Who or what most influenced your decision to become a writer?

Again, no one. It was as natural a choice as breathing. I’ve written since I was a child. Long letters to friends, short stories just for myself, then professional books in my field when I was a university professor, and now (my favorite) novels. I love writing.

And are you a plotter or a pantser? Do you plot everything out in advance, or do you just let the story flow?

I plot carefully. First I choose the setting I want to work in, then I start thinking about possible characters in that setting, then I start developing plot. The plot may change as I work on the book, but I start with a very complete story idea.

Do your characters ever want to take over the story?

Indeed. In Sonata, my book that will be coming out in the fall, one character completely turned the tables on me. I don’t know how it happened.

What book do you recommend everyone should read, and why?

There just isn’t ONE book. No two of us are alike in what we bring to the books we read. What one person enjoys another may cordially detest. My advice is to read widely and in many genres. Only in that way can we be broad enough as readers or as authors.

Can you tell us a little bit about your next project?

Sonata is the story of a world class concert artist who falls in love with a Vancouver cop. There is a jewel heist, attempted murder and general mayhem before our hero and heroine finally get together.

What about your off-writing time? Any special hobbies or interests you’d like to share?

Travel. I love to travel. I enjoy being surrounded by cultures and languages other than my own.

Coffee or Tea?

Coffee—the kind the Italians call “cappuccino oscuro” Dark Cappuccino. A Cappuccino made with a double espresso and topped with the foam of milk—not actual milk, just the foam.

Blair, thanks so much for letting us have a glimpse into your writing world!

(Photo credits: Photo of St. Eustacius: Walter Hellebrand from Wikimedia Commons, Diagram of the slave ship is from the Archives of the Library of Congress and is in the Public Domain.)

Interview with Tiffany Allee & Giveaway

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Author Interviews> Author Q&A> blog tours> ebook giveaway> Giveaways

I’m so glad to finally be able to welcome Tiffany Allee, the author/extractor of the Files of the Otherworlder Enforcement Agency, to Reading Reality. Let’s jump right into the interview, shall we?

I’m sure that readers would like to know a little more about the person behind the Files of the Otherworlder Enforcement Agency, so Tiffany, please tell us a little bit about what you do when you’re not thinking up monsters for the OWEA to fight. Or monsters for the OWEA to run away from…

First of all, thank you so much for having me! What I do when I’m not writing or thinking about writing hrm…good question. Honestly, rarely does my brain go for too long without tossing (or shoving) ideas at me. But other than writing, I enjoy hiking, reading, and watching silly television shows with my husband. I also love to spend time with my family and bother my cats. I also love video games, although I don’t get a chance to play them very often.

Not long ago, I spent the majority of my days in a finance job in Corporate America. But for now I’m taking a break from my cubical to focus on writing.

For readers who are not yet familiar with the series, would you like to give a quick intro to the Files of the Otherworlder Enforcement Agency?

The From the Files of the Otherworlder Enforcement Agency series follows investigators from the OWEA (similar to the FBI, but for paranormal-related investigations) and the officers of the Chicago Police Department’s paranormal unit—or as they’re sometimes called: the freak squad.

The main investigators change with each book, and in each the main characters have something to lose—or have already lost something. And they are all otherworlders. Mac, the main female character in Banshee Charmer is a banshee—albeit an underpowered one. The main character of the second book, Marisol, is a succubus. But beneath both of their otherworlder powers, they are just people who are trying to do the right thing.

Banshees are not usually on the side of the righteous. What inspired you to make your heroine a banshee, even a half-banshee, for the first book in the Files series?

A banshee wasn’t something I’d seen done a lot before, and it sounded like such fun—especially since banshees aren’t usually seen as heroic. And I wanted Mac to be misunderstood, and a little out of place—even among her fellow cops and otherworlders. Making her a banshee seemed to fit the bill.

What inspired you to pick paranormal romance for your writing over another type? Or over another genre altogether?

While I love other genres, I’ve always been drawn to fantasy settings and characters. I also love a happy ending. Paranormal romance allows me to pull in the fantastical elements I enjoy and mix them in with real-world(ish) settings. And the dual stories of mystery and romance give paranormal romance an edge that you can really sink your teeth into. Plus, it gives me a lot of fun elements to juggle.

Do you plan everything or just let the story flow?

Letting the story just flow? Without a plan? *gulps* The idea of pantsing a story gives me a tiny panic attack. I plan everything down to the scene. However, I do change my outline as I go and discover new things about the characters and the plot. I don’t stick to my outlines hard and fast, but if I change them, I do my best to make sure it’s for the better. I have yet to finish a story without a few changes to my original outline.

What book do you recommend everyone should read, and why?

Tough question! Everyone has different tastes, so it’s a difficult thing for me to answer. But the most universal and important book I can think of is The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. Not always a comfortable book to read, but an important one.

More specifically, besides Banshee Charmer and Succubus Lost, of course, what other paranormal romance/urban fantasy books or series would you recommend to readers who enjoyed Files and needed something to tide them over until the next File opens?

For readers who enjoy darker urban fantasy, I highly recommend Stacia Kane’s Downside series. They’re harsh and real and wonderfully written. And they’ve drawn me in emotionally better than any other books I’ve read. There is also a strong romantic element that grows throughout the series.

If you’re looking for something lighter, I love Nicole Peeler’s Jane True series. Funny and romantic.

Speaking of which, can you tell us a little bit about your plans for the series, or just about your future projects?

The next book in the series is slated for September, and it will follow the sensitive, Astrid, as she struggles to clear her name. Her love interest may be familiar to people who read Banshee Charmer. In that story Mason Sanderson was an Internal Affairs officer in the Chicago Police Department. Between that book and the third in the series, he has moved on to the OWEA.

I also have a novelette coming out in June called Once Prey, Twice Forsaken that is a short, hot read about a newly-made vampire named Blair and the witch, David, who hunts her. And I hope to have news soon about a secret novel-length project too. 😉

Coffee or Tea?

Both, please! Coffee in the morning and tea in the afternoon. I am powered by caffeine, in case you couldn’t tell, haha.

Tiffany, thank you so much for answering all my questions, and for this peek into the Files. I’ll be looking forward to Astrid’s story. (I was hoping she was next!)

And there’s a more days left to enter the tour-wide giveaway for a copy of Succubus Lost and the beautiful salamander pin. Rafflecopter coming right up!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Succubus Lost

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | A Reviews> blog tours> book reviews

The first succubus that Detective Marisol Whitman of the Chicago P.D. “freak squad”  knows is lost in Succubus Lost by Tiffany Allee is unfortunately one who is very near and dear to her. Marisol goes to her sister Elaine’s room to wake her up for a shoe-shopping expedition and discovers that Elaine’s bed hasn’t been slept in.

Elaine and Marisol are both succubi. And Elaine is missing. But when Marisol slams into her Lieutenant’s office to start a missing person’s investigation, she discovers that Elaine isn’t the only young succubus who has disappeared; twenty young succubi have been kidnapped over the last two years.

The Otherworlder Enforcement Agency has been tracking the case, right to her house. But the Agent the OWEA has sent, Valerio Costa, doesn’t like or trust succubi, not since one destroyed his brother’s life.

And Marisol still has other cases to deal with. There’s a murderer on the loose on the Otherworlder side of Chicago, one who burns his (or her) victims to an ash so fine the cremains can barely be recognized as human. The murderer can only be a powerful coven, or an even more powerful salamander. Which is just what Agent Costa is, a salamander.

Could the disappearances and the murders be part of the same case? The OWEA’s psychometrist says that all the victims are alive, right up until those cremains are identified as a missing siren, one previously unconnected to the case.

Then one of the victims turns up, with her powers subverted into something out of a nightmare, and her memory wiped clean. Marisol discovers that Costa has been keeping even more secrets from her about the case than even she expected from an OWEA agent–and she expected plenty.

But her sister’s life and sanity are on the line, and Marisol needs to trust someone. Agent Valerio Costa is the only one who might be able to help her get her sister back in one piece.

He’s also the hottest thing she’s ever seen–and not just because he’s a salamander. But if she trusts him and she’s wrong, he won’t need his powers to burn her heart out.

Escape Rating A-: I absolutely adore the Files of the Otherworlder Enforcement Agency series by Tiffany Allee (see my review of Banshee Charmer here). One of the things that she has done that is particularly neat is pull in species that are not the same-old, same-old. Every urban fantasy series has vamps and werewolves. And they are here, but that’s not all.

Marisol is temporarily partnering with Astrid at the beginning of the story because Astrid’s vamp partner Claude is on vacation. I love this! A vampire taking a vacation. (I hope Astrid gets a story later, BTW)

But the heroine of Banshee Charmer was a half-banshee. Not many banshee heroines. The hero of Succubus Lost is a salamander. Again, not all that common. Also, succubi, while they aren’t rare, aren’t the flavor of the month, either.

I missed some of the “cop shop” banter from Banshee Charmer. Marisol isn’t “one of the boys” the way that Mac was, so the flavor was different. But I did like the way that the events of book one affected book 2. Costa’s ID got thoroughly checked out, after the Chicago P.D. got fooled the last time.

Succubus Lost is urban fantasy that includes a strong romance between two people who have no particular reason to like or trust each other at the beginning, but need each other to solve a case. Watching them work through all their issues to earn their happy ending, is very, very satisfying.

Armchair BEA: Interview and Introduction

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | About> Armchair BEA> BEA> BookExpo America

This is BEA week. Who or what is BEA you might ask?

BEA is Book Expo America, the show where book people do business. And it’s usually in New York in early June. It certainly is this year, although there are rumors about 2016 in Chicago.

Not all of us get to make it to NYC for BEA. Although many of us wish we could.

(Most years, for me, it’s a logistical problem. The American Library Association Annual Conference is in late June, and I am committed to attend that. Two conferences in one month is very expensive. There is overlap, but it’s not the same. I really want to go to BEA!)

Because so many bloggers want to get to BEA, and can’t quite manage, some of the enterprising among us invented the fantastic Armchair BEA! (There’s armchair football, why not Armchair BEA? I ask you?)

The kickoff event for Armchair BEA (see, see!) is an interview. Each participating blogger is supposed to interview themselves. (There’s a list of questions here, if you’re curious)

1.Please tell us a little bit about yourself: Who are you? How long have you been blogging? Why did you get into blogging?

I started blogging in April 2011. We were about to move (again) and were packing up our huge book collection, trying to figure out what to keep and what to weed. I’m a librarian and weeding books is hard. I thought I’d be writing a lot about libraries, and it has turned out that I’m doing a lot of book reviews. Which I love.

The other things. I blog here at Reading Reality, sometimes known as Escape Reality, Read Fiction! I am also The Rocket Lover at Book Lovers Inc. My husband is the techie here at Reading Reality, although we are both die-hard geeks. Our cats otherwise run the house. Which moves frequently. Chicago to Anchorage to Tallahssee (FL) to Chicago to Gainesville (FL) to Atlanta. (I’m originally from Cincinnati, but that’s a whole bunch of moves ago!)

2. What are you currently reading, or what is your favorite book you have read so far in 2012?

I’m listening to The Scottish Prisoner by Diana Gabaldon and reading Deadly Secrets, Loving Lies by Cynthia Cooke. My favorite book this year is probably Blood and Bullets by James R. Tuck, and I need to get the review written.

3. What is your favorite feature on your blog (i.e. author interviews, memes, something specific to your blog)?

The feature that I’m proudest of is Ebook Review Central. Every Monday (except Memorial Day, so far), I cover the output of one or more of the ebook-only or ebook-mostly publishers for a month. Later today it will be Samhain who are ebook-mostly. I pull together all the reviews for their titles each month and highlight three with the most and best reviews. And I maintain a database with links to all the reviews. I also cover Carina, Dreamspinner, Astraea, Liquid Silver, Amber Quill, Riptide, Red Sage and Curiosity Quills.

4. Which is your favorite post that you have written that you want everyone to read?

There are two posts I would want everyone to read (yes, I know, the question said one). Back in February, the Oklahoma Chapter of the Romance Writers of America suddenly changed the rules of their writing contest to exclude same-sex entries. Not because they couldn’t find any judges, but because their chapter members felt “uncomfortable” with stories that had, in fact, won the contest in years past. My post titled Hot Buttons Popping was syndicated by BlogHer.

BEA is a book expo. And it is also an exposition of traditional publishing. My background is in libraries. One of the big issues facing public libraries is how to handle the ebook revolution when most of the “Big 6” publishers will not license ebooks to libraries under any conditions. But exactly who are the “Big 6” anyway, and what does that mean? I couldn’t resist an attempt at describing them in 9 Rings, 8 Planets, 7 Dwarfs, 6 Publishers.

5. Have your reading tastes changed since you started blogging? How?

It’s not that my tastes have changed, it’s more that they’ve expanded. Which is bad, in a way, because I have access to even more books than I did when I was working in a library. I get a lot of first novels and ebook-only books, because I promote them on Ebook Review Central, and because I get them through book tours for review. So many neat new authors and series. But I still love all the things I always have, like science fiction and fantasy, and urban fantasy. There are so many wonderful books, and I want to read them all.

(Banner design: Nina of Nina Reads; Feature image design: Sarah of Puss Reboots; Rainbow pencils photo credit Horia Varlan on Flickr)

 

Guest Post: K. Reed on Chaos and Manners plus Giveaway

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | blog tours> Giveaways> Guest Posts

Today’s guest on Reading Reality is K. Reed, the author of the utterly fascinating (read the review) post-apocalyptic Regency romance Dark Inheritance: Fallen Empire.

I will say that I picked up Dark Inheritance because a part of me was wondering “how did she do it?” and another part was wondering “why did she do it?” Reading the story itself takes care of the how, and I’m glad I did. it’s a wow!

For the “why”, we have Ms. Reed herself to answer that question!

 

 

Thank you so much for hosting me at your blog today, Marlene! I love that you’re a librarian and that you’ve worked in so many different places. Really gives you a perspective on places and things.

I love this question: There couldn’t be two more opposite images than the “ultra-ordered society of the Regency Era” and the “one half-step away from chaos” that the words Post-Apocalyptic or Dystopian bring to mind. Tell us how you reached the decision to combine those two opposites into a single story concept. Were there any other times and places in the running for your Fallen Empire series?

The world I created in Dark Inheritance…I am a huge fan of the Regency era, I love Jane Austen and so many other Regency authors. I wanted to enter into the historical market and Regency, regardless of the umpteenth time it’s been declared dead in the publishing industry, is still one of the most popular romance genres. Its popularity makes it attractive to historical writers to step into that genre, but it also means a lot of competition.

I wanted to step in. But I also wanted to stand out.

Aside from my love for Regencies and historicals, I enjoy reading many genres, including those that cover the post-apocalyptic. So, through a series of coincidences with what I had been watching (mainly the History Channel) and what I wanted to write (mainly Regency Romances) the world of Dark Inheritance presented itself.

It was exactly because of those rigid rules of society during the Regency Era, that I wanted to smash them and see what their echo in a world like the one I created, would wrought. The traditional Regency is the epitome of rigid rules, and when you alter them or veer them away from the historically known, you create a new world that awaits discovery. I hope you’ll take the time to discover what I’ve created in Dark Inheritance: Fallen Empire.

Now then, the places and times for the series. Yes, I absolutely did wonder about other times. I debated between Victorian and Regency, and even wondered about the Colonial Era. For a while the Victorian Era was a frontrunner, mostly because at this time the British Empire’s reach spanned the globe.

In the end, I decided on the Regency Era because it was a much more insular society with incredibly specific rules I could toy with. I also wanted to center it in the British Empire specifically because of their legendary rules of society.

I admit to playing with the idea of a limited series of shorter books that take place within the Fallen Empire series but not set in England. One of the things I didn’t like about The Hunger Games was not knowing what went on in the rest of the world. Or even the exact boundaries of Panem. If I want to know what’s happening elsewhere, I hope others will also!

Ms. Reed, I certainly want to know what’s happening elsewhere. And I want another book in the series, so I can find out! Thank you so much for telling us some of the thoughts that went into the worldbuilding behind Dark Inheritance: Fallen Empire.

Tour-wide GIVEAWAY!

Just in case, truly, just in case we experience some kind of apocalyptic event, Ms. Reed wants to make sure her readers are prepared.

So she has graciously agreed to award nine Post-Apocalypse survival baskets (each basket includes tea, a fan, a shawl, a bracelet and more) –Plus ONE Grand Prize basket will include a iPod Touch–to randomly drawn commenters during the tour!

This giveaway is open to US/Canada residents only.

Follow the tour and comment, the more places you comment (be sure to leave a comment here at Reading Reality), the more chances you have to win a basket. You do want to be prepared, don’t you?

May 14: Christine Young
May 15: Live To Read ~ Krystal
May 16: Books Reviewed by Bunny
May 17: Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer
May 18: Ramblings From This Chick
May 21: Queen of all She Reads
May 22: Immortality and Beyond
May 23: Writers and Authors
May 24: Books Are Magic
May 25: Megan Johns Invites
May 28: Novel Reflections
May 29: Reading Reality
May 30: A Case of Reading Insomnia
May 31: Lisa Haselton’s Reviews and Interviews
June 1: The Life (and lies) of an inanimate flying object
June 4: Reader Girls
June 5: Words of Wisdom from The Scarf Princess
June 6: It’s Raining Books
June 7: Dawn’s Reading Nook
June 8: Adventure Into Romance

What’s On My (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand? AKA The Sunday Post 5-27-12

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | The Sunday Post> Virtual Nightstand

It’s Memorial Day Weekend in the U.S. And Monday it is Whit Monday for some of my European friends at Book Lovers Inc., so it’s a three-day weekend for a lot of people.

So there will be lots of reading going on this weekend. At least at my house.

There will also be a lot of playing of Diablo III. Like last night until 2 in the morning. Galen and I both love a good dungeon crawl now and again, with serious hacking and slashing for flavor. And that pretty much describes every Diablo game. I play the barbarian, and he, as he so eloquently described it, plays the “squishy wizard”.

But this is the Sunday Post, so that I can describe what will happen at Reading Reality once the weekend is over. (Tuesday is Monday this week!) Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer is the host of the Sunday Post.

I use the Virtual Nightstand as a way of peeking into next week to see what I should be reading, so my next week’s schedule doesn’t pop up and shout, “Surprise!” this time next week. It also gives me a chance to talk about upcoming books that I thought were neat or cool enough to grab from NetGalley or Edelweiss.

Coming up this week…

Monday, May 28 is Memorial Day. Normally, there would be an Ebook Review Central on Monday, but ERC is taking Memorial Day off. It will return on June 4, with the Samhain April 2012 wrap-up.

On Tuesday, I’ll be hosting a guest post from author K. Reed about her post-apocalyptic Regency romance, Dark Inheritance, Fallen Empire, as well as a review of the book. I’m fascinated, because I never thought that those two tropes could manage to co-exist, the manners of the Regency and the chaos of a post-apocalypse. This should be awesome.

Thursday is another big day, with the cover reveal of Stacey Kennedy’s new Frostbite book,  Mystically Bound (after Supernaturally Kissed and Demonically Tempted) and an interview with Tiffany Allee about her latest book, Succubus Lost.

Then there’s the books I’ll be reading for next week. Also one that got itself moved to this week. A book blogger’s work is never done. But it’s so much fun!

My editor at Library Journal asked me to review the Carina Press Presents: Editor’s Choice Volume 1 with a May 30 deadline. She usually only gives me about a week to review a book. Lucky for me, the books she sends are generally very good, and are often books I’ve already picked up from NetGalley, like this one.

This Editor’s Choice volume is really three novellas in one, and the novellas are also available separately. So it’s Kilts & Kraken by Cindy Spencer Pape (finally something in her  Gaslight Chronicles), Slow Summer Kisses by Shannon Stacey (not Kowalski, but still contemporary) and Negotiating Point by Adrienne Giordano, the latest in her Private Protectors series. I forced myself to read some of the Giordano series to figure out what was going on there, and it was so hard (I’m joking, I’m really joking. They’re good.)

And the darn thing has a June 4 publication date, so I was going to be reading it anyway! Along with the Editor’s Choice Volume 2, which contains No Money Down by Julie Moffett, Dead Calm by Shirley Wells, Dance of Flames by Janni Nell and Pyro Canyon by Robert Appleton. I’m most interested in Robert Appleton’s Pyro Canyon, it’s space opera.

I have a tour book for Book Lovers Inc., Deadly Secrets, Loving Lies, by Cynthia Cooke. Reading Reality participated in the Cover Reveal on Mothers’ Day, so when the book came up for a tour at BLI, I was curious. It looks like an interesting and short romantic suspense story.

There will be a Goddess Fish tour at Reading Reality for Drowning Mermaids by Nadia Scrieva. This is paranormal romance, with, of course, mermaids. There aren’t a lot of stories using mermaids as the heroines, so my curiosity bump itched.

I’ll confess, I do have a problem picking more books than I have time for. I like having choices. And so I have too many choices.

Next week, the following books are being released, and I have review copies that I really want to get a chance to read.

The two highest on the hit parade are both science fiction. Worldsoul (see On My Wishlist #1 for description) by Liz Williams and The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett. These are two authors that I simply read everything.

This is also a week for books in pairs. Lady Amelia’s Mess and a Half by Samantha Grace and The Most Improper Miss Sophie Valentine by Jayne Fresina have the same feel to them, at least by title. But Regency romps can be heaps of fun. Maybe not back-to-back.

I’m so glad it’s a long weekend! What about you? What’s you Sunday up to this week?

Seized: The Pipe Woman Chronicles

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | B Reviews> blog tours> book reviews> Giveaways

Mediating between two opposing sides in legal disputes comes just a little too easily for Naomi Witherspoon. She is an ace mediator for her law firm, but when she discovers that she can “suggest” that the car ahead of her just get out of her way, and it does so by running a red light almost causing a head-on collision, Naomi realizes that all the sudden coincidences in her life are more than just her being very good at her job.

Naomi never expects to discover that a Sioux goddess has chosen Naomi as her avatar for the upcoming end of the world. And Naomi isn’t all that sure that she wants the job.

It makes the conflict of Naomi’s emotions and beliefs a wild ride in Seized, the first book of The Pipe Woman Chronicles by Lynne Cantwell.

As Naomi’s journey begins, her life seems pretty good. She has a job she mostly like, a best friend she trusts and a handsome man who she hopes will finally pop the question after eight years of on-again/off-again that seems to finally be on track.

But there are some gaps in her life she still needs to fill. Her law firm is pretty wishy-washy about her mediation practice, and that’s a big problem. Naomi doesn’t feel right about litigation, especially considering some of the rich scumbags they’ve started representing. She’s good at finding compromises, maybe too good. She loves mediation, especially the court-appointed work she’s been doing.

About that man of hers…well, Brock has been part of her life since law school, but he’s got one heck of a roving eye, and sometimes other body parts. He’s very handsome but just a bit on the shady side when it comes to practicing law. But this time, their togetherness seems to be sticking. Naomi just wishes he’d finally ask her to marry him already.

There’s one haunting blank spot in Naomi’s life. She doesn’t know who her father is. Her mother says that he died in the Vietnam War, and won’t talk about him. His name isn’t on Naomi’s birth certificate, and there are no pictures. Her mom won’t talk about him. But the war ended two years before Naomi was born. Pregnancy may seem like forever, but it doesn’t last that long.

Naomi’s best friend Shannon knows all the answers. At least, enough of the answers to put Naomi on the right path. But Shannon knows Naomi well enough that Naomi will have to start the journey for herself.

But Shannon believes that the world encompasses more than just technology and logic. She believes that there is still magic, and faith, and powers that shape the universe in ways that Naomi’s legalist mind doesn’t want to see. Shannon says that she’s “fey on her Irish granny’s side”.

So when Naomi figures out that some of her gift of mediation is more than just training. Shannon takes her to a ritual Native American “sweat” outside of Denver. A very special ritual just for Naomi. So that Naomi can meet her destiny. And save the world.

But only if she can manage to accept it. While that destiny turns her entire set of beliefs, her identity, her world, upside-down and inside out.

Escape Rating B: This has the potential to be a very interesting series, and I definitely liked the opener. The story is ultimately about a war among the gods, through human avatars. What was interesting was that the primary point-of-view deity chose, not a warrior, but a mediator as their avatar. So the war is might be decided through negotiation rather than outright warfare. Neat choice!

This is a building of the fellowship type of story. A teacher, a healer, a mediator, a guardian create the team. The overarching story looks like a battle of the pantheons, with a flavor of “this has all happened before, and it will all happen again” thrown in for good measure. The gods and goddesses are picking sides, not because the conflict can be stopped, but because they want to make sure the result it “better” than the last time.

What constitutes “better”? That’s always the question. Naomi’s side represents better for the environment. The other side is looking for more unbridled development. Odin is on the other side. This has the potential to make things very, very interesting in the later books.

There is a love story involved, or rather, an insta-attraction sub-plot. But whether Naomi and Joseph’s story turns out to be real love or the goddess making sure things go along the right path for her purposes is something that will be further investigated in book 2. Which I want to read.

Lynne will be awarding a $10 Amazon GC to one randomly drawn commenter on the tour.

So, if you want to read all of Naomi’s journey (or all that’s available so far), here’s your chance! Comment! Leave a comment on this review, and on all the stops on the review tour this week. Lynne will be giving one lucky commenter a $10 Amazon GC. The more you comment, the better your chances of winning.

May 21: A Case of Reading Insomnia
May 22: Cafe of Dreams Book Reviews
May 23: From Me to You … Video, Photography, & Book Reviews
May 24: Reading Reality
May 25: Stories of My Life

 

Guest Post: Lilly Cain on Writing and Loving the Alien + Giveaway

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | blog tours> Guest Posts

Let’s welcome Lilly Cain, the author of the science fiction romance series The Confederacy Treaty, to Reading Reality. SFR is a genre that’s near and dear to my heart, so I really enjoyed all three books in the series (I couldn’t wait to read Undercover Alliance).

The thing about science fiction, including science fiction romance, is that humans are not likely to be the only people out there in the galaxy. Which means that, sooner or later, we’re going to run across aliens. Some will be lovable and some will be detestable. Some will be cuddly and some will be sexy.

The sexy aliens are the stuff that science fiction romances are made of.

Writing And Loving the Alien

First of all, thanks for having me here, at Reading Reality! I’m so glad to be celebrating my erotic sci-fi series, The Confederacy Treaty, from Carina Press.  Alien Revealed is the first book of the series, and the third will be coming out in June – Undercover Alliance.

 

 

 

 

 

When I came up with the concept for the series – Earth’s first treaty with an alien political alliance, I decided that a big group of crazy looking aliens descending on earth would be fun, but probably not conducive to romance. I write erotic romance, walking way over the edge of sexy, so I knew my aliens would have to be, well, compatible with us. I decided that the Confederacy as a group would be wise enough to agree and would send the Inarrii, humanoids that look enough like us that we would be able to relate to them.

One decision led to another and I created aliens with a language, abilities, values and beliefs. They have their own original physical aspects, but they have a culture as well.

The Inarrii are telepathic, to varying degrees.  In writing any Alien or non human culture, I felt that it was important to really think about language, so the Inarrii have their own, but they also have methods of communicating emotion and memories. And in their world, a large part of their personal relationships (like ours, whether we want to admit it or not) revolve around sex.

Sex for the Inarrii helps them stay sane – their telepathic abilities need the physical act to unload stress. Without it they can lose their sanity. For my first book, Alien Revealed, the heroine Alinna Gaerrii has been sent to earth to spy on humans and their culture.  She isn’t meant to actually meet any of them.  But when she does, crash landing on earth, she’s far from any sexual relief with her own people. She has a duty to fulfill, and she can’t let people know who she is.  But without physical relief she will eventually lose her mind. Duty and honor are paramount in her society, but her needs are very real.

I think it is really important when writing any alien / human romance, that there is a parallel between lovers. A meeting of needs, and an understanding of values.  The Inarrii are based on a warrior clan system, so Alinna’s hero is Major David Brown.  His career in the space military gives him an ingrained sense of duty, honor, loyalty.

All techno gadgetry aside, most aliens in sci-fi fall in with what I have described above – people who are not so dissimilar from us.  Think Vulcans, Yoda, the boy from I am Number Four.  They are different but we can understand them, they often represent extremes of our own cultures.

 

I don’t know if real aliens will be anything like us. I can only comment on popular fiction. 🙂 But I kind of hope so.  What do you think?

 

 

Lilly Cain
www.lillycain.com


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Alien Revealed

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | B Reviews> blog tours> book reviews

First contact. In the story of Alien Revealed, the sexy science fiction romance by Lilly Cain, that phrase about the protocols surrounding the first meeting between humans and aliens takes on some amazing new variations.

And I don’t think any of them are quite what Star Fleet might have had in mind. Although Jim Kirk probably did. 😉

But in this first contact story, the humans are the less scientifically developed race being contacted by the more scientifically advanced Inarrii. And the contact is accidental. As in collision.

Agent Alinna Gaerrii has been observing the human Starforce installation from her covert base on the moon. Some of that observation has included a bit of close-in flying in a stealth pod. That’s what got her in trouble. An unscheduled airjet swerved into the airspace over the base and collided with her pod. The resulting crash wasn’t pretty. The airjet’s passengers were killed, and Alinna’s pod, with all of its alien technology, hit the trees. Alinna survived, just barely, but it was exactly the kind of situation for which self-destruct signals were created.

The humans were not supposed to know that they were being observed, Not quite yet. Alinna was just about ready to return to the Confederacy Alliance base on Jupiter’s moon Europa to report that the humans would be excellent candidates to join the Alliance against the brutal Raveners. The diplomatic team would return to begin treaty negotiations.

Instead, Alinna, wounded and bleeding, was found by Starforce pilots investigating the crash site. Also found was a small piece of melted plastic, the last remains of her ship.

Starforce Major David Brown mistakenly identifies Alinna as the psychtech who was supposed to have been aboard that airjet. The one who was scheduled to evaluate his Special Forces team before their mission to Mars.

Alinna decides to go along with the mistaken identity, using her Inarrii abilities of reading emotions as a way of observing the humans up close. Even though she will break every protocol of observation that an Agent is supposed to maintain, she is certain the information will be worth it. Everything she’s seen of the humans shows that they are exactly the allies the Confederacy needs.

But David Brown is a shock. Because Alinna can reach him, mind-to-mind, as though he were another Inarrii. Which he manifestly is not.

That any human can achieve mind contact makes the humans even more valuable as potential allies than anyone could have guessed. They can be full partners.

But for Alinna, alone and isolated for far too long for one of her people, David is much more. The mind contact that he initiates in his dreams soothes her. Inarrii need touch almost as much as food and water; and Alinna has been alone for months.

When those dream-meetings, and dream-matings, move into the real they discover that they might have something worth changing their lives for … if they can get past their very big differences. And the people who are shooting at them.

Escape Rating B: As I said in my review of the second book in Cain’s Confederacy Treaty series, The Naked Truth, this science fiction romance leans a little more on the romance side of the equation than the science fiction side.

However, maybe because Alien Revealed is the first book in the series (Undercover Alliance is third, and it’s due out in June) a lot of the science fiction worldbuilding takes place in Alien Revealed. Which I liked seeing.

Even if I think that the base security is weaker than it should be. But folks snuck into Stargate Command who shouldn’t have, too. I did love some of the fun touches, such as the bit about the folks who really, really wanted to meet an alien were nicknamed You-fo’s, derived from UFOs, and no one ever believed them. Until all of a sudden they were right.

Q&A with Lauren Clark, Author of Dancing Naked in Dixie + Giveaway

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Author Q&A> blog tours> Book Giveaway> Giveaways

I’d like to welcome Lauren Clark, the author of the absolutely terrific (check out my review here) Dancing Naked in Dixie to Reading Reality. I had the chance to cook up a few questions for Lauren, just in time for the release of Dancing Naked. (I love that title! And it fits so perfectly)

Tell us a little bit about Lauren Clark…

I am a mom of two school-aged boys, wife of a medical professional, daughter of a nurse practitioner and a college dean (also avid readers). I have a master’s degree in journalism and worked in TV news on-air for six years before deciding to write fiction. I love yoga, Pure Barre, travel, flavored coffee, the color pink, the ocean, my historic home, friends, laughter, and my family.

Is there a real Eufaula? Or what place, or places, were the inspirations for Eufaula Alabama?

Yes! It is a lovely place about three hours southwest of Atlanta, Georgia. I visited Eufaula and attended the Pilgrimage many times when I lived in Dothan, Alabama. It’s a magical place–the historic homes are marvelous, the people are so friendly, and Eufaula has a real sense of ‘community.’

Dancing Naked in Dixie is a terrific title. Can you tell us what brought that particular line to life?

I wanted a title that expressed unbridled joy and happiness–like the exhilaration of new love, the heady feeling that makes a person want to “dance naked.” I actually came up with the title before I wrote the book. Not something that usually happens, at least for me!

You refer to both Dancing Naked in Dixie and your first book, Stay Tuned, as women’s fiction rather than romance. What do you see as the difference?

The major difference, I believe, is my focus on a strong female protagonist who has a major challenge in her life. The crux of the story is finding a solution to that problem, or making a change in her life. That’s how she eventually finds happiness, not through finding the man of her dreams (although that part is an extra, added bonus if it happens!).

Let’s talk about casting. If Dancing Naked were made into a movie, who would you want to see playing Shug and Julia?

Gosh, I love the thought of Emma Stone playing Julia, though one of my editors had a dream that Dancing Naked was made into a movie and Reese Witherspoon was the lead role!!! My best friend wants me to say Matthew McConaughey for Shug, and although he doesn’t have dark hair, I have to agree that he’d be a great choice.

There are so many strong women in Dancing Naked. Is there one in particular who is your favorite? And why?

I love Julia. She’s me in so many ways (klutzy, coffee-drinker, loves to travel), but I have a great relationship with my parents and I am NOT allergic to bees! I love that she has both a physical and personal journey to go on–and that the two mirror each other and allow her to grow as a career woman, daughter, and person. Julia is terribly unorganized, however, and that’s one of my strong points (or I would never get any writing done)!

Who introduced you to the love of reading?

My parents shut of the family television all summer, every summer. As a result, I spent LOTS of time at the local library and carried stacks of books back and forth every week. I must have read one hundred books a summer. My parents and my grandparents are/were also big readers and bookstore lovers, so I think I was destined to be an avid bookworm.

Who or what influenced you to become a writer?

I’d played around with writing fiction after I got out of TV news, but didn’t get serious about it until about 7 years ago. I hired a freelance editor to help me with two stories I’d written and am forever grateful for her help and encouragement. Stay Tuned was the third novel I finished.

Do you plan your stories out to the nth degree, or do your characters sometimes take over?

I do outline pretty extensively, meaning that I do a sentence or two for each chapter and plan out the entire story beforehand. Yes, sometimes the characters surprise me!! For example, I didn’t plan on Mary Katherine being quite so scheming and deliberate, but I was having so much fun with her that I expanded her role, especially near the end of the story!

What book do you recommend everyone should read, and why?

One of my favorite novels is My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult. It’s a fabulous story about how a family disintegrates when one of the children is born with a life-threatening illness. An ending rarely surprises me, but this book did–and made me cry! (Do NOT see the movie version) Other highly recommended reads:  The Green Mile, The Poisonwood Bible, The Secret Life of Bees, and anything by Sophie Kinsella.

Tell us a little bit about what comes next for you after Dancing Naked in Dixie? 

I am working on story about The Pie Lab, which is an actual restaurant in Greensboro, Alabama. It’s a great little place, has wonderful pies (both dessert pies and quiche/taco/lunch-type pies), and provides a place where local folks can get on-the-job training. My protagonist is a young woman who’s vowed never to return to Greensboro (her hometown), but is forced to do so when her husband leaves her for another man.

Since on your website you admit to being a “non-reformed coffee drinker,” I’ll have to ask a different final question. Morning person or night owl? 

Morning. Early morning, much to the chagrin of my husband, who likes to ‘sleep in’ until at least 8 a.m. on the weekends!


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