Tag: Lacy Danes

Author Interview with Lacy Danes + Giveaway

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Author Interviews> Giveaways

My special guest today is Lacy Danes. She’s here to introduce her fascinating new series, Dragon’s Fate, along with the first book in that series, Waterfall. This series has a very cool concept, and not just because the first dragon is the water dragon. Her series is in an alternate Regency, with cursed dragons as heroes. Very yummy (see my review for more details).

But now, let’s hear it from Lacy!

Marlene: Hi Lacy! Can you please tell us a bit about yourself?

Lacy: Hello and thank you for having me here today as I am promoting my novella Waterfall! I live in the Pacific North West with my amazing husband and three kids.  We have one dog and two beat fish.   I have a day job at a global company in the IT field.  Writing is my passion.

Marlene: Describe a typical day of writing? Are you a planner or pantser?

Lacy: I sit down with my coffee or tea.  The coop dog (our Havana Silk Dog) cuddles up next to me and I read through and edit what I wrote last. From there I start writing again.  I don’t plot or plan and when I have the story never followed the plan anyway.

Marlene: I noticed that you like to write on the hotter side of romance. What made you choose to write mostly on the more erotic side of the romance spectrum?

Lacy: I have always loved that heart pounding sensation I get when I would read a great steamy romance.  When Amazon first started they had this feature that let you know the steam level of a romance book.  I would always look for historical romance that rated above 8 on a 1-10 scale.  When I started writing I was very nervous to write those scenes. The wonderful Sasha White gave a class on how to write sex scenes and from then forward I have been confident.  Though I have to say I still get nervous when I know a sex scene is coming up in my story.  I want to make sure that the scene is just as amazing as the stories I read.

Marlene: The dragons in the Dragon’s Fate series seem like a combination of myths and tropes. What was your inspiration for the Dragon’s Fate series?

Lacy: I did research about dragons a few years back.  I did this as I was considering getting a dragon tattoo.  I have yet to get that tattoo but I was fascinated by dragons in each culture.  When I decided to write this story I wanted to make them different and so I used myth, culture, and fiction to create them.

Marlene: How does the world of Dragon’s Fate differ from our own history?

Lacy: Dragon’s Fate’s world is filled with wonder, fantasy, and magic.

Marlene: On your blog you have a page on “Historic Sex” devoted to sex words and phrases used before the 19th century. It’s absolutely fascinating (and hilarious). When did you start researching this and why? And what made you decide to post it?

Lacy: I stared researching when my writing ventured into the more steam side of romance. Sadly I could not find this information consolidated in one place.  Because of that, I decided I needed to put my research up for others to use too.  I am not perfect at it, I know there are words missing and maybe some that are questionable as to the age of their origin. But it is a good list.

Marlene: What projects do you have planned for the future? What is next on your schedule?

Lacy: I am currently working on the second story in the Dragon’s Fate series. Open Flame. After Dragon’s Fate is complete, I have an unfinished WIP that I am going to dive into.

Marlene: If you could pick one book to read again for the first time, what would it be?

Lacy: A hard question. I have several that I go back to again and again.

Marlene: What is your favorite thing about the writing experience and why?

Lacy: I love editing.  Each pass I make through the story makes it come more and more to life.

Marlene: Tell me something about yourself that I wouldn’t know to ask?

Lacy: I have three tattoos.  Woodblock inspired flowers on my hip, an owl , and a moon and cherry blossoms on my back.

Marlene: Morning person or night owl?

Lacy: I am a night owl by nature, but my day job tries to make me a morning person. I work for a global company and have to be awake for 7:30 am meetings at times.

Waterfall
A Dragon’s Fate Novella, Book 1
Lacy Danes

Genre: Romance, Alternate Worlds, Paranormal, Steamy/Erotic

Publisher: Samhain Publishing

Number of pages: 138
Word Count: 38K

Cover Artist: Kanaza http://www.kanaxa.com/

Book Description:

It’s easy to fall in love. Destiny requires tooth and claw.

Curses are designed to be cruel, but the one afflicting Jordan and his brothers is almost beyond bearing. A dragon born by blood magic, he is an immortal trapped in human form, with only one hope of finding his eternal mate. He must bite her—and pray she lives.

One dark night, he senses the wounded heartbeat of a woman in the shadows, begging him to end her life. Ever the gentleman, he chivalrously obliges her wish. Only to discover three days later that she lives. And has married another.

Celeste always dreamed of marrying for love, but the nightmare of living in her father’s home drives her to wed the Duke of Hudson. Yet on her wedding eve, she is compelled to follow a mysterious man who professes to know her secret. A man with curious blue scales on his muscular arms—whose shadowed eyes reflect a dangerous mix of destiny and desire…

Warning: This novel contains explicit sex, sex in water, four super-hot dragon brothers, and a curse born from magical power that has left them wondering who they are all their lives.

About Lacy Danes :Lacy Danes made a New Year’s resolution to write a hot, historical romance.A year and a half later, she achieved her goal. She lives in Portland, Oregon, where besides writing she enjoys playing cards, chasing her kids around, and savoring a great martini with the man of her dreams all while watching the world go by.Visit Lacy at her web site: www.LacyDanes.com | twitter | facebook 

~~~~~~TOURWIDE GIVEAWAY~~~~~~

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Review: Waterfall by Lacy Danes

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | B Reviews> blog tours> book reviews
Format read: ebook provided by the author
Formats available: ebook
Genre: Paranormal romance
Series: Dragon’s Fate
Length: 153 pages
Publisher: Samhain Publishing
Date Released: January 1, 2013
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, All Romance

It’s easy to fall in love. Destiny requires tooth and claw.

Dragon’s Fate, Book 1

Curses are designed to be cruel, but the one afflicting Jordan and his brothers is almost beyond bearing. A dragon born by blood magic, he is an immortal trapped in human form, with only one hope of finding his eternal mate. He must bite her—and pray she lives.

One dark night, he senses the wounded heartbeat of a woman in the shadows, begging him to end her life. Ever the gentleman, he chivalrously obliges her wish. Only to discover three days later that she lives. And has married another.

Celeste always dreamed of marrying for love, but the nightmare of living in her father’s home drives her to wed the Duke of Hudson. Yet on her wedding eve, she is compelled to follow a mysterious man who professes to know her secret. A man with curious blue scales on his muscular arms—whose shadowed eyes reflect a dangerous mix of destiny and desire…

Product Warnings
This novel contains explicit sex, sex in water, four super-hot dragon brothers, and a curse born from magical power that has left them wondering who they are all their lives.

My Review:

Dragons, fated mates, infidelity and vampires. Oh and did I mention dragons?

The concept for this series  (Waterfall is definitely the first (and introductory at that) novella in a series) is fascinating.

Four dragons are born from stone eggs and cursed to live as immortal men. Each brother has power over one of the elements. None have any memory of being dragons.

They call themselves the Zir.

All they know is that the curse will end when they find their destined mates.

It’s a pity that the only way they will recognize their fated mates is by biting a poor woman (yes, like a vampire) and having her survive the poison they inject into their bites.

Each brother has left a string of lovely corpses behind him. Five centuries worth of corpses.

And their powers are fading. It’s a curse after all.

Until Jordan, the water dragon, finds Celeste washed up on shore, surrounded by the wrack of a terrible disaster at sea. Celeste is the only survivor. He bites her to give her a quick death, because her body is broken beyond all possibility of survival.

The next time he sees her, she is about to become the bride of one of their few human allies, the Duke of Hudson. Her survival means that she is Jordan’s mate.

Hudson’s long set plan to marry her means that someone else has been manipulating all of them like pieces on a chessboard. But none of the brothers, or, for that matter, poor Hudson, know who the other chessplayer really is. Or even why he’s playing.

All Jordan knows is that she is the reward for his centuries of endless waiting. The world has come alive for him again. And Celeste finally discovers that all the eerie things that have made her different, are all part of being fated to mate the water dragon.

But first there is this pesky problem of Celeste already having a promised husband. And that the Zir have a powerful enemy who has been waiting a long time for a chance to defeat them. Again.

Escape Rating B: There’s a lot of terrific build up of the scenario. This alternate Regency world, where those who are slightly “other” are known to the ton, is pretty cool.

But we only get glimpses of how things got there. It felt a bit like a tease.

It was definitely a tease about how the Zir got to be cursed, but we only know what they know, so that was fair.

The Duke of Hudson had to have had a powerful reason for going so completely “dark side”, and we only got a glimpse of it. We don’t see how he got seduced to fall. He was more of a charicature than a real villain. Or even a front for the real villain.

I enjoyed the story for the way it begins the saga. In this particular instance, the “fated mates” trope does make sense. There was certainly a reference in the story that what Jordan and Celeste felt wasn’t love, but that it could be in time.

Using the destined mates trope as an excuse for infidelity, just doesn’t say “romance” to me. It may be “curse-ending” but it’s not romance. On that other hand, paranormals don’t promise happy endings, just more adventures.

And I always want more worldbuilding. I can’t wait to see what Ms. Danes does with this fascinating setup. I’m looking forward to finding out the next brother’s and dragon’s fate.

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