Welcome Eternal Press author, Diane Scott Lewis!

My first guest author this week is Eternal Press', Diane Scott Lewis. She is an historical romance author whose books are set in Cornwall, one of the most stunningly beautiful parts of the UK. Let's get started with the interview...

1) Did you set any goals for 2012? My goal was to get the sequel to my debut novel—The False Light—published. I met that goal: Without Refuge was released on March 7^th from Eternal Press. Both novels follow a displaced countess during the turbulence of the French Revolution.

2) What is the best part of the writing process for you? Since I write historicals, it’s finding that interesting bit of historical detail I can use, such as food or clothing or an apothecary jar. Some interesting tidbit I can blend into my story.

3) The worst part? Grammar restrictions! There are so many to follow, but I notice most major authors aren’t hindered by these petty formalities.

4) What is the book you wish you’d written? The Lady’s Slipper, by Deborah Swift. It’s beautifully written and compelling.

5) Favourite author/s & book/s? I change all the time in my favorites. I love historical fiction with plenty of details about daily life. I like learning something when I read about the era where the books are set. I just read a book by Lynn Shepherd and I was on the edge of my seat until the end of her Gothic Victorian mystery.

6) Tell us about your latest release? Without Refuge continues my heroine’s adventures during the era of the French Revolution. She’s left England after her lover is presumed drowned, and joins her mother in sultry New Orleans. The revolutionaries have followed her, searching for the money her father stole. She also refuses to believe her lover is dead.

7) Tease us with a blurb/short excerpt. Here’s the blurb:

In 1796, ruined countess Bettina Jonquiere leaves England after the reported drowning of her lover, Everett. In New Orleans she struggles to establish a new life for her children. Soon a ruthless Frenchman demands the money stolen by her father at the start of the French Revolution. In this sequel to The False Light, Bettina is forced on a dangerous mission to France to recover the funds. She unravels dark family secrets, but will she find the man she lost as well?

8) What is your favourite attribute of the hero and heroine? Bravery, no wilting, or whining, etc. The women are strong and can manage without the men when they need to. They’re intelligent and never resort to flaunting themselves to get their way. The hero has to have a touch of mystery about him, tall and dark-haired, with a painful past he must overcome.

9) What’s next? I’m working on my first historical mystery, set in eighteenth century Cornwall during the American Revolution. My heroine, an apothecary, is accused of murdering the squire’s wife. He is also accused of complicity in the deed, and together they must uncover the culprit while fighting their inappropriate attraction to one another.

10) Tell me where you write? I have a little office in my house.

11) Where would you like your career to be in 5 years? I say this every five years, but I’d like an agent, someone to nurture me in my career. I hope I can interest a major publisher with my historical mystery.

12) You can visit my website at

http://www.dianescottlewis.org

My first three novels—including Elysium, a novel of desire and murder during Napoleon’s exile—are available at Amazon, plus from my publisher:

http://www.eternalpress.biz/

Fabulous interview, Diane! Thanks for being here and sharing more about yourself and your fabulous books. Diane is waiting for your questions and comments...

Saturday Promo - Aubrie Dionne...

Tundra 37

A New Dawn, #2

Author: Aubrie Dionne

Genre: Sci-Fi Romance

Length: 288 pages

Release Date: February 2012

ePub ISBN: 978-1-937044-49-7

Print ISBN: 978-1-937044-51-0

http://www.entangledpublishing.com/tundra-37/

Tundra 37 Book Trailer:

http://youtu.be/3XcwFtmeTcM

A New Dawn Novel, Book Two

Gemme is a hi-tech matchmaker who pairs the next generation of Lifers aboard the Expedition, a deep space transport vessel destined for Paradise 18. When the identity of her lifemate pops up on her screen, she’s shocked that he’s the achingly gorgeous and highly sought after Lieutenant Miles Brentwood—a man oblivious to her existence. Believing everyone will think she contrived the match, she erases it from the computer’s memory.

Just as comets pummel the ship and destroy the pairing system forever.

With the Expedition disabled, the colonists must crash land on the barren ice world of Tundra 37 where Gemme is reassigned to an exploratory mission, led by Lieutenant Brentwood. Only in the frozen tundra does she understand the shape of his heart and why the computer has entwined their destinies.

A Hero Rising

A New Dawn, #3

Author: Aubrie Dionne

Genre: Sci-Fi Romance

Length: novella

Release Date: February 2012

ePub ISBN: 978-1-937044-83-1

http://www.entangledpublishing.com/a-hero-rising/

Prequel to A New Dawn - Book Three

After watching his love leave on a colony ship, James Wilfred must save those left behind from a planetary apocalypse. Their salvation lies in an unfinished ship tucked away in a secret government base, and only James can break in and pilot him and his people to freedom on a nearby space station.

Skye O’Connor’s boyfriend never returns after his gang attempts an assassination of the Governor, and the State Building is destroyed. Worse, crazed moonshiners addicted to the chemical Morpheus have stormed the city, and she must find a safe place for her and her boyfriend’s daughter. When a heroic man saves her, Skye asks to accompany him on his quest to find the last colony ship left on Earth.

As the city falls around them, James and Skye must work together to build a new future, all the while rediscovering their ability to love, before the apocalypse claims them both.

Paradise 21

New Dawn #1
Author: Aubrie Dionne
Genre: Sci-Fi Romance
Length: Novel
Release Date: August 2011
ePub ISBN: 978-1-937044-02-2
Print ISBN: 978-1-937044-03-9

http://www.entangledpublishing.com/paradise-21/

Book Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8vCni_TZUA

Amazon Paperback Amazon Kindle

A New Dawn Book One

Aries has lived her entire life aboard mankind’s last hope, the New Dawn, a spaceship traveling toward a planet where humanity can begin anew—a planet that won’t be reached in Aries’ lifetime. As one of the last genetically desirable women in the universe, she must marry her designated genetic match and produce the next generation for this centuries-long voyage.

But Aries has other plans.

When her desperate escape from the New Dawn strands her on a desert planet, Aries discovers the rumors about pirates—humans who escaped Earth before its demise—are true. Handsome, genetically imperfect Striker possesses the freedom Aries envies, and the two connect on a level she never thought possible. But pursued by her match from above and hunted by the planet’s native inhabitants, Aries quickly learns her freedom will come at a hefty price.

The life of the man she loves.

About the Author:

Aubrie is an author and flutist in New England. Her stories have appeared in Mindflights, Niteblade, Silver Blade, A Fly in Amber, and several print anthologies including Skulls and Crossbones by Minddancer Press, Rise of the Necromancers, by Pill Hill Press, Nightbird Singing in the Dead of Night by Nightbird Publishing, Dragontales and Mertales by Wyvern Publications, A Yuletide Wish by Nightwolf Publications, and Aurora Rising by Aurora Wolf Publications. Her epic fantasy is published with Wyvern Publications, and several of her ebooks are published with Lyrical Press and Gypsy Shadow Publishing. When she’s not writing, she plays in orchestras and teaches flute at Plymouth State University and a community music school.

http://www.authoraubrie.com
http://authoraubrie.blogspot.com

Interview with The Wild Rose Press editor, Kinan Werdski!

So honored and happy to welcome you here today, Kinan! You are my very first guest editor so it is really appreciated that you are willing to share a bit of insight and answer my visitor's questions along the way.

Let's kick off with some questions!

1) What is the best part about your job?

Absolutely the best part of being an editor is watching a rough stone turn into a glittering gem. So often all it takes is for me to offer a fresh eye and a few suggestions, and then the author takes over and makes her writing sing. What a thrill to be midwife to all that creativity and gusto!

2) The worst?

Having to turn down submissions that are not up to snuff. No matter how poorly crafted or incomplete, every work is an effort of love and hope. As an author myself, I know how hard it is to offer up your creation to some stranger’s critical eye. That’s why I love TWRP’s policy of providing positive feedback and specific suggestions when we have to reject a manuscript. It gives me a chance to soften the blow and perhaps help a writer to improve.

3) Does a synopsis feature in your decision to accept a manuscript? Or is it the pages?

A synopsis can provide a basis for looking at a partial, but I make a decision on the pages. By its very nature a synopsis is limited and can offer only the bare bones of a story. What it can do, however, is give a feel for the style and competency of a writer. If she can convey a sense of the emotion as well as the plot, and do so in a clear, well-crafted synopsis, it bodes well for the actual manuscript. A sloppy synopsis, on the other hand, tells me that the writer might be careless about craft, and I will bear that in mind as I look over the manuscript.

4) What would you love to see more of? Sub-genre? Characters?

Brown-eyed brunettes. You know, like most of us. How many green-eyed redheads are there? Judging by the submissions, 99% of the women on this planet have auburn tresses and emerald eyes.

Seriously, I’d love to see women of color and ethnicity, complete with a rich sense of the worlds they live in. Women who have, in addition to emotional depth in their relationships, strong commitments to their jobs and/or families. I’d love to learn about the skills they use in their work. I’d like to see a TV reporter stepping to her mark, a cosmetologist choosing makeup, or a policewoman practicing marksmanship. Telling details make the characters come alive.

As for genres, I’m wide open. I read a lot of science fiction and mystery for pleasure, but as long as it’s well written I’ll read it.

5) What is an acceptable turnaround time for you to get back to an author with a decision on a full manuscript?

As a matter of policy, The Wild Rose Press expects editors to make a decision on a full within 90 days of receipt. As a matter of courtesy, we try our darnedest to cut that down while still giving the manuscript serious consideration.

6) What is your favorite memory as an editor?

Recently I had the pleasure of attending the launch party for one of my authors. Although we had worked closely on her book and developed a terrific friendship, we had never met. When I stood up in the audience and introduced myself, she actually squealed.

7) Your least favorite?

Once or twice an author has taken rejection personally. Editors can only make decisions based on the work presented to us, not on how hard the author worked or how much a critique group liked the piece or whether you’ve paid someone to pre-edit. As I said above, it’s always hard to turn a submission, but it’s never personal.

8) Do you believe any sub-genre ever loses popularity? Or should a writer always write what they love?

Of course genres and sub-genres lose popularity. If they didn’t, we’d still be watching The Lone Ranger and I Spy on TV. That doesn’t mean that a well-written white-hat western or tongue-in-cheek secret agent story can’t succeed. (Or how about secret agents rounding up dogies?)It does mean that writers who want to get published need to be aware of what is selling. Write what you love, certainly; otherwise you miss out on the joy of writing. It’s just as important to love what you write. Churning out formulaic stories to conform to pop culture is such a drag.

9) What is on your ‘to do’ list today?

Way too much, as usual. Aside from the day-to-day chores of housework, I need to start some vegetable seeds (I’m writing this in Feb.), take my bike for a tune-up, do some needlework for my grandson’s birthday, and make peanut butter cookies. Oh, you mean editing? I have a big fantasy novel nearing completion, two romances in edits, and several new submissions and a resubmission for review. And I’d like to get in an hour or two on my own writing, a murder mystery called “A Thousand Words.” Guess I’ll be up all night again.

10) What does your workspace look like?

No, I’m not telling you. Suffice it to say that I work best in mild to moderate confusion. It’s not that bad, really. I just need to have things like style manuals, dictionaries, and schedules at my fingertips, and I prefer to have them in hard copy. So there are clumps of papers in neat(ish) piles on the desk, usually with a cat on top of them, and calendars with pretty pictures hanging on the bulletin board. I have two windows looking out on my pond and woods, so I can take mini-vacations watching the wildlife, the clouds, the wind in the leaves…back to work!

Great interview, Kinan - lots of tips and pet peeves there which is what we writers crave! :)

Okay, I'm opening up to comments and questions - I'm sure there will be quite a few!

Welcome fellow Eternal Press author, David Pereda...

Hi David, it's really nice to meet you and be part of your tour to mark the release of your new romantic suspense, "However Long The Night" - hope you enjoy your time here. Let's get started with the questions...

1) Did you set any goals for 2012?

Yes, I did. I set three writing-related goals for 2012: (1) To publish my mainstream romantic novel, However Long the Night; (2) To finish writing Twin Powers, the third installment of my Havana series of thrillers; and (3) To sell one of my books to Hollywood.

2) What is the best part of the writing process for you?

Knowing that one of the hundreds of ideas flitting through my mind is the one that’ll make a good book; and then writing that first sentence, that first paragraph and that first page.

3) The worst part?

Usually, writing the middle of the book – especially while writing thrillers – where all the plots and the subplots must come together in a satisfying manner. It’s like weaving a tapestry. If you do it right, you’ll have a beautiful tapestry; if you don’t do it right, you’ll end up with a horrendous mess.

4) What is the book you wish you’d written?

I’d like to write a western novel. When I was a kid I used to read every western novel I could get my hands on, especially those from Zane Grey and Max Brand, my heroes. The first novel I ever wrote, when I was 10 years old, was a western. Yet I’ve never written a western novel since, despite my continuing love of horses, cowboy life and wide open spaces.

5) Favourite author/s & book/s?

So many authors have influenced my style that I don’t know where to begin. Hemingway, Konrad, Shakespeare, all the Russian writers, especially Dostoyevsky and Chekov, were great influences in my life. When I was a kid I read everything written by Max Brand and Zane Grey. During recent years, the greatest influence on my writing has probably been Harlan Coben. Someone once wrote a review of one of my books and called me the Latino Harlan Coben. I was very proud of the comparison to Harlan Coben whom I consider the best thriller writer today.

As for my favorite book, I have always had a soft spot for Hemingway’s first novel, The Sun Also Rises, which I consider one of the best books ever written.

6)Tell us about your latest release?

My latest release is a mainstream novel, However Long the Night, which was just published by Eternal Press on February 7^th. It’s a romantic tale with a major dose of suspense, a tense love triangle, buried family secrets, corporate shenanigans and a historical background. It’s part of a trilogy I am writing from the perspectives of three different characters, one of them a woman. This is the second novel in the trilogy and spans thirty years. My first novel in the trilogy is already written and in a drawer, waiting for the right time to bring it out. As for the last novel of the trilogy, I’m still thinking about it.

6) Tease us with a blurb/short except

Summer, 1980 Port of Mariel, Cuba

Where is Sandra?

From his vantage point on the pier, sitting atop the pile of family luggage, Cid Milan scanned the chaotic crowd clogging the dirt road leading to the harbor. If she didn’t hurry, his parents would return, and he’d have to leave.

The port teemed with life. A heavy-set man stumbled under the weight of a huge cardboard box balanced over his head. A skinny woman streaked through the throng clutching a bright-red bag in one hand and the hand of a dazed boy in the other. A shirtless old man scampered after a scurrying black dog.

None of them was Sandra.

Where was she?

Cid was tired. He had a sore throat, and the stench of harbor rot and human sweat turned his stomach. The August sun blistered his skin. It was early afternoon already, and he’d been at Mariel since dawn. Now Sandra was late. Why hadn’t she come yet?

He caught the shimmer of sunlight on auburn hair and his heart thumped like a wild bongo beat. Sandra didn’t materialize from the throng. The hair belonged to a middle-aged woman wearing a canary-yellow dress, clasping a purple purse.

Cid slipped down the stack and kicked his suitcase hard. Taking a deep breath, he turned to check the marina. The sharp wharf odor prickled his nostrils. The cloverleaf-shaped harbor was as chaotic as the street. It was jammed with boats, pitching and bobbing in the rough water, all waiting for the official order to leave. Beyond them, on the hill across the harbor, he saw the outline of the Naval Academy buildings. Mariel was a small town, known for only two things--the academy and the electric power station. Why it was chosen for this massive evacuation, he could not understand. Many things were incomprehensible to him ever since a bus crashed the Peruvian Embassy gates months earlier and the twenty-five Cubans on board asked for asylum.

An enraged Fidel Castro immediately proclaimed, “Any malcontent in this country who wants to live in Peru can seek asylum too.” Within days, more than ten thousand Cubans accepted the Comandante’s invitation and crammed the Peruvian Embassy. Conditions deteriorated quickly. Food, water, medical care and medicines were scarce; sanitary facilities were inadequate. International public opinion condemned Castro’s irresponsibility.

El Comandante’s reaction didn’t take long. Overnight he opened the port at Mariel and declared, “Whoever wants to leave Cuba can do so freely.”

The response to this second invitation was overwhelming. Castro never anticipated the flood of Cubans anxious to take advantage of this new opportunity.

The potential emigrants, on the other hand, never imagined what an ordeal leaving Cuba would be. Cid could see the telltale signs on the haggard but grimly determined faces of the people milling about. He wondered if his own face looked like that.

The road to Mariel, as someone in his barrio once said, required cojones.

7) What is your favourite attribute of the hero and heroine?

The hero is honorable and the heroine is loyal.

8) What’s next?

I’m working on the third installment of my Havana Series of thrillers -- Twin Powers. The first two novels of the series are Top Secret and Killing Castro, both also published by Eternal Press. Twin Powers is a deviation of the first two novels in the series in that two of the central characters are the two now 7-year old twin girls born to the main characters, Raymond and Sonia, in the last book of the series. One of them gets kidnapped by Arabs in the middle of downtown Havana, and that prompts a worldwide search for the kidnappers which takes Raymond and Marcela, a lesbian assassin, to Dubai and Washington, DC..

9) Tell me where you write?

I write on a laptop in my studio/office at home, surrounded by books, paintings and photographs of my family and friends.

10) Where would you like your career to be in 5 years?

In 5 years, I’d like to be considered one of the top writers in the business and be on the NY Times bestselling lists on a continuous basis. I’d also like to have my Havana series of thrillers made into exciting movies, so I can try my hand at writing scripts.

11) Where can we find you?

I’m easy to find. Google my name and I’ll show up. You can also find me by visiting my website: www.davidpereda.com or my publisher’s website: www.eternalpress.biz or look for me on Amazon: www.amazon.com

Author Biography:

David Pereda is an award-winning author who enjoys crafting political thrillers and mainstream novels. His books have won the Lighthouse Book Awards twice, the Royal Palm Awards, the National Indie Excellence Awards, and the Readers Favorite Awards. He has traveled extensively around the world and speaks several languages. Before devoting his time solely to writing and teaching college-level courses, Pereda had a rich and successful international consulting career with global giant Booz Allen Hamilton, where he worked with the governments of Mexico, Venezuela, Peru, and Qatar, among others.

A member of MENSA, Pereda is the regional director of the Florida Writers Association and the co-founder of AWE (Asheville Writing Enthusiasts). He loves sports and has won many prizes competing in track and show-jumping equestrian events.

Pereda lives with his family in Asheville, North Carolina.

Please visit him at…

www.davidpereda.com

www.twitter.com/DavidPeredaAVL

www.facebook.com

ISBN: However Long the Night

978-1-61572-598-4 E-Book

978-1-61572-599-1 Print Book

Great having you here, David!

David is giving away a $20 Amazon GC so follow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better your chances of winning. The tour dates can be found here:http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2012/01/virtual-book-tour-however-long-night.html.

Saturday Promo - Jennifer Lynne...

Educating Ethan blurb:

Ida Deloraine intends to build herself a new life and a catering career, after a painful divorce. When the much younger Ethan Holt moves in across the street, an innocent flirtation quickly becomes serious when the two realise their age difference is no barrier to all-consuming passion.

But Ethan is the exact opposite of what Ida is looking for in a sexual partner. In her eyes he is young and vibrant, with his life and his dreams still ahead of him, whereas hers are all in the past. Can Ethan, who is fighting his own demons in the form of a car accident, failed marriage and forced career change, convince Ida to overcome the past and live for the moment?

And just who is educating who in this cougar encounter?

Educating Ethan is a 16,500 word contemporary sensual romance novella.

Educating Ethan excerpt:

You could lose yourself in the depths of those brown eyes.

She felt the instant ache in her breasts and abdomen, felt the heaviness between her legs that was the result of nothing more than a slanting look and the brush of his fingertips across hers as he handed her the glass.

Possibility, she thought. He represents the possibility of excitement. Of passion. The transient headiness of lust about to be fulfilled. All the things that most women wanted and rarely got. All the things that she wanted and had never truly had before.

"Ethan, do you mind if I ask how old you are?" She strove for dispassionate interest, took a careful sip of her wine, then sat where he indicated— on a bench seat in a little breakfast nook. But her glass clattered hard on the windowsill when she put it down.

"No, I don't mind," he answered. "I'm twenty-five. And you're…what? Thirtyish?"

"Thirty-six."

"Wow, you don't look that old."

"Oh—kay."

Her tone was flat, and he flushed in response. "Shit! Sorry, that didn't come out right. I meant—"

"It's okay, Ethan. I think maybe I should—"

"Don't go! Hell!" He reached out to stop her as she began to rise, and then exhaled noisily. "I'm an idiot, Ida. I didn't mean it that way. I meant it…as a compliment, believe it or not. You look a lot younger than thirty-six. That's what I meant."

She saw genuine dismay in the depths of his eyes, and something in her relaxed.

"It's okay," she said again, but this time she meant it. "Thanks."

He sat heavily beside her and leaned close. That warm male scent enveloped her, elusive and yet tangible enough to send her heart rate into overdrive. But he was still frowning. She reached out to trace his jawline, and a hint of stubble rasped against her fingertip. A firm jaw; stubborn-looking. Manly.

"Relax, Ethan," she said. "I won't bite. Unless you want me to, that is." Oh my God, did I actually say that out loud?

His intake of breath was sharp, and the brown eyes darkened almost black. "That sounds like an intriguing proposition."

His gaze dropped to her neck where, no doubt, he could see how fast her pulse was racing. She tried to slow her breathing, but when he reached up to trace along her collarbone with spread fingers, her breath caught. She could feel the faint tremble in his touch as he moved over the pulsing point in her neck to the rounded line of her camisole top.

"So." He stared into her eyes as one finger hooked onto the edge of the material. "I just need to say the word, and you would bite me? Anywhere?" One brow lifted slightly at her breathless nod. "And if I were to bite you, Miss Ida, where would you want it? Just out of curiosity, you know." His fingers danced along the line of her top in a caress that felt incredibly intimate, avoiding her now jutting nipples but all the more enticing because of its elusive restraint. "Educate me."

Buy Link:

http://www.breathlesspress.com/educating-ethan

About the author

Jennifer Lynne is a multi-published author who writes sensual and erotic romance from her home in Melbourne, Australia. She lives in hope that readers will continue to enjoy her novella-length tales of love and lust!

Find Jennifer on the web at:

Website/blog | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads