Welcome Award Winning Kensington author, Tracy Sumner!!

Hi Tracy, so honored to welcome you here today and wish you all the best with your ongoing tour! I am totally in love with ALL your covers, gorgeous. It's very exciting that you are offering a Kindle to one random commenter and hope your visit with me brings lots of new names to add to your growing list! :)

On with the interview...

 1)    When and why did you decide you wanted to be a published author?

Well, the start of my adventure was reading LyVyrle Spencer’s VOWS during college. I then became so addicted to the genre, that I read thousands over the next couple of years. No kidding. And when I decided to write a novel, romance was where I wanted to be.

2)    What is the best and worse thing you have learned from an editor/agent?

Wow. My editor with Kensington was a pretty tough cookie. (Ann LaFarge). And she taught me how to tailor a more romantic hero and to have the couple meet earlier in the book. Elements of pacing, I guess you’d say.

3)    Favourite author/s?

Judith Ivory, Julie Anne Long, Belle Andre, Marie Force, Elise Rome, among many others! I’m trying to read only indie writers this year. J

4)    What is your typical day?

I have a four-year-old and a full-time job in marketing/graphic design, so busy. I fit writing in where I can. It certainly takes a lot of time. And devotion. But I love the genre.

5)    Share your blurb or short excerpt from your latest release with us

From Tides of Passion:

"Oh, heavens, Constable, is that a call for marriage in your world? I've never been kissed well enough to get me in front of a preacher." Covering her mouth with her hand, she gasped, "Must be some—what would you call it—mighty fine kissing to make people take vows."

"Well," he said, feeling a frown bunch his brow, "it could be good. That's not out of the realm of possibility."

"Prove it," she said around another burst of laughter. "Prove it, prove it, prove it."

He rubbed a hand across his chin, debating the wisdom of having any more wine. Had he actually thought he was in control of this situation? "I don't know. This all seems crazy to me. And it was my idea."

She gulped a breath and patted her chest. "My, from the fantastic entertainment I've witnessed in this town, I'm sure it does." Taking a step forward, she held out her hand, as if she were trying hard not to startle him. It was downright insulting. "Rightly, Constable, you asked me first. And I'm willing to go the distance to solve a disagreement."

"I bet you're always willing," Zach muttered, wondering if he'd lost his mind sitting in his backyard on a lovely twilight evening. Gambling with a woman who wouldn't back down if a tiger had her latched in its jaws.

"Are you willing?"

Through the shadows, he found her gleaming eyes, her slightly curved mouth. "No, it's too reckless. Too irresponsible."

"You're sounding like a father. Or a constable, Constable."

"I'm both, Miss Connor."

He watched her lips tilt and flow into a glorious smile. "Rory's in bed, safe and sound. Most of the town is in bed, safe and sound. And you're here, with a pragmatic woman who can take care of herself. Two adults and one magnificent challenge."

"More like a dare," he said and drained his glass.

She took a step closer, until her skirt brushed his knee. "Call it a dare if you like."

"No." His resolve slipped a notch when she crouched before him, the pleasing angles of her face flooding into view. She was much, much too tempting.

"I'll do it all. You don't have to participate. That should be enough to prove my case."

"I wasn't serious when I said that. I'm sure you're not, hell, frigid."

She leaned in, her hands sliding along the arms of the chair, her face fading out of view as it closed in on his. A scent, provocative and earthy, stole in with his stuttered breath. "You see, Constable, I'm always serious. And..." He watched her moisten her lips, so near he could almost taste her.

"Close your eyes. I've heard that's the way it's done."

 6)    Who would you cast to play your hero & heroine in a movie?

Interesting question! I think maybe Ryan Reynolds would make an excellent Zachariah Garrett! J He is hot! But with an intelligent gleam in his eyes. And Savannah…? I think Emma Stone. I love her!

7)    Did you plan this book? Or write it as it came?

I tend to plan a bit. I have scenes that I structure (loosely) and they are in order. But it’s not much of the book (5% maybe) and I think the book and characters come as you write. At least they do for me. And there are things that happen that you seriously never expect to happen. It’s amazing!

8)    What surprised you the most when you became a published?

Getting the call from an editor in NYC was the first big surprise. J And, then, the surprise was readers contacting me and telling me they loved the characters. And the setting! Big surprise there, as it’s not my strength. But, somehow, in the Tides book, I think I got it.

9)    Do you have a dedicated writing space? What does it look like?

Ha-ha. I used to try this dedicated writing space. Stephen King says you have to be able to write anywhere. And now, with my handy dandy Mac Air, I do! Starbucks isn’t bad.

10)  What’s next for you?

The novella and start of the True Men series, is up at the end of the month with the release of True Fate, my first contemporary release. (It’s a novella.) Then, later this summer, Tides of Desire, the final in the Seaswept/Tides series. Readers have been asking for Caleb Garrett’s story for a long time!

TIDES OF PASSION, the National Reader’s Choice for Best Long Historical, debuted in October 2011. The second novel in the Tides series, TIDES OF LOVE, arrived in November. Tracy’s holiday novella, which begins the new Southern Heat series, TO DESIRE A SCOUNDREL: A Christmas Seduction, released mid-December 2012. The next in the Heat series, TO SEDUCE A ROGUE, released in February. Next on the agenda? The start of the True series, about the True men. TRUE FATE arrives mid-May!

Readers can find me at:
Website: www.tracysumner.com
Twitter: @SumnerTracy
Facebook.com/TracySumnerRomanceAuthor
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5259839.Tracy_Sumner

SEASWEPT SEDUCTION SERIES

By

Tracy Sumner

BLURB S

Tides of Passion:


She is his greatest temptation.

He is her forbidden desire.

A battle of wills leads to love.


Spirited Savannah Conner is passionately committed to stamping out social injustice. Yet when she arrives in the seaside town of Pilot Isle, North Carolina, ready to take up a new cause, she quickly finds herself on the outs with the town constable. Zachariah Garrett is the most arrogant, infuriating, maddeningly attractive man it’s ever been her misfortune to meet. And suddenly, Savannah is fighting a whole new battle – this one against her own yearning for a man who is impossible to resist.


Ever since his wife’s death two years ago, Zachariah Garrett has dedicated his life to keeping the peace. So when he sees the pretty newcomer atop a wobbly wooden crate stirring up the crowd, he doesn’t hesitate to haul her off to jail. But Savannah Connor isn’t any ordinary law-breaker. She’s a beguiling beauty with the power to awaken emotions he thought he’s never feel again, and the tenderness to help him forget his fears…and risk his heart once more.

TIDES OF LOVE 

He left all he loved behind...

Will he be able to return and win her heart?

A SPURNED WOMAN

Elle Beaumont has learned life's lessons the hard way--by foolishly exposing her youthful heart to love, only to have it broken when her true love fled Pilot Island, North Carolina. Now Noah Garrett is back, rekindling dreams she'd given up for lost, and turning her world upside down. Elle's girlish yearning for him has become something more powerful than she'd ever imagined. 

AN HONORABLE MAN

A man dedicated to science and rational judgment, Noah rejects all notions of romance...until the girl who used to cling to him like a shadow begins haunting his every thought. But even as he struggles to resist Elle's sensuous beauty and the wildfire attraction erupting between them, Noah cannot deny that their passion is as irresistible and endless as the tides of love.

REVIEW SOUND BYTES

“I picked up Tides of Love…just to give the book a quick peak. That quick peak turned into four hours of reading that didn’t stop until I finished the book!”

—The Romance Reader

“A powerful relationship novel that explores the heartache and triumph of love.”

—Romantic Times

AUTHOR INFORMATION:

Tracy’s story telling career began when she picked up a copy of LaVyrle Spencer’s Vows on a college beach trip. A journalism degree and a thousand romance novels later, she decided to try her hand at writing a southern version of the perfect love story. With a great deal of luck and more than a bit of perseverance, she sold her first novel to Kensington Publishing.

When not writing sensual stories featuring complex characters and lush settings, Tracy can be found reading romance, snowboarding, watching college football and figuring out how she can get to 100 countries before she kicks (which is a more difficult endeavor than it used to be with her four-year-old son in tow). After stops in France, Switzerland and Taiwan, she now lives in the south. However, after spending a few years in “the city”, she considers herself a New Yorker at heart.

Tracy has been awarded the National Reader’s Choice, the Write Touch and the Beacon – with finalist nominations in the HOLT Medallion, Heart of Romance, Rising Stars and Reader’s Choice. Her books have been translated into German, Dutch, Portuguese and Spanish. She loves hearing from readers about why she tends to pit her hero and heroine against each other and that great novel she simply must order in five seconds on her Kindle.

TIDES OF PASSION:

Tracy will be giving away a Kindle to one randomly drawn commenter!! 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/2012/02/vbt-tides-series-by-tracy-sumner.html. 

Thanks for being here, Tracy! Good luck with the contest everyone...