Hi Bella! So great to have you here and the chance to catch up with you and your work. Hope you're well and your tour is successful! Let's kick off with my interview...
1.)
What did you
want to be when you grew up?
I always knew I wanted to write, but I
began as a songwriter and musician — I wrote songs and played shows from when I
was a little girl up until my late twenties. And then, one day I got an idea
for a book and pulled out a notebook to start writing it down. Three months
later, I had written my first book (which is now published as Sparks Fly under my pen name Lucy
Kevin). I first got the idea for the Sullivan series in 2009. I absolutely love
what I do, and haven’t looked back since! <3 o:p="">
2.)
Coffee, tea or
hot chocolate?
Decaf tea,
please!
3.)
What genre do
you typically read? Why?
I’ve always been such a big romance
reader. When I was a teenager I would read until two in the morning with the lights
under the covers. Romance has always been my genre, and now I love offering my
own stories for readers to enjoy. I truly believe that true love conquers all!
4.)
Share a
favourite childhood memory.
I used to love
playing in the swimming pool for hours. Now my daughter does the same thing. :)
5.)
Do you have any
shameless addictions? ie. Tea, Books, Shoes, Clothes?
Books,
obviously, but I’m not ashamed at all. I’m proud to be a bookworm!
6.)
What do you
think is the biggest challenge of writing a new book?
The biggest challenge for me is being
patient when a new idea pops into my head and I don't yet have time in my
schedule to write it. I usually have several ideas in my head at once, but do
my best to focus on one book at a time. Sometimes I will squeeze in a few
minutes here or there to write scenes for an upcoming book to make sure that I
don’t forget my new ideas.
7.)
Do you aim for
a set amount of words/pages a day?
For me, it’s more important
that I get down the right words rather than a set amount. I’m a big believer in revising my books until they’re the
best they can possibly be, which means that I can sometimes spend as much time
rewriting as I do getting the first draft down. It helps to know that there
truly are no wasted words.
8.)
What are your
thoughts on writing a book series?
Remember
that even when writing a series, each book is different! Sometimes it starts
with character, sometimes it starts with story. I work so hard on my stories to
make sure they’re emotional and fun and sexy and that they take my readers out
of their lives for a little while. I don’t wait for inspiration or a muse to
come calling.
The Sullivans Boxed Set Books 1-3
by Bella Andre
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GENRE: Contemporary
Romance
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BLURB:
More than 6
million readers have already fallen in love with the Sullivans! Now get ready
to meet your new favorite family in Bella Andre's New York Times and USA Today
bestselling contemporary romances with the first three books in the #1 hit
series.
"Not
since Nora Roberts has anyone been able to write a big family romance series
with every book as good as the last! Bella Andre never disappoints!"
Revolving Bookcase Reviews
THE LOOK OF
LOVE
Chloe
Peterson is having a bad night. A really bad night. The large bruise on her
cheek can attest to that. And when her car skids off the side of a wet country
road straight into a ditch, she's convinced even the gorgeous guy who rescues
her in the middle of the rain storm must be too good to be true. Or is he?
As a
successful photographer who frequently travels around the world, Chase Sullivan
has his pick of beautiful women, and whenever he's home in San Francisco, one
of his seven siblings is usually up for causing a little fun trouble. Chase
thinks his life is great just as it is--until the night he finds Chloe and her
totaled car on the side of the road in Napa Valley. Not only has he never met
anyone so lovely, both inside and out, but he quickly realizes she has much
bigger problems than her damaged car. Soon, he is willing to move mountains to
love--and protect--her, but will she let him?
FROM THIS
MOMENT ON
For
thirty-six years, Marcus Sullivan has been the responsible older brother,
stepping in to take care of his seven siblings after their father died when
they were children. But when the perfectly ordered future he's planned for
himself turns out to be nothing but a lie, Marcus needs one reckless night to
shake free from it all.
Nicola
Harding is known throughout the world by only one name - Nico - for her catchy,
sensual pop songs. Only, what no one knows about the twenty-five year old
singer is that her sex-kitten image is totally false. After a terrible betrayal
by a man who loved fame far more than he ever loved her, she vows not to let
anyone else get close enough to find out who she really is...or hurt her again.
Especially not the gorgeous stranger she meets at a nightclub, even though the
hunger - and the sinful promises - in his dark eyes make her want to spill all
her secrets.
CAN’T HELP
FALLING IN LOVE
Gabe
Sullivan risks his life every day as a firefighter in San Francisco. But after
learning a brutal lesson about professional boundaries, he knows better than to
risk his heart to his fire victims ever again. Especially the brave mother and
daughter he saved from a deadly apartment fire...and can't stop thinking about.
Megan Harris
knows she owes the heroic firefighter everything for running into a burning
building to save her and her seven-year-old daughter. Everything except her
heart. Because after losing her navy pilot husband five years ago, she has
vowed to never suffer through loving - and losing - a man with a dangerous job
again.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Enjoy the following excerpt from THE
LOOK OF LOVE...
Chase almost missed the flickering
light off on the right side of the two-lane country road. In the past thirty
minutes, he hadn’t passed a single car, because on a night like this, most sane
Californians—who didn’t know the first thing about driving safely in inclement
weather—stayed home.
Knowing better than to slam on the
brakes—he wouldn’t be able to help whomever was stranded on the side of the
road if he ended up stuck in the muddy ditch right next to them—Chase slowed
down enough to see that there was definitely a vehicle stuck in the ditch.
He turned his brights on to see
better in the pouring rain and realized there was a person walking along the
edge of the road about a hundred yards up ahead. Obviously hearing his car
approach, she turned to face him and he could see her long wet hair whipping
around her shoulders in his headlights.
Wondering why she wasn’t just
sitting in her car, dry and warm, calling Triple A and waiting for them to come
save her, he pulled over to the edge of his lane and got out to try and help
her. She was shivering as she watched him approach.
"Are you hurt?"
She covered her cheek with one hand,
but shook her head. "No."
He had to move closer to hear her
over the sound of the water hitting the pavement in what were rapidly becoming
hailstones. Even though he’d turned his headlights off, as his eyes quickly
adjusted to the darkness, he was able to get a better look at her face.
Something inside of Chase’s chest
clenched tight.
Despite the long, dark hair
plastered to her head and chest, regardless of the fact that looking like a
drowned rat wasn’t too far off the descriptive mark, her beauty stunned him.
In an instant, his photographer’s
eye cataloged her features. Her mouth was a little too big, her eyes a little
too wide-set on her face. She wasn’t even close to model thin, but given the
way her T-shirt and jeans stuck to her skin, he could see that she wore her
lush curves well. In the dark he couldn’t judge the exact color of her hair,
but it looked like silk, perfectly smooth and straight where it lay over her
breasts.
It wasn’t until Chase heard her say,
"My car is definitely hurt, though," that he realized he had
completely lost the thread of what he’d come out here to do.
Knowing he’d been drinking her in
like he was dying of thirst, he worked to recover his balance. He could already
see he’d been right about her car. It didn’t take a mechanic like his brother,
Zach, who owned an auto shop—more like forty, but Chase had stopped counting
years ago—to see that her shitty hatchback was borderline totaled. Even if the
front bumper wasn’t half smashed to pieces by the white farm fence she’d slid
into, her bald tires weren’t going to get any traction on the mud. Not tonight,
anyway.
If her car had been in a less
precarious situation, he probably would have sent her to hang out in her car while he took care of getting it
unstuck. But one of her back tires was hanging precariously over the edge of
the ditch.
He jerked his thumb over his
shoulder. "Get in my car. We can wait there for a tow truck." He was
vaguely aware of his words coming out like an order, but the hail was starting
to sting, damn it. Both of them needed to get out of the rain before they
froze.
But the woman didn’t move. Instead,
she gave him a look that said he was a complete and utter nut-job.
"I’m not getting into your
car."
Realizing just how frightening it
must be for a lone woman to end up stuck and alone in the middle of a dark
road, Chase took a step back from her. He had to speak loudly enough for her to
hear him over the hail.
"I’m not going to attack you. I
swear I won’t do anything to hurt you."
She all but flinched at the word attack
and Chase’s radar started buzzing. He’d never been a magnet for troubled women,
wasn’t the kind of guy who thrived on fixing wounded birds. But living with two
sisters for so many years meant he could always tell when something was up.
And something was definitely up with
this woman, beyond the fact that her car was half-stuck in a muddy ditch.
Wanting to make her feel safe, he
held his hands up. "I swear on my father’s grave, I’m not going to hurt
you. It’s okay to get into my car." When she didn’t immediately say no
again, he pressed his advantage with, "I just want to help you." And
he did. More than it made sense to want to help a stranger. "Please,"
he said. "Let me help you."
She stared at him for a long moment,
hail hammering between them, around them, onto them. Chase found himself
holding his breath, waiting for her decision. It shouldn’t matter to him what
she decided.
But, for some strange reason, it
did.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Bella
Andre is the New York Times, USA Today and Publishers Weekly bestselling author
of "The Sullivans", "The Maverick Billionaires", "The
Morrisons", and the NYT bestselling "Four Weddings and a Fiasco"
sweet romance series written as Lucy Kevin.
Sign
up for Bella's newsletter at www.BellaAndre.com/Newsletter
Visit
Bella's website at www.BellaAndre.com
Follow
Bella on twitter at www.twitter.com/bellaandre
Join
Bella on Faceboook at www.facebook.com/bellaandrefans
Having
sold more than 6 million books, Bella Andre's novels have been #1 bestsellers
around the world and have appeared on the New York Times and USA Today
bestseller lists 32 times. She has been the #1 Ranked Author at Amazon (on a
top 10 list that included Nora Roberts, JK Rowling, James Patterson and Steven
King), and Publishers Weekly named Oak Press (the publishing company she
created to publish her own books) the Fastest-Growing Independent Publisher in
the US. After signing a groundbreaking 7-figure print-only deal with Harlequin
MIRA, Bella's "The Sullivans" series is being released in paperback
in the US, Canada, and Australia.
Known
for "sensual, empowered stories enveloped in heady romance"
(Publishers Weekly), her books have been Cosmopolitan Magazine "Red Hot
Reads" twice and have been translated into ten languages. Winner of the
Award of Excellence, The Washington Post called her "One of the top
writers in America" and she has been featured by Entertainment Weekly,
NPR, USA Today, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, and TIME Magazine. A graduate
of Stanford University, she has given keynote speeches at publishing conferences
from Copenhagen to Berlin to San Francisco, including a standing-room-only
keynote at Book Expo America in New York City.
If
not behind her computer, you can find her reading her favorite authors, hiking,
swimming or laughing. Married with two children, Bella splits her time between
the Northern California wine country and a 100 year old log cabin in the
Adirondacks.
The
Sullivans Boxed Set Books 1-3 Buy Links: ON SALE FOR $0.99 DURING THE TOUR
Connect
with Bella:
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Visit
my website: www.bellaandre.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GIVEAWAY INFORMATION and RAFFLECOPTER
CODE
Bella will be awarding a signed copy of
the The Sullivans Box Set and a tote bag, open internationally to 2 randomly
drawn winners via rafflecopter during the tour.
Please use this rafflecopter
code on your post:
Thanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteI love this series. One of my favorite of all time. Have all the books, but a signed copy would be the best.
ReplyDeleteCongrats
ReplyDelete