Congratulations, Bloduedd! I’ll be sending your name and email to Lacey!
Thanks to everyone who participated! Tomorrow’s guest author is Lacey Alexander/Toni Blake! Look for feature starting tonight, with a giveaway of The Bikini Diaries tomorrow (Tues) evening!
Nothing would keep him from her. Not even the barrier of time…
He sees her, wants her, needs her…
Chicago Detective Ryan Daire has many secrets: a love for Shakespeare, an appreciation for the all the finer things in life, and an absolute lack of restraint in the bedroom. Now he has an even bigger secret. In every shifting shadow of the sprawling mansion he’s recently inherited he can see her—tempting, ethereal, and untouchable. Hope Stillwater inhabited that mansion in 1906. Raw desire has formed a conduit between these two passionate souls who are separated by the barrier of time.
Now he has to have her.
Intoxicated by each other’s presence, Ryan and Hope are closer than ever to crossing that inviting boundary between two worlds. But there is one grave danger: Ryan’s job has put him on the trail of a depraved criminal in an investigation that’s risking Hope’s eternal fate and happiness. Now he must do whatever it takes to change history, protect Hope from harm, and set his own desires free.
An intense and erotic journey though time.
— 5 Angels and a Recommended Read from Fallen Angel Reviews
A hauntingly beautiful and enduring love story.
— 5 Bookmarks from Wild on Books
Daring Time takes readers on an imaginative and scintillating trip back in time. A truly unique and original story.
— 4 Stars from Romantic Times
Joyfully Reviewed–a truly entrancing read that will keep you turning the pages well into the night.
Daring Time is an invigorating fast-paced romantic time travel/police procedural–5 Stars, Reviewer Harriet Klausner
I’m going to kick off the daily portion of the contest with a giveaway to one commenter on this post of the time travel DVD Somewhere in Time. (Major romance, tear-jerker.) Leave a comment, and win a copy this evening (Sunday.) Return tomorrow to chat with Lacey Savage, and qualifty to win a copy of her newest Nothing to Fear.
1. The contest runs through 5/8. The prize pack winners will be announced on May 8th, 2009.
2. To enter, copy the code (click on ‘share’) of the graphic above and post it to your blog, Facebook, Myspace, Website, whereever you want to share it. Add a link to my blog from your blog, Facebook, Myspace, wherever you put the graphic, and say “Click here to enter the DARING TIME CONTEST.
You may use a smaller version of the graphic, if you prefer, for one of your sidebars. Just change the height and width in the code to “180″ by “150″. (Thanks Ann Aguirre, I learned that from one of your past contests.)
3. Come back here and reply to this post with a link to your blog entry or wherever you’ve posted the graphic and your answer to the following question: If you could time travel anywhere, to the future or the past, where/when would you go and why?
4. If you don’t have a blog, or if you are having difficulty posting, you can still enter the contest. Here’s what you can do: Blog about the DARING TIME contest on your Facebook, Myspace page or post about it in a yahoo group. Just leave a comment about where you posted it and provide a link. No Facebook, Myspace or group? Then get creative. Share the contest with two friends, and leave a comment about who you told. Tell your book club about the book and the contest. This will have to be on the honor system. The whole point of the contest is to spread the word about DARING TIME, so if you can convince me in some way that you did that, you’re in! Don’t forget, no matter how you spread the word, be sure to leave a comment with links and information, and answer the “˜where/when would you time travel to?’ question. If you have not entered correctly, you will not be in the final drawing, so please follow the instructions.
5. The Grand Prize and Second Place Prize will be given away on May 8th. Everyone who enters the contest correctly will be in the running for the two prize packs listed in the graphic. Authors are eligible to win as well!
DAILY PRIZES AND INTERACTION WITH YOUR FAVORITE ROMANCE AUTHORS IN ADDITION TO THE PRIZE PACKS
You will always find the DAILY prize just below the contest post.
The daily prizes will be awesome as well! I’ve got some wonderful authors who will be coming by my blog, talking about their latest or upcoming releases and giving away free books and ARC’s (advanced review copies) to commenters EVERY MONDAY THROUGH SATURDAY, so be sure to visit daily. Scheduled authors will tell us about their books and give away a copy to one commenter per day.
Guest Author List:
4/6 Lacey Savage
4/7 Lacey Alexander/Toni Blake
4/8 Shayla Black
4/9 Surprise Giveaway
4/10 Fiona Jayde
4/11 Sierra Dafoe
4/13 Joanna Bourne
4/14 Lisa Marie Rice
4/15 Cynthia Eden
4/16 Julie James
4/17 Elizabeth Amber
4/18 Surprise Giveaway
4/20 Shelli Stevens
4/21 Elisabeth Naughton
4/22 Michelle Pillow
4/23 Eden Bradley
4/25 Anne Aguirre
4/27 Lauren Dane
4/28 Beth Williamson
4/29 Devyn Quinn
4/30 Megan Hart
5/1 Anya Bast
5/2 Denise Agnew
5/4 Dakota Cassidy
5/5 Beth Kery
5/6 Nalini Singh
5/7 Shiloh Walker
5/8 Larissa Ione
DARING TIME contest winner announced!
It’s very important that you return the next day to see if you won. If you haven’t contacted me within forty-eight hours of your name being announced, a new winner will be drawn.
That’s it! I hope you enjoy the contest, and thanks for helping spread the word about my erotic romance/time travel, DARING TIME which comes out May 5 from Berkley Sensation!
Having just finished a book, I’m kind of in tidy up and relaxation mode for a week or two. I began to go through a gift my husband recently gave me–several BBC movie collections. I picked two fantastic ones right off the bat: North and South and Daniel Deronda.
North and South is based on the 1885 novel by Elizabeth Gaskell. This story runs contrary to what you might expect from a novel from this time period, as it contans a very strong social element and takes place in a gritty, industrial town.
The title reflects the contrasts between the wealthier south of England and the industrial north, as well as the characters of the gently bred, middle class heroine Margaret Hale and the seemingly cold, hard ‘master’ of the local cotton mill, John Thorton. Ms. Hale is at first appalled by Thornton, thinking him brutal and callous to his workers. Despite his cold exterior, however, Thorton has his reasons for his actions and what appears as cruelty actually stems from concerns for his workers’ safety.
Thornton is a complex hero, driven by the necessity of caring for his mother and sister and terrified of financial ruin. At the same time, he longs for the beauty of knowledge and art. It is this part of him, perhaps, that falls in love with Margaret.
I liked Margaret very much. She was a strong heroine, smart and compassionate. Thornton proposes to her half way through the story. As in Pride and Prejudice he is rejected, and it takes Margaret a while to see his good qualities and to understand and love him.
The secondary characters in North and South are well drawn–my favorite being the mill worker Nicolas Higgins and his two daughters, whom Margaret befriends. It’s nice to see a strong, working class family in a late Victorian-era story. Higgins has a noble spirit, and he while he and Thornton start out being enemies, they come to respect one another’s strengths.
Just a side note–the musical score to this movie is beautiful and enriches the romance greatly.
Beth’s rating of North and South 4.0 stars
My second movie is Daniel Deronda. I will admit that I’ve never even heard of this George Elliot novel. I’ve read Middlemarch, although it’s never been a great favorite, so I wasn’t sure what to expect from the BBC movie.
I’ll state it succinctly–I was enraptured by Daniel Deronda.
The sets, costumes, the actors and actresses cast a spell on me. In tone, this movie couldn’t be more different than North and South. However, both stories have strong social elements to them. Daniel Deronda, played wonderfully by Hugh Dancy, is…well, good and beautiful. Not in a nauseating, sickening way, but in a noble, quiet and enduring fashion.
He contrasts greatly with the stunning, selfish Gwendolyn. He can’t help but be attracted to her sexual beauty anymore than she can help being attracted by his goodness. They are the inverse of each other, soul mates against all odds. Gwendolyn is a piece of work, to put it mildly, but once again, here is a complex, fascinating character reminiscent of a Scarlet O’Hara. And can this actress wear the period dress. OMG, she looks amazing.
Okay, enough gushing about dresses.
This is a movie about moral development and discovery of one’s true self. I suspect that the story itself was very, very good, but the BBC adaptation is really to be heralded. This movie is a treat for the senses. I was kept on my toes wondering if Daniel would fall for the splendid Gwen or the modest, soulful singer Mira. It felt a little bit like Ivanhoe with Rowena and Rebecca. I liked his choice, but tell me what you think if you catch the movie. I highly recommend it.
Beth’s rating of Daniel Deronda 4.5 stars
My fingers hurt. For the past couple days, I’ve been trying to pull together all the details for my Daring Time contest, which runs from 4/6 to 5/7. In addition to the prize packs, I’m having a guest author nearly every day for a month, and these kind ladies are going to give away a copy of their books to a commenter. Seriously, these authors are awesome. My fingers hurt from writing them all, but it’s been so nice to chat briefly with them. Here’s a partial list of authors who are going to charm us for a day:
Lacey Savage
Lacey Alexander/Toni Blake
Shayla Black
Fiona Jayde
Sierra Dafoe
Lisa Marie Rice
Cynthia Eden
Julie James
Shelli Stevens
Shiloh Walker
Ann Aguirre
Elisabeth Naughton
Eden Bradley
Lauren Dane
Beth Williamson
Michelle Pillow
Devyn Quinn
Megan Hart
Anya Bast
Denise Agnew
Dakota Cassidy
Nalini Singh
Cool, huh? All that talent in one place. I’ll really have to clean up the blog real nice for the visitors…
For those of you who are on the Total Exposure chat loop (link to join below) you know my good friend Fiona Jayde. Fiona is one of the most interesting people I know. She was born in Russia and learned how to speak English through television shows like Growing Pains. She’s a true polymath–a graphic design artist, painter, musician (piano), author and a student of the martial arts. If you want to imagine her accent, think Russian valley girl. She’s one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met, so sweet, in fact, that she’s giving away one download of her new Red Sage book Booty Call! Ask Fi a question or make a comment, and she’ll choose one name tomorrow afternoon as the winner!
Booty Call
Nicole Lang, erotic romance author, has a secret. Well, two secrets —
and she’s keeping them both from her boss. Now that’s she’s blurted out
exactly what genre she writes for when she quits her job to write full
time, she’s not about to tell the drop-dead-gorgeous Dan Gust that she’d
rather work under him than with him…. Until the ring she bought as a
good luck charm falls off and Dan bends down to pick it up. How can a
girl resist those firm full lips when they’re so close to hers?
Dan has worked with Nicole for years, smelling her perfume, hearing her
voice, constantly schooling himself to act the cool professional. He
never even considered that the calm and curvy blonde is interested in
him, or that she spends her nights choreographing hot love scenes. Now
that he knows, Dan issues a challenge Nicole can’t refuse: if he can
prove that mere mortals can have mind-blowing sex, Nicole’s next book
will feature humans and not stamina enhanced werewolves or super-endowed
aliens.
And with a bit of luck, Dan might convince Nicole that a booty call can
lead to so much more…
What Reviewers are saying: “Short, sweet and hot. Fiona Jayde packs in a
lot of story in a very compact space.” Sarah Silversmith, Romance
Readers Connection
Lacey Savage interviewed Fi about Booty Call at the Total Exposure chat group.
Fiona Jayde Interview
LS: Oh, my… hot-sex-with- the-boss stories are scorching! I know you’re
a big fan of this theme, too. What made you want to write BOOTY CALL?
FJ: I’ve always loved co-worker stories, but this particular idea stemmed
from every authors dream – supporting yourself through writing, making
writing the primary full time job. And thinking about how that “final
conversation” might go :)
LS: I absolutely adore the cover for BOOTY CALL. Since you do cover art
yourself, walk us down memory lane a little. What are some of the best
covers you’ve gotten for your books? What about some of the… umm…
not-so-hot ones? Links would be appreciated so we can drool or boo
accordingly. *g*
FJ: LOL – there’s a loaded question:) I’m extremely opinionated about cover
art:)
I also love the cover for Booty Call – its exactly what I wanted –
dramatic eye catching light, and a large focal point. I think at this
point its the best cover I’ve gotten.
Not so hot ones? I would say the official cover for Dark Lotus… Its
really hard to translate the writing brain into the artistic brain (at
least for me) and I have a feeling the concept that I communicated just
didn’t translate well into the visual product…
LS? Now, how about showing off some of the gorgeous covers you’ve
created? Can you share with us some of your favorites?
FJ: Recently I had the pleasure of doing cover art for Old Fashioned
Detective Work – which I think is the best cover I’ve done.
Its the first cover on my Cover Art page –
LS: Which of your books has been the most challenging to write? The most
rewarding?
FJ: I would say Rookery Cove: Restrictions Applied was the most challenging.
I had an extremely difficult time putting myself into a world that I
didn’t create. When I read – I read sounds and feelings, I don’t
actively see images in my head. (Which would explain why I don’t do much
of setting descriptions). So I had a hard time putting my characters
into a setting I couldn’t see or describe to myself:)
Most rewarding? I would say Dark Lotus and Dragon Slayer which I just
recently finished. I’ve gotten into this plotting thing – and the deeper
I plot the more I immerse myself into the characters and their
personalities, and they become real to me.
LS: Tell us a little bit about what you’re working on now. In particular,
I’d love to hear about your writing process — what stage are you at?
How’s the story treating you?
FJ: LOL – I’ve been OCDing on my website – so the story got put on hold for
a bit. But I’m jumping in with both feet this week! I’m working on a
dark paranormal – and true to fashion it’ll have plenty of action :) I’d
tell you more… when its done:)
LS: Close your eyes. (Okay — read this question, /then /close your eyes.
LOL) You’ve fast-forwarded 10 years into the future. You’re sitting at
your writing desk. On the wall next to you is a reminder of your
proudest achievement, which you’ve accomplished within those 10 years.
What is it?
FJ: HUH.. Remember that whole thing about me nothing thinking visually?
(Yes, I have an Art Degree… Don’t ask me how… Actually, when I paint
I can’t think of anything , total disconnect from reality).
You know, all I really can see is the award on my wall – the same one
thats hanging behind me now. Its an award to “The Best New Author in the
neighborhood” presented to me by my hubby at a time when I was feeling
very unsure about my writing career.
Professional writers amaze me, especially the more of them I know. They have the power to completely immerse themself in a story–live it, sleep it and breathe it. One day, they finish. They shed a tear and whoop in happiness. They, along with their wonderful beta readers, groom it and fuss over it a bit…and then?
The author releases it into the hands of that trusted nanny–their editor–and says, “Okay. What’s next?”
I’m currently in the grooming and fussing stage of my Berkley Heat book, Release, which comes out in February of 2010. (General fact, but also my lame explanation for why I’ve been so negligent on my blog.) But despite my post-completion bliss, I’m already thinking about starting a proposal first chapter of Making Time, a follow-up to my erotic time-travel Daring Time. It seems a little strange, upon reflection, that I could have been so utterly immersed in one project for months, only to start creating something entirely new and different in my mind within a week of finishing a draft.
But that’s the world of a writer, I guess. The creative appetites can be voracious.
Just wanted to give a head’s up to those in the Chicagoland area that I’ll be doing my first book signing evah at the Barnes and Noble–DePaul Loop bookstore. Kind of nice to be doing something in the south Loop, not too far from the Prairie Avenue District, where DARING TIME takes place.
Daring Time Book Signing Event
Where:
DePaul University Bookstore
1 East Jackson Boulevard
Chicago, IL 60614 When:
5/6/9
5:30 PM Why: To celebrate the 5/5/9 release of DARING TIME!
Just wanting to let everyone know, I’m giving away a free download of FLIRTING IN TRAFFIC today at the yahoo group I share with Juliana Stone, Fionna Jayde, and Lacey Savage! All you have to do is tell me your funniest, unluckiest (unfortunate?) moment. You go into the pot to win for just participating.
To enter Total Exposure, just hit the Total Exposure link under “Beth’s Stuff” below.
Sorry I’ve been so negligent. Very busy trying to finish my Berkley Heat book called Release. I’m nearing the home stretch, and things are getting a bit easier now. :)
This Monday I met at the Michigan Avenue Borders with Stacy of Stacy’s Place on Earth and author Julie James. Stacy has better pics if you want to have a peek. We had a ton of fun gabbing about books. Stacy’s quite the expert, so I got tons of good ideas on who to buy so that I can be more romance savvy. (Between writing and the other job, I need guidance as far as what to read in my limited time.) I had a great, relaxing time.
Frauke, who is my fabulous web designer, just made me the graphic for my Daring Time contest, which will start the first week in April! It’s so purty. I’m getting very excited for Daring Time to release. I’ll be giving away a BOOK A DAY until release day, PLUS two fabulous prize packs.
Also, RT is coming up next month! I can’t believe it. Anyone else going?
Nothing would keep him from her. Not even the barrier of time…
