Giveaway, Interview & Review with Author of "BASTIAN: THE LORDS OF SATYR", Elizabteh Amber

Title: BASTIAN
Series: Book Six ~
The Lords of Satyr

By Elizabeth Amber

Publisher: Kensington
Imprint: Aphrodisia

In Stores: April 26, 2011

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Format:  Trade Paperback & eBook

Book Heat: SCORCHER

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Read OTE Reviews

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Man-gods born to live and love forever, the Lords of Satyr are renowned for their sexual prowess…and unquenchable lust…

Call My Name

The forum excavations in Rome go on, directed by the iron-willed, charismatic Lord Bastian Satyr. Out of nowhere, a mysterious, haunting voice calls out to him…and lures him to the site of a long-vanished temple, where vestal virgins once performed rites of erotic surrender. The temple is the find of his career, but his heart is about to face the unknown…


Michaela is a pure Ephemeral. She can enter the bodies of others—and become any woman a man might wish to possess. His choice is her pleasure. And the commanding and utterly virile Bastian is the only man she desires…

Over the Edge Reviews

Questions with

Award-Winning

Paranormal Romance

Author

Elizabeth Amber

Please help me welcome one of today’s leading ladies of the erotic historical paranormal romance genre and has set the romance world off its axis with her decadently lush Lord of Satyr series Elizabeth Amber. I am so excited that she has dropped by to share more about her latest in the series, “BASTIAN: The Lords of Satyr”. So let’s jump right in and get this party started

I am obsessed with your The Lords of Satyr series. I have read every single one and have not only become a devoted fan, but completely fascinated in how you created this world. What catapulted you into writing this rich, lush, erotic world of magical beings? Why Satyrs?

Thank you for enjoying the Satyr novels, Christine! You are a sweetheart and a true champion of romance. These wealthy, sexy Satyrs, who secretly dwell in Italy, came from my imagination--an imagination fueled by Greco-Roman art history studies. In mythology, the satyr are the carnal followers of Bacchus, the Roman god of wine. So it made sense to me that in the 1800s, they would live in wine and olive country—Tuscany and Rome. It also made sense that their ancient bloodline would demand that they engage in certain carnal rituals—or perish.

Congratulations on your upcoming Kensington Aphrodisia May 2011 “BASTIAN” which is your sixth book in the Lord of Satyr. Please share with us what this story is about.

 It’s a love story between Bastian--the lead archaeologist in the excavations of the Roman Forum in the 1880s--and Silvia. Silvia is a former Vestal Virgin—now an immortal Ephemeral—who seeks to trick Bastian into helping her locate a powerful, mysterious relic in the Forum ruins.

What is an Ephemeral?

 “Ephemeral” means having a short life cycle. At the tender age of six, Silvia was pressed into service as a Vestal Virgin. (Historical fact: The VVs began service to the goddess between ages six and ten. It’s also fact that during the purging of all pagan religions in the fourth century A.D., Vesta’s Temple was destroyed.)

 As the temple burns around them, Silvia and the other Virgins are transformed into immortal creatures called Ephemerals. Over the ensuing centuries, Ephemerals live by taking hosts—the bodies of the dying—usually for a month at a time. When Bastian first meets Silvia, she has just assumed the form of a young boy in order to work under him in the excavations.

The story takes place in 1881 with Lord Bastian doing an archaeological dig of The House and Temple of Vesta. I’m curious to know more about the six stones that Silvia is trying to keep Bastian from finding. What is their significance?

 It’s historically accurate that the Vestal Virgins were charged with the care and protection of mysterious relics that were believed to protect all of Rome. When Vesta’s Temple was destroyed, these relics disappeared. No one knows exactly what they were, which left me free to imagine them as powerful gemstones which lie hidden in the ruins of the Forum.

I was drawn in by the deep relationship between Michaela and Silvia, please expand on their unique friendship and how it plays a pivotal part in the story.

 Silvia never planned to love Bastian. She keeps her emotional distance, believing she cannot have him because her dearest friend Michaela is involved with him. I used the pain and joys of my own friendships to write these two women, and came close to crying over them at one point. (Can you guess when?) My bff and I have remained best buds since middle school, which is one of my joys. On the painful side--another close girl friend appropriated my boyfriend one summer while I was off at university, and married him. I truly hope the Silvia-Michaela friendship goes below the surface and feels emotionally real to readers.

I know that you have traveled to Rome on holiday and to research for your Lord of Satyr series. Would you share with us what you have found that has inspired places, characters and themes that run throughout the series?

Imagine what a bizarre, spooky sight the Roman Forum was before its large-scale excavation in the 1880s. Back then, its arches and columns were half-buried, many of their secrets hidden under sixteen to eighteen feet of accumulated dirt! Italian families used the Forum as a picnic ground, a place to stroll on a lazy afternoon, or for amateur treasure hunting. When I visited the Forum several years ago after writing Nicholas, I knew I’d use it as a setting in a satyr novel one day.

How did you come up with the ElseWorld? How difficult was it to great this enigmatic and eccentric world? What was the most difficult part of creating and entertaining the different magical cultures?

I haven’t spent much time in ElseWorld in the novels. It is populated with creatures of myth—satyrs, maenads, centaurs, the descendants of gods—all the creatures that fascinate. There are portals between the worlds that the satyrs guard. In Bastian, a new method of transport is revealed as well.

I’ve read that you’re a museum junkie. What is one of your fave museums? Why?

I’ve never met a museum I didn’t like, Christine! I’m especially fond of the Met in NYC and the Louvre in Paris. There’s a very sexy statue of a satyr ravishing a maenad in the Louvre as well as a beautiful reclining hermaphrodite.

Staying with the fanatic junkie theme I also read that you are obsessed with history and archeology. Bastian, in my opinion seems to be the uber alpha-male component of you. Did you take bits and pieces from your own life and build Bastian around it?

The Bastian bookmarks reads: “Infamous for his archaeological finds in the Roman Forum and more highly sexed than most of his kind, Bastian is admired and envied. Yet he is tortured by visions.” I agree that he’s one of my most alpha males. All that hunky satyr sex is mostly fantasy. It’s easy to write because it evolves out of the satyr character. They are inherently carnal beings, their bodies crave sex. It’s important to me that romance and sexual tension are a big part of these books. I want to fall in love with my heroes and feel the heart of my heroines race when the hero is in the room. I love my life, but it’s tame compared to what I write.

 Even though The Lords of Satyr are fictional I am on my way to being head-over heals in love with Sevin and Lucian—(I’m past the point in apologizing for my deepest, dearly devotion of Dane =) I adore the fact that Sevin and Lucian and Dane appear in this book—adoring gaze with a long sigh -- Please, please share with a sneak-peak of Sevin’s story.

Sevin has charisma. He is the sexy brother women flock to. But he’s also a survivor and a shrewd businessman. When his parents died, young Dane and Lucien went missing. Bastian was eighteen and experiencing his first and most devastating Calling, a Calling that wrenched him from his family. Sevin—a teenager at the time—was left to fend for himself. He created the Salone di Passione, an exclusive club in Rome where Satyrs and other ElseWorld beings can pursue physical pleasures away from the prying eyes of Humans. Developments at the end of BASTIAN change everything for the Satyr clan. But they also create new business opportunities for Sevin. Perhaps there’s money to be made in a club where Humans and Satyrs mingle?

 How many books do you see in this series?

 My Lords of Satyr contract with Kensington ends at book seven, which is coincidentally named SEVIN. In DANE, a fourth brother appeared—Lucien, who is the youngest brother of Bastian, Dane, and Sevin. If my publisher is up for it, I may write LUCIEN as an eighth book.

What books would you suggest for a reader who would love to learn more of Roman mythology and archeology?

I have three shelves of books about winemaking, Tuscany, Rome, mythology, sexual practices in history, and ancient customs. Included among them are Edith Hamilton’s Mythology, Catherine Johns’ Sex or Symbol, and Vinum: The Story of Roman Wine by Stuart Fleming.

What do you hope readers take away from your books?

That satisfied feeling. I want them to believe that Bastian and Silvia were meant to be together, are now deeply in love, and will live happily ever after. And I hope readers will be curious about what will happen next, in Sevin’s story.

What is the craziest thing you’ve uncovered in your research?

It was believed that the Vestal Virgins’ chastity insured the good health and wealth of Rome. (That’s crazy, in my opinion, but interesting fodder for a book.) The penalty for fornication was death. Amid great sorrowful ceremony led by ancient Roman religious leaders and citizens, a convicted Virgin would be taken on a litter to a small underground room hollowed out for her in the "Evil Field"--near the Colline Gate. There, she was essentially buried alive--left to die alone.

For the reader who has yet to read one of your erotically deliciously sensual Lords of Satyr books what is one thing you could say that might titillate them into reading between the covers?

A tall order, Christine! Let’s see: I won’t talk about the physical changes they undergo, the hermaphrodite heroine in RAINE, or the fact that the satyr are highly sexual beings when their ancient blood stirs. What’s more important is that each hero in the satyr novels has survived difficult circumstances, emerged from them worthy of love, and often finds love in an unlikely or unusual heroine. I hope readers fall in love with the satyr as I have.

Is there anything else readers who are new to the series should know?

I should note that there are two Satyr clans. They're related by ancient blood, but do not cross paths in the books, so each clans' books are very separate. The two clans are:
Tuscany 1820s: Nicholas, Raine, Lyon, Dominic
Rome 1880s: Dane, Bastian (May 2011), Sevin (2012), Lucien (2012 maybe)

What’s up next for you?

I’ve got a new series idea that my agent likes, so I’ll explore that once I finish SEVIN.

I know that right now you write award-winning erotic paranormal romance for Kensington, but I’m curious if there is a genre you would like to try your hand at. Why?

I’m always looking for a new challenge, always trying to stretch my creative legs. These days, I’m reading steampunk, YA dystopia, historical, paranormal, and nonfiction. I think some or all of those will come into play in my next series. My writing voice is fairly dark, and will stay that way.

Elizabeth, please share with desperate Lords of Satyr fanatics and fanatics-to- come where we can stalk you out in cyber world. =)

Stalk away, Christine!


http://www.elizabethamber.com/books/bastian/
http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=1351688841
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ElizabethAmber/

Elizabeth, my readers and I always have a fantastic time when you stop and visit with Over the Edge Reviews readers and myself. I’m so excited that Bastian: The Lords of Satyr is now available for the masses. =)

Thank you for your gracious hospitality at Over the Edge, Christine! I’m so glad you enjoyed BASTIAN! I hope your readers do as well.

~GIVEAWAY~

Celebrating the April 2011 Kensington Aphrodisia realse of "BASTIAN: The Lords of Satyr by award-winning erotic paranormal romance author Elizabeth Amber's sixth installment in her The Lords of Satyr series. Over the Edge along with Kensington Aphrodisia will be giving one lucky reader their very own copy.  To enter here are a few simple rules.

* +5 Leave a comment
for

Elizabeth Amber
 including email
* +5 Read and leave a comment about
Bastian: The Lords of Satyr
review.
* +5 Leave a comment about
Elizabeth Amber's
Bastian: The Lord of Satyr
book covers

  * +2 Spread the Word!
* +5 Follow me on Twitter.

* +5 Add me as friend on Facebook.

*+5 Connect with OTE at NING.

* Become a follower of Over the Edge!
 (+3 Already a follower--You ROCK! +2 Become a follower.)
Please check out my ROCK'N THE MUSES
new site!

The giveaway is open to ALL readers and will be running until May 6, 2011. I'll be picking and contacting the winner directly on May 7, 2011.
Please make sure to include your email with your comment.
Happy Reading!

Giveaway & Interview with "THE SILVER BOAT" New York Times Bestselling Author, Luanne Rice

Title: THE SILVER BOAT
A Novel 
by Luanne Rice

Genre: Historical Romance

Publisher: Penguin Group
Imprint: Pamela Dorman Books

Format: Hard Cover & eBook
Pages: 300

Pub. Date: April 5, 2011

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Bestseller Luanne Rice returns with a novel as timeless as the sea on which it's set.

From the beloved New York Times bestselling Luanne Rice comes a heartwarming yet heart-wrenching portrait of three far-flung sisters who come home to Martha's Vineyard one last time. Their mother's beach house is the only place any of them ever found true happiness and they need to begin the difficult process of letting go. Memories of their grandmother, mother, and their Irish father, who sailed away the year Dar turned twelve, rise up and expose the fine cracks in their family myth-especially when a cache of old letters reveals enough truth to send them back to their ancestral homeland.

Transplanted into the unfamiliar, each sister sees life, her heart, and her relationship to home in a new way. But how do they let go of a place that contains the complicated love of their imperfect family? Without the house, where will they be together?

The novel is a season on Martha's Vineyard; a mission to Ireland; a cast of friends, including one wildly off-the-grid Zen genius; passionate love in the surf; and three very different sisters with lives filled with beauty, sorrow, and deep love they'd never been quite sure they could trust. The Silver Boat is Luanne Rice at her very best, complete with her singular talent for capturing a family in all its flawed complexity.

Over the Edge Reviews

Questions with

New York Times

Bestselling

Author

Luanne Rice

                                                                                                       photo by
                                                                                                     Adrian Kinloch

1. What is the best part of being a writer? What is the worst?

The best part is that work and my interior life intersect. I don’t think there is a worst…

2. Why do you write?

To make sense of my life and this world, and because I love to tell stories.

3. Name one eye-opening thing you learned from your book research.

  

Freud was blind to the sibling relationship. He worked with a vertical model, recognizing the impact of parents on children. But he failed to note and honor the deep connections and influence siblings have on each other.

4. Do you have a favorite motto?

Love makes the world go round.

5. Do you have a favorite fictional hero? Favorite fictional heroine?

Travis McGee in John D. MacDonald’s novels and Seymour Glass in J.D. Salinger’s Franny and Zooey, Raise High the Roof Beams, Carpenters and Seymour: an Introduction, and Nine Stories; Mary MacDhui in Thomasina, The Cat Who Thought She Was God, by Paul Gallico, and Caro Bell in The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard.

6. Which fictional character would you hang out with?

Travis McGee, on his houseboat the Busted Flush, at slip F-17, Bahia Mar Marina in Fort Lauderdale, Florieda. Trav is a deeply committed environmentalist as well as a protector of the underdog. Plus he’s hot.

7. What is one of your favorite book covers, your own or someone else’s?

Well, I can’t help loving the luminous white shells and blue ocean on the cover of The Silver Boat. I also love the evocative cover for Joseph Monninger’s Eternal on the Water.

8. What would readers be surprised to learn about you?

That “Luanne” is not my real name.

9. What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever learned by Googling your name?

Yikes, I don’t do that. I avoid it at all costs!

10. If you could go backward or forward in time which would you chose? Why?

I believe in the present moment… I don’t so much think of going back, but I do wish my parents could return so I could talk to them, get to know them as people instead of just parents. They died way too soon.

11. Luanne, congrats on the release of “THE SILVER BOAT” which was released by Penguin on April 5, 2011. Please tell us more about it.

Thank you! The Silver Boat is very dear to me. It’s about three sisters returning to their beloved family home on Martha’s Vineyard for the first time after their mother’s death. They have to face what will become of that house—it’s like a member of the family, and the situation brings out a deeply hidden family secret as well as sisterly conflicts and bottomless love.

12. Which do you find is most important to you as a writer, voice or story? Why?

Is voice character? Because I would say character…through her, a great story can unfold.

13. Luanne, please share with desperate readers where they can connect with you in cyber world. =)

I would love to meet your readers. Please find me at www.luannerice.net, and from there link to Twitter and Facebook.


14. I know this is a difficult question with there being so many amazing authors out there to choose from but who are some of the GOT-TO-HAVE authors in your TBR pile?

Joseph Monninger, Teresa Medeiros, Alice Hoffman, Ann Hood…

15. What’s next in the works for you? When can readers expect to see it out on shelves in their local bookstores?

I have a monologue as part of a play, Motherhood Out Loud, being produced at Primary Stages in New York this fall. I’m also involved in producing the film DREAM COUNTRY, from a script I wrote with Jayce Bartok, an adaption of my novel of the same title. Mostly I’m working on a new novel that starts with a crime, continues with an unexpected visitor, and contains threads of estrangement, lost love, and the kind of deep love a person can have for someone she’s never even met

Luanne, thanks so much for stopping by and chatting with Over the Edge readers and myself; it has really been a blast getting to know more about you and your books,

Thank you, Christine! It’s been an honor and pleasure to visit with you and your readers.

~GIVEAWAY~

Celebrating the April 5, 2011 contemporary fiction released by Pamela Dorman Books, "THE SILVER BOAT"  from New York Times bestselling author, Luanne Rice;  Over the Edge along with Pamela Dorman Books will be giving two lucky readers their very own copy.  To enter here are a few simple rules.

* +5 Leave a comment
for

Luanne Rice 
including email.
* +5 Leave a comment about
Luanne Rice's
THE SILVER BOAT
book cover.

  * +2 Spread the Word!
* +5 Follow me on Twitter.

* +5 Add me as friend on Facebook.

*+5 Connect with OTE at NING.

* Become a follower of Over the Edge!
 (+3 Already a follower--You ROCK! +2 Become a follower.)
* +5 Come and take a look at my new
review site
ROCK'N THE MUSES
and leave a comment.

The giveaway is open to ALL readers and will be running until May 1, 2011. I'll be picking and contacting the winners directly on May 2, 2011.
Please make sure to include your email with your comment.
Happy Reading!

Giveaway & Interview with "DEFIANT" Award-Winning Historical Romance Author, Kris Kennedy

Title: DEFIANT

by Kris Kennedy

Genre: Historical Romance

Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Imprint: Pocket Books

Format: Mass-market & eBook
Pages: 400

Pub. Date: April 26, 2011

Book Heat: SCORCHER

Read an Excerpt

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England, 1215, the eve of Magna Carta

Jamie Lost is the king’s most renowned commander, an audacious knight ordered to kidnap an exiled priest before rebel forces close in. The mission is simple--until he comes up against a mysterious woman on a mission, a thief who will first steal his quarry and then his heart.


Eva is also seeking Father Peter, but she intends to protect him from a secret that endangers his life, even if it costs her own. She is well aware danger lies everywhere, especially in the knight showing too much interest in her activities. But deep inside, Eva knows the danger lies not in Jamie, but in her, in the desire he awakens in her body and her heart.


When a mysterious band of armed mercenaries upends both their plans and abducts the priest, Jamie and Eva must form an uneasy alliance, and as civil war unfolds around them, they embark on an epic journey that betrays the truth about their identities, their unexpected loyalties, and the dangerous attraction that could seal their fates forever.

Over the Edge Reviews

Questions with

Historical Romance

Author

Kris Kennedy

• What is the best part of being a writer? What is the worst?

Feeling the presence of a muse. Or maybe it’s more like a Well. And underneath it, a vast ocean, a sea of . . I don’t know what. Creative lava. =)


The best part of being a writer is bring touched by that Muse, swimming in that Sea of creativity. Getting fully-formed scenes, typing so fast there’s almost smoke coming from the keyboard. Those times when you’re fairly certain you are nothing but a portal to some potent, invisible energy. Like scent; it just infuses you.


And the hardest part . . . ? Not being able to go swimming. When the muse doesn’t show up, and it’s just you, all day (or week, or month, months) when it’s just you, all alone, typing words that don’t feel like Story.

• Why do you write?

I have to write. See above. =)

• Name one eye-opening thing you learned from your book research.

Wow, that’s a difficult question. I’m doing research on undergarments right now, so that ’s fun, but nothing eye-opening (yet) =)

• Do you have a favorite motto?

I need to get a motto. =)

• Do you have a favorite fictional hero? Favorite fictional heroine?

Well, I do love Aragorn from Lord of the Rings. For a long time, he was my archetypical hero, the epitome of the reluctant hero, the ‘good alpha,’ the man who rises to the tragic occasion and makes it better for everyone.

• Which fictional character would you hang out with?

Oh, wow, there are A LOT of them, yet it’s almost impossible to think of one off the of my head. The pressure’s getting to me. =)

• What is one of your favorite book covers, your own or someone else’s?

Well, I’ve been told the cover of DEFIANT is quite lick-able, and I’m not sure there’s a higher compliment than that. =)

Also, I love, love, love the cover of The Irish Warrior, which is a cover for my own book. But that’s incidental. =)


Also, it’s wouldn’t work for my sexy adventure books, but I also love Kristina McMorris’s cover, LETTERS FROM HOME, her women’s fiction debut.


• What would readers be surprised to learn about you?

Um, jeez, I dunno. I watch American Idol? =)


• What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever learned by Googling your name?

That I am in some mighty fine company with Kris Letang and Tyler Kennedy of the Pittsburgh Penguins (major league hockey), as it always pops them up when they’re mentioned together in a news article, etc.

• If you could go backward or forward in time which would you chose? Why?

I think I’d go High Medieval, as long as I could be a merchant or such. I really don’t want to be a villein or peasant.

• Kris, please tell us about “DEFIANT”  which was release on March 26, 2011 by Pocket Books.

Defiant is the story of a very reluctant and very tortured hero. As chief lieutenant to King John—yes, that King John—Jamie’s life has been constructed around doing very questionable things for highly tortured reasons.


Until he meets the heroine.


She upends his very simple, very important mission, and he takes matters into his own hands. It involves ropes. =)


More interested parties enter the fray with swords, and the race is on. Jamie and Eva form an uneasy alliance and crisscross a countryside tottering on the brink of civil war, as they resisting their simmering passion and fight to hide the truths that can destroy the kingdom.


• Which do you find is most important to you as a writer, voice or story? Why?

Voice is what shapes the Story, so they’re hopelessly intertwined. Voice isn’t just how the words come out on the page, although that’s part of it.


Voice is what the writer even finds story-worthy. It’s the topic they choose to grapple with, the story they decide to tell. And then, as the story unfolds, Voice is what the writers thinks is dramatic and how she shapes events to build to that. It’s choices the writer makes about what’s sexy and romantic and funny and heroic and dangerous. It’s the writer’s view of the world and everything in it: hope (or despair), goodness (or evil), grace (or defilement), and so on. Voice is Story.

• Kris, for desperate readers like me please share we can connect with you out in cyber world.=)

Quickly then, let’s stop the suffering! Here is contact info:
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/KrisKennedy
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kris-Kennedy/300051018336
Website: http://kriskennedy.net/

• I know this is a difficult question with there being so many amazing authors out there to choose from but who are some of the GOT-TO-HAVE authors in your TBR pile?

Off the top of the pile: Julie Anne Long. Madeline Hunter. Miranda Neville. Vanessa Kelly. Courtney Milan. Kelly Gay.

• What’s next in the works for you? When can readers expect to see it out on shelves in their local bookstores?

I’m hard at work on another medieval right now. At present it’s about a con man and a bankrupt silk merchant, but that may change. Depends on what The Well throws up, what the muse whispers in my ear. =)


Kris, thank you for dropping by Over the Edge today; it has really been a blast getting to know more about you and your work. =)

Thank-you so much for having me!

~GIVEAWAY~

Celebrating the March 26, 2011 historical romance Pocket Books release, "DEFIANT" by award-winning historical romance author Kris Kennedy;  Over the Edge along with Pocket Books will be giving two lucky readers their very own copy.  To enter here are a few simple rules.

* +5 Leave a comment
for
Kris Kennedy

 including email.
* +5 Leave a comment about
Kris Kennedy's
DEFIANT
book cover.

  * +2 Spread the Word!
* +5 Follow me on Twitter.

* +5 Add me as friend on Facebook.

*+5 Connect with OTE at NING.

* Become a follower of Over the Edge!
 (+3 Already a follower--You ROCK! +2 Become a follower.)

The giveaway is open to ALL readers and will be running until May 1, 2011. I'll be picking and contacting the winners directly on May 2, 2011.
Please make sure to include your email with your comment.
Happy Reading!

Giveaway & Interview with "ROGUE ORACLE" Paranormal Romance Author, Alayna Williams

Title: ROGUE ORACLE

Series: Book Two `

Delphic Oracle series

By Alayna Williams

Genre: Paranormal Romance ~

Urban Fantasy

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Imprint: Pocket Juno Books

In Stores February 22,2011

Format: Mass-market

& eBook

Pages: 360

Read an Excerpt

Order Now!

Alayna Williams writes with power and poetry, combining old mythos with complete ass-kickery. You don’t want to miss this series.” -National bestselling author Ann Aguirre

The more you know about the future, the more there may be to fear.


Tara Sheridan is the best criminal profiler around - and the most unconventional. Trained as a forensic psychologist, Tara also specializes in Tarot card reading. But she doesn't need her divination skills to realize that the new assignment from her friend and sometime lover, Agent Harry Li, is a dangerous proposition in every way.


Former Cold War operatives, all linked to a top-secret operation tracking the disposal of nuclear weapons in Russia, are disappearing. There are no bodies, and no clues to their whereabouts. Harry suspects a conspiracy to sell arms to the highest bidder. The cards - and Tara's increasingly ominous dreams - suggest something darker. Even as Tara sorts through her feelings for Harry and her fractured relationships with the mysterious order known as Delphi's Daughters, a killer is growing more ruthless by the day. And a nightmare that began decades ago in Chernobyl will reach a terrifying endgame that not even Tara could have foreseen…

Over the Edge Reviews

Questions with

Paranormal Romance

Author

Alayna Williams

1. What is the best part of being a writer? What is the worst?

The best part is being able to create new worlds, to ask the "what if" questions: "What if the Oracle of Delphi survived to the modern day?" "What if we could really control dark energy?" "Would fire salamanders blow up microwave ovens?" The field's wide open to ask and answer those kinds of questions, to create a skeleton of a story and give it life.


The worst part is releasing a story into the world. It's like releasing a bird from the nest. You hope that it flies, and at the same time, I'm very conscious that the nest is empty...time to fill it with a new idea.


2. Why do you write?

I've always been writing, since I was old enough to hold a crayon. It's always been part of my life, whether I was pursuing publication or not. I can't really imagine NOT doing it.

3. Name one eye-opening thing you learned from your book research.

I did a lot of research about Chernobyl for ROGUE ORACLE. I was startled to learn that the Sarcophagus, the structure covering the ruined fourth reactor, is disintegrating. Birds are roosting in nooks and crannies...and you can see sunlight through the cracks. Strange to imagine.

4. Do you have a favorite motto?

Yes - from The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai: "No matter where you go, there you are." It helps remind me to stay present and not to get too far ahead of myself or stuck in the past.

5. Do you have a favorite fictional hero? Favorite fictional heroine?

One of my favorite fictional heroes was Gerald Tarrant from C.S. Friedman's COLDFIRE trilogy. Also Don Simon Ysidro from Barbara Hambly's THOSE WHO HUNT THE NIGHT. They're dark vampiric characters, and they struggle with the limits of their power, sometimes brutally. And rarely in a remorseful way.


My favorite fictional heroine would be Aerin from Robin McKinley's THE HERO AND THE CROWN. She slays her own dragons, in her own fashion. I also like Dana Scully from The X-Files. I like a rational heroine, one who asks the hard questions.

6. Which fictional character would you hang out with?

The Lady of the Lake. She knows more than she ever told, and I want to know her secrets. Plus, I want to know if she's still got that sword.

7. What is one of your favorite book covers, your own or someone else’s?

One of my favorite covers is Ekaterina Sedia's THE SECRET HISTORY OF MOSCOW (Prime). I love the woman on the wall with the crow beside her - just gorgeous.


I've been very lucky in the book cover lottery. Of my own, my favorite is Chris McGrath's cover for SPARKS (which I wrote as Laura Bickle). Love the contrast of dark and light. And the new cover for ROGUE ORACLE from artist Don Sipley is lovely.

8. What would readers be surprised to learn about you?

My background's in criminology. I worked in and around criminal justice for more than ten years. Makes for some fun story fodder.


But it also causes me to hold my heroines accountable - no mincing around crime scenes in six-inch heels or smarting off to the boss for them. I try to make that part of their world "real."

9. What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever learned by Googling your name?

I'm not much of a self-Googler (that sounds really filthy, doesn't it?). But "Alayna" is part of my name in real life. I never knew where it came from until I was in my twenties and one of my bosses asked: "So...were you named for Rod Stewart's first wife?"


"Mrrrr?"


I called my mom, and she started laughing. Apparently, it's true. And it took me more than twenty years to figure out her private joke.


That is the only tenuous connection I have to being "cool."

10. If you could go backward or forward in time which would you chose? Why?

Depends...is there a return trip included?


I'm in a good spot right now. Like everyone else, there are some things I would do differently about the past. But I don't think that if I made those mistakes, I'd be the person I am now. There's no such thing as a perfect life.

11. Alayna, congrats on the second release in your Delphic Oracle series, “ROGUE ORACLE” by Pocket released March 2011. We would love to know more about so would you mind sharing a bit more.

I'm super-excited. Here's the blurb:


The more you know about the future, the more there may be to fear.


Tara Sheridan is the best criminal profiler around - and the most unconventional. Trained as a forensic psychologist, Tara also specializes in Tarot card reading. But she doesn't need her divination skills to realize that the new assignment from her friend and sometime lover, Agent Harry Li, is a dangerous proposition in every way.


Former Cold War operatives, all linked to a top-secret operation tracking the disposal of nuclear weapons in Russia, are disappearing. There are no bodies, and no clues to their whereabouts. Harry suspects a conspiracy to sell arms to the highest bidder. The cards - and Tara's increasingly ominous dreams - suggest something darker. Even as Tara sorts through her feelings for Harry and her fractured relationships with the mysterious order known as Delphi's Daughters, a killer is growing more ruthless by the day. And a nightmare that began decades ago in Chernobyl will reach a terrifying endgame that not even Tara could have foreseen…


12. Which do you find is most important to you as a writer, voice or story? Why?

They're both important. But I think I would fall more on the side of story. When I read, voice often fades into the background when I get caught up in the story. But that's my bias from the way I read.

13. Alayna, please share with desperate readers where they can connect with you in cyber world. =)

I love to hear from readers! My website is http://www.alaynawilliams.com/. I'm also on Twitter at http://www.blogger.com/goog_248572728


14. I know this is a difficult question with there being so many amazing authors out there to choose from but who are some of the GOT-TO-HAVE authors in your TBR pile?

Oohhh, there are so many. Ann Aguirre, Robin McKinley, Jeri Smith-Ready, Allison Pang, Thomas E. Sniegoski. I want to see things that are out of the box and engrossing. They deliver every time.

15. What’s next in the works for you? When can readers expect to see it out on shelves in their local bookstores?

I have a couple of projects that I'm working on now - stay tuned!


In the meantime, DARK ORACLE and ROGUE ORACLE by Alayna Williams are on bookshelves. They're a mashup of science and magic following the adventures of Tara Sheridan, a criminal profiler who uses Tarot cards to solve crimes.


And I also have EMBERS and SPARKS out by my alter ego, Laura Bickle. Ghostbusters in Detroit with dragons and arson. Ill-tempered fire salamanders and grit abound.

Alayna, thanks so much for stopping by and chatting with Over the Edge readers and myself; it has really been a blast getting to know more about you and your books,

Thanks so much for having me. I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to chat with you and your readers.

~GIVEAWAY~

In celebration of the second installment in paranormal romance/urban fantasy author, Alayna williams's Delphic Oracle series, "ROGUE ORACLE" released by Pocket Juno Books March 2011;  Over the Edge along with Pocket Jumo Books will be giving two lucky readers their very own copy.  To enter here are a few simple rules.

* +5 Leave a comment
for
Alayna Williams

 including email.
* +5 Leave a comment about
Alayna Williams's
ROGUE ORACLE
book covers

  * +2 Spread the Word!
* +5 Follow me on Twitter.

* +5 Add me as friend on Facebook.

*+5 Connect with OTE at NING.

* Become a follower of Over the Edge!
 (+3 Already a follower--You ROCK! +2 Become a follower.)

The giveaway is open to ALL readers and will be running until May 1, 2011. I'll be picking and contacting the winners directly on May 2, 2011.
Please make sure to include your email with your comment.
Happy Reading!

Giveaway & Interview with USA Today's Bestselling Author, Janelle Denison

Title: INTO THE NIGHT

Series: Book One ~

Reliance Group series

By Janelle Denison

Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks

Pub. Date: April 2011

Genre: Contemprary Romance

Format: Mass-market

 & eBook

Read an Excerpt

Order Now!

USA Today bestselling author Janelle Denison is back with a steamy new series. The skilled, sexy members of the top-secret Reliance Group take risks no one else will, and take no prisoners when it comes to love.

A former Marine and Las Vegas vice copy, Nathan Fox has seen it all and then some. Heading up security for the Onyx Casino is tame compared to his past, but it's not his only job. Working for The Reliance Group is his real passion project. His current case: a missing woman. His mission: to find her. But soon Nathan must deal with a stubborn, and stunning, journalist who's nosed her way into the investigation . . . and into Nathan's fantasies.

To reporter Nicole Hutton, exposing a ruthless, twisted criminal who abuses vulnerable teens isn't just a job. In fact, this story has become very personal, especially now that she's gotten tangled up with sexy Nathan Fox. But before she can break the story, and help rescue a missing girl, she and Nathan must brave the labyrinth of Vegas's dark underbelly . . . where the heat simmering between them is about to burst into flames.

Over the Edge Reviews

Questions with

USA Today’s

Bestselling

Author

Janelle Denison

• What is the best part of being a writer? What is the worst?

The best part of being a writer is writing books and creating characters that touch readers in some way. Getting a great review on a book I’ve sweated blood and tears over feels pretty darn nice, too. Also, being self-employed, making my own hours, and working in my sweats is another perk that’s pretty sweet.


The worst part of being a writer is being mentally creative and striving to make each book I write different, and better than the last. To make each story fresh, unique, and original. I’ve written nearly 50 books, and when I was pre-published I was certain writing a book would get so much easier in time, but the truth is, it gets harder. Much harder.


• Why do you write?

Because I love the romance genre. I love creating characters who have to overcome conflict and all the odds stacked against them to finally grasp their happily-ever-after. And I enjoy sharing those stories with readers who love the romance genre as much as I do.

• Name one eye-opening thing you learned from your book research.

This particular book’s plot touches on teenage prostitution and human trafficking. Doing research was incredibly eye-opening, and heart-wrenching, because it’s a lot bigger problem in our nation than I ever realized. While the young girl in my story gets out alive with the help of my hero and heroine, most real victims do not.


• Do you have a favorite motto?

My favorite motto is “It is what it is”. Telling myself this phrase when I come across a situation that’s out of my control is the best stress reliever ever (for me)! =)


• Do you have a favorite fictional hero? Favorite fictional heroine?

I can’t think of a favorite fictional heroine, but I do have a favorite fictional hero. Jason Bourne (Robert Ludlum’s Bourne Series). Granted, I’ve never read the books, but I’ve seen all the movies and I’m in love with Jason Bourne. He’s super cool, super-sexy, and he kicks ass and takes no prisoners while doing it. He’s a drool worthy hero, but he’s also a man of honor - - professionally, and when it comes to the woman in his life. ::sigh::

• Which fictional character would you hang out with?

Any character from Larissa Ione’s Demonica Series. Every single one of those demons are SO COOL!

• What is one of your favorite book covers, your own or someone else’s?

Have you seen Jaci Burton’s cover for THE PERFECT PLAY? Talk about man eye-candy! Whew! I could stare at that cover all day long!

• What would readers be surprised to learn about you?

That I started writing on a dare from my husband. I’m not one of those people who wrote stories as a child and always knew they’d someday become a writer. In fact, English in high school was my least favorite subject! So, about this dare . . . I was working in a one-girl office (I was the one girl), and there wasn’t a whole lot to do, but I had to stay until five in the afternoon to answer the phones. So, I started reading. A lot. Like ten or more books a week. My husband and I were newly married, and on a budget, and buying all those books were expensive. One day he said to me “You keep reading all these romance novels and we can’t afford it. Why don’t you write a romance novel of your own?”.

Bam! The challenge was on. It took me nearly five years to sell my first book, but I haven’t looked back since getting that first book published. I’m sure I’d be working a boring 9-to-5 job if it wasn’t for my husband’s dare.

• What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever learned by Googling your name?

I guess I’ve been pretty lucky, because I’ve never come across anything strange while Googling my name. Mostly, it’s all about my website, books, and me as an author. I’m okay with all that!

• If you could go backward or forward in time which would you chose? Why?

I have no desire to go back in time. I truly have no regrets or anything I’d want to “do over”. I’m happily married to a man I adore (24 years now!), and both of my girls are in good places in their lives. So, I think I’d go forward in time, but only if I could come back to the present. I’d love to see the amazing people that my daughters “become”, and how many grandchildren I have to look forward to.

• Which do you find is most important to you as a writer, voice or story? Why?

I think both voice AND story are equally important. For me, every author should have a unique voice . . . and a unique story to tell. I can’t separate the two!

• Janelle, please tell us about your latest release by St. Martin’s Press release, “INTO THE NIGHT”.

INTO THE NIGHT is the first book in a new series for me that revolves around “The Reliance Group”, a team of recruited specialists who are motivated by the thrill of the case, driven by the adrenaline rush of a challenge, and are willing to take on jobs other agencies won’t touch. They are rebels, rogues, and rule-breakers, and what makes this series unique is that the characters aren’t necessarily “straight-up”, and there is a good mix of what they specialize in. There is a con-artist, a Navy Seal, a thief, a psychic, a vice-cop, and a computer hacker. They all have interesting and fun stories to tell, and I can’t wait to share them with readers.

INTO THE NIGHT features Nathan Fox. A former Marine and Las Vegas vice cop, Nathan has seen it all, and then some. Heading up security for the Onyx Casino is tame compared to his past, but it’s not his only job. Working for The Reliance Group is his real passion project. His current case: a missing woman. His mission: to find her. But soon Nathan must deal with a stubborn, and stunning, journalist who’s nosed her way into the investigation . . . . and into Nathan’s fantasies.


To reporter Nicole Hutton, exposing a ruthless, twisted criminal who abuses vulnerable teens isn’t just a job. In fact, this story has become very personal, especially now that she’s gotten tangled up with sexy Nathan Fox. But before she can break the story, and help rescue a missing girl, she and Nathan must brave the labyrinth of Vegas’s dark underbelly . . . where the heat simmering between them is about to burst into flames.

• Janelle, for desperate readers like me where can we connect with you out in cyber-land.=)

Here’s a list of places you can visit me (Sorry, I don’t Twitter!):


Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/janelledenisonfanpage
Author Blog: www.plotmonkeys.com
Website: http://www.janelledenison.com/

• I know this is a difficult question with there being so many amazing authors out there to choose from but who are some of the GOT-TO-HAVE authors in your TBR pile?

Larissa Ione (Did I mention I love her demons?), Jasmine Haynes (hot, emotional reads), Susan Elizabeth Phillips (fun, character-driven reads), Cindy Gerard & Roxanne St. Claire (Hot, suspenseful reads). Also, Carly Phillips -- I’m lucky enough to be her critique partner and get to read her books AS she writes them.

• What’s next in the works for you? When can readers expect to see it out on shelves in their local bookstores?

After INTO THE NIGHT, the second follow-up book in The Reliance Group series will be out in October 2011 titled NIGHT AFTER NIGHT. This book will feature Sean O’Brien’s story. I’m currently writing the third book in the series, which will hopefully be out by summer of 2012.


Janelle I appreciate it so much that stopped by today. Over the Edge readers and I have had a blast getting to know more about you and your work. =)

Thank you for inviting me! I appreciate the opportunity to connect with readers!

~GIVEAWAY~

To celebrate critically acclaimed USA Today's bestselling author, Janelle Denison's first book of her Reliance Group series, "INTO THE NIGHT", released on April 2011 by St. Martin's Paperbacks; Over the Edge along with St. Martin's Paperbacks will be giving two lucky readers their very own copy.  To enter here are a few simple rules.

* +5 Leave a comment

 including email for
Janelle Denison
* +5 Leave a comment about
INTO THE NIGHT
 book covers

  * +2 Spread the Word!
* +5 Follow me on Twitter.

* +5 Add me as friend on Facebook.

*+5 Connect with OTE at NING.

* Become a follower of Over the Edge!
 (+3 Already a follower--You ROCK! +2 Become a follower.)

The giveaway is open to ALL readers and will be running until April 24, 2011. I'll be picking and contacting the winners directly on April 25, 2011.
Please make sure to include your email with your comment.
Happy Reading!