K.A. Servian's Blog, page 4

Win prizes at the Addicted to Suspense mini book fair on until 31 March

If you love romantic mysteries and thrillers check out the Addicted to Suspense mini book fair and to be in to win one of two Kindles loaded with ebooks as well as over $50 of ebooks and Amazon vouchers.  No mailing list signups are required to enter this contest.

My romantic suspense novel, Throwing Light, is featured as part of this event.

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Author Spotlight on Vicky Adin

Multi-award-winning historical fiction author, Vicky Adin is a genealogist in love with history and words.

After decades of research, Vicky has combined her skills to weave together the intriguing secrets she uncovered with historical events in a way that brings the past to life.

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Fascinated by the 19th Century pioneers who undertook hazardous journeys to find a better life, especially the women, Vicky draws her characters from real life stories: characters such as Brigid, the Irish lacemaker in ‘The Girl from County Clare and Gwenna, the Welsh confectioner, or Megan who discovers much about herself when she traces her family tree in ‘The Cornish Knot’.

Vicky Adin holds an MA(Hons) in English and Education. She is an avid reader of historical novels, family sagas and contemporary women’s stories and enjoys travelling.

For more information, visit her website http://www.vickyadin.co.nz

 

‘GWENNA’

Against all odds, the plucky sweet maker refuses to relinquish her dreams.

Winner of an IndieB.R.A.G medallion, a Chill with a Book Readers’ Award and a BGS Gold Standard Quality Mark.

 

Amid the bustling vibrancy of Auckland’s Karangahape Road, Gwenna Price is determined to bring her Pa’s dream to life – and she would if it wasn’t for her domineering stepbrother, Elias.

Instead of opening a shop to sell their hand-made sweets, it would only be a matter of time before the whole business collapsed with him in charge. She had to save it.

Throughout the twists and turns of love and tragedy, Gwenna is a young woman with uncommon courage in an era when women were expected to stay at home.

But Gwenna is irrepressible. Nothing will stand in her way. Blind to anything that distracts her from creating her legacy, Gwenna risks losing the one thing that matters to her the most.

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Extract:

Auckland, New Zealand

March 1899

For the moment, she felt free – deliciously free – only too aware the illusion would pass soon enough.

Gwenna Price hurried along busy Karangahape Road towards Turner’s, the greengrocer. Her boots crunched along the hardened grit as she swung her basket and called a cheery good morning to shopkeepers preparing for the day ahead. She loved watching them sweeping footpaths, cleaning windows or winding out the shop awnings, unless they were lucky enough to have a fixed verandah. Other merchants set their wares out in doorways and along their shopfronts, seemingly indifferent to the rattle of trams and clink of harness, or the clomp of horses’ hooves and bicycles whirring past.

Gwenna delighted in these sounds as the day came to life, exhilarated by all the hustle and bustle. She waved to the girl changing the window display in the milliner’s shop and stopped to pat a horse munching on oats in its nosebag, wishing her life could be as contented. In the distance, the sails on Partington’s Mill slowly turned in the breeze.

One day, she promised herself, she would be a part of all this busyness. One day.

She continued down the street, mentally ticking off her shopping list, thankful for the wide-brimmed bonnet shading her face. Her cool dimity blouse and pale grey skirt swishing around her ankles were a blessing in the warm air on a cloudless autumn day.

She pushed the niggling worry of her ailing half-brother Charlie to the back of her mind as the far more pressing worry of the charming and persistent Johnno Jones entered her thoughts. She was tempted to give in to the young man’s pleas, if only to escape life at home, except for one troublesome detail – his father, Black Jack Jones.

She and Johnno had known each other once in childhood days when his father had been the local carter and used to do odd jobs for her pa, but they’d disappeared years ago. She’d all but forgotten about them until Johnno returned over the summer.

Deep in thought, Gwenna hadn’t seen Johnno appear, as if from nowhere, as he was wont to do. He’d grabbed her hand and spun her round like they were dancing before his smiling face came into focus. His cap was set at its usual rakish angle. “How’s my favourite girl doing?”

She slapped his arm playfully, laughing, elated at the sight of him. Readjusting her hat, she tried to ignore the melting feeling that swept over her whenever he was near. As a youngster, with his impish smile and cheerful ways, Johnno had been a popular lad for running messages. He still found occasional work, but nobody hired Black Jack any longer.

“What are you doing here at this time of day, Johnno? You near scared me to death,” she teased.

“Hoping to see you, of course. How can you ’xpect a man to go for so long without seeing yer pretty face?” Johnno twisted one of her freshly curled ringlets around his finger as he leaned closer.

At his touch, a flutter ignited in places too intimate to think about. “Away with you now. Enough of your flattery, and it’s not much more’n a week since you saw me last. I’ve work to do, ev’n if you don’t.”

“Aw, Gwenna. Don’t be like that. Walk with me aways. You make my heart glad, that you do, and I need some cheering.”

“So you always say.”

His glorious brown eyes, glowing with desire, threatened to devour her, and she couldn’t resist their unmistakable message.

“All right, then, but only a wee ways. I need to get the groceries home before that stepbrother of mine thinks I’ve been gone too long. I don’t want to feel the sting of his hand this day if I can avoid it.”

“Run away with me, sweet Gwenna, and I promise you’ll never feel the sting of a man’s hand ever again.”

He led her off the main road and down a couple of twisting alleyways until there was not a soul in sight. Gently pushing her back against the warmth of the brick wall, he kissed and caressed her with a lightness of touch that sent shivers through her body. The more she quivered, the more amorous he became. She lost her heart, as well as her hat, as the fiery passions of youth flared.

“Ah, Gwenna, me love. I wish you’d come away with me. What have you got to lose? Jack and me, we’re leaving this night to try our luck down south.” Johnno always called his father by his nickname. There were far too many John Joneses, even in Auckland, not to differentiate them in some way. “The wagon’s all loaded and only needs you to decorate it.”

Gwenna had heard this argument before, more than once, and it was enticing, but not if she had to be anywhere near his father: something evil burned in that man’s dark eyes.

If only Pa were still with us, she wished fervently. He would advise me. She shook her head to chase away her futile thoughts. Her stepbrother, Elias Hughes, was head of the household now, and life had changed.

“We’ve been through this afore, Johnno. Sometimes the devil ya know is better than the one you don’t. And I can’t leave Mam just yet. She’s enough on her plate caring for young Charlie. He’s mighty sickly, and Elias wouldn’t care whether he lives or dies.”

Never to be undone and always philosophical, Johnno shrugged his shoulders. “Well then, give us some more of those tasty kisses to take with me on me travels. I’ll have to store ’em up till I return.”

You can follow her on

Amazon             https://www.amazon.com/Vicky-Adin/e/B006JTB0VE

Goodreads       https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6543974.Vicky_Adin

Facebook          https://www.facebook.com/VickyAdinAuthor/

Linked In           https://www.linkedin.com/in/vicky-adin-82b74513/

Pinterest           https://nz.pinterest.com/nzvicky/

Instagram         https://www.instagram.com/vickyadinauthor/?hl=en

Twitter               https://twitter.com/VickyAdin

 

First draft complete and my costumes on display

I have exciting news. The first draft of the second book in the Shaking The Tree series (and sequel to The Moral Compass) is complete – Yay! Now the editing process begins – boo!

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A Pivotal Right opens with the three chapters that were included at the end of The Moral Compass. The story then picks up at the moment where Florence comes face to face with Jack twenty years after she thought she had buried him. It also fills in the intervening years and examines the turbulent relationship between Florence’s daughter, Viola, and Jack’s adopted son, Liam, as Viola fights to break the mold of acceptable behaviour for Victorian ladies.

This has been a complex book to write with four main characters, two interrelated plot lines and two separate sets of sequential flashbacks all running along side by side. Getting all of these elements to work together has been a mammoth task.

You would think that after all they have been through Florence and Jack would be able to overcome anything, but their reunion is far from smooth. And then, just when it looks as if everything is going to be okay,  a spectre from the past raises its ugly head and threatens to separate them forever.

And before you ask, yes, there will be a third book in the series.

The title, A Pivotal Right, refers to the backdrop of social change against which the novel is set.  In the 1870s, the Chartist movement had been pushing for electoral reform and enfranchisement for working-class men in Britain for several decades and the women’s suffrage movement was beginning to gain momentum worldwide. It was a time when long-held attitudes, particularly about the class system and the place of women in society, were being challenged.  This was a very exciting period within which to base a story. There are so many real-life accounts to draw on of the brave people who fought to bring about change to a system that had suppressed their rights for centuries.

 

Also, if you are in the Auckland area of New Zealand on the 22nd of March, you are welcome to come along to a display of my costumes spanning one hundred years between 1815 and 1915.

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Author spotlight on Anne Ashby

Check out New Zealand author Anne Ashby’s latest contemporary romance, Return to Riversleigh, which is set in rural Southland.

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Shannon’s adrenalin junkie husband gambled away their security and his life. Determined 12 year old Thomas retains his beloved father’s image, Shannon’s decisions, which include leaving Auckland, upset her son. The angst between them has reached breaking point.

His brother’s death changed Luke. The carefree adventurer now has two children to raise on the farm he’d escaped years ago. Developing an adventure park might restore something of his previous life. His friend, Jase McEwan, warns he’ll need help. Out of work Shannon has the qualifications.

Reluctant to associate with another careless adventurer, Shannon finds Luke’s blasé attitude and claims of unlimited finances worrying. But she soon accepts Luke is unlike her husband. Despite Luke encouraging Thomas to escape Shannon’s mollycoddling, friendship develops and other emotions surface.

But will any chance of a deeper relationship be destroyed when Shannon discovers Luke is a gambler, too?

 

Excerpt:

Shannon leapt up from her chair and stomped across to the window. Why did he have to spoil everything? She gripped the windowsill and leaned her head against the cold glass. Why does emotion have to infringe on such a great working rapport? If I’m going to keep working here, I have to do something fast.

With no idea where Luke might be, but suspecting he’d be somewhere in the house with Amy, Shannon spun around and stormed down the hallway. She found him sitting in the lounge flicking through a farmers’ weekly magazine while Amy watched cartoons.

He’s using television as a babysitter to limit his responsibilities. Shannon’s lips tightened even more at his lack of parental care. She marched in and stood between him and the television screen. Her fingers rolled into fists at the lazy, relaxed expression on his face as he looked up.

“I told you the day I arrived here, Luke. I’ve come to work for you, not to provide you with some plaything whenever you might become bored. If you’re unwilling to accept this, you can have my resignation.”

With a hasty glance toward his niece, Luke jumped to his feet. “Jeez, Shannon.” He rubbed an agitated hand around his neck. “It was only a kiss.”

Only a kiss? More an earthquake under my feet.

Her expression must have blackened as he thrust up a hand. “Okay, okay, whatever you say. I sure as hell don’t want your damned resignation.”

 

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Anne Ashby grew up in a very small coastal town in Southland, New Zealand. An eagerness to see the world led her to join the Royal NZ Navy where she enjoyed a very satisfying career. She has travelled extensively and lived in Singapore and Maryland USA. When not reading or writing, Anne enjoys travelling anywhere and hanging out with her family and old Navy friends. One day she promises she’ll catalogue all her genealogy notes. She and her husband live in Auckland, with children and grandchildren close by.  https://www.anneashby.com

 

Buy links

TWRP http://bit.ly/2CHCmQJ

Amazon au http://amzn.to/2DkKisI

Amazon http://amzn.to/2CkqmVx

Amazon uk http://amzn.to/2lTtPn5

Barnes and Noble http://bit.ly/2lTc5Ia

Check out my new costume and celebrate love at the Romance Book Fair

 

You’ll be pleased to know that I am tapping away at my keyboard working hard on the sequel to The Moral Compass. But I did take a break today to take some photos of my latest costume creation. This outfit is based on garments from the 1890s and I drafted the jacket pattern using actual 1895 instructions (which was no easy task). Lauren very kindly modelled for me yet again and she did an amazing job as she always does.

Now I just have to write a book so I can put this costume on the cover. Any suggestions?

 

The treats just keep coming this month. Check out the Romance Book Fair for a whole lot of amazing novels (The Moral Compass included) all priced at $2.99 or less.

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Win a Kindle loaded with sixty ebooks and $250 in Amazon gift cards

Check out the Love kissed promo giveaway between 5 Feb and 3 March. Enter to win a Kindle, an ebook from each participating author (that’s 60 ebooks!) and $250 in Amazon Gift Cards!One simple entry will subscribe you to all participating Romance Authors’ Newsletters. PLUS…use the bonus entries to increase your chances.Unsubscribe anytime.

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Don’t forget that The Moral Compass is only 99c (US) right through February.

14 days of giveaways

I’m participating in the 14 days of romance giveaway this month. There will be multiple giveaways each day including books and chocolates. I’ll be giving away ten copies of The Moral Compass on the 11th of Feb. Make sure you check it out so you can be in to win.

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Author Spotlight – Lizzi Tremayne

This is something new. I’m going to host other authors on my blog from time to time to give you a glimpse at the work of some wonderfully talented writers. First up is multi-award winner Lizzi Tremayne. She was a Finalist in the 2013 RWNZ Great Beginnings; Winner of the 2014 RWNZ Pacific Hearts Award, Winner of the 2015 RWNZ Koru Award for Best First Novel, third in Koru Long Novel section, and finalist 2015 Best Indie Book Award.

Lizzi writes both historical and contemporary novels with romantic elements. Today, the spotlight is on her Once Upon a Vet School contemporary veterinary series, #7 Lena Takes a Foal.

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Lena has a problem—one that could keep her from graduating from veterinary school. There’s one person who can help her, but will he? After a messy divorce, Kit returns to his first loves—horses and his old veterinary school alma mater, as a resident. Becoming involved with his talented and beautiful equine track student Lena isn’t on the cards. Luckily, she’s sworn off relationships after her last romantic disaster. Besides, if there’s one thing a veterinary school faculty frowns upon, it’s a relationship between a resident and a student. Like oil and water, they just don’t mix.  

Excerpt:

1986 Northern California

Mickey’s roan ears, silhouetted against the pale green light filtering into the tiny glade, rose higher and higher before me and my heart froze — he’d never reared this high before. The light disappeared as the horse’s massive body blocked out the sun. A blinding flash of pain and the scent of rotting leaves as my body hit the forest litter, then only blessed darkness.

❧

Someone was there in the darkness before us. Biting my lip, I reined Mickey to a halt at the sight of a strange white pickup truck. It glowed in the light of the dim bulb above the stable yard. The barn door creaked as it swung open, then closed behind the figure of a tall man. There weren’t any men boarding horses here.

Who… ?

I swallowed hard, glancing from side to side to see if anyone else was around, my fingers tightening on the reins. Mickey backed up a step, his bit clanking as he threw his head, and I gritted my teeth to keep from crying out with pain at the motion. The figure turned to face us.

“Hello, who’s there?” he called out.

Kit Allen, a surgery resident from the veterinary school. I let out my breath and shivered as the butterflies dancing in my stomach nearly overcame even the throbbing in my leg.

“It’s me, Lena Scott,” I said.

He walked toward me and I squeezed my legs to move my horse forward before I thought. I yelped but bit it off.

“What the heck are you doing out riding at this hour?” His brows narrowed as I rode up to him. “And what have you done to your face?”

“Ahhh… we had a… disagreement about going home.”

“Looks like the roan won. Bit late for a ride, isn’t it?”

He set down a bucket full of bandaging materials and reached for one of Mickey’s reins.

“I left mid-afternoon,” I said, wincing. “I only got as far as the glade, a few miles across the fields.”

“Are you okay?” He frowned as his eyes scanned the perfectly cool horse, then his gaze snapped to mine.

“I’ve hurt my leg.” My attempt at nonchalance came out as a whine. My left foot hung free of the stirrup — the leg hurt too much to do anything else.

“What have you done with Lena?” Kit muttered, as he moved to the horse’s near side and froze. He stared at the swelling bulging above the top of my boot, all the way to mid-thigh, then at my eyes, as comprehension dawned. “Is this horse named Mickey? What happened?”

I took a deep breath. I didn’t want anyone to know, especially someone from the vet school.

“Yes, it’s Mickey. He fell on me.”

“He fell? It’s flat out there.” His voice was terse and the furrows on his brow deepened.

“He went over backwards,” I whispered, my heart in my throat.

“That riding school he came from — ” He stopped and gritted his teeth. “Anyway, you’re hurt,” he said, his voice softening. “Can you get down?”

I shook my head.

“I was wondering how I’d get off,” I said, surveying the rickety old corral fences.

“Let me help.” He was tall enough to hold me around the waist and pull me carefully from the saddle, while I sternly told the butterflies to go to play somewhere else. I clamped my jaws together when my bad limb bumped against his, but I couldn’t help gasping when it hit the dirt.

“I’ll put the horse away and give you a ride,” Kit said and released me as soon as I could bear weight on it.

“I can drive mys — ”

“— good thing you were wearing that thing. There’s a great dent in it.” He raised a brow at me, eyeing the back of my helmet. “You were knocked out, weren’t you?”

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. “I don’t know.”

“Right. I don’t know what you had planned, but you won’t manage the heavy clutch in your old truck with that leg, will you?”

“I hadn’t actually thought past getting back to the barn in one piece,” I mumbled, mostly to myself, as he led the horse away.

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Author Bio:    Lizzi grew up riding wild in the Santa Cruz Mountain redwoods, became an equine veterinarian at UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, practised in the California Pony Express and Gold Country before emigrating to New Zealand. When not writing, she’s swinging a rapier or shooting a bow in medieval garb, riding, driving a carriage or playing on her farm, singing, or working as an equine veterinarian or science teacher. She is multiply published and awarded in special interest magazines and veterinary periodicals.

Website:                      https://lizzitremayne.com

Instagram:                  https://www.instagram.com/lizzitremayne/

Goodreads:                 https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/12069495.Lizzi_Tremayne

Twitter:                       https://twitter.com/lizzitremayne

Facebook:                   https://www.facebook.com/lizzitremayneauthor/

Pinterest:                     https://nz.pinterest.com/lizzitremayne/

  

A very busy time…

Hi, everyone. The next few weeks are going to be super busy. I’ll be the guest on the sites of several wonderful authors starting with a spot on Jude Knight’s Sunday Spotlight tonight. Next week from Monday the 22nd (US) until the following Wednesday I’m doing a blog tour with Historical Fiction Virtual Tours  and there will be several promos running during February that I’ll be taking part in. On Wednesday the 24th of Jan (that’s next Tuesday in the US and UK) between 10am and 9pm (NZ time), I’ll be taking part in the Kiwi Summer Beach Party. During the party, lots of NZ authors will take turns posting about their books and talking about summer in New Zealand. There will be loads of fun, games and giveaways and it will definitely be worth checking out particularly if you’re shivering your way through a northern winter.

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From now until the end of February the ebook of The Moral Compass is discounted to .99c US. So if you haven’t got a copy yet, now’s the time.

Also, and this is completely unrelated to my writing, I also enjoy taking photos. You can check them out on my Instagram feed.

Fill your Kindle for 2018. Hurry, sale ends tomorrow

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Need to fill your Kindle with romances to make the bookworm in you swoon for 2018?

Want books that’ll heat you up, sizzle your skin, and melt your heart?

We’ve got 85+ FREE and bargain $0.99 romances to get you through the rest of summer. From sexy or sweet contemporaries to romantic comedy, paranormal, romantic suspense, erotic romance, women’s fiction, and Urban fantasy/Sci-fi/fantasy – we’ve got you covered.

Go here before the sale ends: http://traceyalvarez.com/xmas2017-sale/

My romantic suspense novel, Throwing Light is free as part of this promotion.