Thea Harrison's Blog, page 30
June 1, 2012
Blog Post: today’s Writer Wednesday winner a bit early
My apologies for cutting the contest short and posting a Writer Wednesday winner before noon, but my daughter is in the hospital having a baby, so I won’t be able to do this later.
This week’s Writer Wednesday winner with guest author Julie Rowe is JenM! Congratulations, Jen. I’ve emailed the winner separately.
Next week’s guest is Eloisa James!
Happy reading,
Thea
May 30, 2012
SAVE THE DATE– Penguin Books’ Project Paranormal multi-author spreecast on June 5th. Plz RT!
On June 5th, from 3 to 4 pm EST, Penguin books will be holding a Project Paranormal spreecast with myself and authors Sylvia Day, Laura Wright and Stephanie Tyler.
The topic will be “Crafting Characters: How do you write a bloodthirsty vampire, believable villain or powerhouse heroine?” (and whatever other questions fans may have…)
You can read more about the publisher connecting readers with authors via social media here on www.goodereader.com.
The spreecast website is here.
They have a Project Paranormal webpage set up for next week’s spreecast here.
Come join us–it’s going to be a lot of fun!
Thea
Blog Post: Day One of Thea and Viv’s Big Adventure
Day One of Thea and Viv’s Big Adventure: Door/Starting Gate
Welcome to the first day of Thea and Viv’s Big Adventure! It’s an exciting blog tour, and Viv and I had a lot of fun creating it. We hope you enjoy it as much as we have!
Today I’m writing about developing a non-writing hobby. It might come as no surprise that I work a lot. I love just about every aspect of my job, and not just the storytelling. I really enjoy revisions and editing, and the networking and blogging as well. In fact the only part of my job that I don’t really enjoy is the accounting and administrative part, but that’s a necessary component of any self-employment venture.
Also, I have a strong deadline schedule, but I have not yet reached a place where I am ready to hire an assistant. And nowadays, even when I sit down to read I find myself processing the book from a professional point of view, which is not a bad thing at all but it is work related too.
So I have been in search of a hobby that has nothing to do with reading or writing, some kind of activity that I can do for fun that is a real change of pace. One of my friends, Bree from the writing team that publish under the name Moira Rogers, has tweeted a couple of pictures of one of her own hobbies, making soap. It looked like so much fun that when I went to Hobby Lobby and walked up and down their aisles, looking at the craft supplies, I decided that I wanted to try to make some soap too.
In keeping with the theme for today’s blog, which is the Door, or Starting Gate, I bought supplies and first tried making soap a few Saturdays ago. I was worried I would trash the kitchen and create a total monstrous mess of things… but I didn’t. I discovered that I enjoyed making soap, and the results look fun!
In fact, I got so encouraged from that first attempt that I went back to the store for more supplies, and I’m branching out to create different kinds of soap now. Now I’m getting ambitious. I’m thinking about trying to make homemade bath salts and sugar scrubs. I might actually try to make birthday and Christmas presents this year, which is something I’ve never done before.
Then, because my job is not just a job but more of a vocation, inevitably my thoughts turned to work again. I realized these pretty little soaps I was making might make wonderful gifts and prizes for giveaways.
Cue my fun friend Vivian Arend, who has been the driving creative force behind our 10 day blog tour. We got to discussing prizes, and while we’re having daily giveaways of our backlist at Samhain Publishing, we’ve also created some lovely bigger prizes. Two of the prizes are swag bags that will hold some of these handmade soaps, Godiva chocolate, a hand-woven back scrubber imported from Ecuador by Viv, a candle, a copy of my first book DRAGON BOUND, and a copy of Viv’s first two novellas UNDER THE NORTHERN LIGHTS. For more information on the prizes and the dates and details of the blog tour, check my blog post from yesterday.
In the meantime, you can also toodle over to Viv’s blog to see what she has to say today. For now I’m smashing a bottle of virtual champagne on the prows of both our websites as we launch the tour!
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THEA AND VIV’S BIG ADVENTURE is brought to you by Thea Harrison and Vivian Arend, New York Times and USA Today bestselling authors with a love for both travel and writing. They have joined together for the nefarious purpose of celebrating their next Samhain Publishing ebooks.
Thea’s DEVIL’S GATE releases June 5. The novella returns readers to the world of The Elder Races. Available at: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Samhain Publishing
WOLF LINE, #5 in Viv’s bestselling Granite Lake Wolves, is available June 12. Available at: Amazon | Barne’s & Noble | Samhain Publishing
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Comment for your chance to win:
Information re: Grand Prize can be found at Thea or Viv’s
DAILY PRIZE: One commenter here at this blog will win their choice of one of Thea or Viv’s backlist Samhain ebooks from either the Elder Races or Granite Lake Wolves series. If you’ve got them all, you can gift this to a friend!
Winners for all the tour stops will announced HERE at my blog and at Viv’s on JUNE 13.
Question for today:
What have you started recently that you enjoy doing? What are some of your favorite hobbies?
Blog Post: Writer Wednesday guest Julie Rowe and giveaway
From Thea: I’m delighted to have author Julie Rowe visit this week. Julie and I have connected through the miracle of social media. Julie’s friendly and fun, and I’m looking forward to meeting her in person at RWA this year in Anaheim. After you read her bio and blog post, I’m sure you’ll agree, she has a bright future ahead of her!
Bio: Julie Rowe’s first career as a medical lab technologist in Canada took her to the North West Territories and northern Alberta, where she still resides. She loves to include medical details in her romance novels, but admits she’ll never be able to write about all her medical experiences because, “No one would believe them!” A double Golden Heart finalist 2006, Julie has two books out with Carina Press: ICEBOUND and NORTH OF HEARTBREAK. Her writing has also appeared in several magazines such as Today’s Parent, Reader’s Digest (Canada), and Canadian Living. She currently facilitates communication workshops for her local city college. You can reach her at www.julieroweauthor.com or on Twitter @julieroweauthor .
Julie’s holding a giveaway this week, and details will follow at the end of the post.
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Inspired By True Events. Asking The Right Questions.
Julie Rowe
One tip most writers hear is: write what you know. But, that’s easier said than done.
I worked as a medical lab technologist for 7 years in northern Alberta and the North West Territories of Canada and boy could I tell you some crazy stories, but I won’t because sometimes truth really is stranger than fiction. For example, the first time I observed an autopsy it was conducted by a British pathologist who wore an eye-patch, so it felt like Captain Jack Sparrow was holding the scalpel and. well, you get the idea.
In the past, I’ve had manuscripts rejected because the events were too unbelievable. The argument: But it really happened that way – is irrelevant.
Real people do things for no reason or stupid reasons all the time.
Characters in books, however, are held to a higher standard. Decisions must make sense, and few readers will tolerate too-stupid-to-live-syndrome from any character. And yet, I still find myself wanting to find a way to use some of my experiences to create intriguing and entertaining stories. It’s why I almost always include medical details in my books. I fictionalize everything, but there’s always a grain, or a bushel, of truth to it.
My latest release, NORTH OF HEARTBREAK, is set in a remote town in Alaska with a nurse practitioner heroine and pilot hero.
NORTH OF HEARTBREAK – Since her divorce, Willa Hayes has thrown herself into her work as a nurse practitioner in the remote town of Stony Creek, Alaska.
She’s regained her self-confidence and her heart is almost healed. Then her newfound peace is shaken by the arrival of sexy flyboy Liam Reynolds. Willa can’t deny she’s instantly, intensely attracted to him-even if she’s convinced he’s yet another Mr. Wrong.
Liam has his own reasons for fleeing to the isolation of the north, and a relationship is the last thing he wants. He wasn’t counting on being drawn to the pretty nurse who accompanies patients on his flights to southern hospitals.
Fortunately, the temptation-and the desire to avoid anything serious-is mutual. So the pair comes up with an arrangement: sensual, steamy, no-strings fun. But when things heat up on a cold Alaskan night, the rules of the game may change forever…
Carina Press (Nook or Kobo): http://bit.ly/H8O6eU
Kindle: http://amzn.to/J3RnsD
The town, the people and the medical situations are all fictional, yet they are all also inspired by real places, people and events. It can be tough to find and show the correct vein of truth in a truly outlandish true event.
I play the what-if game a lot.
My next release SAVING THE RIFLEMAN the first book in my WAR GIRLS series set during WW1 is also inspired by true events and people. World War One was a fascinating period in our history as the roles of women in war and society changed a great deal. And no where did that change occur more than for nurses. At the beginning of the war, female nurses were frowned upon by all and outright banned by several countries. But by the end of the war, female nurses were serving in great numbers almost everywhere. Amazing stories of service, generosity and sacrifice came from many of these women.
My personal favourite inspirational nurse from the First World War was Red Cross nurse Edith Cavell. Edith was the matron of a teaching hospital in Brussels, Belgium when the war broke out. She became involved in the Belgian underground and, depending on which account you read, helped anywhere from
40 to 200 British and allied soldiers escape to the neutral Netherlands. The Germans caught her at it, tried her for treason and executed her by firing squad on October 12, 1915.
If you’d like to discover more about real life WW1 heroine, Edith Cavell, go
here:
http://www.edithcavell.org.uk/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Cavell
I’ve always thought that Edith got short changed. She saved so many, so what if someone saved her? This question lead to more what-ifs. What if there were several British nurses working with her? What if these nurses played a larger role in the war than anyone knew?
This is how the WAR GIRLS series was born. The details of each story required hours of research and continuously asking what-if again and again.
Do you play the what-if game?
Answer Julie’s question for a chance to win a copy of NORTH OF HEARTBREAK. The giveaway ends on Friday June 1st, 12 noon MDT.
May 29, 2012
Blog Post: Birthday celebration winner and update on request for bookmarks
Thank you, everybody, who donated books to your library or favorite charity. It made me so happy to read all the comments. Thank you too for the birthday wishes. I feel very lucky to have connected with all of you in some small way, even if it is through my stories or blog, Twitter or Facebook.
The winner of the birthday celebration giveaway is Diane! I’ve emailed Diane separately to ask for her address. Congratulations! I hope you enjoy the homemade soaps and the books.
For every one who requested a bookmark, I will be mailing you within the next week or so, so keep your eye out for it!
Warm regards,
Thea
Blog Post: Thea and Viv’s Big Adventure Blog Tour Starts Tomorrow!
May 30-June 12, come join the fun as Vivian Arend and I share information about our upcoming Samhian releases- DEVILS GATE (4.6 novella in the Elder Races series) and Vivian’s WOLF LINE (#5 novella in the Granite Lake Wolves)
BIG ADVENTURE PRIZES!
GRAND PRIZE:
Winner’s choice of a Kindle or Nook
SECOND PRIZES:
Two winners will receive a Relaxing Getaway Swag Pack: Homemade soap by Thea, hand-woven back scrubber imported from Ecuador by Viv, Thea and Viv’s first books, DRAGON BOUND and UNDER THE NORTHERN LIGHTS, and various other treats.
Winners for these drawn from comments at all the tour stops and announced HERE at my blog and at Thea’s on JUNE 13.
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DAILY PRIZES: One commenter at each blog will win their choice of one of Vivian’s or my backlist Samhain ebooks from either the Granite Lake Wolves or the Elder Races series. If the winner has them all, the prize can be gifted to a friend!
Winners for these are drawn from comments at all the tour stops and will be announced HERE at my blog and at Viv’s on JUNE 13.
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BIG ADVENTURE TOUR!
May 30th- My Blog and Vivian’s
May 31th- Book Binge & Red Hot Reads
June 1-Smexy Books
June 4- Delighted Reader
June 5- RR@H Novel Thoughts
June 6- Nocturne Reads
June 7- The Book Pushers
June 8- Feeling Fictional & Hanging With Bells
June 11- Guilty Pleasures Book Reviews & Dark Faerie Tales
June 12- Wicked Lil Pixie Reviews & All Things Urban Fantasy
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THEA AND VIV’S BIG ADVENTURE is brought to you by Thea Harrison and Vivian Arend, New York Times and USA Today bestselling authors with a love for both travel and writing. They have joined together for the nefarious purpose of celebrating their next Samhain Publishing ebooks.
Thea’s DEVIL’S GATE releases June 5. The novella returns readers to the world of The Elder Races. Available at: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Samhain Publishing
WOLF LINE, #5 in Viv’s bestselling Granite Lake Wolves, is available June 12. Available at: Amazon | Barne’s & Noble | Samhain Publishing
May 25, 2012
Blog Post: This week’s Writer Wednesday winner
The winner of this week’s Writer Wednesday, with guest author Zoe Archer, is Mandy! I’ve emailed Mandy separately–congratulations!
Next week will be guest author Julie Rowe, and the week after that will be Eloisa James!
Happy reading, everybody.
Thea
May 23, 2012
Writer Wednesday: guest author Zoe Archer and Giveaway!
FROM THEA: I was so delighted when Zoe Archer asked me if I might be interested in having her guest on my blog. Yes indeed, I was! Zoe is a very talented romance writer who is also versatile. She seems to be entirely at home with writing historical, steampunk or science fiction.
Zoe’s also having a giveaway this week, and details for the giveaway follow at the end of the excerpt.
~~~
First, let me thank Thea for hosting me on her website today!
And now….down to business!
Many romance novels end with the hero and heroine getting married. Sometimes the wedding takes place in the middle of the book, and the hero and heroine must spend the remainder of the story learning about what it takes to make a successful marriage.
In DEMON’S BRIDE, my historical paranormal romance, the story opens with the hero and heroine’s wedding day. It seems like a strange place to start a narrative, but I wanted to give the reader the same sense of trepidation and discovery that Anne Hartfield feels being married to a virtual stranger. Since DEMON’S BRIDE is set in the 18th century, it’s not uncommon for marriages to be based on money or power rather than love. In fact, many aristocrats didn’t have the option of choosing a spouse based on affection. Their nuptials were used to form alliances or increase wealth.
Anne’s situation is a little different. She’s the daughter of an impoverished baron, and hasn’t any money to bring to a marriage. All she has is the prestige of her family’s title. Her aristocratic lineage is what makes her an attractive marriage candidate to Leo Bailey. Leo is the son of a saddler, a commoner who used ruthless business strategy to fight his way up from poverty. Now he’s one of the richest non-titled men in England. But not having genteel blood makes him a perennial outsider to the ranks of the elite. So, by marrying Anne, Leo obtains prestige, and by Anne marrying Leo, she gains wealth. It’s an ideal situation—except for the fact that the two barely know each other. Anne is very sheltered. Leo is extremely worldly. Plus, he seems to have a few mysterious secrets…
In this excerpt, Anne and Leo are in the middle of their wedding celebration, and getting ready for the guests to escort them to bed. That’s right—first Anne is going to be taken to the bridal bedchamber by her female relatives, dressed in her nightgown, put into bed, and then await her husband, who will be led toward the bedroom by the male guests, who will then stand outside and shout encouragements to the groom through the door . Seems awfully exposed, doesn’t it? Now Anne and Leo must await the inevitable procession, and contemplate what happens once they’re finally alone in the bedchamber.
________________
Leo turned to face Anne, and she resisted the impulse to look down at her clasped hands. He was too imposing, too handsome, too . . . everything. How could she find him so attractive and so intimidating at the same time? Yet, sainted heavens, she did.
“Are you well?”
Her eyes widened at his heated tone. For a moment, she thought he might be angry with her, but then she saw that his anger was at her defense. It warmed her, though she could not be entirely comfortable in his presence.
“Other than a surfeit of iced cakes, I am perfectly well.” She made herself smile. “I trust your . . . meeting was successful.”
“Tolerably.”
He seemed disinclined to say any more on the subject, and she was reluctant to press further. After all, their names were still drying on the parish register. She could not make demands of her husband so soon. According to her mother, at any rate. Throughout the day, Anne had received much advice from married women, most of it contradictory.
Be at all times silent and agreeable, else your husband will think you a termagant and shun your company.
Never allow your husband to dictate your actions or he will consider you weak and trifling, and shall not esteem you. Nothing ruins a marriage faster than lack of esteem between a man and his wife.
Which was it? Anne’s head spun with words, so many words, sly winks, and knowing smirks. Up to this day, she had passed her life in relative anonymity. Now it seemed the whole of her existence became the fodder for dozens of opinions, scores of eyes. She felt rather like a newborn vole forced out into the light, naked, blind, wriggling. Ideal prey.
From across the overheated chamber, Anne’s mother and several of her female relatives began walking toward her and Leo. The knowing smiles on their faces left little doubt as to their intention.
“I believe it is time for them to put us to . . . bed.” Good Lord, she could barely get the word out, and she felt by turns hot and cold. The man standing beside her was about to join his body to hers in the most intimate way possible—and though she found him attractive, she barely knew him.
“This distresses you.”
She did not want him to think her unwilling to perform the her marital responsibilities. After all, she had been taught that therein lay a woman’s primary function: the easing of a man’s desires and the bearing of children.
“Not at all, sir . . . Leo. Only, there are certain aspects of a marriage that are . . . private. And this”—she waved her hand toward the advancing women—“makes it all so very . . . public.”
“Then I’ll tell them to go to the Devil,” he answered at once.
A shocked laugh escaped her. “You can do no such thing.”
He raised one brow. “This is my house. You are my wife. I’ll do anything I bloody well please. And if it makes you uncomfortable to have the whole damned household shoving us into bed together, then it won’t happen.”
She stared at him. Many things he said astonished her. Not merely his rough language in the presence of a woman, but his willingness to flout convention. Gazing up into his cool gray eyes, Anne could see how such a man not only blazed a path for himself through the old, ancient forest of entitlement, but also how he had earned the name Hellraiser. A man who cared little for others’ opinions, who did as he pleased—the world was his to use or discard as he wanted. Without a backward glance for the smoldering devastation he left behind.
What a heady power that must be. And he was willing to exercise it on her behalf.
“Truly, I do not mind.”
“As you like.” He shrugged, the pull of velvet across his shoulders a testament not only to the tailor’s skill but the physicality of the man beneath the fabric. Pure feminine appreciation tugged low in her belly. What must he look like without layers of clothing?
She realized in a mix of panic and anticipation that she would find out very soon.
~~~
So, my question to you is, if you’re married, do you have any strange or funny stories about your wedding day? If you aren’t married, leave a comment about what could be the oddest or most bizarre thing that could happen during a wedding celebration. One winner will receive a copy of DEMON’S BRIDE! (Print for US/Canada, electronic for international.)
**Giveaway ends at 12 noon MDT on Friday, May 25th**
DEMON’S BRIDE
The Hellraisers, Book 2
Hell to Pay
Leo Bailey may have been born to poverty, but ruthless business sense and sparkling intelligence have made money worries a thing of his past. It doesn’t hurt that the Devil himself has granted Leo the ability to read the future.
But even infallible predictions are a déclassé commoner’s trick to some members of the ton. They’ll never see Leo as their equal – one good reason to prove himself their better. And a noble marriage is an obvious start.
Bookish Anne Hartfield, daughter of a baron, is hardly the flashiest miss on the marriage market. But her thoughtful reserve complements Leo’s brash boldness in an attraction neither can deny. A whirlwind courtship sweeps Anne and Leo into a smoldering marriage before either can believe their luck. But happiness built on Leo’s dark powers can’t last. Soon, Anne will have to save her husband…or lose her heart.
Zoë Archer is an award-winning romance author who thinks there’s nothing sexier than a man in tall boots and a waistcoat. As a child, she never dreamed about being the rescued princess, but wanted to kick butt right beside the hero. She now applies her master’s degrees in Literature and Fiction to creating butt-kicking heroines and heroes in tall boots. She is the author of the acclaimed BLADES OF THE ROSE series and the paranormal historical romance series, THE HELLRAISERS. She and her husband, fellow romance author Nico Rosso, created the steampunk world of THE ETHER CHRONICLES together. Her steampunk romance, SKIES OF FIRE, is now available from Avon Impulse, and Nico’s steampunk Western, NIGHT OF FIRE, will be available in July. Zoë and Nico live in Los Angeles.
Website, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr
To buy: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Chapters Indigo, Amazon UK
May 20, 2012
Blog Post: Help me celebrate my birthday by donating books to your local library. Please RT
My 50th birthday is on May 29th, and it’s getting close fast! Like last year, I would like celebrate my birthday in true hobbit fashion by giving things away.
I hope you will help me celebrate. For any of you that donate your gently used books to your local library, I would be happy to send you a signed bookplate.
Leave a comment here to let me know you’ve done this, and be sure to email me at: thea@theaharrison.com if you would like a signed bookplate.
On my actual birthday, I will pick one of you to receive some of my homemade soaps as a sort of grand prize. I will have experimented with my new supplies enough that I should have some nice dragon mold soaps.
The big prize will also contain a few of my gently used books. I haven’t decided which ones. I just finished a few of Linda Howard’s backlist, so those might be on offer.
Giveaway ends at 12 noon MDT, May 29th.
May 18, 2012
Blog Post: This week’s Writer Wednesday winner
The winner of this week’s Writer Wednesday, with guest author Steve Weddle, is Patti! I’ve emailed Patti separately–congratulations!
Next week on the schedule, it’s back to romance writing with guest author Zoe Archer.
Happy reading, everybody.
Thea
