July 28, 2016

My Favorite... Books & Music with @Author_Devika

What is your favourite book, song, or movie that inspires you to write?

Hm, the answer to that is more complicated than I had thought…

I can’t point out a single moment in my life or book I read which made me think “I want to be an author” – but I remember that Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles made me wish I’d be able to create such fascinating worlds and characters too. Out of those novels, I’ve read The Tale of the Body Thief the most, though I love all others like Interview with the Vampire too. And I fell in love with the English language as well as with the urge to write while reading and re-reading The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy.


I don’t really get inspired by music, but I sometimes realize while writing that a particular song would fit perfectly. When I talk about my debut, the contemporary romance novel When I See Your Face, I am constantly reminded of the song Just The Way You Are by Bruno Mars because he sings “When I see your face, there’s not a thing that I would change, ‘cause you’re amazing, just the way you are”. I recently thought of playlists for all of my books: http://www.devikafernando.com/blog/song-playlist-for-my-romance-novels

Author Bio

Almost as soon as Devika Fernando could write, she imagined stories and poems. After finishing her education in Germany and returning to her roots in Sri Lanka, she got a chance to turn her passion into her profession. Having lived in Germany and in Sri Lanka with her husband has made her experience the best (and the worst) of two totally different worlds - something that influences her writing. Her trademark is writing sweet and sensual, deeply emotional romance stories where the characters actually fall in love instead of merely falling in lust.

What she loves most about being an author is the chance to create new worlds and send her protagonists on a journey full of ups and downs that will leave them changed. She draws inspiration from everyone and everything in life. Besides being a romance novel author, Devika is a faithful servant to all the cats and dogs she has adopted. When she's not writing, she's reading or thinking about writing.

Links

https://twitter.com/Author_Devika
https://plus.google.com/+DevikaFernando



July 22, 2016

My Favorite... Movie with @karenrosesmith

A Movie To Fuel My Writing


My favorite all time movie is GHOST with Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore.  I viewed this movie with my husband in a theatre when it was first released back in 1990.  I went to see it because of Patrick Swayze. But I easily was enthralled with the storyline.  When I was in high school I was introduced to the book The Search For Bridey Murphy about past lives and was fascinated. I was Catholic but saw no clash with my background. I progressed to books about Edgar Cayce and clairvoyance.

It was shortly after my dad passed on that I viewed Ghost for the first time. I cried buckets, especially at the end. After all, isn't that what we want to believe about loved ones? That they'll always watch over us? That they are in a beautiful place of peace and light?

Energy surrounds us all the time.  After a loved one passes, have you ever felt their presence?  On an important occasion or maybe a holiday?  Love is energy that never leaves us and I think we go on feeling it throughout our lives.  I have an antique chest that belonged to my mom.  Every time I pass it, I remember my childhood and the house where I grew up.  Every once in a while, it seems to give off a scent that can take me back there in my mind...and in my heart.  When it does, it seems to be at those times when I need the touch of my mom's hand on my shoulder the most.

I think energy, a sixth sense and intuition are all closely related.  That's why it was easy for me to create a heroine who can find missing persons through their bonds with their loved ones.  In NATHAN'S VOW, the first novel in my SEARCH FOR LOVE series, Nathan asks Gillian to assist him in finding his ex-wife and daughters.  Although Gillian was recommended to him because of her success rate, he is skeptical at first.  But he learns she indeed has a gift.  He also learns that love is the greatest gift of all.

Gillian has a continuing role in all but one of the SEARCH FOR LOVE books. In my newest addition to the series, book 8--THE WEDDING PROMISE, Gillian helps the heroine find a lost best friend from her teenage years. This search is the key to the heroine's healing. Beth has known trauma in her life. She never expects her search to lead to danger as well as true love.

My SEARCH FOR LOVE series encompasses everything I'd like to believe about our connections to loved ones, our spiritual base, believing and hoping when we don't completely understand. When I want to remember all that and fuel my writing, I pull out my GHOST DVD and view it all over again.





Award-winning author Karen Rose Smith was born in Pennsylvania. Although she was an only child, she remembers the bonds of an extended family. Since her father came from a family of ten and her mother, a family of seven, there were always aunts, uncles and cousins visiting on weekends. Family is a strong theme in her books and she suspects her childhood memories are the reason.

In college, Karen began writing poetry and also met her husband to be. They both began married life as teachers, but when their son was born, Karen decided to try her hand at a home-decorating business.  She returned to teaching for a while but changes in her life led her to writing romance fiction. Now she writes romances and mysteries full time.

 Presently, she is hard at work on two mystery series—her Caprice De Luca Home Staging series as well as her Daisy's Tea Garden mysteries.  When she isn't writing, she cares for her four rescued cats and assorted strays, cooks, gardens and photographs all.  She enjoys interacting with her readers on social media.

Married to her college sweetheart since 1971, believing in the power of love and commitment, she envisions herself writing relationship novels, both romance and mystery, for a long time to come!



July 15, 2016

My Favorite... Video Game? with @Jinxie_G

Inspiration in Its Many Forms

First, I’d like to thank Maya for being such a gracious hostess and inviting me here today. She’s pretty awesome.

Good storytelling will always inspire me in some way, be it in the form of a book, a song, a movie, or even a video game. Yes, I said video game, so let’s talk about that for a moment. I like playing video games: the Tomb Raider, Assassin’s Creed, and Dragon Age series. I was playing Shadow of Mordor, but it’s pissing me the ever-loving hell off, though it is quite challenging for frustratingly specific reasons. I’ve put it on the back burner for a bit. Skyrim is in the lineup of games-to-play, but after spending over 180 hours playing Dragon Age: Inquisition, I know that one is going to be much longer. I don’t game on a regular basis, though it might sound otherwise. It’s all or nothing with me, as in not at all or 16 hours straight several days in a row. In fact, I hadn’t turned on my Xbox in weeks until last Sunday when I decided to start Tomb Raider. It’s the 2013 Game of the Year edition, which was nothing but a damn roller coaster ride for seven hours straight right off the bat. Holy crap!

And yes, it all started with Pong.

I point all of this out so you understand the level of gamer I am when I tell you that Assassin’s Creed first pulled me into its story that is so incredibly interwoven with actual history that I was in awe of not only the storytelling and depth of the characters, but also the amazing accuracy of the maps, the detail of the architecture of cities during the Renaissance, the early settlements of North America, and the oceans and islands of the Caribbean. It’s like historical fiction, and it blew my mind. And it made me really, REALLY want to write for one of these gaming companies. Future goal set. This particular series had me actually gaming regularly for a while too. The key here is that the games foster all kinds of ideas, so I have to have a notebook nearby when one strikes. My imagination goes into hyper-drive when I’m playing, the worlds are so intensely built. The games remind me to explore the possibilities of my stories because there are so many options with RPGs, so many different directions to take. Not so much with Tomb Raider; it’s a pretty straight shot. But when presented with a choice, every decision has a specific consequence, and I believe that’s important for the characters in our stories as well. That they understand and see the possibility of their decisions, or not, and suffer the consequences.

Similarly, specific authors and their books inspire me to write. J.R. Ward with her Black Dagger Brotherhood series is always inspirational when it’s not heart wrenching like the last one I read, The Shadows. The wounds are still raw enough on that one that I can’t write the review yet, and it’s been a few weeks since I finished it. Patricia Briggs’ Mercy Thompson series is another that inspires. The history Briggs includes in this series is amazing, and I’m not just talking about American history. She pulled out the old tales when it comes to the Fae—the not-Disney ones; the stories that were intended to frighten little children to behave. But that’s not all. Briggs’ writing challenges me to be a better writer because when I read her, I am so incredibly humbled, and maybe a lot intimidated. But I don’t give up writing because it is that important to me, to tell my stories to the world. And I keep writing and getting better because that’s how it works with everything: practice makes perfect, makes you a master at your skill. Mastery doesn’t just happen. You make it happen. I’ve never really been a master at anything. I’m more of a Jill of all trades because I like to learn, and I learn what I need to know and move on. I decided recently that I need to master in at least one thing and I’m working on making that happen.

The inspiration for my upcoming book Dusk of Death was an art piece by Joana Contreras. It was originally written as an essay for a college English class, which I share at the end of the book, but after sharing it online all those years ago, I was challenged by a friend to expand on the idea and it turned into a novel, much to my delight. Armen’s voice broke through and I wrote a chapter every night back then, finishing in just over a month.

In my family, creativity comes in all of its forms. We are writers, musicians, actors, artists, and dancers. Sometimes in more than one; most times in no less than three. Creativity is a part of my being. I could never imagine not being this way.

Whether or not you’re a creative person, what inspires you to do what you do?



Demons, detectives, and a forensic scientist who has fallen from Hell. Hell wants her back. Let the demon hunt begin.
______________________________________________________________
When Armen Leza fell from Hell, demon hunting was the last thing on her mind, but when all Hell breaks loose, this Fallen is humankind’s only hope for salvation.

Armen feels alone in her flesh. She can hear things unheard by humans, scent out the gut-churning stench of evil, and see the shades that lurk in the shadows, but if there is one thing she knows for certain, it’s that demons lie.

When her past keeps rearing its ugly head, Armen and Phoenix P.D. Detective Terry Armstrong must face an apocalyptic event that will throw this world into the Darkness forever, leaving the fate of all humanity in the hands of the malevolent. Getting the truth out of demons can be murder, and Armen must do so before they succeed in extinguishing the Light.


View a sample chapter for Dusk of Death here. You may pre-order Dusk of Death here.


NL “Jinxie” Gervasio is a creator and destroyer of worlds as both editor and author, and has discovered she’s quite good at the romance thing—writing it, that is. Jinxie reviews books in her spare time, of which she rarely has any, and spends most of her time—when not working in the IT industry—chained to her laptop writing, editing, gaming, or watching movies. But mostly editing.

Born on Friday the 13th, her dad wanted to call her Jinx; her mom said no. After 34 years, she discovered the nickname, and she's grown quite attached to it, thereby choosing the moniker as her interwebz handle. She lives in Tempe, Arizona with Umi (her mother), whom she cares for. She enjoys riding her beach cruiser “The Betty” around downtown Tempe when it isn’t being used as a clothing rack, loves a good pub crawl on occasion, and has had the pleasure and the heartache of experiencing a love far greater than she could have ever imagined.

She welcomes you to her worlds.

Jinxie is the author of the Kick-Ass Girls Club series book Nemesis, and the Prophecy series books The Dracove and Gods & Vampyres, as well as co-author in anthologies The 434 Revolution, Into the Darkness and Undead Uncensored.

You can find Jinxie wandering through cyberspace:




…or, y’know, just Google “Jinxie G” and see what happens!


July 11, 2016

My Favorite... Song, Book & Movie with @tarataylorquinn

I don’t have a particular song that inspires me to write. But I am completely inspired to write by music. Every single book has an album or soundtrack that is played over and over again during the entire time I’m writing the book. Before I start a book, I listen to music, various albums, until I find the one that ‘feels’ right. It has to evoke the emotion I think the particular book will require.
I have several ‘go to’ choices. Soundtracks from Forrest Gump, The Godfather, Princess Bride, The Perfect Storm, Pride and Prejudice, Chocolat, and Finding Forrester. I also am particularly moved by Pachelbel’s Canon and have an entire collection of various renditions done by artists from all over the world. All of Enya’s albums are in my collection. Songs of Sanctuary by Adiemus, and Autumn by George Winston are also particular favorites. And a lot of times, when I’m working particularly long hours, to the point of grueling, I turn to The Voice of the Feminine Spirit, by Cecilia.

There are no particular books that inspire me to write. But probably every good book I’ve ever read did so!

There are two movies that come to mind when I’m writing, but only to describe a particular look on a face or a tone of voice. The first is Top Gun. There’s a scene with Tom Cruise talking to Kelly McGillis and the intent, intense emotions shining from his eyes, the tight grip of his chin – they come to mind a lot! Also Dirty Dancing, where Baby tells Johnnie that what she fears most is going through life never feeling again like she feels when she’s with him. Her tone of voice when she’s telling him that is what comes to me when I’m writing. The emotion it evokes really speaks to me.

Can you tell, I write from the heart? Intense, emotional fiction. That’s me!


—TTQ



On Tour with Prism Book Tours.

The Promise He Made Her
(Where Secrets are Safe #9)
by Tara Taylor Quinn
Adult Contemporary Romance
Mass Market Paperback & ebook, 384 pages
July 1st 2016 by Harlequin Superromance

A man of his word

Dr. Bloom Freelander thought it was safe to breathe again when Detective Sam Larson put her abusive ex away for good. She's been moving on, running a private practice and providing psychiatry services to The Lemonade Stand women's shelter. But now that her ex is a free man, she's in danger once again.

Forced into protective custody, Bloom can't help but fall for her protector. But she has every reason to doubt the handsome detective's word. Sam broke his promise to her once. Who says he won't break it again—along with her heart this time?

GoodreadsAmazonBarnes & NobleHarlequin


Other Books in the Series

   
  Love by Association His First Choice (Where Secrets are Safe)

About the Author


The author of more than 70 original novels, in twenty languages, Tara Taylor Quinn is a USA Today bestseller with over six million copies sold. A 2015 RITA finalist Tara appears frequently on bestseller lists, including #1 placement on Amazon lists, and multiple showings on the Publisher’s Weekly Bestseller list. She has appeared on national and local TV across the country, including CBS Sunday Morning.

Tara is a supporter of the National Domestic Violence Hotline. If you or someone you know might be a victim of domestic violence in the United States, please contact 1-800-799-7233.


Are you a blogger and would like to join a future
Six Months of Heart Stopping Tara Taylor Quinn tour event?
Find out more and sign up HERE!

Tour Schedule

July 10th: Launch
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July 15th: Grand Finale

Heart Stopping Tara Taylor Quinn Giveaways



THE PROMISE HE MADE HER TOUR GIVEAWAY


75th Book Celebration Prize Pack (US only): Print book from the Where Secrets Are Safe Series, 75th Book Celebration US Tours swag, handmade bookmark (shown in image), and other goodies.
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Ends July 20th

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Kindle Fire with Six Pre-loaded TTQ Books (books 1-6 from Where Secrets are Safe series)
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Ends August 31st

To Enter: Submit your receipt or invoice number online for your pre-order or purchase of any of Tara Taylor Quinn’s six releases being promoted on her Heart Stopping Tour (Love By AssociationHis First ChoiceThe Promise He Made HerStrangers in Paradise: Sheltered In His ArmsSheltered In His Arms Audiobook, and For Love Or Money). Enter as many times as you purchase. One book purchase equals one entry (one receipt per entry and must be uploaded at time of entry).

TTQ HARLEQUIN MY REWARDS POINTS GIVEAWAY

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July 8, 2016

My Favorite... Movie with @MadisonSevier

Which song, book or movie inspires me to write? And why?

I'd have to say that the movie The Crow has inspired me over and over again. Though most people saw it as a movie of revenge, violence and the appalling nature of druggies and thugs--I saw it as one of the most romantic movies of my lifetime. Honestly, who wouldn't want a love that transcends space, time or even death? Who wouldn't want a love so deep that should you (or anyone...heaven forbid), be murdered so viciously...that your soul mate or twin flame would come back from the dead to unleash vengeance on those who stole your lives and deprived you of your happily ever after simply so that your souls could be reunited to rest eternally together?  A love like that, will always inspire me. Not only in my writing, but also in my own life. It shouldn't only exist in movies, songs or books...in my opinion. And if we're lucky enough to find it, we need to hold onto it with all we have. After all, we all have the power to create our own happily ever after. 

Maya, thank you so much for asking this question. Sometimes, even romance writers need to be reinspired. Thank you for letting me stop by.


Bio

Romance author, Madison Sevier, officially began her writing career in 2011 by going after her lifelong dream and has been having the time of her life ever since.

Her days are spent homeschooling her daughter and doing the bookkeeping for her family’s business. At night, she gets to become someone else and create characters who work their way into her head and won’t let go until they have a life of their own.

Being a coffee-addicted Gemini, Madison is known for doing whatever strikes her fancy at any given moment. Some of her favorite hobbies include; hiking, geocaching, animal rescue, writing, reading, baking, horseback riding and she loves NASCAR.

Living in what everyone calls ‘Kentuckiana’ with her husband, daughter, two Chihuahuas, one Saint Bernard and two cats, she’s found the perfect paradise to allow all of her stories to come to life. Against a backdrop of the Ohio River and surrounding hillsides, she never knows where a new romance will come from. But you can be sure you’re going to hear about it.

She loves hearing from her readers and meeting new ones, so feel free to contact her anytime:

Email: madisonsevier@yahoo.com






July 1, 2016

My Favorite... Movie with @mayatylerauthor

Did a favorite book, movie or song inspire me to write?

My all-time favorite movie is the 1987 classic 'The Princess Bride' (which also happens to be based on the book by William Goldman, written in 1973). I own the book (one of the few physical books still in my possession) and the DVD. It's my favorite because it includes everything a fairy tale should - a beautiful princess, castles, sword play, evil villains, a handsome hero, true love, and a happily ever after.


   


I was hooked from the first time I saw it. And I've watched the movie about two dozen times since, enough to memorize every word and recite the dialogue along with the actors. Not to mention quote the movie frequently.


Man in Black: You guessed wrong. 

Vizzini: You only think I guessed wrong! That's what's so funny! I switched glasses when your back was turned! Ha ha! You fool! You fell victim to one of the classic blunders - The most famous of which is "never get involved in a land war in Asia" - but only slightly less well-known is this: "Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line"! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha... 

Vizzini: [Vizzini stops suddenly, his smile frozen on his face and falls to the ground dead



Buttercup: You can die too for all I care!
[pushes him down a high hill]

Man in Black: AS... YOU... WISH!



So it makes sense that the first 'book' I ever started to write (at the age of twelve) was a sequel to 'The Princess Bride.' Although I never finished writing it, I still have my original, handwritten words. I crafted a story from my imaginings of what happened after the movie ended. When I first watched the movie, I thought the ending set it up for a sequel... Happily ever after for Wesley and Buttercup... Inigo Montoya could become the Dread Pirate Roberts... Fezzik could start a new career as a poet...

'The Princess Bride' inspired me to answer the question 'what next?' I am still asking that question and I'm still looking for the answers within my own imagination.

So 'The Princess Bride' not only inspired me to write, but also to become a writer.