Take a Journey with Author: Monica Marlowe

"It's all about the journey."

Win a copy of Finding Felicity and meet
one of our featured Book Boost authors,
Monica Marlowe.

I recently chatted with Monica and here's what she had to say...


TBB: Tell us a little about yourself, Monica.

MM: I was born in Toronto but I’m not really a hockey fan! In my twenties, I moved to Los Angeles and loved escaping frigid Canadian winters! Now, I make my home in North Carolina but find myself wishing I could spend more time on the West Coast.


TBB: Oh, my. I'm in the southeast as well. We don't know anything about real winter here. Can you give us a little background about when and why did you began writing?

MM: I’ve wanted to write ever since I was a girl. I remember seeing a newspaper article about an author with all her book covers framed hanging on the wall behind her. That, I decided, was for me! It took a long time before I believed that it could happen, so I didn’t actually start writing until I was in my thirties. Better late than never!


TBB: Yes, I'm in the process of creating a new "writer's cave" for myself right now. Having a place to showcase your accomplishments is something every writer should do. What are you working on right now?

MM: Right now, I’m finishing a memoir. It’s the story of acquiring my first horse “as a woman of a certain age” and all the surprises in that first year of horse ownership.


TBB: Oh, I love horses! That sounds like a great story. Be sure to keep us posted on how that comes out and please come back and promote it here at the blog. Do you have any advice for other writers?

MM: Believe in yourself. Write the book that’s in your heart. Trust that your work will be received. Write every day. Eat healthy food. Have at least one guilty pleasure.


TBB: I'm right on board with you on the "write every day". I'm in the middle of a 4k-a-day challenge on my own blog. So far. So good. And in regards to the guilty pleasures, what do you like to do when you're not writing?

MM: Nothing is better than a morning spent at the barn with my horse.


TBB: Awe. Now the tough question, if you had to describe this book using ONLY ONE word, what would it be?

MM: Journey.


TBB: Interesting. Give me a quote (from yourself/by yourself) about being a writer.

MM: "Writing well is like cooking well, both require the right mix of ingredients to create something that both nourishes and satisfies."


TBB: Nicely said. Thanks for being with us today. Before you go, please share a blurb about your book. Oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY! A little birdie told me that today was your day.



Blurb:

When Madeline O’Connor learns that her estranged sister is gravely ill, she leaves behind her life in Manhattan to be at her sister’s side in Italy. There, she discovers an ancient Benedictine monastery that accommodates travelers, and she decides to stay there, among the monks.

Everything in her life turns upside down when she falls for Brother Anthony Lamberti, a soft-spoken Italian completely different from the men she knows in New York. Together Madeline and Anthony find love for the first time, and learn that life and love always find a way. Loving Anthony creates a new life for Madeline. A new life she would never have imagined and yet is perfect for her in every way.

Want More Monica?

Visit her here: www.monicamarlowe.blogspot.com

Pick up your copy of her book today! Click here.

Contest Time:

Leave a question or comment for Monica to be entered to win free copy of Finding Felicity.


**Winners for Book Boost prizes are drawn the first week of the following month and posted in the Recent Winners box in the right hand side of the blog. Check back to see if you are a winner and to claim your prize! Please leave your contact information in your blog post!**

Stuck in the Middle with You with Guest Blogger: Lucianne Rivers

The Book Boost welcomes author Lucianne Rivers to the blog.

She's here to discuss making it through mid-life and here's what she had to say...




Instead of middle of the book slump, how about, "How to deal with middle of life slumps," instead? Especially when trying to write a full-length romance novel?


I've always done everything about ten years too early: Professional actress by age eleven, writing scripts for television by thirteen, solo singer with the RTE Concert Orchestra by fourteen, switching countries by twenty-four, married by twenty-five, baby by twenty-eight, and published author by twenty-nine.


Is it unusual that I've hit mid-life crisis about ten years too early? Probably not. But, alas, I believe this is indeed the case as I approach the big three-oh.


Having beaten the odds of finishing three linked novellas, Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me Kill Me, on a deadline while going through a marital separation, I now face divorce, and while it is amicable, it's still so hard.


Moving, divorce, and death—at least the death of an identity—are the three most stressful occasions in a woman's life, apparently. And yes, I can confirm this statistic. Thank God for anti-depressants, exercise and good friends.


But oh, my poor novel, untouched for weeks. Sure, I can blame the heavy promotion of the release of Hold Me (Entangled Publishing) for my lack of typing, but the truth is my characters are suffering from mama's mid-life writing slump. The cast of Vice and Valykyries are in a sad and indefinite stasis. As am I.


Limbo is not a creative place, it seems. Although my biceps are developing nicely from all my trips to the gym.


And who is an artist without her art? Just an "ist," I suppose.


The internet tells me there are over twelve hundred words ending in "ist." I guess that if I started from that relatively blank slate I could be any number of things while I wait for my writer's slump to pass.


An anarchist, an evolutionist, a revolutionist or a survivalist…


And maybe once I get through all twelve hundred options I can circle back to artist.


Hopefully sooner.


And considering my ten-year-early M.O., perhaps I'll be scribbling again by the New Year.


Fingers crossed.


A Note from the Book Boost: Lucianne, I've been exactly where you are...only I was 32 at the time and now...five years later I can tell you that there is love, beauty, and true happiness on the other side of what you are going through. Hang in there...you WILL make it and your writing will be waiting for you when you're ready. Thanks for sharing and please tell us more about your story.


Blurb:


Still reeling from her mother’s death, news anchor Jane Caldwell’s life is upended further when she learns the father she lost twenty years ago is still alive. Her mother’s will unleashes a manhunt—the Caldwell sisters must find their father, or their mother’s estate will not be settled, and their questions about his disappearance will remain unanswered.


Jane’s search leads her to Guatemala to investigate a man who claims to be her father and heir to the family fortune. Needing a translator, she enlists enigmatic Harrison DeNeuve, a sexy ex-patriot with a penchant for wearing dark sunglasses in public.


As Jane struggles to reunite with her would-be father, Harrison fights to suppress his desire for Jane. He has a secret—one he’s sequestered himself in a third-world jungle hideaway to keep safe—and falling for Jane puts more than his heart at risk.


Jane finds two men in Guatemala—a father and a lover—but can she trust either of them?

Want More Lucianne?

Visit her website here: http://www.luciannerivers.com/

Pick up your copy of her book today! Click here.

Get Over Your Slump with Guest Blogger: Shea Berkley

Win a copy of The Marked Son and meet author Shea Berkley today at the Book Boost!

She's here to discuss being down in the slumps and here's what she had to say...



Have you ever yelled this before?

“The middle of my book has posture issues!”

No? (looks around) Why am I the only one who says stuff like this?

If you have a middle that sags (nothing happening) or has a pot belly (unfocused and padded with unnecessary scenes), then you are deep into a middle of a book slump. Not fun.
I hate to tell you this, but usually when you get to this point you’ve taken a wrong turn somewhere earlier in your book.

Now, if you’re an outline person, you probably obediently followed your outline and didn’t let you characters take you in a more character driven direction. If you’re a seat-of-your-pants writer, then you let your characters wander too much and they probably need a bit more direction. (It’s okay to tell them “no” sometimes.)

To get back on track, you’ll have to go on a hunt. It’s not as bad as it sounds. Go to the last place where character (the essence of who your character is) and the plot (the reason you’re writing the book in the first place) worked perfectly together. From there, go step-by-step until you see A) your character behaving contrary to his or her nature to fulfill a plot point, or B) your character taking over the book , as in running amuck without any real motivation or point to that scene.

Now, once you’ve found your weak point, you’ve got to let the character act in a way that organically leads him or her to the next scene that will move the story forward. The difficult part comes when you realize the next scene and the one after that and the one after that may not work anymore and they have to be cut. Don’t panic. Often you can cannibalize some sentences and dialogue, but seriously most of it will have to go. (No crying. You want a story that an editor will buy, don’t you?)

So don’t humor yourself or your characters. Be tough. Only keep what moves the story toward the climax of the scene, chapter and ultimately the book.

Just remember, your story is about the characters and how they respond to any given situation, and that response has to make sense for the character you’ve created and the story you’re telling. Easy, huh? Not at all. (No whining. No one ever said writing well was easy. If they did, they’re lying and you don’t need to be friends with a liar, so dump ‘em…and get to work.)


A Note from the Book Boost: That is sage advice for writers, Shea. Thanks for joining us today at the Boost. Please tell us more about your sag-free book!


Blurb:

Seventeen-year-old Dylan Kennedy always knew something was different about him, but until his mother abandoned him in the middle of Oregon with grandparents he’s never met, he had no idea what.

When Dylan sees a girl in white in the woods behind his grandparents’ farm, he knows he’s seen her before…in his dreams. He’s felt her fear.

Heard her insistence that only he can save her world from an evil lord who uses magic and fear to feed his greed for power.

Unable to shake the unearthly pull to Kera, Dylan takes her hand. Either he’s completely insane or he’s about to have the adventure of his life, because where they’re going is full of creatures he’s only read about in horror stories. Worse, the human blood in his veins has Dylan marked for death…


Excerpt:

Easing back, I press my spine into the prickly bark and rub my hands through my hair. It’s obvious they don’t know I’m in their world. According to Navar, I’m not even real. Granel is a problem. He believes in my existence and has enough sway over Navar that he’s gotten him to at least consider the possibility I’m real and a threat.

After seeing what I’ve just seen, I’ve got to get back home now more than ever.

Before I can move, the guard appears, dangling upside-down from the branch above me with a smile that doesn’t reach his eyes. “Hello, mutt.”

He cartwheels out of the tree, lands on his feet, and swings his sword in one fluid motion. I dodge the blade and spring to my feet, calling on the tree branches to capture him. The man is quickly tangled, yet with a heavy blow, his sword slices neatly through the wood. He drops to the ground unfazed.

With eyes glittering, he stalks me.

I fumble for the sword Bodog gave me as real fear begins to grow. This guy is a hardened soldier. I don’t stand a chance.

I dodge his blade time and again, feeling the whistle of cold steel every time it passes. I manage to pull out my sword and then something unexpected happens. The blade ripples to life with a flash of fire. I thrust the sword in front of me and gape. Holy flaming fire!

The soldier stops and smiles. “Well, well, well. You’re full of surprises.”

“Just wait. I’ve got more,” I say and shrug with a confidence I don’t exactly feel. Hopefully my act has him thinking I’m used to a good flaming sword fight. To back up my false confidence, I find myself lunging forward, my flaming sword slicing toward his head. He spins away and the battle begins in earnest.

I must be crazy. I’ve never fought with a sword. He acts like he was born with it in his hand. His blade comes frighteningly close to my head and cuts off a few strands of my hair before I push him away. Trees are used as vaulting points. Branches as obstacles. Forest debris whirls. We tussle and my sword flies out of my hand.

Desperate for cover, I duck behind a tree, breathless and sore. I’m at my wit’s end. How long can I postpone the inevitable? I duck as his blade swipes at me again. I don’t want to die. Not like this. Not here. Not now.

Want More Shea?

Visit her website here: www.SheaBerkley.com

Pick up a copy of her book today! Click here.

Contest Time:

Leave a question or comment for Shea and be entered to win a copy of The Marked Son.

**Winners for Book Boost prizes are drawn the first week of the following month and posted in the Recent Winners box in the right hand side of the blog. Check back to see if you are a winner and to claim your prize! Please leave your contact information in your blog post!**

A Fresh (or Frozen) Idea with Guest Blogger: Patricia Eimer

Welcome debut author Patricia Eimer to the Book Boost.

She's here to discuss how her story came to be in aisle three and here's what she had to say...



"Where Did That Idea Come From?"

Ever since I nervously announced to the world at large that Entangled Publishing was taking a chance on me and publishing my first novel – Luck of the Devil—that has been the second most asked question I’ve received. We won’t even talk about the first question which is “can you introduce me to your agent?” Short answer: I don’t have one.

Anyway, back to the secret of where Luck of the Devil came from. What brilliant flash of lightening struck my brain and beamed Faith Bettincourt into my head fully formed like her own reverse version of a Greek Goddess? Okay, lean closer. Real close. Not that close.

Here is the secret I’ve never shared with anyone else. She came to me in the grocery store. Yep. Frozen Food Aisle 3 am frozen pizza run. There I am, middle of the frozen pizzas watching this young woman in nurses scrubs who looked completely frazzled, wandering the store and arguing with someone on her cell phone. I don’t mean to pry but its 3 am and I’m a writer. Prying into other people’s stories and then changing them slightly to make them funny is what I do.

And I hear the words: “I don’t know what the Hell I’m going to cook? Why am I doing the cooking? Satan is your mother after all. Why don’t you cook her something? Then it might be good enough.”

And it just sort of resonated in my head. Who hasn’t had the family reunion from Hell? Or had their in-laws show up at the doorstep with a big smile and a heart full of “you’re not good enough for my precious darling son?” I know I live through it at least once a year. More if my in laws are feeling particularly spiteful.

We’ve all been there. Even if we don’t want to admit it. And that is when Faith Bettincourt wiggled into my brain and said “oh sista you have no idea.” Which lead to me sort of stealthily following the young woman in mid breakdown through the store. Because at that point she was Faith Bettincourt for me. Frizzy hair falling out of its ponytail. Nurses scrubs covered in gunk. Totally flustered. The Devil’s youngest daughter in all her glory. Right there in the middle of the grocery store.

Shortly afterwards I went on vacation and had way too much free time on my hands. And up piped Faith. Before the vacation was over I was hip deep in her life and dying to know more. But it all started because of my love of pepperoni at 3 am and one very frazzled young nurse.

To be fair, I did give her my mother in law approved easy cheese cake recipe. Who knows if it worked for her but it always gives mine something to cram in her mouth so she’s too busy to criticize me. Here it is if you want to try it.


Patricia Eimer’s No Bake, No Fuss, No Muss Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cheesecake Recipe

Ingredients:
1 premade graham cracker crust
1 box cream cheese, left out to soften
1 container of Cool Whip (this can be flavored of you want to change it up a bit. I’ve used both chocolate and the French Vanilla before in different variations)
1 cup of sugar
2 tsp of vanilla
1 bag of strawberry glaze
Chocolate sauce to taste

Directions:
Cut the cream cheese into chunks once it’s softened and toss in a bowl. Add the sugar and the vanilla extract. Then add the Cool Whip and beat with a mixer until smooth. Once the mix is smooth, slowly start adding in the strawberry glaze and continue mixing. Then add chocolate sauce to taste still mixing. Once the whole mixture is consistently mixed together pour into premade pie shell and cover with that plastic lid thing they always give you. Put it in the fridge, pour yourself a glass of wine, and complain about how much work you had to put into making gourmet deserts for your guests. Hope your spouse is impressed with your efforts. Demand that they do the dishes.


A Note from the Book Boost: Hey Patricia! I remember when you took one of my classes way back when (how's that apron working for you? ;-) I'm so proud of you for getting your book published and I simply cannot wait to read it. Wait, wasn't I supposed to get a personally autographed copy? I'm pretty sure that's homework for all my students (nudge nudge, wink wink). Your story above is too funny. Dare I ask about what prompted a pizza run at 3 a.m.?


Blurb:

Being the youngest daughter of the Devil isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. The days of teenage rebellion and vows of chastity made just to tick off her father are over, and now all Faith Bettincourt wants is a nice, quiet life. Unfortunately, thanks to the unexpected arrival of her demonically-downsized sister, a ditzy succubus roommate, and dear old Dad himself, Faith’s plans for a relaxing vacation spent watching reruns go up in flames.

Now it’s all Faith can do to keep the family reunion from Hell (literally) under wraps, and the angelically-inclined hottie across the hall from realizing there’s something weird about his neighbor. And, thankfully, it’s working. Until an angelic stalker shows up in a bid to steal her powers and take over the world.

Forget watching reruns. With the way things are going, Faith will need the luck of the Devil just to survive until Monday.


Excerpt:

“You just couldn’t help yourself, could you?” Lisa and I stared in revulsion at the freshly dead body of my former boss lying on the carpet in his office, wearing nothing but plaid boxer shorts, a striped tie, and his white lab coat.

“Faith, I’m sorry. I was hungry.” She winced and shuffled her feet like a guilty child caught sneaking into the cookie jar. She waved her hand at me, like I should know how it is.
I did. That didn’t make the consequences any nicer if we were caught. In a hospital. With the dead body of the head of pediatric surgery.

“You were hungry?” I pushed a lock of curly blonde hair behind my left ear.

“I see a man, I eat his soul. That’s what I do. It’s not like I enjoyed it or anything. I mean, have you seen Harold?”

“That changes everything, obviously. People will understand. Not. What are we going to do with him?” Some days I wondered why I bothered keeping a human job. Oh, right. I was an adult who didn’t want any involvement in Dad’s evil schemes. I was capable of being a productive member of society, rather than leeching off the human race like some overgrown demonic tick. And I had bills to pay. Crap.

“Could we shove him in the closet?”

“No, the stench would give him away.” I’d done a twelve-hour shift as charge nurse on the pediatric ICU and I was too tired for this shit tonight. All I really wanted was a cold beer and some mindless television. But no, apparently I got to deal with a dead surgeon instead.

Hello, I’m Faith Bettincourt, and this is my life.

Want More Patricia?

Visit her website here: http://www.patriciaeimer.com/

Pick up your copy of her book today! Click here.

Shop for the Perfect Brand with Guest Blogger: Nina Croft

Win a copy of Break Out and chat with
author Nina Croft today at the Book Boost!

Nina's back at the Boost to discuss market branding and here's what she had to say...


There’s a lot of pressure on authors to market their work online, and a big part of that is developing an author brand.

The American Marketing Association defines a brand as a "name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's goods or service as distinct from those of other sellers.

For an author that’s really developing a distinctive personality that identifies you to potential readers. They’ll be able to look at your author name and immediately think – I love the things he/she writes – I want to read that (or of course the opposite – you can’t please everyone!) It’s in essence a promise to the reader, that if you buy the book, you know exactly what you are going to get.

I recently attended a webinar on branding, the aim being to come up with a tagline – a short (less than ten word) statement that identifies my author ‘brand.’

It turns out that I’m difficult.

My problem is that I write in different genres, or at least in different sub-genres. I’ve always believed that you should write the sort of things you love to read, but that doesn’t narrow the field much for me. I read just about everything, romance, science fiction, historical, paranormal, thrillers—if it’s been written—I’ll try it. So it’s hardly unexpected that I have a tendency to mix up the genres in my own stories.

All my stories do have a strong element of romance, but otherwise they span a range of genres: paranormal, fantasy, science fiction and I’ve recently just completed a thriller. And even within individual books, I have a tendency to mix up the genres. This is especially true of my recent release, Break Out, book 1 in the Blood Hunter series. Break Out is essentially a space opera—an adventure story based in the future. But it also has a vampire hero and a whole load of romance.

But it’s not only a matter of genre but also a matter of voice – the sort of tone you expect when you buy a book. My stories range from dark to humorous depending on how I’m feeling when the story springs to life.

And I’m supposed to be able to encapsulate my essence in ten words.

One way around this is to use different pen names for the different genres you write, and develop a different brand for each. Much as Nora Roberts and J. D. Robb. If you pick up a Nora Roberts you know you’re going to get romance. Pick up a J.D. Robb and you expect a futuristic suspense.

On the webinar, someone suggested I adopt a different pen names for each subgenre I write, and I was like – nooooo! I can’t cope with more names (I confuse easily!)

But I like to think that readers aren’t so easily confused. Also, like the rest of the publishing industry, I think readers are changing their attitudes and are willing to try different things more readily. These days, it’s so easy to get information about a particular book, and usually even possible to read a sample chapter for free online (you can read the first three chapters of Break Out for free on the Entangled site). So it’s possible to make a decision based on something other than author branding.

So what do you think – how important is author branding? Should authors stick to one recognizable genre? Do you like to know what you’re getting or are you willing to do a little research?

Oh, and if anyone can describe me in less than ten words (but remember you’re supposed to be persuading people to buy my books!) please go ahead.


A Note from the Book Boost: I love to create taglines. My author tagline is "Romance So Good, It Should Be Illegal". I, too, write many genres but they all usually have some sort of legal or law enforcement character in them because of my work and degree in Criminal Justice. Hence the tagline above. Perhaps you need one that is more general like Michelle Pillow's "Author of All Things Romance"! Good luck with your search for the perfect brand.


Blurb:

The year is 3048, Earth is no longer habitable, and man has fled to the stars where they’ve discovered the secret of immortality—Meridian.

Unfortunately, the radioactive mineral is exorbitantly expensive and only available to a select few. A new class comprised of the super rich and immortal soon evolves. The Collective, as they’re called, rule the universe.

Two thousand year old Ricardo Sanchez, vampire and rogue pilot of the space cruiser, El Cazador, can’t resist two things: gorgeous women and impossible jobs. When beautiful Skylar Rossaria approaches him to break a prisoner out of the Collective’s maximum security prison on Trakis One, Rico jumps at the chance. Being hunted by the Collective has never been so dangerous–or so fun!


Excerpt:

“You might want to change your mind about that reward,” Tannis murmured from beside him. “This one looks like she might fight back.”

“I don’t mind a good fight,” Rico drawled. “As long as I win.”

He swung his chair around and followed the line of her sight, his gaze settling on the tall figure in the doorway. He wouldn’t have recognized her if he hadn’t known what to look for.

The silver dress was gone and a black jumpsuit now hugged her tall, toned body. She walked with the lithe grace of a predator, one hand resting on the pistol at her thigh. The long, blond hair, which had done a lot to soften her features, was also gone. In its place was a severely short, almost military cut that emphasized the sharp cheekbones, and the large, almost beaky nose. Her dark blue eyes were the same though, as was the wide, red mouth. He dropped his gaze. There was no disguising the lush curve of those breasts either, and his body tightened at the sight.

She’d come to a halt in front of them, and he raised his eyes from her breasts to her face to find her frowning at him.

“Skylar,” he said, kicking out a chair and patting the seat. “Take a seat.”

She regarded him suspiciously for a moment and then sat.

“Quite a disguise you had there.”

“Part of my training,” she replied.

“Your rebel training?”

She nodded.

“Tell me. Why were you with the rebels? You seem a little too…” He studied her, trying to think of the correct word. Normal maybe, but he had an idea that Skylar was far from normal.

“Human?” She supplied for him.

Want More Nina?

Visit her website here: http://www.ninacroft.com/

Pick up your copy of her book today! Click here.

Contest Time:

Leave a comment for Nina and be entered to win a digital copy of Break Out.


**Winners for Book Boost prizes are drawn the first week of the following month and posted in the Recent Winners box in the right hand side of the blog. Check back to see if you are a winner and to claim your prize! Please leave your contact information in your blog post!**

I Need A Hero with Guest Blogger: Rosalie Lario

Welcome back Entangled Author Rosalie Lario to the Book Boost! She's here to discuss her favorite heroes...

Today I thought I’d talk about a topic that really gets me going: the romance novel hero.

I’m a huge romance buff. (Obviously, since I write them!) Paranormal romance is my favorite, but it really doesn’t matter what the genre is. Give me a romance and I’m there.

So what is it about romance that I find so irresistible? In a word, it’s the Hero.

When I read a romance, I’m looking to get swept away by the characters. To become emotionally invested in their journey. My hero doesn’t need to be incredibly handsome or built like an athlete (though I certainly don’t mind it), nor does he have to be the perfect gentleman. But what I do want him to be is real: someone with flaws and insecurities. Someone I can connect with. A hero I can fall in love with.

Just for fun, I thought I’d pick out some of my favorite television heroes and outline which of their characteristics draw me to them:

Dean Winchester – Supernatural. This is probably my favorite character of all time. Not only does he have killer good looks and a smokin’ body, but his humor and wit are unparalleled. The wise-cracking funny guy? I’m so there. And he’s loyal to boot. Nothing will stop him from looking after his younger brother.

Sam Winchester – Supernatural. Getting the sense that I love this show? What Sam lacks in pure wit, he makes up for with both book smarts and street smarts. He’ll take the high road and try to talk himself out of a bad situation, but if that fails, he’s not opposed to resorting to his fists. On a primal level, that turns me on.

Clark Kent – Smallville. What I love so much about this character is his how very human he is, even though technically he’s not. With every decision he makes, he keeps the best interests of those he loves in mind. He’s the ultimate protector, the knight-in-shining-armor.

When dreaming up my Demons of the Infernum series, I kept all of the above characteristics in mind. The heroes of my series are four half-brothers who are intensely loyal and focused on doing what’s right. No matter what.

In Blood of the Demon (Book 1 of the Demons Of Infernum series), Keegan is a half-demon who works as an inter-dimensional bounty hunter. He’s tracking an evil demon, Mammon, who also happens to be his father. Mammon has designs on the Book of the Dead, an ancient spellbook allowing for the creation of an army of the undead. With it he plans to bring on the apocalypse on Earth, and eventually take over all of the other dimensions.

Brynn Meyers has no idea that her psychometric powers or her ability to drain people of their life force point to a demon ancestry. She’s also the key to the zombie resurrection spell, which means Mammon needs her in order to succeed with his plan.

Keegan must protect Brynn from his father by any means necessary. But he’ll have to learn to harness the other half of his genetics—the far deadlier, uncontrollable half—when he starts to fall for the one woman he may be ordered to destroy.

I’d love to know what your favorite type of hero is. Do you go for the funny guy? The fierce protector? The problem-solver?

A Note from the Book Boost: I like the reluctant hero...kind of like Damon from Vampire Diaries. He's the bad boy and the bad guy but when he meets the right girl, he wants to be good...he wants to do right...he reluctantly wants to be the hero...for HER! :-) Thanks for joining us today Rosalie. It is good to have you back, please tell us more about your newest book.

Blurb:

Keegan lives to exact revenge on the evil demon who sired and abused him. When his father devises a plan to bring on the apocalypse, he and his three half-brothers, interdimensional bounty hunters for the Elden Council, are charged with capturing and delivering their father for punishment.


Art gallery owner Brynn Meyers has no idea that her ability to read memories embedded in objects and drain people of their life force means she has demon ancestry. Unfortunately for Brynn, she’s also the key to raising an ancient zombie army, which puts her on every demon’s Most Wanted List.


And no one wants her more than Keegan’s father.


Keegan must protect Brynn from his father by any means necessary, but he’ll have to learn to harness the other half of his genetics—the far deadlier, uncontrollable half—when he starts to fall for the one woman standing between him and the vengeance he so desperately seeks. The one woman he’ll never be able to resist.

Want More Rosalie?

Visit her website here: http://rosalielario.com/

Pick up your copy of her book today! Click here.

On the Contrary with Guest Blogger: Melanie Card

Win a copy of Ward Against Death and meet paranormal author Melanie Card today at the Book Boost!

She's here to chat all about opposites and here's what she had to say...



Thank you Book Boost for inviting me to be your guest. I'm so excited to be here. Today I'm chatting about opposites. They say opposites attract and the hero and heroine in my novel, Ward Against Death, couldn't be more opposite.


My hero, Ward de'Ath, is your average kind of guy (if your average guy could bring people back from the dead and lived in a fantastical Renaissance-type world). He's a bookworm, and has spent most of his life studying either necromancy (for his family) or medicine (for himself). He's spent the last six years studying to be a physician but became fascinated with surgery (which is considered sacrilege in the word of the book). He was expelled from the Physicians' Academy for digging up corpses and performing necropsies on them and now doesn’t know what to do with his career. He's fluent in multiple languages, well-read and well-traveled, and—save for the whole digging up corpse thing—adheres to the law.


My heroine, Celia Carlyle, on the other hand is completely opposite. All she's known is a criminal's life. Her father is the head of all organized crime in the city, her mother was an assassin in the Assassins' Guild. Celia has followed in her mother's footsteps and become an assassin and for the last six years she's honed her martial abilities, fighting, tumbling, sneaking, acting, everything she's needs to do her job well. The law doesn't apply to her, only the rules of the Assassins' Guild and that of the criminal underworld: that the strong control the weak.


When I throw Ward and Celia together something happens to them. At the beginning Celia doesn't recognize Ward's true strength: his mind, and Ward thinks Celia is out to kill him—which she is. But they need each other, not only to solve Celia's murder and clear Ward's name with her family, but to become better people. Working together makes them see the strengths and weaknesses in each other and in themselves. They complete each other.


Of course neither is going to admit that to the other, they're not even entirely sure why they're compelled to be with each other.


But that’s the thing with opposites. Often it looks like a bad match on paper, but what you find is that they really are “opposite sides” of the same coin. They need each other in order to be challenged and grow into better people, the people they need to become.


Thanks for joining me today. Ward and Celia really are a case of opposites being attracted to each other (even if they haven’t figured out why yet). Who’s your favorite “opposite” couple?


A Note from the Book Boost: My favorite opposite couple is myself and my hubby. We simply couldn't be more opposite. I'm an artist, a writer, a musician. Hubby is a scientist, an engineer, a mathematician. But somehow we work! Thanks for joining us today, Melanie. Please tell us more about your book.


Blurb:


Twenty-year-old Ward de’Ath expected this to be a simple job—bring a nobleman’s daughter back from the dead for fifteen minutes, let her family say good?bye, and launch his fledgling career as a necromancer.

Goddess knows he can’t be a surgeon—the Quayestri already branded him a criminal for trying—so bringing people back from the dead it is.

But when Ward wakes the beautiful Celia Carlyle, he gets more than he bargained for. Insistent that she’s been murdered, Celia begs Ward to keep her alive and help her find justice. By the time she drags him out her bedroom window and into the sewers, Ward can’t bring himself to break his damned physician’s Oath and desert her.

However, nothing is as it seems—including Celia. One second, she’s
treating Ward like sewage, the next she’s kissing him. And for a nobleman’s daughter, she sure has a lot of enemies. If he could just convince his heart to give up on the infuriating beauty, he might get out of this alive…


Excerpt:

Her eyes narrowed and her hand snaked under the pillow. “It’s not wise to enter a lady’s bedchamber without her consent.”

Ward plastered on his calmest, gentlest expression. The newly wakened dead often assumed they had just roused from sleep. “You’ve been unwell.”

Her icy blue eyes examined him, her gaze jumping from his face, to his wig, to his jacket, and back to his face. “Unwell? Is that what my father told you?”

“In a manner of speaking.” She wasn’t acting the way she was supposed to.

Noblewomen, particularly those around his age, were usually demure or aloof—not suspicious.

“Well, I’m fine, and I’m sorry my father troubled you.” She threw back the covers, sat up, and stepped onto the thick rug. “Now go, be a good doctor, and tell my family I’m healthy and sleeping.” She punctuated her last word by pulling her nightdress over her head, revealing a slim waist, athletic muscles, and pale skin marked with the purple bruises of livor mortis along her back. And no other clothes.

“But—” He flushed and spun around to face the wall. “What are you doing?” No. Wait.

What was he doing? He’d seen a dead naked woman before. Just never like this.

She chuckled. “I’m going for a walk.”

“A what? No—You can’t.” She really wasn’t acting the way she was supposed to.

“I beg to differ.”

The situation was spiraling out of hand. Damn it, he had to take control. He was the necromancer, she the newly awakened. She was supposed to listen to him.

He turned to confront her. Thankfully, she was fully dressed—in men’s clothes, but at least she was dressed. “Listen, I—”

She slipped her hand under her pillow and removed a sheathed dagger.

Great Goddess! She kept a dagger under her pillow? Ward inched toward the door to block her escape without appearing obvious, although he had no idea what he’d do if she fought him. Why did he always get stuck with the difficult corpses?

Want More Melanie?

Visit her website here: http://melaniecard.com/

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Available August 2nd from Entangled Publishing!
Pick up your copy here.

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