Roxanne Rhoads: 7/8/12

Sandy blond hair and Hollywood good looks, Carter Billings could have any woman he wants. However, when he makes his bid for the Governor's seat in the state of California, he needs to settle down and become a family man. Eliza, the woman he secretly adores, embodies the perfect amount of spice and passion to suit his marital needs, but she’s not interested in becoming Mrs. Billings. She can't even stand to be in the same room with him.

Eliza Havens:

It’s much easier to drive Carter away than to give into desire. Matching couples is how she earns a living, but getting married isn’t an option. The secrets she carries are too dangerous to entangle anyone else. When her hidden identity and past threaten her future, she’s left with little choice. Carter is quick to offer solutions to both their problems, but saying yes could mean endangering the man she’s growing to love.

Excerpt:

He folded his arms over his chest. “I suppose you could say I’m following Blake’s lead. Marriage solves a few fundamental problems in my career path.”

She stared at him full on now, not trying to look away. “Your problems. Not mine.”

“Problems you helped play a role in.” He saw the spark in her eye before she managed her first syllable of defense.

She sat the tea down and placed a hand on the counter. “That’s low, Carter.”

“And true or you’d be the first to tell me I’m wrong. If I had a choice, I’d be married by Monday to help dispel all the media crap created by yours and Gwen’s night on the Texas town. I thought I could come to you and obtain a little bit of cooperation.”

“A little bit of cooperation. Marriage is a tad more than a little bit of anything.” Her voice rose and her knuckles started to grip the counter.

“Yet you earn your living arranging marriages or partnerships on trite reasons less important than mine.” How dare she follow a moral high ground. Maybe she’d forgotten how well versed he was on her and Samantha’s business.

“You forget that our clients have to approve of the relationships we arrange. They have to like the person—”

He laughed, interrupting her. “Do you really want to pretend we aren’t friends to prove your point?”

Her cheeks grew rosy which he had to admit was a much better than the pasty color she’d been sporting when he walked into the house. He felt the fire burning inside her as she shot daggers with her eyes.

“You’re my best friend’s husband’s friend. If you’re looking for a wife you might peek into your little black book, or whatever it is you use, and draw another name.”

Carter let his arms drop and took two steps closer. The angrier she became, the more his blood churned.

His body responded to her outrage, but not in anger. “I don’t want to draw another name.”

Author of New York Times Bestseller, Wife by Wednesday presents, Book Two in the Weekday Bride Series

New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author Catherine Bybee has been addicted to romance since her teens. After spending a decade of her life working as an RN in urban emergency rooms, Catherine is now dedicated to writing happily-ever-afters for the world to love. Catherine is married and raising two sons in Southern California.

She loves hearing from her readers so feel free to visit her at:

Website / Blog / Facebook / Twitter

Monday, July 09, 2012

Heart of Death Now On Tour with Bewitching Book Tours

***warning contains graphic sexual content not for those under 18***

Book 1 Act One

The second edition is a revamp of the first HEART OF DEATH graphic novel utilizing a few current techniques to update and enhance the first thirty pages of BOOK ONE ACT ONE

The HEART OF DEATH CHRONICLES is an erotic graphic novel series based on the Perspehone and Hades myth. In this adapation, Hades is replaced by Thanatos Hades, nick named Thanos and Persphone is a lovely Island Noblewoman of mixed breeding.

ART DIRECTION -- the novel's illustrations, panels and layouts employ a number of feels and is not traditional in scope. This mixed media format allows the viewer to enjoy a number of moods captured by the art. There is a blend of styles balanced throughout the book, each employed to give a different feel depending on what the scene conveyed.

STORYLINE:

Deah-Thanos falls in love with the lovely maiden after spying her dancing among tombstones in an old graveyard. Persephone, it would seem, has a penchant for dabbling in macabre musings, art and past times.

Death Thanos is intriguied by his mortal beloved -- only one snag. Death cannot consort with the living or take a soul before their allotted time. He can't even touch her as to do so would rob her of life.

Not to be defeated, Thanos turns to nephew Morpheus for aid and concocts a spell that will allow him to be with the object of his affections.

Thing is--Persephone may be none too keen on being the apple of Death's eye in spite of her dark nature.

ACT ONE introduces details of the couple's initial meeting and focuses on the Persephone the character.

Book One Act Two

In this installment of HOD, a love struck Death-Thanos enlists the aid of the chaotic and malleable Morpheus to create a sleep related spell that will enable him to seduce his lady love. Morpheus promises to do so but for a rather steep price...

As the spell will take some time to craft, Mo-Mo gives Thanos dream wisps as a bit of a consolation prize. The Wisps allow Thanos to navigate Persephone dreams in order to stoke her ardor so to speak--but he cannot satisfy his own urges..

A freaked out Persephone seeks her friend Abigail's advice on the nightly dream visitations and is none too thrilled when her BFF tells her that what Persi is really fighting against is her own budding attraction to the deity.

Book One Act Three

Persephone finds herself at odds with confusing feelings regarding her dream lover Death-Thanos, penduluming between love and hate. Thanos finally procures the long awaited seduction spell from Morpheus and can now lure Persephone into the underworld to have his way for her--and does. He also makes good on his promise to Morpheus by handing over the Queen of the Shades, Tabietha, who is one too pleased with the arrangement.

This series is based on an animated movie created by the same illustrator, Alicia R Norman, who wanted to expound the series in a literary style forum. HEART OF DEATH the animated film trailer can be viewed at http://youtu.be/-luusNvcmeE

The book trailer can be viewed at http://youtu.be/7IcBMYm6A4s

To learn more please visit http://www.luvmultimedia.com and http://luvmultimedia.blogspot.com/

And visit on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Heart-of-Death/153569724694241

Guest Blog and Giveaway with Kate Lutter

I’m not ashamed to admit that the hot drama on HBO—True Blood—changed me forever. It impacted my vision of the kind of paranormal world I wanted to create when I started writing Wild Point Island. I became instantly addicted to this love story of a vampire and small town waitress, and then I let my imagination fly as I began to write my own drama—a romance set on a mythical island off the coast of North Carolina, connected to the mainland by a bridge that only the residents of the island could see. I loved that concept. And it’s amazing how photos helped me conceptualize my story.

For example, my book cover reflected the idea of the bridge so beautifully. The artist put little stars around the bridge.

Wild Point Island was cut off from the rest of civilization. Victorian in architecture, it was fun to imagine the quaint details of the houses.

The building pictured on my cover is the Blue Dolphin Restaurant. The restaurant is owned by the residents of the island and used as a kind of safe house to get on and off the island without the humans who live on the mainland ever suspecting.

The Blue Dolphin Restaurant sits near a dock.

Here is an interior shot:

And here is the house that my heroine Ella Pattenson and her sister Lily returned to when they came back to Wild Point Island. I love the look of this house. In the story, Ella and Lily were banished from the island twenty years ago and now they’re returning to their childhood home, a very dangerous place, to rescue their father. You can’t see the old stables in the back of the house, but they’re there.

Creating the Victorian look of the island was easy. What was more difficult was coming up with a plausible reason why my characters were on an island and why they were confined to an island for over 400 years. I hooked the backstory for Wild Point Island on a real historical event—The Lost Colony of Roanoke—and I used the disappearance of these 95 American colonists as the springboard for my story. What if the colonists didn’t die, as most historians thought, but instead relocated to another island? What if, in their struggle to survive, they ate a local plant, which transformed them physiologically into another life form—a revenant—granting them immortality, but at a price? They must remain on the island forever.

I liked using a real life event as backstory. I even took the names of my characters from the original manifest of the boat that sailed from England in the 1590’s and settled on Roanoke Island. I liked also that my hero, Simon Viccars, would be confined to the island, because he wouldn’t be apart of the modern world. He’d be a bit old-fashioned and more courtly in his manners.

Because my hero, Simon Viccars, is a revenant he can assume human form for only part of the time. Like a vampire, he is sensitive to the sun, but it’s the heat more than the light. During the day he is in a spirit form and confined to the walls of his house, recharging. After 4:00, he can assume human form, and he is all man. Simon’s been married, but the death of his wife is what drives him to get off the island. When he meets the heroine, he hasn’t had real feelings for a woman in close to 100 years.

I love this photo of Simon. It shows his raw energy and courage as he faces the rough current surrounding Wild Point Island. He is wearing a long coat, typical of the time period.

Wild Point Island is not a graphic novel, but in some ways I wish it could have been. The photo to the right shows the gravesite of Simon’s wife. He visits it one day to tell her that he’s finally found someone new.

When I wrote Wild Point Island, I had this secret wish to include a cadre of photos. Whenever I read a novel, I like to pretend that the story is real. It would have been nice to show Ella and Simon together. To show Ella and Lily strolling along the beach. To show Uncle Teddy in his stately mansion.

Someday I predict a writer will do that and that novel will be a sensation.

I’m still toying with the idea of coming up with a kind of companion picture book for Wild Point Island. What do you think??

Wild Point Island Contest

Roxanne Rhoads

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Featured Post

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Married by Monday Excerpt

Monday, July 09, 2012

Heart of Death Now On Tour with Bewitching Book Tours

Guest Blog and Giveaway with Kate Lutter