Bandita Booty!

by Anna Sugden

Time to announce the prize winners from Caridad Pineiro's visit!

So without further ado ...

Congratulations to:

Flchen1 - winner of the Stronger Than Sin T-Shirt!

SiNn - winner of the Stronger Than Sin Tote Bag!

Scorpio M - winner of a copy of Stronger Then Sin!

Please send your snail mail deets to me at anna@annasugden.com and I'll forward to Caridad.

Caridad Pineiro Returns to talk sin and sexy sports heroes

with Anna Sugden

I'm delighted to welcome back to the Lair, a great friend and an awesome author - Caridad Pineiro. We always have such fun when she drops by and I know this time won't be any different, especially as she's here to talk about her sexy sports hero in need of redemption (and we all know how much I love sports heroes!)

So without further ado, let me hand over to Caridad.

Thanks, Anna. It's great to be back with the Banditas and BB's.

I’m a tv-holic. I even watch television while I write, usually mixing up what I watch to match what I’m writing. When I’m doing paranormals, I’ll pop in something like UNDERWORLD. Big action scenes? Out comes KING ARTHUR or GLADIATOR. Feeling like I need a little romance? Any Sandra Bullock film, but especially MISS CONGENIALITY or TWO WEEKS NOTICE.

I guess that need for visual inspiration all goes back to my family and how I grew up. My future husband-to-be once asked me, “Doesn’t your family know where the power button is on the television?”

In my family’s home the television was on all the time because we were always watching something. Whether it was scary movies on a rainy Saturday, a James Bond film or a big athletic event, my family would gather around the television.

Those three things in particular left an indelible impact on me, cementing my love of paranormals, suspense and sports. It seems only natural that one day I would combine all of them into a story!

That’s how the basic inspiration came about for Stronger Than Sin, but when it came to the sports part of it, I wanted to dig a little deeper. Like many children, I grew up admiring sports heroes, in my case Chrissie Evert and Billie Jean King. Unfortunately in recent years, though there have been inspirational figures like Bo Jackson and Tim Tebow, there have also been a lot of cases where the cult of celebrity has placed more than one sports hero in a negative light.




The hero in Stronger Than Sin, Jesse Bradford, is one such hero. Jesse allowed fame and fortune to take him on a wrong path. One which had him deviating from the family values with which he was raised. What I wanted to show in Stronger Than Sin is how a man is capable of redeeming himself and getting back on the right path in life.

I fell in love with Jesse as he rediscovered honor and loyalty. As he made difficult choices and did what he could to protect the heroine, Liliana, as well as the family that had forsaken him because of his sinful ways.

I hope you’ll fall in love with Jesse also!

Do you feel sports heroes have let you down or do you not see them as role models? Are there any examples of sports heroes who are good role models? Who is you favourite sports hero in a romance novel?

We have some fabulous prizes to give away today! A copy of Stronger Than Sin, a Stronger Than Sin T-Shirt and a Stronger Than Sin Tote Bag! All you have to do is take part in today's fun with Caridad.

Caridad Pineiro is the NYT and USA Today bestselling author of sexy paranormal romance and killer romantic suspense. Her vampire series The Calling has won numerous awards and her South Beach Chicas have received much acclaim. You can find out more about Caridad and her books at www.caridad.com.

Coming Attractions for November!

by Anna Campbell

Wow, November is rockin' in the lair! We've shipped in extra cabana boys to cope with the extra strain on the bar!

We've got guests and giveaways galore and not one, but TWO infamous launch parties (yeah, you can see why we need extra staff!).

And don't forget, if you click on any of the covers, you go straight to Amazon!

First cab off the rank (such an elegant cab - clearly a Jaguar!) is fabulous historical romance author Sarah MacLean who will be my guest on Tuesday, 2nd November.

Sarah burst onto the historical romance scene this year with her fantabulous NINE RULES TO BREAK WHEN ROMANCING A RAKE. She's visiting us to talk about her November book TEN WAYS TO BE ADORED WHEN LANDING A LORD. Love the titles, Sarah!

Sarah is a load of fun (and she's doing a giveaway) so don't miss her visit.

On November 3rd, Jessica Andersen returns as the newest installment in the Nightkeepers saga launches. BLOOD SPELLS is Patience and Brandt's story. In their honor, Jessica will discuss "After the HEA" with us. She may also have a Big Surprise for us.



On 4th November, Caridad Pineiro visits the Banditas to celebrate the publication of her 25th release – STRONGER THAN SIN from Grand Central Publishing. This is the second in Caridad's Sin series. We like a bit of sin in the lair so that should be huge fun!














On Friday, 5th November, a dear friend of mine Emily May (who also writes brilliant fantasy romance as Emily Gee) will be here to talk about her latest Regency romance, THE UNMASKING OF A LADY. Emily is coming to the lair all the way from New Zealand and she'll be talking about her two identities and giving away a signed copy of her book.








On 9th November, Nancy will host Julie Kenner/J.K. Beck in the lair. Julie is here to talk about her latest series of vampire romances, WHEN BLOOD CALLS, WHEN PLEASURE RULES and especially her latest release WHEN WICKED CRAVES. Sounds like something the Banditas and their Buddies can get their teeth into! Oh, I do love the chance for a good meaty vampire joke!












On November 11th we have the lovely Donna Grant talking to us about her fabulous, pulse-pounding paranormal Scottish historical Dark Sword series. Her latest release is WICKED HIGHLANDER - ooh, I can see myself being wicked with him!












Aussie contemporary romance author Kandy Shepherd returns to the lair on Tuesday, 16th November, to talk about her wonderful new book HOME IS WHERE THE BARK IS. People who loved LOVE IS A FOUR-LEGGED WORD will adore this story about an FBI agent who gets involved unwillingly in a doggy daycare center. Kandy will be doing a giveaway!







On the 20th November, we have the first of our Bandita launches for the month. RITA winner and one of my favorite authors Beth Andrews lets her latest release A MARINE FOR CHRISTMAS loose in the lair. Swing by for mayhem and margaritas.

Here's the blurb:

It’s a wonderful life…?

Growing up in her perfect sister’s shadow wasn’t easy. Especially because JC Montgomery had been in love with Liz’s boyfriend for as long as she could remember. Brady Sheppard, a a guy who thought of her as only the kid sister. But that all changed when Liz married somebody else and Brady ended up in bed with JC! It was like a dream come true.


Except now JC’s pregnant. And Brady’s a wounded marine, so it’s going to be difficult for him to get down on one knee and tell her she’s his reason for living…But he will. Because she still believes in Santa Claus.

For 21st November we have a delicious treat for all you historical lovers. Delightful debut author Kieran Kramer is chatting with us about her Impossible Bachelor series. WHEN HARRY MET MOLLY, the first instalment in the series, hits the shelves this month.







To finish the month (11/30), we have another fabulous Bandita release to celebrate (oh, my poor aching cabana boys!). Tawny Weber's novella A BABE IN TOYLAND is out from Blaze in an anthology called IT MUST HAVE BEEN THE MISTLETOE... (Yeah, right!).

Here's the blurb:

They’re going to have a hot, hot Christmas...

The weather outside might be frightful—
but the Cole sisters are indulging in
something quite delightful...

Rita Mae Cole and Tyler Ramsey hail from feuding
families. Be together? Impossible. But the incredible
sex between them says otherwise....


After the huge success of my last contest where I gave away a pile of signed books, I'm doing it all again in my latest website contest. The question is really easy. Other than English, please name three languages in which my books are available. You might just find the answer on this page of my website. I'll choose TWO winners at random and those lucky entrants will receive signed copies of:

MY RECKLESS SURRENDER by Anna Campbell
DARK AND DEADLY by Jeanne Adams
NINE RULES TO BREAK WHEN ROMANCING A RAKE by Sarah MacLean
THE WICKED MARQUIS by Miranda Neville
PROOF BY SEDUCTION by Courtney Milan
Either WHAT HAPPENS IN LONDON or THE DUKE AND I by Julia Quinn

Good luck! The contest closes 30th November, 2010. Email your answers to anna@annacampbell.info For more information, please visit my contest page.

Winners of Caridad Pineiro's Bandita Booty!

by Anna Sugden

Caridad has drawn the lucky winners of her fab prizes!

Catslady won a copy of Moon Fever and Ellie won a Chica's t-shirt.

Congratulations!

Please email Caridad at cpsromance@att.net with your snail mail info and she will send your prizes.

Calling All Chicas!

by Anna Sugden

Our favourite chica is in the Bandita’s Lair … Caridad Piñeiro.

I’m thrilled to welcome my super-talented friend, multi-published and award-winning author, Caridad Piñeiro.

From the start, Caridad’s novels have helped redefine the landscape of modern romance novels. In 1999, she was published by Kensington as part of Encanto - the first line of bilingual Latino romance novels. Death Calls, one of the novels in her fabulous vampire series The Calling, helped Silhouette launch the successful Nocturne paranormal line. And her highly acclaimed Chicas novels are helping to make Latina fiction part of the publishing mainstream. Caridad also writes romantic suspense for Silhouette. And if that wasn’t enough … she’s a successful attorney!

Her eighteenth release Moon Fever, a paranormal anthology with Maggie Shayne, Susan Sizemore and Lori Handeland is a bestseller on the USA Today and NY Times extended lists.

Don’t forget to look out for South Beach Chicas Catch Their Man and Holiday With a Vampire (an anthology with Maureen Child).

For more information about Caridad, please visit http://www.caridad.com/ and http://www.thecallingvampirenovels.com/ .

Welcome Caridad! It’s great to have you join us.

Thanks - it's great to be here!

I’m a huge fan of THE CALLING series - I’ve been hooked since the first one - Darkness Calls. Can you tell the rest of our gang a bit about it?

The Calling is a vampire romantic suspense series that began in 2004 with Darkness Calls in the Silhouette Intimate Moments line. I had wanted to write something darker, but I knew I wanted to also have a mystery going on in the various stories. Each story in the series stands alone and the paranormal element varies from story to story. For example, in Darkness Calls and Death Calls, the suspense elements aren’t paranormal, but rather, are a serial killer case and an investigation into a possible terrorist attack. In other stories, the paranormal element is in the forefront, like in Devotion Calls where the villain is a chupacabra (goat sucker). I decided to vary the paranormal and suspense elements so I could give readers something new and exciting with each story. Next year you’ll see things like a Chinese vampire and vampires in Miami!

Your vampires are wonderful three-dimensional characters, who have so much depth and elicit so much empathy (and this from someone who doesn’t really read vampires!). Can you tell us how you manage to achieve the fine balance?

I think the one thing that drew me to the vampire genre was the ability to explore the many emotions that they must have experienced after such a long existence. That makes them wonderfully complex creatures and each of the vampires in The Calling have had different life experiences which have shaped who they are, much like humans, but in this case, they’ve lived with these experiences and emotions much longer. That makes resolving those issues in a happy way that much more powerful.

Totally different from these dark, emotional and intense vampire tales are your fabulous Chicas. Can you tell us a bit about them and what inspired you to write them?

It was tough to be writing dark all the time and so I wanted to try something lighter, but also something with which all women could identify. The Chicas were born! I wanted to have them explore real life events that women experience, like having friends marry and possibly leave their friends behind or dealing with their parents and conflicts with them. I also wanted to do this in a light and humorous way and so far, the response has been very positive.

How difficult is it writing two such different types of books? Indeed, with your romantic suspense novels, three?!

I enjoy writing all the different genres because each one presents its own unique challenges. Also, having to switch gears helps keep my writing fresh because sometimes you grow dependent on certain crutches when writing. Having to switch the tone and theme of what you write helps you avoid that.

Do you get any cross-over in your readers between the different series?

I regularly get cross-over readers, especially between the straight romantic suspense and the paranormal romantic suspense novels. I also get a lot of men reading the paranormals and they enjoy the empowered women in those novels. As for the Chicas, I have many of the same readers and they enjoy the realism of real life female friendships and relationships.

You write under the same name for all your books. Was that a conscious choice?

I had thought about using a pseudonym, but decided against it since I wanted readers to be able to experience all the different kinds of writing that I did. Since readers do follow me from genre to genre, I think it was a good decision to do this.

Have you got any advice for writers wanting to be in different genres?

The hardest thing about being able to write successfully in different genres is understanding the expectations of readers for each of the genres and making sure you satisfy those expectations. For example, in books like the Chicas, it was fine to leave certain romantic relationships unresolved, but that wouldn’t fly in one of the romantic suspense novels. Also, study the pacing of each of the different genres, since it will change from one genre to another. Proper pacing is key to any book.


I know your daughter has the same love of shoes as I do. What is your wicked pleasure?

My wicked pleasure is watching TV. I have been a TV addict since I was a little kid and I have it on all the time when I work. Sometimes I just watch TV, but I also often watch videos that help get me in the mood for when I’m writing. If I’m doing something dark, I’ll be watching Buffy, Underworld or something equally dark and graphic. If I’m in a Chicas mood, it’ll be a romantic comedy or a Sandra Bullock movie. Since I’m such a TV addict, one of the best gifts hubby got me was a DVR and big TV.

Caridad has got some great prizes...a copy of Moon Fever and a Chicas t-shirt! Just share your wicked pleasure with us and Caridad will draw two lucky winners!