Island Magic with Helen Brenna!

by Anna Campbell

Oh, be still my beating heart!

Well, not that still. Because then I'd be dead, right?

We have a saying in Oz that you wouldn't be dead for quids (quids is an old slang term for a pound note). And today, I have such a wonderful guest for you all that you wouldn't be dead for quids either!

I've come fairly recently to Helen Brenna's books - via a recommendation to read her RITA-nominated NASCAR story FROM THE OUTSIDE. I'm not that into racing cars but man, I got seriously into tortured and sexy racing car driver Roberto Castillo.


Since then I've read everything from Helen that I can lay my hands on. I've fallen in love with her wonderful series about a resort island in the Great Lakes called Mirabelle. As I said to her when I closed her fabulous THE PURSUIT OF JESSE a few days ago, I finish her books wanting to go to Mirabelle and then there's that cruel moment when I realize it's not REAL!!! Boo hoo.

Helen's books are unforgettable emotional reads about forgiveness and redemption and finding one's rightful place in the world. She has won an impressive number of prestigious awards including that most prestigious award of all, the Romance Writers of America RITA Award for THE MOON THAT NIGHT.

We're very lucky this year - in July, August and September, we get THREE Mirabelle books released back to back. THE PURSUIT OF JESSE, HER SURE THING and REDEMPTION AT MIRABELLE.

Here's the back cover blurb for HER SURE THING, Helen's August release:

Grace Andersen Kahill, the pastor's trouble-making daughter, left Mirabelle Island at seventeen and never looked back. When a devastating accident ruins not only her successful modeling career but also her marriage, she comes home to Mirabelle. She never expected to rediscover herself not through the lens of a camera, but through the eyes of Sean Griffin.

Sean, Mirabelle's doctor, has orchestrated for himself the perfect life. That is, until two new arrivals on Mirabelle upset his proverbial apple cart. A son he never knew existed and ... Grace.

The son, he'll deal with. Somehow. The woman, on the other hand, might just end up breaking his heart.

And don't forget, if you click on the covers in the blog, it takes you right to that book on Amazon.

For more information on Helen and her wonderful books, check out her website:

www.helenbrenna.com

Without more ado, here's Helen! And she's got some news for us!


I’m so excited I can hardly stand it. Today is the day I’m unveiling an illustration of my very own fictitious Mirabelle Island!

But let’s back up for a sec. Actually, let’s back up five whole years to when Mirabelle was born in my mind.

It all started, as so many books start, with a “what if?” What if two people, childhood sweethearts, were torn apart by something as simple as he couldn’t stay in the small town in which they’d grown up together and she couldn’t leave?

A lot of things had to come together to make this a compelling story. I needed a place with a strong sense of community, with history, maybe even a place the heroine’s ancestors had settled, all of which bound her to home. I needed a place that a reader could love, but I also needed that reader to empathize with the hero and the intolerable sense of confinement he felt while growing up. Mind you, none of this was conscious or purposeful. My writer’s brain was just doing its thing when it dawned on me that I needed an island. Not a sand, surf and palm trees kind of place. I needed something different. I needed Mackinac Island, Michigan.

Ever heard of The Grand Hotel? Mackinac is the place where the movie SOMEWHERE IN TIME was filmed. With cobblestone streets, Victorian B & Bs and horse drawn carriages, it’s a place filled with history, a place I could easily imagine Sophie, my heroine.

The only problem is that I couldn’t imagine Noah, my alpha hero living there and I wasn’t entirely sure how their story was going to end. Were they staying or leaving? Then, too, I don’t write quaint and quiet stories set in tearooms and grand hotels. I write contemporary romances with alpha heroes and strong heroines, so I needed some reality.

What I needed was a little bit of Madeline Island, the largest of the Apostle Islands chain located on Lake Superior just off Wisconsin’s northern shore. Madeline is bigger than Mackinac, so there’s space for log cabins, horse ranches, secluded bays and lighthouses, acres of untouched forest, and even a few brew pubs.

That’s how Mirabelle Island was born. A place of stark contrasts. Cold, brutal and isolated in the winter. Sunny and idyllic in the summer. Old virgin forests on one end and homemade fudge shops on the other. The Mirabelle Island Inn with its classic French restaurant a few blocks from the Rusty Nail, a bar that has seen better days. This is, basically, a picture of what’s been on the white board in my office for the last five years. The bare bones of Mirabelle Island …

Well, that one book about Noah and Sophie led to six more stand alone Mirabelle stories, and just as my books have evolved and grown so has my vision of the island. I wanted readers to see what I see in my mind, and so I commissioned an artist to illustrate Mirabelle.

To coincide with THE PURSUIT OF JESSE, HER SURE THING and REDEMPTION AT MIRABELLE, three new Mirabelle Island books releasing July, August and September, I’m “unveiling” the illustrated map here and on my web site. Voila!

It still needs a legend and some geographic titles, but what do you think? Does Mirabelle Island look like some place you’d like to live? Read about, I hope?

To celebrate my back to back releases, I’d like to give away three copies from my backlist today, so check out my website at helenbrenna.com to see which title you’d like. And stop by my website again in another week or so to see the finished map.

Many thanks to Anna and all the Bandits for having me here today!

You heard right, Bandita Buddies. That's THREE people to win their choice from Helen's backlist! Hmm, wonder if she'll let me enter. There's a couple of older titles I still haven't managed to find. Perhaps I can enter under an alias...

OK, OK, I won't cheat (mainly because you'd find me out, you're all so clever!).

Good luck and get commenting, people!

Summertime Booty!

THANX to everyone who turned out last Sunday to share their hectic summer with Marie Force!

Now for the booty...

SUPER CONGRATS
to

MAUREEN

You are the winner of a copy of Marie's Fatal Consequences!

Please contact Marie at marie AT marieforce DOT com.

Jenny Brown's Starry Winner!

What a great day we all had in the lair when Jenny Brown visited to tell us about the second book in her wonderful LORDS OF THE SEVENTH HOUSE series, STAR CROSSED SEDUCTION. Thanks so much for giving Jenny such a great welcome!

Jenny was giving away a copy of her first book in the series, LORD LIGHTNING, to one commenter. The lucky winner is:

MAY!

Congratulations, May. Please email Jenny on lottadata @ hotmail.com (no spaces) with your snail mail details and Jenny will get your book out to you. Happy reading!

J.D. Tyler's Primal Law

Today I have a surprise for our readers. We’re introducing a debut series, the ALPHA PACK, and the first book in the series, PRIMAL LAW by author J.D. Tyler, which hit shelves this week. It’s a dark, sexy, paranormal series with very sexy shapeshifting alpha heroes. What? Excuse me, dear readers. Sven is motioning me to the side.

Walks over to the sexy masseuse.

“What is it Sven?”

He bends down and whispers in my ear.

“J.D. Tyler looks familiar to you?”

He nods and points to the pictures of previous Lair guests. Then whispers in my ear.

“She looks like that author that wrote about firefighters and pinched your backside last time she was here?”

Laughing, I pat him on his backside then walk back to our guest.

Jo, you’ve been outted! For those of you who don’t know, J.D. Tyler is also the author, Jo Davis, my good friend and CP Partner. Welcome to the Lair once again, JD. For this occasion I’ve asked for Top Shelf Margaritas, (pointing to the pitcher Paolo just placed on the bar), so help yourself .

JD: Thanks, I believe I will! (Takes a sip) Ohh, these are great! Thanks so much for having me here today. I always love visiting with the Banditas!

Suz: So J.D. Why the name change?

J.D.: The decision to use a different pen name was easy for a couple of reasons—reader recognition and name association. Jo Davis writes hot contemporary suspense and erotica, and that’s what readers expect from her. J.D. writes dark, sexy paranormal romance, and the worlds she creates are grittier. More dangerous. J.D. can, and does, take more chances to give her readers a thrilling ride.

Suz: Did you want to write paranormal romance?

J.D.: Actually, I started out my career writing paranormal erotica for Ellora’s Cave and had planned to stay with paranormal for some time. But then my agent and I sold the firefighter series to NAL, and paranormal went on the back burner. When the firefighter series ended, I’d planned to propose a police series called Sugarland Blue, to spin off of the firefighters. (Which I still would like to do.)

My publisher, however, asked me to write paranormal. I have to say, the request was a dream come true! I’m an avid reader of dark, sexy paranormal romance, and to be handed the opportunity to write in a genre I love was one I was not about to walk away from! I proposed the ALPHA PACK series, it sold, and J.D. Tyler was born.

Suz: So what’s the concept for the ALPHA PACK series?

The ALPHA PACK was founded by a group of former Navy SEALs after they were attacked by rogue wolf shifters in Afghanistan and turned. Now they use their shifting and Psy abilities, battling to protect the innocent from the world’s most dangerous human and supernatural predators.

J.D.: Tell us a little about PRIMAL LAW.

Here’s the blurb:

After a massacre decimates half his team and leaves him crippled, Jaxon Law must relearn how to fight—and must defeat the anger and guilt threatening to overwhelm him. But when he rescues a beautiful woman who reawakens his primal instincts, Jax is unprepared for the dangers that lie ahead.
On the run from her employer, brilliant lab assistant Kira Locke escapes with disturbing evidence that leads the Alpha Pack team on a hunt for someone targeting human civilians with Psy abilities. And as Jax and Kira circle both the killer and each other, Jax will have to decide if the deep connection he feels with Kira is worth breaking the ultimate shifter rule—because bonding with Kira means putting his abilities at risk, and they might be the only tool he has to keep his mate alive…

Suz:  How do Jaxon and Kira meet?

J.D.: Kira has stolen some lab samples and is on the run from her boss’s men, who mean to kill her. Jax hears her scream and rushes to the rescue, shifting in front of her to dispatch the thugs. Only now, because of what she saw and the threat to her life that’s still out there, he can’t let her go. Little does he know he’ll never let her go, under any circumstances…

Suz: There are some interesting characters in PRIMAL LAW. Want to give a taste of what the readers will find inside?

J.D. :The ALPHA PACK compound is very unique in that the team doesn’t just destroy rogue paranormals—they also rescue frightened beings who don’t belong in the human world and are having trouble adjusting. They don’t have much time to deal with these beings, however, so Kira steps up and suggests they make rehabbing paranormals an actual program. Readers will see this program develop and take on life in each successive book, and new types of shifters and other beings will be introduced.

First off in PRIMAL LAW, readers meet Sariel, a beautiful Fae prince who was cast from the Seelie court and is having terrible trouble coping with the human world. He’s a great secondary character who will become extremely important in the series. We also meet Belial, a misunderstood basilisk shifter, and then the most tragic figure of all in the program—Raven, a former Navy SEAL who was turned into a wolf shifter along with the others, but never returned to human form. He’s been feral for over five years, and no one has any clue how to help him.

The series is rich with characters, and they all have a purpose. The story possibilities are delicious and endless! For a list of the main ALPHA PACK team members and their descriptions (and keep checking, as this list will grow), plus excerpts and other news, visit my website at www.JDTyler.com.

Suz: So what’s next in the ALPHA PACK series?

J.D.: Next up is a novella tentatively titled BLACK MAGIC (the title might change), and it will be a stand-alone story involving Kalen Black, the team’s newest member who’s a Sorcerer/panther shifter/Necromancer! Other Alpha Pack team members call him a cross between a rock star and a gunslinger. You’ll find out why in PRIMAL LAW. His novella will be released from Penguin eSpecials in March 2012, and will lead into SAVAGE AWAKENING (book 2), and Kalen’s own story, which will be book 3 of the series. And I’ll tell you right now, Kalen’s full novel, book 3, is going to be truly epic.

After Kalen’s novella is SAVAGE AWAKENING, which is Aric Savage’s story and will be released on April 3, 2012! Aric has been the most fun hero I’ve ever written because he’s such a snarky bastard. Of course, the prickly outside hides a heart as big as a continent. It will take a really special woman to make this sexy redhead accept his self-worth and be the hero everyone knows he is.

Suz: JD will give away a signed copy of PRIMAL LAW to one lucky commenter!

J.D.: If you could be any type of supernatural hero, what would you be and why? (vampire, shifter, Fae, demon, etc.)

A STAR-CROSSED VISIT!

by Anna Campbell

It's my great pleasure today to introduce a fresh face to the lair, wonderful Avon historical romance author Jenny Brown!

Jenny's debut LORD LIGHTNING garnered glowing reviews and a lot of buzz in Romancelandia, including two Romantic Times Book Reviews Reviewers Choice Award nominations. Her second book in the Lords of the Seventh House series, STAR CROSSED SEDUCTION comes out 30th August. Rush to pre-order it!

Here's the blurb for STAR CROSSED SEDUCTION:

Lovers or Enemies?

Captain Miles Trevelyan, on leave from active service in India, is heading out for a night on the town when he rescues a beautiful pickpocket from arrest. She's the perfect choice for a few days of dalliance--beautiful, cunning, and completely disposable.

But Temperance has no intention of becoming the plaything of a man who wears the uniform of the solders who murdered her lover. Disarming Trev with a kiss, she escapes. But her sultry kiss opens the two Scorpio adversaries to an obsessive attraction that neither can elude--or possibly survive.

You can find out more about Jenny and her books (and see astrological charts for her characters!) on her website: www.jennybrown.net

You can find a brand-new excerpt from STAR CROSSED SEDUCTION here: www.jennybrown.net/home/SCSexcerpt.php

Welcome, Jenny. It's great to have you in the lair at last - I feel like I've been waiting forever to talk to you here about your wonderful stories. STAR CROSSED SEDUCTION is the second in your Lords of the Seventh House series which started with the fabulously well-received LORD LIGHTNING. Can you tell us about this new story and the inspiration behind it?

When I sold LORD LIGHTNING, my editor wanted it to be the first in a series where the hero’s astrological sign would play a part in the story.

Scorpio was the obvious sign to do next. No other sign screams sensual, emotionally moving romance like Scorpio.

But Scorpio has a very mixed reputation. Sexy, yes. But also manipulative, secretive, resentful and transgressive. Scorpios aren’t so much into sex as a recreational activity as they are into sex as a way to control other people. What turns them on is emotion, not sensation. If giving you multiple orgasms will bind you to them for life, they’ll do it. If withholding sex will work better—that works for them, too.

So how was I to make my hero heroic?


The answer lay in exploring the gift Scorpio may confer: intense loyalty, deep psychological insight, and the ability to heal the most painful psychological injuries.

When a Scorpio gives his heart, his loyalty to his loved one will motivate him do whatever is necessary to protect that person, even to sacrificing their lives.

This pointed me to my hero: A dedicated soldier descended from a line of soldiers who have sacrificed their lives for King and Country. And since astrologers know that Scorpios often do best when paired with others of their sign, I made my hero and heroine both sexually alluring, magnetic Scorpios, each of whose lives is dominated by loyalties that have given them secrets they have no choice but to keep hidden.

Captain Miles Trevelyan is on leave from active service in India and looking for nothing more than an evening’s pleasure when circumstances force him, much against his better judgement, to step in and rescue a beautiful pickpocket from a well-deserved arrest. Once in his custody, the streetwise Temperance, who has learned how to use her sexual allure to gain control over men, distracts him with a seductive kiss, intending to make her escape by diverting the handsome captain’s blood away from his brain to a less observant organ.

But their kiss opens them both to feelings they’ve never before experienced and Temperance finds herself unable to break free, even though the man who has aroused such passion in her wears the same uniform as the officer who killed her ex-lover, a failed revolutionary. Drawn into a battle of the sexes where each pits their seductive skills against the other, Trev learns he has finally met the one woman strong enough to meet him where others fear to tread. But he faces a devastating choice. Will he remain true to King and Country, or give up everything to save the strong and vulnerable girl who’s won his heart?

Ooh, sounds delicious! You use astrology as a major theme in your historical romances. How did you become interested in this ancient art?

I don’t actually remember when I discovered astrology, but I know it was before I was nine as I was recently going through some family papers and found a cartoon I’d drawn in a letter I sent home from camp at that age which showed a wizard pointing to an accurately drawn astrological chart. My fuzzy memory is that I first encountered astrology in a newsstand magazine, possibly DELL HOROSCOPE.

When I was in my 20s someone taught me how to cast charts (this was before software made it easy.) So I began to draw charts for everyone I met, and learned more about how to interpret them from books and classes.

What’s next for you?

My next book is the Pisces book in the series. It’s tentatively titled PERILOUS PLEASURES.

While the first two books of the series, LORD LIGHTNING and STAR CROSSED SEDUCTION are connected to each other, this third book goes off in another direction. Set in 1803, it pairs a handsome, wealthy, idealistic Scottish lord, who has taken a vow of chastity in order to be initiated into the secrets of an ancient healing tradition, with the ugly, cynical daughter of the courtesan he must kill if he is to avenge his sister’s murder.

Do you have any advice for aspiring writers?

I have such a strong streak of Sagittarius on my own chart that there’s nothing I’d rather do than give advice.

What I’d suggest—which is the best advice I received from another, brilliant writer, and of course, ignored—is that aspiring writers finish at least five books before they seek publication. There as so many benefits of doing this. The most important is that your first book is never as good as you think it is, and writing more will give you either the experience you need to make the first book better or provide you with a much better book—one that might let you break in with a big advance and strong publisher support. The other benefit of writing a lot of books before you publish is that with a stash of books to draw on, you can deliver subsequent books more quickly, which will also help you build up your audience.

Unfortunately, like Temperance, the impulsive heroine of STAR CROSSED SEDUCTION, who ignores the warning Eliza, the astrologer we first met in LORD LIGHTNING, gives her, most of us ignore all the advice we’re given no matter how good it might be.

Jenny, that's all fascinating! Thanks for being our guest today. Do you have a question to get the conversation going with our Banditas and Bandita Buddies?

What’s the best piece of advice someone has given you? Did you take it? What was the worst? I’ll be giving away a copy of LORD LIGHTNING to a randomly chosen commenter.

OK, people, let's all be STARS and comment to win this great prize. Good luck.

Note: Jenny will forward the prize once her book hits the stands on 30th August.

ROGUISH LAUNCH PARTY

I've been waiting over a year to say this but REDEEMING THE ROGUE is out today. Woohoo!

The reviews have been wonderful:

"Irish rebellion, smuggled guns, and the assassination of American president James Garfield form a lively backdrop for this sweet, sexy, and smartly told Victorian romance." -

Publisher's Weekly

Romantic Times gave Redeeming the Rogue a 4.5 stars Top Pick review and called it "pure joy: funny, sexy and exciting."

Life is good - which means it's time to party!

Now I don't know what it's like in your next of the woods...but

it's darn hot here. So this launch party is being held pool side. I've got a nice cold wildberry mojito myself, an economy sized bottle of coconut scented sunblock, and some willing

and able cabana boys to slather it on. So pull up a lounge chair to join us.

For the one or two people left in the universe that I haven't buttonholed to tell about my story, let me do a quick blurb.

Michael Rafferty is an agent for the Crown, on the trail of a conspirator championing Irish independence through acts of violence. The trail leads to Washington, D.C., where Rafferty must assume the role of a diplomat in order to set a trap for the villain. To complete the pretense, he’ll need to transform his coarse image and find someone to portray his wife.

Lady Arianne Chambers, sister to a Duke and well-versed in high society circles, reluctantly agrees to assist Rafferty’s charade. She’ll teach him the finer points of being a gentleman, but she has no desire for a husband. The honorable and passionate man hidden beneath roguish rough edges finds his way into her heart. Can she risk sharing her secrets and jeopardizing her future...

One thing the blurb doesn't mention is that the Arianne Chambers is a bit of an accidental matchmaker. Whereever she goes people find their one true love. As women outnumbered men during Victorian times, this particular quality made my heroine very popular among mothers with marriageable daughters, but not so much around bachelors.

I guess if my heroine lived in modern times, she'd be the equivalent of eharmony.com - or some other internet driven matching service. So I thought that might be something we could talk about - stories about couples finding their true loves either by introduction, the internet, or like

me - in a bar. (grin). What quality do you think has to be present to make a relationship last?

I've got a couple of copies of Redeeming the Rogue to give away as prizes - just leave a comment and I'll let my new kitten pick two. I also have a contest running at my website www.DonnaMacMeans.com. I'm giving away a Kindle to the person who posts a review of Redeeming the Rogue in the most places. See my website for details.

So let's talk about the heat, let's talk about the love, and hopefully, let's talk about how they come together.

Techno-Freakia Booty

Thanks to everyone who stopped by to talk technology! We had such a great response that I decided to clear out my stock of giveaway books from RWA. That made me a day late with this post, but I was able to put together three prize packages.

The books were chosen by what I had on hand. Everyone gets Steve Berry's The Templar Legacy and Diana Gabaldon's Outlander. Other books in the mix vary as I didn't have three of anything else.

There's also an urban fantasy sampler. Special thanks go to Christina Brooke for two signed excerpts from her fabulous Heiress in Love and to Carrie Lofty for the three Carina Press discount coupons.

I'm going to package these up and address them at random. The three winners are:

Dtchycat, Runner10, and Traveler

Please send your snail mail info to romancebandits AT gmail DOT com and put "for Nancy" in the subject line.

Congratulations to the winners, and thanks again to everyone who stopped by!

August Coming Attractions

by Beth

August is going to be a GREAT month in the lair. We have guests and launch parties and, as always, good times galore *g*


Tomorrow, August 2, starts things off with the launch party for Donna's REDEEMING THE ROGUE, which we'll celebrate with a cruise from England to America.


On Wednesday, 3rd August, Anna Campbell brings some starlight into the lair when she hosts historical romance author Jenny Brown who will be talking about STAR CROSSED SEDUCTION, the second installment in her Lords of the Seventh House series.


JD Tyler will be here on August 4th to tell us all about PRIMAL LAW, the first book in her paranormal shape-shifter special op series, The Alpha Pack.
J.D. Tyler will be here August 4 to tell us all about PRIMAL LAW, the first book in her paranormal shape-shifter special ops series, The Alpha Pack.


On Friday, 5th August, Anna Campbell is hosting one of her favorite authors, Helen Brenna. Clearly the world agrees with Anna because Helen won a RITA at the recent Romance Writers of America conference. Helen will be talking about her August SuperRomance HER SURE THING.





Harlequin Superromance author Karina Bliss is here on August 6 to discuss her new release, STAND-IN WIFE.


On August 7th, lair favorite Denise Rosetti returns to launch the powerfully sexy GUILTY AS SIN from Ellora's Cave.


August 12, USA Today Bestselling author Sue-Ellen Welfonder stops by to talk about THE TEMPTATION OF A HIGHLAND SCOUNDREL in which a roguish chieftain's world is upended when a dangerous enemy shatters the peace of a sacred glen just as a determined lady proves true love can conquer the most unwilling heart.



USA Today Bestselling author Karen Ranney will be with us on August 16. MY BELOVED is the medieval story of a woman summoned from a convent to finally be the wife of a mysterious man who dresses in a monk's robe and tells her they must never touch.


August 19 we'll welcome Harlequin Superromance author Sarah Mayberry and get to hear all about her newest release, ONE GOOD REASON.

I'm throwing a party for the launch of FEELS LIKE HOME, the final book in my Diamond Dust trilogy for Harlequin Superromance, on August 20 :-)

On August 25 we'll have our third launch party with Kate's latest release for Harlequin Desire, HOW TO SEDUCE A BILLIONAIRE!





August 31 we'll close out the month by celebrating the launch for Jeanne's DEADLY LITTLE LIES!! Jeanne promises to make it a fun day with prizes and some smokin' hot fun to kick off her latest TOP PICK and 4 1/2 Star winning sequel to DEADLY LITTLE SECRETS! Romantic Times called this one "Unputdownable!" How's that for closing out August with a BANG!

Anna Campbell is running a Mammoth and Midnight contest in July and August. Anna’s giving away THREE signed copies of THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF REGENCY ROMANCE which includes her mini-novella “Upon a Midnight Clear”. Winners will also receive a bonus signed copy of MIDNIGHT’S WILD PASSION. All you need to do to be in the draw is email Anna on anna@annacampbell.info and tell her the names of the two characters who appear in the excerpt from “The Chinese Bed” on her website. You’ll find the answer here: http://www.annacampbell.info/chinesebed.html The contest closes 31^st August, 2011. For more information, please visit Anna’s contest page: http://www.annacampbell.info/contest.html

Check out Donna's website http://www.donnamacmeans.com/ for details on how you can have a chance to win a Kindle!