Tuesday, July 17, 2007

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

I have been writing seriously for about twenty-eight months. Prior to that I posted reviews on music, books, movies, cars and assorted other things on some websites. These reviews now total over five hundred reviews. I’ve also written several published ‘Letters to the Editor’ and a couple editorials for the Arizona Republic.

About March of 2005, I had an idea for a novel and began writing. By October of 2005, I finished my book and titled it ‘The Right Hand of Allah.’

Meanwhile, I had an idea for another novel and began writing immediately. I finished ‘Fortune Cookies,’ an erotic chick-lit story, in July, but I kept tinkering with it until September. ‘Fortune Cookies’ is under contract for digital publication with eXtasy Books and became available December 7th. A new book, Legs, was recently released on Amira Press.

Published history

• The Right Hand of Allah. – Booksurge (POD) January 11, 2007
  
• Fortune Cookies – Extasy Books, December 7, 2006
  
• Bananaz (Short Story) Sex and Seduction – Xcite Books April 15, 2007
  
• The Sex Therapist (Short Story) Five Minute Fantasies III – Xcite Books May 15, 2007
  
• LEGS – Amira Press, June 15, 2007
  
• My fourth novel, ‘Getting Naked at the Hilton,’has been accepted by eXtasy Books
  
• My novelette 'Forbidden' has been accepted by Dark Eden Press
  

I continue to write. I am currently working on a paranormal called ‘Hollywood Witches,’ a sequel to ‘The Right Hand of Allah,’ entitled ‘A Woman of Valor’ and a sequel to ‘Fortune Cookies,’ entitled The Fellowship of Eros.


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ABOUT THE BOOK:

BLURB:

Mallory Robbins, a top fashion model and fast rising movie starlet, wakes up in an unknown location, after a blissful night with an exquisite, attentive lover, with no memory of her whereabouts.

Enduring a severe headache, she becomes terrified when she catches a glimpse of herself in a dresser mirror wearing the authentic coverings, including a veil, of a wealthy devout Muslim woman.

To make matters worse she finds out she has been kidnapped to become the wife of a Saudi Prince and her lover of the previous evening is scheduled to be beheaded.


EXCERPT:

As expected, Friday at JoJo’s was a madhouse. Drew spied Mallory beating a path through the buzzards toward the rear bar. He edged over to the front bar, where he could best keep an eye on her. Squeezing between two customers, he stood with his back to the bar in order to watch his fine-looking mark. As anticipated, she joined her friend Paige.

Admiring his quarry, his mind wandered. She was so extraordinarily beautiful. Tall and lithe with cascading blonde curls, mesmerizing blue eyes, angelic face and fantastic legs. Ahh, those legs. They excited him. Sitting on her stool, her wondrous legs crossed, she turned and gazed across the room. A chill went through him when, for a fleeting moment, their eyes met. After months of following and learning everything I can about her, I’m falling in love with her.

The bartender wrenched Drew out of his reverie. “What’ll you have, Buddy?”

He looked over his shoulder. “I’ll take a Seven-Up.”

“One Seven-Up coming up.”

Drew returned to his thoughts, How can I do what I must? Can I get out of it? No, that won’t work, someone else will be sent. I must get close to her somehow, and protect her from the Prince.

****

The lounge portion of JoJo’s had three bars – one to the left of the entrance, a service bar near the restaurant and the main bar, her friend Paige liked, in the rear. For girls, it was good because it was near the ladies room, but the bad thing was you had to pass through a multitude of bawdy drunks on the make to get to it.

“Damn-it! Let go of me, you… And don’t touch me again… Creep!” Mallory shrilled as she extricated herself from the grabby hands of yet another rude, drunken God’s gift to women.

Exactly, what is the attraction of this place? Mallory half thought, half mumbled to herself.

Mallory wove her way through the masses of semi-intoxicated, on the make, male customers, perpetually searching for free hor’ douvres, half price Happy Hour drinks and if they got lucky—a one night stand.

Well, I’m nobody’s one night stand!

”Hey gorgeous, have I –“

“Never.” She cut him off.

“Baby, where ha –”

“Hiding from you,” she said jerking her hand back.

For four consecutive Fridays, Mallory’s friend of nearly twenty years, Paige Dillon, had begged her to meet for a drink at JoJo’s Bar and Grill. Having grown up together in Glendale , California , it was hard to say no.

“God you’re beautiful, you wanna f –”

“In your dreams, lover boy.”

Paige sat at her usual seat at the bar, dressed in her tight-fitting Calvin Klein jeans and low cut rust-colored sweater. She’d positioned her leather purse on the next stool, her way of saving it for her friend. Mallory was getting used to the routine.

Smiling, she handed the nutmeg dyed Prada handbag back to Paige and sat down.

“You know Paige; I’ve been meaning to ask you. Why do you insist on coming here, when you know we both get mentally gang banged on the way from the entrance to the bar?”

“It’s where Robbie likes to meet. Don’t worry; I’m thinking of leaving him, and if I do, it’ll be just you and me and we’ll go somewhere else.”

“Really, what’s the matter?”

“Nothing in particular, it’s just not going the way I had hoped. Anyway, he should be here in another ten minutes and then all the losers will lay off. Until then, we can look at the positive side of getting propositioned and felt up by the goon squad.”



INTERVIEW:

Why did you become a writer? Was it a dream of yours since you were younger or did the desire to write happen later in your life?
I've always had a knack for writing but never dreamed I could write stories. The short answer is a man I know, whom I now consider a friend, asked me to review his book on Amazon.com. It's a POD book entitled Divine Witness. I was so impressed with his book, which I highly recommend for anyone looking for YA, that I got an idea and started writing. That was twenty-eight months ago and I haven't stopped.

What do you love about being an author?
Lots of things. Obviously pleasing my readers is important, my publisher, sales, which to date have been skimpy, but I would have to say the thing I get the biggest kick out of writing is reading my own writing weeks or months later and thinking. Wow, I wrote that. That's really good. I know it might sound egotistical, but I never fail to surprise myself.

Is there anything you dislike?
I know it's necessary, but promotion. It sure would be nice if everyone knew about you like King or Roberts and was waiting for you next book. Ahhh...maybe some day.

How do you balance your personal and writing time?
I don't very well. I would say writing and related matters takes up eighty percent of my free time. That's why even with my patented two finger typing method, I've been able to crank out four novels and a few short stories.

How do you write? Do your characters come to you first or the plot or the world of the story?
I get an idea and run with it. Like I told someone the other day, when I write a story it's like taking an unknown path in the woods. I have no idea where it will end. A beautiful mountain range with a waterfall emptying into a small lagoon would be nice. I just hope it's not a landfill.

Sometimes the idea is characters like a forthcoming book Getting Naked at the Hilton and sometimes it's plot inspired Like Fortune Cookies. Legs was a combination.

What genre(s) do you write?
Boy, I'm as eclectic as you get. Let's see. we have an action/thriller about terrorism story, a Sex and the Cityish Erotic Chick-lit story, a romantic Erotic/Thriller, an Erotic Contemporary/Romance and a Romantic Erotic Sci-fi.

Why do you write the stories that you write?
I don't know that I can answer that. I get an idea and if I have time I start writing, if not, I jot the idea down for future. As you can tell from the wide scope of things I've written I don't follow any kind of pattern.

Do you tend to base your characters on real people or are they totally from your imagination?
The main characters tend to be more fictitious than the attending characters. I do borrow names though occasionally, with no rhyme or reason.

Out of all the characters that you've written, who is your favorite and why?
Oh, Don't ask me that? I don't know. Truth is, while I'm writing about them, I probably fall a little in love with each one.

The why is simple. My protagonists tend to be someone I'd like to be friends or lovers with and I'll bet I'm not the only author that's like that

What would you want readers to take away from your books?
Satisfaction and a desire to read more of my work. I also hope I affected the reader emotionally and they loved my characters as much as I do.

Do you have any advice for beginning writers in regards to writing a book?
Advice? Me give advice? I'm still green. I'm still learning. OK, I'll try. Writing is a tough business, publishing is a tough and getting tougher business. It can be very easy to get discouraged. If you have the fire in your belly, keep at it, never give up--find a way. Not for not trying, but I've never been able to get an agent interested in me. So, I gave up...on agents that is. E pubs and some small pubs don't require agents so that's the route I took.

What are you reading right now?
I just finished a very disappointing Repairman Jack novel called The Harbingers. It seems like a lot of my favorite authors are writing on reputation or maybe their having their books ghostwritten.

If you could be anyone or anything that you wanted, who or what would you be?
Is President Dawning too much to ask for? I don't think I could do worse.


REVIEW:

4.5 stars: "Drew Stevens followed Mallory (a beautiful and up and coming movie star) in a frantic car chase in West Hollywood. He had to meet her, get to know her, because he was on an assignment – and one he didn't particularly like. Shadowing her these past weeks he had come to like Mallory and now he wanted to protect her from the people he was working for.

Mallory was meeting a girl friend in a rowdy bar. After one drink she starts to leave but is accosted by a drunk. Naturally, Drew is the first to rescue her. This leads to a naughty interlude between two strangers. But Drew was sent for a purpose and by making love to her he has betrayed a powerful man. For this he could lose his life. The story hots up in more ways than one as an exciting chase/adventure story unfolds. This book is erotic but it has more than a few sexy scenes and from the way it ends, which is surprising, would probably make a compelling series. I think this writer tells a good story and I would like to read more books."
- Morna, Red Roses for Authors Reviews


Legs by Dee Dawning
ISBN: 978-1-934475-11-9
Genre: Erotica
Cover Artist: Cliff Vestergaard
$5.50 (e-book) from Amira Press
$10.99 (print) from Amira Press



Purchase Legs by Dee Dawning HERE!!