Monday, September 17, 2007

COMMENT on this post for a chance to win a copy of "Ladies! Meet Red Hot Alaskan Men" (a novel) by Nancy Lindquist.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Nancy Liedel, writing as Nancy
Lindquist, is the happily married mother of four boys (no, she is not going to try for a girl!). Two adopted and two made the old fashioned way.

Nancy never does anything by half measures. She adores travel, and her favorite trips are once yearly weekends in Las Vegas and as many cruises as she can talk her husband into. Her cruise history has included the listing event on Crown Princess in 2006. This did not stop her. She booked another cruise on the Crown the moment she got home! She’s traveled to many other countries and has never had a travel experience she would not repeat.

As a writer of erotic romance, Nancy is always taking mental notes wherever she goes. Nancy loves life and attacks it with gusto, leaving her wonderful husband and number one inspiration, Gene, to follow along laughing and shaking his head in her wake.

A lover of romance since she was passed “Shana” under the table in tenth grade study hall by a friend of hers, Nancy finds the uninhibited world of Erotic Romance to be the perfect foil for her wit and naughty imagination.

Nancy loves e-mail from her readers. She blogs daily about life and travel on www.blog.liedel.org and writes about erotic romance at
www.nancylindquist.com . You can send Nancy e-mail at
nancy@liedel.org. She loves to hear from her readers.


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 wanted to write, but I’m dyslexic. My handwriting is horrific and unreadable and I can’t type well. Then the spell checker was invented and my life changed for the better. I started writing in the spring of 2006 and was lucky and blessed enough to sell my first novel. I’ve always been enchanted with books. From Prince Caspian in, The Chronicles of Narnia, to Meg in, “A Swiftly Tilting Planet,” books have been my friends and I cherish them.

What do you love about being an author? Is there anything you dislike?
I love everything about this. Making my own hours, freeing my mind, imagining for a living. I just adore it. Rejection stings, but the good so far outweighs the bad. I would never trade it.

How do you balance your personal and writing time?
What’s personal time? I have four boys, two to ten and I do a lot of juggling. The babies go to a sitter a couple days a week so I can get the writing done. That helps, but when I’m working hard, there’s not really a stopping time. I’ve learned to delegate from my computer chair and I’ve taught the older boys to help with laundry and picking up. Their wives are going to love me.
How do you write? Do your characters come to you first or the plot or the world of the story?
I write by the seat of my pants. I think of a situation, then I find the most unlikely person to be in it. Once that’s set, it all sort of flows out. I love that. I come up with most of my ideas in the shower, or when I’m out on a run.

What genre(s) do you write? Why do you write the stories that you write?
I write contemporary erotic romance, but I also am dabbling in some paranormal and non fiction as well. I like to keep my fingers third knuckle deep in a lot of different pies.

What is the biggest misconception about being an author?
That I’m rich. LOL!!

Do you tend to base your characters on real people or are they totally from your imagination?
They sometimes start out based on folks I know, but once they’re in my head, what comes out is nothing like who those people are. Freddie from, “Ladies! Meet Red Hot Alaskan Men” is based on a friend of mine from Chicago, but he’s been so transformed no one would recognize him.

Out of all the characters that you've written, who is your favorite and why?
I love my main characters, but a romance requires they have a nice happy ending. Don’t get me wrong. I love that! However, I do love to torture my secondary characters. I love for them to be as memorable as the main characters and full of attitude. My favorite secondary character is, Gina in, “Lady Lillian’s Guide to Amazing Sex.” She’s crazy and she has a preemie. She’s based on me. Totally up for anything, so whacky you don’t know what to do with her and in love with her life. I like Gina. Based on me, but me as I plan to be, when I grow up.

If you were writing a script for the big screen, who would you want to act in your movie?
Wow, what a great question. I get a part. It can be small, but I want one. If I was to adapt, “How to Conjure a Man” my first release, to the big screen, I would want, Paula Dean to play Miss Viv. She would be the perfect fit. I would love it if the main characters were played by unknowns. I used to work in theater and there is a lot of untapped talent out there.

What would you want readers to take away from your books?
A smile. I want them to be entertained when they read my work. I want them to laugh, to worry and to smile at the end. I don’t need my books to change the world. Just make the day of someone who really needs a break a little better.

Do you have any advice for beginning writers in regards to writing a book?
Read. Read everything in your genre that you can get your hands on. Do not stop reading. I can tell when I’m not filling the well by reading good books, my writing suffers. I need to see good writing to write well. There’s something about a beautifully crafted love story that inspires me and other authors as well.

Who are your favorite authors?
In romance, Amanda Young, N.J. Walters, Mackenzie McKade, Annmarie McKenna, AE Rought… the list goes on forever. For classics I love Shakespeare. The perfect mix of joy and sorrow is in everything he touched.

What are you reading right now?
“Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows.” Again.



ABOUT THE BOOK:

BLURB:

Chastity Cuthbert is determined to bring love and romance to the Last Frontier.

A Midsummer Night’s Steam story.

Chastity Cuthbert is in love with love. Its too bad that she’s so busy working on everyone else’s happily ever after that there’s no time left to work on hers. Her company, The Alaskan Connection, matches single women with sexy Alaskan hunks. Business is booming. Until Dave Wellington drags his personal vendetta against outsiders right to her doorstep.

Dave Wellington, Mayor of Smithfield, Alaska won’t allow Chastity’s cadre of red-lipped floozies to take over his town. A she-bitch from the lower forty-eight broke his brother’s heart and no one else is gonna go through that. Not if he can help it. Besides, Smithfield is welcoming tourists for the first time. The male residents need to keep their minds on business. Not sex.

Determined to change Chastity’s mind, he travels to Chicago to talk her out of her plan. Chas is so pissed off at the sexy mayor that she forgets her “no one-night stands” motto. Right into Dave’s bed.
Now she has to travel to Smithfield and face him. She’s strong. She can face Dave again. Just because she snuck out of his hotel room in the middle of the night doesn’t mean she’s a big ole chicken. Right?


EXCERPT:

Dave shrugged. Normal conversation with this woman was a lost cause. It was a shame they hadn’t met another way, in any other circumstance.

“I’m sorry you came all this way for nothing.”

“I didn’t. I told you that I would stop you, and I meant it.”

She faced him now. Even in the half light of the streetlights he could see her confusion. Her mouth formed the shape of an O, and she sucked in a breath. “Of all the…” Her small hands balled into fists. “Look, you’re the mayor, not the owner of the town. Those men want us there and my ladies paid good money to visit—”

He didn’t know why he did it. Didn’t even think about it, not really, just went on instinct. Dave leaned forward and kissed her.

She pulled away. “What do you think you’re doing?”

He ran a hand though his hair. “I don’t know. It seems to shut you up.”

“Of all the arrogant, irritating—”

Fingers traced the skin of her cheek. Soft, so incredibly soft. How could someone so beautiful be such a damn pain in the ass?

His hand slipped around to the nape of her neck and pulled her close. For a moment her eyes went wide, but she didn’t speak. Trembling, she leaned in, their mouths meeting.

Gently, he sucked her lower lip and nibbled on the delicate skin. She smelled like flowers, light, spring-like. Her body, all curves and softness, fit against his like it was meant to be there.

He should end this. She represented everything he hated about women, but she deepened the contact, turning his will to mush. She tangled her tongue with his in an erotic dance that drained the blood from every place in his body. Every place but his cock. Turgid and ready, it strained between them. She shivered in his arms and he drew her sexy little body onto his lap.

The cab came to a wobbly stop. Their mouths parted and she looked up at him with a gasp. He too felt like the breath had been sucked from his body. The red stoplight above them was blurred by the ice on the windows. It turned from red to green. Beneath them, the cab’s tires spun uselessly on the pavement as the ice made it almost impossible to accelerate.

The cabdriver swore as the engine revved and the tires fought for purchase on the slick street beneath them. Inching along, they finally came to a stop in front of his hotel. Chastity slid off his lap.
Dave looked at the woman next to him. He shouldn’t want her, shouldn’t be drawn to her. The V of her shirt showed a hint of breast and he swallowed, hard. “Come with me.”

Where the hell had that come from? He opened his mouth to take it back, when she turned to face him and licked a pink tongue over her lips. Dave’s heart skipped a beat.
“Sorry, folks. This is the end of the line. I’m not risking it out there till they salt the roads.”

She glanced up at the cabbie, and back at Dave, confusion clear on her face. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. I can walk from here. Thank you very much.”
Dave looked around. Iced over, the sidewalks appeared more than treacherous. “You’re not going to walk in this.”

Her head came up, the fight back in her eyes. “Don’t tell me what I can and cannot do. I’ve been taking care of myself for a long time and—”

Dave placed a hand over her mouth. Her eyes narrowed, but she went silent. “I don’t know why I’m so attracted to you. I should spank you. I think the attraction’s mutual. I don’t want to fight right now. I want to take you to my room and make love to you. What do you want?”

Reluctantly, he pulled his hand away and waited for an answer.

Lip between her teeth, she turned her head to him, then up the street. “Caught between the devil and the deep blue sea.”


"Ladies! Meet Red Hot Alaskan Men" by Nancy Lindquist
ISBN: 1-59998-585-3
Publisher: Samhain Publishing
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: July 27, 2007
$2.50 from My Bookstore and More


Purchase Ladies! Meet Red Hot Alaskan Men by Nancy Lindquist HERE!!!