Posts Tagged ‘Every Breath She Takes’

We have a winner for Goodreads giveaway of the unabridged audiobook version of Every Breath She Takes, my romantic suspense from Montlake, on Goodreads. The prize went to Jeremy McDermott. Hope you enjoy, Jeremy!

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Blog Hop

Welcome to the Rock*It Reads Heating Up the Holidays Blog Hop. There are 15 stops on the blog tour. The more blogs you visit and comment on, the greater your chances of winning the grand prize, a $75 gift certificate to Barnes & Noble or Amazon, and a huge collection of books from the authors of Rock*It Reads. Smaller prizes will be available at each stop along the way.

Good luck, and have fun!

 

What better way to heat up your holidays than with the hot, sexy men of our romance novels?

 

I have to have a picture of my hero in my mind before I start. Sometimes that mental picture morphs a bit as I get deeper into the character, but sometimes the physical image of him holds for me through to the end. Here are two such cases.

 

The first hero I’ll tell you about is Tommy Godsoe, a police dog handler who has been sidelined by injury, from my book Protecting Paige (Serve and Protect, #3). It was important to the story that he be quite a bit younger than the heroine, Paige, a youthful-looking single mother. I also wanted him to be very attractive, with sensual features and a slightly dissolute look. He had to be very lean, with the body of a runner (K-9 handlers have to be extremely fit). As I searched my memory banks—and countless celebrity image sites—I found the perfect match: Jakob Dylan, of The Wallflowers. Here’s a YouTube clip of Jakob (it starts to close in on his face about 42 seconds in, if you want to advance it).

 

 

No doubt listening non-stop to Red Letter Days, my favorite CD by The Wallflowers, as I wrote the book contributed to Jakob’s image persisting throughout. But when it came to creating the book’s cover, unfortunately Jakob wasn’t available. ,-) I really like this cover, but it’s an example of the compromises you have to make. I’ve yet to land a cover where the hero truly looks the way I imagine him. That being the case, what I strive to do is capture something true about the story. I think this does that nicely.

 

 

Another character whose image I had firmly in my mind was Cal Taggart, the hero from Every Breath She Takes. He’s a former champion bull rider who has retired from the rodeo to run a cow-calf operation in the Alberta foothills. Most bull riders are very compact men. The tall, rangy ones tend to get whiplashed and battered. Cal’s not especially short, but he’s compact and wiry. I also didn’t want him to look like a stereotypical cowboy. I wanted him to have a sort of edgy cool factor where you could imagine him in a leather jacket astride a motorcycle as easily as on horseback.  This time, I looked to television/film and found my model in a guy with a similar name—Callum Keith Rennie, affectionately known by fans as CKR. In fact, when I settled on my model, I decided that Cal would be short for Callum as a tribute to CKR. Here’s a Youtube homage appropriately titled “Callum Keith Rennie is Awesomeness”.

 

 

This cover was created for me by Montlake and I think they did a great job. You can’t really see a lot of detail of the hero in this picture, but they nailed the emotion.

 

 

Of course, the way I see the hero of my books might differ wildly from the way you see him, and that’s okay. That’s more than okay. And hey, if you’ve read either of those books, I’d love to know who you imagine as the model for either Tommy or Cal. Seriously!

 

Both of these guys are very lean, Tommy in a taller, rangier way, and Cal in a more compact, powerful way. But I’ve cast heroes who are as big and robust as Russell Crowe, as pretty as Jude Law, and as rugged and … well, craggy as Daniel Craig. It’s not really about body type for me. I appreciate a wide variety of men. What about you? Are you as eclectic as me, or do you have a particular look you favor? A guy who’s just your type? Let me know in your comment below. From the comments, I will draw three random winners, for the following prizes:

 

• $10 Gift Certificate
• Signed print copy of my Rock*It Reads book Guarding Suzannah, the first book in my Protect and Serve series; and
• Signed print copy of my newest release from Montlake Romance, Every Breath She Takes

 

 

Leave a comment below to enter for your chance to win!

Don’t forget to visit the other authors on the Blog Hop for more chances to win!

Kris Kennedy	Bonnie Vanak	Erin Kellison
Sharon Page	Lila DiPasqua	Elisabeth Naughton
Norah Wilson	Jennifer Lyon	Monica Burns
Vanessa Kelly	Mia Marlowe	Joan Swan
Pamela Clare	Margo Maguire	Rock*It Reads

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Look what the courier brought me!

 

 

 

Aren’t they gorgeous?

 

I had taken delivery of five boxes of self-published titles last week, which was extremely satisfying. But in that case, I’d already seen proofs of all but one of the books. With the Montlake title, I got my first look at these puppies when I tore the box open. There’s nothing cooler! Well, apart from being presented with your actual baby. 🙂

 

Speaking of those self-published titles, here are the pics I took last week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am feeling very rich of books, if lighter of purse.

 

 

 

Trish McCallan and I recently teamed up for a really big giveaway in celebration of the September release by Montlake Romance of our respective romantic suspense novels. Our prize was a brand spanking new 64 GB Wi-Fi capable Apple iPad2! On September 29, at midnight Pacific time, we drew our winner by random number generation.

 

Congratulations to Julianne Keller! Enjoy that iPad! Maybe you can use it to comment on this post!

 

Thank you to everyone who entered our draw and helped us celebrate the release of our books.

 

My romantic suspense from Montlake Romance – Every Breath She Takes – is going to be released September 4, 2012. But if you comment below, you might win an advance reading copy (ARC) and beat everyone to the punch. ,-)

 

 

 

I should mention this book was previously pubished as Lauren’s Eyes, the same book that won me Dorchester Publishing’s New Voice in Romance award. It has been updated and revised and is ready for a whole new audience of romantic suspense lovers.

 

Here’s the book description from Amazon:

 

“Ultra-sexy, heart-pumping suspense and adventure.” – Julianne MacLean, USA Todaybest-selling author

“Sexy, gritty and thrilling.” – Joss Ware, award-winning author of Night Forbidden

Veterinarian Lauren Townsend has good reason for hiding her psychic ability. Not only did her “freakishness” earn her pariah status in the small town where she grew up, it cost her a fiancé and her faith in love. When Lauren foresees a murder—through the killer’s eyes—she traces the victim to a sprawling ranch, never guessing what waits for her…

Cal Taggart’s rugged ranch life doesn’t need any more complications. His stubborn determination cost him his marriage, and now may cost him his livelihood. But then beautiful Lauren enters his corral…with danger close behind. And Cal wants nothing more than to protect her. They can’t deny their intense attraction. Nor do they want to. What begins as a fling with no strings becomes a fight for survival—and for true love.

 

For a chance to win, leave a comment about the romantic suspense genre. Tell me what themes or tropes you like in your RS (cops, bodyguards, women in jeopardy, etc.). Or tell me which romantic supense authors or stories you absolutely love.  A winner will be drawn randomly from among the comments. Good luck!

 

For those who want to skip the chance at the uncorrected proof in favor of ordering the official version (which, by the way, will have a different cover than the one depicted here), it’s available for pre-order at Amazon.com.