Entries by Tara Green (8)
Meet Deeanne Gist
Biography:
Deeanne Gist—known to her family, friends, and fans as Dee—has rocketed up the bestseller lists and captured readers everywhere with her four very original, very fun historical romances. Add to this two consecutive Christy Awards, rave reviews, and a growing loyal fan base, and you’ve got one recipe for success.
Prior to her novels, Gist wrote for national publications such as People, Parents, Parenting, Family Fun, Houston Chronicle and Orlando Sentinel. She also has a parenting line of products called I Did It!® Productions that is available nationwide. She has four kids in college and lives in Texas with her husband of twenty-five years.
She has a very active online community on her website, her blog and her chat room. For more information, visit www.IWantHerBook.com .
Letter to Readers:
Dear Readers,
Last year, I broke the cardinal rule. The one that says the girl gets her guy by the last page (thus supplying the Happily Ever After). Well, my girl--Essie Spreckelmeyer--turned 30 in 1894 and thought she wasn’t a whole person without a guy. So, she writes the names of all the eligible men in her small Texas town, closes her eyes, twirls her finger and picks one.
When I called my editor and told him how I was going to end my book, there was this really long silence. Then, “You’re joking. Right?”
But I wasn’t. We’ve got lots of single women out there who will try to change themselves or compromise their beliefs or chase after a guy to the point of embarrassment. When, really, they’re perfectly wonderful individuals all on their own.
Finally my editor said, “You can only end it that way if you write a sequel where she gets her man.”
“Done,” I said.
And that’s what we did. We called the first book Courting Trouble (because she was not only courting trouble, but she was also having trouble courting). It came out last June and I will admit to holding my breath as I waited to see what the reaction would be.
Well, there was a reaction all right, but it wasn’t from angry readers (at being cheated out of their expectations). It was from single women all over the world who wrote me email after email saying, “I’m Essie!”
The response was so tremendous, we set up a virtual Chat Room where everyone could share their thoughts. The general consensus was: Give Essie a man! J The controversial topic was--who would be right for her? One of the men she had a relationship with in Courting Trouble? Or should it be someone brand new?
They discussed this at length--even took a poll. Well, the sequel--Deep in the Heart of Trouble--is out. But our girl, Essie Spreckelmeyer, has embraced singleness. She’s independent and outspoken. She owns a Bicycle Club and is part owner of an oil company. The last thing she has time for is a man.
Tony Morgan--the disinherited son of an oil baron--lands a job with Essie’s oil company. They lock horns from the get-go. But Tony’s feelings for Essie turn from combative to affectionate. It’ll take more than flowers to win her heart, though. For they both harbor secrets that could squash any burgeoning feelings. Can their love survive or are they Deep in the Heart of Trouble?
Both books stand alone, so you don’t have to read Courting Trouble first--or at all--to enjoy Deep in the Heart of Trouble. If you’d like to read an excerpt or stop by our Chat Room, visit us at my website: www.IWantHerBook.com .
Hope to see you there!
Meet Tamera Alexander
Biography:
Tamera AlexanderTamera Alexander is a bestselling novelist whose deeply drawn characters, thought-provoking plots, and poignant prose resonate with readers. Having lived in Colorado for seventeen years, she and her husband now make their home in Tennessee, where they enjoy life with their two college-age children and a Silky named Jack.
Tamera invites you visit her Web site at www.tameraalexander.com.
Tara Green
in June 2008 Featured Authors
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Meet Kathleen Givens
Biography:
Kathleen GivensKathleen Givens was born in New York City, but spent her early years living in the Northeast and Georgia before landing in Southern California at the age of ten. As a result, she is fluent in Valley Girl, Steel Magnolia, and Manhattanite. She loves to travel, read, and study history, which makes writing historical fiction a perfect career. While she has traveled extensively, she's yet to find anywhere she could love more than California, where she and her husband live in a tragically flawed house with the neurotic and dictatorial cat formerly known as Miss Lily.
Kathleen can be reached at Kathleen@kathleengivens.com .
Letter To Readers:
Dear Readers,
I’ve always been lucky to have good friends in my life, girls, then women, who help me through the tough times and who celebrate the good times with me. We moved a lot when I was growing up because of my father’s job, and more than once I was wrenched away from a wonderful friend, suffering terrible pangs of loneliness. I found new friends, of course, who were great themselves, but who were different from the ones I’d left behind, and who I never forgot. When I got older we finally stayed in one place, but ironically several of my best friends had to move away, leaving me bereft again.
These experiences helped me to write about Isabel and Rachel’s friendship in RIVALS FOR THE CROWN. Yes, they lived in the 13th century, in London, far different from my own 20th century American setting. And no, I was neither invited to be a queen’s lady-in-waiting, nor exiled by a king. But friendships between women are the same whenever they occur. We treasure, support, and defend our friends. We laugh at their jokes, upbraid them when they do something dumb or self-destructive. And sigh with them over the men in our lives, which is just what Isabel and Rachel do when handsome cousins Rory MacGannon and Kieran MacDonald enter their lives. The times in which these four lived were turbulent, but none of them had any idea of the danger and violence with which they would be threatened, nor of the joys love could bring. Come with me, back in time, to the court of Edward I of England, and to the wilds of a highland shore, as the powerful of Scotland and England vie to fill an empty throne.
Slainte!
Kathleen Givens
Meet Susan Crandall
Biography:
Susan CrandallWith the exception of seven years at the beginning of her marriage (when she lived in Chicago), Susan Crandall has always lived in the same Indiana town. She inherited her addiction to books from her father; a man who hated school but loved learning and reading, who collected books like other men did fishing lures. Lucky for her parents, unlike her father, Susan was a devoted student so they were spared the issues of school skipping and bad grades.
In her first career, she was a dental hygienist – guess that might account for the switch to suspense. She obviously loves to frighten people.
Her first book, BACK ROADS, was a double RITA nominee and winner of the RITA for Best First Book in 2004. Her fifth, ON BLUE FALLS POND, was a RITA nominee in 2007.
Stop by Susan’s website www.susancrandall.net for video interviews (click the media button), news, and a peek at her next romantic suspense, SEEING RED.
Susan looks forward to hearing from her readers: susan@susancrandall.net , or PO Box 1092, Noblesville, IN 46060.
Letter to Readers:
Dear Readers,
I’m so happy to be here at the Romance Book Club. For those of you who have read my previous books, you’ll notice a new look for PITCH BLACK. This story is in my new genre, romantic suspense; it’s a little edgier and little faster paced. However, it’s not such a fantastic leap from my previous books. I’ve always laced my women’s fiction with suspense and mystery. PITCH BLACK still delivers great characters dealing with real life it-can-happen-to-anyone problems – in this case, let’s just hope it doesn’t!
Philadelphia journalist Madison Wade becomes a single mother when she adopts a thirteen-year-old street kid, Ethan. In order to give him a completely fresh start, she relocates them to a rural eastern Tennessee town, where she’s the new editor of the local daily paper. Just as they’re settling in – Madison adjusting the slower-pace of her new job and indulging in a flirtation with the local sheriff, Gabe Wyatt and Ethan finding a friend in a socially awkward boy, Jordan – things go horribly awry. Ethan, Jordan, Jordan’s step-dad and two other teens go on a wilderness camping trip. The boys return without their chaperone. Gabe quickly discovers things are not what they seem and when foul play is suspected, all eyes fall on Ethan. Gabe doesn’t want to believe Maddie’s son could be responsible, but all of the evidence is pointing that way.
Madison knows Ethan isn’t telling all, but can’t decipher who he’s protecting, or why. When it becomes apparent that the four boys are also in danger, Madison uses her investigative skills to save her son from both the law and the killer. But when she does, she walks into a web she never could have seen ahead in the darkness.
You might want to read this one with all of the lights on.
I’m really looking forward to discussing this book with you!
Regards,
Susan
Tara Green
in June 2008 Featured Authors
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Meet Elizabeth Hoyt
Elizabeth HoytBiography:
Elizabeth Hoyt was born in New Orleans, where her mother’s family has lived for generations, but she was raised in the frigid winters of St. Paul, Minnesota. Growing up, her family traveled extensively in Britain, spending a summer in St. Andrews, Scotland, and a year in Oxford. She earned a bachelor of arts degree in anthropology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Wisconsin was also where she met her archaeologist husband--on a dig in a cornfield. Continuing the cornfield theme, Elizabeth and her husband live in central Illinois with their two children and three dogs. She is an avid gardener with over 26 varieties of daylilies in her multiple gardens and more hostas than any one person can count. The Hoyt family enjoys taking family vacations that invariably end up at an archaeological site.
Elizabeth loves to hear from her readers. You may e-mail her at: elizabeth@elizabethhoyt.com or mail her at: PO Box 17134, Urbana, Illinois 61803. Please visit her website at www.elizabethhoyt.com for contests, book excerpts, and author updates.
Letter To Readers:
Gentle Reader,
To Taste Temptation is the first book in my new four-book series, The Legend of the Four Soldiers. The books will be linked by four friends, survivors of a regimental massacre in the American Colonies during the French and Indian War. Now, six years after the massacre, these men have evidence that a traitor gave away their position to the French and their Indian allies. The Legend of the Four Soldiers is about these former soldiers search for the traitor, their search for justice, and their search for peace with the past.
The hero of To Taste Temptation is Samuel Hartley, a self-made man from the American Colonies. He’s come to London to secretly hunt the traitor, but to do so he must enlist the help of the elegant widow, Lady Emeline Gordon—who has a few secrets of her own.
As with my previous work I’ve included an original fairy tale in each book of this new series. The fairy tales in To Taste Temptation is about a soldier returning home from war. His name is Iron Heart and he makes a dangerous pact with an evil wizard that nearly costs him his life—and his true love. I hope you enjoy To Taste Temptation!
Yours Very Sincerely,
Elizabeth Hoyt