Meet Mel Teshco, and a Giveaway!

Thanks Nas for inviting me to your blog today!

FIJI Flag

I thought instead of droning on about my latest book (as much as I’d love to!! LOL) I’d talk a little about Fiji. Particularly since I visited there not all that long ago and I was able to meet the very lovely Nas for a brief time before having to fly back to Australia.                                                                                                                                                                     

The Outrigger Hotel

The very first thing I noticed about Fijian people? Their amazingly friendly natures and innate charm. I wasn’t alone in thinking I’d never met happier people as a whole–anywhere.

Fiji itself? The roads are, well…bad, (I was told the maximum speed limit is 80km’s) and many of the people live in rundown shanties. And yes, these are the very same people who are always smiling. It really puts into perspective how money really doesn’t make a person happy. (Though yes, it sure does help pay the bills!! LOL)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

Mel's family at the Airport with Nas

View from The Outrigger Hotel

I was lucky enough to visit Fiji with my mother and my two eldest daughters (my husband has a very real fear of flying) where we stayed at the beautiful Outrigger resort. At the Outrigger absolutely everyone is greeted with a very loud and long “BULA” (Hello. Welcome. Good day) at the front gates…this is also repeated anytime you happen to leave. I don’t know about anyone else, but this simple gesture left my family beaming. We often remarked the western culture could learn a lot from Fijians in making a complete stranger feel welcome.

The outrigger itself was beautiful. The gardens were spectacular and my girls made some very real friends with some of the local boys there, who were nothing but gentlemanly. And oh, the pawpaw (papaya) there has a reddish tinge and is a totally different flavor to here in Australia. OMG yum!! Is all I can say!!

Mel's Daughters

While we were there we went on a couple of day trips. The River Safari was my fav (though yes, my youngest daughter fainted after seeing someone with a bloody head wound…but that’s another story). After about a 30 minute speedy river boat trip (great way to sightsee) we stopped at a village. It was here we got to see the way the local people lived — very poorly, and yet all of them healthy and happy. We sampled some of their food (not to my taste, but again, the pawpaw was delish) and then did some dancing. My daughters were very popular with the village men LOL!! Seriously though, they were all charming and full of smiles, considering they were allowing strangers into their lives, if only for a short time.

Mel at Nas's House

I could go on, but I won’t make this book length!! I just have to say, Fiji was a brilliant place to visit and I highly recommend it! You might even get a chance to meet Nas and her family!! =)

Never been to Australia? I’d love to give away a copy of any one of my Ellora’s Cave books, all of which are set somewhere in my homeland. Just tell me if you’ve ever been to Fiji—or Australia—and if not what’s your favourite holiday destination?

Some of the books in Mel's list:

Moon Thrall ~ Ellora's Cave
Ice-Cold Lover ~ Ellora's Cave
Her Dark Lord ~ Harlequin Nocturne Bites

Seriously, you should click on the above links and check out the covers!

Mel's Blog        Facebook        Twitter

Edited to add: Mel said, "I'd draw out a name to a commentator who 'follows' me on my blog, to win all 3 of my gargoyle stories (winged & dangerous)".

Fiona Lowe with the Boomerang Bride giveaway!

We have author Fiona Lowe with us today and she is talking of weddings and Boomerang Bride! 

So we started with the hard stuff first...

When  did you decide to become a writer?

It was a conscious decision when I was at home with  a baby, but ever since I can remember I’ve woven stories in my head and had “conversations” with imaginary people.  Before I had children , I always kept a detailed travel diary and at different times in my life I’ve written a journal, so writing a book in some ways was a natural next step.

What kind of books do you write?

Books with heart and humor J Whether I’m writing a single title book like Boomerang Bride (Carina Press) or a Harlequin medical romance like Career Girl in the Country, my books are set in small towns with big hearts, and my characters are people you might meet down the street. They’re struggling to work out who they are, where they fit in and how best to be happy. More often than not they get it totally wrong, but by the end of the book, they’re on the right track!

What is the biggest obstacle you overcame to get published?

Self doubt. There were times before I got published when I thought, “this is sooooo hard, I should just stop.”  But, I can be very determined with some things and I kept at it. I took classes, I honed my craft and I kept submitting. Eventually, I wrote a book that Harlequin Mills & Boon wanted to buy. That was 16 novels ago.  Self doubt still plagues me at times…usually when I have to start a new story and I think, “Can I really do this?”

What made you decide to write a bigger book?

I was feeling a bit stuck creatively and I wanted to try something new and different. I was sitting alone on a ski-lift, swinging in the breeze and an image of a bride holding a cake and staring into a vacant shop window popped into my head. That image wouldn’t leave me so I started asking it questions and slowly, the idea for Boomerang Bride came into being. I loved writing this book because as it was bigger, I could have a significant secondary story. Boomerang Bride is set in small town USA and it features a lost Australian bride, a hero who would rather be anywhere than Hobin, a family coping with illness, and a policeman who is tired of being, “Mr. Nice Guy.”

What’s BOOMERANG BRIDE about?

Matilda Geoffrey risked it all for love. She left Australia to be with Barry-the man who had swept her off her virtual feet. Now, wearing a wedding dress, she's alone on Main Street in small-town Wisconsin, and things aren't working out exactly as planned...
In town for his annual family visit, Marc Olsen had never seen a bride quite like Matilda-staring into a storefront window, holding a tottering wedding cake, and looking desperately in need of a groom. He may not have any warm feelings for his hometown, but meeting Matilda just as she discovers she's been scammed by her online "fiancé" stirs something in him.
Matilda is not the kind of woman Marc imagined himself with, and Marc is anything but the romantic hero that Matilda has always dreamed of. But as unlikely circumstances throw them together, can they let go of their misconceptions and risk their hearts for love?

Where can we buy your books? 

Boomerang Bride is a Carina Press release and you can purchase it direct from Carina or from Amazon, Nook and other online stores. My Harlequin medical romances are available from The Book Depository,  Mills & Boon UK & Australia, as well as at eharlequin.

What are a few facts about your life?

I’m an Australian, but I’ve lived around the world including Papua New Guinea, Canada and the USA. I have two red-headed sons; the 17-year -old is hugely into playing the piano and all things scientific, and the 13 year-old is into science, drama and visual arts. My commute to the office is up a spiral stair case and I can see the sea from up there, and hear the fog-warning hooter for the ships in winter. My husband has to commute a bit further for his job as a computer analyst.  We’re currently living in Australia, but we love to travel and we do whenever we can. We’re just back from a fabulous time swimming with whale sharks and are busy planning our next trip!

Fiona Lowe is an award-winning, multi-published author of romance fiction with Harlequin Mills & Boon and Carina Press.  Whether her books are set in outback Australia or the USA, they all feature small towns with big hearts, and warm, likeable characters that make you fall in love.  When she’s not writing stories, she’s a weekend wife, a mother of two boys and she’s trying really hard to instill in them heroic characteristics like cooking and ironing.  She’s an avid reader, a guardian of 80 rose bushes, attempts to stay fit and is often seen collapsed on the couch with a glass of wine.  A previous Romantic Book of the Year finalist, Fiona is currently writing her 18^th novel and says, ‘it doesn’t get any easier.’  You can find her at her website, her blog, confused on Twitter and a bit more together on Facebook . She loves hearing from her readers.

And she says...

I love weddings and it’s the  stories about what happened on the day that make me smile. My BIL was a shocking tease so on the  day of my wedding, when he told me on the phone that the fly on my husband’s suit was broken, I didn’t believe him. Turns out it was true and he went to the ceremony via the suit hire company, Lucky we got married in the morning and they were still open!! 

To win a copy of Boomerang Bride, a signed postcard and a boomerang magnet, please tell me a funny wedding story…it might be yours or from a wedding you attended or perhaps it’s a family story handed down over the generations. I’d love to hear it!

Judy Croome and "Dancing in the Shadows of Love" Giveaway!

Today we have South African author Judy Croome visiting and she has copies of her novel, DANCING IN THE SHADOWS OF LOVE to giveaway to three lucky commenters!

Judy Croome lives and writes in Johannesburg, South Africa. Her short stories ‘Born Beneath a Balsamic Moon’ and ‘Heroes Day’ have been published in ITCH magazine. Other short fiction and poetry appeared in “Notes from Underground Anthology.”  She was recently shortlisted in the African Writing Flash Fiction 2011 competition.

If you could choose only one time period and place to live, when and where would you live and why?

Regency England. My choice is probably influenced by my love of Georgette Heyer and Jane Austen romances, but the easy grace of life in those times strongly draws me. The reality of the era (especially if you weren’t an aristocrat) was probably grim, but those times strike me as being perfectly balanced on the cusp between a mellow, bucolic existence and an exciting period of social transformation. There was time to enjoy the beautiful and gracious things in life, and yet the promise of technology was already beginning to ease the physical hardships of life.

Do you draft your stories in longhand or on computer? 

First draft is always in longhand, in pencil. Then I transfer it onto computer and do all my edits on computer. If I try to write the first draft on the computer I get too easily distracted by the temptations of the internet and email and, more importantly, when I write in longhand, I feel closer to the words I write.

What single thing would you do to improve the quality of your life?

I’d lose weight. I went on my first diet when I was fourteen, and developed an eating disorder in my mid-thirties. I’ve finally accepted I’ll never have a svelte body like Kate Moss, but I can be a healthier weight than I am now. Since I’ve gained so much weight I’m not as energetic as I used to be and I can’t do as much in each day (I used to only sleep 4 or 5 hours a night; now I puff and pant my way through the day and need at least 8 hours sleep) So, yes, losing weight would dramatically improve the quality of my life on both an emotional and physical level.

Tell us about “Dancing in the Shadows of Love”

Author Jesse Hanson summed up the novel well when he said, “The Court of St Jerome is a spiritual enclave that proves to be the point of convergence of the principal characters, three of whom are women of diversely troubled backgrounds. All three are seekers of love, but to find or obtain love, they must first learn what true love is. The lessons are often exquisitely painful; and they are, I think, uniquely feminine lessons. Ultimately, each of the three characters learns the lessons she needs to learn. Do they find love, any or all of them? Well I won't say. Is it a love story? Yes. Is it a unique love story? I do think so. It is worth reading. I recommend it to those who are interested in exploring the question: What is love anyway?” 

How did you come up with the title?

That’s a long story! When I started writing it I called it “Albino Blues,” but the supervisor for my Master’s degree didn’t like that title. After some serious brainstorming, we finally agreed on the title “And the Sea Looked.” I liked that title because the sea/ocean is one of the major symbols in the book, meant to represent a neutral, non-judgmental and ever-present Divine Presence that watches over our lives.

But when I was struggling to place my book with an agent or publisher and, despite receiving many good comments about the book, getting nothing but rejections, I treated myself to a visit to a psychic (with a father who was born with a caul over his head and who is a gifted dowser, of course I visit psychics!) and she channelled a message from my Ouma (grandmother), who said “The name is wrong!”  

I was attached to “And the Sea Looked,” so I had quite a struggle finding a new title before realisation hit me. I’d always known the painting that I wanted to use for the cover was “Man & the World of Stars” by Wenkidu and, one day I looked at it and realised what my new title should be: the painting shows three women dancing as they reach up to the Divine Presence in the sky above them. And my final title was born: “Dancing in the Shadows of Love.” Third time is the lucky charm!

Where can we find out more about “Dancing in the Shadows of Love”?

You can watch the book trailer, read an interview with the cover artist Wenkidu or read chapter one on the dedicated blog “Dancing in the Shadows of Love.”

Judy, thanks for visiting us and sharing about Dancing in the Shadows of Love!

Nas, I enjoyed my visit over here at your blog! I'll be drawing the names of three readers, who will each win a print copy of my novel “Dancing in the Shadows of Love.”

Thanks for this fantastic giveaway, Judy, now where can readers find you?

Readers can chat with me on Twitter and befriend me on Facebook.

Judy Croome’s unusual novel “Dancing in the Shadows of Love” is available as both a print and eBook from Amazon.com, and as an eBook from Kobo, Barnes & Noble and Smashwords.

Delaney Diamond with Some Heartfelt Advice and a Giveaway!

Today we have author Delaney Diamond with some advice and a giveaway, so over to Delaney....

Think You Can Write a Romance Novel? 5 Reasons Why You Shouldn't

1. There’s no money in it. The majority of writers have jobs. If they don't, they either have a trust fund somewhere or an understanding partner/spouse/parent who helps support them.

2. You won’t have creative control. Think you will? You'd be surprised. Even big names have to tweak their manuscripts at the behest of their editor. Unless you're self-publishing, fuh-gedda-bout-it (say this with an Italian-American accent). Once you turn in your lovely work of art, you run the risk of your editor telling you to make revisions. Feel free to throw your hands up in frustration and lament the changes which compromise the integrity of the piece. Then make the changes.

3. You hate selling. Shameless self-promotion is the name of the game. If you don’t do it, someone else will, and they’ll be the ones with the fat royalty checks. Avoid constant selling, which is a turn-off. Network with other authors and with readers on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, and in Yahoo groups.

4. Not anybody can do it. Contrary to popular belief, writing romance novels is not easy. There is no magic formula, although there are certain elements that are inherent, much like there are elements inherent in any other type of writing.

Take mysteries, for example. In a mystery, a crime is committed, clues unfold, the crime is solved. In a romance, boy meets girl (or boy meets boy), they have problems, they solve said problems, they live happily ever after. The basic idea is the same, but it’s up to you as an author to create a story around that idea that speaks to your audience and doesn’t sound like the same old story.

5. You can’t take criticism. No matter how many hours you spent getting the words just right, no matter how many years your editor has been in the industry and knows what she’s talking about, and no matter how many review sites rave about your stellar piece, someone isn’t going to like it. If you can’t take a negative critique, don’t put your work out there.

If I haven’t turned you off romance writing, then you’ve been bitten by the writing bug, and you’re as bad as the rest of us, which means:

• You have stories to tell and you can’t hold them in anymore. If you do, you run the risk of developing a multiple personality disorder and men in white coats will come to take you away.
• You’re willing to work hard on rewrites, burn the midnight oil to meet a deadline, and research to make sure your paranormal romance about shape-shifting werelizards from the planet Zargon who must have sex with a human female exactly 50 times per day (no more, no less) to keep their species alive doesn’t sound anything like the last planet Zargon romance you read with a similar plot.
• You’re willing to wait for the money, and even if it doesn’t come, you’re happy that anybody reads your work and finds it as interesting and entertaning as you, your best friend, and your Aunt Gertrude.
• You’re fine with self-promotion, and you’re just happy there are no cameras and nudity involved.

Welcome to the club! So, what are you waiting for? Get to writing.

Delaney Diamond writes sweet and sensual African-American and interracial romance novels. She’s so happy that she and her best friend are not the only ones who enjoy her stories. In fact, her short story Subordinate Position is an Amazon Bestseller. Her first release in the Hot Latin Men series, The Arrangement, is an All Romance Ebooks bestseller.

Don't miss the second book in the series, Fight for Love, an All Romance Ebooks and Amazon bestseller. 

Blurb:

Science teacher Rebekah Jamison lives a quiet life in the suburbs of Atlanta. Devastated by a tabloid scandal nine years ago, she ended her marriage to the man her parents never approved of.

Rafael Lopez, former professional wrestler and “Sexiest Athlete Alive,” regrets the lapse in judgment that caused him to lose his wife. He shows up unannounced one day with some startling news, but he gets a surprise of his own. He finds out he’s a father. To get to know his son, he whisks him and Rebekah off to his home in the Hollywood Hills for the summer.

Excerpt:
“Rafe,” she warned. She tried to ease out of his embrace, but found her efforts thwarted by his brute strength. “All right, you’ve proven your point. You’re stronger than me. You can let me go now.”

“Maybe I’m not done proving my point, ángel,” he drawled. The sensuous sound of his voice tugged at her heartstrings.

He lowered his head in one swift motion and took her mouth, startling and arousing her at the same time. He cradled the back of her head in his palm, and her anger dissipated like morning fog in the first rays of sunlight. Her fingers curled into his powerful arms as he bent her over his arm. Teasing teeth tugged the sensitive flesh of her lower lip until she could no longer bear it and wrapped her arms tightly around his neck to urge a fuller exploration.

His expert tongue delved between her lips, stroking the sensitive cavern of her mouth to elicit a moan of burgeoning desire from the back of her throat. The taste of him was intoxicating, flooding her taste buds with a flavor that far surpassed the memories she’d tucked away in the deep recesses of her mind.

When Rafael slipped his hand over the curve of her breast and shaped the soft flesh, a shudder coursed through her. In the back of her mind, she knew she should be stronger than this, but she’d always been weak for him. Nothing had changed.

Website & Blog     Facebook Fan Page     Buy link at Amira Press

Buy link at Amazon                 Buy link at All Romance Ebooks 

Are you a reader, a writer, or both? Leave a comment with your email address for Delaney, and tell her why you enjoy reading and/or writing romance novels for a chance to win a copy of The Arrangement, the first book in her Hot Latin Men series. 

Deadline for entry is 72 hours, after which she'll let random.org choose a winner.