Savvy Saturday: An Interview with Meg West, Author of Love on Lido Key

Love on Lido Key is available for preorder on Kobo and at the Champagne Bookstore!

Meg West is author of the soon-to-be released Love on Lido Key, a romantic comedy that leads up to a spectacular Fourth of July celebration. Today we talk to Meg about love, death, and some of the other unexpected fireworks found in her novel and in ordinary life.

Tell us a little bit about Love on Lido Key.

Lido Key begins with a young widow, Janie Alexander, fulfilling her promise to her late husband to watch the sunset every night on the beach. It leads to a chance encounter with a man who's just the opposite of her first love. Nick Costas is unreserved, openhearted, and the only son in a large, loud, and quarrelsome Greek family. One of the themes of the novel is that you never know what kind of curveballs life will throw at you--so this initial chance encounter is followed by a number of other coincidental meetings and accidents that bring Janie and Nick together but also threaten to keep them apart.

Love on Lido Key has a large cast of supporting characters that act as obstacles to Janie and Nick's happiness. Tell us a little bit about their role in the novel and how you integrated them into the plot.

Although Love on Lido Key deals with a tragic situation--a young woman who ends up widowed at age twenty-seven--it's essentially a romantic comedy. Literary critic Northrup Frye defines the pattern of comedy as follows:

a. a young man wants a young woman

b. his desire is thwarted by opposition (usually paternal)

c. through a twist in the plot, the hero secures his love

d. a new society is formed around the hero and heroine, which is celebrated in a festive ritual (usually a wedding)

In Love on Lido Key, the heroine and the hero's desire to get together is thwarted by the uptight parents of Janie's first husband, Peg-n-Ed Alexander, who live upstairs from her and who insist on having stodgy dinner parties with her every Thursday. On the opposite side, Nick's grouchy old father and fearsome trio of real-estate mogul sisters want him to marry a Greek girl--specifically, his old girlfriend Daphne. All of the opposing characters do their best to stand in the way of Janie and Nick's happiness. The novel ends not with a wedding, but a Fourth of July dinner cruise on a boat full of Bingo-crazy senior citizens.

Why did you choose to set the novel during the weeks leading up to Fourth of July?

Janie meets Nick as she approaches the first anniversary of her husband's death on July 3. I included the death scene in the novel because I wanted to show how shocking and traumatic it would be for a young woman to lose her husband as the rest of the world blithely celebrated Independence Day with barbecues, beach picnics, and sparklers. I ended the novel on the Fourth of July to show how far Janie had come in one year, and to bookend the story with a natural display of beauty--the sunset--and a manmade display, fireworks over the Gulf of Mexico.

Did you have an ideal reader in mind when you wrote this novel?

Yes! She--and he--are readers who love to experience the up-and-down seesaw motion of everyday life--in which we laugh one minute and cry the next. I hope readers will get a kick out of watching Janie and Nick fight off their respective families as they work their way toward happiness, and that they will be touched by the emotional trials of finding love so soon after tragic loss.

Love on Lido Key is the second in your trilogy of novels set on the barrier islands off Sarasota. Tell us about the first and third books.

This trilogy is loosely linked by place and doesn't have recurring characters, so the novels can be read in any order. Love on Longboat Key, published in 2017, is a heartwarming romance about a young woman who dreads spending Christmas in Florida with her cranky elderly parents. Yet that changes when she arrives at Sun Tower and meets the eligible bachelor whose equally quarrelsome parents have just moved into the penthouse. Love on the Links, forthcoming from Champagne Books, is a comic novel about a young woman who is forced to learn golf in order to be accepted by her future in-laws--but who comes dangerously close to losing everything when she falls for her handsome golf pro instructor. Although the novels are billed as beach reads, I also want to pitch them as great "snow reads," as they give readers a chance to travel to Florida and experience love and sunshine even in the dead of winter.

About the Author:

Meg West lives on the west coast of Florida with her husband and their two golden retrievers. Visit her website www.megwestnovelist.com and follow her on Twitter @megwestnovelist.

Love on Lido Key is available for preorder on Kobo and at the Champagne Bookstore!

Savvy Saturday: Character Profile of Dara from A Guardian's Heart

DARA KAHN ANDROCLES
RACE	Half human (father), half dragon (mother)
LIFESPAN	Mortal
SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS	Peasant, Bastard-born
FAMILY	Mother dead, father unknown—foster-raised, no siblings
BIRTHDAY	New Year’s Day
AGE	19 years
HEIGHT	5’6”
WEIGHT	120 pounds
EYES	Gold with horizontal-slit pupils
HAIR	Long, red, slightly wavy
SKIN TONE	Golden cast, with slight pattern of not-quite-scales visible
BIRTHPLACE	The Riverhead province of Arcadia, in the village for Safehold Keep near the foot of Mt. Aege (dormant volcano). Has lived there her whole life.
PERSONALITY	-Positive—courage, compassion, curiosity, willing to do whatever needs doing -Negative—temper, holds a grudge, has a hard time following orders, self-doubt -Disaffinity for animals (they sense her dragon blood=predator in their eyes)
SKILLS	Healer, warrior, fire mage
VULNERABILITY	Iron poisoning (negates her powers)
ELEMENT	Fire
MAGICAL SUPPORT (FAMILIARS)	Salamanders (fire elementals)
WEAPONS	Knives
TALISMANS	Blood torque possessed by the spirits of her dragon ancestors & a book of spells (written in blood by her dragon ancestors)
PERSONAL PROPERTY	Onyx Isle, with a cave filled with all her dragon ancestors’ treasure
BIOGRAPHICAL/BACKGROUND INFO
RELIGION	Triple-faced Goddess (maiden, mother, crone), under recent attack by followers of the One God
SOCIETAL CONFLICT	Matriarchal dragon family in patriarchal human kingdom
ARCADIAN KINGDOM POLITICS	Neighboring kingdom of Westmarche invades Riverhead (fighting over water rights, using river to transport goods to the sea)
COMPLICATION	Count Jalad of Westmarche possessed by a demon no mortal can stand against
PLOT INTRODUCTION	When Dara rescues a wounded warrior on the battlefield, she discovers Loren is the heir to the throne of the elven kingdom of Cymry. He takes her there to recruit aid in ousting the demon-possessed invader and restoring her king to his throne. She learns about her family history, who her real parents were.
ROMANTIC DIFFERENCES	Mortal vs. immortal, bastard peasant vs. royal prince

Excerpt from A Guardian's Heart:

The sun just kissed the horizon outside Dara’s windows when a knock sounded at the adjoining door. “Dara? Are you ready?” Loren called.

“’Course I’m not ready. Wait ’til you see what she stuffed me into this time.”

Verdeen opened the door and curtsied. “Highness.”

Loren entered. “Keeping Lady Dara out of trouble, Verdeen?”

“With great difficulty, Milord.” Verdeen shut the door.

He froze as he focused on Dara. Heat flared in his eyes. “Verdeen, await us downstairs.”

Verdeen curtsied again and showed herself out, shutting the door behind her.

Loren locked it.

Dara sucked in a startled breath. His gaze traveled down, then up again. Slowly. Possessively. Her body tingled at the frank desire on his face, and she rubbed her bare arms. “You’re staring. Don’t blame me for this.” His long silence unnerved her. “Say something.”

“I would, could I find words.” His hoarse voice sent a shiver down her spine. “Where is the rest of it?”

She rolled her eyes. “They carted it off to the stables for insect netting. ’Tis all they left me. I resemble a heathen idol, don’t I?”

“If you were, a thousand men would change their religion.” Catching the blasphemy, Loren made a sign of supplication to the Lady. “If you wanted our cause to be visible, you succeeded. Everyone shall wish to meet you. None shall even notice me.”

Dara snorted. “Doubtful. The wanderer returns heroic, covered in glory and still unwed. All noble mothers shall throw their daughters at your feet.”

“You are the only one I want, sassy, irreverent wench.” Loren stroked her glistening arm.

Want. Dara trembled and slid closer. She loved how his eyes darkened. How she tingled at the open appreciation and desire on his face. Other men had admired her, but not quite this way—with a knowing that saw her, not just the pretty packaging. Her pulse pounded in her throat as she traced his lips with her fingertips. He captured her wrist to place a burning kiss against her sensitive skin. Dara gasped in reaction, and his eyes blazed.

The blood shimmered in her veins. She’d give aught to have Loren look at her that way forever. “We should go—”

“In a moment.” He pulled her flush against him. “I would have you to myself…for a bit.”

The hard planes of his chest thrilled, and she softened against him. Here was where she wanted to be. He stroked a calloused hand down her bare back. She whimpered. “Careful, you’ll squash my flower.”

“I shall get you another one.” Loren nuzzled her hair aside to lip her ear, flicking his tongue against her neck, nipping her shoulder. “So beautiful and brave. I need to hold you…touch you…taste you.” His mouth captured hers, his tongue surging in to duel with hers.

Dara’s head spun at the sensuous strokes of his tongue, tasting rich male and hot, heady desire. Her skin prickled with awareness. She clung to him, overwhelmed by a storm of sensation. Her body awoke, alive with yearning. Everywhere he touched caught fire. She arched against him with a gasp as his hands lowered to cup her backside and haul her into a burning erection. Half shocked, half intrigued, she rubbed against the rigid shaft straining within his breeches. A deep inner ache that had naught to do with the iron poisoning tightened her womb. A disconcerting dampness slicked her inner thighs, and she whimpered and shook in his arms.

Loren caressed her backside and his wet, carnal kisses devoured her with a voracious hunger nigh approaching desperation.

Trembling, aflame, she clung to him as he crowded her against the hard door.

Door. Party.

She tore her mouth from his. “Loren, wait.”

“One moment.” He slid a hand under the material of her bodice and found her breast, tweaking her nipple into a point of hot need. “So soft, so strong…”

A flash of heat zinged down between her thighs, and her womb clenched. Between her quivering thighs, she felt herself soften and swell. A strange fluttering began, an overwhelming instinctive need to cradle him, move on him. Dara struggled to focus. “Loren, they await us.”

He groaned and drew back. Her body ached at the loss. Frustration glittered in his leaf-green eyes. “Forget the party. Stay here. Let me show you the stars. It shall be amazing between us.”

She should be outraged at the proposition, but, oh, how tempting that was. She bit her lip and squirmed, then frowned. “Your kin would notice. I’d not offend your grandparents. Asides, I’ve never seen fireworks afore.”

“We can be late. We shall make our own fireworks.” He cupped her breast again, swiped his thumb across her straining, sensitized nipple. “Deny you want this…want me… Please want me…”

She yelped at the shock and covered his mouth. “Don’t say another word. You could tempt a nun. Enough. Let’s go. If Sirona had to fetch us two nights in a row, we’d never hear the end of it.”

Grinning, he peeled her hand away and replaced the crushed flower from her bodice with a fresh one from the nearby vase. “A nun?”

Dara’s cheeks warmed anew as the cool water from the stem trickled down the heated skin of her belly.

A Guardian’s Heart
Guardians of Light, Book 1
Renee Wildes
High-Fantasy Romance
$ 3.99
Amazon
Kobo
Champagne Books

Strength can be drawn from pain…if the heart can heal faster than it bleeds.

Dara Khan Androcles was trained from childhood to be a healer. But as a demon-possessed invader threatens Safehold, and she defends a wounded warrior on the battlefield, her hidden inner dragon thirsts for blood.

When she lifts the warrior’s blond, blood-encrusted hair away from his ear, she discovers he is more than King Hengist’s outlander ally. He is an immortal. The elven heir to the throne of Cymry.

Loren ta Cedric senses something different about flame-haired, falcon-eyed woman who saves him. A healer, wreathed in raw, dark power, who wields knives with deadly skill. A mortal who prays to the Lady, not the human gods. Now he owes this thoroughly distracting female a Life-Debt. Which, in the heat of their flight to Loren’s homeland to raise an army, somehow becomes Lifemate.

Dragon-human and elf, peasant and prince—logic says they have no future. Yet the power of their unlikely bond could be the only thing that saves their world from a demon poised to tear it apart.

Savvy Saturday: Exclusive excerpt from Storm Child

Storm Child, the sequel to K.M. Tolan's popular book, Tracks, is just as packed with adventure,
friendship, good guys, and baddies as it's predecessor. Take a look at this action packed excerpt, and then find out what happens when you buy the book!

~*~

He smoothly placed his hat over his heart and executed a courtly bow. “Marshal Leon Smith at your service, little lady. Folks just call me Marshal. Whom do I have the honor of addressing?”

He talked like nobility, or at least how she guessed a rail baron might sound. She would’ve forgotten the company he kept if it weren’t for the pearl-handled pistol shoved into a holster below the Marshal’s vest. Maybe he needed it to keep them under control. “I’m…R-Red,” she stammered.

“Isn’t that a fine name.” He swept the ends of his fingers along the bowler’s brim to fix the hat atop a high forehead. He inclined his head toward the other dour faces. “Don’t you mind my deputies, honey. We’re Pinkertons. The good guys.”

“They’re yegg,” she said with a shake of her head. “I can tell.”

“Firm hands on the tiller of justice,” he assured with a smile. Marshal pulled a yellow paper from inside his vest and unfolded it. “Rare to find one of your kind out by herself. That train over there yours, Red?”

She nodded. “Circus train. Tommy Tricks is the engine.” She gave Law Keeper a sidelong glance. “Tommy’s nicer than yours.”

“Well, this fellow we’re after likes circuses too. Heard he ran off with one.” The marshal spread the paper out before her. “This is a very bad man, sweetheart. A wanted killer. Look familiar to you?”

The breath squeezed from her. Red stared at the inked likeness, her jaw sagging. Big Mike.

The marshal regarded his deputies, his voice lowering as he said, “I’d say we found our man, gentlemen.”

Yelping, she raced back down the tracks as fast as she could. She broke into the caboose on a gust of wind, sending cards fluttering about the room. “Big Mike!” She gasped over Max’s surprised shout. “A man’s coming after you with a bunch of yegg. He’s right behind me. Got a pearly gun and snake boots.”

Surprisingly, the conductor knew whom she talked about. “Massasauga Smith,” Max spat. He rummaged in his desk. “ BM, you gotta get out of here. I’ve got some money in the drawer—”

“No,” the yegg interrupted, slamming a fist on the table hard enough to scatter the bottle caps they used as poker chips. “Ain’t gonna leave. Ain’t gonna join’ em likes they wanted Big Mike to do.”

Red whined in exasperation. “You didn’t really kill anyone, did you?”

The roustabout hitched up his suspenders and grinned at her. “Didn’t mean to. Big Mike just thumped too hard. Don’t want no badge.”

“Those men asked you to join them?”

“Wouldn’t really call it asking.” Max rubbed the back of his neck. “You can’t make a stand, Big Mike. Not against pistols. Not against the likes of Massasauga Smith.”

The large man pulled a red fire ax from hooks over the rear door. Dark smoky tendrils oozed from his eyes. “Big Mike gots Red.”

“What am I supposed to do?” she cried, following him out the front door.

He kicked at the ballast and swung the axe as if it were a marching baton. “You gonna let’ em take Big Mike away, Red?”

The question dragged itself over the red coals of hurtful memories. The seething black fog enveloping Big Mike’s body reached deep within her. Rage lifted Red into the sky in front of him. An unrelenting anger brought bright flashes to her eyes and transformed her hair in a crackling blue nimbus.

“They’re not taking you from me,” she thundered. Nobody’s going to do that to me again. Ever.

~Find out what happens next in Storm Child~

Storm Child is available on Amazon, Kobo, at Barnes & Noble, and at the Champagne Bookstore.

Excerpt from A Guardian's Heart

A Guardian’s Heart
Guardians of Light, Book 1
Renee Wildes
Urban Fantasy
$ 3.99
Amazon TBD
Kobo TBD
Champagne Books

Strength can be drawn from pain…if the heart can heal faster than it bleeds.

Excerpt:

Dara trembled, realizing she was sprawled across Loren like some tavern wench. The effort it took to meet his heated gaze… Fine brows slanted over wide leaf-green eyes pupiled like a cat’s, set in a pale aristocratic face. She glanced at his hands gripping her upper arms. Fine artisan’s hands with sword calluses, they held like bands of steel, but so gently ’twas nigh a caress. His body warmth was impossible to ignore. She shifted. Unable to hold his gaze, Dara dropped hers—to his mouth. She blushed.

His lips curved in a wry smile. “Now you become shy?” White teeth flashed. “Your hands have already been all over my body.”

Dara groaned and closed her eyes. Her cheeks flamed.

“Look at me, Dara.” Loren slid his arms around her body.

She tingled at his touch. Restless. Achy. “I can’t.” She hated this breathless dizziness. “Whatever you’re thinking, cease.” He was so warm. She feared making a fool of herself and melting against him. The old wives whispered of faerie enchantments; did that happen here? She felt bespelled. She wasn’t some weak woman to soften over a man, as any villager could lament. “You were much less intimidating flat on your back and weak as a kitten.”

“Intimidating you find me? Prefer me flat on my back in your bed? You have me now.” He brought her braid around to his nose and inhaled. “Sunshine and ferns.”

Self-preservation urged Dara to stop him before he did something neither of them could undo. “Loren—”

“Dara Kahn Androcles, protect me you did with your life’s blood. You are neither indestructible nor immortal. They might have killed you.” His hand, still wrapped with her hair, raised her chin ’til her gaze met his. “You must look at me while I speak these next words.”

Dara couldn’t tear her gaze away. The room spun and receded ’til all her world was Loren. “Don’t look at me like that.” The weight behind his words crawled under her skin, into her mind.

“My life I owe you. Life-debt. I bind myself to you. Whenever, whatever your need, to you I shall come. To you do I answer with sword, bow, or blood. My life for yours. My soul to yours, until our last breath.”

The world shifted. Deep as a prayer, more profound than a spell, his words settled within her. Dara couldn’t look away, couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe. Her head buzzed. Her mind tried to wrench itself from the binding, recognizing it for what it was, but the rest of her trembled, in thrall to his eyes, to his voice. She had no idea how to counter him.

Loren’s eyes gleamed at her. “Never again shall you be alone. You are mine, in this lifetime and the next. I shall ever be yours, for always. We are one.” With agonizing slowness, he drew her head down ’til her lips brushed his.

His kiss was shocking in its gentleness. As soft as morning dew, it implied, it coaxed, and she was lost. She melted into his heat and swooned against him. With a sigh, she yielded to his lips and returned the kiss. Warmth filled an emptiness she’d not known ’til now that she possessed. Loren had bound them in spirit; where did she end and he begin? He hovered on the edge of her mind, in her heart, in her blood. A part of her flowed into him, with her surrender, with her every breath.

He broke off the kiss. Dara raised her head to stare down at him. “What’ve you done?”

Excerpt from Storm Child

Storm Child
Hobohemia, Book 2
K. M. Tolan
Fantasy
$3.99
Amazon
Kobo
Champagne Books

Being a steam child was supposed to be fun.

Excerpt: 

The large man pulled a red fire ax from hooks over the rear door. Dark smoky tendrils oozed from his eyes. “Big Mike gots Red.”

“What am I supposed to do?” she cried, following him out the front door.

He kicked at the ballast and swung the axe as if it were a marching baton. “You gonna let ’em take Big Mike away, Red?”

The question dragged itself over the red coals of hurtful memories. The seething black fog enveloping Big Mike’s body reached deep within her. Rage lifted Red into the sky in front of him. An unrelenting anger brought bright flashes to her eyes and transformed her hair in a crackling blue nimbus.

“They’re not taking you from me,” she thundered. Nobody’s going to do that to me again. Ever.

“No!” Glory came to her side in a rush of wind, the girl’s eyes frantic behind her square glasses. “Red, what are you doing?”

Big Mike hefted his axe with a laugh. “We take ’em together, Red.”

Glory tugged at Red’s shoulders. “Don’t listen to him! He’s trying to make you mad. Make you into something worse.”

Max skidded to a stop on the caboose’s porch and gaped up at her. “Think she’s already worse.” He ducked back inside, slamming the door shut.

Glory struggled to stay in place as winds rattled the ballast beneath them. Her tears sparkled in the lightning of Red’s growing fury. “We’re supposed to go to Topeka.” She sobbed. “You’re going to hear that bell and be happy. Red, please stop! Storms blow away and die. You don’t want to die, do you?”

Red glared beyond her friend to where the marshal and his deputies stood on the tracks; their advance halted at the sight of her. “I’m not the one who’ll die.”

She hissed, her mind afire with the heady realization that those yegg and their master feared her. Roaring with all the pent-up anger she possessed, Red swept Glory aside and launched herself at those awful men. The maelstrom of her emotions kept pace, rising in a whirling column of stone torn from the roadbed.

Now her enemies ran for their lives. The sight of men scrambling like ants only served to goad her temper with a giddy sense of power. She reveled in her newfound might, just like Big Mike said she should. Fine. Let those bad men shelter themselves in those flimsy little cars. She was strong now. Strong enough to tear those coaches into kindling. Nothing would save them.

Except something did. Their savior wasn’t Glory. She couldn’t even hear her friend’s entreaties over the roar in her ears. But Red heard the tinkling glass when Law Keeper’s lamp shattered, and saw the engine’s light extinguish as the locomotive rocked helplessly in her winds. Hurt an engine? Her?

This isn’t supposed to be me! Red wailed, cringing from the monster she’d become. Frigid blasts of fear washed over her to chase away the lightning in a moment of terrible realization. She’d become yegg.

Red screamed. Frantic, she ripped away the anger fueling her whirlwind as one might cast off burning clothes. Naked, she staggered back to the caboose where even Big Mike took shelter. Glory, however, remained outside, grimly hanging on to the porch railing. Her friend stretched out an arm with a wrenching cry.

Red reached for Glory’s grasping fingers, but couldn’t focus. Couldn’t even find her own hands. More than just the winds flew off into the night. She was being torn apart as well. “Help me!”

New Releases! Three New Fantasy Novels for Your Delight!

Rush

E. Jourdan Lewis
YA Paranormal Romance

$3.99
Amazon
Kobo
Champagne Books

In a world where humans are below Shifters, a tiger falls for a human girl. To love her is to kill her.

Rush, a tiger shifter with an abusive Alpha, finds himself wishing for more with Jane, a human. The kind of “more” everyone warns them against. Jane may be the love of his life but if their secret is discovered by his Alpha there’ll be more than hearts at stake. There will be blood.



Storm Child
Hobohemia, Book 2
K. M. Tolan
Fantasy
$3.99
Amazon
Kobo
Champagne Books

Being a steam child was supposed to be fun.

Red was meant to live a carefree life among the great steam locomotives as one of Hobohemia’s mischievous steam children.

She leaves her human body behind, but not her childhood demons. A gypsy blessing becomes an unintended curse, releasing an unbridled power inside her making Red an unwilling weapon in the hands of others eager to wield her anger.

Before she can stop them, she must first defeat herself.



A Guardian’s Heart
Guardians of Light, Book 1
Renee Wildes
Urban Fantasy
$ 3.99
Amazon TBD
Kobo TBD
Champagne Books

Strength can be drawn from pain…if the heart can heal faster than it bleeds.

Dara Khan Androcles was trained from childhood to be a healer. But as a demon-possessed invader threatens Safehold, and she defends a wounded warrior on the battlefield, her hidden inner dragon thirsts for blood.

When she lifts the warrior’s blond, blood-encrusted hair away from his ear, she discovers he is more than King Hengist’s outlander ally. He is an immortal. The elven heir to the throne of Cymry.

Loren ta Cedric senses something different about flame-haired, falcon-eyed woman who saves him. A healer, wreathed in raw, dark power, who wields knives with deadly skill. A mortal who prays to the Lady, not the human gods. Now he owes this thoroughly distracting female a Life-Debt. Which, in the heat of their flight to Loren’s homeland to raise an army, somehow becomes Lifemate.

Dragon-human and elf, peasant and prince—logic says they have no future. Yet the power of their unlikely bond could be the only thing that saves their world from a demon poised to tear it apart.

Savvy Saturday: Interview with Renee Wildes, Author of New Release, A Guardian's Heart

Hello all and welcome back to Savvy Saturday! Today we have new author Renee Wildes here to tell us a little bit more about her new book, and her life as a writer. Wildes has her new book, A Guardian's Heart, coming out Monday!

1. When and why did you begin writing?

I first began working on A Guardian's Heart in 2002. I kept having visions of a redhaired woman in a burning room. When I discovered she SET the fire, I had to know why! My writer’s group was like, “Run with it” and so I did!

2. Tell us your latest news.

Signing the Guardians of Light series to Champagne after the demise of Samhain Publishing. Also working on a sci fi romance series, Seduction by Starlight, and also contemporary paranormal shifter romances set in Kootenai National Forest.

3. When did you first consider yourself a writer?

My late Grandma Jeanne first called me a writer when I was 6, penciling horse stories (ala CW Anderson “Billy & Blaze” style). I was the only student in school with a MAXIMUM word count.

4. Do you have a specific writing style?

I grew up reading Mercedes Lackey, and am a huge Joseph Campbell groupie, so I tend to write lyrical, slightly archaic prose that lends itself well to fantasy romance set in a Dark-Ages-type fictional world.

5. How did you come up with the title?

A Guardian's Heart perfectly describes my Cinderella heroine Dara – half-human/half-dragon, healer/warrior/fire mage, peasant/princess

6. Is there a message in your novel you want readers to grasp?

You live by the choices you make – there’s no such thing as pre-ordained destiny. Love is the ultimate playing-field leveler – it can overcome all barriers, will ultimately defeat hate. Good can and will triumph over evil for those who work to make it so.

7. Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?

Coming up with various unique cultures, ceremonies, and spells. I love intricate world-building, and can get lost in the research and creative minutia.

8. What was the hardest part of writing your book?

I struggle with smooth transitions between scenes, and have a bad habit of editing as I go, which makes me a slow writer (but a CLEAN writer!)

9. Do you recall how your interest in writing originated?

The old adage of “I dare you to do better.” My Grandma Jeanne listened to me lament over how the books I was SUPPOSED to read were too easy, so she told me to write my own. I’m a Taurus – we never back down from a challenge!

10. Did you learn anything from writing your book and what was it?
I’m definitely a plotter rather than a pantser, but to trust my characters and let them live their own story – not to be so controlling, but to observe and record.

11. Do you have any advice for other writers?

Write what you want to read; write what you love. Don’t try to fit a mold or write to market. Write from the heart, and you’ll touch the hearts of other readers.

12. Do you have anything specific you want to say to your readers?

Thank you for embracing the Guardians of Light magic, and I hope you’re inspired to shine your own unique Light in this world. May the Light never fall before the Darkness!

13. What inspired you to write your first book?

I loved fantasy and romance, but when I started no one was combining the two together. I decided to fill the gap. Now, there are all kinds of fantasy romance authors out there, but 20 years ago, no so much. I wanted heroines who DID stuff, who got to rescue the prince and slay demons and save the world. I wanted heroes who could appreciate a strong woman and weren’t intimidated by her.

14. Can you share a little of your current work with us?

A Guardian's Heart  – Chapter One – Scene 2 – Uncut

Sifting self from pain, Loren began trance-healing. Banisha verilli far. Gloria verilli far… Breathing and pulse decreased. Blood flow slowed. Seeping wounds clotted together.

He summoned strength from pain and followed its path through his body, checking his injuries. He bled from a half-dozen sword cuts. The worst? A deep laceration in his upper right thigh from an unhorsed Boar’s attempt to confiscate the bay mare. An arrow pierced his chest just below his right collarbone. He sighed. He would heal in time without scarring.

But, Lady, it hurts.

He examined the grove with a practiced eye. He liked not this exposed position in unsecured territory. A twig snapped. A young woodsman approached from the battlefield. Grief and black rage hammered into Loren. The lad—no beard growth—must be half-mad with it. Loss, despair… The dark emotions threatened to drown Loren, and he fell out of trance to shield himself. Watching the other approach, he edged his sword closer.

The lad staggered toward him, not visibly injured, but with such gaping wounds to his soul Loren wondered at his ability to function at all.

“Looking for you.” The lad eyed the bronze sword in Loren’s hand and spread his hands out in a conciliatory gesture. “I’m a Safehold healer.” He took in Loren’s position at a glance. “You know hazel healing. You don’t follow the One Truth.”

Pity. Desire to help. Truth-hidden…not so worrisome. Who in these dark days had naught to hide?

The lad knelt beside him in the damp leaves and cradled Loren’s head in his lap. His slender fingers ran over Loren’s battered body with gentle thoroughness. Sense-casting followed the arrow’s path; Loren shuddered at its touch. This human used the anathema of blood magic as part of him, natural as breathing. The dark shimmering stole Loren’s breath as it coursed through him. His seeming dissipated.

Without the seeming, the lad would see what he was. Nonhuman. Only King Hengist of Riverhead, his one real friend among Arcadian mortals, knew who he really was. Followers of the ascending One Truth would burn Loren as demon born. No nonhuman was safe from the cleansing fires of religious fanaticism and racial supremacy sweeping these lands. Hengist’s stewardship maintained a fragile truce of tolerance under secret cloaks of seemings, but Loren held no illusion what would happen should Count Jalad of Westmarche prevail.

The lad traced pointed ears beneath tangled hair. “You’re no riever. You’re Elder.”

Loren tapped his chest, struggling to make the lad understand. “Loren…” His hand dropped. True names held power, but no harm divulging his first name. It was common enough in Cymry, the Realm of the Dawn.

The lad’s eyes welled. “Lady, for the lives he saved today, may he enter the Hall of Fallen Heroes.”

How did a human know of the afterlife but not how Warriors of the Light got there? How did he know the ritual words? Loren’s suspicion grew. A human wielder of blood magic communed with the Lady of Light, an ancient Elder deity banned by most humans? There was no taint of evil about the lad, but dark fire’s unmistakable touch was upon him.

A mystery.

15. Are experiences based on someone you know, or events in your own life?

No, it’s a purely fiction twist on Cinderella. I wish I was that bold and daring!

That's all for today folks! I hope you enjoyed learning about Renee Wildes, and remember to check out her new book, A Guardian's Heart, available for preorder at the Champagne Bookstore.

Savvy Saturday: Behind the Scenes of Consuming the Darkness

He needs your heart to live.

Sounds gruesome doesn’t it? It is, and Detective Sienna Storm is in charge of finding the demon responsible. She’s new to Jacobs Cove, but not Supernatural creatures. She happens to be one. The sun is back and slowly Jacobs Cove is picking up from the disaster caused by the ritual that blocked the sun, allowing the vampires to take over the city. Sienna’s got her work cut out for her, enforcing the new laws preventing the vampires from taking whoever they want and find a killer who has no preference for his victims.

While writing the Darkness series, I had planned to end it with Penetrating the Darkness. But something kept pushing me to continue the series. The line, “He needs your heart to live” popped into my head. Often I get random sentences that stick in my brain and nag me to find a story for it. This was the case with Consuming the Darkness. One line. Now what? Aside from paranormal romance, I love writing a good romantic murder mystery and romantic suspense thriller. So I sat down, popped open my laptop and got to work. Once the idea came to me, I was off and running. I become completely emerged into my writing. I’ll forget the time and forget to eat. My fingers can hardly catch up to my brain.

It took me three days to finish the story. But that’s not the end. Now I had to go through the entire book, page by page, jot down names, create new creatures, and make sure everything was cohesive. Not as easy as it seems. All in all, writing and editing the story took me three months.

But just as I had finished it and sent off to the publisher, the next story popped into my head. Surviving the Darkness. Sometimes it's hard for me to let go of my characters, of the story. This time, however, it seemed right. Jacobs Cove is thriving, rebuilding and I feel I’ve done a good job telling the story of a small city, encased in darkness, run by vampires and the heroes and heroines determined to take back their home.

Consuming the Darkness: Bk 7 in the Darkness series is available with Champagne publishing and all other book outlets.

Here’s a glimpse:

In Jacob’s Cove, where death is as common as apple pie, a serial murderer is a first. Lieutenant Sienna Storm, the town’s newly minted homicide detective, is eager to prove she’s up to the job of tracking down the demon who rips out his victims’ still-beating hearts. Even if it means using her abilities.

Detective Nathan Powers lost his partner to the aptly named Heartless Killer, and the trail of bodies leads him to Jacob’s Cove, a strange world populated with bloodthirsty demons and run by a vampire. Still, the leggy blonde, Sienna, is a pleasant distraction. Until he discovers she’s after the same killer—and she’s not sharing.

On the hunt, the more they cross paths, the harder it is to stay apart. Together they discover not only clues, but a searing desire, one that may be their downfall when the killer targets Nathan, and Sienna risks everything to get him back.

***

Jacob’s Cove, 2026

After the Darkness

Lieutenant Sienna Storm’s first day in Jacob’s Cove proved to be a bitch. At one in the morning, five hours since she arrived without any of her furniture or belongings.

Goddamn movers had decided to take a break for the night instead of following through with their promise to deliver her stuff immediately. Instead, they informed her she would have her things late the next day. She really should have packed an overnight bag, but she believed the company when they said, Speedy same day delivery even out of town.

Yeah, right.

When she got the call to arrive at a murder scene, she’d been gung ho to get started. Except, her damn car decided to break down halfway to the scene. If that weren’t bad enough, the damn cab driver she flagged got lost. And he tried to charge her twice the fare. Well, she’d shown him, hadn’t she, shoving her badge in his face and threatening to haul his lumpy ass into a cell for trying to con her. He’d apologized profusely and even gave her the ride for free.

Damn straight.

Hurrying down the dark alley, she hoped her first case would be a smooth one. She spotted an officer standing with his hands in his pockets at the scene up ahead, took a deep breath, and fell into cop mode.

“Lieutenant Storm.” Sienna held up her badge, giving the officer a quick glance. “What have we got?” She approached the body. The instant she caught sight of the victim, she knew it wasn’t going to be a typical case.

The body of a young woman, approximately mid-twenties, lay face up on the ground, with a fist-sized hole in her chest, no heart. Long, brown hair. Blonde highlights. Slim build. Her jeans looked designer, as did the purse tossed a few inches from her, still intact. She didn’t look like the type to be alone in a dark alley. Everything about her read rich girl.

What the hell had she been doing by herself in an alley this late at night?

“Officer Barlow,” the tall, sturdy-looking man with a very ordinary face introduced himself. “This is Sally Grand, according to her ID, twenty-three, five-seven, one twenty-five. A woman taking out her trash found her,” the officer explained. “At least she had the sense to puke away from the body. No witnesses so far, but we’re still early. Same MO as two other murders. Heart missing, hole through the chest and back. This is some sick shit, if you ask me.”

She hadn’t, but everyone was entitled to their opinions. Sienna had to agree, though. She’d never seen anything like it, and she’d seen some disgusting stuff in her career. “Crime scene been here yet?”

The cop chuckled, which didn’t amuse Sienna much. “Lieutenant, we only just got started working the town three months ago. Our CSU consists of one guy who also happens to be the ME and two green wannabes.”

Perfect. Well, she had been warned, hadn’t she? “Where is he?”

“On another call.”

Great. “Who’s collecting the evidence?”

“Well, looks like that’ll be you, me, and Officer Dickie over there taking the witness’s statement.” He pointed at the officer behind him.

Why had she come to Jacob’s Cove again? Oh yeah, to help rebuild the city after the darkness lifted. Right. Still… “Okay, Officer Barlow. What I need is for everyone to stay back from the body. I also need someone to drive me to my car, which is…fuck, probably in the shop by now. Damn it.” Yeah, her day really wasn’t starting out well. “I need a crime scene kit. I don’t suppose you boys would have one in your car?”

“Of course. Dickie already took fingernail scrapings and footprint impressions. A full-body exam will be done when she gets to the morgue. We do know what we’re doing, Lieutenant, even though we’re shorthanded at the moment.”

She took his attitude in stride. “I hope so, because this isn’t going to be an easy one. From the looks of it, it might be Jacob’s Cove’s first serial murder case since the sun returned.”

***

Places to purchase: http://champagnebooks.com/store/index.php?id_product=715&controller=product

And all other book outlets.

My website: www.shielastewartssbooks.com

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Savvy Saturday: Exclusive Excerpt from Upcoming Book, A Guardian's Heart

Hey Savvy Saturday'ers! Check out this super awesome sneak peek we have for you this week from the upcoming paranormal romance, A Guardian's Heart, by Renee Wildes.


Excerpt
Dara trembled, realizing she was sprawled across Loren like some tavern wench. The effort it took to meet his heated gaze… Fine brows slanted over wide leaf-green eyes pupiled like a cat’s, set in a pale aristocratic face. She glanced at his hands gripping her upper arms. Fine artisan’s hands with sword calluses, they held like bands of steel, but so gently ’twas nigh a caress. His body warmth was impossible to ignore. She shifted. Unable to hold his gaze, Dara dropped hers—to his mouth. She blushed.

His lips curved in a wry smile. “Now you become shy?” White teeth flashed. “Your hands have already been all over my body.”

Dara groaned and closed her eyes. Her cheeks flamed.

“Look at me, Dara.” Loren slid his arms around her body.

She tingled at his touch. Restless. Achy. “I can’t.” She hated this breathless dizziness. “Whatever you’re thinking, cease.” He was so warm. She feared making a fool of herself and melting against him. The old wives whispered of faerie enchantments; did that happen here? She felt bespelled. She wasn’t some weak woman to soften over a man, as any villager could lament. “You were much less intimidating flat on your back and weak as a kitten.”

“Intimidating you find me? Prefer me flat on my back in your bed? You have me now.” He brought her braid around to his nose and inhaled. “Sunshine and ferns.”

Self-preservation urged Dara to stop him before he did something neither of them could undo. “Loren—”

“Dara Kahn Androcles, protect me you did with your life’s blood. You are neither indestructible nor immortal. They might have killed you.” His hand, still wrapped with her hair, raised her chin ’til her gaze met his. “You must look at me while I speak these next words.”

Dara couldn’t tear her gaze away. The room spun and receded ’til all her world was Loren. “Don’t look at me like that.” The weight behind his words crawled under her skin, into her mind.

“My life I owe you. Life-debt. I bind myself to you. Whenever, whatever your need, to you I shall come. To you do I answer with sword, bow, or blood. My life for yours. My soul to yours, until our last breath.”

The world shifted. Deep as a prayer, more profound than a spell, his words settled within her. Dara couldn’t look away, couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe. Her head buzzed. Her mind tried to wrench itself from the binding, recognizing it for what it was, but the rest of her trembled, in thrall to his eyes, to his voice. She had no idea how to counter him.

Loren’s eyes gleamed at her. “Never again shall you be alone. You are mine, in this lifetime and the next. I shall ever be yours, for always. We are one.” With agonizing slowness, he drew her head down ’til her lips brushed his.

His kiss was shocking in its gentleness. As soft as morning dew, it implied, it coaxed, and she was lost. She melted into his heat and swooned against him. With a sigh, she yielded to his lips and returned the kiss. Warmth filled an emptiness she’d not known ’til now that she possessed. Loren had bound them in spirit; where did she end and he begin? He hovered on the edge of her mind, in her heart, in her blood. A part of her flowed into him, with her surrender, with her every breath.

He broke off the kiss. Dara raised her head to stare down at him. “What’ve you done?”

***

A Guardian's Heart is available for preorder at the Champagne Bookstore. 

Savvy Saturday: New Year's Ebook Giveaway

This week on Savvy Saturday we have a bunch of ebooks to giveaway!! Let's see what you can win, and then enter below! One winner per book will be chosen Friday the 12th.

A Sister's Secret

Brooke Rawlings's life is turned upside down after the death of her sister. Brooke's life as a tough investigative reporter hasn't prepared her for the challenge of being the guardian of her teenaged nephew Jeremy. When he withdraws from everyone, Jeremy's oh-so-attractive-but-arrogant teacher, Matthew Grant, is concerned that Jeremy is involved with drugs. While investigating Jeremy's behavior, Brooke and Matthew uncover surprising information about her sister's death and the disappearance of another student. She soon comes to realize there was much more to her sister than met the eye. Can she unravel the web of secrets and lies and find happiness with the man at the top of her suspect list?

Blade Dancer

Emerging from an ancient civil war with only a patchwork of once-powerful technologies, the Qurls are threatened by new weapons in the hands of old enemies. Driven by the guilt of a comrade’s death, Mikial reaches out through her own divided heritage to discover the humans behind the guns. The one enemy she didn’t expect to face was her own people. The one ally she didn’t plan on being saved by was human.

D.I.C.K.s Case One: Holy Murder

Three friends and co-workers stumble upon a murder. They decide to hide the body until they can find their kidnapped Pastor before he meets the same fate. With humor and a little love along the way, the newly formed D.I.C.KS., Dames Investigating Crimes and Killers, stumble upon a prescription drug ring that leads them to break and enter buildings, follow criminals to an adult bookstore, and be betrayed by the most unlikely of suspects.

Dawn of Love

Fiona would sooner risk the wrath of a legendary beast than submit to the brigands who chase her to the walls of Burgis Keep. There, she finds herself under the protection of the most unlikely guardian. When the rumors of a vampire stalking the halls of the crumbling castle prove true, will she have the courage to discover the truth of the curse?

The Beast of Burgis Keep likes his privacy. Cursed by the gods seven hundred years ago, Alasdair is almost a vampire, but fights his ever present hunger with each breath. Until Fiona Buchanan stumbles into his castle. She calls to him like no other woman has, and he is lost when confronted with her subtle beauty and ever-present charm.

A legend exists which speaks of a way free of his bloody curse, but is Alasdair capable of trusting Fiona enough to find the path to love?

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