Author Interview & Giveaway: Roxanne Snopek (Three Rivers Ranch

Today I welcome Roxanne Snopek, author of Three River Ranch, a delightful contemporary romance set in Montana focusing on a man, a pregnant woman, a funny dog and horses.  What more could you ask for?  It has humor, romance, lots of great emotions and everything I love in a romance novel.  My review will be a little later today, but first have a seat with your favorite cuppa and learn a little more about Roxanne, Three River Ranch and then enter to win a copy of the book.


1.    What three things do you need in order to write?

When I’m at home, I’m completely hostage to the animals. (I was hostage to my kids, but they’re pretty much grown now.) We’ve got three dogs, two of whom are poodles, ie: Practically Perfect in every way. They’re mood-reflectors. If I’m intently focused on my screen, they’ll lie and wait for me to be finished, intently focused on the window. Until they sense that I’m starting to cripple up from immobility. Then they harass me until I take them for a walk. So the first thing I need is a comfy spot for the poodles to wait until I’m ready to play with them.

Our third dog is a Cavalier King Charles spaniel who at this very moment is sitting at the back door barking. Excuse me. <sigh> Okay, I’m back. Her attention span is shorter than mine, she thinks she needs to nose-monitor the yard fifteen times an hour and she’s been voted Most Likely To Die of a Burst Stomach With her Head in a Bag of Cat Food. So the second absolutely essential thing is that she has a) a full stomach and b) an empty colon.

We also have four cats, all of whom are geriatric and require a fair bit of TLC. Thank goodness my dear hubby is a veterinarian. As a matter of fact… our beloved tortoiseshell longhair Sophie is in hospital right now with what looks like pancreatic cancer. I doubt I’ll get much writing done today, other than this blog. She’s been with us since she arrived on our doorstep, as an abandoned adult, in the summer of 2000, and she will leave a big empty space in our lives.

I guess what I’m saying is that writing is vital to me, but if anyone I love needs me, the writing has to wait.

2.    What's your favorite season?

Right now it’s autumn, and every time it comes around, it’s my favorite! I’ve got Virginia creeper planted on a rock wall and for about a week or two, it’s the most gorgeous crimson color you’ve ever seen. That color feeds something in my soul, helps carry me through the grey drizzle of a West coast winter.

3.    Describe your ideal reading space (no expense spared here).

A hammock. On a beach. (I don’t really care where, as long as it’s hot and the water doesn’t give me diarrhea)

4.    If you could travel anywhere, where would you go?

I’ve always wanted to visit the Galapagos Islands to see the tortoises. Also, the Bahamas and Barbados. These may be in the same general part of the world, and if they are, I’ll visit them on the same trip. If not, I’ll buy an atlas and make better plans.

5.    What's the first sentence of Three River Ranch?

Seriously?? I started that book, like, years ago. Wait. I have a copy. I can look it up. Okay: “The door slipped off its hinges when she turned the knob, probably a hint that she should have asked a few more questions before signing the lease.”

6.    Do you have a favorite line in Three River Ranch?

When Rory almost passes out and Carson sets her in his truck, he gets in her face and says “How many of me do you see?” She says, “One. How many of you are there?”

7.    Tell us what is Three River Ranch about.

Two wounded people with hearts bigger than the sky who are trying to save the world and end up saving each other.

8.    Dish, who’s your favorite character?

Actually, it’s two characters, and I’ve had people tell me they think they’re contrived and kitchy. But I don’t care, this is how they appeared to me: fifty-something-year old twin sisters named Bliss and Blythe who have a long-standing mysterious feud. They call each other Blister and Blight but when the chips are down, of course they’re on the same side.

OH! A side note: I wrote this entire book, including Bliss and Blythe BEFORE I’d even heard of Entangled Publishing, LET ALONE that the imprint that would eventually publish me is called BLISS!!! How cool is that? Some of you will think I’m lying, but I’m really not.

9.    How did you feel when you finished Three River Ranch?

Relief of monumental proportions. I wrote the first draft during National Novel Writing Month, NaNoWriMo, in which participants write at least 50,000 words in 30 days. I truly did not believe at the time that anyone would ever read it. Which frees you up enormously as far as writing goes… until you suddenly realize that someone WILL actually read it. Then you feel panic of monumental proportions, because you know your parents will feel obligated to read it…

10. For all of us impatient readers, what is up next for you?

Des and Zach’s story is up next and of course, the book will have animals in it again. Imagine a totally hunky guy holding a tiny kitten up against his chest when he thinks no one’s watching…

Dang. The spaniel’s barking again. And the poodle is looking a bit urgent too. If anyone has pet stories, please share - I’d love to hear them!

Thanks Roxanne!

Needing a fresh start from her two-timing fiancé, Aurora McAllister answers a realtor’s ad for a guesthouse on the beautiful, serene Three River Ranch. She shows up at Three River tired, heartbroken, and with no one but her trusty Labradoodle as a companion.

Cowboy Carson Granger has enough trouble in his life without adding a woman and her dog to the mix. There’s the untamed mustang he’s prepping to release into the wild, not to mention his father’s crazy will, which stipulates that if Carson wants to fully inherit Three River, he’ll need to find a bride. Carson wants nothing to do with love and especially not a marriage of convenience. But he soon realizes Rory, and everything she represents, might just be exactly what he needs.

Sometimes love arrives on your doorstep when you least expect it…

Title: Three River Ranch

Author: Roxanne Snopek

Genre: Category – Contemporary

Length: 293 pages

ISBN: 978-1-62266-970-7

Release Date: August 2012

Imprint: Bliss

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Author Information

Roxanne Willems Snopek is an award-winning freelance writer of everything from corporate newsletters to personal essays. Author of the Amazing Stories series of true life animal adventures, she now focuses on fiction. Snopek grew up in Saskatchewan and now lives in British Columbia.

Author Website:  http://www.roxannesnopek.ca/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/RoxanneSnopek

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2962276.Roxanne_Snopek

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RoxanneSnopekAuthor

Giveaway:
Thanks to Entangled Publishing I have one ebook copy to giveaway.  Just use the Rafflecopter below to enter.  The ebook will come directly from the publisher.  Thanks!  Open International, ends 10/22.

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Guest Blog: Where in the World is Mohadoha (+ chance to win books, a Kindle Fire, and $550 in Amazon GCs)

Please enjoy this guest post by Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar, author of the heart-breaking multicultural romance, Love Comes Later. Then read on to learn how you can win huge prizes as part of this blog tour, including a Kindle Fire, $550 in Amazon gift cards, 5 autographed copies of Love Comes Later, and 5 copies of its companion, From Dunes to Dior.  

Where in the World is Mohadoha?

A guest post by Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar

  Seven years ago, when I told people in the U.S. I was moving to Qatar, most people had one of two reactions. “Why?” was one. “Where?” was the other. The prevalent stereotype was of oil rich countries was of places like Saudi Arabia where women cannot drive and houses were rumored to have gold inlay on the doors or doctors living on the family property. I found it difficult to navigate between these two extremes and avoided conversation with the uninitiated when at home in order to save myself time, aggravation, and the risk of offending with curt replies. There was a minority who knew of the place where I was headed, but these were either engineers, oil industry professionals, or—as I found out at my 10 year high school reunion—people in the intelligence community (that’s right, one among us was in the CIA). He was the ONLY person at our meet and greet for whom I did not have to go through the standard questions about the heat, clothing, and food. He knew no one had lived in tents in at least two generations and that camels were not the major source of transportation—but rather luxury SUVs. If there has been anything positive from the many political and economic crises in the last seven years, from international banks in a tailspin to the overthrowing of dictators during the Arab Spring, it has been a shift in perception about the Middle East. Now when I make acquaintances and mention I live in Doha, the capital of the city state of Qatar, people are not only more familiar with this region of the world, but also their questions have changed. “Do you like it there?” They ask. When I moved here for an experimental year, I was single, hadn’t finished my PhD, and was twenty pounds, one marriage and two babies lighter. The country has been my greenhouse for personal and professional development. I met my husband at work, eventually finished that degree, and had our first child here. Five years flew by in this flurry of activity. My local friends were going abroad for graduate work while my expat friends were moving on to other careers. Being the one who stayed behind was strange for me; I was so used to the role of adventurer. Loneliness sank in. I had copious amounts of time to myself. In boredom, I picked up the Doha Stone—the equivalent of the collegiate Freshman Fifteen pounds minus the bustle of campus life. I worked in an office, so I was different from many expat women—stay-at-home moms who could socialize during the day. Since I didn’t have a strict 9-5 schedule, I was outside the category of those who work American hours. I was at home, alone, for at least three hours a day. Everyone I knew in country was at work; everyone I knew on the other side of the world asleep. At the edge of despair, I did the one thing I knew best: I wrote. I considered my new life—being part of a multiracial couple, being so close to India after so much time abroad, being a young woman in the male-dominated field of academia. Writing was fun and yet a solitary activity nonetheless. As an extrovert in an insular society, despairing at the idle conversation at coffee mornings for expat ladies, I started a group of my own, one for writers. Writing in a group became a way of making a lasting bond with others. I started a blog. I dug out old manuscripts and began tinkering. I experimented with Twitter, starting with 170 followers while I tweeted my daily observations. I co-edited the first published volume of essays by expats and locals in the country. Then came a second. Soon a series was created. Last year I stepped off the corporate track to give my writing my full attention. Eleven months and six E-books later, I’m proud to say I’m an indie. Being in Doha has changed my life in both fundamental and superficial ways—not the least of which is the time and space it’s given me to build a brand around my “Mohadoha” persona. I’ve been able to dabble in fiction, explore my interest in creative non-fiction, and hammer out my style. The two books I’ve written set in Qatar, From Dunes to Dior and Love Comes Later, may not be the only ones. After all, who knows how much longer my family and I will stay; it could be quite a while.

As part of this special promotional extravaganza sponsored by Novel Publicity, the price of the Love Comes Later eBook edition is just 99 cents this week--and so is the price of its companion, From Dunes to Dior. What’s more, by purchasing either of these fantastic books at an incredibly low price, you can enter to win many awesome prizes. The prizes include a Kindle Fire, $550 in Amazon gift cards, and 5 autographed copies of each book. All the info you need to win one of these amazing prizes is RIGHT HERE. Remember, winning is as easy as clicking a button or leaving a blog comment--easy to enter; easy to win! To win the prizes:

1. Purchase your copy of Love Comes Later for just 99 cents
2. Purchase your copy of From Dunes to Dior for just 99 cents
3. Enter the Rafflecopter contest on Novel Publicity (I've linked it here for simplicity)
4. Visit today’s featured social media event

About Love Comes Later: What if pursuing your happiness also meant your best friend's disgrace? In Love Comes Later Sangita, Abdulla and Hind must chose between loyalty and love, traditional values and a future they each long to explore. Get it on Amazon. About From Dunes to Dior: I moved East, back towards my roots, only to discover how much of the West I brought with me. From Dunes to Dior is the story of my life as an expat South Asian woman in the heart of the Middle East. Get it on Amazon. About the Author: Six eBooks ago, Mohana joined the e-book revolution and now she dreams in plot lines. Visit Mohana on her website, Twitter, Facebook, or GoodReads.

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Author Interview and Giveaway: Nikki Logan (Wild Encounter)

Today I welcome Nikki Logan, author of Wild Encounter, a book that's very different from the romances I have been reading lately and I really like that.  So grab your favorite cuppa and hear what Nikki has to say, view her book trailer and find out more about Wild Encounter then enter to win a copy of your own if you can stand to wait (trust me you want to get your own copy now!)  

Welcome Nikki!

What's your favorite season?

Winter *sigh*  I live in Western Australia where the summers are just 100F day after 100F day. I just find the heat so soul- and creativity-destroying. But winter… I like nothing better than to get rugged up with my dogs at my feet and the rain thundering down on our tin roof and write. Or read. Or sleep. Or watch a movie.  Everything is washed so clean in winter and the garden looks green and lush. It’s just a lovely time of spoils.

Describe your ideal reading space (no expense spared here).

My ideal reading space is a lot like my ideal writing space (and that’s because my ideal writing space would have reading space in it)---picture a forest of tall trees, dripping with the run-off from a light rain shower, sunlight streaming through. Wildlife flitting hither and thither. Then picture a timber cabin with lots of glass-frontage, and in it is a conservatory style space which juts out from the main house so that it’s 280 degree forest views. Along the back wall of that space are floor-to-ceiling bookcases filled to overflowing and my desk, a corner unit sofa for reading and some space for my dogs are positioned up against the glass to take advantage of those views. *sigh*

I have the floor-to-ceiling bookcases in my actual reading/writing space but the rest of it leaves a lot to be desired…

If you could travel anywhere, where would you go?

Um… I wouldn’t mind going up on one of the early Virgin Interglactic flights into almost-space, because (technically) I *can* travel anywhere on Earth if I wanted to enough and saved long enough, but I’ll never be able to afford a shuttle flight. And it burns that by the time space travel is common enough to be affordable I’ll be gone L 

So, yeah, space.

Or maybe forward in time. Just to have a quick look…. (I promise not to touch anything or squirrel anything back with me…)

What's the first sentence of Wild Encounter?

“Clare Delaney grabbed what little sleep she could amid the heat and acrid smell of urine and rotten meat.”

Welcome to Africa!! My heroine is transporting a truckload of African wild dogs to safe habitat and she’s tucked up in the straw just a few feet from where they all lie, unconscious, until they get to their new home. African wild dogs are *so* very stinky (scent marking is a huge part of their society) especially when enclosed and very hot. Mmmmm mmm.

Do you have a favorite line in Wild Encounter?

I do! I love this line which sums up the external conflict and which almost didn’t survive the editing process because of the imperfect grammar - It was unexpected, unwanted and unacceptable; and almost certainly a nasty case of the Stockholms.

Tell us what is Wild Encounter about.

I describe Wild Encounter as ‘Born Free meets the Bourne Identity’. It’s the story of Claire, a conservationist in Africa working wildlife rescue, who gets hijacked along with her rare dogs and imprisoned in the depths of Zambia. A gorgeous piece of bad-guy (who she knows as ‘Alpha’) takes it upon himself to keep their accidental hostage alive and things get very complicated between the two of them, made all the more so because they’re both keeping secrets -- Alpha, his true identity and Claire, her ingenious escape plan.

Later Alpha re-appears in her life and Claire has to learn to trust him all over again (including with her life) and, more importantly, trust that the feelings she developed for him in captivity aren’t just symptoms of Stockholm syndrome.

I have a book trailer which kind of sums it up…

For all of us impatient readers, what is up next for you?

Next for Entangled, I’d like to get onto McKenzie’s story (she’s a minor character in Wild Encounter). Mac really grabbed me as a character and I have a great story idea (and a great hero) bubbling away for her. But I think I’m going to bring her to Australia for the next one. Not sure exactly when I can get onto that (hopefully over Christmas) but readers can check out my full range of contemp romances at my website - www.nikkilogan.com.au

Thanks so much for having me here today, just awesome to get to say hi to your readers personally.

Xx

*Nikki*

Wild Encounter

By Nikki Logan

Genre: Romantic Suspense

Length: 321 pages

Release Date: September 2012

Imprint: Dead Sexy

A wildlife release mission in Africa turns deadly when the convoy is hijacked by smugglers, and veterinarian Clare Delaney is taken hostage. Terrified for her life and her animals, the intrepid Clare establishes a rapport with the man she believes is the criminals’ leader, and reluctantly finds herself under his protection...and falling hard for the enigmatic man.

Alpha-to-the-max Simon deVries sees right through his sexy captive’s attempt to seduce her way to freedom. So when their simmering attraction flares into true passion, it takes them both by surprise. Now he’s torn between completing his secret mission and letting her escape without telling her his true identity. He knows if he lets her go, he will be risking his career, his life...and his heart.

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Author Information

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Nikki Logan lives amongst a string of wetlands in Western Australia with her long-suffering partner and a menagerie of furred, feathered and scaly mates.

She studied film and theatre at university, and worked for years in advertising and film distribution before finally settling down in the wildlife industry.

Her romance with nature goes way back, and she considers her life charmed, given that she works with wildlife by day and writes fiction by night–the perfect way to combine her two loves.

Nikki believes that the passion and risk of falling in love are perfectly mirrored in the danger and beauty of wild places. Every romance she writes contains an element of nature, and if readers catch a waft of rich earth or the spray of wild ocean between the pages she knows her job is done.

Author Website: http://www.nikkilogan.com.au

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/NikkiLoganAuthor

Twitter: @ReadNikkiLogan

GoodReads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3211596.Nikki_Logan

Tour Stop Giveaway: Ebook of Wild Encounter

Thanks to the author and the publisher, Entangled Publishing, I have one ebook copy of Wild Encounter to give away.  Open Internationally, ends 10/17/2012.

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Author Interview: Kelley Vitollo (Lucky Break)

Today I welcome Kelley Vitollo, author of Lucky Break, the first book in the Shamrock Falls series.  It's the story of Sidney and Kade and I love it.  So grab your favorite cuppa and learn a little more about Kelley and Lucky Break.  Then come back later today for my review of Lucky Break.

What three things do you need in order to write? 

Honesty? I’m pretty easy when it comes to writing. I have young kids and cartoons in the background. LOL. My writing time is sporadic and I get interrupted a lot. As long as I have my laptop and a notebook, I’m good J

What's your favorite season?  

Fall. I love fall. Love changing leaves and getting ready for hot apple cider and cooking in my crockpot.

If you could travel anywhere, where would you go?  

Scotland or Ireland. I’ve always wanted to go one of those places. And I love castles. I want to go explore as many castles as I can.

What's the first sentence of Lucky Break?  

“I have a new man, and we’re hitting the road next week.”

Tell us what is Lucky Break about.  

It’s a friends to lovers story about a small-town girl who leaves home and her best friend behind for Hollywood. When Sidney returns years later, Kade (the best friend) is there as well and sparks fly. It’s about coming home again, finding yourself, second chances and discovering who you really are and what you want.

Dish, who’s your favorite character?  

That’s hard! I love each for a different reason. I love Sidney for being real and not perfect, but for having the courage to go for what she wants. I love Kade for his loyalty and great ability to love. Rowan, another friend of theirs (her book comes out next, LUCK OF THE DRAW) is another of my favorites too. She’s spunky and fun.

How did you feel when you finished Lucky Break?  

Excited! I love giving characters their happily ever after.

What can we expect next from you?  

Book two in the Shamrock Fall series, LUCK OF THE DRAW is out in December. Like I said, it’s Rowan’s story. After that we’ll get Jace!

Thanks Kelley!

Thank you so much for having me! 

About Lucky Break:

She’ll gamble her heart on the best friend she left behind…

One lucky break is all struggling actress Sidney Williams needs. But when living the LA life becomes too much, she heads back to the small town of Shamrock Falls for the vacation she needs to get her life on track—and immediately runs into Kade Mitchell, her former best friend and the boy next door she’s always regretted leaving behind.

Kade, the new owner of Lucky’s—once the most popular bar in Shamrock Falls—is determined to bring the place back to its former glory, and seeing Sidney again is a distraction he doesn’t need. Sure, the chemistry between them is explosive, but Kade can’t let himself fall into a fling with his best friend—not when he knows she’s soon heading back to the glitter of Tinseltown.

Now, with the possibility of her first major acting role looming, Sidney must decide if her lucky break is in Hollywood or right where she left it—in Shamrock Falls.