Tour Stop: Benefits Of Sharing

Hi, folks! Today, I'm pleased to welcome Leslie Lee Sanders, author of Benefits of Sharing. First things first, to follow is a review of this novella and then the author's post on making time to write. Enjoy!

Review:

Cara Matthews is about to turn thirty, and for her, it’s the death of her youth and the beginning of the dull years. Her husband, James, is aware of her sudden grief and surprises her with something that should take her mind off of aging: young Isaac. Maybe Isaac can help Cara create her very own wild and crazy experience to share—in more ways than one—and help her transition smoothly from her twenties to her thirties. Cara is all too eager to finally experience the excitement she’s been desperately craving, but she’s also a little skeptical. Exactly who is Isaac, and why is he so eager to please?


I immediately connected with Cara from the first sentence of the story. Any reformed smoker will understand the anxiety she's feeling as she sucks on the end of a pencil in a vain effort to gain some cathartic puff.


This story is short and sweet, and makes for a smooth afternoon read. The author created a fantastic scenario and played it out in a steady progression. Fair warning: If you're not into the erotic side of romance, you might reconsider this one.


Sanders created several vivid scenes in this, and captured the emotions the character is feeling quite well. I enjoyed the story.


Guest post:

Making Time to Write

It would be great to spit out several novellas and a couple of novels a year like some fiction writers do. I would have something new for readers every month or so. However, I've always been a one-release-a-year type of writer. I just can't find the time to write.

Tending to three daughters, (one of which just turned a year old) a husband, and my job as a home health aide, leaves me with minimal time to write my sexy romances.

When I finally sit down to write, I write slow because I think about what I want to put down before I put it down. And thinking about how I want the story to go takes up a bit of my time.

Then I have to promote my recent release, which means I'm writing blogs and interviews, trying to keep current with my website and stay on the social networking scene as well. It all takes time away from my current WIPs. So as a result I end up releasing a book or two a year.

As a writer, one of the must-have skills is time management. You have to know how to dissect your time so everything gets done and you see progress in all your duties. And although all my duties get attention, it still takes me a long time to finish a novel.

But I'm determined to write. I mean, that's what I do. I write erotic fiction for my own escape and to provide others with an escape. Slow or not, I'll always make time to write.

Author Bio

The author of several books of fiction and fiction with spice, Leslie Lee Sanders spends most of her time writing erotic romances mostly in the MM and MMF categories. She currently has two books available for the late teen readers and several erotic romances published as e-books and in print.

Links

Author Website & Blog: www.leslieleesanders.com

Twitter: http://twitter.com/LeslieLSanders

Free MMF erotic serial Three’s a Crowd online at: http://www.threesacrowd3.com

Backlist Titles & ARe profile: http://www.allromanceebooks.com/storeSearch.html?searchBy=author&qString=Leslie+Lee+Sanders

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/leslieleesanders


And, hey! Be sure and stop by the next visit on this tour with CBLS promo at http://reviewsbymolly.com!

As always:

Say Hello To...

Suki Michelle and Carlyle Clark, authors of the intriguing novel The Apocalypse Gene. They've generously stopped by for one of the quirkiest interviews I've seen to date, so without further ado:

Please tell the readers a little about yourself:

Carlyle: I am diametrically opposed to myself. What does that mean? I like mixed martial arts, and I like the symphony. I love Jay-Z & Chopin, football and musicals, going to events filled with people but only the ones where the point isn’t to socialize (movies & concerts), talking to myself and answering myself (normally in the voice of our insane cat who is of the species Impus Demonicus).  

Suki: Half the time I have no idea what I’m doing. The other half I’m trying to undo what I did when I didn’t know what I was doing. That leaves, let’s see . . . one more half. That last half is divided into three halves, one for working, one for writing, and one for asking the mother of all rhetorical questions . . . WTF?

How about your latest release?

The Apocalypse Gene takes place in Chicago in the not-too-distant future. With Pandemic ravaging the globe, fifteen-year-old Olivya's psychic Sight compels her to see 

auras riddled with the colors of despair as she and her mother care for the dying in a their home-based hospice. When her mother becomes infected, Olivya turns to Mikah.

Mikah, a boy Olivya has been crushing on in virtual-school, is a powerful Empath who claims the Pandemic is linked to his clan, the Kindred and its leader, the brooding immortal, Ashmodai. With Mikah's aid, Olivya races to unearth Kindred secrets, desperate to find a cure, only to discover the Pandemic is far, far more than a mere disease . . .

What was your primary inspiration for this book?

Carlyle: This is always the tough question because telling what inspired The Apocalypse Gene is a spoiler. By day, Suki is a medical transcriptionist, The inspiration came after a long day typing medical reports and Suki playing the what-if game. What if the world was is in the grips of a Pandemic and the cure had nothing to do with medical science? I came on board because Suki was struggling with the plotting. I thought it was a brilliant idea. In fact, I was jealous I hadn’t thought of it myself, so it was a no brainer for me to team up with her.

Do you have any muses?

Carlyle: Suki, is both my muse and my editor, which causes equal amounts of inspiration, trepidation & perspiration.

Suki: Carlyle’s alter ego, Brain Creature, is my muse. When BC writes, the concepts and prose are brilliant. Motivated by jealousy, I write.

Do you control your characters or do they flog you into shape?

We flog them, they flog us into and out of shape. Our characters insist on being themselves and refuse to act in a particular manner just to make it easier for us, so we bandage up our bleeding whip-wounds and do their bidding.

When you write, is there a special routine you follow?

Suki: Nothing rigid. Carlyle is a mad man when he writes, intrepid, happy to lay it out fast and free, knowing he will go back and fix things, what he calls the “spray and pray” technique. By contrast, I can spend hours tweaking a single sentence. With this wide range of writing styles and complimentary skill sets, The Apocalypse Gene couldn’t have been written this well by either of us alone.

If you could be one animal, person, or at a place for a day what/who/where would it be?

Suki: I’d be a cat so I could finally learn the mysteries of the creation while simultaneously gaining first-hand understanding of the true psychopathic mind.

Carlyle: I’d be a sperm whale because the depths of the ocean are a fantasy world. I’d get to mix-it-up with giant squids and go all Moby Dick on whalers with my big bulgy forehead.

Five random facts about you:

Suki:

I’m a people-person with a low tolerance for people (a frustrating irony).

Cashiers, waitresses and toll booth clerks find it impossible not to tell me their life story.

My super power is asking a question about a TV show and having it be answered precisely one second later IN THE SHOW - an uncanny yet completely useless skill.

I suffer from odd-number phobia. (Note: This is #4.)

I love Sookie Stackhouse even though she both pronounces and spells our name incorrectly.

Carlyle:

I am one of the few people in the world who was literally paid to watch concrete dry.

I caught the Lake record bluegill at Poway Lake, but I ran away without giving my name for the announcement because I was supposed to have been in school at the time.

Our bed once collapsed under my weight alone, long after Suki left it, proving that I can defy physics by weighing more by myself than I do with another adult.

I think I’m funny.

I didn’t do it (no matter what the video shows).

Are you working on any new releases later this year?

Suki: Not this year, but we’re busy drafting the sequel to The Apocalypse Gene.  Also, Carlyle’s noir-meets-thriller novel, The Black Song Inside, is almost complete, and he’s putting the finishing touches on his epic fantasy, The People’s Champion.  I’m working on a YA speculative fiction piece called The Simpleton.  

Anything else you’d like to say?

Thanks to you, Lindsay, for giving us this forum and to your readers for making it through our nonsensical answers and, hopefully, for giving out novel a try. The first chapter is posted at our website. We wish you and your readers peace, love, and wonderful fantasies.

Contact info:

www.theapocalypsegene.com (Primary Website)
 www.facebook.com/TheApocalypseGene (Olivya’s fan page)
www.facebood.com/MichellePlusClark (Co-author FB page)
www.theapocalypsegene.com/cy-chi (Blog)
www.Storymavens/wordpress.org (Author blog)
www.Parker-Publishing.com
www.Twitter.com/@Suki_Michelle

AND, check this out: A giveaway! WOW! Just click on the picture to be taken to the entry form.

You can visit these two at their next stop, http://theawesomemagicattic.blogspot.com. I'll have a review of this one posted on the 22nd of this month, so be sure and drop back by!

Please Welcome...

My special guest today, Shaun. He's the lead character in JoAnn Kenrick's Sweet Irish Kiss, part of Decadent's One Night Stand series, and I think you'll get a giggle and some insight into this incredible man. Enjoy, and be sure to check the end of the interview for all the contact and buy links!

Lindsay: “Thanks for being on the blog, Shaun Bell! Glad to have you on board. Let’s begin, shall we?”

Shaun: “Sure, but ya got til them there doors open for business. I've got a bar to run, so I do!” Shaun ushers Lindsay to sit at his bar. He pours her a Sweet Irish Kiss and waits for her reaction. “Well, what do you think?”

Lindsay's face puckers with the rush of alcohol. “Where are you from? Have you always wanted to be behind a bar?”

Shaun: “Sure, I come from a long line of brewers and pub owners in Belfast. Me family moved here and brought this here bar twenty years ago. My Da passed the license for the place onto me five years ago as a wedding present, just before he moved back to Belfast a few years back. Ha, bet he is glad he didn't just hand the place over as he suggested, because me ex wife would have had claims to the place, otherwise. No doubt she'd have tried dipping her hands in the money pot. But ya can leave that part out of the interview. Sometimes my mouth runs away with me.” Shaun wipes down the bar and checks his watch, seemingly antsy to get the interview done with. “Especially when I'm nervous, and I don't mind admitting I'm nervous about my first date with Rachel.”

Lindsay smiles. “How did you meet Rachel?”

Shaun fidgets in his seat and looks away. “The lass I'm going on a date with tomorrow night? Don't ya laugh now, but I've not met her yet. All I know is her name and that she is really creative, works somewhere in London as a window dresser. Madame Eve, that's the woman who runs the match-making site I used, assures me she is perfect for me and I've heard she rarely if ever gets her matching wrong."

Lindsay: “Why would a stud like you use a match-making site?”

Shaun: “I've barely got time to breath these days, let alone find someone 'nice' I can date. Me ex wife was a shocker, running off with the iron-monger from down the street...with half me life savings. Not sure I want that ta happen again, but I do want to settled down and find someone to love. And I'm useless around women, never tell the gooden's from the badden's."

Lindsay pauses to interpret gooden's and badden's. “How do you get on with Devlin Kinney, your full-time barman? Is he single, still?”

Shaun: “I've no problem with Devlin, just wish he'd watch his crude mouth from time to time, so I do. The times he's got me in trouble with his crass talk. Yes, he's still single. Bit of a ladies man...and the bugger gets all the hot women. Needless to say, he can't hold on to them. Honestly, I hope he finds a good woman to keep him in check soon.” Shaun checks his watch. “Almost time for opening, any last questions before I let in the punters?”

Lindsay: “What’s your favorite animal?”

Shaun: “What blog did ya say this was for again?”

Lindsay: I run a blog for readers with voracious appetites.

Shaun: “So...lots of ladies who read romance are going to be reading this? I wonder if me da will see it? Will ya be sure to post the url to Bell's Irish Pub at the end of the interview? Ya know, just in case? He'll be ever so proud so see his pub getting attention.”

Lindsay: “ Sure. So, what's your favorite food?”

Shaun: “Pint of Beamish and a packet of Cheese and Onion Crisps. I'm pretty useless in the kitchen, but put me behind the bar and ya see my true worth!”

Lindsay: “Type of music?”

Shaun: “Nothing better than live music night in me pub, has me jiggin behind the bar. And I've got tickets to see Mumford & Sons next week. Those lads are entertaining, and it is great to see them making a success of it all. Maybe if me date goes well with Rachel, she can come along and get a taste of me..erm I mean of what I like. If not, I'll take Devlin. Sandra can take care of the bar for me. She's a cracker, like a mum to me. Says she's just a part-timer, but she's more or less here all the time.”

Lindsay: “Authors?”

Shaun laughs. “I own a bar, and struggle to find time for love...what on earth makes you think I've got time to escape in some fan-tangled story? Wait, Sandra's always got a book behind the bar..she loves the paranormal romances. Vampires, shifters...all that crap. Let's see." Shaun rummages under the bar and produces a paperback. "Amoveo legacy? What the heck is that? See, told you, she reads weird stuff.” He puts the novel back in it's rightful place, in Sandra's hiding place under the bar, and checks his watch yet again. “Right that's it. Ya time is up, lady. It's opening time. Hold on to ya knickers, because once those doors open, it can get pretty hard to move in here.”

Sweet Irish Kiss:

Ingredients for a perfect Irish Kiss; Baileys, Kahula, and whipped cream. For a Sweet Irish Kiss...just add Shaun Bell, a divorced workaholic bar-owner in Soho, London. Line up ladies. He's ready to love again.

Rachel Taylor was damaged by Daddy Dearest's play-away from home attitude. She wants to put her best foot forward. Only problem is, she stumbles backward each time she tries.

The 1NightStand match-making site brings this pair together for a night of guilt and commitment free sex. It's a match made in heaven until morning rolls around and Shaun can't bring himself to say goodbye. Can he win her over with his Sweet Irish Kiss, or will Rachel still see the neon "potential cheater" sign above his head?

ARe Bestseller!

Amazon

More BUYLINKS

JoAnne Kenrick, an ex-Ghost Tour Guide turned Romance Author, is a Welsh lass who has lived in various countries around the world. She now calls North Carolina her home, where she lives with her husband, two children and a lazy cat. When they aren't demanding her attention, she can most likely be found watching a vampire movie, reading or baking up a British favorite in her N.C. kitchen. That is, when she isn't writing or chatting up a storm on social networking sites. www.joannekenrick.com

FACEBOOK / GOODREADS / THE ROMANCE REVIEWS / AMAZON PROFILE

Blog Tour: Up A Dry Creek

Welcome to another tour from Coffee Beans and Love Scenes! This one is for Up A Dry Creek, by Avery Flynn. I'll be posting a review below, and an interview from the author. Enjoy!

Up A Dry Creek:

Claire Layton expects the usual busy Saturday night at Harvest Bistro to be killer on her stilletto shod feet. She never imagines there’d be an actual murderer on the loose at her restaurant in rural Dry Creek, Nebraska. But when she discovers a customer dead in a dumpster, the killer demands she find the victim’s phone and flash drive or face fatal consequences.


Jake Warrick, a cocky and mind-numbingly hot private investigator, becomes Claire's unlikely ally in the search. Jake just wants to solve the case and get out of this hick town, but the diminuitive and curvaceous Claire turns his plan upside down as they uncover a more complex crime than they ever imagined. The two bicker and banter like Tracy and Hepburn caught in a whirlwind of intense sexual attraction as they try to find the killer before it's too late.

Review:

From the first line, this book had me hooked. Flynn wastes no time in getting straight to the story, opening with a scene in Claire’s restaurant followed directly by the discovery of a dead girl in her dumpster out back.

When Jake was first introduced, I didn’t like him. Because Claire came in so strong and fierce, I immediately identified with her, and when they had their initial exchange I seethed. But as we get to know him, Jake isn’t such a bad guy after all.

Flynn executes this story with grace and ease, and the plot flows nicely. The only beef I had is how frustrated I became waiting for Claire and Jake to consummate their relationship. But, in the end the wait was worth it.

I often read romance novels written in a sappy sweet voice with a happy ever after that no one can really expect to have. But this novel was played out with humor and enough tension to keep you turning the pages, and the ending is plausible. I thoroughly enjoyed this story, and will definitely be reading Flynn’s work again.

Interview:

Please tell the readers a little about yourself: Well there’s two of me. I’m author Avery Flynn, which is the real me - she with the three kids, one husband, two arthritic dogs and an addiction-worthy love of strong, black coffee. Then there’s blue hair Avery Flynn, my alter ego who is part astrophysicist and part femme fatal. She dances the tango, stays at the Ice Hotel in Iceland and bar hops with the wild and crazy. Tim Gunn is her best friend. Why the two? The simple truth is that Avery Flynn is my pen name. The real reason? Who wouldn’t want to invent a badass alter ego?

How about your latest release? Up a Dry Creek is a fun and steamy romantic suspense about two hard-headed alphas and the murder of a spoiled rich girl at a private liberal arts college in small town Dry Creek, Nebraska. I hope readers will fall in love with Claire (a spitfire if there ever was one) and Jake (yummy is all I can say about him) as much as I did while writing Up a Dry Creek. But a word of warning: This is not the book for you if you like slow, plodding books that lack a sense of humor and sexual chemistry. If that is the type of book you enjoy, perhaps I could recommend my old organic chemistry textbook? :)

What was your primary inspiration for this book? Every romantic suspense novel I’ve ever read. I love reading fun, fast-paced novels that make my stomach fizz with the hero and heroine fall in love and get my heart pounding whenever the bad guy approaches. So that’s the kind of book I wanted to write and voila Up a Dry Creek was born.

Do you have any muses? Nope, no muses. Just me and my weirdly-wired brain making up stories.

Do you control your characters or do they flog you into shape?  Flog, what a great word. :) I don’t control my characters they have stubborn little minds of their own. Their kind of like children that way. I can coax and threaten, but in the end if they want to throw a temper tantrum like a three year old until they get their way, they will.

When you write, is there a special routine you follow? There must be coffee. That’s rule No. 1. Also, I’m a plotter, so I need to know where the story is going, even if it’s only a vague idea. Next, comes quiet. The only time I listen to music is when I’m writing sex scenes.

If you could be one animal, person, or at a place for a day what/who/where would it be? Don’t let the two Averys fool you, I really like being me so I’d have to make it a place. When I was in college I studied for a semester in Ireland and we traveled to the Aran Islands. That place is breathtakingly beautiful with sheer cliffs and the ocean pounding below. We stayed at a B&B and sang American Pie in the pub with the locals. What a lovely time that was, I’d love to go back.

Five random facts about you: I love hot yoga. Bridget Jones Diary is my favorite romantic movie, with a close second going to Down With Love. I cannot pass a bookstore without going in. I despise talking on the telephone. If you walk into a room and someone is laughing really loudly, it’s probably me.

Are you working on any new releases later this year? Yes! A Dry Creek Bed, the second in my Dry Creek series, will be going to the publisher by the end of September. Fingers crossed, they’ll love it as much as I do.

Anything else you’d like to say? Just my favorite quote from the great movie, Auntie Mame starring Rosalind Russell: Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death.

Contact info:

Website: www.averyflynn.com

Blog: http://www.averyflynn.com/Avery_Flynn/Lets_Chat/Lets_Chat.html

Twitter: @averyflynn

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Avery-Flynn/177161972329973

Thanks for being here, Avery!

 

The next stop on this tour will be at Everyone Loves A Sinner, so have a look!

Buy Links

Evernight Publishing:

http://www.evernightpublishing.com/products/Up-a-Dry-Creek-by-Avery-Flynn.html

Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Up-Dry-Creek-ebook/dp/B0055UZ9UG

B&N:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/up-a-dry-creek-avery-flynn/1103948714

Smashwords:

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/66844