Category Archives: Guest Post

Character Quiz: Lost in Starlight by Sherry Soule

starLost in Starlight
(Starlight Saga, #1)
By: Sherry Soule
Publisher: Disenchanted Publishing
Release Date: June 26, 2014
Genre: YA Sci-fi Romance

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High school reporter Sloane Masterson knows she has one helluva story when she witnesses hottie Hayden Lancaster bending forks with his mind.
Like any good journalist, Sloane sets out to uncover the truth, even if it includes a little stalking. When the superhuman feats start to pile up and the undeniable heat rises between them, Hayden has no choice but to reveal his secret: he’s an alien hybrid.
They’re as different as night and day—she’s a curvy, purple-haired, horror junkie and he’s a smoking hot, antisocial, brainiac—yet the intense fascination between them refuses to go away. Even at Hayden’s insistence that dating each other is “off limits” and crazy dangerous, their fiery attraction threatens to go supernova.
Now Sloane’s dealing with creepy government agents, über snobby extraterrestrials, and a psycho alien ex-girlfriend out for revenge. After a crash course on the rules of interstellar dating, Sloane must decide if their star-crossed romance is worth risking her own life….

 

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Character Profile from Psi Another Day by D.R. Rosensteel

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psiADPsi Another Day
By: D.R. Rosensteel
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Release Date: May 6, 2014
Genre: YA

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When spunky teen Rinnie is forced to bust out her secret Psi Fighter moves in school in order to bring downs its drug ring, she encounters a deeper plot…and a more sinister danger.
My name is Rinnie Noelle.

By day I’m just another girl in high school who likes lip gloss. But by night I’m a Psi Fighter—a secret guardian with a decade of training in the Mental Arts. Kinda like Batman, but without the cape.
Bad guys beware.
After screwing up my first mission, I’m now supposed to fix the problems at my school. Major, fly-catching yawn. Sure, drugs are bad, but what crime fighter wants to put bullies in detention when she can save the world from nefarious villains?
’Cause I will take you out.
But things heat up fast. Now I have two guys into me—yummy new kid, Egon, and my old nemesis-turned-nice-guy, Mason. Plus, word on the street is that a Walpurgis Knight, the Psi Fighter’s worst enemy, has infiltrated the school. And everyone is a potential suspect, even Mason and Egon. Darn. Fingers crossed I find the Knight before he finds me…

ExcerptOkay so this isn’t really an excerpt. More like a character profile from the book.

picName: Kathryn Hollisburg

Age: 16

Classification: Best Friend

Special Skills: Crowd control by means of extreme coolness. Sometimes a total goof. She really ought to be a Psi Fighter.

Special Note: I can’t show you my real face. You know, secret identity and all that. Psi Fighters are usually masked.

Kathryn Hollisburg is my best friend in the entire universe. We know everything about each other.

Kathryn knows I like Elvis Presley. I know she likes 1D. I know her secret shopping hot spots. She knows my secret identity. Kathryn is the coolest, most popular girl in Greensburg High, but she doesn’t know it. She is completely genuine, totally unaware of her popularity. She’s as unsnobbish as it’s possible to be.

On the other hand, she has little patience with lower lifeforms like Mason Draudimon and his minions, Art Rubric and Chuckie Cuff.

Oh, and she’s a Whisperer in training. The Whisperers sort of manage the outside world for the Psi Fighters. They protect our identities.

Guest Post: The Romeo Club by Rebekah L. Purdy

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Rebekah Purdy grew up in Michigan, where she spent many late nights armed with a good book and a flashlight. When not hiding at her computer and getting lost in her stories, she enjoys reading, singing, soccer, swimming, football, camping, playing video games and hanging out with her kids. She loves the unexplainable like Bigfoot, the Dogman, and the Loch Ness Monster (lots of good story material)! She admits to still having all the books she bought throughout her childhood and teen years, and she may or may not have an obsession with anything chocolate…

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Guest Post: Fighting Connolly’s by Roxie Rivera

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I like to write super sexy romances and naughty erotica that make your pulse pound. I also write erotic romances as Lolita Lopez including the red-hot GRABBED series for Ellora’s Cave and the upcoming Dragon Heat series from Forever Yours/Grand Central.

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Guest Post with Lisa April Smith

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Author Lisa April Smith lives with her husband, He-Who-Wishes-to-Remain-Anonymous, in
Eternal Playland, Florida, a delightful spot just off I-95. Ms. Smith describes Eternal Playland as
“a little piece of level heaven with occasional dampness, where the bugs are plentiful but respectful, and even the smallest strip mall contains at least one pizza place and a nail salon.”For more about Lisa, her books, and upcoming projects visit her website

 

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Author Lisa April Smith merges her proven skill at writing page-turner suspense with a scientist’s insistence on accuracy. Set in ancient China and spread over 35,000 years, each of this epic novel’s six tales has its own characters and conflicts. This is a saga of survival, sacrifice, danger, indomitable perseverance, bravery and betrayal.

Book Sniffers Anonymous asked, and Lisa has agreed, to share the following details about each of the six stories in her exciting new novel Forgotten Tales of China.

The first tale, The People of the Cave, takes place 40,000 years ago, shortly after Wise Old Mother fell into a coma and permitted the fire to die. Lacking the knowledge to start fire has caused a crisis. Storm, a young untested leader, has taken four men on a dangerous mission to steal fire from Strangers. He leaves behind a desperate hungry troupe. But nine year old Berry, the last to eat and first to be beaten, is determined to rise in rank and will utilize her brilliant mind to do so.

The second tale, Giants, is set 20,000 years ago during the last ice age – a time when simple survival was an ongoing test of endurance, ingenuity, courage and the willingness to sacrifice for the common good. It’s a story of Watchful Eye, a devoted tribe leader, who believes that the fate of his beleaguered tribe is linked to the fate of his adopted twin sons, one a hunter and the other a fisherman.

Tall, near-sighted Squint, in a tale set 9,000 years ago, is limited to tasks typically done by women and children of his nomadic hunting/gathering clan. The agreeable star of this light-
hearted third story sets out on mission to gain the respect of his clan by trading trinkets and pelts for unknown treasures. He hopes that on his successful return to win the girl he longs to

Will he stay in the wondrous town where he is valued for his size and stamina, or return to his dismissive clansmen with his hard-won tools and knowledge of agriculture? And will the father of a painfully shy maiden with a cleft lip be able to influence his decision?

Perhaps your favorite tale will be Shing’s Daughters, set 7,500 years ago, the story of a patient hard-working man with five beautiful daughters, and a wife he cherishes, although she is tormented by her ancestors’ prophetic voices?

For a chilling change of pace, there is The Temple of the Goddess, set 5,000 years ago. The renowned archeological temple was the centerpiece of a major religious site which served a network of Hongshan villages and cities. There, people worshiped a female deity – the first female deity found in China. Wall paintings and pottery figures of parts of the human anatomy, found inside the ruins, indicate supplicants prayed for fertility and restoration to health. Also found were paintings of birds, whose migration was believed to be sent by gods to signal the arrival of rain and the planting season. Lacking irrigation, the rainy season was incredibly important for Hongshan survival.

The site, coupled with a female deity responsible for health, indicated to me, certain women held in high esteem and the character of Lian, a pious young priestess/healer – a Servant of the Goddess.

Throughout time, when women attain power, angry jealous men will do their utmost to take it away. And that led me to create a politically ambitious nobleman who envies and resents the respect Lian receives. The itinerant, sadistic serial killer was a counterpoint to Lian’s genuine goodness.

3,600 years ago, 1,100 years prior to Greece’s Golden Age, people in China had invented ink, performed craniotomies, constructed massive palaces, created a reliable calendar, and cast bronze tools, containers, musical instruments and weapons. Metal weapons enables armies to be better equipped. Casting weapons allows them to produced faster and cheaper. The last tale, The Bronze Worker and the Discarded Concubine, is a composite of fiction, fact and myth. It’s tells about a man struggling to raise his three grandchildren and prevent them from being sold into slavery, and a woman who helped topple the first dynasty.

Six tales, different in tone and genre, and all linked to man’s journey through time.

 

about the book

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Forgotten Tales of China
Genre: Historic Fiction
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For the first time, author Lisa April Smith merges her proven skill at delivering unforgettable characters, page-turner suspense and a scientist’s insistence on accuracy. Forgotten Tales is an epic tale of survival, sacrifice, lust and love, indomitable perseverance, bravery and betrayal. The location is the fertile Yellow River basin near modern-day Beijing – the Chinese Cradle of Civilization. For tens of thousands of years this unique river alternately rewarded its inhabitants hard work, then unpredictably swept away everything in its path with deadly unbridled fury.

Top 5 with Tigris Eden

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Tigres

When she’s not writing Tigris marvel’s at life’s gifts. She likes to take pictures of beautiful things. She openly admits that what she may find beautiful another person might not, and she’s perfectly okay with that. She enjoys her music and doesn’t leave home without it. Long pillow conversations with LL about nonsensical things, and hanging out with her boys, when they deem her “cool enough.”

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Top5Books I Want to Read in 2014

Huge thank you Book Sniffer’s Anonymous for having me on their blog today. I really appreciate them taking the time to host The Genesis Project Tour!

I love reading! It’s one of my greatest pastimes, and I’ve been patiently waiting for the following books to read. Below you will find my can’t wait to read books of 2014. These are books that I’ve pre-ordered so that when they come out, they are waiting on me when I power up my Kindle.

1. Burned by Karen Marie Moning, I can’t wait for this one! I fell in love with this series in 2012 thanks to my girl Belinda Bullock over at Hanging with Bells.

2. Turned by Virna De Paul, because Vampires are hot and if there is anyone that does vampires like it’s no bodies business it’s my girl Virna!

3. The Professional Part II by Kresley Cole (by the time you read this post I will have devoured part 2 and reading part 3)

4. Revenant by Larissa Ione

5. Chained by Night by Larissa Ione MoonBound Clan Vampire #2

Those are my top 5 want to reads for 2014!

Thank you again for stopping by today and taking the time to read the post. What book are you looking forward to reading in 2014?

 

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GENPRO

The Genesis Project
By: Tigris Eden
Publisher: Kats Kreative Ideas
Published: Jan. 28, 2013
Genre: Sci-Fi Erotic Romance
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Old earth has been deemed unsuitable for life, New Earth is home. With the Uni-Wars over, races have joined together in order to sustain their way of life. All life was considered worth saving, but only one race failed to submit. Humans.

Now extinct, humans are a thing of the past. The people of New Earth won’t acknowledge their hand in their eradication, but they have benefited from it. Dr. Vaggo Blackmore has found the answer, he’s restored his races way of life- sustenance through farming. The one thing that will give them back their long lives….. Blood, human blood.

Biologically engineered in a lab, Genesis Blackmore has always been different. Her father has told her it’s due to her enhancements, the Federated Council sees her as a genetic mutation; and her fellow peers see her as the shiny new toy. Gen has had better days.

Everyone on New Earth has milky white skin, platinum blonde hair, and electric blue eyes. It’s the norm. Genesis’ glossy, black hair, ice blue eyes ringed by gold, would have almost made her socially acceptable- if it wasn’t for her golden skin and blue, gold veins. In a sea of milky white she alone is the dark anomaly.

All Pars get their life’s nourishment through blood plasma. All Pars find their match through the tasting. Gen can do neither, forbidden by her father to do so. She can neither taste, nor be tasted. Something that’s never bothered her until now.

 


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Guest Post with author Andrea R. Cooper

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Growing up in Houston, Texas, Andrea has always created characters and stories. But it wasn’t until she was in her late twenties that she started writing novels.

What happened that ignited the writing flame in her fingers? Divorced, and disillusioned by love songs and stories. They exaggerate. She thought. Love and Romance are not like that in the real world. Then she met her husband and realized, yes love and romance are exactly like the songs and stories say. She is now a happy wife, and a mom to three kids (two boys and a girl).

Andrea writes paranormal and historical romance. When not writing or reading, one may find Andrea dancing in Zumba.

She believes in the power of change and counting each moment as a blessing. But most importantly, she believes in love.

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Viking Women were lucky

As I write this, Thor 2 The Dark World is the 2nd top grossing movie. Is there an appeal of Vikings besides their swords, shields, and muscles?

Yes.

Even during the Dark Ages, several factors set Vikings above their counterparts.

1. Hygiene – Viking men were known for their regular bathing and grooming. They bathed at least once a week – compared to the near monthly baths of others. “English cleric John of Wallingford complained bitterly of the Viking men who combed their hair, took a bath on Saturday, and changed their woolen garments frequently, and they performed these un-Christian and heathen acts in an attempt to seduce high-born English women.”1

2. Viking women had rights – They could inherit property, request a divorce, and reclaim their dowries if their marriage ended.2 Widows were free to select their own mates. If a woman’s brothers sought maliciously to keep her from marrying, the woman could marry the third suitor whom her brothers refused.3 All this might not seem like much, but at this time period, women were thought of as property had didn’t have these rights elsewhere.

3. Shieldmaidens – Many sagas and other histories describe women warriors. History of the Dane by Saxo Grammticus in the 12th century references a number of women fighting: Sela – women warrior and pirate; Lathgertha – Ragnar Lothborg’s wife (her and her husband are represented in the History Channel’s Vikings), Hetha, Vebiorg, and Visna who fought the battle of Bravellir, and the Irish mentions of the Red Haired Maiden. Johannes Skylitzes, Byzantine historian, chronicles women fighting alongside men in 971 Bulgaria when Sviatoslav I of Kiev confronted the Byzantines. Afterwards, the victors were stunned at finding armed women among the fallen Varangian warriors. [4]

So Viking women not only enjoyed privileges that their counterparts did not, like inheriting property. They possibly could become warriors. Their men not only had muscles, but also were the best groomed (and no doubt smelled better) than European men at the time. I say that made Viking women lucky.

Bibliography
1 Gwyn Jones. A History of the Vikings. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1968. p. 177.
2 http://www.history.com/news/history-lists/10-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-vikings
3 (Ibid., pp. 38-39; Jacobsen, Position of Women, p. 38)
http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/hairstyl.shtml
[4] Harrison, D. & Svensson, K. (2007). Vikingaliv. Fälth & Hässler, Värnamo. ISBN 978-91-27-35725-9. p. 71

 

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Viking Fire
By: Andrea R. Cooper
Publisher: Crimson Romance
Published: July 29, 2013
Genre: Historical Romance

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856 CE, Ireland is a land of myth, magic, and blood. Viking raiders have fought the Irish for over half a century. Rival Irish clans promise only betrayal and carnage.

Kaireen, daughter of Laird Liannon, is suddenly forced into an arranged marriage with her sworn enemy, a Viking. She refuses to submit. With no mention of love, only land and the protection of her clan, she endeavors to get her betrothed banished from her country. Will love find its way around her stubborn heart?

Bram, the Viking, finds himself without future or inheritance as a younger son in his family. A marriage to the Laird’s daughter would grant him land if he swears fidelity and if his men will fight along with the Liannons against any foe—Irish or Viking. However, the Laird’s feisty daughter only holds animosity for him and his kind. Is marriage worth the battle scars of such a relentless opponent?

With the blame for a rival laird’s death treacherously set against the Liannons, Kaireen and Bram must find a way to lay aside their differences as an unforeseen darkness sends death snapping at their heels.

Guest Post with Ana Blaze

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Ana lives just outside Washington DC with her very supportive husband and three rather demanding cats. She loves the ocean, Indian food, Ikea, and cooking. Ana admits to watching too much television and she swears that someday she’s going to learn how to play the guitar resting on the bookshelf in her office.
Ana is a member of Romance Writers of America.

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guest postOh the internet, it’s like every writer’s favorite frenemy. On the one hand, we do legitimately need to research and study whilst writing and then promote once we’ve published. On the other hand, we can easily lose entire days to clever gifs from the Hunger Games movies, Wikipedia articles on pagan holidays and tumblr posts pointing out the parallels between various couples on Once Upon a Time and other famous couples.

If we want to complete any projects, writers do need to learn how to balance their internet use. We need to figure out which sites are really worthy of our time. Because, as we all know, time could always be used to write instead.

I’m going to make the case for Pinterest. Writers should hang out on Pinterest more often. Seriously.

So you most likely already know about Pinterest. It’s awesome. Pinterest is essentially a virtual corkboard, or more precisely a site to create dozens of virtual corkboards. You can collect links to recipes or cute pictures of Benedict Cumberbatch. It’s a great place for readers to build a To Read list. They can link back to the actual review that made them want to read the book or sort the titles into mood categories. The possibilities are nearly endless.

Pinterest has great potential to help writers too.

First off, it’s a lovely place to create inspiration boards that help you picture your characters and the setting of your tale. I create boards for individual works in progress and then also have boards for quotes and images that may inspire a future project.

Next, Pinterest is a great place to keep track of your interviews and visits to book blogs and reader sites. I like having all the links in one convenient spot, and, as a bonus, those pins often draw additional traffic to those blogs.

It’s also a great way to cut down on time wasting. I know, you’re skeptical, but hear me out. We’ve all tried to look up just one quick thing, only to be distracted by six other things before we realize that time is escaping us. I’m suggesting that when you see that article with a quirky title that is pulling your attention away from whatever you ought to be working on, you pin it for reading later. You can make a secret board of all the silly or not so silly links that could be keeping you from writing and save them for when you’re sitting in the doctor’s office or waiting for your kid to be finished with her karate lesson and have three minutes and a smart phone.

I have several boards that are not directly writing related, but I’d argue that they are also helping me with promotion. I think there is certainly a chance that someone who follows me based on our mutual interest in veggie gardening also likes sexy books. And, even if that is rare, I think it is a really fun way for readers to get to know writers they enjoy. I’m sure my boards are a lot more interesting and telling than the little bio that appears at the bottom of my blog. A quick look at my boards will tell you that I like the color turquoise, recipes with mushrooms, actors with British accents and …well, I don’t know. Why don’t you take a peek and tell me?

 

 

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A Late Thaw
By: Ana Blaze
Publisher: Entranced Publishing
Published: Oct. 28, 2013
Genre: Contemporary Romance

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The town’s too small for Kiley St. Claire’s reappearance to be a surprise, still seeing her hits Cole Thomas like a punch to the gut. She ripped his heart apart when she turned to ice and ran away all those years ago. Now that she’s back, Cole’s going to say his piece and move on.

Even if she does look damn good in that uniform.

Kiley St. Claire is back in the small town of Barrett, Vermont, for one reason and one reason only: to earn some cash so she can survive her final semester of grad school. She’s not there for the sexy Christmas tree farmers.

Even the one who once held her heart.

 

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Excerpt & Guest Post: Bad Reputation by P.W. Creighton

18481793Bad Reputation
(North Shore, #1)
By: P.W. Creighton
Publisher: Self-Published
Published: Sept. 5, 2013
Genre: YA Mystery/Romance

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The North Shore Sheriff’s Department has a bit of a problem. Someone contacted the local radio station last night and left an alarming confession.

Logan and his friends may be gossiping about it but their only concern is getting through the last day of school before summer vacation. After all, tonight is the party of the year. No one wants to miss it.

But the weight of secrets will have a costly price…

 

Excerpt

Through the trees I could just barely make out the practice field ahead of me. Another little secret Sara had let me in on. The truant officer tended to make his rounds on the half-hour and kept a close eye on the path through the woods to the parking lot. If I came in from the practice field, no one would bat an eye.

“Then again,” I said aloud.

I thought about grabbing my jacket, but it really wasn’t cold enough. My phone on the other hand, I needed. Checking the screen, it was only a little after nine. Tardy, but not something that would stand out.

There was still a chance to ditch the entire day. My phone gave a brief buzz of notification. I checked it to find a text waiting. It was Hailey again.

“Where R U?”

I groaned. She was pissed at me. If I bailed, not only would Sara and Mom freak on me, Hailey would jump down my throat. I could avoid them, but I needed to take Hailey to the party tonight. I could just stand her up. I let out a heavy breath. I wanted to go though, and if I didn’t take her, she would still find a way to get there. It was just better to deal with her now than to put it off till the end of the day. Maybe she wouldn’t be too pissed.

“5 Min” I texted back and started walking towards the practice field. Old leaves and branches crunched underfoot, keeping my mind off the fact that Hailey was going to rip me a new one, and I had no clue what she was going to want.

The girl could hold a grudge better than anyone I’ve ever known.

I emerged into the open near one of the maintenance sheds. Why was I still with Hailey? She was constantly pissing me off, and she didn’t even hear me most of the time. I turned right to follow the maintenance path. I dumped Jamie for less than what I was putting up with now. I opened the texts from Hailey to scroll back. There had to be some reason.

A few days back through the texts was all I needed as a reminder. It was a ‘selfie’  shot from Hailey angled down at her. She was giving me a playful smile. Straight, platinum blonde hair, a tight low-cut top and a teasing attitude, she was hot. Knowing how she felt silenced any objections my brain could come up with at the moment.

I smiled to myself.

Tucking the phone in my front pocket, I crossed into the parking lot. I couldn’t see anyone over the cars but I didn’t need to push it. I quickened my pace towards the end of the science building.

At the far end of the concrete and faux wood building I walked around the corner to the concrete steps and black railing. I took one last breath of the free air before climbing the stairs to the heavy fire-door. It was always left unlocked so teachers could duck out to the parking lot or students could get to the athletic fields. The cold handle slipped from my grasp as I tried to open the door. I finally noticed the grease and dirt on my hands.

“Ugh,” I groaned.

 

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A Matter of Perception

“The Boldest Actions Often Conceal The Darkest Secrets…”

While high school feels like it was an eternity ago, a statement one of my teachers made has been a defining influence on my life. When one student was concerned with how everyone was going to see them, the teachers stated that- “Everyone is too caught up in their own drama to even notice. Why waste your time wondering what they think when they’re wondering what everyone else is thinking?”

It’s that sentiment that we always fail to recognize.

There are motivations for everything. Why that one person is a bully, why that girl is a cheerleader, why that boy is a geek, and even why that teacher is being so mean.

It’s all about how we perceive it.

That very thought is at the heart of all of my novels. It was also really prevalent in our high school days because most of us just wouldn’t question the motivations, nor would we look at it from any perspective but our own. It’s in our nature to just accept what we see and filter it through our own beliefs and ideals rather than attempt to understand.

Looking at that cool guy from high school: we only saw him from our perspective. We saw that he always seemed to be mouthing off to teachers, getting in fights in the hall, skipping class, going to all of the parties and even getting in trouble with the police. Everyone knew him but no one ever questioned just why he did the things he did.

The same is true of everyone that we knew, everyone that we currently know. We perceive the actions but we never really know the motivations unless we seek to understand. Even then, the more bold the action, the more guarded the motivation.

Everyone has secrets that drive their motivations and actions.

 

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Born in California, I have spent most of my life traveling throughout the US. I draw inspiration from my many adventures, turning my strange reality into fiction.

Over the years, I’ve found myself in many unusual situations, ranging from hanging off an 80 foot cliff-face in New York, to sailing off the coast of Salem, Massachusetts. I have had an opportunity to work at an archaeological excavation, and have even reported from the middle of a police stand-off.

When a teacher asked me in the second grade what I wanted to be when I grew up, I didn’t have an answer. To be honest, I still don’t know. I let my characters make that decision for me.

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Guest Post with Theresa Romain

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Historical romance author Theresa Romain pursued an impractical education that allowed her to read everything she could get her hands on. She then worked for universities and libraries, where she got to read even more. Eventually she started writing, too. She lives with her family in the Midwest, where she is working on her next book. This September, she’ll begin a new historical romance trilogy with IT TAKES TWO TO TANGLE. In October, her third holiday historical romance—SEASON FOR SCANDAL—will be released.

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