Summer’s Road by Kelly Moran

We’re really honored to have Kelly Moran with us today! Kelly is a dear friend and a fellow author. I am so lucky to have just received a copy of her wonderful book, SUMMER’S ROAD and can’t wait to start reading it. Leave a comment to win a copy of Kelly’s book and also to win a copy of an ARC for THE LOST.

Without further ado, here’s Kelly!

First of all, a huge thanks to Caridad for letting me intrude on her blog today. I’ve enjoyed her books for a long time, so this is an honor. I’m going to let Caridad pick one commenter to win a FREE eBook copy of my upcoming release, Summer’s Road, due out March 25th wherever books are sold. Feel free to also ask any questions you have.

Blurb


After her father’s death, Summer Quinn realizes just how alone she feels in the world. With no family to fill her life now, she finds comfort among friends, but yearns for true love, contentment, and family. When her boyfriend, Matt, suggests they raise their relationship to a higher level, Summer jumps at the chance to get everything she’s always wanted. Only, she doesn’t expect the heat arising between her and her best friend, Ian – a man who never seems to settle down. A man the complete opposite of what she’s looking for. But when her estranged mother reappears after twenty-eight years, Summer’s world completely flips upside down. As secrets from her family’s past and Ian’s true feelings for her emerge, Summer’s now faced with choices she’s not sure she can make. The rest of her life’s happiness hinges on her confronting a past she’d rather deny and legitimately opening her heart to love, even if it’s not where she expected to find it.

Excerpt


Summer stepped onto the pier and gazed out over the ocean. Nighttime here was different than back home. There weren’t any city lights to disguise the stars. The ocean looked black, as dark as the sky above, so that across the horizon, she couldn’t tell where the sky ended and the water began. It was kind of like looking into heaven, like looking into the earth’s soul.

The drum of footsteps behind her broke her from her reverie. Turning, she saw Ian coming toward her. Shirtless, he hadn’t even bothered with the button on his jeans, he strode closer in bare feet with a bottle of wine in one hand and glasses in the other.


All she could think was how damn delicious he looked in the moonlight. Heat pooled in her belly and spread throughout her body like a wildfire. Ian Memmer. Not good.

“You shouldn’t be out here by yourself,” he said, pouring a glass of white wine and handing it to her, the look in his eyes saying it looks like you need this.

She took the glass from him and sipped before answering. “That’s the point, to be by myself.”

He raked a gaze over her. “And if you fell in?”

Maybe it was the moonlight. Maybe it was the call of the ocean. Whatever it was, something made her want to test the boundaries between them again. Matt or not. Friendship or not. Consequences be damned. “Then you’d save me. You always do.”

Again, a big thanks to Caridad for having me by. If interested, you can find trailers, reviews, my books, and more on my Web site at www.authorkellymoran.com, or my Blog at www.authorkellymoran.blogspot.com. I’m also on Facebook at www.facebook.com/authorkellymoran, Myspace at www.myspace.com/authorkellymoran, Goodreads at www.goodreads.com/authorkellymoran, and Twitter at www.twitter.com/authorkmoran.

Liberty States Fiction Writers Book Fair

Adam Bruno Light HunterIf you are in the NJ Tri-State area, mark your calendars for March 19th from 5:30 to 7 pm. Come by and meet me and lots of other authors! I’ll have Romance Trading Cards and other goodies for those who stop by the Liberty States Fiction Writers’ signing.

Without further ado, here is the official press release!

Liberty States Fiction Writers Create Something Magical Conference and Book Fair

The Liberty States Fiction Writers will be holding its second annual multi-author book fair with over 30 authors signing their latest releases as part of their Create Something Magical Conference. The book fair is open to the general public.

Featured at this event is New York Times bestselling author MaryJanice Davidson, author of the the Betsy: Queen of the Vampires series. The book fair will also feature the premiere of The King of Plagues by New York Times bestseller Jonathan Maberry.

Get your signed copy at the book fair before it’s available in bookstores. Other signing authors include bestselling and award-winning authors Virginia Kantra, Debra Mullins, Caridad Pineiro, and Judi McCoy, as well as a host of local New Jersey authors. For a complete list of signing authors and more information please visit:

http://www.libertystatesfictionwriters.com/lsf-writers-conference/

Mark your calendar for this exciting event. Barnes & Noble will be handling sales at the book fair. Your membership rewards card will be accepted for B&N sales.

When: March 19, 2011, 5:30-7:00 P.M.
Where: Renaissance Woodbridge Hotel
515 Route 1 South & Gill Lane
Iselin, New Jersey 08830
Phone: 732-634-3600
Fax: 732-634-0258

Additional Authors Attending the Book Fair:

Mary Janice Davidson
Jonathan Maberry
Virginia Kantra
C.H.Admirand
Tina Gabrielle
KA. Mitchell
Melina Morel
Chris Redding
Tere Michaels
Shelley Freydont
J. Hali Steele
Cris Anson
Debra Mullins
Lois Winston
E.F. Watkins
Judi McCoy
Sarah Wendell
M. Kate Quinn
Judi Fennell
Caridad Pineiro
Karen Bostrom
Adele Dubois
Stephanie Julian
Trudy Doyle
Lisa Verge Higgins
Jenna Kernan
Jennifer Hubbard
Alison Formento
Keri Mikulski
Veronica Lynch
Erika Sands
Linda J. Parisi
Donna Bolk
John Richard Thompson
M. Flagg
R.A. Vaughn

Frosty Friday

It’s snowing again, but luckily it’s not too chilly. I managed to get to work without plowing my non 4×4 car into a snow bank and I’m looking forward to the weekend since I’ll have time to finally do some reading. Plus I’ve got some ideas for some new books and can’t wait to dive into them!

Today I’m visiting the Tami’s Misc. Ramblings blog and would love it if you could drop by to find out a little bit more about me, my geeky past as well as the inspiration for AZTEC GOLD and the new SIN HUNTER series (which expands on the SINS series).

Also – the winner from Rachel Firasek’s blog for a copy of an ARC for THE LOST is CindyL! Please send me your postal address and I’ll get you the copy as soon as I have one.

Have a great weekend! Stay safe and see you all next week.

Wicked Wednesday – THE LOST and some good news!

Today is a very exciting day! I’ve got some good news for all of you who like my Nocturne novels. Nocturne has just acquired three novellas from me for their BITES collections. Even more exciting, one of the stories will feature Diana Reyes and Ryder Latimer, two of my favorites. For those of you who have read FATE CALLS in HOLIDAY WITH A VAMPIRE and FURY CALLS, you may have a clue on what might be happening in this story.

Other good news in case you’ve missed it is that the SINS series will be expanding with the addition of the Hunters, a unique race locked in a life and death battle to survive. The first book in the SIN HUNTER series, THE LOST, will be available in August 2011 and will have some exciting new characters for you with wickedly interesting powers. (You’ll get to see just one of them in this little teaser I’m posting for you today!). You will see some familiar names, including another member of the Carrera family – Bobbie – a Marine who has been wounded in Iraq and has come home to heal both her physical and emotional wounds.

So without further ado, here’s a little wickedness from THE LOST.

The LOST Paranormal Suspense by Caridad Pineiro

Kiss Me, Kill Me Tuesday – A Writer’s Inspiration

One of the things that has been coming up often on the ARE YOU STRONG ENOUGH blog tour are questions about how I get the inspirations for the books that I write.

Which makes me vaguely remember a quote somewhere about writers being able to talk to themselves without being labeled crazy (or at least not at first) and some very popular writer kinds of T-shirt quotes, such as:

    Watch out or you’ll end up in my novel.
    I kill off my enemies in my book. You’re on page 12.

Truthfully, those quotes are accurate. For example, a very nice waiter was the inspiration for the Ryder name. Roman mythology helped create Ryder’s lover, Diana. I confess to killing off at least one person who truly pissed me off in very gruesome fashion. Last, but not least, the names of friends and family have graced characters that I like, sometimes more than once.

But beyond that, where the ideas originate is difficult to say, although it is safe to say that a writer’s mind never stops observing and recording those things around them in order to use those observations in a story. Whether it’s a meal that you savor or where you eat it, a walk along a street with a different vibe, a new city that you visit… Any and all of those life experiences may germinate the kernel of an idea that takes root and grows into a story.

STRONGER THAN SINTake STRONGER THAN SIN for instance. You may have heard me mention on other blogs that the idea for the genetic engineering came about as a result of my science major geekdom. But my love of sports was what influenced the hero’s occupation. Rather than choosing baseball, which is more a game of physics and strategy, I needed the hero to suffer serious physical injury in a bone-crushing collision. Bazinga-he had to be a football player. Someone big and powerful cut down in the prime of his life.

Enter the heroine who I had already introduced in SINS OF THE FLESH, but who I came to love and needed her own big story. Was it coincidence that she was a doctor in book one? No because I needed someone who could offer medical assistance on the sly in that book. Was it coincidence that she was training to be an orthopedic surgeon? Not really either since I knew even then the second story was going to be about someone with a bone disease and I also had a friend with that profession who I could ask questions about treatments, etc.

My life experiences and influences eventually led to ex-football player Jesse Bradford and Dr. Liliana Carrera and their story.

Other life experiences, namely my love of history and travel, are what helped set up the evolution of the SINS series for books 3 and 4 – THE LOST and THE CLAIMED as well as the two books coming out from Carina – AZTEC GOLD and THE FIFTH KINGDOM. Although I’m a little crazed right now with trying to finish THE CLAIMED, I’m going to dig through some photos and get them scanned so you can see what inspired some of the story elements and locations that I chose for those books!

I guess what I’m trying to say in a very long way is that a writer’s inspiration comes from everything around them and in particular, from those things about which they find interesting or about which they are passionate. Why are those last two things so important? Because when a writer is interested or passionate about something, it shows in the words that they put on the page and bring the story alive for readers.

Thanks for dropping by today’s Kiss Me, Kill Tuesday. Don’t forget to visit the various stops on the ARE YOU STRONG ENOUGH blog tour to learn more about STRONGER THAN SIN and also, to possibly win of the giveaways.

Also take a moment to visit with my very good friend and fellow author Mary Kennedy at SOS Aloha today! Mary is chatting about Sherlock Holmes which is thoroughly appropriate since she has the wonderful Talk Radio Mysteries out on shelves. Just click here to visit!

Choosing the Right Car

A car says a lot about you and as a writer, a car may say a lot about your characters. Or least it says a lot to me because I so love automobiles!

I’m hard at work on the next book in the SIN HUNTER series – THE LOST – which will be out in April 2011. I had a dilemma as I was selecting a car for the engimatic hero of the story – Adam Bruno – a self-made millionaire who appears to be a workaholic, especially to young Tony Carrera who is interning at Adam’s alternative energy company.

What car to choose? Expensive for sure. Adam is a man who enjoys the fruits of his labors. But I also wanted to select a car that said there was a playful side as well.

Hard choice so I began to think about the possibilities.

Since I’ve spent a lot of time wandering around Ocean Grove, New Jersey because it’s the setting for STRONGER THAN SIN and will also play a pivotal part in THE LOST, I pulled up some photos I had snapped at one of last year’s Ocean Grove car shows for inspiration.

If you cannot see the slide show below you can click here to see the Ocean Grove Car Show photos or cut and paste this link into your browser:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2066143&id=1130005412&l=dd7ee58972

After reviewing them, cruising the web and chatting with my good friend and fellow author Irene Peterson, I decided on the Bentley Continental GTC Speed. As Bentley says on their website, “Born of the same heart as the Continental GTC but with a different soul. Darker. Sportier. Tauter.”

In a way the same could be said of my hero – Adam Bruno. He definitely is a different soul and darker than Jesse Bradford, the charming and shining ex-football player who takes the lead in STRONGER THAN SIN. But for me the Continental GTC Speed, especially in Bentley’s Umbrian red just screams that there is a playful bad boy buried beneath the corporate pinstripes. What do you think?

Bentley Courtesy Bentley Motors