Cover Reveal... A Most Improper Proposal by Molly Ann Wishlade

Please welcome Molly Ann Wishlade back onto my blog, to share with us the fabulously sumptuous cover for her hot new full-length erotic Regency romance, A Most Improper Proposal, coming soon from Carina UK.

And here's a little teaser to pique your interest ;-)

NEW RELEASE... For One Night Only

The day is finally here for Kate and Mark to boldly take their steps into the world and see how they fare on their own, without the support of their Serviced chums...

Add to Goodreads

Buy your copy today from just 67p/99c.

Kate Powell only went and fell for the soldier she’d met just once before he had to jet off on a year-long posting overseas. 

Seven months in, and Kate is hornier than a blue wildebeest in mating season with only her battery-powered friend for relief. Her skills as a pen-pal scale new heights, but then a text message arrives out of the blue. 

Corporal Mark Butler is back in the country for one night only, and Kate isn’t about to let the opportunity pass her by. After all, who needs a vibrator when the real thing comes calling?

I will be donating my royalties for this story to Help For Heroes; they will receive a greater proportion of the list price if you buy direct from Breathless Press rather than through a third party like Amazon.

You can also read the first chapter in full HERE. 

Happy reading!

Allie x

Coming soon... For One Night Only

It's gives me great pleasure to announce that For One Night Only is now available for pre-order from Breathless Press, ahead of its release on September 26th.

Read the first chapter HERE

If you recall, this is the short story that I wrote as a dare to myself back in 2012 to see if I could write outside of my comfort zone...as it turned out; yes I could, and the story was featured in the Serviced anthology in March 2013.

I am absolutely delighted that the story will now be available to purchase separately for the bargain price of $0.99 (about 67p for us Brits), but as before, all proceeds that I receive will be donated to Help For Heroes.

For anybody that has already read Serviced, could I possibly ask you to leave a few words for For One Night Only on Goodreads, Amazon, and even your blog if you don't mind? It would be much appreciated. For any reviewers that haven't yet read the story, I have ARCs available so just get in touch or leave a comment below.

Thanks everyone!
Allie x

Introducing... The Wild, Wild West by Molly Ann Wishlade

This week has seen the cover reveal of the new mini-series by Molly Ann Wishlade and it is my pleasure to bring them to you all in one place...

The inspiration...

Take it away Molly:

I’m fascinated by the Wild West, in particular the town of Deadwood, and I love writing about cowboys and their lives and loves. I get my ideas for my writing from all sorts of places - sometimes the title comes to me first, sometimes I envisage a character and sometimes a line or two will pop into my head and I’ll just have to flesh it out. My inspiration for the series came to me with the lines…It wasn’t easy for any of them. She knew that. She’d been where they were now. These poor daughters of Deadwood had little to make their lives bearable…which left me eager to write the stories of three women living in and around Deadwood in the 1800s. The three heroines in the Wild Wild West series are very different, yet they’ve all been affected by their time in Deadwood in some way. 

The stories...

Runaway mail-order bride Layla Powell is terrified when she is captured by two powerful cowboys purporting to work for her fiancé – the mysterious Mr Jackman. At first Layla fights tooth and nail for her freedom, but Charlie and his lover Etu have their own erotic methods to subdue their feisty captive...

In fact Charlie is really Layla’s fiancé, she was supposed to be his wife in name only, but he and Etu like what they see. They are sure that just one night of being pleasured by them both will be exciting enough to convince Layla to abandon her plans to run and keep her in their bed forever!

Feisty ex-harlot Ellen Finch is finally free to escape her troubled past and make a fresh start, far away from the dusty town of Deadwood. But Ellen’s plans are interrupted when a dark and brooding stranger bursts through the doors of The Gem Theatre and Saloon begging for her help as a midwife. 

Ellen can’t refuse his pleas, or allow another woman to suffer when she can help. Nor can she ignore the pang of regret she feels upon discovering this stranger is about to become a father; if only she’d had a man like Clayton Kile to care for her! Relief floods Ellen when she discovers the labouring woman is Clayton’s sister. Clayton can’t afford to pay Ellen for her help; instead he expertly demonstrates his gratitude!

It’s been years since a man’s passion has moved Ellen, but there is something about this cowboy that tugs at Ellen’s emotions and fires her own long latent desires. Ellen faces a difficult choice, surrender to the demands of her body and risk losing her heart to love, or follow her head and leave Deadwood and her past behind forever...

Vulnerable widow Grace Holbein faces an uncertain future. Spurned by the town of Deadwood because of her violent late husband’s troubles she’s all alone in the world. With winter approaching the future looks bleak until two rugged cowboys ride up to her ranch looking for work in return for room and board.

Grace is wary of these handsome strangers; in her experience men are not to be trusted. However, Matt, fair and athletic, and Blake, dark and ruggedly handsome, are keen to prove to Grace that not all men are alike. The attention she receives from them both thaws her frozen heart and melts her inhibitions; she would welcome either one to warm her bed, but it’s a choice she finds impossible to make. In her dreams she’s allowed them both, but can her brazen desires ever be fulfilled in reality?

The author...

Molly Ann Wishlade has always been an avid reader and writer of stories. She regularly indulges her love of romance and passion by getting lost in the delicious worlds created by romantic novelists. When not reading, she’s busy with her current WIP, usually her next highly erotic tale about sexy and saucy heroes and their lady loves – and sometimes their gorgeous male lovers too. 

You can find Molly at:

Blog     Twitter     Facebook     Goodreads     Pinterest 

Related posts...

>> #20Twenty with... Molly Ann Wishlade

#20Twenty with... Raven McAllan

I am delighted to welcome Raven McAllan onto my blog today, author of Miss Simpkins' School: Miranda released earlier this month by Breathless Press.

So, let's get going with a this months' round of #20Twenty...

ACT ONE – all about you…

1) Have you always been a writer or is it something you fell into?

I've always written, but I didn't think I could write and be published until a couple of years ago. As a child I won two Where Does Chocolate Come From writing competitions, but at senior school I was told my writing was too flowery and not factual enough. 

2) Do you have a particular writing style or ritual?

I just write what my characters tell me. At home, I sit in my study all day, looking out across the garden to the fields and forest. I don't go into the lounge until the evening. (Well the study is nearer the coffee pot.)

3) Is there a book or an author that has influenced you in your writing?

It was a harlequin writer, Robyn Donald who I met several years ago, in New Zealand. She told me to sit down and try. Her descriptions of New Zealand made me want to visit there, and her. 

4) Is there one piece of writing (or life?) advice that has stuck with you, or that you would like to share?

Just try. You never know until you do, what you're capable if, and as long as you do your best, you're the winner. Also write as you can, not as you think you should.

5) Can you tell us three things about yourself that we probably don’t already know?

Er probably not. I didn't start drinking full strength coffee until I was pregnant. I hate the feel of new wet wood. It gives me goose bumps. I always eat the caramels in a box of chocolates before anything else.

6) What five luxury items or gadgets would you hate to be without?

Champagne, chocolate, MacBook Air and charger (can I have a power source), comfy feather pillow and my Uggs.

ACT TWO – all about your new release…

.

Lessons learned at Miss Simpkins' School is just the education Miranda needs to learn how to seduce her reluctant Lord. Or is it?

Miranda may be a well brought up lady, but she has needs, and she is determined to go after who she wants.

Enlisting the help of Miss Simpkins and her School for Seduction, she sets out to tempt Felix. Men can be so difficult sometimes, and not see what's right under their nose.

It falls to her to show him that age is just a number. She may be young, but she knows what she wants. And she is determined to get it.

Will Felix be able to resist temptation, or will he finally see sense and claim what's been his all along.

Little does Miranda know what Felix has in store for her.

7) Congratulations on your recent release of Miss Simpkins' School: Miranda, what was your inspiration for writing Miranda's story?

Miranda kept shouting at me. She wasn't really a front runner until I realized who she was related to and why she needed her story told. Especially as her story is a reversal of what was expected in those days. She wants her older man. It's him who doesn't think a large age gap is right. Totally the opposite to most Regency marriages.

8) Did the story flow from your finger tips or did some scenes take a bit of cajoling?

It flowed. I love the Miss Simpkins' School series. They're so much fun to write.

9) How long did it take for the initial spark of the story to make it onto the page and then onto the publisher’s desk?

About a week. Seriously. I wrote three of this series' short stories in under three weeks. They just hit me, and when that happens I listen—and write.

10) Do you have a favourite paragraph or sentence from your story that you would like to tantalise us with?

It’s a couple of short paragraphs… But I think it shows how well they spar…

“You see, Felix, ladies gossip. I know so much happens that is rarely admitted to openly. And it intrigues me. I want to experience some of those things. However, I’m greedy. I want you to be my tutor. No one else. And added to that, I want to know it is only me you...attend to, shall I say? You keep telling me I’m too young for you? Really? Or are you scared? Scared you won’t be man enough for me?”

She had never known just what the words “a pregnant silence” meant before then. His eyes now widened and something unknown to her flashed in their depths.

“Oh, Miranda, I will be more than enough for you, my dear.” The velvet tones poured over her, and surrounded her with notes of heat and intention. She had never felt so taken in thrall by a voice before. Each word, each nuance, enveloped her and encouraged her body to tingle. His smile was one-hundred-percent sex. Never before had she been the recipient of that expression and it was the most juice-inducing look ever. “The thorny question is...” 

Felix paused, and one side of his mouth quirked up in what she thought of as delicious. “Are you woman enough to cope?”

11) Over to you, what can you tell us about Miss Simpkins' School: Miranda to make us rush out and buy it?

Well, if you like feisty women, hot bod men and a story with lots of hints and intimacy…Evidently I write very hot. Snigger I try to hint and tease, and let you give your imagination full reign…

12) What can we expect from you next? Is there something you are working on right now? 

Well, There's two more Miss Simpkins' stories, Jane and Molly with my editor, so I'll be doing edits for those. (Breathless Press) Plus two books out of a series of six, all finished with Totally Bound. The series is set in a Scottish castle which is a BDSM club, called Diomhair. Secrets Shared is up for pre-order in April and on general release in May, and Secrets Uncovered will be out in July. Oh and I'm writing Nina's story, (Nina's Dom) which is book three of Dommissimma after Master, And A Dom's Decision- Athol's Story. Um after that? Who knows. I write as my characters tell me to.

QUICK FIRE ROUND – it’s pop quiz time…

13) Plotter or pantser?

Pantster every time.  I did try to plot once…ARGH, what a stale, cardboard, wooden load of rubbish.

14) Digital books or print books?

I love both. Print to smell a new book. Digital for ease of, well everything. I used to take a case full of books on holiday. Now I have room for clothes.

15) Tea or coffee?

Tea first thing. Coffee all morning, tea after lunch.

16) Extrovert or introvert?

Depends on my mood.

17) Facebook or Twitter?

Facebook because it's easier to find everything on my lap top.

18) Christmas or birthday?

Christmas. Mind you my birthday is only a couple of weeks before, so December tends to be celebratory.

19) Morning person or night owl?

Morning every time. As often seen by my comments at 2 am, 5 am or whatever on FB.

20) Sweet or savoury?

Again depends on my mood.

And that’s a wrap!

Thank you so much for taking part, Raven I wish you every success with your new release.

To discover even more about Raven McAllan and to keep up with her latest projects, you can visit her at:

Website     Blog     Twitter

Facebook     Facebook (page)     Facebook (Miss Simpkins

Buy it now…

.

Add to Goodreads

ISBN: 978-1-77101-253-9
Released: 7 March 2014

Breathless Press
Amazon UK / US
All Romance ebooks

Excerpt…

The bag over his head took him by surprise. Before he had time to react his arms were bound to his side, and then someone kicked his feet from under him. In his soft house shoes he was powerless to kick out and injure. He did his best to relax to cushion his fall. The last thought he had was he hoped to hell he didn’t topple down the stairs.

He didn’t. Before he hit the floor, strong arms held him horizontal, something rough—rope he surmised—was wrapped around his ankles. How he wished he had his top boots on, it would have been so much harder for him to be secured. Resigned for the moment, he assumed he was carried along the corridor. Even though he knew the house as well as his own, unsighted, and with his hearing muted, he was hard pressed to tell just where they were.

Ever the fatalist, he mentally shrugged and awaited his fate, whatever it might be. It seemed someone was having a laugh at his expense.

Kidnap? Unlikely in this house. Mistaken identity? Also unlikely. Her? He thought of the tormentor of his dreams. Surely not. She is not capable of executing such a thing.

Several minutes later he wasn’t quite so insouciant about everything. He was still being carried. They had, as far as he could tell under the circumstances, descended a long flight of stairs and ascended a shorter one, entered and also exited several rooms. Sometimes the footsteps of whoever carried him sounded heavy and hollow, at other times he heard nothing at all. Without reverberations, he assumed that sometimes they moved over carpeted floor and others bare boards. It was no help. His host’s house was old and had a mish mash of floors and coverings in no particular order. They could be going around in circles for all he knew.

His captor, he decided that was the best name applicable, halted and through the fusty material that enveloped him, Felix heard several faint door hinge squeaks and dull thuds. The dust and fibers over his face made breathing ever more difficult, and his mouth was dry. If I’m not released soon, I won’t have to worry about my knotty problems. I’ll be deceased and Soutar can deal with the lot of them.

That morbid thought didn’t sit well with him. Instead he began to get annoyed. Whatever was happening had been going on far too long, and it was no longer a joke. As his captor paused once more Felix kicked out. The curse he heard was loud enough to cut through his covering like a knife through butter, and it was good old-fashioned Anglo-Saxon. The jarring went up his leg, travelled through his body, and made his teeth rattle.

“Give over, you’ll get hurt.”

Felix wondered if he recognized the voice, and decided he didn’t care. If it was who he thought it was, he deserved the kick for his roughness. If it wasn’t, he deserved the kick anyway. He struck out again and to his delight his bound feet connected with a body. He could only hope he’d got him in the bollocks.

“I warned you.” The thump to his head was worthy of any devotee of Jackson’s Boxing salon.

Bugger, that wasn’t in the plan. It was Felix’s last thought before he saw stars and then nothing else.

#20Twenty with... Molly Ann Wishlade

I am delighted to welcome Molly Ann Wishlade, author of Trying Too Hard released last month by Carina (Harlequin UK), onto my blog for today's round of #20Twenty...

ACT ONE – all about you…

Molly Ann Wishlade has always been an avid reader and writer of stories. She regularly indulges her love of romance and passion by getting lost in the delicious worlds created by romantic novelists. When not reading, she’s busy with her current WIP, usually her next highly erotic tale about sexy and saucy heroes and their lady loves – and sometimes their gorgeous male lovers too. 

1) Have you always been a writer or is it something you fell into?

I’ve always written stories and longed to be published but I didn’t think I had what it takes. I fell into teaching instead of following a career in journalism as I’d planned. Motherhood and a very busy time followed and I tried to forget about my dream. 

In 2007, I submitted a medical romance to HM&B but it was rejected and I’m not surprised! Then I wasted time procrastinating. A few years ago, after confessing my burning desire to write to my husband, he encouraged me to try again and after a few bumps and bruises (i.e. rejections and revise and resubmits) I finally made it and Totally Bound contracted my debut novella Desire in Deadwood.

2) Do you have a particular writing style or ritual?

Whenever and wherever! ;) As I work fulltime, have two young children and a gorgeous and supportive husband, writing doesn’t get the time I would like to give it. So I seize every opportunity!

3) Is there a book or an author that has influenced you in your writing?

Growing up, I loved the passionate intensity of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. I adore a good romance but I also read every Stephen King novel I could get my hands on. I like all genres and I admire good writers. It’s a craft and one that I hope to improve with every book I write. 

4) Is there one piece of writing (or life?) advice that has stuck with you, or that you would like to share?

Be true to yourself and your author voice. Don’t try to write what doesn’t come naturally because it will show.

5) Can you tell us three things about yourself that we probably don’t already know?

I have a bulldog and a greyhound and when we take them out, people often comment on them being an odd pair.

I make a tasty curry using my own special blend of spices.

I’m an Olympic snowboarder. (I wish! I have enjoyed the Winter Olympics enormously and I’m addicted to the snowboarding and skiing events. I can ski but not at Olympic level. YET!!!)

6) What five luxury items or gadgets would you hate to be without?

My laptop. I NEED it!!!

My husband. He is a luxury and a necessity and a gadget in a way because he drives me around. (I hate driving.) I’m kind of an emotional scatterbrain and he grounds me.

My kids. They ground me too but they’re also a luxury because they keep me smiling and give me lots of hugs.

Wine. YUM! (Not necessity but luxury. Well…kind of necessary luxury.)

Net Flix – since we discovered this, it’s been amazing. I love House of Cards and Louis Theroux’s weird weekends. 

ACT TWO – all about your new release…

What’s the French word for lust…?

Hired as an intern at a coveted talent agency, blonde bubbly Catrin Owens knew she could be brilliant at the job. The code of conduct is crystal clear – business is business, pleasure is pleasure…and the two should never, ever meet! No problem for Catrin - she’s hardworking, and determined to excel. Until, that is, she meets the 6 ft-something wall of lean muscle that is her boss’ top client…

Scarred, and brimming with forbidden sex appeal, the French rugby star Henri Chevallier crashes through the walls of Catrin’s neatly-ordered life – and throws her polished professionalism aside like a scrap of sheer French lingerie!

The sex is fierce, exhilarating…life-changing – and almost all the more exciting as she knows she’s risking the career she dreamed of. Catrin knows she should step away. The problem? Henri is a temptation she can’t seem to resist…

7) Congratulations on your recent release of Trying Too Hard, what was your inspiration for writing Catrin and Henri’s story?

I wanted to write a romance featuring a rugby player set in Wales. The story idea came to me and I sketched an outline then when I started writing, it just flowed.

8) Did the story flow from your finger tips or did some scenes take a bit of cajoling?

This one pretty much flowed. It’s a novella about an intense and passionate affair between a Welsh celebrity agent and her firm’s handsome client, a French rugby player. 

9) How long did it take for the initial spark of the story to make it onto the page and then onto the publisher’s desk?

Taking into account the day job and my busy life, a couple of months.

10) Do you have a favourite paragraph or sentence from your story that you would like to tantalise us with?

The voice was like silk against Catrin’s skin and a flicker of lust darted like a hot tongue between her legs. 

;)

11) Over to you, what can you tell us about Trying Too Hard, to make us rush out and buy it?

If you like your romance hot, fast, emotional and with a dash of humour, this is the read for you!

12) What can we expect from you next? Is there something you are working on right now? 

I have a mini-series of three Western novellas (currently in edits with Carina UK) centred around three young women living in Deadwood in 1890 as well as a release due in March with Totally Bound called Harlot at the Homestead. It’s the first in a series of historical Westerns called The Duggans of Montana.

QUICK FIRE ROUND – it’s pop quiz time…

13) Plotter or pantser?

Plotter. 

14) Digital books or print books?

Both! I love my Kindle because it can hold so many books and I can download them immediately. But I also love a print book – the feel, the smell, the cover! Yummy! 

15) Tea or coffee?

Earl Grey

16) Extrovert or introvert?

Introvert. I hate being the centre of attention.

17) Facebook or Twitter?

Both have their good points.

18) Christmas or birthday? 

Christmas

19) Morning person or night owl?

Morning person if I have a day of writing planned.

20) Sweet or savoury?

Savoury.

And that’s a wrap!

Thank you so much for taking part, Molly, I wish you every success with your new release.

To discover even more about Molly Ann Wishlade and to keep up with her latest projects, you can visit her at:

Blog     Twitter     Facebook     Goodreads     Pinterest 

You can also catch up with Molly on the Total-E-Bound Blogspot on the twelfth of every month.

Buy it now…

Add to Goodreads

ISBN: 9781472090478
Released: 29 January 2014

Carina UK
Amazon UK / US / CA
All Romance
NOOK UK / US (B&N)
Kobo
iTunes

Excerpt…

“There you are!”

The voice was like silk against Catrin’s skin and a flicker of lust darted like a hot tongue between her legs. The poky, clinical office kitchen suddenly seemed too warm, its aroma of burnt toast overpowering. The air conditioning hummed in vain as Catrin’s body was flooded with heat.

The new arrival took hold of her shoulders in large, powerful hands and pushed her towards the counter so that her stomach pressed against the hard melamine edge. Her heart picked up its pace. The fine hairs on the back of her neck pricked up.

“Catrin,” he whispered into her right ear, causing a blonde tendril of hair that had freed itself from her chignon to flutter.

“Yes?” she whispered, her nipples tightening in anticipation.

“I missed you this morning.” He nibbled her earlobe. She shivered as he ran his fingers slowly down her sides.

“Henri.” She leaned into his warmth, felt the strength of his stomach muscles against her back, his heat searing through her thin blouse. “I had to get back to my apartment. You know...feed the cat.”

“What cat?” he said, trickling slow kisses down her neck then sliding his hands under her arms to cup her breasts.

She sighed as his exquisite touch fired her passion and her breathing quickened. She slid around in his arms then pressed a trembling hand upon his broad chest.

“Please, Henri…”

“What is it, chérie?” He tipped her chin upwards with a fingertip and his cologne washed over her. She savoured the fresh green woody tones. At their edge she could make out something else, something even more delicious: his musky masculine scent. It made her want to open his shirt and press her face against his belly to breathe him in.

“I can’t keep going like this,” she smiled, trying to regain her composure but desire pulsed through her core like a lusty demon possession.

“Like what, Catrin?”

He reached out and stroked the back of his free hand over her black satin skirt and she groaned, moving towards him even though a voice at the back of her mind reprimanded her. He laughed softly at her body’s betrayal and turned his hand around, pressing it against the apex of her thighs and cupping the ready flesh beneath.

She slumped against the counter, her eyes half-closed. Her legs turned to jelly as he lifted her skirt to her thighs.

Here I go again!

Her common sense drifted away like cobwebs on the wind and her body revealed her true emotions with every breath she took.

“Oh, t’es la plus belle femme du monde!” he gasped.

“Sorry?”

“Pardon, chérie!” he laughed. “I said that you are the most beautiful woman in the world.”

“Oh,” she smiled, “Thank you.” She loved it when Henri spoke his own language but wished that she could understand him better. A GCSE in French hadn’t equipped her for communicating with a French lover.

She relaxed and closed her eyes again as he ran his hands over her thighs.

“And this is what I love about you!”

Her eyes shot open.

Love?

He pushed her skirt right up to her hips then fingered the tops of her hold-ups and she realised what he meant. This Frenchman loved a woman’s body with all the trimmings, which was lucky as she liked pretty underwear. It was just more fun to have someone to appreciate it.

Mere moments ago she’d been spooning two sugars into her coffee cup, desperately in need of a caffeine fix after yet another long night of French loving with the handsome rugby player.

She was exhausted. Exhilarated. Still horny.

It was hard to believe that it was only two nights ago, on a rather cold, drizzly July evening that she’d accompanied her boss – the renowned celebrity agent Liam H. Clarkson – to an annual dinner. It had been the sixth anniversary of the establishment of Clarkson and Gwillam Celebrity Agency. It now had five branches across Europe, with the possibility of further growth, so spirits were at an all-time high.

And it had been there, deep in the cavernous candlelit corridors and ante-chambers of Cardiff Castle, polished, manicured and poured into her best lbd, that Catrin had met Henri.

And since then, her feet hadn’t touched the ground!

#20Twenty with... Jane O'Reilly

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and that your 2014 got off to a good start. I'm now back from my short 'Allie' blogging break but hope you kept in touch via my Aurelia blog.

Continuing with my regular #20Twenty guest slot - twenty questions on the twentieth of each month - I am delighted to welcome Jane O’Reilly, author of The Holiday Survival Guide, onto my blog today to kick off 2014 in style.

ACT ONE – all about you…

Jane O’Reilly started writing as an antidote to kids' TV when her youngest child was a baby. Her first novel was set in her old school and involved a ghost and lots of death. It’s unpublished, which is probably for the best. Then she discovered contemporary romance, and that, as they say, was that. She lives near London with her husband and two children.

1) Have you always been a writer or is it something you fell into?

I had played around with the idea as a teenager, but then I’d played around with a lot of ideas at that age. It was then forgotten for quite a long time, as I did all the usual things – went to university, did some jobs I was totally unsuited to, got married, had children. When my youngest was 10 months old, I got up one day and decided that I was going to write a book. I’d given up work when I had my first baby, and my life had been a constant cycle of no sleep and CBeebies, and I needed something that would challenge me, intellectually, and that wouldn’t cost any money or need childcare. I had read somewhere that Janet Evanovich had written her first book when she’d been at home with toddlers, and that was what really sparked the idea in my head. I wrote a terrible ghost story set in my old school and randomly decided to make it 75 thousand words long, just to see if I had the stamina to finish a manuscript. I did. It was awful. I wrote another, and then another. Once I’d started, I didn’t want to stop. 

2) Do you have a particular writing style or ritual?

My children are both in full time school now, so I write in school hours. I write 3 thousand words a day, 5 days a week. I try not to write at the weekend. During school holidays, I write 1 thousand words a day and try to write every day. My ritual is really simple – do the school run, sit down, turn on laptop, write.

3) Is there a book or an author that has influenced you in your writing? Or perhaps one piece of advice that has stuck with you that you’d like to share? 

I’d say that Vogler’s book The Writer’s Journey has definitely influenced me. I’m fascinated by story structure and how a story is so much more than a series of consecutive events. It is a bit of a tome, I admit, but well worth reading.

4) Can you tell us three things about yourself that we probably don’t already know? 

I’ve got 4 tattoos, I’m an obsessive knitter, and I went to school with Anita Rani from the One Show.

5) What five luxury items or gadgets would you hate to be without?

Can I count my husband as a luxury item? I’m really bad with gadgets, because I am too impatient to learn how to use anything properly. I would say a Radley bag, my knit pro knitting needles, Courvoisier and my collection of Karen Millen dresses, of which I have far too many (plus the husband, as mentioned above).

6) With Christmas already behind us, we turn our attention ahead to the year ahead. Did you join in with the madness of choosing New Year’s resolutions for 2014?

I actually didn’t this year. Usually I make a resolution to try and keep my house tidy, then I realise that I have no idea how to do that, so it pretty much crashes and burns by mid January. 

ACT TWO – all about your new release…

Witty, clever, and sharp. It's going to be the holiday from hell...and that's just how Erica wants it.

When tabloid journalist Erica Parker is forced to take a holiday, she's determined to make it the most miserable holiday she possibly can, but not even her impressive imaginative powers could have come up with sharing a tent with survival expert Nathan Wilde.

Nathan was a married man with a successful TV show before Erica got to work on his life. Now the hottest man she’s ever met is single, furious, and he’s got her alone in the wilderness for three long days…

7) Congratulations on your recent release of The Holiday Survival Guide; what was your inspiration for writing Erica and Nathan’s story? 

I had wanted to write a story with a Bear Gryll’s type hero for quite some time – the sort of man who is completely at home in surroundings that would turn the rest of us into nervous wrecks, who is physically fit, intelligent, and prone to stripping off at every give opportunity. I’m rambling. I’ll stop now. 

8) Did the story flow from your finger tips or did some scenes take a bit of cajoling? 

As the story is fairly short – just under 30K – it flowed pretty well. I had a clear idea of my heroine, and where she wanted to end up. 

9) How long did it take for the initial spark of the story to make it onto the page and then onto the publisher’s desk? 

I wrote the story in January 2013, in response to a submission call that Carina Press were running. They were looking for Winter Holiday stories. The turnaround was pretty tight, as I recall, so it was probably about 3 weeks work in total. I sent it to Angela James, who replied to let me know that she really liked it, but it didn’t fit the anthology theme (as ‘winter holiday’ doesn’t quite have the same meaning in the U.S. that it does here in the UK). She was keen to work on it but suggested that as I was already published by another Harlequin imprint, Escape, that I might want to sell it to them, so I did. 

10) Do you have a favourite paragraph or sentence from your story that you would like to tantalise us with? 

My favourite line is the whole book?

‘Oh my god,’ she yelled. ‘A Yeti!’

11) Over to you; what can you tell us about The Holiday Survival Guide, to make us rush out and buy it? 

It is a fun, quirky contemporary romance novella built around one of my favourite tropes – enemies to lovers. Plus they get naked in the snow. What more could you want? 

12) What can we expect from you next? Is there something you are working on right now? 

I have an erotic romance trilogy coming in March – three very naughty stories featuring three very different couples. The first one, Indecent Exposure, is about a shy photographer with a sideline in boudoir photography who finds herself taking nude shots of a man she really shouldn’t.

QUICK FIRE ROUND – it’s pop quiz time…

13) Plotter or pantser?

I was a panster until I learned how to plot. Now I’m a plotter with a capital P.

14) Digital books or print books?

That’s a tricky one. Print is safer for bathtime reading, but digital means you can’t cheat and read the end first. Plus it makes it easy to ignore how big your TBR pile is. So I’d say digital.

15) Tea or coffee?

Coffee. Diet coke on a really bad day.

16) Extrovert or introvert?

Introvert. Why anyone would want to talk to other people is beyond me *hides in cave*

17) Facebook or Twitter?

Twitter. Definitely twitter.

18) Christmas or birthday?

Christmas. My son is a Christmas baby, and you can’t get much better than that.

19) Morning person or night owl?

Morning. There is coffee and toast in the morning.

20) Sweet or savoury?

I don’t understand the second option.

And that’s a wrap!

Thank you so much for taking part, Jane, I wish you every success with your new release.

To discover even more about Jane O’Reilly, and to keep up with her latest projects and shenanigans, you can visit her at:

Website   Facebook   Twitter

Buy it now…

ISBN: 9780857991126
Release Date: January 2014

Escape

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