Good morning, readers!  Please welcome, Gabrielle Bisset, who's here today to talk about her novel, BLOOD BETRAYED.  Look at that cover, folks!!

Blood Betrayed

    I asked Gabrielle to bring along her hero today, and it looks like we get to meet him.  So with much ado, I am turning it over to her and Saint.   Thanks Claire for having me here today at your blog. It's a pleasure to be here. I'm joined by the hero from my book, Blood Betrayed, today.


Gabrielle: Saint, thank you for joining me here today. It's great to see you again.

Saint: It's my pleasure, Gabrielle.

Gabrielle: Let's jump right in. Tell the readers something about you.

Saint: I'm a vampire, turned in 1916 during the First World War. I'm also one of the Sons of Navarus, a group of vampires responsible for making sure the Archons don't turn our world into some police state.

Gabrielle: Blood Betrayed, your story, is a romance, overall. Tell us about the heroine, Solenne.

Saint: Solenne and I knew each other years ago. She's my brother's vampire, turned shortly after he and I were made vampire. Let's just say Solenne is unlike any other woman on Earth.

Gabrielle: Hmmm...that sounds like a compliment. From what I know of you, you're pretty stingy with those. She must be something pretty special.

Saint: (simply grins)

Gabrielle: Okay, I see I'm not going to get anything more out of you on that. Let's do something different. I'm going to ask you some questions and you tell me what you want to about each.

Saint: (winks) Give it your best shot.

Gabrielle: What's your background?

Saint: I was born in Ireland. I was turned vampire in France at the Battle of the Somme in 1916.

Gabrielle: What are your stats?

Saint: (grins seductively) Stats? Oh, it's that kind of interview. Okay. I'm 6'3", weigh around 215, and have brown eyes and brown hair. Is this going to turn into one of those Playgirl things? Am I going to have to tell you my turn offs and turn ons?

Gabrielle: You could, if you like.

Saint: I like red wine, eat healthy, work out, so I like women who appreciate that. I like women who like romance and candlelight. I guess I'm just old fashioned at heart.

Gabrielle: Are you a hand holder or a man who puts his arm around a woman's waist when he walks with her?

Saint: I'm an arm around the waist man.

Gabrielle: Okay, here are a few more. Are you a bar soap guy or body wash guy?

Saint: I don't care, but it's always better when someone else is lathering me up.

Gabrielle: I noticed when you walked in you smelled incredible. What cologne are you wearing?

Saint: It's Gucci Guilty Intense.

Gabrielle: It's delicious. I love it!

Saint: Thanks. It's a new favorite of mine. I've worn Hugo Boss for years, but I thought this might be a nice change.

Gabrielle: I don't remember Vasilije wearing any cologne when we sat down to talk. Do vampires usually wear it?

Saint: Vasilije is the type of man who thinks he doesn't need it because he always smells of sex and alcohol. I like to think I'm a little more civilized than him.

Gabrielle: Okay, what about your favorite fragrance for women?

Saint: I don't have a favorite, but I think perfume should enhance a woman's natural scent. That's always a huge turn on.

Gabrielle: One last question: I know you enjoy being a vampire, but is there one thing you miss about being human?

Saint: I think I miss watching the sunrise over the rolling countryside of Ireland. I remember it being like something out of a picture, but as time goes by, the memory begins to fade.

Gabrielle: Thanks, Saint. I love that idea. It's been great sitting down with you again. Keep safe and next time maybe you and Solenne can sit down with me.

Saint: It's my pleasure. I'll see what I can do about Solenne joining us next time.

Thank you, Gabrielle, for bringing him by today -- he's pretty tempting!   Let's take a peek at Saint in action, real quick.  


~Claire
www.claireashgrove.com
www.toristclaire.com

Labels: Goddessfish Promotions , Goddessfish Tours , New Voices

Hi everyone!  Just stopping in here to announce a two-day special.  Bound by Decency is available for Nook or Kindle, at just 99Cents.  It will go back to it's normal 4.99 list price on Friday.

Please help me spread the word!

Thanks!

~Claire
www.claireashgrove.com
www.toristclaire.com

Labels: Bound by Decency , Claire Ashgrove , Historical Romance , pirate romance , pirates

Good morning everyone!  It's Six Sentence Sunday again.  And here's a little peek at Farran from Immortal Surrender!

Coming, September 25th!

God’s teeth, that wench provoked something deep inside him. A feeling so buried in his darkened soul he thought he had snuffed the life out of it centuries ago. ‘Twas not just desire the brush of her lips stirred, but a sensation far more damning. The gentle sweep of her mouth against his scar carried compassion. Tenderness he had once believed in. Tenderness he learned ‘twas naught more than deception.

~Claire
www.claireashgrove.com
www.toristclaire.com

Labels: Claire Ashgrove , Immortal Surrender , Knights Templar , Paranormal Romance , SundaySix , The Curse of the Templar , urban fantasy

Good morning, readers!  Please give a warm welcome to Ian Walkley, who's here today to discuss his new release, NO REMORSE.  This cover caught my attention right away, and I was dying to know more.  It especially appealed to me given that it also addresses human trafficking, which as you all know, I deal with in the Black Opal series as Tori St. Claire. 

I think you'll be equally intrigued!

I asked Ian to share a bit about his inspiration and where the idea for NO REMORSE stemmed from.  Here's what he had to say:  

When I was running my marketing consultancy I traveled a great deal, and loved to read escapist thrillers while flying. I wanted to write a book that other travelers would enjoy. Also, I like action and suspense, and get bored with mysteries that fill pages with manipulated plots designed to delay the revealing of a secret. Thrillers are about tension that makes the reader want to turn the page. Many men don’t read fiction, and I want to write stories that get men reading again, while also appealing to female readers. Readers have written to me about how they stayed up all night to finish No Remorse, or how their husband wouldn’t pay them attention until he had finished the book. So I think the answer is short chapters, lots of action, and a mix of conflict, violence and sex.

In my younger days, my writing heroes were Ludlum, Maclean, Wilbur Smith—action, adventure, global conspiracies—so I naturally gravitated to thrillers. When I began writing No Remorse, in 2008, I had in mind writing a Ludlum-esque prologue about some mysterious event, and weaving a story around it. I was curious about Saddam’s missing WMD’s, so I came up with the idea of Saddam passing nuclear materials to an old Saudi Prince who buried them in the Arabian desert just before the invasion.

However, over the three years I was writing the book many things occurred that kept forcing me to rewrite the story. I came to the view that everyone wanted to put Iraq behind them, and more recently Osama Bin Laden was killed. In the end, I spent a further six months rewriting the story so that it would not date.

No Remorse in its final form is the story of the kidnapping of two American teenage girls on holiday in Mexico, and the subsequent search for them by a former special operations soldier Lee McCloud (Mac). I have retained the theme of ‘no remorse’ in terms of achieving retribution for the evil that bad people have done to others.

I researched many aspects of No Remorse, traveling to Paris, London and Dubai, and activities of the bad guys such as human trafficking, which is a massive global trade rivaling drugs in illegal earnings. There are some terrible things happening with the organized kidnapping and enslaving of women and children, and many countries turn a blind eye to it. I also did a considerable amount of research into the corruption of the global financial system, computer hacking, and read many non-fiction accounts from special forces operators.

I tried to make the relationship between Mac and Tally a love-hate thing, like in the TV series Moonlighting, or in the film Mr & Mrs Smith. In Mac’s case, he feels a lack of trust towards attractive women, because his fiancée left him for his brother four weeks before their wedding. Will this make it difficult to work with Tally, the woman who is effectively his boss? Of course.

Many stories featuring soldiers or cops make the hero too powerful. I wanted my hero to make the sort of mistakes people make in real life, to be out of his depth at times, in order to make the achievement of his goal that much more difficult. To help develop Mac’s and Tally’s character traits, I watched those shows again, and others like The Shield, which features a stubborn cop considered a loose cannon by his boss.

Fascinating, yes?  Let's take a peek at a particularly poignant scene:  

The girls’ fathers, Bob and Marvin, each carried a briefcase full of cash with a tiny GPS tracker hidden in a false bottom. They were both taller than the kidnappers, and through the scope Mac could read the pain on Bob’s face. The behavior of the kidnappers was still bothering him, but there was nothing he could do except watch. The leader held out his palm and waved his pistol like it was a flag. He addressed the fathers in accented English.

“You’re late. We think perhaps you do not want your daughters back, eh?”

“Sorry,” Bob said, his breathing short and sharp. “We took a wrong turn coming into the dam. The signs were confusing.”

The man grunted and glanced at the one with the knife. “Check them.”

Knife Man patted them down, searched their pockets, nodded the all clear.

“You have our money?”

“Of course.” Bob’s voice came through deep and confident in his earpiece, although the armpits of his shirt betrayed his anxiety. Be courteous but strong, Mac had advised him, otherwise they won’t respect you. Being a basketball coach undoubtedly helped. “And you have our daughters,” Bob said. A statement, not a question. He held out the briefcase. “Here’s the money. We didn’t contact the police.”

Several kidnappers gave a hearty laugh.

The leader smirked. “We wouldn’t be here if you had, gringo. But your daughters would be. With bullets in their heads.” He gestured to a kidnapper wearing a red bandana around his neck. “Abrirlos,” he ordered, and the man took both briefcases and unclipped the locks.



~Claire
www.claireashgrove.com
www.toristclaire.com

Labels: Giveaways , Goddessfish Promotions , New Voices

Morning everyone!  You all managed to make release day a lot of fun for me -- thanks so very much.  I'm ecstatic to see how well Bound by Decency has gone over.

"Bound by Decency is captivating pirate’s story of betrayal, trust, adventure and heart stopping romance that will have you on the edge of your set."

~Claire
www.claireashgrove.com
www.toristclaire.com

Labels: blog tour , Bound by Decency , Claire Ashgrove , Guest Blogging , Historical Romance , New Release , pirates , romance , romance novel

Well, here we are everyone.... August 1st!!

I have been waiting, what seems like forever, for this day to come.  Of all the exciting releases I've had this year, and have coming up, this one is very special to me.  Frankly, of all the books I have had out, to-date, it's probably my favorite.

Why?  I really don't know.  What I can tell you is that when I sat down to write it, and plan the three accompanying books, the words just flowed.  I fell in love with the characters from the moment they made their first appearances on the page.  All of them.  Cain's struggle with decency twisted my heart.  India's gentleness made me melt.  Drake, the rascal that he is, always made me laugh, and the secrets that he harbors gives me chills.  Nightshade compels me on levels I can't describe, and though Royce doesn't make an appearance in this book, I cannot wait to introduce him to you as well.  Each counterpart to hero and heroine is such a precise fit, that I find myself transported through time... and that's not easy for me to achieve anymore. 

I hope you like this book as much as I enjoyed writing it.  I hope it carries you away on warm tides and even warmer romance.   I hope you can feel the breeze in your hair, the salt on your tongue, and the feathery touch of a whisper on your skin.

Enjoy, my friends.  And I look forward to your comments!

Be sure to join in on the Blog Tour that kicks off today.  And join me here for some exciting features to coincide with the release:

Interview with Bound by Decency Cover Model, Brooks Johnson
Swag Giveaway
Interview with historical author Heather Snow
Meet the Jolly Rogers from Kansas City's Rennaisance Faire

Much much more to come!






~Claire
www.claireashgrove.com
www.toristclaire.com

Labels: blog tour , Bound by Decency , Claire Ashgrove , Historical Romance , New Release , pirates , The Flying Gang