trueromance

Giveaway - The Ultimate Indulgence: Romance and Chocolate

We can’t stop thinking about these cookies! It’s no secret in the Romance world that Aussie author Anna Campbell is a fan of Tim-Tams. When she introduced the Avon team to Tim-Tams at RWA last year, everyone was raving about these delectable treats. We loved them and we wanted more! But there was a catch: you can only get Tim-Tams in Australia. Luckily for you…we’ve flown in a gigantic shipment from Down Under! Want to win 11 boxes of Tim-Tams, in each of the following flavors? Just leave a comment below and tell us why Romance and Chocolate is the best combo ever! And don’t forget to check out Anna Campbell’s latest sizzling historical Captive of Sin.

Chocolate; White Chocolate; Cookies & Cream; Mint Chip; Crush Honeycomb; Classic Dark Chocolate; Black Forrest Delight; Creme Caramel; Chocolate Hazelnut; Chewy Caramel; Double Coat

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My latest release, CAPTIVE OF SIN, tells the dramatic, passionate story of Sir Gideon Trevithick who returns to England a national hero after imprisonment and torture in India. But he is racked by memories of what happened in India and he believes he will never lead a normal life. On his way back to his family home in Cornwall, he stumbles upon a runaway heiress hiding from her violent and greedy stepbrothers. Because he’s so recently been victim to violence and coercion himself, he pledges himself to save her. Little does he know that this rash championship will lead to marriage. Lady Charis Weston refuses to accept Gideon’s honorable attempt to hold himself apart from her and preserve a marriage in name only. She sets out to seduce Gideon into admitting that he can’t live without her. The battle lines are drawn!

Setting: Regency England, specifically Cornwall and the Channel Islands.

Subgenre: Regency historical.

Hero: Sir Gideon Trevithick

Heroine: Lady Charis Weston

One sentence summary: A marriage of convenience story with a Regency noir twist.

Scene you like most and would never cut: Oh, that’s a tough one! Perhaps the first kiss. The proposal? Perhaps the wedding night. The ending? Oh, too hard!

Thing your heroine would never be caught dead doing/saying: “Gideon, I’m happy to accept a marriage of convenience and live apart from you. You do what you think is best.”

Your hero, is he a boxer or brief kind of guy: Hmm, boxer, I guess! Given the Regency setting, he’s really a drawer kind of guy which doesn’t have nearly the right ring to it!

Ancillary character you had the most fun with: Akash, my hero’s best friend, who has worked with him in espionage in India and has now returned to England to claim his title. Akash is just so incredibly brave and capable and level-headed – he makes me go weak at the knees!

Your heroine’s favorite hobby: Seducing Gideon.

Your hero’s favorite hobby: Translating obscure Sanskrit texts. Maybe not! Rescuing damsels in distress? Fighting the bad guys? Being gorgeous? Suffering honourably?

What you think readers will like best about this book: The deep emotion. The tortured, knight in shining armor hero. Publishers Weekly said the love scenes were luscious – maybe they’ll be what take a reader’s fancy!

The person that readers want you to write about but you haven’t yet: The hero of TEMPT THE DEVIL, the Earl of Erith, had a daughter who was quite a major character and did a lot of growing up in the course of that story. I’ve had lots of requests for Lady Roma Southwood’s story!

What’s next: My next book is due out in summer of 2010 and it’s called MY RECKLESS SURRENDER. It’s about a dangerous seduction in late Regency London and features my first non-tortured hero!   Sir Gideon Trevithick in this book suffers from what we would now called post-traumatic stress syndrome. The hero who is tormented by his painful past is a standby of romance fiction. Do you have a favorite tortured hero? Why do you think tortured heroes are so popular in the genre?

Avon books have very kindly donated three copies of CAPTIVE OF SIN as prizes today for people who leave comments. Good luck!

The Mane Squeeze, by Shelly Laurenston

Setting: New York-New Jersey, modern day

Subgenre: Paranormal Romance

Hero: Lachlan “Lock” MacRyrie

Heroine: Gwen O’Neill

One sentence summary: Easily startled Jersey grizzly meets the Philly feline of his dreams and, tragically, most of her pain-in-the-butt family.

Scene you like most and would never cut:

The Halloween party scene! My crazy wild dogs are on a quest to get my hero into a costume that he would rather fight a clan of rampaging polar bears to the death than wear.

Thing your heroine would never be caught dead doing/saying: “You can get a good cheesesteak anywhere—it doesn’t have to be from Philly.”

Scene in the book moved you the most as you wrote it, or made you the most happy? Although I loved writing all the scenes with my hero and heroine, I also enjoyed writing the scenes between Gwen and her older, annoying, lion male brother Mitch. He’s super overprotective and has a tendency to treat her like a kid. So their constant bickering made me laugh.

Have you learned or found any bizarre facts while doing research?

Because I was writing about a bear shifter, I ended up watching a lot of documentaries on bear maulings. I probably now know more about how (and sometimes why) a human being would be mauled by a bear than a normal person should. Yet I will not horrify you with the details of those stories. Instead I’ll tell you about the piece of information that I learned that did take me by surprise.

I always thought of grizzly bears—because of their size (from 6 to 9 feet long and up to 800 to 1000 pounds)—as slow and lumbering. How fast could they go with all that tonnage they’re dragging around? It turns out they can go super fast. In fact, they can lumber up to 35 miles per hour. Which is why experts say you shouldn’t run from a bear. They will chase you and catch you and that will most likely lead to a good mauling.

Ooops. Went to the maulings anyway, didn’t I?

Ancillary character you had the most fun with: Blayne Thorpe. She’s Gwen’s best friend and a happy-go-lucky wolfdog. I’ve always found good-natured instability fun to write.

What is one thing in your history that has influenced your writing, whether it’s a character, your work habits, or your favorite plot conflict? My family’s love of British comedy. I grew up on “Fawlty Towers,” “Monty Python’s Flying Circus,” “The Good Life,” “Solo” and later “The Young Ones,” “Comic Strip,” and, of course, “Absolutely Fabulous.” Even now I can’t get enough of any of these shows.

Your hero’s favorite hobby: Woodworking, and finding beehives and devouring its contents. What? He’s a grizzly. What did you expect?

What do you think readers will like best about this book:

I hope they’ll like the humor and my hero. Personally, I think he’s a hottie, but when I’ve said this sort of thing out loud, well, my friends…they worry.

The person that readers want you to write about but you haven’t yet:

Aleksei Vorislav, tiger shifter and brother of Nikolai from Book 3 in my Magnus Pack series, HERE KITTY KITTY.

What’s next: BEAST BEHAVING BADLY is the next in my Pride series and is due out this summer. I’m also working on my next book for my Dragon Kin series under my G.A. Aiken name.

Question: The last month and a half had a lot of ups and downs for me personally and I found the need for some comfort reads to get me through the more stressful moments (as well as some Ghirardelli Dark Chocolate Brownies with walnuts or specially ordered Stella D’Oro Swiss Fudge Cookies since I can’t get them in sunny Los Angeles, but that’s neither here nor there). So what are your comfort reads? What do you grab from your keeper shelf when life has blindsided you? Or you just need to sit with old friends again?

For me, the ones off the top of my head are Lori Foster’s Too Much Temptation and Casey, Rhyannon Byrd’s Waiting For It, and MaryJanice Davidson’s Santa Claws and Bride Fight (all of which I re-read a couple times a year, more if it’s been a tough year). So tell us about yours.

To celebrate my upcoming book release on October 27, 2009, I’ll be giving away three signed copies of THE MANE SQUEEZE.