BookMatchmaker -

Who was your first?

January is always full of firsts; first part of the New Year and now a new decade. It also marks a lot of firsts for me - my nephew’s 1st birthday and the first time I will work full time for a publisher – Samhain Publishing! So I got to thinking about firsts….
I can remember where I was , who I was with, what I felt like when I looked at him for the first time….and exactly how I felt when I discover through the pages of the book just who he was….it was the book that changed my life – literally!
I was never a big reader growing up. In fact, I wasn’t a reader at all. And coming from a family of voracious readers, I was the black sheep! My mother used to try to bribe me to read…”I’ll buy you any book you ever want, please just read something….!”
I was 15 and with my mom when I saw him staring at me from the end of the grocery checkout lane. Of course he had another woman in his arms, but that didn’t matter – he had such a look of love on his face while looking at her. I was hooked, I had to find out more about their story, he was a pirate and she was a princess and they fell in love, in the pages of a book…
I grabbed it and put it on the conveyer belt with the rest of the groceries. I swear, I think my mother almost had a heart attack, she was so excited! I had finally found a book I wanted to read. I have to give my mother A LOT of credit too. Being an Oprah Book Club type of reader at the time, she didn’t hesitate or blink an eye. She was just happy that I had found something to suit my tastes!
And suit my tastes it did!! I couldn’t get enough of romance novels, I carried one wherever I went, would stop at my local Waldenbooks each month, week and then daily. Oh yeah, those bookstore clerks knew me by name and eventually offered me a job…
I think it was less than a year later when my mother said to me – “You’re breaking the bank; you have to start buying your own books!!”
I will never forget their embrace, or the iridescent heart on the cover. That one book sent me on a lifetime journey that has been and continues to be absolutely priceless!
Thank you, Zebra. Thank you, Constance O’Banyon. Thank you, Romance!
Question: So who was your first? What book got you reading? What book changed your life?
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Thanks for sharing! Please note in your post if you’d like to tell us about your first book in your very own post — winners will be chosen randomly & a date will be set . . . don’t worry, we’ll give you time

Until tomorrow - Happy Romance! SueG

SILENT NIGHT, HAUNTED NIGHT, by Terri Garey

Setting: modern day Atlanta, Georgia, in the historic yet quirky neighborhood of Little Five Points

Subgenre: Paranormal, urban fantasy

Hero: Joe Bascombe, MD. Chief of Emergency Medicine at Columbia Metropolitan Hospital

Heroine: Nicki Styx, a free-spirited vintage clothing store owner whose recent near-death experience has left her a beacon to the restless dead.

One sentence summary: SILENT NIGHT, HAUNTED NIGHT puts a new twist on Christmas spirits in this story about three ancient and powerful souls—theThree Fates—who are out to teach Nicki Styx a lesson by sending a succubus to enthrall the man she loves, and draw him down into darkness.

Scene you like most and would never cut: There’s a scene when Nicki learns the truth about who the evil spirits really are, from the Devil himself, who’s had the hots for her for some time. J It’s intense, surprising, and was huge fun to write. I was able draw on old legends, old myths and Biblical history, then blend them all together into an entirely new mythology, which I get to explore further in future books. I’m having great fun with the world-building, and the story-telling!

Thing your heroine would never be caught dead doing/saying: “Those socks look great with those sandals.”

Your hero, is he a boxer or brief kind of guy: athletic style boxer briefs, Calvin Klein

Ancillary character you had the most fun with: Evan Owenby, Nicki’s business partner and best friend since childhood. Evan is a good-hearted fashionista who’s scared to death of anything having to do with ghosts or spirits, but he sticks by Nicki every time her world goes haywire. He’s a cross between Carson Kressley and Oprah. J

Your heroine’s favorite hobby: frequenting garage sales and thrift stores for buried treasure to sell in her shop, and hanging out with her hunky doctor boyfriend

Your hero’s favorite hobby: Joe’s an E.R. doctor, and a very busy guy. He’s either at work, with Nicki, or at the gym.

What you think readers will like best about this book: This book, like all four in the Nicki Styx series, is about the delicate balance between Light and Dark, laughter and sorrow, good vs. evil, and the choices we make every day on one side or the other. My heroine uses humor to cope as she’s forced to deal with some very dark topics: voodoo, evil spirits, murder, suicide, demonic possession. My books are meant to spook you out, make you feel, make you think, and every now and then, make you chuckle. Silent Night, Haunted Night is a slightly different version of the Charles Dickens classic, A Christmas Carol, and shows how the choices you make can really come back to haunt you—Nicki Styx style.

The person that readers want you to write about but you haven’t yet: The Devil, Sammy (Satan) Divine. Blond-haired, blue-eyed and sinfully sexy, Sammy is hotter than Hell and lives there, too.

What’s next: Speaking of Sammy J , THE DEVIL’S BARGAIN and THE DEVIL’S DISCIPLE, spin-offs from the Nicki Styx series, will be published by Avon in 2011. These books will be darker, sexier, coming from the perspective of a darker, sexier character – Samael the Fallen, a/k/a the Devil himself. In THE DEVIL’S BARGAIN, the world’s most diabolically misunderstood bad boy takes on the job for which he was originally created – that of a guardian angel. Finally offered a chance to step into the Light, will he take it, or remain forever trapped by the Darkness he himself created?

Question of the Day:

Nicki Styx and her boyfriend Joe are faced with some tough choices in SILENT NIGHT, HAUNTED NIGHT. When was the last time you were faced with a choice you didn’t want to make? Do you feel, in the end, it was the right choice?

GIVEAWAY: 3 copies of SILENT NIGHT, HAUNTED NIGHT, each with a snowflake Christmas ornament will choose winners at random.