Author Kay Berrisford & Lord of the Forest!

kayberrisfordMy guest today is talented UK-based author, Kay Berrisford. Kay and I first met (online)about a year ago when her first book was about to be released. Fast forward a few scant months and lo and behold Kay’s third novel, Lord of the Forest, will be released in April. Awesome job Kay!

Kay used to be a historian and press officer. Then she realized making stuff up and adding fantasy, sex, and BDSM fun was even more exciting than the “day job.” She loves writing stories set in any time and place where she can indulge her love for research while imagining two hot guys getting it on. She has a particular passion for English folklore.

Kay lives in Southampton, Hampshire, UK, with her beloved “other half,” in a very small flat that blesses them on occasion with outbreaks of moths and mould. When they aren’t both madly working, they enjoy drinking wine, visiting castles and gorgeous countryside, and stalking cats and greenfinches. Kay loves to hear from readers.

Take it away Kay!

Robin Hood – the ultimate hero?

Robin Hood has been about for eight hundred years. He’s passed the ultimate endurance test, so what’s his appeal? I’ve always been a huge fan, both of storybook and movie representations, and for me, the answer is obvious. He’s always the good guy, always on the side of right. He’s loyal and brave—he’ll fight to the death for the good cause he believes in, and of course, for the people he cares for. He’s the ultimate hero, but he’s also incredibly adaptable. Every generation has re-written his story in a different way, sometimes many times over. He’s been a common woodsman, an earl in disguise, a returned crusader, and many other incarnations (hey, Disney made him a fox!) He’s usually a great lover—and by no means only of Maid Marian. She was a late addition to the story, first mentioned in 1508.

Robin’s also a kick ass warrior, though not always the very best. Right from the earliest stories, Robin was usually a brilliant archer, but often bested in other forms of battle (sword and staff) and not beyond needing rescuing by his men—Little John et al—on occasion. Robin’s famous “band of brothers” have been there from nearly the start. One of Robin’s first historians, John Fordun, writing in 1341, tells of “Robin Hood and Little John” who lived with their companions as outlaws among woodlands and thickets, celebrated as heroes by the poor people they helped. The appeal of this image is obvious—especially to us writers and lovers of m/m romance. What a better place to escape the shackles of social and sexual conventions than in the forest realm, with all its mystery and magic?

When I decided to write Robin Hood as the hero of my new Greenwood novel, Lord of the Forest, I took these ideas as my starting points. My Robin is fighter for justice, who values friendship above all things, and always strives to do right. It’s a great way to live, but what if this ultimate hero never found true love? That’s the challenge I set Robin in Lord of the Forest, and I had a hell of a lot of fun throwing obstacles in his way. He falls for a royal spy, not exactly the ideal guy for an outlaw. Oh, and he’s got to save England from an evil baron and the forces of dark magic too, but hey, he takes that all in his stride. After all, he is Robin Hood!

Here are the first two books in the series:

KB_BoundForest_coversmall           KB_BoundBeast_coverlg

Lord of the Forest – blurb:
England, 1217. Dark forces are rising. In the Greenwood, foul spirits grow powerful, and greedy barons plunder the lands. Only one man dares fight back—Robin Hood.

Robin’s band of brothers is broken. Now a lone warrior, he denies his famous name and laments the friends and lovers he’s lost. When the fair folk capture Cal, a beautiful young forester descended from the Greenwood’s ancient protectors, Robin rescues him and forges a new alliance.

Despite a sizzling attraction, Robin senses Cal isn’t like his old comrades, and he’s right. Cal’s been raised as a royal spy. He plans to seduce and betray Robin, but can’t harm the man he’s falling hard for. Mistrust and arguments spill into passionate lovemaking, as Cal learns the meaning of loyalty, fighting beside Robin, the only friend he’s ever known. Even the enchanted forest seeks to bind Robin and the returned protector ever tighter.

Their connection will be tested by nature’s wildest forces, Robin’s past, Cal’s lies, and in a baron’s darkest dungeon. To survive, Robin and Cal must admit their love and embrace their true destinies. Only then can they save England and each other—and win their happiness ever after.

Lord of the Forest (The Greenwood) will be published by Loose Id in early April. The first two Greenwood novels (Bound for the Forest and Bound to the Beast) are out now, and the series can be read in any order.

All titles available from Loose Id: http://www.loose-id.com/authors/g-k/kay-berrisford.html
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Kay-Berrisford/e/B006JLQ4L8/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1
All Romance: http://www.allromanceebooks.com/storeSearch.html?searchBy=author&qString=Kay+Berrisford

THE LORD OF THE FOREST BLOG TOUR DRAW!

If you’d like a chance to WIN your choice any of the current Greenwood novels, Bound for the Forest or Bound to the Beast, in your choice of paperback or ebook—PLUS a $20 Loose Id or All Romance voucher—all you need to do is leave a comment here, including your email (please spell this out e.g. [email protected] would be katy at yahoo dot com.) You can enter the draw as many times as you like at the different blogs I visit on my Lord of the Forest blog tour (for schedule visit http://kayberrisford.com). Two runners up prizes will be a choice of any of my back catalogue titles, excluding Lord of the Forest.

Comp closes midnight EST, 12th April.

Thanks to Jianne for allowing me to blog here today!

And my thanks to Kay for the intriguing post! Don’t forget to leave your email address in the comment!

Cheers,

Jianne

 

Alpha Me Not – Blog Barrage – March 27-28, 2013

amn-barragebannerToday and Tomorrow I’m on a Blog Barrage for Alpha Me Not courtesy of CBLS Promotions! Alpha Me Not was recently nominated for Best Book 2012 by The Romance Reviews!

 Here is the schedule:

March 27, 2013
Bea’s Book Nook
Books to Light Your Fire
Crazy Four Books (Review)
Harlie Williams, Writer
In Love with Romance
My Bookshelf
Veiled Secrets Reviews

March 28, 2013
A Little Fiction of Every Flavour
Brianna’s Bookshelf
Bunny’s Review
It’s All About the Romance!
Lindsay’s Scribblings
   Paranormal, Urban Fantasy, Mystery and More!
Rachel Leigh – erotic romance
The Printed Fox (Review)

Follow this tour and enter at each participating stop for a chance to win an eBook copy of “Alpha Me Not”. More entries = More chances to win! Contest is tour-wide, open internationally and ends Apr 2. Must be 18 years of age or older to enter.

I hope you’ll drop by and enter and Good Luck in the contest!

Cheers,

Jianne

Vengeance Hammer – Title Me Not

logo - jiannecarlo4 for blogStrange title for a book – Vengeance Hammer, isn’t it? Over the last while, I’ve had a ton of people ask how the titles of my books come about and the honest answer is – usually they come from me. For some strange reason, I cannot begin writing a story until I have a title. I know it’s weird and, trust me, nothing about my creative process is normal or follows any kind of pattern.

In my day job, I am a numbers person, a totally logical A to B and then to C person. Throw in a tale and logic flies out the window. Being a normally (and I use that word with the utmost caution) rational individual, I have tried over and over to document and improve the way I write. What has this to do with titles, you ask?

Well the fact is I can’t start a book without a title.  Go figure. It may take weeks or months or a single second to come up with the right title – A Paratrooper in a Pear Tree took minutes, Alpha Me Not I labored over for months, and yet in one week this year, I came up with the ideas for not one, but seven books!!! And I cannot tell you how or why any single one of those came about.

It drives me batty.

There are times when I actively dislike this need to write- truly- it’s simply not explainable or in any way shape or form, logical. I like rationality, I relish predictability, I savor order- and none of that ever applies to how a book evolves in my head. Why do you ask am I telling you this? Because overnight the ideas for three new books sprouted.

Shoot me.

I can’t keep up with my poor, irrational, obsessive writer brain.

*Thunk, thunk* – that’s the sound of me hitting my head on the wall.

Stop. Stop. No more ideas.

That’s it – I’m off to write as fast as my hands and Dragon Naturally Speaking will allow me. BTW – I am in edits for Vengeance Hammer, and cannot start anything new – isn’t that justifiable suicide karma?

*Thunk, thunk*

Cheers,

Jianne

P.S. One of my best titles came from Georgia Woods – The Bear and The Bride – kudos G, and many thanks.

 

Alpha Me Not & Demon Seed nominated for Best Book 2012

2012nomineeWriters lead a solitary life in terms of their trade. So we tend to rely on outside sources for verification, that yes, someone (and it may be only one) is reading my work/blog/tweets …you get the gist. Reviews, awards, and nominations make us giddy with delight.

Giddy doesn’t begin to describe what it was like to receive two emails from Carole at The Romance Reviews informing me that not one but two of my books had been nominated for Best Book of 2012 by their reviewers. Whoo-Hooo!

JC_AlphaMeNot_coverin     JC_DemonSeed_coverin (2)

My congratulations go out to all the nominees. To me, simply being selected is an honor in itself, but to be included in the company of such illustrious authors as Emma Holly,  Lisa Renee Jones and the others listed below is truly humbling.

Here’s a list of the nominees for two categories (goto here to see the others: http://www.theromancereviews.com/bookvote.php)

 

Erotic Romance – Action-Adventure / Romantic Suspense

NOMINEES

A Little Harmless Fascination by Melissa Schroeder

Demon Seed by Jianne Carlo

Fever by Joan Swan

IF I WERE YOU by Lisa Renee Jones

The Devil’s Pawn by Elizabeth Finn

Erotic Romance – Paranormal Romance

NOMINEES

Alpha Me Not by Jianne Carlo

Bear Meets Girl by Shelly Laurenston

Enslave by Felicity Heaton

Hidden Crimes by Emma Holly

His Mortal Soul by a.c. Mason

Hunted by Rebecca Zanetti

The Protector by Ambrielle Kirk

Wild Things: Fanged by Jocelyn Michel

The winners are determined by vote and,in order to vote, you must login to The Romance Reviews. If you have the chance and feel the inclination, please do. If not—heck, I made the list!

Cheers,

 

Jianne

 

Lucky in Love Blog Hop

CA BLOG HOP Lucky in LoveWelcome to the Lucky in Love Blog Hop! The prizes for this hop are awesome:

1st Grand Prize: A $100 Amazon or B&N Gift Card
2nd Grand Prize: A Swag Pack that contains paperbacks, ebooks, 50+ bookmarks, cover flats, magnets, pens, coffee cozies, and more!

To those prizes, I’m adding a copy of Manacled in Monaco.

How to enter? See the options at the end of this blog.

What does the term Lucky in Love mean? Is it finding someone to love? Being loved by someone? Two soul mates meeting? A lifelong friendship? Parents who love you?
My vote is for all of the above. Unfortunately one of my latest heroines isn’t very lucky – here’s a teaser from a new work due later this year.

Wolf Without, Ricky’s Landing Book #1 – Unedited Excerpt:
    “Pilot and copilot’s getting ready to come out.” Donny crossed his arms and squinted against the bright sunlight. “Did you ever rustle up a pic of him?”
    “No. Apparently Seathe MacFarland’s paranoid about his privacy.” Genie considered undoing another shirt button and showing an oompful of clevage.
    Donny jabbed her in the side.“They’re out.”
    She fixed her stare on the top step. Her pulse hammered in her ears and muted the early morning parrot screeches common on a Caribbean island. Genie squeezed her eyes shut and promised God a whole lotta Sundays at church if he gave her an easy mark. She hadn’t survived this long on Santa Lucia without learning a few nasty tricks. Just let him be on the stupid side.
    She lifted her lids and found herself looking into the most glacial pair of blue eyes on the planet. Dread snaked up her spine and left a series of icy shivers in its wake. Intelligence and alertness radiated from his unblinking, predatory stare.
    A whiff of some smoky and spicy aroma enveloped Genie before he ambled to a halt not more than a foot away from her. “Tell me, Ms. O’Connor, why is this piece of crap landing strip the official airport when I flew over a perfectly appointed runway five miles south?”
    What? He was a pilot. Crap, crap, and more crap. She squared her shoulders and held out a perfectly manicured hand. “How lovely to meet you, Mr. MacFarland. My name is—”
    “Genie O’Connor, niece of Paddy O’Connor, last surviving member of the O’Connor family who once owned Santa Lucia island.” Not an ounce of emotion flared from those hypnotic eyes. His palm closed over hers and she struggled against the urge to yank out of his firm grip.
    Her throat went dry. She forced a smile. “I see you’ve done your homework, Mr. MacFarland. This is—”
    He dropped her hand and shifted his attention to Donny. “Donald Smythe, General Manager of Ricky’s Landing. I presume we have transport of some sort?”
    Donny grinned and waved to the building. “We do Mr. MacFarland, but you must clear immigration and customs first.”
    “You’re kidding, right?”
    Genie hadn’t even noticed the other man until he spoke. They were as different as chalk and cheese, as the old English expression went. Archangel and Demon standing side by side, one a Viking, the other a dark Highlander.
    “It is an international airport, Torolf. Ms. O’Connor, Mr. Smythe, this is my lawyer, Torolf Bristol.”
    Genie prayed her shocked dismay didn’t show. Why had MacFarland brought his lawyer? Had he heard about her rights as the sole surviving O’Connor? That was to have been her ace in the hole if things didn’t go their way.
    She kept her smile firmly in place though her cheeks ached from the effort. “A pleasure to meet you, Mr. Bristol.”
    Torolf shook her proffered hand. “Torolf, please Genie. No need to stand on ceremony. We’re going to be seeing a lot of each other over the coming months.”
    Months? She choked back a gasp and spread her lips wider. What in hell had happened? When had her famous Irish luck taken a fricking hike?

One Entry for doing any of the following to 5 Contests
My Fireworks for Kindle Fire (click on Contest above for other prizes)
500 Facebook Followers – autographed book
500 Twitter Followers – autographed book
Lucky in Love Grand Contest
Lucky in Love Jianne Carlo Contest

Like my Facebook Fan Page (extra prize given when I reach 500 likes- this is a new FB page)
Follow Me on Twitter   (extra prize given when I reach 500 followers)
Like my Amazon Author Page
Become a Fan on Goodreads
Review or rate one of my books on Amazon, ARe, Barnes and Noble, Fictionwise, Goodreads, or Loose-Id. For each book rated, you get an entry. A review wins you a special indulgence as well as an entry
Sign up for News about my Coming Releases
Tweet about one of my books
Post something about one of my books or me on your Facebook Page
Tell a book club about one of my books
Mention one of my books in a discussion group

If you can think of anything else – go for it – just let me know what you did!

You must leave a comment with your email address to enter the Lucky in Love Blog Hop and to win one of my prizes. Tell me what you’ve done in your comment and  put NO at the beginning of the comment if you don’t want to receive periodic emails from me.

And to make this a little fun – here’s a bonus question to win an eCopy of The Bear and The Bride:

In The Bear and The Bride – What’s Ainslin nickname? (hint – the answer’s on this site)

Click here To go to the next site on the hop: http://carrieannbloghops.blogspot.com/

Note: Winners will be announced 03/21/13 here, on Facebook, & Twitter. Winners have 5 days to claim their prizes by commenting here or on my Facebook page or re-tweeting winner announcement.

Good Luck Everyone!

Jianne

Win Books and Prizes in the Night Owl Reviews Spring Fling Web Hunt