Hi, everyone!  Have I mentioned how much I love romantic suspense? I mean, LOVE IT.  Because I do. 🙂 And that’s why I’m thrilled to have debut author Carla Swafford joining me today. Not only is Carla one terrific lady, but she’s also a fabulous writer of romantic suspense. Carla, thanks for coming by my blog!

Why I Love Alphas, and No! My Heroine Isn’t A B*tch.

Thank goodness Cynthia doesn’t write young adult. Otherwise, I would have to change the title, and I would hate that as it clearly tells you what I’m about to post.

First, let’s talk about heroines, especially those strong willed and confident ones. In Circle of Desire, Olivia St. Vincent is logical and capable of doing the job required without allowing her emotions to interfere with the job. When I first wrote the book, my critique partners disliked her. Yet, I thought she was interesting. She was totally different than any of the tough heroines in the books I love to read.

So I had to figure out a way to get the readers to give her a chance and not throw the book against the wall. What I found is I needed to show what’s happening deep, deep inside of her in the beginning. Otherwise, she comes across cold and cardboard-like. By inserting a few physical tremors and self-deprecating humor after she completes an assignment (killing a man), readers can look into her psyche and realize she’s what she is because she’s a survivor. Life has thrown her some really hard curve balls and her skin has toughened with each hit.

I do enjoy writing women like Olivia. Resilient and self-sufficient and enjoys a sexy man on her own terms.

Now let’s talk about my favorite man to read: the Alpha male. Of course, you have to capitalize Alpha for no other reason than they’re, well, Alpha. Seems appropriate, doesn’t it? They’re larger than life. Masterful, dangerous, and downright sexy. Some are more caveman than gentleman. I lean more toward gentleman with an edge. I like them smart. They can talk you into their bed. Who am I kidding? They can look at you with one eyebrow lifted and you’re willing to crawl into their bed, but don’t we all love making them work for it?

Collin Ryker is a gentleman. In the beginning of the book ― don’t worry, I’m not giving away anything that isn’t in the blurb ― he tries to get Olivia to take the knockout drug without forcing her. That is, besides restraining her hands and feet. But when she resists and time has run out, he persuades her to swallow the pills in a unique, and dare I say it, sexy way.

My heroes know they can’t boss around their ladies without repercussions. Hey, the fellows even respect them for it. In Collin’s case, he even gets a little excited by Olivia’s way of showing her displeasure. Heehee.

Collin isn’t the only Alpha in this series. Yes. Another one is due out the first half of 2012. It’s titled Circle of Danger. And I hope to write several more. In Circle of Danger, you’ll find out what makes Collin’s brother tick. While Collin is a gentleman with an edge, Ryker’s all edge with an emphasis on intense. His heroine, Marie, is the only person who can calm his beast. Sigh.

Now, what are some of your favorite traits in the Alpha heroes you enjoy reading?

(If you leave a comment for Carla, you’ll automatically be entered in a giveaway to win a Kindle copy of CIRCLE OF DESIRE.  The winner will be announced tomorrow at noon.)

Carla Swafford

CIRCLE OF DESIRE

Available in paperback and e-format on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Sony, and iBooks.

www.carlaswafford.com

http://carlaswafford.blogspot.com

Twitter: @carlaswafford

www.goodreads.com/carlaswafford

http://www.facebook.com/CarlaSwaffordAuthor

Update: The winners are Diane Sadler & Tina B! Congrats!!

I’ll confess…I have a weakness for magic. When I was a kid, I was hooked on I DREAM OF JEANNIE. I mean, come on, how cool was she?  All Jeannie had to do was blink really hard, and *poof* she got anything she wanted. And she had Major Nelson running around with her. Pretty sweet if you ask me.  Now that I am, ahem, not a kid, I still find myself loving magical shows and books–and that’s why I am very excited to have Mina Khan as my guest today.  Mina has a great new story out about a sexy djinn, and I can’t wait to read this one! Since I just turned in a manuscript, this story will be my reward read. 🙂

Mina, thanks so much for joining us today!

Why I write about djinns/genies…

I grew up in house supposedly built at a crossroads of the djinn and human world, nourished on skin-tingling tales about these otherworldly supernatural creatures with awesome scary powers. Stories of djinns falling obsessively in love with human women & stealing them away from their families, stories where humans inadvertently insulted invisible djinns and paid dearly for their mistake, and stories of djinns granting wishes and making impossible dreams come true.

My imagination has always been very active, and after such stories I’d see shadows looming on the walls and catch flitting movement from the corner of my eye. In other words, I’d be deliciously scared silly. And I would beg more stories from my grandmother and aunts.

But for a long time, the stories remained stories. Then one summer I went with my family to my mother’s village in Bangladesh. Only one or two houses in the neighborhood had color television back then. So, though we were invited to dinner at an aunt’s house, my cousins and I (we were about 11 or 12 ) were hanging out at another aunt’s house to watch an episode of MacGyver (yes, I’m dating myself). After the show, we cousins trekked our way to the other aunt’s house. While the village had electricity, there wasn’t a street light at every corner. It was very dark, we had a kerosene lantern to light our way and some of the older cousins gleefully told stories of djinns and ghosts.

Now at one point we had to pass a small family graveyard. As we walked past, two roiling fiery balls hurtled out of the dark and crossed our paths, merely inches from our faces. Absolute silence held for a long moment. Without any discussion, we broke into a run and screamed all the way to my other aunt’s house. To this day, I don’t know what exactly we saw that night…but I can recall the bone-liquefying terror.

Since then I believe there are things we can’t see and can’t explain, but they exist nevertheless. I believe stories can hide a greater truth and words have power. I write to explore the depth of my nightmares and the breadth of my imagination.

But what about you?  Have you experienced something paranormal? Leave me a comment, and I’ll be back tomorrow to pick one person to win a digital copy of  THE DJINN’S DILEMMA. Thanks!

More about THE DJINN’S DILEMMA…

Book Blurb:

Rukh O’Shay, half-djinn and assassin, is used to taking out the bad guys. But his latest assignment, Texas Journalist Sarah White, is nothing like he expected. A glimpse of her bright aura reveals her gentle spirit, while her beauty makes him long for only one thing—to taste her.

Sarah shares the raw desire to connect with Rukh. He can turn her on with a glance, and satisfies needs she didn’t even know she had.

But Rukh had been hired to kill her—and the only way to save her is to find out who wants her dead before someone else finishes the job….

More about Mina…

Mina Khan is a Texas-based writer and food enthusiast. She daydreams of hunky paranormal heroes, magic, mayhem and mischief and writes them down as stories. Between stories, she teaches culinary classes and writes for her local newspaper. Other than that, she’s raising a family of two children, two cats, two dogs and a husband.

She grew up in Bangladesh on stories of djinns, ghosts and monsters. These childhood fancies now color her fiction.

You can find her at :

www.facebook.com/Mina.Khan.Author

http://minakhan.blogspot.com/

http://twitter.com/SpiceBites

Thanks for visiting, Mina!

Update: Thank you so much for all the great comments!! And I sure hope you all had a wonderful Halloween! I randomly picked the three winners , and they are:  D.J., Casey Martin, and Kate N. Congrats!!  And if you didn’t win, please stay tuned. There are lots of contests coming this month!

I hope that you have a safe & fun Halloween! Trick or treat! Grab lots of candy and eat, eat, eat!

And, as a Halloween treat, I wanted to give away 3 ANGEL OF DARKNESS copies. Come on–Fallen angels and Halloween just go together, right?  (Of course, this comes from the chick who plans to dress up as an Angel of Darkness today.)

To enter the giveaway, just leave me a comment. You can tell me about your favorite Halloween costume. Tell me about your favorite Halloween treat. Tell me about your fave Halloween movie. You can just tell me anything. I’ll let the contest run until noon on November 2nd, then I will randomly pick the 3 winners.

To get the sharing started, here’s my pumpkin for this year.  Yep, at my house, we want the Halloween force to be with you.

Happy Halloween!

My apologies for being so quiet lately. I’ve been working fast & furiously (oh, if only Vin had been working with me) to finish up my latest Fallen Angel book (this is book 4–AVENGING ANGEL). The rough draft is done now, and I’m working on edits.

This book features my first fallen angel heroine. In all the other books, the heroes were the angels. I figured it was time that I switched things up.

And, in addition to my writing, I’ve been a busy traveling girl. I recently visited New Orleans with my writing buddies Katie Reus and Jillian Chantal.  Since my Fallen series is set in New Orleans, I wanted to get some pictures of the city to coincide with the stories. I also wanted to take a few videos. 🙂  Those pictures and videos will be posted soon on my Facebook Fan Page.

Ah…and speaking of that Facebook page. There are some busy times coming for that page!  Thanks to the lovely folks from Open Road Media, that page will be hopping. Special ANGEL OF DARKNESS excerpts, contests, and angel quizzes will be posted there soon.  So if you are on Facebook, please be sure to like the page so that you can join the fun.

I hope you’ve been having a great October–and that you are gearing up for some fabulous Halloween fun.  Trick-or-treating. Ghost stories.  Candy.  Oh, I love this time of the year!!

(And, pssst…since I mentioned giveaways before, I wanted to let you know that I am offering up an ANGEL OF DARKNESS giveaway right now at the Brava Blog. Head over for your chance to win!)

Have a great day.

There’s a new romance blog in town. An awesome new blog that I plan to visit every day–and I hope you will find it equally awesome. It’s the Happy Ever After Blog at USA Today. The very talented Joyce Lamb is the mastermind behind the new blog, and she’s here to share all kinds of blog details with us today.  Welcome, Joyce, and congrats on the launch of the new blog!

***

Thank you SO much for having me today!!! It’s a good day for romance, in my humble opinion. That’s because over at usatoday.com, there’s a brand-new blog devoted to the love of romance novels, the readers who read them and the writers who write them.

Happy Ever After will run lots and lots of book reviews, author interviews and other fun stuff. In fact, HEA is going to interview Cynthia for her upcoming release, ANGEL OF DARKNESS. We’re going to review it, too!

I’m happy to report, too, that the woman in charge of this new blog is an award-winning romance novelist herself. That’s some pretty decent street cred, don’t you think? Oh, and that woman is me. : ) The best part is that we can all now be assured that this blog is about romance novel LOVE. No haters or “bodice ripper” rhetoric allowed.

Here’s a taste of what you’ll find at HEA:

Today, there’s an interview with Lavinia Kent, author of the new Regency romance WHAT A DUKE WANTS. Sample question:

HEA: What’s the most interesting thing you’ve learned about the Regency period that you didn’t already know?

Lavinia: “Much of what I found interesting was learning what didn’t happen.  There is no evidence that dance cards existed during the Regency, or that heroines ever dampened their skirts to make them cling.”

She also talks about her love of the TV shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The Real Housewives of New York, as well as other Housewives shows. It’s pretty entertaining, if I do say so myself. A review of WHAT A DUKE WANTS will appear at HEA next week.

You’ll also find a review today of this summer’s RITA award-winning Jill Shalvis’ new ANIMAL ATTRACTION. Review snippet: Jill’s “Animal series is a fun, light romantic read. Definitely a good way to spend a few hours with some sexy characters.” If you haven’t seen the cover of this book, prepare for an “ooohhh” and an “awwww.” An interview with Jill will run next week.

Later today, HEA will talk with best-selling romantic suspense writer Christy Reece. And next week, we’ll run a review of her SWEET JUSTICE, followed shortly by a review of SWEET REVENGE. It’s going to be, well, sweet.

There’ll also be a review today of the new paranormal romance by Virna DePaul, CHOSEN BY FATE. You do NOT want to miss this book. It’s complex, it’s gritty and it’s un-put-downable. An interview with Virna will follow next week.

Other author interviews and book reviews coming up in the next few weeks: Erin Quinn (HAUNTING EMBRACE), Jane Graves (HEARTSTRINGS AND DIAMOND RINGS), Ann Christopher (DEADLY DESIRES), Mariah Stewart (HOMETOWN GIRL), Shawn Lane (DEVOTEDLY HIS), Keri Arthur (DARKNESS UNBOUND), Desiree Holt (BEDROOM EYES) and Jenny B. Jones (THERE YOU’LL FIND ME) — and that’s just in the next few weeks.

HEA has many, many more interviews and reviews on tap, such as HEART OF A KILLER by Jaci Burton, ALL THAT REMAINS by Janice Kay Davidson, READY FOR LOVE by Gwyneth Bolton, THE BAKER’S WIFE by Erin Healy and … well, I could go on, but I’m sure you’re eager to hop over to HEA to say hi. But before you go, you can leave a comment here and I’ll choose two random commenters to win the first book in my True trilogy, TRUE VISION. Please remember to leave your e-mail address!

When you’re done with that, here’s where to start with Happy Ever After: http://bit.ly/ouV32w. And you can find out more about the street cred of HEA’s mistress (that’s me!) at JoyceWrites.com.

Let the romance novel love begin.