Today’s guest is talented author (and my Brava mentee buddy!) Dale Mayer.  Dale is definitely a writer-to-watch! Dale, welcome back!

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Hi everyone! I’m delighted to be back here blogging with Cynthia – it’s always such fun to be a part of her events.  Even better I’m going to talk about one of my favourite treats – chocolate!

It’s Valentine’s Day in a few days, and that means one I can justify indulging in my favorite treat.  Especially, after I cleaned out my cupboards in January under the guise of making some healthier lifestyle changes – I’m suffering from withdrawals already!  I love to walk the stores at this time of year. The presentation of the chocolates intrigues me.  The colors and shapes, the selection – just lovely!  It’s while I was studying the heaped counters that I decided to devote this blog to fun facts on chocolate.  It’s not that any of us are going to stop eating it – so we might as well enjoy it!

1. Chocolate is healthy for you – it’s made from plants and contains many similar health benefits as dark green vegetables. Chocolate contains flavonoids, which act as antioxidants to protect the body from free radical damage.  A small bar of dark chocolate a day will help to reduce your blood pressure and has proven to lower your bad cholesterol by up to 10 %.
2. Chocolate contains copper, iron, zinc and magnesium – nutrients that are essential to the body.
3. Chocolate has long been considered an aphrodisiac. It’s not, but it does contain a chemical, called phenylethylamine, which is the same chemical the brain produces naturally when you’re in love.  So only enjoy with someone you want to be in love with – at least temporarily.
4. Chocolate contains serotonin, which acts as a natural anti-depressant – so it’s actually good to eat when you’re feeling down.
5. Chocolate stimulates production of endorphins, which helps you feel happy.
6. Chocolate contains other elements like caffeine, and theobromine, which act as stimulants – so it’s good to take when you’re tired as a quick pick up.
7. In the US, almost three quarters of the consumers choose milk chocolate over other varieties.
8. In 2000, the Italians created the largest chocolate bar coming in at a whopping 5,000 pounds.  The Armenians broke that record in 2010, producing a chocolate bar that weighed 4410 kilos (9702 lbs).
9. The popular belief that chocolate causes acne has been proven to be inaccurate.

10.  When making the Hitchcock film, Psycho, they used chocolate syrup to represent blood in the famous shower scene.

11.  The world consumes close to 600,000 tons of cocoa beans a year. Most of these beans come from West Africa. It takes close to 400 of these beans to make 1 pound a chocolate a year.

12.  The chocolate beans come from a tree species carrying the genus name of Theobroma – which means Food of the Gods.

13.  The chocolate industry coaxes over $20 billion a year from consumers.

14.  An average American will eat about 10-12 lbs of chocolate per year.

15.  The Swiss were reputed to be the heaviest consumers of chocolate each year, consuming close to 21 pounds per person per year.  Not to worry, they have one the lowest heart failure rates and obesity issues.  However, the Swedish have just moved into the top spot – consuming close to 30 pounds per person per year.  I have no idea how their health issues are!

16.  Chocolate melts in your mouth, because it’s made with cocoa butter, which has a melting point lower than the average temperature of the human body.

17.  It’s been proven that allowing chocolate to melt in your mouth produces brain and heart rate activity that’s similar to – and even stronger than – the effects produced when kissing someone passionately

18.  One chocolate chip, should give any adult enough energy to walk 150 feet – Imagine what that one chocolate chip cookie could do for you.

19.  American chocolate manufacturers use around 1.5 billion pounds of milk.

20.  The first chocolate cake has been traced back to 1674.

21.  Hersey’s is the oldest and largest chocolate company in the US.  However, Cadbury is the most popular in the UK.

22.  The snicker bar was named after a pet horse belonging to Frank and Ethel Mars.  It first came on the market in 1929.

23.  And finally, who said money doesn’t grow on trees, cocoa beans was used as a currency back in the days of the Aztecs and Mayans.

So how do you indulge?  On occasion – and yes, every day could be considered an occasion in my house.  Only on big holidays like Christmas, Easter, Halloween, and Valentine’s Day? To celebrate?  To wallow?  With your vitamins?  As your dinner?  Tell me, what role does chocolate play in your life?

Update: The winner of FATED is…Angie D! Congrats, Angie!

Today, I’ve got new Kensington Brava author Rebecca Zanetti in the interview hot seat! Rebecca has a fabulous new vampire series that will be launching with Kensington very soon–soon as in February 22! Welcome, Rebecca! And congrats on your new release!

Now, let’s jump into the interview!

1. You’ve got an exciting new series set to launch with Kensington Brava–will you tell readers what they can expect from the Dark Protectors?

The series features sexy vampires, dangerous shifters and deadly witches. Throw in alpha males, some steamy romance and a deadly virus out to destroy them all, and I think you have a fast-paced, exciting read.

2. What inspired your upcoming release, FATED?

I had this scene in my head about a single mom being squired away for safety by an overbearing soldier—kind of a surreal, this is so not happening scene. So I wrote it. Turns out the soldier was a vampire and possibly the destined mate to the single mother. Though of course, that was a decision they had to make themselves. Maybe fate played a part. Maybe not.

3. You write about some pretty intense situations…do you have a dark side of your own?

I’m pretty sure I do. 🙂  The whole big theme of good versus evil intrigues the heck out of me. And the evil has to be really bad for us to be impressed when good wins. To make it more interesting, good and bad are never absolutes. I mean, my good guy can be pretty bad. So the bad guy had better be freakin beyond evil.

4. How do you research your books?

Well, I Google a lot. I also ask people who know more than I do. For example, in FATED there’s a virus that attacks the chromosomes of vampire mates, so I talked to a couple of scientists to make sure I had the genetics right. I did get to play around a bit because hey, there aren’t really vampire mates with extra chromosomes (I’m pretty sure), but I wanted the basic science to be accurate.

5. Why did you decide to make vampires the “good” guys in your books?

I’m not sure I really sat down and decided that. I wrote the scene that had been spinning around in my head, Talen the hero turned out to be a vampire, and well, he was so sexy he had to be the good guy.

6. What advice do you have for aspiring authors?

Write that story in your head that you want to read. Don’t watch the market; don’t think about how your great-grandmother is going to react to your sex scenes, just write the book. Pretend it’s only for you. Other people want to read that, too.

7. Why do you like writing paranormal tales with a dark edge?

I think it’s a way to explore a bit. I’ve always followed the rules…and in dark paranormals you can let your wild side out—even ignore the rules or change them completely.

8. What can readers expect next from you?

Definitely more dark paranormals…I love exploring different worlds. I’d also like to try my hand at a romantic suspense series. More good vs. evil probably.

So, I’d love to give away a signed copy of FATED to one commenter. Here’s a question: Should a vampire be a good guy? Feel free to answer or just comment on whatever’s on your mind. We’ll draw a name in a few days.

Hi, everyone! Today, I’d like to introduce you to my lovely friend, Manda Collins. Manda recently signed a contract to release three books with St. Martin’s! Congratulations, Manda! Manda’s first book, HOW TO DANCE WITH A DUKE, has a tentative publication date of February 2012.

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***I have consulted the Randomizer, and 13 turned out to be lucky for Michele! Michele, email me here with your snail mail addy and I’ll send out your books ASAP! -Manda***

In which Nancy meets Ned...

First of all, thank you so much, Cynthia for giving me the chance to do my first ever guest blog as a soon-to-be published author!

Though I didn’t always call it that, I’ve been a fan of romantic suspense for pretty much my entire reading life. Like many young readers I started out with that most addictive of RS gateway drugs, the Nancy Drew mysteries by Carolyn Keene. I didn’t care that Carolyn Keene wasn’t even a real person. I had no idea that the versions I read were the watered down 1970’s version of the originals written in the 1930s. All I cared about was that Nancy, and her BFFs Bess (the plump one) and George (the tomboyish one) were having yet another adventure. And when in book 7, The Clue in the Diary, Nancy met the young college student who would be her boyfriend for…oh, the next century or so? My schoolgirl heart was about as full as a schoolgirl’s heart can be.

Now that I’m an adult, and I read more widely, I still find myself gravitating to Nancy Drew-esque romantic suspense novels—albeit with significantly hotter love scenes! But what is it about these modern-day romantic suspense novels that link them with their predecessors?

1) Hero and Heroine working together to solve the mystery. It might just be me, but there is something utterly thrilling about seeing a hero and heroine forced into close circumstances to hunt for the super evil bad guy. Or to find the missing treasure. Or to find out who killed their Mom/Dad/Sister/Brother/Best Friend. There is almost always more to the mystery than they ever imagined, and all those long nights spent “working” together on the case can lead to some delicious sexual tension.

2) The Hero (or Heroine) Always Has Friends. Just as Nancy had Bess and George, Ned had his own pals Dave Evans and Burt Eddleston who (conveniently!) dated Bess and George. In our modern-day romantic suspense novel the set up might not be quite as convenient as it is for Nancy and her friends—I mean it IS pretty unlikely that their respective BFFs are dating one another—but almost as soon as you begin reading Book 1 of a new series you can tell who is in the queue for his or her own book down the line. Some readers find this annoying and call it sequel-baiting, but I like getting to know future heroes and heroines early on. And, hey, unlike in the Nancy Drew books it’s good to know that the friends will get to play the starring role at some point. Poor Bess/Dave and George/Burt must have gotten tired of always playing second fiddle to Nancy and Ned.

3) There is always a Happily Ever After. One of the rules of the unspoken pact between mystery author and mystery reader is that by the end of the novel the author will disclose to the reader who actually committed the crime. This is similar to the rule of the romance novel, which decrees that every romance novel must have a happy ending.  One thing I love about romantic suspense, and I learned this early on from Nancy Drew, is that the two can be blended together. Not only does a good romantic suspense novel reveal who the bad guy/girl is before the end, it also guarantees a happily ever after for our hero and heroine. While the romance in Nancy Drew never really led to the kind of HEA we expect from a romance novel,  there was always a hopeful ending, with the promise of more good times to come. And always,  always Nancy Drew books ended with the bad guys safe behind bars. In a world where happily ever after is sometimes hard to come by, and where the bad guys sometimes get away without punishment, there is a certain measure of comfort to be drawn from a temporary visit to a world where justice is always served.

In my own writing, for better or worse, I’ve found that I too prefer my hero and heroine to work together to solve a mystery. I also make sure that my heroes and heroines have plenty of friends. Though they might not always match up as neatly as Nancy’s friends and Ned’s friends did. And always, always I make sure that my bad guys are, if not safe behind bars, at least vanquished and sent somewhere far far away. What can I say? I learned it from the Nancy Drew! You can judge for yourself how well or badly I did in when my first novel, a Regency Historical called How to Dance with a Duke releases from St. Martin’s Press in February 2012. To learn more, or just to say hello, you can find me on Twitter, Facebook or at http://www.mandacollins.com

So, what about you, dear reader? Have you stumbled across some similarities between your childhood reading and the books of your adulthood? Can you trace a path from what you loved as a child to what you love as an adult? One lucky commenter will win a copy of Cynthia Eden’s Deadly Heat and a copy of Karen Rose’s You Can’t Hide both of which feature excellent examples of heroes and heroines solving the mystery together!

Hi, everyone! Today I am very excited my friend (and VERY talented author) Edie Ramer as my Deadly guest. Welcome, Edie!

A huge thank you to Cynthia for inviting me to be part of her Deadly posts. To go with the Valentine theme, I thought I’d talk about unusual couples. What better book to start with than Deadly Heat, the 2nd book of Cynthia’s Deadly series. She’s a firefighter and he’s a Special Agent in the FBI’s elite Serial Services Division. On their first meeting, she slugs him in the jaw to drag him out of a fire. Not the usual cute meet. (You can read the scene here.)

In Devil Moon: A Mystic Romance by Dana Taylor, she’s a straight-laced assistant high school principal who wears “signature” outfits. He’s a former football star and former alcoholic who’s now the high school coach and doesn’t have any clothes that match.

Susan Elizabeth Phillips says her heroine in Call Me Irresistible is “spoiled and impulsive, five-feet-ten-inches of good times, good intentions, good heart, and almost total irresponsibility.” The hero is “so mature, so smart, so completely together.” SEP had another match planned for him, but they were both too perfect. Together would have been perfectly boring instead of imperfectly fun.

Movies. It’s not my favorite, but Mr. and Mrs. Smith definitely make an unusual couple. Though I’m sure they aren’t the first who tried to kill each other and ended up in therapy.

One of my favorite movies is Love Actually. That had quite a few romances, but I’ll pick Colin Firth’s character’s romance with his Portuguese maid while he’s in France writing a book. The maid can’t speak or understand English, and he can’t speak or understand Portuguese. Yet they fall in love.

And we’ve probably all seen the Disney film Lady and the Tramp. Most Regencies have that same theme going on.

My most unusual couple is from my first self-published book, Cattitude. She’s a cat who switches bodies with a woman but keeps her cat attitude – even as she falls in love with her former owner. He’s been taking care of his family since he was fourteen, and now that his brother and sister are old enough and responsible enough to manage without him, he’s ready to travel. Anyone who has anything to do with cats knows they don’t travel well.

The hero in my book Dead People, the first book of my Haunted Hearts series, is a former rocker who doesn’t believe in ghosts. The heroine is a ghost whisperer. He wants conventional. She wants acceptance. Opposites again.

When couples are so different there’s a built-in conflict. Like the vampire heroine and the human hero from Cynthia’s Immortal Danger. You can put the two together and watch the fireworks fly. And don’t we love watching a good fireworks show? The more sparks and explosions, the more entertainment.

Can you think of any unusual couples that stuck in your mind? If you’re a writer, have you written any?

Update: Beth’s winner is…Brenda H! Congrats, Brenda!

Happy Sunday! Today, I’ve interviewed author Beth Kery. If you haven’t read Beth’s work, let me tell you–it’s hot. Intense, emotional, action-packed. And I happen to know that Beth is one great lady.

Hi, Beth! Thanks so much for participating in My Deadly Valentine! And, wow, you sure have got one hot new release! Will you tell us a bit about EXPLOSIVE?

Thanks very much for having me, Cynthia, and best of luck with the upcoming releases. Very exciting!

Explosive is essentially a character-driven, contemporary erotic romance with suspense elements. It’s a story about a man who reaches out blindly for a special woman when tragedy strikes his family and he learns an unbearable truth. Because of his trauma and emotional unrest, he has this sort of explosive physical need for this woman that’s just the outer manifestation of a deeply emotional bond.

What inspired this story?

As a clinician in the mental health field, I’ve seen a lot of head traumas in addition to post traumatic stress syndromes. Believe it or not, I wanted to do a story that involved a realistic portrayal of short term amnesia. Amnesias happen a lot more than people think—both from physical and psychological causes—but just not in the ‘forget your whole identity and former life’ soap-opera kind of way. Thomas, my hero, forgets a very short period of time, but of course that block in memory causes some serious trouble.

Your hero, Thomas, is an ex-Navy explosives specialist–that definitely counts as a deadly job. What type of research do you do when you were creating his character?

I was lucky enough to meet a woman whose husband works for the Navy ORD, which is responsible for disposing of or deactivating all types of ordnance (bombs, explosives, etc.). He was nice enough to advise me on certain things, and even read parts of the book and gave feedback. You just can’t beat getting firsthand expert advice like that. I’m really thankful for their feedback.

Is there one scene from EXPLOSIVE that you would describe as particularly deadly?

Well, the scene that’s the most deadly for Thomas is a highly personal scene in his father’s study, where he discovers some very ugly truths about his past. However, on a more tangible level, there’s a warehouse explosion to hide evidence that nearly takes the hero’s life. It was nice to have the above-mentioned expert guide me through that. It’s surprising how little you actually know about describing a huge bomb explosion until you try to write it.

I’ve heard that you’ll be writing under two pseudonyms now. Can you tell readers what they can expect from Bethany Kane?

I am. Bethany Kane is my new alter identity. She’s going to be writing a series at Berkley called One Night of Passion, about a related group of people whose relationships all begin with one night of impulsive, wild sex that later leads to regret. Of course, the couples all end up in happily-ever-afters, but each has a different fun and challenging path to get there.

What’s next for Bethany? And for Beth?

Beth has a couple books coming out in March—Velvet Cataclysm, the first book in the Princes of the Underground series from Samhain Publishing, will release in print and wide distribution on March 1, 2011. On March 22, I’m very excited that the first book in the Home to Harbor Town series will be debuting from Harlequin Special Edition. This is an emotional, romantic series about three very different families who are irrevocably tied together after a tragic car crash caused by a drunk driver. The first book is called The Hometown Hero Returns, and it’s Marc and Mari’s story—a sort of modern day Romeo and Juliet about two star-crossed lovers who get a second chance at love…if they can move past the animosity and grief between their two families inspired by the crash.

Bethany has also been busy. 🙂 She has a novella in the Three to Tango anthology with Lauren Dane, Emma Holly and Megan Hart releasing in May of 2011, followed by the first book in the One Night of Passion series called Addicted to You. Addicted to You is a really fun, sexy contemporary that hits the shelves in June of 2011.

Thank you so much for having me at your contest, Cynthia!

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And thank you, Beth!  Now would you like to read a copy of the awesome hot EXPLOSIVE?  Then share your idea of a super hot hero.  You can talk about hero characteristics or you can tell me a movie start that is hero hot.