Henry Cavill

Rock*It Reads: Heating Up The Holidays Blog Hop!!

by

Welcome to the Rock*It Reads Heating Up the Holidays Blog Hop. There are 15 stops on the blog tour. The more blogs you visit and comment on, the greater your chances of winning the grand prize, a $75 gift certificate to Barnes & Noble or Amazon, and a huge collection of books from the authors of Rock*It Reads. Smaller prizes will be available at each stop along the way.

Good luck, and have fun!

As you can tell from that luscious header, the theme of our blog hop is Heating Up The Holidays.  And how are we going to heat up our holidays, you might ask?  I’ll tell you–with sexy men!

It so happens that I have a holiday-themed historical romance that came out in October.  The hero of His Mistletoe Bride, Lucas Stanton, the Earl of Merritt, is definitely one sexy dude.  And it was easy to create him that way because I used a very inspiring template for his character–the drop-dead gorgeous actor, Henry Cavill.

Nice, eh?  My heroine, Phoebe Linville, thinks so too.  Phoebe isn’t very experienced when it comes to men.  After all, she was raised in a small Quaker village in America.  But when she lays eyes on Lucas for the first time she feels a tingle in places that she didn’t even know could tingle!  Lucas certainly heats up her holidays, and if I ever ran into Henry Cavill while Christmas shopping…well, I better stop there or I’ll get in trouble with my husband.

To read an excerpt of His Mistletoe Bride and to get a peek at my hero, Lucas, visit my books page.

I also have another new book out with a hero who heats things up in a big way.  Bigger Than Beckham is my latest sexy contemporary romance, co-written with my husband under the pen name of VK Sykes. We will neither confirm nor deny that a certain soccer player perhaps served as a wee bit of inspiration, but our hero, Tony Branch, is definitely his own man.  And our fabulous cover artist certainly gave us a model to inspire any red-blooded woman, don’t you agree?  Just click on the cover photo for a bigger image of hunky goodness.

Whew!  I’m fanning myself here, but that cover is my idea of heating things up!  Bigger Than Beckham will heat you up for the holidays, too.  Trust me when I say that this is one steamy book.  To read an excerpt from Bigger Than Beckham, book three in our Philadelphia Patriots series of sports romances, please check out our website.  I think you’ll enjoy meeting the sexy Mr. Branch!

Readers, who would be your dream man for heating up the holidays?  Would you like to take a sleigh ride with Henry Cavill, go ice skating with David Beckham, or is snuggling with your honey by the fireside more your speed?  I’ll be giving away two prizes:

One person who comments will win a print copy of His Mistletoe Bride  and a lovely Christmas ornament.

One person who comments will win a digital copy of Bigger Than Beckham and a $10 Amazon gift card.

Leave a comment below to enter for your chance to win!

Don’t forget to visit the other authors on the Blog Hop for more chances to win!

Kris Kennedy Bonnie Vanak Erin Kellison
Sharon Page Lila DiPasqua Elisabeth Naughton
Norah Wilson Jennifer Lyon Monica Burns
Vanessa Kelly Mia Marlowe
Pamela Clare Margo Maguire Rock*It Reads

Inspiration, And Then Some

by

Let’s talk covers, shall we?  As most romance readers know, writers often look to actors and actresses for inspiration when developing their characters.  It’s a fun way to bring the hero and heroine to life in our imaginations.  Typically, a writer spends months on a book, imagining the hero looks remarkably like Gerard Butler, for instance.  Said writer may have even been asked by her editor to provide detailed descriptions of her hero (and heroine), which is then passed along to the art department.  With crossed fingers, the writer then spends the intervening weeks praying the cover will at least remotely match the descriptions she provided to her editor.

Finally, the day arrives and that much-anticipated cover jpg. lands in the writer’s email box.  With pounding heart, the writer clicks on the jpg. and then…well, sometimes they get it right.  Often they don’t but it’s still a great cover, and every once in a while it can be an unmitigated disaster.

How have the cover gods treated me?  Extremely well, IMHO, thanks to the fantastic art department at Kensington Publishing.  The models didn’t always match what was in my head, though, so I thought it might be fun to look at what I imagined and what actually happened – particularly with my heroes.  So here are my covers, starting withMastering The Marquess at the top of the page.  Let’s see how they match up with the actors I used for inspiration.

For Stephen, the Marquess of Silverton, I imagined him played by the beautiful and tragic Heath Ledger.

Now glance up and compare that to the guy at the top of the page.  Not so much, although I think MTM has a great cover.  But the hero looks more like a cross between Brad Pitt and a young Arnold Schwarzenegger, which more than one person pointed out to me.  Whoever he looks like, he does have a great set of abs.

In  my next book, Sex and the Single Earl, I imagined the hero, Lord Trask, to look much like Christian Bale.

And here’s the cover.

Pretty good matchup and, again, great abs.

For my novella in An Invitation To Sin, I based the hero, Captain Christian Archer, on Sean Bean in Sharpe’s Rifles.

And, the cover…

Oh, well.  Pretty, but a distinct absence of abs.

For my last book, My Favorite Countess, I used the gorgeous Hugh Jackman to provide me with inspiration for Dr. John Blackmore.

And the cover…

I was surprised when I got the email because I was expecting another clinch cover, but I certainly wasn’t unhappy.  MFC is a gorgeous cover and since I had imagined Bathsheba played by Kate Winslet, the artist definitely got the vibe.

My next book, which will be out in 2012, has a tough and handsome former soldier as its hero.  When I pictured him in my head, this is who I saw.

Yes.  Uber-handsome Henry Cavill from The Tudors.  I won’t see my cover for some months yet, but I surely a girl can dream, can’t she?

What about you, readers?  Do you cast actors for certain characters when you read a book?  Does it bother you when the cover doesn’t match the description?

No Explanation Required

by

There’s really no need to explain how much we loved Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy, is there?  Nor do the following photos require any explanation.  Here are a few pictures of some of the lovely men who serve as inspiration for the heroes of my novels.

Sean Bean is my mental stand-in for the hero of my novella in the anthology, An Invitation To Sin. Sean really knows how to rock the uniform!

Then there’s Hugh Jackman, who was the inspiration for the hero in my upcoming book, My Favorite Countess.

Even scruffy Hugh would set any girl’s heart a-flutter!

And, finally, here’s the dreamboat inspiration for my next book, Henry Cavill, who stars in The Tudors. I think I’ve made an excellent choice, and I know my heroine will thank me!

Hope the eye candy gives you a great start to the week!

SIGN UP AND RECEIVE A FREE SHORT STORY!