The winner of the Pamela Aares book giveaway is Cate S. Congratulations! I’ll be in touch.
Thanks to everyone for stopping by the blog. Later this week I’ll be featuring contemporary romance author Juliana Stone, so be sure to check back!
The winner of the Pamela Aares book giveaway is Cate S. Congratulations! I’ll be in touch.
Thanks to everyone for stopping by the blog. Later this week I’ll be featuring contemporary romance author Juliana Stone, so be sure to check back!
Most of my readers know that, in addition to my historical romances, I write contemporary sports romances with my husband under the pen name of VK Sykes. That’s why I’m thrilled to welcome award-winning film maker turned romance author Pamela Aares to the blog today – she writes baseball romances, and historical romance too! As you’re about to find out, she’s a very interesting person.
Vanessa: Welcome, Pamela! I love the concept behind your new series, Heart of the Game: All-Star alpha males and the strong women they come to love. What inspired you to write about baseball heroes and heiresses?
Pamela: Thanks for having me Vanessa!
I don’t know about you, but sometimes characters show up and start talking. I was in the middle of drafting the sequel to Jane Austen and the Archangel, riding back from LA in the car with my husband and we were discussing the baseball season. Within minutes Alex Tavonesi, the hero of book one in the Heart of the Game series, showed up. I’d been toying with the idea of writing a story of a vintner who fell in love with a feisty woman who was a world-class marine mammal vet, but the hero wasn’t supposed to play baseball in addition to all his work trying to keep his family’s vineyard going. Pretty soon Alex Tavonesi had a team of amazing men surrounding him and I knew they’d each have their own story in the Heart of the Game.
The heroines in the first four books of the series are all heiresses who have chosen to have careers– one’s a vet, one owns a major league baseball team, another inherits an internationally famous olive ranch. They are women who want to make their own way in the world. The feedback from readers has been amazing — they love the fascinating women (and of course the hunky, All-Star heroes). All of the stories take place in the Bay Area of California and the characters from each book reappear throughout the series.
Vanessa: I understand that you have an insider’s view into the game of baseball.
Pamela: My husband played in the major leagues for eleven years and yes, he was an All-Star. I’m lucky that I can ask burning questions over breakfast– and that he has a sense of humor. Living with a writer can be strange. I’ll come into the kitchen and ask about Alex, or Matt, or Ryan and he pauses, takes a sip of coffee and realizes I’m asking about what a character in the series might do in a strategic baseball play or the like. You don’t have to be a sport fan to understand the stories, the details of the game come alive in the characters.
Vanessa: What is it that you most love about writing romance?
Pamela: I love books that entertain, transport and inspire dreams. Romances are captivating and tug at the heart. I like to write books that take readers on a journey with complex characters in both contemporary and historical settings who are thrown in situations that tempt love, adventure and self-discovery.
Here’s a peek at the third book in Pamela’s Heart of the Game series, Fielder’s Choice. Pamela will be giving away a copy of Fielder’s Choice as well as a copy of the first book in the series, Love Bats Last.
All-Star first baseman Matt Darrington has more than a problem. His wife died, and now he’s juggling a too-smart-for-her-britches six-year-old and the grueling pace of professional baseball. Worse, his daughter is mom shopping. When they explore a local ranch, she decides the beautiful, free-spirited tour guide is premium mom material. Matt thinks the sexy guide looks like Grade-A trouble.
Alana Tavonesi loves her cosmopolitan life in Paris. But when she inherits the renowned Tavonesi Olive Ranch, she has to return to California and face obligations she never wanted. Selling the place is her first instinct, but life at the ranch begins to crack her open, exposing the dreams hidden inside her heart.
On a lark she leads a ranch tour, where she meets Matt Darrington. His physical power and a captivating sensual appeal fire her in a way no man ever has, but he has a kid—and being a stepmom is a responsibility Alana will never be ready for. Still…she can’t keep her mind or her hands off him.
When Matt’s daughter goes missing from a kid’s camp at the ranch, Alana organizes the search effort, knowing from experience the areas a bright child would be drawn to explore. As she and Matt work together to search for the little girl, Alana discovers that father and daughter have won her heart. Yet it may be too late for love…
About the Author
Pamela Aares is an award-winning author of contemporary and historical romance novels and also writes about fictional romance in sports with her new baseball romance book series titled Heart of the Game. Her first book a historical romance, Jane Austen and the Archangel, released in 2012.
Before becoming a romance author, Aares wrote and produced award-winning films including Your Water, Your Life, featuring actress Susan Sarandon and NPR series New Voices, The Powers of the Universe and The Earth’s Imagination. She holds a Master’s degree from Harvard and currently resides in the wine country of Northern California with her husband, a former MLB All-Star and two curious cats. If not behind her computer, you can probably find her reading a romance novel, hiking the beach or savoring life with friends. You can visit Pamela on the web at http://www.PamelaAares.com.
The winner of Theresa Romain’s new book, Season For Surrender, is Penney Wilfort. And the winner of Pamela Aares’ book, Jane Austen and the Archangel, is Maycee Majors. Congratulations! I’ll be in touch.
Thanks to all you great folks for stopping by my blog. My guest author tomorrow will be Brenda Jernigan. Be sure to stop back for that!
And for all of you who joined my Author Buzz contest, I’ll be announcing the winners later today. Stay tuned!
I have a very special guest with me today. She’s Pamela Aares, and she writes historical romance with an interesting twist. Let’s have a chat with Pamela and find out about her books, shall we?
Pamela, before you began writing historical romance you had a fascinating and varied career. Can you tell us a bit about it, and how that work influences your writing today? I was particularly struck by the story on your bio page about the bookseller trying to sell you fiction books. Has your approach to life, working with animals & non-profits, influenced your writing?
After years of producing and directing films, working on national and international campaigns to help wild animals and then marrying the director of the Center for the Story of the Universe (more on that on my website www.PamelaAares.com ), it became clear that we are all creatures of story. More than that, it was clear that love and allurement not only drive all of us; they power everything that happens in the universe. Even the astrophysicists have discovered that attraction, the power at the heart of allurement, fuels the unfolding of the galaxies!
I love romance. On my website bio I talk about a bookseller who pushed a bunch of dreary non-fiction books at me and when I asked about their romance section, she told me they didn’t have any of those. In the end it was clear that if I wanted to read stories that explored the deep power of romance and included nature and spirit, I’d have to write them myself. It’s been an amazing journey!
Your current book, Jane Austen and the Archangel, has an unusual high concept. Can you tell us about the book and why the subject matter spoke to you?
Sometimes (most times!) life reaches out and grabs hold of us, surprises us. I was just finishing The Lady and the Patriot (coming out January 2013) the first book in The Nature of Love series, when Michael Grace, the archangel hero of Jane Austen and the Archangel, grabbed me and would not let go. I think you’ll find him more than intriguing and his love for Jane as irresistible as I did.
As I wrote, I loved that Jane, who never had a proper love in her short life, was finally going to have a full-blown experience of deep and lasting love.
Angels are pretty popular these days in paranormal romance. Why do you think that’s so?
I think we know that there is a world beyond that which we see. The quantum physicists have proven it and the sensitive among us have experienced it. The stories abound since humans have begun telling stories.
Whether it’s the mystics like Hildegard of Bingen, or the insights from Emerson or Einstein, or the most recent book exploring yet another near death experience, Proof of Heaven, so many experiences point to a force that sustains and supports us if we remember to call upon it. Angels are just one way of experiencing or understanding that power of life.
In addition to the Angels Come to Earth series, I see you’re also working on another series called The Nature of Love series. What can you tell us about that?
The Lady and the Patriot is the first book in The Nature of Love series (it will be out just after the first of the year). The series follows feisty and independent heroines and the adventurous and daring heroes who fall in love with them. What’s new is the transforming power of nature and the places they travel. It changes the nature of their love stories and takes readers on a journey of powerful exploration of time and place.
The series is set in 1851, a time of great change in the world, a time much like our own. The Great Exhibition in London (the first ever World’s Fair) and the craze for natural history were cracking open awareness and fueling new dreams. Venice, London, Boston (think Louisa May Alcott) and Gold Rush California all play important roles in the love stories.
And I can also give you a sneak peek into my new contemporary series The Heart of the Game, although the first book won’t be out until after Valentine’s Day 2013.
Some of my readers know that I’m married to a Major League Baseball All-Star who happens to also be an expert on the whole story of the universe (the film Journey of the Universe won an Emmy this year, it was very exciting!)— anyway, editors and publishers have been asking for my ‘baseball’ book for a long time, so it’s finally on its way to readers. I had such fun writing it and the characters came alive as if they’d been waiting on the sidelines. It’s always wonderful when that happens!
And now for the fun question – if you were stranded on a deserted island with the love of your life, what two luxury items would you want to bring along?
Ah. It is a fun question. I asked my husband, just for a lark, what he’d bring. He said the Alexandrian Library and room service! Hard to top that. I think I’d want my iPod for music and something to write with! I loved what Nora Roberts said last week when someone asked why she keeps writing. She said—“What would I do with all the stories in my head just waiting to be told?” Loved it. Love her. Maybe I’d take her on the desert island—can you take people?
Vanessa, here. Absolutely you can take people, Pamela, and I think Nora would be a great choice. And your husband sounds very interesting too! Thank you so much for visiting with us today – I really enjoyed your interview!
Readers, Pamela is graciously giving away a print copy of Jane Austen And The Archangel. To be eligible, just answer this question: how has an experience in nature changed you or inspired your life? One person who comments will win a copy of Pamela’s book.
What’s to be done with an angel who breaks the rules? Introduce him to a woman known for her propriety, of course.
Until then passion had lived only on the page…
Jane Austen hasn’t written a creative word in months. She secretly fears she may not have it in her to write a single word more about love. Yet when the mysterious Michael Grace appears on her doorstep, she’s cast into a world of emotion beyond even her wildest imaginings. Though she fears he might be a spy, she enlists his help to find her friend’s fiancé, missing in the Peninsular War. But Michael isn’t what he seems, and the passion and doubts he ignites turn everything Jane trusts upside down. What Jane doesn’t know is that her mystery man is an angel. One who’s never failed to get what he goes after.
Some rules just beg to be broken…
It’s not easy being a bad-boy angel and Michael is paying the penalty. Demoted to working undercover in a sleepy English village, he’s chafing to launch the dangerous mission he’s been sent to command. But when he meets Jane, he’s irresistibly drawn to her, even though involvement with her could jeopardize her life and his status as an angel.
When Lucifer tries to use Jane as a pawn in his vile schemes, Michael discovers that fighting the forces of darkness is nothing compared to the challenge of telling Jane the truth. Can the angel who’s never lost a battle win the heart of a woman who’s afraid of love?
Be sure to visit Pamela’s lovely website for details on all her books, and for her buy links to Jane Austen And The Archangel. You can also find her on facebook and Twitter.
Update: I’m visiting with the fabulous Kieran Kramer today, so after you respond to Pamela’s question why don’t you hop on over and chat with me, too. I’m giving away a copy of His Mistletoe Bride!