Guest Author: Zoe Archer & Giveaway!

I’m really pleased to have fellow Kensington author Zoe Archer return to the blog.  From historical paranormal adventure, to steampunk, to sci-fi, to historical romance, Zoe’s award-winning books feature confident heroines and sexy heroes in waistcoats and tall boots.  Like many authors, Zoe also is moving into the indie publishing realm, with a rewrite and re-release of her historical romance, Lady X’s Cowboy.

Let’s turn things over to Zoe to find out about her latest book.

When Worlds Collide

Some of the best stories happen when worlds collide.  What happens when people from vastly different circumstances find themselves thrown together?  Think of the educated, wealthy Professor Henry Higgins and the Cockney flower seller Eliza Doolittle.  Or member of Alderaan royalty and member of the Imperial Senate, Princess Leia and scoundrel smuggler Han Solo (yum!).

There might be tension between these disparate characters, but one thing’s for certain: sparks are going to fly!

In my historical romance, LADY X’S COWBOY, the heroine is a London Society widow.  Lady Olivia Xavier’s late husband may have purchased his title, but she’s still part of the social elite.  She goes to dinner parties, social teas, and has been trained since birth to be a proper lady.  However, Olivia isn’t exactly the model of high society perfection.  When her husband died, he left her a brewery, with the intent that the managers would run the business and she’d simply collect the profits.  But Olivia isn’t content with this arrangement.  She actually involves herself in the running of the brewery, making suggestions for improvements, and increasing profits.  Society’s stunned by her unconventional behavior, but she’s still accepted among their ranks because of her wealth and title.

Who could be more opposite from a titled London lady?  Why, a Colorado cowboy, of course!  Will Coffin was orphaned as a small child, and grew up in the rough and tumble towns of the Rocky Mountains.  The only family he’s ever known was the Jewish miner who raised him.  Will’s more familiar with life on the back of a saddle than he is with hearth and home.  He’s not even a farmer who’s put down roots, but a cattle puncher who’s lived his life on the trail.

Will comes to London in search of his long lost family, and that’s where he and Olivia meet.  He agrees to defend her brewery from someone who wants to take it over, and in exchange, she’ll help him find his family.  A Society widow and a Colorado cowboy couldn’t be more dissimilar—yet they’re both unique people, and that uniqueness draws them together.  I don’t want to spoil any of the surprises, but suffice it to say that there’s a lot more to Will than meets the eye.  And he sees a vivid, powerful strength and energy in Olivia—something no one else from her world recognizes.

Two extremely disparate people.  Two different worlds.  But sometimes the heart doesn’t pay attention to difference—it knows what it wants, rules and expectations be damned.

So, what are some of your favorite “worlds collide” stories?  It could be from books, television, or films.  Leave a comment, and I’ll pick one winner to receive a digital copy of LADY X’S COWBOY.  Open internationally.

LADY X’S COWBOY

Constrained by her life as a Society widow, Lady Olivia Xavier finds escape in two unusual ways: as the owner of a successful brewery, and as a secret reader of penny dreadful Western novels. But Olivia’s beloved brewery is being threatened, and she has no ally in her fight. Until a mysterious cowboy steps out from the London fog, saving her from a terrifying brawl. Suddenly, Olivia isn’t just reading about the Wild West, she’s living it.

Colorado cowboy Will Coffin has made the long journey from his Rocky Mountain home to discover his birthright. While searching for his family, he encounters the beguiling Olivia. Will’s never met a real English lady before—certainly not one as lovely and courageous as Olivia—and he can’t resist coming to her rescue.

Olivia is powerfully drawn to the rough but honorable cowboy. She proposes a most scandalous arrangement: in exchange for helping protect her brewery, she’ll help Will find his family. Even more scandalous is that he’ll be sleeping under her roof. The entire arrangement sets Society’s tongues wagging. Meanwhile, the danger to the brewery, and Olivia herself, keeps escalating. But nothing’s as dangerous, or seductive, as the growing desire between the lady and the cowboy…

Lady X’s Cowboy was originally published by Dorchester in 2006 and is newly revised by the author.

Zoë Archer is an award-winning romance author who thinks there’s nothing sexier than a man in tall boots and a waistcoat. As a child, she never dreamed about being the rescued princess, but wanted to kick butt right beside the hero. She now applies her master’s degrees in Literature and Fiction to creating butt-kicking heroines and heroes in tall boots. She is the author of the acclaimed BLADES OF THE ROSE series and the paranormal historical romance series, THE HELLRAISERS. She and her husband, fellow romance author Nico Rosso, created the steampunk world of THE ETHER CHRONICLES together.  Her steampunk romance, SKIES OF FIRE, is now available from Avon Impulse, and Nico’s steampunk Western, NIGHT OF FIRE, is also available now. Zoë and Nico live in Los Angeles.

Excerpt

Website, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Blog

To buy: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple, Kobo, All Romance Ebooks


Guest Author: Zoe Archer & Devil’s Kiss!

Hooray!  Zoe Archer is back on the blog today, talking about her new paranormal historical romance, Devil’s Kiss.  This is the first book in her new series, The Hellraisers:

Welcome to the ultimate bad boys.  A group of 18th Century rakes who will stop at nothing in their pursuit of pleasure—even if it costs them their souls.  Dark, sexy and beguiling, the Hellraisers will seduce you.  Sinning never tasted so sweet.

Sounds pretty awesome, doesn’t it?  Let’s talk with Zoe about her new book, and find out a little more about her, too.

Your latest series, The Hellraisers, is a based on a great high concept – a group of rakes who unleash the devil and literally raise hell.  How did you come up with the idea?

I’d been thinking about the Hellfire Club, actually.  The Hellfire Club was the name of a few exclusive clubs in 18th century England and Ireland, comprised of men of the aristocracy.  The most infamous Hellfire Club was founded by Sir Francis Dashwood around 1749 and lasting possibly through the 1760s.  It was alleged that this group of rakes used to meet in secret, dressed in monks’ robes, and have Black Masses that culminated in wild orgies.  Whether or not Dashwood and his fellow Hellfire Club members did these things isn’t entirely certain (though you can visit the extensive caves Dashwood expanded at West Wycombe), but he and his club are still fascinating scholars to this day.

My thoughts about the Hellfire Club led me to wonder: what if there was a group of 18th century rakes who literally were in league with the Devil?  Why would they summon the Devil, and what sort of powers might he bestow upon men who had wealth and privilege?  From there, the idea began to take shape, and the Hellraisers came into being.

Clearly, your heroes and heroines are all adventurous risk-takers.  Are you?  What’s the riskiest thing you’ve ever done?

The risks that I take aren’t of the jumping-out-of-an-airplane variety.  I wasn’t born with the daredevil gene, I think.  That’s where “writing as wish fulfillment” comes into play.  Deciding that my career would be as a novelist—I think that was risky.  There’s not much job security, and it isn’t a way to get rich.  Another big risk I took was when I had just started dating the man who would eventually become my husband (fellow romance author Nico Rosso), and was accepted to an MFA program thousands of miles away in Iowa.  I wanted to stay in that relationship, but the MFA program was very prestigious, and I knew that if I wanted to pursue a career as a writer, I’d need to go.  Also, I’d never lived outside of California before (except the first six months after my birth, when I was in New York).  But Nico encouraged me to take the chance.  He actually helped me drive a U-Haul all the way from California to Iowa (twice!).  It was a difficult two years, but at the end of it, Nico and I were still together, and I had a shiny MFA degree from the top writing program in the country.  So I think it was all worth it.

What do you read when you’re working on your books?  Do you read historical and/or paranormal romance, or does that mess with your own writing voice?

Depending on how deep into the writing process I am, I limit my reading.  It’s tough to keep other people’s stories and voices out of my own head.  For the most part, I read historical romance, with occasional side trips into paranormal and contemporary.  In case you’re wondering, some of my favorite authors are Meredith Duran, Julie Anne Long, Shana Abé, Joanna Bourne, Carrie Lofty, Tessa Dare, Loretta Chase, and Judith Ivory.

And now for the silly question!  You’re stranded on a deserted island somewhere in the South Pacific.  What two luxury items would you kill to have?

So, we’re not talking survival, right?  I don’t need to worry about water purification, hygiene, food preservation, shelter?  I’d need a computer so I could write.  And maybe my stand mixer so I could bake cupcakes and cookies.  What’s the point of being in a tropical paradise if you can’t have cookies?

Before we get to the book giveaway, here’s the blurb and all of Zoe’s details:

Devil’s Kiss

Hellraisers Book 1

A handsome devil

1762. James Sherbourne, Earl of Whitney, is a gambling man. Not for the money. But for the thrill, the danger—and the company: Whit has become one of the infamous Hellraisers, losing himself in the chase for adventure and pleasure with his four closest friends.

Which was how Whit found himself in a gypsy encampment, betting against a lovely Romani girl. Zora Grey’s smoky voice and sharp tongue entrance Whit nearly as much as her clever hands—watching them handle cards inspires thoughts of another kind…

Zora can’t explain her attraction to the careless blue-eyed Whit. She also can’t stop him and his Hellraisers from a fiendish curse: the power to grant their own hearts’ desires, to chase their pleasures from the merely debauched to the truly diabolical. And if Zora can’t save Whit, she still has to escape him…

Excerpt

Trailer

Buy links: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Powells, All Romance eBooks

Zoë Archer: website, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr

Zoë Archer is an award-winning romance author who thinks there’s nothing sexier than a man in tall boots and a waistcoat. As a child, she never dreamed about being the rescued princess, but wanted to kick butt right beside the hero. She now applies her master’s degrees in Literature and Fiction to creating butt-kicking heroines and heroes in tall boots. She is the author of the acclaimed BLADES OF THE ROSE series. December marks the beginning of her new paranormal historical romance series, THE HELLRAISERS. Zoë and her husband, fellow romance author Nico Rosso, live in Los Angeles. Please visit her on the Web at http://www.zoearcherbooks.com

Zoe, thanks for being with us today!  Readers, Zoe will give away a copy of Devil’s Kiss to someone who comments on the blog today.  Just tell me what two luxury items you would bring to a deserted island, for a chance to win this awesome book!

 


Guest Author: Zoe Archer & Giveaway!

I’m pretty excited about my featured author today.  She’s Zoe Archer, and she’s the definition of a rising star in the romance genre.  Zoe is not only talented, hard-working, and way smart, she writes innovative, adventurous romance that both readers and critics have clutched to their collective bosoms with enthusiasm.  And no wonder – I fell in love with Zoe’s writing just from reading her bio!

From that bio, you will learn that Zoe has been writing since she was knee high to a grasshopper.  Many years and many stories later, she found herself in a PhD program for 18th century English Literature, before deciding that what she really wanted to do was write fiction.  Her decision was partly influenced by the fact that she couldn’t read French or Latin, a requirement for attaining her doctorate.  If I may be allowed to digress for a moment, I understand EXACTLY how Zoe felt.  I, too, was once a PhD candidate in 18th century English Literature, and the thought of learning both French and Latin made me weep.  Like Zoe, I also left grad school and…ahem.  I guess I should really get back to Zoe.

Anyway, Zoe eventually found herself in the prestigious Iowa Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa.  She graduated with an MFA, moved back to L.A., and began writing.  Nose was applied to grindstone, books were sold, and she eventually made her way to Kensington Publishing, where a canny editor snapped up her totally cool adventure/romance series, Blades of the Rose.

Zoe describes her books as “high adventure.”  In her own words, the Blades are:

“Exotic settings.  Thrilling action.  Sexy men in waistcoats and tall boots.  Kick-ass women who carried rifles and knew how to use them.  Diabolical inventions made of brass, wood and leather.  And a bit of magic, just to keep things really interesting.”

Zounds!  Indiana Jones meets Victorian England – I am so there!

Zoe has received great critical acclaim for this series, including a Publishers Weekly Pick of the Week and starred review for Scoundrel, and a prestigious RITA nomination for Rebel. 

Isn’t that a fabulous cover?  Honestly, how can you resist it!  Here’s the blurb for Rebel:

On the Canadian frontier in 1875, nature is a harsh mistress. But the supernatural can really do you in…

A LONE WOLF

Nathan Lesperance is used to being different. He’s the first Native attorney in Vancouver, and welcome neither with white society nor his sometime tribe. Not to mention the powerful wildness he’s always felt inside him, too dangerous to set free. Then he met Astrid Bramfield and saw his like within her piercing eyes. Now, unless she helps him through the harsh terrain and the harsher unknowns of his true abilities, it could very well get him killed…

AND THE WOMAN WHO LEFT THE PACK

Astrid has traveled this path before. Once she was a Blade of the Rose, protecting the world’s magic from unscrupulous men, with her husband by her side. But she’s loved and lost, and as a world-class frontierswoman, she knows all about survival. Nathan’s searing gaze and long, lean muscles mean nothing but trouble. Yet something has ignited a forgotten flame inside her: a burning need for adventure, for life—and perhaps even for love…

There are four wonderful books and a novella in the  Blade series, so be sure to check out Zoe’s website for all the details.  While you’re visiting her website, take a look at her other books, including her Science Fiction novels and her backlist.

For my readers, Zoe will give away a copy of her RITA nominated book, Rebel.  Since Zoe’s books often take place in exotic settings, let’s talk about that.  Do you like historical romances that take the reader to settings like Mongolia, Canada, or Egypt?  Or do you prefer the glittering confines of the London ballroom and the gentility of the English countryside?  One person who comments will win a copy of Rebel.

And be sure to stop by the blog on Dec. 8.  Zoe will be back here to talk about her new series, The Hellraisers.


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