Okay so it looks like I fell off the planet. Promise - I'm still here. The last four years have been ... hard. There's no other word for it. Everything is fine. I'm fine, but I've been the caregiver of my mom who has Dementia. Between her needs, work, etc I seem to have lost control of my time. I am still writing and am trying hard to get back to my blog.

In case you weren't aware Phaze and HSWF which where under the Mundania Umbrella have closed. I was smart enough to get my titles back before all this happened. I'm happy to say the three books I sold to HSWF have been picked up by Melange Books and are available through their Satin Books imprint. I have even sold a new title to them called Magical Quest due out in 2022

I have also been lucky enough to find a publisher for my Vespian Way series. I'm now with Blushing Books under the name of Bethany Drake. I have five titles out with them right now and am close to submitting two more. There's Desire's Destiny, Desire's Duty and Desire's Promise. Then there is two in my werewolf series, Tears of the Queen and Legend of the Tears. I have just finished the rough draft of the third book in the series and have plans for a fourth one the moment I submit it.

I'll probably still be sporadic here on the blog. Unless I win the lottery and can hire someone to help me I can't avoid it, but know I'm still here still working hard in the background and am hoping to do better at keeping my blog alive.

Barb:)



Saturday, July 26, 2014

And my latest guest is...Victoria Adams!

I want to welcome Victoria Adams. First I’d love you to introduce yourself.

*waves* Hi readers. I'm Victoria Adams. I live in Ontario, Canada with my husband and pets. Daughter has grown up and is now teaching. I like to garden, cook and belly dance. I've been writing since I was little. Being an only child, long car rides were filled with making up stories in my head about the people I saw out the car window.

Tell us about your latest release.

About the title – A Guy and A Girl – at first it was just the working title but it grew on me and neither my cps or beta could think of a better one so it stuck. I am also biased to it as my daughter helped me with it. I mentioned I was stuck on creating a title for my story. She asked, "What's it about?"
 I replied, "A guy and a girl."
 She said, "Go with that."
 Ta da – a title is born.

Explaining the story is easiest with the blurb –we authors sweat blood trying to write these things. Writing the book is so much easier.
Blurb – A Guy and A Girl
After an ugly past forced Hunter Connolly to escape to Europe, the talented hockey player is back in North America and determined to land a position with a professional team. But he can’t hide from his past forever, especially when his beautiful classmate, Chelsea, forces him to reexamine his life. Soon, hockey is not his first priority anymore.
Chelsea Henderson is a bright co-ed working towards her dream of being a professional dancer. She forms a unique friendship with one of her father’s newest recruits and would love nothing more than to take it to the next level. However, there’s just one small problem. He doesn’t know she’s his coach’s daughter.
Amid the deceptions, danger lurks closer than they could ever imagine. Will fate contrive to rip the young lovers apart? Or will Hunter and Chelsea have their shot at love?

Now I have a few questions for you – I have found readers do like to know fun things about us writers.
1.) Who is your favorite villain – it can be from a book (even one of yours), movie or TV show. And why?
Wow – I never thought about liking the bad guy. Hmmm. Oh – Angelus from the TV series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. While his other persona – Angel - was one of the first hero vamps – Angelus has this delicious badness to his character. I watched all the shows with my daughter.

2.) Who is your favorite character out of your books? Why?
Robert – from Dancing in Circles. He is honorable and noble and even though life keeps trying to knock him down, he doesn't become bitter. But more importantly when Julie loves him, he doesn’t push that away. He accepts her love and finds the courage to love her back.

3.) What do genre do you write? What made you pick that one?
My writing style has taken a split between contemporary romance for adults and contemporary romance for new adults. What made me pick it – my muse. It's the style she wants to express herself with. I wish I could write mysteries, but my muse has other ideas.

4.)What are you working on now?
Having just released (or about to just release) a book, I must confess I'm not starting anything for a bit. I'm not the most disciplined of writers. Although I do have a weekly flash fiction that I post every Wednesday on my blog. That's always a fun writing exercise that allows me to challenge my creativity.

5.) What got you to start writing?
I was teaching high school at the time and two of my students (Jen and Ange) complained there was nothing to read. This was pre Twilight – pre Hunger Games. So I wrote Dancing in Circles, Book 1 of Circles Trilogy.

6.) Where do you get your ideas from?
My general response to this question is "my head", but I know that's not the answer people want. But I don't know where the ideas come from. Something I see or hear triggers a thought, which grows into an idea, which blossoms into a book.

7.) What would people who read your work be surprised to find out about you?
I have a second degree Black Belt. I got my first degree black belt when I was 45 yrs old.

8.) Do you have any special talents?
Eating chocolate. I'm pretty good at that. And I try to enhance that skill on a daily basis.

9.) What was the one piece of advice you received when you were an aspiring author that has stuck with you? Why?
Truly – I don't think I was ever given writing advice. I'm a private person and I don't discuss my writing with a lot of people. I just sat down and wrote my first book, then the next and so on. Strangely enough, I now teach a writing course and have been known to hand out advice, but I don't think I ever received any. At least none that stuck.

10.) If you could talk to any famous figure (present, past or fictional) who would it be and what would you talk about?
Miss Marple. I adore Agatha Christie. I have all of her books. I would love to sit down and have tea with Miss Marple. Ask her about her friend Dotty, and how she solved each of the mysteries and did she find the police rather annoying always thinking she was just a blithering old woman.

11.) What song would you say describes your life?
Oh, this one's tougher than the villain question. I'm not sure there is a song that defines me – unless I go with the cliché – I am Woman – Hear me roar!

12.) If you could come back as any animal – what would it be?
Thinking about how spoiled my cats are – a domestic house cat. A soft pillow, a warm ray of sunshine and a bowl of cream – life can't get much better than that.

Tagline
Lies, deceits and secrets - not a good way to begin a relationship.


Excerpt –
The clock moved to end of class with the slowness of a snail. Chelsea picked up her purse and books before following the class out of the door. One of the business administration students, whom Chelsea characterized as blue eyes, with big assets, stood in front of her. "Are you two dating?"
Chelsea blinked. "Excuse me?"
"You and Hockey God. That dark-haired, brown-eyed hunk of male heat."
"I met him at the coffee machine at 8:45 this morning."
The girl smiled, flicked her long hair over her shoulder and walked away.
Chelsea turned the corner and noticed Hunter ahead in the hall. A surge of protective jealousy washed over her. "Hunter! Wait up." She hurried towards him. "I'm meeting a friend for break. Want to join us?"
"Does break involve food? 'Cause I'm starving."
"Caf's this way, and so's my friend." Escorting Hunter down the hallway, Chelsea snuck several glances, checking out his muscular build, longish hair and rugged profile. At the cafeteria entrance, she looked for Kendall. "Much quieter here on first day of summer school. You should have been here at the beginning of the year. A total madhouse. Oh, there's Kendall."
She spotted her friend standing, open-mouthed, staring at Hunter. Chelsea nodded and waggled her eyebrows up and down, silently praying that her friend could read her mind and not mention her father, the coach. She led the way to the table. "Hunter, this is my best friend, Kendall."
He glanced between Chelsea and Kendall, frowned then shrugged.
"What?" Chelsea searched his face, trying not to giggle like a sixteen-year-old.
"Nothing. For a moment I thought I recognized you two. Probably still got jet lag." He dropped his books on the table. "Back in a sec. I gotta get something to eat."
Kendall grabbed Chelsea's arm and pulled her onto a chair. "That's...Cute-Butt from yesterday."
"His name's Hunter. We're in Communications class together." She bit her lip. "He sat next to me. I think the other girls are ready to rip my eyeballs out to get near him."
"Shit. I knew I should've taken that stupid course."
Hunter returned with a double order of toast and an apple. "What're you taking, Kendall?"
"Painting and sculpturing. I'm an artist."
From the wide-eyed stare and flushed cheeks, Chelsea would have bet a million dollars that Kendall bit back the question, "Can I sleep with you?" A twinge of anger grew as her friend turned her attention to Hunter. She struggled to dismiss it. "Hunter's trying out for the Vipers." Chelsea held her breath, hoping Kendall wouldn't blab on her. She didn't know a lot about hockey, but she guessed her dad had a rule about players dating his daughter.
"You're a hockey player?" Kendall hit her forehead with the heel of her hand. "Stupid question. You wouldn't be trying out for the Vipers if you weren't...a hockey player I mean. I think I got up too early this morning."
Chelsea tilted her head towards Hunter and patted his shoulder. "He was up at 6:15."
"May I ask why anyone would crawl out of a perfectly good bed at such a horrible time of the day?"
"Road work. Cardio." Hunter swallowed the last of his toast.
"This just gets worse and worse."
Hunter glanced at his watch. "I got Ecology next. I need the science department. Since you're my GPS, can you point me in the right direction?"
Chelsea shifted in her chair and pointed out the side windows. Oh my God, I'm his GPS. That's so sweet.

Where to find me. Feel free to email – Fb – tweet me – talking to readers is like eating chocolate
Blog – Victoria's Pages of Romance – http://victoriaadams.blogspot.com
Facebook - Circles Trilogy Page - http://www.facebook.com/CirclesTrilogy?ref=hl
Google+ - Victoria Adams
Plus – Triberr, Amazon Author, LinkedIn, SocialOmph, Goodreads etc



3 comments:

  1. Thanks for letting my drop by.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Waving hello to Victoria and Barb. I have this book in my Kindle. Time, I need more hours in a day because I really want to read this!

    I love the premise of this story, two talented young people from opposite ends of the spectrum and life is trying to keep them apart. I've read other books by Victoria and loved them. Great storyteller! I'll read anything Victoria puts out!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Victoria, that is a good excerpt and cover. It sounds like Kendall has his hands full. Good luck with sales.

    ReplyDelete