RITA, Silhouette Desire Deal & Eye Candy

I have a story to tell. First up, I'm kind of a night owl, because often, that's when my brain seems to kick into high gear. Last night, I was up till 4am working on ARCHANGEL'S SHADOWS.

So, when the phone rang at 7am, I answered it, had a perfectly rational conversation and hung up. Ten minutes later, my eyes flicked open and I thought: Did she say HEART OF OBSIDIAN has been nominated for a RITA Award?!

I checked the list of finalists on the website and yes, Kaleb and Sahara's story is a finalist in the Paranormal Romance section of Romance Writers of America RITA Awards! Wooho! I ate a peanut butter cupcake with dark chocolate icing for breakfast to celebrate. :D

Alas, I ate it too quickly to take a photo, but here's a photo from the last time I baked a batch. And here's the link to the recipe at Sally's Baking Addiction. (Warning: the site is a vortex - once you enter, you will find it difficult to escape. I say that as someone who looooooves baked goods! Her recipes work really well for me - both the usual version and if I substitute gluten free flour.)

Click the link to see the full list of RITA
nominees.

~

Also, A few hours ago, it was a UK deal, and now I have a North American deal - one of my Silhouette Desire books is on sale for $1.99: SECRETS IN THE MARRIAGE BED.

Check it out if you'd like to get a glimpse of where my career began. The six Desire novels I wrote are all short contemporary romances, no paranormal elements, but they're still me. :-)

So far the deal's showing up at Amazon. I'll keep an eye out for other links but if you spot it first, please leave a note in the comments for other readers.

Here's the excerpt link.

Also, if you're hunting up the Desires in paperback, I've been told two (Awaken to Pleasure and Awaken the Senses) will be reprinted in one volume later in the year in the US, under the title AWAKE.

~ 

And last but not least, some eye candy! This gorgeous, gorgeous photo was brought to my attention by Under the Covers book blog on Twitter. The reviewer asked me if he was a good representation of Vasic. Answer: Oh my goodness, YES! (The model is: Goran Jurenec).

International Covers: Thailand

Check out these awesome covers from my Thai publisher, Kaewkarn Publishing!

Mine to Possess

Secrets in the Marriage Bed

Bound By Marriage

International Covers: Craving Beauty - German

One of the my Silhouette Desire books, Craving Beauty, was released in German a few months back - check out the gorgeous cover!

Manga!

Check it out! Craving Beauty in manga (comic) format!!

Black Widow Bride - Tessa Radley / Interview

Full disclosure - Tessa is a good friend of mine so when she gave me a copy of her first book, I opened it with the hope that I would enjoy it, especially since I'd been asking her for an advance look at it ever since I first heard the title!

Well, guess what? Black Widow Bride wasn't good. It was fabulous! I read it from cover to cover in one sitting.

Here's the backcover copy.

She Wore Red To His Wedding...

Her attempt at seduction the night before his marriage had nearly been his undoing. Wealthy businessman Damon Asteriades had pushed aside all thoughts of brash Rebecca Grainger for years, until circumstances forced him to bring her back to his family's estate. There was no reason for him to become further involved with the woman society had dubbed the black widow bride—save the intense passion that still burned hot between them.

That, and the three-year-old secret she was protecting.

Sounds intriguing, no? Trust me, the book delivers. It had me on my toes throughout as I tried to figure out the secret and what was going to happen next. Damon is a very alpha hero and yes, I had some violent urges toward him but that's because he was such a strong character. What I really liked was that Rebecca was tough enough to take him on, and she was smart.

As for the plot - lots of twists and turns. I was completely hooked. I think if you like your love stories intense, dramatic and intriguing, you'll enjoy this book very much.

Now, since Tessa is my friend and I can pepper her with questions whenever I feel like it *g*, I did a mini-interview with here. Here it is:

Question 1: I was really impressed by the realism of your Greek characters. How did you research that?

It was more a case of writing what I knew about. I spent my high school years at a co-ed school for expatriate Greek children. Growing up lots of my friends were Greek—there were a lot of Italians there too :). The Greek people are very warm and welcoming and I learnt to speak a smattering of Greek (which I have lost!) and travelled a fair bit around Greece. I enjoyed writing about Damon, his mother and his brother Savvas and hope I managed to convey some of the warmth that overflows in Greek families. The Greek guys are pretty hot too!

Question 2. Did you come up with the title? Because I was hooked the first time I heard it!

Let’s just say I have a seriously twisted mind *g*. I was amazed Desire went with it, I thought it might be too dark! But seriously, that’s how my hero, Damon, viewed Rebecca, the heroine. So it worked.

Question 3. So, how are the first book jitters going?

Awful…but I have a deadline for 13 April so that’s keeping my mind off the release date a little. But it’s also very exciting. I’m starting to get emails from people who are Harlequin subscribers and have the book or who have read the eBook—and that has been such a thrill. I’m finding that being an author is so much more rewarding than I ever expected.

Here's the link to Tessa's website. Go have a squiz - it's very pretty.

Hooks

I was signing and putting the Bound By Marriage winners books into envelopes, when I got to thinking how much I like the marriage of convenience storyline. I've written it in Bound By Marriage and Awaken to Pleasure - two different books but with the same 'hook'. Hmm, I wonder why it intrigues me so much?

The brain is too swiss-cheese this morning to go into deep analysis so let's just talk about what hooks/storylines we like to read. Here are a few of mine:

Marriage of Convenience
Friends to Lovers
Reunions

You?

Bound By Marriage Winners

Thanks to everyone who entered the contest. And the winners (picked randomly) are:

Marg
Shannon
Cherie J
Casee
Maria, Lover of All Things Romance

Congrats! Please email me your addresses at nalinisinghwrites @ gmail.com

Bound By Marriage

As you know, I have a book coming out next month. Bound By Marriage is a short contemporary set in New Zealand. It's a different book from my paranormals but it rocks (but then I would say that, wouldn't I?).

Here's your chance to decide for yourself. I'm going to give away several copies - all you have to do to be in to win is leave a comment on this post within the next twenty-four hours. I'll pick the winners tomorrow and put up their names later on in the day.

I know some of you have already got the book or ordered it (you are awesome!). If you win, I'll happily send you a copy of one of my other Sil Desires.

A note of interest for those of you aiming to write for Sil Desire: this is the first one of my Desire books to come out under the new guidelines.