Valentine Countdown Blitz: The Lilac Plague

Kristin J. Dawson is a non-recovering chocolate and romantic English movie addict who loves to read science fiction and fantasy. You can find her most often indulging her favorite things at 2 am -- night owls unite! 

Kristin writes high fantasy with political intrigue, a bit of romance, and of course, magic. When she's not writing, toting her kids around to sports practices, or cleaning out the chicken coop, she's probably trying to talk her friends into more shenanigans.

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An oath betrayed. A centuries-long curse. 

A kingdom teetering on the edge of destruction.

In a world of magic, Nicoleta is unremarkable, except for her cursed, stuttering tongue. No special powers, no renowned apprenticeship, just the terrible, stammering aftereffects of the Lilac Plague.

Until she opens the ghostly blue vision from her mother.

Instead of words of endearment, the vision reveals that Nicoleta’s mother was a Guardian entrusted with a magical key — a key so powerful that those who rule will do anything to find it.

The burden of protecting the key now falls to Nicoleta. In a race against the crown, she must find the treasure and the true heir, the only one who can stop the curse from being fulfilled. Impossible? Almost certainly. One false step spells disaster. But Nicoleta is no fool. Where those before her died trying, Nicoleta forges a new path, relying on her wits and some unlikely allies.

Do you dare face the Lilac Plague? This coming of age, young adult fantasy adventure with mysterious magic, evil emperors, and a thread of romance will leave you amazed and clamoring for the next book."

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Snippet:

In The Lilac Plague, there is a language of magic, created by a linguist who combined two of the ancient cultures my book was partly inspired by. You can read the entire oath in the book, but here's a snippet!

To bind the key with your soul...
Va poltim o kaga met ditaveshi

To imprint duty on your heart...
Va skalm taut dpi dabaveshi

Protect the key while it protects you...
Mezenai to kagareshi mezenzai veshreshidi

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Valentine Countdown Blitz: Kendrick

My name is Robyn Echols. Zina Abbott is the pen name I use for my American historical romance novels. I’m a member of Women Writing the West, Western Writers of America, and American Night Writers Association. I currently live with my husband in California’s central valley near the “Gateway to Yosemite.” 

I love to read, quilt, work with digital images on my photo editing program, and work on my own family history. 

I am a blogger. In addition to my own blog, I blog for several group blogs including the Sweet Americana Sweethearts blog, which I started and administer.

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Kendrick Denham left his family farm back east, fought in the war with Mexico, then answered gold’s call after it was discovered in California. In late 1852, when he reached Columbia, known as “The Gem of the Southern Mines,” he realized the easy-to-find placer gold was no longer that easy to find.  He decided he would do better providing fresh meat to the townspeople. With extremely few women in the region, and most of the respectable ones already married, Kendrick entertains no ambitions for a wife and family. Then the county sheriff rides over from Sonora. With a cryptic expression, he hands Kendrick a six-month-old baby girl. “The mother named you as the father.”

Now her late husband’s stepson, whom she finished raising, is of age to inherit the farm left to him by his birth father, Lydia Meyer and her two young sons have been forced out of her home of over ten years. She leaves Pennsylvania headed for the wild gold fields of Columbia, California. She dreads living off the charity of her older sister who is just as disagreeable and overbearing as their late mother had been. Warned that most of the miners in California, many of whom left families back east to seek their fortunes, tend to be unsettled, uncouth, and prone to drinking and gambling, she worries it may be impossible to find a good father for her children. Even if she weds again, will it be another loveless marriage like her first?

Then there is baby Madeline, who is cast adrift in the world, all alone, with no one to love her. What will become of her?

KENDRICK is a stand-alone sweet American historical romance that is part of the multi-author series, Bachelors & Babies. Under the sub-title, “Too Old for Babies,” it is also part of the author’s own series, Too Old in Columbia."

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Top Ten List:

1.  My faith and attending Church

2.  My family

3.  Writing

4.  Reading books

5.  Dark chocolate (There is a symbiotic relationship between 3, 4, & 5)

6.  Road trips with my husband

7.  Attending writing conventions (6 & 7 are also related)

8.  Quilting

9.  Digital photo-editing

10.  Genealogy

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Valentine Countdown Blitz: The Last Goodbye

Bestselling Author Bernadette Marie is known for building families readers want to be part of. Her series The Keller Family has graced bestseller charts since its release in 2011. Since then she has authored and published over thirty-five books. The married mother of five sons promises romances with a Happily Ever After always…and says she can write it because she lives it.

When not immersed in the writing/publishing world, Bernadette Marie and her husband are shuffling their five hockey playing boys around town to practices and games as well as running their family business. She is a lover of a good stout craft beer and might be slightly addicted to chocolate.

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Everyone deserves one last goodbye.

As far back as Grace Carter could remember, she'd been able to communicate with the deceased. Of course, working in her family's mortuary put her in constant contact with those who had crossed over, if she didn't take steps to block them out, which she preferred to do. However, some spirits are stronger than others…

Nora Campbell had nearly been ready to die, but she still had some unfinished business. From the other side, she found the woman she wanted her grandson to fall in love with, and she put her matchmaking plan in motion. Nora was insistent that Grace get a message to her grandson, TV reporter Matthew Campbell, and together they could pass on the last goodbyes of those who had passed.

Only now Grace must convince Matthew she is in touch with his grandmother and not some crazy woman who spends all her time with the deceased.

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Top Ten List:

10 Fun Facts:

1. I learned to drive a fork lift at the age of 7

2. A voice coach told me at the age of 17 I had an operatic voice that was 10 years ahead of my time.

3. Princess Leia is my favorite “Disney” Princess.

4. On that note…I’m absolutely addicted to Disneyland (and don’t mind being dragged to Disney World.)

5. I opened my first business when I was just 20 years old and have been in business for myself ever since.

6. I sent my first manuscript for publication when I was 16.

7. I am a 2^nd degree black belt in Tang Soo Do.

8. I am a Colorado native, and I’ve never been skiing.

9. I collect vintage lunch boxes which I display in my kitchen.

10. I am horribly unorganized, but people think the opposite (I’m a good faker!)

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Valentine Countdown Blitz: Mercy

Rachel Rossano is a happily married mother of three children. She spends her days teaching, mothering, and keeping the chaos at bay. After the children are in bed, she immerses herself in the fantasy worlds of her books. 

Tales of romance, adventure, and virtue set in a medieval fantasy world are her preference, but she also writes speculative fantasy and a bit of science fiction.

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The royal wedding approaches and the country is alive with anticipation. 

 Among the craftsmen traveling to the capital is Constance Rendare and her family. An artist, a widow of an unhappy marriage, and the mother of a young son, she dreams of escaping the cruel servitude of her father’s household. 

 Wilard Naron serves the Earl of Dentin. He returns to the capital, his childhood home, to collect his earnings and finally free himself from his father’s reputation. 

 Kidnappings, bandits, and a plot against the king complicate the journey. The conflicts throw Constance and Wilard together as their circumstances grow steadily worse. The more the pair uncovers, the direr the future looks for the country and for them.

Come join the Tour for this book HERE to see Reviews and more chances to win prizes!

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Top Ten List:

1.Why do you choose to write romance? Do you write any other genres?
I have always been a romantic, not the loose flowy dresses and head in the clouds kind, though. I am more of the optimistic/realistic, happy ending seeking, seeing how two people could be great together kind of person. 
Yes, I write other genres. I have a two books of a speculative fantasy trilogy published, and I am working on a science fiction saga that is a prequel to a short story available on Amazon.

2.How long does it take you to write a book, typically?
It depends. Typically, I would say it takes me about a year, but my shortest period took eight months. My longest project demanded more than a decade, so it depends. I definitely aim for finishing in a year.

3.Since a lot of romance books show both male and female perspectives, share with us the most difficult thing about writing the perspective of the opposite gender?
Men see the world differently than women. They tend to be more action focused and less feelings focused, but they definitely feel as well. Writing from a man’s perspective can be especially difficult if the character is unwilling to admit they are emotionally involved. However, there are ways around it. Thankfully, my husband is very good at pointing out when my male characters aren’t acting logically enough.

4.What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
Hmm… According to my readers, I am good at writing interesting male characters. A recent reviewer commented on how much she liked my characters’ banter. I also tend to write secondary and tertiary characters who then end up with their own stories or, as in the case of the Earl of Dentin, take over the whole series.

5.Tell us a bit about a future project you are working on? Do you have any little sneak peeks you can share?
Currently, my project is a nine book series loosely inspired by fairy tales. The Beauty and the Beast novel is written and partially edited. I am wrapping up a mashup between Rapunzel and East of the Sun West of the Moon. Next, I am debating writing one inspired by the Month Brothers or a completely new idea called Constant Companion.
Next on my writing list, though, is the Fourth Novel of Rhynan. It doesn’t have a title yet, but it involves a mysterious character from Mercy and a yoeman’s daughter as they work to protect the infant prince. Dentin is also involved, of course.
A sneak peek from Grace by Contract, my Beauty and the Beast novel from the Duke of Brackenhurst’s point of view:
As I shoved open the heavy door to my workroom, I was surprised to find the room dark, a curtain pulled across the window blocking out the pre-dawn glow and the fire burning low in the grate letting off a meager heat.
Muttering against whoever had blocked the room’s chief source of natural light, I thumped my way across the dim space without a thought to the fact I couldn’t see the obstacles in the dimness. Upon reaching the window, I tugged at the curtain. 
It billowed and landed at my feet in a pool of green linen. Only then did I recognize it as one of the linen tablecloths that my father had spread on his worktables when the room had been his. Whoever had hung it hadn’t even secured it. 
I leaned over to pluck it from the floor before I recalled my injury. Pain laced through my knee, sending me scrambling with my handless left arm for a chair to prevent a total loss of dignity. One was within reach. I fell into it.
It was then I spotted her.
Three tables away Grace sat in my customary chair, head resting on her crossed arms as they lay on the open log book before her. With her face turned away from the window, I could only see the waves of unbound hair cascading over my book, desk, and blotter. Something in my gut twisted in a strange mixture of desire and irritation. Why was she here and not in her bed? Who had hung the makeshift curtain? She wouldn’t have been able to even with the increased height of standing on a chair.
As I sat there, temporarily enraptured with watching the rise and the fall of her shoulders beneath the luxurious waves of hair, I wondered what to do. Part of me wanted to let her sleep and regretted that I had risked disturbing her rest by removing the curtain. 
Another part of me wished to wake her and demand to know what she had been doing with my record books. They were definitely not within the scope of her position as my scribe. She was supposed to be writing and reading letters for me, not messing with accounts. Those were under Faramond’s and Rambler’s purview. 
Then there was the issue of working around her if she didn’t wake.
~~~~~
6.What is the most romantic date you have ever been on? Or, what is your idea of the perfect Valentine Date?
My husband, knowing how much I love Jane Austen movies, arranged to surprise me with a birthday viewing of Pride and Prejudice (the Kiera Knightley version) in a second run theater after I had given up hope of seeing it in theaters. Then he watched it with me and discussed it during dinner after the movie.

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Valentine Countdown Blitz: The Wayward Miss Wainwright

Arabella Sheraton grew up on a diet of Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, and many other writers of that period. From Jane Austen to Georgette Heyer, Arabella has found both enjoyment and inspiration in sparkling, witty Regency novels. She also loves history and generally finds the past more fascinating than the future. Arabella wrote her first Regency romance to entertain her aged mom who loved the genre. Arabella is honoured to share the adventures of her heroes and heroines with readers.

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A witty traditional Regency romance that will captivate fans of the genre. 

When Helena Wainwright accompanies her two young nieces and her nephew to stay at Rotherham Park with their new guardian who is their uncle, the Duke of Rotherham, she agrees to remain for six months to help the children adjust to their new life. She finds the handsome, charming Duke of Rotherham to be the most insufferable, self-opinionated, domineering and arrogant man she has ever met. Unhappily, the duke also holds an unflattering opinion of Helena. “Wayward was the only word to describe such a determined, contrary, and obstinate young woman who defied him at every turn regarding the upbringing of his wards. He would be very glad to see her go.” 

The Duke of Rotherham is contemplating making Miss Emily Fanshawe, a beautiful, and (everyone thinks) well-bred young woman an offer of marriage. However, Emily has terrible secrets to hide, besides having a clandestine lover. Helena discovers Emily's secrets and does not know which way to turn. If she reveals the truth to protect the duke's social standing, she will betray Emily, with dire consequences. Besides, the duke seems determined to marry Emily, simply to prove a point, even though his godmother, Lady Mildred Ormsby has suspicions the Fanshawes are not who they say they are! Emily’s mother is hell-bent on marrying her daughter off to a rich, preferably titled, man. She will let nothing stand in her way, even stooping to abduction and possibly murder. 

Can Helena win in the face of heavy odds and the machinations of a wicked schemer? And will she want the Duke of Rotherham for herself when hidden elements of his romantic past come to light?

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Q&A with the Author:

1.Why do you choose to write romance? Do you write any other genres?
a)I wrote my first Regency romance novel to entertain my mom who was an invalid. I do write in other genres but prefer to be known for my romances.

2.How long does it take you to write a book, typically?
a)It depends on the depth of the plot but generally a year from start to final editing and completion.

3.Since a lot of romance books show both male and female perspectives, share with us the most difficult thing about writing the perspective of the opposite gender?
a)I don’t have any problems writing from the male perspective. Possibly because I have four brothers?

4.What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
a)I start every romance novel with a catchy title. Nothing else. Then I wait for the story to emerge in my imagination. I’m not sure why I do it this way, but it works for me.

5.Tell us a bit about a future project you are working on? Do you have any little sneak peeks you can share?
a)I’m working on a time travel/murder mystery Regency romance which is absolutely intriguing. I love reading murder mysteries and have always wanted to write one.

6.What is the most romantic date you have ever been on? Or, what is your idea of the perfect Valentine Date?
a)When I first met my husband, we went on a date to a restaurant and were so involved with talking and getting to know  each other that we never ordered dinner. The waiter put us in a corner and forgot about us but since we had forgotten about everything else, it was fine.

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