Some Fun...

Rachel Lyndhurst tagged me for a bit of blog post fun! Well, she did say she'd get me back. I needed to do a blog post, and this is perfect as I really wasn't sure I had much to say right now. These are a list of things you may or may not know about me. Well, if you didn't know them, you do now:

Four places I have worked:

• A theme park
• A multinational manufacturing giant of household and cosmetic products.
• A company that sold O rings. Sounds much more interesting when I say I worked in rubber! lol!
• A aircraft manufacturing company.

Four movies I could watch again and again:

• Love Actually
• The A-Team 
• Stardust
• Footloose (edited... I can't believe I forgot this movie. There are lots of movies I'd watch over and over actually).

Four TV shows I watch:

• Desperate Housewives
• Doctor Who
• Torchwood
• Sherlock

Four places I have travelled:

• Turkey
• St Lucia
• Barbados
• New Zealand

Four authors I enjoy:

• Sue Moorcroft
• Liz Fielding
• Anne Rice
• Charlaine Harris

Four websites I visit daily:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Goodreads
• Livejournal

Four favourite foods:

• Crispy chilli beef (Chinese).
• Chicken Tikka Masala with peshwari naan
• Smothered chicken (bacon, cheese and bbq sauce).
• Pasta - a good carbonara or something. 

Four places I'd rather be:

• Sunning myself somewhere hot beside a pool, cocktail in hand, reading a good book.
• Sitting in (or outside if sunny) a café (ideally in a European city), sipping lattes and watching the day go by.
• Drinking an ice cold lager on the seafront. 
• Walking anywhere in New Zealand, ideally holding the hand of the man of my dreams.  

Four people I want to tag:

• Rachel Brimble
• Mandy Baggot
• Doris O'Connor
• Sally Quilford

This is only a bit of fun, but if you want to play, then make your own list and tag me back! (Because obviously I want to read).

Doris O'Connor Shares Too Cold To Love

Creative Inspiration

Today I have Doris O'Connor touring, to talk about Too Cold To Love. I met Doris through the Mills and Boon New Voice competition in September 2010. Unfortunately we haven't 'physically' met yet, but I'm sure we will one day. We belong to an online writing group - though I feel terribly guilty because I hardly contribute. But I try to give some input from time to time. Usually a "Phoarrrrr" to some hot half-naked picture posted of Joe Manganiello... I mean tick *like* to photographic inspiration...  

So here goes. This is what Doris has to say about Too Cold To Love.


1)    Give us your elevator pitch (to the reader) for what your book is about? (i.e. if you were stuck in a lift with a publisher/agent and they said, what's your book about? You've got two minutes till the door pings).

*panics* oh golly you do realise that I am absolutely useless at these things. I'm the quiet one in the corner, you know. Really, stop laughing. I am!

Okay- Too Cold To Love is book two in the Giovanni Clan series, a trilogy about a wealthy Italian family, living in the UK. If you like hunky Italian heroes, sassy heroines, hot sex, lots of heart wrenching emotions, twists and turns, secrets, scandal, and some hard hitting issues all wrapped up in the multicultural dynamics of a huge Italian family then this series is for you. The Giovanni are ruled with an iron fist by Mamma Stella Giovanni, who caused all sorts of problems in book one, when she meddled in her son's Alex's love life. In book two she's on her nephew's Marco's case. He doesn't take kindly to his Aunt's interference, because Marco is a man on a mission. Deeply hurt by his ex-wife he does not trust women, and pours all his energies into his business and his small daughter. What he doesn’t count on is his attraction to the new nanny. Elise has secrets of her own, secrets that eventually threaten to destroy her new life with Marco. Can love conquer all? Well, you have to read the book to find out ;-)

2)    My 'Twitter' question - Describe your heroine in 140 characters. (you can always check it on Twitter rather than count the 140 characters lol!).

Elise is passionate, loyal, with an inner core of steel, and an incredibly tough past. She fights for the ones she loves, including Marco.

3)    Obviously you're in love with your hero - you wouldn't have written him otherwise - but why do you love him, and think your readers will too? No character limit this time lol!

Marco

Ah, now you're talking, lol. Well for starters my visual inspiration for Marco Giovanni is Joe Manganiello. What's not to like, lol? Well, actually, that's not strictly speaking true. Physically speaking Marco is easy to swoon over, but the polished exterior hides a damaged man. Marco was a very strong voice in my head from the first page, but I didn't like him very much to start with. I know—gasp, horror! But bear with me. On the face of it Marco is ruthless, arrogant, single minded, and at times he doesn't treat Elise very well at all. I was quite worried that he was too unlikeable. About the only redeeming feature at the beginning of the book is the love he has for his daughter. With Mimi he is infinitely patient and kind, and you get the first glimpse of the passionate man he really is. As the story unfolds and we get to see past the mask, and the very real demons that Marco wrestles with on a daily basis I fell in love with him probably at the same time Elise did. Marco was my first truly tortured hero and he undergoes an incredible journey in this book.

Elise and Marco are a very special couple and if ever two people needed each other it's those two J

4)    And can you prove that all published writers are really human? i.e how do juggle writing with real life?

Ah, the dreaded juggling act. I think it helps that I'm used to juggling. Hubby and I have a brood of nine children, ranging in age from twenty one down to just eight months, so over the last twenty five years I have truly perfected the art of multi-tasking, and not sleeping, lol. The vast chunk of my writing takes place late into the night when the house is quiet, and whenever I get a few minutes I am usually either writing or reading. It also helps that I'm  no domestic goddess and I have a very understanding and supportive husband.

I always say that if writing truly is your passion then you will find the time to write somehow, because you simply have to make it your priority. In my case that means that all of my 'free' time is taking up with it. I do not watch television for instance and when I'm in the middle of a story and the words are flowing I simply can't stop writing. I've been known to write whilst cooking dinner and I reckon the baby will always associate feeding times with the tap of the keyboard. He was two weeks old when I got my very first set of edits and has been on my lap through it all ever since, lol.

It's certainly not easy and you need those around you to be supportive and understanding, but writing, for me, is like breathing.

Too Cold To Love blurb:
 
Marco Giovanni has shut off his emotions, following a messy divorce. His small daughter and his chain of bakeries are all he needs in his life. The string of nannies are an unfortunate necessity he could well do without. So why does his body have to remember its needs now with the latest and most unsuitable nanny ever?

Elise has always been the responsible one, so when she receives yet another SOS phone call from her wayward twin, she does the only thing she can do, she steps into her shoes. Having to go back to nannying is hard enough, the unexpected attraction to her arrogant employer impossible to deal with. Especially when she is forced to agree to a marriage of his convenience to pay off the debt her twin accrued.

In a marriage based on blackmail can passion turn into love, or will secrets and lies destroy all?

You can buy To Cold To Love at: 

Evernight Publishing
Bookstrand 
All Romance Books

You can find Doris here on Twitter, Facebook, Blog, and Website.

Thanks Doris for popping by, and good luck with Too Cold To Love. That is one hot book cover. Phew!