I’m so excited that Paranormal Lia Davis has dropped by to talk to us about her latest book, Winter Eve. This story is a great way to warm up on those cold winter nights.

There comes a time when setting your differences aside isn’t just necessary, it’s a means of survival. After losing over half of their dens to a group rogue shifters, the wolves and leopards merged as one Pack, but living together is much more of a challenge then they expected.

It’s a wonderful, intriguing, and scary place to be. But I wouldn’t trade mine for anything. LOL.

So what is it like? Well sometimes you feel like at outsider around non-writers, or just non-artistic people in general. I’m a little reserved when meeting new people, because I don’t think like others. My mind is always running. My muse is always searching for new plot ideas, watching others reaction , or she’s just plotting world destruction with the bad guys. Some of the things I think of will make people leery of me if they don’t know that I’m teasing. So my serious side comes out, until I get to know that person.

Around my friends and family, I’m more open and a little sarcastic. I’m able to speak freely without strange looks. Umm, that’s not true. They do give me strange looks, but they’re my friends, so I give them back. LOL.

My day job is stressful and we deal with a lot situations where humor is the only way to stay sane. So my strange and random thought process is welcome to break the tension. They just never know what I’ll say. All my co-workers know I’m a writer and some have read my books and keep reading each new release. I have great friends. LOL.

The wonder part about being a writer is I get to create new worlds and characters, fall in love with them, share with my readers, and get awesome feedback from my readers (aka author stalkers.) Yep, I’m an author stalker, too. J Virtually of course, and never in a freaky, sicko way either.

What’s intriguing? The mystery of not knowing when my characters will decide to change the outline on me. That’s always fun. I have to trust that they will get me back on the road.

Now the scary part. I have demons, magically beings, dragons, wolves, leopards, warlocks, and a bunch of evil-take-over-the-world people living inside my head. There is always a chance that someone will die. I’m never sure who it will be.

Thanks for coming by! Best wishes, Lia.

Author website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | G+

 GIVEAWAY!

There is a tour wide giveaway of $15 Amazon GC, handmade book thong, and a swag pack. Just follow the Rafflecopter instructions to enter. Good luck!

For more information about Lia’s most recent work, keep reading!

Winter Eve

Danica Welsh was born to be the leopard pack healer. An accident involving a drug induced youth left her badly burned and scared—emotionally and physically. Without the ability to heal by touch, she secludes herself to the edge of town, away from AshwoodFalls’ overly concerned citizens. All hope of mating and family become a distance dream. When she finally starts to accepts the long, lonely existence ahead of her, a stranger crashes into her life, and her heart.

After Nevan Mathews’ fiancée died three ago, he submerged himself into his work, cutting off all reminders of a life he dreamed of with the woman he loved. He lets his step-mother talk him into taking the first vacation in five years to visit for the holidays. But an accident delays his travel plans, sending him to Danica’s doorstep and raises a need he thought he would never feel again.

Can they tear down the walls around their hearts and submit to the passion before another claims Dani for his own?

Warning: Contains a shifter who’s scars run deeper than skin, a human who has the heart of a shifter, and a snow storm that’s sure to have them both reaching for warmth.

Excerpt:

Movement to his right caught his attention, and he narrowed his eyes for a better look. A large leopard crouched, staring at him from the roadside. With eyes that reflected the full moon’s light, the creature blinked and let out a soft growl before it turned to walk up a gravel driveway.

The animal was beautiful, scary, and its eyes held a hint of humanity. Could it be a were? Sarah hadn’t said anything about others living this far up the mountain. When the beast turned to look at him, he swore it wanted him to follow. He took a step forward, and the cat started walking again.

“Oh, great, Nev. You’re being lead away by a cat, like Alice and that damn rabbit,” he muttered to himself. No one would ever believe him. In fact, it was probably leading him to the den to share with the rest of the pack. Shaking his head at the ridiculous thought, he walked up the driveway. The cat sped up, running ahead much too fast for him. Then it darted into the woods a few feet from a single-story log cabin nestled into the surrounding trees. Another step caused a blinding light to click on, illuminating the front of the yard and the cabin. A few moments later, the door opened, revealing the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. She stepped out onto the large wide porch. Her straight silk-like strawberry blond hair cascaded over her shoulders and stopped at her waist. The light of the full moon cast against her pale skin made her look like a goddess.

“What can I do to help you?”

Her velvety smooth voice warmed his body and awoke a very specific part of his anatomy. It was several seconds before he found his voice and shook out of the trance she’d cast upon him. “I crashed my car and wondered if you have a phone. My cell doesn’t get service up here.”

“I don’t have a phone.” Her gaze left him to search their surroundings and stopped as she glanced toward the dark sky as though she saw something he didn’t, or couldn’t, see. “But, come inside. You’ll freeze to death in the storm.” She turned and walked back inside.

Storm?

A single snowflake drifted in front of his face, landing on his nose.

About Lia Davis:

Lia Davis is a mother to two young adults and two very special kitties, a wife to her soul mate, a paranormal romance author, graphic designer, and co-owner to Fated Desires Publishing, LLC. She and her family live in Northeast Florida battling hurricanes and very humid summers. But it’s her home and she loves it!

An accounting major, Lia has always been a dreamer with a very activity imagination. The wheels in her head never stop. She ventured into the world of writing and publishing in 2008 and loves it more than she imagined. Writing and designing are stress relievers that allow her to go off in her corner of the house and enter into another world that she created, leaving real life where it belongs.

Her favorite things are spending time with family, traveling, reading, writing, chocolate, coffee, nature and hanging out with her kitties.

~~~~

Title: Winter Eve, AshwoodFalls prequel
Author: By Lia Davis
Publisher: Fated Desires Publishing

Buy Links:

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Winter-Eve-Ashwood-Falls-ebook/dp/B00AP97Y3C/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1355751049&sr=8-8&keywords=lia+davis

B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/winter-eve-lia-davis/1045447813?ean=2940016105901

ARe: https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-wintereve-1026088-139.html

Kobo: http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Winter-Eve/book-XdS2jHnLRkaH2UbWnSXBpw/page1.html?s=eAhL72jjSE-X9ec7a5lSaA&r=3

 

 

 

Rafflecopter code:

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This time of year is tough. Family, food, shopping, food, the weather changes, food, your pants are shrinking…sometimes it feels like it would be easier to throw in the towel–or eat the towel–than to fight yourself and the scale.
But never fear! I know exactly where you are. A year ago, I made the decision to put myself first and give myself a healthier body.
I knew it wouldn’t be an overnight process, I didn’t swell to this size in a few weeks so I certainly wasn’t going to lose it in a month, but the process was frustrating and I did have setbacks.
In the past year, I’ve shed 40 pounds and kept it off by simply moving more, eating less. I still eat my favorite things, I just don’t eat them everyday. In fact, I enjoy them more because I have them less. Now, I’m starting the second phase of my weight loss, another 40 pounds by June 1, 2013 (provided we all live past December 21st) and I want you to join me in this journey. It’s far easier to tackle a big change like this with allies than alone. Just ask my heroine, Megan, from Weighting for Mr. Right.
Believe me, the holidays are a more than challenging time to begin a healthier lifestyle, but consider it a gift to yourself. Yes, it sounds very sunshine, rainbows, and unicorns, but there is no perfect time to begin. There’s always going to be a reason not to–holidays, summertime, too stressed out at work, it’s Tuesday, the sun is out, you breathe out carbon dioxide, John Stamos hasn’t returned any of your calls, whatever your excuse throw them out the window and say to yourself “Dammit! I’m worth it!”

To get all of you motivated and feeling good, I’m giving away a prize a week to help you get motivated with simply get going.Starting Saturday, December 1st-December 29th, you can throw your name in the hat for weekly prizes to help you start a healthier you.
All you have is answer a question each week in the comments section and I’ll have my lovely assistants (children) draw a name from the hat.
I’ll run the contest from Saturday to Friday, draw a winner, then a new prize on Saturday.
On January 2nd, I’ll have a special event for all of you to help you reach your goals for the coming year.
I want you all to understand, I don’t expect all of you to “slim up” and get skinny. This isn’t an anti-fat crusade, it’s a pro-health movement. I want you to simply get healthier.
To give yourself some tools, start with these five things:

(1) Make the decision to improve your health by increasing daily exercise and decreasing calories and stay off the scale! Nothing kills momentum like a wrong (in your opinion) number.
(2) Be mindful of what you’re eating–whether that’s through journalling what you’re eating, taking a picture of it, or checking it with your health buddy. Don’t mindlessly shovel food into your mouth. Enjoy each bite, take it slow.
(3) Keep checking back, posting how you’re doing, what your daily obstacles are, and how you worked through them or if you did.
(4) Be accountable. There are going to be setbacks, but don’t throw in the towel two seconds after arriving at a party with chocolate covered everything.
(5) Of course, buy Weighting for Mr. Right and learn about my heroine, Megan’s, journey to discover how incredible she is. Hopefully, it’ll encourage you to do the same.

Come back on Saturday to find out the prize, answer the question, and enter to win!

It’s true, week one of the National Novel Writing Month has already come to an end, and my very ambitious project to write a completely brand new novel (with only a day or two to sort out characters, plot, and story line)  proved to be just a little bit too ambitious. An honest assessment of my plan hit that halfway mark of the novel and came to an abrupt halt as my story line came to a crashing halt. So, in a panic, I opted for Plan B – expand and finish my 30,000 word novella,Tongs, Tartan, and Tin Pot Battleships into a 50,000 word novel!

A slight cheat, I know, but let’s be fair, I came upon this challenge rather late and had very little time to prepare. So, my novel Murias has hit a pause as I move it to the back burner while Tongs, Tartan, and Tin Pot Battleships is once again in ascension.

Stayed tuned – progress is good and the Tong fort is about to be stormed!

SEDITION is what you might call a new style political thriller.

Sedition. A Political Thriller

As international bestselling author Marc Cameron wrote, Sedition is a “thinking person’s thriller.  If you are a lover of details, you will enjoy this book.”

Bestselling Amazon author Steven Konkoly called it a “tightly written, suspenseful thriller from start to finish.”

And the Kindle Book Review recommends it for “its intensity, realism and overall sense of urgency.”

It reads like a cross between a movie and a historical novel.  And it’s my first book:

The President of The United States is dead. There is no Vice President to take 
his place.

As the nation slips into a constitutional crisis, a small group of 
disenfranchised neo-patriots conspire to violently seize power. They have the 
will. They already have someone on the inside. And they have the explosives.

SEDITION navigates the thin line between good versus evil and 
patriot versus traitor, proving there’s always a reason behind treason.

I’m a lifelong political reporter who finally decided to trade the daily turn of soundbites and highlights for an in-depth, well-researched relevant narrative.

SEDITION is not a typical blow ‘em up, shoot ‘em down tale of suspense.  Instead, it is heavy on art, history, and detail a la Clancy, Baldacci, or le Carre.

Please see the website http://seditionbook.com for more about the story, an excerpt of the opening pages, and more about me.  You’ll also find links to artwork, photographs of locations, and downloadable documents mentioned in the story.

It’s available at Amazon, iBooks, B&N.com, and CreateSpace.

Once upon a time, I wrote a story I thought want the most fantastic contemporary romance in the history of the publishing world. I mean, my mom said it was fantastic and I knew I had a great story so when I sold it to a new publisher, I couldn’t have been more excited.
“I’m going to be published! I’m an actual writer!”  I thought as I completely disregarded the previous five years I’d written health and parenting articles for major publications.

This is fiction, a whole new world! (Cue music)

Then the part of writing they never can truly prepare yourself for occurred–the book cover. I’d heard stories of authors having absolutely no say when it came to their book covers. This shocked me. You mean to tell me you slave over a story for months, years and someone who’s never read your work designs your cover? WTF? Well, maybe at some publishing houses, but not mine. This one will get it right, they will do right by me…oh crap.

I found my book cover online in their “coming soon” section. My editor hadn’t bothered to send it to me or even notify me the cover was live, yet there it was for the world to see…and it was terrible.

After all the hours I’d spent creating a story about a woman who decides to take control of her life and finds like, love, and the required Happily Ever After to end up with this cover:

Horrified doesn’t even cover it. I felt humiliated. My editor saw this and said it was good? Did she read even my book? I had to wonder because she said my book was “fine” the way it was. No edits needed.

No edits? I know I’m good, but I know I’m not that good.

Fine? I didn’t want fine! I wanted fantastic and this cover was far from fantastic.

Just the fact you can barely see my name across her blue jeans is enough to warrant changes. Then let’s add in a few other things like him cupping her boobs, his other hand looking like he was about to slip it down her pants, and her mischievous smile. It had me thinking she didn’t mind his octopus like hands and that would have been fine if my heroine liked being groped by what looks like a drunk cowboy. My heroine would be no where close to this woman.

I showed my husband. “It’s horrible!” I cried.

He cringed, “Uhm, I don’t think that’s your story.”

“It isn’t!” I tried to remain calm because certainly this was simply a misunderstanding. Certainly, all I had to do was contact my editor and…what? You’re not changing the cover? You know what you’re doing?

I cried, begged, pleaded with them to change the cover. Explained how it wasn’t my story and all I got was “we know what we’re doing.”

I talked to friends and they said “you’re going to have to either accept the cover or pull your book.”

How frustrating to get this far and to start off with a suck-ass book cover, but God was on my side on this one. Rumors of financial problems with said publisher started to circle the loops and my friends told me to pull my book.

I did and revised it, changed it, revised it again, and finally sold it this year.

My husband cringed when I told him I would get my cover soon. He dreaded a-bad-cover-my-wife-is-having-a-nervous-breakdown-event.

This is my cover now:

With a far better story, a fantastic editor and publisher, and a gorgeous cover, I can tell you it was all totally worth the wait, but wait, ten days before release, we found out there’s another book, just released, with the Worth the Weight title.
Now the quick change to Weighting for Mr. Right…done!

I’m watching tutorials on youtube.com on how to set up and change my website. Doesn’t it seem like the setting up takes so much longer than the actual maintenance?

Pregnancy brain. It hit me when I least expected it.
My 7 month belly had drained me of all rationale thought during a deadline, but I had to finish. I needed one piece of information and I had composed a shout-out over a health journalist loop to as for help. As I completed the last paragraph, the word subtle found its place in my dialogue.
I paused, no screeched to a halt. How do you spell subtle again? S-u-t…t-l-e? No, that’s not right.
I took a deep breath and tried again. S-u-t-t-l-e? I knew it was wrong, especially when the squiggly red line appeared underneath it.
How do I spell this word? After several attempts and a bucket of tears, I gave up.
I stared at it, knowing it was wrong, and yet had no idea how to fix it. I couldn’t even figure out how to use spell-check. Ugh, this baby had already started draining me of my supermommy powers, but I needed to send this out. I took a deep breath and hit send, knowing I’d get someone out there in cyberspace who’d let me know of my horrid spelling error.
Within hours, I received feedback on the question and then off-line, I got an email that simply stated, “By the way, subtle is spelled s-u-b-t-l-e.”
Immediately, I wrote her back and explained I was very pregnant and not only could I figure out how to spell correctly, but I couldn’t process how to hit spell check.
As luck would have it, she was the editor of Fit Pregnancy Magazine and asked me if I was having a boy or girl. They were doing a survey on pregnancy brain.
I responded “a girl” and then, I decided to pitched her a story of how I told my husband we were pregnant. Why not? The worst she could say was “no”.
She bought it! Within months, we ended up in their “How I told him” section of the magazine.
So sometimes things that look awful turn out even better than expected. Just like roads we take and decisions we make, they are done.
What happens next is all up to you. Do you sit and wallow in self-pity or do you stand up, shake it off, and move forward?
Sitting gets you no where. Moving gets you somewhere else.
I’ll take the moving.

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