Tag Archive | Historical Romance

Lauren Smith Unplugged

Apr7

She’s naughty and nice, and a multi-published, best-selling author who is a lawyer by day, and a word warrior of sexy reads at night.

She was interviewed on Playboy Radio to discuss her steamy novels where she revealed a SURPRISING twist.

Lauren discusses this twist in our chat here on my blog. Read on to find out what it is.

 

Please join me in welcoming Lauren Smith to the blog.

 

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Selena: What is the most outrageous thing you’ve done in the name of “research” for one of your books?

Lauren: I haven’t done anything really crazy in the name of research. I have however, just done crazy things that are fun enough I hope they end up in a book someday. I once touched a four-hundred-year-old female mummy in a crypt in a church in Dublin Ireland where it was rumored Bram Stoker got his idea for Dracula because the corpses in this crypt didn’t decay.

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You can read my review of WICKED DESIGNS on Amazon and Goodreads. A fun, sexy book. ~Selena~

Selena: Tell us something that is not well known about you.

Lauren: I’m a virgin!

Selena: What did I tell you about the twist, folks? Lauren discusses her virginity in an interview (click here to read more). If you could have had the starring role in one film already made, which movie would you pick?

Lauren: Oh my heavens…it would be the girl opposite Scott Eastwood in the movie The Longest Ride…damn he’s heavenly and I’d want a piece of him.

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Selena: If you could have been told one thing that you weren’t told when you were a teenager, what would you like to have heard?

Lauren: Hmmm that’s a toughie. I’ve been really lucky getting good advice, so I’m not sure, but I know one thing that was told to me that helped when I was younger. “Tough out the things you hate doing. Some day when you’re old enough, you won’t have to do them anymore.”

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Selena: Name the most famous person you’ve had a face to face encounter with (“brush with greatness”).

Lauren: Apparently I bumped into that girl who was Willow from Buffy The Vampire Slayer when we were leaving a pizzeria in Los Angeles one time. But I was looking down and didn’t know it and my brother told me 30 seconds later and I was like…what?!

Selena: If you could be one for just 24 hours, what cereal box cartoon character would you be? Why?

Lauren: Count Chocula (but I’d want to be a girl version).

Lauren, thank you for the fun interview!

About Lauren Smith

Amazon best-selling author Lauren Smith is an attorney by day, author by night, who pens adventurous and edgy romance stories by the light of her smart phone flashlight app. She’s a native Oklahoman who lives with her three pets—a feisty chinchilla, sophisticated cat and dapper little schnauzer. She’s won multiple awards in several romance subgenres including being an Amazon.com Breakthrough Novel Award Quarter-Finalist and a Semi-Finalist for the Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley Award.

 

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Connect with Lauren Smith

You can purchase Lauren Smith Gear at her store where she sells items with exclusive designs showing off the fun and sexy League of Rogues series. Get your reader gear now!

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Prepare for Halloween with an Asylum & a Contest

Oct11

Please welcome, multi-talented, award winning author, Denise A. Agnew to my blog, as she talks about her soon to be released, romantic, paranormal, Asylum Trilogy.

Denise is also giving away a book. (Contest details below).

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Thank you so much to Selena Robins for inviting me to blog here today. I’m happy to be here and share a tidbit with you about my Asylum Trilogy that debuts on Halloween.

This time of year is always special to me. I love autumn, and Halloween is my favorite holiday, so releasing a trilogy filled with chills, romance, and scary paranormal elements is right up my alley.

The Asylum Trilogy formed in my mind one evening as I watched a spooky program about the Trans-Alleghany Lunatic Asylum and the legend of a little girl ghost. That was the springboard for my idea, and I ran with it. As my ideas formed, I realized that one novel wouldn’t hold all I wanted to tell about the asylum.

In Asylum 1: Shadows Wait, I tell the tale of Lilly Luna, a young woman who born in the asylum and grew up there. How does she perceive and deal with the outside world?

What does love feel like to her when the superintendent’s handsome son takes notice of her?

Lilly isn’t an ordinary woman. She’s haunted by the ghost of a young girl she accidentally killed. And the ghosts of other women in the asylum who died at the hands of a serial killer also want her help. They’re dying to get it. No pun intended.

In Asylum 2: Shadows Rise, the ghosts are getting stronger, the evil is thicker. This story is set in 1918 and holds a special meaning in my heart.

Disease and war are two topics only occasionally mentioned in most romance novels. Many romance authors don’t feel it necessary to dig deep into the worst nature of the time periods for which they write their novels. This is neither good nor bad, but I’ll admit that the grit is something I want to know and write. I like getting my hands dirty.

Even before I started research into the era surrounding World War I, I wanted to start writing about the hero and heroine and the extraordinary circumstances they would have encountered going through World War I and the influenza pandemic that ravaged the world from 1917 to 1920. The more I read about these events, the more it became apparent to me that these years were horrific times. Everyone on earth was in peril in a way few generations had been before.  The people who survived these events were amazing. How could I have not written a romance during this time period?

In Asylum 3: Shadows Fall, Tranquil View Asylum has been turned into condos. But you know the evil is there, still festering, still haunting any who dare entered its halls. A woman who believes in the supernatural and owns a new age shop knows there’s something awful in Tranquil View. The ex-marine who doesn’t believe in the paranormal knows something happened to his mother, but he refuses to believe the evil in the asylum had anything to do with it. As the asylum wraps them in fear, they’ll turn to a paranormal investigation team to discover what happened to his mother, and how to survive the darkness living within the building.

For blurbs and excerpts, please stop by my website.

There you’ll discover all the information on my books, including the Asylum Trilogy. Also, be certain to sign up for my monthly newsletter on my website. I’m putting out an additional newsletter after the Asylum Trilogy is released for a reminder to all interested readers.

Contest:

Comment on this blog and you could win an e-book from Denise Agnew’s back-list.

Tell her; what scares you to bits?

What is Steampunk?

Aug30

If you’re like me, you may not know a lot about the Steampunk genre. I know I could check wikipedia or Google it, but it’s much more fun to discover how a genre is written by reading a Steampunk book and chatting with an author who writes in this genre.

My first foray into Steampunk was with P.G. Forte’s, THIS WINTER HEART. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

P.G. Forte joins us on the blog to explain in her own words what Steampunk is and she shares an excerpt.

First I’d like to share my review of THIS WINTER’S HEART.

Intriguing, suspenseful, heartfelt love story.

PG Forte packs the story with a lot of emotion, especially from the hero, Dario. I loved the hero of this book from the beginning. PG Forte delved into his internal turmoil realistically. I felt his internal conflict, angst and his struggle with loving a woman, who he feels he cannot trust and accept. His wife, Ophelia is not who he thought she was when he married her—-through no fault of her own—-and it will have the reader wondering as well, if Dario should unleash his passion and give her unconditional love.
I also enjoyed the fantasy element, the historical setting and PG Forte’s voice. She has a wonderful writing style. The scientific elements in the story didn’t take away from the sexual tension or passion between Dario and Ophelia. These elements added intrigue and suspense, especially during one scene, where the reader isn’t quite sure if this will have a happy ever after ending or if this family can actually hold it together.
The internal and external conflicts are well drawn out in this story and the characters are unpredictable, and three-dimensional, which is why they worked so well in this story.

Welcome, PG, please share with the readers your knowledge of Steampunk.

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Welcome Denise Agnew – Interview – Excerpt & Contest

Jul11

Please join  me in welcoming and congratulating Denise Agnew on her latest release BEFORE THE DAWN.

Denise is here to chat with us, share an excerpt of BEFORE THE DAWN and is offering a prize for one lucky blog commentator (details below).

I’ve had the honor and pleasure to critique Denise Agnew’s latest release BEFORE THE DAWN.

I highly recommend this beautifully written historical.

The chemistry between Elijah and Mary Jane is strong from the moment they meet, increasing with every encounter. A tortured hero, a strong heroine, both vulnerable and in danger, makes for high suspense, sizzling sexual tension and great love scenes.

Interview with Denise Agnew:

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