Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Playing catch-up! + giveaway Seasons of Wine and Love

Hello!  It's been a few weeks.  I'm still getting used to this whole blogging thing and not very good at it.  To top it off, I'll be gone for a few weeks and won't get a chance to blog.  But when I get back, I should have all kinds of stuff to share!

For today, first I'll tell you where I'm going...with Lost In Italy available now, it's time to get cracking on the second book, Run To Rome, which is Halli's brother Ben's book.  But the heroine is an Italian, and I'm a bit nervous about writing that character, so my brother suggested I come with him on his next work trip.  It worked out on my end, so on Friday, I'll be winging it over to Italy. Over the course of 10 days my brother and I will make our way from Milan to Rome, much the same as my characters.  My plan is to share much of the travel fun in blogs as I'm writing the book next year. I'll be taking lots of pictures and keeping an extensive travel log.  Maybe write the blogs each night before bed.

Now for a little housekeeping.  I've been lax in making sure winners were announced on my Sunday Share blogs, so I'll be posting comments and contacting any winners who haven't been notified yet.

For the Lost in Italy ebook giveaway, Mary Jo/Casey Clifford won, but she'd already bought a copy of the book so she asked me to give it away again.  What I'm going to do is open it up to everyone , along with a bonus giveaway from me of her ebook, Seasons of Wine and Love.  She's a wonderful author, has a great blog, and I'm really looking forward to her book on the plane ride over to Italy.

Because I'll be gone, this contest is open until Nov. 9th, so get your comments in. 

Something I'd like to focus on is creating more positivity in my life and hopefully, in yours.  So I've started a hashtag on Twitter #wellcheck where everyone is encouraged to share what went well in their day or week.  I'm @StaceyJoyNetzel if you'd like to follow me.

In light of that, for a chance to win either Lost In Italy or Seasons of Wine and Love, tell me what when well for you lately?  Good news makes everyone's day brighter!

Thanks for reading, take care, and see you in a couple weeks.  (Unless I get a chance to log in from my brother's laptop in Italy.)

Stacey Joy Netzel

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Sunday Share: After Midnight, by Sarah Grimm + giveaway

Welcome to The Wild Rose Press author Sarah Grimm and her new release, After Midnight.  Enjoy her excellent excerpt, comment for a chance to win a copy of the book here, and then head over to Sarah's blog to see how you can win other great prize packages of books in honor of her release!  (including a couple of mine)

AFTER MIDNIGHT, by Sarah Grimm

Buy link:  The Wild Rose Press

Genre:  contemporary romance

Heat level:  hot

Thirteen years—that's how long Isabeau Montgomery has been living a lie. After an automobile accident took her mother's life, Izzy hid herself away, surviving the only way she knew how. Now she is happy in her carefully reconstructed life. That is until he walks through the door of her bar...

Black Phoenix singer/front man Noah Clark came to Long Island City with a goal—one that doesn't include an instant, electric attraction to the dark-haired beauty behind the bar. Coaxing her into his bed won't be easy, but he can't get her pale, haunted eyes nor her skill on the piano out of his head.

Can Noah help Isabeau overcome the past? Or will her need to protect her secret force her back into hiding and destroy their chance at happiness?

EXCERPT:

“I’m not the type of woman men fall for.”

“I’ve fallen for you.”

Heat flooded her system. She forced herself to breathe, to keep her eyes locked with his. “No you haven’t. You …”

He pushed off the mantel and stepped in her direction. “I, what?”

“Never mind.”

“Finish the sentence, Isabeau.”

“I don’t think so.”

“Then let me.” He closed the distance between them. “You were going to say I haven’t fallen for you, weren’t you? You actually believe him? That you’re nothing more to me than convenient?”

Her pulse throbbed thick and hard. Heat radiated off his body. The scent of him filled her head. She wanted, more than anything, to press herself against him and relive the pleasure of his mouth against hers. Instead, she lifted her chin. “Maybe.”

He leaned in close. So close his breath brushed across her lips. “You believe him, but not me?”

“You are here only temporarily.”

“Yes.”

“And I am just down the street.”

“I suppose.”

She ran her tongue over her dry lips. “So the whole thing does seem rather—”

“Don’t say it.”

“—convenient.”

Something dangerous came and went in his eyes. “Now I’m getting angry.”

His hands skimmed down her sides, slipped under her shirt and settled on her lace-covered bottom. Her breath went uneven. Searing need swarmed her.

“You want something to believe, believe this.” He pulled her into the solid ridge of his erection. She lost her concentration. “There is nothing convenient about the way I feel about you.”

BIO:

As a young girl, Sarah Grimm always had a story to tell. At times they were funny, other times scary, but they were always happily-ever-after. Sarah lives in West Michigan with her husband, two sons and three miniature schnauzers.



Find Sarah Online:




Thanks for sharing with us today Sarah.  I love the last line of your excerpt!

Congratulations on the new release and also on your 2011 Readers' Favorite Award for Not Without Risk.

Stacey Joy Netzel

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Sunday Share: Lost In Italy, by Stacey Joy Netzel + giveaway!

This Sunday I'm sharing my newest release, LOST IN ITALY.  This book was inspired by a personal experience where my brother and sister drove off without me in Italy.  Took them ten minutes to realize I wasn't in the car, and another almost twenty to find their way back on the one way streets around Lake Como.  I've since forgiven them, and we enjoy a good laugh about it.  Pick up a copy of the book and you can enjoy my therapy session over the experience, in about 112,000 words.

To win a copy of LOST IN ITALY, share an adventure you experienced during vacation in the comments section.  I'll post the winner's name in comments on Wednesday!

Lost In Italy

Genre:  Romantic Suspense
Heat level:  Hot

Available at Amazon, Barnes &Noble (soon!), and other online retailers.


The best laid plans…

Halli Sanders spent two years planning the trip of a lifetime to Italy. Her itinerary did not include being stranded by her siblings, kidnapped by a sexy American movie star, dodging bullets, or fleeing criminals in a car chase around Lake Como. And that’s just in the first three hours.

…often go awry.

Trent Tomlin put his movie career on hold to investigate his brother’s murder-ruled-suicide at his Italian villa. He’s closing in on the suspects when an American tourist unwittingly films the murder of the retired cop helping him. The killers will stop at nothing to get the evidence—including holding Halli’s family as collateral.

Life’s a little different unscripted.

Thrust into the role of real-life hero, Trent finds himself falling for the Plain Jane whose beauty blossoms with every challenge they face. But how can he keep the evidence from falling into the wrong hands and get justice for his brother and friend without betraying Halli and her family?

~*~
 A lone swan near shore  reminded her of the camera still clutched in her hand.  The red light on the front reminded her she was still recording.  Ironically, the camera was part of the reason she was sitting here alone, and yet she’d completely forgotten about it.
She stopped the video and swiveled to take a seat on the cool ledge of stone that held the lake water at bay.  It was the  perfect vantage point to keep the loitering man across the street in sight.  A glance over her shoulder located where the other swans had landed a good distance from the villa’s dock.
She frowned and faced the lake.  Strange how that person had burst so suddenly from the villa.
The noon sun sat at a point that she had to squint and shade her eyes to see the structure’s stone walls across the small inlet of water.  Even then, it was too far away for the naked eye.  Flipping open the viewfinder as she lifted the camera, she waited for it to focus, then tried to zoom.  The low battery indicator flashed as she maxed the zoom.
She studied the picture.  Something was different—one of the windows looked odd.  Her attention snagged on a tall figure in the corner of the pane.  Longish dark hair above a square jaw with a severe slash for a mouth.  He raised a pair of binoculars to look across the bay.  Her pulse jerked when he zeroed in and stared straight at her—
Tires squealed and an engine revved loud to her right.  Halli jumped about a foot.  Ben and Rachel!  An uncharacteristic spurt of anger doubled her anxiety as she whirled around.
“I can’t believe you guys left—”
Words disappeared with the heart-stuttering realization that the shiny blue convertible half pulled onto the cobblestone sidewalk was not her brother and sister.  And the man in the driver’s seat most certainly was not her brother.
Plain was the first word that came to mind when Trent Tomlin got a good, close-up look at the girl dressed in baggy black pants and an oversized black T-shirt.  Except for her eyes.  Almost the exact color of his car, they blazed with anger—if the shrill tone of her voice were any indication.
Because he couldn’t afford to waste a second, he slipped into his carefree, celebrity character while pushing up his Ray Bans to flash his trade-mark, million dollar grin past the two day’s worth of camouflaging scruff on his jaw.
“Hi.”  Usually that’s all he needed.  One…two…
Astonishment replaced anger.
…three.
“Oh my God. You’re Shain West.”
“Only in the movies, darlin’.”
That always got ‘em, too, the good-ol’-boy, southern drawl.  Didn’t matter he’d been born and raised in northern Oregon, he had a natural talent for mimicking any accent. After just a few words, he easily placed her in mid-west United States.  American tourist.  Perfect.  It also explained why she’d been video taping in the wrong place at the wrong damn time.  The opposite of his brother, and if he could help it, the opposite outcome.
Her cheeks flushed.  “Of course.  I know your real name.  Sorry.  It’s just—I’m…ah…I’m…”
Hell, he’d better speed this up.  “Can I give you a lift?”
“W-what?”  She craned her head around, as if he might be speaking to someone else.
Resisting the urge to check over his shoulder, he kept his gaze trained on her.  “You look lost.  Hop in and I’ll give you a ride.”
Her throat convulsed, and though he wouldn’t have thought it possible, her blush deepened to crimson.  A fleeting smile revealed even, white teeth.
“Oh, no.  I mean, um, thank you, but no.”
She lifted a hand to tuck a strand of straight brown hair behind her ear as she searched back and forth along the road.
Trent cast his own quick glance in the rearview mirror, pressure squeezing his body like a starving boa constrictor as he searched for the men who’d spotted her and her camera across the bay.  By his amateur calculations, he figured he had about three more minutes.  If they were lucky.
Pushing up to sit on the headrest, he prepared to turn on the superstar charm that had brought him such success at the box office.
“I’m waiting for my brother and sister,” she said before he could speak.
So that’s who’d driven off as he watched the scene unfold from one street above and behind her.  He lifted a tense shoulder in a careless gesture.  “Quick spin around town, and I’ll bring you right back.  They’ll never know you were gone, sugar.”
Her eyebrows drew together above those deep blue eyes.  Damn.  He fought his own frown.  Based on previous experience with star-struck women, she should’ve jumped in at the first invitation.  Wasn’t it just his luck, this one had common sense.
Leaving the car running, he swung his legs over the door and rounded the front of the convertible.  His heart thumped with each step as he tried to figure out the best way to get her out of this mess.  It was one thing when he was following a script, but how the hell did one orchestrate a rescue in real life when the rescuee wouldn’t cooperate and he had no time to explain the danger?  It’s not like he could play her the recording tucked in his pocket.
The girl backed away from his approach.  He fought back rising apprehension and forced an easy smile.
“Look, I appreciate the offer, Shain, but—”
Trent.”
“Right.”  Her blush deepened.  “I know.  Trent.  But I—”
“I need you to get in the car.”  As an afterthought, he added, “Please.”
“Um…”
He used her glance down the road as cover for his own.  Still time, yet his control slipped.  “Seriously.  Get in.”
The sharp command widened her eyes.  Suspicion darkened them to navy, and she took another step backward.  Then her shoulders squared while her gaze narrowed with determination.  “No.”
The right taillight on his Alfa Romeo exploded.  Trent ducked reflexively as bits of plastic flew in all directions.  Adrenaline spiked through him, but other than a sharp reactive jerk, the girl just stood there holding her camera.  Trent lunged forward, grabbed her arm and hauled her toward the car.
“Hey—let me go!”  She pulled back with surprising strength.
He picked her up and shoved her head first into the passenger seat, then vaulted over her to slip behind the wheel.  Heartbeat thundering in his ears, he gunned the gas with a sickening grinding of gears before the convertible shot out into traffic amidst screeching tires and blaring horns.

~*~

So, now that you know my most exciting vacation adventure from the top of the post, time to share yours! 

If you want to find out what happens, leave a comment and I'll pick a winner from the comments on Wednesday for a free ebook copy.

Thanks so much for reading and have a great week!

Stacey Joy Netzel