Romancing The Hop Blog Hop: I'm Fluffy & I know It (my romance tastes! What are yours?)

Hey beautiful people!

Once again, I am joining Carrie Ann’s hops; when I saw the topic for this one, I couldn’t resist! I mean, romance, in all it forms? How and where do I sign up ASAP?

I think lots of romance authors had the same reaction, because will you just look at the turnout for this blog hop? 200+ authors!!! And check out the prizes – that’s enough to send your mind reeling.

1st Grand Prize: A Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet
2nd Grand Prize: A $130 Amazon or B&N Gift Card
3rd Grand Prize: The following Swag Pack! (US only for the swag pack)

 

But yeah, romance... I love romance, in any form. And yes, the fluffier, the better – I’m fluffy and I know it. *grin*

I started reading romance when, in an effort to get me to read the classics and big-name British authors, my father (to whom I credit my life-long love of reading and my love affair with words and writing) started a library membership for me and for the first few months afterwards, already told the librarian what to add to my card every week. These authors’ names were Jane Austen and Barbara Cartland. Yes, I know – my father made me read romance! I couldn’t have been older than 10 at the time... and thus, for the past 20 years, I have been gorging on romance books.

Over the years, I discovered there were tons more types of romance, not just genteel, historical types. And though the heroes were not the exact definition of Austen’s and Cartland’s gentlemen, they were all noble men with beautiful hearts. Action, adventure, humour, tours of the world through exotic locations and settings, fantasy worlds that totally blow away at your imagination – who knew there was all this hidden away behind those racy, make-me-blush covers that had Fabio on them?

And then I discovered chick-lit, and a whole new world of romance opened up to me. Here I was, a young and single gal, looking for love & Mr. Right... and I loved designer clothes and shoes and handbags and... you get my drift. At the same time, life was getting harder, and I needed an escape. Chick-lit, and light romance, became this escape for me.

To this day, I still love a good fluffy book – I’ll pick this over dangerous heroes and dashing doctors and far-flung worlds anytime. But anyhow, give me romance, and I’m set.

Try as I wish to emulate my favourite genre, I can never write light or humourous. I have thus resigned myself to committing by some deep themes and dark characterization... But someday, somehow, I will write my very own fluff... and scream to the world how I’m proud of having done it!

In the meantime, check out my unfortunately-not-fluffy romances:

TRANSIENT HEARTS: A Western Escape foodie romance, from Decadent Publishing, Coming Soon!

Wills, dreams, and desire clash and come together when two transient hearts meet in the town of Freewill, Wyoming. Indo-British chef Shayne Morea and prodigal son & New York Forex broker Grayson Warner discover they have much more in common than they thought... but both are in transit in this town. Can they both make Freewill their final port of call?

ONCE UPON A SECOND CHANCE: A 1NightStand story, Coming Soon!

Leila & Khalid Al-Nadir, an estranged Muslim couple, must come together and face the turbulent, dark, and devastating past that brought them together before it tore them apart. Could Madame Eve’s meddling work here, when she sets these two on a blind date?

ONCE UPON A STORMY NIGHT:  A 1NightStand story

Two people who live their lives as lonely ships in a tumultuous ocean are set for a collision course when Madame Eve pairs them together for a one-night date.  Lars Rutherford, a British shipping director, and Simmi Moyer, a Mauritian corporate lawyer, signed up for one night of pleasure with a stranger. But they end up finding much, much more than they expected. Can this spell the start of a brand-new future for each of them?

CALLING HOME (A Destiny’s Child Book)

Margo Nolan, a cold and rational forensic pathologist from London, slams right into a wall named Emotional Chaos when she lands custody of a tween girl. Completely at a loss as to how to deal with another human being, let alone a child, Margo feels the jaws of Hell close in on her. She is so not cut out to be a mother, or even a woman... But Jamie Gillespie, the sexy young doctor from next-door, has a different opinion. Can he convince Margo to take a chance on impulsive emotions, and on him?

WALKING THE EDGE (Corpus Brides: Book One)

Amelia Jamison wakes up after a car accident with amnesia, but the life she goes back to feels forced and unnatural. What secret is the man claiming to be her husband hiding? What secret does her buried memory hide? On a wild impulse, Amelia sets out for Marseille, where she is certain a man she remembers from her past will be able to fill in the blanks for her. But what she finds is more secrets, more danger, and desire so scorching she will be burnt before recovering her memory. Gerard Besson, the Marseille police commissaire, is the key to unlock her past... but will there be a chance for the two of them to have a future, once they discover who she really is?

BEFORE THE MORNING (Corpus Brides: Book Two)

For as long as she can remember, Rayne Cheltham has been in love with her childhood best friend, Ash Gilfoy. Her one dream was to marry him and bear his children. Yet, life didn’t turn out that way... and Rayne ended up becoming a ruthless assassin and efficient spy for a clandestine agency. But then she meets Ash again, and there’s a chance for them to have a future once more. Together again, married, in love, everything should be perfect... except that a spy cannot leave that life behind her so easily. And worse – Ash has no idea she used to be a killer. How will Rayne confess who she used to be, and how will Ash react? But worse of all – how does she keep them both alive in the cat and mouse game a rogue faction of her agency is playing with her?


What’s your romance confession? Are you fluffy like me? *grin*


Comment (with your email address! Or else we cannot enter you into the draw!) and you stand a chance to win a copy – your choice! – of one of my books listed above! You also enter the draw for the Grand Prizes this way.

Find the list of the 200+ authors taking part in this hop here! And special mention to Natalie G Owens, Jessica Subject, Sheri Fredricks, HC Brown, Dana Delamar, & Savannah Chase!

Thank you for coming over!

From Mauritius with love,

Zee

A Hero's Hop: What's the recipe for the perfect hero? #HeroHop

Hey beautiful people!

It's my second blog hop, and the first of Carrie Ann's in which I am taking part. Totally stoked and absolutely excited to be joining the 128 other authors who signed up for this hop... and also to meet all the readers and visitors who will be doing the rounds. Welcome to my place, peeps!

So, what's the hope about? Heroes. As simple as that. *are you sure?* Nope, not that simple, as you'll see when you browse all the posts that will be going up. Come read what everyone of us authors conjures up in her mind when we heard the magic word "hero".

129 authors = 129 chances to win the Grand Prizes!

1st Grand Prize: A Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet

2nd Grand Prize: A $50 Amazon or B&N Gift Card

3rd Grand Prize: A magnificent swag pack you can check on the official hop page

AND there will be giveaways at every stop on the tour! So that means, 129 chances for you to win more goodies!

Want to enter to win in my giveaway? Then, let's get rolling with the post!

*****

Immediately when I think "hero", I imagine coming up with the perfect hero for each book. But is there a recipe for that?

Got me thinking – how do I go about creating the perfect hero in each of my books?

First of all – the hero 'works off' the heroine, and vice versa. I'm not a hard-core feminist; when I say "a woman doesn't need a man to be happy", I mean it. But I also say that, "a woman doesn't miss a man until he walks into her life", and that's when things change...

So based on these notions, I set out to imagine the perfect hero. And like a good dish (forgive me here – I am so not a cook and as far from domestic goddess Nigella Lawson as you can get!), you need some set ingredients:

Sugar
Spice
And all things nice!

Simple, innit? Not so much. Let's elaborate.

Sugar – we all agree; the hero is the foil of the heroine. He is her "good times", her "rock", her "anchor", the one she runs to. Faced with a box of Godiva chocolates and a plate of lime slices, which one would you choose? The Godiva, of course! And that's sugar...

But too much sugar gives you a high and then makes you crash; it's also bad for your teeth! In the same way, a hero who's too nice/good/sweet/awesome is bad for you. Yes, we women are masochists, and we love nothing more than a roller coaster ride of emotion... which you won't get with someone, well, too nice...

So what you do then, is spice things up a bit!

Anyone know what a jaffa cake is? If not, I'll wait until you Google it! A jaffa cake is a slice of heaven brought to earth for us common mortals, to allow us to know what decadence and indulgence are all about. Imagine a crackly shell of smooth, dark chocolate; slightly bitter, hard under your teeth, a hint of sugar that nevertheless gives you a total rush... Then you get to a fine layer of orange-flavoured jelly; tangy, and this jolts your taste buds, makes you sit up and notice; another little rush of sugar, a brush of coolness on your tongue... And finally, you sink your teeth into the softest, moistest, crumbliest sponge cake layer ever; feeling it melt in your mouth, that elusive hint of cake, and another layer of vanilla-like sweetness...

To think that so far you've just taken a bite! Now, go on, and actually eat the jaffa cake... An explosion of tastes, of sweetness, of tart orange tang, of rich chocolatey smoothness...

What's a jaffa cake, you may ask? It's sugar, and spice, and all things nice... exactly what your hero should be! Layers, contrasts, that merge to form a whole that is decadent and indulgent, and oh so good for you!

That's a hero, people! There's a subtle hint in this makeup, like a jaffa cake's, that stops the whole deal from giving you sugar and sweetness on all levels. There's a dose of spice, of tang, of a contrasting taste, that ramps up the sugar rush and gives you an experiment from a different dimension. Your hero is human; give him some flaws, some 'humanness", that all men have (dirty towels on the bathroom floor, anyone? *grin*)

And as for the "all things nice", what would they be?

Well, as I like to say, your hero can be anything in any time – a rogue, a cad, a doctor next door, a quiet best friend, a dangerous cop, a con man, a geek, a nerd, a secret agent, a starship captain – but one thing he always, always, is: Noble!

What's noble to you? And what's noble in your heroine's eyes?

Another thing in this "all things nice" category – good manners! Let me list a few here, grabbed from Gentleman Etiquette posts on Esquire.com, to give you an idea:

- a gentleman always stands up when a woman is coming to the table or leaving it.
- a gentleman always pays for a date.
- a gentleman sits on the men bench when he takes his lady shopping, and uses the time to reply emails on his Blackberry, but never to talk on the phone in public places.
- a gentleman takes his mother out for dinner a few times a year.

So there you have my recipe for the perfect hero! I'm curious to know what ingredients go into making yours! Why don't you leave me a comment and tell me about it?

And let me introduce you to my heroes:

Gerard Besson: Former undercover cop, recently promoted to the status of police commissaire in the French city of Marseille. Behind the appearance of the efficient cop, hides a beaten soul... because he lost the one woman who managed to worm her way into his cold heart. 7 months later, when a suspicious woman starts to trail him, Gerard is intrigued, because she reminds him of that woman who died... Who is she? And what does she want with him?
Get the book, currently FREE:  https://www.nobleromance.com/Books/304/Walking-the-Edge

Ash Gilfoy: Ministry of Defence cop turned paramedic, Ash hides a deep, dark secret - he killed a man. Investigation cleared him as he acted in self-defense, but Ash knows he's always wanted to murder the abusive man who ended up killing his wife when she tried to leave him, at Ash's behest. The prospect of hope, and a new beginning, of salvation, appears when Rayne Cheltham, his childhood best friend, walks into his life again. A humanitarian worker who's been away for 17 years, Rayne is everything good and bright in this world... Or is she? Because she seems to be hiding secrets, too, and they just might be deeper and darker than Ash could ever imagine...
Buy Link: https://www.nobleromance.com/Books/420/Before-the-Morning

Jamie Gillespie: A 29 years old trauma doctor, Jamie turns his back on the life his money-hungry father wants him to pursue when he comes to Surrey to fill in for his sick uncle. But just as he is settling, his uncle calls, to say he will not be coming back to his rural practice - it's Jamie's decision now to stay and embrace the life of a country doctor, or go a more lucrative private practice in the heart of London. But then the decision to stay becomes clear when forensic pathologist Margo Nolan and her headstrong tween daughter, Emma, settle into the other half of Jamie's house. Older than Jamie, cold and uptight, Margo is an Ice Queen. Or is she...? Jamie sees the woman in her, the struggling mother, the lonely heart. Can he convince Margo they could have a future together, and form a family?
Buy Link: https://www.nobleromance.com/Books/369/Calling-Home

Lars Rutherford: Half-British, half-Swedish expatriate living on the island of Mauritius as the regional director for his best friend's shipping company. Lars is not looking for love, and certainly not in this land that seems stuck in Austen times where marriage and trysts are concerned. His best friend, Magnus, convinces him he's in "dire need of a shag" and contacts Madame Eve's 1NightStand agency to arrange a date for Lars. Who will he find on that blind date? What woman will agree to spend that one night with him, no strings attached? Could everything be so simple? Lars does indeed find out that nothing is so simple, because Simmi, his date, awakens protective, lustful, and dare he admit it - loving! - instincts in him. Has he found his woman, here, on this island labelled as paradise on earth?
Buy Link: http://www.decadentpublishing.com/product_info.php?products_id=553&osCsid=joff4lkh610umgtpmk3mg4qvr4


MY GIVEAWAY: Leave me a comment, along with your email address, about what "ingredients" go into making your perfect hero, and let me know which one of my heroes wins your attention - you could win an ecopy of his book (in case I didn't spell that right *sorry, hormone-brain* I'm offering a random commentor a copy of the book of her choice from my releases, based on which hero is her favourite).

Thank you for hopping over here today, and don't forget to check the other 128 participants! Here's the link to view the whole list http://carrieannbloghops.blogspot.com/p/a-heros-hop.html

From Mauritius with love,

Zee

Random Thoughts' Monday: It's A New Year!

Hello beautiful people!

Can you believe we've crossed into 2012 already? I still have a hard time with it - reminding myself to use 12 instead of 11 whenever I fill in the dates on official papers, such as bank slips. A new year tiding in is a time of change, innit?

Speaking of change, I cannot believe how much has happened to me in 2011. It's been a fast & furious year, totally fantabulous and with more highs than lows. I was sitting at my desk this morning and taking stock of the past year, and some of the things that have happened, well, I still can't wrap my head around them.

For instance, I am now a published author. Yes, I've had books out in the past, under my pen names. But it's not the same as looking at a book and seeing your real name on there; like having people saying they've read your books and recommending it to others; getting fan mail (totally giddy factor here!), people putting two & two together between the book and little ol' you ...

...and the sheer amount of amazing people I have met throughout the year! The clan at Noble Romance, and then the striking posse of Six Sentence Sunday! You guys totally, and I mean, totally, rock!

Good friends have become even better friends (my soul sisters Natalie G. Owens & Rae Lori showed me even more that I don't need to bemoan the fact that I don't have a biological sister - sisterhood happens across blood lines and geographical borders!);
some people I've met, I've felt like I've known them all my life after barely a few words/lines exchanged (Jessica E. Subject - I'm looking at you specifically here! Then there'd be Noble's JS Wayne, Ingrid Michaels, Lucy Felthouse & Elizabeth Morgan; Sue from Sassyspeaks, Layna Pimentel, Cate Peace on Twitter, among so many others, and I apologize for not citing your names here. You know who you are though, & I love ya all!).

So much has happened... and it all started on that day in December 2010 when I was dashing out to go to the beach and the bungalow my brother-in-law had rented for the holidays... and email-addict me just had to check her inbox before she went out. That's when I saw the request from an editor at Noble Romance Publishing, asking if the full of Walking The Edge was still available for their consideration.
Fast forward a few weeks in February, and *Gasp!*, they wanted the story! Acquisition, contract, meeting the fab folks at Noble (Owner & CEO Jill Noble, submissions editor Becky Dampier, my very own editor, the fantabulous Mary Harris who has become a dear friend on top of the one who pushes me to be better, brighter, & stronger, the awesome Fiona Jayde who does the most fantastic covers ever!).

Hint of a cloud health-wise though - and the scare that I would need more surgery to keep any possibility of cancer at bay again. Pulled from the irreversible point by my team of fabulous doctors (Dr. Mrs. Thacoor, a gifted ob/gyn who actually listens to her patients, & Dr. Mrs. Poorun, a fabulous, kind, & compassionate oncologist with whom there's never any b*llsh*t!) who have never let me down. They both did everything they could to find out how to make my life easier, and erase the spectre of cancer that hangs like Damocles' sword over my head. That's how, after consultation with specialists in South Africa and in Switzerland, they got me on a hormone-therapy regimen that's to stave off the prospect of recurrence.
Now the side effects are a total b*tch (menopause at 28? Seriously???), but hey, I'm alive, and I get to see a new dawn every morning; to see my kid grow up; to spend time with the wonderful man who decided, despite my basket-case neuroses, to make me his wife and stand by my side through thick, thin, and hormonal madness; to live one more moment and do what I want to do...
I started 2011 after another brush with breast cancer, and through daily trips to the hospital for radiation therapy treatments, a time during which I had an hour to kill every day in the waiting room, and my trusted qwerty phone came to the rescue... Add to it fatigue and the need to race through life at 150mph while your body can only go to 50 mph - well, that made for an interesting time :)

Then in the maelstrom of hot flashes, drenched-type night sweats punctuated by terrible bouts of insomnia, I was working on edits for Walking The Edge, which *gasp again*, morphed into a 3-book series. So much I learned through that edit, through this process of getting my book out by fantabulous professional people who were behind me 200%! Had to stop fiddling with certain writing projects and wrap myself around the concept of writing to a deadline, to finish specific WIPs before I jumped into new ones. All through that, the to-be-written list got bigger and bulkier as I wrote down all the ideas I could pursue but just not right now!

Did I add that I had my last university exam during that period? Menopause doesn't only make you got postal, it also scrambles your brain and plays with your memory. Now I understood why people say that it's better to learn when you're still young - age (whether real or brought on by, say, your medication regimen) really does play a part in how mentally fit you are to undertake certain tasks, like studying.

And then June was here - Walking The Edge (Corpus Brides: Book One) came out, and I haven't had a minute to look back. Amid subtle reminders that I better bust my a*se to get Book 2 written and sent ASAP, another world of possibility opened when I asked my editor if I could submit another story to Noble.

Remember the 1-hour to kill in the waiting room back in January, and the trusted qwerty phone? So it turns out that I did what I do best during that time - I wrote...

And the result was a 50K sweet romance story between a cold & uptight forensic pathologist whose world takes a spin when she lands custody of an 11-year-old girl, and who meets the handsome & sexy village doctor next-door... Yes, that was Calling Home (A Destiny's Child Book)! This one was snagged again by Noble, and came out in December!

1 year, 2 book contracts & 2 releases, and a 110K story completed (and currently on the editor's desk *gnawing cuticles here*). Not bad for someone who'd started the year with the goal to simply 'be out there' as she worked towards publication...

There have been some lows too, like the death of one of my uncles after his courageous battle with cancer. I didn't use to be close to him, but battling the same disease brought us together in a way someone who's never had cancer will not really understand... It was a blow to lose him, especially when he seemed to be doing so well with his treatments.

So all in all, it's been an eventful 2011 for me, and generally, a good year...

I plan to make 2012 even better - what about you? Starting with, giving back. I'm not rich, I haven't got awesome amazing fantablous resources, but what I can give back, I will.

In this light, I'm opening my blog to authors who want to come promote their books or themselves. I've already met with a wonderful response (check the box at the top left of this page - that's where you'll see who'll be visiting me throughout the month!).

The blog will be open on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, & Saturdays. Still have some slots open in January, so if you're interested, don't hesitate to get in touch. I want to help my fellow authors as many have been a tremendous help to me, so please help me out here :)

Here's to a magnificent 2012, peeps! I wish you all the best, nicest, brightest, and most beautiful for each and every day of this new year.

From Mauritius with love,

Z

Six Sentence Sunday - Walking The Edge: Snippet #8

Hey beautiful people!

And another week has gone by - just don't ask me where. I have absolutely no idea what I've done in the past 7 days. Not blogging, that's for sure, so I thought I'd jump back in the saddle today. Cannot let SSS slide by, can I? :)

Again, thanks to everyone who drops by; special thanks to everyone who leaves comments; and a special, special thanks to those who pimp my posts on FB and Twitter. I have no idea what I've done to be so liked and appreciated by you all, but let me just say I'm grateful to know each and every one of you! xoxo

So, sappy moment out of the way, let's jump back into the action. Last week, Amelia got into a fight with Gerard, the hunky French cop who believes her to be a lure sent to seduce him. Gerard didn't get to where he is in the police force by playing fair - and it's not today with Amelia that he's gonna start being Mr. Nice Guy.
Last week, we left them just as he'd ploughed his big body into hers when she tried to attack (scroll down to the post right before this one if you wanna read it!).
What's Amelia gonna do? Read on for today's Six:

'... Her mouth opened to scream with the pain, but more agony cut her vocal chords when she slammed into the hard, solid, cold brick wall. She squeezed her eyes shut with the pain.
His crouching body pinned her, his knees pressing hard against her thighs. His torso shifted, and she heard a click. When she opened her eyes, she found herself staring into the barrel of a gun.
"Who sent you?" he asked. ...'

Check out the rest of the stunning SSS crew's snippets here.

From Mauritius with love,

Zee

Random Thoughts' Monday: Rise & Shine!!

... is back!! Hell-o beautiful people!

Gosh, I missed being on here. Can't believe it's close to 2 weeks since I had to go away. I've been so caught up in all that's been happening behind the scenes in my life, yet I wonder how I kept my sanity intact in all this time. That could certainly be thanks to the wonderful people in my entourage (mostly virtual!) who have supported and upheld me all through every rough spot in my life. To you peeps - you're amazing! I'm blessed to know you all and count myself as your friend.

So, what's been happening to me lately? Well, without getting into details that would be TMI, let's just say I've had to take a step back to evaluate where my health is at, and where I want it to be in the future. Sounds like a no-brainer - I want to be healthy, like everyone else! Duh - but life, especially my life, is rarely that clear cut. I think I must be one rare patient in Mauritius who has BFF status with her doctors, so much I seem to spend time meeting them and we go over every little tidbit to rehash the 'situation'. Note - courtesy counts, like everywhere else in life. On my bad days - which do tend to strike whenever you insert the word 'hospital' in a 24-hour slot - I'm not exactly someone easy to deal with. But that being said, I'm not a b*tch either and this has helped me in great stead with the people responsible for helping me on the right health track.
So, digressing aside, I'm tackling a new health regimen, which is simple on most days, yet can get rather tedious at times as far as side effects go. But hey, there's always a price to pay somewhere, somehow. Let's just say, thank goodness it's not higher than what it currently is.

Now I did too need a break. As in, getting next to nothing done (don't count studying for the darn final degree module here, will ya?) and just chilling. Did me a world of good. My kiddo is on Easter break here, and instead of dreading the 2 weeks we'll be spending together, I'm able to approach it with a zen attitude and a plan in place. Not sure how much I'll get done in the next fortnight, but we'll see about that as the days go. Plan to get some reading down and slashing the TBR pile, plus writing some long-overdue reviews. That should keep me busy. The WIP is also taking a fresh direction after I'd been blocked for a while, so I'm eager to see how that'll play out too.

And for my laptop - the place I took it for repairs = total rip-off. They got nothing done and it's back to making the awful fan noise. Oh well, gotta live with it, coz I can't live without the device.

Hmm, did I say how good it is to be back? *grin*

So that's it from me. What have you peeps been up to? :)

From Mauritius with love,

Zee

Writing Wednesday: Join me...

Hey beautiful people

Today was my date for blogging over at The Pop Culture Divas!

Come check out my post, about.... Words!

Here's the link.

From Mauritius with love,

Zee