My Guest: Val Clarizio and Her New Book

Val Clarizio is a long-time friend and fellow WisRWA best-selling author, and I'm pleased to celebrate her and her newest book, just released in e-book yesterday.

A Brush with Death is book #2 in The Crime and Passion Stalk City Hall Series, and is a steamy mystery, but I'll let her explain all that.

Tag Line: To prove his undying love and loyalty, he'll risk sacrificing her trust. 

Blurb: 

Ben Deprez has been secretly in love with Cori for years and knowing of her wounded heart has him waiting impatiently for the right time to make his move. Now is the time, and Cori seems receptive, but Ben's past still haunts him. He's never been that guy who can say or do the right thing when it comes to women. His divorce is proof.

Cori Pierre-Simon has had about all she can take working two jobs to support her family since her ex left without a trace ten years earlier. The last thing she needs is to get involved with another man who would surely disappoint her.

Just when Cori decides to open her heart to Ben, women he holds key information about turn up dead. Then, when she uncovers an unusual connection between Ben and another woman, she realizes she should have never trusted him and his womanizing ways.

When Cori's son finds himself in an illegal predicament, he turns to Ben for help. Ben answers the call for aid full-well knowing that in helping the teenager he will risk losing Cori's trust, the very thing he's worked hard to earn. Ben is left hoping she loves him enough to forgive him for the decisions he's made to right the wrongs of her son and himself.

Advance Praise: 

Tracy B - This is an entertaining, steamy, well-written, fast paced romantic suspense novel with likable, engaging, mature characters. It has intrigue, small town and family drama, a captivating mystery, a heart-warming romance, and a happily ever after ending. 

Genre: Romantic Suspense
Publisher: VJC Books

eBook Price: $3.99
ASIN: B08B4XVTBH
ISBN: 978-1393834762

Buy Links:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Brush-Death-Crime-Passion-Stalk-ebook/dp/B08B4XVTBH
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-brush-with-death-valerie-j-clarizio/1137175571
iBooks: https://books.apple.com/us/book/id1518406222
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/a-brush-with-death-12
Universal Link: https://books2read.com/u/47Xz1q

About the Author:  

Valerie Clarizio is a USA Today Bestselling author who lives in romantic Door County Wisconsin with her husband of nearly thirty years. She loves to read, write, and spend time at her cabin in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

She’s lived her life surrounded by men, three brothers, a husband, and a male Siamese cat who required his own instruction manual. Keeping up with all the men in her life has turned her into an outdoors enthusiast, of which her favorite activity is hiking in national parks. While out on the trails, she has plenty of time to conjure up irresistible characters and unique storylines for her next romantic suspense, time travel romance, or sweet contemporary romance novel.

Author’s Social Media links
Website/Blog: https://valeriejclarizio.com/
Newsletter: https://valeriejclarizio.com/newsletter-signup-page/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Valerie.Clarizio/
Facebook Street Team: https://www.facebook.com/groups/clarizioscronies/
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/valerie-j-clarizio
Twitter: https://twitter.com/VClarizio
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/valerieclarizio/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/valerieclarizio/
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Valerie-J.-Clarizio/e/B00A87RJVS/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_8?qid=1476915213&sr=8-8

FREDERICK FLY-CATCHER 99-cent Sale and Giveaway

Great news: Frederick Fly-Catcher is on sale for 99-cents on all e-book platforms in my Summer Doldrums sale: https://books2read.com/u/4Ekjo0.

More good news:
Calling all readers! Feed your book addiction with N. N. Light’s Book Heaven Binge-Worthy Book Festival. 68 books featured plus a chance to win one of the following:

Enter to win a $50 Amazon (US) or Barnes and Noble Gift Card

Enter to win a $50 Amazon (US) or Barnes and Noble Gift Card

Enter to win a $25 Amazon (US) or Barnes and Noble Gift Card

Enter to win a $15 Amazon (US) or Barnes and Noble Gift Card

Enter to win a $10 Amazon (US) or Barnes and Noble Gift Card

I’m thrilled to be a part of this event. My book, Frederick Fly-Catcher, will be featured on Tuesday, August 4. I even talk about my first binge-worthy book I read. You won’t want to miss it.

Bookmark this get-together and tell your friends:

https://www.nnlightsbookheaven.com/bookpromos/categories/binge-worthy-book-festival

I can't imagine a better way to cure the summer doldrums!

"Rocks" of Love

My community is participating in the movement to place rocks painted with inspirational and/or

positive messages around town. Families and friends paint the rocks and then 'hide' them. When someone finds a rock, that person usually takes a picture of the rock and posts it on Facebook, etc. It's a small gesture to uplift spirits for the finders and to provide a creative outlet for the painters. 

Here are my contributions to the cause. As you can see, no particular talent is required, just some time and a willingness to get messy.

Writing Challenging Characters

What do you do when your muse delivers characters that require you to stretch beyond your comfort zone? Don’t panic. Open yourself to the possibilities.

I write fantasy romance. One would think that’s challenge enough, creating worlds from literally the soil upward. But I can handle that. All it takes is imagination fused with relevant life experiences.

For instance, I’ve never lived as a cursed warrior in a land populated by beast-men, but I have experienced a high mountain meadow in spring, ridden horses, and learned about panning for gems from my father’s Alaskan experience. I’ve never fended off danger with swords, but I’ve travelled the UK, hefted swords to learn about balance, and explored tumble-down castles.

None of that, however, made writing these three characters from BLOODSTONE any less challenging.

#1: The Shadow Man

Mirianna and her father fell into place, but my hero, the Shadow Man, refused to tell me his real name. I wrote a third of the book before he reluctantly revealed it. That resistance was clue to his character. Being an ‘into-the-mist’ writer, I had to keep writing to discover the truth.

The Shadow Man wants to be left alone. But beneath this stated goal is a deeper need: he’s lonely. When the opportunity comes to relieve his loneliness with a blind boy servant, he impulsively acts against his stated goal. Conflict ensues. His neatly ordered life, miserable as it has been, falls apart despite repeated attempts to maintain his solitude. What he thinks he wants and what he needs are at odds, and that’s just his internal conflict.

Add a woman so determined to protect her aging father she embarks on a dangerous journey, an old enemy seeking power, and a—possibly—magical lion shadowing his every step, and my hero has more than enough conflict. By first draft’s end, he had dug up and faced every ugly truth preventing him from being the man he ought to be, the man he’d chosen to bury (that real name).

Whew!

#2: The lion

I’ve never lived with a mountain lion, but I’ve lived with cats. However, even I didn’t know when I started writing who or what this lion would be. (Remember that seat-of-the-pants thing?) She appeared with various characters at critical moments, and I had to let her gradually reveal how she was connected. Additional challenge: she has no point of view, so I couldn’t get into her head like I could my hero. (He was just stubborn; she was downright enigmatic.) So, write a mountain lion-like cat into a fantasy when you have no idea why she’s there, except she was in the very first scene from which this book sprang, and you have the idea of this challenge.

#3: Gareth

I’ve worn corrective lenses since childhood, but I’m in no way as severely visually limited as Gareth. Thinking of sensations, sounds, and smells as his primary means of interpreting the world forced me to expand my means of description. I also had to remember he was 13, not an adult. Writing him was a definite challenge, but also extremely satisfying.

Conclusion: Don’t be afraid to write what you don’t know. Fuse a bit of imagination with a fragment of authentic experience and even the seemingly impossible can become satisfying and convincing fiction…if you’re up to the challenge. You just might be on your way to your best book ever.

P.S. BLOODSTONE e-book is now on sale for 99-cents through July 3: Kindle ; Nook 

Celebrate Fathers June 18-21 with an E-book Bundle Giveaway

Join me on Thursday, June 18, as BLOODSTONE is featured on N.N. Light Book Heaven's Celebrate Fathers Mini Author Event and Rafflecopter. 

What makes BLOODSTONE a Father's Day book? Nothing tests a father-daughter relationship like taking a road trip together, especially into a dangerous no-man’s land inhabited by a mysterious Shadow Man. A land where magic is more than legend and dragons might not all be dead.

Hop over to Celebrate Fathers Event to check out the spotlighted books and enter the rafflecopter for a chance to win a bundle of all 17 e-books. 

Attention UK audiobook readers: Free UK audiobook codes are still available for BLOODSTONE here: https://www.freeaudiobookcodes.com/book/4911f918-9db3-4733-867a-53e015ec3192  Get your free download while the codes last. 4.9 stars on Audible.

LORD OF DRUEMARWIN Featured in Celebrate Weddings Bookish Event Thursday, June 11

Adventure, mystery, romance…and a wedding! Heroes, villains, and messy family secrets are guaranteed to keep you reading well past bedtime to discover that happily ever after for these newlyweds. 

4.5 Stars and a Crowned Heart of Excellence from InD'Tale Magazine: ““Lord of Druemarwin” … is a wonderful love story filled with secrets and treachery! Readers will be immediately drawn into the saga of war, alliances, bravery, and honor.… The lovers … are richly written characters devoted to each other and willing to fight for what they want.” -- Tonya Mathenia: Lord of Druemarwin/InD'Tale Review. 

Enter N.N. Light Book Heaven's Celebrate Weddings Bookish Event for a chance to win a bundle of 30 e-books, including LORD OF DRUEMARWIN, featured on June 11. Hop over to Celebrate-weddings-event June 9-12 to check out the offerings. Drawing will be on June 19.