Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Guest Blog with Lucianne Rivers

New Year's Resolutions 2011:
1. Join a gym
2. Get published
3. Put Lily in day care

Check, check, and…still avoiding number three.

My daughter was born in November of 2009. Now twenty months old, Lily is almost talking, definitely walking, and the light of my life. Giving birth was a milestone in my thirty-year-old existence. With her arrival came the need to create. Writing had never been my artistic outlet; instead, I had a background in acting and performing arts. However, when she was a couple of months old (and sleeping through the night) I took a local community college class in screenwriting, and penned my first feature, TWI-HARD, which placed in the top ten of the Golden Brad Awards Movie Script Contest.

That summer I took a vacation on the Olympic Peninsula, WA, and visited the Mecca of Forks, home to Twilight (and TWI-HARD). On my return, I turned the screenplay in a single title novel, which I had edited by a friend of a friend at Little Brown United Kingdom.

Sigh. TWI-HARD had a ways to go before it could ever be published. And I had a lot of work to do in order to be good enough.

That's when I became a member of www.savvyauthors.com, and took online classes on technique, plotting, and craft. In February of 2011, I received three contracts spanning four new projects and accepted two. HOLD ME, and its sequels, THRILL ME and KISS ME KILL ME will be released this fall from Entangled Publishing, and my novella, THE KISS TEST, comes out this year from Cobblestone Press.

I have Savvy Authors to thank for my three-book deal with Entangled, since I participated in a pitch session there with Entangled's Managing Editor, Heather Howland, and soon after received the offer for HOLD ME.

Weirdly, although I'd never had a sport in my life, or been inside the door of a gym, I started to workout in February of 2011, right before my breakthrough into publishing. I'm now addicted to Olympic style weightlifting, competed at state level in June, and (because I was the only one lifting in my weight class) became State Champion in the 53 kilo category. I kid you not.

Freakishly into exercise (this from a former couch potato), I've lost all the pregnancy weight and then some. Lifting and writing have become part of who I am, and they come as naturally as being a Mom.

Luckily I work part-time, from home, and have official child-minding duties every second day. Time to work, workout, write, and to watch my toddler grow. 2011 will be a year to remember for me, that's for sure.

I feel lucky.


Lucianne writes romantic suspense for Entangled Publishing and Cobblestone Press. Born and raised in Ireland, she currently lives in New Mexico with her young daughter.

Formerly a stage and television actress, she now manages a non-profit and is NM State Champion in her weight class for Olympic style weightlifting. Long story.





Title: Hold Me
Author: Lucianne Rivers
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Length: Novella
Release Date: August 2011
ISBN: 978-1-937044-16-9

HOLD ME, THRILL ME, KISS ME KILL ME - Book One by Lucianne Rivers

Still reeling from her mother’s death, news anchor Jane Caldwell’s life is upended further when she learns the father she lost twenty years ago is still alive. Her mother’s will unleashes a manhunt—the Caldwell sisters must find their father, or their mother’s estate will not be settled, and their questions about his disappearance will remain unanswered.

Jane’s search leads her to Guatemala to investigate a man who claims to be her father and heir to the family fortune. Needing a translator, she enlists enigmatic Harrison DeNeuve, a sexy ex-patriot with a penchant for wearing dark sunglasses in public.

As Jane struggles to reunite with her would-be father, Harrison fights to suppress his desire for Jane. He has a secret—one he’s sequestered himself in a third-world jungle hideaway to keep safe—and falling for Jane puts more than his heart at risk.

Jane finds two men in Guatemala—a father and a lover—but can she trust either of them?

http://www.entangledpublishing.com/hold-me/

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