You've found the home on the net for romance writer, LaVerne Clark. Thanks for visiting! :)

I write suspense and light fantasy/paranormal set in the beautiful country of New Zealand. A land of myths and magic, Aotearoa (Maori for Long White Cloud) has always been a storytelling nation and it is my pleasure to share mine with you.

Make yourself your drink of choice, stay a while and feel free to leave comments. I love to meet new friends.



Heartpounding suspense and fantasy Downunder



Thursday, October 11, 2012

Book Blast Tour - Across the Winds of Time

Please help me welcome Bess McBride to Novel Natterings. Bess is doing a Book Blast Tour and has kindly offered a $25 Amazon gift card to one random commenter during the tour - the more you comment and visit other stops - the more chances you have to win. Great timing with Christmas around the corner! The rest of the tour dates can be found here:

http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2012/08/book-blast-across-winds-of-time-by-bess.html


 
Oooo!! Just reading the blurb of this book gives me chills! What do you think?

While on a genealogical research journey through the Midwest, Molly Hamilton impulsively buys a 100-year-old Victorian house in the middle of a cornfield, and falls in love with the house’s owner...the original owner, that is. Can he be a ghost? The handsome, intriguing attorney certainly feels solid—and somehow her soul knows she has always loved him.

Darius Ferguson has no idea how he has come to present-day Iowa. The last thing he knew, the year was 1880, and he had just buried his fiancée, who happens to look exactly like Molly. He cannot separate the two women in his heart—to him, they are one.

In spite of being drawn to him, Molly thinks Darius is unhinged. Darius wonders if he has joined his fiancée in purgatory. If time travel is possible, will love be enough to build a future together? 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

EXCERPT 
“How did you get in here?” I choked out.  “Who are you?”
Darius stole a sideways glance over his shoulder to meet my eyes—or to see that indeed I did not have a gun aimed at him—before turning his face away. 
“It is I, Molly.  The same man you met two weeks ago.  The same man you loved over a hundred years ago.
“You’re nuts!” I spit out.  “You’re not here.  I’m just imagining things.”  My knees were aching, and I shifted awkwardly in the tub to dive under the water again, keeping my neck twisted to watch him.  I couldn’t stay in the bathtub all night.  I felt so vulnerable—even if this was a hallucination...or a fantasy.
“So, since you’re not really here, you wouldn’t mind keeping your face turned away, so I can get out of the tub, would you?”  My heart pounded, the rhythm matching the pounding in my head from smacking it on the edge of the tub.  “Please?”  I couldn’t keep the quiver from my voice.         
“Certainly.  It is not proper for me to be standing here at any rate.  I simply came upstairs to see if you were here, and there you were—in my tub—a vision of bubbles and curly brown ringlets.”
I pressed a hand to my damp ponytail.  A sudden warmth in the pit of my stomach contradicted the cold grip in my chest. 
“Go away,” I pleaded.  “I may want to daydream about you, but I don’t know that I want to actually see you.”
“As you wish, Molly.”  He threw another quick glance over his shoulder, and his mouth curved into an embarrassed smile before he moved away.
I watched him disappear and panicked. 
“Wait,” I shrieked.  “Wait!”
“Yes, dear?”  He backed up to the edge of the door again, still keeping his face averted. 
“Wait for me downstairs.  Don’t go yet.  I’ll be right there.”
Darius inclined his head slightly to the side where I saw his profile, and I could have sighed when a single golden-brown curl fell forward in his face.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Bess McBride made her first serious writing attempt when she was 14. She shut herself up in her bedroom one summer while obsessively working on a time travel/pirate novel set in the beloved Caribbean of her youth, but she wasn't able to hammer it out on a manual typewriter (oh yeah, she's that old) before it was time to go back to school. The draft of that novel has long since disappeared, but the story is still simmering within, and she will finish the adventure one day soon.
Bess was born in Aruba to American parents and lived in Venezuela until her family returned to the United States when she was 12. She couldn't fight the global travel bug within and joined the U.S. Air Force at 18 to "see the world." After 21 wonderful and fulfilling years traveling the world and gaining one beautiful daughter, she pursued her dream of finally getting a college education. With a license in mental health therapy, she worked with veterans and continues to work on behalf of veterans. She writes romantic suspense, contemporary, light paranormal/fantasy and time travel romances and currently has eight novels published. She can be contacted through her web site at:

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Book Tour Stop - Whisper of a Witch


Please help me welcome Suza Kates to her first visit to Novel Natterings. Its a pleasure to have you stop by on your busy tour - I hope you find New Zealand to your liking :)

Suza will award signed cover flats and pens to a commenter at every stop, a total of five $15 Amazon/BN GCs to randomly drawn commenters during this tour and her Name Before the Masses tour, and gift basket to one commentator from both this tour and her Name Before the Masses tour, as well as a randomly drawn host prize TBA. Who wouldn't want that?! The more you comment, the better your chances are, so bring them on!

 
Without further ado, lets here about Suza's latest release!
 
 
Biologist Shauni Miller, a beautiful as she is compassionate, harbors a secret that could alter her life forever. If she chooses to share it. Dr. Michael Black helps Shauni in her time of need, but sees more in the raven-haired temptress than she ever meant to reveal. He knows she’s hiding something, but then, so is he. Both Shauni and Michael have a role to play and decisions to make as a centuries-old prophecy has yet to be fulfilled. Only the fates know if they are meant to be together. Or if one of them has to die.
 
 

EXCERPT

“Oh, no you don’t,” she said with a shake of her finger. “I’m not being derailed again.”

“What?” His gaze lingered on her shoulders and the curve of her neck. He wasn’t halfway finished with her, yet. “Yeah. You were going to tell me something.”

“Now you’re catching on. And you were going to tell me how you found me out in those woods.” She looked at the large, golden lump of dog snoring in the foyer. “And don’t tell me it was all him.” 

Michael felt his previous mellow aura zipping up tight. She’d relaxed him to the point of pre-catatonia then after one look at her, he’d been aroused again and gunning for round two.

Now he felt neither level of satisfaction. He was back to agonizing over how she would react to his dirty little secret. Hell, she might consider it a breach of privacy, the way he perceived what people were feeling, especially his ability to tune in to her so well. It was like he had a direct line to channel Shauni. All day. All night.

So he did what any fearless man would do. “You go first.”

 
Woot!! I want more! Good luck everyone :)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SUZA'S BIO AND LINKS


Suza Kates can’t remember a time when she didn’t love books, but two particular memories stay with her. “As a young girl I picked up Little Women, read it straight through, and promptly turned to page one to start all over again. The next book I did that with was Mind Hunter by John Douglas, tales about profiling serial killers.”

Thus a twisted romantic was born.  

Throughout her teenage and young adult years, she read everything from horror to historical romance yet never imagined writing anything of her own.

It was during a long, cold winter in a tiny apartment in Germany that Suza picked up a pen and notebook to entertain herself. “The apartment was so tiny, my bed also served as my living room couch. Plus, I shared it with three cats.”

Missing the warmth, the hospitality, and the food of the South, she wrote about those things with a huge dose of family thrown in. She says she still has a sweet spot in her heart for her first book, Southern Moon, but to date, she hasn’t revisited it for submission to her publisher.  

Suza followed her heart to Savannah, Georgia, and it was the gorgeous city with its moss-covered oaks and secrets of history that inspired her to consider paranormal romance. “I had an idea about sisters and magic, so I went to work on the first book of The Savannah Coven Series, Whisper of a Witch. The series is still going strong, and I am grateful every day that I took a chance on paranormal romance, a genre I wasn’t very familiar with and had never actually read before writing it.”

Suza has since joined RWA and can’t say enough about this organization. “The education and support are unparalleled. I am so grateful to all of my fellow writers who have offered advice.”

Suza still resides in Savannah and is currently working on her next book. She considers it a perfect day when she can sit at the keyboard with coffee in her cup and one of her cats purring in her lap. 

http://www.facebook.com/authorsuzakates


Friday, October 5, 2012

Silver Lake and Giveaway!

Hi Everyone! I feel very privileged to be hosting exciting debut author, Kathryn Knight. Kathryn has kindly offered an e-copy of Silver Lake to one lucky commenter. Don't forget to leave your email address so you're easy to find if you're the lucky one!
 
Hi Kathryn. Thanks for visiting! Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
Sure, but first off, I’d like to say thank you for having me today!  I’m the mom of two boys, and my wonderful husband has been my biggest supporter throughout this journey into writing.  My educational background is actually in business, and I went as far as earning an MBA in an attempt to steer myself into a “practical” career!  Most mornings I teach fitness classes, which is a great part time job that I enjoy immensely.
What a great job that would be – and it would fit so well into a writing schedule too! When did you first consider yourself a writer?
It took me 2 ½ years to write Silver Lake, but I honestly didn’t consider myself a writer until I got that publishing contract on a Friday morning in December.  Having a publisher willing to back my work made it real for me.
Do you remember what inspired you to write your first book?
I had developed almost the entire plot for Silver Lake years before I even typed one word.  My husband is the one who convinced me to write the story down.  I think the original idea came from my genuine love for ghost stories mixed with romance.  For me, a mysterious and spooky paranormal element combined with a tension-filled romantic relationship is the perfect recipe for an exciting read. 
 
It sounds like this book was ‘the book of your heart’. I can’t wait to read it! I love call stories. Can you tell us about yours and your reaction?
On a chilly morning in December 2011, I opened my emails to see one waiting for me from the editor I’d submitted to at my publisher.  The subject line was only the title of my book, so I wasn’t sure what would be waiting inside.  When I opened it, heart pounding, I saw the line, “Attached please find your author contract.”  I ran around the kitchen, jumping up and down, and my youngest son, who had not yet left for school, was hugging me and jumping around with me.
 
That is such a gorgeous picture! How great to have such a special person to share your moment with! What drew you to write your chosen genre?
When I was in second grade, my father brought home the usual weekly stack of chapter books the local librarian had recommended for me.  Generally, the books revolved around horses, my main interest as an 8-year-old girl.  But sometimes other subject matter found its way into the pile, and this time, there was a book entitled Jane-Emily, by Patricia Clapp.  The tag line read “A ghost story…and a love story”.  My first paranormal romance—I was hooked.  I read that book over and over again throughout my childhood.  I’ve read it to my children.  When I see a looking glass ball in someone’s yard, the young ghost of the fictional Emily is still the first thing that jumps into my thoughts.
What’s the most challenging part of the writing process for you?
I’m a perfectionist, so that’s a big challenge.  It becomes painful when it’s time for the final proof read of the Galley copy, when I know it’s my last chance to make a change or fix an error.  I drive myself crazy!
Oh, yes *nodding vigorously in agreement* That final check before hitting ‘send’ can be terrifying! Has anything coincidental happened in the real world while writing one of your books in terms of the characters, scenes or world you’ve created?
One thing I did not have figured out when I began writing Silver Lake was the location. I knew I needed certain requirements for the story to work, and after researching options, I chose the wealthy area of Fairfield County, Connecticut, and the nearby vacation area surrounding Candlewood Lake. Once I had made the decision, I knew I had to plan a visit—but since it was at least a 4-hour drive, I couldn’t do it in a day trip. In the next few days, we received a notification from my son’s AAA baseball team that we would need to make plans to travel to a tournament—which turned out to be right where I set my novel!
How cool is that?! It just goes to show this book was meant to be written J What are you working on right now?
I have a third novel on the backburner while I focus on edits for my second novel.
Latest news?
Last month, I received a contract for my second paranormal romance, Gull Harbor. We just finished perfecting the blurb and I hope to get a spring release date. 
Congratulations Kathryn! Now, who wants to learn more about Kathryn's book? I do too! Here is the blurb and a short excerpt. Don't forget to make a comment and leave your email address in case you're the lucky winner of the Silver Lake giveaway!
 
BLURB:
Rain Anderson can't decide which is more unsettling—encountering the ghost of her missing friend, or reuniting with the man whose love she foolishly rejected. But one thing is certain: the past has come back to haunt her, quite literally.
Five years ago, Rain's tight-knit group of high school friends unraveled when one vanished during their senior year. Now, a parent's deathbed request has reunited the friends at Silver Lake, including Jason Lansing, the man Rain discarded. Rain and Jason discover the powerful attraction between them has survived, but though Jason is willing to forgive, he can't let himself forget. The possibility of falling for Rain again is too risky.
Slamming doors, crashing objects, flaring fires—clearly the ghost has a message to share. As Rain and Jason struggle to unravel the truth, they must face a desperate spirit in need of help…and a burning passion that refuses to die.
 
EXCERPT:
 
“I saw...a figure. A figure with dark hair, and I think it was Brandy.” She shuddered and put her forehead back on his chest.
Reluctantly, he moved their bodies apart a bit and scanned her face. He held on to her shoulders and asked calmly, “You saw Brandy? Brandy is here?”
She shook her head. “No, I saw… like… an image of Brandy. I woke up, because it was cold, and I saw something moving. It was Brandy, I’m sure of it, although I didn’t see her face clearly. And then she, um, disappeared.”
“An image of Brandy? Are you saying you saw a ghost, Rain?” He was pretty sure she’d had another nightmare, but the way she had flown out of her room gave him the impression it had been an extremely vivid one.
“I know, it sounds ridiculous. But that’s what I saw. And she sort of, well, went through the wall. I’m sure you don’t believe me,” she added miserably, lifting her stormy eyes to his.
He pulled her back into a hug before he could stop himself. “I absolutely believe you. Whether you were awake or asleep, you saw Brandy and that’s scary. I don’t think we can deny that weird things are happening here.”
Jason smoothed her hair and waited patiently for her trembling to subside. If a ghost really was lurking in her bedroom, there wasn’t a whole heck of a lot he could do about that. A rare sense of powerlessness caused his jaw to clench in frustration.
He stopped watching the door and instead focused on the gorgeous woman in his arms. She clung to him, and his body responded to hers with a familiar ache. He knew he was losing the battle to keep his feelings platonic.

 
Author Bio:
As a child, Kathryn Knight kept her parents on a constant quest to find enough reading material to last her through each week. An early fondness for books about horses later gave way to a lasting preference for both love stories and ghost stories; as a writer, the paranormal romance genre is a perfect fit. Silver Lake is Kathryn's first novel; her second novel, Gull Harbor, has also received a contract from The Wild Rose Press and will be released in 2013. She lives in New England with her husband, her sons, and a number of rescued animals. Please visit her at www.kathrynknightbooks.com or on Facebook at Kathryn Knight books.
 
 Amazon Buy Link http://www.amazon.com/Silver-Lake-Kathryn-Knight/dp/1612173853/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1345749376&sr=1-1&keywords=Silver+Lake+Kathryn+Knight

I love to hear from readers– please see the links below for more info!

Website - http://www.kathrynknightbooks.com/

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