Ever Feel Like Your Holidays Are All Mixed Up?

Our Guest today is the super-talented author Terry Spear to talk about writing stories set at holiday times. She's also sharing with us not one, but two (2!!!) book blurbs for the upcoming Halloween and Christmas holidays AND a hot giveaway, so be sure to comment below. Take it away, Terry...

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You walk into a craft store, or even the grocery store, department store—just wherever and talk about a mad mix of holiday stuff from Halloween to Thanksgiving to Christmas. Surprised they don't have Valentine's and Easter stuff too!

Currently, I'm writing A Highland Wolf Christmas—so I've got to think Highland Christmas, mixed with American Christmas, since some are from the U.S. And it's 90+ degrees in Central Texas still. So I'm researching Christmas—music, decorations, shopping, etc in Scotland, while keeping the AC on.

Now, I also want to have fun with Halloween. I write ghost stories, vampires, werewolves, jaguar shifters, psychics, all the things that go bump in the night. So October is a great month for me to go paranormal. More so than usual.

Yet, what do I have out this month and must promote? A SEAL Wolf Christmas!! Yes, hot, yes, love the Christmas story, and yes, I'm back into Christmas! LOL!

When I wrote short stories for magazines, it was the same thing. We had to write about seasonal stuff 9 months in advance. So we were always writing about a season that just didn't feel seasonal for the period of time we're writing it.

But I wouldn't have given up my wonderfully fun A SEAL Wolf Christmas for anything! And now with writing A Highland Wolf Christmas, the same thing! Next, it'll be cold here and I'll be writing about a steamy jungle for a bunch of jaguar shifters in Jaguar Pride.

So a little mix of holidays never hurt anyone, I figure. Besides, I had the same thing happen when I went to craft shows with my award-winning bears in the fall, and trying to promote Christmas!

And with that, I have two fun solutions to the problem. One lucky winner will win an ebook copy of Huntress for Hire, a vampire romantic suspense—appropriate for Halloween, and one lucky winner, US/Canada only, will win a copy of A SEAL Wolf Christmas, autographed print version—for Christmas.

So see? A little mix of holidays works!

Oh, and for Halloween, I wanted to include a mention of a REALLY, easy treat to make that's fun, if you like deviled eggs. Just cut up the black olives and you have spidery deviled eggs. We scarfed them down while watching scary movies for Halloween. What could be more fun?

Thanks so much to Beach Read Authors for inviting me here today!

What about you? Do you get overwhelmed with all the holidays blended together? Or can you sort them out just fine?


BOOK BLURB: A SEAL Wolf Christmas

Can an Alpha Wolf Who's Met His Match...

Navy SEAL Bjornolf Jorgenson has had tough missions before, but going undercover with feisty gray wolf Anna Johnson could top the list. She drives him crazy—in more ways than one. Now he has to investigate a murder, supervise a wild teenage wolf—and handle Christmas with Anna.
Survive the Holidays with Her?

For Anna, the only thing worse than staging the perfect family Christmas is having to do it with Bjornolf posing as her husband. Anna is a serious undercover operative who isn't afraid of a fight, even with a hunky SEAL shifter. With a killer on the loose, Anna just wants to focus on their mission, but the one thing she can't fight is her sizzling chemistry with Bjornolf.

BOOK EXCERPT:

“Hunter told Nathan he wanted him off the job. Immediately. Nathan insisted that he stay because it was the only way he’d consider staying with the pack. He wants to feel useful. I suspect the owner’s daughter has something to do with his wanting to work there as well,” Bjornolf said.

Anna shook her head. “She’s human. I can just imagine the mess he could get into with a human girl if he thought he was falling in love.”

“Right. Hunter didn’t mention it to you, but Nathan wanted you and me to protect him while we learned about the tree-farm deaths.”

“Why would Nathan want me to help? I understand him wanting you—but with me, he doesn’t even know me.”

“He’s heard of your exploits on the last mission here.”

“What exploits?”

Bjornolf shrugged. “I have no idea what rumors were spread in the pack about your mission when you were protecting Meara.”

“Nathan better not have heard about you tying me up in the hotel room and think he’ll get to see a repeat performance firsthand.” She closed her eyes and groaned. “That’s probably exactly what he’d heard about.”

Bjornolf chuckled. “Hell, if I have to have a mate, I want someone like you who can take anyone down.”

She fought smiling at him, but she wasn’t successful.

“You really never had a tree?” he asked, not liking that she’d missed out.

She shrugged and looked out the window. “First time for everything, I guess.” Then she considered him again. “Don’t expect me to do anything with it.”

“You mean decorate it? Nathan and I’ll set it in water and all.” He hadn’t thought a whole lot about what went on the tree. He hadn’t helped decorate one in years.

Anna didn’t say anything.

“We’ll figure out something. We don’t have any stored ornaments from last year like we would if this had been for real. We’ll have to go shopping for some.”

“Actually, you should take Tessa. If you have a fight over an ornament with another customer, Tessa will win the confrontation with a growl.”

“She nearly gave Hunter heart failure. He thought she was ready to strip and shift. I’d rather go with you. You’re a known commodity.”

She cocked a brow at that.

“As far as the shifting part goes. The rest of you I’m still trying to figure out.”
“Shopping is not my thing.”

“Now there’s a woman after my own heart.”

BOOK BLURB: Huntress for Hire

He’s a hunter turned vampire, she’s a huntress of vampires—he’s needs her cooperation to free his family; she’s trained to kill his kind.

Rebel vampire huntress Rachael Bremerton wants revenge against Piaras, one of the most ruthless vampires in Dallas , for the murder of her parents. But when she’s lured by another vampire, Adonis, into the darkness—the same darkness she’s feared since she was a child—she’s torn between her huntress sensibilities and some strange desire to be with the creature she’s meant to despise and destroy.

Adonis, a hunter turned vampire, has been ordered by Piaras to bring Rachel to him untouched. In return, Piaras will release Adonis’s family unharmed. But when Adonis first sees Rachael, his hunter desire to have a huntress mate kicks in, or is it the dark heart of the vampire that makes him crave her so?

Turning Rachel over to Piaras becomes less of an option. But can he find a way to free his family, claim Rachael for his own, and keep her family from discovering he is a hunter turned vampire—a creature they will all feel obligated to hunt down and kill?

BOOK EXCERPT:

Her heart began beating double time and another icy shiver rippled down Rachael’s spine as she stared into the darkness where the male voice had originated. If he was a vampire, he would hear her panicked heart, just as she heard her blood rushing in her ears. She tried to see what it was he held or wore that had so effectively lured her here.

She could see nothing in the ebony void, and the words he spoke again sifted through her brain. You won’t ever get to Piaras without my help.

Had he heard Zachary speak to her in the parking lot about how she was going after Piaras in sarcastic jest? Would he tell Piaras what she’d said? And then would Piaras, the devil of a vampire himself, come after her?

She swallowed, but her throat was dusty dry. She tilted her chin up, showing him he could not intimidate her. Yet every ounce of her huntress sense screamed at her to leave the balcony at once, to warn the hunters a vampire was lurking here, to have him destroyed before he could make her do something she would forever regret.

She’d never heard of a vampire behaving so boldly with that many hunters nearby. Which warned her he was a danger she should well heed. “If I scream, the hunters will come and rescue me.”

Hidden in the shadows, he made a derisive sound. “You’re not interested in anything they have to offer. To dance with any, you must ply yourself with liquor. You wish to be intimate with none of them...not like you wish to be with me.”

Instantly, her blood sizzled. “Why you arrogant—”

“But I can help you, and in return, you’ll aid me.”

To kill Piaras? The vampire had to be delusional, if he was sincere in the least. But he didn’t sound crazy, which left a more disagreeable reason he was risking his neck here. Some darker reason that had nothing to do with her helping him to kill the evil one.

“What makes you think I...” She folded her arms and changed her tactic, not wanting to discuss the most hated vampire in the region further, or give this vampire any clues about her own nature—that he hadn’t already sensed. “Who are you?”

Another inkling of dread twisted her insides—what if he were Piaras? What if he wished to see if she’d come willingly to him? The ultimate challenge for a vampire of his demonic stature? Right here under the noses of the gathered hunters of the biggest annual bash held in the region? And she, the head of the League of Hunters only unmated female relation?

“Come closer and I’ll whisper my name to you.” His sensual voice stroked her like a brush of black velvet against naked skin. “I wouldn’t want the others to know I have an interest in you.”


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Bestselling and award-winning author Terry Spear has written over fifty paranormal romance novels and four medieval Highland historical romances. Her first werewolf romance, Heart of the Wolf, was named a 2008 Publishers Weekly’s Best Book of the Year, and her subsequent titles have garnered high praise and hit the USA Today bestseller list. A retired officer of the U.S. Army Reserves, Terry lives in Crawford, Texas, where she is working on her next werewolf romance and continuing her new series about shapeshifting jaguars.

For more information, please visit www.terryspear.com, or follow her on Twitter, @TerrySpear. She is also on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/terry.spear. And on Wordpress at: Terry Spear's Shifters
http://terryspear.wordpress.com/
www.terryspear.com

9 comments:

  1. And!!! I have audiobook review copies of the following: The Accidental Highland Hero, Highland Rake, Taming the Wild Highland, Bound by Danger, The Dark Fae (teen), Kiss of the Vampire (teen), The Deadly Fae (teen). The caveat is that you haven't received a free book before through audible. But if you haven't and you'd like one, it's yours! This is for anybody and everyone. :)

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  2. I know exactly what you mean, Terry. It's difficult to write a Christmas story in March or April. :-) Both books sound fantastic! Thank you for visiting Beach Read Authors and for sharing your recipe...scary movies and spidery deviled eggs...I'm in!

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  3. LOL, I love doing that, Alicia. I'm going to see my daughter and SIL for Halloween. It's become a real yearly event. :)

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  4. I love the deviled egg idea! Both books sound great. I can't wait to read them. :-) Thanks for the giveaways!

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  5. Thanks, Becca! I loved how easy it was. :)

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  6. Sometimes I wish the end of the year holidays (Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas) were spread out a bit more. LOL! I have your Seal Wolf Christmas on my nightstand :-))) Love your books... Thanks for the contest.

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    1. Me too, Lindalou. I'd love it if Halloween was earlier. :) Thanks for loving my books! :) I hope you love Bjornolf!!! :)

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  7. Holidays get so hectic. I also wish they were a little more spread out. Between my husbands and my family being in different states we seem to always be traveling the last three months of the year. Sometimes I just want to say screw it and spend the holidays at home in my bathtub with a glass of wine, lol.

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    1. LOL, Stephanie, that sounds like fun. We had the same problem when the kids were little. And traveling on planes was not fun. Missed connections, delays, sick kids... yep! :) I opt for one of them to be in the summertime. :)

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