Book Spotlight- A Question of Time

Title: A Question of Time

Author: Joanne Renaud

Genre: Time Travel Romance

            If you could go back in time to save the man you loved, knowing it might cost you your life, would you do it?

            When I read Joanne Renaud’s A Question of Time, this was essentially the main crux of the heroine’s problem. I was instantly sucked in by the dilemma.

Here’s the official blurb: Years later, successful author Celia Cavalotti is still mourning the death of her favorite teacher, who died in a car crash in 1989. But when a car accident of her own hurtles her back in time to the week of his death, she has a chance to change the future.
Finding herself in the 1980s is a shock to the extremely modern Celia-- but even more shocking is seeing her dead English teacher, Alan Forrest, alive and well before her very eyes. Alan is far more handsome than she remembers, and she can't resist the urge to flirt. After all, they have so much in common, like writing and a shared love of science fiction. Celia knows she's falling in love with him-- but can she use this opportunity to prevent his tragic death? What is happening to her? And why can't she seem to stay in one place and time?

My Review:

The story appealed to me from the beginning. I was in love with the concept of a teenager loving her teacher from afar and then years later having the chance to go back in time and save his life. Celia’s character is easy to identify with as a reader. I readily enjoyed her internal monologues about how she became a science fiction writer and how it was her former teacher, Alan who had shown her the path. There is something to be said about losing an influential figure of in your life at a young age. The tragedy of the loss can affect your future decisions. I think Renaud did an amazing job making me, as the reader, sympathize with Celia about losing Alan when she was a student. By that point, I was desperate for her to go back in time to save him.

When Celia and Alan first meet in the past after she goes back into time, I found myself captivated by the budding love affair of the older, wiser, more jaded Celia as she meets Alan again as an adult. He doesn’t know she’s his former student from the future, and the emotional and physical chemistry is instant. I felt so involved in the relationship as I read, watching their new love affair and knowing it was going to end tragically. I wanted to stop reading, but couldn’t put it down because I had to know what happened!

           

I'm not going to lie. This book actually did make me cry. While the beginning reads pleasantly, almost nostalgically, I was completely unprepared for the ending. I mean that in the best possible way. I'd expected another delightful time traveling romance that swept me away on a sweet, sensual love story. I got that, certainly, but the ending was beyond my expectations. Renaud did an amazing job, stunning job, of creating the perfect scenario to wrench a reader's heart. I don't want to give any spoilers, but I was definitely wiping tears off my kindle screen by the time it was done.

Who wouldn't want to read a story about losing someone you cared about and being a second chance to change fate, even if it might mean you lose your own life in the process? Great sacrifice, great love and fantastic writing were all here and I can't wait to see what this author has in store next. I'll be there with bells on waiting for her next release.

Excerpt:

“That’s a great book,” a voice said behind her.
She was so startled she almost jumped. Whirling around, a bespectacled young man stood behind her.
Could it be? As her eyes grew huge, the blood drained from her face.
“Uh, miss,” he said, clearly concerned. “Is everything all right?”
“I—uh—yeah, sorry. I’m all right,” she managed to say, but still continued to stare. He was hardly as fashionable as the metrosexuals and neo-preppies back in New York. With his gray corduroy sports coat, pressed blue shirt, and belted brown high-cut trousers, he looked very much like a teacher from twenty-one years ago. He wore his dark blond hair mid-length and feathered, in a left side part; and he had a serious, earnest sort of face, narrow, but with a firm jaw, defined chin, and a long, straight nose.
But the most noticeable thing about him was his glasses. His huge brown-tinted plastic frames seemed to cover half his face. They looked ridiculous, but they somehow intensified his eyes, which were very blue.
It was him. It was definitely him. Mr. Forrest.


Check out more about the author here:

Twitter: http://twitter.com/suburbanbeatnik
Facebook: www.facebook.com/people/Joanne-Renaud/1240083950
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4379632.Joanne_Renaud
Portfolio: http://www.joannerenaud.com
Tumblr: http://suburbanbeatnik.tumblr.com/

BUY A Question of Time here:

Amazon
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Smashwords 

Passionate Ink: March Workshop

Passionate Ink: March Workshop: Got High Concept? By Lori Wilde March 4-29, 2013 WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION: Do you want to razzle-dazzle editors? Earn a bigger advance?...

Got High Concept?

By Lori Wilde

March 4-29, 2013

WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION: Do you want to razzle-dazzle editors? Earn a bigger advance? Create media buzz for your book? Inspire Hollywood to come knocking? The way to achieve these goals is to come up with a dynamic high concept pitch that will knock the socks of editors and agents alike.

                                           

This workshop is designed to provide you with the tools you’ll need to mold your story idea into an intriguing one sentence pitch that can magically unlock closed doors. It’s simply the most effective way to capture a publisher’s interest.

This workshop will cover the following topics:

1. A step-by-step method for creating a high concept.

2. First aid for low concept books

3. Ways to make a high concept even better

4. Where to find high concept ideas

5. How to think like a high concept writer

6. Creativity and brainstorming exercises

7. Hints and tips from top industry insiders

8. Examples of high concept stories

ABOUT THE PRESENTER: New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, Lori Wilde has sold 69 novels and novellas to four major New York Publishing houses. She holds a bachelors degree in nursing from Texas Christian University and a certificate in forensics. She has also served as the RWA National conference workshop chair and PAN retreat chair. In 2007 she was honored by her local college as alumna of the year.

 Lori is a two-time RITA finalist and has four times been nominated for Romantic Times Reviewer’s Choice Award. She’s won the Colorado Award of Excellence, the Wisconsin Write Touch Award, The Lories, The More Than Maggie, the Golden Quill, The Laurel Wreath and The BestBooks of 2006 Book Award.

Her books have been translated into 25 languages and excerpted in Cosmopolitan, Redbook, Complete Woman, All You and Quick and Simplemagazines. She lives in Texas with her husband, Bill.

WORKSHOP FEES:

$15 for Members
$20 for Non-Members

To pay via PayPal, please send payment to workshops@passionateink.org and make the subject line WORKSHOP: HIGH CONCEPT. Please be sure the information field includes the name and email address you will be using for the workshop.

To pay via check, please include WORKSHOP: HIGH CONCEPT in the memo area. Also, please include a note containing the name and email address you will be using for the workshop.

Mail checks to:

Robin L Rotham, Treasurer
P.O. Box 2412
Norfolk, NE 68702

***Permission to forward granted and encouraged.***

Release Date Set!

Hey Guys!

Had to share the fantastic news I heard yesterday. The tentative release date for the first book in my sexy regency romance series has been set!

Expect to see Godric available with e-book sellers on January 7th 2014!

I'll be sure to post any other updates or information as it comes available or if the date changes.

Contract Offer and New Years Resolutions

Dear Readers,

What a year this has been! I can scarcely believe it's already come to an end, yet so much has happened.

The best news is that I received a contract offer for publication from Samhain Publishing just after Thanksgiving for the first book in my series The League of Rogues. You can expect to find your own copy of Book 1 of the series titled Godric sometime in January 2014 if all goes well.

I am simply over the moon with excitement to be joining the Samhain team of authors. I have a fantastic editor who loves the series and characters and I can't wait to see what we'll do with the remaining books. If we're lucky, books 2 and 3 of the series will also come out in 2014! As information becomes available I will be sure to post it on my blog and facebook author page.

In other news, my previous literary agent has left the business and now I'm represented by a fantastic agent, Pam van Hylckama Vlieg from the Larsen Pomada Agency. She's absolutely amazing and has recently negotiated my contract with Samhain (we're merely awaiting final paperwork). I am thrilled to be her client and am so excited to work with her on getting new projects out there!

As the year 2012 comes to a close, I have to sit back and be thankful for everything that I have been blessed with this year. I've made some amazing new writing friends and grown closer to older ones. I've been honing my craft and taking workshops to keep improving and working hard at my day job. Needless to say it's been a busy year but I am proud with the results.

My goals for the coming year involve putting out my Romantic Suspense novel on submission, sending a Christmas novella to Carina Press for their 2013 Christmas novella collection and crossing my fingers they'll like it, as well as working on the next two books in my League series. It will be a fun year ahead of me with a brave new world of publishing and writing. I can't wait to dive in and get started!


I'd love to hear from my followers. What have you accomplished this past year? What are your goals for the coming year?  Are you working on something new and exciting? Post an excerpt for the rest of us to read!

The Next Big Thing!!

Hey Readers!

A friend tagged me a post to provide some info on my latest WIP. Here goes and I hope you enjoy!

Ten Interview Questions for the Next Big Thing:
Q: What is your working title of your book?

A: The Gilded Cuff

Q: Where did the idea come from for the book?

A: I woke from a dream about a pair of young boys trapped and held kidnapped in a crumbling mansion on Long Island and knew I had to share their story.

Q: What genre does your book fall under?

A: Romantic Suspense with a little bit of BDSM.

Q: Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

A: Heroine- Sophie Ryder played by Jennifer Lawrence, Hero- Emery Lockwood played by Stephen Amnell.

Q: What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

A: Haunted by his childhood kidnapping that stole his twin brother’s life, Emery Lockwood is a tortured man and he can’t resist bargaining with the determined reporter Sophie Ryder who wants to know all his secrets, except it might just end up getting them killed.

Q: Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

A: Represented by my awesome and lovely agent Pam from the Larsen Pomada Agency

Q: How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

A: LOL- still working on it. Nearly done. Was a little busy getting my first book contract for a regency series underway and am just now getting back to finishing this novel.

Q: What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

A: Well, it’s not your typical Romantic Suspense. My hero is not a detective or a PI. He’s a wealthy recluse who is trying to avoid the spotlight and the heroine wants to unearth his secrets for her story. It has some flavor of E.L. James’s Fifty Shade series and some of Shayla Black’s erotic romance Wicked series.

Q: Who or what inspired you to write this book?

A: I can’t normally pinpoint who or what inspires my stories. They are usually the result of something I’ve dreamed or some image I’ve seen and can’t get out of my head. I always start with a vision of a scene as the start of my story and go from there.

Q: What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

A: I think the Gilded Cuff will attract readers for a few reasons. It’s not your average romantic suspense. The setting is its own character and the story is highly character driven for the hero and heroine.


Feel free to post a thought about my new WIP or about your own WIP. What's your NEXT BIG THING? 

12 Days of Christmas- My Regency Short Story Free

Hey Readers!

I'm happy to announce I'm participating in my local RWA's chapter of the 12 Days of Christmas.

Each day one author from our chapter will be posting a short story. All of the stories take place at the same ball on Christmas Day at Pemberton Hall in England in 1814. 

I wrote the second story "Two Turtle Doves."  


When Nathan, the Duke of Hastings, discovers that his long lost love, Theodosia Swann is attending the ball at Pemberton, he can't believe his luck. After breaking off their love affair ten years before when his father hadn't approved of the match, Nathan has regretted letting his one great love get away.

Now, with snow on the ground, mistletoe hanging above doorways, and Christmas magic in the air, Nathan hopes to find Thia and make her fall in love with him all over again. 

Will he find a way to make her forgive him for breaking her heart and will she still love him?  Come by and see!

Here's a brief teaser of Two Turtle Doves:

His mouth dried, and he struggled to swallow past the lump in his throat. His body froze at the sight of her, stiff and taut with indecision. Should he go to her? What would she want? Would she be happy to see him? Perhaps she hated him? Or had she dreamt of him every night, as she lay alone in her bed, as he did her?

 Lady Theodosia Swann stood out in the midst of her six younger sisters like a northern star in the winter skies, shimmering, glittering, all alone in the dark expanse of the inky universe. Yet, she was none the weaker for it. She was brighter, more enchanting.

Thia. My Thia.

As tiny as she was—he towered over her by a head and a half—she captured his full attention. He was enraptured by her as he watched her whisper something to one of her sisters. Her amber hair caught the light of the candles nearest her, a beacon shining for him. Her eyes, jade pools frosted with silver, glanced about the room, unaware of the steady heat of his own gaze.

Nathan sucked in a harsh breath as his body stirred to life with a level of arousal he’d thought he’d never feel again. Ten years had wrought great changes in her. In them both. The lithe-bodied girl of nineteen he’d swept across ballrooms in her first season was gone. In her place was a woman infinitely more alluring, with luscious curves his hands itched to shape, and pale pink lips he longed to explore with his own. Were they as soft as he remembered?

She smoothed her hands over her dark green gown and tugged at the puffed sleeves trimmed with lace. Her full breasts were accented by a square cut neckline and a bodice embroidered with holly leaves. When she shifted, he caught a glimpse of the shape of her legs as the silk, drawn up in festoons with more holly leaves, rustled and clung to her. Most men preferred younger women, barely out of their first Season, but Nathan couldn’t think of anything more lovely, more sensual, than a full-grown woman, who had a body worth holding, worth making love to endlessly into the night.

Her gaze swept the room and his gut clenched a second before her eyes hit him with the force of a physical blow. He swallowed hard as he watched as her cheeks turned from pink to ash. The look on her face robbed him of breath. Sadness haunted her, and he hated seeing it, seeing her so wounded. She looked as destroyed on the outside at seeing him, as he was on the inside since the day he’d broken both their hearts.

His heart cried out for her. Things are different now. I’m not the fool I once was, and I’m not under my father’s control.

       Thia stared at him for a moment longer, and then turned and moved swiftly away, running from him. He had to speak to her, apologize for everything he’d done to ruin their happiness ten years ago. He prayed he wasn’t too late.


Dying to know what happens next?

Go here to read the rest of the story and stayed tuned to the Wild Okies Blog for the rest of the stories!

http://www.wildokies.blogspot.com/2012/12/my-true-love-gave-to-metwo-turtle-doves.html