Interview with Kara Braden

Kara Braden will be making her debut July 1st with her contemporary romance novel The Longest Night.

This could work, whispered the little voice in the back of her mind, the voice that had been silent for seven years...

SHE SOUGHT SOLACE IN SOLITUDE
Years ago, former Marine Captain Cecily Knight fled her dark past and the nightmares forever haunting her nights.  Alone in the remote Canadian wilderness, she survives day to day...until Ian Fairchild comes storming into her life and shatters her protective seclusion.

UNTIL ONE TOUCH BARED HER SOUL
Aloof but intriguing, defensive but undeniable, Ian is everything Cecily shouldn't want but can't ignore.  He watches her with shrewd blue eyes, as if determined to decipher her secrets...and for the first time in years, she finds herself coming alive beneath the hands of a man with too many scars to count.

As the hushed and harsh winter closes in around them, two lost souls find themselves on the precipice of a love that could save their lives...or destroy them forever.

Introduction to Kara - Kara writes from her home office just outside Phoenix, Arizona and other than writing, spends her time hiding from the heat and sunlight.  She lives with her US Air Force veteran husband and their children, also known as their cats and dogs.

Interview: Hi Kara, thanks for taking the time out to have a chat with us.  You are officially our very first author interview and on the eve of your debut book being released - it must be kismet.

Hi! I’m really excited to be here. I absolutely love the blog name!

I understand before you took up writing full time you used to write labs and learning materials for auto/diesel mechanics.  How was the leap to writing contemporary romance novels and did it bring many complexities with it?

I’d like to think it helped me learn to pay very, very close attention to detail and how to choose my words carefully. I really try to avoid flowery, overblown language, rather than bogging my readers down with my word choices. Ideally, my readers will forget they’re reading a book and instead experience the story.

So can you tell us a little about your debut novel, The Longest Night, due out July 1st?

The Longest Night is the story of a relationship distilled down to its bare essence. It’s a cabin romance in the most literal sense, and neither our hero, Ian Fairchild, nor our heroine, Cecily Knight, are prepared for romance or even looking for it.

Ian’s a hotshot criminal attorney from Manhattan. He survived a car crash, but ended up having to endure back surgery and physical therapy. Unfortunately, he ended up abusing painkillers so he could get back to work, and even after most of his back problems were healed, he kept taking them. Rehab wasn't working for him, so his brother, Preston, took matters into his own hands. Ian wasn’t staying off painkillers in Manhattan, so it was time to send him somewhere he couldn't get his hands on them, no matter what.

Enter Cecily Knight, a former Captain in the Marine Corps, who’d fled into isolation as a way to cope with her PTSD, after coming home from Iraq. Because she owed Preston a debt, she allowed him to send his little brother to stay with her, but she wasn’t expecting what she got! Gorgeous and exasperating in equal measure, Ian challenged everything she believed about herself — and she challenged him right back.

You could almost say they dared each other to face love and life together.

There seems to be a lot of different interpretation to the term "indie author" - Can you define what it means to you?

For me, an indie author is one who breaks the mold. When I first got into writing romance, people laughed at me for “writing to a formula" but the only formula you’ll see in my books is two people who fall in love and find it’s worth the risk and heartache to fight for their happily-ever-after. There’s no “first kiss by chapter 4, first sex by chapter 8” in my world! It’s all about a natural, realistic, believable progression from first sight to forevermore.

Who or what are your inspirations for writing?

The strangest things inspire me. If I see a cute couple holding hands, I won’t necessarily see a story, but show me a guy sitting in the museum sketching feathered dinosaurs, and suddenly I’m trying to think of who his ideal love-match would be. My muse really responds to offbeat, unusual things. For example, there was a recent news story about a New Zealand bachelor party that went looking for dinosaur fossils instead of hitting up a strip club. How awesome would that be for a romance novel?

What are you reading at the moment?

I’m in pre-release stress-mode, so I’ve turned to books that make me smile. My go-to book for that is Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. It’s the story of the almost-apocalypse, averted by a slightly confused angel who runs a bookstore and his best friend, the demon Crowley.

Other than The Deepest Night do you have any other works in progress you can share with us?

Preston’s love story is percolating in the back of my mind, but he’s still not ready to give up the memory of Lilit, his lost love from so many years ago. But while Preston continues to grieve, there’s a whole flock of unattached men and women working for Samaritan International. Right now, I’m sketching out a story about Jake Campbell, who runs a coffee shop down the road from Samaritan, and the “teacher” who comes in to get her morning coffee. He thinks she’s a kindergarten teacher or something, because she’s bright and cheery and adorable. I can’t wait until he finds out what she really teaches...

and just to finish up a quickfire ten questions for fun:

1. What's your favorite ice cream flavor? Vanilla, mostly because you can drown it in caramel!
2. If you could be any animal what would you be? Velociraptor, definitely. Feathers, claws, an instant pack of friends to hunt down prey... What’s not to love?
3. What is your favorite season? Winter! That’s self-preservation, though, since I live in Arizona.
4. Do you prefer the beach or the city? The beach, as long as it’s a dog beach. Because dogs + waves are a blast.
5. What are your favorite clothes to wear? Soft, lazy clothes. Yoga pants and my husband’s old T-shirts are the best. Otherwise, jeans.
6. What was the last film you saw? Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Talk about a gorgeous story with an even more gorgeous cast!
7. Do you have a nickname? The closest I have is “k” for people who are too lazy to type “Kara,” which is actually adorable. And it means the other Kara is “kk,” so people don’t get us mixed up.
8. What kind of vehicle do you drive? Currently, a big ol’ Ford Expedition that has lots of room for the dogs in back, though I secretly want to drive a tank. Yes, a tank. Treads and all.
9. What do you eat for breakfast usually? Burritos with hash browns, eggs, and cheese. Plus coffee. Lots of coffee.
10. What is the most spontaneous thing you've done? I’d have to say putting my profile out on an internet dating site. But it worked for me. That’s how I met my husband!

Big thanks to Kara for taking the time out to break our author interview cherry.  To get The Longest Night please follow the pre-order links below:

Amazon US
Amazon UK
Kobo
Barnes & Noble
iTunes

Be sure to follow our page on Facebook 101 Ways To Make Love To A Spoon and Kara Braden.  Be sure to tell Kara the Spooners sent you.  Join us July 1st where we will be celebrating the release of The Longest Night a couple of giveaways and some fun.

COVER REVEAL..................

J.S Scott - Billionaire Unmasked - Jason's Story

The next book the J.S Scott Billionaire's Obsession series is out soon - Billionaire Unmasked!!!

Jason Sutherland is a billionaire investor who has it all: good looks, billions of dollars, and every expensive toy a man could ever want. What he doesn’t have is the one thing he wants the most: Hope Sinclair. Unfortunately Hope, the little sister of his best friend, was off limits. But when he finds out that she’s getting married, he decides that he’s staking his claim before it’s too late, and it will take more than a little deception and risk to accomplish his goal. Hope could end up hating his guts, but after spending one forbidden night with her that he can’t forget, he knows he has to try to make her his forever.

Hope Sinclair was born into money, but being rich has never made her happy. The one thing she wants is a man to care about her and not her bank account. The closest thing she’s ever found to real happiness was the magical, passionate night she’d spent in the arms of Jason Sutherland…until that night turned into heartbreak. So when he unexpectedly comes back into her life in the strangest of ways, Hope is determined to resist her attraction to him. 

Thrown together by Jason’s deception and with their passion still burning hot, can the two of them survive after the billionaire is unmasked? 

Make sure you follow J.S Scott and be sure to follow us on Facebook at 101 Ways To Make Love To A Spoon.  We will be having lots of release day fun and giveaways.

Spotlight on J.S Scott - Billionaire's Obsession Series

About the Author

J.S. Scott is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of steamy romance. She's an avid reader of all types of books and literature. Writing what she loves to read, J.S. Scott writes both contemporary erotic romance stories and paranormal romance erotics. They almost always feature an Alpha Male and have a happily ever after because she just can't seem to write them any other way!

You can follow J.S on Facebook or Amazon.







The Billionaire's Collection series

Billionaire's Obsession Complete Collection - Simon & Kara's Story (Books 1 - 4)
includes : Mine For Tonight (#1) Mine For Now (#2) Mine Forever (#3) Mine Completely (#4)


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Down on her luck, nursing student and full-time waitress Kara Foster gets a massive blow to her already desperate financial situation that will surely find her living on the streets. Needing nothing less than a miracle to save her, Kara gets rescue from an unknown, unlikely and overwhelming source. Billionaire Simon Hudson makes her an offer that is impossible to refuse, but terrifying to accept from a man that she's never met. Will the handsome, alpha billionaire really be a solution to her problems, or will he end up being a major complication and a danger to her emotional sanity?

Reclusive billionaire Simon Hudson would rather be behind a computer creating computer games than rubbing elbows with the elite and he knows exactly what he wants...until he meets Kara Foster. Something about Kara touches Simon in ways he's never experienced and definitely doesn't like. For over a year, Simon watches over Kara, but stubbornly refuses to admit his desire to possess her, not even to himself. But when she ends up in a situation that could very well be her destruction, Simon steps up to help her, not realizing that in saving Kara, he might very well be salvaging his own soul.

Heart of the Billionaire - Sam & Maddie's Story (Book 5)


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Author Note: This novel is the complete story of Sam and Maddie, but reading The Billionaire’s Obsession – The Complete Collection (Simon and Kara’s story) first is highly recommended to enhance your reading pleasure.  Sam and Maddie are here!

Billionaire Sam Hudson has pretty much lived his life with no apologies because he tries never to do anything that he’s sorry about…except for what he had done in the past to Dr. Madeline Reynolds. Many years and regrets later, Sam meets up with Maddie again by chance; his brother Simon is marrying Maddie’s best friend and the two of them are forced to be civil. But Sam wants to be more than polite, and he wants another chance to make things right, so he offers Maddie a bold proposition, an offer he knows she’ll have a very hard time declining even though she hates him.

Dr. Madeline Reynolds adores her best friend Kara and her fiancé Simon, but being forced into the company of Sam Hudson, because they are both in Simon and Kara’s wedding, is pure torture. She’s hated Sam for years, but when he offers her a bargain, something near and dear to her heart, she’s torn between her dislike for the man and the offer of something she’s always desperately wanted. Once, Sam Hudson nearly destroyed her, but Maddie discovers that sometimes things aren't always what they appear to be. Is Sam really a devious heartbreaker, or is there something more to him beneath the surface?

Can two people with so many years of hurt between them learn to trust each other again?

Billionaire's Salvation - Max's Story (Book 6)

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Billionaire Max Hamilton thought he was finally starting to find contentment, more than two years after losing his wife Mia in a tragic drowning accident.

He'd been reunited with a sister he hadn't realized existed. Finally he had family again, a reprieve from the pain and loneliness that had haunted him since his devastating loss. He was as happy as a man could be, considering he had lost the other half of his soul & most of his heart when fate had torn his wife away.

Or so he believed until the day he rescued a mysterious woman in the park, a female who somehow had managed to reignite a part of him that he thought was long dead.

Suddenly, Max's protective, dominant, possessive male instincts flare to life, leaving him at a loss as to how lightning could possibly strike twice in one lifetime. Is he truly being given another chance at real happiness, or would it be dangled in front of him, only to be taken away once again?

The Billionaire's Game - Kade's Story (Book 7)


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With his professional football career over due to a tragic accident, billionaire Kade Harrison takes on the task of solving a mystery for his brother-in-law and friend, Max Hamilton. Without his former career to fill every minute of the day, Kade's looking for something to challenge him -now that he's lost the career that had meant everything to him. But what starts out as a simple favor soon becomes a whole lot more than he bargained for when the woman he's seeking slips away from him every time he gets close to finding her. When Kade does finally corner her, things start to get even more complicated. Asha Paritala is nothing like he expected, and the female he had tracked down as a favor for Max soon becomes a woman he wants for his very own, a woman who makes protective and highly predatory instincts he didn't know he had flare to life inside him. Kade soon discovers that he wants Asha's total surrender to the desire and passion that vibrates intensely between the two of them, but he also wants her trust, the one thing Asha's history makes it difficult for her to give. Can Kade convince her that some things are worth risking it all?

Caught between two worlds, Asha Paritala is homeless, broke and damaged from a life of abuse and neglect. Born of an American mother and an Indian immigrant father, Asha was raised as an Indian woman by a foster family after the death of her natural parents when she was little more than a baby. She's spent her entire life under the control of others until finally breaking free two years earlier, and she's determined to keep her freedom, even if it means she has to struggle to survive. But when she meets Kade Harrison, her resolve is tested. After Kade helps her through a bad situation, she finds herself beginning to trust Kade as she's never trusted a man before. Kade is everything she always thought a man should be, but can she lose herself in him completely when she knows she's damaged and confused. And is it really possible that she could be a lost sibling to two people like Max Hamilton and Maddie Hudson? Asha is tempted by the possibility of family, and the irresistible lure of a man like Kade Harrison. Can a woman caught between two cultures, so flawed and so backward, really reach out and take what she wants, or will the instinct to run from the pain of her past destroy the hope of happiness for her future?

Billionaire Undone - Travis's Story (Book 8)


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After four years of working for “the billionaire boss from hell” Ally Caldwell thinks she finally has her life on the right track. Her fiancé is out of dental school, ready to go to work at a thriving practice, and it would finally be her turn to go back and finish her college degree. Unfortunately, her carefully planned future crumbles when she finds out that her fiancé, the man she’d nearly killed herself to help get through school, has been cheating on her. With her wedding looming in the near future, Ally’s blindsided, realizing she’d never even knew the man she’d been planning to marry. Suddenly, her carefully organized life is turned upside down, and not one single thing is turning out the way it was supposed to happen. Even her boss, Travis the Tyrant, is beginning to act differently, throwing Ally into an even more confused and chaotic state of mind. Travis, the one man who she’d always counted on to be a jerk, was now the guy who actually steps up to try and help her straighten her life out again. Unfortunately, she doesn’t much care for his highhanded arrogance or his methods of “helping.” Ally wants to hate Travis. It makes her life so much simpler to fight with him than to admit to the combustible chemistry growing between the two of them. But as she begins to see more and more of the real Travis beneath his dark façade, she can’t seem to resist the dangerous lure of their unlikely attraction.

Billionaire Travis Harrison does everything he possibly can to repair the Harrison name after a scandal nearly destroyed his family years ago. He makes sure he keeps himself and his actions in check, his emotions buried under a thick layer of ice. Only his secretary and assistant, Alison Caldwell, makes him come close to losing his carefully constructed image. The obstinate female keeps shoving him closer and closer to the edge of sanity every single day. But when he finds out about her fiancé’s betrayal, his protective instincts roar to life inside him, making him want to ensure she’s never hurt again. The only problem is…Ally doesn’t want his help, and the infuriating woman does everything she can to push him away, even as the two of them are swept into an undeniable passion that neither of them can possibly ignore. Before long, Travis finds himself in ruthless pursuit of something much more important and elusive than just a business deal.

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The how where and why about indie authors

I have been a reader all of my life. From the time I was 6 months old and looking through Richard Scary board books. I was an avid reader well into my elementary years and spent most recesses with a book instead of friends. Fast forward a few years shall we, no one needs to hear about my boring past! 

Age 37, still an avid reader. Still reading several books at a time. Same-o, same-o.... don't get me wrong. There are authors that I love and adore and anxiously await the next book. Lets get real for a moment shall we, they are a name on a book, a name in the ether. Not tangible just that...a name. I don't know anything about the author except a blurb on the back of the page, maybe a picture that is 20 something years old. Again, don't get me wrong! I love authors. Gate ways to imagination, untold stories and a dip into their minds eye. I have conversed with a few, Judy Blume, Catherine Coulter, R.A. Salvatore, and Rodger Baum to name a few. They are very kind to chat with. They have no qualms signing a book smiling and letting you go on your merry way. Then you meet indie authors....they are a whole breed of their own unlike anything or any one I have EVER had the pleasure of meeting.

The first indie author I was introduced to was Michelle Horst. She writes the Vaalbara series as well as Wake Me Up. I was told I just HAD to read this book. I didn't know who Michelle was or the kind of books she wrote. My co blogger Amy gave me her book to read. Wake Me Up wasn't my normal genre at all. (I dub them guilty pleasure books.) I gave it a go. I started it and said, yeah it's good.....then I was enveloped in it. I was living and breathing it. I was in love with the characters. I was in love with writing. I was in love with the author!!! You know what the best part was I COULD TELL THE AUTHOR. Yes!! I was able to write her, tell her how much I loved her book and she would write me back! I started a correspondence with her. I started a friendship with her half way across the world, all because I liked her book! :) It warmed the cockles of my heart. 

So I delved further into the world of indie authors! I couldn't believe it! There are legions of them out there!! Just to give you a taste here are a few if you are interested in dipping your toe into the rise of the indie author. Let me tell you, they are a personal bunch. They raise each other up and support each other. They reach out to others for help. For advice. For friendship. I have never before seen and met so many amazing women that are so eager to see the others succeed! You write how something effected you, they will write you back. You ask when the next book will come, they can give you a round about date. There are many ways to support them, not just by reading them, you can join street teams and help get the word out there. They absolutely love their fans! They do giveaways up the yin yang! Just try one...and I promise you, you will be hooked! Here are a few to check out!!

Michelle Horst

Silla WebbL.A. Casey
Penelope Ward
Cassia Leo
 Heidi McLaughlin
Hilary Storm
Colleen Hoover
Lisa De Hong
Jade Jamison

Mind you these are only a very small drop in the bucket!! Check out out facebook page for a more extensive list!! Happy Reading! 

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~AK