Wicked Warriors Blog Hop-Lots of Giveaways

Welcome to my stop on the Wicked Warriors Blog Hop

 

hosted by Angela Knight & BTS E-magazine!

 

First let's discuss the fabulous Grand Prize offering:

 

1 Kindle Paperwhite and 5 autographed copies of Unbound

 

That's 6 winners in all! How awesome is that??

 

To enter please use the Rafflecopter below!

 

Yes, there are 2 Rafflecopter entry forms

1 for the Grand Prize

&

1 for my prize

Then click on a link in the linky list to hop on over to the next stop along this hop

 

 

Now let's talk about my stop here on the hop...

 

Who better to have stop by for a hop about Warriors, than the incredible author of many warrior type books..... Cindy Gerard!!!!

And I got put  her in the spotlight about her new book:

The Way Home

releasing 10/29/2013

Blurb:

Killed in Action – the most dreaded words imaginable for a soldier’s wife. Jess Albert has been living with them for four years, since the death of her husband in Afghanistan. Finding blessed numbness in routine, she doesn’t dare to look ahead, any more than she can bear to look back. Then Tyler Brown, a former special-ops warrior, shows up at her small general store in Minnesota North Woods, jarring her back to life. Jess knows better than to fall in love with another man who places duty to his country before love of his wife- but there’s no denying the longing and the hope for a future that Ty makes her feel.

A world away, a man ravaged by years of captivity and torture, a man with no memories, finally escapes- clinging to life and sanity in a hostile land. In his darkest hour, he awakes in a lantern-lit cave to find a woman at his side. Dark-haired and dark-eyes, her touch is caring, despite the resentment he hears in her voice and sees on her face. Rabia is bound by honor to save the lost American soldier in her keeping, this broken warrior from a war that has brought so much devastation to her land. But is it honor igniting her compassion for her enemy, or is it something more?

While a Black Ops team plans a daring rescue mission to bring the solider home, two women on opposite sides of the world walk a dangerous path between betrayal and honor, and must find for themselves where to draw the lines between duty and love.

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I discovered Cindy Gerard’s books while posting a piece on Author, Lori Foster. One of the readers of that post told me that if I liked Lori’s books, I would love Cindy’s….and was she ever correct!

I checked out The Black Ops series first and purchased everyone available, then read them non-stop! Next I moved on to The Bodyguards series, and now the One-Eyed Jacks!

I am such a huge fangirl!

*jumps up & down squealing with delight*

So without further ado…

Drum roll please…….

I would like to welcome author extraordinaire, Cindy Gerard, to I am a book addict...and proud of it!

 

·         Could you please tell us a little about yourself?

           Pizza, chocolate and cheetos pretty much sums me up :o)  Seriously.  I power through most deadlines on all three so that’s more or less what I’m made of.  Other than that, I love animals – our 2 cats, 1 spoiled dog, 3 quarter horses and 3 aquariums tells that tale.  I love to read – when I have time, play on line scrabble – even when I don’t have time, travel, hang out with friends, watch good TV and spend time with family.  And occasionally, I like to be a daredevil – like when I hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and back (not for the faint of heart or foot), zip lined in New Zealand (OMG), White Water rafted the Colorado(OMG  X 2) , Rode a camel in Morocco (What was I thinking?) … you get the idea. :o)

 

·         Your books have characters making appearances throughout a series and they sometimes even crossover into another series, how do you keep all those characters and their specific traits and personalities straight when writing the latest book?

      

          Once I develop a character and go through a story with them or have a story planned for them, trust me I remember every detail :o)  When you live with these men and women every day you get to know them and love them (or hate them in the case of villains).  Sad to say, they all become very real to me – maybe that’s because I draw from real live heroes as well as imaginary on

·         Your heroes & heroines are so bold with such strong personalities and I feel like I get to know them personally as I read about them. Are any of your guys or gals based on real people?

 

          I should have read ahead :o)  There are bits and pieces of people I know, people I’d like to know and people who populate my head and demand to be written.  And thanks for the compliment.  I hate cardboard characters.  I love to create people who we can all identify with just as we can identify with their pain, their integrity, their wants and needs.

·         Your books are categorized as Romantic Suspense and they have a lot of military tactics & phrases, guns, ammo, explosions etc in them. I see the romance and feel the suspense with every line I read but, I am curious about these other things. Do you consult with someone about guns and explosions and tactics?

           I have several go to guys who help me with the guns and explosives and military tactics.  One in particular, however, never lets me down.  If I have a scene envisioned and I need to know if it will work or what I could do to make it better, I always run it past him.  He always has suggestions or corrections that make the scene as large as life.

 

·         I was so excited last January, when I heard about The One-Eyed Jacks series. I loved book #1 Killing Time! And now book #2 The Way Home is about to be released on 10/29. The Way Home is a bit different from your other books, can you give us an idea of the how & why this is?

 

        The Way Home turned out to be a very special story for me.  This book is a bonus book in the One-Eyed Jacks series that I hadn’t initially intended to write.  But my publisher – bless them – wanted a Christmas story featuring a military hero which to me said hearth and home and hope.  A story I never envisioned writing came to me shortly after and I knew it had to be the one.  The Way Home features dual stories (can’t tell you much more than that without spoiling it for you) but trust me when I say, it’s very romantic, emotional and explosive.  It’s everything I’ve written in my other books plus a little more.  I loved writing the story and I hope you love reading it too.  Here’s a link to an excerpt that will give you an idea of the emotional intensity of the story. 

 

http://www.cindygerard.com/excerpt_october2013.html

 

·         What can we, your adoring fans, expect to see next from you?

       

      Adoring fans, huh?  I’m loving the sound of that :o)  I’m planning at least two more books in the One-Eyed Jacks series – Running Blind (Jamie Cooper’s story) and Taking Fire (Bobby Taggart’s story).  I don’t have publication dates for them yet but if anyone wants to sign up for my news letter, I’ll be sure to let you know when they’ll be released. 

 http://www.cindygerard.com/lists/?p=subscribe 

     I’ll also be reissuing 4 of my older category romances in e-book format late winter or early spring.  These books haven’t been available for some time and I’m really enjoying bringing them up to date for readers who missed them the first time around.

 

·         I am a Mom to 4 two-legged kids and also a mommy to a couple of feline fur-baby rescues (and 1 Russian Tortoise with a face only a mother could love) and I know you are a huge animal rescue advocate. Could you tell us a little about it?

 

        

       We have a local shelter that is always in need of donations so I like to help out there.  We also have 2 fat lazy cats who came to us as skinny and sick strays along with a spoiled Brittany spaniel.  I’ve always loved animals and can’t imagine not helping when there is a need.  And there’s always a need.   You can click on this link every day and for no cost to you, help feed animals in shelters in the US

 http://theanimalrescuesite.greatergood.com/clickToGive/ars/thank-you

 

Thank you so much Cindy for the fantastic books you write and for stopping by the blog and putting up with my fangirl self,  squealing in your ear!

Thank you for being such an avid fan.  You have no idea how much that means to a writer and I’m no exception.

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Phew!!!

 

 I made it through the interview without embarrassing myself (I think so anyway)!

I had the chance to read The Way Home a few weeks ago and posted my review here on the blog a few days ago.

 

Now I am offering you the chance to read it too!

My giveaway for this stop on the hop is a Kindle e-book of Cindy Gerard's latest release

The Way Home

by entering the Rafflecopter below

 

The Way Home Entry

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Grand Prize Entry

a Rafflecopter giveaway