EQ Welcomes Jill Blair!

The EQ Blog Welcomes Author Jill Blair!

EQ:  Welcome to EQ, Jill! Tell us a little bit about yourself!

Jill: One wouldn’t know it from my day job as a petroleum chemist and measurement specialist, but I’ve been writing stories since I can remember. As a child, I wrote and illustrated stories on paper towels and watched as my mother stapled the sheets together into books. As a teenager, I wrote short anecdotal stories and sent them off with great hope to Reader’s Digest. The fact that RD never published any of them didn’t tarnish my enthusiasm. 

I turned to writing romance in my twenties. Marriage and children filled my days with wonderful adventures and put writing on hold for a while. Thanks to the love and support of my real life hero, my husband, writing and publishing romance stories are the fulfillment of a lifelong dream.

EQ:   What are your top three guilty pleasures? 

Jill: Dark chocolate covered strawberries. 
         Dark chocolate chocolate-chip brownies. 
         Dark Chocolate hot fudge. 
         Did I mention dark chocolate? 
         Oh…and rum. 

  
EQ:  Describe how you came up with the plot of your novel. 


Jill:    My stories start with a single real-life experience and from that one event, the characters find life and the story builds.  For The Depth of Desire, I started with the wonder I felt the first time I scuba dived in Cozumel.  I began writing that experience and then it became Sarah’s eyes that saw the clear blue water and felt the warmth flow over her skin. For Early Surrender, the event was the first time my father played blackjack with me in Las Vegas.

EQ:  What kinds of female characters do you prefer to write? 

Jill:   I prefer to write female characters who begin the story with the perception they built emotional strength through a painful event in their past only to discover true personal strength by choosing to trust another with their love. 

EQ:   Tell us a little bit about your most recent release. 

Jill: Early Surrender is my third steamy romance novel.  The story begins with Jacelyn Montgomery-Allison returning to Las Vegas for a week, the city in which she once lived and continues to love, to draw strength in preparation for her upcoming divorce.  Her world is unexpectedly shaken when she reunites with her first love, the man whose callous treatment changed the entire path of her life eleven years earlier.

Books by Jill Blair: 

Early Surrender 

The Depth of Desire 

The 30-Day Gamble

 

Find out more about Jill Blair:

http://www.blairromance.com

http://www.bookstrand.com/jill-blair

http://www.Amazon.com/author/jillblair

The Genesis of a Book - The Curse of the Lost Isle series by Vijaya Schartz

LADY OF LUXEMBOURG
Curse of the Lost Isle Book 4
Medieval Fantasy Romance
by Vijaya Schartz

The Genesis

In the French countryside where my father was born, the birth place of Merlin, near Broceliande, legends of Melusine the Fae abound. She lived notoriously in Lusignan in the 12^th Century, built the tower of Vouvant in one night to save the villagers from the invaders. Wherever you turn, you see the legendary ondine gracing the signs of the local taverns, the bakery, the museum. There, Melusine is alive, and part of history as well as legend. But very few are familiar with the entire scope of her story.

While visiting the Melusine Museum in Vouvant, years ago, I came upon a special exhibit that included a puzzling tapestry. It depicted the wedding of Sigefroi of Luxembourg with Melusine, in 963 AD. 963? The Melusine I had come to know had lived centuries later. How was this possible? Then I discovered many more legends of Melusine, her mother, and her two sisters, in the local folklore of various European localities at different times in history. As if the same family of Fae, immortal by nature, had survived through the centuries, each time with the same personality, each time afflicted by the same curse, for abusing their supernatural powers in childhood...

Excited by that discovery, I set upon a decade of research to connect all the dots. Yes an entire decade. While writing other books, I actively pored over ancient translations, old texts, I traveled to France to tiny libraries and museums holding on to their local legendary roots... until I put together the many pieces of that incredible puzzle, to uncover the entire picture. Only then did I understand what I had... enough fantastic material to write the most exciting medieval fantasy series.

My agent was very excited and prompted me to write the series. But publishers at the time did not receive it well. They thought the readers would not buy medieval fantasy... unless it was vampires. Well, my immortals are not vampires. Finally, a Canadian publisher, Books We Love gave this series a chance last year, and I am grateful. Four books are out right now, with a fifth to be released around the holidays. More will follow as the tapestry of the entire legend unfolds.

The Curse of the Lost Isle series starts in the early 800s with Pressine the Fae, in PRINCESS OF BRETAGNE, during the Viking invasions in Scotland. In Book 2, PAGAN QUEEN, she defies the Goddess and gives birth to three daughters, Melusine, Meliora, and Palatina.

SEDUCING SIGEFROI, Book 3, and LADY OF LUXEMBOURG, Book 4, are set at the foundation of Luxembourg as a country. Look for CHATELAINE OF FOREZ, Book 5, around the holidays, and more titles to be released next year.

The rest of the series sweeps Spain, Aquitaine, and the Middle East during the Crusades, an exciting and dangerous time to be alive... especially for Pagan immortals. See an overview of the entire series on my website under Medieval Series.

This series already gathered many five-star reviews, with titles like "Edgy Medieval, Yeah!" or "Wow!" or "Fantastic!" But be warned, I do not sugarcoat the middle ages, and some scenes are bloody and realistic. I hope you will try it and enjoy it. At this time this series is only available in kindle on Amazon. Follow the links below to find all my books.

Blurb

978 AD - Melusine the Fae, immortal and cursed Lady of Luxembourg, managed to hide her Pagan nature from mortals for many years. She fiercely protects her handsome Count, Sigefroi, but in their princely bliss, neither of them seems to age, and a few suspicious bishops take notice. Then an ondine wreaks havoc during a battle, luring enemy soldiers into the river.

Betrayed, Sigefroi reflects on his many sins from the depths of a rat infested dungeon. Under torture, will he reveal her deadly secret? And when her beloved turns into a devout Christian, can Melusine salvage her happiness? Can love truly redeem her curse, or will she burn at the stake?


Find Vijaya on her WEBSITE, and her books on AMAZON - B&N - ARE and other major eBook retailers on the web.

Vijaya Schartz
Blasters, Swords, Romance with a Kick
http://www.vijayaschartz.com
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/author/vijayaschartz 
B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/c/vijaya-schartz
FB: https://www.facebook.com/vijaya.schartz
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Vijayaschartz  

First Kiss Wednesday

Kisses are the mainstay of romance writing.  No matter how sweet or spicy our stories are, they usually involve at least a kiss or two.  And the first kiss is especially lovely - that first, soft touch of lips - or perhaps the kiss is fierce and hungry.  Maybe the characters murmur words of love or words of teasing while discovering the texture and taste of each other.  Maybe the only sounds they can emit are gentle, timorous moans or deep, throaty groans.

 

Okay, now that we've set the premise, here's what you can do for First Kiss Wednesdays.  In the comment box, give us a maximum of 300 words of the first kiss of a published work or a work-in-progress and one link to your website or blog or Amazon Author Page. 

 

Read and luxuriate in the glories of the first kiss...

Oh, and lips only...  ;-)

Set the Scene in Six Sentences - Sunday

One of the finest aspects of fiction writing is the ability to set the scene.  Characters act and react, but they don't do so in a vacuum.  In their world, they meet, fall in love, solve problems, sometimes horrendous problems.  Maybe it's a small town, maybe the big city, the green, humid jungle, dust-dry desert, a mountainous region.  On the sea.  Under the sea.  In space! 

Setting the scene is also done by using character dialogue to paint a picture of loveliness, danger, evil, trepidation, excitement, awe...

Give us six sentences that set the scene.  Set the Scene in Six Sentences - Sunday is a new opportunity on the Exquisite Quills! Blog to tout your talent.  How have you set the scene in your books?  How have you put the reader into the life of your characters?

Every Sunday, the blog will be open to six-sentence scene-setting.  Just post your six sentences, your name, and one link in the comment box.  We can't wait to read you!

Pass the word!  Open to all!