Blogging with Aileen Harkwood

Blogs are such an important part of networking for writers. So I joined a blog tour. The tour starts today and runs through the end of the month. During this time, I’ll be guest blogging on other author’s blogs and hosting a guest blogger on my blog. And at the end of the tour, I’ll be giving away a $20 gift certificate to The Wild Rose Press on line store.

Today, I’ll be a guest at www.christinedepetrillo.blogspot.com. So stop by Christine’s blog for a visit. But before you do that, why not stay awhile and chat with fellow Wild Rose Press author, Aileen Harkwood who’s a guest on my blog today.

Aileen Harkwood, author of Wolf's Den: Legacy of the White Wolf Book 1 from The Wild Rose Press, lives in the Southern Rockies with her family, their passive-aggressive cat and fetch-addicted chocolate Labrador. She writes paranormal romance and romantic suspense and is always on the lookout for an unexpected twist or touch to add to her stories. Alpha males are her favorite heroes to write, though in real life she loves a hero who doesn't always realize he's an alpha until his heroine is threatened.

Lilly- So, Aileen, do you hold a non-writing job?

Aileen- Yes. I'm a new author, so I still need to hold down a day job. Or I should say night job, since I work mostly at night. I'm a product photographer, shooting for online sales and catalogs. I also do restoration work in Photoshop. I love antique photographs because they almost always tell a story and the connection to the past is right there in front of you. As I work to digitally erase the damage, I find myself wondering about the people or places in the images. Who were they? What were they like? How did the clothes they wore feel? What was it like to live without cell phones and computers and information overload?

Lilly- What do you write? And how did you get started?

Aileen- I started writing novels in high school, really, really terrible novels filled with all sorts of passions, magic, and romantic heroes. I filled notebook after handwritten notebook with what I thought was exciting, sophisticated fiction. Of course I had a lot to learn! It took me years of plugging away at it, and several breaks from writing, but I've finally fallen into a groove that makes me happy, and for which I just earned my first nice review!

Wolf's Den appeared last month and before its release, was awarded a 4-1/2 tea cups review from Happily Ever After Reviews. As you might guess, it's shapeshifter fiction. I find weres extremely sexy. I also love to read and write romantic suspense, having gotten hooked on it by reading authors such as Kay Hooper and the British author Susanna Kearsley.

Lilly- How many books have you published?

Aileen- Wolf's Den wasn't my first book, but it's the first book I'm officially calling published. I sold another paranormal eBook, In Your Dreams, to a small press in 2009 that was in the launch phase. Unfortunately, the press folded before my book could be fully launched. I don't blame the publisher. They simply ran out of funds.

I learned an important lesson, however. As much as you'd like to be published, when you're first starting out and don't yet know the field, it's a good idea to carefully consider where you send each manuscript. In the right situation, participating as an author in a new launch can be a fantastic opportunity, but it comes with the risk that the publisher might not be ready to succeed.

Lilly- What triggers the ideas for your stories?

Aileen- You know, I think my subconscious does a lot of the work for me. Several of my plots have come from a dream I had the night before. Most of my dreams are nonsense, but every once in a while I'll have what I call a "full plot" dream, a complete cast of characters; beginning, middle, and end; action sequences, the whole enchilada.

For the book I'm working on now, a romantic suspense set in Santa Fe, New Mexico, I had one of those dreams. It's funny, I don't remember the dream's plot any more. What I do remember was that I was extremely worried about my cat. In the dream, I had to run and I couldn't take her with me. I was terrified what the kennel might do if I never came home again. Would they just dump her at the nearest shelter?That became the genesis for the book. I switched the pet to a French bulldog, but the idea to jump start the story was there.

Lilly- Do you work on more than one story at a time?

Aileen- I do. Right now I'm working on a romantic suspense, the second book in the Legacy of the White Wolf series, and a mainstream romance with a touch of the paranormal, set in the Pacific Northwest.

Lilly- Where can we buy your books?

Aileen- Wolf's Den is available from The Wild Rose Press, Amazon.com, All Romance eBooks, and BookStrand.

Blurb and excerpt from Wolf's Den:
Waking with amnesia in a body made for sin, Luka is a woman with an identity crisis. Not only doesn't she know her last name, why can't she remember the intense stranger with wolfen eyes who makes her want to howl with sexual hunger? Why has he accused her of a gruesome murder she knows she didn't commit?

Griffin is a wolf in mourning, sworn to bring his mate's killer to justice. His beloved Anya has just died of the bloodsong, a ritual magic forbidden among his people, in which the wolf can be called out in anyone, even humans such as Anya, who can't survive the transformation. How is it, then, that when he looks into her killer's eyes he sees not a murderess, but his own mysterious destiny?

(Pages 112) Spicy

Excerpt:

“Dangerous. Why?

Do you think I can’t take every delicious inch of you? Do you think I can’t handle you?”

He blinked, astonished by this statement and apparently at a loss for words. It was, she had to admit, the single cheesiest thing she’d ever said aloud. She watched him trying to figure out how best to react, while at the same time maintaining that stern, “we aren’t going to have sex, no-way, no-how” attitude.

The longer they looked at one another without saying anything, the harder it was to keep a straight face. She couldn’t say who broke under pressure first, but suddenly both of them were laughing uncontrollably. She collapsed forward in hysterics, her forehead dropping against his chest.

A few seconds later, she realized he’d gone completely still.

He pounced.
.............

Lilly, thanks so much for hosting me on your blog. I really enjoyed answering your questions!

Aileen
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Aileen Harkwood's book, Wolf's Den ~ July 2010 ~ is on sale now! You can find Aileen at http://aileenharkwood.blogspot.com

Thanks Aileen for visiting.

If you'd like to leave Aileen or myself a comment, we'll be checking in later today. And everyone who posts will be eligible for my gift certificate drawing at the end of the month.

Good luck!
Lilly