GUARDIAN ANGELINOS Blog Tour: SHIVER OF FEAR and FACE OF DANGER-AUTHOR INTERVIEW AND GIVEAWAY

            

SHIVER OF FEAR                      FACE OF DANGER

GIVEAWAY ENDED
 BY ROXANNE ST. CLAIRE

ABOUT THE BOOK - SHIVER OF FEAR:

The legacy that haunts her . . . The mystery she must solve . . . A man who threatens to reveal her secrets . . . and break her heart. Burned by a failed marriage, former FBI agent Marc Rossi wants back in the investigation game with no emotional strings attached. Taking an assignment for his enterprising Angelino cousins, he heads to Northern Ireland to pry a key piece of evidence from a missing socialite-any way he can. But when the ice queen turns out to be warm, beautiful, and on a secret mission of her own, the job becomes a passionate reminder of what happens when duty and desire mix. 

GO HERE TO READ AN EXCERPT FROM SHIVER OF FEAR. 

ABOUT THE BOOK - FACE OF DANGER: 

Private investigator Vivi Angelino loves living life on the edge, but stepping into the shoes of a movie starlet to bait a serial killer isn't just a thrill . . . it's a ticket to the big time for her fledgling security firm. That is, as long as a certain risk-averse FBI agent stays out of her way-and out of her fantasies.

Assistant Special Agent in Charge Colton Lang isn't above using his well-worn rulebook to stop Vivi's latest walk on the wild side. But when they learn her client is involved in something far more insidious than bad acting, Vivi and Colt must work together despite the electrifying attraction arcing between them. For each new clue is bringing them closer to a high-profile crime with a dark and deadly truth at its core . . . and a cold, calculating murderer with nothing left to lose.

GO HERE TO READ AN EXCERPT FROM FACE OF DANGER.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: 

Looking for the formal bio? Head over to the media kit for awards, credits, and all manner of impressive stuff. I don’t know about you, but when I search an author’s web site, it’s usually because I’ve read a book I liked and wondered about the person behind it…and the formal bio doesn’t tell me much.

So I will. First of all, call me Rocki. Everyone does. Evidently, when my mother brought me home from the hospital I seemed too scrawny and small to pull off “Roxanne” (she’d read Cyrano de Bergerac while pregnant or I would have been Judy) so they called me Rocki.

I grew up in Pittsburgh, PA, the youngest of five (overachievers, every one), and fell in love with words and stories the summer I read Gone With The Wind. That year, for  my twelfth birthday, my parents gave me a typewriter (with italic font—it was the coolest thing) and from that day on, I’ve had my fingers on a keyboard, pounding out love stories for fun. My AP English teacher taught me the two most important lessons an aspiring author ever needs: 1) verbs are the key to life and 2) a writer should get a real job. After attending UCLA and graduating with a degree in communications, I tried acting and television broadcasting. Oh, they aren’t real jobs? I learned that the hard way. I changed my last name from Zink to St. Claire because a news producer told me Roxanne Zink had too many harsh consonants for a TV personality – apparently Katie Couric didn’t get the memo. I got some fun gigs, and even met Tom Hanks when I did a guest appearance on Bosom Buddies. I liked on camera work, but wasn’t too crazy about starvation, so I moved to Boston and got that “real” job. In fact, I placed my foot on the bottom rung of the corporate ladder and didn’t look down until I’d climbed all the way up to the level of Senior Vice President at the world’s largest public relations firm. On the way up, I met the man of my dreams in an elevator. Two years later—in the same elevator!—he asked me to marry him and I wisely said yes.

I stayed in PR, moved to Miami, had a few babies, lost my home in a hurricane, built another one a few hours north and all along, I kept writing my “stories” for fun. One night, I read a particularly fabulous romance novel that changed my life for good. That night, I decided I wanted to make someone else feel as whole and happy as that author made me feel. (Everyone asks!  It was Nobody’s Baby But Mine by Susan Elizabeth Phillips.) With two small children and one big “real” job, writing my first novel wasn’t easy, but I did finish a manuscript that managed to get the attention of a literary agent. She told me to do one thing and one thing fast: write another book. (The first one is usually a “learner” book, honestly.) That second manuscript sold to Simon & Schuster’s Pocket Books and was released in 2003 as Tropical Getaway. Since then, I’ve written almost thirty more, in multiple genres, and long ago replaced the corporate ladder with the rollercoaster of publishing as a full-time novelist. Finally, writing is my real job.

Today, I live in a small beach community in Florida with my husband and our two teenagers, and one spectacular Australian Terrier named Pepper. When I have spare time, I spend it with my family, but also dig in the dirt with my plants, travel for business and fun, hang out with my many writer friends, and, of course, I love to read. I’m still crazy about words and stories and hope to write at least a hundred books in my lifetime. And, yes, verbs are the key to life. My favorites? Love. Work. Play…

xoxo
Rocki

INTERVIEW WITH AUTHOR "ROCKI" ST. CLAIRE:
Welcome to BOOKIN' WITH BINGO and thank you for taking time to answer some questions that my readers and I are interested in. 

Where did you get the inspiration or idea for this book(s)?

Both stories were “ripped from the headlines” – or at least news stories that captured my imagination.  With SHIVER OF FEAR, I’d read an article about how former IRA terrorists were now making money by training Al Qaeda terrorists to “do a better job.”  That stunned me and instantly gave me an idea for just what kind of trouble my heroine could get in when she seeks her birth mother in Belfast.

FACE OF DANGER was also inspired by an article I’d read in the paper, many years ago.  The Orlando paper profiled a young woman who looked so much like actress Nicole Kidman that she worked as a “celebrity look-a-like” at local conventions.  Of course that got me thinking just how far would a person go for a “look-a-like” job?  What if the real actress was the target of a killer, what would it take to get the “look-a-like” to stand in for her while they trapped him?  That story brewed for several years until I found the perfect heroine in Vivi Angelino.  Everything about being a “movie star” chafed, except the need to find the killer.

How did the title of your book come about?

I came up with both titles, knowing we wanted the SOMETHING of SOMETHING because the first book in the series is EDGE OF SIGHT.  While writing a scene in SHIVER, I wrote that a shiver of fear vibrated through the character and wham! I knew I had the title, because the heroine is always cold.  (Until she finds the right man to warm her heart.)  FACE OF DANGER was a little harder, but I while reading back cover copy of another book of mine, I saw the expression “willing to face danger” and the idea came to me.  I felt it was appropriate because it is Vivi’s look-a-like face that puts her in danger, and the killer is right around them, they just don’t recognize the face.

Do you see yourself in your characters? Which characters are easiest or more difficult to write?

No, I’m not in my books!  I don’t have the guts or glory.  I wish I knew why some characters show up fully formed and easy to write, their voices loud and clear, their backstories vivid and compelling, their goals straightforward, and their conflicts real.  Sometimes that happens, and they are easy character to develop.  Sometimes, I need to get a chisel and cut away all the stone before I can discover who is inside.

What books would you say have made the biggest impression on you, especially starting out? What are you currently reading?

Every book I’ve ever read has left an impression on me.  Early on, books like Jane Eyre and Pride and Prejudice made me love the angsty gothic romance; I moved into glitz and glamour in the ‘70’s, gobbling up Sydney Sheldon, Judith Krantz, and early Sandra Brown.  Then I discovered Nora Roberts, Linda Howard, and Susan Elizabeth Phillips and I knew I wanted to write sexy contemporary romance with strong elements of suspense.  I’m currently devouring the entire Young Adult market, one book at a time.

What is the next or current book/project you are working on?

See above!  I just completed my first YA novel, a hardcover that will be released in summer, 2012.  Am very excited to add that this one has a film option with it, and if a movie gets made, will be directed by the brilliant, funny, and talented Garry Marshall.  Fingers crossed!  In the meantime, I’m enjoying the fun of a back-to-back release and the very positive feedback about the Guardian Angelinos!

We will surely be watching for that and more great things from Rocki. If you want to follow her and find out more about what is going on with her writing, you can go to the following places:
Roxanne St. Claire website: Website
On Facebook: Facebook
On Twitter: Twitter
On Goodreads: Goodreads

 GIVEAWAY

THANKS TO BRIANNE AND THE GOOD 

PEOPLE AT HACHETTE BOOK GROUP, I

HAVE 3 COPIES OF EACH SET OF BOOKS

 

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GIVEAWAY ENDS AT

6 PM, EST, MAY 2

GOOD LUCK!