Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Crazy Titles Sometimes Make the Best Stories: Guest blog and Giveaway with Theresa Meyers



Writers are creative people. Ok, reality check, writers are sometimes silly, imaginative people. Case in point, sometimes I come up with titles before I even know what a story is going to be. Sometimes it’ll be a piece of a jingle on the radio or a line out of a song. Sometimes it’s from a snippet of dialog I overheard, or I begin riffing off favorite movies for titles (which resulted in several James Bond style titles in my written or soon to be written file including The Vampire With the Gold Fang, Being Vampire is Not Enough and The Vampire Who Loved Me.)
One day the Harlequin authors for Nocturne were having a discussion on our writer’s loop. We were talking about the line, how it differs from other lines in Harlequin and someone brought up titles. This naturally led us into a contest among one another to see who could create the goofiest titles. Things like the Billionaire Cowboy Vampire’s Secret Virgin Mistress (that’s where the silly came in). But what happened from that silly exercise was a spark of imagination. The title The Half-Breed Vampire stuck. I didn’t know what the story was going to be exactly. I just knew he was going to obviously be half vampire and half something else.
And this is where the imagination kicks in…
From the title I started brainstorming. Who was this half-breed? What was he? How’d he get this way? Where there more of them, why or why not? Was it something he could change? Something he was proud of or ashamed of? Why? (see, we’re a bit crazy too, asking all these questions about totally fictional characters as if we’re prepping to interview a celebrity on TMZ or something.)
Anyway, what eventually happened is I started looking at secondary characters from the security team in The Vampire Who Loved Me. Which one of them had the most to lose? Which one was the most explosive? The demolitions expert of course!
I knew his name was Slade Donovan, but the moment I started writing the book I found out he had another name: Blackwolf. Now let me be perfectly honest and tell you we might joke about the amensiatic character, but writing one is hard work! All the things I normally did to find out who my character was, his traits, his likes and dislikes, his past didn’t work because he didn’t even know them! This was the first book where I had to discover my character’s past along with him, which made writing frustrating at times, and glorious at other times.
To find out how he fit into the story, how he became both shape-shifting Werewolf and full-force vampire was a wild journey. And in many ways Slade discovers that you have to make your own path in the world. Choose your own family, much in the same way that the heroine Rania does, but for different reasons. By far, this third book in my Sons of Midnight mini-series was the most fun to write.
How can you not enjoy a motorcycle bad boy vampire paired up with a straight-laced cop with a chip on her shoulder? The chemistry alone kept me up writing some nights way past the time to go to sleep.
So can you have a half-breed Vampire? Sure! It’s an unusual mix, but some of the best stories come from the strangest titles.

Feb 27 Promo and review
Love To Read For Fun

Feb 28 Guest Blog
Fang-tastic Books

Feb 28 interview and review
Donna’s Blog

Feb 29 Guest Blog
Reading Lark After Dark

March 1 Guest blog and review
Bookin' It Reviews ~

March 2 Guest blog

March Guest Blog

March 6 Promo and review
Awesomesauce Book Club

March 8 Interview

March 9 Review

March 10 Guest Blog

March 11 Promo and review
Rage, Sex and Teddy Bears

March 13 Interview and review

March 13 Promo
Authors By Authors,

March 16 Interview and review
Fictional Candy

March 17 review and interview
Urban Girl Reader

March 18 promo and review
Cocktails and Books

March 19 Interview
Words of Wisdom from The Scarf Princess

March 20 Guest Blog 

March 20 Interview

March 21 interview
Manga Maniac Café

March 22 Promo and review
Beverly @ The Wormhole

March 22 review
Manga Maniac Café

March 24 Promo (review)
Read 2 Review

March 25 Guest Blog and review
Erotica For All

March 25 Promo
Reading Between the Wines

March 27 Guest Blog
Paranormal and Romantic Suspense Reviews

March 29 Private I interview





THE HALF-BREED VAMPIRE

by Theresa Meyers
Book Three in the Sons of Midnight mini-series
Harlequin Nocturne
February 21, 2012
ISBN-10: 0373618794
ISBN-13: 978-0373618798

Ignorant of his true heritage, half-breed vampire Slade Donovan is fated to feel like an outsider among his clan. Until a mysterious woman arrives with the ability to unlock his secrets—and make him crave a future he never believed he could have….

As a Game Warden, Raina Ravenwing has only one mission in the Cascade Mountains: to track down a pack of rare wolves that is terrorizing her tribe. Her instant attraction to Slade is a distraction the beautiful wolf whisperer can't afford, unless she agrees to let him help her. Yet working so closely together only intensifies their passion…even as the unfolding truth of Slade's identity threatens everything Raina holds sacred and could potentially destroy both their worlds.


Amazon Barnes & Noble | Books-A-Million | IndieBound
ebook: Kindle | Nook


About Theresa Meyers:


Raised by a bibliophile who made the dining room into a library, Theresa has always been a lover of books and stories. First a writer for newspapers, then for national magazines, she started her first novel in high school, eventually enrolling in a Writer's Digest course and putting the book under the bed until she joined Romance Writers of America in 1993.

In 2005 she was selected as one of eleven finalists for the American Title II contest, the American Idol of books. She is married to the first man she ever went on a real date with (to their high school prom), who she knew was hero material when he suffered through having to let her parents drive, and her brother sit between them in the backseat of the car. They currently live in a Victorian house on a mini farm in the Pacific Northwest with their two children, three cats, an old chestnut Arabian gelding, an energetic mini-Aussie shepherd puppy, several rabbits, a dozen chickens and an out-of-control herb garden.

You can find her online on Twitter, Facebook, at her Web site or blogging with the other Lolitas of STEAMED!

http://www.theresameyers.com/


http://www.theresameyers.com/blog/


http://twitter.com/Theresa_Meyers


http://www.facebook.com/TheresaMeyersAuthor


http://www.ageofsteam.wordpress.com/






a Rafflecopter giveaway

15 comments:

tetewa said...

I'm always looking for new authors to read, sounds good! tWarner419@aol.com

Barb P said...

Hi Theresa! I have read a lot of your books and loved them. I can't wait to read the latest. Thanks so much for the fantastic giveaway! bpatrick64113@sbcglobal.net

Debby said...

There are always so many new ideas and different views. It makes being a reader so much fun.
Debby236 at gmail dot com

Unknown said...

I really want to read this book. It sounds very good. Tore923@aol.com

Krystal Larson said...

Thank you for the great giveaway-the cover is amazing!

Martha Lawson said...

This sounds like a great book, please enter me!

mlawson17@hotmail.com

Lexi said...

Funny, it was the title of this post that got me to stop and read it. I love that here brainstorming silly off the wall titles, and then you actually ended up using one. Fun to hear how you get some of your titles, and amazing you can come up with a story from a title alone!

Julianne said...

Such an inventive character, a vampire and a werewolf too. I don't think I've ever read about that before. I've read vampires who marry werewolves. Should books 1 & 2 be read before book 3? I'm looking forward to following along on the tour.
luvfuzzzeeefaces at yahoo dot com

Anonymous said...

Would love to have as this sounds interesting. will have to track the series down.
Patricia
panthers.ravens@yahoo dot com

wanda f said...

This is my kind of read will most definately be reading it .Thank you for this chance to win.Have a fangtastic week

flanagan@mebtel.net

Theresa Meyers said...

I appreciate so many of you stopping by to say hi and comment! Maybe it's my dyslexia, but there are a lot of times that I end up working a story backwards, starting with the title, then coming up with the story. To answer a question posted: no you don't have to read them in order because they are written to be stand alone stories, but as a reader you get a little extra if you do because there are continuing characters.

Anonymous said...

I like the way this book sounds and the candy looks sooo good!

Proserpine said...

Hi! Thanks for this giveaway! The book cover is pretty sexy and intriguing! I would love to read this book! Thanks again, love chocolat! :P

Proserpine

bn100 said...

Congratulations on the book! The book sounds very good.

angie lilly said...

so excited to have the chance to win this prize pack! huge vamp fan here and new to this author! thanks for the chance!!!
Angie aka Tofu Fairy
14earth at gmail dot com

 
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