Hiya! I'm Marcella Burnard, author of Damned If He Does. I want to thank Fang-tastic Books for hosting me and the book today. I thought I'd give you a quick 3 for real things I put in the book and then a couple that I *might* have taken a little fictional license with. But hey. I brought pictures!
1. Fiona’s running trail exists. It is the Burke-Gilman bike/pedestrian trail that runs from Golden Gardens into the heart of Seattle. There’s a scene in the book that happens right beside the Lockspot Café (of Deadliest Catch fame), which is right beside the trail at the Hiram Chittenden Locks. (The Lockspot has killer fish and chips.)
2. Port Townsend is for real the Victorian Seaport of Washington state. The town wanted to be the major port city of Puget Sound - maybe even on the entire west coast of the US. But the railroad stopped short and the ports of Seattle and Tacoma grew while Port Townsend dwindled. It is now a town that’s half farming community and half artist enclave. It is 100% funky. You can stay in a hotel that used to be the town brothel. LINK: http://www.palacehotelpt.com/ I recommend the Miss Kitty room - up on the third floor (no elevators) with a view of the water and of Water Street. Many a writer's retreat has been had there. (This photo is the second floor lobby.)
3. There’s a diner scene when Fiona and Darsorin go to Anacortes on their way to Port Townsend. That diner is also for real. It’s called Dad’s Diner. Breakfast and lunch only – but the menu is built from the owner’s original restaurant – a BBQ food truck (called Dad's Diner A Go Go). You can order pulled pork hash. Or savory French toast that’s stuffed with jalapeno cream cheese and brisket. It is 100% worth the drive. This is the Diner page on Facebook - where the owner cruelly posts photos of the food he's serving. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dads-Diner/494325663922039
4. Archimedes is real. Ish. I took a few liberties, but his real name is Autolycus. Here's a photo.
In real life, he's a short-haired, bob-tailed guy with a personality twenty times his size. He has an opinion about EVERYTHING and has no compunction about giving you that opinion. At volume. Why yes, the world does revolve around him. Thanks so much for asking. ;)
5. I'm sorry, but Fiona's pharmacy is 100% fiction. Seattle used to have a bunch of small, family owned pharmacies. No longer. We're now innundated with large, corporate chain pharmacies. So Fiona's charmed workplace is a throwback - a bit of nostalgia on my part. I can also assure you that Satan's office building is also complete fiction. Unless you talk to some of the long-time residents in Ballard who will freely tell you that all of the new condo buildings replacing single family homes are from the devil. (No, really, there are bumper stickers all over saying "Ballard welcomes its new condominium overlords") Makes me glad I live on a sailboat in the marina - liveaboards are smiled upon indulgently. I have yet to figure out why. After the condo overlord bumper stickers, I'm kind of afraid to ask.
On last bonus fact. There's a tea shop very briefly mentioned in the story. Real. It's where I wrote most of the book - where I write almost all of my books. This is why.
The drink that gets made for Darsorin is 100% real, too. It's called a Fireside Hot Chocolate - a mix of dark chocolate and smoky Lapsang Souchong tea and milk.
Miro http://mirotea.com/ is the name of the shop. You'll find me there most mornings, drinking tea, headphones on, madly typing away. Last set of books, I turned the tea shop into a heroine's tattoo parlor. I haven't told Miro's owner.
Thanks for going a brief tour of Damned If He Does and some of my favorite places in Washington state with me. If you were writing a book set in your home town, what favorites would absolutely show up?
5 things about Damned If He Does
1. Fiona’s running trail exists. It is the Burke-Gilman bike/pedestrian trail that runs from Golden Gardens into the heart of Seattle. There’s a scene in the book that happens right beside the Lockspot Café (of Deadliest Catch fame), which is right beside the trail at the Hiram Chittenden Locks. (The Lockspot has killer fish and chips.)
2. Port Townsend is for real the Victorian Seaport of Washington state. The town wanted to be the major port city of Puget Sound - maybe even on the entire west coast of the US. But the railroad stopped short and the ports of Seattle and Tacoma grew while Port Townsend dwindled. It is now a town that’s half farming community and half artist enclave. It is 100% funky. You can stay in a hotel that used to be the town brothel. LINK: http://www.palacehotelpt.com/ I recommend the Miss Kitty room - up on the third floor (no elevators) with a view of the water and of Water Street. Many a writer's retreat has been had there. (This photo is the second floor lobby.)
3. There’s a diner scene when Fiona and Darsorin go to Anacortes on their way to Port Townsend. That diner is also for real. It’s called Dad’s Diner. Breakfast and lunch only – but the menu is built from the owner’s original restaurant – a BBQ food truck (called Dad's Diner A Go Go). You can order pulled pork hash. Or savory French toast that’s stuffed with jalapeno cream cheese and brisket. It is 100% worth the drive. This is the Diner page on Facebook - where the owner cruelly posts photos of the food he's serving. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dads-Diner/494325663922039
4. Archimedes is real. Ish. I took a few liberties, but his real name is Autolycus. Here's a photo.
In real life, he's a short-haired, bob-tailed guy with a personality twenty times his size. He has an opinion about EVERYTHING and has no compunction about giving you that opinion. At volume. Why yes, the world does revolve around him. Thanks so much for asking. ;)
5. I'm sorry, but Fiona's pharmacy is 100% fiction. Seattle used to have a bunch of small, family owned pharmacies. No longer. We're now innundated with large, corporate chain pharmacies. So Fiona's charmed workplace is a throwback - a bit of nostalgia on my part. I can also assure you that Satan's office building is also complete fiction. Unless you talk to some of the long-time residents in Ballard who will freely tell you that all of the new condo buildings replacing single family homes are from the devil. (No, really, there are bumper stickers all over saying "Ballard welcomes its new condominium overlords") Makes me glad I live on a sailboat in the marina - liveaboards are smiled upon indulgently. I have yet to figure out why. After the condo overlord bumper stickers, I'm kind of afraid to ask.
On last bonus fact. There's a tea shop very briefly mentioned in the story. Real. It's where I wrote most of the book - where I write almost all of my books. This is why.
The drink that gets made for Darsorin is 100% real, too. It's called a Fireside Hot Chocolate - a mix of dark chocolate and smoky Lapsang Souchong tea and milk.
Miro http://mirotea.com/ is the name of the shop. You'll find me there most mornings, drinking tea, headphones on, madly typing away. Last set of books, I turned the tea shop into a heroine's tattoo parlor. I haven't told Miro's owner.
Thanks for going a brief tour of Damned If He Does and some of my favorite places in Washington state with me. If you were writing a book set in your home town, what favorites would absolutely show up?
Marcella
Burnard
Genre: Light Paranormal
Date of Publication: 7/19/2016
ISBN: 978-0-9977244-0-0
ASIN: B01HR5R2DI
Number of pages: 333
Word Count: 98k
Cover Artist: Danielle Fine
Book Description:
Rejected by heaven, twisted by
hell, what’s a damned dead man to do when he stumbles upon a life and love
worth fighting for?
Though damned for his earthly
sins, Darsorin Incarri likes being an incubus. Prowling women’s dreams to
siphon off their sexual energy for Satan's consumption has its perks: an array
of infernal power and a modicum of freedom. Sure, Ole Scratch holds Dar’s soul
in thrall, and Dar has to spend a few hours recharging in Hell every day, but
it could be much worse. All he has to do is hold up his end of his damnation
contract – five women seduced, satisfied and siphoned per night for eternity.
So when he encounters gorgeous, bright, and funny Fiona Renee, it’s business as
usual. Deploy the infernal charm and rack up another score. Except it doesn’t
work. She’s immune. He has to find out what’s gone wrong or face Lucifer's
wrath.
Fiona Renee has the life she’d
always wanted: a career, a home, a cat with a bad attitude, and peace. Fiona’s
dated. Had boyfriends. And hated every minute of it. She’s reconciled to being
lonely. So when a man shows up in her bedroom in the middle of the night
demanding to know why her dreams turn to nightmares every time he tries to
seduce her from within them, Fiona winds up negotiating a contract with a demon
that allows him access to her life. She never anticipated that it would also give
him access to her heart. If she's going to fall in love at all, something she
never thought would happen, shouldn’t it be with someone who’s alive? If Fiona
wants to hang on to Darsorin, she has to find his true name—the one he’d been
given at his birth over a thousand years ago. But Satan, himself, stands in her
way. Even if Fiona can dodge Lucifer, she and Darsorin have to face the
question neither of them can answer: What happens to a dead man if you manage
to wrest his soul from the Devil?
About
the Author:
Marcella Burnard graduated from
Cornish College of the Arts with a degree in acting. She writes science fiction
romance for Berkley Sensation. Her first book, Enemy Within won the Romantic
Times Reviewer’s Choice award for Best Futuristic of 2010. The second book in
the series, Enemy Games, released on May 3, 2011. An erotica novella, Enemy
Mine, set in the same world as the novels was released as an e-special edition
by Berkley in April 2012. Emissary, a sword and sorcery short story released in
the two volume Thunder on the Battlefield Anthology in thesecond half of 2013.
Nightmare Ink, an Urban Fantasy novel from Intermix came out in April of 2014
and the second in that Living Ink series, Bound by Ink, came out in November
2014. Damned If He Does, a light paranormal romance came out in July 2016.
She lives aboard a sailboat in
Seattle where she and her husband are outnumbered by cats.
Twitter: @marcellaburnard
Instagram: @marcellaburnard
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1 comment:
Thank you kindly, madam!
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