Welcome Michigan Author Arianna Skye/ Sidney Ayers

Ten years ago, if you asked me about living in Michigan, I would’ve been blunt. I would have said it sucked and that I couldn’t wait to get the heck out of there. The winters were (and still are) cold and the summers hot and sticky. There’s also a running joke amongst Michiganders about the seasons. Anyone who lives here knows that there are only two seasons in Michigan—Winter and Construction. Seriously, as soon as the snow and ice thaws, the road crews come out of the woodwork ready to lay that asphalt.

But now that I am older, I realize now that Michigan is in my blood. Sure the winters may be snowy and the summers hot and humid, but Michigan has many charms that make it a great place to live. There are beaches, lakes, rivers, and forests for those who enjoy the outdoors. There’s even the Porcupine mountain range in the Upper Peninsula. Then again, several people have informed me that those aren’t mountains, they’re hills. Heck, they look like mountains to me!

If you’re really not into that whole outdoor atmosphere, there’s also the city life. Many Michigan cities offer great entertainment. There’s always something going on in downtown Grand Rapids—plays, festivals, and concerts, to name a few.

I originally set my first novel, Wings of Desire, in Michigan. It’s only natural to write what you know, after all. Thirty-something years in Michigan makes me pretty darn knowledgeable. The book starts in April, which is when winter and spring fight each other in an epic battle of seasonal domination. My heroine, however, decided she wanted to get intimate with my hero in a pool. Obviously swimming in a pool in the middle of April isn’t that brightest idea. You could possibly freeze an appendage or two. Reluctantly, I moved my story to Phoenix, a place I’ve never visited. Luckily for my heroine, she gets spirited away to another realm before I had to get into details about life in Phoenix.

I finally decidedit was time to return to Michigan. My next novel, written as Sidney Ayers, takes place in a fictional Southwest Michigan community that is based loosely on my hometown. Names and places have been changed to protect the innocent and not-so-innocent. Sadly, my hometown does not have any demons that I know of. It was really fun writing this book and adding that local touch really makes it extra-special to me. Even though the town of Connolly Park is fictional, I still feel I am sharing a part of Midwest suburbia with my readers. Beauty School Demon will be published by Sourcebooks Casablanca in Spring of 2011. I’m fairly certain many of my other projects will be set in Michigan as well. As I said earlier, Michigan is in my blood, and I don’t think I’d have it any other way (Even if I tried!).

OK it's GIVEAWAY time!

Arianna has offer to give away a pdf of Wings of Desire and a $10 Amazon Gift Certificate to 1 Lucky winner

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Winner to Be Announced on Wednesday

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Win a Pdf of Wings of Desire by Arianna Skye

Au Revoir Historical Romance, For Now at Least

I absolutely love history. I was a history major in college until I got sucked into the world of technology—not quite how my heroine in Wings of Desire did, unfortunately. Bummer! Who doesn’t want a hot faerie man whisking them through a computer screen and into a mysterious faerie world? Instead, I spent my time chatting it up with other geeks and nerds all over the world. But anyhow, I digress. Because I’ve always been a history buff and took many history classes in college, I assumed I would start my writing career off with a historical romance. I’ve always held a fascination with the Regency period and the mores and customs of the time. I even did my final research paper on Jane Austen for my English History class. This earned bonus points from the professor since it was right after the Clueless movie was released. For those who don’t know, Clueless was based on Jane Austen’s Emma.

But things don’t always happen the way you expect or want them to. I did fully intend to write a historical Regency. I got about three fourths of the way through until I finally realized it was going nowhere fast. I was at 65,000 words and the hero and heroine had yet to consummate things. I then toyed with another idea based on my days in chat rooms and got really excited about it. I tried to balance my writing time between the two projects, but eventually Wings of Desire took over. I’m a lover of all sorts of fairytales, especially The Princess Bride. My favorite part of the movie is the humor. So it was only natural that my fairytale would have humor as well. My humor tends to lean more towards sarcastic and snarky, though.

Matter of fact, my next soon to be published book, Beauty School Demon (Coming Spring 2011 from Sourcebooks) written under my other pen name of Sidney Ayers continues my irreverent and snarky sense of humor. And even though I’m now writing mainly humorous and light fantasy paranormal romance, I still try to incorporate some history into my novels. After all, history is what shaped us into what we are today.

BLURB for Wings fo Desire:

A fairytale, but not the kind your mother used to read you!

Rhiannon Kinsley's life goes from boring to downright crazy when a freak lightning bolt strikes her laptop. To make matters even more bizarre, strange words and symbols flash across the computer screen and she hears a mysterious voice. Time to call the men in white coats!

Then Cerne Silverwing, an intriguingly sexy man, appears. He insists she’s a faerie princess whose fate will determine his own. What a crock! Now she knows who really needs those white coats. With the Dark Faerie forces threatening their kingdom, Cerne kidnaps Rhiannon and brings her to Fey, a land where magic knows no bounds. He's performing a duty to save his kingdom and nothing more—a duty that will bring him his wings and the strengthened magic that comes with them. If he doesn’t unite with the princess as her consort, those wings will never grow. But this princess grew up in the land of laptops and instant messages, and she’s convinced they're both crazy. Despite their differences, the two are thrust together to defeat the whip-wielding Dark Faerie Queen before she takes over their kingdom. Passion and peril aside, will Rhiannon and Cerne discover their true destiny?


Publisher buy link: http://eternalpress.biz/book.php?isbn=9781770650299

Amazon buy link: http://www.amazon.com/Wings-Desire-Arianna-Skye/dp/1770650377/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267665

To show my appreciation, anyone who comments is eligible to win one of two e-Book copies of my debut novel Wings of Desire, a fantasy erotic romance available now from Eternal Press.