Four sexy brothers for Darah - greedy, greedy....

1) Did you set any goals for 2010?

Goals and Darah don’t get along. If I don’t meet my goal, I get depressed or feel too guilty and it’s counterproductive. It’s like having a list but doing everything except what’s on the list. I’m overwhelmed as it is.

2) What is the best part of the writing process for you?

Falling into the characters, becoming someone else for a little while. I love the little tingles I get when the characters are “aware” of the other. I get teary when one of my characters’ heart is breaking. And when they fall in love...ah, gotta love the romance.

3) The worst part?

When I’m not feeling it. When the characters aren’t speaking to me and the words won’t come. That’s when I have to walk away and do something else for a while. It’s usually because I’ve gone in the wrong direction or I don’t know where I’m going.

4) What is the book you wish you’d written?

You mean someone else’s book? The Marriage Bed by Stephanie Mittman. The hero and heroine were put through so much angst. I’ve read it many times but it still packs a punch. I’d never part with it.

5) Favourite author/s & book/s?

Hmm, too many to name and I’m pretty eclectic. Let’s see, the one mentioned above...then there’s all of Pamela Morsi’s and Lavyrle Spencer’s historicals, Lora Leigh, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Emma Holly, Julia Quinn, Stephanie Laurens, Vicki Lewis Thompson’s nerd books...I could go on and on.

6) Tell us about your latest release?

Bachelor Auction released September 3 and is the second in a series involving four brothers. (Unmasking Zorro, released April 2010, involved Spencer, second oldest.) The third brother of the four, Marcus, is really a very easy going guy until Charlotte sets foot in the room. She brings out the worst in him. Of course, she does her best to antagonize him. I’ve said it a hundred times, but Marcus is and will always be my favorite hero.

7) Tease us with a blurb/short except

Blurb:

Marcus Preston wants a relationship built on love and trust, but the woman he wants made it clear long ago she's only interested in fun and games. Yet, moving on proves difficult when no one else can erase the memory of the night they shared last summer.

Charlotte Reese doesn't believe in love, marriage, or happily ever afters. An occasional one-night stand is all she needs to take the edge off her loneliness and enhance the bad-girl image she uses to discourage commitment-seeking men—especially Marcus, the only man to melt both her body and her heart melt.

When Charlotte wins Marcus hot off the block of Houston’s Most Eligible Bachelor Auction and they’re forced to spend the weekend together, she seizes the opportunity to seduce him and extinguish the attraction sizzling between them once and for all. But for Marcus, it’s all or nothing. He won’t be seduced. Instead, he’ll show Charlotte she has more to offer a man than sex.

Excerpt:

Charlotte paused in front of the country club’s coat closet and read the sign “Back in 15 Minutes.”

“To hell with that,” she muttered as she slipped around the counter and through the open door of the closet. They would be announcing the winning bids by then, and she’d rather not live through that nightmare. The one she’d suffered moments ago was bad enough.

She must have been out of her mind to think she could dance with Marcus, be that close to him and not fall victim to her own longings or risk another rejection. But he had seemed sincere in wanting to dance with her. At least until the music slowed, forcing him to actually pay attention to his partner. That he was uncomfortable with her was an understatement.

She scanned the hundreds of coats that lined the walls on either side, but the faux sable mink she’d worn suddenly resembled dozens of others that were most likely real. “Concentrate, Charlotte, so you can get the hell out of here.”

“You’re not going anywhere until I’ve had my say.”

Her heart plunged to her stomach at the sound of Marcus’s hard-as-steel voice. She restrained herself from rubbing the goose bumps beneath her sleeves and instead, shook her hair over her shoulder and continued her search. “What? You’re not through insulting me?”

“I’m not the one who left you standing on the dance floor, looking like a fool.”

“Because it was obvious you couldn’t stand touching me.”

“That’s not—”

A giggle from the hallway thwarted whatever reply he might have made, and relief swept over her when he turned to leave. Her relief was short lived when Marcus eased the door to within a couple of inches of being closed then returned to stand directly in front of her. He shoved his hands deep in his pockets, elbows grazing the coats on either side.

His nearness distracted her, as did his musky cologne and the jet-black hair that fell over his furrowed brow, emphasizing the deep green eyes staring intently back at her. But she couldn’t afford to get carried away by her attraction to him and end up hurt again. Her response to him in the mayor’s garden had certainly proven her resistance was no match for his charm. Still, she had to keep the barriers up, to play her part.

Instead of waiting for him to finish what he’d started to say, she shrugged. “Hey, it’s no big deal if you don’t want to dance with me. To each his own, right?”

“You should know by now I never do anything I don’t want to.”

8) What is your favourite attribute of the hero and heroine?

Marcus thinks he knows what Charlotte is all about and tries to protect her from herself. Charlotte encourages Marcus to think the worst but she’s really very vulnerable.

9) What’s next?

I’m working on a follow up to Saddle Broke (released last April at Ellora’s Cave) and have plans for a third story in the series. And then there are the two remaining Preston brothers, Chad (the youngest and most carefree) and Mitch (the oldest and a very wounded, bitter soul). I look forward to both their stories.

10) Tell me where you write?

I write in my bedroom. I had a little cubby set up near my laundry room but moved my desk to my daughter’s room when she left for college. The cubby became something else and she moved home. I was hoping my bedroom would be a temporary situation but it doesn’t seem so. It works though and I have a lock on my door!

11) Where would you like your career to be in 5 years?

Steady. I don’t have big dreams of hitting a national best seller list. I just want to continue to write when I can and share my stories with readers. So I suppose in 5 years I’d like to be writing more and sharing more.

12) Where can we find you?

You can find me at:

www.darahlace.com
www.darahlace.blogspot.com
www.facebook.com/darahlace

Thank you so much for being here today, Darah - Fantastic excerpt and what a thrill to be given a series by The Wild Rose Press, wow! I can wait to read what questions or comments readers want to share with you...