Friday, June 19, 2015

ALICIA by Dahlia Donovan Spotlight & Guest Post



Title:  Alicia
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Release Date: 04/15/2015

Synopsis

Born into a Moroccan family both wealthy and well-connected, Alicia has wanted for nothing her entire life. Choosing to abandon her family business for fashion, she has built her own business and lives off the fruits of her own labour. Her traditionalist mother has longed for her to settle down with a good man.
Alicia has never wanted a good man until Josh Withers. Tired of meaningless flings, Alicia has found someone who challenges her in all the right ways. So what if he occasionally turns himself into panther?
No one's perfect.
Now in a fight for her life as enemies from both her family's past and her best friend Ivy's recent nightmares come hunting for her. Alicia can only hope Josh's military background and shifter strength will keep them safe.

Excerpt

   “Such a naughty, teasing kitten.” Josh resisted the temptation to allow his hands to drift from her hips to grip her arse firmly.  He sensed Alicia wasn’t quite ready for anything other than a little lark to lift the oppressive sadness which lingered under the surface. “Going to play tour guide for me since the others have swanned off to entertain the whinging bint?”
   “Sure.” Alicia eased into a pair of heels no one should’ve been able to walk in and smirked over at him. “Done looking at my arse?”
   “Not a bloody chance.” Josh trailed behind her, making sure the balcony doors were locked and the cameras working before securing the front door to the suite. “You can never get enough of a beautiful piece of art.”
   “Art?” Alicia’s laugh was like a sweet melody which resonated deeply in his soul and his groin.  Her gaze flitted down his front to the bulge in his trousers. “Honestly? How do you men walk around with it swinging out of control?”
   “Who says it’s out of control?” Josh guided her down the stairs toward the lobby.



Guest Post
by

Dahlia Donovan


Thank you so much for having me!
I’ve found with my writing process I develop characters one of three ways.  They tend to arrive face, name or personality first.   They all end up just as explored and flushed out though.  Here are a few insights into each method.
1. Face First.
Or as I like to call it, trawling Pinterest for super sexy bastards. I often find faces of characters who stand out to me and insist on being included in the story.  Sometimes though, I admit it’s just a very pretty face—very pretty faces.
Lorcan and Josh are both face first characters.  Josh’s reference was Idris Elba.  I’d seen a photo of him in a suit and had to create a character based on it.   He was simply too bloody gorgeous not to use. 
2. Name First.
Authors are probably the people who visit baby name websites the most.  Every once in a while, I find a name which absolutely intrigues the hell out of me and have to use it in a story.  It can float around in my brain for weeks and weeks without a face or purpose until inspiration hits—usually when I’m shampooing my hair in the shower.
Valentin Krupin, the villain from Ivy’s story, sprung from the name Valentin.  I don’t remember where I heard Valentin, but it wouldn’t get out of my head for the longest time. It wasn’t until writing the first draft of Ivy that I realized he was the baddie.
3. Personality First.
Personality first is in some ways the hardest of the three for me.  Developing characters when I already have the face and name is easy, because I can build who they are and where they’ve been around their appearance or how the name strikes me.  If I have a personality type in my mind, it can take forever to put everything else together.
I don’t know about other authors, but I find it impossible to write well until all three components to a character have solidified in my mind.   
The main characters in my debut novel were all personality driven characters.  I knew who Ivy, Steve and Gareth were by heart before names and appearances came into the picture.   It took quite a while to settle on their names. 
I think when it boils down to it.  It’s important to me that characters feel three dimensional.  I want people to feel something for the characters, even if it’s dislike.  The worst thing in the world is apathy when it comes to characters.  If a reader feels nothing for my characters, I’ve failed completely and utterly.
For readers, how important are insights into characters in the books you read? 

Author Bio

Dahlia Donovan started out working in the insurance world. After ten years, she morphed her love of investigating accidents and studying people into writing about them. She's a bit of a hermit and despises being in front of a camera. Her life wouldn't be complete without her husband and her massive collection of books and video games.
Her first novel Ivy started out as a crazy dream which she turned into an adventurous and suspenseful paranormal romance.  It was followed up by Natasha, Masquerade, Twelve Days and now Alicia.  A fourth main novel in the series, Lorcan, is due out late 2015
Readers can find Under Fire, a free short story available to all her newsletter subscribers. See her website for more details.                                                        Author Links: Website   FB   Twitter   Goodreads   Newsletter   


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