Welcome Nancy Jardine

*Note from Nancy Jardine –  Giveaway:  One PDF copy of TAKE ME NOW will be awarded to one lucky commenter who responds to my interview blog post of the 5^th August on YGR. The contest is open worldwide so anyone can win if they leave an email address with their comment.  Names will be drawn at noon (GMT /UK) on 7^th August 2012.

Where do you hail from and what do you love most about your hometown?

Most visitors love my home area. I’m extremely fortunate to live in the spectacular ‘castle country’ ofAberdeenshire,Scotland, where historic buildings and ancient features-like standing stone circles-are on my doorstep. I love living in a semi-rural area with beautiful countryside around me, but a drive of some twenty miles can take me to the city ofAberdeen; or to the beaches of the east coastline ofScotland; or north-west to the spectacular wooded foothills of theGrampian Mountains.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? 

I was flighty and very impressionable, so that varied according to what I was reading at the time. I wanted to be a ballerina, but sadly I’ve got two left feet!  Although I was a voracious reader I don’t remember ever planning to be an author, though when I was older it became a toss up between being a librarian and a teacher. The teaching profession won out since I taught 7^th grade for many years.

Tell us about your latest book.  

My latest release, on the 3^rd August 2012, is TAKE ME NOW, published by The Wild Rose Press. It’s a light-hearted contemporary novel with a bit of mystery and a little danger.  Nairn Malcolm has a Scottish island castle as his home base but is normally whizzing around the world as he organizes his Extreme Sports businesses. A strange motorbike accident means he needs help to fly, or ferry, him back and forth from island to mainland. In steps Aela Cameron-fromVancouver,Canada- who wants the temporary job of transporting Nairn and his crutches around. He also needs office help, and Aela’s the perfect answer as she keeps his many business concerns running smoothly. Aela’s a feisty lass who waves off the danger they encounter as just another task to tackle!  Aela flies Nairn to some lovely locations inEurope and other parts of the world. Just imagine the fun they have inParis,Barcelona,Oman, theCaribbean to mention only a few…

Do you have anything new in the works and can you tell us a bit about it?

My next release, on 31^st August 2012, is a historical romance, THE BELTANE CHOICE, published by Crooked {Cat} Publishing. The setting for the novel is AD 71 in the Britain of Celtic/ Roman conflict.  Nara of the Selgovae is saved, from the tusks of a wild boar, by an enemy-Prince Lorcan of the Brigantes. Lorcan takes Nara as his captive, and uses her as a bargaining tool to ensure the Celtic tribes of the north stand together against the invasion of the Roman Empire. There’s plenty of danger in it for Nara!  Crooked {Cat} Publishing will also publish my second history/mystery contemporary novel, TOPAZ EYES, in December 2012. That’s a complex mystery that centers around unraveling the whereabouts of a large set of jewels that ended up scattered amongst family members. I had to devise a complex ancestral tree for that storyline. My characters have to avoid the danger that besets them as they follow the clues to exciting European cities and cities in the US –Heidelberg, Vienna, Amsterdam, Edinburgh, and Rochester and Duluth in Minnesota.

Is there anything you find particularly challenging about writing?

My debut romance, MONOGAMY TWIST, came out in August 2011, and I truly had no idea how hard an author needs to work at marketing their books. My greatest challenge is organizing my time for marketing jobs and keeping my work/s in progress going. Doing the publicity/ social media for my two current releases has eaten into the time for the family saga I’m writing. I’m also working on two sequels-one for my historical novel, and the second for the time-travel novel for children that I’m still seeking to get published.

What advice would you give to writers just starting out?

Get ahead of the marketing game and set up all possible social networking aspects long before a debut release. Buy the biggest diary that fits on your desk and make aLOTof lists.

Do you ever suffer from writer’s block? If so, what do you do about it?

I’ve only been writing seriously for a few years so I’ve never really encountered writer’s block yet. Though, I have to say, it almost feels like that just now as my current writing has been very slow-in between blog articles of my own, and those for marketing reasons. If I flag with one of my WIPs I work on another, or I spend time doing research-which is procrastination of a sort but can be productive!

Who is your favorite author and why? 

I’ve loved so many I can never say I’ve got a particular favorite. Since I read lots of genres that means I like books for many different reasons.

How did you deal with rejection letters?

When I was still teaching full time, I sent out the earliest version of my historical novel to a large publisher. While I waited nearly a year for a response I dabbled with the early draft for my first contemporary novel. When the rejection for the historical arrived on the doorstep, I was disappointed, but not too worried. I filed it away. In 2008 I reduced my teaching to part-time and got much more serious about my writing. I redrafted, and redrafted my novels and searched the net for e book publishers whose response time was much quicker. That research paid off since The Wild Rose Press took me on and have now published two of my contemporaries.

What tools do you feel are must-haves for writers?

A good word processing program and an external hard drive for back-up of saved data. I’d recommend good dictionaries and a thesaurus (on line, and print). A good program for processing jpgs/photos of your own, or those you receive –like cover art- for putting on your blog- since they sometimes need resized etc. I’d recommend a good email system that allows you to save your correspondence on the hard disk. (I love that since I can back track more easily to make sure I’ve not lost any data sent to me for posting on my blog etc)  Don’t forget a big coffee cup!

Where do you as an author draw the line on gory descriptions and/or erotic content?

I haven’t ever tried to write anything particularly gory, and don’t envisage I ever will. Erotic content is another matter. My two novels published by The Wild Rose Press are classified as sensual. I don’t feel the need, at present, to go beyond that level of sensuality which is still quite HOT!

BLURB:

Nairn Malcolm’s looking for the impossible. He needs a highly skilled, enterprising aide who’ll be at his beck and call 24/7. No ordinary Jane Doe will do. He doesn’t expect the only candidate who drops in at his Scottish castle for an interview to be so competent…or so stunning.
Aela Cameron’s got exactly the right mix of talents to satisfy all Nairn Malcolm’s needs, and more. She loves the jobs he needs done, adores his castle, and finds his frenetic lifestyle energising. But she’s only looking for temporary: not to fall in love with the man.
Can Nairn convince Aela she’s tailor-made for him in every way…and not a passing fancy?

EXCERPT:

Unadulterated vigor oozed from every last bit of him—overall a dangerous concoction. Something stirred way-down-low inside Aela again. He was a real honey, and the bee in her wanted to be very sticky.

Her mind whirred. The man bore a vague resemblance to the ruggedly handsome thirty-two year old Nairn Malcolm of the internet photograph, but would the blonde limpet in the recent celebrity snapshot want to curl herself around this forbidding wreck of a man? Aela thought not. She wondered, though, if his blank expression was caused by current circumstances, or if this was his normal demeanor, since he hadn’t been smiling in the photograph either.

With the high granite wall as his backdrop she could easily imagine this man lording over the castle, ruthlessly challenging any invaders to his domain. Taking any woman he wanted? Now there was a thought she was happy to entertain. A tiny smile broke free. Tamping down her crazed imagination she re-assessed him.

What had the guy been doing to get himself in such a state?

Who was he?

TAKE ME NOW –key words: romance, contemporary, light-hearted, Scottish castle, island, floatplane, travel, mystery, threat, intrigue, Glasgow, London, Oman, Tallinn, Barcelona, Paris, Caribbean, New York

Buy links for TAKE ME NOW: The Wild Rose Press: Print:  http://bit.ly/MrlI8x   E book formats: http://bit.ly/MQJXvw Amazon: Print: http://amzn.to/LEUb1g

TAKE ME NOW YouTube Trailer link – http://youtu.be/stDC4Yhm2r0

Other books by Nancy Jardine:

MONOGAMY TWIST is available from: The Wild Rose Press : http://bit.ly/wOpGbT   Amazon.co.uk: http://amzn.to/ynu0t0   Amazon.com: http://amzn.to/wwaGCv   Barnes and Noble: http://bit.ly/AuMbii

YouTube Book Trailer for MONOGAMY TWIST is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJVzbrkJQzA

THE BELTANE CHOICE will be available: in e book formats from Crooked{Cat}Publishing 31^st August 2012- e-book and print details for Amazon to follow.

YouTube Book Trailer for THE BELTANE CHOICE: http://youtu.be/igJmfBoXRhQ

Boards available to view for above three books on Pinterest http://pinterest.com/nanjar/

Author bio Nancy Jardine gave up teaching primary kids in the autumn of 2011. She has now written a historical novel and three contemporary novels- two of them are what she calls her history/mysteries. All four will be published by Dec 2012. She’s also written the first of a time-travel series of novels for children aged 9-12years, and a family saga is her current work in progress.

Nancylives in the picturesque castle country ofAberdeenshire,Scotland, with her husband who feeds her well or she’d starve! Ancestry research is one of her hobbies, as is participating in exciting events with her family which drag her away from the keyboard. In her garden she tends real flowers and grows spectacular weeds, which she’s becoming very fond of! She cherishes the couple of days a week when she child-minds her gorgeous granddaughter.

Website: http://nancyjardineauthor.weebly.com

Blog: http://nancyjardine.blogspot.com

FaceBook:  http://facebook.com/nancy.jardine.56

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/nanjar/

Twitter:  http://twitter.com@nansjar

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/6166205-nancy

LinkedIn: http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/nancy-jardine/3a/9b0/a91

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