Showing posts with label Dani Collins. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dani Collins. Show all posts

5/30/2019

Jacqui Nelson’s North of the Border with guest Dani Collins


Who’s next on my North of the Border guest blog series? Today we have Dani Collins, author of Proof of Their Sin, The Maid’s Spanish Secret, and her latest Harlequin Presents, Untouched Until Her Ultra-Rich Husband.

Where does Dani get her inspiration? How is Canada part of her inspiration? Read on and see...

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Write What You Know – except if you’re Canadian?

I took a long time to publish (twenty-five years. True.) In that time, I wrote many, many manuscripts, but only once wrote a Canadian heroine. I waited until last year to write my first Canadian hero. (It hasn’t sold, but stay tuned. I hope it will!) 

I’m not sure what my prejudice is. I’m very proud to be Canadian. Some of the most common writing advice I hear is, “Write what you know,” so you’d think my native land would have inspired every book, but I balk at writing anything too close to home. In fact, within my home, if family happens to walk into my office, the first thing I say is, “Don’t look at my words.” I never want to hear what people close to me think of my books. 

Fun fact: I don’t even like people to see my grocery list, I’m that sensitive about feedback on my writing. What are they going to say? “Why do you need apples?” I don’t know, but I don’t like it. 

When I write, I prefer to disconnect from my real life as much as possible. That’s why I love the world of Harlequin Presents. I can set my stories across the world in places I’ve never seen full of people from far-flung places. I guess you could say, I find it easier to write what I don’t know. Even when I write small town romance, I prefer to set it in Montana or Washington State rather than my own backyard of Southern B.C.

Having said that, since selling my first book in 2012, I’ve managed to write a handful of Canadian heroines. My first was Lauren from Montreal in Proof of their Sin. I’d never been back east so I asked my brother-in-law if there was a wine region in Quebec. He said, “Quebec is maple syrup, Dan.” So my heroine inherited her grandmother’s estate full of sugar maples. 


My next Canadian heroine, Natalie in Seduced into the Greek’s World, was also from Montreal, but I sent her to Paris for a work event for most of the book. Maybe in my mind Canada isn’t exotic? I don’t know what my problem is, but several books went by before I wrote another Canadian. 

Consequence of His Revenge came out in 2018. It featured my one Canadian heroine from before I published. In fact, I wrote the first draft of that story when the Vancouver Olympics were announced. Not when they happened in 2010, but five or six years before. That heroine, Cami, was from Whistler—finally I was writing closer to home! Of course, she gets whisked off to Sicily, but still. 


This August, another Canadian heroine will come out in The Maid’s Spanish Secret. Originally, I was going to make Poppy from Winnipeg, where my sister lives. At least I’ve visited that beautiful city! But I wanted Poppy to be from a place that was very tiny and rural and given to harsh Canadian winters where the Northern Lights occasionally make an appearance. So she’s from Saskatchewan. Where I’ve never been. 

In 2020, yet another Canadian heroine will show up. Cassiopeia lives and works at a hot spring resort. I could have set it in the real-life spa my husband and I visited in Vernon, since it was the inspiration for her workplace. Or I could have set it in Banff, which my husband and I visited last year when I met my editor there. But no, being me, I had to set it near Jasper—which I visited as a child and can’t remember at all. 

Sparkling Hills Spa, Vernon BC
Obviously, I need help. Do you consider Canada an exotic location? When you come across a Canadian protagonist, what distinctly ‘Canadian’ characteristics do you tend to see in them? 

GIVEAWAY

Leave a comment and I’ll randomly draw one lucky name on June 7th to win a digital Advance Reader Copy of my next Canadian heroine, Poppy in The Maid’s Spanish Secret.

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untouched-until-her-ultra-rich-husband book cover
Dani’s latest Harlequin Presents, Untouched Until Her Ultra-Rich Husband, features a Chinese-American hero and a Venezuelan heroine. The story takes place in Singapore, Paris, Africa, New York and Italy. She doesn’t know why Canada isn’t on the list, but this sexy, marriage-of-convenience romance goes on sale Jun 1st. Start reading here.


Amazon US | UK | Aus | Can

BIO 

Dani Collins Author PhotoAward-winning and USA Today Bestselling author Dani Collins thrives on giving readers emotional, compelling, heart-soaring romance with some laughter and heat thrown in, just like real life. Mostly she writes contemporary romance for Harlequin Presents and Tule’s Montana Born, but her backlist of fifty books also includes self-published erotic romance, romantic comedy, and even an epic medieval fantasy. When she’s not writing—just kidding, she’s always writing. She lives in Christina Lake, BC with her high school sweetheart husband who occasionally coaxes her out of her attic office to visit their grown children.

Subscribe to Dani’s Dear Reader newsletter and get Cruel Summer as a welcome gift. Subscribe here. 

SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS 

Website: danicollins.com
Dani’s News: danicollins.com/news

~ All pictures (except for the 1st) are supplied by today’s guest with their assurance of usage rights. 
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8/11/2014

Welcome back author Dani Collins!




Wicked, Not Sordid
The Ultimate Seduction, 21st Century Gentlemen’s Club
Last year, my editor called me with an offer I couldn’t refuse: the opportunity to collaborate on a trilogy that takes place in a modern version of an old Gentlemen’s Club.



First of all, we all know those stuffy old club members might have been titled, but they were not always gentlemen. I was working with Maya Blake and Victoria Parker and of course our first thought was BDSM or something equally kinky. Category romance was growing up fast, I thought!



But no, our editors quickly assured us that while they were prepared for characters to have some vices, they were looking for rascals and rakes, not degenerates.



This wound up making the challenge more interesting as we decided on the club name: QVirtus. Yes, members would gamble and party, perhaps seduce a virgin now and again, but never for sport. It would be genuine attraction on his part, passion on hers. ‘Hostesses’ would swan around in red designer gowns, serving drinks and fetching, well, anything our members desired (within reason.) We called them petite q’s. They would be beautiful, not unlike Playboy Bunnies, but sleeping with members was career suicide.



As I sat down to write this blog post, I considered how and why this safer version of the playground appeals to me and hopefully to readers. Where is the line between wicked and sordid? Rake and write-off?



I think it all comes down to honor, which was a huge component of those old clubs. I’m kicking myself now that I didn’t include a duel. (Hashtag Spoiler.) But I open the story with the heroine describing my hero as a despot. Loosely defined, that’s someone who rules with absolute power.



Not exactly honorable, right? But even though he led the winning side in his country’s civil war, basically creating a new country, his intentions are good (peace and prosperity.) He stole all the previous oppressor’s money, but he’s earmarked it for the country’s recovery, making him a likeable good guy. (lol)



You’ll see by the titles that all three of us have heroes who toe the line between decency and debauched: The Ultimate Playboy (Maya Blake, July), The Ultimate Seduction (Me, August), and The Ultimate Revenge (Victoria Parker, Aug). All of our heroes could have walked off the edge of reprehensible behavior and all think about behaving without conscience.



In each one, their personal ethics (along with the heroine and the Presents Promise) pulls them back. The very fact that they might have fallen morally, but didn’t, makes them honorable and therefore likeable. Incorrigible, but not ignoble.


BLURB:


"I'm about to make you an offer you can't refuse."



Tiffany Davis takes her first delicious step into the exclusive masquerade ball hosted by the secretive Q Virtus gentleman's club. Here, behind the mask, Tiffany can hide her scars and reveal her true self—a powerful businesswoman with an offer for the president of Bregnovia, Ryzard Vrbancic.



Astounded by her audacity, only the fire in Tiffany's eyes makes Ryzard look twice. He has no interest in her business deal, but the promise of a woman who can match his ruthless determination makes him eager to seduce from her the one thing she's not offering….



EXCERPT FROM THE ULTIMATE SEDUCTION:


Ryzard followed the man’s gaze and his entire being crackled to attention.



Well beyond the pool’s light, in a corner mostly blocked by a buffet table and ice sculpture, a woman undulated like a cobra, utterly fascinating in her hypnotic movements timed perfectly with the music. Her splayed hands slid down her body with sexy knowledge, her hips popped in time to the beat, and her feet kick-stepped into motion.



She twirled. The motion lifted her brassy curls like a skirt before she planted her feet wide and swayed her weight between them. The flex of her spine gave way to a roll of her hips, and she was back into motion again.



Setting down his drink, Ryzard beelined toward her. He couldn’t tell if the woman had a partner, but it didn’t matter. He was cutting in.



She was alone, lifting her arms to gather her hair, eyes closed as she felt the music as much as heard it. She arched and stretched—



He caught her around the waist and used the shocked press of her hands at his shoulders to push her into accepting his lead, stepping into her space, then retreating, bringing her with him. As he moved her into a side step, she recovered, matching his move while her gaze pinned to his.



He couldn’t tell what color her eyes were. The light was too low, her feathery mask shadowing her gaze into twin glinting lights, but he reacted to the fixation in them. She was deciding whether to accept him.



A rush of excitement for the challenge ran through him. After a few more quick steps, he swung her into half pivots, catching each of her wrists in turn, one bare, one clad in silk, enjoying the flash of her bare knee through the slit of her skirt.



How had she been overlooked by every man here? She was exquisite.



Lifting her hand over her head, he spun her around then clasped her shoulder blades into his chest. Her buttocks—fine, firm, round globes as if heaven had sent him a valentine—pressed into his lap. Bending her before him, he buried his nose in her hair and inhaled, then followed her push to straighten and matched the sway of her hips with his own.



Tiffany’s heart pounded so hard she thought it would escape her chest. One second she’d been slightly drunk, lost in the joy of letting the salsa rhythm control her muscles. Now a stranger was doing it. And doing it well. He pulled her around into a waltz stance that he quickly shifted so they grazed each other’s sides, left, right, left.



She kicked each time, surprised how easily the movements came back to her. It had been years, but this man knew what he was doing, sliding her slowly behind his back, then catching her hand on the other side. He pushed her to back up a step, bringing one of her arms behind his head, the other behind her own. A few backward steps and they were connected by only one hand, arms outstretched, then he spun her back into him, catching her into his chest.



He stopped.



The conga beat pulsed through her as he ran his hands down her sides. Her own flew to cover his knuckles, but she didn’t stop him. It felt too amazing. His fingertips grazed the sides of her breasts, flexed into the taut muscles of her waist and clasped her hips to push them in a hula circle that he followed with his own, his crotch pressed tight to her buttocks.



Sensual pleasure electrified her. No one touched her anymore. After being a genderless automaton for so long, she was a woman again, alive, capable of captivating and enticing a man. She nudged her hips into his and flashed a cheeky glance back at him.



DANI'S BIO

After a brilliant debut in the UK with No Longer Forbidden, a Mills & Boon Modern Book Of The Month January 2013, Dani’s first Harlequin Presents, Proof Of Their Sin, won the Reviewer’s Choice by Romantic Times Book Reviews for Best First In Series. While her focus is Harlequin Presents, Dani also writes romantic comedy, medieval fantasy, and coming August of 2014, erotic romance. Whatever the genre, she always delivers sexy alpha heroes, witty, spirited heroines, complex emotions and loads of passion.



Enter Dani Collins’ Masked Desires Contest for a chance to express your secret desires from behind a masquerade mask.



Stay current with Dani’s new releases by joining her newsletter or visiting her here:

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads



PURCHASE LINKS


Amazon: US | Canada | UK 

eHarlequin | Mills & Boon Aus | Mills & Boon UK 
Chapters | Nook | Kobo | ARe | BooksaMillion
DANI'S QUESTION FOR YOU
What’s your take? Do you like rakes and rascals? Would you rather see characters stay firmly inside society’s rules and expectations? Or do you find the ones who push the boundaries without breaking them appealing on some level?



I’d love to send a signed print copy of The Ultimate Seduction to one lucky commenter.
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6/05/2014

A Warm Welcome to Dani Collins



Give a big GLIAS welcome to Dani Collins—an all-around multi-talented author with accolades galore and wonderful stories to share! I’m so happy to be hosting her today so she can tell you about her book “An Heir to Bind Them.”

After a brilliant debut in the UK with No Longer Forbidden, a Mills & Boon Modern Book Of The Month January 2013, Dani’s first Harlequin Presents, Proof Of Their Sin, won the Reviewer’s Choice by Romantic Times Book Reviews for Best First In Series. While her focus is Harlequin Presents, Dani also writes romantic comedy, medieval fantasy, and coming August of 2014, erotic romance. Whatever the genre, she always delivers sexy alpha heroes, witty, spirited heroines, complex emotions and loads of passion.

HERE’S A BIT ABOUT “AN HEIR TO BIND THEM”

Off the boss's payroll…and into his bed
Jaya. Her name reverberates around Theo Makricosta's head in time to the
whirring blades of his private helicopter. He must find her; only Jaya can help with the care of his infant niece and nephew…. It's not because he hasn't stopped thinking about the single night of mind-blowing passion he shared with the exotic beauty.

Jaya Powers couldn't refuse her gorgeous millionaire Greek boss when she worked for him, and she can't refuse him now! Only this time she has a secret. Their night together had consequences that will change Theo's perfectly ordered existence forever!

EXCERPT:
“There’s not a woman in the world with enough training to fix me. Don’t try.” Another warning, his tone a little cooler.
She shook her head. This was about fixing herself, not him. “I just keep thinking that if I leave without kissing you, I’ll always wonder what it would have been like.”
That sounded too ingenuous, too needy, but his quietly loaded, “Yeah,” seemed to put them on the same page, which was remarkable. He stared at her mouth and hot tingles made her lips feel plump. She tried to lick the sensation away.
His breath rushed out in a ragged exhale. He loomed closer, so tall and broad, blocking out her vision, nearly overwhelming her. But when his fingers lightly caressed her jaw and his mouth came down, she was paralyzed with anticipation.
There’d been a few kisses in her life, none very memorable, but when his mouth settled on hers, unhurried and hot, she knew she’d remember this for the rest of her life.
The smooth texture of his lips sealed to hers. He didn’t force her mouth open. She softened and welcomed his confident possession, weakening despite the nervous flutters accosting her. He rocked the fit, deepening the kiss so she opened her mouth wider, bathed in delicious waves of heat. Their lips dampened and slid erotically. His tongue was almost there, then not, then—
He licked into her mouth and she moaned, lashed with exquisite delight. This was the kind of kiss she’d only read about and now she knew there was a reason they called it a soul kiss. Her hand went to his shoulder for balance. She lifted on her toes, wanting more pressure, more of him settling into her inner being.
With a groan he slid his arm around her and pulled her tight against him, softly crushing her mouth while digging his fingers into her bound hair. It was good, so good. She reached her arms around his neck, loving how it felt to be kissed and held so tightly against his hard chest and—
He was hard everywhere.
Like hitting a wall, she pushed back, perturbed by how intensely she had been responding and the dicey situation she’d put herself in.
He didn’t let her go right away, kind of steadied her first while staggering one step himself, then he ran a hand through his hair and swore under his breath. “Hellfire, Jaya. I suspected it’d be good, but I didn’t know it’d be that good. Are you sure you don’t want to spend the night?”

A Q&A WITH DANI:
LIZ: How often do you get lost in a story?
DANI:  Not often enough! Until the end of April, I was working full time as well as writing and raising a family. One of my big stumbling blocks to reading is actually the part where you sit down to do it. Sounds silly, but when I had that much sitting going on in my life, if I took a break, I wanted to move—go for a walk, even clean house. I know, sounds like I’m running a temperature, doesn’t it? But one of my very favorite places to read is an airplane and fortunately I’ve booked a lot of travel this year. I went to New Orleans for the RT Convention and I’ll be in San Antonio, then the Sydney Rocks conference in Australia. Loads of time for reading on that flight!

LIZ: What’s the first book you remember reading? 
DANI:  Alice, the cat who was haunted

LIZ: What’s your favorite “love” word?
DANI: Sumptuous

LIZ: What are the next five books on your ‘to be read’ pile?
DANI: I recently read Maisey Yates’ prequel to the Fifth Avenue series with Presents. I have Avenge Me calling to me from its place on the pile and expect the other two will be promptly downloaded once I read it. I’m in the middle of Megan Crane’s I Love The 80’s—I’m totally in love with it. I have Nalini Singh’s Wild Invitation anthology of which I’ve only read one and am hungry for the rest (pun intended!) Finally, Abby Green’s When Da Silva Breaks The Rules is sitting at my elbow. She’s a bit of a passive mentor to me. By that I mean I love her books and keep them handy as study tools.

LIZ: What’s your favorite fairy tale?
DANI: Beauty and the Beast

LIZ: What’s your favorite cartoon character?
DANI: Bugs Bunny

LIZ: Cast your book using fairy tale or cartoon characters.
DANI: Oh. Hmm. Well, since Theo winds up taking temporary care of his niece and nephew, then discovers he’s a father, we might call Jaya Snow White and he is Grumpy, lol.

LIZ: Write us a haiku about your book or one of your characters!
DANI: Homework! Yikes! Okay:
Bring babies to her,
Jaya, natural mother
Makes him a father
LIZ: That is AWESOME!
 
LIZ: What one thing about your hero drives his heroine crazy? And what one thing about your heroine drives her hero nuts?
DANI: Theo underestimates his ability to rise to fatherhood. Jaya sees more in him than he sees in himself. Theo sees the vulnerability in Jaya’s warmth and empathy. He fears she can be hurt and wants to protect her from everything, but she’s too independent to let him.

LIZ: Name three things that are, at this moment, in your heroine’s purse.
DANI: Jaya would always carry a headscarf, her phone, and wipes for the baby.

LIZ: What sound or noise do you love?
DANI:  We have a spring storm brewing outside. I opened all the windows earlier because the sun was out, but now I can hear the wind in the trees and scattered drops of rain. LOVE IT. Might even get some distant thunder and lightning. Bliss.

LIZ: I am completely with you on this—thunderstorms are bliss to me too!
   
LIZ: If you were given a chance to travel to the past where would you go and specifically why?
DANI: I honestly try not to have too many thoughts like that. I’d drive myself crazy second guessing if I should have done this or that. But if I had a chance to visit with my grandmother again, I’d take it.

LIZ: What will always make you smile, even on a bad day?
DANI: My kids are hysterical. So is my husband, for that matter. When we’re at our worst, we’re almost always laughing about it. Ranting and swearing, but finding the absurdity and laughing at it.

LIZ: What’s your favorite movie of all time?
DANI: Of all time? That’s a lot to commit to. I do watch the BBC Pride and Prejudice miniseries two or three times a year. That might be it.

LIZ: Who’s your favorite villain?
DANI: Alan Rickman – I don’t care who he’s being viciously sarcastic toward, but he’s delightfully fun to watch when he is

LIZ: What is your biggest vice?
DANI: I’m currently eating a bowl of lime-flavored corn chips, but wine is probably my worst vice. I’m starting to like the expensive stuff, not that I’m any kind of sommelier. I just really like it and could easily drink it every day if I wasn’t conscious of what an expensive and really bad habit it could turn into.

LIZ: What’s your favorite kid joke?
DANI: It was my first dirty joke: A white horse fell into a mud puddle. My dad told it to me.

LIZ: What do you hope for the future of romance publishing?
DANI: A feasible way to stop piracy. I’m fine with sharing a copy of a book. I’ve given copies off my shelf to a friend. Even selling a few used copies at the bookstore doesn’t bother me, but wide scale stealing ticks me off.

LIZ HAS GOTTA ASK: What’s the most personal thing you’ve ever put in one of your books?
DANI: That’s a really great question, but I think I steal from other people’s lives more than my own. I feel like I live a really boring life (happy to, in fact!) But the argument could be made that everything I put in a book is personal to me. I can’t write authentically if I don’t already think something is sexy or hurtful or admirable. Years ago, when I was first starting out as a writer, I heard one writer say to another, “I can’t wait to read your book and find out what you’re really like.” Our inner workings are right there on the page, I think. That’s why it’s so uncomfortable to submit and receive rejections.

DO YOU HAVE A QUESTION YOU’D LIKE TO ASK YOUR FANS?
I’m always looking for wine recommendations, lol! Questions about my current book, do you mean? Or about anything? I’m always looking for market research answers so I know whether my Facebook posts and designing of bookmarks has any impact on readers at all. Do you like giveaways? What makes you interested in trying a new author? Do you buy series books all the time? Sometimes? Only some authors? I have a feeling we’re all individuals with unique answers to those, but I’ll ask anyway.

WILL YOU HAVE A DRAWING FROM THOSE LEAVING COMMENTS?
For sure! I’d be happy to mail a signed copy of An Heir To Bind Them to one commenter. I also invite you to join in my Rafflecopter contest for a chance to win my August books. 

WHAT’S NEXT FOR YOU?
Please watch for The Ultimate Seduction from Harlequin Presents and The Dani Collins Erotic Romance Collection from HarelquinE, both releasing in August. I have a contest running to celebrate these hot summer reads with their sexy, hidden identity themes. Enter Dani Collins’ Masked Desires Contest here for a chance to express your secret desires from behind a masquerade mask or win a signed copy of The Ultimate
                            Seduction.

DANI’S PREVIOUS RELEASES:
An Heir To Bind Them is Book Three in the Makricosta saga. Book One, No Longer Forbidden?, and Book Two, More Than A Convenient Marriage, released as a 2in1 last December.

Readers might also like to pick up Proof Of Their Sin, the Reviewer’s Choice from RT Book Reviews for Best First In Series. My Harlequin Presents, A Debt Paid In Passion, was one of RT’s Top Pick’s for February.

 Stay current with Dani’s new releases by joining her newsletter or visiting her here:

PURCHASE LINKS
Amazon: US | Canada | UK 






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