Two
brothers, ripped apart by fate...drawn together by a common thread.
TO PLAY WITH FIRE: Marcos Pinheiro shouldn’t be thinking about colleague Maggie. But
her innocent fire has him reliving their one wild, shameless night… Maggie’s
heart has been buried for so long – only in Marcos’s arms has she ever felt
free from her past demons. But is Marcos’s passion enough to banish the shadows
forever?
DONNELL: Hi, Tina, welcome to Get Lost in a
Story. Wow, I’m still fanning myself
over those covers. What was your first
reaction when you saw them. Seriously I
love them!
TINA: I love them too!
Harlequin revamped the covers for their medical line as of January of this
year, and I’m seriously in love with the new format.
DONNELL: Correct me if I’m wrong, but do you live in
South America? Part time, full
time? How does that work? Are you bilingual?
TINA: I live in Brazil,
although we’re in the United States at the moment. I’ve been there for ten
years, with periodic visits home to see friends and family (and attend writing
conferences). Before Brazil, we lived in Portugal for seven years. So, after
seventeen years of living in Portuguese-speaking countries, I hope I can say
I’m fluent by now. Although sometimes the two languages (English and Portuguese)
get jumbled up in my head, and I speak a weird combination of both, throwing in
an English word here...a Portuguese word there. Luckily my family does the same
thing, so we still manage to communicate! It does make for some challenges when
writing my books, though. You will definitely see a few Portuguese words in
these books.
DONNELL: You write for medical romance. Do you have a medical background? And don’t
you write for other lines? Do you have a
favorite – or is that putting you on the spot?
TINA: I don’t have a
medical background, although I thought about going into nursing for a while.
But I thrive on medical shows like Mystery Diagnosis, Medical Detectives, Venom
ER and a bunch of others. And my family has provided plenty of medical material
from their bumps, cuts and broken bones over the years. And yes, they do wind
up in my books!
I also write single
title romantic suspense for Carina Press. I honestly can’t choose a favorite.
They’re both genres that I love reading.
DONNELL: So I notice that the brothers have different
last names? Can you explain that or do I
have to wait to read the book ;)
TINA: Ah yes, my heroes’ last names. It’s a big
part of the overall story. That and a promise the boys made to their father
when they were little. After their dad died, the brothers were separated. One
was adopted and went to live in the United States, while the other brother
remained in Brazil and grew up in an orphanage. The brother in the United
States has his adoptive parents’ last name.
DONNELL: If you could live anywhere on earth, where
would it be and why?
TINA: I adore living in
Brazil, so I think I would have to stick with that. Although the funny thing
is, when I’m there, I miss the United States, and when I’m in the United
States, I find myself longing for Brazil. Each country has something that I
love. Right now I’m enjoying Girl Scout cookies—thin mints—straight out of the
freezer. Yum!
DONNELL: What comes next
for Tina Beckett?
TINA: I’m currently working
on another medical duet, this time with the amazing Amalie Berlin. The books
are set on a ski resort in Colorado and feature lifelong friends who meet on
New Year’s Eve to ring in the coming year. Neither realizes that the resolutions
they make this year will change their lives forever. I’m having a blast writing
my heroine’s story. And Amalie is a hoot. We’ve done a ton of laughing as we’ve
batted ideas back and forth.
DONNELL: Tina, now it’s your turn to ask the reader a
question. And here you can indicate if
you’d like to give away a book – no pressure – some authors don’t
TINA: Do you, as readers,
like connected books? Why or why not? To one lucky commenter I’ll be giving
away a set of...wait for it...connected books! The winner will have their
choice of the Brazilian Brothers duet in either e-book format or paperbacks.
Good luck!
Thanks for having me,
Donnell, I had a blast!
Links.