Revenge In Rio by Samantha Darling Teaser #3

Revenge in Rio 

Countdown Teasers

No.3

Teaser No. 3 people! It gives you a peek at the book's hero, Luca Venancio and his gentlemanly charm but don't be fooled! 

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Luca Venancio 

Hope you enjoyed that one....he's yummy, right? 

4th and final teasers next week! 

'Til next time 

Sam :-) 

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Revenge In Rio by Samantha Darling teaser

Revenge in Rio 

Countdown Teasers

No.2

Welcome, welcome, welcome! I'm VERY excited to share today's teaser with you, not only because it's so damn pretty but also because it's from one of my favourite parts of the book and see's Luca whisking Daniella off to a gala for the social and business elite!

Again, a huge thanks to Laura for working her techno/design magic! I'd love to know what you all think of it!  

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Let's go

See you next week for teaser No. 3.

'Til next time!

Sam :-)

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Revenge in Rio 

Countdown Teasers

No.1

With release day only 22 days away - honestly I'm not counting down like a crazy woman (hmm, ok, maybe just a teensy bit crazy!) I thought I would share some lovely little teasers with you. I can't take the credit for making them sadly, that's where the talented Laura at MusicPlusBooks came into play and did her thang! 

So, here we go. This is teaser number one for you and features at the end of chapter one. Watch out for number 2 this time next week! 

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Prove

Hope you enjoyed!

Sam :-)

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Revenge in Rio by Samantha Darling Cover Reveal

Revenge in Rio

By: Samantha Darling

Beachwalk Press

Releasing October 21^st, 2013

Blurb

Calculated revenge, unexpected passion…

Business magnate Luca Venancio is returning to Rio to pay his respects to his late brother, and to seduce his once fiancée, Daniella, back into his bed. Five years ago she left him without so much as a word, shunning him and the rich life he could offer in exchange for his younger, reckless brother. Now Luca wants revenge—seduce her and dump her, that's all he intends to do.

Blackmailed into a violent farce of a marriage, Daniella had no choice but to comply to protect Luca's life, even though it meant never being able to see him again. Years later, a twist of fate reunites them, throwing her plans of fleeing Rio out of the window and the love of her life straight back in.

Luca's flawless plan soon becomes complicated when he discovers Daniella is expecting his brother's child. It becomes even more complicated when old passions return. Can he actually go through with seducing her, bedding her, and then discarding her?

Author Info

I live in Essex, not too far from London, with my very understanding husband, our identical twin boys, and two Bedlington Terriers. We're crammed into our rather cozy two-up two-down terrace and we can barely swing a cat, but hey, we love it. I work part-time as a nurse, but when I'm off duty, you will find me either chasing the toddlers around like a headless chicken, head buried in a book, or tapping away at my stories.

I have always loved to read and romance is by far my favourite genre! You can easily escape into such promising worlds, where sexy Alpha males lead the way and strong heroine's often can't help but fall head over heels in love. I adore a Happy Ever After - as I'm sure we all do if we're honest, right?!

Reading and writing go hand in hand and from the day I could read, I enjoyed writing. To put pen to paper and conjure up weird and wonderful little stories was what I thrived on! English was my favourite class at school right throughout to secondary - and I will always be thankful for the teachers who gave me the opportunities to develop and be creative! If I remember rightly, one of my first stories was called 'The Turkey Who Could Talk'...but I'll tell you more about that some other day :-) 

Author Links

https://www.facebook.com/samantha.darling.9828

https://twitter.com/samanthav1986

http://www.samanthadarlingromance.com/index.html

Oh Deer!

This week as we left the for work we rounded a curve a mile from the house and hubby yelled, "Look at the deer."

Of course I didn't see them, so we turned around and I got to see two deer standing by the fence. At the time, neither one of us wondered why they stood there and didn't run off, which is the usual behavior when we see deer.

We turned around, and this time we saw why the deer remained. A fawn had gotten his foot stuck in the fence. His back foot was tangled near the top of the fence and his poor body was stretched as his body dangled, with half of his torso laid on the ground. The position alone would be painful.

As we neared in hopes of helping the poor fellow, he began to wiggle and try to free himself. I stayed back, not wanting to make him more afraid. Hubby moved toward his back to look how his foot was caught. The fence wasn't tight around his leg, but the metal was twisted an odd way which would make it nearly impossible to lift a wiggling deer to release him.

Thankfully we had metal cutters on the van. I ran back, the whole time knowing the deer had to be in pain, so I made myself run the 50 meters to the van.

Within the minute, I gave hubby the cutters and the deer was freed. At first he had a hard time standing. He tried to move away from us, but we boxed him, not wanting him to dart to the other side of the road. The next problem was wondering how we could get him to the other side of the fence where his friends were. He could not jump, and we didn't want to get close enough to a scared deer to lift him to the other side.

Thankfully a few feet away was a gate with enough room the deer could squeeze through. Eventually, we stepped around and urged him to the right place, and he moved through the fence. When he did, he stood and ran off.

I can picture what he said to his friends when he finally caught up with them, "Thanks guys, the moment the humans show up you abandon me."


This event has also made me think about the deer and what he does when in pain. Does he know certain plants to eat to alleviate the pain? Is he forced to endure the pain until his leg heals?

I also thought about my health. I've never been a runner. I hate running. But, when I ran to the van to get the metal cutters, I couldn't physically run the entire way back. Sad, I know. I am healthier than I was last year, but it gives me motivation to exercise more.

Have a great day everyone.
Keep the Faith.

Story in my Heart

I've set a goal this year to make writing a priority. No, I've never finished a book, but I have been writing for nearly a decade now. I can easily pull up stories that are nearly complete, but I know they aren't the story in my heart, and until I know I can take the story in my heart, and put it on paper to share, I'm not going to push to release a story.

I want a perfect story. I've been told that is my problem. I expect my writing to be perfect. That I need to accept that it won't be perfect. That I need to put my work out there for others. Do I settle for that? I've decided I can't. If I am not proud of a story, I don't want to put it out there.

I don't want to be an author with a ton of books and all of them averaging 3 stars. I want to be an author that touches people and makes them think. 

This new year, I decided to start a new story. I set everything aside and concentrated on this one. I don't have a decent title, so I've just been thinking of it as Mayor.

The thing about this story...it's nearly finished. And, it is GREAT. Yes, I am proud of this story. It excites me. I haven't gotten bored with it. Yeah, I started to get 'crazy' at one point, and I took a week long break. Then I went back at it.

After my break I did a read through. It was close to the story in my heart, but not quite there. I went back to the outline and added a few more scenes. I'm finishing up the scenes and the editing and hope to have it finished by the end of the month.

I admit, I've drawn a line in the sand before. My deadline at one point is the end of March, then the end of April, but if it isn't finished, at to my satisfaction, I'm not going to dwell on the deadline I placed. If I have never finished a story, then I have no idea how long it takes to write one. How can I set a deadline if I've never done it before?

I'll keep you informed.
Keep the Faith.

Reevaluation of Goals and Resolutions

Today is the first of the month and the second month of the year. What does that mean?, you may ask. Well, one of my resolutions this year was to make goals and remind myself of them on a regular basis and reevaluate them if necessary.

If I make a goal, what good does it do me if I eventually forget said goal?

I've made resolutions before. I've written down my goals and set them aside to eventually forget them. Why did I bother to make them if I don't see myself through to completion of them? It does no good.

Today I am looking over those goals.

I set two main goals. The first, and most boring one is weight loss. I had gotten pretty hefty and allowed myself to continue with what I know to be bad habits that attribute to my weight loss. Self-control left the building a long time ago.

I think any weight loss diet will work, but to maintain a proper weight, I had to create new habits. I had to look at why I eat. There were to many times I ate because of boredom or because I just plain wanted to. I decided eating should be to energize my body.

On Dec 26, I began the Atkins diet. Why that one? Just because I had never done that one before. Yeah, I admit I am a yo-yo dieter because I have tried almost all of them at one point or another. That's another point I need to change. If I create healthy habits and don't allow myself to reach obesity, I won't need to diet.

In that time I lost 15 pounds. yay. but it is not near enough to get to what most would consider a healthy weight. So, for this goal, I think I've done good. I will continue to evaluate myself on a weekly, and often daily basis. I will continue to look at my habits, my snacking, my choice of foods, etc...

My second goal has to do with my writing hobby. I don't want a writing hobby, I want a writing career. For that I need to be published with an income that will support me and my family. So, I need to write a novel, one after another that readers want to read.

When it comes to creating a story in my head, I have problems getting that story on paper. I know it isn't an impossible task. I've written stories, mainly short stories. I have finished novels, but I have yet edited them to my satisfaction.

I don't think I'm doing well with my writing. I spent last night thinking about how I can improve. Which is why reevaluating your goals is a good idea.

Today, I plan to try 'speed writing', or 'timed sessions'. Even if it is ten or fifteen minute sessions, I can work on increasing my word count in that length of time. Sure, I can't nit pick and look how each sentence is written. But, that is what revising and rewriting is for. But, I think this will help me get my stories down. After all, it does me no good to make wonderful stories of interesting people if I don't share these stories.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Keep the Faith.
Keep Dreaming.

Creative Inspiration

Earlier this week I sat down to write a scene. One of my characters needed information from another character. Before I sat down to write, I wondered if I were even able to write this scene. Can I make a character be mean to someone else? Do I even know how to manipulate someone? If I don't know how to get what I want, how can I properly write a character that needs to do these things.

In my scene, I had the character call her a liar. She physically reacted but still she refused to give him the information he needed. My bad guy eventually pulled out a gun and held it to her Mother's head. Yes, he got the information he wanted. But what else could I have done? I considered torture. Have him hit her, beat her. But writing that was uncomfortable. I have a feeling I will go back to this scene many times to learn how characters can be mean and to try different things.

Life is interesting.

Whatever I want to learn, I notice the Universe will work with me to bring that information to me.

Today I encountered a customer that I will use as inspiration for many bad characters in the future. He started out a great customer. Nice, talkative, pleasant, complimentary. Then he snapped. Suddenly, the work he previously complimented, was poor work. We worked too slow, even though he had been told how long it would take, and it was done when promised. He insisted we should be responsible for work that wasn't agreed upon, and it was work we aren't qualified to perform. He told me 3 bold faced lies and he looked directly in my face when he said them. I was seething. I have never encountered anyone like this in my life. It took every ounce of restraint not to tell the man off. I admit, I wanted to walk off the job. If we had, we would have not gotten paid for it, even though we had already worked two days there. My husband, who also works with me talked me out of it.

Thankfully, I've worked at the store for 8 years, and hubby has worked there for 25. The store knows our work ethic and it is easy to see the customer was crazy. He complained, quite loudly, and he got what he wanted. He got all the work he wanted done, including what would have cost him $100 if he paid a qualified professional to do what needed to be done because the store brought someone in to do the work he wanted done because he threatened to bad mouth the store.

The point to this blog is, that if I take the time and look around me, I can get great lessons for my writing. I've watched movies and tried to learn from them. But, when I watch a movie, when I see a really bad guy, I think 'no one is like that in real life.' But, I guess that shows me I live a sheltered life.

People are mean. They are manipulative. They will use you to get what they want and they have no consideration for your needs or feelings. I just need to notice them so I can write about them.

Writing Sprints

I have been Nanoing this passed week and I feel great about it. My word count is higher than I expected, and if I continue at the speed I've been going, I will finish a week ahead of schedule.

The problem I'm having is taking advantage of my time. I get off of work and I have at least six hours before my usual bed time. If I can harness the focus there is no telling how much writing I can get done. I know I can't sit at the computer for that length of time, but I can easily work for at least an hour and a half before needing a break. But I get easily distracted. I always have and probably always will.

There isn't any reason why I can't create a structured way for me to write. I was thinking about writing sprints today. With Nano going on, everywhere I look there are people suggesting things to help get in lots of words. Basically, it is setting a time limit and getting down as many words as possible.

It may be the perfectionist in me, but I can't write anything. I want to write my story. So when I get to a point where I have to stop and think, I get side tracked. I punch one tiny button and I'm online. Talk about the distractions. I can waste a lot of time on things I don't need and really aren't interested in.

I guess I'm just babbling and wasting time away from my story. This is my way to think of things and work them out. If it were later in the evening I would pop two sleeping pills and see how many words I can get down before my brain stops working.

maybe, another day.

Keep the Faith

Phantom Dog Bark

Before I get into my blog, I want to say that my family thinks I'm crazy. I say, I'm a writer and I may tell stories. In my mind, the stories are true. At least some of them are. To those that may question my sanity, I will use the excuse that I am practicing my stories and everything I say here is made up. Or, maybe it is the truth?

For several years now, whenever I decide there is something I want to do, for example writing, I often sit down to figure out how to make time for my new project.  Many times, the answer is for me to get up earlier than my husband. In the early morning hours, I think clearer, and I have peace and quiet. It has come to be my favorite time of the day.

Yesterday Nano started. For those of you not familiar with Nano, it is National Novel Writing Month. So, I decided to take out an old WIP and rewrite it. It was never the story I wanted it to be. It was boring and didn't have enough conflict. I've been wanting to take it out and have another go at it. So, yesterday, I started it. Again.

This morning, I lay in bed sound asleep. Sidney, my shih tzu barked to go outside at 5:30. It isn't unusual for him to bark to go out. I usually drag myself out of bed, and let him out, then go back to bed 10 minutes later. So, I got up, got dressed, (that's right, I sleep in the nude.) and headed toward the door, which is on the other side of the house.

When I got there, no dog. I walked back to the bed. He was sound asleep, on the bed, next to where I was sleeping. There was no way he barked at the door, if he was asleep beside me.

All I could do is laugh. This isn't the first time this has happened. Yes, I am admitting to hearing a phantom dog bark. This has happened at least a dozen times in the last few years.

I don't think it has ever happened at random. It is always when I plan on waking early in the morning to get something done. No, we never set an alarm clock. We wake naturally. So, if I want to wake up early I have to set it in my mind when I go to bed at night to wake early. I hadn't done it the night before like I should have.

I like to think it is God helping me with my goals.

I would love to hear if anyone ever has odd happenings that can't be explained. If there is anything odd, what do you say is the cause of the odd thing?

Keep the Faith

Nano Enthusiasm

Yes, I'm doing Nano. Again. I tried about five years ago, and didn't accomplish much. If I made it passed two days, I would be surprised. Back then I had no clue how to write a book. I'm not saying I know everything now, but I have plenty of writing classes under my belt and I'm a bit more organized.

I've tried to set my own deadlines to help me finish a WIP. I have finished them, and submitted them in on time, but not a project as big as 50K.

As I take a few days before November 1 to contemplate what I am up against, I ponder what I need. Plot outlines. check. Know my characters. check. Time to dedicate. check

All set. Right? I don't think so. My history shows me that the first sign of trouble, my mind wanders to another project. I can think of a million excuses to move on to another project. I would rather write on anything than sit there and stare at a blank screen. The other characters are screaming louder than these. On and on. But, it seems I don't ever finish the large projects. I did get one about 95% done, but there wasn't enough conflict, and it fell flat. If I'm going to be a writer, I want to write something that people will enjoy reading.

So, I need to work on my enthusiasm. Seriously, I'm so ready for Nano to start. I thought about starting today. But, I'm not going to cheat. I know when I cheat, and I am in this to improve my writing. If I cheat, I am not doing myself any good.

I bought the book 'No Plot No Problem'. It was written by the guy that started Nano. He stated some of the rules, and he suggests starting on a new book, and not working on one you have already started. I really don't need to start another project. But, he did say it was okay to add 50,000 words to a book you have already started. In other words, I just have to add everything up that I am writing from Nov 1-31 and not include what I have written before. I can do that.

The whole reason I am doing this, is to get in the habit of writing every day and writing new stuff. Not rewriting old stuff, which I could do over and over again.

So, if you are doing Nano, feel free to buddy me. chr15ty

Love to hear if you are doing it or not.

Keep the Faith

PS Another suggestion in the book is to kick your internal editor to the curb. Which means to write and not edit as you go. He suggests to even stop editing emails and personal things. So, this blog is not edited. Deal with it. :)

My bookshelves

I just read Samantha's blog. She posted a picture of her bookcase. That is an interesting thought. Most of my friends are avid reader, and some, like me, are writers.

In my opinion, one look at a person's bookshelf tells volumes about a person. And, if they don't have a bookshelf, because they own no books, that also says a lot. So, I'm going to share pics of my bookshelves with you and let you decide what type of person I am.

This is the top shelf of 'my' bookshelf. It is full of M&Bs from the 50s, 60s, and 70s. One day I would love to read them all, but I don't have the time to dedicate to them now. So, there is no way I'll ever get rid of them.

This is the whole bookshelf. Notice, all of the shelves, except the bottom one has books in front of others. It's shove them all in there. Notice the Santa? This is in my spare room, so I never bothered to put him away. Under him is the snowman.

This is in the living room. It was hubby's idea to put them all together for a place for the knick-knaks. If I had my way, I would use two of them beside my desk to store all of 'my books.' But, we don't have room by my desk for them and hubby doesn't want the bookshelves loaded down in the living room. My opinion is a bookshelf isn't happy unless it is loaded down with books. Hubby likes to make things overly fancy.

Feel free to tell us about how you store your books.

Rewrite update

To my horror, I saw the book I had been working on for years, wouldn't work. I refuse to throw it away, so instead, I decided to work with it and rewrite it.

When I knew I needed to tackle the story in a big way, I sat down to brainstorm ideas. I couldn't come up with any, so I grabbed a book off the bookshelf and started reading.

On a side note, this is a technique I've used for years. If I have a problem, I will ask the universe for guidance, and then listen to where I need to go to find the answer. I decided I wanted to read about writing, and I grabbed the first book I saw. 

I grabbed Karen S. Wiesner's book From First Draft to Finished Novel. I've had the book a while, and never read it all the way through.

It's actually a good book. She has examples to help you understand her technique. Funny enough she mentioned a character that was afraid of dogs. I laughed, thinking wouldn't it be funny if my heroine had a phobia of dogs. Not a shoo dog, get away from me phobia, but an all get out, terrified, gonna pee in your pants phobia. Oh, the hero is a Canine Shifter, so it would complicate things big time.

So, what was my first reaction. Nope, can't do it. That would be way to hard to write. Then I think of a picture I saw of Stephen King and a quote that says not to stop writing something because it is too emotional or too hard. (don't think I quoted exactly, but it was something like that)

So, there is my challenge. My book isn't right as it is, so why not completely change it?

I started about a week ago. I have scrapped several scenes and completely rewritten them, and changed minor details in others. I'm about one quarter of the way done.

My goal is to finish the draft by the end of the month and have it edited by before Christmas. 

I'll keep you informed of my progress.

Yay, gotta get my 2 hours done for today.

My Writing Nightmare

At least that's the way I used to think of it. I am so bad about jumping from one project to another one before I can wrap up my story. I have  four novels I've started. The first one I started five years ago. It is completed, but there is something wrong with it. I love the story, but I can't do anything with it because I know there is an issue.

I broke down and hired a professional editor to look over the first three chapters. There were a lot of comments, but the main ones came down to it being confusing and not enough conflict.

What am I going to do about it? Toss it in the trash and move on? No, I love the story.

Five years ago, I wanted to be a writer. I had no clue how to write a book, but I opened a word file and began typing. I had no idea how to plot. I had no idea about conflict or motivation. If someone said POV, I was lost.

That's about the time I discovered online classes. Wow!

I've rewritten the story a dozen times. Each time I add something  I learned in all the wonderful writing classes. I put what I thought was motivation and conflict.

The hero is a werewolf. The heroine is a werewolf hunter. Yeah, this is the story that is confusing and has no conflict.

There is a reason I have four novels started. I get to a point that is hard, and I jump ship, only to climb onto another boat that has a different problem.

I'm going back to my original novel. I opened up a new file. I no longer use Word, but Scrivener, but the process is the same. I'm starting with a blank page and rewriting the story.

Why am I blogging about my apparent failure to write a readable book? I am a writer. I may not be Stephen King, or Nora Roberts, or JK Rowling. But I am me, and I will write a book I am proud to say I wrote. My journey may take longer than others, but I am determined to do what I want to do. Write

Look for my novel, to be completed by years end. My deadline, December 31. Ya' know what? I changed my mind.

In my house we joke about me not having a birthday this year. My birthday is December 22. The day after some believe the world will come to an end. It won't come to an end. I will turn 45 this year, and life will continue.

But just in case. I want to finish this story before the Apocalypse.

Scrivener

 A few weeks ago, I saw a workshop on Savvy Authors Scrivener. It was  a free workshop, so naturally I took advantage. 

I had heard about it before and was interested, but it was only for Mac, which I don't have. Well, they recently came out with a Windows version, so I downloaded it and started playing around. 

Holy Macrel!!!

I have always loved organization, but this is way beyond an organize freaks dream. The best thing is that it takes next to no time to organize things in it.

There are certain things every writer has to make sure is included in their story and other things to make sure remains consistent. I have always made notes of these things, character descriptions, traits, backgrounds. When writing scenes, I have to know my goals, and motivations, etc...

With scrivener, I can have all of this information right on the screen, or at the push of a button. If someone were to tell me this before I knew scrivener, I would think, "Yeah, sure and all the writing would be teeny tiny, too." But that isn't the case.

I admit, I've been thinking of getting a larger monitor since I started working with Scrivener, but the one I use is plenty big enough if I were to be honest with myself. I bought my 21 inch monitor before they started making all TVs and monitors widescreen, so it is square.

I used to sit down at a blank Word page and try to write. Now, I open Scrivener. I see the Binder on the left. It is a list of every document I have. It is in any order I want, and it can be color coded if I want. In the center is the Editor. That is the document I choose to work with.

On the right is the Inspector. That keeps all the information about a document. It can be removed from the screen, or I can keep it right there where I can refer to it anytime. What can I put there? Anything. I like to keep my goals, motivations, conflicts, and possible decisions my character needs to make. I can look at notes I made on the story in general, or notes on the scene or chapter.

I can also split the screen and have more than one document up at once. This is something I always wanted to do. Yeah, I can have more than one document open on Word, but I can't look at them side by side. Once when I went to the accountant, she had two monitors so she could see more than one window. I admit, I considered buying another monitor so I could do this.

There is also a corkboard screen. That is for those that like the 3x5 card method to look at information. I don't care for it all that much, but I do like that if I get to a point I'm not sure what should happen, I have information I can look at in more than one way to jog my brain.

Would I recommend Scrivener to a friend? Oh, yeah. I invite everyone to check it out.

What are the drawbacks? Before I send it out, I have to export it to Word. But, it takes seconds to do that. I have gotten used to using the comment section with Word. It is when I am doing a general read, and want to take notes for when I edit.The comments are there, but separated so the text remains the same.  With Scrivener, I change the color and write within the body.

I admit, I am not familiar with everything, but I'm working on it. I'll give a Scrivener update should I come across something that is fabulous.