We're going to start something new here at the Savvy Reader Blog, and I'd like your input before implementing it.  It's simple, quick and fun.

What five questions would you ask your favorite author?  Think outside of the box.  Nothing mundane like...who is your favorite author to read?  Or, What character did you connect with the most?  You can find that all over the net.  No.  I'm thinking more along the lines of, what was your most embarassing moment?  What was your first kiss like?  (Usually those stories are flipping hilarious!)  What do your in-laws think of your romance writing?  (We can save that question for really naughty writers.  lol)

Silly questions like that. 

I'd love to hear any and all suggestions.  :)  Thanks so much for dropping by! 

All For A Fist Full of Ashes is the second novel in a humorous romantic suspense series featuring Harriet Ruby, a young tour director, and Will Talbot, a handsome Europol spy and covert operative with a dark past. 

Cover Blurb

MY NAME IS HARRIET RUBY, Tour Director Extraordinaire: At least I thought I was worthy of that title until… 

MY FIRST MISTAKE:  Agreeing to conduct a private tour of Italy . Fourteen Italian-Americans from New Jersey ? All family, for three weeks, with four teenagers? What was I thinking? 

Fate responds to my engraved invitation by placing one of the family members under surveillance as a suspect in an assassination plot. And who is assigned to the case? None other than my favorite drop-dead-gorgeous spy, Will Talbot. 

MY SECOND MISTAKE:  Allowing Will to coax an invitation from the family matriarch to join the tour.  

AND THAT WAS JUST THE BEGINNING:  The family matriarch, on a quest to find the unknown location of her mother's grave so she can bury her brother's cremated ashes, and her quirky family members, including four teenagers and a pet green tree python named Fluffy, sweep through Italy leaving chaos, hilarity and danger in their wake. 

In All For A Fist Full of Ashes Harriet Ruby, tour director, and Will Talbot, Europol spy, who have been seeing each other for a year, come together in Italy where their work assignments again overlap. Harriet is conducting a custom tour for fourteen members of an Italian-American family. The family matriarch is on a quest to find the unknown location of her mother's grave so she can bury her brother's cremated ashes, which have been smuggled into Italy wrapped in Cuban cigars. Will has one of the family members under surveillance as a suspect in an assassination conspiracy.  Charming the family matriarch, Will coaxes an invitation from her to join the tour.

The quirky family members, including four unruly teenagers and a pet green tree python named Fluffy, sweep through Italy in search of lost relatives leave chaos, hilarity and danger in their wake. 

While trying to keep their tourists in line, Will and Harriet, on their own personal journey, find that traveling together for twenty-four hours a day threatens their budding relationship, which is fraught with trust issues. Harriet wants to be involved in everything and Will won't tell her anything.  Harriet's intervention leads her to intuit the time, place and victim of the conspiracy. Unable to reach Will, she puts herself in danger to thwart the assassination. 

Something to Chat About 

The first novel in the series All For A Dead Man’s Leg was written as an experiment to see if I could write funny and in first person.  I’d never tried either, and I’d never written anything without a tight outline.  I expected it to be a one shot deal. Instead the voice turned out to be very comfortable, I fell in love with the characters, and they wrote the story themselves without me knowing where it was going.  I’d become a pantser.   

Harriet Ruby is well-balanced, cute, intelligent, and hardworking over-achiever whose life was good but ordinary, until a year ago when she met mysterious and troubled Europol spy, Will Talbot.  From that moment on, her predictable life turned upside down and has never been the same.  She is strong, sexy and lovable because of her off-beat humor, attitude, and the way she handles whatever life throws at her with good sense and humor, although she’s seems to attract major and minor disasters.  She’s fun. 

Will Talbot is definitely a hot hero.  I am so-oo in love with Will.  He’s everything perfect on the outside (strong, handsome, successful, patient, intelligent, has a great sense of humor?definitely bigger than life), and vulnerable and hurting on the inside.  He has a dark past, a calling to rescue innocent victims, huge issues with trust and guilt, and because of post-traumatic memory loss, doesn’t know why.  He’s a gorgeous hunk who has it all, who needs to be “saved.”  Everything a woman loves. 

All For A Fist Full of Ashes came about because I was taking a trip to Italy with twelve members of my extended Italian-American family, including two of my grandchildren.  Oh, man.  Knowing these people and the way Italians make group decisions, the trip was going to be a predictable disaster.  So I figured I should at least get material for a book out of it.  Well, a group of Italian-American taking a tour of Italy was a natural for Harriet Ruby, tour guide extraordinaire.  And if Harriet was in it, I needed Will Talbot on the trip with a spy story for him to chase after.  I came up with a story idea, did an outline, and wrote the first three chapters before I took the family trip. And, as you can imagine, the real trip provided many funny incidents that spiced up the novel.

There are four books in the series completed (so far) and a Christmas Short Story (published) about Will and Harriet’s first Christmas together.  Enjoy.

To learn more about Ann and her books, please visit her website.

Add All For A Fist Full Of Ashes to your wishlist.

Blurb:

Ever wonder about the face behind the voice of a radio DJ?

Nina Walters has. She can’t get enough of disc jockey Ty’s sexy baritone. He has her masturbating to his voice daily. When he challenges his listeners to a contest Nina wants the upper hand. Lucky for her Cindy, her best friend works at the radio station.

Ty is offering a dream date, with him, to one lucky winner. He’s almost positive no one will guess the answer correctly.  So, when Nina does he’s floored. Being a man of his word, he goes through with the date.

Sparks fly, but secrets linger. Will their heat for one another be enough to ride the waves of deception?

Note to the reader: Voices can be deceiving. I learned that lesson with a local DJ. I thought he had the sexiest voice I’d ever heard. When I met him one night I was shocked to see someone totally different than I’d expected. Don’t get me wrong he wasn’t butt ugly, but he wasn’t the gorgeous creature I imagined! LOL He was funny and very likable – someone who I’ve grown fond of.

Heat Waves is base loosely on the DJ from back home in Upstate New York. Ty is every woman’s fantasy, especially Nina’s!

Excerpt

No response.

She knocked again, this time louder.

Still no response.

“I know you’re in there, Ty. Please come out and tell me what’s wrong,” she pleaded. Why was he ignoring her? What had she done? Besides waiting for him to come out of the bathroom, she thought they were having a good time. What changed his mind?

Jasper opened his door and stepped out. “Ms. Walters, let me get the door for you.” He opened the back door and waited for her to step in.

Crossing her arms she refused. “I’m not getting in until Ty explains to me what the hell is going on.” Her voice grew louder as her frustration mounted.

“Ms. Walters, please.”

She knew she was making Jasper uncomfortable, but she didn’t care. She couldn’t understand what was going on.

“I’m not moving, so either you have Ty get his ass out of the car and talk to me, or you can leave me here.”

Jasper closed the door and went back to the driver’s door, disappearing into the limo, leaving her standing there.

Just great. Was he going to take her seriously and leave her? He wouldn’t would he? She didn’t even know what the hell was going on. This was ridiculous. Was he some kind of weirdo? Did he do this often? They shared an incredible day. What the heck was going on?

She counted to one hundred and still no one exited the limo, but it didn’t drive away either. Maybe that was a good sign. She paced the length of the limo racking her brain. She couldn’t figure it out, unless.

Oh shit! Had he heard her conversation with Cindy? But she didn’t say enough to have him understand – had she? And besides, she continually looked over her shoulder to see if he was coming. Had he snuck up on her and listened to her private conversation? That would have been rude. But still, she couldn’t wrap her thoughts around what would make his so mad. She didn’t believe she said anything incrementing. If she did and he was pissed Cindy could lose her job. That would be the nightmare of all nightmares.

When she reached two hundred and still no Ty she went back to his side and knocked on the window. 

***

To learn more about Amber and her books, please visit her website.

Blurb

Ellie and Rudy find the body of a homeless man they've befriended dead in Central Park, and Ellie is again marked as the prime suspect. Then Rudy inherits thousands from the victim, ramping up the suspense. Can Ellie and Rudy find the real killer before he finds them? 

A note to the reader:  The dog walker series is moving along. Book two, Heir of the Dog, is out now, book three, Death in Show, is a June release, and I'm hard at work on book four, Begging For Trouble. Those of you who know me for romance, will love these books. Ellie is a romantic at heart, so when she meets Detective Sam Ryder, she knows she's sunk. He's the man of her dreams, but after one night of steamy sex, he takes off, leaving her a note with the standard non-commitment message 'I'll call you.' Rudy is thrilled that the 'doofus dick' is out of their lives, and Ellie is saddened and dismayed, then angry, and finally, past angry to a don't give a damn attitude. You have to continue reading to find out how they work through their issues and find their happy ending.

In between, you'll find crazy characters, murder, impossible parents, dead bodies, exasperating situations, and...did I mention murder? If you enjoy books with spoiled and opinionated dogs, fun situations, interesting plots, and people you won't forget, these stories are for you. And I've added a bonus. When you buy the first book, Hounding the Pavement, for yourself or friends, all the royalties will go to Best Friends, the largest no-kill shelter in the U.S. That's right, I'm giving away the money to help a charity that accepted 22 of Michael Vick's pit bulls for rehab and adoption, but they do so much more. Where else can you read a great book and give a donation to charity at the same time?

You can learn more about Judi and her books by visiting her website.

Add Heir of the Dog to your wishlist.

Blurb