Freebie Day #19 - Guest Author Delle Jacobs!

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Today's Sahmain guest author is Delle Jacobs!

Delle Jacobs lives in a fantasy world of endless green forests, silvery rivers that cascade between shining, snow-capped mountains, not far from both a high desert scabland and a sandy-beached, marine blue ocean. It’s called Washington State. She shares it with three generations of adult males, the requisite two black writer’s cats, and all sorts of mossy-backed folk who don’t mind the rain that makes their land so magical.

A three time winner of the Golden Heart as well as many other awards for her books, Delle fills her historical and fantasy romance with that same sort of magic. Besides writing, her other favorite addiction is Photoshopping covers for ebooks.

website:
http://dellejacobs.com

IN SEARCH OF HEROES blog:
http://dellejacobs.blogspot.com

Delle's latest book is SINS OF THE HEART:

One lord. One lady. One scandalous mistake. Can it all add up to love?

The icy Lord Edenstorm is the very man Lady Juliette hoped never to see again, for only he knows her true identity. One word from him to her brother and she will be locked away, hidden forever in an asylum. All for one foolish, scandalous mistake.

Still stinging from her deceitful betrayal years before and wounded by the horrors of war, Edenstorm offers to keep her secret, if she helps him catch the traitors who smuggle English gold to Napoleon.

Juliette is incensed. Her Cornish friends may be smugglers, but never traitors, and his snooping and accusations could destroy them. Furious at his blackmail, Juliette vows to risk her own life and freedom to protect the friends she trusts by leading his search astray.

But Edenstorm is not the unfeeling man she thought she knew. Nor is Juliette the faithless woman he believed her to be. As passion flares, deceit gives way to truth, and truth unleashes dangers they never suspected.

Only by turning truth into trust—and trust into love—can they hope to survive.


Please help me welcome Delle Jacobs!

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1) What kind of books do you love to read and how do those stories impact your own writing?
Thanks so much for having me here, Elizabeth! You have such an interesting blog- it's going to be fun,

After all these years, I still read almost exclusively historical romance and mainstream historical. It's an odd thing, though, that I'm not reading the genre I'm writing right now, paranormal. I haven't found very many that are like what I want to read. I know they're out there, but I don't see them often. That's because I want the historical paranormal, in a time when urban fantasy is so popular.

2) What are you working on presently? What about upcoming releases?
You're probably going to think I'm schizophrenic. I'm not, honest. About two years ago I was feeling very un-satisfied with what I was writing. I think I was tired of my direction, and historicals just weren't selling well. At my agent's suggestion I tried a Regency vampire story. I have to admit it took me a long time to catch on, and I became frustrated with it and dropped it.

But from that point on, paranormal stories were the only ones that came to me. I've done nothing but experiment with various paranormal historicals since then, but haven't finished vary much. Now I'm finishing them and sending them out. I'm even finishing the vampire story, which I've decided I really like and finally think I understand what I want to do and where it wants to go. It's been wonderful to have an editor at Samhain who has actively encouraged me to pursue this tack, and take the time I needed to get it the way I felt it should be.

So I have SIREN, a very sensual sea fantasy novella, FAERIE, a medieval paranormal about a woman who is not your ordinary Tinkerbell, a vampire Regency historical and two sequels to my current releases going.

I have two current releases with Samhain, APHRODITE'S BREW and SINS OF THE HEART, both Regency setting. The first is a light, slightly paranormal story about a love potion gone awry. The second is a strongly adventurous story about smugglers and spies. As for releases coming up, well, I can't say yet, but I'm looking forward to some new announcements soon.

3) What’s the best compliment you ever got on your writing or book(s)?
That's so hard to say. I've had several fans tell me books like LOKI'S DAUGHTERS helped them get through endless hours of pain from surgery and lingering illness, and that's always wonderful to hear. But years ago I had a friend read FIRE DANCE in very short segments because she said it was too hard for to handle all at once. She confessed that the heroine's past abuse by her father had triggered difficult memories for her. But she kept on reading and said eventually it was a therapeutic tool that changed her life. It feels great to know something I wrote turned a person's life around.

4) What’s your writing schedule like?
I've had a hard time finding time for my writing the last year, but I've changed all that, and I'm back on schedule. When I write, write all day, 10 to 14 hours every day. When I research, that's the way I do it. I don't like it when I have to steal a few minutes here and there, but sometimes that's the way it has to be. I don't need one of those signs that says “Mom at work- don't enter unless the cops are here." I have perfected a glare that does the job just as well.

I write on a laptop or when I go places, my mini laptop, an MSI Wind, which weighs 2.5 pounds and fits in my purse. It's the perfect Starbucks writing machine. I have an office, but I prefer sitting on my bed, or outside under a canopy in summer.


5) If you could be one character from any book you’re read or written who would it be and why?
You do ask hard ones! The truth is, I don't identify with the heroines. I see myself in the heroes. Some of my own, and Laura Kinsale's heroines are like me. I'm stubborn and independent. But at the same time sometimes not believing in myself enough. I think of all my own heroines I'd most like to be the one in FAERIE, or in my latest release, SINS OF THE HEART.

I like my heroines strong and independent, a bit willful but not stupidly so. I love it when they can out-smart a smart hero. Such a woman must have a hero who is every bit her equal. That can be hard to write sometimes, but it's always worth it.

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Delle has donated a copy of SINS OF THE HEART to one lucky commenter. (ebook or print). To be entered into the drawing, simply answer this question...

Who are some strong, independent heroines (from books or movies) that stand out in your mind?