Not a hockey blog...

And it's killing me!! WE HAVE AN NHL TEAM AGAIN!!!

But, ahem. I have a print book to promote! And since I have a pile of shiny pretty print books here (see there it is, right there↓) I'm going to give one away.

Lost and Found comes out in print next week. This is a book that takes some risks, incorporating things that aren't usually found in romance novels, like infertility, sex for the sake of procreation, infidelity and, oh yeah, a ménage à trois! It's gotten great reviews and reader feedback! Yay! The blurb is below and you can read an excerpt here. But how about for something different, I talk about the setting of the story?

If you’ve seen the trailer for the book (view it here) you’ll know that the ocean features prominently in the story. Krissa and Derek live in Montecito, California, in a fictional house on the Pacific Ocean. (If you’ve read the book, I encourage you to watch the trailer again, I think it’s much more moving when you know the story!)

Some of the images I used in the trailer are ones taken by my husband, a professional photographer who went to photography school in Santa Barbara, California, which is now one of our favourite places to visit, and which is why I set many of my stories there! Also, I love the ocean which is so exotic and fascinating for a girl from the middle of the prairies.

© Lance Thomson Photographic

The heroine of Lost and Found, Krissa, likes to wander on the beach when she has important things to think about. The vast, seemingly endless ocean helps put her problems into perspective and the ceaseless rhythm of the waves onto shore soothes her.

When Nate arrives in Montecito, he’s a photographer in danger of losing his career. He’s made his fortune photographing water – often the ocean – in calm conditions and using long exposures that make the water smooth and glassy and tranquil. He too, finds comfort in walking on the beach and sitting beside the ocean.

A number of images in the story are symbolic of Krissa, Nate and Derek’s lives –  turbulent, crashing waves; a tangled mass of seaweed, impossible to unravel; a seashell that’s beautiful and perfect on the outside, but empty and lifeless inside.

As well as photographs, here are a couple of poems that provided some inspiration to me when writing Lost and Found:

From Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Sea Shore:

Behold the Sea,
The opaline, the plentiful and strong,
Yet beautiful as is the rose in June,
Fresh as the trickling rainbow of July;
Sea full of food, the nourisher of kinds,
Purger of earth, and medicine of men;
Creating a sweet climate by my breath,
Washing out harms and griefs from memory,
And, in my mathematic ebb and flow,
Giving a hint of that which changes not.

And ‘maggy and milly and molly and may’
by ee cummings:

maggy and milly and molly and may

went down to the beach(to play one day)  

and maggie discovered a shell that sang

so sweetly she couldn't remember her troubles,and  

milly befriended a stranded star

whose rays five languid fingers were;  

and molly was chased by a horrible thing

which raced sideways while blowing bubbles:and  

may came home with a smooth round stone
as small as a world and as large as alone.  

For whatever we lose(like a you or a me)

its always ourselves we find in the sea

I hope the setting adds to the experience of reading the book!

BLURB:
To find happiness, first you have to find yourself.

Krissa has always been the responsible one. Driven to fulfill her mother’s abandoned dreams, to make her husband Derek happy. She’s brought that single-minded determination to the one dream she has for herself—a child. Except she and Derek can’t conceive, and Derek refuses to consider using a stranger’s sperm. The result? Guilt that her desperation is causing their marital rift.

The last thing they need is a long-term houseguest, but Derek’s best friend Nate, a nomadic photographer recovering from a career-threatening eye disorder, has nowhere else to go.

Nate thought his friends’ home would be a temporary haven from the grief that has dogged his heels since his wife died. Instead he’s in the middle of a marriage in meltdown. Soon their friendship develops an underlying hum of forbidden sexual tension. When Krissa proposes a wild idea—that Nate be their sperm donor—Derek has an even wilder proposal: bypass the fertility clinic and accept Nate’s donation straight from the source.

At first, Krissa believes she’s on the fast track to having her dream. But it quickly becomes clear that when the heart gets involved—and secrets are revealed—the simplest of arrangements can become entangled beyond belief. Or repair…

Warning: This title contains a man who’s lost, the woman he finds, sizzling ménage sex, tender romantic sex, love lost and love found.

Buy it here:
Amazon
Samhain
Barnes & Noble

OKAY!! TO WIN A PRINT COPY OF LOST AND FOUND, LEAVE A COMMENT WITH THE NAME OF YOUR FAVOURITE NHL TEAM. OR ANY NHL TEAM.

I know, I know, it has nothing to do with Lost and Found, but humour me, y'all! Leave your email addy if you can, or check back tonight for the winner!