Special Guest Lisa Beth Darling & CONTEST!!

I am so excited to have the fabulously talented, dark paranormal author LISA BETH DARLING here with me today!

LisaFox: So, tell us about you. Who is Lisa Beth Darling?

LisaBethDarling: I’m a wife, mother, try-so-hard-to-be gardener, photographer, and legal secretary in an often times crazy law firm.  Don’t think “LA Law” think more along the lines of “Boston Legal” but without the rich fancy clients. We deal with the poor, the elderly, and certifiably insane people.

LF: You are a romance author, but do you consider yourself a romantic?

LBD: I am truly an Old Romantic at heart and somewhat of an Old Fashioned Girl; I love wildflowers and chocolates, I’ll take them over diamonds any day.  A day with my husband just taking a walk on the beach or a ride out in the country following the road is a perfect day, just so long as we’re together that’s all that really matters.

LF: I love romance and I love to discover new hot, sexy heroes. Your novel, THE HEART OF WAR, features the Greek God of War, Ares. Tell us more about him.

LBD: Oh…the Other Man in my life. Yeah, he’s a handsome devil, isn’t he?  As far as I’m concerned, Ares is the ultimate everything; bad boy, alpha male, guardian, warrior, lover…he’s just got it all.

It wasn’t that long ago and the Muse and I realized that we’ve been together for 16 years now.  THE HEART OF WAR in the first all-original story of mine that Ares has ‘starred’ in but he made his very first appearance in a story of mine 16 years ago.  I used him steadily for a number of years in a long-running fanfiction series entitled “Daughter of the Gods”.  After my husband, my relationship with Ares is the longest I’ve ever had!

Of all the characters I’ve worked with over the years, he’s the one I’ll never give up.  You will have to pry him from my cold dead (carpal tunnel ridden) fingers.

LF: Who do you see playing him in the movie?

LBD: It’s very funny that you should ask that question. When I wrote THE HEART OF WAR, I put it online in installments in rough draft form and when we got near the end of the story, I posed this same question to my readers…just for fun.  Personally, I can only see one man in the role and, since he is no longer with us, I can’t foresee a movie being made without him.  BUT, out of the choices given to my readers Eric Banna tied with Gerard Butler for the role.  Liv Tyler won for the part of Alena, I think just because of her part in LOTR, she’s far too young to play Alena.

LF: What are you doing when you are not writing?

LBD: Thinking about writing, up until very recently whatever story I was working on never stopped rolling around in my head.  I ate with it, slept with it, bathed with it (the Muse loves the bath tub!), did the laundry with it…everything. I couldn’t shut it off and the Muse never shut up, he was always tossing out ideas 24/7. Then I had a little mis-step with a prescription drug, I was having a lot of difficulty sleeping because I’m going through The Change of Life, and someone said to me: “Here, my doctor gave me these and they help me sleep great.”  So I took it.  Bad move.  I slept like a rock but the Muse went away, completely away, for several weeks and he took the story with him. To be honest with you, I never felt so alone in my whole life. I was terrified that the Muse would not come back.  He is slowly returning now but it was very scary for me for a while.  Turns out the doctor made an error and the drug wasn’t a sleeping pill at all, it was a psychotropic drug that is supposed to be given to those with bi-polar disorder and schizophrenia.

LF: You get one wish – just one – what is it?

LBD: Other than to have never taken those pills? I think I’d just wish to keep on doing what I’m doing; to have a simple life with a happy family and to keep on writing until the day I die.

LF: Any new projects in the works?

LBD: CHILD OF WAR is currently underway, the sequel to THE HEART OF WAR.  We’re (the Muse and I) are still debating if this is going to be one full-length novel like THE HEART OF WAR or if we’re going to do it in two parts consisting of one novella and one full-length novel.  There’s so much to this story that it’s difficult to say just how it will all fall in the end.  If we do it in two parts then the first part should be ready by the end of summer with the longer novel being available December 31^st.

LF: How can people find you online?

LBD: They can find me on my website http://www.moonsmusings.com/lbdarling or on my blog, http://lbdarling.wordpress.com  Fair warning where the blog is concerned, it’s not a ‘writing blog’ or anything like that it’s a simple life blog where readers will find the inner workings of Yours Truly along with the craziness that makes up my life.

Leave us a comment and be entered to win a signed copy of Heart of War! U.S. and International entries accepted!!!

(Contest ends Sunday, May 8, 2011. Winner will be announced Monday, May 9 at Noon, EST.)

Inside the Heart of every Warrior breathes the Soul of a Hero–even within The Heart of War.

Meet Ares God of War, the greatest Warrior the world has ever known. He’s moody, grumpy, dominant, ravenously sexual, and above all, built like a Greek God.

Suspected of killing his Daughter in-Law, Psyche, and long in exile from Olympus, the solitude of Ares’ secluded Greek Isle is interrupted when Magdalena MacLeod a plucky little Fey washes up on his shore after believing she’s been shipwrecked. It’s not mere fate that has brought the unlikely couple together yet it may be what tears them apart.

Branded with a golden chastity belt bearing the mark of Cernunnos, Celtic God of the Forest and Death, Alena has been on the run from her husband the Great Horned God for 200 years.

When the Olympians discover her presence on Ares’ island, they send Apollo to the island while Ares is away with orders to bring her to Olympus. With nowhere to run and strikes a bargain with the God of War–her virginity for his protection.

Ares sees a sweeter deal; her in his bed and himself back in his rightful place on Olympus among the Gods. If it means turning Alena over to Zeus afterward, well that’s of no consequence to him…is it?

After Alena proves herself to the God of War in battle and in his bed, the Ares must choose between his Divinely Dysfunctional Family, his pride, and Alena.

*

***UPDATE: THE WINNER OF HEART OF WAR IS… TERESA KLEEMAN!!!***

BIG, HUGE, AWESOME THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO STOPPED BY AND COMMENTED!