Win a $50 GC: Exit Stage Left by Catherine Russell

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. One randomly chosen winner via rafflecopter will win a $50 Amazon/BN.com gift card. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Can you describe your dream home?

Where there’s love, companionship, joy and laughter. Where there’s equality, growth, and strength in one another. Now if you’re asking in the physical sense, then it would most definitely be a wood cabin, or I’d call it a log cabin, deep in the woods on a mountain side along with a stream that runs nearby, close enough to hear the water babbling over the worn river stones and perhaps catch a small fish. The snow fall would lock one in for the winter season, with the bows of the cedars and hemlocks weighed down with heavy, wet snow. During the spring, the meadow’s would be full of bright colors exploding from the green earth. The cool fall air would bring with it the changing of the color guard, from earthy greens and warm hues to cold blues and bright burnt oranges and red falling from the old growth trees.

If we were to come to your house for a meal, what would you give us to eat?

That would depend on the season of the year. BBQ Brats and sauerkraut along with corn on the cob and cantaloupe plus sun tea would welcome you in summer. Spring would most likely be some type of seafood, salmon being my favorite along with a spinach salad containing sliced strawberries and sliced almonds. Winter would most definitely be homemade meatloaf with roasted red potatoes with parmesan plus seasoned broccoli, turnips, or squash and homemade cheese cake with a dark red wine of some type. Fall being my favorite season, a buttery sour dough grilled Cheddar and Swiss sandwich with thick, hot tomato soup with pumpkin pie to dive into afterwards.

Tell us about the absolute BEST fan letter you have received.

One doesn’t think about inspiring other’s when they start out on this road, the road to discovering what exactly it means to not only write a book, but to go through the entire editing process as a huge learning experience along with finding out what it means to be your own marketing manager on one’s own website and social media. However, the most gracious note I’ve received is that from a young lady who had for years, this massive, very detailed, and thoroughly researched manuscript of any extremely wonderful paranormal fantasy set in the early 20th century Australia, just fabulous story. We met at one of my book signing events at Barnes & Noble in Federal Way, Washington where she peppered me with the most interesting and curious of questions. We met up for coffee…well she did, I had hot coco as I don’t drink coffee…and she shared her manuscript. I strong advised her to submit it to publishers, to keep trying, or to go the self-publishing route, which is how I began. A little over a year later, she and I sat at a Holiday Festival Fair, selling both of our books, side by side. She had kept trying…she had persisted and was now a published author. She said she had taken my advice and was inspired by my own story of perseverance and dedication.

Say your publisher has offered to fly you anywhere in the world to do research on an upcoming book, where would you most likely want to go?

This one is really easy…Great Britain, Scotland to be exact. However, throw in England and Ireland and I’d be more than a happy camper for sure. As both Megan’s and Geoffrey’s ancestors are from Great Britain, the trip could combine the best of both world, researching for the on-going story and my own personal ancestry as well.

Who designed the book cover for the book you are touring?

That would be the highly talented Kelly Martin of Kam Design. I gave her what I saw in my mind’s eye, references to the Pacific Northwest logging industry plus images of my grandfather’s log cabin that is a very real and on the shores of a small lake, named Silver Lake, which is also used in the story.

Megan O'Day seems to be navigating the unpredictable relationship with Geoffrey Drake, her centuries-old vampire guardian angel, rather well. But then his past suddenly rips him from her, forcing her to face the unknown future alone in the gripping sequel to The Stage.

Still bound to Geoffrey through the power of the Link despite his unexplained absence, Megan's mind is flooded with his haunted memories. While she relives the darkest moments of his previous life, she discovers his attachment to a woman who bears a striking resemblance to her.

As she questions Geoffrey's love for her, she strikes up a dangerous alliance with Geoffrey's brother, Alexander, who is also a vampire. She hopes that he will help her find a way to rescue Geoffrey: instead, he seems to be awakening new emotions and desires within her.

As the past and present collide, Megan struggles to fend off Alexander's dark seduction. Is Geoffrey truly beyond the reach of her love forever? If not, what must be sacrificed to bring them back together again?

Enjoy an Excerpt

An image of Dawn’s mangled, bloody body filled my thoughts, and I stopped sorting through my art supplies. It had happened just before Christmas. There was poor Dawn, distraught over her break-up with Ian, wearing my jack, and waiting in Geoffrey’s car in the alley behind The Stage.

They thought Dawn was me.

They- The Inner Circle, Geoffrey’s first coven-wanted him back.

Marco, his sire, was the head honcho there, and I its prime the coven had been quite large with a very strong presence in the community. As the years passed, it prominence had faded, but Marco still clung to his power. Geoffrey said that the older Marco got the more manipulative, abusive, and obsessive he became. It didn’t make sense. Marco had exiled him, and now he wanted his prized son back, even though Geoffrey’s twin, Alexander, was part of the Inner Circle. To top it off, they wanted me dead. Why? Because I came between Marco and Geoffrey? Was it because of the Link?

Shh, my love, said Geoffrey’s sweet, cool voice though the Link.

But I couldn’t keep my thoughts from whirling. Nerdy Chase Montgomery, my neighbor, was Geoffrey’s Guardian- a scholar of immortals, more or less. He was assigned to watch over Geoffrey, but he had trouble staying close to him. So he had followed me instead, filling my apartment with micro-cameras and audio pickups. When Geoffrey finally confronted Chase, I got a look inside his apartment-and at his computer screens. Nearly every inch of my apartment was under surveillance.

How fast everything had happened! Only four months ago, I started working at Ashleigh’s bar, The Stage, which was now the hottest club in Seattle. Geoffrey and his family which made up his band, The Darkness, were the house band there, and he and his family lived what they jokingly called an “alternative lifestyle”- even for vampires. Believing our human lives were too short as it is, they found other sources for their drug of choice, blood.

By the way, did I say reality bites? Yeah it does. I guess that comes with the territory when the one you love is a vampire.

About the Author:

Catherine Russell was born in Tacoma, Washington and raised in a small town just south, South Hill, Puyallup. At the time South Hill was a heavily wooded area and far off the beaten path. Growing up she had the forests as her fantasy world along with the wild animals. She lived with her parents and an older sister. There are a few similarities from her own childhood that have carried over in to her first novel, “The Stage”. As a child, she did have a small dog named Toto, whom she would quite frequently roam the woods with. Her childhood home still stands, and is still nestled in the woods even though South Hill has undergone an extreme makeover since she lived there. She enjoyed hours of day dreaming and playing in the woods, which in turn fed her fantasy world of make believe.

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Buy The Stage Chronicles Book 1 The Stage and The Stage Chronicles Book 2 Exit Stage Left /ref=sr_1_2 at Amazon.

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