Weekly Dose of Inspiration: Reblog, Retweet & Share to Win!

This week I hope to inspire you to join me in spreading the word -- and because I appreciate your help, there's a wonderful prize in it for you!!  Here are the details:

After Midnight is On Sale! 

It’s official, for the next two weeks my award winning contemporary romance, After Midnight, is on sale for the super low price of 99 cents! So, I’m celebrating with a re-blog, re-tweet and share to win celebration!

What can you win??? 

$25 GIFT CERTIFICATE FROM BARNES & NOBLE or AMAZON
(winners choice) 

Here’s how to play:

1. Tweet (or retweet) about the sale. Every tweet will earn you one entry in the drawing. Make sure to include @SarahGrimmAuthr in your tweet so I can track your entry. 
2. Post or Share the sale on Facebook. Every post/share will earn you one entry in the drawing. Be sure to tag Sarah Grimm – Author in your post so I can track your entry. 
3. Reblog this post. Make sure to leave a link here so I can keep track. 

That’s it. Pretty simple, yes? The more you tweet, retweet, share or repost, the more entries you receive! I will announce the winner of the gift certificate on this blog on February 11, 2013.

  

Can music heal a fractured soul? 

Or will it tear them apart forever? 

Thirteen years—that’s how long Isabeau Montgomery has been living a lie. After an automobile accident took her mother’s life, Izzy hid herself away, surviving the only way she knew how. Now she is happy in her carefully reconstructed life. That is until he walks through the door of her bar…

Black Phoenix singer/front man Noah Clark came to Long Island City with a goal—one that doesn’t include an instant, electric attraction to the dark-haired beauty behind the bar. Coaxing her into his bed won’t be easy, but he can’t get her pale, haunted eyes nor her skill on the piano out of his head.

Can Noah help Isabeau overcome the past? Or will her need to protect her secret force her back into hiding and destroy their chance at happiness?

2012 Romance Through the Ages Award Winner ~ 1st Place Contemporary 

2012 Gayle Wilson Award of Excellence Finalist 

2012 Readers Favorite Award Finalist 

2011 Book of the Year Finalist ~ Long and Short Reviews 

GET IT TODAY – Just $0.99! 

Amazon: http://amzn.to/11kD7JS (1/25 – 2/08) 

Barnes and Noble: http://bit.ly/TNBRdL (1/25 – 2/08) 

The Wild Rose Press: http://bit.ly/VohFcm (1/25 - 1/28) 

"After Midnight is one hell of a love story! I was hooked at the end of the first chapter. I had to read more. I had to know more. And Sarah Grimm definitely delivered more." —5 Stars, Fire Pages

"Ms. Grimm creates characters that grab hold of your heart and never let go. This is an emotional ride that you won't want to miss."—BEST BOOK, Long and Short Reviews

"I am in love. This book was amazing. I would even go as far as to say that it was one of the best books that I read this year." — 5 cocktails, Cocktails and Books

Writer Wednesday: Visualizing Characters

One of the things I’m repeatedly asked is whether or not I base my characters’ physical attributes on real people, and if so, who they look like? Honestly, I never do. When my characters first begin talking to me, I come up with the details – hair color, eye color, height, and skin tone – and an image of my hero and heroine takes shape in my head. I have problems with my characters looking “just like INSERT MOVIE STAR NAME HERE” because they aren’t that movie star. In my head, they are Justin, Paige, Isabeau and Noah.

However, as a reader, I can understand the interest in who a character might most closely resemble to the author who created him or her. So a while back I went in search of images, specific photos of people, who best represented the visuals I have in my head.

Let’s start with the hero of After Midnight, singer/front man for the rock band Black Phoenix, Noah Clark.

Gorgeous isn’t he? Okay, so this isn’t really Noah Clark, he’s actually Gabriel Aubry. I admit to knowing absolutely nothing about this guy beyond the fact that he is a very close representation of Noah Clark. The closest I’ve found for any of my characters.

And this is how I imagine my heroine, child prodigy pianist turned bar owner, Isabeau Montgomery. I found this photograph while searching iStockPhoto for pictures for my trailer. The moment I saw this model I knew she was the closest I was going to get. She’s got Izzy’s mouth, and beautiful ebony hair.

Now here’s a look at how they meet:

 Isabeau Montgomery sat in the dimly lit bar and shook like an amateur before her first recital. Her gaze, blurred by the sudden threat of tears, settled on the keys before her. Her stomach cramped painfully, yet the need was too great to ignore.

With ability as natural to her as the color of her skin, she began to play. The waterfall of music filled the air, washed over her, completed her in a way nothing or no one else ever had. Against the razor sharp sting of memories, she fought…

She was young, vibrant, and born with a raw talent rarely seen. Classical, jazz, or rock and roll, she played it all. Loved all the genres—loved to create. All that mattered was her joy, her love for the instrument beneath her fingers and the music she was so skilled at creating.

For a good ninety seconds, joy returned, the rush of adrenaline and, conversely, the sense of belonging. In those seconds, time slowed, the lines between the past and the present blurred, and she was a child again. There was no longer pressure to be something she couldn’t be, no fear of what her future would hold.

And with the innocence of youth, no idea that everything she held dear could be lost in the blink of an eye.

The song built to a crescendo then quickly faded as pain, her old friend, returned with enough force to quash her joy. Her stomach roiled. Her breath caught.

Tears gathered in her eyes, and she dashed them away. Isabeau ran her hands up and over her face, pushing her long mass of ebony hair away from her forehead. She struggled to pull herself back together. Her fingers were chilled, cooler than normal, yet perspiration pooled at the small of her back. She closed her eyes, took a deep, slow breath.

“I didn’t expect that old thing to be in tune.”

Sweet Jesus.

She jumped at the deep baritone voice, slamming her knees into the piano. The key cover abruptly closed, and she startled again. Heart racing, she rose and faced the double doors she’d obviously forgotten to lock.

She swept her gaze around the bar’s dim interior until she spotted a dark, male frame. “The bar is closed.”

Her tone was sharp, curt, and left no room for argument. Under different circumstances, she wouldn’t inflict such rudeness on a customer, but he intruded on her privacy, her pain. Her emotions were too close to the surface for niceties.

His voice rang with a clipped British accent and the tone of someone unaccustomed to being questioned. “I was here earlier.”

She remembered the voice and didn’t need him to step out of the shadows to recognize him, which he did anyway. She’d served him a few hours ago—dark lager, no glass—and shared with him a smile as powerful as it was sexy. “We were open earlier. Now, we’re closed.”

His eyebrow shot up. His mouth shaped itself into an ironic curve. “So you have said.”

“Then perhaps you should leave.” Hands unsteady, she bussed the table closest to her and carried the glasses to the bar. His words stopped her cold.

“You’re very talented. How long have you played the piano?”

No, no, no. This wasn’t happening. She closed her eyes on a wave of emotion, doing her best to will him away. But even then she knew. The man at her back was not going away.

~*~

Sarah Grimm
where dangerously sexy & happily-ever-after collide 
Blog / Website

The Kiss

Can a kiss really be perfect? Is ‘true love’s’ kiss actually powerful enough to wake the dead? Does anyone really know? I don’t.

What I do know is that there is something very powerful about a kiss. Think about it. In movies as well as books, the anticipation of the first kiss is…WOW.

You know what I’m talking about. Heck, you probably vividly remember your first kiss. (I know I do)

The heightened sense of awareness.

The wonder.

The SweeTarts…

Sorry, that was my first kiss. Yuck! I still cringe when I recall it.

Wikipedia states "Anticipation is the central ingredient in sexual desire." That sounds about right. Which is why we authors do all we can to make that first touch, that first kiss as great as it can be. To get everything just right.

I love writing the first kiss. When I hit that moment in the story, I think I’m just as nervous as my characters. Okay, the characters aren’t necessarily nervous, but I usually am.

It’s a very important moment in the story. Sometimes it’s slow and passionate. Sometimes a bit edgy and heated. It can even be possessive and a bit rough—like staking a claim. Whatever else it is, a kiss is always emotional.

Sure, the emotion doesn’t have to be sexual or even pleasant. Take for instance the kiss of death from Godfather II. But as a romance author, these pleasant, sexual emotions are the ones I aim for.

Not just in the hero and heroine's first kiss, but in every kiss between them. And not always with a kiss on the lips. After all, a kiss doesn’t have to be on the lips to provoke an emotional response, does it?

Noah Clark, the hero in AFTER MIDNIGHT, understands the importance of a kiss, a touch, the brush of fingertips across a lover’s skin even if Isabeau doesn’t…

~*~ 

“It’s not supposed to be just about the finale. It’s about the journey. It’s all about touch, Isabeau. Soft caresses. Slow, deep, wet kisses. Why would you settle for anything else?” Her tongue darted out and wet her lips, and Noah wondered what she’d do if he leaned in right now and showed her what he meant.

“Maybe you haven’t taken a good look at me?”

“I’m looking at you now.” He cupped her face with one hand, traced his thumb along the curve of her jaw. Her skin was warm and soft as silk beneath his.

“Noah.” His name crossed her lips, a husky rasp barely audible over the street noise. She reached up and wrapped her hand around his.

She had a mouth that begged to be kissed. A mouth meant for pleasure. How was it she didn’t realize her own appeal? He traced his thumb over the palm of her hand. Satisfaction welled inside him when she trembled. “You don’t have to settle, Isabeau.”

 ~*~ 

Available Now from:  The Wild Rose Press  and  Amazon 

Sarah Grimm
where dangerously sexy & happily-ever-after collide 
Blog / Website