Just Another Manic Monday & An Upcoming Giveaway

My poor blog must think I'm about to abandon it, but I swear I won't. :) I still enjoy blogging too much to do such a thing. It's just that the review mojo isn't quite back yet and the reading does have its ups and downs as well. However, I have no excuse for missing Happy Gay Friday last week. *hangs head in shame*

All I can say is that I have the attention span of a squirrel these days: I'm running around like a headless chicken most of the time, not able to concentrate very long on one thing at a time. My boss must *hate* me, I’m sure.
It's been like that ever since our house went up for sale for real, two weeks ago. We've had three viewers so far and one of them has made a bid already. It's much lower than we wanted it to be, so we're thinking about what counter bid to make (is that what you call it in English?). One of the other viewers asked for a second appointment, so… it’s going well. And in the meantime we started looking for houses like madmen ourselves. We had no idea that things could go this fast, you know, with the crisis and all...

So, blogging about books isn't happening much over here these days and therefore I'm very glad that the awesome writer Jennifer Turner will be visiting my blog later this week to talk about her Darkness Within series. Finally some serious book talk again! :)
I've read the first book of this series a while ago and loved it. If you're curious why, you can find my review of Eternal Seduction here.

Recently the second book, Eternal Hearts, was released and coming Thursday Jennifer Turner will be here to answer some questions I asked her about her work and she'll also be giving away her books to one of the commenters on that post. To warm you up for her visit on Thursday I'm going to give you a sneak peek today. It's her answer to one of my questions which includes a nice long excerpt from Eternal Hearts. I hope this'll pique your curiosity for the rest of the interview.

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Question: Which of the two heroes was more fun to write: Kerestyan from the first book, Eternal Seduction or Drake from Eternal Hearts? And why?

Jennifer Turner : When it comes to being more fun to write, without question, that award goes straight to Drake. He’s always full of surprises, and even though he has this really intuitive and thoughtful quality about him that blatantly defies his age, he also has a knack for slipping humor into a scene when I least expect it. For example:

    Toni rested a hand on Drake’s forearm. “I’m sorry I bit you.”
    He wrinkled his nose like a five year old and made a production of rubbing his booboo. “Me, too.”
    “Oh, please.” She grabbed the offended hand and pressed a kiss to the wounded finger that had probably healed the second he’d removed it from her mouth. “There. All better.”
    He jerked his arm back as though she’d touched him with an open flame. “Don’t do that.” The pain in his eyes deepened right before that invisible curtain slammed back into place. He flashed a smile that wasn’t true. “The last place my fingers need to be is anywhere near your mouth. You’ve already proven you’re a biter.”
    Toni mirrored his false smile, even though what she wanted to do was ask why he kept trying to be someone else. But then, she knew all too well what it felt like not to be happy with who you were. She’d felt that way for the last three years, and to this day, she’d give anything to go back to who she was before. Back to a time when her life consisted of more than running to stay alive, back to before one night and a few bad decisions changed everything.
    She stared down at his hand. “If I hurt you, Drake, I really am sorry.”
    A long moment of silence stretched between them before he asked, “Can I ask you a question?”
    She nodded, but couldn’t quite meet his eyes. “Sure.”
    “Why do you apologize so much?”
    “Because…” She bit at the inside of her bottom lip then cleared her throat. “Because I promised myself a long time ago that I’d never waste a chance to tell someone how I really feel. That I’d never walk away from someone I knew I’d hurt without telling them I was sorry…even if they couldn’t hear me.”
    “Well,” he sighed, his voice seemingly filled with the same regret she felt. He rested a warm hand on her shoulder, sending a shiver down her spine. “Even though my finger will probably get all infected now and swell up like a bloated corpse, I want you to know that I’ll probably forgive you someday.” He slid his hand down her arm and squeezed her fingers tight. “But today’s not your day…and tomorrow ain’t lookin’ too good either.”
    She ripped her hand away from him when he burst into a loud fit of laughter. “Oh my God!” She grabbed a fistful of his long hair then yanked his face down to her level. “What’s wrong with you? Why would you say something like that to me? What did I ever do to you?”
    “Ow, ow, ow. You’re hurting me. Say you’re sorry! Say you’re sorry!”
    She tugged hard on his hair again, but this time all she could do was laugh at the exaggerated way he bent at the waist and contorted sideways as his face scrunched up. “You’re just not right.”
    He flashed the most beautiful, most genuine smile she’d ever seen. “Yeah, but now you’re laughing.”
    She slowly released her hold on his hair, noticing for the first time how soft the dark strands felt as they slipped between her fingers. She couldn’t remember the last time someone had tried to make her laugh. Couldn’t recall, aside from 8-Ball and Brick, the last time she’d been touched by a vampire who wasn’t trying to kill her.
    She looked up at Drake, watching the way his eyes seemed to lighten a little more every second he stared back at her, until not even a trace of the sadness remained. Where the darkness had gone or why, she didn’t know, but she’d been alone and unwanted for so long that she wasn’t sure whether to smile because he made her feel so good, or cry because she knew she didn’t deserve it.
    You don’t deserve it. Toni swallowed the jagged knot tightening her throat and backed away from the man who had no idea what kind of monster he stood so close to. “We should probably head for Locke’s hotel.” She tucked her hair behind her ears as the frigid wind picked up around them. “When we get there, I’ll see if I can find someone who knows him. Maybe I can get his number and talk him into letting you go. I’m sure you’ve got better things to do than be stuck with someone like me. Someone you don’t even know.”
    “Oh. Hell. No.” He folded his arms over his chest while that adorable, lopsided grin from earlier reformed on his lips. “I’m not going to the hotel yet. I’m not moving an inch until you say it.”
    She blinked at him. “Say what?”
    “Say what?” His mouth gaped open like a suffocating fish. “I want you to say you’re sorry for pulling my hair. I want you to say you’re sorry for almost snapping my spine in two.” He scuffed one of his big black boots against the sidewalk. “There’s ice down there, ya know. I almost fell, and I don’t have health insurance yet.”
    “Are you serious?”
    “Yes. I want an apology.”

As I said, Drake tends to go for humor when no one else would. :) I remember writing that scene and thinking…holy smokes…how the hell is he going to pull this off without coming off like a jerk? But I ignored my concern and let him take the scene where he wanted to, and when Toni responded the way she did, when she was able to accept and appreciate the simple gesture for exactly what it was…I knew they belonged together.

So yeah, Drake definitely wins the “Fun to Write” award over Kerestyan because I never know what Drake’s going to do next. But I also love Kerestyan in ways that Drake can’t even begin to touch…I just want that to be known. ;)
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Hope to see you back Thursday. :)