Saturday, December 1, 2012

1st day of Christmas: Taryn Kincaid

Cate: Taryn Kincaid is here to spread some holiday cheer! Taryn, please tell us a little bit about yourself.
Taryn: My middle name is “Ebenezer.” That’s right. Taryn Ebenezer Kincaid. Bah. Humbug. In fact, someone once gave me a green velvet pillow with the those words embroidered in gold. The pillow is plump and soft and plush. It hangs from a gold cord. I have yet to figure out why. I mean, it’s not like a bauble you’d hang from your tree. And it doesn’t have any pockets for lumps of coal and such to hang on your mantle. Not that I have a mantle.

Cate: Ha, too funny! But seriously, what do you love most about Christmas?
Taryn: I love when people decorate the outside of their homes so that not an inch of house or lawn is visible and the glow is so intense you will drive off the road if you are not wearing dark shades.
Oh. Yeah. And cookies. Did I mention cookies? Those alpha gingerbread heroes, especially. The ones that bite back.

Cate: Yep, I'd wear sunglasses at night for the cookies too, lol  Do you have a favorite memory of a Christmas past?
Taryn: In elementary school, the sixth graders made candy houses. It was sweet, messy goodness, icing and gumdrops and licorice and lemon drops. And my personal favorites, red hots, which would often tint the icing so that the candy house looked the a demon’s summer place in hell. These took an entire day to make. Maybe even an entire week. The memory is not what it used to be. The whole entire school would come by the classroom for a viewing. So from the time of your first December in kindergarten, you looked forward to the day you’d be a sixth grader and would make a candy house and be the envy of all the littler kids.

Also, when my mom, who was not particularly known for her cooking and baking prowess, would make sugar cookies from scratch and let us cut them out into stars and trees and lumpy men and then put out bowls of colored icing (I loved those little tiny squirt bottles of food coloring!) and sugar sprinkles and jimmies and those silver ball things I can’t remember the names of and let us go crazy.

Cate: Ah, yes, making cookies is almost as much fun as eating them! If Santa could grant one wish, what would you ask for?
Taryn:  World Peace.
Oh. Wait. That was not a Miss America question, was it?
No, but seriously: Peace on Earth and Good Will Towards Women.

Cate: Amen to that! What was the best gift you’ve ever received? What made it so special?
Taryn: Yeah, um, you know…I don’t think I’m gonna splatter that all over the internet, actually.

Cate: *tee hee* Any favorite Christmas recipes you’d care to share?
Taryn: Take a tub of really good vanilla ice cream. Soften it up. Fold in shards of smashed up candy canes. Refreeze. (Or, if you want to be devilish, throw in a couple of handfuls of cinnamon red hots instead.) What can I say? I take after my mom.

Cate: Sounds like something you should patent! Tell us about your latest release, and where readers can find it online.
Taryn: THUNDER. It’s my second sexy paranormal for Decadent Publishing’s popular 1Night Stand series. The hero, Sean Jones, a hunky contractor and developer, is the brother of Campbell Jones, the studly architect hero of my first 1Night Stand, LIGHTING.

Available from: 
 
Want to see a really cool video? Here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWB9zh4OZjc&feature=relmfu

 
Cate: Care to share a blurb or excerpt?
Taryn: Why, yes, yes I do! Thanks for asking!

BLURB:
Lonely young witch, Veronica Hardwicke, has struggled to get on with her life after the death of the elderly husband who’d left her a fortune and a sprawling estate in mystical Sleepy Hollow. When frightening things go bump in the night on a stormy Fourth of July, who better to call than the sexy developer and contractor, Sean Jones, who's been renovating her mansion for months?
Sean may grace the tabloid pages with a different supermodel on his arm every night, but it's Veronica who drives him nuts. Ignoring his instinct to stay away, he answers her summons.
Will the thundering passion of their 1Night Stand tear down the barriers between them?

EXCERPT
Veronica paced back and forth in the grand entry foyer of the Belmont mansion, the kitten heels of her Prada mules clacking on the marble floors.
The rest of the place might not be finished, but she’d insisted on having a few rooms completed, so at least she felt like she was living in a home, rather than a massive, never-ending construction project. Well, her contractor had insisted, even though working around the main entrance and central hallway created more work for him and his crew. But she was forced to admit he was right.
Her cell phone chimed on top of the antique credenza shoved flush against one wall. She leaped for it. Probably Geneviève, to regale her with all the fun she was having in Paris. Or Sean, to advise her he couldn’t make it after all. She sighed and read the text message on the small screen.
Congratulations, Veronica. 1Night Stand has found your date. Have a good time.
With both anxiety and mounting excitement, she stared at the screen and waited. No other info. Outside in the night, thunder boomed. She jumped then laughed at herself.
Ghosts are one thing, but freaking out at the weather now? Cripes, you really do need this date!
She let her imagination run wild, then texted back for more details:
When? Where? Who?
An insistent pounding at the front door jarred her out of her fantasy. She swung the door open on another explosive crack of thunder.
Sean stood on her doorstep, his soaked T-shirt molding sculpted pecs and abs, his drenched hair flattened over his brow. Rain poured down as he fiddled with his iPhone, a bemused expression on his face. Behind him, jagged arrows of lightning tore the dark sky. He glared at the screen, glanced at her in confusion, then back at the screen.
Veronica’s own phone pinged again. Thunder roared. She read the message in disbelief.
You’re looking at him.

Cate: It's on my TBR list! Anything else you’d like to share?
Taryn: Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Cate: Taryn’s got her Santa hat on, you lucky readers!
Taryn: Tell me why you think you might like to read THUNDER and one random commenter may find a copy (and other cool swag) in her stocking.

Cate: Thanks so much for being part of the 12 Days of Christmas! Hope you have a jolly holly holiday!

Taryn: And to you, too. And you, and you, and you….