Cate: Please welcome Loreen Augeri. Loreen, will you please share a short bio with us?Loreen: First, I would like to thank you for having me here today. I live in Massachusetts with my husband of twenty-nine years and two daughters. I am a member of RWA and the New England Chapter. When I am not writing or working in the town library, I enjoy reading, walking, and spending time at the beach.
Cate: Tell us about Tormented Hearts and where it's available.
Loreen: Tormented Hearts is a Regency-set historical romance about an earl devastated by his wife’s death and the part he played in it and a commoner fleeing from her abusive, aristocratic husband. Both want to be left alone to deal with life as best they can, but circumstances and the earl’s scheming brother constantly throw them together. While battling a fierce thunderstorm, befriending a wild dog, escaping into the forest, and fighting against the passion that consumes them, they heal each other’s tormented heart.
It is available in paperback and e-book from The Wild Rose Press www.thewildrosepress.com, Amazon, Barnes and Noble online, Fictionwise, and All Romance. There are links on my website: www.loreenaugeri.com.Cate: Please tantalize us with a story blurb or excerpt.
Loreen: I will tantalize with a blurb and excerpt.
Story blurb:
The world of Brett Armstrong, the Earl of Tremont, collapses when his wife and unborn child die. Determined to punish himself for the part he played in their demise, he turns his back on society and retreats to the country. Hard, physical labor during the day and mind-numbing gin at night help to keep at bay the demons that threaten to devour him. Until Catherine Hammond creeps into his world. Not wishing to resurrect his dormant emotions and the resulting pain, Brett struggles against the sensuality she exudes and battles to defeat his rising desire.
Abused by her aristocratic husband, commoner Catherine Hammond flees from his cruelty. Her hope is to hide and create a new life. She vows to never again associate with the upper classes that have heaped unbearable pain upon her family. Escaping without funds, Catherine is forced to work as a servant in the Earl of Tremont's household. His tantalizing, amorous advances ignite a fire within the cold regions of her heart, but she refuses to fall in love with a man who may destroy her.
Excerpt:
As she stalked past him, his fingers grazed her shoulder to halt her. A sizzling warmth pierced her skin and swirled throughout her body. Catherine restrained the gasp that fought to break from her lips. She’d prayed the sensations she experienced last night resulted from the lingering effects of the dream and lack of sleep, but they seared her again.
Brett jerked his hand back as if she scalded him, and it hovered in the air above her shoulder. Unsure, she turned to him. The pulse in his temple beat at a frantic rate, and the muscles in his jaw clenched. It affected him, too. She delved deep into his eyes, and the turmoil that appeared to tear him in different directions caught and captured her.She yearned for the heat of his fingers to engulf her again, to feel his body pressed against hers like last night, the whisper of his breath on her cheek, the exquisite thrill of not being alone. Her gaze fell to his appealing, moist lips. Not thin and dry like Lord Wallingford’s.
Brett leaned toward her and then withdrew. He swallowed, and his Adam’s apple bobbed before he cleared his throat. “You can stay here with him.”
She blinked as the strange immediacy to be embraced faded away. What had she been thinking? She never wanted another man to touch her. Ever. Especially not one of his station.
Cate: Great conflict. What inspired you to write about the theme?
Loreen: I love reading and writing historical romances, the Regency period in particular.
Cate: How do you develop your plots and characters?
Loreen: I work out the internal and external goal, motivation, and conflict for each character and then I go where the characters take me.
Cate: Do you feel as if the characters live with you as you write? Do they haunt your dreams?
Loreen: When I write, the characters live in my head and I try to take on their persona and feel their emotions. They only haunt my dreams when I am stuck on some point in the story and have to find a solution. The answers often come to me while I’m awake in bed when I should be sleeping.
Cate: What's next for you?
Loreen: I have a story I have almost finished editing, another that I am in the middle of editing, and an idea for a story that I will start as soon as I have completed the other two.
Cate: Any other published works?
Loreen: No, this is the first. I hope to have more in the future.
Cate: Describe your writing in three words.
Loreen: Emotional, passionate, exciting
Cate: What’s the most challenging aspect of writing? Most rewarding?
Loreen: The most challenging aspect is finding the time to write. I need longer days. The most rewarding is the writing, creating lives for the characters, and of course completing a manuscript.
Cate: What’s the most interesting comment you have received about your books?
Loreen: I have received wonderful reviews from reviewers and comments from readers. I couldn’t pick just one. It is always interesting to hear that people have read my book and loved it.
Cate: Who are some of your favorite authors and books? What are you reading now?
Loreen: I love Johanna Lindsey’s and Catherine Coulter’s earlier historicals, Brenda Joyce, Sabrina Jeffries, Candace Camp, Lynsay Sands, Shannon Drake, Teresa Medeiros, and Joanna Bourne to name a few. Right now I am reading Tempted By A Warrior by Amanda Scott. Some of my favorite books are The Surrender by Pamela Clare, My Dangerous Duke by Gaelen Foley, A Lady Never Tells by Candace Camp, The Conqueror by Brenda Joyce, and The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant.
Cate: Where can you be found on the web?
Loreen: My website is www.loreenaugeri.com. I am on Facebook and Goodreads.
Cate: Is there anything you’d like to ask our readers?
Loreen: What is your favorite genre, and if you read historical romances what time period do you like to read about?
Cate: Great question. Readers, Loreen is giving away a PDF of Tormented Hearts to a random commenter... so start commenting. Loreen will draw the winner’s name notify the winner and post the winner’s name here.
Thanks so much for being my guest, Loreen! Best of luck to you.
