Blog Tour: Interview with Lisa Marie Rice {Fatal Heat} & Two Giveaway Opportunities!

Please tell readers a little bit about yourself.

I've been a reader and wordsmith all my life. An interpreter, translator and writer. I love stories, they have accompanied me from childhood on. I love writing erotic romantic suspense--as a genre it has everything. Heat and danger, thrills and chills.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

When I finished my first novel. It was a contemporary and I loved that story. The first iteration wasn't very good but just finishing it was empowering. I re wrote it eight times and it needed it, but the day I first wrote The End, I know--this is it. This is what I want to do for the rest of my life.

Please tell us about your latest release.

FATAL HEAT is a novella but it packs a novel length story in it. Max Wright, a former SEAL, is out of the Teams. He's been badly wounded and lucky to be alive, though he still feels half dead, inside and out. He licks his wounds at the beach house of his former XO and falls under the spell of his next door neighbor, Paige Waring, and her ridiculously likeable dog. When Paige crosses the path of ruthless enemies, he is willing to die to save her.

Blurb:
Former Navy SEAL Max Wright is out of the SEAL Teams forever after being almost killed by an Afghani RPG. He retreats to his former XO’s beach house to lick his wounds. He wants to snarl at the world but finds it hard to snarl at his new neighbor, his XO’s beautiful goddaughter, Paige Waring, who also comes with a ridiculously likable, totally undisciplined dog.

As a plant geneticist, Paige has always been focused on her work, but when she and her dog run into Max, she recognizes the lonely, shattered man behind the rugged exterior. To her mind, sexiness always comes with a white lab coat, not with acres of tanned muscle and a tough mind-set.

When Paige’s work becomes the target of criminals and she’s abducted, Max springs into action. Though still terribly wounded, this tough as nails SEAL goes on his last mission-stopping at nothing to save the woman he loves.

 

What inspired you to write this book?

I've always been fascinated by SEALs, and have often written about them. They are extraordinary men, strong and brave and smart. The story sprang full blown in my head the day I heard that these courageous men took down Osama bin Laden.

What was one of the most interesting things you learned in researching your book?

How far SEALs can swim and still do 100 pushups at the end.

Was there a character you enjoyed writing the most?

I loved writing about Max the warrior and Paige, but I loved writing about Paige's wonderfully smart and undisciplined dog, Max. He wouldn't behave and you can't get him to sit or heel but by God, when his mistress is threatened, he and human Max risk their lives to save her.

Without giving away spoilers, can you share your favorite scene from the book?

My favorite scene is when Max Wright, former SEAL, in despair at the loss of his career as a Navy SEAL, tries to put his broken body together. He swims out into the Pacific and swims back, the last leg underwater. As rises from the water, he is jumped by a friendly, undisciplined dog and falls into the water. The dog leaps around him, yipping with joy and Max smiles for the first time since he was wounded. And he smiles even more when he sees the dog's mistress, beautiful Paige WAring.

Where can readers find you on the web?

www.lisamariericebooks.com
 

Lisa Marie Rice is eternally 30 years old and will never age. She is tall and willowy and beautiful. Men drop at her feet like ripe pears. She has won every major book prize in the world. She is a black belt with advanced degrees in archaeology, nuclear physics, and Tibetan literature. She is a concert pianist. Did I mention her Nobel Prize? Of course, Lisa Marie Rice is a virtual woman and exists only at the keyboard when writing erotic romance. She disappears when the monitor winks off.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Now isn’t that an interesting bio to have? Isn’t that a thousand times better than saying that I’m a middle-aged, er…woman, no longer in the very, very first flush of youth, who basically sits in front of a computer screen all day in her pajamas?

I am so lucky to be Lisa Marie Rice! There is no literary genre anywhere remotely as exciting and thrilling as erotic romantic suspense. It has absolutely everything: red-hot passion, danger, adventure, heart-stopping love. I cannot begin to tell you how much I enjoy sitting down to the keyboard and bleeding…er, writing my heart out, falling in love with my men over and over and over again.

Well, why not? My men are brave and smart and built. And boy do they love their women! Their women are much more interesting than new weaponry, sports cars, and even plasma TVs in their eyes, and the fascination will last their entire lifetimes, I promise. It’s sex, of course, but also a whole lot more. My heroes genuinely like and admire their women, though in the beginning this is sometimes obscured by blinding lust. Once that first sharp edge of desire is over and they settle down a little—and that will take several years and a kid or two—they’re so bonded with their women that they couldn’t live without them.

And it is so much fun “being” my heroines while writing about them. You may have noticed that most, if not all, of my heroines are artsy in some way, just like me. It just sort of comes out that way. There’s not much calculation when creating my characters: They literally become alive for me and when my character says—I’m a singer or a designer or I love books—well, that’s that.

It’s fabulous sitting here in my not-perfect body and becoming the beautiful young woman that that ornery alpha male is glomming on to. Of course, my heroines are also in dire peril, which is not so much fun. And which is why I’m the writer and not the heroine (give or take a few years and a few pounds).

One true fact: Looking out of my study across my wonderful terrace I see a bright blue line which is the Ionian Sea. And if I had a powerful enough telescope I could see the Greek temple where Pythagoras taught.

http://www.lisamariericebooks.com/
 
http://www.lisamariericebooks.com/blog/
 

http://twitter.com/#!/Lisa_Marie_Rice

Giveaway Details:

• Lisa Marie Rice and Avon will be giving away a $25 Amazon.com gift certificate to one randomly drawn commenter during the tour.

• In addition, Lisa is generously gifting one autographed print book from her backlist (she'll be choosing the title) to a US/Canada commenter at each stop.

• Leave a comment along with your email addy AND state whether you are an US/Canada resident to be entered into the second giveaway opportunity.

• Contest is open the duration of the tour.

• The more stops you visit and comment on, the greater your chances of winning!! :)

Tour Stops:

October 3: Reader Girls
October 4: Words of Wisdom from The Scarf Princess
October 4: REVIEW ONLY Reviews by Molly
October 5: Books Read 'N' Makeup Done
October 6: Among the Muses
October 7: Coffee Beans & Love Scenes