Lee Ann is a Missouri native. Although she emerged from the old neighborhood in her hometown of St. Joseph, Missouri to make her home in the rugged Missouri Ozarks long ago, she retains nostalgia for the hometown. Her first novel, Wolfe’s Lady, debuted from Evernight Publishing in December 2010 and her second, Love Tattoo, came out in March 2011 from the same publisher. She has three other novels due out in 2011 and two confirmed for 2012. She is a member of Romance Writers of America, Paranormal Authors Guild, Missouri Writers Guild, and the Ozark Writers League.
She now lives with her husband, three children, and one feisty Jack Russell terrier in what passes for the suburbs in a small town.
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LOVE KNOTS by Lee Ann Sontheimer Murphy
Love Covenant Series, 3After surviving the wrath of a wicked she-vampire bent on revenge, Will and Cara Brennan have a new task – finding Will’s brother that Sallie Hawkins made a vampire centuries ago. Both bear the scars of their battle but they’re glad to be alive and together.
Cara wants to find the only family Will has in this world and so they set out on a search for Seamus that takes them from Memphis to the rough bars of Oklahoma, Las Vegas casinos, to Hollywood Boulevard and to New Orleans. Along the way, their love deepens and the sensual connection they share heightens.
Whether or not they find Seamus isn't the only issue – they have no way of knowing whether he has gone wicked or if he's an average vamp like them. The journey defines their love as the story begun in LOVE TATTOO, advanced in LOVE SCARS, and continues in LOVE KNOTS.
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WIN - Leave Lee Ann a question today at her Cyber Launch Party and your name goes in the hat for an ebook of your choice from the first two books in her Love Covenant Series - LOVE TATOO or LOVE SCARS. Please leave your email address so we can contact you if you are today's winner!
Good morning Lee Ann and super congrats on the new release!
ReplyDeleteWow - what a great cover and a fantastic story line - Can't wait to read it!
For those not familiar with your Love Covenant Series - can you tell us a bit about it and how the books fit together?
Do you have more books planned for the series?
This has been a very busy year for you - tell us about your first six months as a published author!
Enjoy your celebration today and I hope LOVE KNOTS is your biggest seller yet!
Good morning!
ReplyDeleteHere's a little about the Love Covenant series...it's the ongoing love and after life of Irish vampire Will Brennan, a Shakespeare quoting, cigarillo smoking truck driver who fell hard for a Texas gal singer he met by chance. One kiss caught them both by surprise with its' intensity. Their story begun in LOVE TATTOO, book one of the series. I don't want to give away too many spoilers but in the second novel, LOVE SCARS, Cara realizes that happily ever after doesn't always come that easy for anyone. She must fight to keep her love alive and to protect what she has, including Will. That's because Sallie Hawkins, the wicked Englishwoman who made Will a vampire over two centuries ago, is back and intent on vengaence. Will learns that his youngest brother, his favorite, isn't long dead as he has believed, but that Sallie made Seamus into a vampire too. In LOVE KNOTS, Will and Cara go off to search for Seamus, hoping to find him and hoping that he hasn't gone evil like some vampires do.
There will be at least two more books in the series - I'm about halfway through writing book four, LOVE SHADOWS and I think there will be one more, maybe more if Cara keeps talking (the books are told in first person from her POV).
It has been a super busy year - incredible changes in my life but all good. It's just been over a year ago I signed my first novel contract and six months since my first came out from Evernight.
I'm known around the small town where I live as "the lady that makes the books" and people are reading (and talking too).
Writing romance has become a full time job and I love that even if it keeps me busy and sometimes almost crazy!
My writing career now focuses on fiction, primarily novel lenegth although I still do a few short stories. I have - right now - three more releases this year, under contract, a time travel romance from Champagne Books coming in November, A TIME TO LOVE, a romantic suspense that is a personal favorite of mine from Rebel Ink Press this fall, WITNESS PROTECTION PROGRAM and a Christmas release also from Rebel Ink called SING WE NOW OF CHRISTMAS.
I also have work in three upcoming anthologies, Jack-O-Spec, Midnight Seduction, and Stories From The Hearth.
In 2012 - and this still amazes me - right now I have three Rebel titles scheduled, MISS GOOD SAMARITAN (a sweet romantic suspense novel), IN LOVE'S OWN TIME, (time travel and ghost combined into one love story) and GUY's ANGEL, a historical romance novel set in 1925 with some paranormal elements too.
And one from Champagne, LONG LIVE THE KING, an alternate reality love story about Elvis on his first visit to Las Vegas in 1956.
And I hope to add to that list as well.
I'm excited to be here for another launch party and I'll be in and out to answer reader questions and more!
Lee Ann, you are one busy lady! I can't wait to begin reading your work.
ReplyDeleteWhat is a normal day like for you? How do you juggle everything and still meet deadlines? I know, that's two questions, but you can't blame me for being curious. lol
Lorraine Nelson
lornel@xplornet.ca
Hi Lorraine - two questions is fine. A normal day for me would run pretty much like this -
ReplyDeleteI get up early (before daybreak) and spend a few minutes with my husband who goes to work early. During the school year, I get breakfast started and lunches made for my three kids, make sure they get to the bus stop on time. In that early part of the day I take care of e-mails, update blogs, etc.
I spend most of the morning writing or editing, break for lunch, and get another hour or so in the afternoon. Then I shift gears to clean house, cook supper, meet the kids, etc.
Most evenings I spend another hour or two after supper catching up on social networking, promoting, etc.
Each weekend I make my to-do list for the week and I would be do lost without it.
How do I do it? There are days when I have no idea! Mostly, however, I was taught by my paternal grandmother, Granny, to meet life head on and do what had to be done. She was a very strong woman, barely five feet tall, who faced all kinds of adversity in her life but remained cheerful throughout. She taught me to just keep going and so I do.
There are times I have to shift gears for school events, family time, etc. There are times when I can't sleep and so I get up to write in the middle of the night.
I also keep a notebooks with story ideas, outlines, etc.
I guess it's a good thing that I have enough self-discipline to stay at a task and do it!
Wow! Lee Ann, your writing career looks very impressive. I see you write in different genres –paranormal, time travel, suspense… What makes you chose this or that genres?
ReplyDeleteCannot wait to read your book.
erinaslin@gmail.com
Hi Lee Ann,
ReplyDeleteI'm awed by your self discipline and your productivity... Congrats on your release!
How do you manage to use the same characters for the subsequent stories and yet keep it fresh?
I have read books that way, but have often wondered about the "plotting" aspects of it.. so, it leaves me with another question.. Do you plot your stories before hand or write it as it flows?
judimello AT gmail DOT com
Hi Judi and thanks!
ReplyDeleteI'm very fond of Will and Cara (my main characters for the Love Covenant series) and so far, it's been easy to keep the storyline fresh and new. Each time I finish one, I hope I'll have inspiration for another and it's worked. The one thing I don't want to do is go on with it too long so that it becomes too boring or they're doing the same things over and over.
In answer to the second question, when I start a new novel, I usually have the opening scene, how and where it starts in my head. And I know how it will end, at least a basic version. In between, I am a total "pantser" - writing by the seat of my pants, so to speak rather than a plotter. I've found that characters have a funny way - just like my kids - of doing something you never expected and that can change everything so I let the story flow toward the anticipated end!
the cover is beautiful and the book sounds wonderful. i can't wait to read it. i am going to have to get the 1st book also so i don't miss anything. :)
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the release!
trvlagnt1t@yahoo.com
Thanks for all the wonderful comments - someone asked why this genre. I think the romance genre picked me instead of the other way around. Everything I wrote novel length became a love story so I went with that.
ReplyDeleteAs for how or why do I pick different kinds of romance - I get ideas and they're all different so the story fits the idea. I got the idea for the Love Covenant series because I noticed that all the late night highway traffic was mostly trucks and I thought wow, what a great cover job for a vampire. It grew from there. '
Congratulations on the release of Love Knots! I hope it is extremely successful for you.
ReplyDeleteWhat types of books do you enjoy reading? Who is your favorite author?
Really great blurb and excerpt - excellent cover! I'm looking forward to reading the series.
Thanks for the giveaway. Hope you have a fun launch party!
kacbooks(at)hotmail(dot)com
I love to read and I'm an ecclectic reader. Some of my romance favorites are well known names like Deborah Smith and Nora Roberts but I have found so many indie authors that are sensational. I love Cassandre Dayne's work, Lila Munro, Anna Keraleigh, Emma Shortt, Carolyn Rosewood, just to name a few. I also like Dean Koontz and some of Stephen King's work. In that same genre, I'm a huge fan of Willie Meikle's books too.
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite authors overall is Diana Gabaldon and her Outlander series.
Thanks for the good words about the blurb and cover.
I know lots of people who don't like reading books written in 1st person POV. Was it a conscience decision to make the books 1st person or is it more about how the characters spoke through your writing? I have always wondered about that.
ReplyDeletejepebATverizonDOTnet
Jen B, in this case it was how the character started speaking to me. The Love Covenant books are, so far, the only novels I've done in first person. When I sat down to write the first one, my sassy Texas gal popped up and started telling the story. My editor at Evernight liked Cara's voice and so she keeps on talking. About every couple of chapters we hear a little bit from Will's POV in all of the books.
ReplyDeleteSometimes writing first person is more difficult than third person.
I've done a few short works in first person too - one of them, "Salem" will be part of the Midnight Seduction anthology due out from Evernight in October. Last year my story in Mountain Magic from Woodland Press, The Silent Supper, was also first person.
congrats on the release, I cannot wait to get my hands on Love Tattoo. Where do some of your ideas come from? Do you take anything from your day to day life and add it into your work?
ReplyDeletejune111(at)att(dot)net
Thanks! My ideas just come out of stray thoughts or inspirations - I just posted a guest blog about it on the publisher's website - here:
ReplyDeletehttp://evernightpublishing.blogspot.com/?zx=af24c828d3a7b636
I do actually weave quite a bit of things in my "real" life into my fiction - some of the little stories Cara tells about her childhood or past regarding her family in Texas are based on things that happened to me or to a relative.
Hi, I have not read any of your books as yet. Which one should I start with?
ReplyDeletedebby236 at gmail dot com
Congratulations on your new release. This sound like a very good series. I haven't read any of your books yet but they all sound very good.
ReplyDeletesstrode at scrtc dot com
Debby - if you want to read the Love Covenant series, I would suggest you start with book 1, Love Tattoo. If you enjoy a contemporary romance or romantic suspense, you would like either Kinfolk or Love Never Fails.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Sherry!
Wow, what a ride you've had in just a short time. Can't wait to see where your new career takes you!
ReplyDeleteThe book sounds very good and I have to add to the comments on the great cover, it's beautiful!
Will your Love Conenant series be out in print someday?
Thanks, Katie.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if my Love Covenant series will be out in print - that's totally up to the publisher (Evernight) but I have to say that I really hope so!