1.
What is the story behind your book title?
16 Marsden Place is my heroine’s home address and where most of the book takes place. It is also the property that is the center of the book’s entire controversy. Sienna (my heroine) runs a sexy lingerie shop and at the opening of the book, it is likely to foreclose due to an astronomical rent increase. She takes the decision to move the business to her home address…next door to hunky single parent, Jack Beaton. This is when the fun really begins! ;)
This changes daily depending on my mood, lol! If things
are going well, nothing give me more pleasure than writing a scene that lifts
the little hairs on my neck, or has me grinning or crying along with my
characters. I also know that I’m in the minority of writers who LOVE tackling
the revisions and/or edits that come back from my editors. I really enjoy
seeing and appreciating their take on my creation. I never disregard a comment
or suggestion they make - ever!
The process that gives me the most angst is plotting or
those times I get bogged down in the technicalities. Have I ‘upped the
stakes’/’concentrated on character arc/written a significant ‘black moment’.
Once I start to doubt I’ve got all the supposed elements in my book rather than
writing instinctively, things ground to a horrible halt. I sometimes wonder if
that will ever change… sigh
What are you currently working on?
I’m currently working on book four of my ongoing
Templeton Cove series with Harlequin Superromance. This will be a Christmas
2014 book and features two brand new characters to the Cove for the hero and
heroine, alongside some of my most favorite secondary characters who have
featured in each book. Finding
Justice was released in February, A
Man Like Him is out in August and What Belongs to Her
will be available in March 2014. SO excited!
If your new release were being made into a
movie who would you cast to play your heroine and hero?
16 Marsden Place is my first romantic comedy since 2010
and was so much fun to write! Many readers and reviewers have asked me if I’ll
be writing a sequel for two of the secondary characters, so watch this space!
I’m a very visual writer and the two images I used for Sienna and Jack while
writing are two actors from Grey’s Anatomy. Kate Walsh for Sienna and Eric Dane
for Jack.
Now, let's do a FAST FIVE:
1.
Heels, sneakers or flip-flops?
Flip flops – used to be heels all the way until I hit
37, lol!2. Chocolate, champagne or cheesecake?
Oooh, tough one! Can I have champagne with cheesecake??
3.
Any tattoos?
No
4.
Long hair, short hair or weave?Long hair – and very, very curly! Hasn’t been cut professionally since my wedding day, 15 years ago.
5. Straight stick or automatic?
Stick – as I’m in the UK, stick is a lot more common than in the US.
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There isn't a situation that can't be fixed by a coat of
chocolate body paint or a liberal smear of Champagne Lick, right? Wrong!
Ever since her father was murdered by a gang of youths, Sienna
Lloyd has named herself Potterford's protector--her sexy lingerie shop is a
place where the town's women can visit and feel safe. But when that shop is in
danger of closing, Sienna needs a solution that will keep her in Potterford,
where she can always look out for her mother, friends, and clients.
The answer? Move the shop to her home at 16 Marsden Place. The
problem? Her new neighbor, the delicious but seriously uptight Jack Beaton. Oh,
and his four-year-old twin girls.
Jack has just moved to the tiny town of Potterford in a bid to
start over. To build a new life that keeps his children safe from his alcoholic
ex-wife. So when he discovers his neighbor intends to open a sex shop right
next door, Jack will do anything to ensure it doesn't happen... including
fighting every ounce of his attraction to the shop's owner and his innate need
to trust again.
Excerpt:
Sienna pulled into her driveway feeling a million times more optimistic
than she had before she’d met with Kelsey. She’d only just cut the engine when an
ear-splitting scream came from outside the car. She sat bolt upright.
The sight that greeted her didn’t bode well for the
quiet night she hankered for.
Yet a traitorous smile tugged at her lips. Why did
those twins have to be so cute? Sienna watched Holly and Katy run back and
forth across the front yard, and a burst of laughter bubbled in her throat. If
her guess was right as to which twin was which, it was Katy who screamed
hysterically in one continual stream of terror while Holly chased her with what
looked suspiciously like dog poo on the end of a stick.
“You’re a little firecracker, my girl,” Sienna said,
laughing. She then turned to see Blue Eyes was also in the yard, and she
groaned. Now that was just cruel.
Clearly, Jack Beaton possessed the same unfathomable
gift all parents of young kids seem to have—the innate ability to completely
zone out to the chaos that erupts all around them and walk about as though
they’re alone in a silent meadow. But it wasn’t the way Jack calmly steered a
wheelbarrow around the lawn that made Sienna’s heart race, nor the way he
stopped and held up a rather raggedy-looking tulip bulb and smelled it, as
though checking what it was.
What injected lust into her loins like liquid
aphrodisiac would be his half-naked state of undress. His back made a perfect
triangle, tapering down to a hard, buff ass encased in what had to surely be
tailor-made Levi’s. A film of perspiration glinted along the length of his
naked, golden spine as muscles rippled beneath the skin in all their sinewy
glory.
Sienna sighed. It was pointless denying he caused
sensations in her that hadn’t been stirred for a mighty long time. She ran the
tip of her tongue over dry lips and squeezed her thighs together to stem the
throbbing. Why did a man who looked like that have to move in next door when
she had so many problems? Damn, if she hadn’t already felt as though her entire
existence teetered on a precipice, she might have tried to get used to the idea
of kids for some up-close and personal time with a guy like that.
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Rachel lives with her husband and two young daughters in a small town near Bath in the UK. After having several novels published by small US presses, she secured agent representation in 2011. In 2012, she sold two books to Harlequin Superromance. She also writes Victorian romance for Kensington--her debut was released in April 2013.
She has just recently signed a further three-book
contract with Harlequin Superromance, continuing her ongoing series set in the
fictional UK seaside town of Templeton Cove.
Rachel is a member of the
Romantic Novelists Association and Romance Writers of America. When she isn’t
writing, you’ll find Rachel with her head in a book or walking the beautiful
English countryside with her family and beloved black Lab, Max. Her dream place
to live is Bourton-on-the-Water in South West England…although she hopes a
dream visit to Canada might just change her mind!
She likes nothing more than
connecting and chatting with her readers and fellow romance writers. Rachel
would love to hear from you!
Links:
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