Rachel Brimble Introduces Templeton Cove

 

Templeton Cove – the UK’s finest imaginary town!

Mr. B and I are celebrating. The third book in my Templeton Cove series with Harlequin Superromance is released today, YAY! What Belongs To Her is set in the town’s fairground. When Vonnie asked me to write a short piece about the town itself, I jumped at the chance. Why? Because Templeton Cove has become so very special to me that to share it with you, makes me believe it all the more real.  

Won't you have some champagne with us? Vonnie has lots chilled and she's made some scrumptious goodies too. Grab a flute and a sweet morsel or two and listen to me tell you about my beloved Templeton Cove.

 

When I started writing the debut book in the series, Finding Justice, I had no intention of creating a town that I would revisit time and again…but as I neared the end of the book, I knew I couldn’t let the Cove go that easily. I started writing book two, A Man Like Him, pretty much straight away. Thankfully, my agent sold both books to Harlequin fairly quickly and my editor immediately asked me if I’d like to set more books there. Ummm…yes!!

 

In total, I now have five Templeton books contracted with Harlequin (the fourth will be a Christmas 2014 release). So what is it about this town that I find so hard to leave? Well, Templeton started as a mix of my favorite UK holiday destinations––a blend of Cornwall, Devon and North Wales. I brought all my favorite things about these places into one small town. It has the beaches of Cornwall, the scenery of Devon and the mountains and hills of Wales. In a word, Templeton is gorgeous!

 

 

As well as the myriad of pretty boutique shops and hip bars, Templeton boasts a fabulous beach restaurant, The Oceanside which is situated on stilts so its views across the ocean are second-to-none. It has a fairground, the bakery (run by the infamous Marian Cohen), a caravan park and planked boardwalk. It’s just a wonderful place where I’d love to live! 

 

 

I will soon be sending in the first three chapters and synopsis of my final contracted book of the series – I would love to write more so watch this space and pray my editor thinks the same!

 

 

She's ready to take back what's hers. 

Since the moment a local crime boss claimed ownership of her family's fairground, Sasha Todd has dreamed of righting the wrong. Now it's time to act, and backing down from the man's estranged son is definitely not an option. After all, giving up her legacy to hot-blooded John Jordon means losing the chance to finally heal the wounds in her past. 

Stopping John in his tracks—and resisting the sizzle between them—is Sasha's best defense. But there's more to him than she thought, which changes everything. With what matters most at stake, she'll have to risk a brand-new future with John, or walk away from the man whose heart belongs to her.

Buy Links:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Barnes & Noble

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 and a further three in 2013. She also writes Victorian romance for Kensington--her debut was released in April 2013 and she has since signed for three more.

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.

She likes nothing more than connecting and chatting with her readers and fellow romance writers. Rachel would love to hear from you!

Links: 

Website

Blog

Twitter

Facebook

Champagne and Cotton Candy -- a new elegant party combination. They say it's all the rage...somewhere...

Rachel Brimble and 16 Marsden Place

Hi, my lovelies, have I got a treat for you. One of my Critique Partners--the British one--is visiting today. Her name is Rachel Brimble and her writing career is taking off big time. She's agreed to let me be nosy and interview her. Whoot!

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! ;)

Oh, do tell!!! I'm intrigued already. Now, what part of the writing process brings you the most pleasure? The most angst?

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.

 

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.

Buy Links:

http://www.amazon.com/16-Marsden-Place-ebook/dp/B00D5VBW7G/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1373363261&sr=8-3&keywords=rachel+brimble

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/16-marsden-place-rachel-brimble/1115472157?ean=9781623420208

http://www.amazon.co.uk/16-Marsden-Place-ebook/dp/B00D5VBW7G/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1373363340&sr=8-1&keywords=16+marsden+place

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:

Website

Blog

Twitter

Facebook

Finding Justice by Rachel Brimble

 

HAPPY RELEASE DAY!

 

I do love to celebrate. When my good friend and critique partner, Rachel Brimble, has a release, well, I'm ready to throw a party. Let's have a little bubbly and chocolate, shall we?

Thanks so much, Vonnie. Fill my glass up to the rim, will you? Let's get this party started! I am so happy to be here to celebrate the release of “Finding Justice”, my debut novel with Harlequin Superromance! Every time I say or write that, I have to take a moment to steady myself and not keel over….

 

Okay, I’m back J

 

It’s been a long, hard journey but I am finally starting to believe 1) I can actually write, 2) I might be able to make a living from what I LOVE to do and 3) people are reading and enjoying my books.

 

Miss Vonnie has played no small part in my new found success and I wanted to use my visit with her today to thank this marvelous lady for all she’s done for me. I started writing for The Wild Rose Press back in 2007 and have made many, many online friends there over the years. As I’m in the UK and write for the US market, I often feel I’ll never have the chance to meet my readers or fellow romance writers so the web is VITAL to keep me buoyed and happy.

 

Vonnie is a HUGE participant at TWRP – she takes time out of her busy schedule to cajole, support and cheer many writers with her wit, encouragement and admiration. Always finding time to comment on blogs, loops and websites is difficult to achieve when you are juggling deadlines, home life and for many writers, full time day jobs—Vonnie manages it…ENDLESSLY!

 

In 2010, I was beginning to get itchy feet and desperately wanted to stretch my writing skills and myself by inching my career goal a little higher. By then, I had six novels and a novella either published or contracted with small presses and wanted to start seriously looking for an agent.

 

Naturally, I began my search in the UK as that’s where I live. Disaster struck when I hit a brick wall and over thirty rejections. Depression set in. Doubt took over and I came to an abrupt stand still. While online one day, I saw a comment by Vonnie singing the praises of her agent, Dawn Dowdle. I searched for The Blue Ridge Literary website, loved what I saw and began to wonder…

 

Before I could change my mind, I fired off an email to Vonnie asking a million and one questions… her answers and enthusiasm set the fire burning again. The rest is history. Dawn loved my proposal and offered representation—that was in March 2011.

 

Since then, thanks to my agent’s amazing editing skills and support, my writing has improved immeasurably and along with it, I have signed two romantic suspense contracts with Harlequin as well as a two-book Victorian romance contract with Kensington AND a romantic comedy with Omnific publishing.

 Needless to say, life is pretty darn grand!

If there are any writers out there, afraid to make that leap from small press to big publishers, PLEASE gather your courage and go for it! The validation alone is worth any amount of advance or royalties you might receive. If, like me, you can’t live without writing, we have to get out of our comfort zones and step into the big wide world.

 

Admittedly, ‘live’ promotion still fills me with so much dread, I literally want to run and hide but I will get there…eventually. One step at a time is the not so well kept secret. Writers are renowned introverts but anything is possible!

 

I wish you all the luck in the world! In the meantime, thank you, thank you, thank you, to my wonderful readers who’ve followed me from the very start. I could not have done this without you! J

 

Rachel’s 2013 release schedule:

 

Finding Justice – Harlequin Superromance – February

Copyright © 2013 by Harlequin Enterprises Limited

 

BUY LINK:  http://www.amazon.com/Finding-Justice-Harlequin-Superromance-Brimble/dp/0373718357/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1360053132&sr=8-2&keywords=finding+justice

 

The Seduction of Emily – E-Kensington – April

 

16 Marsden Place – Omnific Publishing – June

A Man Like Him – Harlequin Superromance – August

 

Rachel’s Links:

http://www.rachelbrimble.com/

http://rachelbrimble.blogspot.co.uk/

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rachel-Brimble/181873201887441?fref=ts

https://twitter.com/RachelBrimble