Title: The Traveling Man (Traveling, #1)
Author: Jane Harvey – Berrick
Release Date: January 27, 2015
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Blurb
Moody and difficult, brilliant and beautiful, Kes scared me and he protected me. He could be incredibly hurtful and incredibly thoughtful. He wasn’t perfect, but he was perfect for me. He challenged me, he took me out of my safe little box and showed me the world could be magnificent. He was everything I wasn’t.
Aimee Anderson is ten when the traveling carnival first comes to her nice little town. She doesn’t expect her world to change so completely. But meeting Kestrel Donohue puts her life on a different path.
Even though she only sees him for the two weeks of the year when he passes through her home town, his friendship is the most important of her life. As a child’s friendship grows to adult love, the choices become harder, and both Kes and Aimee realize that two weeks a year will never be enough.
Excerpt
I gripped his biceps then pulled him closer, sliding my hands over his satiny skin.
The feel of his erection digging into my hip made me pause.
“We can’t,” I whispered.
“Why not?” he mumbled as his hand disappeared up my t-shirt.
“Because everyone saw us come in here—they’ll all know what we’re up to.”
“So?”
“So! I’ve only just met them—it’s embarrassing!”
Kes chuckled. “No secrets between carnies, Aimee. We all live too close to each other for that. Cut one, we all bleed.”
“How sweet. But I don’t want my new family to know that we’re in here fucking, five minutes after I met them.”
“They won’t care,” he said, squeezing my nipples hard enough to make me gasp.
“I care,” I said, as my voice wobbled unconvincingly. “And there are kids out there, Kes! We can’t give them the wrong impression.”
This time he laughed loudly.
“I never knew you were such a prude!”
“I am not!”
“Jesus, Aimee! These are carnie kids. They live in trailers and RVs like us. They’ve heard their parents fucking a thousand times. They’ve seen the stallion take the mare when she’s in heat, and believe me, once you’ve seen that, every guy has performance anxiety.”
I laughed a little when he said that, but he wasn’t finished.
“Do you remember when we were kids and you asked me how I knew that Madame Cindy was Dono’s girlfriend? I heard them. I knew what sex was before I could say the word. These carnie kids are just like that. We’re not doing anything wrong, we’re not hurting anyone.”
His tone had started off light and amused, but had become more serious and insistent as he’d gone on.
“Maybe I am prudish,” I said quietly. “It was the way I was brought up. I just happen to think that making love is a private thing between two people: not a public display of your testosterone, unless you’re doing it to make that stallion blush.”
He sighed and shifted onto his back. “Did I imagine you rubbing my cock while we were laying in the field at the carnival when we were kids?”
I didn’t answer, but fiddled with the hem of my t-shirt.
“You want to wait until everyone has their backs turned, pretending that they don’t know what we’re doing in the privacy of our own home?”
“Yes, exactly.”
He turned his head to smile at me. “My funny girl.”
I smiled back, and he reached out to wind his long fingers around mine. He brought my knuckles to his lips and kissed them one at a time.
It was the sweetest gesture, and I fell a little more under his spell.
Purchase The Traveling Man today!
About the Author
I lived in London for over 10 years and have a love affair with New York. It's only since I have moved to the countryside, that the words have really begun to flow.
I live in a small village by the ocean and walk my little dog, Pip, every day. It’s on those beachside walks that I have all my best ideas.
Writing has become a way of life – and one that I love to share.
Author Interview
1. In 5 words, please describe your ‘Romance Writing Style’
Characters, details, learning to love
2. Do your leading men come from any place in particular? Dreams? Movie stars? Your partner? Past partners?
Real life guys plus a large dollop of imagination.
3. What do you do in your down time?
What’s down time? Um, I write, a lot. I walk my dog on the beach and hope to ogle hot surfers.
4. When you walk into a book store, where do you head first?
Biography
5. Why did you decide to write romance novels?
I started writing FSOG fanfic. People kept telling me to write my own stories. So I tried it, and fell in love with writing all over again.
6. Who, if anyone, has influenced your writing?
Well, EL James, I guess, because her story unlocked something inside me, making me want to write contemporary romance, too. But for writing style, I admire the way Jane Austen could put across a character’s personality with a few, well chosen phrases. Masterful.
7. What research did you have to perform to back up your story? Any research which really opened your eyes or gave you new respect for a topic or profession?
I read a lot of blogs about people working in carnivals – what life on the road is really like. I also downloaded lists of carnie-speak, but I didn’t use much of that as I would have spent forever explaining it all.
I’m doing a lot of research on stuntmen, too, for the sequel.
8. What is your method for writing a book? A certain amount of hours every day? A certain routine? Are you character/story builder or an outliner or some other method?
The ideas come from different places, so sometimes I have just one scene in mind, and have to work out a plot from that; sometimes the whole story comes to me in one go.
But in terms of writing discipline, I’ll do a minimum of four hours a day, forcing the words out, but if it’s really flowing, I’ll be at the computer from 7am to 10pm with breaks to eat and walk my dog. I can be very single-minded – it drives my husband to distraction.
9. How do you get past writers block or distractions like Facebook?
Nothing distracts me when the writing is flowing. If I feel blocked, I got for a walk with my dog – that helps incredibly.
10. Favorite book from childhood.
I used to love to read Westerns, but one single book? Tricky … ‘The Red Badge of Courage’ had a huge effect on me. I was about 9 when I read it.
11. What’s on your desk? Can you see your desk? Describe what you see when you look around.
I keep it pretty tidy. I have my diary, a dictionary, to-do list, phone, handcream and throat sweets (I’m getting over a cold).
12. What's the weirdest thing you've Googled?
I worry about that. I imagine the CIA keeping tags on me because of my schizophrenic googling, but really it’s all for characters in books – honest! Okay, um, here goes: how to rob a bank, how to make lead look like gold bullion, boys talk in locker rooms, how to get rid of a boner during a sports massage (for guys, obviously)
13. What is your favorite line from any of your books?
“I love you, I have always loved you, and wherever I go after this world, I will always love you. Sempre e per sempre” Sebastian in ‘The Education of Caroline’
14. Do you believe in love at first sight?
Yes.
15. What do you do when you are not writing?
Read, walk, swim, surf.
16. What has been the toughest criticism given to you as an author? What has been the best compliment?
I was told I was a child abuser. Isn’t that horrible? Because in ‘The Education of Sebastian’ the relationship is between a 17 year old who’s nearly 18, and a 30 year old woman. What you don’t get until you read it is that emotionally, it’s the teenaged Sebastian who teaches Caro about love. That comment made me feel ill, then I decided to ignore it.
The best compliment – someone had a quote from my book ‘Lifers’ tattooed on them. That will be with them for the rest of their life. Wow!
And another was that a woman decided to call her son ‘Sebastian’ because she loved the character in my books. That moved me to tears.
17. Is there any particular author or book that influenced you in any way either growing up or as an adult?
Jane Austen. Always. Still does.
18. Is there a certain type of scene that's harder for you to write than others? Love? Action? Racy?
I work hard to make sure that love scenes don’t sound repetitive, but I don’t find them hard to write. I thought I would, but I don’t!
19. How important are names to you in your books? Do you choose the names based on liking the way it sounds or the meaning?
Really important. I can change them several times before they sound right. Usually not the main characters, it’s usually minor characters.
20. What was the hardest part of writing your book?
Not having enough time to write everything that I want to write.
21. What did you want to be when you grow up?
A journalist, but I found out I preferred making things up!
22. Did you learn anything from writing your book and what was it?
I like to learn new things when I’m researching a book – that’s part of what makes it interesting for me. I loved reading about life as a carnie, and I read up all the details of how to breathe fire and eat fire – that’s a real science to it, which isn’t very unsurprising!
23. What made you decide to sit down and actually start something?
Well, I started writing fanfiction because I wanted to rewrite FSOG from Jason Taylor’s pov. Ever since then, stories won’t leave me alone. I have a list of 30 or 40 stories that I could start writing tomorrow if I had the time.
24. Which actor/actress would you like to see playing the lead character from your most recent book?
An unknown. I want to be immersed in the story, not the actor playing them.
25. Do you work to an outline or plot or do you prefer just see where an idea takes you?
99% I have the outline nailed down before I start. I often write the ending first.
26. For your own reading, do you prefer ebooks or traditional paper/hard back books?
Ebooks. Love LOVE my Kindle.
27. What book/s are you reading at present?
‘Sempre’ by JM Darhower
28. If you could have been the original author of any book, what would it have been and why?
‘Persuasion’ by Jane Austen, because it’s the perfect story of love second time around. But she never got to polish the way she usually did because she became ill and died before she was truly happy with it. All the more reason to treasure it.
29. What advice would you give to your younger self?
Relax, it’ll happen. And that hot surfer guy who flirted with you and told you about building his dream home, don’t let him leave without your phone number!
30. How do you think you’ve evolved creatively?
I’m still evolving. I don’t ever want to stop learning.
Connect with Jane
Giveaway!
No comments:
Post a Comment