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Having fun with Cynthia D’Alba today! Featuring Texas Tango w/review, giveaway, interview

TexasTango72web

 

Hi all! Cynthia D’Alba here. I want to thank Harlie for opening her internet home to me today. Also, I am thrilled she gave me a choice of which questionnaire I wanted to answer. I, of course, want the fun one!

As the Texas Tango tour continues, I’m sure your readers will get ample opportunities to get to know the more serious me. But Harlie is such a fun person I thought today should be about fun.

Top ten things you don’t know about me:

1. Cotton or Silk? – hmm depends on who it on. I LOVE the smell of a starched cotton shirt on a man. But on me, it’s silk, baby! The softer, the smoother, the better.

2. Champagne/beer/wine? – Gosh, this answer is so dependent on my mood. With pizza, it beer. With breakfast, it’s champagne and orange juice. At night and out with friends, it’s wine. Lately I’ve been guzzling, er, sipping on moscato d’asti. I blame fellow Arkansas Author Parker Kincade for that new passion!

3. Plotter/pantser – I want SOOO bad to be a plotter. I take classes. I attend workshops. I have books. And yet…I pants it every time. In the book I’m working on right now (for 2014 release), my heroine refused to talk to me until I got her name right. I’m serious. Dead silence. But once I knew her name, she talks and talks and talks.  I’m right there with you.  I’ve taken classes, read the books and I still pant my stories.  *sigh*

4. Describe your workspace – I have this wonderful office with an antique desk, calming recirculating fountain, pictures of my heroes, my covers on the wall, a full-sized beach towel with Tim McGraw on it and even a La-Z-Boy recliner. However, I’d estimate that 90% of my writing takes places in our living room, in front of the television in a red leather La-Z-Boy recliner my parents bought for me for Christmas about four years ago. I even moved my wireless printer from my office (which is at the other end of the house) to the dining area because that’s just behind my chair. In other words, it’s closer to my “real” work area.  I’m sorry.  Where you describing something?  I stopped at Tim McGraw.

5. Sports fan or just tolerate it? – Love sports, especially football. I prefer college football over pro football. Never watch the NBA or NHL. I’ve been to one professional baseball game. It was fun but I don’t watch it on television. Now, when the Olympics are going, I have every sport running.

“My” team is the University of Arkansas Razorbacks, who are having a horrible year. (Please. I beg you all. Don’t put our win/loss stats in the comments!) But look at their football schedule. All our conference play (SEC) is against ranked teams! YIKES. I’ll pretty much watch the Razorbacks play any sport.  I grew up with a HUGE Razorback fan across the street.  Her whole house was Razorbacks.  Of course this was way back when…the old Southwest Conference.  Yes, I’m showing my age…Sue me!  My team is still the Sooners and hubs team are the Aggies.  And yes, I feel your pain about the SEC.  I’m still upset that the Aggies are no longer in the Big 12.  I HATE Alabama and LSU.  🙂

 

6. Who is your biggest influence on writing? I get this question a lot and I struggle every time to answer it. There are writers I strive to achieve their level of writing skills, like Susan Elizabeth Phillips or Kistan Higgins or Robert Crais. And then there are all the people who took time to show me how it’s done, and take me off the ledge, like Delilah Devlin, Elle James, Leigh Duncan and Donnell Ann Bell.  Elle and DD are the best.  Just saying..

7. Favorite food – Mexican. Hands down. No contest. Now if you make me choose within that specialty, then we’re in trouble. Love Nachos. Love Fajitas. Love chips and dip. Guacamole rules. Chimichanga? Oh yeah. Selecting a favorite Mexican dish would be almost impossible.

8. When did you start writing? I “started” looking at the idea in 2005. I spent the majority of 2006 traveling around the US attending workshops, learning more about the craft. I started winning contests in 2007. In 2010, Texas Two Step won two contests and was my first book published (Samhain Publishing, 2012.)

9. If money were no object, where would you like to live? In the winter, I want to be where it’s warm! Costa Rica. Florida. Belize. In the summer, give me cool. Breckenridge, Colorado or Camden, Maine. Or maybe up in Canada. I think if money were no object, I’d have more than one house. If you FORCED me to pick just one location, I’d pick where I am in Arkansas. Take a peek at my bio page on my website. That’s my house. My yard. I love it here.  I live in Texas and love it. Its just that not tolerating the Texas heat as much as I did when I was younger.  LOL!

10. What’s next for you? Thanks for asking that! I have a novella (still in the Texas Montgomery Mavericks Series) coming out February 2014. Readers of Texas Two Step insisted that Drake Gentry (the heroine’s ex-husband) get his happily-ever-after. Heck, I even got a phone call from my sister demanding I tell her who Drake ended up with. Hee hee. I didn’t.  So I wrote his story in a novella entitled Texas Fandango. It’s a little hot and spicy, so don’t say I didn’t warn you! 

Then in June 2014, I have a short story in Cowboy Heat, an anthology of cowboy stories edited by Delilah Devlin. It’s an impressive group of authors and I’m THRILLED to be a part of it.

I appreciate Harlie having me here to day. I love love love to hear from readers and there are lots of ways to find me.

Isn't she a cutie!
Isn’t she a cutie!

Online, you can find me most days at my website or my group blog.
Follow me at Faceboo,  Twitter,  Google Plus, Goodreads or Pinterest.
or email me at cynthia@cynthiadalba.com

To send me snail mail, write to: Cynthia D’Alba PO Box 2116 Hot Springs, AR 71914

A couple of more things before I skedaddle off. First, be sure to read all the way to send and find out how you can win prizes! Second, Harlie said I could tell you more about TEXAS TANGO.

 

Texas Montgomery Mavericks, Book 2

Dr. Caroline Graham is happy with her nomadic lifestyle fulfilling short-term medical contracts. No emotional commitments, no disappointments. She’s always the one to walk away, never the one left behind. But now her great-uncle is gone and her grandmother is on her deathbed, more concerned about Caroline’s lack of a husband than her own demise. What’s the harm in a little white lie? If a wedding will give her grandmother peace, then a wedding she shall have.

Travis Montgomery has one dream left—to build the ranch he and his wife planned before he lost her to cancer. There’s just one thing standing between him and the last bit of acreage he needs—a last living heir who has one traveling foot out the door…and an unusual request that challenges his determination to never again place his heart at risk. The land he wants in exchange for a faux marriage. Everyone wins. Until things start to snowball…and the hearts they stand to lose are their own.

Warning: This book contains a tortured widower who doesn’t want a wife and an independent doctor who doesn’t want a husband. Hot stuff between the sheets and failed efforts to avoid emotional involvements.

Review:

Lord a mercy.  What a book.  *thud*  Yes, picking my face off my desk as I’m writing this review.  I read alot…LOL, yes, I know hazards of the job but good law…Ms. Alba can write a book.  She sucked me in from the first page and I’m still craving more of Travis and Caroline.   This book was like a drug to me.  Well paced, great characters, a plot twist here or there to make it interesting and throw the whole kink into the fake marriage, and some fancy cars…yep, I need more of this world.

Ms. D’Alba has written two of the most stubborn but fascinating characters that I’ve read in a while.  They could have been two dimensional characters considering the tropes that Ms. D’Alba used but instead I was treated to in depth characterizations of two wounded people that had decided early on that could only rely on themselves.  Caroline being raised by her grandmother because her parents left her to do missionary work and Travis with the death of his wife.  Ms. D’Alba does a great job with both of them and made me root for them harder in the end for their HEA.

I must warn you though that at times, Caroline was the most frustrated for me of the two.  She had much more layers to her than Travis did in the book.  Travis was pretty much cut and dry for me and I appreciated that.  I didn’t get mad at him as much as I did Caroline.  🙂  Caroline just kept getting deeper and deeper in to the lie and honestly didn’t know how to get out of it.  Loved that…

Throw in her brother Noah, a big Montgomery family and of course, the town skank looking to be the next Travis Montgomery and the twists just kept coming.  The scenes at the dance at the club were hilarious.  I could feel the claws coming out.  Again, great scenes.  Another big thing for me was the ages of Caroline and Travis.  They were in their 30’s and weren’t wet behind the ears.  They had mileage and it was good mileage.  Bad experiences will do that do you but what do you do when a great experience is dropped in your lap and your fight it?  Read the book and find out.

I can’t wait for the next book in this series and for some reason I’m seeing KC getting her book but I might be wrong…you know, the Montgomery women didn’t get the stupid gene.  Just ask KC…she’ll tell you.

recommend-harlies- new

5harlies

 

 

TEXAS TANGO is available now at any online bookstore or follow one of the links below.

Amazonamazon |
Samhain |Samhain
Barnes & Noble |Barnes & Noble
Kobo Kobo

Now for the prizes!!

In the spirit of Christmas sneaking up on us, I’ll pick among the comments for someone to take home a western-themed ornament. Here’s just a sample…

Aren't they cute?  Love the saddle...
Aren’t they cute? Love the saddle…

AND there’s more chances to win on my TEXAS TANGO Jewelry-Themed Rafflecopter Giveaway. I’m at a number of stops today, so check out my personal blog/a>blog for other places you can win!

AND I have swag for the asking! But when it’s gone, it’s gone. Pens, jar openers, postcards, bookmarks, trading cards…just go by my contact page and send me a note

a Rafflecopter giveaway

7 thoughts on “Having fun with Cynthia D’Alba today! Featuring Texas Tango w/review, giveaway, interview

  1. I am so excited that Drake is going to get his story. I have a feeling of who his love interest will be, but I could be completely wrong.

    I am definitely more of a pro football fan than college, but I love football in every form.

  2. Good interview and review – I have to admit that when I find a wine/champagne that I like …I tend to guzzle it too….lol

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