Author Robyn DeHart Visits

Please join me in welcoming award-winning author Robyn DeHart back to Thoughts in Progress as the special guest blogger as she makes a stop on her virtual book tour to wrap up her LEGEND HUNTERS series.

Robyn’s latest installment in the series, TREASURE ME, has just been released. Here’s a brief synopsis: “The Legend Hunters . . .
The Men of Solomon's meet in secret, their very existence only a rumor among the best of Victorian society. They are treasure hunters, men of wealth and title, seekers of myths and legends. And no legend is as captivating as the Loch Ness monster . . .

Graeme Langford, Duke of Rothmore, has always been torn between his beloved Scottish homeland and his duty to the English Crown. Yet his is truly an adventurer's soul-and he's determined to find a long-lost stone hidden near Loch Ness.

Bookish Vanessa Pembrooke heads to the Highlands to prove the existence of the legendary beast. Instead she finds the first man who has ever shared her hunger for adventure. Soon Graeme and Vanessa are fighting a dangerous battle as well as their own simmering attraction. As their passion grows, so does the danger. Ultimately, they must risk everything to keep the cursed stone out of a murderer's hands. But can they survive without losing the greatest treasure of all-their love?”

Thanks to Robyn, Anna, and the good folks at Hachette Book Group, I am able to offer 3 copies of  TREASURE ME as giveaways. Please see the end of the post for the giveaway guidelines.

Robyn indulged my curiosity by answering some questions about her writing and her latest release.

Mason - The legend of Loch Ness is intriguing on its own, why add a hidden stone to the plot?
 
ROBYN - You know, I agree. The Loch Ness mystery of whether there is or isn't a creature swimming in that loch is truly fascinating. But to go with the rest of the Legend Hunters books I needed to put my characters on a quest so I created the treasure and subtly played with the myth of the dragon that guards the treasure.

Mason - How did you go about doing research for this book?
 
ROBYN - Well, I had to do some research on the setting since this is the first book I've ever set in Scotland and I have never been to Scotland. So I spent hours looking at pictures of the highlands just to get a feel for the landscape. And I read about the Stone of Destiny and learned all about its biblical history and the ties it has to the Scottish people. It has a fascinating story and some of that made it into the book, but I did my own spin on it to add drama and fit it into my fictional world. In my book, it is believed that the stone was stolen by the English and brought to Westminster and placed in the throne upon which they do the coronations (you can see if briefly in The King's Speech) so it didn't seem too much of a stretch to me that the Scots could have known the Brits were coming and planted a replica for them to steal. 
 
Mason - What was the most enjoyable part of writing this book?
 
ROBYN - Definitely the dynamics between the characters. Sometimes when you write a book the chemistry between the characters doesn't feel natural and you have to build it in slowly in revisions, but other times are magic and you can feel it from the beginning. And with Graeme and Vanessa everything just fell into place with them, and scenes with the two of them were exciting to write. Also bringing back the Raven from SEDUCE ME was great. I got such wonderful reader response about him and it seemed fitting that when I needed a nasty villain, I might as well return to the best. 
 
Mason - When developing your characters, do you draw any of their traits from people you know or do you create dream characters?
 
ROBYN - You know I don't, at least not consciously. I do a lot of character work before I start writing, but I never look to the people in my life. Somehow that feels strange though I know plenty of writers who do this and do it well. But for me I just need to focus on finding the character's essence (at least that's what I call it) it's just that feeling I get when I know I've got the core of the character. Once I have that, the rest of it falls into place. I teach entire workshops on developing characters cause it can be a lot of work. 

Mason - What can readers look forward to next from you?
 
ROBYN - I don't have any firm details at this point, but I can say you can probably expect another Victorian-set series from me with characters that get into all kinds of trouble. I'll post details on my website as soon as I have them. Thanks so much for participating in my blog tour!

Robyn, thank you for guest blogging here today. It’s always fun learning more background about a writer’s story.

For more background on Robyn, visit her at www.RobynDeHart.com  and at www.JauntyQuills.com

The other two installments in the LEGEND HUNTERS series are DESIRE ME and SEDUCE ME. Known for her unique plotlines and authentic characters, Robyn is a favorite among readers and reviewers. Publishers Weekly claims her writing to be "comical and sexy" while the Chicago Tribune dubs her "wonderfully entertaining." A two-time Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice award nominee, Robyn has earned 4 star and 4 ¿ star top pick reviews on all her books and Kathe Robin says, "Like Amanda Quick, DeHart [will] keep you up all night."

Here are the giveaway guidelines. To enter this giveaway, send me an e-mail (mcbookshelf@gmail.com) with the subject line, “Win TREASURE ME.” Your message should include your name and mailing address. The contest is open to residents of the U.S. and Canada only and no post office box addresses can be accepted. In addition, Hachette advises winners that they will be subject to the one copy per household rule, which means that if they win the same title in two or more contests, they will receive only one copy of the title in the mail. (Winners here have always be great about letting me know if they have already won the book somewhere else so another winner can be selected. However, this announcement is something that has to be passed along from Hachette). And, just so you know, I don’t share the mailing information or use it for any other purpose. The deadline to enter this giveaway for a chance at one of 3 copies of TREASURE ME (ISBN:9780446541985), a 352 page paperback, will be 8 p.m. (EST) on Friday, March 18.

What are your thoughts on the Loch Ness monster and hidden treasure?


 

Guest Blogger, Robyn DeHart

Please join me in welcoming author Robyn DeHart as the special guest blogger here today at Thoughts in Progress while she makes a stop on her tour of the blogsphere.

Robyn’s latest book, DESIRES ME, was just released. Thanks to Robyn, Anna and the folks at Hachette Book Group I have 5 copies of the book to giveaway. Please see the giveaway details at the end of the post.

Here’s a brief synopsis of DESIRES ME: “Years ago, Maxwell Barrett found a map to Atlantis and dedicated his life to the search for the mystical lost continent. But when an alluring woman makes a wager for the priceless artifact, he may have discovered an even greater treasure.

A descendant of Atlantis, Sabine Tobias needs the map to decipher an ancient prophecy. What she doesn't need are the sparks flying between her and Max. He's too devilishly charming to be trusted: The fate of her people is at stake as well as her heart. Yet a ruthless killer also covets the map. Now Max and Sabine must race to decode the prophecy's riddle before this criminal fulfills his deadly mission.”

For Robyn’s stop here today, I asked her, “did any of the recent movies about treasure seekers inspire you to write this book, were they more of a problem for you or did they have no effect on your writing?”

Great question! But I’d want to ask you a question in return. J By recent movies, do you mean the National Treasure movies and the DaVinci Code? If by those, I’d have to say no, these movies had no real affect on my series as I came up with my Legend Hunters idea before I’d seen these movies. But I would say that movies like the Mummy and Indiana Jones and Romancing the Stone certainly would have been inspiration for me.

I think most writers would tell you that there are no new stories in the world. We’ve all been retelling the basic stories over and over again, it’s just in the way we package them that makes them new and fresh. So I know there is probably borrowing that takes place when it comes to story construction, you take elements you like and repackage them. Not the same thing as plagiarism, of course, that is completely unacceptable. But case in point, I got the

inspiration for my cursed bracelets in the first Legend Hunter book, SEDUCE ME from the second Mummy movie. My bracelets were completely different, but the concept was the same.

So I’ve said that the National Treasure movies didn’t act as inspiration, but I will admit that while I was working on my own scavenger hunt for DESIRE ME, I kept hearing that line from the movie again and again in my head, “and that will lead to another clue, which lead to another clue…” It made me chuckle as I worked out the clues and riddles for Sabine and Max.

As to the second part of the question, no, none of them were a problem for my writing. If anything it was encouraging to know that people still like those types of stories. I can only hope they translate well to the written word. I have been harboring fantasies though that some movie producer will find my series and put my characters on the big screen. I can see it now, the quest for Atlantis, the elixir, the ancient prophecy and all the murder and mayhem…now that’s an adventure!

Thanks for having me today!

Robyn, thanks for dropping by during your tour. Now I will have that line from NATIONAL TREASURE playing in my head all day, LOL.

For a little background on Robyn, she’s always known that she wanted to be a writer. It took her a while, however, to figure out precisely what she wanted to write. Reading Kathleen Woodiwiss’ A ROSE IN WINTER sealed the deal for her  and she’s been reading and writing romance ever since. For more on Robyn check out her group blog.

Oh, the giveaway (thought I’d forgot, didn’t you). I have five copies of DESIRES ME to giveaway, thanks to Robin, Anna and the Hachette Book Group. To enter the giveaway send an e-mail (mcbookshelf@gmail.com) with “Win Desires Me” in the subject line and be sure to include your name and address in the body of the e-mail. The giveaway is open to residents of U.S. and Canada only and no post office box addresses. The giveaway ends June 21.