Welcome, Rachel Brimble

 I'd like to welcome Rachel to Dishin' It Out.  We've put together a few questions and answers so readers can better get to know her.

1)   Are you on track to meet your goals this year and do you have any for 2012?

I love goals! I am a goal fanatic. I work better under pressure than any other time so I tend to set weekly, monthly and yearly goals to keep me focused. I am happy to say I will achieve all my 2011 goals by the end of November which were write three novels and get an agent. I know, nothing too taxing then!

I secured a fabulous agent in March so that was fantastic and two of the three books are already with her. Book number three will be done by the end of November so I am really pleased. My goals for 2012 are less than 2011 because my books are likely to be longer as requested by my agent! Therefore, the goal is simple – two 90,000 word novels.

2)   Where would you like your career to be in five years?

I’d love to be self-sufficient through my writing. That is my ultimate goal. I don’t necessarily need the millions (although it would be nice!), but what I would like is to think I could support my children and myself just through my writing. That would be fantastic!

3)   Best thing you have learned from an agent/editor?

I can answer that question for both –

Editor – Know your characters backstories inside out. This is massive because it is the essence of who they are and why they make the decisions they do today. Whatever happens to us from childhood to adulthood shapes who were are in any given moment. Knowing your characters provides their motivation and ultimately their stories.

Agent – She has taught what polishing a manuscript REALLY means! My writing has honestly never been as good as it is now. I cannot wait for the release of my next book. I am very, very proud of it.

4)   What surprised you the most once you became published?

The time spent on promotion, definitely. It takes up a lot of time but it is also essential part of your future success. There was a time I got sucked into too much promotion which meant I was not producing any new work. DO NOT make the same mistake.

Now I figure out how much writing I have each day and limit myself to a quarter dedicate to promo, the rest creativity. It works!

5)   Tell us about your latest release…

It is a contemporary romance set against the gritty underworld of the UK nightclubs and pubs. Here’s the blurb:

Nightclub manager Grace Butler is on a mission to buy the pub where her

mother's ashes are scattered but the owner wants to sell to anyone but her. And that owner happens to be her father...who has a secret she

will do anything to discover.

Social worker and all around good guy Jimmy Betts needs funds to buy a

house for three special kids before their care home closes. Time is running out

and he's desperate for cash. He agrees to a one-time 'job' for bad-man

Karl Butler. But in a sudden turn of events, Jimmy finds himself employed by

Karl's beautiful, funny and incredibly sexy daughter, Grace. Their lives couldn't be more different, yet one thread binds them: they're both trying to escape the bonds of their fathers. Maybe the only way they'll be free is by being together, instead of alone.

http://www.lyricalpress.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=81&products_id=424

6)   What are you working on right now?

I am coming to the very end of book number nine which is a sexy contemporary romance with a huge dollop of humor. I am LOVING writing this book! Totally in love with the hero and want the heroine to be my best friend forever.

It is set in a small town in South West England and about a woman who wants to move her sexy lingerie and toyshop into her home after her business rate goes through the roof. That’s fine. If her new hunky neighbor hadn’t just moved in next door with his two young and very impressionable four-year-old twin girls.  He is far from happy…

For more about Rachel, visit her website.

Welcome, Rachel Brimble

But I can’t write that…can I?

When I started writing, I dreamed of having a romantic suspense novel published. That dream became a reality upon my first acceptance from The Wild Rose Press in 2007.

Searching For Sophie was my baby, my first attempt at a novel which I re-wrote and revised at least half a dozen times and my editor (God bless her!) worked on to make it the best it could be. The book was released in July the following year and I was ecstatic. After that? Another romantic suspense for The Wild Rose Press. Reluctant Witness was released in 2009.

And then something strange happened. Something which threw a curve ball into my nice comfy writing future, something that surprised me as much as it scared me…

That something was actually a someone, Hannah…Hannah Boyd.

            This was the first character (and only one since!) who came to me fully formed and talking with a voice I could clearly hear whenever she chose to speak to me. I could hear her accent, her laugh, her derision, her mindset, everything. I wrote her story in three months which was the quickest ever for me and trust me, the quickest since since.

            A romantic comedy, The Sharp Points of a Triangle is set at a financial advisers’ seminar in rural England. Not the most natural setting for a romantic comedy you might say but Hannah told me her job from the first day she came unbidden into my mind, and then I just wrote what she told me. The book was accepted by Eternal Press and released in January this year to great review, thank goodness.

            http://gotromancereviews.blogspot.com/2010/01/sharp-points-of-triangle-by-rachel.html?zx=3a2b3b2cc7f6ad45

            http://longandshortreviews.blogspot.com/2010/03/sharp-points-of-triangle-by-rachel.html

            So that was it – I thought I know my calling, I was a writer of contemporary fiction whether it be suspense or comedy, onwards and upwards - then came a visit with my mother to an historic stately home near where I live in South West England…

            We had been treated to afternoon tea at the beautiful estate of Lucknam Park in Colerne near Bath (www.lucknampark.co.uk) and the moment I walked inside I knew this would become the home to one of my hero’s. And then somewhere in between eating a teeny-weeny salmon sandwich and an even tinier chocolate éclair, it came to me…my very first historical! Ta da!

            But no, I wasn’t happy about this revelation, I was terrified!

            I couldn’t write an historical…could I??

            I went home, ran to my laptop and immediately found myself opening the preliminary plans I’d been drawing up over the previous two weeks about a heroine who I could not figure out. I didn’t get her story. Something wasn’t clicking. Her voice didn’t fit – and then I realized who she was.

            She was Lily, daughter to a wealthy Victorian gentleman on the run from an arranged marriage. She was the heroine for my hero of Lucknam Park, Cotswold Manor as it became.

            I started writing, I LOVED researching and before I knew it, I was actually doing it, I was writing my very first historical. Sick with nerves and self-doubt, I asked myself again and again who I thought I was that I could attempt an historical when all I’d written before was contemporary. But then I let myself off the hook, stopped beating myself up – yes, I wasn’t an historian, yes, I didn’t know or claim to know everything about the Victorian era but love was love in 1895 as it is in 2010 and that, I could write about.

            So ‘The Arrival of Lily Curtis’ is a romance set against a Victorian background – and I am eternally grateful to The Wild Rose Press for the huge surge of confidence they gave me when they offered me a contract straight away. Here’s a short excerpt. I’d love to know what you think!

           

            The clock ticked like a heartbeat behind him, the fire crackled and spat. Andrew unconsciously held his breath waiting to see what this unpredictable woman would do next. One minute she seemed so full of grace and intellect, the next full of fire and resentment. The two distinctions in her personality shouldn’t have fit but they did— inexplicitly so.

“Well, what do you say?” he pressed.

She dropped her gaze and curtsied, throwing him off-guard once again. He felt his jaw tighten as he looked at her bowed head.

“I thank you, sir,” she said. “But I know my place and to sit with you and your guests would be most unacceptable.”

He stared at her. “Unacceptable?”

“Yes, sir.”

Andrew watched her for a moment longer before slowly crossing his arms. “You have a very genteel way about you,” he said. “One would almost suspect you have been educated.”

She snapped her head up, another flash of color darkening her cheeks. “Not at all, sir. I…I try to

better myself and the way I speak, that is all.”

He smiled. “Really?”

“Yes, sir.” She paused, a sudden glint in her eyes. “Of course, if it is not to your liking, I can

always revert to common speech and bad manners. It comes easily to me either way.”

Andrew felt the burst of laughter bubbling beneath his diaphragm and could do nothing to stop it erupting. It burst from his mouth and reverberated around the room. Uneasy laughter

rippled around the table, joining him in his amusement. He ignored them, not caring about

anything else but this enigma in front of him. His friends clearly laughed because of who he was rather than their shared delight, Lily on the other hand didn’t seem to care who he was and would say just what she pleased.

“You are quite agreeable just the way you are.”  He grinned. “If you wish to continue with your

duties, then I will not stop you.”

He walked back to his chair and sat down. “Nicholas, another bottle of wine if you please. I have the distinct feeling a long night is ahead.”

“Of course, sir.”

Andrew tried and failed to wipe the smile from his face as Lily threw him a look of satisfaction

before obediently following Nicholas from the room.  He picked up his glass and took a long mouthful.

Lily Curtis may be just what Cotswold Manor needed right now.

www.rachelbrimble.com

http://www.thewildrosepress.com/the-arrival-of-lily-curtis-p-4124.html

http://www.eternalpress.biz/book.php?isbn=9781770650138

Welcome, Rachel Brimble

This is my very first offering as a guest blogger so I thank Ginger from the bottom of my heart for taking a risk with me! Now, let’s see if I can draw you to the edge of your seats in anticipation of wanting to read my latest novel…
I am already an author of two romantic suspense novels, but it is my latest release I am here to talk about today. The Sharp Points of a Triangle is a sexy, romantic comedy and my first release with Eternal Press. Inspired by a newspaper article about about past lovers reunited, the book was my favorite to write so far. Hannah Boyd and Jamie Young leapt from the page and became the funniest, smartest, sexiest couple I have created to date.

Let me tell you a little about the book and then I’ll post an excerpt.

Hannah is flying high – newly appointed as the youngest female financial adviser in the UK, she is more than ready to accept her boss’ challenge of securing one of the wealthiest men in the country as a client. They embark on a four day Medieval themed conference where the client is attending and Hannah begins her seduction…but then her worst nightmare comes true when her biggest rival turns out to be the ex who broke her heart six years before - Jamie. An ex who will do whatever it takes to prove how much he still loves her and get her back by his side where she belongs…

Excerpt: (CONTAINS SEXUAL CONTENT)

I look down at my fingers lingering above the waist band of his jeans. Have I lost my mind? I whip my arm back so quickly I hear a crick in my shoulder.

“Sorry, sorry, I don’t know...”

But then his lips are pressing down hard against mine. I feel his arm come round and support my back which I am bloody grateful for, because although swooning women are a thing of the past, I’m not sure my legs will hold me. He pushes his tongue tentatively into my mouth and I lift mine to meet his, his lips linger somewhere between soft and firm, and for a long moment my mind is whirling. There is a red hot stirring between my legs and I kiss him back with everything I’ve got.

I lift my hands to his face and pull him closer. A gasp escapes my lips when he gently nudges my feet apart and presses a thigh firmly between my legs. He begins to tug at the hem of my dress and with our lips still connected, I lift my arms. The silky material glides up my back and our mouths separate for a brief moment as he lifts it over my head, before joining once more.

“Hannah.”

He breathes my name into my mouth and I feel a solitary tear slide slowly down my cheek. This is all so wrong, but I can’t stop. I don’t want to stop. Eventually, I have to pull away for fear of drowning.

“Let’s swim.”

We quickly discard the remainder of our clothes and sprint towards the water. I cannot believe what I’m doing, and I’m secretly hoping the moonlight isn’t bouncing too savagely off my lily white ass. My breath catches as I leap head first into the waves and when I re-surface, Jamie snatches me close.

I can feel the length of his erection pressing up against my belly. I smile as I reach up to push the hair from his eyes. “Now that’s just showing off,” I say.

“What is?” he murmurs, his eyes lingering over my breasts as they bob above the water.

“There aren’t many men who could dive into cold water like this and maintain an erection of that size.”

He raises an eyebrow. “That size, huh? The lady is impressed.”

I reach my arms around his neck. “Nah, not really.”

He throws his head back and laughs. The sound penetrates my skin and fills my heart. And I know in that moment, I want to hear him laugh forever. I look into his eyes and purposefully, push the notion of regret to the back of my mind. I lean closer and his smile slowly dissolves as my lips find his. I taste salt, feel heat and hear my own blood rushing through my veins as he lifts me. My legs easily encircle his waist. The world drifts farther and farther away from us. It’s Jamie and I, alone, happy, re-discovering each other…

“Hey you, Mr. and Mrs. Naked Lovers! Yoo-hoo!”

We break apart and turn to the shore. I slap one hand over each tit.
“Oh, good God. Nooooooo!”

But it’s too late. The three teenagers have taken our clothes and they’re running, screaming and laughing up the beach like the little shits they are. I turn to Jamie who is staring at them as though hypnotized.

Please check out my website: www.rachelbrimble.com