Guest Post with Tori St. Claire and Giveaway

Today I would like to welcome back to the blog author Tori St. Claire. Tori is celebrating the recent release of her book Lie To Me and has stopped by to chat. Before I give the floor over to Tori, lets get to know her a bit.

National Bestselling author Tori St. Claire grew up writing. Hobby quickly turned into passion, and when she discovered the world of romance as a teen, poems and short stories gave way to full length novels with sexy heroes and heroines waiting to be swept off their feet. She wrote her first romance novel at seventeen.

While that manuscript gathered dust-bunnies beneath the bed, she went on to establish herself as a contemporary, historical, and paranormal author under the pen name, Claire Ashgrove. Her writing, however, skirted a fine line between hot and steamy, and motivated by authors she admired, she pushed her boundaries and made the leap into erotica, using the darker side of human nature and on-the-edge suspense to drive grittier, sexier, stories.

Her erotic romantic suspense novels are searingly sensual experiences that unite passion with true emotion, and the all-consuming tie that binds -- love.

Places to find Tori:

| Site | Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Claire Ashgrove Site |

The Life of An Erotic Romance Author Mom

When people find out I’m a single mom of two small boys, I’m frequently told, “I don’t know how you do it.” Initially, I have to say, it was a little difficult. But there are a few things I’ve learned to help me manage.

Delegation Is A Mom’s Best Friend

My children, even at the young ages of 6 and 5, have chores. We own a farm, and they know that if they want to keep the critters there are jobs they must complete. So while I’m fixing dinner, my eldest is turning on stock tanks, my youngest is lining up the dog food bowls and checking the cat feeders. It keeps me sane and frees up time. And my children are learning responsibility, and they’re delightfully independent!

9-5 Means Nothing

I stopped worrying about trying to push everything into a 9-5 day. I’m a night owl by nature, and I adapted my writing schedule to fall more at night than during the daylight hours. It’s easier that way. Plus, I get to sleep in! (Independent children know how to make cereal on the mornings Mom has worked all night.)

I Will Never Be A PTA Mom

When my eldest first enrolled for school I felt great pressure to attend all the PTA meetings, make cupcakes, volunteer for parties, and so forth. It was like running a rat-race that I really had no interest in winning the stale cheese. I just didn’t have the time, either. So I came to peace with the fact I won’t ever be a PTA Mom. Not that I’d really fit in… I mean… I write erotic romance, and that’s (gasp!) not suitable for discussion within a hundred miles of childrens’ ears.

Throw the Doors Wide Open

I used to try to hide the necessary discussions involving my books. If I had a plot problem and needed to confer with a fellow author or my agent, it would wait until after bedtime. Which meant, more often than not, the discussion wouldn’t occur because it was too late. So I stopped worrying about shielding everything from my boys. Yes, they may hear more than they perhaps should, but I look at it this way: I shouldn’t ever have to worry about that subject when they get older. Hopefully it will become so commonplace that its “old news” to teenage barrels of hormones. Fingers crossed. I may be deluding myself. J

I Refuse to Feel Guilty

I simply cannot schedule an activity every night of the week. This used to bother me a great deal – the neighbor kids were playing football right after soccer, taking martial arts in between, and swimming lessons somewhere in the middle. While my children were playing outdoors, with soccer practice one night a week. I gave up the guilt and accepted some of these things are simply going to have to wait until they become after-school sports. It’s made things a heck of a lot more enjoyable, and I no longer resent the one-night-a-week soccer practice, Saturday games, and Boy Scouts on the immediate horizon.

So what about all of you? Do you find it hard to juggle mom and personal interests? If you’re a writer, how do you make it all fit?

A man of action…

After helping to break up a Russian human trafficking ring as part of the CIA’s elite Black Opal team, Alexei Nikanova’s newest assignment is to rescue one of the stolen women and return her to her father. When he arrives in Dubai, he discovers his target is Sasha Zablosky—a woman he knows all too well, and who has haunted him ever since their unforgettable time together in Moscow, two and a half years earlier. But he finds Sasha reluctant to leave her sheikh, the only true friend she’s ever known. Only Alexei can’t give her a choice.

A woman of deception…

With their yearning roused by intrigue, Alexei and Sasha can no longer resist temptation, and spend night after night in forbidden pleasure. Soon Alexei finds himself falling for her, even as he battles a shadowy menace to protect her. But Sasha is no innocent. She has a past darker than she could ever admit, one that Alexei could never forgive. And it is about to explode into her life once more. As the lies they tell themselves—and each other—pull them deeper into a perilous desire, what began as simple passion becomes a love certain to destroy them and end the lives of countless innocents.

Places to Purchase:

| Amazon | Kindle | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository |

He swallowed down the sound, and his kiss took on more languor, aggressive demands ebbing into a gentle play until his mouth left hers altogether and he lifted his head. His lustful gaze scorched into her. The hard fall of his breath stirred the fine blonde hairs on her forehead. He pressed his cheek to hers, grazed her sensitive skin with the coarse stubble along his jaw.

The pleasant friction sent another bout of delightful shivers surging through Sasha’s body. She dropped one hand to his waist, plucked his shirt free, and slipped her fingers beneath to explore his warm flesh.

“Ah, Sasha,” he murmured against her temple. “Tell me you don’t hate me.”

Her hand stilled at the base of his spine. Hate him. How could she explain that feeling had never once struck? If she confessed to the truth, she’d look weak, sound like a fool. She should hate him. And yet . . . she didn’t. After everything, even after all he’d done to destroy her life, she could not hate Alexei. Turning her head, she met his gaze. “Alexei, I—”

He closed his eyes, but not before he could shutter away a flash of anguish in those green depths. “Lie to me, princess. I need to believe.”

It was a plea he hadn’t needed to utter. She lifted up into him and caught his lips with hers. “I don’t hate you,” she whispered against his mouth.

A low snarl rumbled in the back of his throat a second before his mouth crashed into hers and claimed her savagely. His hands speared into her hair, holding her head in place, imprisoning her to the fierceness of his desperate kiss. She met the stroke of his tongue eagerly, tugged on the hem of his shirt, pushing it up, exposing his abdomen, equally desperate to feel the warmth of his skin against hers.

When that moment of blissful contact came, Sasha let out a plaintive mewl. Blessed torture. Perfect.

Nowhere near enough. She hooked an ankle around his calf and levered her hips into his, stroking herself against his hardened cock.

Alexei tore his mouth away with effort. “Easy, princess,” he rasped. Bracing his hands on both sides of her shoulders, he lifted his upper body away from hers. The faintest hint of a smile touched the corners of his mouth. “Don’t ruin me for the race. I’m already halfway to the finish.” The faint smile disappeared as he lowered his head and grazed his teeth along the delicate shell of her ear. “I want to be inside you when I come,” he whispered. The tip of his tongue flicked against her earlobe. “I want you to come around me. I need that. Can you give it to me, princess?”

Check out the other book in The Black Opals series:

Click on cover for more info. 

Want to win some goodies from Tori? Check out what's up for grabs.

Up for grabs:

• 1 lucky commenter (US ONLY) will win a paperback copy of Lie To Me courtesy of the publisher
• 1 lucky commenter from the  ENTIRE tour will win a $25 Amazon Gift Card
• 2 lucky commenters from the ENTIRE tour will win a basket of swag from Tori

To Enter:

• Please answer the question:  Do you find it hard to juggle mom and personal interests? If you’re a writer, how do you make it all fit?
• Please leave your email address along with your comment to be entered in the tour-wide giveaways
• Please fill out the Rafflecopter form to win a copy of Lie To Me.

Good Luck  =)

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