Guest Post with Author Seleste Delaney and Giveaway

Today author Seleste Delaney is visiting and she's chatting all about her newest release, Gaming for Keeps. Please give Seleste a warm welcome.

Seleste started on her career path as a young child. Stories of talking animals soon gave way to a love of superheroes and science fiction. Her first foray into the world of romance came at age twelve when she envisioned a sweeping epic love story of two people thrust together and torn apart again and again by fate. As she recalls, the plan was for them to admit their love on his deathbed. But, as is often the case with pre-teen girls, a story of that depth gave way to other pursuits, and sadly it is completely lost other than vague memories.

After that, she occupied herself with short stories for a while, and then poetry until after she had earned a degree in chemistry, spent time as a high school teacher, and became a mother of two. Then she delved into writing fiction once more.

She never lost her love of the fantastic, and her stories now always reach into other realms. The worlds and people she creates occupy as much of her time as the real world, and she is most fortunate to have a family that understands her idiosyncrasies and loves her anyway.

Places to find Seleste:

| Site | Blog | Facebook | Twitter | 

What the? TRAIT?

When I submitted Gaming for Keeps, Cal was an agent for some unnamed spy organization. The thought was that the reader would fill that blank in however they wanted. Needless to say, my editor questioned that plan-and wisely so.

You see, the "agency"(Yes, I was that lame in draft mode) wasn't like your standard FBI or CIA. They were quirky. Weird even. So we started talking about all sorts of things from superheroes to mercenaries. I left that conversation trying to figure out where Cal fit.

He wasn't a superhero-no radioactive spiders or alien parents or anything like that. At best he was more like Hawkeye and Black Widow (movie version-my comic knowledge is sorely lacking I'm ashamed to admit)-a guy with an incredible skill set but?a glitch so to speak. And they weren't mercenaries. From word go, I saw "the agency" as a government entity. So I thought some more. I thought about Chuck (a horribly under-rated show) and Alias and Human Target (another horribly under-rated show) and The Finder (*cries* MCD sads *cries*). Those were more along the lines of how I saw Cal.

What it came down to was thinking about the other agents. Did they have quirks too? Things that made them different from your garden variety spies? As I thought about big, bad Trevor and Marissa-the-would-be-supermodel, a plan began formulating. It's wasn't quirks they had so much as "traits" that made them unfit for the FBI and the CIA and all those other branches. These were the people who were too dangerous for that work but too good to let disappear.

Which meant "the agency" couldn't be standard fare either. This was a special group who took on the emergency missions, the missions other people didn't know how to deal with?the super-secret stuff (that's like forty-two levels above top secret, in case you wondered). And with that, TRAIT (the Tactical Response And Investigative Team) was born. No one who works there is a "normal" spy, but they are all patriots and they are all their own versions of awesome.

It's a world that makes me giddy every time I think about it. I'm hoping it's one I get to visit over and over again. And I'm hoping you'll all join me for the trip.

Pen Holloway’s done with men—in real life. Guys in game are so much less drama. But when her partner from Heroes of Fallen Gods invites her to the convention of the year, she panics. What if he’s another jerk? What if he’s not?

Cal Burrows is living his dream of being a spy. One of TRAIT’s misfit spies, but still a spy. It’s the perfect job… until an arms dealer with a taste for blood invades his not-so-secret geek haven. All Cal wanted from ConDamned was to meet his on-line girl. Now, with the threat of mass murder looming, he’s forced to choose between keeping his mission a secret and protecting the girl of his dreams.

Purchase: | Amazon | Barnes & Noble |

Check out what's up for grabs.

Up For Grabs:

• 1 lucky person will win an eBook copy of Gaming for Keeps

To Enter: 

• Please leave a question or comment for Seleste.
• Please fill out the Rafflecopter form.

Good Luck! 

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