Danita Minnis

https://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2023/04/vbt-heart-of-deception-by-gayle-feyrer.html

Gayle Feyrer will be awarding a $25 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

Author Interview

1. How did you choose your genre? What made you write this book?

I love history and love the research. This book was going to have an Italian Renaissance setting, like my first romance, The Prince of Cups. But the publishers weren’t happy with Italy. So I moved the characters to Elizabethan England. The characters were inspired to a greater or lesser degree by the TV show Wiseguy. It’s weird that my Italian plot didn’t have much resemblance to the show, but when I had to devise a new world for them the criminal underground was what worked.

2. Writers write what they know, and must observe the world. Are you a firstborn, middle or last child and how does this shape your view of the world?

I’m an only child with two older half-sisters. I got to be the center of attention but also got to admire and have fun with my sisters. I was rather jealous when they had children because then I wasn’t the kid everyone doted on, but I also wasn’t placed with the adults at the family holiday dinners. Shape my world view? I’m probably more self-centered than I would have been with siblings near in age to me. Then again, I know plenty of self-centered people with siblings. Mostly I feel shaped by being an artist and by being a Libra with Scorpio rising (excellent combo for writing romance – or mystery for that matter).

3. Where is your favorite place to write?

I need a nest to write. Sometimes it’s been no more than a desk and bookcase, sometimes a whole room. After we bought our house, we converted the garage into a studio where I write, do art, make perfumes. The ceiling is turquoise and the walls a deep wine red. It’s always cool in summer, which is great with Global Warming, and in winter I have an electric shawl and gloves for when I write.

4. How do you feel about killing your darlings, and what do you do with the remains?

My instinct with most writing rules is to break them. I do recognize the situations where they apply but I see various “rules” applied like laws. Yes, there are passages that I loved that were excessive and unnecessary and ended on the cutting room floor (saved in a folder). There were also paragraphs that could have been cut and I’d ask “Will the reader stop reading because I leave this darling in.” Well, no, they won’t and the darling lived to tell the tale. There are terse readers that I admire, but my taste runs to literary fiction in all genres. I love words and I love the writers who love them too. I don’t mind stopping reading a book because a passage so beautiful I have to pause and savor it, but there are other writers who’d consider this anathema. I read for story, of course, but character, style, world are as important to me.

5. You are introduced to your favorite author. Who is it, and what is that one burning question you must ask them?

I’d like to ask Shakespeare why he didn’t develop Ophelia as a complex character.

6. Inquiring minds want to know…tell readers something about you that no one knows.

I was going to run away from home when I was six, but I couldn’t decide what dress to wear.

7. You are stranded on a deserted island with only a backpack for company. What three items are in your survival pack?

This is presuming I have a nice stream, have built a shelter, and have lots of available coconuts and the ice skates to chop them open? Well, a big fat book. I’m leaning toward the complete works of Shakespeare, though I do love The Lord of the Rings. Maybe a drone I can tie my cell phone to and send it up for rescue helicopters? And read Tolkien or Willie while I wait? Or maybe insect repellent? Instructions on how to remove hooks from sharks’ mouths, so they’ll love me? If I’m stuck there, I guess the works of Willie the Shake, Tolkien, and reading glasses.

Heart of Deception

by Gayle Feyrer

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GENRE: Historical Romance

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BLURB:

Intrigue and treachery stalk the grimy streets and the royal courts of Elizabethan England. Returning from war, Rafe Fletcher finds his family accused of conspiring to murder Elizabeth and place Mary, Queen of Scots, on her throne. His only hope to save them lies in infiltrating the criminal underworld of nefarious siblings Nick and Vivian Swift.

Rafe discovers it’s Viv who is the mastermind of the duo. Bold, clever and ruthless, Viv is also loyal and fiercely passionate. Rafe fights the intense magnetism that pulls him ever closer to destruction. But desire defies every warning he gives himself and they begin a blazing affair–until murder and betrayal severs their newly formed trust. Restoring that trust may be the only way Rafe can save the Queen, his own family, and the woman he’s come to love.

Their adventure takes them from the fledgling theatres of Shakespeare’s London to the desperate corridors of Bedlam, from the deadly backstreets of the Clink to the glittering court of Queen Elizabeth. It is a world of dark secrets and darker intrigues. Will the fire of their passion burn bright enough to incinerate the lies, and illuminate the truth?

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Excerpt:

Prickling with the awareness of being watched, Rafe looked up to the house, his search stopping at a shadowy form behind the great bow window. He stared up at the window until the shadow moved forward. Circular panes sparkled in the sun as the central casements opened to reveal a woman watching. Dark and slender, she looked clothed in flame, her velvet gown a blaze of scarlet slashed with black. A shock went through Rafe as her glittering gaze met his own, then slowly browsed him from head to toe.

Used to seductive appraisal, flirtatious or serious, still he flushed at the flagrant assessment, and the heat that flashed through him seemed to ignite in her eyes, bright within their dark. Rafe had never seen a lady with so bold a glance, which mocked as it weighed, invited as it challenged. But no lady would be here among these criminals, though the woman gazing down at him knew how to dress the part. Rubies burned at her throat, and ropes of sparkling jet draped her vivid scarlet bodice. The distinctive garb, the total presumptuousness of the woman, made him tense with suspicion. Slowly, her gaze swept his body, scanning the breadth of his shoulders and assessing the strong muscles of his thighs. … The black eyes sought his again, and he stared back defiantly, icy anger running in cold currents against his hot arousal. Rafe felt more than provoked—he felt deliberately tested to see how long he could stand in the fire.

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Gayle Feyrer began drawing as soon as she could hold a crayon and writing when she was twelve. She holds a Bachelor’s in Pictorial Arts from UCLA, and a MFA from the University of Oregon in Creative Writing. In her varied career, she has been a tie-dye artist, go-go dancer, baker, creator of ceramic beasties, illustrator, fiction teacher, and finally, novelist. A Libra with Scorpio Rising, Gayle’s romantic nature takes on a darker edge. She hopes these shadows bring depth to her romances.

A world traveler, Gayle has visited Paris, England, and Italy numerous times. She lived for two years in Jakarta, Indonesia, with many trips around Asia. She currently resides across the bridge from San Francisco, with her husband and their two rescue cats, Charlotte and Emily, the Flying Bronte sisters, half Siamese and half tabby.

Tygerbright Press – Novels of Romance and Mystery: https://tygerbright.com/

https://www.facebook.com/YvesFey

Gayle Feyrer (@yves_fey) • Instagram photos and videos: https://www.instagram.com/yves_fey/

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/heart-of-deception-gayle-feyrer/1143302694

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