Guest Author Interview - Delaney Diamond

Hi Kiru! Thank you for letting me take over your blog today. I’m looking forward to meeting your readers and I hope you receive a warm welcome from the ones on my blog.

1.     Tell us about yourself.

I was born and raised in the United States Virgin Islands and currently live in Atlanta, GA. I enjoy reading and writing, and when my head’s not buried in a book, you’ll find me in the kitchen cooking. I also love to travel, and if I had more money, that’s the one thing I would do more. I speak French and can get by in Spanish.

2.     What do you do for fun?

I often get out of the house. I work from home, so I get out of the house to unwind because my home is my workplace. I either go to a movie, out to dinner, or somewhere else with friends. If I’m relaxing at home, I watch movies (yeah, Netflix!) or cook. I have a stereo mounted in the kitchen, so I listen to music as I cook. It really relaxes me, plus there’s a great end result—I get to eat!

3.     What dish, when you prepare it, has everyone asking for seconds?

I have a number of popular dishes: meatloaf, roasted chicken with rosemary and garlic, and baked mashed potatoes (made with cheese and scallions—delish). Popular Caribbean dishes are my Virgin Islands stuffing (this is a potato dish we eat around the holidays), curry goat, and escoveitch fish.

4.     Which TV show(s) can you absolutely not miss every week?

Last Man Standing, Man Up, and Modern Family; to a lesser degree, Law & Order SVU. I loved the first season of Happy Endings, but the new season isn’t as good to me.

5.     What are your favorite types of movies to watch?

Comedies, romantic comedies, and action flicks. Matter of fact, I’ll watch just about any movie with Jason Statham, Bruce Willis, and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson kicking butt in it.

6.     Did you always want to be a writer? If not, what else did you want to do?

No, I wanted to be a teacher, then a secretary. Despite winning some short story contests in high school, I never considered becoming an author. By the time I finished high school, I knew I wanted to go into the business field, which I did. I have two business degrees with concentrations in international business, and I minored in French. In 2009 I decided I wanted to start writing romantic fiction, and my first book was published November 2010.

7.     Do you have any writing rituals that help to get your mojo flowing so you can write?

I don’t have any rituals, but everything must be just right. I can’t have the TV on or music playing. They distract me.

8.     Do you have a single book or character that’s dear to your heart, and why?

That’s like asking a parent which child they love the most! LOL. What I will say is that Fight for Love (Book 2 of my Hot Latin Men series) is very popular with readers. I think readers really empathized with this couple.

Rebekah and Rafael were young when they fell in love, and Rebekah’s parents never approved of him. Their marriage fell apart because she didn’t trust him after the tabloids printed a scandalous story about him and his fellow wrestlers, and he didn’t fight hard enough to hold onto her. They both made mistakes, but in the end they worked through their problems and found happiness together. It’s a bit of an emotional story with a little comic relief sprinkled in by way of their son.

9.     If you could date one hero from one of your books, who would it be and why?

Roarke Hawthorne from The Temptation of a Good Man (Hawthorne Family series), because he’s an astrophysicist (intelligence is so sexy on a man), he’s a good guy, he likes listening to live music (I love that, too!), and he knows his way around a woman’s body. J

10. Is there such a thing as too much sex in a romance novel?

Yes. I love a steamy read just as much as the next person, but I like to get to know the characters and learn about their experiences. There have been times when I’ve skipped sex scenes because I really couldn’t take another one. 

SECTION 2

The Temptation of a Good Man

Blurb:

Can true love be found after one night of passion?

Celeste Burton goes out with her girlfriends to celebrate turning thirty and winds up spending an unforgettable night with the man of her dreams. One week later, as a favor, she attends a wedding with a friend as his date and is shocked when she sees Roarke again.

Roarke Hawthorne despises cheating. Cheating tore apart his family years ago. When the physics professor sees the woman he spent the night with show up at his sister’s wedding on the arm of his brother, he knows he should keep his distance. But because of the night they set fire to the sheets in his hotel room, he can’t resist the urge to be close to her–nor can he resist the temptation to have her back in his bed.

Excerpt:

Lust flickered in his eyes, and for tense moments they stared at each other, lost in the memories of heated whispers and tangled sheets. Then, as suddenly as he’d grabbed her, he dropped her arm like a hot coal.

“Derrick doesn’t deserve to be lied to and made a fool of.” He stepped around her toward the door.

Celeste grabbed his forearm to stall his exit. “Wait, please.”

“Celeste, I can’t do this.”

She slipped between him and the door. She couldn’t be the reason for a confrontation between the two brothers, and she couldn’t bear the humiliation of Derrick finding out she’d slept with his brother the first night they met. “Please don’t say anything to Derrick. I’ll stay out of your way. I promise. You won’t even know I’m here.”

He looked down at her hand, and she followed his gaze to where her fingers wrapped around his arm. She withdrew them with haste. When her eyes found his again, desire shimmied down her spine at the hunger she saw in his.

“That’s not what I meant,” he said, his voice thick and low. “I can’t be near you. You’re too much of a temptation. Maybe you can stay away from me, but I don’t know if I can keep my hands off of you.” He slammed his palms against the door above her shoulders.

Celeste jumped, her eyes widening in shock. Shaken, she pressed back against the hard door to distance herself from him. They were too close, and the instinctive movement did little to protect her from the heat of sexual frustration emanating from his pores.

His chest rose and fell with each deep breath, and a storm brewed in his dark brown eyes. “What are you doing to me?”

The tortured question needed no answer. Even if she’d been obliged to respond, he seized her mouth before she could, and his tongue thrust between her lips. The muscular, dark cords of his arms encircled her waist and held her against his body, crushing her soft curves into each hard contour of his.

Available at: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | All Romance Ebooks

News:

Book 3 of the Hot Latin Men series is in the hands of my critique partners right now. It’s about Samirah Jamison (Rebekah’s sister from Fight for Love) whose a chef and Miguel Delgado, a sculptor. Their story takes place in Cuenca, Ecuador.

I’m working on Book 2 of the Hawthorne Family series, Derrick’s story.  I wrote a blog post with a description of each of the four siblings, so stop by to get to know each one of them.

Where to find me online:

To stay abreast of future releases and giveaways, you can find me in the following locations:

Website & Blog: www.delaneydiamond.com

Facebook fan page: www.facebook.com/delaneydiamond.com

Twitter: www.twitter.com/delaneydiamond