Dawn Brown Guest Post + Giveaway

Why romantic suspense?

When people first learn that I’m writer, after establishing the type of book I write, the question I’m asked more than any other is why romantic suspense. I usually respond with the same teasing answer. ‘I tried writing romances, but my characters kept killing each other. I tried writing mysteries, but my characters kept making out. Romantic suspense seemed like the only solution.’ But in the back of my head I’m always asking myself, ‘Why not romantic suspense?’

It’s a funny thing when you’re writer, particularly before you publish, but people seem to have a lot of advice about what you should be writing. Well-meaning friends and virtual strangers have suggested that I write everything from articles about food and drink to lesbian erotica because they had heard or read that these were popular markets. I have no idea if they are or not. The truth is I’ve never been able to write for the market. To spend hours a day in front of a computer chipping away at the story in my head, I have to love what I’m writing. And despite reading in all genres, I’ve loved romance the longest.

The first romance novel I ever read was an old Harlequin Presents. I was about twelve, and my friend and I stole it from my mother’s collection to look for the dirty parts. Of course, these books were actually quite tame. The most risqué word I think was breast. But as I was flipping through the pages, searching out the love scenes, I soon realized there was a whole story going on. I was hooked. I started reading one after another.

My mother did not approve. She felt I was too young to be reading them. So I would hide the books under my mattress, wait until everyone had gone to bed, then stay up and read until I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I loved the chemistry, the emotion and the happily ever after.  

Around the same time, I read my first Phyllis A. Whitney, Dream of Orchids. Romance and a mystery? I couldn’t put it down. To me it was the perfect combination. I was already starting to write by then, and after finishing that book I knew that was the type of story I wanted to tell.

So the reason I write romantic suspense is because I love to read it. And always have.

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Dawn Brown’s first sojourn into storytelling began when she was nine. She would rather neighborhood kids into her garage and regale them with ghost stories, believing even then that atmosphere played an important role in a good story. Dawn has a diploma in journalism, but found herself pursuing a career in computer leasing. After the birth of her son, she gave up the corporate world to be a mom and write full time, trading in her dreary cubicle for a dreary room in the attic. Now Dawn spends her days creating dark, romantic mysteries with edgy heroes, clever heroines and villains she hopes will keep her readers sleeping with the light on.

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Blood and Bone
by Dawn Brown

October 11th 2011 by Samhain Publishing

he deeper they dig into the past, the closer they come to a killer.

Crime writer Shayne Reynolds is looking for the next book that’ll get her out of her parents’ basement and on track to rebuilding her life. She’s found it in Robert Anderson, a confessed murderer who’s out on parole. Something’s never added up about that case.

From the moment she sets foot in Dark Water, nothing goes as planned. Anderson’s family wants her to drop the story—especially surviving son Des. A man who ignites sizzling heat even as he stands firmly in her way.

Laboring under his father’s crushing legacy and his grandmother’s iron resolve to get rid of the nosy writer at any cost, Des struggles to save the self-destructive sister who once saved him. There’s something honest and forthright about Shayne, though, that tempts him to help her get to the truth. Even if it means double-crossing his powerful grandmother.

Despite their resolve to keep it strictly business, sexual sparks quickly set fire to tangled emotions. And threads of a fragile bond that someone with a vendetta could use to weave their death shroud…

Product Warning:

This story contains a feisty writer, a sexy younger man and a mystery with enough twists and turns to cause vertigo.

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Dawn will be giving away a $20 Amazon gift card to one randomly drawn commenter and to the tour host with the most comments! So you now have 2 reasons to leave a comment: enter to win the giveaway + help me win the giftcard!

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