Welcome Debut Author Vivian Proud!!

I am very pleased to welcome a brand new debut author to the blog today.  Vivian Proud is another Rebel Ink Press author but she's also an author I'm proud to mentor.  She's here to talk about her career and her just out release, her first.  We'll sit down for an interview, then share the blurb, a guest post, an excerpt and Vivian's bio so settle in, pour another cup of coffee and let's get started.

Anna and Don: Heart, Body And Soul is available at All Romance Ebooks, Amazon, Barnes and Noble.com, and Bookstrand.

Tell me about your current release. Anna and Don: Heart, Body and Soul is an erotic romance about two best friends that have dinner together on Valentine’s Day as neither one of them have a date. The sparks fly and dinner is put on hold. Their courtship breeds lust, passion and ultimately love. It’s a fun-loving story with humor and a happy ending.

When/how did you become a writer? I just started in 2012 when inspired by a friend.

Do you have a day job? If so, what do you do when not writing? I take care of my husband, animals and home when not writing.

Who are some of your favorite authors?  Constantly changing but a couple of long time favorites would have to be Shakespeare and Nobel Prize winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

What are the influences you see in your work? Lust and love.

Did you ever have a mentor, official or otherwise, who helped you get into writing as a career?” A friend of mine, Sky Robinson, inspired me.

If you could live anywhere, where would it be? Anywhere tropical.

Does the physical location you call home (city, state, region) show up in your work or do you prefer to write about somewhere else? I write about places I’ve been.

What three CD’s are in the stereo or in your vehicle? No CD in my truck! But if there were, it’d be Jason Aldean, Billy Currington and Josh Turner.

Favorite two movies? Hemingway and Gellhorn; Gone with the Wind

Do you have a favorite television program? Not really but in the wee hours, before I write, I watch I Love Lucy.

Where’s the last place you traveled on a vacation? California

Laptop or desktop? Laptop

What’s your favorite meal? Sushi

Favorite ethnic cuisine? Japanese

Chocolate or vanilla? Vanilla

Tell us about the favorite character you’ve created. Donald Mitchell is eccentric, caring, giving, loving, handsome and sexy and it is doesn’t hurt that he’s rich.

How much of your own life is reflected in your work? I create characters that are a collage of people I’ve met or known.

Please share anything else you’d like to share. Anna and Don is an escape into a relationship we’d all like to have had or for those lucky few, have!  I have a special format: sex at the end of almost every chapter so my readers can read beginning to end or skip around when just in the mood for something steamy. Hope you enjoy!

 

Blurb:

Anna and Don choose to have dinner together for Valentine’s Day on a lark given neither has a date and soon discover they have more in common as the sparks fly.  This touching love story spans their travels to Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco for a sizzling dinner and dessert; Sedona & Cave Creek, AZ, for spiritual vortexes and horseback riding; Las Vegas, NV, to live out one of Don’s life-long fantasies; Kona, HI for a trip to the Big Island Volcano; and Napa Valley, CA to visit wineries. 

Soon Anna and Don become ensconced in a courtship that breeds passion, lust, sex and love.  Don struggles with expressing his love as he deals with the aftermath of a difficult divorce while Anna dives in headfirst.  As their intimacy grows, so does their love for each other and each of them find a very special way of expressing that love. In the end, Don and Anna find they’ve grown into each other’s heart, body and soul. 

 A post from Vivian --

When we first moved to Wyoming, we bought two horses. We were all beginners and it was challenging to learn to ride without any experience. My horse was high spirited and rather than me riding him, he took me for rides.

One cold, snowy but sunny January day, my husband and I mounted our horses and as soon as we were out of the corral my horse took off running. He loved the chill in the air and he had been cooped up way too long in the winter months. He also made it clear he didn’t want a rider on his back as he dumped me in the snow twice and tried to buck me off.

But the  one thing I learned about my horse was he was an adrenaline junkie and if I wasn’t ready to share the speed and spirit, I’d be left in the dust, or snow in this case. 

Anna in my story has an experience on a horse that I would like to share. It has to do with trotting. I’d always been told, “Post when you trot,” which is standing in the stirrups and undulating towards the saddle horn. She enjoys it but just how much is for you to find out!

 How about a little taste of Vivian's new release?

Excerpt:

About an hour before sunset, Don saddled Diamond and Apollo, explaining to Anna that after she started riding he may have to cinch Diamond again because he was a blowhard, meaning he blew up his stomach to prevent a tight cinch. 

Don held on to Diamond as Anna mounted on the left side. Don mounted Apollo and they slowly walked out of the corral. They trotted across the Sonoran Desert towards the foothills with the sun flirting with the top edge of the hills.

Anna liked to trot. The undulating motion of her hips on top of her horse’s back left her feeling hot and her panties were getting soaked as she tried to keep up with Don. She wanted to catch up then gallop past him, leaving him in the dust, but she knew this was impossible since she was getting too worked up to stay steady. 

As they trotted along, Anna started fantasizing about having sex on a horse. She didn’t know exactly if it could be done but she imagined it...

 

Vivian Proud spent her 15-year career in Silicon Valley, CA writing technical and business proposals with her science degree. Always having a dream of moving to the mountains and writing a book, it never materialized until she moved to the rural Wild West. Living in the middle of nowhere in the Black Hills of Wyoming, she found the country lifestyle peaceful and uplifting and it spawned the creativity behind the writing of her first erotic romance: Anna and Don: Heart, Body and Soul. She is a wife, mother of one and lives on a small ranch in Wyoming with her husband, three dogs, two cats and five chickens.