Author Interview & Giveaway: Lisa Becker

Reading Lark After Dark would like to welcome author, Lisa Becker, to the Dark Nest today. Be sure to check out the giveaway details at the end of the interview.

Reading Lark After Dark: Why should readers pick up Double Click? 

Lisa:  If you haven’t read Click: An Online Love Story, read that before starting Double Click as the second book picks books up six months after the first one ends. Double Click doesn't really work as a stand-alone novel. You need to have met the characters and gotten to know their stories, quirks and email styles before reading this latest book. But like Click, I think the book is a modern epistolary novel for anyone who’s ever been in love, been dumped, been in love or is still searching for “the one.” And I think at the end of the day, it’s also about the beauty of having a group of close friends who can support you when things get tough, laugh with you when things get ridiculous, console you when you’re down, and cajole you into doing things that they can see are good for you, but you are reluctant to embrace. 

Author Interview: Tracey Sinclair

Reading Lark After Dark would like to welcome author, Tracey Sinclair, to the Dark Nest today. 

After Dark: When and why did you begin writing? 

Tracey: I’ve written ever since I was a child – I remember being about 10 or 11 and having a huge cardboard box full of notebooks where I kept my stories, so it’s been a passion since I was young – I can’t remember when I started, just that it’s always been something I’ve loved. My first short story was published in a magazine when I was 17, and since then I’ve had a steady stream of work published in magazines and anthologies. My first novel, Doll, came out in 2005. 

After Dark: What inspired this story? 

Tracey: I actually wrote a short story to cheer up a vampire-loving friend – I wanted to write something that was fun and contemporary and set in London, where I live, and peopled by characters I liked and could relate to. Then I sort of fell in love with those characters and couldn’t stop writing about them! I also wanted to write something based in the area I was working in at the time – Smithfield, which houses a beautiful old meat market in a setting that dates back centuries (it’s where William Wallace, the hero of the film Braveheart, was executed and used to have a giant plague pit, so it’s got a colourful history!). It’s such an inspiring setting, I felt I had to use it. 

After Dark: Which of your characters are you most like? 

Tracey: I’m actually very like Cassandra Bick, the heroine of Dark Dates – not as tough, obviously, probably not as brave and tragically without the smoking hot love interests, but other than that we have a lot in common: we’re a bit geeky, a bit snarky, not very domesticated, and not particularly fit. The resemblance is deliberate – I didn’t want to write about someone who was like Buffy (much as I love Buffy), with lots of powers or a super fit body. I wanted to create a character who you could imagine cracking open a bottle of wine with! 

Author Interview & Giveaway: Lillie Spencer

Reading Lark After Dark would like to welcome author, Lillie Spencer, to the Dark Nest today. She was kind enough to stop by to answer some of our questions and to offer up a giveaway for our readers. The giveaway details are at the end of this post. 

After Dark: When and why did you begin writing?

Lillie: My mom just gave me a velvet covered journal I'd filled with poetry and short stories in the first grade, so I guess I've been writing since I learned how to write.  I'd written countless stories before I worked up the courage to submit one.

After Dark: What inspired this story?

Lillie: I was actually sketching out a different story altogether when this idea popped into my head out of nowhere and wouldn't let go until I was finished writing it.  I wish I could tell you where it came from, but the truth is I have no idea.

After Dark: Do you have a favorite character? 

Lillie: Christian, definitely.  He is Michael and Nikki's best friend.  He's sexy, sarcastic, funny as hell and the most loyal person you'd ever want to meet.   The fact that he's a bad boy and a criminal is almost secondary.

Author Interview & Giveaway: Carol Cassada

Reading Lark After Dark would like to welcome author, Carol Cassada, to the Dark Nest today. She was kind enough to stop by to answer some of our questions and to offer up a giveaway for our readers. The giveaway details are at the end of this post. 

After Dark: When and why did you begin writing?  

Carol: I became interested in writing during high school, my teen years were difficult and I used writing as a form of escapism. It helped me cope with my problems. I loved writing so much that I decided this is what I wanted to do with my life. After graduating college in 2008, I began writing my first book Going Home Again, and it was published in February 2010. 

After Dark: What inspired this story? 

Carol: Soap operas inspired me to write this book series. I'm a fan of the daytime shows, and I thought it'd be fun to write a literary version of a soap opera with different characters and multiple storylines of romance and drama. 

Author Interview & Giveaway: Michaela Debelius

Reading Lark After Dark would like to welcome author, Michaela Debelius, to the Dark Nest today. She was kind enough to stop by to answer some of our questions and to offer up a giveaway for our readers. The giveaway details are at the end of this post. Also, be sure to stop back on Sunday to read Blysse's review of Decoy.

After Dark: When and why did you begin writing?  


Michaela:  I’ve written short stories since I was a child. I remember my first story was about a young girl with a magical dagger that compelled her to kill. I guess I’ve always been kind of warped. I’ve always enjoyed writing because you get to live vicariously through your characters. Writing allows the author to do something they wouldn’t ordinarily do. As an example, I wouldn’t get sassy with hot men that were designed to kill. Noel on the other hand… 


After Dark: What inspired this story? 

Author Interview: Arianna Skye

Reading Lark would like to welcome author Arianna Skye to the Dark Nest today.

Author Interview:
RLAD: When and why did you begin writing? 
AS: I’ve always been a writer, but I didn’t start seriously pursuing a writing career until 2006. It was a good way to pass time after recuperating after my appendectomy. A couple months later, I discovered a writing contest sponsored by a publisher, and that’s really where my interest in actually writing a novel began. 


RLAD: Do you have a specific writing style? 
AS: Each book I write has its own individual style. I tend to include a lot of comedic and snarky elements. 


RLAD: What inspired you to write Wings of Desire? 
AS: This is a really long and complicated story. I’ll try to abridge as much as possible. I am an IT support tech by trade, and back in the day I used to spend way too much time in chat rooms. A lot of the screen names were that of mythological deities. Demeter, Aphrodite, and Osiris to name just a few---including my own name. One night I was chatting during a thunderstorm and thought what if someone’s computer got struck by lightning. What if someone from ancient times was trying to summon that particular god/dess and instead summoned the person in the chat room. I just rolled my eyes and turned off the computer. I contemplated writing an erotic novel, and it brought me back to that what if moment ten years prior. It then hit me. She wouldn’t be a goddess. She’d be a faerie, and not just any faerie. She was the princess. Guess I didn’t abridge it that well. LOL 

Blog Tour: Review, Giveaway, & Interview for Fifty Shades Freed

Fifty Shades Freed

Fifty Shades Trilogy #3

By: E. L. James

Published by: The Writer's Coffee Shop Publishing House

Release Date: January 19, 2012

Format: ePub (Nook)

Source: ARC provided by publisher

Buy it on Amazon or TWCS

Genre: Erotic Fiction

Audience: Mature Audiences (18+)

Explicit Sex & themes of BDSM

**Don't miss the Author Interview and eBook Giveaway at the end of this review!**

My Thoughts:

Oh. My. Fifty Shades. Just when you thought you couldn’t love Christian Grey anymore, a whole new shade of Grey wraps itself around your heart. When we last saw Christian and Ana, they were set to spend the rest of their lives discovering the depths of their love. Ana was sure that they would face his past, and their future, together. What neither of them are ready for is the way his past and their future become mingled together in one messy event after another.



It is so hard to review this book without spoilers. I'm typically very long-winded when it comes to Christian Grey and the Fifty Shades trilogy. This review is going to be unusually short for me because I don't want to spoil anyone. This is definitely a book that you want to experience first hand. What I will tell you is this - everything you've come to love from E. L. James' writing is here. It's a page turner from the very beginning. The writing is simple and direct, and falling into the story is effortless. There is a perfect combination of romance, passion, humor, and drama. Christian will in turns melt your heart and frustrate you to no ends, as will Ana. Their love is volatile. No emotion is felt half-way. There are surprises at every turn. Christian is still learning to deal with his past as well as Ana's inner strength and independence (which she asserts in some really frustrating ways), and Ana is still finding a balance between being true to her inner goddess, accepting Christian's past and helping him move forward, and becoming the woman she was destined to be. While I didn't find Fifty Shades Freed to be quiet as emotional as Fifty Shades Darker was, it still packed a punch. I loved every second not only of this book, but of the entire trilogy. My only question now...Is there life after Fifty?