Hot and Irresistible:
Four Southern gals
Four hot guys
One lost jewel
A splash of ghosts
A mix of voodoo
And a big dose of mystery
that brings them all together
What would you like readers to take away from your book?
Being entertained and a feeling for Savannah. Savannah is like another character in Hot and Irresistible. It’s such a great city. And I want readers to have a good time when they read my books.
Why did you choose to write this book?
I love writing best-friend books. And I love Savannah and that it’s haunted and filled with great stories and good food and incredible old homes. It was such fun writing the Savannah Sizzles series. Like taking a vacation there every time I wrote.
What did you learn while writing this book?
I do a lot of research so I know about voodoo and the workings of the police department in Savannah and how to drive a power boat, run an illegal casino, and how NOT to cast a spell.
What was your favorite scene/chapter from the book?
When the heroine, Bebe, discovers who here dad is, she had a bad childhood with an adopted mother who hated her and then she found her family. So much fun to write.
What one thing about writing do you wish other non-writers would understand?
It’s business, all business. This is not a hobby or a friendship club. It’s really tough business to get published.
What is the best lesson you have learned from another writer?
Don’t give up! And the best revenge for a reject letter is to get published somewhere else and make it big. Hehehehe!
What is the toughest test you've faced as a writer?
Getting dropped by one publisher and having to find another. Not fun.
What was the best advice you’d ever gotten about the publishing industry?
Get an agent...a good one. The worse advice was promote your books more. IMO the best thing you can do to promote your books is to write the next one fast!
Can you give us one do and one don’t for those aspiring to be a writer?
Don’t give up. Learn to accept rejection or you’ll never last in this business and remember all that matters to a publishing house is the bottom line...how much money can you make for them.
Don’t take rejection personally. It’s just business.
Write something new and submit it and the only advice you follow is the advice of an editor. Critique groups can be death to your voice.
I borrowed this question from Author Carleene Brice, What is your author fantasy?
I’m already living it...readers enjoy my books. What could be better than that! :) Bless the readers they are the best. I’ve met so many wonderful people...readers, publishers, authors... while writing. It’s more than I could have dreamed. What fun.
What is something readers would be surprised you do?
Eat peanut butter right from the jar! I’m a peanut butter junkie!
Five questions about books:
One book that you have read more than once.
I am a big re-reader!
Gone with the Wind
All the Stephanie Plum books
Jurassic Park
Jane Austin books
You get the picture. Like visiting old friends
One book you would want on a desert island.
One book? Only one? The Bible. It says it all and is history and stories and adventure and morals all rolled into one
One book that made you laugh.
The Stephanie Plum books always make me laugh
One book that made you cry.
I cried all the way through The Old Man and The Sea. Love that book!
One book you wish you'd written.
The Old Man and the Sea. :)
Our theme for this month is Time Management. Do you have any tips on making time for writing?
Treat writing like a business and not a hobby and you will get published.
How can readers get in contact with you?
I love love love to hear from readers!! See what’s going on in their neck of the woods. Email: DianneCastell@hotmail.com and my website is http://www.diannecastell.com/
Hot and Irresistible excerpt:
“Don’t you dare go feeling sorry for me, Donovan McCabe, I sure as hell don’t need a pity party.” Her gaze met his and she braced herself for the Oh, you poor thing look but instead Donovan bent his head and kissed her. She started to protest but her lips were busy and suddenly her tongue was too and then her arms got into the act. This was all wrong on every level except one...Donovan McCabe felt so darn good when she was feeling crappy as hell.
How many times had stepmother Dara struck and no one had been there? But here and now on this beautiful spring morning in Savannah, there was Donovan McCabe and that he was a damn Yankee didn’t seem to matter all that much at the moment. She breathed, a sense of peace she’d never known before filling her up like a glass long empty. She leaned into him and took one more kiss, just a little with a tiny nibble of his bottom lip to chase away the lingering chill of Dara, then Bebe stepped back. Every cell in her body...except the two rational cells still functioning in her brain... insisted she was the most stupid woman on planet Earth for not staying locked in his arms.
“What was that all about?” The question was as much for her as him because she didn’t know what to think about the effect he had on her.
“You look like a woman who needed a hug and the kiss part just snuck in.” His voice was steady but there was an unsure spark in his brown eyes that said he didn’t just go around kissing every woman who may have the need. But she didn’t want him to be nice and she wished like hell he hadn’t seen Dara. It was Bebe’s private life, the part she kept tucked away as best she could. A crappy childhood did not transfer into a crappy life. “Are you playing me, McCabe? Softening me up so I’ll help you on this case? Well, I won’t, I have a friendship with an old friend to protect and I can handle Dara on my own.”
“How about I look the other way and you just shoot her.”
Bebe broke into a laugh and today she didn’t think she’d be laughing about anything. “I’ll lend you my gun,” he continued, looking perfectly serious. “Or at least blast the bitch verbally. I’ve seen you in action you’re a hellcat when riled.
Why not now?”
If he hadn’t offered his gun she would have told Donovan to butt out but he did offer and he’d kissed her when she needed it and she wasn’t in the habit of needing much.
Dianne Castell
USA Today best selling author Dianne Castell writes for Kensington BRAVA. She also writes a monthly editor interview column for Romance Writers Report. Her books have won Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Award, been on the cover of Romantic Times Magazine and included in Rhapsody Book Club, Doubleday Book Club and have made the Waldenbooks Bestseller list.
The second book in her Savannah Sizzles series for the BRAVA line, Hot and Irresistible, hits the shelves Nov‘09. Hot Summer Nights is out May ’10.
How many times had stepmother Dara struck and no one had been there? But here and now on this beautiful spring morning in Savannah, there was Donovan McCabe and that he was a damn Yankee didn’t seem to matter all that much at the moment. She breathed, a sense of peace she’d never known before filling her up like a glass long empty. She leaned into him and took one more kiss, just a little with a tiny nibble of his bottom lip to chase away the lingering chill of Dara, then Bebe stepped back. Every cell in her body...except the two rational cells still functioning in her brain... insisted she was the most stupid woman on planet Earth for not staying locked in his arms.
“What was that all about?” The question was as much for her as him because she didn’t know what to think about the effect he had on her.
“You look like a woman who needed a hug and the kiss part just snuck in.” His voice was steady but there was an unsure spark in his brown eyes that said he didn’t just go around kissing every woman who may have the need. But she didn’t want him to be nice and she wished like hell he hadn’t seen Dara. It was Bebe’s private life, the part she kept tucked away as best she could. A crappy childhood did not transfer into a crappy life. “Are you playing me, McCabe? Softening me up so I’ll help you on this case? Well, I won’t, I have a friendship with an old friend to protect and I can handle Dara on my own.”
“How about I look the other way and you just shoot her.”
Bebe broke into a laugh and today she didn’t think she’d be laughing about anything. “I’ll lend you my gun,” he continued, looking perfectly serious. “Or at least blast the bitch verbally. I’ve seen you in action you’re a hellcat when riled.
Why not now?”
If he hadn’t offered his gun she would have told Donovan to butt out but he did offer and he’d kissed her when she needed it and she wasn’t in the habit of needing much.
Dianne Castell
USA Today best selling author Dianne Castell writes for Kensington BRAVA. She also writes a monthly editor interview column for Romance Writers Report. Her books have won Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Award, been on the cover of Romantic Times Magazine and included in Rhapsody Book Club, Doubleday Book Club and have made the Waldenbooks Bestseller list.
The second book in her Savannah Sizzles series for the BRAVA line, Hot and Irresistible, hits the shelves Nov‘09. Hot Summer Nights is out May ’10.
Dianne lives in Cincinnati with her two cats and will do just about anything to get out of housework.
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