Happy Valentine’s Day! Hope you all had a great weekend. If not… who needs a Valentine when you can have a sexy historical hero? Noelle, half of the team that makes up author Chloe Harris, is here and she’s brought along a hunky hero from her debut release! I’ve had the pleasure of talking to Noelle through email and not only is she gorgeous, but super sweet. She was even nice enough to send me a copy of her debut book, Secrets of Sin and is giving away a copy to someone who leaves a comment here. The winner is definitely in for a unique, super sexy treat!
Join me in welcoming Chloe Harris to the blog!
Can you tell us a little about your debut release?
Secrets o
f Sin is an intriguing sexy tale of reluctant reunited lovers set against the lush Caribbean backdrop of a private island and an 18th century sugarcane estate.
Kensington did a great job with the back cover blurb but here’s how Chloe wrote it:
If the man you loved when you were young and naive married you for your money and spent the next four years as the Caribbean’s most notorious rake would you take him back?
In Secrets of Sin, Emiline du Ronde says no. Emiline has run her sugarcane estate since Reinier Barhydt left, and now she wants a divorce. Although she is of mixed heritage, she’s become a strong, successful business woman and wants nothing more than to cut her ties with the man that broke her heart.
Driven by a dark past to seek freedom, Reinier never wastes a thought on the beautiful wife he’s left behind. But when rumors she has a paramour sends the sexy Dutchman home, the estranged lovers strike an erotic bargain. Will he show Emiline who rules L’Île de Ronde—and her—or will his heart be lost instead.
Chloe Harris is actually two authors. Can you tell us how that came about and how you divide up the work?
Barbra and I (Noelle) were critic partners with very busy lives. Eventually we discovered that we worked together very well and could get a lot more done working together.
As far our writing process goes, it seems to always work out that one of us will have either a great idea for a scene/chapter or a better grasp of the character whose speaking at that point in the story. That person will do the first draft of the chapter. Then the chapter goes back and forth a minimum of three times sometimes ore and by the time we’ve both added, deleted, moved around etc to the point where we’re both happy then the voice is Chloe’s and not Noelle’s or Barbra’s.
Did you always want to be a writer? And how long did it take for you to get published after you wrote that first book?
I always dabbled in it and took many creative writing classes at Queens College (now University) in Charlotte NC. Go Royals! The only reason my degree is in Communications and not English is because as a Capricorn I didn’t think English was practical enough. I’ve always been into literature and writing but didn’t really understand what it took to complete a novel until I joined an online paranormal writing site where I met Barbra and then joined the Romance Writers Association and my local chapter.
Our first book was a mammoth 160k paranormal romance that took more than a year and a half to write after we worked on just the mythology for six months before that. It was set in Romania with werewolves, Gypsies, vampires, very little conflict, lots of back-story, tons of telling and a secondary character stronger than the hero. Even after we trimmed it down to 100k and bumped up the Goal, Motivation and Conflict it still wouldn’t sell. White Fangs, as it was called, is in a drawer and will never ever see the light of day again.
After that we set out to do something completely different and that second book became Secrets of Sin.
Tell us about your call story?
We’d won the Passionate Ink writers group unpublished authors contest and received a request to see the full manuscript from the editor at Kensington who was the final judge. Some weeks later my cell phone rang with a NY number and I thought no it can’t be, but it was! It was Kensington asking to buy it. I was stunned! She asked if we had an agent and I told her not yet but someone was interested. She knew the agent well and said don’t say anything yet, talk to her and have her call me back.
Barbra is several hours ahead and it was late in the day for her but I left her a voicemail and an email and hoped I didn’t have to wait till the next day to share the great news. In the mean time I called the agent that was looking at it to tell her we had an offer. I did get in touch with Barbra too and we arranged to have a conference call with the agent the next morning.
Then real life went on and it was time for soccer practice where my daughter hurt her wrist rather badly. By the next morning it was clear she needed to see a doctor. I was freaking out about missing the conference call but you have to do what you have to do. We rescheduled for that afternoon and all I could do was hope it wasn’t broken and I’d be back it time. But of course her wrist was broken. Thank goodness it just so happened that her wonderful doctor is an avid reader and when I told her what was going on she moved mountains to get her into x-ray and off to the Othro for a cast in record time.
But then on the call with the agent she said the craziest thing in the world. She said wait, don’t say yes yet. I thought WHAT! This is our dream come true and you want us to wait and not say yes?! Are you kidding?! But she was right to want us to weight all our options. We did eventually sign with Kensington but it was still good advice. I’m so glad we have her in our corner even though she almost gave me a heart attack.
What do you do when you’re not writing? Any hobbies?
Barbra and I both enjoy reading, of course, exchanging recipes and cooking. With a day job and active kids there isn’t too much time for much else but Hubby and I have recently gotten into kayaking and I’m really enjoying it. It’s a great sport for a writer. It works out all the tension in your shoulders that comes from sitting at a computer. I’ve done several runs on the New River in NC and VA and one on the South Fork of the Catawba in NC. It’s mostly flat water with rapids up to a class 2 or so just to make it exciting. We even went Kayaking in the snow on New Years day.
Where can we find you on the web?
Chloe Harris’s Blog: http://chloeharrisauthor.blogspot.com/
Chloe Harris’s Website: http://www.authorchloeharris.com
I post for us on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/ChloeHarris
I’m also part of a great blog called Kiss and Tell. It’s a group of Carolina Girls that write erotic romantic across all subgenres: http://kissandtellgirls.blogspot.com
What’s next for you?
Next for Chloe Harris is the sequel to Secrets of Sin called In Deep. It will be out in December of this year.
Here’s the blurb:
A woman with secrets… A wicked sea-captain with a dark past… A love doomed from the start.
Desperate enough to sell her body at Madame Poivre’s, the best establishment for entertaining gentlemen in the West Indies, Lady Jaidyn Donnelly meets Connor O’Driscoll. She finds something in Connor’s caress that sets her skin ablaze and touches her heart as he introduces her to his brand of sexual delights.
Connor finds everything he wants in Jaidyn’s Irish beauty and her fiery temper that matches his own. But Jaidyn is a woman with secrets and refuses to become his mistress. When Connor learns she needs to get to the Carolinas, he risks everything to keep her close and take her there.
On this wicked journey of sizzling pleasures and growing affection both know that as the Carolina coast looms near, reality will shatter their love. The magic between Jaidyn and Connor is impossible to withstand, but can they overcome the betrayals and dangers of both the past and present to have the love they both yearn for?
Thanks so much Noelle!
Remember to leave a comment! Someone will win a copy of Secrets of Sin. Winner will be announced Wednesday.
