25 Blogs in 25 Days..the TORTURED tour!"

August 4, 2009
Day one of my blog tour~

I begin as we all do from home. The LIT manor was built from pure inspiration. We were three historical writers who could not at one time, find a home for those who amp up the steam a bit in their historical writing. Charlotte and I were already writing for Harlequin Spice and I knew Kristi from working with her through the RT (Romantic Times) convention Genre program. (She is my Historical captain and a brilliant one to boot!) We were soon able to convert her to the steamier side of historical writing and soon she discovered not only is she good at it, but enjoys it as well!

So it began, with fertile minds, an enthusiasm unleashed, and a goal to create a place where readers and authors could settle in and chat together about any number of subjects including, but not limited to, hot, sweaty, heart-pounding historicals!

We then decided that we needed a male figure…a manor "mascot" so to speak,(heavens , don't tell him that!) who could keep his eye on things when we were away, interject his male viewpoint now and again, and basically serve as balance to the three females living in the manor! He’d have to be breathtakingly handsome (of course!) a bit irreverent, confident, flexible (yes, physically and attitudinally) let’s see…available for all types of research, able to carry on a conversation with many types of people (though women are his favorite guests) dabble in the culinary arts, sharp dresser, and have knowledge of history. The fact that Lord Craven Moore (dubbed by a reader most eloquently) has a particular passion (and expertise) for women came as an added bonus. He keeps us in balance, offers himself at all hours, and has a smile that will melt the flesh right off your bones.

Note: Never underestimate the power of three fertile author minds;)) Taking the perfect fantasy male from each of us—we breathed life into Lord Craven-Moore. It is a good thing that he is fictional, or else we’d all be in trouble, I think.

I hope some of you will be able to come along on my journey across the Internet highways and by-ways, as I visit some very interesting sites along the way!

I will be giving away a copy of TORTURED at every stop chosen at random from those who leave a comment!

So tell me what fun place have you visited this summer?

I’ll also be blogging about my true-life 19-day road trip I took recently! Next stop-August 5- EYE ON ROMANCE! (*see the full schedule below)

See you on the road!
Amanda

“25 BLOGS in 25 DAYS…the TORTURED tour!”

http://www.lustintime.blogspot.com -- August 4
http://www.theromancebookclub.com -- August 5
http://www.cheekyreads.blogspot.com -- August 6
http://www.novethoughts.wordpress.com -- August 7
http://www.mechelearmstrong.blogspot.com -- August 8-9 http://www.CoffeetimeRomance.com/CoffeeThoughts -- August 10
http://www.lustintime.blogspot.com -- August 11
http://www.blogtalkradio.com -- August 11 7:30* PM
http://www.NightOwlRomance.blogspot.com -- August 12
http://www.RTBookreviews.com/2009 -- August 13
http://unusualhistoricals.blogspot.com--Aug. 13 (excerpt)NEW*
http://www.theromancestudio.com -- August 14
http://www.faerycourt.com/faeryblog -- August 15
http://unusualhistoricals.blogspot.com--August 16 (Interview)NEW*
http://www.myspace.com/amandamcintyre -- August 17
http://www.freshfiction.com/blog -- August 18
http://www.Caridad.com/blog -- August 19
http://loveisanexplodingcigar.com -- August 20
http://www.GenelladeGrey.wordpress.com -- August 21
http://www.mcintyreshouseofmuse.blogspot.com -- August 22-23
http://www.myspace.com/SpiceBriefs -- August 24
http://www.bethciotta.blogspot.com -- August 25
http://www.emilybryan.blogspot.com -- August 26
http://www.RomanceBookWyrm.blogspot.com -- August 17
http://thechatelianes.blogspot.com -- August 28

TORTURED available now for pre-order

I am excited to announce that TORTURED, my dark ages medieval is now available for Pre-order at Barnes & Noble.com and Amazon.com. There is a discount now if you preorder!! Further fun-- and if you check my news page at www.amandamcintyre.net , you'll see my new "Quarterly "Love to Read" Contest featuring a gift card from BN.com this time around!

Yay! Kristi is a techy wiz! Pictures are back at the manor!!

Let me know what you think!
Amanda

Tortured
Trade paperback
featuring Sierra, Dryston
Publisher: Spice
Pub. Date: August 01, 2009
ISBN-13: 9780373605330
384pp

True to its name, this book is a complex story with all the intrigue, passion, romance, and angst, not to mention a rough and tumble journey to that coveted HEA.
I hardly ever take the direct route;) So, finally, posted here first at the LIT manor,--an exclusive preview excerpt from Tortured.

Excerpt:

Sierra’s eyes were riveted to the Roman’s face, his sturdy jaw clenched as he endured without a sound, the pain to his body. With an exasperated sigh, Balrogan tossed the torch into the pit.

“I will have to think of something else, milord. He is stubborn this one.”

Lord Aeglech stared at the prisoner a moment, before he raised his hand. “Take him down,” he barked, “and bring him to me.”

The Saxon king breezed by her with his guards close behind. He glanced back before ascending the narrow stairs.

“I will have need of you, wealh. You know what to do.”

“Aye, milord.” She lowered her gaze to the floor. Sierra’s body trembled at the thought of seducing this man. She feared his power over her emotions she thought long ago dead. Carefully, she reached up and swung the cage.



“Be watchful of that one, mouse, he may spit poison.” The executioner chuckled as he prepared his next device. “We’ll see first if this will persuade him to speak." He raised a handcrafted piece that can slowly sever a man’s fingers one at a time.

The Roman’s expression remained unchanged as he stared at Sierra from his bat-like position. His face was not that of a farmer, or peasant, not as she was used to seeing. He had a warriors face, proud, rugged, stoic. His eyes, though shadowed from the torture, shone with silent strength. Her gaze drifted to the tight line of his mouth, pursed with determination. A mouth she ventured could command an army as well as command a woman in bed. For no reason that she could think of, she spoke aloud. “Lord Aeglech would not want to be kept waiting.” She imagined she saw a glint of challenge behind the prisoner's turbulent eyes. He was different, strong, unafraid, her vision of a true warrior. Most men, when faced with Balrogan’s forms of persuasion were eager to offer information and, so too, beg for mercy in the process. In three days, this Roman had been through numerous forms of torture without once having wavered. There was nothing innocent about him, only a powerful resilience seething beneath a warrior’s body. A power she was dangerously drawn to.

Balrogan offered a muffled sound under his breath. “Perhaps you are right. He should be intact for whatever the king has in mind for him.”

Since the Roman’s arrival, Lord Aeglech had received confirmation that the Roman-Briton, General Ambrosis and his army were traveling from Rome into the provinces just north of the Saxon stronghold. Given Aeglech’s paranoia, combined with the seeds she had managed to plant thus far in his mind, it was clear that he was preparing himself for a confrontation. Still, Sierra believed that the Saxon king was bored with the pillaging and conquest of common folk. She believed that he longed for an opponent worthy of a good fight. Perhaps that was why he had not yet ordered the death of the Roman prisoner.

A creak of the cage jarred Sierra from her thoughts. The Roman’s gaze met hers and a shiver skittered up her spine. The image of him with the woman appeared in her mind and she I instinctively took a step back. This time she did not imagine seeing the corner of his mouth curve into a wicked smirk. Sierra swallowed a pang of pure desire as she sensed that he was able to look deep inside her, as if reading her thoughts.

“I am on my way to the buttery,” she said to Balrogan, unable to break from the prisoners captivating stare.

“See if the blacksmith is finished with my blades, Mouse,” Balrogan ordered without looking up. Years of having her around to do his bidding made the request easy.

She glanced at the guard who maintained his post at the dungeon entrance. “Aye, milord.” Tearing her eyes from the Roman, she hurried out, taking the steps with care as she held up the hem of her gown. The image of the woman's face as the Roman pleasured her taunted Sierra. Her sighs burned in Sierra’s memory, the sight of her back arched, knees spread, her fingers digging into the Roman's dark hair.

Never had she experienced what she sensed in that Celtic woman’s soul and it both frightened and intrigued her. And ever since she tasted its imagery, her hunger for the same elation grew. The woman in Sierra’s mind wore a look of joy on her face that she do not understand. More disturbing, perhaps, was that it made her realize that her life had become as cold and inhuman as Lord Aeglech.

At the top of the stair, she heard an anguished male cry rise from the room below. Apparently, Balrogan had changed his mind about letting the Roman keep all of his fingers.

Amanda

Weekend Inspiration: Deadline booster shot

So I'm busy busy doing rewrites and edits for this upcoming book and you've only to ask the good ladies here at the LIT manor what a curse and a joy this has been!
And don't even get me started with how pouty Lord CM has been whilst we are all dutifully penning our tales!

I have used images and music from King Arthur and Tristan & Isolde, as well as Braveheart to capture a sense of the simple sensuality of dress and manner of that time.

But no one said writing outside of the box was going to be easy and in truth, I don't want it to be like anything anyone has read--at least for a very long time!

My objective of course is that I project the reader back in time--
A Dark Ages-set historical, TORTURED has been a roller coaster project to research, write and rewrite from day one! There are not many novels out there set in this era, mind you. One, it's a very brutal, dark time in many ways and yet there had to be SOME romance and passion, eh? Finding it--was the challenge in my research and making it plausible within the context of my story!


The idea for TORTURED came out of the blue after reading an obscure bit of historical info that there were only 1-2 female executioners during the medieval era of Britannia(now England) You have to wonder what type of woman could emotionally and physically handle such a job--or even want to!

But what if--she had no choice?

While it seems perhaps obvious the direction an erotic romance author would go with having a female executioner, I chose a slightly different path and made my heroine the prisoner of a barbaric Saxon ruler who had brutally defeated the last of the Briton kings. Having lost her family, she carries a guilt that she could not protect her mother (hanged for treason) and younger brother who is cast out of the kingdom and left for dead.

She alone is spared,because of her gift of "sight" (kings back then relied heavily on spiritual magic for guidance) but due to her aggressive nature, the king sentences her to a life imprisoned as his executioners apprentice.

Sentenced to look like a boy, he cuts her hair and dresses her in breeches, but a few years later, when she comes of age, the king sees the potential of her womanly attributes being a benefit to him in extracting information from prisoners.

Further, rumors of rebel armies gathering against the Saxon lord make him paranoid and when a Roman warrior is captured who likely has crucial information about the rebellion, the king orders my heroine to persuade the truth from the resilient warrior.

In the process, she determines that he is the one man who has all the right stuff (as it were) to help her escape this miserable life. She partners with him to plan a grand escape and helps him lay a trap to ambush the Saxon king and his army.

Kept secret however, are the images she "sees" when she touches him...images that give her reason to believe that he holds answers to her past she thought was dead and the promise of her future.


Their journey to freedom is riddled with danger and obstacles that they must overcome and as passion heats up between them, the risks grow greater and their time shorter. (TORTURED Aug. '09, Harlequin Spice)

So its back to work for me now! Deadline is loomin!

Amanda