FRIDAY FIRSTS with Laurie London

First five sentences of...

Enchanted By Blood
from the anthology A Vampire for Christmas

“So who are you planning to kill?”

Trace Westfalen didn’t glance over at the sound of his friend’s voice. Instead, he shoved his phone into an inner pocket of his suit, strode to the wet bar in the corner of the conference room and poured himself a straight shot of Jack. Without waiting for his fangs to retract, he drained it in one swallow.

“I wish,” he said, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “That would improve my mood substantially.”

(Becky here: Okay, so that's six sentences, but I liked that sixth one... )

Laurie will give away a signed copy of her book to one lucky commenter this weekend! We will draw a name on Sunday.

FUN FIRST QUESTIONS ABOUT LAURIE

Q: What was the first Rated R movie you saw?

My first R rated movie was Saturday Night Fever. I saw it with a bunch of my horse-riding friends and our instructor. But the one I remember the most was seeing Body Heat with my dad. OMG, I was mortified watching all those sex scenes with him right next to me.

Q: What was the first romance novel you read?

I don’t remember the title or many of the details, only that I loved it! It was a Harlequin (I think) and the cover had a woman wearing a beautiful, flowing purple dress and the man had an unbuttoned, ruffled white shirt. He was a pirate ship captain who was secretly an aristocrat, and she was a woman who’d stowed aboard his ship. My sister (yes, Becky, you!) thinks I got it from my boyfriend’s mom, but I think a shirttail relative who lived with us for a couple of weeks left it at our house a few years earlier. (I was 15 when I was “going with” that boy, but I think I started reading romance before that.) Every month, Becky and I would buy several romances and swap them. I liked the daring ones about pirates and women in danger, while Becky liked family stories.  It’s funny, because our reading tastes are the same as they were back then.

Q: What’s the first thing you do when you start reading a new book?

I’m pretty methodical when I’m considering reading a new book. First, the cover and title need to catch my eye either online or in the bookstore. An uninspiring title is a turn off to me. Next, I read the back cover blurb to see if it sounds interesting. Then I read the first page of the book and then a random page inside to see if I like the writer’s style. And finally, I read the dedication and acknowledgments to see what the author has to say in his/her own voice. In fact, my love for reading this often overlooked part a book prompted me to create a weekly feature on my blog called Thank You Thursday, where authors talk about their book’s dedications and acknowledgments.

LINKS:
You can buy A Vampire For Christmas at Amazon, B&N, most online bookstores and on the shelves of your favorite stores.

www.LaurieLondonBooks.com

www.facebook.com/LaurieLondonAuthor

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About Laurie: A graduate of Western Washington University with a BA in Business Administration and a former tester/programmer for a Fortune 500 company, Laurie London writes from her home near Seattle where she lives with her husband and two children.

When not writing, she can be found running, reading, or riding and showing her horse. Someday she hopes to qualify for the Quarter Horse World Show – that is, if her horse doesn’t get hurt again.