Welcome Shawna Delacorte/Contest

"It was a dark and stormy night." A sentence that immediately produces a grin.  The quintessential opening line for a mystery that has been elevated to near-cult status and has even had a fun writing contest created in its honor…the annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest for the worst, most absurd opening line.

And that's where the idea for SECRET LOVER came from. I didn't literally open the book with that infamous sentence, but it does appear on the second page of chapter one.

Thanks to Dawn for having me as a guest blogger today. I'm Shawna Delacorte and I'd like to tell you about SECRET LOVER, one of my Harlequin Intrigue romantic suspense backlist titles that has just been reissued in ebook and offer you an opportunity to win an autographed original print copy. So far Harlequin has reissued 10 of my Silhouette Desire and 2 of my Harlequin Intrigue titles in ebook from my backlist of 21 Harlequin-Silhouette titles.

SECRET LOVER by Shawna Delacorte is available from Harlequin at http://ebooks.eharlequin.com (do a search for title or author name, though please NOTE: Harlequin is behind schedule in getting recent ebook reissues listed on their website), from Amazon for Kindle at www.amazon.com, and from Barnes and Noble for the Nook at www.bn.com. A list of my Harlequin-Silhouette ebook reissues is available on my blog at http://shawnadelacorte.blogspot.com  I'll be giving away a copy of SECRET LOVER, details at the bottom of this blog post.

I'm in the process of having a new Shawna Delacorte website designed that should be available soon.

What is SECRET LOVER all about? Andrea Sinclair, Andi to her friends, writes mysteries under a male pseudonym. With twelve best-sellers to her credit, she has decided to try something a little different. She's basing her next book on a real life mystery, a government witness who was put into the Witness Security Program after an attempt was made on his life. But before the trial began, he left the government's protection and disappeared. Without his testimony they have no case. For the last five years they've been diligently searching for him.

Andi has decided to use James Hollander as the central character in her new book, creating her own story of what happened to him and why. She has spent several months researching every facet of the case and his life but is now having trouble actually writing the novel. So, with a big time case of writer's block, her agent decided to send her to a cabin in the Canadian woods in winter where she won't have any distractions which includes the unwanted attentions of her ex-fiancé.

But as soon as she meets Jim Richards, the winter caretaker of the cabins at the summer resort, she immediately senses something familiar about him but she can't place exactly what it is. The nagging thought that she knows him from somewhere continues to poke at her to the point where she decides one afternoon to snoop while he's away.  What she finds shocks her and when he discovers her in his cabin, it sets both of them on a collision course with destiny.

She has people she knows she can turn to for help, people she trusts, but there's nothing normal or rational about the circumstances…a situation that sets them on a cross country run with danger on their heels at every turn.

G-Excerpt:

She quickly withdrew from his touch. The potent jolt of reality caused her insides to tremble. She stepped back from him in an attempt to regain control of this unexpected turn of events. "You startled me. I certainly didn't expect anyone to be knocking on my door, especially in the middle of this snowstorm. I was just about to bring in some firewood."

"Let me do that for you." He loaded his arms with several pieces of wood and carried them to the fireplace, adding a couple of logs to the fire. His gaze darted around the room, taking in everything, including the typewriter and the numerous crumbled sheets of paper strewn across the floor.

He returned his attention to her. "Are you a writer?"

His manner was open and easy. Her wariness of this stranger lessened, but the unnerving sensual pull of the man refused to go away. A nervousness jittered through her insides, caused not by any concern for her safety but rather the result of far more primal instincts. "Yes, I am. For the past four months I've been heavily involved in researching my next book and now I have to write it. I'm trying something different this time and I'm having trouble with it. I'm basing a fiction novel on a real-life case that happened five years ago. This is the first time I've tried doing that type of book, and I wasn't making much progress at home…."

Her voice momentarily faded as she thought of the reason for her concentration problem—the unwanted attentions of Nick. She quickly returned her attention to the problem at hand. Whoever Jim Richards was, he seemed to notice everything—every detail that surrounded him. For some inexplicable reason she felt a sudden need to let this stranger know that someone knew where she was. "My agent thought a change of scenery might be helpful in breaking the ol' writer's block, so he sent me here—lots of peace and quiet without any distractions."

He indicated the mess on the floor surrounding the typewriter. "Do you have as many completed pages as you do discarded ones?"

"Not exactly…" Andi allowed a soft chuckle. "In fact, I don't have any completed pages." She stooped down and began picking up the mess.

"Here, let me help you." Jim knelt down next to her. She smelled good. It was not a sweet perfume scent, rather a sort of crisp, clean fragrance—the type that fit in with a snowy day in the forest. He reluctantly acknowledged the little tremor of excitement that her nearness caused. He looked over at her, his gaze capturing hers and holding it for a long moment. The tightness in his chest returned. He forced his gaze elsewhere. "What kind of books do you write?" He smoothed out one of the crumpled pieces of paper, then quickly scanned the typed page.

"I write mysteries…"

Jim heard her voice trail off in midsentence, but he was far too occupied with what he had in his hand to respond. The words leapt off the page at him—Chicago…Buchanan Chemicals…dumping toxic waste…James Hollander…car bomb, wife killed…disappeared…government still searching for missing key witness.

A hard lump formed in his throat and his pulse raced almost out of control. It had been five years. He had changed his last name from Hollander to Richards and, four years ago, had finally settled into these isolated surroundings. And now this woman appeared out of nowhere, claiming to be a writer and in possession of notes about his past. Was this Andrea Sinclair who she pretended to be, and was all of this some strange, cruel quirk of fate, or was the truth a lot more sinister?

He regained his composure and tried to focus his attention on what she had been saying. "Mysteries, you say… Have you had any published? I read a lot, including mysteries, and I'm not familiar with your name."

"I write under a pseudonym." Something about his manner touched a note of discomfort and suspicion deep inside her. Maybe it was from having had twelve mysteries published. She paused in her thoughts as she realized that the James Hollander book would be her thirteenth. She dismissed the silly superstition and returned to her original thought. Perhaps it was from her degree in journalism and the year she spent as assistant to Steve Westerfall, a top investigative reporter, that caused her suspicions. Her mind jumped at the many possibilities, ticking off a list of five different plots in the space of about thirty seconds.

"Really? What's your pen name?" He was only half listening to what she had said. "Maybe I've read some of your work." A distrubing thought grew inside him. What if she was one of those investigative reporters? He tried to dismiss the idea. If the United States government had not been able to find him hiding out in the Canadian woods, how could some reporter track him down? Then an even more frightening thought occurred to him. What if she worked for Milo Buchanan? No one would ever suspect a woman of being…

***

To be entered to win an autographed original print copy of SECRET LOVER by Shawna Delacorte, all you need to do is leave a comment on this blog then email me at   shawnadelacorte@aol.com   letting me know you left a comment.  The contest will run from Sunday morning, July 24, until 11:59pm Eastern US time on Monday July 25, 2011.  I'll pick the winning name at random from those who leave comments and email me.