We’re happy to see you again here at Duck Chat!

Today Tawny Weber is with us, so sit back and wait for the fun to begin!

Like getting a little hot and bothered when you read your romances? Well, then you need to read Tawny’s Blazes.

I recently met Tawny, and what a time I had. She’s funny and wacky, down to earth, serious about her writing, and swears a blue streak just like me. Needless to say, a good time was had and I’m glad I met this terrific lady.

I know Tawny is going to give away one of her books today, but a decision was never made as to which one. So leave a comment or a question for her and we’ll announce which title is up for grabs later. Doesn’t matter which one, you’ll have one heck of a time reading it!

Now let’s chat!

DUCK CHAT: Welcome to TGTBTU, Tawny! Let’s see. Instead of the usual tell us about yourself question, how about telling us something that even your most hard-core fans don’t even know?

TAWNY WEBER: Hmmmm… Something most fans don’t know?  Okay.  I was an extra in a Sylvester Stallone movie once.

DC: How long have you been writing for Harlequin Blaze? What is it about the line that draws you to write your stories for them?

TW: I sold my first book, Double Dare, to Blaze in 2006. I love writing for Blaze because [Ed. Okay, I would usually delete a question and answer that an author doesn’t finish for me for one reason or another, but after the time Tawny and I had getting this interview done, I want to know the answer on this one! Come on, Tawny, finish it for us!]

DC: If you could retire any interview question and never, ever have it asked again, what would it be? Feel free to answer it.

TW: That’d probably be the ‘where do you get your ideas’ question because I don’t know is such a lousy answer <g>

DC: I’ve heard writers often say their stories take them in surprising directions, or dialogue flows from some unknown place. Is it the same with you? Do your characters surprise you sometimes?

TW: When I’m in the zone, it’s always wild to see what happens.  The story twists, information surfaces, characters say things that I had no clue about.  It’s always a great and adds so much depth to the story, as well as giving me motivation to find that zone as often as possible.

DC: Do you ever argue with your characters while you’re writing? Who usually wins?

TW: LOL – no, no arguing here.  I am queen of my little world.  I might get stuck, but I can’t blame them, right?

DC: Your latest story, You Have to Kiss a Lot of Frogs, is in a book with Tori Carrington titled Blazing Bedtime Stories, Volume III. First, how did the idea of the Blazing Bedtime Stories begin? Would you tell our readers about kissing frogs?

TW: The first Blazing Bedtime Stories anthology was by Kimberly Raye, Leslie Kelly, and Rhonda Nelson and it was fabulous!  As soon as [I read it] I begged my editor to let me write one.  I love fairy tales and seeing modern twists on them is always so entertaining.  In You Have to Kiss a Lot of Frogs, my hero is put under a curse.  Instead of turning into a frog, though, his winkie is shrinking to tadpole proportions <G>  His reputation and career are about to disintegrate so he heads off to the mountains to try and figure out what to do and finds himself trapped in a cabin with the one woman he wants more than any other and can’t have, his boss’ daughter and his main competition for a job.

DC: What is sure to distract you from sitting down and working/writing?

TW: Email.  If I don’t have any to read, I’ll write it instead.

DC: What has been your favorite book cover from all of your releases and why?

TW: Double Dare, because it was my first, will always hold a special place in my heart.  At the moment, I’m totally in love with my current cover for Riding the Waves because it captures the summer lovin’ feel of the story so well.  But my all-time favorite is Risqué Business because it has a pair of really sexy shoes on it.

DC: How about your least favorite cover?  Why?

TW: I don’t think I have a least favorite.  They all represent some aspect of their story and make me smile.

DC: How do you feel your male or female characters have evolved over your career? Do you think you write them differently now than you did when you started?

TW: Great question.  I’ve definitely left my comfort zone in writing my heroines.  Bad girls are easy for me, so writing a wider variety has been a growth process.  I think I’m able to show more depth of character now, and while my heroines are strong, their vulnerabilities are much clearer.

DC: You have connected books with Coming on Strong and Going Down Hard, both of which were released last year. Can you give peek into each book’s characters and how they’re related?

TW: Oooh, I loved writing those stories! Belle and Sierra are the heroines and are best friends and business partners.  The heroes, Mitch and Reece, are cousins, and Reece provides security for Mitch’s business.

DC: Is there a genre you haven’t tackled but would like to try?

TW: I’d love to write light paranormal.  Too bad the market isn’t looking for that right now <g>

DC: What advice would you give to your younger self?

TW: To appreciate each step along the way.  I’m notoriously impatient, but over the years I have learned that its not how fast something happens that matters, it’s the journey itself.

DC: Tell us about your first Blaze, Double Dare.

TW: Audra Walker is the baddest of bad girls and meets the hero when she’s dared to ‘do’ the next guy to walk into the nightclub. She’s trying to grow up and make changes in her life, but is afraid of losing her friends and sense of identity if she does.  Sexy undercover cop suspects her of being in the middle of an identity theft ring and has to watch her very VERY closely to solve this crime.

DC: Still remember “the call” and how you felt when you realized you are now a published author? How did you celebrate?

TW: Oh yes!! Its right up there with my favorite memories.  The call came on Memorial Day in 2006, a little before 9 a.m.  It was surreal for the first week or so.  I walked around in a fog, I couldn’t eat, I kept waiting for someone to yell “Gotcha.”  Because it was Memorial Day, we had plans to go to a neighborhood barbeque already so that was my celebration.  I did buy myself a gorgeous pair of boots as a memento, though.

DC:  What romance book would you recommend our readers pick up during their next bookstore run? (Of course, along with a couple of Tawny Weber Blazes!)

TW: I just picked up Nora Roberts’ latest, Savor the Moment, and Beth Andrews’ Do You Take This Cop.  I’m looking forward to Janet Evanovich’s Sizzling Sixteen that’s out in late June, too.

DC: Riding the Waves is due out later this year in September. May we have just a tiny sneak peek?  Please?

TW: How about short excerpt?

Alex Maddow gave a quick shake of his head, his hair flying around his face as the drops of water scattered.  The exhilaration of riding the waves still surged through his body.  Muscles tight, he filled his lungs with the salty evening air and gave a deep sigh of satisfaction.

There was nothing like surfing at sunset.  The colors of the sky, the feel of the cooling air as it whipped around his body while he flew over the water.  Incredible was the only word for it.  God he felt great.

Then he saw her.  There, a glowing jewel against the pristine white adobe of the hotel.  Talk about incredible.  Simply stunning.  Despite the aftereffects of the cold water, his body stirred in hardening awareness.  Images flooded his mind of naked bodies, breathy moans and exquisite pleasure.

Never a man to deny his sexual needs, nevertheless Alex usually knew the woman’s name before he planned the many different ways he’d enjoy her body.  Then again, he’d never experienced this intense, instantaneous lust at first sight reaction to a woman before, either.

His eyes narrowed.  She reminded him of one of those elfish princesses his mother used to read him stories about—the ones he’d always fallen in love with.  Tall and slender, her angular face commanded attention.  Silvery blonde hair waved around her shoulders in a silken cape.  The demureness of the cut of her calf-length sundress was at odds with the vivid turquoise and pink pattern.  Bare toes curled sensually in the sand.

A slow smile of anticipation curved Alex’s lips.  It was like it was meant to be.  From one exhilarating ride to the temptation of another.  Never let it be said that Albert Alexander Maddow didn’t appreciate opportunity when fate placed it right in front of his face.  Especially an opportunity that stole his breath away, filling his mind with sexual challenge.

Through wasting time, he strode across the sand toward her, shoving his wet curls off his face as he moved.  The closer he got, the more intrigued he was.  Not because of her looks, but because of the look she was giving him.  Like she couldn’t decide if he was a crazed axe murderer or how he’d taste covered in chocolate.

From the set of her chin and the way she shifted her body, lifting one shoulder and crossing her arms over her chest, she obviously figured she could handle either option.  Alex grinned.  There was nothing sexier than a confident woman.

And she was even better up close.  Her brows, shades darker than her hair, slashed a strong arch over eyes so blue they were almost the same purple of the sunset bleeding into the ocean.  Her mouth was narrow, the upper lip heavier than the lower.  He wanted to nibble on that lip, to run his tongue over it and see if it was as delicious as it looked.

Had he ever been so intensely, instantly attracted to a woman?  Alex couldn’t recall, and didn’t care.  After all, all that mattered was this moment and this woman.

Until the moment was over.

“Gorgeous,” he commented when he was a couple feet away from her.  Her features didn’t add up to pretty individually, but put together, they were stunning.  His fingers ached to trace the line of her throat down to the gentle swell of flesh pressing against the vivid floral cotton of her dress.

“The surf?” she asked after a brief hesitation.  Even her voice was sexy.  Low and husky, at odds with her ethereal appearance.

“The view,” he clarified, instantly sensing that she wouldn’t appreciate surfeit flirtation.  A man who prided himself in his intuition as much as his brains, he reigned in his instinct to hit hard and intense.

“Do you surf?” he asked, already knowing the answer.  She had that romantic, wouldn’t-it-be-an-adventure look in her indigo eyes.  Not that surfing wasn’t both romantic and adventurous.  But when a surfer looked at the ocean, there was always an overlying layer of respect in their gaze.

“I never have surfed before, no,” she said, her gaze meeting his again.  There was a summing up, a calculation in her deep blue eyes.  He recognized the look.  Felt the sexual pull of it tugging at him.  It was the kind of expression that said she wondered how he’d look without his swim trunks and could he keep it up long enough make her scream with pleasure.

Then, as if realizing he’d caught the look, she blinked.  Color, soft pale pink, swept over her cheeks.  But she didn’t drop her gaze.  Almost defiantly, she kept those indigo eyes on his.

A slow, challenging grin spread over his face.  He was looking forward to showing her both the view and his talents.

“Surfing is like sex,” he told her softly.  “An intense ride on a lover that knows how to push you to your limits, then bring you back to earth with a gentle kiss and invitation to ride again.”

DC: If you had never become an author, what do you think you would be doing right now?

TW: I’ve spent years as an intuitive consultant, reading Tarot, doing hypnosis and Reiki.  If I hadn’t started writing, I’d likely have added life coach to the mix at this point.

DC: What’s on the horizon for Tawny Weber?

TW: In addition to my September release, Riding the Waves, I have a novella in the Blaze Christmas anthology called Babes in Toyland.  Next year I have three  more Blazes hitting the shelves and am currently working on the first, which features a Uniformly Hot military hero and a battle for control that’s been great fun to write.

Lightning Round:

– dark or milk chocolate?  Milk
– smooth or chunky peanut butter?  Chunky
– heels or flats?  Heels
– coffee or tea?  Tea
– summer or winter?  Summer
– mountains or beach?  Beach
– mustard or mayonnaise?  Mustard
– flowers or candy?  Flowers
– pockets or purse?  Purse
– Pepsi or Coke?   <g> neither, I don’t drink soda
– ebook or print?  Print

And because we still enjoy the answers we get:

1. What is your favorite word? Love
2. What is your least favorite word?  Oh, that ugly swear word that starts with a C.  I cringe when I hear it
3. What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally? Growth
4. What turns you off creatively, spiritually or emotionally? Suppression
5. What sound or noise do you love? My daughter’s laughing
6. What sound or noise do you hate?  The sound of a flat tire
7. What is your favorite curse word?  Fuck
8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?  Artist
9. What profession would you not like to do?  Anything that involves body fluids
10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?  “Well done.”

DC: Thank you for being with us today, Tawny!