Author Saturday Spotlight: Ella Frank #Interview #Giveaway

I am beyond thrilled to have the outstanding Ella Frank as our Author Saturday Spotlight. I joked recently about having not read her and so I started and haven't looked back. She's an extraordinary writer and today you will see some of her work, there's an interview, and a wonderful giveaway. Grab your drink of choice and join us.

ROBBIE

Relationships are complex.
Love ever-changing.
And when it comes to rules of the heart,
they were made to be broken…

That’s what Robert Antonio Bianchi was telling himself, anyway.
Otherwise, he really had no excuse for what—or who—he’d done.

No excuse, except for his lonely heart, a pitcher of margaritas, four Bitter Bitches, and the apparent need to confess all his weaknesses to the two men he knew would bring him nothing but trouble.

But trouble was nothing new.

Just ask his crazy sisters or any of his friends, and they’d be the first to tell you:
If there was a bad decision to be made, Robbie always had a knack for making it.

And thus begins the story of the priest, the princess, and the prick.

Confessions: Robbie (Confessions Series Book #1) - Buy Link

FINLEY

It's time to come home, Finn.
It’s been seven years since Daniel Finley left his hometown in Florida for the hustle and bustle of Chicago’s city life.
Since then, he’s worked hard for his position at the prestigious law firm Leighton & Associates, even when it’s caused distance and isolation from his family and friends. But that’s all about to change.
On his thirtieth birthday, he receives the one thing he never dared hope for. Something that was promised to him years earlier—a note. One simple sentence from the man he’s never been able to forget.
Six words will forever change the course of their lives.
Brantley Hayes has it all. Or so he thinks. When he first made the decision to take a job down in Florida, his family thought he was crazy. But, after years of living in the quiet beach town, he finally feels a sense of community. He’s surrounded himself with friends who are like family, has a job he loves, and owns a spectacular beachfront property that is his sanctuary.
Yet he still feels unfulfilled, as if a piece of the puzzle is missing, and he knows exactly which piece it is. On an impulse, he follows through with a promise he made years earlier. A promise to call home the one he sent away.
Nothing is as simple as it seems.
After years of separation, the former lovers are reunited, but Brantley wasn’t expecting to encounter the high walls now guarding Daniel’s heart.
Daniel may not be the same person he was when he left, but he knows that the first step to healing is the note in his hand.

Finley (Sunset Cove Series #1) - Buy Link

 SHIVER

Wide-eyed and innocent, you stumbled into my world, never knowing the danger that lurked within. The Wolfe’s Den is no place for a little lamb, but you came anyway, and from the moment you stepped inside, you were mine.

In my life there are no happy accidents. Every move is carefully orchestrated. Every situation premeditated. That’s what makes the hunt so intoxicating.

What you need, I become.

What you crave, I will give.

Except the one thing you desire above all else—love.


Everything I told you is true—I’m not a good man, but you choose what you want to hear.

You shouldn’t have come that night. Maybe then you’d be safe. But it’s too late now.

I want you because you remind me of him. I need you to give me back what I lost.

SHIVER WARNING: This is not a love story. It is not a romance. This is an obsessive stalker lust story that contains darker themes that may serve as a trigger to some readers. Shiver is a standalone novel.

Shiver (Standalone) – Buy Link

TRY

Try – verb: to make an attempt or effort to do something or in this case…someone.

Sex. Logan Mitchell loves it, and ever since he realized his raw sexual appeal at a young age, he has had no problem using it to his advantage. Men and women alike fall into his bed—after all, Logan is not one to discriminate. He lives by one motto—if something interests you, why not just take a chance and try?

And he wants to try Tate Morrison.

Just coming out of a four-year marriage with an ex-wife from hell, a relationship is the last thing on Tate’s mind. He’s starting fresh and trying to get back on his feet with a new job at an upscale bar in downtown Chicago.

The only problem is, Tate has caught the unwavering and unwelcome attention of Mr. Logan Mitchell – a regular at the bar and a man who always gets what he wants.

Night after night Tate fends off the persistent advances of the undeniably charismatic man, but after an explosive moment in the bar, all bets are off as he finds his body stirring with a different desire than his mind.

As arrogance, stubbornness and sexual tension sizzles between the two, it threatens to change the very course of their lives.

Logan doesn’t do relationships. Tate doesn’t do men. But what would happen if they both just gave in and…tried?

Try (Temptation Series Book #1) - Buy Link

ACED

What happens when these two worlds collide?

Ace Locke is Hollywood’s hottest action hero. Women across the globe fling their panties in his direction, but Ace isn’t interested in those—he’s more of a boxer briefs kind of guy. Specifically, those of the nearly naked male model on a billboard he drives past every day.

Though he recently made headlines for his public coming out, Ace is wary about pursuing a relationship, fearing what the court of public opinion will do to his career. But there’s something in the model’s expression that intrigues him and has him wondering what if?

Dylan Prescott just scored his biggest modeling campaign yet. One that has him plastered all over L.A. in not much more than what he was born with. And when he’s cast in Ace’s latest blockbuster, it puts him in close proximity to his ultimate fantasy.

Outwardly confident, Dylan has no problem with his sexuality or his pretty-boy looks, and uses both to his advantage to get what he wants. And what he wants is the impossible—Ace Locke.

Aced (Preslocke Series Book #1) - Buy Link

Interview

I am so excited to have you on Diverse Reader! I am a fan and greatly respect your work. I want to ask you some questions, get to know you, pick your brain a bit.

Thank you so much for having me. It’s a pleasure to be here with you at Diverse Reader, pick away, I’m ready…maybe…okay, yep, I’m ready! Go for it.

What are three things about you we won’t read about in your bio?

Hmm… let me see. I’m an Australian. Born and bred. I moved from Sydney to the US when I was nineteen, and the rest of my family still lives Down Under.

I am a total foodie, and not necessarily the snobby, posh food. I mean I love to try anything and everything food wise—except Sushi. In most of my books there is some element of food, and it’s usually just a great excuse for me to try things or get into research by eating it— #noshame.

I love to dance and sing…badly. I don’t care that I can’t hold a tune to save myself if there is a song on I love, I will be the one belting it out at the top of my lungs. As I just recently displayed for my co-author Brooke at the Taylor Swift concert we went to. I don’t think I stopped singing and dancing all night.

You write in both the MF world and in the MM world. It’s not easy to make both work but you do wonderfully. What made you cross the streams so to speak?

I love romance, no matter what genre it is. MF/MM/PNR/Historical, I love to write about love and am fortunate that readers have trusted me when I’ve gone off in a different direction.

I started with MF romance because that was what I was reading. I had grown up reading Sandra Brown and Nora Roberts and was fascinated by the many different ways people could meet and fall in love. By age fourteen, I was writing long drawn out romances that I made my friends listen to which I’m sure they just loved…okay, maybe not LOL.

The crossover happened after reading Blackdagger Brotherhood by J.R. Ward. I found myself incredibly invested in a certain friendship/love in that book (Butch and V, I’m looking at you) and it had me going in search of romances in the MM genre and I found a whole new world of romance and I fell in love.

It called to me and made me think how wonderful it would be to write a romance in this genre and maybe introduce some of my readers who hadn’t read MM before (like me) to it—and so TRY came about.

After that it was really about writing what came to me. Try was a huge surprise. I never expected it would be as well received as it was. But word of mouth got Logan and Tate into people’s hands after a year or so, and when Take came out it was exciting to know I could explore both the MF and MM worlds when it came to my writing. 

I hope that remains the case as I go on in my career, and I never know what exactly I will write until I get there but I am open to anything and I think that is the beauty of being in a creative field like writing—the sky is the limit.

You co-author with Brooke Blaine often. Co-authoring is one of those things that when you find someone that you click with you feel like you’ve won the lottery. What, in your opinion, makes that partnership work?

We know and trust each other. Co-authoring isn’t easy. You not only have to come up with a plot you both love and understand, you then have to blend your voices in a seamless way that makes the reader feel as though the story they’re reading came from one mind.

I’ve known Brooke for years, both personally and professionally. We have worked on our solo projects together (nearly all of them) and we know how each other thinks. This is key in my opinion. She can finish a sentence of mine that I stop halfway because she understands my style so well—and vice versa—and I think that kind of working relationship is extremely rare and vital to having a successful and long lasting co-author partnership.

I couldn’t, and don’t want to, imagine doing this with anyone else (But we both know if J.R. Ward asks either of is—that’s a given LOL)

What is your favorite part about writing a book and your least favorite?

My favorite part of writing is coming up with the characters and stories and all the possibilities. Also, when I get a devious little ah ha! moment. That’s fun too!

My least fun part is writing chapter one. I always write it ten times before I am happy,  and I usually end up going back to the first draft.

We often read authors saying, “I write JUST too much.” Or “Oh my god, I wrote looked 32 times in this book.” What is that one word you always find you write too much?

All of them? LOL. I find it changes from book to book. Isn’t that crazy? I will say there are the standard repeaters such as turned, looked, or narrowed. But I also find there are phrases we sometimes get comfortable with in certain books, and we keep using.

I’m very lucky in the sense my editor pulls no punches in being a wiseass and telling me when to cut things or just cuts them for me, and between him and Brooke, I can honestly say my writing has improved in leaps and bounds.

We all start somewhere, and I am proud of my first stories, but I would like to believe that with every new novel I improve and become better at my craft. Tough skin and the willingness to listen and adapt can really change and improve a writer’s course.

Name three famous people, either living or dead, you’d love to sit down with and pick their brain?

This question is so HARD. It changes all the time for me. But right now it would be Jane Austin, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and my third is a three-way—Nora Roberts, J.R.Ward & Taylor Swift!

Can you tell us what book signings, conventions and such you’ll be attending the rest of this year?

I’m not attending any book signings for the rest of this year. I have decided to take some time at home and recoup after a few health issues, and really focus on my work.

Can you tell us what you’re currently working on or what you have coming?

I can! I am currently working on CONFESSIONS: PRIEST (Confessions Series Book #3) and I have just announced in my reader groups that there will be a fourth novella/novel (depending on what’s left to tell) for Robbie, Julien & Joel to wrap up their story this year. Heading into 2019 I will be writing more standalone MM romances in the Confessions world/universe. I’m not divulging who will get a story as of yet and when, but I love the Chicago I have created with Mitchell & Madison, The Popped Cherry, JULIEN Restaurant and I don’t want to leave anytime soon. I’m very excited!

There will also be some co-authored books with Brooke and maybe an MF thrown in there somewhere. I’m very excited for the future!

How can readers find you: Twitter, Website, Facebook, Instagram…?

WEBSITE — https://www.ellafrank.com

TWITTER — https://twitter.com/EllaFrank2012

INSTAGRAM — https://www.instagram.com/ellafrank1/

FACEBOOK PERSONAL — https://www.facebook.com/ella.frank.author

FACEBOOK PAGE — https://www.facebook.com/ella.frank.31/

How do you decompress after writing a book?

I go on TV Show binges. It is really quite alarming how much TV I can watch in a week. But I find after writing and editing I am so drained it is like you are coming down from an adrenaline rush. My brain goes numb and zoning out for a week is the perfect remedy—though probably not the healthiest.

What is your writing process?

I listen to a lot of music building up to writing a book. Songs that I think would fit the characters and their relationships, and then I start to write down quotes here and there. From there, I’ll try my hand at chapter one (and we all know how that goes for me…) and after I nail the vibe and feel of that, and know I am heading in the write direction, I start work on a very loose outline.

I used to be more of a pantser when it came to writing. I would sit down and just go with the flow. But the more I delved into series and had the same character’s popping up here and there, it became MUCH easier to have some idea of the direction I was going and the different layers I wanted to explore.

Right now I am in the middle of fleshing out an outline for Priest, and while I know all the things that need to be in the story, I need a sense of direction with the three POV’s and flashbacks and story building. It just makes life more manageable.

After that, I start my actually writing. I am pretty good at keeping to a schedule and I am one of those weird people who love to get up bright and early and work in the wee hours of the morning. Once I start, I don’t like to stop. I will work on the story every day unless something comes up—and I am laser focused. I live, breathe, and eat the story until it’s done.

Brooke chapter reads for me (as I do her) and gives me notes and suggestions on what to fix along the way, and then once the story is complete and I love it, it’s off to the editor.

My critique/beta process has changed dramatically over the years, and I have discovered that what works well for me, most certainly won’t work best for others. My best advice is to find what DOES work for you. No one’s way is the “right” way, but it is imperative to edit your books, take pride in your work, and put out the best product you can—don’t rush. You only get one first impression with a book.

Fast Fire Questions:

Coffee or tea? Coffee

Day or night? Morning/Day

Favorite comfort food? Sweets (especially caramel)

Favorite color? Blue

TV show or movie? TV Show

Favorite flower? Tulips

Thank you, Ella, so much for hanging out with me today.

Thank you so much for having me. It’s been an absolute pleasure getting to know you Meredith!

Xx Ella

Giveaway

Ella Frank is offering one person a signed

paperback copy of Robbie!!! EEEK.
Enter the rafflecopter below for your chance.

Contest ends June 22nd

Thanks!

a Rafflecopter giveaway