Review & Interview with: Author Faith L. Bicknell - The Darkness of Sable

Check what gift the author has for you!!!

Today on ‘Review and Interview’ on Romance Alley, I would like to welcome author F.L. Bicknell and to talk about her novel “The Darkness of Sable”

Blurb: Struggling to deal with the disappearance of her daughter and in a creative slump, sculptress Sable Hendricks-Tade travels to Florida for rest and relaxation only to find herself thrust between divided paranormal worlds. One side wants her dead and the other will do anything to keep her in its "wicked" embrace. Determined to get answers, she searches for her missing daughter and spirals into the realm of immortals and goddesses where she quickly realizes her agent is her only anchor to reality. But can she trust him to keep her safe?

Thomas Valimar, a highly trained marshal working within a network of humans to maintain the line between the paranormal and human worlds, is assigned to protect Sable from the magic she doesn't realize she possesses. Operating undercover as her agent, his duty soon turns to passion as he falls for the beautiful artist.

Drawing Sable into their world of sex, magic, and intrigue, the dark forces will do anything to keep Sable in their clutches so they may feed from her emotions and mysterious ability. Only through sheer determination and Thomas' love can Sable walk through other realms and not only battle the paranormal creatures that wish to destroy her life but save her daughter as well.

Reviewed by Suzannah Safi at Romance Alley: To get answers, that’s what Sable fought hard like any mother will do to find her child, author F.L. Bicknell drew deep emotions in every step throughout the novel making me feel compassion toward the heroine. To be strong and fight for what is yours and overcome even the paranormal was Sable’s action, never give up.

I was hooked with every page I turned, the story has many twists and turns that will engage you to continue reading. The writing is smooth and consumes you, you will live in a world of paranormal with its many creatures described beautifully in the story, scary yet some are sensual. Although Sable’s aim is to find her daughter, she couldn’t but find the love she sought to find in the oddest situations. Her experience with love and marriage destroyed her spirit after her divorce, but she fought against an annoying ex-husband and struggled with the search for her daughter. Finding happiness seemed far for her and so close at times, but it’s a battle she was strong enough to fight, with the help of the handsome highly trained marshal, Thomas Valimar. I truly believe ‘The Darkness of Sable’ should have a second book for after what happened at the end, I’m not telling you what lol, but truly the story is entertaining and I recommend it for all readers who like paranormal romance novels, and I applause Author F.L. Bicknell for her captivating imagination.

Now let’s meet the author and get to know her book.

Faith, welcome to Romance Alley and thank you for being here with us today.

Suzannah: When I started reading your story ‘The darkness of Sable’ I couldn’t but feel Sable’s deep dilemma and totally sympathized with her, although I’m not a mother but I felt her pains and wanted her to find her daughter and happiness. Although I’m an author myself, still it fascinates me how authors get their story formed. So, how did you get the idea for your novel ‘The darkness of Sable’?

Faith: It came to me while watching a short biography onVH1 about Lenny Kravitz. He’d had dreadlocks for years and his then wife, Lisa Bonet, convinced him to cut them and start a new life. The plot for “SABLE” just hit me like that proverbial bolt of lightning. Something was after Sable and part of the reason for it was tied to her ankle-length hair, her trademark for her famous-artist image. The story grew from 8K into a full 105K novel.

Suzannah: Is'nt it amazing how we get stories! I know that with every story authors write, behind it is lots of research. What did you research and did you find something within your research that added a new idea or a twist to the story. Don’t give us spoilers, just a hint maybe?

Faith: I’m an avid fan of anything paranormal, supernatural or numerous lore such as faerie lore. However, I did have to research something unique that would fit the part of what would want Sable dead and why. It led me to researching mythology, and as a result, I tied gods and goddesses to Sable’s paranormal world.

Suzannah: One fact authors face for sure: the characters either don’t talk to the authors for sometime or they nag like hell LOL. Tell us which character gave you the runaround, nagged, talked to you or didn’t?

Faith: That would have to be Hal, Sable’s ex-husband. My editor suggested I remove him from the story, but I assured her that Hal had a meaningful part in the novel. Once she finished reading the last few chapters she quickly emailed to state she loved the twist for Hal and totally got what I had been doing with his character. Hal just wouldn’t go away and demanded to be heard, but his nagging in my mind will get him in trouble too, lol.

Suzannah: Do you have part 2 lol? I want one.

Faith: I have ideas for a book two, yes. In the second book, Cheyenne’s dilemma will be resolved, albeit not in a way that may be expected. Although Sable will be a part of the novel, book two will center around a new heroine and her unexpected love interest.

Suzannah: I should have asked this at the beginning, but it’s never late lol. Tell us about faith the person and the author.

Faith: I’m a country bumpkin. I’m raising a large family, including helping my oldest daughter to raise her first child until she can get on her feet. I have four children, two stepsons, a big home to manage, and I raise a garden every year making everything from jelly to freezing vegetables and putting up venison during hunting season. I write during every spare moment I have, but I also love reading and I’m an artist of traditional mediums.

Suzannah: You are really busy, Faith lol. What is your next project? Give us the behind the story information. We want juicy stuff.

Faith: right now I have two contracted works-in-progress under pen names that I keep under wraps as well as two contracted series under the same pen names. As for material in progress under my real name of F.L. Bicknell, I have another full length paranormal romance that I recently sent off to my agent. It involves reincarnation, demonic motorcycles and the Nephilim, so it has a lot of historical research behind it.

However, right now I have a new novel literally screaming in my brain to be written. It will be erotic fantasy/sci-fi romance, but I’m not sure if I’ll write it as F.L. Bicknell or put my alter ego of Molly Diamond on the ms.

Suzannah: Do you have anything else to tell your readers… and tell us where to find you.

Faith: I have two new releases as F.L. Bicknell. One is Feathers of Silver and it can be found at Silver Publishing as well as many e-book distributors, and the other one is The Most Intimate Wish published by Turquoise Morning Press and it can be found at ARe.com, Smashwords, Digibooks Café, and many more distributors. Both books are erotic romances, full of paranormal coolness with many twists and shocks.

As for where to find me, I have a new website that’s under construction. http://www.faithbicknell.com/ but my alter ego site is finished http://www.mollydiamond.com/ so anyone who’s interested can check out my erotica titles there. I’m also at Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace.

The Barnes and Noble.com link for The Darkness of Sable, but it's available at Amazon.com, Fictionwise, Are, ebookwise.com and many others too.


http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Darkness-of-Sable/FL-Bicknell/e/9781608201952/?itm=1&USRI=the+darkness+of+sable

www.facebook.com/faithbicknellbrown

www.twitter.com/faith_zinnia
www.myspace.com/faith_zinnia

I'll give one commentor a copy of their choice from my Molly Diamond erotica books published with Breathless Press. They're viewable at http://www.mollydiamond.com/

Suzannah: Thank you Faith for giving me the chance to enjoy your novel ‘The Darkness of Sable’ and have this interview. I enjoyed your novel and getting to know you better. I wish you all the best and much success for the upcoming projects. I hope to have another ‘Review and Interview’ with you and a new novel.

Authors if you would like to have your Review & Interview on Romance Alley, contact me on RA. As for readers I hope you enjoyed reading, and I wish you a good luck in winning. The winner will be announced at the end of this week and the name and email will be sent to the author to contact you with your gift. Cheers!!  

  



Announcement in regards to 1RomanceEbooks

Announcement in regards to 1RomanceEbooks :  In the next couple weeks, 1RomanceEbooks will become http://1placeforromance.com/ . The same great romance stories, the same great romance authors and publishers, the same great customer service... They're just changing their name.


1PlaceForRomance is their new website name: http://1placeforromance.com/


1PFR has a Facebook: http://facebook.com/OnePlaceForRomance

1PFR is on Twitter: http://twitter.com/1PFR

GetToKnowTheBook: Author Sherry Gloag 'The Brat'

Getting to know your book is a bit like finding the jigsaw pieces and putting them together. But, unlike a jigsaw, the pieces don’t come ready-made or ready packed. To add to the confusion, you don’t even know what those ‘pieces’ look like.

My jigsaw puzzle today is a romance named The Brat.

Authors are often described as ‘plotters’ or ‘pantsers’. They first plot their stories in detail before they start writing, while others work from an ‘idea’. I fall into the latter category.

So how can a pantser possibly ‘get to know their book’?

Even they have to have a few basics on the table before they start. What kind of book do they want to write? If it’s a romance they then have to decide which sub-genre they are aiming for. And by association what kind of reader they want to attract.

But that’s not enough.

When a reader picks up a book they expect to be drawn into the story. They want to experience that personal connection with the main characters.

To ensure the reader will keep turning the pages the author must create well rounded, believable characters that are fully developed. People the reader can relate to, whether they like your characters, or hate them, if they can say ‘she/he reminds me of…’ then you have reader connection with your characters.

To do this the author must ask themselves three basic questions.

1) What does my character want?

2) What is obstructing their goal?

3) How will the characters solve their problems?

That on its own will not hold your reader, so you have to add action and suspense.

You have to find a plot that has more twists and turns than the most dangerous mountain switchbacks. But, and there is a but… the conflicts you put in your characters’ way must be believable.

This does not necessarily mean gunfights, murder and mayhem or shouting matches between your hero and heroine. Especially not the shouting matches. Nothing will turn a reader off more than a book-full of constant bickering.

Your action and conflict can be internally related. By that I mean something in their past influences the moment you open the first page of the book. The action and conflict must draw the reader in so they forget the real world around them. All conflict requires balance to hold the reader.

Even a pantser has to keep these criteria in mind when they write. They have to know their book.

The characters in The Brat seemed to know this instinctively. For the most part they ‘told’ their own story and used me as their ‘go-between’. On the occasions when they, and I, forgot the rules we found ourselves backtracking that involved some major re-writing.

An author can’t help but get too close to the action when writing a book.

To them there characters are real people, with real problems. They are the jigsaw pieces that complete the puzzle. The only difference is the author must know their puzzle/book inside out before putting each piece of the puzzle together in the correct order.

Then, and only then, when they have that knowledge, can they start writing!

~ ~ ~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~ ~ ~

Blurb~

Gina Williams is a 35-year-old famous children’s author, who also writes detective mysteries under the name of George Williamson.


She was robbed of her childhood when aged ten by the late mother of the hero, Ben Kouvaris.

When he was ten-years-old his mother sent him to her ex Theo Kouvaris, multi-millionaire, who lives in Greece. When he returns to her funeral he is haunted by the beautiful woman who organised the funeral.

When his father orders him to marry he thinks of Gina Williams.

They have to overcome the horrors of the past and forgive their parents for their betrayals. Will their past destroy their future?

The Brat – Excerpt Three - Pg 99


“I guess life diverted your dreams.”

The earlier light-hearted banter between them vanished. “Yes.” Ben signalled the waiter, passed over his credit card, and rose.

She leaned forward to pick up her bag just as her phone rang. Without checking the caller ID she took the call.

“You think I don’t know what you’re up to?”

The last time she heard that voice the Inspector had walked into her house seconds later. The phone almost slipped through her fingers, and she swung away from Ben’s perceptive stare.

“Who are you? What do you want?”

“You won’t deny your family’s existence for much longer, I promise you.”

The dial tone buzzed in her ear. Dear God in heaven, what did that mean? She’d never denied her family! They’d deserted her.



Buy The Brat here = http://bit.ly/d5nVDC

And at Amazon = http://amzn.to/bclDhY

My Website = http://www.%20sherrygloag.com/

My blog = http://bit.ly/bnuELA

Book Trailer = http://bit.ly/9O6j6C

Facebook = http://bit.ly/daeGN7

Goodreads = http://bit.ly/bTOzHC

Twitter = http://twitter.com/SherryGloag