Character Interview and Giveaway

Today I'm a guest at SG Rogers' blog, Child of Yden. SG is a fellow Astraea Press author and she is a whiz at promoting herself as well as the rest of us. So I jumped at the chance to promote Aegean Intrigue with her. She interviewed Francie, the main character in Aegean Intrigue. She also asked about my trip to Greece, so I sent her a few pictures, which she also posted. So if you want to find out more about Greece and Francie, come and visit. If you leave a comment, you'll have a chance to win a copy of the book!


Find the interview by clicking HERE:

Sweet Saturday

            Welcome back! I'm having so much fun with all the promotional events this month at Astraea Press. Today I'm the guest blogger at Seriously Reviewed. If you get a moment, please check it out and leave a comment!

            Here at Sweet Saturday Samples, I've got another scene from Aegean Intrigue. Here, the group is setting up for their archaeological dig, and Francie makes observations about some of the crew:

After the screens were assembled, Dimitri went to the food tent to prepare dinner. Soon, the scent of beef, onions, and tomatoes spiced with cumin, cinnamon, and garlic filled the air. Dimitri was evidently preparing stifado, a traditional Greek stew. Francie's stomach growled, and she remembered she hadn't eaten all day. She had been too excited about the trip to eat that morning, and lack of funds had prevented her from buying food on the ferry.

When Alex called a halt to the day's work, she was more than ready to eat. The dig site was set up, and they would be ready to begin work in earnest the next day.

Before heading to the dining cabin, the crew cleaned up. Tools were wiped off and put away. Francie noted that Yannis, again, stood off to the side, his ever-present Blackberry his only concern. She frowned.

“Something wrong?”

The man seems to be everywhere. She nodded toward the preoccupied crew member. “Yannis spends a lot of time on that Blackberry. For a graduate archaeology student, he doesn'ʹt seem to know what he's doing. And he doesn't seem willing to pull his weight in the work and cleanup.”

“Perhaps he's preoccupied with a girlfriend he left behind. But you'ʹre right. He should be helping. I'll talk to him.” Alex loped over to the other man, his long legs covering the distance in no time.

Francie scolded herself for noticing the man's legs and turned her attention back to her own work. She cleaned off her trowel, wrapped it carefully, and stowed it in her backpack. Focus, she reminded herself.

****

Thanks for stopping by! Be sure to check out other excerpts by going to Sweet Saturday Samples. Perhaps you'll find a new favorite!

Sweet Saturday

Welcome back! This week I'm continuing the scene from Aegean Intrigue in which Francie has boarded the ferry from Athens to Paros. She finds herself seated next to Alex, the Project Director of the archaeological dig she is working on:

Taking the packet from Alex, she began to read. Thankfully, he allowed her to read on her own rather than pointing things out to her. It was unnerving enough to have to sit next to the man. It would be worse to have those dark brown eyes focused on her, his melodic voice sounding in her ear…

She blinked and brought her mind back to the page in front of her. When she got to the page describing the sleeping accommodations, Francie frowned. “You’re staying with us the entire time?” she asked.

“Of course. Why do you ask?”

“I’ve never known a Project Director to stay on site. You’ve probably got a half dozen other projects you’re working on, don’t you? I expected you would just take care of the planning, the designating, and then leave.”

His eyes narrowed. “I don’t operate that way.”

The sudden coldness in his expression unnerved her. She merely nodded and looked back at the page, but the symbols made no sense to her. She could read English, Greek, and French, but in her agitation she couldn’t decipher anything on the page. Why had he become so angry?

He cleared his throat and his tone gentled. “Our sponsor is an exacting man. He expects detailed reports each evening. I don’t have any other projects going in Athens at the moment, so…” He paused and shrugged before continuing, “I decided to take a working vacation.”

Francie felt her tensions drain away. Maybe she had misread his facial expression. At least he wasn't angry with her. She looked at the document again, and this time the words made sense.

****

Thanks for stopping by! Please leave a comment, or better yet, check out Aegean Intrigue by clicking on the book cover at the top right of the page. It's available at Astraea Press, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble.

More samples are offered from other authors at Sweet Saturday Samples.

Sweet Saturday Sample

Trowel image from About.com

Welcome to my first Saturday Sample of the new year! I've been hard at work revising Aegean Intrigue, which will hopefully be released soon. Here is a short sample from that novella. Francie, a doctoral student in archaeology, is preparing to participate in a dig on the beautiful Greek island of Paros:

A few days before departure, a courier arrived with a packet of final instructions. She was told to ride the early ferry to the island of Paros, and Dimitri would meet the crew at the dock and take them to the dig site. Her ferry ticket was included in the packet, and she danced for joy at another expense she didn’t have to bear.

Carefully, she packed for the trip. She wouldn’t need much in the way of clothing: sturdy work boots, heavy socks, shorts, light tops, a hat, underwear, and sunscreen. Then she packed her tools: her notebook, a camera, and her trowel. The last was polished and wrapped in an old T-shirt. It had been a gift from her father, one of the few items she had ever received from him. He had given it to her after they’d gone on their last dig together. Nothing could have been more precious to her than this verification of his approval of her as an archaeologist. Since then, the beloved trowel had accompanied her on every dig, been cleaned every night, and stored safely in her knapsack.

Maybe someday, her father would ask her to go on another dig with him.

****

Thanks for stopping by! Be sure to check out samples from other great authors. You can find their links at Sweet Saturday Samples.