February 11th, 2010 — About
He's musky, woodsy, and oftentimes earthy, but overall a hero's scent is akin to sandalwood. Why is that? A curious reader wants to know!
Sandalwood: semiparasitic fragrant yellowish woods used often for their essential oils.
I researched sandalwood to figure out its appeal. I found that it's been used in incense and perfumes for over 4,000 years. It is said the best sandalwood smell comes from a mature tree as opposed to a young tree.
Sandalwood as a note is a striking wood base. It has a bright and fresh edge with few natural analogues. In most perfumes and scents I find it very strong. It permeates a small space easily and can be very heady despite the crisp edge. For me, the scent of sandalwood lingers, smelling like a memory after a time.
Sandalwood Today:
Most of the sandal forests are gone, having been depleted over the years to meet up with demand. Part of the problem is how it is harvested. They pull up the whole tree instead of just hacking at the base because the natural essential oil is so expensive.
Can you imagine how lucrative growing sandal trees must be?
Nowadays true sandal trees are heavily monitored, though poachers are still a problem, and trees within the same family are being used instead and labeled sandalwood.
Application:
Taking what we know of sandalwood and applying it to the genre we can deduce that it represents many characteristics for a discerning writer.
First and foremost sandalwood represents the earth. A sandalwood scented hero is a man of dirt and woods; he is robust, practical, and worldly. In a word sandalwood is manliness.
Secondly, sandalwood represents wealth, luxury, and status because it is scarce, expensive, and refined. A hero smelling of sandalwood is a rare specimen of finest quality.
Lastly, sandalwood scented heroes are in dire need of a helmet and a spear to ward off the ladies eager to sink their claws into him. His first two qualities alone will make him the sexiest man on the block and being so intensely desired requires a protector... a job the heroine is more than willing to fulfill.
Fragrances with Sandalwood (likely chemically produced versus naturally produced): 1189! Eau de Sandalwood by Le Jardin Retrouvé Review
Photo Credits: nicholaslaughlin
Originally posted 2009-05-30 03:50:35. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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January 27th, 2010 — Author Interviews, Guest Blogger, S-U
Today, we’re welcoming back a familiar voice here at LRP, hello Terry Spear. Thank you for visiting, let’s chew the fat awhile. Susan looks over at Terry whose shapeshifted into an Arctic wolf, and is currently chewing the fat from a rib bone. Terry, honey, what I meant was, let’s have a friendly talk.
- Susan: I understand you enjoy reading, particularly historicals and paranormals. Would you share the title(s) of some of your favorite reads?
Terry: I loved Celtic Fire
and the Immortal Highlander
, but so many others too. Both have a paranormal bent with a historical past. I love time travels, but there aren’t as many out there that I can find to read!
- Susan: I’ve read other shapeshifting novels where the hero uses a fur pelt to shift. What is the catalyst that initiates your weres to shift? Is it a certain moon phase, or a strong emotion such as anger?
Terry: I was just reading about wolfsbane and how in some fables, the flower can cause the person to shift, in others, it prevents them from shifting, in others, it kills the creature. LOL. I love how stories can be so different from one another, which shows just how vivid imaginations can be.
In my stories, werewolves for the most part are born as such. The full moon has more of a draw on werewolves who have more human roots in their genes, than for royals who have had mostly werewolf genetics. And the royals are the only ones who can shift during any phase of the moon, whereas, the others can’t become a wolf during the new moon. So that leaves newly turned wolves with little control over their shapeshifting ability in the beginning. In To Tempt the Wolf
, two of the men who are turned, deal with it in different ways, just like people will handle a situation differently based on their personalities. Some are stronger, some more weak-willed. In Wolf Fever, the heroine has been recently turned, and she’s fighting the shift. But when she’s accosted at one point in the story, she suddenly feels the urge to shift. In another instant, she’s cold and can’t get warmed up, as well as the full moon’s strong pull is causing her trouble with the compulsion to shift. In Legend of the White Wolf, the heroine also has difficulty controlling the shift when she’s threatened. So for each, it depends on their personality as to what might trigger the need to change.
- Susan: Your heroine (Faith O’Malley) in Legend of the White Wolf
is smart, beautiful and fearless. Which heroines do you prefer writing, the strong heroines, or the vulnerable ones?
Terry: Definitely strong, with vulnerabilities. I’ve never cared for the Tomb Raider
type who had no flaws or vulnerabilities, or the heroine in Alien
who was the same way, tough, hard as nails, no feelings. At least that’s the way it seemed to me. On the other hand, weepy heroines who rely on everyone to do their bidding, doesn’t do it for me. I remember years ago watching a movie where the hero was struggling to fight some evil bad guy and the woman was standing helplessly nearby, screaming, her hands on her cheeks, eyes wide, and my mother saying, “Pick up a lamp! Clobber him! Do something!” I agreed with my mother. A heroine who stands up for right is a heroine in my book. 
- Susan: I consider you a multi-faceted author. You have been known to write urban fantasy, YA, Scottish-Medieval romances, romances with paranormal and romantic suspense elements. Is there another sub-genre you “secretly” wish to write for?
Terry: I’ve written a couple of time-travels and someday, I’d like to do some for publication. In part, it’s my love of history. Tossing a hero or heroine into the rabbit hole of the past and watching them thrive, stirs my imagination. Making them realistic is the real challenge though. I’d still love to do it.
- Susan: Some readers may not know this, but you create gorgeous wooly teddy bears. Have you created one to resemble an Arctic wolf?
Terry: LOL. Thanks, Susan! I’ve been asked to create a werewolf bear…In fact, if I ever design one, I have a couple of orders for them! I did create vampire bears for authors. Someday, if I ever get caught up, I do want to try my hand at one.
- Susan: In Legend of the White Wolf you familiarize your readers with at least two packs. I personally would love to be part of Leidolf’s red wolves. Will you include new packs in your upcoming werewolf series?
Terry: Seduced by the Wolf
is all about Leidolf and his poor pack. In Heart of the Wolf
, readers got a glimpse of the abused pack under Alfred’s rule. Leidolf took over that pack, and now has the task to heal them. I have to make a comment here, that if it hadn’t been for my editor, Deb, being upset that the red pack was doomed for extinction, Leidolf wouldn’t have come into the picture to save the day. So thanks to Deb for her concern for the reds in the Portland area! Leidolf has also taken on another real problem, and he’s one of the characters in Legend of the White Wolf.
For Taming the Highland Wolf, we’ll see what Highland werewolves are made of. That’s Book 7 coming in the spring of 2011. I’m pretty sure there’ll be two conflicting clans…it’s a Scottish thing, you know.
- Susan: Could you give us a little glimpse of your next title in the series, book five called Seduced by the Wolf due out in August 2010?
Terry: Ah, yes, Seduced by the Wolf, Leidolf’s story. He’s a royal red, with barely any human influences, and is pretty arrogant about it. Fans thought he ought to have a newly turned heroine because of it. But what he encounters knocks him totally off balance—a wolf biologist, red royal werewolf type—who plays by her own rules. She has NO intention of joining his pack or any other. And man does he want her. Now, if she didn’t want him back, he might give up on her. But he knows, or at least he hopes it’s not just wishful thinking on his part, that she’s just as intrigued with him as he is with her. And so, he’s not about to give her up. But she’s not about to give in either. The perfect couple, don’t you think?
- Susan: What would you say to readers who “haven’t” had the pleasure of reading your werewolf series? Why should they pick up your novels?
Terry: If you’re looking for werewolves who are real wolves at heart, look no further. For adventure, mystery, romance and intrigue, the series has it all. I love combining mystery and intrigue, having cut my teeth on mystery novels when I was younger. But adventure stories with a combined mystery like the Bourne
series, fascinated me even more, and add a romance, some subtle humor, and even better yet, the paranormal, and you’ve got the perfect scenario!
Heart of the Wolf, Book 1, started off the series with its wolfish characters and more realistic portrayal of life as a werewolf and the trouble with pack behavior. Destiny of the Wolf, Book 2, came next, which showed a gray pack that actually runs a town in Colorado. To Tempt the Wolf, Book 3, reveals a rare werewolf scenario, and a hero who has lost everything—his pack, his sister, his home, and his memory, and fights the urge to take a human for his own. And Legend of the White Wolf, Book 4, presents Arctic werewolves in Maine, who move about freely, not secretly like the wolves in other stories, although that’s only their wolf counterpart. No one, or mostly no one, knows what they truly are. Seduced by the Wolf, Book 5, shows what happens when a wolf biologist prefers living with wolves rather than her own werewolf kind, and the red pack leader in the area has other plans in mind. Wolf Fever, Book 6, coming in the fall of 2010, is about a psychic newly-turned werewolf nurse, who fights fully becoming one of the werewolf kind when she can’t even control her psychic visions. But Chester McKinley can’t quit thinking about the woman who solved the murder case through her psychic talents that HE was trying to solve. Is she for real? And do her abilities include a mesmerizing kind of sensuous control that she’s used on him? Taming the Highland Wolf is Book 7, and I can’t wait to get started on the hunky Highland story! And Dreaming of the Wolf, Book 8, is Jake’s story from Destiny of the Wolf. He doesn’t believe in dream mating. So what happens when the woman of his dreams desperately needs his help?
Susan: Thank you Terry, for spending the day with us at Love Romance Passion. Please feel free to visit anytime, even as a white furred Arctic-if you prefer.
Terry: LOL, Susan, thanks so much for having me again! I loved your fun questions and wish you and your readers a warm and cozy den with the best to read during the winter season.
LEGEND OF THE WHITE WOLF—IN STORES FEBRUARY 2010
Award-Winning Author introduces the next installment of her paranormal romance series
A 2008 Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year Award Winner!
Night Owl Romance Reader Choice Award for Best Paranormal 2008
In this fourth in Spear's series, Private Eye Cameron MacPherson and Faith O'Mallery are both on quests that lead them into the world of magical wolves...
Cameron arrives in the Canadian Arctic to search for his partners in his P.I. business who are late returning from a hunting trip. Faith is there to discover what her father had seen in the same area years earlier that had made him lose touch with reality—man-wolves, he called them.
The two tumble into an icy world of enemies bent on destroying the lupus garou kind. As they turn into lupus garou themselves, and bond with the pack that only they can rescue from destruction, Cameron and Faith find their soul mates in each other.
Buy: Legend of the White Wolf
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
A retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves, Terry Spear has an MBA from Monmouth University. As an eclectic writer, she dabbles in the paranormal, historical and true life stories for both teen and adult audiences. She is the author of Winning the Highlander’s Heart and The Vampire in My Dreams (young adult). Spear lives in Crawford, Texas.
You can find Terry at the following places:
www.terryspear.com
http://www.wickedlyromantic.blogspot.com/
http://casablancaauthors.blogspot.com
http://fierceromance.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/reqs.php#/home.php?ref=home
http://shapeshifterromance.wordpress.com
Buy: Legend of the White Wolf
Giveaway: 2 copies of Legend of the White Wolf are being generously donated by Terry and Sourcebooks. That means 2 winners! Open to US and Canadian readers only, sorry international readers. To enter, simply ask Terry a question. One entry per relevant comment; multiple entries allowed! Ends: February 3, 2010.
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October 28th, 2009 — 3.5 Stars, Book Review, Contemporary, Interracial, Mistaken Identity, Paranormal, Regency, Revenge, S-U, Survival, Suspense/Thriller, United States of America, Virgin Heroine, Werewolf, Widow or Widower
Terry Spear weaves paranormal, suspense, and romance together in one non-stop rollercoaster of passion and adventure. I was pleasantly surprised to find myself enjoying a protagonist werewolf plot (I’m more inclined to favor vampires) and a mystery thriller plotline (again not something I usually go for). I love this novel's front cover (hmm sexy). Don't you? This book reminds me a bit of Only With Your Love by Lisa Kleypas. Overall, there were many pieces that I enjoyed in this book and many pieces that I did not. Of course the story wouldn’t be the same story without the parts that I like least… and all the parts I’m not in favor of can be contributed to the dead sister Larissa.
Larissa is dead. How did she get there? Her living triplet Lelandi is in Silver Town to find out. Her discoveries show just how much of a royal mess Larissa made of her life. One of them (and this is what gets me) was to take Darien as her mate. Darien has a special gift to find his true soul mate through dreams. Larissa claims to be the one he dreams about while knowing the real woman of his dreams is her sister Lelandi. Talk about some sisterly backstabbing!
When Lelandi comes to town to find the truth, her very presence upsets and stirs Darien. He’s attracted to her as he never was for Larissa. He thought the dream mating must have reflected a truer connection than the physical one, which is why he always felt sort of bereft after making love to Larissa. After discovering who Lelandi is and what she really means to him, Darien vows to move heaven and earth to claim Lelandi as his mate.
Throughout the developing passion, Darien and Lelandi unravel the mystery surrounding Larissa’s last months in an effort to find her murderer. Lelandi soon becomes a target herself, but that doesn't deter her from seeking justice. The clues will reveal a most surprising culprit.
Rating: 3.5 Stars.
Book is categorized as interracial because of the pairing of two different breeds of werewolf... red and gray.
Originally posted 2009-03-02 05:23:03. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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October 21st, 2009 — Guest Blogger
by Susan Sigler, guest blogger
Some time ago, Keira asked me if I would share my interest in Yahoo groups with LRP readers. At the time, I promised to add it onto my to-do list. Which by the way, if stretched would circle the earth four times, know what I mean?
There are several reasons I love Yahoo groups, main reason being it matches my interests. Which happen to be my love of reading, a commitment to follow new projects by favorite authors, and to keep up to date on publisher news.
Here’s a list of some groups I belong to: BiancaDArcNews, ciarcullen, Deanna_Jewel_Readers, devynquinn, genashowalter, JLWilsonNewsletter, moirarogers, roxanneserotica, Terry_Spear_News, and theromancestudio.
You can find a group to match almost any hobby or interest. If you enjoy crafting, or you’re a sci-fi movie buff there’s a group for you. Are you a Harry Potter fan? there’s a group for you. Did you like the movie Twilight? there’s a Twilight chat group.
Want to hear more? Keep reading!
- When an author’s writing their latest novel, he/she may choose to add unedited chapters for your reading pleasure. You’ll read the novel as it unfolds.
- Members are entered in monthly giveaways, with reader’s choice to the winner.
- You’ll be the first to know about author blog tours, giveaways, and new releases.
- There’s the option of emailing or chatting with the author.
- You can email or chat with other group members who share your interests.
- Every now and then, author attaches files with free reads, or showcases new cover art of upcoming release.
- Yahoo let’s you add and remove groups to update your changing needs. Very similar to updating your blogroll list.
- My groups are listed alphabetically, showing new posted messages, the “number” of posted messages, or if there’s no new activity.
- Did your favorite author buy a new house? Get a new car, go to Hawaii on vacation, you’ll know.
- It’s fun!
LRP readers do you belong to any Yahoo groups? Share your Yahoo grouproll with us.
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September 17th, 2009 — Contests
Sorry some of these are late, it plum left my mind, but I’m on top of my game now! The last three contests and their winners:
Terry Spear’s It’s Not Just About the SEX! winner is…
#9 chris swan
Prize: 1 set of 2 books: Heart of the Wolf and To Tempt the Wolf.
Rebecca Ann Collins’ Regency: Love, Romance, and Passion! winner is…
#1 Andrea and Jennifer who kindly gave up their prize to ... BETH!
Prize: 1 set of 2 books: The Pemberley Chronicles (Book 1) and My Cousin Caroline (Book 2).
My: BBAW: Reading Meme winner is…
#5 Alicia H
Prize: 2 Surprise Harlequins.
Congratulations! I will be contacting the winners about their prizes. If you miss the email mine is reviewromancenovel@yahoo.com
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September 7th, 2009 — Guest Blogger, Paranormal, S-U, Werewolf, Western
by Terry Spear, guest blogger
I work in a library, and recently, we’ve had a lot of middle-aged women coming in looking for Zane Grey novels. Normally, it’s just a bunch of old guys who love reading the westerns. So I was curious as to what this was all about.
Now, originally, the books were serialized in a paper, and the Mormons edited out all the sexy stuff. I didn’t know the old westerns had anything wild in them, except maybe gunslingers and Indians. So when the patrons were looking for the unabridged books, not the censored ones, I had to ask, “What is the difference?”
The ironic thing is these patrons normally would not read a hot, sexy romance. So why are they now dying to read a very old western that has a lot of sex in them? Now I haven’t read them so I’m going by what our manager says about them. It’s just about the sex, not romance.
But in MY books, sex is not what makes the story, even though mine are sexy. It’s about the characters and how they care about each other. It’s the LOVE, ROMANCE, and PASSION.
The physical attraction, and for my werewolves, like the ones I feature in To Tempt the Wolf (in stores now!), the scent of the individual—since they’re based on real wolves—is what begins the interest in each other. Whether they fall in love during the course of the story, or it’s love at first sight, we still need a lot of conflict to impede the journey of their making a commitment to each other by the end of the book.
The passion between the characters, even if it’s a sweet romance and there are shuddered looks—but the interest is definitely there—is what makes for a romance.
And the commitment to each other shows the love between two people.
I thought the women who were checking out the Zane Grey novels were picking them up for their husbands to read. Now I know better. And when the books are turned back in, I’ll have to check one out and see for myself what they’re all about. The researcher side of me, you know.
But I thought it was an interesting commentary on readers. That those who wouldn’t be caught dead reading a romance, want to read something with hot sex in it. Give me a romance any day where men and women struggle through a myriad of difficulties, but throughout that time, they share a passion for one another, and in the end make that commitment for all time.
So if you like THAT kind of story, join me in a sizzling romance where love and passion between werewolves rule the day!
And you can find me here if you want to join me:
So my questions are: Have you read Zane Grey’s novels (or novels that are solely about sex)? And what makes a couple’s romance real?
Terry Spear
“Giving new meaning to the term alpha male.”
To Tempt the Wolf—In Stores September 1
In this third in the series, wildlife photographer Tessa Anderson must prove her brother innocent of murder charges. But when she discovers a gorgeous naked man barely alive on her beach, she's got a new world of troubles to deal with, not least of which is how he affects her with just a look, a touch, or a whispered word.
Hunter Greymore is a lupus garou, a grey werewolf. Hoping to keep a low profile at Tessa's cabin on the coast, he's drawn into her life—and into her bed. His animal instincts war with his human half, but in the end, the only thing he can do about this fascinating, adorable woman is to leave her forever —unless she becomes one of them.
Buy: To Tempt the Wolf
About the Author
A retired lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves, award-winning author Terry Spear has an MBA from Monmouth College. An eclectic writer, she dabbles in the paranormal as well as writing historical and true life stories for both teen and adult audiences. Spear lives in Crawford, Texas. Her 2008 Sourcebooks Casablanca release, Heart of the Wolf was named a Best Book of the Year by Publishers Weekly. Destiny of the Wolf and To Tempt the Wolf are in stores now, and more are on the way: The Legend of the White Wolf (February 2010) and Seduction of the Wolf (August 2010). For more information please visit www.terryspear.com
Giveaway: Terry Spear and Sourcebooks are offering up 1 set of 2 books: Heart of the Wolfand To Tempt the Wolf to one lucky commenter. To enter answer Terry's question up above about Zane Grey, tells us why you love werewolves, and/or why you like romance. Be sure to come back and comment often! Winner will be announce on September 14th, 2009.
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