Rough Harbor by Andrea Stein - virtual tour and giveaway

Today we're visiting with author Andrea Stein on her tour with Goddess Fish Promotions for the contemporary romance, "Rough Harbor".

Andrea will be awarding a $50 GC, winner's choice of Starbucks, Amazon or Walmart, to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour, so comment today AND follow her tour (if you click on the banner above, it'll take you to a list of her tour stops)! The more you read and comment, the better your odds of winning. You could be introduced to a great new author AND win a really cool prize!

Andrea was brave enough to share some fun things about her we might not otherwise have guessed... take it away, Andrea!

1. I love vampires, but I don’t think I’ll ever write about them. In college I found out about Anne Rice and spent the next four years diving deep her vampire chronicles…and then I had to stop, until I discovered Buffy and I watched EVERY EPISODE. Weird thing was my boss at the time (a forty something man with two kids and a wife) also loved Buffy and we would discuss it at work the next day. After the series finale, he found me via email or linkedin or something and asked me what I thought. I never quite got into Angel and so I took a break from vampires, until there was this little thing called Twilight which I read about in the Wall Street Journal. I read the book right about the time when the movie was coming out. I wasn’t going to go but my husband stood me up for a date and since I already had a babysitter, I decided to go see the movie. It was the first movie I went to by myself and I was embarrassed since I thought I was way too old to be seeing it and since I was alone, so I lied to the babysitter and said I was meeting a friend. Best part is the ticket take, a guy, basically made fun of me when I bought my ticket for ONE. Since then, I’ve made a little ritual of going to see the movies with other TwiMoms when it comes out.

After Twilight came Vampire Diaries, which I am really way too old to be watching but hey it has at this point, what do I care if I’m comparing tv watching notes with the babysitter.

2. I also love witches. And I might write about them someday. I watched CHARMED, every episode, I was watching it when I went into labor with my first child…And I thought I might have three girls…but it turned out it I had a boy…so there went my chance at having the “charmed ones” but that’s ok, cause boys are cool too. In high school I did use to hang out at the local crystal shop. For a small town, we had two and spent lots of allowance money on crystals to bring me fortune. I might have even tried a spell or two, but somehow, that didn’t quite work out for me.

3. I hate blood and can’t stand bananas…which makes it interesting when you have kids. They constantly want bananas and then they want to put sticky banana fingers on me and I run away from them, and they have no idea why. And if they ever get hurt, I first ask if there is any blood and then if there is, I hope there’s someone else who can look first and tell me how bad it is. All the same I still put band aids on and accept banana kisses cause they’re my kids and I love them.

4. I really have no other hobbies or skills besides the ability to read just about anything all of the time. Put a magazine in front of me and I am compelled to read. A tv with captions in a bar/restaurant and you’ve lost me. I can tune out anything and anyone when I am reading. I am terrible at drawing, I am tone deaf, I can’t decorate, craft or play any sports. I hate to drive, even though I do it. I can cook, sort of, but don’t ask me to bake. I’m disorganized and frequently forget birthdays and other important things until the last minute…but...

5. I’m a great Trivial Pursuit player…really, forget poker and Pictionary and all those other things. It’s all about the random facts…

After a bitter break up and professional set back in London, twenty seven year old Caitlyn has returned to Queensbay to work for Maxwell Randall, an old family friend, at his financial management firm. So far, bit by bit, Caitlyn’s been rebuilding all she lost after Michael St. John broke her heart …and tried to ruin her professional reputation.

But her past comes back to haunt her when Maxwell unexpectedly turns up dead. Not only does Caitlyn find her career in jeopardy but her heart is too, when Noah Randall, Maxwell’s son, and her first love, returns to Queensbay. Once, ten years ago, Caitlyn was sure Noah was the one for her…but the tragedy of her grandfather’s suicide and Noah’s decision to leave town left her bereft…and determined never to trust him again.

Over the past decade, she’s managed to do her best to forget about Noah Randall and the lingering questions surrounding her grandfather’s suicide. But now that’s he back in town – rich and more handsome than ever, and she can’t help wondering what if? What if Noah really was the one?

Noah Randall left home ten years ago to seek his fortune – vowing never to return until he’d made a success of himself – and show Caitlyn Montgomery just what she’d given up. He returns to find that Caitlyn Montgomery has only grown more alluring with time. Noah’s always wanted he couldn’t have…and now he wants Caitlyn again. But she’s determined not to make the same mistake twice.

While Noah and Caitlyn are revisiting old ground – and forging a new relationship, there’s trouble brewing in Queensbay. Old secrets and new lead Caitlyn to believe that perhaps her grandfather didn’t kill himself – and that Maxwell’s death was no accident. But just how far will someone go to keep her – and Noah – from finding out the truth…and will Queesbay prove to have troubled waters after all?

Caitlyn Montgomery carefully let herself in the side door with the key hidden under the flowerpot. Police tape fluttered along the back of the house, the side that faced the water, but here, under the small overhang, there was nothing, only a chilly October breeze and the more distant sound of the water lapping at the rocky shore.

The house was quiet, the silence of sadness. Her footsteps echoed across the polished wood flooring of the hallway as she crossed onto the marble tiles of the foyer. She knew it well, had almost grown up here, and had spent many nights here in the recent months, playing chess and sipping whisky with an old man.

The door to Maxwell Randall’s study swung silently open. Caitlyn crossed the floor quickly, her sneakered feet sinking into the plush carpet. She came around to Maxwell’s desk, an ornate, obnoxious thing meant to look like something a Gilded Age Robber Baron would have owned.

It was just as he’d left it. Empty. Maxwell hadn’t been one for bringing work home, she discovered. His desk was clear, a simple blotter aligned in the middle. A phone off to the right, a brass lamp off to the left. A pad of paper and a can of pens and pencils sat within reach. There was no computer, no planner or desk diary. She supposed if there had been one, the police would have taken it.

Slowly, methodically, she leaned over and began to open the desk drawers. Nothing in the two large ones flanking the right, nor the left. She turned her attention to the middle drawer, the thin one. It stuck a bit, and she felt her heart flutter in anticipation. She knelt down, to get a better view. Caitlyn pushed a strand of her brown-black hair behind her ear and squinted in concentration as she carefully slid her hands toward the back of the narrow drawer.

“What are you doing?”

Her head jerked up, hitting the side of the drawer as she rose to her feet.

“You?” Caitlyn said, surprise radiating through her.

There was a pause. Caitlyn drew herself up to her full height and looked at Noah Randall, all six-feet-one of him, standing in the doorway.

Hi, I’, Andrea Stein an author, mother, wife and blogger and a certified mom-chauffeur. I have been scribbling stories for as long as I can remember, including my first adventure story, inspired by an obsession with Out of Africa (book, movie and biography) about a young girl stranded in Kenya. It was serial fiction handwritten, given to my sister, who couldn’t read my handwriting. That story dies after one installment, but the next year I got a word processor (not a computer, but an ACTUAL WORD PROCESSOR) that showed about twenty lines of text at a time. This was before laptops were widely available and this allowed me to be able to type to my heart’s content in the privacy of my own room. Which I did. I think I spent the time writing stories about my “frenemies” to amuse myself. I also listened to a lot of the Cure and New Wave music. I have since moved on to a happier place.

Even though I read lots of different types of books, I write romance novels with a twist. More like contemporary romance than romantic suspense (I don’t write about serial killers or FBI agents) but I usually like to include a puzzle or mystery for my hero and heroine to solve.

Rough Harbor is my second novel, set in a small New England town. Coming soon is Ivy Cottage, also set in a small New England town on a river.

Other than writing I spend most of my time reading, watching TV, cooking, cleaning, taking care of kids, trying to keep the house clean and folding laundry. I love Twizzlers, chocolate and shows on the WB. For me, reading has always been an escape, a way to escape the ordinary and dive into a world that feels real – but with all of the ‘boring’ parts edited out.

As for the rest of my life, I grew up on Long Island, spent a lot of vacations in small New England towns, went to college in New York City, married by high school sweetheart, worked, had kids, stopped working, and kept on writing. Now I live in rural New Jersey (yes, there is such a thing), and though I don’t own any horses, I do have a barn, which I share with squirrels.

There’s something successful writers always tell new writers about their secret to success. Just do it…Bum Glue…write 1ooo words a day…write for two hours a day….Keep writing. And they’re right. I got more successful with my writing when I started to do it consistently. I don’t write every day, but I shoot for five days a week. This means that the words and pages pile up — and I have stories to shape, make and mold…and share.

I hope you enjoy my books, currently available at www.amazon.com

Links – Website:

www.Andreasteinbooks.com
http://www.facebook.com/AndreaSteinBooks
https://twitter.com/andreasteinbook