I have lots to share today! Check out The Chocolatier’s Wife and The Chocolatier’s Ghost.
An excerpt from The Chocolatier’s Wife.
An interview with Author Cindy Lynn Speer.
And a giveaway. Don’t forget to enter!
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Author Cindy Lynn Speer has graciously answered some questions. Enjoy the interview.
Do you have any tattoos? Where? When did you get it/them? Where are they on your body?
No, but I think of it sometimes, but I am too – I don’t think indecisive is the word, but I would like to be able to change, because I have changed. When I was a teen, I wanted a rose in a melting block of ice. Now I think I would like a little fox, somewhere with a sword.
I love the idea of the power of ink on skin. I’ve used that in Blue Moon, and I suspect I will use it again.
Is your life anything like it was two years ago?
Yes, mostly. I have the same job, the same hobbies. Some new people in my life. I think I might be more tired than I used to be, lol.
How long have you been writing?
My first book was published in 2005, I think. I have been writing much longer than that, but don’t want to give away my age! I started writing in the back of class, in my teens, stupid stories to make my friends happy. I’ve never really stopped.
What advice would you give a new writer just starting out?
Talent is important. Persistence is essential. Luck is the thing that makes it all work out. So, never give up. Keep working, keep writing, but know that it only comes easy to the very lucky. Always look for ways to get better, and never stop working on the various things a writer has to do outside of writing. And forgive yourself when you fail, because you will – life will happen and you will realize you haven’t written on a story or done a blog or social media in weeks. But then you go, OK. Let’s start again. And you keep moving forward.
Tell us something about your newest release that is NOT in the blurb.
The Chocolatier’s Wife is in a tenth anniversary, illustrated hardcover edition. We also edited it again – and yes, we caught minor little things and made tiny improvements that, while, if you have already read the book won’t rock your world, it does make me feel even happier with the book as a whole. Also, one of my fellow swordsmen drew the maps and he is amazing.
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The Chocolatier’s Wife: ROMANCE, MAGIC, MYSTERY…. AND CHOCOLATE
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Genre: Fantasy / Mystery
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A truly original, spellbinding love story, featuring vivid characters in a highly realistic historical setting.
When Tasmin’s bethrothed, William, is accused of murder, she gathers her wind sprites and rushes to his home town to investigate. She doesn’t have a shred of doubt about his innocence. But as she settles in his chocolate shop, she finds more in store than she bargained for. Facing suspicious townsfolk, gossiping neighbors, and William’s own family, who all resent her kind – the sorcerer folk from the North — she must also learn to tell friend from foe, and fast. For the real killer is still on the loose – and he is intent on ruining William’s family at all cost.
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The Chocolatier’s Ghost
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Married to her soul mate, the chocolatier William, Tasmin should not have to worry about anything at all. But when her happily ever after is interrupted by the disappearance of the town’s wise woman, she rushes in to investigate. Faced with dangers, dead bodies, and more mysterious disappearances, Tasmin and William must act fast to save their town and themselves – especially when Tasmin starts to be haunted by a most unwelcome ghost from her past…literally.
The Chocolatier’s Ghost is an enchanting sequel to Cindy Lynn Speer’s bestselling romantic mystery, The Chocolatier’s Wife.
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Enjoy this excerpt from The Chocolatier’s Wife
Murder. Funny, how the idea of one’s future husband killing someone made headaches go away. It was not that she could not conceive that he was a killer; anyone who read the shipping information at the back of the newspaper, listing, among other things, the manifests of pirate ships that had been taken and destroyed, would know William was quite capable of killing. But, she reasoned, that was hot blooded killing, it was not murder. Poisoning someone with chocolate required coldness and cunning.
She moved at last, only enough to take her hair down. She stared at the pins in her hands. No. She could not believe that William was capable of cunning. He was smart, aye. But practical smart. Not without imagination, of course, you could not accuse a man who wanted to make chocolates of a lack of imagination, but he was also not the sort of man to go around blithely killing people with the very product he hoped to sell. She could not believe it.
After a while, the surprise wearing off, she tried to imagine the two paths her life might take. She thought of being at the university. She had trained there, and so she had friends as well as colleagues among the staff. Eventually she would have the seniority to teach only the advanced students, perhaps even ascend to the Circle, as her mother hoped. A life of teaching and learning how to use herbs, divining the secret meanings hidden in the wind, the rain, and the veins of leaves was hers. She was no master wizard, but she was very, very good, and she knew her life was mapped out for her here, a scholarly life of respect and decent wages and wanting for nothing. It was, clearly, a good life, which was why her family wanted it for her.
Then there was William. She tried to imagine him, blurry in her mind, by her side. A life of children, shop-keeping. It did not seem as glamorous or interesting, though she trusted she would be able to continue her studies and believed that William would provide for her, but her fame would be as his wife alone. No one would remember her save their children. Still, it was not without its appeal, the idea of having someone who was all yours, someone to curl up against in the winter. It was harder to imagine the future, here, for she knew so little in comparison. The unknown could hold pain as well as joy.
She sighed, and went to bed, in a restless attempt at sleep for what remained of the night.
When she came down the next day she had two cases in her hands, and she was wearing her best traveling clothes. Her family looked up at her from their breakfast, as she put the heavier of the two down, her hands switching the other bag back and forth, nervous and moist on the hard, wooden handle. “You see,” she said by way of good-morning-and-here’s-my-explanation, “the problem is that I rather like him.”
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Author Cindy Lynn Speer
Cindy Lynn Speer has been writing since she was 13. She has Blue Moon and Unbalanced published by Zumaya. Her other works, including The Chocolatier’s Wife (recently out in an illustrated hardcover to celebrate its 10th anniversary) and the Chocolatier’s Ghost, as well as the short story anthology Wishes and Sorrows. When she is not writing she is either practicing historical swordsmanship, sewing, or pretending she can garden. She also loves road trips and seeing nature. Her secret side hobby is to write really boring bios about herself. You can find out more about her at www.cindylynnspeer.com, or look for her on Facebook (Cindy Lynn Speer) and Twitter (cindylynnspeer).
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