Author Spotlight - Excerpt from "The Gambler"

Thank you so much for supporting Jillian during her week in the spotlight. Leave a post today, Saturday and Sunday, and on Monday I'll pick a name from random to receive a PDF copy of Jillian's book "The Gambler" and a mousepad. Don't forget to leave your email so I can get a hold of you if you win. Enjoy the excerpt!

Smiles
Moderator Steph

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The man grabbed her by the shoulders. "Whoa there, filly. This ain't no horse race here, Ma'am."

She jerked back from him as if his hands had burned her. "Sorry, sorry."

He didn't let go. If anything, his grip got tighter. "Where's the fire? I want to steer clear of it."

Eden tried to jerk away from him as her two sisters came off the elevator themselves. As soon as the man saw the twins, he let go of her abruptly. She staggered across the lobby trying to catch her balance.

The man looked Lilith and Eve up and down. "My, my, what do we have here? Double my pleasure?" His grin showed his dimples. Very deep dimples that Eden tried to ignore.

Lilith said, "We're Lilith and Eve McGill. Twins, if you couldn't tell." She simpered and struck a pose. She patted her small hat perched over her left eye.

"Lilith and Eve? How interesting." He tipped his hat and bowed. "Your mum and dad disagree on who was Adam's wife?"

Lilith's smile got larger. "They almost caused the Reverend to have a heart attack when they named me Lilith. People think it's sacrilege." She stopped and patted her hair. "Guess the name fits. I'm a little bit sacrilege myself."

Eden had recovered herself and stalked over to Lilith. "Stop it, Lil. Mum will kill me if I let you go wild, child." She took Lilith's arm. "Come on. Let's go and leave this"- she looked the man up and down- "gentleman"- she paused for effect,-"alone."

The man looked down at the shorter Eden. "Who are you? You're too young to be the mother. So, who could you be?" He put his index finger to his chin and tapped it. "Hmm. Maybe the serpent?" He slapped his forehead with his hat. "No. You can't be. The serpent liked to lead people into sin. You seem like the prude of the group." He turned back to Lilith. "Who's the wet rag?"

Eden gasped at his rudeness as Lilith laughed out loud. "That would be the big sister, Eden. Eden, bossy britches, McGill to be exact."

The man laughed louder. "Eden? Really, your parents are a bit insane, aren't they? They couldn't get past Genesis?"



Find me on the web:

http://www.jillianchantal.com
https://twitter.com/#!/JillianChantal

Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIs6epy_ixY
Buy link:
http://stores.desertbreezepublishing.com/-strse-286/Gambler's-Inheritance-Book-One-cln-/Detail.bok

Author Spotlight - Jillian Chantel casts her hero!

My hero in this story is based on the British actor, Jeremy Northam. This actor first came to my attention in 1995 when he played the villain in The Net with Sandra Bullock. I have this terrible habit of digging the bad guys in the movies (I mean, really, who would want Kevin Costner when you could have Alan Rickman?)

Anyway, back to Jeremy Northam. He was such a sexy, handsome bad guy in that film, I fell in love with him. Soon enough, he played a good guy, Mr. Knightley in Emma with Gwyneth Paltrow. I fell harder for him with that film. A fan was born and I’ve followed his career since then. He has a great filmography and I recommend checking him out.



My Dirk looks like Jeremy in my head. I like the reader to find the hero’s looks in his or her own mind, but when I think of Dirk McSwain, it’s Jeremy Northam I see.


Find me on the web:

http://www.jillianchantal.com
https://twitter.com/#!/JillianChantal

Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIs6epy_ixY
Buy link:
http://stores.desertbreezepublishing.com/-strse-286/Gambler's-Inheritance-Book-One-cln-/Detail.bok

Author Spotlight - Jillian Chantel shares her thoughts on New Orleans

New Orleans is one of my favorite places to visit and when I started to write The Gambler, I knew I wanted my hero to hail from that city- there is so much to draw from, that I couldn’t resist. The place is replete with history and awesome buildings. It’s the most European city that we have in this country. I live about two and a half hours from it and visit all the time. I’ve always loved the houses on St. Charles Avenue and the surrounding area called the Garden District. In this city, there are cemeteries, shotgun houses (called that because if a gun was shot through the front door, the bullet would go all the way through the house and out the back door), and on Magazine Street, a plethora of antique/junk shops.

This city is full of wonderful restaurants and bars. You can listen to music- blues, zydeco, jazz, etc, any time of the day or night. There’s nothing like the life in this place. There is always something going on. Travel around Jackson Square and have your fortune told, your picture painted, a caricature drawn, ride in a horse drawn carriage, take a vampire tour, or just people watch. It’s a haven for a writer. All the senses are engaged.



Three other not to be missed places are the Café Du Monde where you can eat the delicacies called beignets, the free ferry ride across the river to Mardi Gras World where you can check out all the awesome floats, and last, but not least, the aquarium or the zoo.

If you’ve never been to this city on the Mississippi River, you need to make a trip. It’s a veritable cornucopia of the human race.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIs6epy_ixY

Find me on the web:

http://www.jillianchantal.com
https://twitter.com/#!/JillianChantal

Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIs6epy_ixY
Buy link:
http://stores.desertbreezepublishing.com/-strse-286/Gambler's-Inheritance-Book-One-cln-/Detail.bok

Author Spotlight - Jillian Chantel shares her thoughts on the Queen Mary

I visited the Queen Mary and spent two nights on board as part of my research for this story, The Gambler. My cousin and I had a wonderful time. We took two tours, the behind the scenes one and the ghost tour. We each had our cameras and caught some orbs on them. One was particularly well defined. There is a story that a child drowned in the pool and haunts the area. We caught an orb in there. We heard a lot of ghost stories on the tour and it was very sad to think that souls may be stuck there.

We had two experiences that may or may not have been paranormal. One, I’m convinced was not a dream and the other was an air conditioner issue that may just be a glitch in the system.

Our room at the back of the ship kept getting colder and colder. It was March so it was still kind of cool anyway in Southern California, but we couldn’t get our room warm at all. I finally called the front desk and they sent down a maintenance man. He walked in, looked around and said, “Oh yeah, this is that room.”


We asked what he meant and he said that no matter how many times they’d come down to fix the thermostat, that it reverses itself. So, in order for us to be warm, we had to turn the air conditioner on the coldest it would go and to be cool, we’d have to turn on the heat. How wild is that?

The other experience was mine. It was about three a.m. I was sound asleep and suddenly, very loud, right in my ear, was a sound, “psst, psst.” I turned over, thinking it was my cousin who was trying to get my attention. Nope. She was sound asleep, facing the other direction with her ear plugs in. So, I leapt up and went in the bathroom. I paced around and then said out loud, “Go away, I don’t have time to talk to you. I need to sleep.” Then I went back to sleep with no other disturbances.

I didn’t tell my cousin about the experience until we were in the airport. She said thank God I didn’t because she would’ve ran out of the room and never went back. I somehow knew that. LOL.


Find me on the web:

http://www.jillianchantal.com
https://twitter.com/#!/JillianChantal

Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIs6epy_ixY
Buy link:
http://stores.desertbreezepublishing.com/-strse-286/Gambler's-Inheritance-Book-One-cln-/Detail.bok

Author Spotlight - Q&A with Jillian Chantel

STEPH: I don't know much about "The Gambler." What's it about?

JILLIAN: The Gambler is a romance/murder mystery which takes place on the Queen Mary, an ocean liner that sailed the seas from 1936-1967. The ship is beautiful and was the epitome of grace and first class service in her early years. Eventually, she was used as a war ship in World War II and then restored to her former glory and sailed as a luxury liner again. I am fascinated by the old liners as well as the early to mid part of the twentieth century, so I wanted to set a story on this ship. This is the first in a series of three books and this one is set in 1937 when the ship was at the height of its glory and all the rich and famous wanted to be on-board. The story centers around a young man named Dirk McSwain who has a talent for winning at cards. His home is in danger of foreclosure so he books passage on the Queen Mary to win big. He gets more than he bargains for when he meets three Irish sisters and one of the passengers on board dies after an altercation with him.

STEPH: How long did it take you to write?

JILLIAN: The first draft took about a month.

STEPH: How much research did you have to do?

JILLIAN: I had to research the history of the Queen Mary and actually spent two nights on-board the ship in March of 2011. I took the behind the scenes tour as well as the ghost tour. It was very educational but I got a little bogged down when it came time to write the story as I kept trying to weave in too much of the research. I had to finally realize that I needed to let some of it go as the reader didn’t want a map of the ship or a history lesson. Once I let that go, the story flowed better.



STEPH: How does the cover reflect the story within?

JILLIAN: It’s very much like the men’s card room I pictured on the ship. There were ladies’ areas of the ship and men’s areas as well. The classes as well as the sexes were separated a lot in that era. The men had separate rooms for smoking and gambling.

STEPH: Eden is the heroine. What are her strengths? Weakness?

JILLIAN: Eden has strengths she doesn’t know she has. She’s the elder sister by three years of her stunning sisters who happen to be twins. Eden has lived her life in their shadow and has no idea of what she has to offer the world. She also has a psychic gift that has caused her family to treat her as a freak. She has a great wit and is a quick thinker. She’s a champion swimmer and loves to compete.

STEPH: What does Dirk find appealing about her?



JILLIAN: Initially, Dirk is blinded by the beauty of the twin sisters and sees them as targets for his get rich quick scheme- he plans to play cards with them and win some money to help with his dilemma. When he dances with Eden and realizes she is quite intelligent, his feelings start to change. When he realizes she’s got a psychic gift, his admiration for her increases. They eventually team up to solve the mystery of the death of the passenger and grow closer as a result of this work.

STEPH: What is the theme of the novel?

JILLIAN: As I wrote the story, I was surprised to find that the story actually has a Cinderella theme. It’s also a story about acceptance of the gifts God gives to each of us, no matter how much the world at large may think that your gift is not a gift.

STEPH: As a writer, where do you draw inspiration from?

JILILAN: Everywhere. In fact, I have a dear friend right now who is in the midst of new love at age 52 and she is giddy with it. Her new love is so romantic and supportive of her, I’m planning to steal some of the wonderful things he’s done for her for my next book.

STEPH: Do you have an ebook reader? If so, which one?

JILIAN: I have the Sony and I also have the Kindle app on my Ipad as well as Ibooks.


STEPH: Fun question: What are your plans for spring?

JILLIAN: I just got back from the Romantic Times Convention in Chicago. It was fun but exhausting. I met a lot of the Desert Breeze authors there and that was awesome. My only other plans for spring are to travel to Texas for my cousin’s son’s graduation from law school. He’ll be the second lawyer in the family besides me and I’m super proud of him.

Find me on the web:

http://www.jillianchantal.com
https://twitter.com/#!/JillianChantal

Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIs6epy_ixY
Buy link:
http://stores.desertbreezepublishing.com/-strse-286/Gambler's-Inheritance-Book-One-cln-/Detail.bok