Welcome to Sugarbeat’s Books – The Home of the Romance Novel
Today we are being visited by Dana Littlejohn, author of Behind the Wings. Dana is touring her book with Goddessfish promotions. The author is giving away a promotional pen and a promotional t-shirt to two lucky commenters from the tour. To follow the tour and find more blogs to comment on, click HERE.
Dana Littlejohn is going to answer some questions for us, so sit back and enjoy!
Barb: Tell us a little bit about yourself and your writing
Dana: For as far back as I can remember I have always wanted to be a writer. No one believed me when I said I was going to be one, of course, but that never took away my desire to make it happen. My characters and I have a a mutual agreement. They want their stories told and I want to write them. When I write I get a tunnel vision type of thing. I see and hear the story flow before me and I merely write what I see.
Barb: Who are your cheerleaders? Who continues to encourage you to write?
Dana: The only real cheerleader I have is my husband. He lets me use in any book related scenario I need him in, even if he doesn’t want to. He lets me bounce ideas off him, practice fight scenes for authenticity, he even lets me experiment on him, although I don’t think he minds that too much. LOL
Barb: When you made your first sale, how did you celebrate and with whom?
Dana: I was so excited I went out and brought a bottle of champagne for us to drink, then I remembered my husband doesn’t drink. So I don’t really know what else I did to celebrate once the champagne was gone. LOL
Barb: What’s the hardest part of writing a book?
Dana: Making the make characters different. I want each man to come off completely different to my readers.
Barb: What’s your favorite part of writing a book?
Dana: I love the banter between the main characters. Once I get their personalities down and how they react to one another writing their interactions with each other is so much fun.
Barb: Which scenes were the hardest to write?
Dana: The love scenes are a nightmare. Bringing out 2 brand new people emotions, idiosyncrasies and personal likes is extremely difficult to me.
Barb: How long did it taken you to write your current book?
Dana: It took almost 3 months to complete Behind the Wings and it took just as long to self edit and clean it up before I would let someone else see it.
Barb: Who is your favorite character in your new release?
Dana: Linda. She was the best ‘best friend’ a girl could have.
Barb: Do you see yourself in any of your characters?
Dana: LOL There is a little of me in all my characters.
Barb: What were the challenges in bringing this book to life?
Dana: The first few publishers I sent it to didn’t think it would sell saying there wasn’t enough sex in it. They wanted me to add more sex scenes. I refused and continued to send it out until someone appreciated the blending of romance, suspense and sex Behind the Wings has.
Barb: Do you have an all time favorite book?
Dana: Of mine? No, I love them all! But I do adore Bertrice Small’s To Love Again. I can’t even remember how many times I’ve read it and I keep reading over.
Barb: Where can your fans find you?
Dana: I have a website: www.danalittlejohn.net a blog: www.authordanalittlejohn.
Barb: Where is your work available?
Dana: My books can be found at Red Rose Publishing, Phaze, Secret Cravings Publishing, Muse it Hot Publishing and Freya’s Bower
Barb: Anything else you’d like to add?
Dana: I’d like to thank you for letting me stop by and share a little of myself with you.
Dana Littlejohn was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, but has called Indianapolis, In. her home for over ten years. She has always wanted to write since early childhood, but put that wish on hold to raise her growing family and have a career. With the encouragement of her husband, Dana picked up her pen again in 2003 and has no intention on putting it down. With 3 novels, 8 novellas, 4 stories in anthologies, 42 short stories published to date and a long list of wip (works in progress) she is literally living her dream. Join her on the wild journey through her imagination. It’s a ride you’ll never forget! She can be found at:
Jade Dupree had always been a hot commodity among the young airman. She tried not to date them, but having an old school mother and a worldly father gave her a challenging social life. Her mother’s only goal in life seemed to be to get her to settle her down with the next available airman and birth as many babies as possible.
Her father’s outlook for his children’s future was much less intense. Jade let her mother set her up with an extremely handsome tech sergeant, just as she met the very interesting Mike Davis.
Having spent time with both men Jade can’t help but wonder if her mother finally got lucky in choosing Steven Jones for her…or was Mike Davis a better match for her after all?
Excerpt One
Jade walked by the dance floor, bobbing her head to the music. Just as she put her glass on a passing waiter’s tray, someone grabbed her hand and yanked her to the dance floor.
“Hey! What the–”
“Shh! Here, turn your back this way. You gotta dance with me. Can you step?”
“What? Excuse you, but–”
“Shh! Please, help me out. I’m trying to hide over here.”
“Hide?” She looked around quickly, letting him pull her around the dance floor. “Hide from what?”
“Not a what, a who. I don’t know who she is, but she’s been following me around since I got here.” He ducked behind her and twirled her around.
She moved stiffly in his arms and spoke crisply. “Look, I didn’t come to this party to do protection work.”
“Okay, then why did you come to this party?” He lowered himself again, his body folded almost in half in an attempt to hide himself behind Jade’s smaller frame. “Shit, don’t move. There she is,” he whispered urgently.
He retreated, pulling Jade with him, closer to the center of the dance floor. Somehow he managed to keep the beat with the fast paced music as he slipped by the dancers He kept his face down and her back turned to the woman, using her as a shield, but Jade’s curiosity was peaked. She peeked over her left shoulder, trying to spy who the man was hiding from.
Thank you for hosting Dana today.
I have really enjoyed following your tour. I think your book sounds great. I was amused at the blurb today.
I haven’t read Bertrice Small’s To Love Again. Thanks for suggesting it, Dana. I always like to hear what folks’ favorite books are.
catherinelee100[at]gmail[dot]com
Great interview – and I must say I love the author’s name 😉 I especially loved the question about who she celebrated her first sale with – I may steal that one.
danakburgess(at)gmail(dot)com
This book sounds terrific! Why haven’t I heard of it before? I would love to be entered to win a copy! Thanks so much for the giveaway:)
Your book sounds really awesome! I’d love to be entered to win. Good luck.
Thanks for the tour ,and good luck with the book.