Feb 6th ~ Happy Medium

Love is good for the soul… unless it’s one that you’re trying to exorcise.

Ray Ramos has a problem–the King William District mansion he and his business partner purchased for a fast renovation needs more work than expected. Ray could use a quick infusion of cash. Enter Emma Shea, assistant to Gabrielle DeVere, the star of American Medium. Gabrielle is looking for San Antonio houses to use for her televised séances, and Ray’s fixer upper seems to fit.

When Gabrielle does a sample séance, Ray and Emma become the target of a touchy ghost with no respect for boundaries. After Ray learns his family has a special affinity for ghosts, the two decide to investigate the haunted house. It doesn’t hurt that Emma is immediately attracted to the laconic Ray or that Ray is intrigued by the buttoned-down beauty who seems determined to hide her considerable assets behind sober business suits. But can the two of them fight off a vengeful succubus bound to the house while getting a lot closer than either of them planned?

Excerpt:

“It’s nice here,” she mumbled. Great. Somehow whenever she wanted to be smooth she ended up sounding like a doofus. Yet another indication she was out of her league with Ray Ramos.

“Yeah.” His fingers brushed across her cheek, and he moved closer.

The hell with it. It might be a temporary thing, but right now temporary worked. She pushed up on her tiptoes, resting one hand against his shoulder. For a moment, his breath was on her cheek, warm against the cooling night air. And then she brought her lips to his.

All the comparisons that leapt to her mind were clichés. Electricity. Wild fires. Lightning bolts. And none of them really described the feeling that broadsided her, like her whole body was suddenly tingling with life. She wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling herself closer.

He tasted of spice and smoke, smelled slightly of sweat and musk. He leaned back against the railing of the bridge, pulling her deeper into his arms, bending her body beneath his own so that her hips pressed against his, against the hard jut of his arousal.

His tongue moved across the seam of her mouth and she opened for him, letting her tongue slide along his. Another wave of heat washed over her. His hands slid over her back, untucking her shirt, fingers against bare skin. She pushed his T-shirt aside to feel him too, the faint crinkle of hair against her palms as she touched his stomach. In some distant part of her brain it occurred to her that a passing pedestrian would have quite a view, assuming the two of them weren’t totally protected by the shadows of the trees.

And she didn’t care. Whatever happened now. She didn’t give a damn.

Meg will award the complete Ramos Family Trilogy: Medium Well, Medium Rare, and Happy Medium (all ebooks) to one randomly drawn commenter during this tour and her NBtM Review Tour. 
Follow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better your chances of winning. The tour dates can be found here: 

http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2013/12/virtual-book-tour-happy-medium-by-meg.html

Meg Benjamin is an author of contemporary romance. Her Konigsburg series for Samhain Publishing is set in the Texas Hill Country and her Ramos Family trilogy for Berkley InterMix is set in San Antonio’s King William District. Meg’s books have won numerous awards, including an EPIC Award for Contemporary Romance, a Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award for Indie Press Romance, the Holt Medallion from Virginia Romance Writers and the Beanpot Award from the New England Romance Writers. Meg lives in Colorado with her DH and two rather large Maine coon cats (well, partly Maine Coon anyway). 
Web site is http://www.MegBenjamin.com 
Blog is http://megbenj1.wordpress.com/ 
You can follow her on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/meg.benjamin1)
Pinterest (http://pinterest.com/megbenjamin/) 
Twitter (http://twitter.com/megbenj1). 
Meg loves to hear from readers—contact her at meg@megbenjamin.com.

Happy Medium, the third in the Ramos Family trilogy, is available from 
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Happy-Medium-Intermix-Ramos-Family-ebook/dp/B00AI5APW0/ 
Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/happy-medium-meg-benjamin/1113916830?ean=9781101622568

Welcome to my blog, Meg. First question I like to ask is what draws you as a reader to the romance genre?

I guess I’m less interested in the story, the plot, than I am in the relationships between the characters. I started out reading mysteries, but I gravitated toward those that had a strong relationship between the main character and a Significant Other. I was more a Ngaio March and Margery Allingham fan than Agatha Christie. And once I started reading romantic mysteries by people like Linda Howard, I was hooked. The solution to the puzzle is always fun, but I want to feel an attachment to the people who are looking for it too.

From your perspective what is the most difficult part of writing a love story?

For me, it’s the sex scenes, absolutely. You want them to be effective, to be hot, to not be the same thing from one book to the next. And as a contemporary romance writer, I’m more limited in what my characters can do than an erotic romance writer would be. Ultimately, I think sex scenes have to arise out of the characters. You have to want to see this hero and this heroine be good together. And that takes a lot of work!

Agreed, the sex scenes take some work. Is creating a book title easy for you? Tell us about the process.

Sometimes the titles come easily—the ones for the Ramos Family trilogy were all plays on the word Medium: Medium Well, Medium Rare, and Happy Medium. My Konigsburg series for Samhain all have song titles, so that sends me to iTunes to flip through a lot of titles on the same general theme until I find the one that’s just right (the next is Hungry Heart, released on March 25). But sometimes I really have to work hard to find just the right title that conveys what I’m trying to get across. The one thing I can say is that when you find the right title, you definitely know it!

Do your characters love the direction you take for them or do they have other ideas?

Usually, I end up following my characters where they want to go. If I start writing a scene and it begins to wander in a new direction, I’m most often happy to follow along and see where we end up.

Any tips on writing that you’d like to share?

The best advice I have is just to get it down. Like they say “First drafts don’t have to be perfect—they just have to be written.” For me, most of the work comes in revision so I try not to get too hung up over making a draft flawless the first time through.

Thanks for joining me today and best wishes on your book tour.