Sorry to be away for a bit. My eldest dareling started kindergarten on Monday, and my youngest started at a new preschool. The Dare household has been settling into a new routine. It’s a rite of passage for us all…sniffle.

I had the most wonderful time with the book group at Sunshine Books in Cypress last week. The lovely ladies of Sunshine really know how to make an author feel welcome! This Saturday, I’ll be signing books at the Borders Express in Orange, CA, from 11 AM to 1PM. (1500 E. Village Way, Orange, CA)

Now that the darelings are back in school, I have more time to write. And boy, do I need it! Deadline for Stud Club book two (Twice Tempted by a Rogue) is fast approaching. Luckily for me, I’m able to combine deadline goals with fundraising goals for mega-motivation. For the second year, I’ve registered to participate in Unleash Your Story, a reading and writing event to benefit Cystic Fibrosis research. Once again, a group of us are teaming up–mostly friends from the Eloisa James/Julia Quinn Bulletin Board–to form the BonBon Chocolate Mafia. (Yes, of course there’s a story behind that name. But it’s long.) Last year, our team raised over $1200!

My goal for the month is 30,000 words (or more) by the end of September. I’ve added a little widget to the sidebar to track my progress. You can support this very worthy cause by either donating to my … Read More »

Virtually, I’m guestblogging over at Romance B(u)y The Book — the topic is Gray, the scoundrely delicious hero of SURRENDER OF A SIREN, and bad-boy heroes in general.

In person, I’ll be joining the book club at Sunshine Books in Cypress, CA (4931 Lincoln Ave.) at 1ish, to talk about and sign both GODDESS and SIREN. Should be a great time!

Hope you have a great weekend!… Read More »

Thank you so much to everyone who left congratulatory wishes yesterday for the release of Surrender of a Siren!

If you haven’t yet bought it and want to know more about it than the excerpt and blurb here will tell you, here are some ways to learn more, starting with a very cool widget from Random House that will let you browse the first scene and the first page of each chapter.

new InsightBookReader('preview', '9780345506870', 'Surrender%20of%20a%20Siren', 'Tessa%20Dare', '0', '', 'http://www.randomhouse.com/cgi-bin/buy_landing.php?isbn=9780345506870');

Some blogger reviews have started appearing online, at:

Could it be…Seton?
The Book Smugglers
Babbling About Books
Mala’s Bad Necklace

And finally, I’m guestblogging today at Yankee Romance Reviewers about SOAS’s flawless beauty heroine with the slightly flawed personality. Come comment anytime in the next few days, and you could win a signed copy! … Read More »

Woohoo! It’s release day all over again!

Today, book two of my trilogy, Surrender of a Siren is officially on sale! Siren stars Sophia Hathaway, Lucy’s friend from Goddess of the Hunt. Sophia is a beautiful, pampered heiress with a wild, irrepressible imagination, and she’s in for the adventure of her life when she boards the Aphrodite, a merchant ship owned by former privateer Benedict “Gray” Grayson. You can read a longer blurb and excerpt here.

Here’s what RT Book Reviews had to say about it:

4-1/2 stars and Top Pick! “Dare’s second novel cements her place as a “not to be missed” author. Her gift is for creating stories that are filled with adventure, three-dimensional characters and exciting plots, yet she maintains the purest form of romance.”

Speaking of RT, the review for A Lady of Persuasion just came out yesterday! It will also receive a Top Pick! in the October issue. That makes three for three! Says RT, A Lady of Persuasion offers ““..wry wit, endearing characters, laugh-out-loud moments, sensual interludes and poignancy. This is stellar storytelling!” And now that Siren is officially on the shelves, I’ve posted a nice, long excerpt of Lady here. (Warning — it’s mildly spoilerish, if you haven’t read the first two. But then, so is the blurb!)

I’m just happy as anything to watch Sophia and Gray’s story sail out there into the world. I can’t wait to hear what readers make of it!… Read More »

Surrender of a Siren is on sale today! And of course, Goddess of the Hunt is still available. For the rest of August, I’m the book club guest at the Eloisa James/Julia Quinn bulletin board. Please do stop by, if you’d like to chat about either book! The final installment in the trilogy, A Lady of Persuasion, releases September 29. You can read an excerpt and find pre-order links here.… Read More »

In just a few days, Surrender of a Siren, book two in my trilogy, will be hitting the shelves everywhere!

I know I’ve blogged about this book’s sentimental title–amongst friends, it’s known as “Goats on a Boat”. Why, you may ask? Well, because much of the story takes place on a boat. And because there are goats on that boat–in addition to a runaway heiress, a band of sketchy sailors, and one devilish-hot former privateer. 8)

Why goats? That has to do with shipboard provisions. An early 19th-century ocean crossing was no luxury cruise. The diet consisted of hardtack (also known as ship’s biscuit), salted meat (that often went rancid as the voyage progressed), and perhaps a few root vegetables–potatoes, onions, carrots–for the first few weeks out from land. Goats were a portable source of fresh milk, which was a welcome addition to the menu.

Here’s a link to a template and directions for making your own paper goat, should you wish to do so! (Thanks to the ever-crafty, beadazzling Sara Lindsey!)

Don’t worry–the goats don’t take over the boat, or the romance. But if you’ve been wondering what the “Goats on a Boat” references are about…now you’re in on the joke. 🙂

Here’s a little excerpt, starring said goats, the book’s hero, Gray, and one of my very favorite secondary characters, Davy Linnet.

A pale-faced youth trotted across the deck, a thick coil of rope threaded over his arm.

“What’s your name, again?”

“Davy Linnet, sir.”

“How

I can’t believe it’s just a week now til the release of book two, Surrender of a Siren!

Since Goddess of the Hunt came out, I’ve received so many lovely notes from readers through email, Twitter, Facebook, and such. If there’s anyone out there who wrote and hasn’t received a reply from me, it must be because something went astray in the Internet, in one direction or the other, because I have tried to reply to each message as they come in.

(Oh, the the person who wrote me to ask if my e-novella would ever be in print–my reply email to you bounced! The answer is, there are no plans to put it into print at this time. But thanks for asking!)

But please take this as my general thank you to everyone who has read the book and dropped by the site to find out more about me and the books coming up… I really appreciate it. I know it’s not easy to take a chance on a brand-new author! There are lots of books out there, and lots of demands on your time, and everyone has limited funds at the moment. Whether you buy the book or borrow it, every reader invests precious time and imagination and (hopefully!) emotions when she sits down with a novel. Thank you so, so much.… Read More »

Sorry it’s been a week since I posted! It’s been a busy week. After the whirlwind release of Goddess of the Hunt, I needed to spend some quality time with the family and then hunker down to get some progress made on all this other work…namely the Stud Club trilogy, coming summer 2010! I’m in the middle of writing book two, working on copy edits for book one, and as of this morning looking over the cover blurbs for the whole trilogy. I’m so, so excited about it.

Over the weekend, I had my first bookstore book signing! It was so much fun. The Costa Mesa Barnes and Noble was our gracious host, and I was lucky enough to share the table with my fellow local authors DeAnna Cameron, Debra Mullins, and Jennifer Haymore (who also writes as Dawn Halliday).

All this was exciting enough, but just as the signing was starting, a mysterious man came up and gave me a gift:

If you look closely, or click on the image, you will see it is a paper boat, labeled S.S. Siren, filled with paper goats. Now, amongst my good friends, my second book, Surrender of a Siren, is affectionately known as “Goats on a Boat”. But this strange man was not one of my good friends. So I was a little bit weirded out.

But the signing was starting, and people wanted to take pictures and have books signed, and so I just sat there … Read More »

I’ve had so many compliments on the lovely cover art for this trilogy, and it’s not hard to see why. They are gorgeous–bright colors, beautiful models, full of rich (and accurate!) detail. I knew just from looking at them that a great deal of time and attention went into them, but the process behind cover art is often a mystery to the authors and readers.

About a month or so ago, I had the delight of hearing from the cover artist who painted the cover images. Her name is Doreen Minuto, and she was kind enough to take time to explain the process to me, step-by-step. Combined with what I already knew from my editor, here’s the story behind these lovely covers.

It all starts with what’s called a cover conference. The editor, art director, and sales department all sit down together and talk about what look and feel the covers should have. Before the conference happened, my editor asked if there was anything I had in mind or especially did or didn’t want on the covers. I don’t have cover approval in my contract (very few authors do), so I knew this was mostly a courtesy, but it was nice that she asked! My only request was that, since the titles of the books all referred to the heroines, they use a woman somewhere in the cover. Whether by herself or with a man, I didn’t care. I just hoped they didn’t slap the title “GODDESS OF THE … Read More »

If you’ve read Goddess of the Hunt and would like to chat about the book with me and other readers, I invite you to come on over to the Eloisa James/Julia Quinn Bulletin Board. For the entire month of August, I’ll be the book club guest. We’re talking about GotH and the other two books in the trilogy. All opinions and questions welcome! You have to register for the board to participate, but it’s easy. The EJ/JQ bb members have to be one of the most diverse, welcoming, hilarious, friendly groups on the Internet, led by their ever-gracious esteemed patronesses, Eloisa and Julia themselves.

Speaking of the amazing Ms. Eloisa, she has been kind enough to mention Jeremy, the hero of GotH, in a fabulous column on the alpha hero, posted on the Barnes and Noble website here. (Have you read A DUKE OF HER OWN yet? I’m in the middle and adoring it, of course. The Duke of Villiers is the most complex, delicious hero who completely defies labels.)

Also today, I’ve been interviewed at Number One Novels, a great blog showcasing debut authors. If you’re curious about why I picked the names Jeremy and Lucy, or to hear my “call story”, check it out! As always, a signed book is up for grabs.… Read More »