A Warm Welcome to Rebecca Lee Smith

First Rebecca tells us a little about herself:
Hello, world. I live with my husband in the beautiful, misty mountains of East Tennessee, where the people are charming, soulful, and just a little bit crazy. I’ve been everything from a tax collector to a stay-at-home-mom to a house painter to a professional actress and director. My two grown sons live nearby and still have the power to make me laugh until I cry. They are great friends, and will always be the best things I’ve given back to the world. It took me a lot of years to realize that writing is my true passion.When I’m not churning out sensual romantic mysteries with snappy dialogue and happy endings, I love to travel the world, go to the Outer Banks for my ocean fix, watch old movies, hang out at the local pub, and make my day complete by correctly answering the Final Jeopardy! question.

Link - Follow Rebecca's tour

Now for the blurb from Rebecca's latest romantic suspense novel
'A Dance to Die For' available from The Wild Rose Press - BUY link

Annabel Maitland believes in destiny and following her heart—Trent Sheffield realizes his destiny is to believe in her.

Annabel destroyed her Broadway dancing career trying to save her friend Quinn's life. Convinced Quinn’s death was no accident, Annabel follows a clue to a North Carolina mountain inn and discovers that everyone who knew Quinn—the real Quinn—wanted her out of their lives, including the sexy innkeeper whose laid-back charm and megawatt grin take Annabel's breath away. The physical attraction between them is undeniable, the cerebral attraction irresistible. But trusting her heart means ignoring evidence that plants him firmly on the list of suspects.

Determined to keep his family’s financially strapped inn afloat, the last person Trent needs working for him is a stubborn, impossibly long-legged dancer whose sharp wit and silver eyes keep him scrambling to stay on his toes. He's falling hard, and he wants to trust her, but Annabel's connection to his ex-fiancée makes him question her motives at every turn. When a string of mysterious accidents threaten Annabel’s life, they must unearth Quinn's killer before it's too late. But what if Annabel was the target all along?

Rebecca Reveals:

In a couple of sentences, describe the hero’s character.  What do you like best/least about him?           
           Trent Sheffield, the hero of A Dance to Die For, has always felt compelled to fix things, whether it’s a leaky faucet or his irresponsible brother’s broken heart. Protecting the brother he’s practically raised and keeping their family’s financially strapped inn afloat are his priorities, and he tries to do the best he can. Later, as he’s falling in love with Annabel, he doesn’t hesitate to add her to the list of things he cares most about and wants to protect. I love his dry, self-deprecating sense of humour, and the way he “gets” and appreciates Annabel. What I like about him least is the fact that he believes with all his heart that he knows best, and that isn’t always the case. 

And the heroine? How do you relate to her?

            My heroine, Annabel, is an off-Broadway dancer who suffers from a condition known as dancer’s hip. She injures herself and destroys her career, trying to save her friend Quinn from falling off a platform. Determined to find out the truth about Quinn’s death, she follows a clue to a North Carolina inn where she falls in love with Trent, Quinn’s ex-fiancée. Depending on her level of activity, Annabel is in some form of pain throughout the book, but never thinks of herself as a victim and handles her own challenges and setbacks with humor and spirit. I understand that kind of coping, and hope I’m like her. At least a little bit. When I turned forty, I found out I had been born with a hole in my heart. The corrective surgery to repair it left me with an irregular heartbeat that pretty much ended my acting career. The stress of being onstage would set it off when I least expected it. I couldn’t trust it, so I began directing. Now, I control the irregularity with vitamins and supplements, but I know what it’s like to have to stop doing the thing you love most and switch to Plan B.

Who controls the story – you or your characters?

            I control the story. At least, I think I do. But sometimes the characters come to life and say or do something I didn’t expect at all, and I’ll think, Where the hell did that come from? I love it when that happens. For me, it is one of the coolest, most magical, and fun things about writing.

What do you think are the main ingredients for a successful book?

            A successful book is one that engages your mind, touches your heart, and keeps you snuggled down on your side of the bed, blinking under the glare of your tiny reading lamp, turning pages long after you should be asleep.

Have you ever suffered from writer’s block? What would be your tips to overcome it?

            If I’m away from writing for more than a few days, for whatever reason, it takes me a while to get back into it. The juices stop flowing and every idea, every piece of dialogue, seems stale. Or stupid. If I’ve really hit a roadblock, it’s usually because the plot or the characters are going in the wrong direction. But I’ve found that if I can’t seem to get back on track, just sitting and writing anything will shake it loose. I’ve read about other writers working on several manuscripts at once to keep that from happening, but I just can’t do that. One is hard enough.

What is the best writing advice you have ever received?

            Besides reading (and re-reading) Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott, I have three quotes I keep by my desk that inspire me every day. One is printed on a small river rock, and says, “Nothing is written in stone.” The second one, by E. L. Doctorow, says, “Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” And the last one, and probably the one that soldiers me through the most, is by Nora Roberts: “You can fix anything but a blank page.”

What can we look forward to from you in the near future?

            Another book, I hope. And then another, and another, and...

What would you most like to accomplish this year?

            I’m almost finished revising a romantic mystery/suspense I wrote two years ago and shelved before I finished the last two chapters. I want to polish it and send it to my editor. I’m also working on a contemporary romantic comedy that’s probably going to turn into a mystery. I hadn’t thought it would, but I’m kind of stalled on it now, and as Lawrence Block once said (another writing quote I love), “When your story slows down, throw another bear in the canoe.” In my case, it will be a dead body.

What was your favourite book as a child/teen/adult? Are you currently reading anything?

            As a child, I loved a book called They Loved to Laugh by Kathryn Worth, about an orphan girl who goes to live with an Amish family. I think I kept that book checked out of the school library for two years running. As a teen, I was drawn to love stories and mysteries. My favourite was The Moon-spinners by Mary Stewart. As an adult, it’s a tossup between Persuasion by Jane Austen and Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. Those are two of my favourite movies, too. I’m currently reading The Cinderella Deal by Jennifer Crusie and...A Dance to Die For. Yes, I know it’s my own book, but it’s the first one I’ve published, and it’s a dream come true to actually hold it in my hands and read it. So far, I haven’t found any typos. Which is a good thing. LOL.

What is your culinary speciality?

            I make a mean lasagna. My kids requested it for Christmas Eve dinner four years in a row. On the fifth, I said, “Lasagna?” And they said, “Works for us.” My apricot nectar cake is pretty amazing, too, and I’m not a baker. I wish I could make decent cornbread and biscuits, which is almost a requirement here in the South. My mother spent her life looking for the perfect pound cake recipe, and never found it. My son is studying to be a chef, and is a wonderful cook, so it’s nice to know I didn’t pass along my defective culinary genes.

Any exciting plans for the near future?            A weeklong trip to the Outer Banks on the coast of North Carolina to spend time with my family and to get my ocean fix. I have always lived in the mountains, but now that I’m older, my soul feels more at home by the sea. I calms me down, it comforts me, and it makes my imagination soar.

Now for A Taste of Rebecca:


Rebecca's LINKS: Website BUY Amazon   The Wild Rose Press

Something zinged past Annabel.

It cut and ruffled the new growth of hickory leaves beside her shoulder, like a bird soaring through the trees at warp speed. Her head jerked around. Trent was running toward her with his arms airborne, his beige raincoat ballooned behind him like a cape.

He pushed her off the path, then hit the ground sideways. He slid into the underbrush, shoulder first, and roughly pulled her down on top of him.

Another high-pitched crack echoed across the meadow.

Trent's hard body jolted beneath her.

He enveloped her in his arms and rolled her to the side, pressing her head into his broad chest. The musky scent of his aftershave mingled with the pungent tang of dried weeds and earth sent her senses into overload. The weight of his muscular thighs pushing against her equally muscular thighs sent a shudder pulsing through her. “It's okay,” he whispered. “I've got you.”

They lay motionless in the tall warm grass, side by side, for what seemed an eternity. Until the only sounds she could hear were the soft, protesting whir of insects and the rapid, steady thumping of his heart.

Annabel lifted her head and stared at the line of dark stubble along his chin. “What the hell was that?”

“Probably a poacher.”

“A poacher? Are you serious? Here?”

He loosened his grip on her shoulders. “The forest across the road belongs to the inn. There's no fence. All we can do is post No Hunting signs and hope for the best.”

“So, how do your guests feel about dodging bullets? I bet this place stays packed.”

It's been a pleasure to meet you, Rebecca. Thanks for dropping by and good luck with the rest of your tour!

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