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| Cheryl Kaye Tardif |
Cheryl is an award-winning, bestselling Canadian suspense author. Her novels include The River, Divine Intervention, and Whale Song, which New York Times bestselling author Luanne Rice calls “a compelling story of love and family and the mysteries of the human heart...a beautiful, haunting novel."
Cheryl has finished two thrillers, Children of the Fog, and Divine Justice (book 2 in the Divine series), both of which are slated for publication in 2011. She also enjoys writing short stories, which has resulted in Skeletons in the Closet & Other Creepy Stories (short story collection) and Remote Control (novelette).
Cherish's debut romance, Lancelot's Lady placed in the semi-finals of Dorchester Publishing's "Next Best Celler" contest and went on to win an Editor's Choice Award from Textnovel. Currently living in Edmonton, Alberta, she enjoys long walks on the beach, except there aren't any around so she has to make do with trips around the hot tub or a vacation to a tropical paradise. And margaritas.
Booklist raves, “Tardif, already a big hit in Canada…a name to reckon with south of the border.”
Many people have asked me: "What inspired you to switch genres, select a pen name and write a romance novel like Lancelot's Lady?" Well, unlike my other novels, I wasn't inspired by things that happened to me when I was a child (Whale Song), or my mom telling me about some river from which people went missing (The River), or my love of all things weirdly paranormal (Divine Intervention), or by Stephen King (Remote Control and Skeletons in the Closet). No, what inspired me to write Lancelot's Lady was much simpler than these. It all boiled down to one thing: I love a good love story.
When I was a young teen, I was fascinated by the books my mother brought home―ones with a gorgeous woman in a beautiful flowing dress on the front cover and often a barely dressed, dashing man gazing into her eyes. My mother would leave her books open and face down on the table, while she went to get more coffee, and sometimes I would sneak a peek and read a page.
In my home, everyone read. We had crappy TV stations; there wasn't much else to do. My father would read mainly sci-fi and computer books. My mother was into romance novels. My brother Derek read sci-fi and fantasy, and I read everything they did, plus mystery, suspense and horror. Nancy Drew, Dean R. Koontz and Stephen King were my three "best friends" back then. But then so were Danielle Steel, Iris Johansen and other romance authors.
A few years ago I decided to try my hand at a romance novel. I called it Reflections. It was to be a romantic suspense. I wrote about half of it and let a good friend read it. She liked it, but I wasn't sure I really was ready to become a romance author. So I put the manuscript away.
When Textnovel announced they'd partnered with Dorchester Publishing for the "Next Best Celler" contest, a contest where writers could text their chapters (or write via PC) one at a time to Textnovel and have readers vote and comment, I decided to dig up Reflections. After months of rewrites and fine tuning, Reflections merged into what is now Lancelot's Lady, a contemporary romantic suspense set in the Bahamas and showcasing one of the vilest villains I've ever created.
It made it through the contest and was voted as a semi-finalist. That's when I knew I was on the right track. Lancelot's Lady is a far better story than the original manuscript, Reflections, and Textnovel readers loved it. I am so happy that everyone now gets to read the complete novel.
Lancelot's Lady ~ A Bahamas holiday from dying billionaire JT Lance, a man with a dark secret, leads palliative nurse Rhianna McLeod to Jonathan, a man with his own troubled past, and Rhianna finds herself drawn to the handsome recluse, while unbeknownst to her, someone with a horrific plan is hunting her down.
Available in ebook edition at KoboBooks, Amazon's Kindle Store, Smashwords and other ebook retailers. Help me celebrate by picking up a copy today and "Cherish the romance..."
You can learn more about Lancelot's Lady and Cherish D'Angelo (aka Cheryl Kaye Tardif) at http://www.cherylktardif.com/ and http://www.cherylktardif.blogspot.com/
WIN - Leave Cheryl a question this week at the AuthorIsland Tiki Hut and your name goes in the hat for one of THREE ebook copies of her romantic suspense LANCELOT'S LADY!! Please leave your email address so we can contact you if you are one of our THREE WINNERS!!
Welcome to the Tiki Hut Cheryl and love your post on how you can to write Lancelot's Lady!
ReplyDeleteAny other romances in process now - what's up next for you?
I love hearing reasons behind what authors do and write. Romantic suspense is probably one of the most favorite genres. How hot are your titles?
ReplyDeleteGreat post!
ReplyDeleteHow many books do you have planned in the Divine Series?
kissinoak at frontier dot com
Thank you all for dropping by! :-) I'm always happy to visit the Tiki Hut and AuthorIsland.
ReplyDeleteI do have another romantic suspense plotted, but I have no idea when I'll get to it. It's tentatively titled Passion's Fire.
I'm currently finishing another suspense thriller and will be promoting Children of the Fog (released date: March) and Divine Justice (release date: May).
Katie, my titles all range in heat from sweet first love/crush to spicy romance and moderately spicy bedroom scenes. I do not cross over into erotica, though. I like the romance angle more than pure sex. :-)
Estella, there are 5 books planned for the Divine series. Divine Intervention, Divine Justice, Divine Sanctuary, Divine Sacrifice and one other I haven't decided the title for.
Thank you all for your questions. I really enjoyed answering them!
Good luck in the draws! :-)
Cheryl/Cherish
I like romantic suspense but I love horror and dark paranormal so I'll be checking out your other books as well.
ReplyDeleteTell me about Children of the Fog - that title caught me!
Children of the Fog explores a terrifying premise: If you were give ten seconds to either let a kidnapper take your child or watch him kill your child, which would you choose?
ReplyDeleteI believe it is my best work to date, and it was accepted by my last publisher, but I pulled it out when I suspected they were having financial difficulties. I was right; they closed a few months after I left.
This makes the upcoming release of Children of the Fog that much more exciting. Early reviewers have loved it! And the cover is mesmerizing and chilling to the bone.
http://www.cherylktardif.com/children-of-the-fog
I'm sure you'll enjoy many of my titles, CJ. :-)