This Week's Special Guest At The Tiki Hut - Cheryl Kaye Tardif

Cheryl Kaye Tardif

This week at the AuthorIsland Tiki Hut, we welcome author Cheryl Kaye Tardif who stops by to talk about how she came to write a romance.

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).

When she is not ruthlessly killing people off in her thrillers as bestselling Canadian suspense author, Cheryl Kaye Tardif, she is busy relaxing in her hot tub, sipping champagne, eating chocolate-covered strawberries and plotting romantic suspense with scintillating sensuality as romance author Cherish D'Angelo.

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.”

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What inspired me to write Lancelot's Lady?

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!!

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This Week's Special Guest Cherish D'Angelo/Cheryl Kaye Tardif

The Birth of Cherish D’Angelo, aka Cheryl Kaye Tardif

Call me Cheryl; I prefer first names. You could also call me Cherish, since that’s the name I’ve adopted as my pseudonym so that I can detour from writing mainly suspense and venture into the romance genre. Cherish D’Angelo is my flowery, romantic pen name. I selected it a few years ago when I started writing my first romance novel. Since my real first name is Cheryl, which means “dear one” or “beloved”, I wanted something similar, and “Cherish” came to mind. Finding a last name to go with it proved to be trickier. After all, when I make it big in romance, I’ll have to sign that name on thousands of books. Hundreds of thousands, hopefully.

I started an angel collection years ago as a memorial for my son, who died at birth. Prior to his birth and death, I’d ordered two angels from a friend who made ceramics. She wasn’t sure if I’d want them after he died, but I did, and this started a collection that grew every year around his birthday and at Christmas. Angels…hmmm…Cherish Angel? No. Cherish D’Angelo. YES! I’d found my new name. It means: “Beloved angel.” Yeah, that’s me.

After Cherish D’Angelo was “born”, she went to work on her first contemporary romance―Reflections. It was a story of a woman stranded on a tropical island with a reclusive rich guy, who had a deaf daughter. Cherish wrote about half of it, then hid it away on my computer. I’d realized that I had other stories that were demanding my attention―darker, more suspenseful stories. It wasn’t the right time for Cherish. So she slipped into a kind of coma, though every now and then she opened her eyes and said, “What about me?” before slipping back to sleep.

In June, I heard about a contest over at Textnovel.com. Now I’m really not much of a contest person. I love giving them and awarding prizes, but I don’t usually like entering them. I’d been a member on Textnovel ever since the CEO Stan Soper emailed me and invited me to check out the relatively new website.

What drew me to Textnovel’s newest contest was the fact that Dorchester Publishing, the oldest independent mass-market publisher in the US, had paired with Textnovel and was offering a small advance and a book contract. I’m very familiar with Dorchester. I’ve been hooked on their books since I was a teen, and my agent recently submitted my new thriller Children of the Fog to Dorchester. Plus, one of my author friends, thriller author Jeff Buick, is published with them, and I recently connected with one of their romance authors, Colleen Thompson, who is absolutely wonderful and writes awesome romantic suspense. Both told me that being at Dorchester was like being a part of a family. I want that! I want a publishing partner.

The Dorchester/Textnovel “Next Best Celler” contest is looking for the “New Voice in Romance”, and I want to be that voice. Cherish D’Angelo wants to be that voice. She’s ready now! She woke up from that virtual coma and dug out the file for Reflections. The old chapters were used as guidelines, but to date, about 80% of it is new material. Cherish has been on a roll with this novel and it’ll be finished by the end of October.

The Birth of Lancelot’s Lady

Reflections has grown into something far bigger and better than the original. A few days in, I changed the name to Lancelot’s Lady. It’s still the story of Rhianna, a young woman stranded on a tropical island with a rich recluse, but she has far more back story and Jonathan is far angrier, making for a complicated relationship and some humorous scenes. Then there’s Misty, Jonathan’s young, deaf daughter who can’t seem to keep a tutor; not to mention the development of JT Lance, Rhianna’s dying patient, and his butler Higginson, plus the inclusion of the Atkinsons, Jonathan’s caretakers.

As with my other novels, I have come to love these characters. I can picture them, right down to their flaws. And believe, me, they’re all flawed. Rhianna has survived a terrible past filled with horror and death, and Jonathan has cut himself off from family, friends and the world.

Since Lancelot’s Lady is a romantic suspense, both Cherish and Cheryl get to work on this story. I know that sounds weird, and truly, I haven’t lost it. Well, not completely. I think Lancelot’s Lady is a potpourri of sexual chemistry, sizzling tension, spicy passion, illusive danger and triumphant love. But in the end, it doesn’t matter so much what I think. I want to know what YOU think.

This leads me back to the “Next Best Celler” contest and how YOU can be involved. I really need your help to have a chance at winning this contest and to win that publishing contract. Even more, I want to know what YOU think about my newest venture and I’m willing to reward you for your time. For the months of October and November, I’ll be holding Giveaways. Right now you can visit my contest page to see how to enter this month’s Giveaway contest. You’ll have a chance to win signed novels and a $75 Starbucks gift card.

To have a chance at winning Dorchester’s contest, I really need votes and subscribers. I can’t do this without your support. Lancelot’s Lady must stay in the top 10 Most Popular, preferably the top 3. It’ll take about 5 minutes of your time to vote, but I truly hope you’ll check out Lancelot’s Lady and read it for free. And please leave me a comment there. Judges are also reading them. I truly hope you enjoy the debut of Cherish D’Angelo and Lancelot’s Lady.

~Cheryl Kaye Tardif, aka Cherish D’Angelo

Read & vote for Lancelot’s Lady, a Dorchester “Next Best Celler” entry, at www.Textnovel.com

Enter my October & November Giveaways

Visit my website at http://www.cherylktardif.com and follow me on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/cherylktardif

WIN - Special AuthorIsland contest: enter to win a signed copy of Cheryl’s paranormal suspense thriller Divine Intervention. Simply leave a comment here and one lucky winner will be selected. Good luck!