Monday, October 24, 2016

Sports Romance with a Difference. Meet Stacy Hoff #giveaway

Posted by Susan B James on 8:22:00 PM with 3 comments
Stacy Hoff has a new book out, her first sports romance and it's sports romance with a difference. Plus Stacy is doing a giveaway of her action/adventure romance Desire in the Arctic.
Stacy, please tell us about Jockeying For You


JOCKEYING FOR YOU is my first sports romance. What’s a bit different about JOCKEYING, versus typical sports fiction books, is that my athlete is the heroine instead of the hero.
 I love this!

Also different from traditional sports romance, the sport involved is horse racing. My heroine is a jockey. Or she used to be, before she fell off a horse during an important race. Now she is a horse trainer struggling with whether to get—literally and figuratively—back in the saddle.


Blurb:
Jake Carter is on a mission—to prove his family wrong. He may have bought a troubled horse, but he’s hired Ryder Hannon, a “horse whisperer,” to get his horse back on track. She’s more than just
a trainer to him, she’s the woman he’s been looking for.

Ryder Hannon, a thoroughbred horse trainer, has a big problem—fighting her fear of racing again. Her emotional scars run deeper than her physical ones. But her romantic feelings towards handsome, uber-rich, stable owner Jake Carter is a bigger problem.  Is Jake truly in love with her or is he using her to get back at his smug family? 

When Jake’s jockey gets injured, he wants Ryder to race. He knows deep down she wants to live up to her family’s legacy. So why does she keep fighting him—and her destiny—so hard? 
That's a wonderful blurb. I am definitely intrigued.

Excerpt from JOCKEYING FOR YOU

Jake felt his eyebrow arch up. “Dr. Doolittle, I presume?”
A slow smile spread across her lips. 
“How far have you gotten with Handsome?”
“He’ll let me ride him now.”
Jake’s eyebrows shot up to his hairline. “My God, Ryder, you’re amazing,” he exclaimed. With a shake of his head and a hard cough he corrected himself. “I mean, your results with him are amazing.”
Ryder’s grin was now Cheshire cat sized. “Thanks for both compliments.”
Damn. She couldn’t let my mistake go.
Then it hit him. His comment was a slip, but was it really a mistake? Her beautiful face, which had been beaming with pride now had a shy aspect that was even more endearing. She bore a schoolgirl’s blush and averted her eyes from him as she busied herself petting Handsome’s nose.
If only she could stroke me the same way. Though somewhere lower down than my nose. He tensed at the thought. Focus, Jake, damn it! This is business. “Show me,” he said. 
 She blinked. “Show you what?”
“Show me Handsome Dancer can be ridden. I want you to ride him for me.”
“Now? He’s already had his exercise for today. I don’t want to tire him out.”
Handsome’s head batted her shoulder with a determination that was comical.
“You know,” Jake quipped, “if he actually understands you then you really are Dr. Doolittle.”
“I’m sure he just wanted me to give him an apple.” She wiped a stray blond bang from her hot forehead and looked the horse in one of his eyes. “What are you saying, babycakes? That you want to go on a short ride with me?”
Yes, yes, I do. Jake cleared his throat and gave her a tight smile. “Go ahead, you two. Impress me.”
A few minutes later, he was outside the training track, his hands casually resting on the guardrail while he waited for the show to begin.
Soon, Ryder and Handsome entered the track. He heard her cluck her tongue at the horse, and then watched her lightly kick Handsome’s rear. The horse took off around the track in a fast gallop. The horse’s flight was fluid and astoundingly fast for what was supposed to be an easy go-around. She was doing more than merely riding Handsome Dancer. She was a part of him. One cohesive whole.
Thinking the demo was about to end, he had almost turned around to head back when something caught the corner of his eye. It was a flash of color, a fast burst of brown. What the . . . ? Whipping his head around to the source, he stared open-mouthed at the sight. Handsome Dancer was bolting down a stretch of training track at a speed unheard of for a newbie horse. Or maybe any horse. In all of Jake’s experiences, he doubted he had seen a horse move that fast when not performing in an actual race.
Jockeying For You is 2.99 at Amazon Check out the first chapters. Sounds like a fun read. I do love the idea of the female jockey/trainer/heroine.


 Stacy, please tell us a little about yourself.
I’m an attorney by day, a wife & mom in the evening, and a writer at night. I don’t sleep much.

Other than your own, who are your favorite (heroes/heroines/writers) in your genre?
Nowadays I read my own genre very infrequently. My mind needs to escape contemporary romance when I’m on “free time.” I usually pick up paranormals, although some historicals can sneak in. The exception to the rule: contemporary romances by Kristan Higgins. All of her books are fabulous.
 I absolutely agree. Kristan will be back on the blog in January.

What is your favorite pastime, other than writing?
Art classes, which I go to about once a month. I love sketching and painting. 
 Oh, how I wish I could do that. So not my talent. 

How do you motivate yourself when inspiration takes a vacation?
Mope around, hysterically crying my muse has died. When I’m done with my dramatics, I sit down and start typing. Sometimes forcing creativity is the only way to go.

Got a recipe you want to share?
I wouldn’t call this a formal “recipe,” but here’s a quick-to-make pasta sauce for those who are tired of tomato:

Stacy’s garlic-olive oil pasta sauce
Pour EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive oil for the uninitiated like me) into a large pot until the bottom is lightly covered. Heat until the oil is very hot (but not burned)
Add anywhere from a teaspoon to a table spoon of chopped garlic, depending on your taste & the quantity of your pasta (fresh garlic is better, but for those who have busy schedules, jarred is fine.)
Dash in: salt, pepper & basil (either dried or fresh)
Stir everything around until the garlic pieces have browned.

The sauce is now ready. Throw cooked pasta into the pot. (Heartier pasta like ziti or farfalle is recommended.) Stir the pasta around the heated oil mix until al the noodles are evenly coated.

 Add parmesan cheese & serve.

By the way, this is a great dish to toss in your leftovers–everything from cut-up chicken pieces to veggies. (My kids love it when I toss chicken & broccoli into my EVOO garlic sauce pasta.) Sounds delicious. Must try.

Any advice for new writers just starting out?
The most important piece of advice I have is for them to stay with it. It took me years to catch on to writing commercial fiction. While I loved studying historic literary fiction as an English major in college, it did not help me understand how to produce for today’s market. I tried, and failed, many times.

My second piece of advice is for them to join a writers society (like I did) to save time and frustration.  
What genre or genres do you write?
I always write contemporary, although within contemporary I vary quite a bit. One of my books, LAWFULLY YOURS, is women’s fiction, while my “Desire” series (DESIRE IN THE EVERGLADES and DESIRE IN THE ARCTIC) is action/adventure. 
What’s your current WIP?
My upcoming “Building Love” series should be a lot of fun because it’s steeped in family drama, secrets and lies. Each book is set in the construction industry. After book 1, BUILDING LOVE IN VEGAS, comes out, BUILDING LOVE IN THE CARIBBEAN will follow.

And finally, where can we find  you?
LINKS
Amazon buy link for Jockeying for Youhttp://amzn.to/2clOJK3 
Thank you so much for being here, Stacy. Stacy is giving away a digital ARC of Desire in the Arctic. Enter below. Happy reading

Television producer Ana Davis’s newest show is one she’s forced to star in herself. Despite being a city slicker with no wilderness experience, she’ll have to survive in the Arctic Circle for twelve days. The stakes are high. She could lose her very life. Good thing she’s been paired with expert survivalist William “Redd” Redding, a mysterious, solitary, and very sexy man. Worse than snowstorms, predators, and a scarcity of food is an even greater danger—fighting off their attraction to each other.



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