Meet the super-fascinating Aviva Vaughn, writer of slow burn romances based on her love of food, travel, and Jane Austen.
She's made the first book in her series, BECKONED free to attract you lovely readers. BECKONED, From London with Love
FIRE AND ICE. They met as MBA students in Barcelona. Angela, the spitfire exchange student from Los Angeles, putting herself through business school. Soren, the brooding real estate heir from Denmark, living in the shadow of his family. She shot into his world like a comet--setting his soul on fire--but slipped through his fingers, leaving him cold and hollow; unspoken words of love frozen on his lips.
Now they are in London and Soren has only one night to win her over, or risk living forever in the shadow of what might have been.
Now they are in London and Soren has only one night to win her over, or risk living forever in the shadow of what might have been.
If this is up your reading alley, click on over and grab it.
Aviva, please tell us a little about yourself.
I’m a word
nerd. I DEVOUR books from all genres. I’m an Angeleno. I love to be outside. I
love to get lost in my head. I’ve never met a chocolate croissant I didn’t
like. I adore non-peaty whiskey. I'm a
very private extrovert, if that makes sense. In person, I'm very loud and
spunky, but you don't see that on social media because I’m private like that. However,
if you ever meet me in person, I guarantee to make you laugh (good reason to
come to my book signings, LOL!)
I love firsts, so tell me about the
moment when you decided to self-publish?
I wrote the
first 2/3rds of BECKONED in a feverish 10-day sprint that left me delirious and
bedraggled. Then I shelved it for three months, but it kept beckoning to me. “Finish me! Finish me
now!” it called. And that’s why I decided to publish.
I call my
series BECKONED "a modern story told in an old-fashioned way." It's
slow, slow, slow burn, second-chance romance inspired by food, travel, and Jane
Austen and it features diverse characters. My books were really demanding...I
probably should have published them in 2018 but they were in a rush to be
birthed and I didn't want to spend time trying to find an agent and publisher
who believed in me, given how unique my books are, so I decided to self-publish.
How did you choose the cover?
Because I
didn't have the budget to do a custom shoot, I had to use stock photos. My
characters are very diverse, and there are love triangles, so I wanted to keep
the identities of my cover models a bit obscured. Because of these
constraints, I used black and white images. Also, my locations are a
big part of my books, so I requested that they be highlighted on the cover some
way. My designer did the rest...
Your series BECKONED--how, when,
or where did your idea for the series come to be? Do you have a goal for the
series?
BECKONED was
birthed by a couple of ideas. The first was that as a multicultural reader--I'm
of Asian, Polynesian, Hispanic, and European descent and I was born and raised
in Los Angeles--I was never able to find a character that looked like me, not
even one. I wanted to create characters that my own mixed child could relate to
and look up to. So I fashioned Angela: an aspiring entrepreneur putting herself
through MBA school who just happens to be of a mixed background. The second
idea was kind of inspired by one of the parameters Stephenie Meyer uses in
TWILIGHT; in her books, vampires personalities are fixed when they become
vampires, so her hero, Edward, has the values of someone from the early 1900's.
I liked the tension that it created having her modern heroine fall in love with
an old-fashioned guy. I also wanted to have a hero who was the complete
opposite of my fiery, multicultural Angeleno, and so I looked to Denmark which
is a very homogeneous society and is famous for its gender equality, and it felt
perfect. So I created my hero, Soren Lund, who is a humble, polite real estate
heir that has lived a life of boring privilege until he meets fiery Angela—who
melts his heart—and realizes he doesn't want to live without her.
Those twin
inspirations, along with my love for food and travel, are what inspired the
series. As far as my goal for the series, I want women to feel inspired and
empowered by BECKONED. Many readers have said that they look up to Angela and I
think that's wonderful. I happen to know many women like Angela, so she's not
aspirational, she's inspirational.
I don't think I can pick just one! Some of my favorite quotes from reviews are:
-"I found myself stealing away to read this book”
- "This book gives a new meaning to the word sizzling!”
- "Read this in one sitting and left me wanting more”
- "The series has been fascinating and captivating”
- "Singed my eyebrows and melted my kindle”
- "You can’t deny the connections of writing styles between Aviva Vaughn and Jane Austen”
Great stuff. These are reviews to dance over,
Beckoned Part 6 -Adrift in New Zealand made its debut on May 16th. What can you share with
us about this new book?
Hhhhmmmm....all I can say
is that books 1-4 are kind of like "The Bachelor," where there is a
love triangle, and the man who doesn't get the girl becomes the focus of Books
5 and 6. Readers have loved that I've been tying up the loose end of the guy
who "lost". Part 6 will be a very satisfying conclusion to this part
of BECKONED.
Aviva provided me with a blurb and excerpt.
Blurb:
In a different time. In a different place. Soren Lund has found passion and purpose in Costa Rica, spending his days surfing and his nights in the bed of ex-pro-surfer Elena Sol. But when Elena decides to reenter the pro circuit, their new relationship will be put to the test.
And when Soren's resort business beckons him to New Zealand, he decides to take Fate up on its offer and ends up encountering two women from his past who will make him question everything. The final chapter of BECKONED: slow burn, second-chance romance inspired by food, travel, and Jane Austen.
What are you working
on now? Can you tell us about your next project?
I'm working on a
collection of steamy slow-burn stories as a way to introduce different couples
to my readers and get their feedback on whom I should turn into my next full-length
book. I'll also have some previously unwritten scenes for Angela and Soren to
introduce new readers to BECKONED. This collection might come out as early as
March 2019, so look for it!
Where can we find you?
You can find
"universal" links to my paperbacks and e-books here:
Choose your favorite way
to follow me! I love interacting with readers. If you are in the Southern
California area, I have a bunch of readings and signings coming up.
Thank you for being here, Aviva. You are a delight. And thank you for the link to the first book in the Beckoned series.
To all of us, I wish a Happy Memorial Day. I know mine is blessed. My son Jim's birthday is May 26th. He and my granddaughter, my co-granda, Sharon, and Ella's cousin Olivia will be visiting me in Los Angeles this week and we will be doing Disneyland, Universal and celebrating Jim's 40th birthday. I have no idea how he got that old. Or that funny. His patch notes on Game of Thrones are a delight to read.
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To all of us, I wish a Happy Memorial Day. I know mine is blessed. My son Jim's birthday is May 26th. He and my granddaughter, my co-granda, Sharon, and Ella's cousin Olivia will be visiting me in Los Angeles this week and we will be doing Disneyland, Universal and celebrating Jim's 40th birthday. I have no idea how he got that old. Or that funny. His patch notes on Game of Thrones are a delight to read.
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