Heart of Deception by Gayle Feyrer
Please welcome Gayle Feyrer author of Heart of Deception
Gayle Feyrer will be awarding a $25 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.
Heart of Deception
by Gayle Feyrer
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GENRE: Historical Romance
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INTERVIEW
What or who inspired you to start writing?
I always read a lot, but after my father died when I was ten, books became a safe place to live and I read constantly not just occasionally. I got a writing assignment when I was in the 6th grade and my teacher praised me because I gave a lot of unexpected details. From then on I often wrote—poetry and short stories, though I thought I wanted to be an actress for another decade.
What expertise did you bring to your writing?
Love of reading—more useful to me than how to books. Study of Astrology for help in defining my characters. Study of art for the artist characters in my books – the secondary character Daniele in The Prince of Cups and my heroine Theo Faraday in my Paris Trilogy.
What would you want your readers to know about you that might not be in your bio?
Before before I wanted to be a ballerina, an actress, and a writer, I wanted to be a trapeze artist.
If you were the casting director for the film version of your novel, who would play your leading roles?
I often have entire casts for my novels. When I began Heart of Deception I was a huge Wuseguy fan. Ken Wahl was my Rafe. But when I began the book, it wasn’t an Elizabethan, it was an Italian Renaissance like The Prince of Cups and my hero was a failed Franciscan priest who undertakes a secret mission of revenge in a mythical city state. I had my heroine’s character, but her face was a real woman that I saw briefly in Assisi. But the publishers didn’t want Italy, or France, they wanted England. So the book moved to Elizabethan London and back into the criminal underworld.
I got lucky looking for the new cover of my book because I found a photo with two people who actually looked like my characters. A miracle really. Casting it – well, in my mind, Ken Wahl’s Rafe didn’t sound like he was from Chicago. If he could have been believable as Rafe, I think the young Susan Sarandon would have been a great Viv in that time frame. Up a decade and wow, Rufus Sewell and Helen Mirren! That combo’s a toss up with the fabulous Ruth Wilson as Viv and Richard Madden as Rafe. Ruth is really my favorite, the closest match to Viv. Today the best I can do is Jennifer Lawrence (she does great fierce) and Liam Hemsworth. They’d be a fun version, but I wouldn’t feel they were a true embodiment.
Do you belong to a critique group? If so how does this help or hinder your writing?
I like a lot of feedback. I belong to a Sisters in Crime group currently, since I’ve been working on my mysteries. I belonged to a Romance Writers group for years. And I’ve several friends who are particularly excellent at critiquing. It’s a real skill, separate from the ability to write. With the right people it helps me infinitely, but I’ve been in groups that felt wrong.
Have you started your next project? If so, can you share a little bit about your book?
I have a work in progress that’s the final book of my Paris trilogy. Floats the Dark Shadow was a mystery, Bitter Draughts more of a thriller. A Harmony of Hells is suspense. I call it a love story with murders. I’ve got too much kinky gay sex for an historical, but I adore my odd couple poet and crime lord. I hope to have it out next spring. After that, I may take the Paris characters into the battle between Freud and Jung. Or, I have an alternate universe paranormal set during the uprising of the commune in Paris, saving those with psychic powers from a new inquisition. I want to rerelease my other historical mysteries. And the unfinished third book of the Elizabethan series, Heart of Shadow, that has been poking me and asking why don’t I write about my secret spy hero and blackmailed heroine who’s an expert in dressage foiling a Jesuit plot?
BLURB:
Intrigue and treachery stalk the grimy streets and the royal courts of Elizabethan England. Returning from war, Rafe Fletcher finds his family accused of conspiring to murder Elizabeth and place Mary, Queen of Scots, on her throne. His only hope to save them lies in infiltrating the criminal underworld of nefarious siblings Nick and Vivian Swift.
Rafe discovers it’s Viv who is the mastermind of the duo. Bold, clever and ruthless, Viv is also loyal and fiercely passionate. Rafe fights the intense magnetism that pulls him ever closer to destruction. But desire defies every warning he gives himself and they begin a blazing affair–until murder and betrayal severs their newly formed trust. Restoring that trust may be the only way Rafe can save the Queen, his own family, and the woman he’s come to love.
Their adventure takes them from the fledgling theatres of Shakespeare’s London to the desperate corridors of Bedlam, from the deadly backstreets of the Clink to the glittering court of Queen Elizabeth. It is a world of dark secrets and darker intrigues. Will the fire of their passion burn bright enough to incinerate the lies, and illuminate the truth?
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EXCERPT:
Prickling with the awareness of being watched, Rafe looked up to the house, his search stopping at a shadowy form behind the great bow window. He stared up at the window until the shadow moved forward. Circular panes sparkled in the sun as the central casements opened to reveal a woman watching. Dark and slender, she looked clothed in flame, her velvet gown a blaze of scarlet slashed with black. A shock went through Rafe as her glittering gaze met his own, then slowly browsed him from head to toe.
Used to seductive appraisal, flirtatious or serious, still he flushed at the flagrant assessment, and the heat that flashed through him seemed to ignite in her eyes, bright within their dark. Rafe had never seen a lady with so bold a glance, which mocked as it weighed, invited as it challenged. But no lady would be here among these criminals, though the woman gazing down at him knew how to dress the part. Rubies burned at her throat, and ropes of sparkling jet draped her vivid scarlet bodice. The distinctive garb, the total presumptuousness of the woman, made him tense with suspicion. Slowly, her gaze swept his body, scanning the breadth of his shoulders and assessing the strong muscles of his thighs. … The black eyes sought his again, and he stared back defiantly, icy anger running in cold currents against his hot arousal. Rafe felt more than provoked—he felt deliberately tested to see how long he could stand in the fire.
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AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Gayle Feyrer began drawing as soon as she could hold a crayon and writing when she was twelve. She holds a Bachelor’s in Pictorial Arts from UCLA, and a MFA from the University of Oregon in Creative Writing. In her varied career, she has been a tie dye artist, go-go dancer, baker, creator of ceramic beasties, illustrator, fiction teacher, and finally, novelist. A Libra with Scorpio Rising, Gayle’s romantic nature takes on a darker edge. She hopes these shadows bring depth to her romances.
A world traveler, Gayle has visited Paris, England and Italy numerous times. She lived for two years in Jakarta, Indonesia, with many trips around Asia. She currently resides across the bridge from San Francisco, with her husband and their two rescue cats, Charlotte and Emily, the Flying Bronte sisters, half Siamese and half tabby.
Tygerbright Press – Novels of Romance and Mystery: https://tygerbright.com/
https://www.facebook.com/YvesFey
Gayle Feyrer (@yves_fey) • Instagram photos and videos: https://www.instagram.com/yves_fey/
https://www.amazon.com/Heart-Deception-Gayle-Feyrer-ebook/dp/B0BSP8JMMW/
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/heart-of-deception-gayle-feyrer/1143302694
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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION and RAFFLECOPTER CODE
Gayle Feyrer will be awarding a $25 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.