Sunday, May 13, 2012

IN FORBIDDEN TERRITORY—a conversation with Angie and Ty


Harlequin has reissued 15 of my backlist titles in ebook.  I've persuaded Angelina Coleman and Tyler Farrell to chat with us today about IN FORBIDDEN TERRITORY, a Silhouette Desire originally released in print January 2005 and currently reissued in ebook.

Hello, Angie and Ty.  Thanks for being here today.  So…Angie.  Let's start with you.  Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Angie:  I grew up in Portland, Oregon, raised by my mother in a single parent house with 5 brothers.  I'm the only girl and I'm also the youngest.  Even though we're mostly scattered across the country these days, we're still emotionally a very close family.  The oldest of my brothers is McConnor…everyone calls him Mac.  He's 13 years older than me and stepped into the role of surrogate father.  It's a responsibility he continues to take very seriously in that he still thinks of me as that little girl who needs his guidance and protection even though I'm 24 years old.

He sounds like a fantastic guy, but the look on your face says there's maybe a little more to it?

Angie:  Don't get me wrong, Mac is an incredible person, I owe him so much…everyone in our family does.  It's just that I had a very difficult time convincing him that I'm an adult and not that scrawny little 10 year old girl I was when he moved to Seattle, the little girl he sees when he looks at me.  I was engaged for a while to a man who came from an influential family with a moneyed background and was highly successful.  But it quickly became apparent that what he wanted was a decoration on his arm to show off at all the appropriate business and society functions.  He objected to my career even though I have a degree in both business and industrial design and was working for a design firm.  When I broke the engagement I wanted to move away from Portland.  I tried to approach Mac about giving me a job at his company, but he treated it as "isn't that cute of little Angie, wanting to work for me."  I knew I needed to prove myself to him.  More than anything, I wanted his approval and respect as an adult capable of taking care of myself.

And that's what brought you from Portland to Seattle?

Tyler:  That's what brought Angie into my life, although at the time I didn't know the underlying reasons behind her move.  Mac did manage to convey that he felt very protective toward her and telegraphed a hands off type warning without actually saying those words.

That must have made things rather awkward for the two of you.  Would you mind telling us a little about your family, Ty, and your background?

Tyler:  My family?  The word dysfunctional immediately leaps to mind.  I'm an only child raised with money in a house where ongoing arguments between my mother and father was the normal daily routine.  They finally divorced when I was in high school, but the constant battles didn't stop.  If I learned one lesson during my formative years it was that money can't buy happiness and the idea of a happy family and a close relationship was too elusive to even consider.  If it hadn't been for my observation of Mac's close relationship with his family, I would have said the concept was pure fiction.  I met Mac the first day of our freshman year at UCLA.  He was just starting college even though he was two years older than the rest of our freshman class.  I learned later that he had to forfeit a scholarship because he needed to work to help support his family.  We immediately became good friends with a mutual interest in sailing and boat design.  After college we went into business together designing and building custom sailboats.  We've been very fortunate and the business is highly successful.

Angie:  I had met Ty once when he and Mac were in college.  He came to the house one weekend when I was 10 years old.  The one thing I remember clearly from that visit was thinking what an arrogant jerk he was.

Tyler:  (chuckles good-naturedly) I obviously made quite an impression.

Angie:  Then 14 years later we met again.  I had just arrived in Seattle following the breakup of my engagement, intent on getting a job.  I was staying with Mac at his house on Bainbridge Island until I could find a place to live.  Mac was supposed to take me to lunch that first day but he was buried under a deadline for a design project and asked Ty to fill in for him.

Tyler:  Actually, he begged me to take his kid sister off his hands so he could finish the design…just pizza and a movie was his idea of how to entertain his kid sister, as he insisted on calling her.  I had visions of that scrawny 10 year old girl I had met once.  Well…one look was all it took.  He may have thought of his sister as still being a child, but that couldn't have been farther from the truth.

So the two of you met and the rest is history?

Angie:  Not at all!

Tyler:  Not even close!

So how did it all happen?  How did it move beyond pizza and a movie?

Tyler:  I'm afraid you're going to have to read the book.

Angie:  We do agree on that.  You'll need to read the book.

Well, I can tell by the identical expressions on each of your faces that asking any more questions will be futile.  Thanks Angie and Ty.


IN FORBIDDEN TERRITORY, a Silhouette Desire by Shawna Delacorte reissued in ebook.  Available at http://ebooks.eharlequin.com (do a search for author name Shawna Delacorte).  Barnes and Noble for NookBooks at www.nb.com.  And Amazon for Kindle at www.amazon.com. Check out my website for additional excerpts.  www.shawnadelacorte.com

Blurb:

The Danger Zone:
Filling in as a guide and companion for his best friend's kid sister was cramping Tyler Farrell's bachelor lifestyle. At least, until a drop-dead-gorgeous, very-grown-up Angie melted his bones with one searing kiss. She was supposed to be off-limits…but Tyler liked playing with fire.

Angie wanted to prove she wasn't a child anymore. And what better way to do so than a no-strings affair with Tyler-the perfect love 'em and leave 'em guy? Except that the closer she got to Tyler, the hotter the attraction burned and the harder she fell in love. Somehow she had to convince commitment-phobic Tyler that she was his to claim—permanently!

G-rated excerpt (inside front cover):

"Maybe I need a sign around my neck stating I'm an adult," Angie muttered.  "My brother seems to forget that."

"I don't think a sign will be necessary," Tyler told her as his eyes met hers.  "You certainly look grown up to me."

Ty watched as a slight smile turned the corners of her mouth—the same delicious mouth he'd sampled the previous evening.  He tried to clear his head of the thoughts, of desires that could only lead to trouble.  His blood rushed hot and fast each time he came into physical contact with her.  It was a sensation he wanted to pursue even though he knew it was forbidden territory.  There was something about her.

Something he couldn't seem to put into words—something intangible that scared and excited him more than anything else ever had.

Text Copyright © 2005 by SKDennison, Inc.  Cover Art Copyright © 2005 by Harlequin Enterprises Limited. Permission to reproduce text granted by Harlequin Books S.A. Cover art used by arrangement with Harlequin Enterprises Limited. All rights reserved. ® and ™ are trademarks owned by Harlequin Enterprises Limited or its affiliated companies, used under license.


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