Happy Medium by Meg Benjamin ~ Goddess Fish Virtual Book Tour ~ Giveaway ~ Interview ~ Excerpt

Happy Medium

by Meg Benjamin

Meg will be awarding the complete Ramos Family Trilogy: Medium Well, Medium Rare, and Happy Medium (all ebooks) to one randomly drawn commenter during this tour and her NBtM Review Tour, here. Please leave a comment below along with your email address so you may be contacted if you are the lucky winner. To increase your chances of winning visit the other stops on the tour. You may find those locations here.... http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2013/12/virtual-book-tour-happy-medium-by-meg.html

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Interview: 

Crystal: Today as part of this Goddess Fish Virtual Book Tour, I have the opportunity to interview Meg Benjamin. Welcome Meg, I'm so happy to have you here today. Would you share a little bit about yourself with us today?

Meg: Glad to! I live in Colorado, in the foothills of the Rockies outside Denver, but before we moved here, I lived in San Antonio for over twenty years. I write contemporary romance for Samhain Publishing and paranormal romance for Berkley Intermix. All of my books so far take place in Texas. My latest—Happy Medium, the third book in my Ramos Family trilogy—takes place in the King William District in San Antonio, the city’s oldest neighborhood and a perfectly spooky setting for a ghost story.

Crystal: Where did you come up with the idea for Happy Medium?

Meg: I wanted a slightly different ghost for Happy Medium after two vengeful demonic ghosts in Medium Well and Medium Rare. I decided to use a succubus, a ghost who gains energy from sex. This presented all kinds of interesting possibilities in terms of threats to my hero and heroine.

Crystal: What are you currently working on?

Meg: The eighth book in my Konigsburg series for Samhain, Hungry Heart, will be released on March 25. It’s all about barbecue, with some new characters and some returning favorites.

Crystal: Do you have any special routine that you follow when you are writing? 

Meg: I usually write in the afternoon, after I’ve done my workout and any errands I have for the day, but I can work any time I have an idea. I do need to have peace and quiet—I’m not someone who can write with music in the background or the TV on. My main requirement is at least a thousand words a day.

Crystal:  Did you have to do a lot of research for this book or any other? If so do you have a fascinating fact that you have learned you would like to share with us?

Meg: I did a little research on historic home renovation for this book, but most of my research was on ghosts, even though I don’t think fantasy has to play by any particular rules. I found lots of good information about ghosts in various countries and the way people feel about them. There were some interesting ideas about how to repel ghosts—iron seemed to show up in a lot of stories (and people used iron to repel other supernatural beasties as well). So did salt for some reason. Supposedly you can strew salt across your doorstep to keep ghosts away.

Crystal:  Who are some of your favorite authors that you like to read?

Meg: I’m on a regency kick at the moment. I love Sherry Thomas, Grace Burrowes, Loretta Chase, Mary Balogh, Barbara Metzger—all the classic regency authors.

Crystal: Is there a genre you haven't written that you would like to try?

Meg: Sometime I’d like to try romantic suspense. I did a little of that in Be My Baby, but I’d really like to try a romantic murder mystery.

Crystal: Do you have a favorite scene you would like to share with us?

Meg: Sure. My hero, Ray Ramos, has rented out the mansion he’s renovating in King William, to a somewhat suspect television medium, Gabrielle DeVere. Gabrielle insists that Ray and her assistant, Emma Shea, take part in a test sÈance to make sure the house will be suitable. But the test sÈance turns out to be a lot more than either of them bargained for.

“Join hands everyone,” Gabrielle intoned in her most resonant medium voice.
Ramos gave her a piercing look, then took hold of her hand, extending his other hand across the table to Emma.
Gabrielle’s fingers were faintly damp, but Ramos’s were dry and hard. His calluses rubbed against Emma’s palm. For a moment she felt something like a mild electric shock tingle through her fingers. She pulled her hand away, staring.
Ramos stared back, his eyes wide.
“Take his hand, Emma.” Gabrielle frowned. “We need to get on with this.”
Emma extended her hand again, touching her fingers cautiously against Ramos’s palm. Nothing. Maybe she’d imagined the whole thing. Probably she’d imagined the whole thing.
Gabrielle raised her head, gazing up into the dim shadows overhead. “Is there anyone here? We call on you to come forth.”
Across from Emma, Ramos rolled his eyes. He had that sour look again. Just hold on a little longer, and we’ll be out of your way.
“Come forth,” Gabrielle whispered.
Ramos looked at her, then shook his head slightly.
And the candles went out.
Emma’s head shot up, and she turned toward the fireplace. There hadn’t been any flickering, any feeling of a breeze. One moment the candles had been burning, and now they weren’t. She gaped at Ramos, who was gaping back at her, his forehead furrowing. Somewhere overhead a door slammed.
At the head of the table, Gabrielle seemed not to notice. “Spirit forces, we call to you,” she crooned.
Something touched the back of Emma’s neck, a quick brush, so light she wasn’t sure she’d felt it. Then it came again, more definite this time, fingertips along the edge of her shoulder. She whipped her head to the right, but she couldn’t see anything in the gathering darkness.
Ramos’s hand jerked against hers. She turned back to him, but he was watching Gabrielle.
No, not Gabrielle. Beyond Gabrielle, toward the fireplace. The mantle glowed dimly in the twilight, as if there were lights beneath it. Then, one by one, the votive candles thumped to the hearthstone in front of the fireplace, bouncing lightly. Another door slammed upstairs.

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BLURB:


Love is good for the soul… unless it’s one that you’re trying to exorcise.

Ray Ramos has a problem–the King William District mansion he and his business partner purchased for a fast renovation needs more work than expected. Ray could use a quick infusion of cash. Enter Emma Shea, assistant to Gabrielle DeVere, the star of American Medium. Gabrielle is looking for San Antonio houses to use for her televised séances, and Ray’s fixer upper seems to fit.

When Gabrielle does a sample séance, Ray and Emma become the target of a touchy ghost with no respect for boundaries. After Ray learns his family has a special affinity for ghosts, the two decide to investigate the haunted house. It doesn’t hurt that Emma is immediately attracted to the laconic Ray or that Ray is intrigued by the buttoned-down beauty who seems determined to hide her considerable assets behind sober business suits. But can the two of them fight off a vengeful succubus bound to the house while getting a lot closer than either of them planned?


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EXCERPT:

“It’s nice here,” she mumbled. Great. Somehow whenever she wanted to be smooth she ended up sounding like a doofus. Yet another indication she was out of her league with Ray Ramos.

“Yeah.” His fingers brushed across her cheek, and he moved closer.

The hell with it. It might be a temporary thing, but right now temporary worked. She pushed up on her tiptoes, resting one hand against his shoulder. For a moment, his breath was on her cheek, warm against the cooling night air. And then she brought her lips to his.

All the comparisons that leapt to her mind were clichés. Electricity. Wild fires. Lightning bolts. And none of them really described the feeling that broadsided her, like her whole body was suddenly tingling with life. She wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling herself closer.

He tasted of spice and smoke, smelled slightly of sweat and musk. He leaned back against the railing of the bridge, pulling her deeper into his arms, bending her body beneath his own so that her hips pressed against his, against the hard jut of his arousal.

His tongue moved across the seam of her mouth and she opened for him, letting her tongue slide along his. Another wave of heat washed over her. His hands slid over her back, untucking her shirt, fingers against bare skin. She pushed his T-shirt aside to feel him too, the faint crinkle of hair against her palms as she touched his stomach. In some distant part of her brain it occurred to her that a passing pedestrian would have quite a view, assuming the two of them weren’t totally protected by the shadows of the trees.

And she didn’t care. Whatever happened now. She didn’t give a damn.


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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Meg Benjamin is an author of contemporary romance. Her Konigsburg series for Samhain Publishing is set in the Texas Hill Country and her Ramos Family trilogy for Berkley InterMix is set in San Antonio’s King William District. Meg’s books have won numerous awards, including an EPIC Award for Contemporary Romance, a Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award for Indie Press Romance, the Holt Medallion from Virginia Romance Writers and the Beanpot Award from the New England Romance Writers. Meg lives in Colorado with her DH and two rather large Maine coon cats (well, partly Maine Coon anyway). Her Web site is http://www.MegBenjamin.com and her blog is http://megbenj1.wordpress.com/. You can follow her on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/meg.benjamin1), Pinterest (http://pinterest.com/megbenjamin/), and Twitter (http://twitter.com/megbenj1). Meg loves to hear from readers—contact her at meg@megbenjamin.com.

Happy Medium, the third in the Ramos Family trilogy, is available from Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AI5APW0/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=211189&creative=373489&creativeASIN=B00AI5APW0&link_code=as3&tag=revibycrys-20

Barnes and Noble 
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/happy-medium-meg-benjamin/1113916830?ean=9781101622568