Interview & Giveaway with Lynsay Sands

Lynsay Sands Intro

Good afternoon Book Monsters and Literal Addicts, Book Monster Reviews and LITERAL ADDICTION are VERY proud to welcome New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Lynsay Sands to our sites today.

Born in Southern Ontario, Lynsay is the New York Times bestselling author of the Argeneau Vampire series, which currently has 15 available books and 2 upcoming releases.   She has written more than 50 books and anthologies since her first novel was published in 1997. Her romantic comedies span three genres—historical, contemporary, and paranormal—and have made the Waldenbooks, Barnes & Noble, USA Today, and New York Times bestseller lists more than once.   

Lynsay’s books are available in more than twenty-two countries and have been translated into at least seventeen different languages.  She's been a nominee for both the Romantic Times Best Historical Romance Award, the Romantic Times Best Paranormal Romance Award, was nominated and placed three times in the RIO (Reviewers International Organization) Awards of Excellence, and has several books on All About Romance's Favorite Funnies list.

The newest release and 20^th historical is “The Husband Hunt,” the third installment in the Madison Sisters series. Released on February 27, 2012, this story is about Lisa Madison, the youngest of the three sisters. Lisa is ready to find a husband and settle down. She’s always had her heart set on Robert Langley, but Robert insists on thinking of her as only a friend. After years of waiting around for him to notice her as more than that, Lisa decides that since Robert wasn’t interested in her, she’d have to set her sights elsewhere. Precedence has shown that the Madison sisters don’t beat around the bush to get things done, and Lisa proves it once again in this final chapter of The Madison Sisters series.

The 16th installment of the Argeneau/Rogue Hunter series, “Under a Vampire Moon” was released on April 24, 2012. This is Christian Notte’s story, and is set on St. Lucia. After a bad relationship and an even worse divorce, Carolyn decides to go on a vacation with the 'girls'.  Unfortunately, the rest of the vacationers didn't get the memo. There seems to be a couple celebrating their honeymoon or anniversary around every corner, and the few single men she does see are far too young to even consider; including an irresistibly attractive rock violinist she happens to meet. While Carolyn’s busy thinking ‘it’s really too bad he's so young’, she finds out it doesn’t even matter, because according to his cousin, Giacinta, Christian’s not interested in women at all.  There’s a catch though--Christian needs Carolyn's help to be his beard (to play the part of his fake girlfriend) for the week to appease his 'machismo' family.  Carolyn can’t say No, and decides to help Gia's cousin.  The only problem is that being around Christian and acting like they’re a loving couple is wreaking havoc on her emotions, and Carolyn's thoughts keep drifting back to places they shouldn't…all of Christian’s places.



The 17^th installment of the Areneau/Rogue Hunter series “The Lady Is a Vamp” follows on July 31, 2012. This is Jeanne Louise’s story. Armand Argeneau’s daughter, and the sister of Thomas and Nicholas, Jeanne Louise is a workaholic. Someone would literally have to drag her out of her lab to make her stop working.  Fellow employee, Paul Adams, is the man who takes on that job. When it comes to family he will protect them come hell or high water, and with his little girl’s life under threat he decides to follow through with a crazy plan to save her. But hell may be exactly what he gets for his trouble. What’s that old saying…? Be careful what you wish for because you just might get it…
If you haven’t read Lynsay's books yet, you will definitely want to add them to your TBR pile.  In fact, put them at the TOP of your TBR pile!  They are LOL funny, and will definitely leave you wanting more. 


Now that we’ve given you just enough information to be dangerous and make sure you’ll want to read Lynsay’s books, let's head over to the interview so we can learn more about Lynsay herself, and see what she has to say about her Argeneau Vampires.

Book Monster Reviews/LITERAL ADDICTION:  Hi Lynsay!  We’re extremely honored to have you with us today!  Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to drop by and spend some time with us!

Book Monster Reviews/LITERAL ADDICTION:  We’d like to ask a couple questions to get to know you a little bit better before we dig into the books.   

Q1):   Can you tell us 3 things about yourself that we can't find out on the internet, in your bio, etc?

Lynsay:

Hmm…let’s see…

Okay, I have short arms (and legs with a longer torso), which drives me crazy when attempting to reach anything on the upper shelves in my kitchen. Honestly, kitchens must all be designed by really TALL people.

I like to dance and sing and can often be found be-bopping around my living room at night when not on deadline.

I’m a dog person. Cats are cute and fluffy and I like them too, but they’re far too independent. There’s just nothing like a dog for unconditional love. They adore you…and are kind enough to warm your feet while you’re writing (grin)

2) If we were to fast forward way ahead to the day you decide to retire, stop writing, and look back on your life, what thoughts would you like to have?

Lynsay: That my stories made a little difference in the lives of my readers, meaning made them laugh a little more, escape their troubles for a bit, and perhaps see how funny daily things in life really are.  <G>

3) Have there been any surprising things you’ve learned while writing your books (either about yourself, the craft, your readers and fans, etc)?

 

Lynsay: About myself?  Well, there’s nothing like writing to figure out where you stand on various subjects and what your beliefs are. 

As for the craft itself, well writing is a continually evolving job as you need to come up with original ideas all the time. It has to be though, otherwise not only would you lose your audience but you’d get bored, at least I would.

What I’ve learned about readers is that you can’t please them all. Not everyone will enjoy my stories, anymore than I will enjoy every book out there. And I’ve learned that readers can be surprisingly demanding at times, which is good as it means they want more. Sometimes though, a girl needs to take a vacation…LOL

4) For those who have not had the pleasure of reading the Argeneau Vampire series yet, can you please explain to everyone what this quirky, crazy vampire family is all about?

Lynsay: The general story line . . . there are immortal people living among the mortal population today.  They are descendents of an ancient civilization that was advanced technologically to the point that they began to work with bio-engineered nanos as a medical aid to fight disease and repair injuries from inside the body without the need for invasive surgery. These nanos used blood to make repairs and fuel themselves which meant the host needed more blood than a body could supply to support the nanos. In that civilization this was dealt with through transfusions. However, when a series of natural disasters (earthquakes and volcanoes) brought an end to that civilization, only those people the nanos had been tested on survived, and they suddenly found themselves in a primitive society. Without their much needed blood transfusions, many died, but in others the nanos lived up to their programming to keep the host at their peak condition and forced a sort of evolution on them, bringing on fangs and other skills so that their hosts could get the blood they needed.

That's the background, but my stories are based mostly around one particular family of immortals, the Argeneaus. They are really your typical family. I think everyone would recognize at least one member of their own family among this group. My stories tell how each member finds his life mate despite all the good intentioned interference and harassment of their loving family.

 5) How did you come up with the idea of the Argeneau Vampires?  Are any of the characters based on people you know or have met?

Lynsay: It was a fluke that I even came up with them. Two writer friends and I were chatting on MSN, one of them was Christine Feehan who writes the Dark series, the other didn't write vamps, but suggested the three of us should write an anthology together for Halloween. CF could do a dark story, I could do humorous and she would do her own version. I laughed and said “If we did that you know my vamp would have to faint a the sight of blood or something.” I threw out a couple more ideas we laughed over (I was known for humorous historicals at the time) and then changed the subject. We never did the anthology but the ideas stuck with me and I finally had to write them down. The minute my editor heard I was writing it, he asked to see it and then contracted for the first three books.  That’s how it happened. One chat leading to this huge series.

  

6) Can you tell us how many books you have planned for the series and how long you intend for it to continue?

Lynsay: There are 17 books in the series now (this includes Under A Vampire Moon and Lady Is A Vamp) and 2 anthologies (Bitten By Cupid and The Bite Before Christmas).  I am currently writing another story and other than that I can’t say.  I don’t plan on stopping the series in the immediate future. As long as I have interesting and fun ideas there will be more books, but as for how many I can’t say.  

7) How did you come up with the idea of making the vampires faint when they meet their lifemates?  Is there a specific message there that you were trying to convey?

Lynsay: Well who wouldn’t want to be so overwhelmed with pleasure that they faint from it.  <G>  And I guess it was to convey how special having a life mate is for an immortal.  Also it leads to some pretty funny circumstances if they aren’t careful where they’re doing it.  LOL

8) Out of all the amazing books you’ve written, is there one in particular that is your favorite or that you’re most proud of?

Lynsay: Well Single White Vampire will always be a favorite of mine as it was my first story published in this series. Other than that, I had a blast writing Under A Vampire Moon (Christian Notte’s story) so right now that would be my favorite. Usually the last one I wrote is, but Christian is still beating out “Lady IS a Vamp” and Anders’ story, which I’m working on now. They were just so darned fun.

9) What's next for Lynsay Sands?  What do you have planned in the upcoming months?

Lynsay: Plans for upcoming months, eh?  LOL… work, work, work and THEN a long overdue, proper vacation.

10) Is there anything specific you would like to say to your readers?

Lynsay:  I am grateful to my readers for being so dedicated.  I have had some readers stick with me since I started writing.  I also have new readers that read one book and then email me right away to tell me they’re ordering the entire series and when’s the next one coming out? I am grateful to every one of them. They allow me to make a living doing what I enjoy most. I would write whether published or not, but it makes it so much more awesome to know others are reading and enjoying my stories as much as I like writing them, so Thank you.  And thank you for writing to let me know. I appreciate the feedback.J

Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to sit down and talk with us.  We certainly hope you’ll come back to visit us again in the future and let Book Monster and LITERAL ADDICTION help promote more of your incredible work.

Lynsay:  Thank you! I appreciate your having me here.

If you would like to find out more about Lynsay and her books, you can visit her at any of the sites below.

Website: http://www.lynsaysands.net/

Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/#!/lynsay.sands

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/#!/LynsaySands

Goodreads:  http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17059.Lynsay_Sands

Lynsay is giving away two copies of Lady is A Vamp to two winners on the site.

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