DB Tait

Write Bytes with Amanda Pillar

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March 18, 2015

Hello! Today I’m hosting Amanda Pillar fellow Momentum author. Her latest book Graced is out now!

Here’s the blurb.

City Guard Elle Brown has one goal in life: to protect her kid sister, Emmie. Falling in love – and with a werewolf at that – was never part of the deal.

Life, however, doesn’t always go to plan, and when Elle meets Clay, everything she thought about her world is thrown into turmoil. Everything, that is, but protecting Emmie, who is Graced with teal-colored eyes and an unknown power that could change their very existence. But being different is dangerous in their home city of Pinton, and it’s Elle’s very own differences that capture the attention of the Honorable Dante Kipling, a vampire with a bone-deep fascination for a special type of human.

Dante is convinced that humans with eye colors other than brown are unique, but he has no proof. The answers may exist in the enigmatic hazel eyes of Elle Brown, and he’s determined to uncover their secrets no matter the cost…or the lives lost.

Ooh! Sounds intriguing! Take it away Amanda!

What’s on top of your to-be-read pile?
I usually have two or three books on the go. I’ve got to finish reading Cranky Ladies of History, edited by Tehani Wessely and Tansy Rayner Roberts, and it is fantastic so far! I’ve also started reading More than a Duke by Christi Caldwell.

What do you feel when you contemplate your to-be-read pile?
Depending on its size, it can sometimes be overwhelming. Other times, there is impatience. I just want to be able to get through all those goodies!

What’s your most guilty pleasure?
This one is easy. I have a massive sweet tooth: chocolate. I’d eat a whole block at a time if my waistline and conscious would allow.

How often do you exercise?
I walk five days a week and do karate two times a week, when the job allows! Plus, I’m an archaeologist, so there’s a bit of exercise in that.

Where was your last holiday?
Last year, when my partner and I got married. We took a week off and just relaxed. We’re hoping to go overseas later this year.

What do you like to cook?
Sweet tooth again! I love to cook desserts: cookies and cream cheesecake, chocolate chip biscuits, cakes, muffins…you get the gist! Now I want cheesecake.

If you could live anywhere in the world where would that be?
Melbourne. I know that doesn’t sound too adventurous, but when I was travelling around Europe and Turkey, it made me realise how relaxed and easy-going Australian culture is. And Melbourne is a city with great food and lots to do.

What time of day do you write?
Any time I can! It ends up being in the evenings normally, as that’s when I get a chance to sit down with the computer.

What are the best and worst things about being a writer?
The best thing is being able to just write. I think it’s hard for writers to not write. The worst thing is the isolation at times. Writing is a lonely sport; and people who don’t write don’t always understand how characters can seem like real people when you talk about it.

What was the last non-urban fantasy book you read?
The last non-urban fantasy book would have been The Secrets of Sir Richard Kenworthy by Julia Quin. I love her work; warm and slightly humours regency romance!

Describe your writing space?
My space is the chaise part of our couch! I have a laptop table, and I often write on the couch, surrounded by cats and cushions.

What was the last movie you watched?
I am currently watching Tank Girl. I never read the comics it was based on, but it is very 90s!

What’s your favourite television series?
This changes monthly. I’ve been watching Psych, but I was really enjoying Blacklist, Archer and Supernatural (I’m a little behind). So a pretty diverse range of TV watching.

What are three words to describe your relationship with the world wide web?
Flirtatious. I would love to spend more time online actually being productive, but real life gets in the way more often than not, so I end up doing what I can, when I can.

Windows or Mac?
Windows! Macs drive me nuts, with their strange right clicking and disappearing windows.

What’s the last paragraph you wrote from your work in progress?
‘I met my next love fifty years later. He was young, and charming, and had a head of thick, sunshiny hair…’

Thanks Amanda (love that beetle cushion!)

You can find Amanda at her website and on Twitter.

Buy her book!

Amazon (Kindle)

Amazon UK (Kindle)

Barnes and Noble (Nook devices)

Google Play (All devices except Kindle)

iBooks Store (iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac)

Cold Deception cover reveal!

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February 7, 2015

Tada! Revealing a cover is always exiting! I love this one! Here’s the blurb:

Secrets, lies, deception. That’s what it takes to stay alive.

At 20, Julia Taylor went to prison for murdering a man who deserved it. Ten years later, she’s ready to put the past behind her and get on with her life. But someone won’t let her. Someone will do anything to drive Julia away, including murder.

As the body count rises, Julia is forced to accept the help of Dylan Andrews, a cop with dark secrets of his own. Unfortunately help has a cost. Dylan is digging into Julia’s past, uncovering secrets she is desperate to keep.

Julia must keep Dylan at a distance, or else risk her own safety, and the safety of everyone she loves…

You can even pre-order it here!

Meet my character – Julia Taylor from Cold Deception

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October 29, 2014

Cathryn Hein, rural romance writer and adventurer (her latest novel, The French Kiss, is full of derring-do!) tagged me in a Meet the Character blog hop. So I thought I’d introduce my heroine from my first romantic suspense, to be published next year.
What is the name of your character?
Julia Taylor

Is he/she fictional or a historic person?
Completely fictional

When and where is the story set?
The novel is a contemporary romantic suspense with elements of women’s fiction. It’s set in Katoomba, about an hour and a half drive west of Sydney in the Blue Mountains. So there’s mountain visas, a famous hotel and because Katoomba is a cold climate part of Australia, a bit of snow.

What should we know about him/her?
Julia has just been released from gaol after serving ten years for murder. She had a tumultuous upbringing with a famous artist mother who suffered from a bad drug and alcohol problem and mental illness. As a result, Julia is over responsible about those she loves, which has got her into a lot of hot water.

What is the main conflict? What messes up his/her life?
Julia’s release sets off a train of events, as what really happened ten years ago starts to emerge. To protect her family she has to prevent that as much as possible, but an inconvenient, sexy, smokey-eyed local cop keeps asking pointed questions …

What is the personal goal of the character?
To have a quiet life. This sounds like the most boring goal anyone could have, doesn’t it? But given her past and what she’s released into, it’s not going to happen anytime soon.

Is there a working title for this novel, and can we read more about it?
The title is Cold Deception and when it gets closer to publication I’ll be letting the world know through the usual methods – Facebook, here at my website and Twitter.

When can we expect the book to be published or when was it published?
It should be out in March 2015 through Momentum the digital first line of Pan Macmillan.

Now, what happens next? Kandy Shepherd carries on the tag. You can check out her blog next week or click through to her website now to see what she’s up to. Somewhere on her blog you can find her Lemon Sour Cream Cake. It’s to die for.

Byron Bay Writers’ Festival

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August 13, 2013

For the last few years, I’ve headed up to the Byron Bay Writers’ Festival to partake of some literary goodness. This is a festival for literary writing not genre writing with the exception of crime. I could bang on about how the lack of other genres is a serious omission, but that argument is becoming boring. The organisers want this festival to be what it is and on the whole I enjoy it. GenreCon up in Brisbane in October will fill the gap in that area.

Every year I discover a writer I either didn’t know about or had only a vague knowledge of. One year it was Karen Hitchcock with her wonderful short stories, another year it was Jesse Blackadder with her historical novel. She’s also published what sounds like a fascinating novel on Antarctica.

This year there were three standouts for me.

Cate Kennedy comes across as a warm, normal (which is always a treat) and wonderfully insightful writer who crafts beautiful short stories. She lives on a farm in rural Victoria and has written novels but is more known for short stories. Her description of her writing process and view of the world, plus the extract she read, made me purchase her collection Like a House on Fire immediately. Dipping into the first story was a joy but had to be postponed because of other reading priorities. More later.

MJ Hyland is an all together different type of writer. Intense, vaguely neurotic, black-black hair, red-red lipstick, heavy black eyeliner, she crouched in on herself like someone wanting a dark cave instead of the light of Byron Bay. And indeed that’s exactly what she said. She writes about what can happen in a cave. No mobile phones or modern conveniences. I bought her novel This is How set in the early 1960s and started reading. The feeling of menace and claustrophobia grabbed me in an instant.

Glenn Carle is a New England Yankee and ex-spy (or is he?) I didn’t expect much from his presentation but found myself absolutely enthralled. For an spy he’s a great storyteller. His book The Interrogator: An Education outlines what happened when he doubted the project he was called upon to complete – the interrogation of a high level al-Qa’ida operative using any means necessary, including torture. I found myself seeing William H Macy play him in the movie.

There was much discussion in my group of friends about whether his book and what clearly is now a career on the writers’ festival circuit, was just another CIA plot. Is his whole current persona just a device to reassure the liberal intelligentsia that the American intelligence apparatus permits dissent? Don’t know, but it ads spice to the mix.

There were other highlights; Anne Summers and George Megalogenis which resulted in some heckling from the audience; Jennifer Mills talking beautifully about woodwork and writing and MJ Akbar on why Australia is obsessed with China and is missing out on a worthwhile relationship with India.

The weather was gorgeous, the size and pace of the whole event manageable (unlike the Sydney Writers’ Festival) and the choice excellent. Let’s hope it’ll be the same next year.

The Next Big Thing Blog Hop

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February 11, 2013

I’m terribly disorganised so I ended up doing the Next Big Thing Blog Hop as Keziah Hill instead of DB Tait. Here’s what I said:

What is your working title of your book?
The Laws of Passion

Where did the idea come from for the book?
A life time ago, I was a political activist. In my heart I still am, but I’m lazy. So I thought I’d meld together two of my interests, social justice and romance. The hero and heroine are lawyers. She works in a community legal centre defending the dispossessed and disenfranchised and he works for a big city law firm. Sparks and principles fly. Actually, it’s much more romance than social justice. I did say I was lazy.

What genre does your book fall under?
Light romantic suspense. There isn’t a dead body but there is a mystery. It’s not erotic romance so if I get it published it will be with my Deborah Tait persona.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
God, how I hate this question. Grumble, grumble. No, I’m not going to answer it. The reader will have to make up her/his mind.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
Lawyers on opposing sides must work together to prevent tragedy while at the same time resisting the laws of passion.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
I’ll submit it hither and thither so we’ll see.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
I wrote it a few years ago and from memory I think it took about four months. It needs a serious rewrite which is what I’m working on now.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
Maybe Julie James?

Who or what inspired you to write this book?
I’ve set it in Balmain, an inner-west suburb of Sydney with a very rich history. It started out as a working-class waterside worker suburb and now is a yuppy paradise. I lived there for a few months in 2002-3 right on the water at East Balmain. If I ever: 1) move back to Sydney and 2) have a lot more money than I do now, I’d love to live there.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
It’s my first non-erotic romance book (although it’s still pretty steamy) and it’s about community in a big city. We read a lot of romance set in rural settings with wonderful home and hearth communities, but it’s possible to find those communities in cities as well.

Thank you Elise Ackers for roping me into this. Elise’s Next Big Thing Blog Hop post is here. Please take some time to visit her website and blog and read about her latest release,Unforgettable.

As well as her website you can contact her on Facebook and Twitter.

Now, to hand over this blog hop to others! Please go and visit:

Elizabeth Dunk (aka Nicole Murphy), fellow Escape Artist whose latest release is Arranged to Love (gorgeous cover!). You can find her on Facebook and Twitter as well.

Kitty Bucholtz once Sydney resident and member of The Writers’ Coven but now returned to the US (we miss her!) You can find her on Facebook and Twitter.

I’m going to tag Paula Roe too because she’s gone MIA and I want to hear what she’s up to. Writing four books at the same time it seems.