Debbie Christiana's #giveaway month

From Google.com

Debbie Christiana is celebrating two things this month: Halloween and her birthday. I'm not quite sure which one she's more excited about, but both are awesome.

From Google.com

In honor of Debbie's favorite month, I'm giving away a copy of one of her books (winner's choice) along with a $5 Amazon gift card. One lucky winner gets both prizes.

All you have to do is:

Answer this one question in the comments section (you don't even have to answer correctly, guesses are accepted, and creativity is even more welcome, written with a cackle).

           Who is Debbie Christiana's favorite witch of all time? 

The last day to comment will be Wednesday October 23rd. 
Debbie will announce the answer along with my randomly chosen winner on her blog,  Friday October 25th.

In the meantime don't wait for me to gift you with a copy of one of her fantastic books. Run out (or click on your computer) and buy it.

BLURB 

Time is running out for Armend Zogu. The 250-year old family curse on his head will claim him on his 30^th birthday, the winter solstice.

Sofia Palmalosi is just the Strega who can save him. A descendant of a long line of powerful Italian witches, their magic was a gift bestowed on them by the Goddess Diana.

In order to break the curse, Sofia and Armend must piece together the sheet music from an old violin sonata that Armend’s ancestor wrote for his forbidden love. 

Together Sofia and Armend embark on a journey from New York to Sicily and the ancient ruins of Diana’s temple and back to New York while fighting a battle of wits and magic with a psychopath who wants them both dead and the curse intact.

If the curse doesn’t kill Armend, breaking it just might.

Buy links: Amazon / Barnes and Noble  / Smashwords / All Romance

The Blurb

She’d never met him before…or had she?

The last thing forty-year old Natalia Santagario expected was to be sitting on a Manhattan barstool ogling a man she’s never met, but swears she knows.

He didn’t know her at all…or did he?

The mysterious dark-haired woman at the end of the bar stops twenty-eight year old Marc Tremonti in his tracks. His head assures him she’s a stranger, but his heart tells him otherwise.

Together they embark on an adventure that will change their lives forever.

Their attraction instant and enigmatic, they undergo past life regression and discover that, not only have they spent hundreds of lives together as lovers, Natalia holds the secret to Marc’s puzzling birthmark. But what should have been a joyful reunion is complicated by a kind, albeit confused, almost ex-wife, an unfortunate accident in a taxicab, and a bout of temporary amnesia that threatens to ruin everything. On top of all that, they must contend with a mischievous ghost from their past. What else could possibly go wrong?

Buy links:  Amazon / Barnes and Noble / Smashwords / All Romance

Happy Birthday and Halloween, Debbie. Boo!

Guest Blogger Debbie Christiana Talks About Paranormal Writers beliefs in the Paranormal

I talk about her all the time, so it’s only right that I should entrust my blog to my good friend and amazing author, Debbie Christiana. I'm sure you'll enjoy her post as much as I did. (Check out my review of Solstice when your done).

A few weeks ago, Nana asked me a great question. Do paranormal authors believe in the supernatural characters and the world they invent and write about?

I think you need a love or passion for the unexplained. You don’t have to believe in every paranormal aspect of the story.  Its fiction and creative liberties are fun and a big part of writing.

But I think it helps drive the story if you believe some of the things could happen.

My debut novel, Twin Flames, tells a tale of reincarnation, past lives and soul mates. There is also a determined but playful ghost that lives with the heroine. Do I believe in ghosts? Yes, but sadly I’ve never seen one so I can’t say for sure that they exist. Do I believe we live more than one life and are spiritually connected to other souls? Yes. Am I positive we come back time after time to learn our life’s lessons? No. But I consider it a likelihood so writing Marc and Natalia’s love story through countless past lives over several millennia was real to me.

My new novel, Solstice, is a story of Italian witches, magic and a curse all set within a love story. Let me answer before you ask. Yes, I believe in witches and know quite a few.

The biggest mystery involving witches is the magical aspect known as witchcraft.  It’s complex and simple at the same time. Witches believe their magic comes from tapping into the powerful energy of the universe, Mother Earth and themselves. They also consider all things in nature to be connected to Mother Earth and the universe.

Could science agree with the ancient understanding of how the cosmos work? Here’s a quote from one of my favorite people in the world, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Astrophysicist and Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. I saw him there once and was smitten. He’s handsome, brilliant and funny.

“Recognize that the very molecules that make up your body, the atoms that construct the molecules, are traceable to the crucibles that were once the centers of high mass stars that exploded their chemically rich guts into the galaxy, enriching pristine gas clouds with the chemistry of life. So we are all connected to each other biologically, to the earth chemically, and to the rest of the universe atomically.   That makes me smile and I actually feel quite large at the end of that. It’s not that we are better than the universe; we are part of the universe. We are in the universe and universe is in us.”

Granted, Mr. Tyson’s explanation has a scientific edge to it whiles pagans and witches see it in a more spiritual way, the message speaks the same.

What’s my opinion on magic? I’ll leave you with another quote – I love quotes. Thank you everyone for spending a little of your time with me today.

The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.

Eden Phillipotts, 1862-1960 British author and poet

BLURB:

Time is running out for Armend Zogu. The 250-year old family curse on his head will claim him on his 30^th birthday, the winter solstice.

Sofia Palmalosi is just the Strega who can save him. A descendant of a long line of powerful Italian witches, their magic was a gift bestowed on them by the Goddess Diana.

In order to break the curse, Sofia and Armend must piece together the sheet music from an old violin sonata that Armend’s ancestor wrote for his forbidden love. 

Together Sofia and Armend embark on a journey from New York to Sicily and the ancient ruins of Diana’s temple and back to New York while fighting a battle of wits and magic with a psychopath who wants them both dead and the curse intact.

If the curse doesn’t kill Armend, breaking just might.

BUY LINKS FOR SOLSTICE:

Amazon.com

B&N

www.blackopalbooks.com

Author contact information

www.debbiechristiana.com

www.debbiechristian.com/blog

Twitter: @DebChristiana

Facebook: Debbie Christiana, author

Party with Debbie Christiana, author of the highly anticipated book Solstice

Hi everybody. I've been invited to a part so that's where I am now. Debbie Christiana's novel Solstice has just been released and we are celebrating with games and prizes. Stop by the Solstice Release Party today May 3rd from 12 pm Eastern Time to tomorrow May 4th, 3 pm. You will definitely have a good time.

Interview with paranormal romance author Debbie Christiana

I am honored to welcome my friend and fellow Black Opal Books author of Twin Flames, Debbie Christiana, for my very first interview.

Thank you, Nana, for having me as your guest today. I love to talk about Twin Flames, past lives and writing, so you many never get rid of me. I thought it might be fun to add a few brief facts or theories about past lives before I answer the first question.

The idea of reincarnation appears to have been around since the Iron Age. The Greeks, pre-Socrates era held a doctrine of reincarnation as did the Celtic Druids. Hindus, Buddhists, New Age and several million others that don’t affiliate themselves with a particular religion or philosophy believe in reincarnation. That’s about a quarter of the world’s population. While it may seem to people living in the West to be a new, wacky religion, it’s really an old concept that many advanced cultures believed in or still do.

Do you believe in past lives?  

One of my characters in Twin Flames, Mariella Tremonti says, “None of us know anything for sure, but we’ll all find out one day.”  While that’s true, I find myself leaning towards a big YES!

I’ve had many déjà vu experiences - which I love when they happen. They pass so fast I wish I could hold on to that feeling and remember what it is that is so familiar about that moment. But I never do. I’ve also met a few people that from the minute we’re introduced, I feel I’ve known them forever, the conversation is easy and everything clicks. I’m still close friends with each one of them. On the other hand, I’ve met two people in my life that from the second I laid eyes on them, the hair on the back of my neck bristled. Not in fear but they made me extremely uneasy and agitated and we hadn’t even spoken. I also think it explains many issues in our lives; phobias, uncontrollable fear of certain things, our bad habits as well as many other things. I guess I’ll find out for sure someday J

Where did you get the idea for Twin Flames?

Well, I’m a bit of a romantic and I love unusual love stories. My mother was a big believer in reincarnation and books on the subject littered our house. I started reading them and became fascinated. Being an avid reader, I always wanted to write so it just seemed the natural thing for me to start with. I was in my favorite Italian restaurant in New York City at Christmas time and the waiter at the bar had a beautiful but strange tattoo that covered most of his arm. When I asked him about it all he would say was “It tells a long involved story.” That’s when I had it.

Some people say that the characters write themselves. Is this how writing Twin Flames was for you?

Yes. I had the story in my head for a while before I sat down at the computer so it just flowed from me. It was as if Marc and Natalia hired me to write their story. They dictated and I typed.

When Marc and Natalia were undergoing their past life regressions, I wanted them to open more doors.  The stories you told about their past encounters were wonderful and it made the connection between them that much stronger.  Sorry, no question here, just wanted to express my opinion on the matter.

Thank you, Nana. That was the hope when I wrote it. Marc and Natalia will be opening more doors, because I’m working on the sequel. I’ll keep you posted.

Where did you find all those wonderful quotes about past lives?

The internet can be a wonderful thing. I Googled quotes about past lives, reincarnation and soul mates and voila, there were hundreds to choose from. I love quotes so reading through them was a labor of love.

The grapevine (your blog) has it that you have a book coming out later this year. Please tell us a little about it?

Solstice is a romantic suspense that will be released by Black Opal Books. The heroine, Sofia, is a Strega or an Italian hereditary witch that must break a curse on her love, Armend’s head by his thirtieth birthday on the winter solstice. Their adventure takes them from New York to the ancient ruins of the Goddess Diana’s temple in Sicily and back to New York while being pursued by a psychopath who wants them both dead and the curse intact.

It’s a little darker than Twin Flames but it has its share of light and humorous moments, and it was a blast to write.

Before you go, please give an analogy of what writing is like for you. This is hard and I’m afraid I may have come up with a lame analogy but writing draws me to it like iron to a magnet.  I can’t stay away from it. Thank you again, Nana for inviting me today. It was a lot of fun.

Thanks for spending your time with me Debbie. I can’t wait to read Solstice when it comes out this year. Move fast on the sequel to Twin Flames because I’m getting antsy to read it.

TWIN FLAMES - BLURB

The last thing forty-year old Natalia Santagario expected was to be sitting on a Manhattan barstool ogling a man she has never met, but swears she knows.

The mysterious dark-haired woman at the end of the bar stops twenty-eight year old Marc Tremonti in his tracks. His head assures him she’s a stranger, but his heart tells him otherwise.

Their attraction instant and enigmatic, they travel back in time only to discover they have spent hundreds of lives together as lovers and Natalia holds the secret to Marc’s puzzling birthmark.

But their reunion in this life is complicated by a kind, albeit confused almost ex-wife, an unfortunate accident and a temporary bout of amnesia.  When a mischievous ghost from their past decides to help them, what could possibly go wrong?

Twin Flames is available through BlackOpalBooks.com, Amazon.com, Barnes&Noble and Smashwords.

Contact Debbie:

www.debbiechristiana.com

Twitter: @DebChristiana

Facebook: Debbie Christiana, author