Hey, lovelies! It gives me great pleasure today to host Jeny
Heckman and her new book, “The Warrior's Progeny”! For other stops on her Goddess Fish
Promotions Book Tour, please click on the banner above or any of the images in
this post.
Be sure to make it to the
end of this post to enter to win a $25 Amazon or Barnes and Noble Gift Card!! Also, come back daily to interact with Jeny
and to increase your chances of winning!
Thanks for stopping
by! Wishing you lots of luck in this
fabulous giveaway!
The Warrior's Progeny
by Jeny Heckman
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GENRE: Paranormal/Fantasy/Romance
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BLURB:
Colton
Stone is a newly traded tight end whose reputation is as battered as his
football helmet. When he receives a vacation invitation from his new teammates,
he accepts. There he collides with Dr. Lillian Morgan, a pediatric
cardiovascular surgeon, and doesn't know what to think.
A
widow with two children, Lilly travels to Kauai to attend the wedding of a
friend and witness the union she lost three years prior. When she meets Colt,
she struggles between letting go of her perfect past for an uncertain future.
Strange
events begin to occur, out of the realm of normal consciousness. Black energy
touches their world and the couple become pawns of the immortal Greek gods. Is
the love between them real, or part of a larger prophecy?
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EXCERPT TWO:
Lilly
looked down at the football, lying prone and guilty in the sand, as realization
hit her.
“Oh
my God, Que! Are you okay?”
She
examined Que’s head and neck checking for injuries, with rapid authority. A
small goose egg already formed just above her right temple. A tiny cut opened
in her eyebrow, from her broken sunglasses now laying in the sand, causing a
small bead of blood to well up.
Used
to the recklessness of her son and his friends regarding the sport, Lilly
turned, gearing up for an impressive tongue lashing to teenagers.
“What
in the hell...” she bellowed, turning around and smacking her face into the
sweaty muscular chest of a massive redhead. Refusing to let the fourteen-inch
height difference and the hundred and sixty pounds of additional weight
intimidate her, Lilly balled her small fists on her hips, shifted her gaze up,
and narrowed her eyes.
“What
in the hell is the matter with you? You’re on a crowded beach with a bunch of
young children and families. You’re a grown-ass man. Can’t you catch a football?”
When he stared down at her in fascinated disbelief, she continued. “There is a
wide-open park just over there,” she said, stabbing her finger in the general
vicinity. “Maybe you and your little friends”— she looked over at all the
massive men in his group, but continued undaunted—“should go over there and
pull your heads out of your asses.”
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BOOK TRAILER:
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GUEST POST:
Making It Believable: Writing Romantic and Intimate Scenes
I’ve
never had anyone pose this question before and I love it! I’ll write a little
about this, but also the reasons why I think these scenes are important and
should be done a certain way. Not for everyone, just for me personally.
To
me, the absolute queen of writing a realistic love scene or intimate scene is
Diana Gabaldon and her Outlander series. I started reading Diana’s books
when they first came out and have read them all the way through. I’m not as big
of fan of the TV series but have watched it. Diana makes sex real, she makes it
smelly and awkward. She makes intimacy uncomfortable at times but authentic.
When
I started writing I wanted to do that too. No, I am in no way comparing myself
to the amazing Diana Gabaldon. I just wanted to inject a dose of realism into
my scenes. So, my characters say the wrong things, they run into things at
times, they are not all heaving breasts and throbbing members. In fact, you
will never see me write “member” for the male genitalia, or compare a woman’s
vagina to a flower, in one of my books.
To me
intimacy, real intimacy, is about connections. Those connections aren’t always
perfect. My husband, Jeff, and I didn’t meet in a conventional way. We met in a
bar, and I had a boyfriend. The boyfriend turned out to be a jerk and I, being
an introvert, made the uncharacteristic decision to attend one of Jeff’s
parties alone. We were standing on white sand, on the Magen’s Bay beach, in our
bare feet, on St. Thomas, in the USVI getting married three months later. A
lifeguard sat on a picnic table as our witness. We’ve been married twenty-eight
years this November.
Sounds
romantic, right? Well, yes, it was but it was full of challenges too, because
three months after that I got pregnant. My first year of marriage, to a dude I
barely knew was full of hormones, and expanding waist lines. I had Paisley, my
daughter, November 1st and had my first anniversary November 10th. However, we
have learned about each other, how to become parents and what is means to be
married, together. Life is messy, and I try to remember it when I’m writing
those scenes.
The
simple fact is going through those intimate moments, and being able to laugh at
them or yourself in your very non-sexy way, is what builds a relationship and
creates the intimacy and romance of your life. It might not seem like it at the
time, but it’s absolute solid gold.
My
adult children’s friends are beginning to get married now. With Covid-19, many
of those weddings have had to be cancelled, postponed, or not the way they
envisioned them going. Some couples have broken up because of it. However,
honestly, there couldn’t be a better metaphor for marriage. Huge challenges
that aren’t about the pretty wedding, they’re about the marriage.
How
does all this equate to writing love scenes and intimate moments. Well,
hopefully you’ve come to understand why writing these scenes authentically are
important to me. I don’t find these scenes hard to write at all, in fact, I
find them very fun! Books should be an escape but they should also be
relatable. At least, that’s what I like to read.
In
Warrior’s Progeny, the Greek goddess is Hera, is the goddess of marriage and
she messed it up ALL the time. Ares, is the god of war. He’s supposed to be the
personification of man, yet he’s so arrogant and proud, he often played the
fool. I tried to relay that in the character’s involvement with one another.
This has been a lot of fun! Thank you so much for joining me
today, and thank you to Fabulous and Brunette for hosting me. It’s been a real
honor!
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AUTHOR BIO:
Award-winning
author, Jeny Heckman, was born in Bellingham,
Washington, and was the youngest of two daughters. She met her husband, Jeff,
in August 1992, and eloped three months later, at Magen’s Bay, on St. Thomas,
U.S.V.I.
She
wrote her first book, the Catch, in a few short months but took several
years before she gained the courage to self-publish it at her son’s urging, and
her love for writing began.
In
2018, Jeny knew her next project would be a series that showed adults could
have adventures in the paranormal-fantasy genre too. So, she created the
Heaven & Earth series, a story of doomed Greek gods and their only
salvation, their modern-day descendants. Her first book of the series, the Sea
Archer, was immediately picked up by the New York publishing house, the
Wild Rose Press, and won, “Best in Category” from the 2018 Chanticleer
International Book Awards.
In
the year 2020, Jeny released, Dancing Through Tears, a short story from
the anthology, Australia Burns: Volume Two, highlighting the Route 91 massacre
from the perspective of one family at the concert, and at Mandalay Bay. She
also intends to release, the Warrior’s Progeny, and Dee’s Cornucopia,
in 2020, continuing the Heaven & Earth Series.
Jeny
lives in Washington State with her husband of over twenty-eight years.
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CONNECT WITH JENY:
Website:
Blog:
Email:
jenyheckman17@gmail.com
Facebook:
Twitter:
Pinterest:
Instagram:
YouTube:
LinkedIn:
Apple iBook Author Page:
BookBub Author Page:
BookBub Book Page:
Goodreads Author Page:
Goodreads Book Page:
Amazon Author Page:
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BOOK BUY LINKS:
Amazon Kindle:
Amazon Paperback:
Barnes and Noble NOOK eBook:
Barnes and Noble Paperback:
The Book Depository Paperback:
BAM! Books-A-Million Paperback:
Google Play eBook:
Kobo eBook:
The Wild Rose Press eBook:
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GIVEAWAY INFO:
Jeny will be awarding a $25 Amazon or B/N GC to
a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour.
**This post contains affiliate links and if clicked and a
purchase is made, I may receive a small commission to help support this
blog. This does not cost you anything,
it just helps pay for all those awesome giveaways on here.**
This contest is sponsored
by a third party. Fabulous and Brunette is a registered host of Goddess Fish
Promotions. Prizes are given away by the
sponsors and not Fabulous and Brunette. The featured author and Goddess Fish
Promotions are solely responsible for the giveaway prize.
Jeny ~ Good morning! Welcome back! It is so great to have you here again! Congrats on your new book and good luck on the book tour! :)
ReplyDeleteAlly! Thank you for having me again! I loved your questions and this interview so much! Great topic! I appreciate you and thank you for this wonderful opportunity!
DeleteThank you for hosting!
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great read.
ReplyDeleteThanks Rita for coming on today and following the tour!
DeleteLove the cover! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteI LOVE my cover! Debbie Taylor is the artist. She did both The Warrior's Progeny and The Sea Archer covers! Do you have a favorite cover of all time?
DeleteHappy Friday! Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteHave a fantastic weekend Victoria! Thank you so much for stopping by!
ReplyDelete