Final Surrender by Jennifer Kacey

Inspiration

I’m always curious as to where writers get their ideas for their stories, and so I asked Jennifer Kacey, author of Final Surrender, where she found her inspiration. She came up not one, but five things that helped inspire her book.
Over to you Jennifer...

Everyone wants to know what inspired a book. I love that question. It’s a time when I get to relive certain moments in the book and give you guys the insider moments of WHY I wrote certain things. I draw inspiration from a lot of different places and people and instances of perfection. These are from current happenings to things that happened years and YEARS ago.

OK, so I’m going to tell you about 5 things that inspired certain parts of Final Surrender.

OMG this is so fun!!

OK, OK, OK. Totally professional now.

1.     The car scene when Clay takes Angela home from her ice cream “date”. There’s this moment in the car. This…pause…that happens. One of those moments that you know will change your life. I had that moment a very long time ago. *grins*

2.     The picture over the fireplace in Angela’s loft that comes up several times, I saw a TV show about the artist. Touched me deeply. Knew I had to showcase her in a book!!

3.     When Angela wakes Clay up from his nightmare in his apartment the night of her prom. The need, the immediacy of that moment, the ridiculously hot sex – yeah – might have been from a personal experience in college. Might. Have. Been.

4.     The story being set in New York and Angela being a fashion designer came from watching seasons of Project Runway. I’ve loved some of the genius designers I’ve seen over the years. How eclectic their styles can be and how one thing can inspire an entire collection. Or the designer themselves. So when I knew Angela was going to make it in the fashion world she had to be down the street from Diane von Furstenberg’s studio. In December of 2013 my parents and I took miniman to New York for the first time and we went on a Final Surrender tour. We had a driver and we had him take us to all the places I wrote into the book. It was epic!!

5.     Angela’s Thinking Spot!!! My mom had a friend that had a thinking spot in a park when she lived in TX. Somewhere she would go to think and to reflect and make gigantic decisions. One time the man she loved showed up to talk to her. That HAD to go in a book!!! And this was that book!! Every time I read about Angela’s thinking spot I think of the woman that inspired it.

So the moral of the story and my best advice to authors out there is write what you know!!! I LOVE love stories that are believable and relevant and above all not perfect. People have issues, and baggage and stuff they have to work through and overcome. I like it when my romance does the same. Let your experiences influence your characters. It allows for an amazing story to unfold on your computer and it can help you work through things that are bothering you as well.

And an added bonus? It’s much cheaper than therapy.*snicker*

Available through 
Amazon

Ten years ago, Angela Meyers told everyone she went to New York to find herself. It was a lie. She fled from the aftermath of one hot night with Clay Waters. A night filled with wet heat, all-consuming releases…then his regret.

Now, with a stalker threatening to destroy her career, there’s only one man she trusts to protect her. The man she still loves, hates, needs with every breath she takes.

It’s not that Clay never craved his best friend’s younger sister. With a ticket to boot camp burning a hole in his pocket, he couldn’t allow himself to love her. The moment he lays eyes on her again, the old need—to take down her tightly wound hair, press her long, lean body to his—surges inside him stronger than ever.

But this is no ordinary bodyguard assignment. The best way to identify the voice in Angela’s shadow is to lure it into the light of day. Even if it means convincing her to trust him with her heart…and surrendering his own.

Excerpt:

 "You need to show him the park,” Mark commanded, as if somehow reading her mind and finding the one spot she didn’t want to share.
She turned as best she could and shot him her best Go to Hell look.

“What?” he asked with complete ignorance. “He needs to know where you go when you want to be alone. You love that place and you’re there all the time.”

“Yes, and it’s where I go to be alone, Mark.”

“What park?” Clay asked.

Angela opened her mouth to tell him it didn’t matter, when Mark butted right in. “Madison Square Park right off Park Avenue and East 26th Street.”

“Mark, shut up!” Angela barked.

“No, I’m not going to let you sabotage this, Ang. Clay needs to know where you are at all times, so you aren’t going to be able to just flit anywhere by yourself anymore. At least not until we get a handle on this.”

“The only situation I have at the moment is an overbearing brother who doesn’t know when to back off.”

“Yes, you definitely have that,” he admitted with a smirk.

“The fact that you think this is a good thing is really starting to piss me off.” She rolled her shoulders, trying to lessen the tension building again.

After a minute of silence, Clay asked, “So, where do you grocery shop?” Obviously trying to change the subject so he didn’t have to separate the siblings next to him.

“Meat district, west of the island, on 14th Street, straight down from the studio.”

“Food. I’m hungry,” Mark admitted.

“You’re always hungry, Mark. Do you not eat at home?”

On cue his stomach growled and he patted it, as if to quell the rising beast within.

“Where are we now?” Mark asked no one in particular.

“In Midtown on Park Avenue. Why?” Angela wanted to know.

“Meli Melo is right up the next block. Let’s get takeout and we’ll go back to your apartment and eat, so I can crash early and get packed since I’m leaving pretty early tomorrow morning.”

Angela’s heart stopped, not certain why she thought her brother would be staying longer. Obviously he didn’t know she needed a chaperone.

Clay asked, “What is a melli marshmallow anyways?”

Mark threw his head back and laughed as Angela gave a small snort and said, “You are a Texan, huh?”

“Born and branded,” Clay admitted with no humor whatsoever.

“Meli Melo is a restaurant with the best food.”

“That’s what you say about every restaurant in New York.”

“Yeah, but this time it’s true. What about you, Ang, you up for it?”

“That’s fine with me. I’m not really hungry, so just order me something little and you guys get whatever you want.”


“Clay, what about you?” Mark asked, completely pleased he was going to get his way.

“Sure, as long as I don’t have to eat raw fish, back home we call that bait, so other than that, I’m game.”

“Sweet, head over between 29th and 30th on Madison.”

While the cabbie maneuvered through traffic, Angela glanced at the clock and couldn’t see where the time had gone.

Clay had already been there more than five hours.

As they pulled up in front of the restaurant, Mark asked, “You guys coming in?” as they all exited the cab.

Angela paid, before Mark could even get his wallet out then said, “No, just order me a salad and some crepes.”

“Clay?”

“Just order me something that’s not rabbit food. I’ll stay with Angela.”

His eyes raked over, but she kept her gaze on the passing traffic, trying not to notice.

“’Kay, see you guys in a few,” Mark agreed as he entered the restaurant, more or less drooling on the patrons trying to leave.

Angela took a deep breath, trying to calm her still racing heart.

Unable to help herself any longer, she stole a glance in Clay’s direction.

He caught her looking and smirked.

Being taunted really wasn’t what she needed, so she turned and faced him head-on. She may have added a little bit more sass to her walk as she sauntered in his direction. Let’s see how he felt if he was put on stage to answer personal questions.

“So when did you get the scar on your cheek, Clay?”

The instant scowl on his face was all she needed to know.

She looked at the ground before glancing back at his gorgeous face. “You don’t have to answer if it’s private.”

“We’re a bit past private at this point, don’t you think, Angela?”

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Jennifer Kacey is a writer, mother, and business owner living with her family in Texas. She sings in the shower, plays piano in her dreams, and has to have a different color of nail polish every week. She’s the Amazon top seller and award winning author of the Members Only Series and the Surrender Series along with several stand alone novels and novellas. The best advice she’s ever been given? Find the real you and never settle for anything less.

---

Website - http://www.jenniferkacey.com/

Blog – The Decadent Divas - http://www.thedecadentdivas.blogspot.com/

Newsletter Signup - http://jenniferkacey.us7.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=f09bd32b8c279cebcc930950e&id=2a45c210e8

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/jennifer.kacey.7
Facebook Author Page - https://www.facebook.com/jenniferkaceyauthor

Twitter - https://twitter.com/JenniferKacey

Amazon Page - http://www.amazon.com/Jennifer-Kacey/e/B00GXHUB30/ref=s9_simh_gw_p351_d9_al1?_encoding=UTF8&refinementId=618073011&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=0G8ZPDQJVKJPKXNBRY10&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1688200382&pf_rd_i=507846

Goodreads – http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6941549.Jennifer_Kacey

Pinterest - http://pinterest.com/jenniferkacey/

Jennifer Kacey will be awarding an e-book from her backlist as well as a swag pack of goodies from several authors to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. 



Follow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better your chances of winning. The tour dates can be found here:
 http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2015/02/vbt-final-surrender-by-jennifer-kacey.html

a Rafflecopter giveaway