Guest Post: Joan Swan

I’m delighted to have fellow author Joan Swan as a guest on the blog today. Joan is a triple RWA® Golden Heart finalist and writes sexy romantic suspense with a paranormal twist. Her debut novel with Kensington Brava, FEVER, released February 28, 2012. Her second novel, BLAZE, follows in October, 2012. In her day job, she works as a sonographer for one of the top ten medical facilities in the nation and lives on the California central coast in beautiful wine country with her husband and two daughters.

Joan has very kindly offered to give away three Kindle copies of her FEVER novel today…she tells you how to enter in her post! 🙂

Catch the FEVER … to read.

The first time I can remember actually craving a book was with the Nancy Drew Mysteries when I was a kid. Man, I loved those little hardbacks, the spooky drawings on the cover, even the unique scent of them. Loved collecting them, one small book at a time. But it was years after that when my first vivid memory of a childhood story was created – and it wasn’t a Nancy Drew.

My sixth grade teacher – Mrs. Brady, who had THE hottest son in the entire school, btw – had a ritual. Every day after lunch, she would sit us down, tell us to put out heads down and close our eyes, and then she’d read to us. That year she read from Where the Red Fern Grows.

I’m not sure if it was because my eyes were closed or because the story was being read to me, but the memory of that book still lives with me today. In fact, I can remember everything about that time—Mrs. Brady’s big white hair, her perfect makeup, her long, red nails and her animated voice. I remember the classroom I was in, where I sat, how I’d cross my forearms and let my cheek rest there. And the story…so many pieces are incredibly clear. I even remember crying at the end.

Obviously, I was a reader before this, devouring my Nancy Drews, but if I hadn’t been, this would have hooked me. In the years since I’ve gone through spurts of reading lightly and reading voraciously – one of those voracious periods leading to my own scribbles…which eventually lead me here. So strange how things work out sometimes.

But whether we catch the fever as a toddler fiddling with pop-ups or refuse to read anything for leisure until after college, everyone reading this caught it eventually.

I’m excited to say that my debut, FEVER, a romantic suspense with romantic elements is in the Amazon Top 100 promotion for May! You have a few days left to catch the actual FEVER at the discounted $3.99 price! 🙂

I’m giving away three copies of the Kindle version of FEVER here today. I’ll be choosing winners early so that those who don’t win still have time to get that great promotional price! So enter now via the Rafflecopter widget below. This giveaway is ONE DAY ONLY!

Do you have a vivid childhood memory or a favorite childhood book that started you on the road to a lifelong love of reading? If not, when did you catch the fever?

About FEVER: When Dr. Alyssa Foster is taken hostage by a prison inmate, she knows she’s in deep trouble. Not just because Teague Creek is desperate for freedom, but because the moment his fingers brush against her skin, Alyssa feels a razor-sharp pang of need…

A man with a life sentence has nothing to lose. At least Teague doesn’t, until his escape plan develops a fatal flaw: Alyssa. On the run from both the law and deadly undercover operatives, he can only give her lies, but every heated kiss tells him the fire between them could be just as devastating as the flames that changed him forever…

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Comments

13 responses to “Guest Post: Joan Swan”

  1. Elaine Avatar
    Elaine

    I have loved reading since I was four. I remember my first favorite book that I read over and over was Lisa and Lottie. It’s what the Parent Trap movies were based on. I wore my little copy out!

    1. Joan Swan Avatar

      I LOVED the Parent Trap!!

  2. Julie Avatar
    Julie

    When I was really young, I loved any book that had animals in it – real or fictional, i.e., Curious George, Misty of Chincoteague, Black Beauty, etc. I moved on to Nancy Drew. Then as a teen, I started reading the romance novels that my mother had. She loved Kathleen Woodiwiss.

    1. Joan Swan Avatar

      Hi Julie, I was a big horse lover – still am. So I was big on the HQN series that revolved around horses, barns, country, etc.

  3. Tobi H Avatar

    Yes! Sign me up!!!! <3

  4. Raonaid Luckwell Avatar
    Raonaid Luckwell

    * Laughs * Mom said when I was potty training. The only way she’d get me to sit was to give me a book or the comics. I woud sit for hours. Off and on I would read books. Then, when I was in seventh and eight grade I got into reading heavily… Black Stallion books. Then by the time I got to be a freshman I was reading romance and fantasy hardcore.

    1. Joan Swan Avatar

      What an awesome potty training aide! I loved Black Beauty as well!!

  5. Linda Avatar
    Linda

    Oh, wow…you guys are all bringing back such good reading memories! I loved all of these and so many more…Black Stallion, My Friend Flicka, Misty of Chincoteague, Call of the Wild, Black Beauty, Little Women, Tarzan, Sherlock Holmes, Jane Eyre…at one point in grade school I started on a mission to read every fiction book on the library shelves, beginning with “A” authors. I think I made it as far as the end of the “F” shelf when I had to move into high school… 😉

    Fabulous post, Joan — thank you so much for sharing with us today! 🙂

    1. Joan Swan Avatar

      Holy Cow, Linda!! Those are some good ones!!! Thanks for having me!

  6. Pam Avatar

    It wasn’t until sometime in 2009 that I really developed a passion for reading. In fact, I hardly read at all apart from magazines or stuff on the internet. But I do remember that after I saw the movie Willow I bought the book and read it rather quickly. I was, in a way, proud of myself because as I said, I didn’t like reading, but I did enjoy reading that book. Afterwards I did try to read more but just couldn’t get into it. Except for a few of my mom’s VC Andrews books.
    In 2008, two of my sisters and I (along with my sister’s two kids) went to go see the movie Twilight. I had no idea that it was based on a book until my older sister told me. After the movie, Linda said that she has all the books and would loan them to me if I wanted to read them. She gave me the four Twilight books and two Vampire Diaries books. It took me a good six months to even attempt to read any of them and when I did, I started with one of the Vampire Diaries books. I didn’t even read a full chapter. I don’t know, I just did not like it. So I thought that I wouldn’t like any of them and gave all the books to my sister Patty. She didn’t like the Vampire Diaries books either, but when she started on Twilight she told me that I would like it. So once Patty finished Twilight she gave it back to me to read. I had all four books done within a week. After that, I just had a love of reading. I hope I never lose that either.

    1. Joan Swan Avatar

      That’s cool Pam. You know it when you hit it I guess!! Enjoy your new found love!

  7. Sara M Avatar

    I caught the fever to read when I read the first Harry Potter. My brother and I didn’t read much for fun when I was younger, but my mom was determined to make sure we didn’t spend the entire summer rotting in front of the tv. She made us each pick one book to read that summer. I chose Harry Potter #1. I had never heard of them before (although the first three were out) and by the fifth chapter I was hooked. Throughout middle school and high school I read for fun around homework and softball, but it wasn’t until college that I started gobbling up books left and right. At 19, I had read all the paranormal books in the YA section (this was before the market exploded) and ventured over to the adult Fantasy/SciFi section and found Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris and Wicked Game by Jeri Smith-Ready which started my Urban Fantasy obsession. From there I found Paranormal Romance via Jeaniene Frost.

  8. Joan Swan Avatar

    What a great mom!! Sounds like it stuck all right!! You’ve picked some real winners!

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