Welcome to Escape to Romance, hosted by myself, DemonLover of Demon Lover’s Books and More and Book Savvy Babe. Since it’s a week of love, we are celebrating romance with the Escape to Romance event. We have so much going on this week, from author visits, interviews, and chats, to romance discussions, and lots of awesome giveaways and prizes! The more you participate, the more chances you have to win! Our grand prize of the event is a RomCon Registration Ticket! If you can’t make RomCon, or you are international, don’t worry, you can win a $30 to Amazon or The Book Depository!
Today we welcome author Shana Abe
Shana Abé is the award-winning, bestselling author of thirteen novels, including the internationally acclaimed Drákon Series. Her next book, THE SWEETEST DARK, begins a new chapter in the series, set in the elegance and looming danger of 1915 England.
Find more about Shana @ her website

What would this week of Romance be without a little Fantasy!

Shana had a little bit to share with us…
Once upon a time, not too very long ago, I had dinner with an older couple, friends of my parents, because we were all in town at once. But at the last minute my folks couldn’t make it, so it was just me and these sweet, baffled people who cooked for me (lovely Italian), lectured me (oooh, you’re divorced! tsk!), and finally flat-out said over dessert, “You write about dragons? Isn’t that weird? Don’t you think that’s just…weird?”
     Um—no. I don’t.
     I guess people who wallow about in the muck of practical life will never understand how wonderful it is to indulge in the possibility of imagination. And no offense to them: they’re the folks who are really good at the stuff I hate, like drawing straight lines and planning out highway interchanges and balancing checkbooks so you’re never, ever overdrawn. Kudos to them.
     I write about dragons because they’re cool. I made them gorgeous shapeshifters, so that they could Turn from human to smoke to dragon, because that’s even cooler.
     I made them endangered, because it fit so neatly into the European mythology of knights hunting them to death—and because it meant they’d have to learn to hide amid humanity to survive. Conflict!
     I gave them glitter and glamour and set my entire first series in the eighteenth century, because I loved the notion of these feral, beautiful creatures forced to live behind human faces, in human bodies, wearing powdered wigs and corsets and satin and silk.
     I think it worked out pretty well! It’s so easy to tell when an author is passionate about the story, and I definitely felt passion for every one of these tales. It’s one of the reasons that I decided to continue with the drákon but to skip ahead in time: long before “Downton Abbey” hit the airwaves, I was proposing the story that would become my next novel, The Sweetest Dark. It was a tough sell at first; few people thought the Edwardian period would be popular. But my dream bloomed on. Even when I didn’t think I’d be able to sell it, I kept writing it. It burned inside me and needed to come out.
     And now, happily, The Sweetest Dark is being released this summer by Ballantine. I have a new, kick-ass heroine named Eleanore who has not one but two magical suitors, and I’m totally excited to see what happens next.
     So! Hooray for us, all of us who believe in magic (or at least would like to), who stare out windows while lost in daydreams, who don’t think dragons are any weirder than fairies or vampires or witches or werewolves or angels or even true love….
     We’re the dreamers. With us, all things are possible.
     And that’s not weird at all.

Giveaway!

Shana is kind enough to offer a couple of her books for today’s extra Giveaway.
She’s donating her latest two books in the Drákon Series, 

THE TREASURE KEEPER and THE TIME WEAVER

The Treasure KeeperThe Treasure Keeper
How do you win your copy?
Well, Shana has provided 2 questions for you to answer 
in the comment section below.
Which do you prefer: books that make you think, or books that make you feel?

What’s a good comeback to people who accidentally insult you? lol.


This giveaway is offered for US/CAN residents only.
You must be a GFC follower of this site or RSS subscriber. 
Please comment below and include your email addy & make sure you tell us which book you prefer.
2 lucky winners will get one of Shana’s novels.
This offer ends at midnight February 15th.
Winner’s will be posted on the last day of the event, 02/17/2012


The giveaways for this event will vary every day. There are 2 giveaways that run the entire event, The RomCon Registration and a $30 GiftCard to Amazon or $30 worth of books of your choice from the Book Depository.  
These giveaways have daily entries, as well as a few main entries. So each day you comment on a post or tweet about the contest, you get an extra entry. We want readers to be engaged in the event all week, so the more you participate, the more chances you have to win. Be sure to check back each day! Enter now in the rafflecopter forms below (1 is for the RomCon ticket and 1 is for the GiftCard)


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