Dark Mind Book Tours ~ Author Natalie-Nicole Bates

(Click photo to be taken back to blog host, Dark Mind Book Tours)

Please welcome Author Natalie-Nicole Bates onto the Road to Hell. Natalie-Nicole is the author of SEE ME. Other books written by YOUR NAME are Change of Address, Back to You, and the upcoming Remember the Stars.

Now, it’s time to create a little hell and get to the good stuff by revealing all of Natalie-Nicole’s wicked secrets while on the Road to Hell. LOL  Yeah, you wish! ;-D 

Grab your favorite drink, sink your teeth into something decadent, sit back, relax and enjoy getting to know Natalie-Nicole…

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GRACEN:  Tell me three things about yourself that we cannot find on the internet or in your bio?

Natalie-Nicole:

I’m currently in law school.

I come from a long line of funeral directors

My formal name is Natalia-Nicole

GRACEN: What hobbies and interests do you participate in when you’re not writing?

Natalie-Nicole:

My passions are restoring antique photographs, running, and baking

GRACEN: Do you have any writing quirks or certain things you MUST have or do before beginning the writing process?

Natalie-Nicole:

No real quirks (not that I consider quirks). All I know is that I only sit down to write when the spirit moves me. I never force myself (unless of course I’m on a deadline). So, no fuzzy slippers or finest cognac required.

GRACEN: If you were plotting to take over the world, how would you do it?

Natalie-Nicole:

I would have a magic powder that would raise the dead. I would then set them free to do my bidding.

GRACEN: If you could make one statement that the entire planet would hear and remember, what would it be?

Natalie-Nicole:

Everyone get along.

GRACEN:  What genre do you write and why that genre?

Natalie-Nicole:

Currently, I write paranormal romance, contemporary romance, and erotic romance. I’m first and foremost a romance writer; it’s just what I do. I started off as a contemporary writer, my first sale was a contemporary (Change of Address).

GRACEN: For those who are not yet familiar with Natalie-Nicole, can you please give us some details about the book and/or series?

Natalie-Nicole:

SEE ME is a paranormal romance novella. It is meant to be the first book in the series RISE. In this book, the reader is introduced to Carly and Daniel. The book opens in 1896, with sixteen year old Charlotte (now Carly). Charlotte knows she is special, but doesn’t know why. She does now that it stems from a near drowning accident when she was three. A tragic fire at the lumber mill will bring Charlotte’s power to fruition.

GRACEN:  Do you have any new stories in the works and can you tell us a bit about it/them?

Natalie-Nicole:

I just contracted another paranormal called Remember the Stars. The basic premise is what happens to a person who commits an indiscretion that results in their new death. I’m now beginning an erotic contemporary.

GRACEN: If you could describe your writing with one word or brief phrase, what would it be? Please delve into the core of your writing to tell us what word or phrase you want readers to take with them when they’ve finished reading your story.

Natalie-Nicole:

An emotional punch.

GRACEN: What, in your opinion, makes your story unique and what makes it stand out from other stories in your genre? Think of this as a pitch to convince readers to pick up your books.

Natalie-Nicole:

I strove to create a story that is different from the garden variety vampires, weres, shifters, and zombies. I hopefully give you a love story that happens to have some very unique characters.

GRACEN: What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever done in the name of research?

Natalie-Nicole:

I infiltrated a strip club.

GRACEN: Of all your books, which character did you have the most fun creating and why?

Natalie-Nicole:

I don’t think I have an adequate answer for that. I enjoy each character to the fullest as I write them. When I finish, I set them free.

GRACEN: If you had the opportunity to meet just one of your characters in real life, who would it be and why?

Natalie-Nicole:

Adam Nichols from my short story Antique Charming. I think he is so brilliantly bizarre. He turns up at three in the morning on Lizzie Morton’s doorstep and demands to be let inside. Only later does it become clear that the guy is well over one hundred years old.

GRACEN: Which of your characters would you never want to meet under any circumstance and why?

Natalie-Nicole:

My characters are all a part of me and I can control them. There aren’t any of them that I wouldn’t want to meet.

GRACEN:  If you were interviewing yourself, what is the one question you would ask yourself and please give us the answer to that question?

Natalie-Nicole:

Where do you see your writing career in five years?

Hopefully, I’ll have moved into television series writing.

GRACEN:  Thanks so much for joining us, Natalie-Nicole!  It’s been a treat getting to know you better! 

Website: www.natalienicolebates.con

Buy Link: http://leapoffaithpublishing.com/#ecwid:category=2613677&mode=product&product=15767325

Any other links/sites you wish to offer readers so they can find you on the world wide web, such as buy links for other books, Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, etc.

Twitter: BatesNatalie

http://www.facebook.com/natalienicole.bates

http://ghostsandphantoms.blogspot.com

BLURB

Carly Anders is hearing voices in her head. Another one of her kind is trying to contact her. She knows of the malevolent freaks—others who are eternal like her and seek out the weak to inflict pain upon. For years, Carly has held up huge protective walls to keep herself and her secrets safe. Now, physically and mentally exhausted, Carly needs protection and rest.

She accepts the invitation to visit an internet friend who needs help appraising a collection of antique photographs.  The situation is not ideal, but Carly hopes a male presence in her life will deter the determined suitor who haunts her thoughts and dreams.

Daniel Tremont is not what Carly is expecting.

The former funeral director has a secret of his own. Not only is he eternal like Carly, he is her creation from all those years before—her abomination she thought she killed.

Daniel has been searching for Carly for years. He knows she is the piece of his life that he has been missing for so long. Now that he has found her, he has no intentions of letting her go.

EXCERPT

He waved a hand in front of her face, but she didn’t blink. The lights are on, but no one’s home.

“Carly, my angel,” he whispered and cupped her cheek into his palm. He revealed in the silkiness and warmth of her skin. Still, she didn’t react. She was almost…a zombie.

His own body jerked in reaction to the fear she was emanating. She was clearly sleepwalking and in the throes of one hell of a nightmare, yet she didn’t cry out any longer. It was all now playing out inside her mind.

“Charlotte, see me,” he implored.

Her lips twitched at the mention of her real name.

“See me,” he repeated.

Suddenly, her body gave way and she collapsed. Catching her, he lifted her into his arms and carried her to the bed. As he laid her down, her breathing became ragged. He placed a hand over her heart as it raced, and passed healing calmness through his hand, feeling the energy pulsate against her skin. Beneath his hand, he would feel her heartbeat slow to a normal rhythm.

“Daniel?” Her voice was mere caress.

“I’m here, my angel. You’re having a nightmare. You’re frightened. It’s okay now, I’m here, and I will never leave you,” he promised.

“Everyone leaves, Daniel. You can’t understand, you can’t…” Her body started to tremble.

He climbed onto the bed and straddled her body. Leaning close to her face, he said, “Carly, let go of your fear. I can take it. Let go and see me,” he commanded.

Her breath came out in a whoosh, and a wall of fear and resistance hit him like a blow from above. It wasn’t exactly painful, more startling than anything else.

His vision flip-flopped, and he could see an image from inside her mind of two souls forever entwined as the result of one act. It made perfect sense. She was reliving the day their souls became one. The day of the fire.

He then saw black, suffocating water. She was reliving her own death, as well.

As the visions left him, he was consumed with the mishmash of fear, loneliness, and resistance within her.

He had to make her understand that it was over. “I will never leave you, Carly. That is my promise to you,” he insisted.

A flicker of life ignited in her eyes. Her hands came up to his face, and to Daniel’s surprise, tears bubbled from his own eyes. He was releasing the pain and fear he had absorbed from his beloved.

“I’m so sorry, Daniel, so sorry,” she murmured.

“There’s nothing to be sorry for, my love. It’s over. It’s time to move forward now.”

“You don’t understand what I am, Daniel.”

“I do understand, Carly. I am what you are. See me for what I am.”

In his mind, he could see the moving clockwork gears of her thoughts once again as she tried to process what he was telling her to be true.

“Just accept it, and let’s move forward.”

She drew his face to hers and her lips parted beneath his. Time blurred and he drank in the essence of his Carly. Her soft, barely covered curves molded themselves against his the hard planes of his body. Her hands were under his t-shirt, her fingers stroking him.

If he pressed on, he knew she wouldn’t refuse him. But in her vulnerable state, he wouldn’t let anything progress further that night. Carly needed time to process everything that happened. There was plenty of time to pursue a physical relationship. They weren’t going any where…he hoped.

BIO

Natalie-Nicole Bates is a book reviewer and author.

Her passions in life include books and hockey along with Victorian and Edwardian era photography and antique poison bottles. Natalie contributes her uncharacteristic love of hockey to being born in Russia.

She currently resides in the UK where she is working on her next book and adding to her collection of 19^th century post-mortem photos.

Visit Natalie online at www.natalienicolebates.com 

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