Blood Stone by Tracy Cooper-Posey Guest Post & Giveaway

Not all Bling That Glitters is Sold

In Blood Stone, the heroine, Kate, borrowed very expensive jewellery to wear to the Emmy Awards, and is told not to take it off herself.  She asks bluntly what she’s supposed to do if she wants to have sex and is told to have sex wearing it – there’s no hidden cameras, but there is electronic security on the clasps.

That may sound like a bit of fanciful fiction I invented make a story more interesting.  Surprisingly, I wasn’t inventing any of it – not when it came to the jewellery, dress and backstage politics of the Emmy Awards.

Unfortunately, for the sake of brevity I had to skip a whole iceberg worth of fascinating to downright bizarre stuff that would have made up a whole other book’s worth of reading, because Blood Stone was already sitting at over five hundred pages in draft.

Jewellery draped over stars for Hollywood events has an illustrious and twisted history.  It is generally acknowledge that Harry Winston began the tradition in 1944, when he loaned a pair of diamond earrings to Jennifer Jones, who won an Academy Award that year for The Song of Bernadette.

Fast forward a few decades, when the paparazzi get into the act and suddenly, a jewellery house having a star wear their jewellery in front of millions of fans becomes very big business indeed, and the stampede to have the biggest stars wear the biggest name bling is on.  And it’s not just earrings and necklaces.  There is also a jockeying for jewelled clutches, bracelets, anklets, rings, hair ornaments and anything else that glitters and can be carried or worn by a star.

In the lead up to award season, both new and established jewellery houses woo the stars, throwing dinner parties, soirees, events, brunches and more.  As prospects heat up, they’ll step up their game with more intimate one on one lunches and dinners with the owner or president of the company, gifts, outings… it really is a seduction in all ways but sex.  But the stakes are incredibly high, for the money a single jewellery house can earn from a star wearing their jewellery and being captured by the thousands of media lenses and being asked what jewellery they’re wearing, and quoting their brand cannot be generated by any other legitimate advertising means.

A few years ago, the tradition of lending jewellery to stars shifted as the stakes were raised to a new level:  Stars were paid to wear the jewellery.  Payment began as expensive gifts, but at the 2011 Academy Awards, for instance, it is reported that Anne Hathaway was paid $750,000 to wear Tiffany jewellery with her nine changes of gowns throughout the evening.

Hilary Swank was reportedly paid $90,000 to wear the Chopard jewellery for her Oscar appearance at the 2005 Academy Awards.

While it sounds like too much of a good thing for the stars, who are being showered with gifts, money, jewellery and attention, it isn’t all roses for them.  There are thorns, too.  The Internal Revenue Agency stepped into the middle of this “gifting” idea a number of years ago, and anything that an actor receives in money or kind is taxable.  Given the amounts we’re talking about, the tax rate would be the maximum.

Also, every payment and loan arrangement the jewellery houses make with the actors and stars are incredibly complex, legally binding contracts that the stars sign.  The contracts are the size of the King James Bible, for the jewellery the stars wear are worth millions of dollars.

When Kate, in Blood Stone, watched her loaned jewellery arrive accompanied by three armed guard and had to sign for it, I wasn’t exaggerating in the slightest.

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Blood Stone is my 44th title and my ninth indie book.

” src=”http://www.thejeepdiva.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/blood-stone-cover-print-copy-658×1024.jpg” alt=”" width=”500″ height=”778″ />Nial orders Calum Garrett to get close to Hollywood producer Kate Lindenstream.  Garrett reluctantly complies for he has held himself apart from humans for centuries.  Kate doesn’t fall into Garrett’s arms, either.  She already has someone for that.  Roman Xerus — whom Kate knows as Adrian — and Garrett go way back to the sixteenth century Scottish highlands, but they parted bitterly two hundred years ago.

With Roman’s support, Kate battles Garrett in wills and business as he methodically forces himself into her life. However, on the closed-in movie set in the Californian desert, Garrett’s calm, orderly world crumbles for Garrett is drawn to Kate.  He has begins to experience real, human feelings.

Kate doesn’t cooperate in the chess game Nial orchestrates, despite being unaware of the strategies swirling around her film set.  Demanding and expecting only the best for her movie, Kate’s agenda forces Roman and Garrett to work together to protect her and keep the humans around her ignorant of the Pro Libertatus, the anonymous and all-powerful vampire group who nearly killed Nial, Sebastian and Winter, and shield Kate from the excesses of the League for Humanity.  But could Roman really be with the Pro Libertatus?

There’s hidden intentions everywhere, and centuries of repressed feelings, along with at least two different groups that mean them harm.  Then there’s the rumours that Kate has found the mythical Blood Stone, the key to unlocking vampire history and lifting their curse.   Who is Kate, really?  Because once Garrett begins to notice, things about Kate don’t quite add up, either…

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An Excerpt From: BLOOD STONE
Copyright © TRACY COOPER-POSEY, 2012
All Rights Reserved.

“I like a girl that is on time,” Adrian murmured.

Kate slid onto the seat and moved further around the semi-circle so they were sitting a little closer together than a politically correct ten and two, but not quite snuggled together. It wasn’t that sort of relationship.

Yet.

“I’m three minutes late,” Kate observed. “How was New York?”

“Cold and wet. But you’re not ten minutes late or fifteen or twenty-five. Three is barely noticeable, in this town.” He rubbed at the stubble on his chin, his blue eyes twinkling.

Garrett had blue eyes, but not like Adrian`s. Garrett`s blue was softer, milder, offsetting the dramatic colouring of his hair. Adrian`s was almost an electric blue, which was odd for a man of clear Greek descent, but it made him stand out in any crowd.

He looked damned good for someone who had just caught the early flight from New York. The stubble was an almost permanent part of him that she only ever saw disappear for high formal occasions. He was wearing his usual designer jeans and dark sleeveless tee-shirt and a leather jacket lay over the back of the buffet, which must have been in concession to the cold rainy weather in New York. He did things to jeans and sleeveless tee-shirts that would turn an entire apparel industry on its skinny behind if they saw him coming, especially with the black leather belts and plain, square silver buckles he preferred, that sat down low on his hips…and drew the eye.

Kate quite often found her current train of thought utterly derailed whenever Adrian was walking toward her.

He gave her a small smile. “I appreciate the honour of you turning up on time for me, though. I know what it means around here.”

She couldn’t help smiling back. “It means, I’m hungry,” she teased, reaching for the menu.

The restaurant was already getting busy, but it was a Tuesday, so it was unlikely to be too jammed, today. No one was sitting right behind them, where they could listen to every word they said — another reason Kate didn’t like The Standard.

“I’ve been thinking about you.” Adrian’s deep rumble was enhanced by the back seat cushion they shared. It ran through her body and brought it awake and alert in a way that Greg Evershot, bless his adorable A-List ass, just hadn’t managed last night. Kate stared at the first page of the menu without really seeing it.

This was new, for Adrian. This was romantic, almost. To this point, he’d been great company, undemanding, even distant, except that she knew from the look in his eyes and his body language that he wanted her.

And she wanted him. No question. Her body quivered at the idea of Adrian Xerus. But she had always figured she would get to set the pace because so far, she had.

Now this.

“You’ve been thinking about me?” Kate repeated inanely, still unable to focus on the menu. And the stupid thing was, she was girlishly pleased he had spared her a single thought at all, while she apparently couldn’t string a single coherent, adult sentence together in response. Damn it.

“I think you need the next page,” Adrian said, and flipped the page of her menu for her. “That’s just the intro crap.”

She looked at him and rolled her eyes. He was grinning as he leaned back, enjoying her discomposure.

“Asshole,” she muttered. “You did that deliberately.”

He reached out and tucked a curl of her hair behind her ear. “Yep,” he agreed. “Doesn’t mean it wasn’t true. Pick your lunch, Kate.”

BLOOD STONE is the second book in the Blood Stone series

BLOOD STONE is the sequel to BLOOD KNOT.

It is a Plus-sized Novel.

WARNING:  This book contains two hot, sexy alpha heroes, frequent, explicit and frank sex scenes and sexual language.
It includes heart-stopping sexual scenes between the aforementioned sexy heroes, menage scenes, anal sex and the use of sex toys.  Don’t proceed beyond this point if hot love scenes offend you.
No vampires were harmed in the making of this novel.

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Blood Stone is the second book in my best selling vampire romance series, released yesterday.

 

The good news?  The first book in the series, Blood Knot, is my #1 best seller, was the Winner of the Coffee Time Reviewer’s Recommended Award, was listed as one of Goodread’s “Most Drool-worthy Covers“, nominated for Erotic Vampire Book of the Year by The Romance Reviews, and received a CAPA Nomination for Best Paranormal Book of the Year by The Romance Studio, December, 2011, among many glowing and rave reviews.  If you’re curious about Blood Knot, you can read more here:  http://bit.ly/g9pSw5.

The really good news?  Blood Knot is $0.00 (free) for three days of free downloading at Amazon right now.

Blood Knot on Amazon now:  http://amzn.to/hcrCCf

Blood Stone on Amazon: http://amzn.to/QZapKa

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Tracy Cooper-Posey writes romantic suspense, hot erotic paranormal and urban fantasy romances. She has published over 40 novels since 1999, been nominated for 5 CAPAs including Favourite Author, and won the Emma Darcy Award.

She turned to indie publishing in 2011. Her indie titles have been nominated three times for Book Of The Year.   She has been a national magazine editor and for a decade she taught romance writing at Grant MacEwan University.

She is addicted to Irish Breakfast tea and chocolate, sometimes taken together.  In her spare time she enjoys sewing, history, Sherlock Holmes, science fiction and ignoring her treadmill. An Australian, she lives in Edmonton, Canada with her husband, a professional wrestler, where she moved in 1996 after meeting him on-line.

You can find her site at http://www.TracyCooperPosey.com.