Small Town Storm, CLUE Award Winner!

I am beside myself excited to share that Small Town Storm came first in the Chanticleer Book Reviews & Media CLUE Awards for Thriller, Mystery, & Suspense Fiction! 

It went through *seven* rounds of judging, isn't that extraordinary?

I'm so, so thrilled and flattered. Thank you, Chanticleer, the contest coordinators, and the judges - you've put the hugest smile on my face.

The CLUE Awards First in Category Winners

2014 Australia Day Book Giveaway Blog Hop

Happy Australia Day long weekend to those who share this lucky country with me! I'm participating in the Book'd Out Blog Hop, and giving away one print copy of my latest release, Ask Me To Stay. Entrants must be an Australian resident, or be able to provide an Australian postal address. Make sure you visit the Book'd Out blog to see who else is on the blog hop, and I hope you're enjoying yourself - however you're celebrating!

A delightful collection from Elise K. Ackers, author of Small Town Storm and The Man Plan, available for the first time in print.

In Australian country towns, everyone knows everybody else's business. Nothing is private, and escaping the past is difficult if not impossible. But how much of the truth does anyone ever really know, even about those closest to them?
When family tragedy brings Ethan Foster home, he doesn't expect a warm welcome. In the small town of Hinterdown reputation is everything – and Ethan's was ruined long ago. His family and friends don't want him around, and nor does Sam O'Hara, the girl he left behind.

In this tender and heartwarming romantic trilogy, a funeral, a wedding, and a homecoming spark a series of events that prove that love can find a way, if only given a chance. 

Includes the stories Ask Me to Stay, Ask Me for More and Ask Me for Tomorrow.

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A Year in Review

As the 2013 Romance Writers of Australia annual conference approaches, I'm finding myself thinking back to this time last year, and shaking my head.

So much has changed. Relationships have strengthened and dissolved, my family has gone through some tough knocks and my work life has evolved so much that I'm struggling to capture it all in my annual review. But what I want to explore in this blog is how far I've come as a writer.

This time last year, I was hugging my first contract to my chest. Destiny Romance had yet to announce itself and I was practicing an excerpt from Small Town Storm, my first book and Destiny's debut romantic suspense title, because I was lucky enough to be doing a reading at the launch. I attended the conference with a blue first sale ribbon stuck to my name tag, and marvelled at how different it felt to be one of them. The authors.

Little did I know that I would return the following year with five published titles and a RUBY nomination for the very book I'd launched - my first baby, Small Town Storm. And instead of visiting the ARRA author signing event, I'll be signing at it. If you'd told me all of this last year, I wouldn't have believed you.

This last year has been a whirlwind. After Small Town Storm's release in August last year, I released The Man Plan in December, again with Destiny Romance. In January this year I released Unforgettable with Escape Publishing, then in April and July Destiny Romance and I released the first two novellas in the Homeland series, Ask Me To Stay and Ask Me For More. The third novella, Ask Me For Tomorrow,  will be released in October and something very special is coming in December.

It's little wonder I'm exhausted, but adrenaline and I have become really good mates. We go way back and it's a relationship I see myself embracing for the rest of my life. Amongst the countless things I've learned, I've also had to teach myself how to embrace down-time. I'm a planner. If you leave me to my thoughts for too long, I'll not only plot out the next few weeks of my life, but a book or two.

Yet for all my foresight and planning, I could never have guessed I'd be where I am now.

And standing here. looking around, looking back and looking forward - dreaming of what's to come - I can honestly say, I'm so, so happy.

For all of you presently standing in the shadows, I hope that you, too can look back in time and marvel. For those who dream of being published - it's never been a better time to crack into the industry - the opportunities are everywhere in both digital and print. And for those of you who have been on this journey with me this last year, thank you. From every inch of my swollen heart, thank you.

Here's to another year together.

Imagine where we'll be then!

The lovers' month, and the long awaited first kiss.

With Valentine's Day just around the corner, my mind's on romance. I'm thinking about the first time eyes meet, the first date, the first kiss... I have my own experiences to reflect on, but this lovers' month has also got me thinking about the first fictional couple who stepped out into the big wide world with me.

In August 2012 I was a launch author with Penguin's Destiny Romance, and I had the great privilege of reading an excerpt from my launch title, Small Town Storm, to an assembled crowd at the Romance Writers of Australia national conference. It was the first time I introduced Jordan Hill and Erica Lawrence to the public, and even today, these complex characters are never far from my mind.

So I'd like to share a special moment of theirs with you.

The moment that Jordan and Erica finally kiss.

Happy Valentines Day to all of you, may you be spoiled somehow, may someone attempt to touch your heart, and may you smile more than you do on a typical day.

A bit of background first:

It all began with love. The pure, innocent kind that only an eight year old heart can know. But when a family tragedy tore apart her family, Erica was literally dragged from the arms of her best friend, Jordan.

Nineteen years later, the young boy with a plastic police badge and a hero complex has grown up to be a detective, and the fragile, broken little girl has become a vet, letting only animals touch her distrusting heart. But both are dogged by the shadows of that night and independently make the decision to return home.

In Olinda she is known as Erica Lawrence, the charming but emaciated little girl that was poisoned by her mother. Her return is the best gossip the town has had in years, and everyone is convinced that love between the pair is inevitable. All eyes are upon them, watching and waiting.

But their trip down memory lane is interrupted by two brutal murders, and Erica appears to be the next target.

The townspeople are jumping at shadows and pointing fingers in every direction, Jordan’s team has gone rogue, conducting their own investigations and nominating their own suspects, and his objectivity has been clouded – Erica’s safety is now his primary concern.

Even as the horror creeps ever closer, Jordan and Erica are drawn together. The need for answers that once consumed them doesn’t burn so brightly now, and when their hearts begin to align, they dare to do something neither has had the courage to do before: look forward.

On the precipice of confessing their love –the world appears to be against them.

* * *

 

Erica laughed and settled back against the wall. Her eyes shone in the feeble torch light, the thin beam reflected in her eyes. She rolled her head towards him and smiled.

Jordan shifted so that she could rest her head against his shoulder. ‘If that git Elliot didn’t upset you, then who did?’

‘Beth.’

Jordan raised a brow. ‘The woman with the poison tongue. What did she say this time?’

Her fingers flexed in his hand. ‘She cornered me when I was coming out of the bathroom. She was digging for dirt, as usual.’

‘That’s our Beth.’

‘Anyway, all she wanted to talk about was you and me. Said the town was fooled, thinking Elliot and I were an item. She knew better, she said. Wanted a confession of sorts so I snapped at her and told her to mind her own business.’ There was a long pause as Erica gathered the courage to continue. ‘Then she said I was just like my mother: secretive and impulsive in love. She said . . . ’ Erica hiccupped, too mortified to continue.

Jordan winced and released her hand so he could drape his arm around her shoulders. He pulled her towards him as sobs shook her body. They sat like that until her rasping breaths subsided, then he pushed her back and cradled the sides of her face.

‘Listen to me. I can understand how that would have hurt you. But you are nothing like your mother.’ He waited as she nodded. ‘She was a famous, attractive and stubborn woman. You are obviously none of these things.’

Erica gave a watery laugh.

Jordan smiled. ‘Seriously though, your mother was a monster. No one could possibly liken you to her and believe it. Don’t let a nasty piece of work like Beth convince you otherwise.’

She melted into his arms and buried her face in his shirt. Very gently he pressed his lips to the top of her head. When he spoke again, he murmured into her hair. ‘As for impulsive in love . . . of all people, I can attest to that being rubbish.’

Erica lifted her shoulders slightly. And he would have traded almost anything to know what she was thinking.

When she finally answered, his breath caught. ‘I don’t know. Maybe I am impulsive. I fell in love a long time ago – very hard and very fast.’ Her face moved against his chest, and it felt like she might be smiling. ‘I fell in love with a boy. He had a police badge and a hero complex.’

Very slowly, she sat up and stared into his eyes. The darkness cast shadows along the lines of her face. ‘Then I fell in love again. With a man. He has a police badge and a hero complex, too.’

The air sizzled with tension.

It would have been the moment to kiss her, but Jordan forced himself to wait just a fraction longer. It surprised him that he could think clearly when she was pressed up against him this way. It made it harder still, that her mouth was lifted and her eyes were on his lips. But there was something he needed to do first.

His hand slipped beneath the jacket she wore and fumbled in one of the inside pockets. He withdrew his wallet and flipped it open, then pulled something free. When he angled the flashlight over the small item on his upturned palm, the slice of light illuminated a small plastic bag. In it was a delicate silver chain and a small blue bird pendant.

‘It would seem,’ Jordan said softly, staring at the old necklace, ‘that I fell in love with you at the same time.’

Seemingly overwhelmed, Erica closed her eyes. Tears slid down her cheeks and Jordan moved in to kiss them away. He clasped the chain around her neck and pressed his lips to the spot where the pendant lay against her throat. It sat much higher than it had when she had worn it as a child.

He lowered his mouth to hers.

And his mind blurred. She tasted sweet and somehow familiar, as if they had kissed before – if only in his dreams. Her tongue grazed his lower lip and he thought he would break with urgency.

He drew back and kissed the sensitive flesh of her neck, curling his fingers in her thick hair. Her sighs quickened his pulse and brought his lips back to hers.

When at last they separated, their hands still clinging to the other, there were no words. So for the longest time they sat in warm silence.

In Jordan’s mind there was no doubt that he had just experienced his last first kiss. This was it – this was that great love that people spoke of. He smiled into the darkness, which somehow seemed much brighter now.