Author Tina Carreiro: Rockin' the Heart with Gracen Miller

If you follow me, it's no surprise that I'm a fan of Gracen Miller's work. Her ability to suck me into her horror romance series, Road to Hell, not only embedded me into her life as a fan but also a friend. I've had the pleasure of getting to know her and we share a lot of things in common. And, Gracen can write demons so well you'll line up in hell to hand over your soul. So when I heard she was writing about rock stars, I had to ask why? Sit back and relax as Gracen explains her jump from demons to rock Gods. (pssst... don't forget to enter the giveaway below.)

You might ask why did I choose to write about rock stars in Rockin’ the Heart? Well…back in my early twenties I wrote a couple of chapters to a story about a girl who falls in love with her brother’s best friend. I found it about a month before I started writing Rockin’ the Heart. In some way or another, for years I’ve fantasized about a girl who grew up with a guy and fell in love with him against all odds and family wishes. I don’t know why this particular daydream appeals to me, but it has and still does. As early as my twenties I’ve been daydreaming this particular storyline over and over again, but I’d never written it because it didn’t fit with my paranormal genre.

With Rockin’ the Heart, I jumped at the chance to finally put my fantasy into a book and I revamped the old story to fit the current storyline. I picked rockers because rock stars covered my bedroom walls as a teen. Some of my favorites were Bon Jovi, Poison, White Lion, Madonna, and Michael Jackson. Yeah, yeah, I’m from the dark ages of big hair and the 80s.

I had an antique mirror that was huge. I’d dress up, punk out my hair, tie a bandana around my forehead, and sing my favorite songs into a brush, while pretending I was a famous singer. When my mother bought me an amp, I’d blast my music and singing probably far and wide—at least to the next door neighbor’s house. I’m sure they wanted to hurt me very bad because I cannot hold a tune. LOL But make believing was something I had a hard time leaving behind.

Photo is from a “photo-shoot” Gracen and her girlfriend did of their characters. Gracen was dressed up like her character Sapphire and she was a singer in the group Phiregale.

I must’ve fallen in love with Jon Bon Jovi and Brett Michaels a million times in a million different ways during those fantasizes. And besides…who doesn’t love a rock star? I’d be willing to bet in some way or another, most people can relate to being in love with a rocker at least once in their life! Falling in love with the unattainable heart throb that every woman lusts after…that’s like all the fairytales I grew up on—Cinderella being my favorite of all. Random fact: As a child I wanted to be Cinderella so bad, I refused to answer to anything but Cinderella.

So…that’s why I picked to write about a rock star falling in love with his best friend’s sister.

ROCKIN the HEART by Gracen Miller

NA Contemporary

Expected release date: January 23rd

BLURB:

If music nourishes the soul…

Loved by millions, but shunned by blood, Heath “Fang” Fangor has led his band, Hot Wired, to the top while others have fallen by the wayside. He devoted his life to music, and from that devotion harvested a new family—his band mates and fans.

A man can desire nothing else…or can he?

Living in the shadow of her brother’s fame sucks! Sam Collins is desperate to have what she wants—a simple and uncomplicated life. She’s no stranger to scandals and how they work. Now that she’s inadvertently dragged Fang into the center of her latest gossip, could the scandal she created in her quest for freedom have gone too far?

Amid stardom the heart stages a new melody…

Fang has more fame and fortune than he will ever need, but none of that matters if he can’t have the woman of his dreams. Years have been wasted waiting for the right moment to approach the woman his heart desires above all others. There’s just one major problem...she’s his best friend’s sister. To have her, he will have to risk it all.

One that might be responsible for Rockin the Heart!

Cover design by Andrea Kozari

Buy Links (Note: Rockin’ the Heart releases January 23^rd):

Barnes&Noble | Amazon

EXCERPT:

Chapter One

Heath was a rock star god. The tight lines fanning outward from his silver eyes classified him as a pissed off rock star god.

“Wanna tell me what you did this time to get the platinum treatment?” He indicated the jail cell, while ramming his fingers through his shaggy, jet-black hair.

Preferring to shrink into the shadows and avoid a confrontation with him, Sam took a deep breath and rose from the bench. She stepped away from the metal seat to draw closer to the bars dividing them.

She’d expected her brother, Jason—Jase—to ride to her rescue. Like always. Her foundation. Predictable. Dependable. Rattled by her sibling’s abandonment, she ogled the skull on Heath’s shirt, mortification overwhelming her.

If Heath was Jase’s replacement, then he’d been serious when he said ‘don’t call me the next time you’re arrested.’ She’d assumed he yelled that in anger. She was surprised he’d bothered to offer aid at all.

Gut hollow at her brother’s desertion, she cleared the ache out of her throat and asked, “Can’t you just bail me out and we’ll forget this ever happened?”

Knowing he wouldn’t go for that suggestion, Sam swallowed hard and shuffled her feet. Disappointing Jase was one thing, but letting Heath down was an entirely different matter. She’d crushed on the man since her tenth birthday when he’d given her a heart-shaped jewelry box. Didn’t matter he’d been too old for her at a mature fourteen. That infatuation hadn’t waned with age either, but only grown stronger. Not that he showed her a stitch of interest. To him, she was nothing more complicated than a kid sister.

His digits curled around one of the bars. The tattoo lettering on his left knuckles fit his current disposition—ired. On the other hand the letters H-O-T-W graced his knuckles. If read together, they spelled out the name of his band: Hot Wired.

“Not this time, Samantha.”

She cringed. The only time he broke out her full name was when he was upset or disappointed with her.

“You been drinking?”

“You know I haven’t.” Just shy of twenty-one, in her world getting liquor wasn’t an issue. Neither was alcohol her preferred drug of choice.

“Drugs?”

She rolled her eyes, the question too stupid to warrant a response.

“This type of publicity is bad news for the band.” She’d heard that one before. None of her recklessness damaged Hot Wired’s career. Not that she sought to hinder their mega stardom. She wasn’t that selfish, she just struggled with controlling her impulses on occasion.

Therapy failed to help. Yelling spawned further rebellion.

Living under the umbrella of the band’s fame grew tiresome. Her life should be her own, to live however she pleased. Weary of the media hounding her, she craved going back to a time when nobody knew her name. A normal life like when she’d been a kid.

She’d grown up on daydreams of the band making it to the big times. They won the lottery of recording deals, while Sam discovered stardom came at a high price. Along with that knowledge came the freebie of all lessons…fantasies were often better than reality. The last time she’d visited the mall without a trail of vipers eager to report her purchases she’d been fifteen.

Sheesh!

Was it too much to ask to have a date the world didn’t scrutinize? Even the loss of her virginity made headline news. That act should’ve come with the expectation of privacy. Thanks to the tabloids, Jase almost burst a blood vessel over that exploitation.

Once she’d picked her nose in public on purpose because a rag-reporter stalked her. Scratched her butt on another occasion. Gave them something to write. Those were the photographs and articles that gave her incentive to laugh.

“The only reason they’re not pressing charges is because of Jase.”

“Thanks for the reminder.” Along with it came the reminder that her brother sent Heath instead of coming himself.

Despite the news-hounds, she got out of a lot of shit thanks to her brother’s identity. This incident would be all over the rags and Internet before morning.

‘Hot Wired’s drummer’s sister is at it again!’ They’d go on to paint her wild and immoral comportment.

Have at it you fucks. Can’t hurt me any more than you already have, but what about the band?

Distance from Hot Wired would aid all of them. She’d get her peace of mind back, and they’d be devoid of the rebel-rouser in their group.

She’d mentioned changing her last name and moving back to their Southern roots in the small Alabama town where she’d been born. Jase had gone bat-shit crazy at the suggestion and went on and on about how their parents would be rolling over in their grave at her abandoning the family name.

The name-change idea had been discarded. Swept under the rug like a dust bunny never to be spoken of again.

Torn between two worlds, Sam was suffocating. Living with someone she couldn’t have in a world where she didn’t belong.

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BIO:

Gracen is a hopeless daydreamer masquerading as a “normal” person in southern society. When not writing, she’s a full-time basketball/football/guitar mom for her two sons and a devoted wife to her real-life hero-husband. She’s addicted to writing, paranormal romance novels, movies, Alabama football and coffee…addictions are not necessarily in order of priority. She is convinced coffee is nectar from the gods and blending coffee and writing together generates the perfect creative merger. Many of her creative worlds are spawned from coffee highs. To learn more about Gracen and her writing or to leave her a comment, visit her at the following sites: