My Chat with Sharon Hamilton!

Hello and welcome!

Today I have one of my fave authors who’s books I love, I had quite a few chats with my various book boyfriends from her various series.

Please welcome Sharon Hamilton!

Sharon’s NYT and USA Today bestselling novels are almost-erotic Navy SEAL stories of the SEAL Brotherhood.

Her characters follow a spicy road to redemption through passion and true love. All of her SEAL Brotherhood Series are available in audio book. She has maintained an Amazon top 100 author status in Romantic Suspense for since the end of 2012.

Her Golden Vampires of Tuscany are not like any vamps you’ve read before, since they don’t have to go to ground, and can walk around in the full light of the sun. Honeymoon Bite, Book 1 of the Golden Vampires of Tuscany Series, has earned the Amazon designation of #1 Gothic Romance. It and Book 2 in the series, Mortal Bite are both available on audio as well.

Her Guardian Angels struggle with the human charges they are sent to save, often escaping their vanilla world of Heaven for the brief human one. You won’t find any of these beings in any Sunday school class. All three books in this popular series are also in print and audio formats.

A lifelong organic gardener, Sharon lives with her husband in the Wine Country of Northern California, where most of her stories take place. When she’s not writing, she’s getting verra verra dirty in the mud, or wandering Farmer’s Markets looking for new Heirloom varieties of vegetables and flowers.

Do you have a nickname?
That’s a funny story. Before I was married, a couple of my former boyfriends called me “Hot Lips” as in Hot Lips Hoolihan from Mash. I guess I was a little suppressed in those days, and with a whole lotta sexual tension!! Although I never had a boyfriend named Frank.

What is one word best describes you?
I would have to say passionate. That means a lot of things. I’m passionate about my writing, of course. Passionate about being discoverable and reachable to my readers and friends, and passionate about loving our military men and women. Common in my books is the theme of being grateful for what we’ve been given, either by luck or paid for by the blood of others, but I try to live a colorful, passionate life chock full of experiences so that I don’t waste the freedom I’ve been given. We are very lucky indeed to be able to write what we want, sell what we want, go where we want and live a lifestyle most the world would envy. People died so that could happen and I never want to take it lightly.

What makes you laugh out loud?
As you know, I like to write with some humor. I think funny things that happen during sex scenes, or between couples I love reading and writing. Things like Fredoisms:

Tyler ran to the window ledge, searching outside and examining the glass at the floor. “Blood all over here. She’s probably out there.” He pointed to the graveyard of broken things. “Judging from the amount of blood, she won’t get far.”
Rory whipped past Tyler, nearly toppling the man, struggling to get his frame through the window opening. He heard someone chuckling behind him, but he was far from caring. He heard Fredo make a comment he didn’t have time to stop and appreciate fully.
“Man. Those two get married? Remind me not to get that bitch knives for a wedding present. She’ gonna go all Bobbitt on him if she gets pissed.”

What is your favourite smell? What does it remind you of?
Well, of course I like lemony gel for the shower. Lavender for the bubble bath. Cinnamon and Nutmeg for my cappuccinos. Chocolate any time of day for any reason. Roses, deep deep red roses and the South African Lillies that last so long and smell so divine. I usually have a big flower garden and I love roses, lilac, even herbs.

I wear L’Interdit, a cologne originally designed for Audrey Hepburn (her own formula) and released later after her death. I bought a case of the “old formula” you can’t buy anymore and wear it and think of the lovely, graceful, passionate woman she was. My daughter looks so much like her, too. When I think of her, I think of a woman who did a lot with a little, who lived a passionate life and wasn’t afraid to fall deeply, madly in love with honorable men who treated her like a queen. That’s romance for me.

Favourite place to spend time in.
In between books, I wander nurseries and love to tour community gardens. I have missed mine the last 3 years. Hope to have one again this year. I can also get lost in a yard or fabric shop.

Is there a genre that you refuse to read?
BDSM, M/M F/M. I’m open minded, but I just don’t like reading something I don’t feel. I can allude to things, hint or perhaps make the reader think it’s going there, but there are others who do that much better than I. I haven’t explored all the ways a man and a woman can have sex, or where yet! Maybe some day when I need the variety?? Dunno.
(Oh boy I’m getting into trouble here…)

Writing! What started it?
Terrible house fire in 2008 and we lost nearly everything. We also nearly lost everything in our real estate business then. I just had to do something that was creative, in order to heal. I started writing expecting I would be living the rest of my life in a rented house with an older pickup truck and 2 dogs, from the beautiful property we had before the fire. It was heartbreaking to see it all go away.

However, I was blessed with good fortune, and through three years of awful tough wartime-like fighting, were able to overcome it and come out the other side better than before. Now I live in a new home on the same property. It’s taken time, but it’s finally to the stage of getting my gardens back. Soon. I’ve had to be patient, and trust in a lot of people and shed a lot of tears, but writing really helped me.

Now I can live on my writing, which is an even greater blessing. To be able to do what you love and be able to support yourself doing it is a real joy for me. And to get to work with such wonderful people along this road – just the best ever.

No more real estate or corporate for me. But it taught me how to fight, how not to give up, how to learn when to say yes and no, who to trust and how to be consistent. I’m a self-starter and always have been. I got to meet and interview very famous people in my career, did some big public speaking events and “coached” a lot of people over the years. It’s helped me in my writing career, but I still had to start out all over. But I’ve learned to hire people to do things you don’t know how to do to get to the top. Hang with the winners and not worry about the rest. Show up. Pay attention. Tell the Truth. Don’t get attached to the outcome.

If you could choose another career what would it be?
When I wrote SEAL The Deal, that nursery is right around the corner from my house. I could putter in the ground all day long.

I also love color. Interior design. Only if my clients loved red as much as I did!! My husband used to build condominiums and subdivisions, and I would decorate the models with all kinds of eclectic things. My house today has things from temples in India, an old “flower boat” from there, a cabinet from a pink palace in Indonesia, rugs from Morocco and Tunisia, and oil paintings from everywhere. I love to travel, and collect unusual things. So, having a store to be able to buy more things and travel, well, that would be a great job.

I had thought one day I’d have a store called “Red” with everything in it red. Everything!

Audiobooks! What started them?
My friend, Bella Andre, told me about hers. Bob Mayer told me he thought they were going to be the next big thing, but I just had so much on my plate, I didn’t know where to start.

Audible came to me and wanted to do my SEALs, and offered to get me started. They pointed to the interview spots on ACX, I listened to narrators and eventually picked 10 I liked, including JD, and sent off a sample for them to read. Everyone did a great job, and I thought I was going to have a hard time choosing, but then I got J.D.’s and I was over the top. I knew I’d found that voice I heard in my head while I wrote. It was like synchrodestiny, like Deepok talks about.

That relationship has developed into a lifelong friendship, which is another unexpected benefit. I have so many things planned for the future with J.D. We brainstorm so many things, and probably won’t have time for a quarter of them, but it’s fun to share this part of my life, my writing and storytelling life, with someone else so closely. It’s intimate (but safe, lol). And it’s life giving for me.

Does your work convey a specific emotion or message?
True Love Heals In The Gardens OF The Heart. I hope that I will always be a hopeless romantic.

Who is your intended audience and why should they read your books?
I think there isn’t enough real genuine caring and passion in this world. I would hope that I give someone a few hours of pleasure. Although most my readers are women, I’ve had men who love what I write. Especially if they enjoy and understand women. It is the form of reality we need more of. We call TV and radio or the newspaper “reality” but it’s not. It’s what someone else thought you should hear/read. If I’m going to be in a fantasy land, I want to be in some place where I feel good, where the woman always wins and there’s always a Happily Ever After…

What is next in your writing?
I’ve had to adjust my schedule a bit. Got crazy with all the boxed sets and releases over 2013 and 2014. So, got my next SEAL book, SEAL’s Code coming out 6/30/15, then my Gideon (hybrid vampire/guardian angel) coming in the late summer, hope to have another Golden Vampire series, one of the Jett Brothers this time, and probably another SEAL book in the winter. Plus two more new novellas for the boxed sets I’ll be in this year. Believe it or not, that’s lighter than what I accomplished last year: 5 full length books, 3 novellas, 5 boxed sets.

I cant wait to read/listen to more of your books. Thank you for spending time in my little corner of the blogging world.

Thanks so much for having me. Love to hear from readers, so if you sign up for my newsletter, you’ll get all caught up. We are doing a lot of fun stuff this year, new covers, a new series perhaps for 2016 and some podcasting/audio things I can’t talk about.

Come see me! Stay in touch!

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Thanks for dropping by and I hope you enjoyed this chat.

Have you met Rory yet? The newest hero from SEAL My Home? Just released on March 31st, 2015.

Bad boy Rory Kennedy was raised in foster care, bouncing in and out of trouble along the way. He finds his true family and real brothers as a Navy SEAL, one of the Navy’s elite warriors. When his BUD/S instructor barked the SEAL’s Motto: Only Easy Day Was Yesterday, he knew he had found home.

Megan Palmer works in a bookstore and finds her passion in life through reading steamy romance novels. Her brief affair with a man she later found out was married has left her damaged, until she meets the handsome SEAL, who stands ready to open her world and give her things she’s only dreamed.

On a skiing trip, Rory suffers a possible career-ending injury and also comes face to face with a past he never knew of, and a family who had abandoned him. His relationship with Megan is tested to the breaking point as Rory wades through the dark waters of recovery and whether or not he can live without the life he loves. A home-grown terrorist cell forces his hand and he discovers his true purpose.

Check out the character Interview:

and Book Trailer:

Buy links:
Amazon US • Amazon UK • Amazon CA • Amazon AUS • iBooks • B&N • Kobo

Join Ms. Hamilton’s Newsletter and be in the know, where she shares a lot more and there is a giveaway every month for her loyal subscribers. Last giveaway was a beautiful quilt she made herself.

She has a heart the size of Alaska, I have been the recipient of goodies many times. We wear red on Fridays to remember to ones that made the ultimate sacrifice, also the deployed men and women in the active duty.

I always mix the red bracelets I received from Sharon with ones that I make. And then there are the dog tags with the SEAL Brotherhood covers 😀

To keep in contact with Ms. Hamilton, have a chat, (if you do, say hello from me and you can ask for your very own red bracelet 😉 ) or see what comes next, here are some links: website, Facebook, Twitter, Blog, Goodreads, Pinterest, Audible also her youtube channel. Check out all the series: SEAL Brotherhood, Guardian Angels, Golden Vampires of Tuscany or the books that are part of some great anthologies.

The audiobooks are narrated by The Pirate Storyteller, JD Hart, whose voice has the ability to draw you into the story and keeps you there, I love it when he whispers in my ear 😉 He creates the audio samples and the awesome book trailers too, check it out on youtube.

To start you on your reading journey, three lucky readers will be gifted each by Ms. Hamilton, an audiobook or ebook, winners’ choice from her backlists.

The winners, chosen by Sexy Mr. Random, will be announced after 3pm, EST, Monday, April 13, 2015. GOOD LUCK!

Until next time read a book, listen to a book and don’t forget to show your love by leaving a review!