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Tag Archives: Liv Rancourt

What Sparks the Romance of Writing?

15 Monday Dec 2014

Posted by Elizabeth Fais in Romance, Story, Writing

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Elizabeth Fais, Joss Whedon, Liv Rancourt, Romance, Santa Claus, Story, The Santa Drag, Umberto Eco, Writing

The force behind the creative process…

JossWhedonQuote2What compels writers to subject ourselves to endless hours of isolation, the nagging weight of self-doubt, and endless abuse from our inner critics? Not the lure of millions, I dare say.

Yes, there are writers who hit the bestseller lottery. But if you asked them “why” they write, I would bet many reasons would come before the mention of money.

Umberto Eco summed elegantly up the source of the writer’s creative spark when he said, “To survive we must tell stories.”

Joss Whedon (creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer) explained how writing is tangible therapy, a way to face and overcome weaknesses, fears, and insecurities.

And then there are writers, like Liv Rancourt, who embrace their craft out of the sheer love of the stories they create. Through the process they become the characters and live vicariously through them, experiencing their hopes, dreams, heartaches and joys.

Liv Rancourt on Romance and Writing

Liv Rancourt, is a paranormal romance author with a flair for witty dialog, quirky characters, and stories that resonate with the heart. I’m reposting an excerpt she wrote about why she writes fiction woven with romantic themes, because I can’t think of a better topic for the holiday season. Because everything is more magical when love is in the air

So, why romance? Yesterday I had a couple hours of downtime and spent it in the company of Aidan, Krys, Mirren, Lucy & their friends while reading the novel Redemption by Susannah Sandlin. Okay, there were vampires involved, but the love story rocked and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

That just about sums it up. Write a love story that’s grounded in reality (or some The Santa Drag coverparanormal version thereof), involving well-drawn characters and genuine conflict, and you will have me eating out of the palm of your hand…though that’s probably not an image we want to dwell on. Instead, know that I read to have fun, and good romances are almost always fun.

If I want real-world conflict (read: sadness & pain), I’ll go to work. Sometimes I don’t even have to go that far; conflict comes to me, invading my personal space. That’s how life is. When I read, I want the assurance that the characters are going to end up happy, which is one of the hallmarks of the romance novel.

And then there’s the whole falling-in-love thing. Like most people of the human persuasion, I love to fall in love. However, after seventeen years of marriage, pretty much the only falling I get to do these days is in the pages of a book. My husband is an awesome guy, but our infatuation days were a LOOOONNGGG time ago. With a romance novel, I can experience a little vicarious infatuation stretched out over two or three days, and almost always get dinner to the table on time.

It gets even better when I write my own. I have a whole thumb-drive full of crushes. My ideal romantic heroes are often tough guys with hard fists and soft hearts. Well, except for Joe, from my short story The Santa Drag. He’s an actor, and the heroine Mackenzie describes him as the Robert Downey Jr. type: good-looking, charming and just a little bit naughty. He’s turned up in a couple of my short stories now, flashing his “yep, I’m handsome” grin and driving Mack crazy.

To read an excerpt of The Santa Drag, go here.

The Santa Drag is available exclusively from Amazon [Kindle Edition] for only $0.99. You can buy it here.

Connect with Liv!

I can be found on-line at all hours of the day and night:

  • My website & blog: livrancourt.com
  • Facebook: liv.rancourt
  • Twitter: @LivRancourt

Stop by. We’ll have fun!

 


“The Santa Drag” ~ This Santa has a secret only true love can reveal!

28 Friday Nov 2014

Posted by Elizabeth Fais in Fiction, Rom-Com, Romance

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Christmas, Fiction, Holiday, Liv Rancourt, Romance, Romantic Comedy, Santa, Short Story, The Santa Drag

This season the biggest surprise isn’t under the tree…

The Santa Drag coverMackenzie’s an out-of-work actress who takes a job as a shopping mall Santa to pay the rent. She fools everyone with her Santa drag, until the day Joe McBride walks into the mall. Joseph Timothy McBride – the real-life, got a soap opera gig and you saw him in Scream II actor. The only guy she ever really loved.

Can Mack stay in character, or is it time to strip off the red coat and peel off the beard for good?

The Santa Drag is a 6,000 word short story about a Santa with a secret, stressed out parents in the mall, and one very handsome actor.

Black Friday FREEBIE! ~ Nov. 28-30

Don’t miss out on this delicious holiday treat! From 11/28 – 11/30/14, The Santa Drag is FREE from Amazon [Kindle Edition]!

Reviewers have called this story charming and funny. Want a quick holiday pick-me-up? Get it here with one-click: The Santa Drag.

The Santa Drag is available exclusively from Amazon [Kindle Edition]. After November 30th, you can buy it here.

Read an Excerpt:

A kid in my lap threatened to throw up, taking my full attention for several moments, and when I looked up again it was Joe’s turn. Maya gave him a way-too-friendly smile, which he returned with his standard, ‘yep, I’m handsome,’ grin. His kids stood behind him. The boy clearly thought he was too old for all this nonsense, and his sister was trapped in between the excitement of seeing Santa and her brother’s ennui.

“Come on, guys,” Joe said, tugging the boy forward with an arm around the shoulders. I paid strict attention to the kids. I did not want to look at his face or see the dimple in his chin.  He turned around to say something to Maya. I really didn’t want to look at his ass.

“Uncle Joe, this is so stupid,” the boy said. Uncle Joe. I almost jumped out of my chair. They must be his sister Kelly’s kids.

“Get over there, Saxton. We’re taking pictures for your mother’s Christmas present. Mabyn, you too.” Joe pushed his nephew in my direction. Saxton and Mabyn? Wow, Kelly must be seriously into her Irish heritage. Or something.

Saxton was dressed in a red and green striped soccer jersey and jeans, his longish brown hair slicked back behind his ears. Mabyn wore a green sweater and jeans, with her hair pulled back in a thick red braid. Joe had jeans on, too. I tried really hard not to notice how well they fit across his thighs.

“Uncle Joe, will you get us some ice cream after this?” Mabyn asked.

“If you smile pretty for the camera.”  Joe gave her a shadow of the grin that I remembered. She gave him a pretty decent grin in return, though her big front teeth overlapped and there was a gap where one eye tooth should have been. Braces must be coming soon.

“She wishes she could smile pretty,” Saxton sneered. Mabyn smacked him on the arm. “Ow, she hit me. She should get in trouble.”

I would have hit him harder.

With Joe standing so close, it was hard to remember that I was supposed to be Santa. I gave a half-assed “Ho-ho-ho,” which sounded strangled, even to me. He glanced over at me, and I accidentally met his eyes. I looked away immediately, but not before I saw the flash. Not recognition, exactly, but interest. I could feel him watching me. “Ho-ho-ho.” It came out heartier this time. I was so not going to give myself away.

Meet Liv:

I write romance: m/f, m/m, and v/h, where the h is for human and the v is for vampire…or sometimes demon. I write funny. I don’t write angst. When I’m not writing I take care of tiny premature babies or teenagers, depending on whether I’m at home or at work. My husband is a soul of patience, my dog is the cutest thing evah(!), and we’re up to three ferrets.

I can be found on-line at all hours of the day and night:

  • My website & blog: livrancourt.com
  • Facebook: liv.rancourt
  • Twitter: @LivRancourt

Stop by. We’ll have fun!


Heart, Soul, & Humor in “Forever and Ever, Amen” by Liv Rancourt

16 Monday Dec 2013

Posted by Elizabeth Fais in Books, Family, Paranormal, Romance

≈ 13 Comments

Tags

angels, Demons, Elizabeth Fais, Family, Forever and Ever Amen, Liv Rancourt, Matt Haig, The Radleys, Vampire

Today, I am super excited to have friend, and illustrious author, Liv Rancourt here Forever and Ever, Amento share the inspiration for her latest novel, Forever and Ever, Amen.

Liv Rancourt writes paranormal and romance, often at the same time. She lives with her husband, two teenagers, two cats and one wayward puppy. She likes to create stories that have happy endings, and finds it is a good way to balance her other job in the neonatal intensive care unit.

You can find Liv on:
her website (www.livrancourt.com),
her blog (www.livrancourt.com/blog),
Facebook (www.facebook.com/liv.rancourt), and Twitter (www.twitter.com/LivRancourt).

It’s All About Family

Hey Elizabeth, thank you so much for having me as a guest on your blog! I really appreciate the chance to connect with your readers. We’re all plowing through the holiday season, and to me that means one very important thing.

Family.

Over the years, my family’s make-up has changed, from the sisters I was born with to the friends I chose to the home my husband and I have created for our children. In our house, it’s not the holidays without the Steven Colbert Christmas special and The Klezmonauts Christmas CD, “Oy To The World.” It’s not Christmas unless our circle of close friends is seated around our dining room table with all the leaves put in so everybody fits.

Real-Life Inspiration + Angels, Demons, and a Vampire

Family influences my writing, too. My paranormal romance Forever and Ever, Amen is the story of a single mom who is trying to raise her teenagers while dealing with some pretty extraordinary challenges. It wasn’t enough that Molly had to face some tough times after breaking up with her husband. She got marked by a demon, and had to face three trials or risk losing her soul.

The thing is, though, the basic premise came out of my real-life family’s story. A couple of years ago I flew to California to visit my aunt right before she died of cancer. All her life she had tremendous difficulty dealing with anxiety, and as I waited at the airport for my flight home, I started thinking about how much respect I had for the way she faced her fears. Then I made a list of the things that scared me most.

Then I decided to make a character experience those very things.

But because the seed of the story came from real life, I decided to make it a contemporary romance that happened to include angels and demons. Oh, and a vampire. I mean, what story isn’t improved by the presence of a vampire?

The Radleys by Matt HaigIn part, I was inspired by The Radleys by Matt Haig. For those of you who haven’t read this book, it’s basically a family drama…involving a family of vampires. Mr. Haig tells the story of Peter and Helen, a couple who have been married for fifteen or twenty years, and their two teenage children. Peter and Helen are abstainers – sort of the vampiric equivalent of vegans – and they never mention the whole ‘blood thirsty undead’ thing to the kids until a thick-skulled young man tries something creepy with their daughter and awakens her true nature.

Oops.

The thing is, the truth of The Radleys lies in the family dynamic, the way Peter and Helen cope with raising teenagers and keep their marriage fresh. The vampire element just raises the stakes. It also makes for some seriously entertaining moments – especially when Uncle Will shows up.

I’ll let you figure that part out for yourselves.

With Forever and Ever, Amen, I tried to dig into that same territory. The heart of the story is love: the love of a mother for her kids and the fear she feels when her children are threatened. Molly has to learn some things, too, like, it’s possible for a guy to love her without turning her into a trophy on his shelf. And it’s possible for her to stand on her own two feet and do what she thinks is right.

There’s not a lot of blood and fireworks in Forever and Ever, Amen. Instead, there’s angels and demons, heart and humor. And a vampire.

What more could you want?

Thanks again, Elizabeth. I hope you and your readers have a peaceful holiday season, and that you experience your most important and memorable traditions.

Peace,

Liv


Thank you, Liv!

If you’re looking for a spicy holiday read…
bite into a copy of Forever and Ever, Amen.


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Romancing the Holidays with Liv Rancourt and “The Santa Drag”

25 Sunday Nov 2012

Posted by Elizabeth Fais in Romance

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

Liv Rancourt, Romance, The Santa Drag

Today I have Liv Rancourt, the audaciously talented paranormal romance author,  as my guest. She’s here to talk about romance, and in particular why she writes fiction woven with romantic themes. Personally, I can’t think of a better topic to compliment the holiday season. Because everything is more magical when love is in the air. 

Take it away Liv…

Why Romance?

So, why romance? Yesterday I had a couple hours of downtime and spent it in the company of Aidan, Krys, Mirren, Lucy & their friends while reading the novel Redemption by Susannah Sandlin. Okay, there were vampires involved, but the love story rocked and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

That just about sums it up. Write a love story that’s grounded in reality (or some paranormal version thereof), involving well-drawn characters and genuine conflict, and you will have me eating out of the palm of your hand…though that’s probably not an image we want to dwell on. Instead, know that I read to have fun, and good romances are almost always fun.

If I want real-world conflict (read: sadness & pain), I’ll go to work. Sometimes I don’t even have to go that far; conflict comes to me, invading my personal space. That’s how life is. When I read, I want the assurance that the characters are going to end up happy, which is one of the hallmarks of the romance novel.

And then there’s the whole falling-in-love thing. Like most people of the human persuasion, I love to fall in love. However, after seventeen years of marriage, pretty much the only falling I get to do these days is in the pages of a book. My husband is an awesome guy, but our infatuation days were a LOOOONNGGG time ago. With a romance novel, I can experience a little vicarious infatuation stretched out over two or three days, and almost always get dinner to the table on time.

It gets even better when I write my own. I have a whole thumb-drive full of crushes. My ideal romantic heroes are often tough guys with hard fists and soft hearts. Well, except for Joe, from my short story The Santa Drag. He’s an actor, and the heroine Mackenzie describes him as the Robert Downey Jr. type: good-looking, charming and just a little bit naughty. He’s turned up in a couple of my short stories now, flashing his “yep, I’m handsome” grin and driving Mack crazy.

In the end, I bet even you YA types are picking up what I’m laying down here. I mean, where would Twilight be without the romance, right? My own personal young adult period may have faded into the mists of time, but I remember being pretty focused on issues of the heart. Even…a bit obsessed at times.  It makes sense that romance should play a part in stories aimed at the YA crowd.

And it’s fun, which is as good a reason as any I can think of. So to keep the fun going, check out the following excerpt from The Santa Drag…

Things aren’t always what they seem, and this shopping mall Santa has secrets only her true love can reveal.

Peace,

Liv


Sneak Peak of… “The Santa Drag”

On a particularly busy Saturday, I was tired and thinking more about a double shot of espresso than I was about the pile of kids who wanted to sit in my lap. The weak winter sun was making its circle over the atrium where the Christmas Village was set up, and my roommate Shauna was buzzing by every so often to giggle at me from the sidelines. She was trying to get all of her Christmas shopping done in one day, which was a good trick for someone with as many fertile brothers and sisters as she had.

“Come sit on Santa’s lap.” Maya, the photographer and kid-wrangler, invited the next kid in line approach my golden throne. Well, it was fake gold, but the kids didn’t know that.

“No,” said a little girl with a stubborn crease between her brows. She was dressed in Seattle’s version of Christmas formal, a stiff, red velvet dress, likely made from organic fabric dyed with beets and rose hips. On her feet were two-toned leather MaryJanes that probably cost sixty-five dollars. At least the green corkscrew ribbons tied around her blond pigtails looked like they belonged on a child. I made myself as approachable as possible, getting down to her level and producing a big smile.

“Come on, Thula,” her mother said, tapping one French manicured nail on her cell phone. “Go sit up there with Santa so we can take your picture.” She sounded as if this was just one more thing to knock off the list.

“It’s okay, sweetie.” Maya put on her encouraging smile. Maya was a tiny thing, barely bigger than most of the kids we saw, with long dark hair, a tiny gold hoop pierced through one nostril, and bugged-out eyes that looked like they’d been molded out of chocolate. She was non-threatening as an adult could possibly be. The kid stared at her and bit down on her bottom lip. At least she wasn’t crying. Yet.

“You want to come tell Santa what to bring you for Christmas?” I kept my voice pitched down somewhere under my sternum. It helped that I had one of those raspy lady voices that earned me a permanent spot in the tenor section whenever I sang in choir.

“No.”

Sometimes less is more when you’re dealing with preschoolers. We went back and forth for several minutes until  the kid went from biting her bottom lip to letting it pooch out and tremble. Never a good sign. Finally, after a ton of coaxing, she was more-or-less close to me,  squatting down on the other side of one of the big pretend presents that ringed my throne. That was good enough for her mom, and Maya snapped a picture.

When she was done, the little girl glared at me from behind the big, glossy red ribbon that topped the present. “Bring me a baby brother,” she bellowed and took off running..

Mom’s glare was meaner than the kid’s had been. Hey, it’s not like I made any promises.

The kid ran full tilt past the pseudo-Tyrolean houses that made the Village, and out through the crowds of shoppers. She stopped in the middle of an open space and cut loose, her sobs echoing around the smoky glass dome that covered us. We could hear her carrying on until she and her mom got swallowed up by the Ross store at the end of the north hallway. The whole place fell into a bit of a hush when she was gone, as  everyone exhaled in relief. This close to Christmas, none of us needed a crying child to ratchet up the stress level.

A young mother was next in line. She came into the Christmas Village and positioned a slightly damp baby on my lap, moving as if something hurt. The baby was so young that Mom still looked a little pregnant under her loose denim-blue shirt. Or maybe she was already pregnant with number two. I’m not so good with the principles of baby production. Well, I understand the basic concepts, but haven’t had that many opportunities to put them into practice.

The brief quiet was interrupted by a yodeling squeal that I recognized. I stared into the crowd until I caught Maya looking at me funny. I stuck on a smile as close to my normal, jolly-Santa shtick as I could get, and she settled back down behind her camera. The reason for my roommate Shauna’s squeal had me completely rattled. In the two or three beats I’d looked out from behind my wire-rimmed glasses as Mack-the-girl, I’d seen Shauna giving someone a big hug. A really handsome someone. Joe McBride. Joseph Timothy McBride. The actor. The real-life, got a soap opera gig and several commercials and you saw him in Scream 2 actor. The only guy I ever really loved.

Ooh, now she’s got a problem! Will Mack turn all Creepy-Kringle? Will Joe recognize her? What’s a Santa to do?  😉

The Santa Drag is available from Still Moments Publishing, Smashwords, and Amazon.

About Liv

Liv Rancourt writes paranormal and romance, often at the same time. She lives with her husband, two teenagers, two cats and one wayward puppy. She likes to create stories that have happy endings, and finds it is a good way to balance her other job in the neonatal intensive care unit. Liv can be found on-line at her website & blog (www.livrancourt.com), on Facebook (www.facebook.com/liv.rancourt), or on Twitter (www.twitter.com/LivRancourt).


Got Questions for Liv? Here’s Your Chance…ask away!


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