Today's Special - - Amy Andrews' Risky Business Blog Tour

I'm tickled pink to welcome best-selling Australian author Amy Andrews to the Romance Dish today! Quite the prolific writer, Amy has forty contemporary romances to her credit, selling more than 1.6 million books and having those books translated into more than twelve different languages. According to her website, "Amy loves good books, fab food, great wine and frequent travel - preferably all four together.  She lives on acreage on the outskirts of Brisbane with a gorgeous mountain view but secretly wishes it was the hillsides of Tuscany."  (I can totally relate to that wish!)

Amy's book, Holding Out for a Hero is a finalist for Romantic Book of the Year in the Romance Writers of Australia's prestigious RuBY awards.  The winners will be announced in August.  



Welcome to our humble abode, Amy!  It’s a delight to have you visit with us today.  

Thank you so much. It is a delight to be here!

Please tell our readers a bit about your new book, Risky Business.

Risky Business is an urban-family romcom with an extreme sports star hero and a buttoned-up accountant heroine whose eggs have started talking to her. It’s set in a second-hand romance bookshop and is a mash up of When Harry Met Sally and Look Who’s Talking. There’s a bunch of hilarious blind dates, a load of silent lusting and gratuitous lamington scoffing!

Some of those dates had me laughing out loud and I adored Sam's talking eggs!

Samantha and Nick could be poster models for opposites attracting.  What is it about these two characters that convinced you they belong together?

You know, I’m not sure. I’ve always adored the whole opposites attract thing and when my muse threw them at me I knew there was something special about these two!

What most surprised you in the writing of this book?

How it mushroomed. It started out as just a story about Nick and Sam and then a whole bunch of other characters and plot threads joined the fray and I had this huge story I felt very inadequate (at the time) to write.

Believe me, no inadequacy whatsoever came through in the reading.  This book's a winner! 

What would readers be most surprised to learn about you?

Oh dear. I’m so very middle-class, suburban, boring I doubt anything in my life would be a surprise. Let me see…..I can still do the splits at 44 – how’s that? It does help to be well lubricated with grape juice first. And, let’s just say, that going down is easy. It’s the getting up again that’s getting harder and harder!

Doing the splits at 44 is a skill many of us would envy.  ;-)

Nick is an extreme sports star who looks like Hugh Jackman.  (You do realize that women the world over will be buying this book from that description alone, don’t you?)  Oh I *do* hope so  J Are you an athlete?  A sports enthusiast?  What – or who - inspired the creation of Nick?

Excuse me while I pick myself up off the floor from laughing my ass off. Whilst I am an accomplished drunken splits performer (I really think you need to add this to your bio) there is nothing else remotely athletic about me. If anyone’s ever read my Ruby nominated book Holding Out For A Hero they’ll see a lot of Ella in me – I too detest sport as much as she does! But I don’t know what it says about me that the 2 big books I’ve written have had sport star heroes. I think it's because my heroines are a lot like me so it gives the couples a point of friction.

There wasn’t any one person who inspired the character of Nick. I think I just wanted him to be the exact opposite of Sam – daring and carefree and not around very much.  And of course I have a serious case of the hots for Hugh Jackman so why not him??

Why not, indeed? *grin*

As I’m a dessert first kind of person, I could totally relate to Sam’s love of lamingtons.  (I had to Google that one.  I’m now searching out recipes to create some in my own kitchen!) Just for fun, if you were hosting a dessert buffet for six people (living or dead) who would you invite and what desserts would be served?

Oh now, that part of Sam is definitely me J and lamingtons are to die for! A dessert buffet for six sounds like my ideal life!

Let me see. Well Hugh obviously. And because I totally dig his wife and how in lurve they are I’d have to invite Deborah Lee too. I’d invite my Mum because it’s been almost 3 years since she’s been gone and I still miss her like crazy and she was THE best cook! From history I’d like to invite Florence Nightingale and Emmeline Pankhurst because I’d think they’d be fascinating. And, just because we need to even up the numbers a little and I can’t let Hugh hog all the limelight I’ll throw in Joe Manganiello. I promise to hand feed him lamingtons for you because that’s just the kind of hostess I am. Oh the sacrifice!

Man….I may never want to leave that table!

What a fascinating mix of people!  I'd love a seat at that table!

What – or who – inspired you to begin writing romance?

I wrote my first book at 21 because I was temporarily out of work and looking for something to do that allowed me to stay in my bed with my electric blanket one cold English winter. But the person who truly inspired me to write a different kind of book was Jennifer Crusie. Getting Rid Of Bradley opened my eyes to a different kind of romance and I’ve never looked back! 

What are you working on now?

I'm currently working on several projects. One is a novel for Escape that involves a country-music-chick cum cadaver make-up artist who sees dead people and a down-and-out PI who helps her with a case. It's Stefanie Plum meets Six Feet Under and not like ANYTHING I've done before. Another is a colab for Tule Publishing with Heidi Rice, Kelly Hunter and Lucy King. It's a fresh modern twist on some old fairy tales and is set in New York and we're all very excited!

Ooh, I'll definitely be checking those out!

Would you like to share an excerpt from Risky Business?

Thank you – I’d be delighted! This excerpt comes from a part in the book where Sam actually lands a date she thinks might end in her eggs being very happy indeed. But in the mean time she needs to be responsible so that means condom shopping……

Samantha stopped at the chemist on her way home. Nick was right about women taking responsibility for their own protection. Okay. She probably wouldn't need them tonight but...what if?

She located the condom stand a minute later and stood in front of it staring, completely nonplussed. There were seriously this many choices? And she'd thought tampon selections were getting ridiculous. No wonder men didn't want to be bothered if they faced this choice every time.

Coloured, ribbed, lubricated, flavoured, vibrating. Vibrating? Extra-large.

What if she chose the wrong one?

Was she supposed to buy extra-large? Would Paul be insulted if she didn't? Would his dick strangulate and suffer permanent damage because it was too restrictive? Suddenly she wished she'd brought Nick with her. On this she really needed a man's perspective.

She looked at her watch and realised she'd been dithering for fifteen minutes. Reading the back of the boxes didn't really help her either. They were fabulously descriptive of the amazing powers of the particular brand and one even had a nutritional panel.

Oh god. She had to count calories whilst having sex? Wasn't it supposed to burn them?

Another five minutes passed and after two offers of help from staff she thought, screw it, and got a basket and put one of each packet inside and took them to the counter.

The assistant looked at her dubiously. ‘Are you sure?’ she asked politely and Samantha just smiled and asked her to hurry.

Another assistant whose eyes had visibly widened at Samantha's purchase dragged her gaze away and asked the person behind her if she could help him.

‘I'll have what she's having,’ an amused male voice said. Samantha turned to find a middle-aged cowboy waiting patiently while they tallied her purchase. He was wearing an Akubra and a friendly smile. ‘If you need a hand using any of those little lady, just holler.’

He reminded Samantha of an ageing Stretch Valentine and she smiled despite herself. Don’t laugh, she wanted to say, if you were twenty years younger I may just take you up on that.

Instead she paid the money, stashed the condoms in her large DKNY holdall, thankful that she'd brought a roomy bag to work this morning, and hurried out of the store.

Thank you for visiting with us today, Amy.  Would you like to ask our readers a question?

Thank you so much for having me. I’d like to ask the readers what’s their favourite baked goody?

Okay, readers!  What's your favorite baked goody?  If you have recipes, please feel free to share! One person leaving a comment on today's post will win an e-copy of Risky Business. (open world-wide)

Find more information about Amy and her books at her website and connect with her online at her Facebook page.

• RISKY BUSINESS on Goodreads
• Purchase links:
• Amazon US
• Amazon AU
• Amazon UK
• iBooks
• Google Play
• Kobo Books
• 
  

Here's the rest of Amy's tour schedule:

Monday, July 7th: A Buckeye Girl Reads - guest post

Tuesday, July 8th: The Romance Dish - Q&A

Wednesday, July 9th: Cruising Susan Reviews

Thursday, July 10th: Romancing Rakes for the Love of Romance - spotlight

Saturday, July 12th: Romancing the Book

Monday, July 14th: Harlie’s Books

Tuesday, July 15th: Svetlana’s Reads and Views

Wednesday, July 16th: Babbling About Books, and More! - guest post

Thursday, July 17th: The Reading Date - guest post

Tuesday, July 22nd: Girl meets Books - guest post

Wednesday, July 23rd: Reading in Black & White - review and guest post

Thursday, July 24th: Schmexy Girl Book Blog