Negotiation Tactics Blog Tour! (+50$ Amazon GC Giveaway!)

Title: Negotiation Tactics
Author: Lori Ryan
Series: Sutton Capital #3
Pages: 338
Publisher: Cara Shannon
Date Published: April 18th, 2013
Format: eBook
Genre: Romance
Source: Goddess Fish Blog Tours

Synopsis:
Fans of the Sutton Capital Series have been waiting for Jennie and Chad’s story for a long time and they won’t be disappointed! And, new readers are sure to fall in love with the series.

After the crushing heartache of losing her husband at a harshly young age, Jennie Evans had finally found a place to call home. She had a job she loved and new friends to support her. With the exception of having to continuously fight off the feelings she had for Chad Thompson, she was happy again. As happy as she could be anyway. When Jennie’s well-meaning friends meddle in her life, they send her world into a tailspin once again. Soon, she’s on the run from some very dangerous people with the one man she doesn’t want to be with.

Chad Thompson has loved Jennie from afar for the last year, but he’s maintained control. Jennie’s made it clear she wants nothing to do with him and he won’t cross the line she’s drawn in the sand. Until she asks him to. And, when that happens, their world is turned upside down. Chad’s left scrambling to keep Jennie safe as he tries to right their world again. Unfortunately, Chad has to accept the fact that his heart is likely to be crushed in the process and nothing will ever be the same again.

~~~~~

I am lucky enough to have Lori here on the blog today, and guess what? She's giving us all the info about how she gets her characters to be who they are! Naming is a SUPER important thing to make your characters fit with the story, and with the readers. Here's Lori, answering:

It's All in the Name: How to Craft a Perfect Character Name

Oh, my! I have to admit something here. I made some mistakes in choosing names for my characters in the Sutton Capital Series. So, in the interest of letting other writers learn from my mistakes, I’ll share them here. To my readers: I’ve learned from my mistakes. It won’t happen again! I promise.

First, let me tell you how I choose my character names. I decide if this is a character I want people to like or not. If I want this to be a strong character, I’m looking for a strong name. If I want it to be a character that people feel sympathy for, I might give it a weaker name or a really odd name but explain how they’ve always hated the name they were stuck with. You get the idea?

Then, I think of where they live and where they were born. For example, I’m writing a story about a family that has a long history in Texas right now. To choose their last name, I looked up common Texas surnames. You can find all kinds of lists of surnames from geographical region to timeframe, to nationality, etc.

After that, I just start playing with the combinations.

But, here’s the kicker! You then have to plan out all of your names and make sure you don’t have names that are going to confuse your readers. I didn’t do that in the Sutton Capital Series and it came back to bite me in the, well… you know.

I have a character name Jack Sutton, but then I named a character Jake in another of the series without really thinking about the fact that that might confuse my readers. I named a character Jennie, using the –ie spelling instead of –y spelling and then did the same thing with an unrelated character named Jessie (I ended up switching this one to Jesse when I realized my mistake).

Oh, and are you noticing all of the Js? I also had a Jarod in there for good measure!

As a writer, I constantly strive to improve my writing. So far, my readers tell me I’m doing a good job, but I do look for ways to improve, just the same. More careful planning of names is now on my list of things to do at the start of any new book or series!

~~~Try an Excerpt!~~~

His dark looks – even with the smattering of scars that etched his skin from his time overseas – rivaled those of the biggest and brightest stars of Hollywood. In spite of that, there wasn’t an arrogant bone in Chad’s body. This, of course, made him all the more attractive.

The man was stunningly handsome, unquestionably kind and gentle, and he sent the bones in Jennie’s body into a puddle on the floor when he glanced her way. She didn’t want to be attracted to him. But, Jennie found she couldn’t ignore his effect on her no matter how she tried. And that, unfortunately, tore at her heart. Jennie wished with all her being that Chad Thompson didn’t have such a powerful effect on her.

When Jennie had first met Chad, she tried to find faults in him. If she could get herself to see him as an arrogant jerk, she might be able to ignore the physical attraction she felt for him. It would certainly make it easier, anyway. At first, Jennie thought he was just what she hoped for: a superficial jerk with no substance under the good looks and charm. Since Chad was born into the Sutton Capital family, he could have sat back and reaped the benefits of the family business without actually doing any work. Chad only worked until three o’clock many days, making Jennie assumed he was living off of trust fund money and not really contributing at all. That made it easier to resist the outward allure.

Sadly, her first impressions didn’t last and Jennie soon had to admit that Chad was just as attractive a person on the inside as he was on the outside. It turned out that Chad left work early to volunteer at a nearby veteran’s hospital. And the more Jennie got to know Chad, the more apparent it became that he was anything but a selfish, spoiled trust fund brat. That certainly didn’t make it easier for Jennie to resist him. But, she knew in her heart, she didn’t want a relationship with him or anyone else. She didn’t want the chemistry between them to exist. 

~~~Meet Lori! ~~~

Lori is an award winning author and stay-at-home mom. Her second book, Penalty Clause, won first place in the romance category in Lucky Cinda Publishing’s Annual Global Writer’s Contest in 2013. Lori has had a number of careers before embarking on her newest adventure of writing novels. After graduating from the University of Connecticut School of Law, she practiced law for three years, working primarily in the areas of utilities law and intellectual property litigation.More recently, Lori owned and operated a dog training business in Austin, Texas, where she specialized in aggression and became an expert in the field of dog bite analysis. Lori sold her dog training business in 2013 and is now a full time writer and mother of two. Lori still lives in Austin with her husband -- who is endlessly supportive of her changing career paths -- and her two children, one cat, and three dogs. 

Lori will be awarding a $50 gift certificate to Amazon to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour! That's right you could win ALL that book money just by commenting below! Ask a question, talk about your favorite part of the series, and you'll be entered to win!