My Books!

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Love Target

Love Target
by Heidi Loeb Hegerich

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BLURB:

Teenager Ingrid Liebschreiber is devastated when her parents move the family from their native Munich to Los Angeles in the late 1950s. Homesick, she accepts a neighbor's offer to get her a job as a showgirl in Las Vegas.

Intent on earning enough money to return to Germany, she must grow up quickly in the neon jungle - where she is pursued by high rollers and headliners, including a vacationing Elvis.

Life's twists and turns land Ingrid in New York in the Swinging 1960s - where she is romanced by Armand: a strong, quiet, handsome businessman in "construction." Most girls dream of Mr. Right, and Ingrid's hard-won independence is challenged when she falls in love.


Will she find true romance - a man who can love her as much as she loves him? Or is "happily ever after" just a crazy fairytale?

EXCERPT:

“Rascal, you sit yourself right down there.” Elvis motioned at the bed.

He picked up a shiny guitar. It was honey yellow, and the face had a rust-red design below the sound hole, decorated with golden orbs and stems like dandelions.

“Oh, it is beautiful, Elvis!”

He held it up proudly. “This is my Gibson. Ain’t she sweet?”

He sat on a chair cradling the expensive guitar. He delicately plucked the top string with his thumb and gently strummed the other strings with his fingers.

Soft strains filled the room.

“This little number is from my first movie.”

As he began singing, I recognized the melody.

“Love me tender . . .”

Elvis gazed at me as he serenaded, his eyes big, brilliantly blue, dreamy. His song sang straight into my heart. I tingled like I’d been caught in a breeze. Could he see my skin quivering? He could definitely see my cheeks reddening.

Elvis finished with a slow downward strum, thumbing each string individually, a sweet arpeggio. He let the last note ring and fade away.

He looked up and smiled.

“Don’t I sound like Bing Crosby?”

He didn’t wait for an answer. He leaned the guitar against the dresser and in the next instant was on the bed, an arm slung around my shoulder. His other hand grasped and turned my chin.

Elvis’ mouth was warm and gentle. Our tongues met. Just as quickly, his retreated.

Our mouths puckered again. Elvis’ lips worked softly against mine. They moved away and began pecking my face with slow, small kisses. My lower lip burned. Elvis had sunk his teeth in with a hard nip.

He released it just as quickly and turned away with a bashful look. It was like he was a nervous teenager. Was this all an act? Or was he just a giant flirt?


A Word From The Author:

1.What's the best and worst part of being an author?

The best part of being an author is the feeling of accomplishment you get just from looking at a copy of your book sitting there in your house. It’s tangible proof of all the brain-grinding work you put in to finish a polished manuscript, to get the manuscript published, to bring the book to market.

The worst part of being an author is suffering through trickling book sales — knowing that your book could turn readers on if only they knew about it and took a gamble on buying a copy. Promoting a book is a slow process that takes as much, if not more, work than actually producing the book.

2.Which book of yours is your favorite? Why?

3.What are your favorite authors in the genre that you write?
Well, Margaret Mitchell wrote GONE WITH THE WIND — the one and only book she published in her lifetime — and I’ve read it three or four times in my life, the first time being when I was in my early 20s, living in New York City. The book is a classic, a romance, a historical novel, and a Bildungsroman — a long compound word from my native German language, meaning a coming-of-age story. (I probably didn’t need to provide a definition for readers of this blog!) LOVE TARGET falls into all three of those genres, as well. In a way, Ingrid Liebschreiber is like Scarlett O’Hara: fiercely independent, and not giving up her heart very easily to any man.

4.Which of your characters is most like you?
That’s easy! Since LOVE TARGET is a memoir novel — narrated in first person by the protagonist, Ingrid Liebschreiber — it’s obvious to readers that I am most like Ingrid. She is a fictionalized, dramatized version of myself in the first half of my life to date. Frankly, there is a bit of Ingrid in just about every woman.
  

Heidi Loeb Hegerich has lived in places as varied as Munich, Las Vegas, Miami Beach, New York, Los Angeles, Squaw Valley and Reno. She has worked variously as a showgirl, business executive, entrepreneur, interior designer and real estate developer. She has traveled to six of the seven continents, and vacationed in spots as different as the French Riviera, the Andes and Afghanistan. She counts among her hobbies weight training, shooting assault rifles, and racing sand rails; she found skydiving entertaining but not as much of a rush as other pursuits.
A philanthropist for the arts, among other causes, Hegerich is now embarking on her own artistic quest as an author. The novel Love Target is her first book.

Buy links:

Heidi is giving away a $30 Amazon/BN gift certificate to one lucky winner. Use the link below to enter. You can find her schedule at http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2015/03/vbt-love-target-by-heidi-loeb-hegerich.html

a Rafflecopter giveaway


10 comments:

  1. As a child, what did you want to do when you grew up?

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  2. I adore the cover! I greatly enjoyed your bio and your enthusiasm for life!

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  3. Sounds like you've had an interesting life.

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  4. Thank you, Elaine, for hosting LOVE TARGET and author Heidi Hegerich! (I'm her editor). Mai T., Betty, Rita and Patricia: Thank you all for posting re: LOVE TARGET. If you enjoyed the excerpt, please know that LOVE TARGET is a fast, fun read! Hope you enjoy it!

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  5. I really enjoyed this excerpt.

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  6. Thanks for your post, MomJane. So glad you enjoyed the excerpt! Hope you are interested in reading LOVE TARGET. :-)

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  7. I don't know what's up with rafflecopter but it's not letting click that I commented. Anyway, this sounds like a great book, Thanks for sharing!

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  8. Glad LOVE TARGET grabs your interest, Eva!

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