Indulgence Sspotlight: Weekend Agreement Book Tour + Giveaway

Reader Girls presents three exciting book tours today. The first tour we're hosting is the Indulgence Tour. In case you don't know, Indulgence is an Imprint of Entangled Publishing. We spotlight Weekend Agreement by Barbara Wallace today. We were able to interview Barbara and we hope you'll read her wonderful responses.

In the coming weeks we will be spotlighting two others titles in the Indulgence tour: Holiday Affair by Annie Seaton (on April 16) and Nina Croft's  Blackmailed by the Italian Millionaire (on April 19). Continue reading below to enter the giveaway. Our review of Weekend Agreement will be posted soon.

Title: Weekend Agreement
Author: Barbara Wallace
Genre: Category Romance
Publisher: Indulgence (an Imprint of Entangled Publishing)
Release Date: March 15th, 2012

Blurb: Some deals were meant to be broken....

Cynical billionaire Daniel Martinetti works hard; plays harder and has one ironclad rule. Never trust a woman.

Bad news for historian Charlotte Doherty who shows up at exactly the wrong time. Like every other woman in Daniel’s life, Charlotte wants something from him–the deed to her family farm. Daniel agrees, but only if he gets something in return: Charlotte’s company for the weekend!

The property is Charlotte’s only link to the mother she never knew. Desperate to keep her history alive, she’ll accept Daniel’s indecent proposal, but not without a few terms of her own. Namely, a propriety clause. No flirting. No kissing. No sex.

Daniel has no intention of honoring her conditions, but after one weekend with Charlotte leaves him hungering for more, he can’t help wondering if she could be the exception to his unbreakable rule…

An interview with Barbara Wallace:

We're stuck together in a stopped elevator. Chatting, you tell me you're an author. How would you describe Weekend Agreement to me?

Weekend Agreement is a romance between two people, both of whom are weighed down by baggage from the past. What starts out as an weekend business arrangement – albeit a highly unusual one – quickly becomes complicated when they both realize how wrong their first impressions were. Problem is, can they get over their own insecurities long enough to let love in? 

What was it like writing from the point of view of a billionaire?

Truthfully, I’m not sure it was different than writing from the point of view of any other character. Sure, Daniel is filthy rich. But he has the same insecurities and failings as anyone else. He’s just lucky enough that he can jet around in a private plane and never have to worry about rising gas prices. It probably does help that in my mind, Daniel is a traditional Yankee billionaire. That is, money isn’t something he flaunts so much as just “has”. 

Never trust a woman. Mr. Moretti’s top rule. It’s interesting to hear from a man when so many books, written by women, deal with their view from the opposite sex. How did you come up with this rule from the main male character’s viewpoint?

Daniel does have a lot of trust issues, doesn’t he? When I first started to write this story, I knew I wanted to have a hero with super thick walls – a man who wouldn’t love easily. It dawned on me that man like that would have to have very good reasons for blocking himself off from emotion. Far more than simply one woman breaking his heart. His distrust would have to come from a lifetime of being hurt. If, from a very early age, your only interaction with women involves being used or ignored, then you’re going to become very jaded very quickly. In my mind, Daniel’s rule is a self-fulfilling one. He was neglected as a child and longed for attention from his mother. His mother meanwhile was only interested in Daniel as an accessory. I see him as spending his life seeking out women like his mother and repeating the pattern over and over. That is – until Charlotte. Charlotte and he, whether he wants to admit it or not, are two sides of the same coin.


How do you keep the romance 'fresh' in your stories?

For me, the key to keeping the romance fresh lies with the characters themselves. Think about it: In real life, every romance is difference, right? No two people fall in love the same way. I like to think that if I take the time to develop strong, three-dimensional characters, then their love stories will be as unique as they are. 

I’ve heard quite a few writers say they like to people watch and listen. Are you a people watcher?

Yes and no. I like to watch people, but I tend to be a major daydreamer. I might start watching, then suddenly find myself drifting off into my own story. For example, say I see an unusual character at the airport. I might start watching the person, then start thinking how that person might fit in a story. Next thing I know, I’m plotting and no longer watching. Guess you could say story ideas are my own personal version of a “shiny object”.


How do you go about getting inspiration for your characters? Can you tell us about your inspiration for Daniel and Charlotte?

My characters come from anywhere and everywhere. Newspaper articles, televisions shows, thin-air…you name it. Charlotte was born out of my own personal love for American history. I am a huge John Adams fan. (He’s an under-rated president in my opinion.) Anyway, I always thought it would be fun, if I wrote a book about his life, to name it The Adams Family. That somehow jumpstarted the idea of a heroine who actually did write John Adams’ story….soon after, Charlotte was born.

Daniel, however… well, he’s a far more complicated story. When my son was a baby, he used to take his bottle around the same time All My Children was on. There was a character on the show at the time who was a egotistical, arrogant, semi-scrupulous heart surgeon. Oh, and by the way, the actor who played him was incredibly sexy. Anyway, one day the character revealed that as a child he listened as his mother taunted his father into suicide. With that one line, the character went from unlikeable to sympathetic. Sure, he was still egotistical, arrogant and semi-scrupulous, but his behavior suddenly had context. I started thinking about a hero whose mother had scarred him in a similar way. A man who grew up as a perpetual outsider. How hard would it be for such a man to accept love? And thus, Daniel was born!

Can you tell, by the way, that I am a huge student of psychology?

Are you working on any other projects you care to share with us?

Sure! I’m currently working on a short contemporary that I’m calling Anastasia Meets My Fair Lady. It’s about a woman who discovers she may be the long-lost heir to a fortune and the lawyer who helps her. Naturally though, it’s about much more. If you follow me on Twitter (@BarbaraTWallace), you’ll often read references to it - #CocktailHeiress.   

Website | Twitter

About the author: Barbara Wallace has been a life-long romantic and daydreamer so it's not surprising she decided to become a writer at age eight. However, it wasn't until a co-worker handed her a romance novel that she knew where her stories belonged. For years she limited her dreams to nights, weekends and commuter train trips while working as a communications specialist, PR freelancer and full-time mom. At the urging of her family, she finally chucked the day job to pursue writing full time and couldn't be happier.

A life-long Yankee, Barbara lives in New England with her husband, their teenage son, and three very spoiled pets.

Giveaway: Thanks to Indulgence, we are giving away one ebook copy of Weekend Agreement to one reader who comments below. Please leave your email address so we can contact you.

About the Publisher: Indulgence is a digital only imprint from Entangled Publishing, an exclusive, boutique publisher of romantic fiction. Located in Fort Collins, Colorado, Entangled's goal is to bridge the gap between traditional and indie publishing, giving both readers and authors the best of both worlds. Get more information at www.entangledpublishing.com