Alyse Carlson's The Azalea Assault Tour

Today I'm pleased to welcome mystery author Alyse Carlson! (AKA Watery Tart, Hart Johnson)  She's going to share some tidbits about her new novel, The Azalea Assault. I can't wait to get my copy!  


Giveaway:  You can enter to win a paperback copy by leaving a comment on this post.  Winner will be chosen by random drawing.  Deadline to enter is 8/2/12 at 11:59 p.m. EST. Please leave an email adress or url, where you may be contacted. 


In addition, all commenters will get a free copy of my ebook of vampire shorts, Annals of the Immortyls.

Vice Through A Character Filter

First I wanted to thank Denise for hosting me as part of my book release blog tour!  I really appreciate being here!  I thought, since the world Denise has created is largely immersed in decadence and pleasure, that maybe I'd explore what a few of my characters thought on the matter.

Camellia Harris (Cam):  Cam has been a rules-follower most of her life. She prefers moderation, doing what she's supposed to, and hasn't drawn outside the lines much until very recently. She has a best friend though, who drags her into some social shenanigans. And of late, there seems to be some need to bend the rules where snooping and information collection are concerned. Probably her biggest vice is a relationship with the truth that can best be described as 'spin'... it isn't that she lies... but there are certainly exaggerations, omissions and euphemisms involved. She also is quite the control freak...

Annie Schulz:  Annie would look at a person asking about vice and say 'no such thing'. She is a live-and-let-live girl who figures if nobody gets hurt, it's nobody else's business. She's been Cam's best friend for more than twenty years and looks at it as a personal challenge to get Cam to loosen up regularly. She likes rich food, strong beer, handsome men and seeing what she can get away with. Life is meant to be lived with no safety net. Because she doesn't believe in vices, it's safe to say she has none.  Sort of.

Rob Columbus: Rob is Cam's hot, athletic, sports-reporter boyfriend and looks at most of life as an athletic event... and athletic events have rules that need to be followed, but if a person can outplay somebody within the rules, that is worth a lot. The real life equivalents of stealing bases?  All good. In fact he's done a fair bit of just that—first shown in The Azalea Assault when he 'scoops' the murder story. He is on scene for other reasons and gets the story in before the crime reporter even knows there's a story.

Petunia Conroy: Cam's sister. Petunia has turned perceptions on their head with a reverse snobbery, so mostly she forgives real vice and the things she considers vice are things like being educated, attractive or wealthy. She has a very hard time forgiving people for holding these vices and doesn't keep her opinions to herself very well—drives Cam a bit crazy, considering who she works with.  As for her own vices? If a person were to look up prickly in the dictionary, they would likely find a picture of Petunia.

Samantha Hollister:  One of Cam's Employers, Current President of the Roanoke Garden Society. Samantha embodies the blue-blooded status snobbery, only with a gin twist, so she's more fun. Samantha would find vice in failure to be born to the right people, though if a person is charming enough, she will forgive them and give them a step up. She is wealthy, status-oriented and makes very strong cocktails

Nelson Harris:  Cam's Dad... and babe magnet extraordinaire... Nelson is sweet and has a self-deprecating charm that soon has earned the attention of all the women in the room over a certain age. It's not his fault. It's just how he is. Fortunately he also is one of the best dad's around, so it's easy to overlook.

I guess my point... (there was a point?) is it can be really fun to play with how different people draw the lines of right and wrong.  Do you identify with any of these guys?  Have any quirks somebody else might call vice?

The Azalea Assault

Cam Harris loves her job as public relations manager for the Roanoke Garden Society. It allows her to combine her three loves, spinning the press, showing off her favorite town, and promoting her favorite activity. She's just achieved a huge coup by enlisting Garden Delights, the country's premiere gardening magazine, to feature the exquisite garden of RGS founder, Neil Patrick. She's even managed to enlist world-famous photographer Jean-Jacques Georges. Unfortunately, Jean-Jacques is a first-rate cad—insulting the RGS members and gardening, goosing every woman in the room, and drinking like a lush. It is hardly a surprise when he turns up dead. But when Cam's brother-in-law is accused and her sister begs her to solve the crime, that is when things really get prickly.

Alyse Carlson is the pen name for the author some of you may know as Hart Johnson. She writes books from her bathtub and when she isn't writing, does research for a large, midwest University or leads the Naked World Domination Movement (your choice).

Links

Barnes & Noble Paperback or Nook

Amazon Paperback or Kindle

Confessions of a Watery Tart