Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Release Event: Excerpt + Giveaway: Have Gown, Will Wed by Killian McRae


Title: Have Gown, Will Wed
Author: Killian McRae
Release date: September 25, 2013
Age Group: Adult
Genre: Contemporary Romance/Chick Lit
Event organized by: AToMR Tours; http://atomrbookblogtours.com


Back in college, the bras-before-bros sisterhood decided to live for achievement in the boardroom, not the bedroom. Rosalind Betters embraced that philosophy, pursuing her career and little else. But when her last single friend, Kamakshi, announces her engagement in of all things, an arranged marriage, Rosalind reevaluates the merits of matrimony. In her typical gung ho fashion, she names a date, books a venue, hires a caterer, and picks out a dress, all before finding a groom. Taking a lesson from Kamakshi and too busy to do otherwise, Rosalind hires San Francisco's best headhunter, Xavier Hommes, to find her better half for her.
At first, Xavier thinks Rosalind is one of the eccentric personalities for which the city is famous. As the search starts, however, Xavier finds himself hating his task for reasons he never would have suspected. If Rosalind really wants a man who will make her happy, she need look no further. As W-Day approaches and Rosalind starts falling for someone Xavier himself headhunted, he walks the line between professionalism and passion, trying to decide if competing to become Mr. Betters is worth the risk to his commission, his reputation, and Rosalind's happiness.

EXCERPT 4

Tonight’s agenda would feature lots of high-priced, high-spirited, celebratory drinking.
She’d done it, she’d actually closed the biggest deal of her life with one of the biggest corporations in the world. Now, half the laptops, smartphones and cheese graters in the world would carry BetaHouse applications, with an easy option to upgrade to the pro version with just a few clicks and a credit card. Already, she was looking forward to the huge bonus she’d be able to give her employees this year. The hundred or so employees she had had really been working their tails off, pulling sixty hour weeks without any time off for months. She was committed to making sure each and everyone one of them shared in this victory. For the moment, however, she was going to celebrate her own success in sealing the deal.
Had she really thought six years ago when she left Stanford as a wide-eyed masters student, that she’d come so far, so fast?
Of course she had; that’s how she’d planned it, after all.
The click-clack of Rosalind Betters’s Prada pumps laid down a driving tempo for the victory parade through SFO. In typical fashion, the moment the captain flicked off the seatbelt light, she had her iPhone in hand, catching her up on all the news she missed since in the twenty minutes since the in-flight WiFi had been cut off. A small time in the grand scheme of things, but enough time for the world to change in the Silicon Valley Pacific time zone.
But atypically, this time reports about the goings on of her competitors and the latest stock prices took a back burner. The big clock on the wall in the terminal read three fifty-eight. Two more minutes until the embargo passed, and the news about her deal went out in an automated press release. Two minutes until she was officially the toast of the industry and, oh yes, not less than a little wealthier for the exchange.
Top shelf liquor tonight. And tapas. For some reason, she really wanted tapas.
Like all breaking news, Twitter caught fire first. At four-o-six, @TechBizTimes declared “Bigger and Betters gets bigger and better in $30 million contract from leading industry firm.” Then slowly at first, but with growing momentum, the headline infected all the ping-pong accounts, creating leader links which harvested readers to advertising-cluttered websites, each echoing the details of the deal with further clarity, a new angle, a deeper, more exclusive snippet. BetaHouse was hotter than celebrity trash, in the right circles, that was.
Rosalind was just about to shove her phone back in her bag when she felt it buzz against her palm. The text message made her grin like the cat that got the cream.
Kam: Oh my god, Raz, is this true?
Rosalind had been bursting to tell Kamakshi the news since the ink was on the paper earlier in the day. She had had no doubt her best friend of ten years would be surfing the news streams to see what had Rosalind’s Facebook emoticon showing a toothy smile.
A driver stood curbside just outside the baggage claim, holding a placard on which Rosalind’s name was printed in clinical text. Rosalind held the phone to her ear as she maneuvered through the crowd, her other hand pulling her roller carryon bag as though it were an unruly child insistently out of a candy shop. Somewhere between Washington and California, she’d misplaced her earpiece. Her neck would remind her of the injury all night. After depositing herself in the backseat, she dialed Kamakshi’s cell.
You think news programs lie?” she asked before her best friend had even had time to say hello.
There was no reply from the other party.
I mean about something like this,” Rosalind clarified. “Kam, I wanted to call you and tell you this morning right after I got out of the meeting, but they convinced me someone might be listening in on the call. I had to wait until it went public.”
No, I understand. Sometimes you have to keep things confidential. But you really think that someone might have bugged your phone or tapped your signal?”
Your brother told me he hooked me up proper when he outfitted BetaHouse’s cells, but with everything you see in the news these day…” Her voice tapered off as she remembered the look on the executives’ faces when they had made the request of her. “To tell the truth, I think they were just pissed that I had an iPhone. Apple is their biggest competitor, but it wasn’t as though half of their corporate office didn’t have them either. Geesh. You want to test it to make sure?”
Kamakshi giggled. “Sure, how?”
Say something you think would make Perez Hilton or the bloggers on CNET salivate.”
Naked Justin Bieber!”
Salivate, not squirm!” The squawking laugh drew a raised eyebrow via the rearview mirror from the driver. “Seriously, though. About me.”
Rosalind Betters hasn’t had sex in two years!”
Rosalind’s hand slapped over her mouth, a mixture of surprise and incredulity. “Kam!”
It wasn’t untrue, unfortunately. Not as though she’d marked the date and kept track. Scanning through the Google calendar in her mind, however, she supposed the math worked out about right. Her brief fling with Craig Ipswitch counted as just another statistic in the graveyard of dead-end relationships, a scenic scattering hosting more than one unkempt and overgrown crypt. All serious suitors had been killed off or seriously maimed – metaphorically speaking- by the growth of her startup the past few years.
C’est la vie. Every silver lining had its cloud. One thing Rosalind knew for sure: unlike scores of literary inventions and hallmark movie heroines, no empty place in her heart existed where a widget called “man” would fit. It wasn’t as though she and Craig had parted on bad terms either. They had a fling both had enjoyed, a few rounds of sheet tag, and then they parted with best wishes to the other. She just couldn’t seem to convince herself the benefit of the relationship justified all the effort to keep it going.

About the Author

Killian McRae would tell you that she is a rather boring lass, an authoress whose characters’ lives are so much more exciting than her own. She would be right. Sadly, this sarcastic lexophile leads a rather mundane existence in the San Francisco Bay Area. She once dreamed of being the female Indiana Jones, and to that end she earned a degree in Middle Eastern History from the University of Michigan. However, when she learned that real archaeologist spend more time lovingly removing dust with toothbrushes from shards of pottery than outrunning intriguing villains with exotic accents, she decided to become a writer instead. She writes across many genres, including science fiction, fantasy, romance, and historical fiction.

Author Social Media Links:

Site/Blog: www.killianmcrae.com
Twitter: @killianmcrae (www.twitter.com/killianmcrae)



Event Giveaway:  
The author is offering an event giveaway.
Giveaway ends October 12th.
(1) Gift basket including signed book, Mae West glamour collection, a CD of Glenn Miller ( Xavier’s favorite musical act), along with other goodies and swag, (1) $25 Amazon, iTunes or BN gift card - International

OR click here
 

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