Guest Post & Giveaway with Author Elise K. Ackers

I have author Elise K. Ackers here with us talking about her latest release, The Man Plan.

Welcome to The Book Vixen Elise!

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I seem to be a writer affected by environment. My first book, Small Town Storm, was inspired by an idyllic township and the picturesque valleys surrounding it. My upcoming title, Unforgettable, was inspired by a fascinating concert hall redevelopment project I worked on. And this title, The Man Plan, came to me during the summer I lived on Port Phillip bay.

The sun was soaking into everything, making it gold and bright. The sky and sand were as blue and white as a postcard would demand. People were everywhere in sundresses, exercise gear, alfresco pubs and restaurants, and optimism was in the air.

Which forcibly reminds me of this contemporary romance's lead character. Cora Pedersen is bright, warm and optimistic - she's the human equivalent of a perfect summer. She's that girl you see jogging along the beach with her dog, or catching a guy's eye at the market hall. Despite being recently orphaned and alone in the world, she's strong enough to push against the cold and the dark, and willing to change her life - in the same way we throw open our windows and breathe in the day.

So if Cora is summer, then her downstairs neighbour, Matt Shelley, is winter.

He's had a life of hard knocks. His family is despicable and emotionally abusive and by the time he moved out, his heart was a mess of scar tissue and negativity. He doesn't want the domestic dream Cora's looking for, because to him, family means something entirely different. He just wants to keep to himself, that way no one can hurt him again.

Hardly the perfect match for Cora.

Yet they work. Her warm to his cool; his slow to her fast.

And it makes me hope that all the people in the world like Matt, get to find their Cora.

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Elise K. Ackers was born in New South Wales, Australia, but she grew up in Western Australia, northern Queensland, Sydney's Blue Mountains, and the Victorian Dandenong Ranges. Suffice to say, she enjoys change and likes to travel.

Elise was a storyteller before she was a writer. For hours on end she would recount every moment of her kindergarten days to her mum, pausing often for dramatic effect. She would help her dad finish bed-time stories - sending the family dog and cat to the moon, amongst other adventures. And almost from the start her parents knew. They just knew what she'd grow up to be.

In later years she wrote plays. Her older brother was the lighting designer and the sound producer and she was the leading lady, the hero and the villain. She wrote and distributed a weekly family newsletter and had a hand-made mailbox taped to her primary school desk to accept letters from friends who were co-authoring an epic animal adventure story.

In high school she co-authored numerous books of fan fiction: her sections invariably brought her favourite TV couples together. She "published" her first work of romantic fiction in eighth grade. It was passed around and praised, but the reviews were hard to bear. That was the first and last time Elise killed her male hero. Turns out, it's just not done.

Whilst studying Psychology at university she was really just learning how to better understand her characters, so she eventually took herself seriously enough to change majors and study creative writing and editing. Throughout her studies she traveled extensively, visiting the United Kingdom, Europe, Malaysia and South East Asia. She wrote about all of it.

Elise is now in her mid-twenties and lives in Melbourne. She's a magnet for unusual accidents, an animal foster carer, a laser tag enthusiast and a couch commentator. She attempted to learn four instruments before she accepted she wasn't musical and tends to end up on a plane when she's bored. Owing to a broken internal compass she needs to factor getting lost into her travel time.

She got her long awaited break when Small Town Storm began making a name for itself in the international competition circuit. A pitch at a writing conference led to The Call.

Find the author online: website | twitter | facebook

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Cora is 'over' being alone. She has no family, and all her friends are couples. Fed up with feeling sorry for herself, Cora hatches a plan to find a good, loving man she can call her own. Her deadline is Christmas – she doesn't want to spend another holiday by herself.

Just as she decides her strategy, she meets Matt, her downstairs neighbor. They become unlikely friends, with Matt an amused bystander as Cora tries various methods in search of a man.

Then something strange happens. Matt, who spends his life avoiding commitment, begins to feel jealous of the men Cora is dating and his resolve to never fall in love begins to crumble. Cora finds herself increasingly attracted to Matt. But is he Good Husband material? She thinks not.

A light-hearted, contemporary romance about a young woman who goes looking for love, only to find it right under her nose.

    

Read an excerpt.

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Thanks to Elise K. Ackers, one lucky winner will receive an ebook copy of The Man Plan. Good luck to all who enter!

• No purchase necessary.
• Must be 18 years old or older to enter.
• Giveaway open Internationally. Void where prohibited.
• Comments are appreciated, however, you must fill out the Rafflecopter form in order to enter this giveaway.
• Please read TBV's Giveaway Policy before entering.
• Giveaway ends 9:01 pm (Pacific Time) on 2/21/2013.

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