Blogiversary Guest Renee Dahlia on 10 Years and Reflection

Hi friends! I’d like you to welcome back Renee Dahlia, who very generously offered to help us celebrate 10 years of blogging – and offer a giveaway! She took the time to write us this post, so I hope you enjoy!

Happy 10 years to A Little Bit Tart, A Little Bit Sweet
Renee Dahlia

Sometime in the middle of 2020, I was driving my car and people were calling in with stories of their worst cars. Someone rang up and talked about how they had a car where the CD got stuck in the player and they were forced to listen to the same CD over and over.

When I offered to write something for the tenth anniversary of this blog, it made complete sense to talk about Craving His Spotlight. This story is about having another go at life, about looking back at the past, and thinking about how to use those old experiences for good. The thing about anniversaries is they tend to make people think about the past and how far they’ve come in that time.

Craving His Spotlight opens with a voice and a memory.

Vince would know that voice anywhere. The rich dulcet smoky voice with sultry notes. Truly, it was the only good thing about the bloody pop beat of those songs. For two long years, he’d listened to it on endless repeat, because there was no other option. Hearing that voice meant only one thing—the lead singer of So You Think was here in the office of Vince’s advertising company, Kapow. It must be over a decade since the boy band was huge. He shuddered. That fucking car with the So You Think CD stuck in the dash represented some of the worst years of his life. Nah, not the absolute worst. They were the end of the worst and the beginning of now.

Ten years ago, I wasn’t an author. I was a writer of non-fiction, and I entertained myself with bed time stories. I guess that sounds a bit strange, but I’ve always found it tricky to fall asleep even as a child. I don’t remember when I began this habit. It feels like it’s always been with me. I would lie in bed, in the dark, and slowly tell myself a story about someone living a life better than mine. The stories would take months, sometimes years, to revel themselves as I imagined different locations and characters; all loosely based on whatever I’d been reading at the time. Looking back, it’s pretty wild that I didn’t realise that I was a storyteller. If anyone is interested in what changed and why I started writing fiction, that story is on my website.

Ten years is a long time. Congratulations to ALBTALBS for the anniversary and may there be many more years discussing books.

Can a second chance at fame avoid repeating old mistakes?
RILEY MICAH is at a cross-roads in his life. As a teen he found fame as lead singer for So You Think, but he lost it all in a haze of alcoholism. He’s been clean for eight years, absolutely bloody sober. To sort out his life, he hid in the outback, working for a local council as part of a road crew. Unlike the stereotype of a road worker, it was hard physical work and it made him lean and tough. Recently, a tune he uploaded to Triple J Unearthed under a new name gets airplay on the radio, and he has a decision to make. Can he go back to life as a famous musician? If he tells people that Riley Le Breton is Riley Micah, the old lead singer for So You Think, the song—and perhaps his music career—will take off. But at what cost to his sober self? He needs a marketing plan to help him control it all; the money, the message, the impact on his sobriety.
VINCE CATTANEO has spent over a decade getting rich. His grandfather was rich, but his father lost it all on gambling and drugs, and it was Vince’s mission to put that failure behind him and regain the family wealth. Now Vince is the owner of Kapow Marketing and no one will ever suspect that he spent the last years of his teens driving a beat up old car with a radio that wouldn’t work and a CD stuck in the player. So You Think; on repeat for two years. If he never hears those songs again, it’ll be too soon. When one of the band members walks into Kapow needing a marketing plan to deal with sudden new success, Vince is surprised at the way his voice resonates with him. He knows one thing is true; he doesn’t want to get stuck on repeat, like the CD, chasing the untrustworthy love of an addict.

What do you win and how do you win it? Well Renee has offered YOUR CHOICE of any (digital) currently available book in her Kapow series (Out of Her League, His Buxom Beauty, or Craving His Spotlight). How do you win it? Answer Renee’s question: What is your favourite romance hero/heroine name?

6 thoughts on “Blogiversary Guest Renee Dahlia on 10 Years and Reflection

  1. flchen1

    Hm. I’m not sure I’ve got a favorite–I tend to prefer classic names, but otherwise, don’t think I have one name I gravitate towards! Congratulations on finding your way as an author, Renee Dahlia!

    Reply
  2. Limecello

    Hi Renee!

    Thank you very much for joining me in my blogiversary! <3
    [I’m not entering the giveaway!] But … I think my favorite hero name is Maximilian 😛 Just because it’s old school. Rhysand is a good one/actually my most favorite romance hero ever, thus far.
    For girls names … nothing off the top of my head. I actually don’t care for “trendy names as contemporary romance heroines” though because they’re anachronistic often and really distracting to me – e.g. if the heroine is named the “it” name of the year … well then she’d be 1-2 years old. 🙄

    Reply

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