Tattoo Thief Blog Tour with Guest Post & Review

Welcome to our stop on the blog tour for TATTOO THIEF. We have a fab guest post for you all, none other than the author herself, Heidi Joy Tretheway!

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Title: Tattoo Thief - book 1 of Tattoo Thief Series

Author: Heidi Joy Tretheway

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Release Date: October 8, 2013

Tour hosted by: Inkslinger

Synopsis

22-year-old Beryl doesn't know why Gavin Slater trashed his penthouse, abandoned his dog and fled the country. But as his house sitter, she must pick up the pieces for the front man of the white-hot rock band Tattoo Thief.

When ultra-responsible Beryl confronts the reckless rock star, she wants to know more than just what to do with his mess. Why is he running? What’s he searching for? And is he responsible for the death of his muse?

New York newbie Beryl must find her footing in Gavin’s crazy world of the ultra-wealthy to discover her own direction and what can bring him back.

Steamy, sassy and tender, Tattoo Thief is a story of breaking from a comfort zone to find a second chance.

Purchase links: Amazon US | Amazon UK | Amazon CA

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Find out what Simone thought of  TATTOO THIEF here

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Guest Post: Heidi Joy Tretheway

I have three confessions about Tattoo Thief. Before you cry foul, I can assure you that I wrote every word, and I actually wore a hole in the space bar of my laptop in the process. (I swear I’m not making that up.) I thought it would be fun to share three behind-the-scenes choices I made that shaped this book.

Confession #1: I crowd-sourced the title.

When I started writing the book, I gave my Word document the file name “House sitter.” I named the band in the book “Blind Fury” to echo the crazy, reckless choices my hero, Gavin, makes that set him on a self-destructive course. But partway through writing the book, I did some due diligence and realized the name Blind Fury was already taken by a real band.

So I made a list of alternatives, Googled those names, and hit a wall. Taken, taken, taken, or too close for comfort.

In frustration, I turned to my Facebook friends and asked them for ideas for band names. They absolutely killed it. I think I got fifty suggestions, and friends’ comments helped me decide. As the band name grew on me, I decided to name the book Tattoo Thief as well because it’s short, distinctive and has the right feel for the story.

Writing is often a lonely process, so taking suggestions for the rock band’s name, the names of the coffee shops that appear in the book, and eventually for Gavin’s last name was more than helpful—it was a lifeline. I love the participation, the strong opinions, and how people vote on each other’s ideas. I credited folks who volunteered these ideas with a first or last name appearing on a character.

Confession #2: I didn’t want Tattoo Thief to look like a romance novel.

Soon after I had the title settled and the manuscript first draft done, I worked with a cover designer to create the right look for Tattoo Thief. It started with a photo to capture Gavin, Tattoo Thief’s hero. Because he’s a rock star, I wanted the photo to look more like a Rolling Stone magazine cover than a typically buff guy on a romance novel.

I also knew I didn’t want a “clinch cover”—two people embracing—because so much of Tattoo Thief is the sexual tension of Beryl and Gavin resisting or longing for each other while separated by thousands of miles. My graphic designer nudged me toward the final selection, and I love that you can see Gavin’s haunted face and his freckled chest. For the title text, we chose a grungy texture that the designer recolored red and I tweaked the angles of the legendary font Futura to achieve the title’s look, intended to look like a band name.

Confession #3: I chose a first-person narrative because it was more fun.

I thought about Tattoo Thief for several months before I started writing, so I felt like I understood Beryl’s sassy, optimistic, and wide-eyed perspective from the beginning. While this book could have been written from any perspective, I chose the one that was most fun to write.

One of my favorite aspects of Tattoo Thief is Beryl’s commentary—from describing Stella’s ridiculous fashion to Gavin’s dog Jasper. I don’t think a third-person narrator has as much latitude to describe things in unusual ways, but in the first person, it makes sense. Beryl sometimes speaks with short sentences, slang, or sarcasm, and that makes writing fun and fast. Early readers commented that reading feels this way, too.

There’s also a downside to first person narratives: the plot challenged me because Beryl could only know her side of the story. I couldn’t get inside Gavin’s head, so I had to find a way for Beryl to peel back the mystery of why Gavin trashed his penthouse, abandoned his dog, and fled. Beryl tells us her story in the present, and I think that makes the process of uncovering answers more immediate.

There you go—three confessions and three choices. I hope you have as much fun reading Tattoo Thief as I had writing it. And if you want to help me name characters or places in Tyler & Stella (Tattoo Thief #2), come visit me at facebook.com/author.heidi.

Heidi Joy Tretheway  Bio:

Heidi Joy lives in Happy Valley off Sunnyside Road. She swears she did not make that up.

Heidi’s obsessed with storytelling. Her career includes marketing, journalism, and a delicious few years as a food columnist. Media passes took her backstage with several rock bands, where she learned that sometimes a wardrobe malfunction is exactly what the rock star intends.

You’ll most often find Heidi Joy with her husband and two small kids cooking, fishing, exploring the Northwest, and building epic forts in their living room.

She loves to hear from readers via messages at facebook.com/author.heidi.

Links for Heidi: Blog | Twitter | Facebook | Author Goodreads

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