Behind the Author: Terry Spear (#Giveaway)

All month long Reading Between the Wines Book Club is taking you BEHIND THE AUTHOR! Find out what your favorite authors do when they're not writing the books we love to read. Some just might surprise you! Our first guest is historical and paranormal romance author, Terry Spear. Welcome!

Creations of Characters, Worlds and…Bears!

By Terry Spear

When I was a kid, I made up stories, shared them with my friends, and took creative writing in high school, in addition to English literature. But I also was the only one in my family who really learned to sew. My mom did some when she had to, but neither she nor my grandmothers sewed. 

I began with embroidery work, cross-stitching, and every Christmas I'd get some kind of craft pictures to create—embroidered pictures, pillowcases to embroider, tea towels. I hooked rugs, made quilts, and when I was in high school, learned to make dresses. And I was creating cloth dolls and bunnies. But my parents were creating carriages for dolls and they asked me if I could make an old-fashioned teddy bear to display on their doll furniture for the doll and teddy bear shows that they were attending.

That was the beginning of Wilde & Woolly Bears.

When my kids were little, I was teaching them to read and making up my own children's stories. I was also creating teddy bears—some selling to stores all over the States, some winning awards for dressed bears, most unique bears and best of show. Some were featured in Teddy Bear Review Magazine, The MacNeill Galley, Texas Monthly Magazine, and Texas Co-op Magazine. Some were in newspapers and in the Spectral Vision Film's The International Teddy Bear Collection.

I create all kinds of different bears—the Celtic Clan Bears for Scottish roots, since I love all things Scottish. I write both Highland medieval and Highland contemporary wolf romance, mainly because I have Highland roots. The Steampunk Bears were a new creation because a friend wanted one for her daughter. And I ended up with nine more orders for them. My fanciful, colorful Rainbow Bears and Sherbet Bears are a big hit. And the more standard brown teddy bear is too, though even so, I have one that is like a faux rabbit fur, and another black tipped, grizzly bear fur, which gives them a special uniqueness. I made a Red Dragon Bear—red fur bear with a red and black dragon cloak—and that was a hit. So now I've ordered some dragon fabric in blue and gold, purple and gold, and black and gold and will make some new Dragon Bears up as soon as I get the fabric in. I've sold a lot of wizard bears with their wizardly cloaks, old world Santa Bears, and even Jester Bears. I make mostly faux fur bears—though most of the fur is expensive--$20-$45 per yard, I also make mohair bears and that gets up to $145 per yard. But some collectors only want mohair, so I began to make a few of those. 

I've made everything from a pirate bear with a peg-leg (won first place for most unique bear) to vampire bears. And they've found homes all over the world from Canada to Australia, France, Belgium, Wales, South Africa, Russia, China, and Kazakhstan and all over the States.

I've made bears for authors to giveaway to their fans for new book releases and I've donated bears to raffle baskets and at Facebook parties to celebrate my own releases. Who wouldn't want a unique teddy bear to call their own?

What I love about them is that each is a unique creation, just like the characters in my stories. They all have their own personalities, so for me, creating a new bear is truly a new bear. Not just a copy of ten others before her. 

Like creating stories, I find the ultimate joy in creating the bears and in the end, love sharing them with the world! For years, I've been known as the Bear Lady, and only more recently, the Wolf Goddess, with the creation of my werewolf series. As long as no one calls me a Cougar (because of my cougar shifter series), we're good.

Thanks so much to Crystal for having me here today to talk about my bears and books! I'm giving away a print copy of A Highland Wolf Christmas to a U.S. winner, and an ebook copy of Highland Rake to a winner located anywhere. Also, an audiobook copy for Winning the Highlander's Heart.

A Highland Wolf Christmas 

(Heart of the Wolf #15)

by Terry Spear 

Mass Market Paperback, 320 pages

Published October 7th 2014 by Sourcebooks Casablanca

ISBN 1402293763

Financial advisor Guthrie MacNeill isn’t a complete Scrooge—he just hates the enormous cost associated with the Christmas holiday season. Needless to say, when his pack hires a party planner to decorate the castle, he’s at his wit’s end. Until Calla Stewart arrives on the scene with her mistletoe in hand.Calla has never had a client as difficult as Guthrie, but she’s determined to give the pack a Christmas season they will never forget—no matter how much it costs. But when her ex-fiancé begins stalking her and threatening her safety, Guthrie decides to loosen his grip on the purse strings and let out his inner Highland warrior wolf to protect her.

AMAZON

Highland Rake 

(The Highlanders #3)

by Terry Spear 

Paperback, 390 pages

Published November 1st 2012 by Createspace

ISBN 1480259039 

Dougald MacNeill is the next to youngest MacNeill brother and he's not about to settle down, until Lady Alana Cameron is placed squarely in his lap... and then, the trouble begins.

When Dougald finds Alana roaming the heather on the MacNeill lands, he takes her in hand to see his laird brother James at Craigly Castle to determine her fate. But who has sent her there and why? Her uncle, laird of the Cameron clan, that has warred with the MacNeills for years, has made a marriage arrangement with another clan and now that is even at stake.Having witnessed her father's death, and even believing he had returned her home when all along he had been dead, Alana discovers she has the gift, or curse, of seeing the newly departed and sometimes those who should have long ago passed over. Her own deceased brother continues to plague her, the rake, and now another, who is very much of the flesh, Dougald MacNeill, has her thinking marrying a rake might just have its benefits. Dougald's sister, who is one feisty ghost, has offered to help Alana keep Dougald in line if he thinks of even straying.

But who sent Alana on a fool's errand in the first place to remove her from the Cameron's lands and set her squarely in Dougald's care, and who really killed her father and her brother, and what has it all to do with Alana? Will she and Dougald learn the truth before it is too late? 

AMAZON

Winning the Highlander's Heart 

(The Highlanders #1)

by Terry Spear

Paperback, 328 pages

Published August 30th 2006 by Vintage Romance Publishing

ISBN 0978536835 

Lady Anice vows to flee the amorous advances of King Henry I, and return to her home in the Highlands, where she hopes to find a laird to wed, when she learns her staff has vanished. Premonitions of imminent danger warn her of foul play and she is certain she is cursed when it comes to marriage.The king orders the Highlander Laird Malcolm MacNeill, seeking an English bride, to provide the lass safe escort and learn what has become of her staff. Escorting her home safely proves a dangerous trial in and of itself and keeping his heart out of the matter, when the king wishes her wed to one of his loyal barons instead, complicates issues further. Losing his heart to the lass means Malcolm could very well lose his head. 

AMAZON

About the Author:

USA Today bestselling and award-winning author Terry Spear has written over fifty paranormal romance novels and four medieval Highland historical romances. Her first werewolf romance, Heart of the Wolf, was named a 2008 Publishers Weekly's Best Book of the Year, and her subsequent titles have garnered high praise and hit the USA Today bestseller list. A retired officer of the U.S. Army Reserves, Terry lives in Crawford, Texas, where she is working on her next werewolf romance, shapeshifting jaguars, cougar shifters, vampires, hot Highlanders, and having fun with her young adult novels. For more information, please visit www.terryspear.com, or follow her on Twitter, @TerrySpear. She is also on Facebook. And on Wordpress at:Terry Spear's Shifters. And her Wilde & Woolley Bears, award-winning teddy bears, that have found homes all over the world.

GIVEAWAY:

As Terry mentioned above she is giveaway away three great prizes today! To enter, just leave a comment on this post letting us know; do you have any hobbies that you do in your spare time? If so, what? If not, feel free to leave a question or comment for Terry! :-) Then be sure to fill out the rafflecopter below. Good luck! 

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