Kate Douglas Presents Alesia Holiday/Alyssa Day

I'm a fangirl. Big time. When a book totally blows me away, I want to know the person who created the magic that held me spellbound from the first page to the last. After I discovered the first of Alyssa Day's WARRIORS OF POSEIDON series, ATLANTIS RISING in March 2007, I knew I had to meet the author, and I'm so glad I did. The next book in the series, ATLANTIS AWAKENING, was even better and after reading an advance copy of ATLANTIS UNLEASHED, I can say that it confirmed my cause for hero worship...the book is wonderful, but so is the author. Alesia is an absolutely amazing young woman with a very special post to share with all of us. Please give Alesia Holliday, aka Alyssa Day, a great big Quills welcome.

Oh, yeah...did I mention that when I met Alyssa she had BLUE hair? No...I didn't think so.

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Sundays are the hardest

My husband left today. He'll be gone for six months — half a year — defending our country and standing up for the ideals that are not mere words to him, but the touchstones of a fierce patriotism that is built deep in the marrow of his bones. I am so proud of him. He lives the principles that keep us free. He stands up for the rights that my heart and soul believe in, such as one so cherished by an author: the right to use my words as I will, without fear of censorship or harm.

But Sundays are hard.

We have a deep and true love, a passionate love, an "it has been 14 years and we still laugh and hug and surprise each other" love. The kind of love that allows me to write romance novels and believe so very deeply in the strength of that lifetime kind of love. He's my husband and my love and my best friend. He's Daddy and Coach and homework helper and Broccoli Song singer and pancake maker. He's everything that we hope the heroes become in the "Epilogues" of our novels.

And now he's gone. We'll manage to keep busy and happy all week long, doing the things that life requires of us. But Sundays are family day. Sundays are when Daddy wrestles and throws the ball and cooks the pancakes. Sundays without him are lonely beyond the telling of it.

We have a . . . tradition . . . (Pattern? Hideous history?) in our marriage that everything stressful always happens at once. So my book that lightning and a computer virus killed, the one I'm reconstructing from notes and the 5000 words that were all I had left, is due now. The new book, ATLANTIS UNLEASHED, comes out June 2nd, so I'm on the promo tour. And we've spent the past few weeks getting Judd ready to leave; collecting what he'd need to be apart from us for six months. But yesterday things got really bad: we took our 3-year-old darling pug to the vet and learned that she has cancer. Things are not looking good.

These are the times that test a marriage—that cause Happy Ever After to stretch, strain, and sometimes fracture. The times that tell you, once and forever, if your hero is REALLY a hero. If true love is the forever-after kind, or just the flash-in-the-pan of heat and hormones and lust.

And that's the kind of love I want to write about—the kind that will survive. That's what I want my hero and heroine to find. I want my readers to close my books, content, knowing that this is a love that will survive deployments, sick dogs, teenaged children, unemployment, recessions, and every other kind of hard, hard time.

The kind of love we all deserve — the kind that gets us through lonely Sundays.

Thanks so much to Kate and the wonderful authors here at Running With Quills for inviting me to stop by!! And thanks to all of the military families out there for everything you do. May all of your Sundays be happy and your families return home to you safe and sound.

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Alyssa Day is the RITA-award winning and USA Today bestselling author of the Warriors of Poseidon series about a race of warriors from the lost continent of Atlantis who find forever love with human women with very special talents. Her newest release, ATLANTIS UNLEASHED, in a store near you on June 2nd:

Critics are raving:

Romance Reviews Today gave Atlantis Unleashed a rare Perfect 10!: ATLANTIS UNLEASHED is an epic thrill ride that should not be missed.- Romance Reviews Today

"Alyssa Day's Warriors of Poseidon series is fascinating, thrilling and deeply romantic. The perfect blend of fabulous world building and sexy romantic-adventure." — Jayne Castle, aka the fabulous Jayne Ann Krentz

Teaser for ATLANTIS UNLEASHED:

Lord Justice of Atlantis made the ultimate sacrifice for his brother and paid for it with an unimaginable torture. Now he's back, rescued from death, his sanity shaken, and his mission inescapable—the search for the lost Star of Artemis. But the beautiful human female whom he has sworn to protect has dangerous secrets of her own. When two hearts collide, power and passion must be unleashed!

Please visit Alyssa at www.alyssaday.com or watch her TV interview about being a Mom and Navy wife and writer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xboM0rGLpSA.