Crimson Snow by Ina Carter 💕 Fun Facts, Book Tour & Gift Card Giveaway 💕 (Contemporary Romance)

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The Greeks had seven words for LOVE. I felt all of them for ONE MAN…

My name is Lauren, and I was a stolen baby.

They found me in a trailer park in rural Texas when I was eight years old. My childhood wasn’t perfect, but then I had Kevin. He was my everything…

When they returned me to my biological parents, we were torn apart. My new family desperately tried to fix me, make me forget him… My father kept me on a short leash and controlled every aspect of my life. The one thought keeping me afloat was to find Kevin, but he vanished without a trace.

I searched for him for twelve years, but the man I found was not the boy I lost. He is a college baseball star, tattooed, moody, and dark… And he hates me.

Can Kevin help me defeat my demons, or does he have too many of his own?

Writing this book turned me into a baseball fan. Initially, Kevin was supposed to play football. I am a big football fan, and it made sense that my hero will choose to channel his pent-up anger into a sport that is more aggressive in nature. One particular incident changed my mind.

I overheard an argument between my next-door neighbor and his son. The boy plays college baseball, and his dad was not happy with his performance during the season. The boy’s batting cage was right under my window, and after that fight with his father, the pitching machine went on, and he vented all of his frustration, hitting ball after ball, without a miss.

To me, this was exactly how Kevin would have felt.

That particular incident inspired two scenes in my book:

First, the scene where Kevin sneaks into his high-school batting cages, and even though he never played baseball, he displays a natural talent because he channels the anger he held inside him for years.
The second scene was with the little boy- Andres. Kevin helps the kid confronts his issues by drawing his dad’s face on the baseballs he wants to hit.

I got lucky that before COVID quarantine, I did a backstage tour of Dodger’s stadium and learned a lot about the history of the team. I asked my tour guide millions of questions, and in the process, I fell in love with the game. Even though, because of the pandemic, I didn’t get the chance to go to a live game, baseball saved my sanity while watching the season on TV this crazy year. The fact that my home team – The Dodgers, won the World Series for the first time since 1988, felt somewhat prophetic because both my main hero and his brother Liam were fictional players for the team. Who knows, maybe they were the “lucky charms” for the Dodgers this year? 😉

During the research stages of my books, I like to visit the places I am writing about, and feel the vibe of the city, and meet the real people who live there. I like to travel around the US and abroad, so writing a book is a great excuse to pick destinations. Don’t tell my husband, but using Paris as the setting for one of my paranormal romances was not entirely coincidental.

For Crimson Snow, I had a vacation booked to visit a few small towns around Dallas, Texas, but it never happened because of the pandemic. This made me change some of the scenes in the book. Initially, when Kevin was closed up and not willing to share with Lauren what happened to him during the twelve years they were apart, she was supposed to go back to Texas and find out about his misfortunes from Miss Jessie – the librarian who knew them as kids. I wanted to give that small town an authentic feel, but since my trip was canceled, the whole plot of the story changed.

While writing my books, I am inspired by music but I always listen to one particular artist that sets the mood for me. For Crimson Snow, it was the love ballads of the Canadian-Belgian singer/songwriter Lara Fabian. Her French songs brought all the feels 😊
All the characters in my book are not based on real people, but Marina was named after my mom. The character is nothing like my mom, but I wanted to commemorate her name in one of my books since she passed away five years ago. My readers would be happy to know that Marina gets her own book in the future.

“The Greeks had seven words for Love, Laurie. And somehow, I know I’ll experience all of them with you… Philautia is the only selfish love and for a long time I didn’t love myself. When I doubted myself, I remembered you, and how you used to look at me. To you, I was a giant, someone who could move mountains and conquer dragons. Even now, you look at me the same way, and I feel stronger in your hands, and want to be a better man…”

He was telling me things that were making my heart hammer in my chest, but at the same time, his fingers were burning fire on my skin, because with every button he undid, he caressed the skin underneath. Kevin was seducing me with his words, and I was melting under his fingers.

“When we were kids, my love for you was Philia – a brotherly love, that innocent feeling you have for a friend. It might have been platonic, but just because you are small doesn’t mean your capacity to love is less. In fact, a child’s love is unbridled, unconditional, the purest form of emotion I can think of… And you and I will always have that… To this day, I feel Philia for you, and I always will.”

Kevin then leaned and placed a kiss over his name on my chest, leaving an imprint more permanent than the engraving on my skin.

“Philia, baby, is also the love of the mind, and it is what makes us feel safe in each other’s presence. With you, I am not afraid to share any of my struggles, and you freed me. I carried so much pain internally, but you took it away…”

Then Kevin took my face between his palms and kissed my cheek, in the same gentle way as the young boy of my childhood did when I was sad – he always kissed the tears away.

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Ina Carter has always been an avid reader. She discovered her love for writing at an early age when her first poem was published in a literary magazine at age twelve. As a lifetime collector of inspirational stories, Ina believes that love is the most powerful force in the Universe. She writes in multiple genres – romantic comedies, contemporary and paranormal. Ina lives in Southern California with her husband, two kids, and one very temperamental cat. You can find more about Ina and future book releases at www.InaCarter.com.