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Welcome, Delancey! Where are you from originally and where do you call home?

Hi Reese! I grew up in Fresno, California. But I married a Marine, so we move a lot! Right now we live in Southern Maryland.

We know you love writing. What other hobbies or activities do you enjoy?

I’ve been a ballet dancer since I was three – though I took about a 20 year break (from about 18 to 38). I’ve found a couple great studios near our home and take a couple classes a week. I also work out a few times a week and run. I’m a huge wine geek, so I make up for any calories burned by drinking wine! I read like a fiend, and also have a bit of a TV habit, though we don’t have cable anymore so I have to hunt down the shows I want to watch online now… I also crochet (while I watch TV!)

What kind of stories do you typically write? Do you write in any other genres?

Right now I’m really enjoying writing romance, specifically for the new adult age group. I’ve also written some literary fiction, historical, and ya paranormal.

When did you know you wanted to be a writer and how’d you get started in your writing career?

I have always been a writer, depending on how you define the term… but from the time I was a tiny kid, I’ve know that I wanted to write books for others to read. I was an English major in college, but I didn’t really focus on writing with publication as a goal until recently. Two years ago I told my husband that I’d always meant to write a book. With my 40th birthday looming, it felt like if I didn’t do it before then, I might never do it. So I began committing time to the effort, taking workshops, attending conferences and learning about the industry. Everything kind of snowballed from there!

Before we discuss your most recent release—A Rare Vintage—tell us what else you’ve written and give us a brief synopsis.

My first published book was called “Through a Dusty Window – New York City Stories 1910-2001” and is a collection of ten short stories all set in one brownstone on NYC’s upper west side. Each story is set in a different decade from 1910 to 2001, and though they are fictional, they focus on the social and cultural changes taking place in the city and the country during the years in which they are set. Events considered within the stories include the Hindenberg, WWII, Lennon’s murder, the Son of Sam killings and the destruction of the World Trade Center.

Redemption Road is the book I’m working on now. It’s another in the Wine Country Romance series, and is a new adult romance set in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. The plot centers on an unlikely partnership between a culinary student and a recently-returned veteran of the Afghanistan conflict, who is struggling with the mental repercussions of his time overseas. This book, like A Rare Vintage, will give readers a deeper understanding of a particular varietal (in this case Pinot Noir), but is basically a love story.

Lastly, I’m working on a series for Swoon Romance called Girlfriends of Gotham. The first book, Men and Martinis, focuses on one of the “girlfriends” – Candace. Candace Kanie wins at every game she plays. From the boardroom to the bar, she’s confident, clever, perhaps just a tad overbearing. It’s not easy for a girl like Candace to admit that love may be the one game she can’t win…at least not until she’s willing to change her strategy. In Men and Martinis, Candace Kanie will learn that sometimes to be at the top of your game, you have to hit rock bottom.

Tell us a little about your background and what inspired you to write A Rare Vintage.

At one point in my life, I sold wine for a French importer, and fell in love with everything about it. I’m a complete wine geek and will happily talk with anyone who will engage me about anything from harvesting to fermenting to bottling – and especially drinking! – wine. It was a natural fit to build a series around that passion. The goal in each book is to tell a great love story, but also to provide a bit of targeted education about a particular varietal that will give the reader a greater appreciation of what’s in those pretty bottles, even if he or she isn’t a wine lover.

Tell us about Isabella DaSilva and Jonathan Sauvage (Love those names!) and what brings them together.

Isabella finishes her graduate program at Cornell to work as an apprentice to a winemaker using old world techniques in California’s central valley. The winemaker, Jonathan, is struggling both professionally and personally. Isabella begins to see that she might have the power to salvage the winery – and possibly Jonathan. But she’s got secrets of her own, too.

Now let’s talk about your new adult series that in the works—Girlfriends of Gotham. Interesting title. What can we expect from the series and how many books will it include?

Girlfriends of Gotham is a series I’m writing for Swoon Romance. The series will contain at least three titles, and potentially more. (Right now we’re contracted for three). Girlfriends of Gotham is a voyeuristic voyage through the lives of a group of twenty-something girls who dance, date, and drink their way through Manhattan during the days of the dot com boom. During an era when the up-and-comers in New York were partying like Studio 54 had never died, this group of friends discovers that the city is theirs for the taking; and they find their often-hilarious way through the forces that work to redefine the way they know themselves and each other.

When will the first book in the series, Men and Martinis be available?

Men and Martinis will publish in November 2013!

What can we expect from Delancey Stewart in the future?

Um… more books? 🙂

Summary:

Isabella DaSilva, a fiery grad student from Cornell’s wine program is eager to leave her past behind her and forge a future in the vineyards of the West as an apprentice at Chateau Sauvage, a winery seeking to produce wine like no other California wineries had so far — Rhone varietals.

She arrives at Chateau Sauvage to find that wine might not be her only interest. The winemaker, Jonathan Sauvage, is tall, dark, and handsome, and clearly in need of help. Together, they work to make a pioneering wine in an effort to keep the struggling winery afloat. Each struggles with their demons — hers in the form of a painful and mysterious past; his created by memories of what once might have been. In the process, they find that the pain of their shattered pasts fit together perfectly, making their union as perfect as the wine it produces.

A Rare Vintage features an intense and commanding hero who isn’t afraid to ask for help, and a woman who knows that while she might technically be the apprentice, she has plenty to teach Jonathan Sauvage.

This book is the first in the Wine Country Romance series. The second book, Redemption Red, will be out at the end of the summer.

Goodreads links:

A Rare Vintage: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17875120-a-rare-vintage

Redemption Red: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18133675-redemption-red

Bio:

Delancey Stewart has lived on both coasts, in big cities and small towns. She’s been a pharmaceutical rep, a personal trainer and a wine seller. Despite lots of other interests, she has always been a writer in some way, shape, or form.

A military spouse and the mother of two small boys, her current job titles include pirate captain, monster hunter, Lego assembler and story reader, as well as tech writer for a defense contractor and freelance editor. She tackles all these efforts at her current home in Southern Maryland.

Delancey Stewart is the author of Through a Dusty Window: New York City Stories 1910-2001 and the Wine Country Romance Series.

She is also working on the Girlfriends of Gotham Series for Swoon Romance. The first book, Men and Martinis, will be released in Fall 2013.

Connect with Delancey Stewart Online:

Website: https://delanceystewart.wordpress.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/delancey.stewart

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DelanceyStewart

Purchase A Rare Vintage on Amazon: