Guest Blog: Avery Flynn

Where My Tats At? By Avery Flynn

OK, I’m old. Not like old, old but old enough to remember when getting a tattoo was an act of bad-assery on par with a night in jail. At least in my family it was. So you can imagine that the first thing I did when I went off to college was to get a tattoo. A nice, green shamrock on the hip. I followed that up with a second trip to add a trio of daisies in a circle around it.

My mother was less than amused. She rolled her eyes and told me to just wait until I saw what it looked like when I got pregnant. It hurts me to type this, but she was right. My shamrock looked like an alien octopus when I was nine months pregnant with Flynn kid No. 1. By the time Flynn kid No. 3 came around, I’d gotten over the shock.

The little shamrock has never looked the same, but I still love it and wouldn’t give it up for anything. It’s a visual reminder of where I’ve been. I only have one other tattoo, a J that looks like the first decorative letter in a fairytale. That was my celebration for retaining my sanity while the fabulous Mr. Flynn served in Iraq for a year.

I didn’t plan on tatting up Josie Winarsky, my heroine in Passion Creek which is coming out Aug. 31. A struggling painter and Vegas cocktail waitress, she is a free spirit with plenty of chutzpah, but the idea of adding tattoos didn’t occur until I came across this photo. I saw it and something clicked inside me. This girl is the short-haired version of Josie Winarsky (also, I’d kill to look that good as a blonde) .

That little detail really helped formulate a picture of Josie in my head and her character just took off after that. My favorite of Josie’s tattoos is one on her right bicep of a tiny, pink princess slaying a fire-breathing dragon. That image defines Josie’s character and the way she sees herself. So when a slimy Vegas loan shark comes after one of her family members, well, you know she isn’t about to let that one go.

So do you have any tattoos? If so, what do they say about you?

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Avery Flynn has three slightly-wild children, loves a hockey-addicted husband and is desperately hoping someone invents the coffee IV drip. Evernight Publishing released the first two books in her Layton Family series, Temptation Creek and Seduction Creek. The third book in the series, Passion Creek, is scheduled for release on Aug. 31. Find out more about Avery on her blog (www.averyflynn.com), follow her on Twitter (https://twitter.com/averyflynn), like her on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Avery-Flynn/177161972329973) or friend her on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/avery.flynn.7). Also, if you figure out how to send Oreos through the Internet, she’ll be your best friend for life.

Passion Creek Blurb (book trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=TSQely51PYI) :

Uptight history professor Sam Layton may have the abs of a movie action hero, but he stopped believing in the joy of adventure a long time ago. However, when a one-night stand with a tattooed bombshell leads to a treasure map for the long-buried Rebecca’s Bounty, the call to action is too strong to ignore.

All Las Vegas cocktail waitress Josie Winarsky wants to do is paint. But when she lands smack dab in the middle in a mob plot, she has to push aside her dreams to find a treasure  in Dry Creek, Nebraska and save her family from harm. With Sam at her side and a Vegas loan shark on her tail, the treasure she finds turn out to be much more valuable than emeralds and rubies.

Passion Creek by Avery Flynn available Aug. 31