GUEST POST BY KAYA QUINSEY

ABOUT THE BOOK

Valentine in Venice

Valentine Wells returns to Venice. After having visited ten years earlier when she was just sixteen years old, it was where she had impulsively met Lorenzo Dipachio. Her first kiss. Her first love.


Now twenty-six, Valentine is a successful wedding photographer in Chicago. Still impulsive, Valentine is recently divorced after being married for about a minute in Las Vegas. And she doesn't miss the irony of being a divorced wedding photographer. Also dealing with her mother's recent diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer's, Valentine's father convinces her that she needs a break.


Now that she is back in Venice, Valentine wants to prove to herself that she's no longer the impulsive, daring girl who got married (and quickly divorced) in Vegas to a man she barely knew. Now, she is living by a new set of rules: planned, cautious, and carefully executed.
But her plan is challenged when she falls (literally) into the path of her first love, Lorenzo. And with Valentine's Day around the corner, will Valentine be able to keep herself from making another big mistake?


A Coastal Christmas

Author Kaya Quinsey returns with her trademark blend of romance and adventure, in this page turning story about a love to remember and a Christmas never to forget.


Successful broadcaster Jessica Beaton has it all: the perfect New York City apartment, high-flying career, and handsome boyfriend. And with Christmas around the corner, she has her sights set on one thing. A ring.


But Jessica is humiliated when her co-host and boyfriend, Brett Fanshaw, almost proposes to her on-air before backing out, leaving her dumped and embarrassed on national television. In the midst of her heartbreak, Jessica leaves to go home to Pebble Shores for the holidays for the first time in years.

While retreating at her family's seaside cottage to evaluate her life, Jessica finds herself butting heads with Dean Adams, the mayor of Pebble Shores, who isn't thrilled to have the media spotlight shed on their small town. Jessica couldn't imagine anyone being more of a Grinch.
Over the Christmas season, Jessica finds herself more enamored with life in Pebble Shores, the community spirit, and to her own surprise, Dean Adams. Can a small-town mayor and big-city broadcaster have the romance that Jessica always dreamed of?


Paris Mends Broken Hearts

Gwendoline Delacroix finds herself fleeing Paris in a desperate attempt to escape the memories that haunt her in her French countryside chateau. Following the aftermath of WWII, she had become a widower and desperately missing her husband, Jean. Although her loyal and quirky staff do their best to keep her afloat, Gwendoline eventually takes charge and in a quick turn of events, finds herself at the Hotel de la Belle Paix - the hotel run by her brother and sister-in-law in the Latin Quarter in Paris.

Over the summer, Gwendoline finds work at an animal sanctuary run by an eccentric aristocrat. With new friends, an elderly cat, and a glass of wine in hand, Gwendoline proves to herself and everyone else that there is life after lost love.


Entertaining? Of course! Joyful? Undoubtedly. Champagne? Bien sur! In Paris, nothing is predictable, and everything is extraordinary.



Book Details:


Title: Love, Amour, Amore: A Collection of Three Love Stories From Around The World

Author: Kaya Quinsey

Genre: Sweet Romance, Anthology

Publisher: Books To Go Now, (February 5 2019)

Print length: 154 pages

GUEST POST BY KAYA QUINSEY

It should come as no surprise that my books are heavy on the romance. Anyone who knows me knows that I am a hopeless romantic. So when my publishers at Books To Go Now suggested an anthology of my three sweet romance novellas (Valentine in Venice, A Coastal Christmas, and Paris Mends Broken Hearts) be published in time for Valentine’s Day, of course I said yes! It resulted in Love, Amour, Amore: A Collection of Three Love Stories From Around the World. And it certainly doesn’t have to be Valentine’s Day to read about love.

A common thread that runs through my books is a love of food. In Valentine in Venice, on more than one occasion I go into detail about the delicious food Italy has to offer. The same thing goes for Paris Mends Broken Hearts (kouign amann’s are to die for) and A Coastal Christmas (who doesn’t love gingerbread and cinnamon sprinkled into their coffee?)

I love cooking – in fact, you can find a few recipes tucked away in the back of each of my novellas to date. I’m going to share one of my personal favorites today (it’s also a favorite of my fiancés), which I hope you can enjoy with a good book in hand.

Oatmeal-Cherry Tarte

This is an easy, healthy recipe that can be enjoyed with a cup of coffee for breakfast, or as a delicious (and healthy) dessert at the end of the week. Enjoy!

Ingredients

1 cup of whole-wheat flour
½ cup of rolled oats
½ cup of brown sugar
2 teaspoons of baking powder
¾ cup of whole milk
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
a pinch of salt
a sprinkle of cinnamon
1 cup of frozen (or de-pitted fresh) cherries

Directions

1.    In a bowl, mix together flour, oats, sugar, baking powder, milk, olive oil, vanilla extract, cinnamon, and salt.

2.    Pour into a greased baking dish.

3.    Top with cherries.

4.    Bake at 375 ° for 30 to 40 minutes (or until golden brown).

5.    Enjoy!

Check out my Love it Or Leave it Interview with Kaya from January 2019!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kaya Quinsey is the author of Paris Mends Broken Hearts, Valentine in Venice, A Coastal Christmas, and most recently, Love, Amour, Amore: A Collection of Three Love Stories From Around The World. Her work has sold in seven countries. She holds her undergraduate and master’s degree in psychology. Kaya’s passion for culture, travel, and psychology blend for a reading style that is fun, full of surprises, and easy to read. A romantic at heart, Kaya’s writing offers a contemporary twist to traditional love stories. Through her stories, she hopes to inspire readers to fiercely chase their dreams.

Connect with Kaya:
Website  |  Twitter  |  Goodreads  |    Instagram 

Buy the book:
Amazon  |  Barnes & Noble  |  Kobo  

FEATURED AUTHOR: EMMANUELLA HRISTOVA

ABOUT THE BOOK

The Day My Kisses Tasted Like Disorder is a collection of poems that explores a tumultuous year of love, heartbreak, and all kinds of unimaginable loss. Emmanuella's debut poetry book documents the birth and death of a relationship, and the death of her sister. Each poem is an emotional time-stamp that plunges the reader into the depths of the author’s feelings as they burgeon and wane. The book reads like a diary and chronicles the boundaries of the things that we all feel: passion, heartache, and pain that gives way to hope.




Book Details:

Title: The Day My Kisses Tasted Like Disorder    

Author’s name: Emmanuella Hristova

Genre: Poetry 


Publisher: Self-published through Lulu (April, 2018)

Print length: 50 pages

INTERVIEW WITH EMMANUELLA HRISTOVA

Q: Emmanuella, how long have you been writing, and how did you start?
A: I started writing when I was young, but I didn’t know it. When I traveled with my mom, I took copious amounts of descriptive notes about each trip we would take. Then, as a teenager I wrote short emo love quotes for my Xanga page (which I later deleted, much to my regret). But as for poetry, I didn’t start writing what I would now categorize as poetry until I was in graduate school, three years ago.

Q: What inspired you to write this book?
A: When I graduated with my bachelor’s degree, a young woman I used to mentor gave me a green Moleskin notebook. She told me to document all of my adventures. My undergraduate graduation characterized many changes in my life, and at the time I was working out my own definition of feminism. But what began as short musings about sexism jotted down on the BART train, eventually became woeful poems about oppression, harassment, and assault.
And then, two months later, I fell in love for the first time. I never decided to write my poetry collection; it came out of me, rather. I documented the relationship from beginning to end, birth to death. I wrote to express my feelings and sentiments. It wasn’t intentional. Pent-up emotions swelled up inside of me, and they didn’t have any place to spill other than onto blank pages. Eventually, that green Moleskin became a chronological account of one of the darkest periods of my life.

Q: How long did it take you to write this book?
A: I wrote all the poems in The Day My Kisses Tasted Like Disorder over a period of one year, from June 2015 – June 2016. Then I let the completed word document sit in my computer for about two years, because I wasn’t ready to face it. And, I was still in love with my ex-boyfriend for quite some time after we split. So, I couldn’t face what I had written about him and what I had written about my sister’s passing. It wasn’t until two years after my sister passed away that I opened up the document again and read some poems to a friend. She told me to publish. I worked with a dear coworker of mine, Maria Ciccone, who helped me edit the content and order of the poems. That took about two months because we both did it while we were teaching full time. The editing and putting myself out there were the hardest parts, even harder than writing the collection.

Q: What do you hope readers will get from this book?
A: When I first began this book, it was my diary. It helped me heal through the most difficult part of my life. I took the time and effort to craft and edit what I had written during that time period, in order to give it to others so they too can heal. I published the most intimate parts of myself in order to help others going through a heartbreak or losing someone to cancer. I especially wrote it for women, as a lot of the poetry is written through a lamenting, feminist lens. As one reviewer put it, I am “simply a woman in a man’s world, and this period in [my] life has acted as a catalyst for [my] revolution”. The final chapter is dedicated to grieving and healing women:
The aftermath.

For crying girls everywhere, 

hiding in the bathroom stall.

May you find your healing.

Q: How did you come up with the title of your book?
A: The title of my book came from a poem in the collection called “October 7th.” The line is:
The inexpression of my

internal sexuality 

spilled out to my lips and 

my kisses tasted like disorder.


It’s about wanting to proceed in a relationship, but being unable to due to lack of trust. It’s about wanting, but not acting, and your world coming undone as a result. The title The Day My Kisses Tasted Like Disorder refers to the fact that most poems are named after the day they were written; it reads like a diary because it was my diary. The title is different and unique, and I love it for that.

Q: Do you have a day job?

A: I was a high school ESL teacher for two years, but I’ve taken a break from full-time work to finish writing my first novel. I moved to Vietnam, so I could live off of my savings and write for enjoyment.

Q: How would you describe your book in a tweet?
A: Reads like a diary and chronicles the boundaries of the things that we all feel: love, heartache, and pain that gives way to hope.

Q: How did you come up with your cover art?
A: The cover art is very special to me. It began as a painting that I completed while I was writing my book, when I was depressed over a spurned lover. It perfectly characterized the raw emotions I felt at the time through a bleak, black background and dark red paint splatters. When it came time to self-publish my book, I designed everything myself using Photoshop. My painting became the background, then I overlayed simple text on top that that included the title, my name, and a short description. I wanted something minimalistic, that could look good while small for the eBook market, and something that represented me and the themes of the book. 


Q: Tell us about your favorite chapter in the book.
A: Even though it’s really hard to pick a favorite, I love the fourth chapter called “The end.”
The end.
I cannot stop writing 

about you without

seeing the end of everything.


It’s up to debate, but the fourth chapter is arguably the darkest chapter of the whole book, since it deals with my breakup and finding out that my sister was dying. I love this chapter because it holds some of my favorite poems. When I was at my lowest point, my poetry got the most raw and angry. There’s something about embracing anger and scorn that evokes the most powerful and real emotion.

Q: Who are your favorite authors?
A: My biggest influence would be Georgi Gospodinov--his novel The Physics of Sorrow in particular. He's a contemporary Bulgarian author, and the novel is about a sense of apathy and identity-finding following the communist fall in Bulgaria. It also dabbles slightly in magical realism, which is surprising to see outside of Latin American literature, but it's fantastic.
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez is also another novel that has kept inspiring me long after I finished it.
Sylvia Plath is one of my favorite poets; her boldness in exploring her own darkness encourages me to explore mine.
Similarly, the musical artist BANKS and her album Goddess is the soundtrack to which I wrote The Day My Kisses Tasted Like Disorder.
rupi kaur inspired me to self-publish and promote myself on Instagram! And, I also think we have similar writing styles and themes.
I also really enjoy supporting female authors. Yaa Gyasi wrote one of my favorite books that I read in 2018: Homegoing.
And then lastly, George Orwell and Charles Dickens stand as two of my favorite classic authors; their novels 1984 and Tale of Two Cities still resonate with me to this day.

Q: What book are you currently reading and in what format (e-book/paperback/hardcover)?
A: Currently, I’m reading Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children on my Kindle. It’s such a breathtaking and imaginative story! I also love how the author writes, it’s both figurative and curt at times.


Q: Where do you prefer to do your writing?
A: Back at home in the Bay Area, I frequent the same writing cafés: Caffè Strada in Berkeley, Farley's in Oakland, Barrelista in Martinez, Coffee Shop in Walnut Creek. The ambiance needs to be peaceful and romantic; twinkling lights, kitschy furniture, and a patio are preferable. I like to write with a delicious latte in hand and a luxurious string of words on my mind. Now that I’m in Vietnam, I still go to cafés but I drink a Vietnamese iced coffee instead—they’re equally delicious. 

Q: Where do you call home? 

A: Home is the San Francisco Bay Area in California. The west coast is the best coast!



Q: Are you an introvert or an extrovert?
A: 
I’m a very social introvert, but an introvert nonetheless. That’s why I write, to express the feelings I struggle to say out loud. 



Q: What’s the hardest thing you’ve ever had to write?
A: The hardest thing I ever had to write was one of the final chapters in the novel I’m currently working on. One of the closing scenes is a literal description of my sister passing away in front of me. There’s also another incredible aspect about that scene that happened that I can’t share, lest I give away the end of the book. In order to write the chapter, I had to listen to a sound recording of the day she passed away. I’ve had that sound recording in my computer for almost three years, but haven’t touched it. And I put off writing that chapter for a long time. I’m actually still working on it; it’s holding up the completion of my novel.

Q: What are you working on now?
A: Currently, I'm writing my first novel. It's about my life, but it's written in novel form. It tells the story of a young Emmy, a gifted daughter born to Bulgarian immigrants in the United States. Upon moving, they never imagined that they’d lose everything. And not even Emmy’s gift of prophesy and her religious faith could have prevented the deaths of most of her family members. Meanwhile in another realm, a golden statue of a young girl wakes up. Once Zoe realizes who she is and why she's there, she embarks on the perilous mission to get Emmy out of the labyrinth-like castle. Meanwhile, Emmy's left to deal with the psychological trauma of losing loved ones too soon, and with her inability to make the American Dream materialize. She turns inward--to the fantastical world she's built for herself to hide from her grief. However, this home she's created is holding her captive, and she can't seem to get out of her own mind. Guided by some fantastical sidekicks, she loses herself inside the dream-world that she hasn't shared with anyone. The world in her dreams, and in between dreams, and she doesn’t know if she’ll make it out alive.




ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Emmanuella Hristova was born in Oakland, California and grew up in the Bay Area. She is the third daughter to Bulgarian parents who immigrated to California shortly before she was born. She began drawing at the ripe age of four, and studied the fine arts for five years in high school. There, she received many art accolades including a Congressional award for her piece "Boy in Red" in 2009. In 2015, she received her Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics from the University of California, Berkeley. She began writing poetry at age twenty-four when she was in graduate school. She earned her Master's in Education from the same alma mater in 2017. Emmanuella spent two years as an English teacher in Richmond, California. During that time, she self-published her first poetry collection: The Day My Kisses Tasted Like Disorder. Currently, she is writing her first novel. She speaks English, Bulgarian, Spanish and is now learning French.



Connect with Emmanuella:
Website  |  Goodreads  |  Instagram


Buy the book:
Amazon  |  Barnes & Noble  |  iBooks  |  Kobo  |  Lulu  |  Bookshout 


GUEST POST BY KARIN GILLESPIE

ABOUT THE BOOK

They say opposites attract, and what could be more opposite than a stuffy literary writer falling in love with a self-published romance writer?

Meet novelist Aaron Mite. He lives in a flea-infested rented alcove, and his girlfriend Emma, a combative bookstore owner, has just dumped him. He meets Laurie Lee at a writers’ colony and mistakenly believes her to be a renowned writer of important fiction. When he discovers she’s a self-published romance author, he’s already fallen in love with her.

Aaron thinks genre fiction is an affront to the fiction-writing craft. He likes to quotes the essayist, Arthur Krystal who claims literary fiction “melts the frozen sea inside of us.” Ironically Aaron doesn’t seem to realize that, despite his lofty literary aspirations, he’s emotionally frozen, due, in part, to a childhood tragedy. The vivacious Laurie, lover of flamingo-patterned attire and all things hot pink, is the one person who might be capable of melting him. In the tradition of the Rosie Project, Love Literary Style is a sparkling romantic comedy which pokes fun at the divide between so-called low and high brow fiction.

 GUEST POST BY KARIN GILLESPIE

Top-Secret Writing Tips Revealed

Every  once in a while, I get a phone call from someone who will say, “I want to be a writer. Will you tell me how to do it? Could we have lunch or actually, I don’t have time for lunch. How about coffee? Or could you just e-mail me your answers.”
I
 know what they actually seek from me. They want to know the real writing secrets; the ones buried deep in the bowel of a mountain and closely guarded by a moat filled with hammer-head sharks.

They most definitely do NOT want the garden variety secrets that can be readily accessed by any old Joe Schmo with a library card or internet access.

In the past I’ve declined to reveal the secrets because when they were told to me by a cabal of tipsy mega bestselling authors at a writers’ conference, I was warned not to tell anyone, lest my tongue shrivel up, and turn to dust.

But, in the interest of educating my fellow writers, I have finally decided to risk a dusty tongue and lift the veil of silence. So here they are:

The 5 sacred secrets to writing.

If you’re working too hard, you’re doing it wrong.

You’ve probably been told writing is Sisyphean task. That great art only comes with suffering. Not true. The muse is actually a lazy girl who loves to putter. She doesn’t respond to bullhorns or whips or clenched jaws. She isn’t interested in your 4,000 daily word count goal or any of your other grand ambitions. If you poke and prod her enough, she’ll begrudgingly release some prose, but it’s likely going to be cliché, dry, and strained.

You must give your imagination time; don’t panic or over plan. As writer Brenda Ureland says in If You Want To Write “…Your soul gets frightfully sterile and dry because you are so quick, snappy and efficient about doing one thing after another that you have no time for your own ideas to come in and develop and gently shine.”

Give writing your full attention

When a brain surgeon removes a malignant mass from the cerebral cortex his mind is only on tumor and tissue, not Twitter. His attention is so rapt he barely needs a knife.

And so it should be when you’re writing. The muse flourishes best when the writer is living in the present moment with full attention to the task. Such sustained attention is difficult to maintain for long periods of time so you should always take breaks. Believe it or not, frequent breaks actually increase productivity.

Meditation also helps with attention. Fifteen minutes a day of quietly watching your breath and your thoughts will do wonders for your writing. When silly thoughts intrude during your writing time, whether they be moments of grandiosity or self-loathing, you’ll immediately recognize them and cut them off saying, “Please don’t pester me now. Can’t you see I’m writing?”

Write first drafts with wild abandon

Remember when you were eight and something marvelous happened at school, like maybe an alley cat wandered into the lunch room and the teacher chased it and fell on her behind and everyone got a peek at her days-of-the-week underwear?

Remember how that story came out in a great rush? And yes, maybe it was a mess in the telling but it crackled with enthusiasm.

Many, many years ago when I first started writing, several other women and I would get together and one would shout out a topic and we would write for twenty minutes and never quit moving our hands. (We got the idea from Natalie Goldberg’s book Wild Mind.)

Breathless, beautiful stuff would come flowing out of our pens, prose you’d think we would labored over like Egyptian slaves.

Except for one girl. Her writing sounded like an essay on her summer vacation to an earthworm farm. She couldn’t let go; she was too attached to making an impression or playing it safe or being writerly, which brings me to my next point.

Learn to Let Go

You’ve heard of the phrase “kill your darlings?” The truth is, everything you write is a potential darling, don’t get attached to any of it. Sometimes you might have to slash and burn great forests of words, and you will fret over word count because you are under the mistaken belief that the muse is stingy and won’t replace them, when, in truth, there are always more words to be had–newer, better, shinier, truer words. Words that will make readers shiver and quiver with recognition.

And when you finish the writing, you must also let it go, let it find its place in the world. Don’t get too attached to either the pans or praise and always remember the writing is of you but is not you.

But what about publication? Fame? Fortune? My interview with Terry Gross?

The only time you should ever think about publication is late at night when you are far away from your pen or your computer, and then you can dreams your dreams of bestseller lists and author action dolls.

But when you sit down to write, sit down because you are a generous soul who wants to share what you see and feel, and you’re passionate about what you have to say and you can’t bottle it up any more. Or maybe you write to understand something about yourself, and that’s why you must go at it. But never sit down with the idea of wowing anyone—agents, editors or the public. The expectations will weigh your writing down and it will hit the page with a sickening thud.

And now, I will leave you with this final sage advice; the most important of all:

Show, don’t tell. And for Godsakes never, EVER include a prologue.

I’m kidding.

Here is the biggest secret about writing:

The joy of doing it on a regular basis will always surpass the tangible rewards of writing for publication… yes, even the interview with Terry Gross cannot begin to touch it. You might not believe that now—I know it took me forever to come to that point– but one day you will and if the magic is going to happen, that’s when it will happen.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Karin Gillespie is the national-bestselling novelist and has also written for the New York Times, Washington Post and Writer Magazine. She has an MFA from Converse College and lives in Augusta, Georgia and was recently awarded a Georgia Author of the Year award.  Visit her on her web site, her FB page or on Twitter. She is also on Good Reads. A book excerpt can be found here.

Buy the book:

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FEATURED AUTHOR: ROY M. GRIFFIS

ABOUT THE SERIES

The first two books in a four-volume Historical Fiction series (Book Three coming out in May), called By the Hands of Men. The series begins in the trenches of France during The Great War, and will conclude in California in the mid-thirties.

Book One: The Old World

Lieutenant Robert Fitzgerald has managed to retain his sanity, his humanity, and his honor during the hell of WWI's trench warfare. Charlotte Braninov fled the shifting storm of the impending Russian Revolution for the less-threatening world of field camp medicine, serving as a nurse in the most hopeless of fronts. Their friendship creates a sanctuary both could cling to in the most desperate of times. Historical fiction about life, loss, and love, By the Hands of Men explores the power that lies within each of us to harm - or to heal - all those we touch.

Book Two:  Into the Flames

Charlotte Braninov, traumatized by loss and her service as a frontline nurse, returns to war-torn Russia to find her family. Captured by the Red Army, she exchanges one hell for another. Her still-loyal Lieutenant, Robert Fitzgerald, believing the woman he loves is dead, struggles to recover from the ravages of combat and typhus. In a desperate bid to rediscover himself, he commits to serve his country as a pawn in distant Shanghai. Forging their destinies in a world reeling after The Great War, Charlotte and Robert will learn anew the horror and the beauty the hands of men can create when they descend into the flames.

INTERVIEW WITH ROY M. GRIFFIS

Roy, how did you get started writing? 
The earliest story I recall writing was when I was 7, something about being part of a pack of coyotes. No idea where that came from.

What's your favorite thing about the writing process?  
Suprising myself. This sounds egotistical, but sometimes you’re writing and an insight or a moment emerges from – I swear – outside of you and you go “I didn’t know I was that smart.”  The other really fun is when characters just show up.

Do you have a writing routine? 
Alas, the paycheck job has me on Graveyard Shift, 12 hours at a time, which has kind of killed my previous routine. I’m still struggling to find one (as an aside, I’ve discovering the Graveyard Shift is where ambition, motivation, and hope go to die).

Do you write every day? 
No, I do try to work on the writing every day, but that could be copyediting (just finished BTHOM3 edit, and now it’s off to face the cruel-to-be-kind pen of the final copy-editor) or marketing, which I dislike, as it keeps me from actually, you know, writing stuff. Much easier to write every day when that’s all I’m doing.

What do you think is hardest aspect of writing a book? 
What you have to give up. Everything costs (even salvation was paid for by Somebody). You want to write a novel, but be a decent dad to your kid at the same time? Goodbye sleep. You have to give up something to make space in your life for the book.

What’s more important – characters or plot?
Ah, man! I guess I’m more of a plot guy . . . I want to know what happens to the characters I’ve grown to care about. (Did I manage to slip “both” in?)

Yes, you did! How often do you read?   
Varies a lot these days. Because I am writing either historical fiction or alternative history type fiction, when I am working on those, I end up reading a lot of non-fiction. I want my work to have verisimilitude, to have that “telling detail” that makes the novel feel of the time and place factually and emotionally. Right now, I have a working shelf of 16 non-fiction books/memoirs that I’ll be reading before and as I work on By the Hands of Men Four.  But once in a while, I’ll throw on a fiction audio book for the commute to work, just to cross-train my brain a little.

What is your writing style?
I write heartbreaking works of staggering genius? Oh, wait, that’s been done. I don’t know if I could sum up my “style,” exactly, but I’ll tell you want I’m attempting to do: I want to transport the reader, convincingly, to another time and place, while telling them a story that will move them emotionally, and, who knows, maybe even change their life for the better, even if just a little. I have no time for nihilistic “life is awful and people suck” kinds of stories. That’s completely wussy writing by people who don’t believe in the power of individual choice (or perhaps fear the responsibility that confers upon them). I know that’s not an academically beloved point of view, but it’s true. Our choices determine our lives, allow us to rise about our circumstances. Look at Dr. Ben Carson – son of mentally ill single mother in the projects, and now a guy changing people’s lives in a serious, positive, amazing way. Choices.


What do you think makes a good story? 
For me, it’s a compelling story that makes me ask “what’s going to happen next” about people that that I can understand in some way, who have the ability to grow and change. I hate “victim” books, and there are some authors I’ve read that I’ll never read again (James Elroy and Thomas Harris come to mind) because of their reveling in the depravity of their characters and their conditions.
 
What books do you currently have published?
The Big Bang, Volume One of the Lonesome George Chronicles
By the Hands of Men, Book One:  The Old World
By the Hands of Men, Book Two:  Into the Flames


What do you know now that you wish you knew then? 
Hold on, I have to refill my margarita if we’re getting this confessional . . . when I was younger (and allegedly dumber, the jury is still out) I had this stupid mental construction that all I “was” was a writer. So that if a story was rejected (as they often were), it meant I was a failure. Took me a long time to get past that to where I recognized that, yes, I was a writer, and a writer writes. If I was fortunate (in the Louis Pasteur sense of “fortune favors the prepared mind”), I might get published, even have some success. But I could live a decent, fulfilling life without needing the “seal of approval” from outside sources. But it’s nice to have, don’t get me wrong.

For what would you like to be remembered? 
Great question. At my wake there’s going to be a margarita machine, and everybody will get to stand up and tell funny stories about me. I’d like to be remembered as a decent, hard-working guy, a good father, and somebody who told some good stories.

I bet that will be one helleva wake! Would you make a good character in a book? 
Ah, hell, yes. I’m a renaissance man, but I think I’d be the guy to die toward the end of Act Two. Useful, but not the main character, probably.

What’s one thing you never leave the house without?
I have an all-purpose survival knife, EMT worthy. Has a webbing cutter (seat-belts), glass-shattering point, that kind of stuff. I like to be ready.

What’s your favorite thing to do on date night? 
Gad, I get to admit how boring I am. Pepperoni pizza, a movie, and, well, night-time adult gymnastics.

What drives you crazy? 
Lack of dependability. Don’t tell me you’re going to do something and then never follow through.

What do you like to do when there’s nothing to do? 
Catch up on movies.

Where is your favorite place to visit? 
United States: San Francisco. Overseas: London. Both places I would love to live.

What would you name your autobiography?
White Boy from Nebraska.

I'd read that! What’s your least favorite chore?
Any chore that involves cleaning up other people’s messes. I already have two jobs, don’t want another, and I have already been a janitor. Don’t care to repeat the experience.


Would you rather be a movie star, sports star, or rock star?
Of the three, movie star. I love film . . . closest thing we have to a shared dream. A great film can take 500 strangers on a similar emotional voyage. I think film has great power to uplift (see: Babe) or debase (see: Pulp Fiction).


What is the most daring thing you've done? 
Probably when I was twenty-six, deciding to be a Rescue Swimmer in the Coast Guard. I’d never been a physical kid (I was a drama geek in high school), but I desperately needed a challenge, a rite-of-passage. So I went and found one where I could actually help people at the same time, but it was incredibly challenging physically, and especially mentally.

What is your most embarrassing moment?
Gack, not enough terrabytes on my PC to list all of those.

What choices in life would you like to have a redo on? 
You know, there are moments I would like to go back and act with more graciousness or kindness, but redo completely? Nah. Even the cruddy stuff was part of the forging of who I am.

What’s one of your favorite quotes? 
“A little of something is better than a lot of nothing.”

If you had a talk show who would your dream guest be? 
Shucks, most of them are dead. Desmond Doss, for one. Was a WWII Medal of Honor winner . . . never picked up a weapon. He was a 7th Day Adventist, had a religious exemption, but he knew other people were fighting and dying for him state-side. Joined the Army, who couldn’t figure out what to do with him. Became a medic in the Pacific, saved a hell of a lot people. Showed you can be incredibly brave without the prop of a weapon, and that guts can be measured in a lot of different ways.


What’s one thing that very few people know about you? 
I hate to admit it, but I have a soft spot for romantic comedies. Some people report the good ones have been known to make me tear up.


What is the wallpaper on your computer’s desktop? 
Incredible and borderline lunatic underwater photography taken in the Pacific, I think at the graveyards of some WWII battles, with women in flowing gowns posing like ethereal spirts on the broken vessels crusted with coral and seaplants. Very trippy yet tasteful.


Do you have any hidden talents?
I’m not a bad cook.


Describe yourself in 5 words.
Smolderingly sexy yet quietly humble
.

A winning combination. What’s your favorite song?
"Sentimental Hygiene" by Warren Zevon. Great and underheard song.


What’s your biggest pet peeve about writing? 
Marketing. Just . . . shudder. One of the reasons I wanted an agent, would gladly fork over the ten percent, just so they could shill my work and I could do the work.


What is your favorite movie? 
I have favorites in different genres. But Starman with Jeff Bridges and Karen Allen is up there. 


Do you have a favorite book? 
Watership Down. Re-read it every year or so. Damn, it’s powerful.


If you had to choose a cliché about life, what would it be?
TANSTAFL: There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.


What are you working on now? 
I’m editing Book Two of the Lonesome George Chronicles, The Fire This Time for my publisher. Really aching to get to work on By the Hands of Men, Book Four. I never intended to write a series, but the story I heard in my head just kept going. I’m pretty sure that will be the last book in this series, though.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR FROM THE AUTHOR

Born in Texas City, TX, the son of a career Air Force meteorologist. Attended a variety of schools at all of the hot spots of the nation, such as Abilene, Texas and Bellevue, Nebraska. Sent to my grandparent’s house in Tucson, Arizona when things were tough at home. I was pretty damn lost, as my grandparents were largely strangers to me. My older brother, a more taciturn type, refused to discuss what was going on. Fortunately, like so many kids before me, I was rescued by literature. Or, at least, by fiction.

In a tiny used bookstore that was just one block up from a dirt road, I discovered that some good soul had unloaded his entire collection of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ “John Carter of Mars” series in Ballantine Paperback. Moved by some impulse, I spent my RC Cola money on the first book, A Princess of Mars. I think what struck me was how these books were possessed of magic: they were able to transport me far from this dusty land of relatives who I didn’t know and relatives pretended not to know me to another dusty land of adventure, heroism, nobility, and even love. It was the first magic I’d encountered that wasn’t a patent fraud, and when I closed the stiff paperback with the lurid images on the cover, I decided it was the kind of magic I wanted to dedicate the rest of my life to mastering. And, thus, I was saved.

Since then, I’ve never looked back. I’ve written poems, short stories (twice runner-up in the Playboy college fiction contest), plays (winning some regional awards back East and a collegiate Historical Play-writing Award), and screenplays. I’m a member of the WGAw, with one unproduced screenplay sold to Fox Television. Along the way, I’ve done the usual starving artist jobs. Been a janitor, a waiter, a clerk in a bookstore. I was the 61st Aviation Rescue Swimmer in the Coast Guard (all that Tarzan reading wasn’t wasted). I’m also not a bad cook, come to think of it. Currently, I’m a husband, father, and cat-owner. I’m an avid bicyclist and former EMT.

I live in Southern California with my lovely wife. My friends call me “Griff,” my parents call me “Roy,” and my college-age son calls me “Dadman.” It’s a good life. By the Hands of Men, Book Three: The Wrath of a Righteous Man will be released in May, 2016.

Connect with Roy:

Website  | Amazon 
 

CHARACTER INTERVIEW WITH PAMELA FAGAN HUTCHINS' EMILY PHELPS BERNAL

ABOUT THE BOOK

USA Best Book Award-Winning Series, Cross Genre Fiction.

A heartfelt mystery from the bestselling and award-winning author of the What Doesn't Kill You romantic mystery series.

Big-haired paralegal and former rodeo queen Emily has her life back on track. Her adoption of Betsy seems like a done deal, her parents have reunited, and she’s engaged to her sexy boss Jack. Then client Phil Escalante’s childhood buddy Dennis drops dead, face first into a penis cake at the adult novelty store Phil owns with his fiancée Nadine, one of Emily’s best friends. The cops charge Phil with murder right on the heels of his acquittal in a trial for burglarizing the Mighty is His Word church offices. Emily’s nemesis ADA Melinda Stafford claims a witness overheard Phil fighting with Dennis over a woman. Before he can mount a defense, Phil falls into a diabetic coma, leaving Nadine shaken and terrified. Meanwhile Betsy’s ultra-religious foster parents apply to adopt her, and Jack starts acting weird and evasive. Emily feels like a calf out of a chute, pulled between the ropes of the header and the heeler, as she fights to help Phil and Nadine without losing Betsy and Jack.

ABOUT THE CHARACTER

Emily is a disgraced paralegal and former rodeo queen who tucks tail and moves back to her hometown in West Texas when her Dallas husband leaves her for a woman who turns out to be a man. She works for Jack, a secretive criminal attorney and sexy mix of cowboy and Indian, and is trying to adopt Emily, a six-year old little girl from Mexico. Emily flounders a bit through her divorce, miscarriage, local gossip, adoption woes, and romantic ups and downs, but she has the love and support of the world’s best friends: CPS Investigator Wallace, strip club bartender Nadine, her former boss Katie who left the practice of law to move to the islands, sexy fish-out-of-water Ava, and tough-as-nails Michele. And when the chips are down, Emily is resourceful, a little bit spiritual, and a whole lot reckless, as she kicks ass and takes names.     

INTERVIEW WITH EMILY PHELPS BERNAL

Emily, how did you first meet Pamela?
I met Pamela when she was writing about my best friend, Katie, in Saving Grace, the first book in the What Doesn’t Kill You series.

What do you like to do when you are not being actively read somewhere?
My idea of heaven is riding Jack’s horse Jarhead on a gorgeous spring day in the mountains of New Mexico.

What impression do you make on people when they first meet you? How about after they've known you for a while?
I hate to admit it, but I think people think I’m a dumb blonde. But after they know me, I think they get me and see that I’m capable. I think I actually surprise them, but mostly because they don’t imagine me as someone who can rope, ride, and shoot.

What's the worst thing that's happened in your life?
When my daddy left us. That was the worst. My divorce was bad, and my miscarriage was horrible. But wondering if my daddy was even alive, if I’d ever see him again? Losing my hero? That was the worst. It really taught me to rely on myself, though. I knew that nothing was necessarily forever. 



Tell us about your best friend.
Well, my best friend ever is Katie, who used to be my boss. I soaked a lot of her tipsy tears into my shoulder, let me tell you. She’s got it together now, but she lives so far away on St. Marcos in the Virgin Islands. My local best friend is Wallace, and oh-my-God he’s hilarious. He’s got this giant heart for kids—he works as an Investigator for Child Protective Services—and an obsession for neatness. But bless his heart, he’s a single gay man in Amarillo, so he’s as much of an outcast as I am as the divorcee whose husband left her for a woman who turned out to be a man. 



What are you most afraid of?
That I’ll end up alone, without Betsy or Jack.



What do you like best about Jack?
I love Jack’s eyes and his enormous heart.

Least?I like least that he is cryptic and secretive. I wish I could get him to just open up to me.

If your story were a movie, who would play you?
Kate Hudson would be my top choice, but Reese Witherspoon could pull it off, too.

Describe the town where you live.
Amarillo: flat, windy, smells like cow poop, and a church on every block.

Describe an average day in your life.
Since I’ve been working for Jack, there’s been nothing but chaos. I’ve been drugged, kidnapped, shot at, stalked, and had to escape with Betsy on horseback from a human trafficker’s ranch and save two foster kids from a bad cop in an abandoned mine. I’m not sure there are even average days anymore.

What makes you stand out from any other characters in your genre?
I think readers will find that out in Hell to Pay, though I cringe to admit that my special skill is snake handling. Don’t ask, because I refuse to say another word about it.

Will you encourage your author to write a sequel?
I hope she writes about my dear new friend Laura. She was a champion jockey, and she and her husband are adopting a teenage girl. But she wants to start an equi-therapy camp for kids on Jack’s ranch. She’s asked me to help her, and I think it’s the greatest idea ever.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

Writer of overly long e-mails, romantic mystery series, and (possibly) hilarious nonfiction. Resides deep in the heart of Nowheresville, Texas and way up in the frozen north of Snowheresville, Wyoming. Passionate about great writing and smart authorpreneurship as well as long hikes with her hunky husband and pack of rescue dogs, her Keurig, and traveling in the Bookmobile.

Connect with Pamela:
Website  |  Blog  |  Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Goodreads  

Buy the book:
Amazon  |  Barnes & Noble 

Featured Author: Alexander McCabe

About the book:

It is said that the course of true love never runs smooth - even for us men. Yet it has never been easier to find love than in this modern digital era where the mighty computer has all but rendered Cupid redundant. Love is now to be found, quite literally, at your fingertips. Although love also seems to have changed with the times. This new love is deceitful and manipulative, cunning and untrustworthy. Love has gotten ugly. Thankfully, not all the answers to life’s mysteries are to be found in the computer and Cupid - battered and bruised as he may be - proves that he still has some game and a few tricks up his sleeve . . .

Interview with Alexander McCabe

Alexander, how long have you been writing, and how did you start?
Actually, I can be rather specific about when I started writing. It was September 2013 as my wife got a job in Saskatchewan, Canada. As I am Scottish, I have no legal right to work and so began to write whilst my visa was being processed. It is a long and laborious process and, 18 months or so later, we are still waiting and I am still not allowed to work. So, I have kept up the writing to preserve my sanity, what’s left of it!

I started writing articles for the local paper and the book sort of developed from there.

What’s the story behind the title Greater Expectations?
The real story behind the book was that of a chance meeting I had with a war veteran. His story is spread over 2 chapters within Greater Expectations, although there wasn’t enough of a story in itself so the rest just sort of grew around it.

Do you have another job outside of writing?
No, not at the moment although I expect to start working again once my visa is eventually granted. However, like almost every author, I would love to write full-time.

How did you create the plot for this book?
I didn’t so much create the plot as let it unfold. Having never written a novel before, I watched interviews with other successful authors but quickly determined that it is a very unique process. So, I wrote for myself and just let my imagination run riot and was pleasantly surprised with the result. I wrote the first draft of Greater Expectations in 3 months and it was an amazing sense of accomplishment.

What would your main character say about you?
I would hope that he would say only nice things and, if not, then I could only hope he would follow my mother’s advice - “If you have nothing nice to say, then don’t say anything at all”.

Good advice. Are any of your characters inspired by real people? 
They all are to some extent. In actual fact, the character “Mike Taylor” is very real, so much so that I used his real name. He is a fantastic friend and a very funny man. He read the book and we are still great friends, so I guess he was pleased with my portrayal.

It is funny though that, on occasion, I have had friends and family call me and say they recognize a character in the book. As I am now writing the sequel, I always tell them that they are correct and they better be nice to me or else they will end up in the next book! There is a certain devilment that lives in me. . . 

Is your book based on real events?
Practically every story within the book is real, although in most cases, exaggerated for comic effect. I would stress that not all of these events happened to me personally but rather were friends stories passed onto me.

Tell us about your favorite scene in the book.
The final scene was quite special for me as it drew everything together without being too obvious. It was also a natural conclusion for this book whilst setting up a sequel.

What song would you pick to go with your book?
I actually named a couple of songs within the book and so would have to pick one of them. That being the case, it would be “She” by Elvis Costello.

Who are your favorite authors?
As a law graduate, it will come as no surprise that John Grisham is a favorite of mine. I also really enjoy some of Jeffrey Archer’s earlier works. Dan Brown’s books are quite intriguing, and Steig Larsson. Such a sad loss, I finished his Millennium Trilogy in 5 days and would loved to have read what he would have done next.

You get to decide who would read your audiobook. Who would you choose?
As the main character is Scottish, then I suppose, being true to the role, Gerard Butler would be the most obvious choice. He, like myself, also graduated from the University of Glasgow, so it’s hardly surprising that he would top my list.


Do you have a routine for writing?
I do but it is completely chaotic! I need to let my ideas stew and build until they are, quite literally, bursting out of me, and then I hammer them onto the page as quickly as I can. This “routine” has seen me go for weeks at a time without writing a single word and then suddenly waking up at 2am and 3 chapters are written within a few hours. It is wonderfully illogical, completely irrational, yet fantastically liberating.

Where and when do you prefer to do your writing?
Oh how I wish I had a cool and enigmatic answer for this but, in reality, it is generally in my own living room where I need complete solitude and total silence to let my imagination flow.

In actual fact, it is in exactly these circumstances that I am writing these answers now!

Where’s home for you?
This is a rather complicated question and one that has multiple answers. Scotland is a huge part of me although I currently live in Toronto, Canada. However, having lived on 3 continents in the past 4 years, I can safely say that “home” is where the heart is. For me, that is wherever my wife and son are.

If you could only keep one book, what would it be?
Predictably and unashamedly, it would be the book that I wrote - Greater Expectations. Although this may seem like complete vanity on my part, it actually could not be further from the truth. It had long been an ambition of mine to write a book and so this represents the culmination of hard work, determination, focus but, perhaps most importantly, the realization of a dream. There is so much of myself invested within it that no other book will ever be as close to my heart as this.

For these reasons, it is not so much a book to me but the realization of a dream.

What would your dream office look like?
It would be housed in an old home in the countryside and have high wooden bookshelves on three walls. The door would be set somewhere within them and would disappear when it was closed. A wooden ladder would be on runners to ensure complete access to every title. There would be a floor to ceiling bay window on the final wall that overlooks a small loch and rolling hills in the background. A purpose-built desk and comfortable chair would allow me to work here and enjoy this magnificent view when needing a distraction and time to quietly contemplate.

A small log burning fireplace on the side wall provides that warm smoky aroma. Two worn couches facing each other and a coffee table atop a plush rug in the center would complete the room.

As you can no doubt tell, I haven’t given this much thought.

What’s one of your favorite quotes?
At the risk of sounding cliché, I like to believe Paulo Coelho when he says in The Alchemist:
“And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”

Thank you so much for having me. For those that may be interested, the prelude for my second book can be seen on my website.
Have a great day everyone!

Excerpt from Greater Expectations

When first I met my now estranged wife during our Master’s year at university, I was seeing someone else too. In the main, this defines me as a “bastard,” although I preferred to think of myself as a “player.” Indeed, I would argue that it falls under the guise of “sowing wild oats.” That’s the phrase that makes the practice somehow acceptable, and mothers the world over tell their sons that this is what they need to do before they settle down. The rite of passage into manhood, as it were. At least, it’s what my mother told me. Women may argue this point - sorry, women will argue this point - but then they become mothers.

Naturally, they just don’t want those “wild oats” sown with their own daughters.

However, it is a fallacy to think that we men are completely heartless. I realised that I actually liked the girl that I eventually married, so quickly ended all contact with the third party. In actual fact, she was a girl that I had been seeing first but only by a matter of a few weeks. I got the usual tirade of “bastard” texts, emails, and drunken voicemails. “I thought you were different” being the obligatory phrase that she just had to use during every one of these “opportunities.” In one particular instance, during which she also branded me a “coward,” I foolishly responded. I explained to her that I was merely being cruel to be kind as it was blatantly obvious to me that we had no future together. Furthermore, after everything that had been said and done – more on her part now than mine - she would surely realise and accept that there was no going back as any trust and respect that had been built was now completely shattered.

I got the following reply:

“See, I knew you were different. That was lovely, you thinking of me and my feelings and us and our future. Why can’t we make this work? We can, you just have to trust yourself to trust me. Call me.”

It took another six weeks of ignoring and blocking her before she finally gave up. We had only been dating, if it could ever have been called that, for three weeks.

It takes true courage and bravery to finish any relationship. As my marital separation was only a week old, I understood that there may be some element of hope that we could fix it and move on. Yet I knew there was no way I could, or would, allow myself to stoop to such a level of indignity. My sense of pride has taken a pounding and is undoubtedly battered and bruised, but it is still there, standing tall and intact, however weakly. It is also getting stronger with every passing day.

All thanks to “Hope.”

“Hope” is a very strange feeling that displaces others such as “confidence,” “faith,” and “trust,” and one that I have naturally gravitated towards my entire life. We are old friends, hope and I. Never have I dared to have “confidence” in my academic or sporting abilities, rather I always “hoped” that I would perform at my best as necessitated in any particular circumstance. When things had gone better than I had even dared “hope,” then I defaulted to the notion that is was merely my “good luck,” and vice versa. “Luck” has always provided me an excuse for all of life’s highs and lows and everything in between. Now I wanted to change all that. Now I wanted to control my existence.

Now I wanted to stir the stagnant pool that is my life proactively to feel like I am living again.

So that may well explain why I am now sat in only my boxer shorts in front of my computer, as the rain batters the window behind my curtains, and trying to focus on completing an online dating profile that includes a “personal statement” section. Apparently, its purpose is to allow me to describe myself in as broadly generic terms as possible in order to seem “normal” and “average” - and so maximising my appeal - whilst also trying to ensure that I am unique enough as to stand out. The logic of the concept is irrefutable and yet fantastically ridiculous.

It is also proving so challenging to the point of being quite impossible.

As a truck driver, I work most weekends and so this job commitment removes the more conventional ways of meeting women. Using a dating site makes far more sense in this new age of technology as it allows for an immediate connection without the need to wait for the weekend, or the demand of a decent chat up line. It cuts to the chase, so to speak. The site has posted a statistic that states over 28% of couples now “meet” online, so I am still happily in the minority. However, it is utterly galling to me that I should ever try to be “normal” or “average” to anyone as I have never considered myself as such.

It seems to me to be morally fraudulent.

Online dating. It really is quite an absurd concept yet totally in concert with the modern era where people are too busy with work and life to take the time and make the effort for actually dating. Yet where is the romance of it? You will never hear a love song that refers to such sites. Can you imagine Rod Stewart singing “The Algorithm of my Heart” or some such like?

No? Me neither.

About the author:

After graduating with a couple of useless degrees in law, Alexander McCabe left his Scottish homeland and wandered nomadically around the globe to experience the rich diversity of culture that the world has to offer. For the moment, it is Toronto's turn to provide a suitable abode for him and the wife that he picked up along the way. . .

Website  |  Facebook  | Twitter 

Get Greater Expectations FREE during the tour!

Featured Author: Remy Landon

My guest today wrote one of my favorite books of 2013 under her real name. Because her new contemporary romance is a little (okay, word is it's a lot) steamy, she's written Point of Submission as Remy Landon. I hope you enjoy my interview with the mystery woman as well as an excerpt from her book.

About the book:

Cassandra Larsen is not the type to give in. But Carlo Leone is not the type to give up. The 27-year-old CEO of a prominent industrial company, Carlo is rich. Powerful. And devastatingly handsome. Tragic events in his past have caused him to be guarded, to view women as playthings in a provocative game he and his colleague created. When Carlo meets 21-year-old Cassandra at the horse stable he owns, he is instantly drawn to her beauty and feisty nature, but beneath her spunk, there is vulnerability and want. She will be a challenge--a perfect candidate for the contest.

Wary of relationships due to her rocky history, Cassandra is determined to resist Carlo’s smoldering eyes and maddening charm. Will she surrender? And will Carlo discover that this has become more than just a game--before it’s too late?

What they're saying:

"A wildly delicious story...Remy Landon, you have a hit here!" ~ Gloria Herrera, As You Wish Reviews

"Great read and brilliant author...desperately waiting on the next book!" ~ Country Gals Sexy Reads

"Entertaining and teasingly hot. Both Carlo and Cassandra will have you flipping pages." ~ Pamela Carrion, The Book Avenue Review

"Cassandra and Carlo's story was mesmerizing...a great page turner. The characters were rich and complex. And I cannot wait to see how this story unfolds." ~ Denise Holley, Books and Beyond Fifty Shades

Interview with Remy Landon

Remy, how long have you been writing, and how did you start?

I was first an avid reader, bringing stacks of books everywhere I went. When I was ten, I wrote a story called The Talking Cat and discovered, to my delight, that writing could be an enjoyable escape for me, just as reading was. I scribbled stories in a thick spiral notebook with doodles on the front, sitting in a yellow beanbag chair in my room and loving that I could create characters and make them come to life. One story became so real to me that I actually cried when I had the character die! The spiral notebook has been replaced by a laptop, but the pleasure I get is still the same. I heard somewhere that you should have a career based on what you loved to do when you were ten...I'd love nothing more than to follow that advice!

Do you have another job outside of writing?

I am currently a middle school teacher. It's been a wonderful profession for me, but I am actively pursuing a full-time writing career.

How did you create the plot for Point of Submission?

I knew that I wanted to write a romance, and I've always liked the combination of a cocky but charming male paired with a feisty female who does her best to resist him. In teaching writing to my students, I tell them that the “formula” for most books is to create a character and give that character a problem or issue. I came up with an issue for both Carlo and Cassandra. Since I know horses, I decided to have Cassandra work in a horse stable and thought since Carlo was rich, he could own that stable. I wanted to add an element of intrigue and decided on the “contest” Carlo and Brock play.

Sounds intriguing! What’s your favorite line from a book?

If I can pick two lines :), I'd say the end of Charlotte's Web – It is not often that someone who is a true friend and a good writer. Charlotte was both.

The rules can be bent for Charlotte. Which character did you most enjoy writing?

I really enjoyed writing Carlo, because he's multi-faceted. On the outside, he has it all—-looks, brains, charm, success, money—-but inside, he's troubled and dark. I found myself wanting to know him better, if that makes sense. I wanted to show the reader his vulnerable side, and this will be explored further in the sequel.

I also liked writing Estelle Perry, his secretary, because of her dry humor and the warmth she projects, despite her no-nonsense attitude.

Are any of your characters inspired by real people?

I imagined Carlo to look like David Gandy. David gets my vote for sexiest man alive. I find it helpful to envision real people when I write the characters.

If you could be one of your characters, which one would you choose?

Cassandra, of course, because I'd get to experience Carlo :).

And what girl wouldn't want to be Cassandra?! Tell us about your favorite scene in the book.

I have several favorites :), but one that comes to mind is when Cassandra and Carlo are at the horse show in a private moment. The tables turn when she becomes a bit bold with him, pressing him to tell her what's going on inside him. She senses a rare vulnerability in Carlo and realizes at the end of the chapter that he is probably giving her all that he can. I also like the hayloft scene. Very much ;).


Do you have a routine for writing?

I usually sit at my writing desk, overlooking our porch, front lawn and fields. I like to have a glass of water with ice and lemon, and will sometimes have a Hershey's kiss (dark chocolate) – okay, maybe two. I call those “author vitamins” :). I am usually joined by one of my cats or dogs. I reread what I've written last and will sometimes just sit there for a while to get “warmed up,” and then hopefully, the words start to flow.

Author vitamins! I need some of those. Talk about your journey to self-publication. What steps to publication did you personally do, and what did you hire someone to do? Is there anyone you’d recommend for a particular service?

I had an agent for a book I'd written several years ago. It came agonizingly close to publication, and I decided to self-publish after I'd seen an article on Amazon featuring the success of Jessica Park. While it's a bit scary, it's also very liberating and empowering to be able to do it on my own. My English/teaching background has come in handy in terms of editing...I don't hire an editor for that. I had Michelle Preast of indiebookcovers for my cover art (love her!), and Pamela Carrion of The Book Avenue Review set up my blog tour - she has been absolutely wonderful. I'd recommend my husband as an editor, formatter, staunch supporter and barn builder, but he's too busy doing stuff for me to have time to take on anyone else :).

Does he have a brother? Just kidding. Sort of. What’s one of your favorite quotes?

"Be the person your dog thinks you are." I love dogs so much...I have four of them, all rescues. I love how you can be gone for a half hour or a half day, and their reaction is the same when they greet you at the door.

Very true. What do you like to do when you’re not writing?

I love to be around my horses—-my husband and I have a small farm, and he built me the most beautiful barn, which is my happy place, along with Target. I also enjoy walking the dogs in our fields, and I do a lot of networking on Facebook for shelter dogs in need—-sharing them with rescues. Working in rescue has been very eye-opening—-both heartbreaking and rewarding.

What are you working on now?

I'm currently trying to market like crazy...it's challenging, because I'm using a pen name and starting from scratch with no fan base—yet :). I am also beginning the sequel which I'm very excited about.

Excerpt from Point of Submission

Late-day sunlight blazing in from the open door at the end of the barn swathed the visitor in a brilliant glow. Cassandra narrowed her eyes against the glare. It was a man. As he came into view, she could see that he was attractive. Correction: very, very attractive. Perfectly tousled, thick black hair and a broad-shouldered build tapering to a fit waist. His attire was completely inappropriate for a barn: a pristine white dress shirt, dark pants (which looked to be tailored), expensive-looking shiny shoes. A pair of aviator sunglasses hung in the V at the top of his shirt. He walked with confidence and purpose and style. Masculine elegance, Cassandra thought, as color unexpectedly rushed to her cheeks.

    She felt a twinge of excitement edged with uneasiness as he approached. Random men didn't usually visit Windswept Stable, unless they were accompanied by a horse-crazy young daughter or seeking riding lessons for said daughter. This man definitely did not look like a dad.

    Cassandra returned her attention to filling the water pail, then decided it was rude to not at least greet him. Adjusting the valve to slow the stream of water, she turned toward him. He had slowed his steps, looking at the empty horse stalls with a stern, almost brooding expression.

    Anxiety bubbled up inside her with each step he took. Don't be an idiot over some random guy, she chided herself. You should know better by now.

    Cassandra decided he might be lost and in need of directions. When he was two stalls away from her, she addressed him. “Hello. Can I help you?”

    The man stopped. His expression seemed to brighten, his lips parting slightly. He took a few steps closer until he was standing just a few feet away.

    Cassandra drew in her breath. Oh, God. He had a beautiful mouth, a classic Grecian nose and eyes the color of smoke with just a hint of blue, hooded by thick but neatly-trimmed black eyebrows. His face was deeply tanned, a striking contrast to the crisp white shirt, and although Cassandra was not usually a fan of facial hair, the shadow of a mustache and goatee gave him an aura that hinted rebellion.

From Carlo's POV:
    Carlo recalled the image of Cassandra as he sped down Route 72, the cornfields a blur on either side of him. What was it about her that had intrigued him? The obvious answer was her beauty. The uniquely-stunning color of her hair, the way wisps of it framed her delicate face. Those aquamarine eyes that changed each time he looked into them: not only the color, but what they projected: boldness, innocence, allure. And he was quite convinced he had seen curiosity and a hint of arousal. Remembering this made him harden.

    But there was more. It was the contradictions he saw in her: the feisty attitude juxtaposed with the wariness, the confidence opposite the vulnerability.

    Most of all, it was the challenge. He'd known from the moment they met.

    Without taking his eyes off the road, Carlo reached for his iPhone and commanded Siri to send a text.

    There were three words: I found one.

About the author:

Living on a small farm in New England with her husband, Remy Landon does some of her best thinking while mucking stalls. An avid animal lover, she would like to publicly thank her husband for putting up with the pet hair, the dogs on the bed, the things the cats hack up and the repeated requests for goats. It's a wonderful life.

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