Welcome, Miss Mae

Welcome, Miss Mae, to From the Pages. I’m so glad you stopped in today. I’ve been looking forward to getting to know you better—I guess this is my chance!

I’ve got a number of questions I’d like to ask, so if you don’t mind I’ll get right to them.

First, just so I can visualize where your wonderful stories originate from, where do you write?

Since I live in a modest, four room mobile home, space is cramped, as you can imagine. There are only two bedrooms and the smaller one is “my” area…it’s not big enough to be called an ‘office’…LOL…

Can you tell us anything about what you’re working on now?

This is a romance that I first wrote about..*mumble, mumble*…years ago. It’s been rewritten so many times, I’ve almost despaired of trying. However, I’ve allowed it to lay aside for several months after my last rejection and now I’m reworking it. It’s set in the 1960’s with the backdrop of the Vietnam era (though I don’t go into detail about the protest marches, etc. It’s simply mentioned in the story). We first meet the heroine at sixteen when she’s “slapped” in the face with the hero, a 20 year old vet who’s returned home. (He doesn’t slap her, literally…LOL…It’s just that his blond good looks hit her up side of the head!) His reputation is a “bad boy” and she’s a “good” girl who is on the lookout for her white knight. During the course of two years, when she becomes an 18 year old young woman, can she accept him when he proves, that though his armor may be tarnished, his noble deeds prove he is the knight for her?

It sounds very interesting! I hope you find a home for it. Now, tell us a little bit about your book, please.

“Said the Spider to the Fly” is a romantic suspense. Mona Murphy returns to her home town, Copper Springs, at the death of her grandfather. She meets his insurance agent, Preston Hitchcock, and together, they find bloody towels outside her grandfather’s house. What’s worse is, after they type the blood, it’s found to be her grandfather’s. While Mona is trying to piece together exactly how her grandfather died, strange events happen: she’s the target of a fouled up hit-and-run, she and Preston are locked together in the town library’s basement and then steam from the furnace escapes, threatening to cook them alive. How does all that connect – or does it – to her old boyfriend who jilted her for another girl, but is now seeking to rekindle their relationship?

How long did it take to write?

I began “Said the Spider to the Fly” as a NaNoWriMo project last year, 2007. I only lasted about a month…LOL…I hadn’t really plotted the story, as my understanding for NaNo was to write, without giving much thought to what you write about. After I slacked off, I concentrated on other projects. I came back to it after four months. By then, I had a fairly good idea of how I wanted it to go. So, with writing on it every day, I finished it in about two months’ time.

Isn’t it amazing what National Novel Writing Month produces? I’ll bet there are a good many books that began as NaNo projects out there!

How many books have you written? Do you have a favorite?

One, “See No Evil, My Pretty Lady” is published (released Jan. 16, 2008), my one to be released, “Said the Spider to the Fly” will be available as an ebook February 4, 2009 – print, March 20. And a free read short story, “Dove Island” is now available. These three can be bought at http://www.thewildrosepress.com My latest, “It’s Elementary, My Dear Winifred” was recently contracted by Class Act Books and will be released as both ebook and print in April, 2009.

I do think, “It’s Elementary, My Dear Winifred” will turn out to be my favorite. It was fun to write. I put my heroine, Winifred, in many a situation similar to “The Perils of Pauline”. She and hunky Remington Hawthorne aren’t the only couple to find romance in this tale. I have my other characters to also find a happily-ever-after.

How did you meet your significant other?

I was sixteen and home alone, my parents had gone out visiting. A little while later, a car pulls up in the driveway. A guy who was a friend of my brother’s was driving, his wife, and then a guy I didn’t know. I remember as I saw him through the windshield and he looked at me with his blue eyes, I thought, “Wow! He’s cute!” (He was stationed at Fort Campbell, Kentucky with my brother’s friend – both soldiers – and he’d come with him on a weekend pass.)

Guilty pleasures. Got any? Remember, this is a G-rated interview!

It used to be chocolate and/or coffee frappucio…yum! These are the ones that you buy in a super market, four glass bottles in a carton. Chill them, unscrew the top and…slurp, you get a bit of heaven on earth…Unfortunately, your waist line gets too happy, so I no longer indulge.

That’s great that you’ve got such wonderful self-control! I’m still fighting the chocolate urge…and it’s winning. But shh! Let’s keep that between us, all right?

Do you have a pet?

Definitely. Three. All dogs, and all female. They were also all thrown aways. I wish we had the means to rescue all unwanted animals!

What frightens you?

High wind. Since we live in a mobile home, I especially feel vulnerable (and we have no cellar or storm pit…*gulp*…)

I can see why high wind would be a concern for you.

Do you collect anything?

Yes!..*sigh*…dust!! Right now I’m staring at a mountain of it on my computer desk. Would any one like some extra? I’ll happily share!

Is there anything else you would like to share with us today?

I hope readers will visit my website, www.missmaesite.com to see my reviews and trailers. Also, I dabble in an art program called Paint Shop Pro. I’ve assembled some of these pictures as a slideshow that can be viewed at my site, called “My Art Gallery.” Some months back, a stationery site put some of my collections into a musical, scrolling stationery. If folks use Outlook Express, they can download my work for FREE. It’s called “Fusion – The Art of Miss Mae.”

http://thundercloud.net/stationery15/fusion/index.htm

And I’d like folks to stop at my blog: http://missmaesite.blogspot.com Recently, I was voted “Readers Pick of the Month” at Jennette Green’s blog, so I made a banner for that which is displayed on my blog. I have interviews with various authors, not just romance ones. So stop by, and say, “hi!”

Buy link for "See No Evil, My Pretty Lady", "Said the Spider to the Fly" and "Dove Island":

http://www.thewildrosepress.com/

Miss Mae, thank you for chatting with me today. I’ve enjoyed every minute of it, although I confess the time seems to have flown by. Maybe you’d consider coming back again sometime…I’d love to see you again.

Blurb for "Said the Spider to the Fly":

"Mona Murphy returns to Copper Springs to attend her grandfather's memorial service. His passing appeared ordinary enough--the official report stated he'd tripped and fallen down the staircase. Yet Preston Hitchcock, the insurance agent who'd sold a half a million dollar policy to Mona's grandfather days before the old man died, isn't convinced, especially when bloody towels are discoverd in the backyard.

And that's only the beginning. Who is the hit-and-run driver who attemps to run Mona down? Why is her old boyfriend more ardent for her affections now than ever before?
And why is Mona helpless to guard her heart from the devastating influence of Preston's practiced lady-killer smiles?

Secrets Mona never knew existed in Copper Springs become exposed. But none is so revealing as the one she fights to hide--and the very one that might save her life.

And an excerpt:

“What are you doing here?”

Her body slumped like a wilted flower stalk when she recognized the voice that urgent whisper belonged to. Holding her by her shoulders, Preston pushed her against the sun-heated wall. She placed a trembling hand atop her heaving bosom. “You scared me. I thought you were one of those ugly gorillas out front.”

“No. Just a damned fuming one.” He scowled in frustration.

“Why are you upset? They drooled over me, not you.”

“And can you blame them with the way you look in those jeans?” He shook a warning finger in her face. “I gave you explicit instructions to stay out of trouble.”

“You’re not my boss. You have no claim on me. Besides…” She paused and swallowed, the fact of his presence raising an important question. “Wait a minute,” she said. “I’d like to know why you’re here.”

He released an irritated sigh. “Since you’ve made it a point to show up, you might as well be put to work. Tell me what you hear.”

“W…what?”

He patted the brick wall. “Are you able to listen through this? I need to know what’s going on inside.”

She looked from the wall to him. “Why don’t you just go around to the front and knock on the door?”

“Mona.” He glowered his impatience.

“I told you I don’t eavesdrop on people. That would be an invasion of privacy.”

His jaw hardening, he stepped nearer. “Should I have respected those thugs’ privacy when they held you against your will? There was a ‘No Trespassing’ sign nailed there, you know.”

“There was?” She gave an awkward shrug. Well, when he put it that way…

“I have reason to believe there’re more thugs in there.” He jerked a thumb toward the wall. “You refuse to help me, though I earlier helped you?”

She hesitated, perplexed at his attitude. What could be inside that he wants so badly? And what thugs? Are they more of David’s poker buddies? Or maybe it’s David himself?

Recalling the beating David’s so-called friends had given him the night before, she knew she couldn’t take the risk of him perhaps being bound to a chair and having to suffer another thrashing. Though reluctant, she nodded. “Okay. I’ll try.”

She pressed her ear against the warm bricks, closing her eyes. A mixture of different sounds reached her. “I hear machines,” she said to Preston, “but the noises are combined and I can’t make out what they are. And there are voices, men’s voices, but the machines are so loud they drown out the words.” Her eyes popped open. “That’s a car engine. Someone’s leaving.”

Preston grabbed her hand, pulling her with him as he sped past a line of trashcans toward the building’s rear alley. Stumbling in her heels, she panted. “Where are we going? What are you—?”

She broke off her query when she caught sight of his Porsche. Yanking open the passenger door, Preston unceremoniously plopped her in the seat before he ran to the driver’s side and dropped behind the wheel. He jabbed the key in the ignition, saying, “Fasten your seat belt. This may be a hell of a ride.”