Recntly I had the pleasure of being interviewed at Pure Southern Genteel. Everyone who commented on the interview post, either on my blog or at Miss Mae's was entered in an impromptu giveaway. This morning I pulled a name out of the hat...
Congratulations, Melissa! You're the lucky winner!
Please shoot me an email with your snail mail address and I'll get your mystery gift right out to you.
Thanks to everyone who stopped by and visited over at Miss Mae's!
I'm so glad you're here today, MC. I have a ton of questions to ask, so if you don't mind I'll begin asking them.
First, tell us a little bit about your book, please.
MY LORD BALTIMORE is a vampire tale of love lost only to be found again be it several centuries later. It begins in Philadelphia and heads to Baltimore then ends in Finn’s ancestral home in England. Cambria is the direct descendant of the woman he loved but feared getting close to thanks to his master.
Where do you see yourself in the future? Will you still be writing, or do you have a new adventure on the horizon?
I hope to still be writing as well as traveling and getting more ideas for more stories.
You’ve just won a million dollars. What would you do with it?
Right now, I’d pay off my daughter’s college loans and get that out of the way then I’d buy some land in Wyoming and move there after I had a house built.
If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you choose?
It would definitely be Wyoming—it’s an amazing state and I love the openness.
You’re in an Italian restaurant. What do you order?
Anything with shrimp in it.
Do you speak a foreign language?
Not really though I do try to incorporate Spanish and German into some of my stories.
How did you spend your first royalty check? Was it a splurge, or something practical?
The first one went to paying for the limo for my daughter’s prom.
Do you need silence to write or can you write through anything?
Not really though I can’t concentrate with MTV on. If they still showed the videos like they did at the beginning, it wouldn’t be a problem but the shows now are annoying.
What frightens you?
Even though I am in awe of Mother Nature’s power, thunderstorms still bother me. The harsher ones make me want to hide and I refuse to get into a shower when one is overhead.
What do you love most about being an author?
I’ve met a great deal of really cool people since I’ve gotten published. I also love the research that goes into a book whether it be historical or otherwise.
Is there anything else you would like to share with us today?
One thing I have always lived by—if you don’t learn at least one thing in a day’s time, the day is wasted.
That's a great thing to consider. I am so glad you stopped by today! Thanks for visiting with us!
Journal page: http://mcscout.bravejournal.com/
Publisher’s website: http://www.whiskeycreekpress.com/torrid
Welcome, Deborah, to From the Pages. I’m so glad to have you here with us today! My name is Anna, from the pages of Sarita’s Vineyard Mambo mystery. I’m a librarian and as soon as I heard you’ve got such wonderful reading taste I knew I had to meet you.
Your new release, Saje from The Wild Rose Press, sounds wonderful! I know we all want to hear more about it, and about you, so why don’t we get right to the questions?
Where do you write?
I write at home, in an office my husband and I call the ‘writing’ room. I love Bon Jovi, so I have my Jovi shrine on one side of me, and a book shelf on the other. I usually burn a candle while I’m writing. And my dog, Gizmo Killer, is at my side.
How long does it typically take you to finish a writing project?
It depends on what life is throwing my way at the time. Last year I was diagnosed with Breast Cancer. Stage IIIA. I wrote a lot of Saje while I was undergoing chemotherapy, so it was a very slow process. I only had a few days that I felt good enough to sit at the computer before my next treatment would start again, but I got through it. I’m blessed to say that I’m now cancer free.
I’m happy to hear you’re healthy again. Big congratulations on that!
Who is your favorite author? Favorite book?
Night Play by Sherrilyn Kenyon is my all-time favorite book. I also love J. R. Ward and Christine Feehan’s Dark series.
Can you tell us anything about what you’re working on now?
I’m in the middle of a short story about a fireman who is captured by a female firefae who started the fire he just extinguished.
The question most readers want to know but never get the chance to ask, do you ever write in your pajamas?
Yes. All the time.
What circumstances led you to writing?
I decided to write down a daydream that I had and got brave enough to show it to one of my coworkers. After reading it, she told me that I should write a book. I thought that maybe I could, so on a whim, I began writing my first novel. Punished Desire was born. It’s full of errors, and I had no idea how to write back then, but I still love and believe in the story.
Any advice for an author just starting out on the writer’s journey?
The number one advice that I can think of is to join a critique group or partnership. I wouldn’t have gotten to this point in my career without one. I’ve learned so much from my group.
If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you choose?
St. Augustine, Florida. I absolutely love it. My family and I have been there several times during the years, vacationing, browsing the shops, enjoying the beach or exploring the fort and lighthouse. The whole town is so beautifully historic. I have fond memories of our times there.
I’ve never been there but it sounds gorgeous. My husband, Tony, and I bought a house in Pensacola. I’ll have to check and see how far it is from St. Augustine. I sense a road trip coming up!
What’s your most comfortable outfit? Are you a jeans-and-sweatshirt kind of person or a dressier sort?
I’m a casual kind of girl. Jeans and shirts. Comfort is a friend of mine.
Do you collect anything?
Tinkerbell, Peter Pan and fairy figurines. Bon Jovi memorabilia,
Is there anything else you would like to share with us today?
Yes! Make sure you get your yearly mammograms and exams. Don’t put it off. I did. I thought I was too busy at work to take time off for such things. Boy, I was wrong and it almost killed me. Laugh, love and enjoy each new day, and God bless.
Deborah, that’s great advice. I know a lot of us think we’re too busy to take care of important things like mammograms but you’re right—that isn’t something to put off. I hope our readers take your advice and get their yearly exams.
Thank you so much for visiting today! I’ve loved getting to know you better. Feel free to come back again. I’d like to hear more about that fireman story you’re working on!
Readers, Deborah has offered a lovely bookmark as today’s giveaway. It is a silver colored and has a cross pendant hanging from it. One lucky winner will receive this nice gift. If you’d like to be considered for the random drawing, just leave a comment in the comments section. The winner will be drawn tomorrow and announced in tomorrow’s post. Check back to see if you’ve won!
A blurb from Saje:
What could be worse than waking up lonely on May Day? Finding a naked male stranger with wings in your house.
That is exactly what Amanda Birchfield discovers when she stumbles out of bed to make her morning coffee. After rousing from a faint, Amanda learns her intruder, Saje, is a trinket-hoarding, seed-spreading bastard of a Woodland Fairy. And he’s brought her a room full of May Day Baskets in hopes she'll trade a little pleasure.
Instead of fleeing for her life--or admitting herself to the local looney bin--Amanda is drawn to Saje’s scrumptious body and carefree spirit. But once the brief, but oh-so satisfying sexcapade atop her dining room table is over, he refuses to leave. How will she get rid of him. Or will she want to?
http://www.deborahpanger.com/
http://myspace.com/debbiemacklin
Last night someone asked me for the buy link for Sandswept: A Chincoteague Island Mystery. When I went to get it I saw the review section on the excerpt page had grown. What a lovely surprise!
“It is rare these days to find an actual romance story with all the erotica out there but there is definitely romance in Sarita Leone’s Sandswept: A Chincoteague Island Mystery. Though I had a hard time pronouncing Chincoteague, this story was not hard to swallow. The characters were real. The story moved at a very realistic pace and it made me feel something. Kelley is a woman with a secret, one that it is well worth your time to read and find it out. And Owen *sigh*.
If you want to escape the clutter of erotic stories that are out there now, and read a story that was written by a master of mystery and romance, get your hands on a copy of Ms. Leone’s Sandswept. You will not regret it. And Ms. Leone, I applaud you for writing a story so rich and so worthy to be curled up with on a lazy afternoon. Bravo.”
-5 Moons! Reviewed by Blu Moon- Moon Over Water Reviews
Welcome, Christy! I'm so glad you could visit today. I've got lots of questions, so let's get started.
Where do you write?
I write wherever I can – at home, on the road if the highway’s smooth enough to get a decent thought down, doctor’s waiting rooms—you name it, I’ve probably written there.
How long does it typically take you to finish a writing project?
It truly depends on the story and whether the characters sing and I can get the major scenes coherently joined together though I have one that’s been sitting for awhile because I can’t get the continuity together on it.
When you’re not writing, what do you like to do?
I love going to Gettysburg—each time I see something new and it’s a great place to be at sunset into full dark. We travel and my husband and I are also involved with our local fire company.
Any advice for an author just starting out on the writer’s journey?
Don’t let anyone tell you that you cannot write. I listened to a “know it all” and wasted a good many years that I could have been writing and getting published. Let them offer advice but in the end, the author should have the final say on their work.
How did you meet your significant other?
We met one day at the fire house though he had a girlfriend at the time. After a no-holds barred game of football, I didn’t see him until several years later. We got together and the rest is history, so to speak.
In the house—shoes or bare feet?
Bare feet for sure
How many books have you written? Do you have a favorite?
About 40 so far and still going. As to favorites – they all are because each one is different yet a part of me.
Do you listen to music while you write?
I have 2 MP3 players which I listen to and then it’s Linkin Park, Nickelback, Michael Buble, Don Johnson, Brooks and Dunn, Gary Allan, Dierks Bentley, the Stones, the Beatles and….
Do you collect anything?
Lapel pins from where we go. I have a lot of Nascar ones from when we use to go to the races, fire service and Civil War. I also collect shot glasses as well.
Do you believe in extraterrestrial beings?
Of course – why are we so conceited to think we’re the only planet with intelligent life on it? Besides – I love Doctor Who and Torchwood plus Babylon 5.
Is there anything else you would like to share with us today?
I have several releases coming up in 2009. Check me out at either my journal page: http://cpoff.bravejournal.com/ and at Whisky Creek Press Torrid: http://www.whiskeycreekpress.com/torrid Have a great day!
Thanks for visiting, Christy!
Welcome to From the Pages, Sandy. I'm so glad you took the time to stop by and visit. I have lots of questions to ask, and I want to hear all about The Winds of Fall, so if it's okay with you I'm just going to dive into the interview.
First, where do you write?
I’m one of the lucky ones that had a room I could turn into my office! I have an art table and couch as well as my writing stuff, and a wall full of books I’ve read and collected. The room overlooks the street in front of our house, and the huge window gives me an excellent view of trees, houses, and traffic. Some of the houses are from the late 1800s like mine, others are newer.
Sounds ideal for writing!
Does your family support your writing career?
My husband is more understanding than my youngest son, and my oldest son is the most understanding of all. I bounce ideas off of him or he gives me hints or reality checks, and we even do this in public. Him and I even speak Spanish back and forth “just off the top of our heads ” in public! I’m sure some people around us think we’re crazy, especially when we talk about odd plot points! That’s my idea of support, someone who’s willing to make a fool of themselves for me in public!
How did you celebrate your first contract?
I went into intensive care when I stopped breathing in December, when I got my first contract e-mail. My daughter-in-law copied it and other e-mails and sent them with my husband when he came to visit. That was on December 8th, my birthday. I couldn’t celebrate except for thanking God for it and that I was alive.
Wow. I'm certainly glad you're all right!
Can you tell us anything about what you’re working on now?
I’m working on a romantic-suspense novel about a woman who runs the Canadian ice roads for her father who can’t that year. She meets a Canadian trucker\English professor who loved her even before he met her, thanks to her father. Her dad’s enemy tries to kill her and sabotages her runs to the fabulous diamond and gold mines up in Yellowknife, Canada. I became hooked on the Ice Road Truckers on the History Channel and the story came from there. It’s part of an Ice trilogy I’m planning based 3 History Channel series.
How do you juggle all of life’s other demands with your writing career?
I fit writing in when I can. I’ve found that if you have a family you can’t neglect them totally to write books; there must be a balance. Lately my family has made more demands on my time, usurping my writing time. I do substitute teaching in lower grades, so I have an average of almost two hours each day to write when the teacher I’m replacing has a planning period, lunch, or when her students take tests. Lately I’ve not been writing much when my hubby’s home so we can be together more. When my youngest son and his family move out in February I’ll have more free time, and when my oldest gets a kidney and moves out I’ll have even more free time. In the end, family matters more than writing, but I won’t ever give it up for anyone or anything. It keeps me sane and staves off old age and Alzheimer’s.
It sounds like you've got everything well balanced.
Who is your favorite author? Favorite book?
I don’t have one favorite author. Heinlein, Wells, Bradbury, Verne, Richter, Stewart, Whitney, and Norton are all my co-favorites from the past that I still like. Today, when I take time to read, I read whatever books by members of my RWA chapter that strike my fancy; Deborah Simmons, Donna MacMeans, Lori Foster, and others, and Sherrilyn Kenyon, Susan Grant, and Stephen Hawking (yes, I’m a theoretical physics nut!). My all-time favorite book ever is Citizen of the Galaxy by Robert A. Heinlein. I’ve read it at least 80 times, and no, that’s not a misprint.
Is there anything about you that would surprise your readers?
The fact that I teach college English 101 (essay writing) in three adult-male prisons. Yes, prisons. I’ve been doing it since 2000, and I love every trying minute of it! The guys are respectful, eager to learn, and never try to do anything bad. The only bad incident I’ve had all those years was when one student and his cohort folded a giant paper airplane on a break and then flew it at me during classtime. If I didn’t wear glasses it would have hit me in the eye. I feel like I’m a positive female influence to many of my students who’ve never had a mother or were abused abandoned by mothers. These inmates must have exemplary behavior records in prison and be within 5 years of being released, so my students are there to better themselves so they can try to get their lives back on track and not be repeat offenders after release.
If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you choose?
Since I’m a Veteran who proudly served her country, I must say America, with a home in England so I can learn about my own family’s ancestors in Bolney, Sussex where they lived and died. The first Wickersham in America was my ancestor, Thomas Wickersham, who came here in 1700. Even then people knew what we know today, that with all of our problems, America is still the best country on the planet!
What is your favorite kind of cake?
Hands down devils-food, which along with Toll House cookies are my guilty pleasures. I have a recipe for the cake in a cookbook I got when I was a Brownie in elementary school. It makes the best devils-food you’ve ever tasted. I won’t use any other recipe for it! Of course, it must have that new lighter marshmallow frosting.
I am completely with you on this one. You've chosen two of my all-time favorites!
Do you have a role model?
My role model was my grandmother who I lived with from 1959 until her death in 1972. I felt like I could do no wrong in her eyes. I had security, food, warmth, and love. My imagination ran wild as I grew up with her guidance. I’d spend hours reading comic books and later books with chapters, coloring, cutting and pasting together my own rocket-ship models, writing down my dreams and turning them into short stories, playing outside all day in the summer, and riding my bicycle all over my hometown, Muncie, Indiana, staying outside until midnight.
It sounds like you had a lovely time with her. How wonderful!
Is there anything else you would like to share with us today?
For those who are thinking about writing as a career, be prepared. If you can’t learn how to handle rejection, if you don’t love learning languages and learning new things, if you think your writing is perfect in its first draft, if you don’t like to read and never read much as a kid, if you don’t like words and playing with them, if you never drew pictures and made up stories for them in school, if you’re not observant of things around you, if you’re not willing to spend money you don’t have to keep your writing habit going, if you’re not comfortable with being with yourself a lot, if you don’t have perseverance, then you may not have what it takes to be a successful writer. Note I didn’t say published writer. Being published is only the icing on the devils-food cake of writing. Success comes when you can do all the things I listed (there’s probably 100 things I forgot) and feel like it’s your vocation, your life, your life-preserver, then you are a successful writer.
An excerpt from The Winds of Fall:
When he turned the corner to his entry’s area, he saw a woman near his canvas. She was touching it.
Wasn’t she aware of art gallery etiquette? “Hey, get your hand off my painting.”
“Leave me alone. I want to go home. I must go home.” She said in a monotone voice.
He stepped closer, and his heart jumped into his throat. Her left hand had entered his artwork, and her forearm slid in as he watched! Joe moved closer and said, “Get away from my canvas.” He could hardly breathe as he prayed no one would see them. The consequences would be unimaginable.
The woman slowly turned her head toward him. Like in some nightmarish horror movie, she looked at him with vertical cat’s-eye pupils instead of human pupils. A gasp escaped his lips. He wanted to run, to hide from what he knew the future would now bring, but horrified fascination glued his feet to the floor.
A cobalt-blue emptiness gradually replaced her green irises and the cat’s-eye pupils. He’d never seen human eyes do anything remotely like this. He blinked away his shock and regained enough control to say, “You must get away from my painting! Now.”
She didn’t respond.
Fear of being seen made Joe close the short distance to her and shake her shoulder. “If anyone sees what you’re doing—”
“Leave me alone. I want to go home. I must go home.” She replied in the same monotone. Her elbow slid into his entry as she spoke.
As her face turned back to his artwork, a knife of horrendous loneliness sliced through Joe’s mind. He had to find out what made her feel that empty and alone. People can’t survive such loneliness. He began pulling on her free arm with all his immense strength, but the force drawing her into the picture exceeded his might. Her left shoulder disappeared into his canvas as he struggled.
Hearing faint footsteps coming near kicked adrenaline into Joe’s nervous system, so he braced a foot on the wall for leverage and pulled harder.
He struggled until sweat stung his eyes, and finally, she began sliding out of his canvas. Would she be out before those footsteps brought people with them?Panic made him pull harder, and soon, Joe heard a soft whoosh as she slid out. They fell to the floor in a heap, rose perfume filling the air around them. He watched in awe as her eyes changed from empty cobalt pools to dark-green irises then normal round pupils. But, could such haunting depths ever be called normal?
The brown eyes staring into her soul fascinated Skye, but she was repulsed to find herself sprawled on top of a total stranger. How long had she been in this ungainly position? While she jumped off and stood, she assessed him. His short brown beard and long brown hair graced the most gorgeous man she’d ever seen.
Sandy, that's an awesome excerpt! I'm hooked!
I'm so glad you came to visit today. I enjoyed getting to know you, and I do hope you will come back again sometime.
Readers, Sandy has generously offered a copy of her fabulous book, The Winds of Fall, to one lucky commenter. So comment away, and come back tomorrow to see if your name has been randomly chosen to win.
The Winds of Fall now available from The Wild Rose Press
http://www.sandywick.com/
