Please help me welcome Laura Haley-McNeil to my blog today. As well as being an author, Laura has studied piano, violin, organ and ballet. She has served on the boards of two community orchestras. She currently lives in Colorado with her husband.

Take it away, Laura.

Thank you for hosting me today, Margery. It’s pleasure to be with you and your readers.

As a musician, I wanted to focus my novels on something I knew, music, and try to show musicians are people, too, with dreams and hopes and fears. I’ve read many books about doctors and lawyers and detectives. These are interesting careers made more interesting by complicated plots, so I thought, why couldn’t a musician fall in love, solve a mystery, live happily ever after?

Thus, Prelude and Fugue was conceived. Granted the background is a little different. There are recording studios and stage performances and practice sessions rather than courtrooms and emergency rooms and police stations. But theatres can be interesting. Who made them more interesting than Phantom of the Opera?

What about you? Do you gravitate toward certain careers when you read and write? Is it a career your familiar with or have researched? I’d love to hear about it.

Description

Olivia St. Claire accomplishes her dream to become a pianist, but didn’t count on falling in love with the man she can never have.

Excerpt

     â€œLiam Wallace?” Panic burst through me as I forced confidence into my voice, lifted my chin, and looked at the towering figure filling the doorway. My clammy hands gripped a briefcase weighted with ancient piano books. It knocked against my knees as I stood on his terraced front porch in the fading sunlight of a cool, Denver afternoon.
     Though his eyes never left mine, I knew he was making the observations everyone makes about me: small, timid, weak.
     â€œYes.” His lean physique bore an oxford shirt and soft wool trousers, but my gaze was immediately drawn to the mass of salt and pepper curls.
     â€œI’m Olivia St. Claire. I had called about the piano lessons.”
     â€œOf course.” He opened the door.
     I stepped into the tiled foyer paneled in dark wood. Through the arched doorway, I caught a glimpse of cathedral windows overlooking a pristine lawn. Light drifting through leaded glass splashed across a Persian carpet.
     â€œIt’s a pleasure to meet you.” His voice carried a sense of authority, yet was gentle. He extended his hand and I started when his cuff lifted to reveal a thin scar that crossed his palm.
     Cool strength closed around my fingers and unintelligible words tumbled from my mouth that would have said I was glad to meet him.
     â€œYou brought your music, I see.” His hand released mine, which reluctantly floated to the briefcase.
     Unwanted sensations rushed through me, but I reminded myself a male piano teacher would have little interest in women.

Prelude and Fugue is available now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Smashwords.

Thank you so much for visiting with me today, Laura.

To learn more about Laura and her books, follow her on Facebook.