P.T. Macias – Hot & Spicy

Posted on by October 17, 2012

Please help me welcome P.T. Macias to my blog today.

Here’s a short bio: P.T. Macias (Patricia) was born in San Jose, California. She is a first generation Mexican American. She graduated from high school and married in 1981. Patricia graduated from the University of Phoenix with a dual Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management/Administration in 1999. Patricia always dreamed of writing and is delighted to be achieving her dream. Patricia currently lives in Sacramento, California with her husband, children, and grandchildren. Her three children and three grandchildren are her pride and joy. Patricia enjoys reading romance and paranormal novels. She enjoys spending quality time with family and friends.

Thanks for joining me today, P.T. Tell me, when did you start writing? What inspired you?
I recall reading a book when I was young and thinking that I can write a love story. I especially thought about writing when I didn’t like the ending.

What do you like best about being a writer?
I love writing the story. I love the characters. I’m constantly amazed on how the characters communicate their story. I love meeting amazing authors and readers.

How many books have your written? Do you have a favorite?
My first novel is Hot & Spicy. I also was compelled to write the De la Cruz Saga. The saga is about the twelve cousin’s love story. The cousin’s stories interlocked. Hot & Spicy is the first book of a twelve novel series. The other eleven novels in the series were written concurrently. I have nine of the novels in the series approximately three quarters completed. The second novel is Hot & Forbidden and is now my new release.

What inspired you to write [this story]?
It all began with a dream. I dreamed my story over and over again. I decided to write these novels after several weeks of dreaming about all of these characters. The characters truly motivated me to write their stories, lol. They wouldn’t leave me alone. I started brainstorming and organizing it into outlines. I developed each character’s personalities, interests, and personal love story. I wrote the De La Cruz Saga that is a twelve novel series.

Do you have any advice for those authors just beginning this journey?
I would advise fellow writers to be proud of their work and to own it. We all make mistakes. I have read lots of books and they always have some type of mistake in them. There will always be people that will love it and people that will hate it. You will meet awesome fellow writers and readers that will make your day, lol.


Tell us about Hot & Spicy
(taken from Amazon) Jose Enrique De La Cruz the CEO of the De La Cruz, Inc. needs a fiancée in time for the 25th anniversary celebration. La familia is anxious to meet his fiancée, but he doesn’t have one. His hermana Patricia agreed to obtain una novia for him. Paty enticed her amiga to pretend to be his loving fiancée.
Jessica Maria Acosta agreed to be his fiancée for two reasons. One, she has always loved him and prays she can make him love her. Two, this is a great opportunity to achieve her dream of working as an Interior Decorator Design Manager.

What are you working on now?
Hot & Wild is a work in progress, lol. I’m attempting to also have this one out in Dec. 2012. It’s an awesome story. This story is about Christian Arturo De La Cruz and he’s a Navy Seal. It has awesome, exciting action. It’s a thriller and has hot alpha male romance.

Here is the list of the series. They are not in order. I have not decided which one will be published after Hot & Wild. I might start publishing the primas, lol.
Hot Angel 2013 Erica De La Cruz & Gabriel
Hot & Adorable 2012 Alejandro Andres De La Cruz & Carolina
Hot & Sexy 2013 Patricia De La Cruz & Carlos
Hot & Spoiled 2012 Sebastian Antonio De La Cruz & Cynthia
Hot & Lovable 2013 Isabella De La Cruz & Gregory
Hot & Sassy 2013 Veronica De La Cruz & Christopher
Hot & Dangerous 2013 Claudia De La Cruz & Roberto
Hot & Naughty 2013 Javier De La Cruz & Gabriella

Thanks so much for visiting today, P.T.

You can find Hot & Spicy on Amazon now

Playing it safe

Posted on by November 5, 2012

Happy Sunday, everyone. Thanks for dropping by. I’ve been lax in posting my six sentences for the past couple of weeks. Vacation will do that to you. But I’m back, and taking this week’s sentences from The Next Victim, available on Amazon and other ebook outlets.

         One thing they would never be was friends. They could have been lovers, maybe, if he was anything but a cop and she was anything but a reporter. It wouldn’t be the first time a cop had let something slip to a reporter when the wrong part of his anatomy was doing his thinking for him, and that slip had ended up on the front page of the newspaper the next morning.

He and Shannon could have even been more than lovers, if he was in the market for something more than a one-night stand – which he wasn’t.

Police work and relationships didn’t work. He’d found that out in the worst way possible.

What do you think? Should he take the risk that their relationship would end badly?

Thanks for visiting. Please come back next week, and don’t forget to check out the fabulous works by the other authors here.

Calisa Rhose – HOME really is sweet

Posted on by October 9, 2012

I’m thrilled to welcome Calisa Rhose to my blog today to talk about her writing process and her debut novel, Home. Take it away, Calisa.

Hi Margery! Thank you for having me on your lovely blog today.

I’ve been thinking about what to talk about and all the things I need to get done- writing wise, I mean- and putting off this to do that and so on. In all the mind scramble I realized something very important about my writing and the difference in my processes in being pre vs post published.

A year ago I was just preparing for my first book tour as I received my release date for my Wild Rose Press novella, Home. Before I sold, before my book came out, everything sort of came to a screeching halt with writing. I had to get prepared, do edits, ooh and aah over my first cover, meet and get to know the wonderful group of authors that make up the Garden Roses at WRP. So many new things to do! I felt completely overwhelmed by the time I finished my book blog tour at the end of February.

Then I pitched my next book, one I’d written for Mills and Boon the year before and pulled back after unending revisions that didn’t seem to go anywhere but to lose my characters and my direction for that story. In May I sold that book- some may remember Perfect Dr. Viv- to Lyrical Press, Inc. The title was changed right away to Risk Factors. I think it fits. That book is tentatively scheduled to release in March 2013. I’m thrilled and ready. I’m also not going to over book my blog tour for that one! LOL It will have various promotional avenues I’m finding and learning about that I didn’t know about, or even how to find with Home.

I want all of you out there to see my books. What writer doesn’t? But I want you to appreciate them, not run from them. J I hope you will enjoy reading them and come away with something, even if it’s just a complacent feeling that I did a good job and provided a nice afternoon for you.

But back to my self-discovery. I haven’t fully completed a book since I finished Home and submitted it last year.Probably not something I should admit to, but there you have it. Writing is hard,even when you’re not writing!

I have a couple of finished mss I’ve been looking over, they both need rewrites though and I don’t want to dig into that just yet. I’ve began several other stories but they seem to have stalled out for one reason or another.

Life, family interferes and that prevents me writing productively. I keep thinking about the two I’ve sold and what the difference between those, me now and then. Why am I struggling to complete a project? And the answer, or part of it came to me a few days ago. One is that I didn’t have pressure of publication, edits (I just finished the last for RF last week), and the biggie- Promotion. Man I had no idea how much time and energy that P-word takes! The other? The new stories haven’t spoken to me the way those first two did.

I’ve found myself sitting, walking, always thinking about this. I need my characters to talk to me and they haven’t been. I’m not sure what to do about it, but what I have begun to do is I started a whole new story and I’m listening to the characters, really listening, to draw them out. I feel good about this one so far, and have unsolidified plans to finish it by Dec 1. By finish, I mean crits, edits and betas and submit it by that day.Not much time, but I can do this!

I’m not letting myself think about that date, I’m just pushing to meet the self-imposed deadline. Who knew? I write better under a set deadline. Not some blurred estimate, but a specific date. I’m going to have to do what many other writers do and set hard deadlines for myself, because I get carried away with promotion and emails and, because I’m an editor, projects that need to be blasted out, so I can write, rather than sitting on them, editing slowly. Even those edits have deadlines, but if I can beat those and send them out, that only leaves more time for me to write before the next step with my job edits call.

I’m making a new resolution for me. Write. Finish. Period.

I’d love to leave you with a short excerpt from Home and I hope you enjoy it!

 

HOME: Tales of the Scrimshaw Doll site

TAGLINE:

What could a gypsy and a Vietnam veteran have in common?

BLURB:

Silvertown’s outcast, Poppy Tippen, has loved football hero Sam “The Force” Callahan forever. But he never seemed to know she was alive. Now he’s home from the war and she suddenly finds herself comforting him from the demons of “that damn war.” Is his attention merely an escape from the haunting nightmares? Or does she hold the interest of the only man she’s ever truly loved?

Sam Callahan’s only solace from the war nightmares wrecking his life comes in the unlikely form of a gypsy girl with stigmas of her own. He’s known Poppy his entire life, but there’s something different about her now. Something special he desperately wants to hold on to. Can he convince her she’s the only thing he needs to put the past behind him?

 

Excerpt:

“I’ll always want you, Poppy.”

Her head shook in automatic denial. “You’ll want a girl who fits your life. Not some gypsy with no family lineage to brag about. Your momma won’t accept that, either. She’ll make you choose someone like Connie, someone who fits into your world. Not the girl everyone avoids and whispers about behind her back. You’re gonna be the town’s doctor. You need an uppity wife who will make you proud.”

When Sam laughed, his chest shuddered against her back. Deep, husky, real. He turned her in his arms and looked down at her, smiling. “Poppy, do you honestly think I give a damn what people think? Look at me! I’m the town outcast, the survivor who should have died saving the others, not be here planning a future that includes a wife, a medical practice. “I shimmy under park benches, run from my mother’s lipstick, for God’s sake. I wake up screaming and crying over nothing in the middle of the night, crawl under my bed and hide, shaking, until morning. Hell, I can’t even be a doctor because I haven’t finished school yet.”

“I didn’t know. It must be awful for you.” No matter how it hurt Poppy to know he used her, it felt much worse to know how he hurt alone. “The only time it isn’t awful is when I’m with you. When I think of you.”

HOME is available now from The Wild Rose Press, Amazon and B&N.

BIO:

Small-town country girl Calisa Rhose has been writing since she was a teen in Oklahoma.

It wasn’t until 2005, while living in California, that she realized if “they” can do it there’s no reason why she couldn’t write and get published, too. That realization began her journey into the world of publishing. After a cross-country move with her husband and their three grown daughters (plus families) back to her home state, Calisa dove into her writing. She joined RWA and the local chapter OKRWA. Since that day she has been more determined than ever to see her name in lights. She intends to nurture others and continue to grow as an author.

She’d love to hear from her readers at calisa.rhose@gmail.com and you can visit Calisa at www.calisarhose.wordpress.com Find out about her books on the Bookshelf page. Twitter, GoodReads and Facebook.

Thanks again Margery!

What about you? Do you work well under deadline, or without?

 

Posted on by October 3, 2012

I’m pleased to welcome Amazon best-selling author E. Ayers to my blog today. Author of the “River City” novels, E. is also one of the authors on the group blog, Authors of Main Street.
E. was born and raised with wealth, but turned her back on all of it and married her prince charming a few days after her eighteenth birthday. Her family disowned her, and her friends were shocked. A firm believer in love conquering everything, she never looked back. The love her husband and she shared became the springboard for her novels.
Fascinated with the way people deal with everyday problems, she has always been an observer and a listener. A simple problem for one person is a mountain for another. She utilizes those common predicaments, which is why her books seem to touch so many lives.
Today, she spends most of her free time writing while living in a pre-Civil War home with her two dogs and a cat. Rattling around in an old money pit gives her muse plenty of freedom. Her idea of a perfect day is to spend it at the keyboard of her computer, coffee in hand, and everything in the house actually working as it should. She’s the official matchmaker for all the characters who wander through her brain, and she likes finding just the right ones to create a story.

Now, here’s E.

Thank you, Margery, for inviting me here. It’s fall in the northern hemisphere, and for many of us that means cooler temps and pretty fall colors. I love decorating the porch, front door, and my mantles with gourds, pumpkins, fall berries, corn, and other fun things. I’m also a sucker for a bowlful of candy corn. As Halloween approaches, it’s fun to tuck in a witch’s hat, some plastic black spiders, or an adorable skeleton.
      They say to write what you know. Sometimes I do. Sometimes things happen which stick with us forever. I’ll never forget the skeleton at my door.
About three days before Halloween, my doorbell rang. Like an idiot, I opened the door without even looking to see who it was. Not that it would have mattered because I had no way of knowing the costumed man at my door. My mouth fell open. It was bitter cold, so I dragged him in, and called up the stairs for my girls to come see him.
The guy was not talking. I’m walking around him. I’m admiring his…costume. Really. The costume. His shoulders were this wide, and his butt was this little, and… He had the leg muscles of a skier and the arms of a tennis player. Oh, yeah. It was the costume I was admiring, definitely the costume! It glowed in the dark. Really, it was the costume. I’d never seen one like it before or since. It fit the man like something worn by an Olympic speed skater. It covered his body, feet, hands, and head, except for his face. That was carefully painted.
I assumed it was my single neighbor. You probably know him, straight out of college, with his first real job – a really nice guy. Of course, I’d never seen him in anything other than a coat and tie. So I make a total fool of myself, and call my girls one more time to come see him.
My oldest walked around him, and I hope she was only admiring the costume because she probably was eleven at the time. My youngest daughter sat on the staircase and stared at the man. Finally she said, “Mom, Roger has brown and this guy’s eyes are blue.”
“You’re not Roger?” My heart fell into my stomach. Who did I just yank into my house?
That incident became the opening of A Skeleton at Her Door. What if? What if the woman who opened the door to a skeleton was divorced with an ex-husband who was abusive? What if the skeleton was a really nice guy who’d been burned by enough women that he’s lost faith in ever finding a woman who could be faithful?
I write sweet romances and I write what I call sensual romances where I don’t close the bedroom door, but if your fourteen year old reads it, you won’t have to explain a thing, although I wouldn’t consider it suggested teen reading. I write for adults. A Skeleton at Her Door is a sensual romance. It’s about trusting, putting the past away, and finding love when it’s least expected. It’s also about blending two households, parenting, three children, and sneaking off for some adult time.
Just for fun, if you email me at e.ayers@ayersbooks.com and put blog in the subject, I’ll enter your name into a drawing for a free ebook of A Skeleton at Her Door.
Am I the only crazy person who would open my door to a skeleton and then pull him into the house? Am I too trusting? Maybe, but I truly believe the vast majority of people are decent and honest. Would you have opened your door to a skeleton and brought him into your home? Leave me a comment, because I love hearing from everyone, and don’t forget to email me for a chance to win a free book.

That’s quite a story, E. Because I trust everyone, I’d probably do the same thing.

A Skeleton at Her Door is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and iTunes.

Wanting, the first book in E’s River City series, is available exclusively on Amazon and will be free tomorrow and Friday (October 4 and 5).

 

 

Forever, the fourth River City novel, will be available on October 8th.

 

 

 

 

 

You can learn more about E. and her books by visiting her website and following her on Facebook and Twitter.

Thanks so much for joining me today, E. Good luck with your new release. I can’t wait to read the series.

Jill Hughey – Redeemed

Posted on by September 26, 2012

I’m delighted to welcome historical romance author, Jill Hughey, to my blog today. I’m a huge fan of historical romance but I stick to western USA. I admire anyone with the patience to research early medieval Europe, which Jill has done for her latest novel, Redeemed.

Jill, thanks for taking the time to visit with me today. Please tell us a little about yourself.
My name is Jill Hughey and I am an author of historical romance which I fit it in among motherhood, marriage, and part-time work in my husband’s MacIntosh consulting business.

Sounds like you’re busy, yet you still find time to write. What genre(s) do you write?
I write historical romance in which the emotions are raw and the romance takes awhile to develop. I use a reasonably modern voice. No thithers or thines.

Complete this sentence: When I want to kick back and relax…
I watch a Jane Austen movie, such as Sense and Sensibility, or one of my two versions of Persuasion or Pride and Prejudice. My family makes fun of me. They hear the familiar music start and yell “Again?”

Other than writing, do you have other talents?
My other talent is as a soprano. I started taking voice lessons five years ago. I sing classical solos and Broadway tunes. I was involved in instrumental music in my school years, but being a good singer was a real discovery for me. It is invigorating to challenge yourself to learn something new during middle age!

Yes, it is invigorating, but frustrating too, especially when you get past middle age 🙂

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be, and why?
Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where I had a direct view of the Tetons and good heat for the long winters! I would choose Jackson Hole because I could look at those mountains all day and write.

What do you like best about being a writer?
I love writing the first draft, pulling ideas and words from the thin air to create a story that did not exist before.

On the other end, what’s your least favorite part of the writing process?
Formatting. Being self-published, I do my formatting myself. That is sheer frustrating drudgery to me. Some people enjoy making each page look just so, but to me formatting feels like childbirth. I just want the book OUT!!!

Tell us about your latest release.
Redeemed is the second book in my Evolution Series. The Evolution Series is set in the 830s in what is now France and Germany. This is after Charlemagen’s death when his son is starting to wreck the empire. Redeemed features an emotionally and physically scarred hero who was the villain in the first book of the series. Doeg wants a wife for only one reason: free housekeeper. Our stern hero soon finds that the quiet yet determined Philantha may renew more than his home. I chose the title Redeemed because it really is a story of redemption for both of them. The heroine has her own history to overcome and both characters need what the other brings to the relationship, even though at the beginning neither appears to have much to offer. Though part of a series, Redeemed stands alone, so you do not have to read the first book, Unbidden, to understand or enjoy the second. My books are available on most eBook vendors, and in print on Amazon and CreateSpace. Here are two links for Redeemed – Amazon and Barnes&Noble

What are you working on now?
I am working on Vain, the third book in my Evolution Series. This one is about the best friend of my hero from the first book. Theo is a bit of a snob who will discover that happiness may not be found in marriage to a socialite, but rather to the daughter of a lowly tailor.

I look forward to any comments or questions. If anyone would like to keep current on what I’m up to, I am on Facebook and I tweet @jillhughey. I also have a badly neglected blog where you can read a funny story about a porcupine eating my patio doors at 1AM on a Saturday night. Do you know how loud a porcupine gnawing on wood is?

Thank you so much for letting me visit with you today, Margery!

Six-sentence Sunday – Would a man’s profession scare you off?

Posted on by September 23, 2012

With a major construction project going on in my house, I completely forgot about Six Sentence Sunday the last two weeks. I almost forgot this week, too, because I was busy getting my latest medical romance ready for publication. But I’m back, and I’m taking my six sentences from my new release, The Firefighter and the Lady Doc. In this scene, the hero has been in the heroine’s ER for treatment. He’s gone now and she’s alone.

         Yet curiosity forced her to open the chart she’d brought into the lounge with her. She scanned the first page, listing his personal information – name, address, age, next of kin, etc.
         The box marked “Employer – Occupation” caught her eye. When she read the words, her stomach clenched. Three years, and she still couldn’t control the sick feeling of dread in her heart whenever one specific word registered in her brain.
         Firefighter.

Thanks so much for dropping by. I’d love to hear your comments, so don’t be shy. And don’t forget to check out the other snippets here. Hope to see you again next week.

Margery

New release – The Firefighter and the Lady Doc

Posted on by September 21, 2012


It’s live! My third medical romance, The Firefighter and the Lady Doc, is now available on Amazon and Smashwords.

Many times, aspiring authors are told to “write what you know.” I decided to do just that. I know hospitals, having spent practically my whole working life in hospitals in one capacity or another. I know firefighters – married to one, mother of one. The Firefighter and the Lady Doc is the result. Like The Surgeon’s Homecoming and Stranded with the Surgeon, the story takes place in Canada, although they aren’t connected.

Blurb:
Heading up the Emergency Department of a busy hospital is all that Dr. Kate MacNaughton has time for. She certainly doesn’t have the time or the need for any other commitments, especially not for Mike Lawrence, the firefighter who is a painful reminder of her late husband’s tragic death. For Mike, winning Kate’s heart, although difficult, is not impossible, but convincing her to take a chance on another firefighter just might be.

Check it out on Amazon and Smashwords.

Have a great day,
Margery