INTERVIEW: CHRISTINE S. FELDMAN

May 16, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Long and Short Reviews welcomes Christine S. Feldman whose debut novel Coming Home was recently released.

I asked her to tell us something about the book.

“It’s got alien abductions and an Elvis sighting, because, you know, there just aren’t enough of those in romance novels today,” she said. “Kidding, of course—although it does give me an idea for my next book…heh, heh.  Actually, Coming Home deals with some serious themes but also ties in moments of lightheartedness to balance them out.  While the book is primarily about the developing romance between the heroine, Callie, and the hero, Danny, there’s also a lot about the nature of family relationships that ties into it, and the different ways that loss can affect people.”

Christine has just started the editing process for her second book, The Bargain, another contemporary romace that is due to be released July 22, also from Crimson Romance. The heroine is an awkward tomboy named Shannon who is a lot more comfortable with power tools than she is with high heels or lipstick.  Sometimes she wishes she could reinvent herself and finally catch the eye of her perfect boss, who happens to be the same guy she had a crush on throughout high school.  But when his ladykiller older brother comes back to town—a former bad boy looking for redemption—Shannon realizes that love might not be about reinventing yourself after all.  It’s about finding your perfect match.

Most of the storylines Christine dreams up are for stand-alone books, but she does have a fantasy series planned.

“It’s a heroes-for-hire concept, but it features the most unlikely heroes and is a mixture of adventure and light comedy,” she shared with me.  ”Most adventure fantasies are about the A-list heroes, but I figured it might be a lot more fun and interesting to write about the B-listers who are too stubborn to give up despite not being taken very seriously in their line of work.  My screenplay version of the first book planned was a semi-finalist in the 2012 All Access Screenwriting Competition.”

Christine has loved writing since she was seven or eight years old and would writing paragraph-long stories based on books she loved and her favorite characters. As she got older, her stories got longer, and she began dreaming up characters and worlds that were all her own.

“Storytelling is just so much fun!” she told me. “Somewhere my parents probably still have a one-page story or two that I wrote as a young child, most likely about the Black Stallion since I was obsessed with horses as a kid.  A few years later—ta da!—hormones kicked in, and suddenly horses weren’t nearly as interesting as the opposite sex, so gradually I lost interest in horse stories and started writing pieces that featured more romance and adventure and less hay and manure.  I sent out a few queries to publishers when I was in my twenties, but I gave up after a while and decided that I should probably pursue a ‘real’ job that could pay my bills.  I told myself that I would get back into writing some day when I had more time, but it slowly dawned on me that if it was ever going to happen, I would need to make time for writing.  So I did.  Evenings and weekends.  And it felt so good to do it again!”

For Christine, both plot and character kind of build on each other. She usually starts with an idea of a particular situation that sparks her interest and then she slowly fleshes it out with a few plot details here and a character quirk there…and then pieces start falling into place until the plot and characters are so closely intertwined she can’t remember how it first got started.

“I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a type A personality who likes structure and order, so I do like a good outline when it comes to story plotting.  But sometimes during the research I do for a story, I may stumble onto something that makes me take the story or the character in a different direction,” she said.  ”Uptight as I am, I do realize that a writer needs to be at least a little bit flexible about these kinds of things!”

She does like to know exactly where her story is headed, because she feels more confident that the story has enough meat to get there.

“I don’t stick to an outline just for the outline’s sake.  If halfway through the story it seems like things are heading in a different direction that I originally intended, I take a step back and try to be objective as possible about which direction feels more natural to the story and truer to the characters.  And I’ve been known to go back in a rewrite and trim out a character or two.  Hurts sometimes, but it’s—hopefully—for the best.”

Christine teaches kindergarten full-time, so her writing is mostly done in the evenings and weekends.

“Some days the teaching takes a lot out of me, and it can be a challenge to be consistent in my writing habits, but I keep plugging away at it,” she told me.  ”You have to think long-term, you know?  Because even if you only manage one page a night, you can still get an entire book written in a year if you’re just persistent enough.”

“If you had to do your journey to getting published all over again, what would you do differently?” I asked.

“I wish I could go back and tell my twenty-something self not to give up so soon on manuscript submissions, because back then I sent queries to only a handful of publishers and then figured if I didn’t get published right away, a contract must not be in the cards for me.  Silly, silly girl!  I’ve since learned that that attitude toward publishing is very unrealistic and impractical.  You have to write, submit what you wrote, write some more, submit some more, go write again…and I’m sure you see where this is going. ”

When Christine isn’t writing or teaching, she loves to curl up with a good book and get lost in it. Sometimes she’ll bit the bullet and do some work around the yard–or do some housework, if she has to. She admits that under the bottom of her bed there are lots and lots of dust bunnies.

“Hey, come on!” she said. “I work full time and I write, so something’s gotta give.  At least, that’s my rationale, and it works quite nicely for me, thank you very much.  At least I still clean the bathroom.  Occasionally.”

She also enjoys ballroom dancing quite a bit–that’s how she and her husband met.

“We don’t do any fancy over-the-shoulder lifts like you see on Dancing with the Stars, but we do have a good time out on the dance floor,:” she told me.  I highly recommend it!  I am also a novice bellydancer.  I haven’t done much bellydancing lately—been too busy with teaching and writing—but I used to take lessons, and I’d practice at home, too, with DVDs.  It’s really a lot of fun, and it’s also surprisingly good exercise.  You feel it afterwards in thigh and ab muscles you never knew you had before.  Wild horses couldn’t get me to dance in front of anybody else, of course, but all by myself and in the privacy of my living room…absolutely!”

“Do you have a favorite quote or saying?” I asked.

“I love quotes.  I have a journal that I started when I was a teenager in which I wrote quotes, poems, scriptures, anecdotes—you name it.  So it would be hard to pick just one and say it was my favorite, but there is one quote that has been on my mind a lot the past couple of years, and it was actually instrumental in getting me back into writing.  You know that Wayne Gretzky quote about how you miss one hundred percent of the shots you don’t take?  It got me thinking that if I actually wanted to be a writer, I had to make time for it and DO it.  Because your chances of getting published improve quite a bit if you actually write your book and send it out there, you know?  Funny how it took so long for something so simple to sink in…”

About the Author:  5_16 AUTHOR PHOTOChristine S. Feldman writes both novels and feature-length screenplays, and, to her great delight, she has placed in screenwriting competitions on both coasts—and has even won a couple of them.  In 2012 one of her screenplays was featured as a staged reading in New York City at the Gotham Screen International Film Festival, and later that same year she signed her first publishing contract for her debut novel, Coming Home, with a second one to follow this summer.  When she is not writing, she is teaching kindergarten, puttering around in her garden, ballroom dancing with her husband, or doing research for her next project.  Please visit her at her website http://christinesfeldman.com or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ChristineSFeldman.

 

5_16 ComingHomeCoverNo woman ever really forgets her first love. Callie Sorenson is no exception. Hers was tall, tanned, and—as her older brother’s best friend—completely off limits.

Danny McCutcheon.

It’s a name that Callie hasn’t spoken in years, even if the man to whom it belongs has never really been all that far from her thoughts. Or her heart. But now a twist of fate will bring her back to the childhood home she left behind years ago, and to the hometown boy for whom she secretly longed.

When her mother takes a bad fall and breaks her hip, Callie leaves the bright lights of New York City to fly back west and help with the rehabilitation. It’s a tense homecoming due to a long time estrangement between mother and daughter, and it drives Callie to confront both a painful personal loss and her unanswered questions about the father who abandoned her when she was just a child.

It also brings her face to face with Danny again, and Callie quickly realizes that old feelings die hard.

But for Danny, it’s new feelings that are a problem. Callie is not the young girl he remembers but a woman now, and a very desirable one. They both have reasons to fight the growing attraction between them, but the temptation may just prove to be too much to resist, despite some very real risk to their hearts. The past casts a long shadow over the future, though, and Callie will have to overcome it or else face losing the one man who means the most to her.

 

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INTERVIEW and giveaway: John C. Ryan

May 6, 2013 by 2 Comments

Long and Short Reviews welcomes John C. Ryan, whose debut book Two Lairds, One Lady was released in January.  He’s currently working on a sequel to Two Lairds, One Lady which will continue the banter, adventure and romance of the original characters.  It sounds like a fun book, so leave a comment for a chance to win a download of Two Lairds, One Lady.

Currently, I’m working on a sequel to my debut novel. If readers enjoyed “Two Lairds One Lady”, they’ll likely enjoy the banter, adventure and romance of the continuing saga and advenure of the original characters.

John’s always been fairly creative, but writing  a romance book gave him the opportunity to live a sexy, romantic adventure in an exotic locale, without leaving the comfort of his own home.

“It’s been a true labor of love,” he told me, “and I love that people are enjoying the fruits of that labor.”

John’s first attempt at writing a book was about fifteen years ago.  He started writing a non-fiction book about the Great White Shark and completed 100 pages before he lost interest in it.  Then, about three years ago he mentioned writing a historical romance to the love of his life, Elizabeth, who is an avid romance reader.

“To her credit, she didn’t laugh. Instead, she encouraged me to follow my dream,” he said. “She was there to ease the disapointment of the many rejections that followed but, luckily, she was also there to share the publisher’s acceptance of my first novel, Two Lairds One Lady.”

“ How do you develop your plot and characters?” I asked.

“Largely, I borrow from real life. People I know, and love, can have terribly interesting character traits and stories to tell. Oftimes, once the story begins to flow, it takes on a life of its own. Also, I  never rush a story, and I’m not afraid to alter a plot in mid-story. As long as it flows in the end, it’s all good!”

In addition to writing, John has a restaurant, plus  he helps out at the Animal Hospital that Liz words for, so he can’t write as often as he would like. He does write every Thursday, on his day off, and whenever he can sneak in a few pages.

“Luckily, I could easily live on the royalties from my novel, set in medieval Scotland,” he assured me. “I’d just have to live during that era.”

“Do you ever suffer from writer’s block?” I asked. “If so, what do you do about it?”

“Absolutely! Actually, I hope Kafka was mistaken when he said ‘A non-writing writer is a monster courting insanity.’ There are days I court the muse, and days I can’t find it! If words truly escape me, I’ll step away from my computer and listen to some inspirational music, or watch a show set during the era I’m wriring about. If that fails, tomorrow’s another day! Actually, I was encouraged to hear a great writer say that words escaped even him at times. That was, until I learned ‘Words’ was the name of his cat.”

John usually imagines the characters first.

“My heroine, like a cat. Independent but loving, self-sufficient but giving, ever to land gracefully on her feet, and with a sharp set of claws!” he said. “My hero, a lion. Fiercely protective, handsome, graceful and with an awesome mane!”

“What would we find under your bed?” I asked.

“Books, pet hair, dust bunnies and more books.”

And, I wondered, “What makes you happy?”

“Books, pet hair, dust bunnies and more books. Oh, and my Liz!”

About his pets, he said, “They’re a cast of characters and can get me crazy at times, but they are loving and I couldn’t imagine life without them.”

“What is a talent you wish you had, but don’t?”

“I wish I had the ability to be a tad more realistic. Liz says I’m an Optimist, she a Realist. I see the glass 1/2 full, she thinks I’ll drop it, slip on the liquid, and cut myself on the glass.”

Finally, I asked, “What advice would you give to someone who is just starting out?”

“I suggest reading samples of the best, and worse, examples of the genre you are writing within. You’ll learn what works, and, often,  what to avoid. Lastly, hiring a professional author/editor to work with you (for at least a few chapters). You’ll benefit from their experience and wisdom. It can ruly be an eye-opening experience! There’s so much to learn from other writers. I think, if you only listen to yourself, you have a fool for an audience. Also always remember, David only required one small stone to slay the giant!”

About the Author:  5_6 author photoWhen not engrossed in the creation of my next novel, or rapt in dreams of romance in the beautiful Emerald Isles, I share my home in New York with a myriad of pets, several of them handicap, and the love of my life, Elizabeth, a Veterinary nurse.

One of eight children, I credit my parents with stoking my interest in my Celtic heritage. My father, of Irish descent, passed prematurely from an illness attributed to his tenure in the New York City Fire Department. He was my living example of the Ryan creed, Death before Dishonor. My mother, a registered nurse, has Italian roots and has traveled throughout the world. She instilled in me a sense of wonder for faraway lands and exotic settings.

An uncle to nearly 20 nieces and nephews, I find great joy in being a part of their lives and hope to be as fine an example to them as my character, Sir Thayer, in my debut novel, Two Lairds One Lady.

 

5_6 Two Lairds One lady CoverTwo Lairds, One Lady, a single betrothal. Things are about to get interesting.

The exquisitely beautiful, fiery Elspeth Mourney has been pledged in marriage to the arrogant, impossibly handsome Highland Knight, Sir Thayer Mac Court by her father, the Laird of Lothian. By proposing the marriage of his beloved only daughter to Thayer, the eldest son of his most bitter rival, the Earl has secured a tentative truce. But Elspeth vehemently opposes the match, having unceremoniously chanced upon Thayer six years earlier. That fateful first encounter culminated in a stolen kiss-and disaster!
Yet, as their destinies collide, they chance upon a common bond, a fiercely guarded secret shared by both of their clans. Will this mystery that binds the fates of their families to the very survival of Scotland save their love and ensure the future of their people-or doom them all?

 

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INTERVIEW and giveaway: REGAN WALKER

April 30, 2013 by 4 Comments


Long and Short Reviews welcomes Regan Walker, who has recently released the second book in her Agents of the Crown trilogy, Against the Wind. Leave a comment on today’s interview for a chance to win your choice of either the first book in the trilogy, Racing with the Wind, or both of her short stories.

Racing with the Wind is dedicated to her best friend, who encouraged her to write it.

“Before I was ever a writer of historical romance, I was an avid reader of the genre,” Regan explained. “When I discussed the books with my friend and told her I could often see scenes in my head that foreshadowed the events in the books, or an ending that would fit great with the story, she said, ‘You are an author!’ And then she told me I should write one, so I did.”

Generally, the characters come first for Regan–in the first novel, the characters was Lady Mary Campbell, a hoyden who rides a horse astride, just like a man.  For Against the Wind, Regan was listening to a Ricky Martin song, “Nobody Wants to be Lonely”, and the scene of Kit in the bordello came to her.

“A young woman whose life has been shattered standing before a window, bathed in moonlight, stares out into the night, a ‘broken arrow.’ She hears a voice behind her, a man in the shadows, saying ‘Come to me.’ And I asked myself, what would bring a young woman to such a point? And, from that I wrote the novel.”

She’s now writing Wind Raven, the third book in the trilogy.  The hero is Captain Nick Powell.  Readers first met him in Against the Wind.  A privateer during the War of 1812, he is now a merchant sea captain in his family’s business. A rake and an emotionally wounded man, he loves all women yet he loves none—that is until he meets an impudent American named Tara McConnell.

“It’s research intensive since I have to learn all the nautical terminology and understand life on a schooner,” Regan told me. “Right now I’m deep into the history of Bermuda and the life of a very worthy pirate. It’s so important to get all that ‘right,’ elsewise some clever reader will point out that I got it all wrong! I hope it will be out late 2013.”

For the trilogy, Regan had a list of what she would name each book, depending on what the first book ended up being titled. Her publisher accepted the title she suggested for the first book, Racing with the Wind (which describes how the heroine lives), so she wanted the word “wind” in each of the others. The villagers in the Midlands who rose up against the Crown fought “against the wind,” meaning they didn’t have a chance inspired the title for the second book.  And, for the third book Wind Raven, that’s the name of the hero’s ship as well and, since he’s nicknamed “the Raven,” it also describes the hero himself.

Once Regan has the time period set for the book she wants to write, she dives into research like a cat in catnip.

“I love research,” she declared. “I get the big picture of what was happening in the time period and then I follow a lot of rabbit trails to discover the details and to find the real life characters I want to include. In researching Racing With The Wind, I dove into post Napoleonic France and found myself in the court of King Louis XVIII, and early 19th century Paris where I discovered Germaine de Stael, a most interesting woman. She is a character in my novel, of course. It was fascinating. I read much online, order a few books and go on from there. I might strike up an email relationship with a few historians along the way. For Against the Wind, I studied the Pentrich Rebellion of 1817, and learned so much I swear I could lecture on the subject. (I’ve written blog articles on the rebellion for the serious Regency folks.) The same is true of my short stories. All my stories have ‘Author’s notes’ so the reader can see what’s behind the curtain.”

Regan is mostly a pantser who would like to be a plotter.  Like planning a good meal, she knows what the starter is and what’s for dessert, but she has trouble with the entree. She calls it “the mire of the middle.”

“Once I get started, the first scenes come pretty fast but then long about 20-40K words, I’ll hit a slow spot,” she told me. “It comes from not be a plotter, I suppose. When I try to plot, I feel somewhat stilted. But it seems I’m doing more of it. So there’s hope. And it all comes right in the end. For each scene I am mostly a pantster. However, for the storm scene I just wrote for Wind Raven, I had eight pages of notes before I wrote the scene that numbers fewer pages.”

“What is something you’d like to accomplish in your writing career next year?” I asked.

“Once I finish Wind Raven, there’s a prequel I want to write, To Tame the Wind, the story of the parents of the brothers who are the heroes in books 2 and 3. It will be set in the late 18th century in England and France. Both Against the Wind and Wind Raven drop hints of that story. I have the idea but have not begun to write. And finally, I have the idea for a Christmas reunion of the Agents set in Scotland. You can get a hint of it from my short story, “The Holly & The Thistle.” Both of my short stories feature some of the characters from the trilogy. If I can get those final two novels out in 2014, I’d be very pleased.”

 

About the Author:  4_30 interview Regan Walker As a child Regan Walker loved to write stories, particularly about adventure-loving girls, but by the time she got to college more serious pursuits took priority. One of her professors thought her suited to the profession of law, and Regan realized it would be better to be a hammer than a nail. Years of serving clients in private practice and several stints in high levels of government gave her a love of international travel and a feel for the demands of the “Crown” on its subjects. Hence her romance novels often involve a demanding Prince Regent who thinks of his subjects as his private talent pool.

Regan lives in San Diego with her golden retriever, Link, whom she says inspires her every day to relax and smell the roses.

Website         Amazon page     Regan’s Romance Reviews blog     Twitter: @RegansReview   Facebook    Goodreads

4_30 ReganWalker_AgainstTheWind_logoA night in London’s most exclusive bordello. Agent of the Crown Sir Martin Powell would not normally indulge, but the end of his time spying against Napoleon deserves a victory celebration. Yet, such pleasure will not come cheap. The auburn-haired courtesan he calls “Kitten” is in truth Katherine, Lady Egerton, a dowager baroness and the daughter of an earl as elusive as she is alluring. She flees a fate worse than death. But Martin has known darkness, too, and he alone can touch her heart–as she has touched his. To the English Midlands they will steal, into the rising winds of revolution.

Buy the book at Amazon 

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INTERVIEW: LEE-ANN GRAFF-VINSON

April 29, 2013 by 3 Comments

Long and Short Reviews welcomes <a href=”http://www.leeanngraffvinson.com/“>Lee-Ann Graff-Vinson</a>.

Lee-Ann has been writing seriously for the last nine years–she quit work to become a stay-at-home mom. That decision was a fortunate one for her–she’s had six books published and another, to be released this summer, is currently in the editing phase.

She found out quickly that she had a few misconceptions about the publishing world and writing.

“When I began writing, I thought I would quickly rise in the ranks of the famous (and infamous) authors on the bookstore shelves. What I found out was the amount of room on those shelves is limited, so are the best-sellers. You may have written the next number one read of the decade, but unless you have a marketing department who can sell you and your work to the rest of the world, it is unlikely you will hit the list of must read authors,” she said.  ”What I learned, however, is that Indie ebook companies are becoming as popular as traditional book publishers. If you can sell your work to a top notch Indie publisher, then your books will appear on a shelf – just in a different format. In both instances, marketing is the key to selling your writing. The more leg work you do, the better your sales are.”

Her latest book, Love And Liberty, was released in January 2012 and was the first of her books to go to print.  It’s the first in  her For the Love of the Military series and, even though it’s shorter than traditional length,  she thinks it sends  a powerful message of teamwork and human capability no matter what your gender is.

“Warriors become family whether they like it or not,” she explained. “And, when the chips are down, family is always there to help you up.”

The second book in the series, Love Under Fire, is in the first edits phase.  She’s also writing the third book, which is planned to complete the series, Love Unknown.

“Love Under Fire has a more graphic feel than the first in the series,” she told me. “This book deals with PTSD post brutal combat. There is not a lot of romance in this book, but more the reality of dealing with a fractured mind.”

Lee-Ann told me that she started trying to plot her stories, but it didn’t work for her. Now she lets her characters take charge.

“They tell me who they are and where they want to go. They also tell me what trouble they want to get into and how they are to overcome it. I’m not an outline kind of gal. I sit down, start toying with an idea that’s been mulling around in my head, and let my fingers do the rest. My favorite days are when I go back and read over the pages I’ve written the previous night and don’t remember typing a single word of the story,” she said.

Lee-Ann doesn’t generally suffer from writer’s block–she thinks because she doesn’t have the time to sit at her keyboard day in and day out. Her writing time is limited and, as it is, her ideas overflow her mental capacity some days.

“It’s sad to say, but I long for a day when writer’s block actually hits me,” she admitted. “This will mean I am writing as much as my mind is creating. And that would be absolutely fabulous.”

In Lee-Ann’s opinion, keys to good writing include sensory detail and showing-versus-telling.

“A writer needs to bring their reader into the story in such a way that the characters become the family the reader never had,” she said. “The author needs to make the reader yell, smile, laugh, cry and talk back to the characters on the pages. This is effective story-telling. A writer who can make me feel these kinds of emotions is one I will read again and again.”

She doesn’t have one specific writer or story that has influenced her own writing. She reads a lot of books, because she also reviews on her blog, and when stories are written in such a way it makes her want to keep reading past her bedtime, then she takes note of the author’s writing style.

I asked her to describe her writing space for us.

“I have my own office all set up with soothing pictures of scenic forests, waterfalls and beautiful lakes. There are candles spread out across shelves across my wall and pictures drawn by my children hanging up beneath them.”

Finally, I asked, “If you had to do your journey to getting published all over again, what would you do differently?”

“I would probably spend more time in researching how to market myself more efficiently before publishing my work.”

 

About the Author: 4_29 Author Head Shot 2013Lee-Ann Graff-Vinson is the author of military/romance/suspense and erotic stories published by Gypsy Shadow Publishing. She also writes “Queen Emily’s Enchanted Kingdom,” a children’s picturebook series co-illustrated by her daughter. Lee-Ann is a member of the Canadian Romance Authors Network. She lives in Vancouver, Canada.

Website      Blog          Twitter               Publisher                 Facebook        Goodreads                Amazon

 

 

4_29 Love and Liberty- CoverCaptain Dana Jenkins of the United States Army is about to embark on a mission that will change her life. This isn’t Dana’s first deployment, but it is proving possibly to be her last. As part of the platoon traveling from Camp Liberty, Iraq to Camp Taji, Dana’s convoy gets ambushed. She and the surviving soldiers are taken prisoner by the merciless Iraqi rebel group, Al-Moofoona. Their only hope lies in the hands of their fearless leader, Captain Jack Parsons—the man with whom Dana has fallen hopelessly in love.

Captain Jack Parsons can only sit and watch as what is left of his platoon is ordered into the back of a truck. Along with his men, they’ve taken the only woman he’s ever allowed to penetrate his heart. Jack is going to do everything in his power to save them all before it’s too late.

Buy the book at

Amazon                                                      Publisher

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INTERVIEW and giveaway: Patricia Joyce

April 24, 2013 by 2 Comments

Long and Short Reviews welcomes Patricia Grace Joyce, whose debut novel The Magic of Time was released last year by Countinghouse Press.  Leave a comment on today’s interview for a chance to win one of three print copies of The Magic of Time.

The Magic of Time is a time-travel mystery romance and is the first of a four-book series.  It took Patricia a year to research and a year to write the first draft. Then she began the process of querying agents–which took another nine years, but she found the right agent for her work–Diane S. Nine with Nine Speakers, Inc., in Washington, D.C.  While she was searching for an agent, she completed six revisions of The Magic of Time.  She firmly believes that it is in the re-writing that the work becomes better.

“My agent and I worked together to find the right publisher, which I am happy to say finally manifested after another two years of searching.  Was it worth the wait of 13 years?  You bet it was! ” she told me. “I truly believe that everything occurs when the timing is correct…that all we set out to manifest in our lives is truly a matter of time.  I currently have a 4-book deal and a 15-year contract with my publisher, Countinghouse Press, Inc. in Bloomfield Hills, MI.”

Patricia has written the screenplay for The Magic of Time, based on the first book and written as a full feature film. She’s currently submitting the script to interested production companies. She’s also doing the research for the second book in the series.

Writing has always seemed to be a part of Patricia’s life–a part of who she is on a deep soul level. She clearly recalls writing and drawing images to go along with her words as a little girl growing up in Cresskill, New Jersey.  And, on various levels, she’s written nearly her entire life, sometimes more seriously than at other times.

“I wrote diaries and kept daily journals for many years,” she said.  ”On occasion, I still keep a journal, and I always accompany my words with visual images…whether they are drawings, watercolor vignettes or sometimes photographs that I have taken.”

“How do you come up with the titles to your books?” I asked.

“A title that fits the content and message of the book is paramount.  When I select a title, I usually focus upon the theme, premise or a significant message of what I am writing about.  I want the reader to walk away from reading the book with a feeling that the title supported the words conveyed in the book.  In this particular book, “The Magic of Time”, the title exemplifies the importance that there is truly magic in time.”

Patricia’s favorite author is Anne Rice. She told me, “I am fascinated and intrigued by her words.  When I first visited the city of New Orleans, Louisiana, I felt immediately as if I had live there during a prior time in history.  I am mesmerized by the unknown, mysteries and by the ‘what ifs’ in life.   Anne Rice’s work expresses these mysteries, and then some.”

She believes we’ve each lived in prior lifetimes–some having experience more lifetimes than others– and we bring our talents, memories, skills, and experiences from those past lives into our future lifetimes. The books in her series each focus upon a past life.  Dr. Brian Weiss, an author and psychoanalist, has been a strong influence on her life. His book, Many Lives, Many Masters, was one of many catalysts for a transformation in the way Patricia chose to perceive life and an awakening to understanding how past lives play an important role in this lifetime.

For Patricia, the important part about her characters is that they are first spiritual beings–her descriptions of hem will usually begin with the internal features–the soul elements that are innate within them.

“Do you ever suffer from writer’s block?” I wondered. “What do you do about it?”

“I believe that it is normal to experience writer’s block…especially since we are not robots!  I believe that we are firstly spiritual beings…experiencing life on a human level here on earth.  I absolutely experience writer’s block, but I choose not to beat myself up about it.  I know that it is simply a phase that will pass…so, I bless the blockage to write at that moment and I release it.  Usually, I focus upon another activity, something that I enjoy such as running, or taking a walk along the coast.  I am attracted to the sea, and I have always found the movement of the ocean waves, the scent of the salt air and the sounds of the gulls to be a great comfort and inspiration.  I realize that I must live near the ocean to be fulfilled, not only on a professional level with my writing, but also for a personal level of contentment.”

Other things Patricia enjoys when she’s not writing include  listening to all types of music–especially classical music, opera, jazz– philosophy, nutrition, foreign languages, travel, archeology, architecture, alternative medicine, vegetarian cooking, reflexology, Reiki healing, dance, running, tennis, cycling, hiking, skiing, swimming, yoga, Pilates, gardening, winemaking, Palmistry, Tarot cards and reading anything she can get her hands on.

Finally, Iasked her, “If you had to do your journey to getting published all over again, what would you do differently?”

“If I had to do my journey of getting published all over again, I would do nothing differently.   I believe that everything and everyone we encounter in our lives, occurs for a specific reason…there are no accidents in life.  Things happen according to Universal time…not on our individual clocks.  When one learns to be patient and to embrace the delays as necessary, there is a wonderful awareness that becomes a part of our lives.  And, awareness is everything!”

 

 About the Author  

4_24 Patricia G. Joyce - Author Image 1Patricia Joyce is a freelance writer, novelist, screenwriter, poet, song lyricist and a diverse visual artist originating from Cresskill, New Jersey; however, she lived the majority of her youth within New City, New York, located in Rockland County, New York.  She holds a B.A. degree from Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland and graduated with honors in the Visual Arts.  Additionally, she is a graduate of numerous UCLA Extension Writers Program courses, including a five-course novel writing series, a three-course screenwriting series and two song writing courses.  Patricia presently resides in Los Angeles, California.

 

 

Novel Website http://www.themagicoftime.com

FB Profile  http://Facebook.com/The.Magic.Of.Time

FB Page For Novel  https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Magic-Of-Time/470258283006541?ref=hl

LinkedIn Profile   www.linkedin.com/pub/patricia-g-joyce/4/795/245

4_24 The Magic Of Time - Book Cover.jpg smallerGraziella Fortuna, a famed pianist, is frightened by a strange man, and by a note placed on her windshield. Shortly afterward, she is transported through time to England, and then to a lush estate on the fierce Atlantic Coast early in the nineteenth century. There she encounters three sisters who possess magical powers, and several handsome, compelling and powerful men. In her journey of self-discovery she must face personal loss, grief, terror, deception, and betrayal before arriving at the opportunity for self-acceptance and the possibility of love with the man she has sought through time.

 

Filed Under: Interviews, Romance Tagged With: ,

INTERVIEW and giveaway: TARA MILLS

April 19, 2013 by 10 Comments

Long and Short Reviews welcomes Tara Mills, whose latest book In Love and War was released March 4. Leave a comment for a chance to win a free copy.

Tara said that In Love and War went through a number of titles before she eventually cut off the words “All’s fair” from the beginning of the more common phrase. She likes making the story fit the story and sometimes she struggles with it.

“The title for Caution: Filling is Hot came from the flaps on those old McDonald’s pie sleeves,” she told me. “Do you remember those? It seemed perfect considering my heroine is a pastry chef and the hero is too hot to handle. I was concerned that the title of my new romantic comedy, Accidents Make the Heart Grow Fonder, was too long but my editor assured me they loved the play on words. I was relieved.”

Tara has always wanted to be a writer and was writing stories from the time she was eleven or twelve. Her second choice was to be an architect, because she was drawing floor plans by then as well.

She also choose her pen name when she was young. I asked her how she came up with it.

“My mom had a women’s magazine in the house and Donna Mills was on the cover. Turns out we shared the same last name. That wasn’t the only similarity. She chose to shorten hers professionally. I thought about it and decided to do the same. Tara is a slight variation of my first name. I wanted it to feel natural and comfortable when I answered to it or wrote it out.”

“What is the hardest part about writing for you?” I asked.

“The discipline it takes. If the words aren’t flowing, I’m easily distracted away from working on my next books. I’ll spend more time promoting, blogging, and simply checking in on all my social media. Don’t get me wrong, that’s important too, but I need to push my way through those soft spongy walls and fire up the creative part of my brain. It can be hard to switch modes.”

One thing that you might be surprised to learn about Tara is that she’s lived off the power grid for sixteen years—they built an independent home in the middle of the forest. She also tends to get all caught up on the computer, so when supper times comes, she’s always in a rush to throw something together. She loves it when her husband comes home with pizza!

I wondered, “What was the scariest moment of your life?”

“I was working at a small local store. It was a quiet Sunday morning and I was alone when a strange man came in and started up a very bizarre conversation that got progressively worse as he muttered to himself and peppered his nonstop creepy dialogue with bible verses. He was clearly unbalanced and the more he said the more he terrified me. He seemed in no hurry to leave. Eventually the church next door let out and people started coming in to pick up the Sunday paper, tossing their money on the counter, giving us a glance and walking out. Just when I was about to give up hope, one of the locals stopped in, overheard this guy and walked over, insinuating himself into the conversation to draw this man’s attention away from me. The next thing we hear, this man is rambling on about how he’d killed his wife, wrapped her body in a sleeping bag, and left her in the desert where no one would ever find her. There was more; insane details so disturbing I can’t say it here. Then another local came in, a big, tall guy and very smart. He ended up scaring the scary guy off. We knew he was headed for the border so I gave the first local my phone and he called the Sheriff and they alerted the border patrol. I was too shaken to talk myself. I told my two protectors that I’d been ready to leap over the counter and run out with the next customer who came in just to escape this man. I didn’t care if I left the cash register. I didn’t think I was going to survive him. Luckily, he was caught and returned to the state that he’d fled.”

Tara admits to being a notorious klutz and has been known to walk into everything, including posts. She’s also missed open doorways.

“I actually opened my romantic comedy, Accidents Make the Heart Grow Fonder with one of my more incredible whoopsies,” she said. “One time, driving home from work, I locked onto a jogger’s black shorts — yes, his awe-inspiring asset — and drove right up the curb behind him. Just the front tire, but my panicky over-correction set my car bouncing like a boat on rough seas. He might not have seen what I did, but everyone else was staring at me.”

“How do you keep your writing different from all the others that write in this particular genre?” I asked.

“Until a year ago, I steered clear of my genre entirely so I didn’t inadvertently stumble upon something similar. I did that once, found something similar to what I’d been writing and I scrapped my entire manuscript. Avoidance has worked. Though now, I’ve had to read other authors and write reviews. I haven’t heard of anything similar to my own books so far. Knock on wood.”

About the Author:  4_19 authorpixI write stories I like to read—contemporary romances with identifiable characters and themes. Life is hard, love makes it bearable. If you enjoy stories with heart, heat, and humor, I have a title for you.

In my spare time, I’m a pampered wife, lucky mom to three amazing sons and one awesome daughter-in-law, and I just became a very young grandma. I should probably underline the word very. Oh heck, why not the word young too? Nah, you get the picture. I’m also the daily monitor of one disobedient dog with attitude.

 

Read the first chapter and discover other great titles on Tara Mills Romance. Find Tara on Facebook, or follow her on Twitter.

4_19 Final Cover In Love and WarSometimes love really is worth fighting for, but picking your battles isn’t so easy—especially when lives are at stake.

Ariela Perrine refuses to consider a certain type of man. She watched how loving a self-sacrificing hero destroyed her mother and left her orphaned at a young age. So yes, she does tend to go out with lackluster men—with predictable results. But she’s safe. And bored, at least until an accident brings the interior decorator face to face with an unforgettable pair of blue eyes, a playful smile, and his overly affectionate dog.

Oh yeah, journalist Dylan Bond makes her sizzle, but dare she risk it? After all, he’s just returned from Iraq—a war zone for crying out loud! Ariela’s weak resistance crumbles with his assurance that he’s back to covering domestic stories and their relationship hits the tarmac at a dizzying speed. Unfortunately, an unexpected phone call lures Dylan back into danger and he falls off the radar outside the green zone. Sensing something’s gone desperately wrong, Ariela’s ready to make a deal with the devil to find him and bring him back. As the days of fear and panic stretch on, they’re both tested in ways neither expected. Will it bring them closer or destroy their fragile peace forever?

Available now at Amazon, Amazon UK, Barnes & Noble, and more.

Filed Under: Interviews, Romance Tagged With: ,

INTERVIEW and giveaway: Anita Whiting

April 18, 2013 by 3 Comments

Long and Short Reviews welcomes Anita Whiting, whose latest book The Killing Hour was released by Champagne Publishing in February. Leave a comment on this interview for a chance to win a copy of The Killing Hour.

The Killing Hour takes place in Hollywood, California, and the area surrounding it. Anita’s never visited there, so she had to do a lot more research for this book than she normally would have. She also, for the first time, made her character a widow trying to deal with the loss of her husband and infant son. Anita is a full-time obstetrical nurse and was able to draw from her experiences there.

“I was able, I hope, to give the readers a glimpse of the agony that type of loss brings, even years later. I wanted Fiona to be vulnerable, tough and afraid to give her love again,” she told me. “It made a unique foil for Simon’s stubborn determination to continue fostering the feud between himself and his father in Ireland and what awaited him as far as his magical inheritance. Add Simon’s growing gifts and his ability to sense that murder is taking place at the local hospital to that mix and I was able to launch the rest of the story from there.”

When Anita was young, she lived in a small community named Solon, about a half hour outside of Cleveland, and every Saturday, her mother would take Anita and her sister to the library for the day while she did her shopping.

“I was in heaven. To me, that place was magical. The smell of the books, the hushed atmosphere, everything!” she said. “I lost myself in so many places, so many exciting adventures. It seemed natural, after awhile, for me to want to create my own worlds, my own characters.”

When Anita grew up, Solon was a sleepy little place with one gas station, two bars and a few dive type restaurants.

“It is now the place to move to and has grown tremendously in the past thirty or forty years,” she told me. “My fondest memories are walking in the woods behind our house as a teenager with my dogs and simply dreaming. It was a wonderful place to grow up. Everyone knew everyone, the schools were small and intimate and it was the type of place where if you did something wrong at school you were punished at home before the teacher even called!”

When Anita was in the sixth grade, Sister Paula Marie, her teacher at the parochial school she attended, seemed to see something in her essays and assigned stories and encouraged her to explore her talents. She began writing poems, short stories, and even did some competing.

“What, in your opinion, are the most important elements of good writing?” I asked.

“In my humble opinion, I believe the characters have to be realistic, come to life for the reader. I write paranormal suspense so I try to make their gifts or abilities believable and yet add spice to whatever mystery or suspense I’m building toward. The hero and heroine, when they are together, not only have to have the sexual chemistry but they have to be individuals with their own strengths and weaknesses just as in real life. When I can see how she fears getting hurt or he stubbornly fights against his father’s wishes, the story stops being just that and becomes one of those worlds I spoke of earlier.”
Anita will usually start with a scenario while she’s cleaning house or driving. Most of the time, the plot comes first because she writes suspense, so she envisions a series of events that culminate in a murder or murders. Then, she builds where she wants the story to take place. After that, she fashions her characters, their careers, and their personalities.

“Many times, the people in my story grow as the story grows—not only physically, but emotionally as well,” she said.

“What is your most embarrassing moment?”

“We were at the Epicon Conference in San Antonio, Texas, my husband and I. I had just returned from a seminar to find my partner, who is very gregarious, talking to an elderly woman. Just as I walked up, she handed him a pen fashioned as a red chili pepper. My husband smiled and asked her if her passion was gardening. She shook her head and patted him on the cheek. ‘No way, love. My passion is writing red hot love stories with lots of sex.’ His mouth dropped and he simply stared. “You’re joking, right?” he asked. “Why would I be joking?” she said, looking somewhat affronted. I took his arm and excused ourselves but I don’t think he’s ever recovered from seeing a very maternal gray haired woman dressed like his grandmother writing erotica. He talks about it to this day!

Anita hasn’t written a series yet, because they scare her.

“I’m not an organized kind of writer. I simply conceive the plot and go with it,” she explained. “In a series you have to remember characters, their quirks and characteristic’s and carry on with the plot that was started. It is my goal to make that my next challenge. As far as what it would be about, I think I would take a page from the JD Robb series and pair two people together along with their co-workers and friends. Since I write mystery/suspense I’m thinking it would involve murders etc… To be honest, The Killing Hour was set up with that in mind. Fiona and Simon, she a detective and he with the supernatural talent, would make a formidable combination.”

About the Author:4_18 anitawhiting.jpg.w180h180 My name is Anita Whiting. I live in Northeastern Ohio about an hour outside of Cleveland with my husband and three grown children who never seem to find a home that suites them as well as ours! I write romantic suspense usually with some paranormal elements primarily because I love reading that genre. My first book, Irish Magic, was published in 2004 and republished last year. My second, The Stanton Curse, is available through Double Dragon Publishing as is Irish Magic. My third, Letters from the Heart, won an Eppie for Best Romantic Suspense in 2006. My fourth and fifth books, A Killer’s Agenda and The Killing Hour are available through Samhain Publishing. My newest, The Killing Hour, was released February of this year by Champagne Publishing.

clock showing almost midnight She was an ex-cop desperately trying to deal with the tragic loss of her husband and infant son. He was a successful screen star sought after by starlets and fans. They had absolutely nothing in common. Or did they?

People were being murdered at Cedars Sinai Hospital. Systematically and quietly, a bolus of air injected directly into their jugular veins at the stroke of midnight. None were labeled a homicide and all appeared to be random.

Simon Martin knew otherwise. The Irish born actor could feel the power, the magic, growing inside of him. It was a destiny he had fled from at the age of eighteen, angry and stubbornly determined. Now his sleep and even his hours awake are haunted by what he saw, sensed.

Fiona Caruso resents his interference in her life, has no respect for his lifestyle. Yet, before either of them knew it, they were tossed into a vortex of lies, deceit, embezzlement and murder.

It didn’t take long to discover that fate had brought them together. The answers were there. To discover them each would have to bare their soul to the other. Would they succeed or would the murderer make them the next victims?

At the killing hour…

Filed Under: Interviews, Romance Tagged With: ,

INTERVIEW: N.J. Walters

April 17, 2013 by 5 Comments

Long and Short Reviews welcomes N.J. Walters. Her newest book, Mark of the Bear, the second book in her Hades’ Carnival series, was released yesterday.
N.J. uses a pen name and I asked her why and where it came from.

“My first book was out almost two months before I told anyone in my family about it, other than my husband. You have to remember that erotic romance wasn’t accepted as much then as it is now that all the big publishers are doing it,” she told me. “Plus, I’m basically a self-contained person and this is a relatively small community. I like my privacy.

“How did I come up with my pen name? Well, the initials are those from my first and middle name. And the last name is my maiden name.”

“What inspired you to start writing?” I wondered.

“It was back in the mid nineties and my husband and I had moved to a small university town where he was working on his Masters Degree. So here I was in a small university town, unable to get work and my husband was working all the time. No surprise, I did a lot of reading. My husband had been encouraging me for years to try my hand at writing so I finally did. I wrote two books. I sent them out a few times and they were rejected. But one kind editor gave me suggestions on how to improve one of the books. I rewrote them both but tucked them away.

“I stopped writing until December 2003 when I started writing a piece for a contest. I didn’t place in the contest, but I kept writing and finished the book, which was published by Ellora’s Cave in October 2004. And what happened to those two books I originally wrote? Well, I rewrote them yet again and they found a home with Samhain Publishing as the first two books in my Jamesville series—Discovering Dani and The Way Home.

People often ask N.J. where her ideas come from, and she usually responds that they come from everywhere—magazines, television, overheard snippets of conversation, etc. The Hades’ Carnival series actually developed from a blog quiz she did. The quiz asked, “What kind of carnival ride are you?”

“Not surprising, it said I was a carousel. But that got me thinking about carousels. I thought how cool it would be if a carousel had more ferocious animals instead of just horses,” she said. “From there my imagination took off. What if the animals were really immortal warriors trapped? How had this happened? How could they escape? Before I knew it, I had the outline for the series.”

N.J. has dreamed of one day having an office with one long wall of bookshelves, a cozy reading area, and a door that closes. She would love her desk to be by a window so she could look out over the ocean, or maybe the woods, while she writes.

“In reality, my ‘office’ is a corner of the living room in my apartment. It consists of a small metal computer desk, a chair and a bookcase behind the chair. A folding screen blocks off the front of the desk, giving me a “wall” and blocking my view of the front door. The side of the space is open to the living room. I’ve draped a couple of scarves over the screen to give the space some color. I’ve written more than sixty books there over the past eight years.”

When she was growing up, though, N.J. thought she would be a teacher.

“I was the kid who spent her allowance on things like chalk and an eraser. This was back in the days when it wasn’t easy to buy those things. There was no Wal-Mart or Dollar Store where things like that are so readily available now. I didn’t own a chalk board, so I would tape pieces of dark construction paper to my closet door and teach class to my imaginary pupils. But I was also painfully shy and hated speaking in public. I started university but only completed about a year even thought I had about an 80% average before dropping out,” she said. “I did complete a clerk typing course (back in the day when they still used electric typewriters and carbon paper). I did some office work, but ended up working in retail and eventually landed in a job as assistant manager at a bookstore. My love of reading led me to try my hand at writing a book of my own.”

N.J. told me that she falls somewhere in between a pantser and a plotter, but closer to the pantser side. She has to know the hero and heroine before she starts a book. She will fill out file cards with information on their physical traits, family, jobs, and any other information she thinks will be pertinent.

Once she has their bios done, she starts thinking about the book itself.

“I don’t plan it chapter by chapter, but I have a general idea of where I want the story to go and I may even know a couple of scenes I want to put in the book,” she said. “Once I have the opening chapter in my head I start writing and the rest of the book flows from there. I love that there are always surprises as I write.”

She writes romance, but loves the fact that within that genre there is so much freedom.

“I’ve written contemporary, futuristic, paranormal, vampire, werewolf, erotic, ménage a trois and even a historical romance,” she told me. “Romance readers are incredible and are willing to follow authors they love if they want to try something different. It’s one of the reasons I love writing romance. There truly are few, if any, boundaries.”

“How do you keep your writing different from all the others that write in this particular genre?” I asked.

“Honestly, it’s not something I think about. All authors have a distinct voice. After all, romance books basically have one single plot—boy meets girl, problems ensue and then they live happily ever after.

“The difference comes from how each author tells the story—individual heroes and heroines with their unique problems, personalities and backgrounds, the genre of the book (paranormal, contemporary, historical, mystery, romantic suspense, etc…), the types of problems the main characters are faced with, the setting of the book, and how they resolve those problems to get to their happily ever after.

“I write what I feel I have to write and trust in my own unique way of seeing the world to make it different.”

Finally, I asked, “What advice would you give a new writer just starting out? ”

“My advice would be to write what you love. Trends come and go. Write for your strengths but don’t be afraid to push yourself if you want to try something different. Read. Read. Read. It helps you become a better writer. Don’t be afraid of the edit process. The goal is to make your book the best it can be. If that means chopping a chunk of the book and rewriting, then do it.

“Most of all you just need to write. It’s as simple as that.”

About the Author: Once upon a time N.J. had the idea that she would like to quit her job at the bookstore, sell everything she owned, leave her hometown, and write romance novels in a place where no one knew her. And she did. Two years later, she went back to the bookstore and her hometown and settled in for another seven years.
One day she gave notice at her job on a Friday morning. On Sunday afternoon, she received a tentative acceptance for her first erotic romance novel, Annabelle Lee, and life would never be the same.
Find her online at
Website         Blog          Newsletter Group               Facebook Author Page                 Twitter                    Amazon

4_17 markofthebear_msr At twenty-nine, Hollywood scream queen Kellsie Morris is acutely aware the clock is ticking on her career. Luckily, the one big role she needs to pad her retirement fund has just come through—the story of an immortal, shape-shifting warrior trapped in a carnival run by the Devil’s minions.

When Kellsie arrives on set, she can’t resist climbing aboard an amazingly realistic carousel bear—and finds herself flung into a world where the horror is real. As real as the heat radiating off the half-naked hunk in her arms.

Marko has waited an eternity for the chance to free his goddess, the Lady of the Beasts, and his fellow warriors from an ancient curse. But once he lays eyes on Kellsie, he knows to the bottom of his soul that his purpose is to protect her life.

But in this hellish game, it’s the Devil’s move. And there’s no predicting when and where the final, brutal stroke will fall—and which lover will pay the ultimate price.

Filed Under: Erotic Romance, Interviews, Romance Tagged With: ,

INTERVIEW and giveaway: Susan Mac Nicol

April 16, 2013 by 6 Comments

Long and Short Reviews welcomes Susan Mac Nicol, who is offering two copies of the first book of her Starlight trilogy, Cassandra by Starlight, for giveaway. Just leave a comment on this interview along with which format you would like (pdf, epub or mobi format).
Susan has been writing since she was about ten years old and still has some of the material from that time. But she’s been writing seriously for publication since she started writing Cassandra by Starlight in February 2012. She ended up with a trilogy to finish Cassie and Bennett’s story. She has also written five other full-length novels and is waiting for publication dates.

Even though she’s a relative newbie as far as writing goes, she’s a voracious reader and has been reading since she was old enough to hold a book.

“I know what I look for in a good read and I would like that to reflect in my writing as well,” she said. “The elements I’d look for are a well established story line, a realistic and gripping plot, wonderful characters who feel as if they can walk into my living room and simply interact, and a well edited manuscript that has been proof read and polished so that it reads easily on the eyes. There’s nothing worse that constantly picking up grammatical and spelling mistakes as you read. It distracts the reader from the story.”

Susan told me she’s always been able to write the first line of her manuscript, sometimes without even really knowing what she’s writing about, and then letting it flow to a natural conclusion.

“I have no idea when I start what’s going to happen,” she admitted. “I have a basic plot – boy meets girl, they develop the relationship, things happen along the way, characters are drawn in and the finally, there’s an ending which always has to be a happy one. I’m not one for cliff hangers or deep, dark broody endings which may or may not be happy. I’m an incurable romantic.”

“When did you first consider yourself a writer?” I wondered.

“I truly thought I was a writer when I started Cassandra by Starlight. It was a story that I had a passion for, with a story that was very close to my heart. I knew I was a writer when I finished it because I immediately started another one, unable to stop until their story was finished.”

She wrote all three of the Starlight Trilogy books to the music of Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds album.

“I played it over and over again, put some of the songs in the book and one of them ‘If I Had a Gun’ is Cassie and Bennett’s song. Other than that, when I write I listen ad nauseum to Kasbian, Foo Fighters, Muse, Incubus, The Killers and White Lies. And lots of Eminem.”

Susan has found the internet and Google to be wonderful tools in her research for most of her books, from female on male rape, schizophrenia, celebrity stalkers, serial killers, gay sex, cults, BDSM, sex positions, gay rights and various aspects of psychology.

“I like to search the live forums and get involved in real conversations with real people,” she said. “As all my books are set in London and the surrounding counties, I’m fortunate enough to actually be able to go to the places I quote and make sure that I get it right. So for the Starlight Series, I went to Trafalgar Square, Westminster, and the Dutch pub, De Hems, in Soho, which is a main watering hold for my characters. For my upcoming paranormal series, Double Alchemy I went to Hampstead Heath, which is a large part of where the book is based, Manningtree, Mistley and pats of my home county of Essex. I take photos when I get there so I have a visual record of where I’ve been and these shots can then be used on social networks like Pinterest.

“But I’ve also been fortunate to have friends who have helped too. For my book Saving Alexandria which deals with a woman with some deep seated psychological problems due to sexual abuse in a cult, I was fortunate enough to have an online buddy who is a psychologist. She read my book, sense checked my characters and their reactions and psychologies and pronounced it ‘very believable and realistic.” I have a gay friend, an author, who is currently reading my detective thriller, Born Human to sense check my male sex scenes. He’s my beta reader too. So all of this contributes to my research as I have a passion to ensure that my stories are factually correct.”

The writing of Cassandra by Starlight, and the research she did for it, has led to her involvement in the issue of female on male rape.

“I wrote a fairly disturbing rape scene in this book, based on the experiences of a man called James Landrith. When the book was published and I started promoting it, he got in touch with me and said he liked the way I tackled the subject in my book and did I know he’d had the same experience. Imagine his surprise when I told him it was actually his experience I’d based mine on. It was an amazing moment,” she said. “Since then I’ve got a lot more involved in the subject. I follow blogs, watch TV documentaries, some of which James participates in as he’s a major advocate for civil rights and male rape survivors in the US. It’s become a bit of a passion of mine to try and educate people that this is not a taboo subject and men deserve the same rights as a woman if they’ve been raped. There’s a lot of ignorance out there.”

“What is something that you absolutely can’t live without?” I wondered.

“Uhhm, this is going to sound so terribly sad but it’s the truth. I have a Galaxy Note smart phone and it’s my lifeline to the world. I am very seldom off this phone and in fact my husband calls it my boyfriend as he says I’m on it more than I am him. He said if it vibrated too I wouldn’t need him. I haven’t had the heart to tell him there’s an app you can get which does just that. It might destroy him altogether.”

About the Author: 4_16 INTERVIEW SueSue Mac Nicol was born in Leeds, Yorkshire, in the United Kingdom. At the age of eight, her family moved to Johannesburg, South Africa where she stayed for nearly thirty years before arriving back in the UK in December 2000.

Sue works full time in the field of regulatory compliance. But she still finds time to work until the small hours of the night doing what she loves best – writing. Since her first novel, Cassandra by Starlight, was penned, Sue has since written the other two books in her Starlight trilogy, four other novels and two short stories as well as a screen play. Her passion is keeping herself busy creating worlds and characters for her readers to enjoy.

Sue is a member of Romance Writers of America and Romantic Novelists Association in the UK. She lives in the rural village of Bocking, in Essex, with her family.

Her plan is to keep writing as long as her muse sits upon her shoulder. Her dream is to one day get that big old house in the English countryside overlooking a river, where she can write all day and continue to indulge her passion for telling stories.

Find Sue online at

Website
http://www.boroughspublishinggroup.com/books/
Twitter – @SusanMacnicol7
Facebook 
Cassandra by Starlight Facebook page
http://pinterest.com/susiemax777/
Blog 
Book trailer 

4_16 INTERVIEW Cassandra by Starlight CVR_3_resizedA London woman is swept off her feet into the glamorous yet surprisingly dangerous world of an up-and-coming star of stage and screen.

Unconventional though she may be, Cassandra Wallace leads the life of an average Londoner, from blind dates to rush hour traffic. Then, along comes Bennett Saville. Sensitive, charming, erudite, the up-and-coming actor is like the hero of a romantic movie. He counteracts the tragedy that brought them together, and from the tips of his Armani loafers to that scorching hot kiss he seems absolutely perfect. Only, he’s ten years younger and from the upper class, and those emerald eyes beget dangerous secrets. The world is a stage, full of hungry leading ladies, and how long can any fairy tale last before a villain appears? Yet, on Bennett’s arm each new day is an adventure, and a true romance will always find its happy ending.

Filed Under: Interviews, Romance Tagged With: ,

INTERVIEW: F.E. FEELEY, JR

April 12, 2013 by 1 Comment

Long and Short Reviews welcomes F.E. Feely, Jr., , whose debut novel The Haunting of Timber Manor was recently released from Dreamspinner Publishing. He’s currently working on a book inspired by Meatloaf’s song “Objects in the Rear View Mirror.”

” Meatloaf’s Bat out of Hell 2: Back into hell was one of the first cd’s I ever listened to and fell in love with,” he told me. “Jim Steinman was an incredible writer and the theatrics and passion of the music touched my heart. The one that really did it, the song that still sends chills down my spine, is Objects..and I hope I can write something that is as awesome as that song. ”

F.E. has wanted to be a writer since he was a kid. He used to devour books—they provided window for him to climb out of and into another world to escape from being bullied at school and other issues he had.

“I loved to disappear in those pages, soak myself in the mind of an author and disappear. As an adult, there are still times when I want to go back and do the same thing. Growing up, sucks sometimes and so instead of reading someone else’s work, I want to disappear into my own imagination and translate that to the page so If there is a person out there like me, the journey that I go on wont have go alone,” he explained. “It’s a pretty awesome feeling really.”

He’s been writing, off and on, since he was in high school. Every year, for Halloween, one of the English teachers would host a scary story contest. The two years he entered, he won. He thought it would just be a hobby for him—he would start, stop, and discard whatever he was working on. However, when he was writing The Haunting of Timber Manor, the manuscript became so long he considered submitting it.

“I googled a publisher, finished the manuscript, submitted it, and then *poof* the rest is history,” he said.
F.E.’s favorite author is Stephen King. He began reading the Dark Tower series when he was in the sixth grade and he was hooked.

“His series was probably my ‘Tolkein’ and a series I have read over and over again with the same enthusiasm,” he told me. “The Stand, The Shining, The Dark House, The Regulators, Desperation, and on and on all these books I just loved. I love the intricate world he creates, the characters that you see as three dimensional, the chills, the thrills, and heartbreak and humanness of people. M-O-O-N that spells humanness. ”

“What is the hardest part about writing for you?” I asked.

” Writing isn’t easy. One of the worst things an author hears is ‘oh, I can write a book’ from people who haven’t sat down to actually try. It’s like climbing a mountain and understanding that bringing the plot together is like a mountain climber being careful with each and every single step he or she may take knowing that if one misstep could lead to disaster. It’s a sleepless, fevered, sometimes excited, sometimes mundane, sometimes mind numbingly challenging task. Yet when you finish, you look back on your mountain and nod to yourself saying, ‘Yep. I did that.’”

He tries to write 3,000 words a day—sometimes he makes the goal, and more, and some days it’s like pulling teeth. Usually, it takes him all day.

“The house is empty, the house is quiet, I do my work out, shower, and start writing,” he told me. “If I can’t seem to get started on the first try Ill take a break and return or if I am on a hot streak I just keep going until I’ve exhausted myself and then I stop. Everyone has their own way of doing things and that is simply mine.”

“When did you first consider yourself a writer?”

“I think the moment I got my first contract and nearly fell over dead from shock. It was so surreal and …..breathtaking and mindblowing. I mean, I had always been writing here and there, bits of ideas, and then walking away from it. So I have always been a writer, but then I realized, ‘Holy Crap I can get paid for this.’ I felt like I had arrived in the land of the writers. Then you have that freak out moment where your like, ‘What if nobody likes it?’ Then you have to take a step back and remember that you write for you, not for them — I don’t mean that in a bad way but in that as artists you’ll always turn back to that medium in which to communicate and express your heart.”

When he’s not writing, he loves listening to music, being political, educating himself, talking with his partner, grocery shopping, and cooking.

“God, I love to cook!” he exclaimed. “It calms me down. It’s something that lets me think. I have this insatiable need to feed peoples so when I cook, I cook a lot and love it when I have people over to eat my food. It’s very satisfying. ”
F.E. is a political person and refuses to toe party lines.

“I feel like, if one party gets too much power for too long they become fat and bloated and out of control so I am usually bitching about something or another. My partner and I actually met one day and the first thing we did was debate politics. It was love at first sight and we have been together almost three years now. I think one of the things we were able to come together on, given our sexuality and relationship together, was marriage equality. I love the law and reading legal crap and sometimes get caught up in the passion of Constitutional questions and such so, recently, with the Supreme Court taking up PROP 8 and DOMA we have been really paying attention to not only the cases themselves but the reaction of people out there. You know, I don’t think in history anyone who ever lived a single day on this planet would figure that sometime in their life they would find themselves or their peers in the middle of a civil rights debate or find that their future rested in the hands of politicians or the nine wise people on The Supreme Court. It’s a very interesting , personal, and bothersome thing to listen to people speak so passionately about this subject. It’s one thing to be commenting on a bit of law and giving an opionion on it, but when you actually have a dog in the hunt, so to speak, it takes on a whole new level of involvement. It isn’t an easy thing to listen to when people want to equate you or your relationship to some pretty awful things. But, I think in the long run, gay people will eventually win over the hearts and minds of the country and come out on top…so to speak.”

About the Author: F.E.Feeley Jr was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan and lived there for twenty years before joining the military. He is a veteran of the U.S. Armed Services, having done a tour in support of Operation Iraq Freedom in 2002-2003, turned college student pursuing a degree in political science. He now lives in Southeast Texas, where he is engaged to the love of his life, John, and where they raise their 1 ½ year old German shepherd, Kaiser. As a young man, reading took center stage in his life especially those novels about ghosts, witches, goblins, and all the other things that went bump in the night. His favorite authors include such writers as Stephen King, Dean Koontz, and Anne Rice and whose work allowed him to travel to far off places and meet fascinating and scary characters. As a gay man, he wishes to be able to write good fictional literature for those who love the genre and to write characters that the readers can relate to. All in all, he is a cigarette smokin’, whiskey drinkin’, rock and roll lovin’, tattoo wearin’, dreamer of a man with a wonderful partner who puts up with his crap and lets him write his stories. Enjoy!

4_12 Interview Color coverWhile recovering from the recent loss of his parents, Daniel Donnelly receives a phone call from his estranged aunt, who turns over control of the family fortune and estate, Timber Manor. Though his father seemed guarded about the past, Daniel’s need for family and curiosity compel him to visit.

Located in a secluded area of the Northwest, Timber Manor has grown silent over the years. Her halls sit empty and a thin layer of dust adorns the sheet-covered furniture. When Daniel arrives to begin repairs, strange things happen. Nightmares haunt his dreams. Memories not his own disturb his waking hours. Alive with the tragedies of the past, Timber Manor threatens to tear Daniel apart.

Sherriff Hale Davis grew up working on the manor grounds. Seeing Daniel struggle, he vows protect the young man who captured his heart, and help him solve the mystery behind the haunting and confront the past—not only to save Daniel’s life, but to save his family, whose very souls hang in the balance.

Buy the book at Dreamspinner Press

Filed Under: Interviews, Mystery/Suspense, Other, Romance Tagged With: , ,
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