One Question for Author Ellie Gray

This week, Maya's Musings features Ellie Gray and her book Beauty and the Recluse.

Question: What is your favourite time to write, and why?

Answer: I tend to write on a weekend, during the day. I work full time in the public sector and it is a demanding job, particularly emotionally, and I find that I don’t tend to have the energy or drive to write on an evening. However, I do manage to switch off from the day job on a weekend and really enjoy writing – I lose myself completely in the story and the characters and it really helps to relax me. There is no better feeling then having had a really good day writing, when all your characters behave, and the words flow.

Beauty and the Recluse

Following the recent death of her father, and in need of both a job and somewhere to live, Kiya takes a housekeeping job on the spur of the moment.  She soon finds herself living in a beautiful but neglected mansion, working for a strange and reclusive man. 

St. John is a man scarred by the past, both physically and emotionally, and is determined to live out his life alone.  They are two very different people, drawn to each other almost against their will, but can Kiya convince St. John that he is not the monster he believes himself to be? 

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One Question for Author Margie Church

Welcome to Maya's Musings, Margie. The summer series continues with our one question author interviews...

Question: Do you try more to be original or to deliver to readers what they want?

Answer: I feel I really have to do both.   My rule of thumb is to write what I love and know that it might not be a blockbuster if it's not a hot genre. If I'm writing strictly for the market, I still have to love the genre to write a compelling story. I wrote gay romances and BDSM for several years. I really enjoyed that and I love those books. So did my readers. But tastes change, and so has the market. There are some writers who have created series after series of characters they love, in genres that sell well and feed readers who can't wait for more. That notion is always in my sights...like most authors, I'd love to quit my day job!

The Poet's Wife

Lily Holliway's life is shattered when her husband, Gabe, is killed in Afghanistan. A new job and dear friends aren't enough to ease her yearnings for the love she clings to. 

Gabe feels her grief so strongly that his spirit cannot leave the confines of this world. He can't rest in peace until he's sure Lily is going to be okay. In desperation, he reaches out to her using his special gift.

Finding the mysterious haiku makes Lily question her grip on reality. When she sees Gabe face-to-face, can she believe her eyes?

Lily must trust the only man she's ever loved to help her begin again.

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One Question for Author Elaine Dodge

Welcome back, Elaine. Elaine visited Maya's Musings in May for a book spotlight. She joins us today as part of our One Question Author Interviews series.

Question: What are two of your favorite book covers of all time? (Not your own.)

Answer:

It’s an intriguing question. After all, while we do theoretically judge a book by its cover, it’s the story we remember. There are some authors whose books I enjoy so much, I really don’t care what the cover is. Most of my favourite books in my bookcases are so old and worn out, many don’t have covers anymore! So there was no scanning them for you. So, online I went!

I realised, while looking for covers of books I love, that it’s clear I prefer the more illustrated cover. Unless it was a favourite TV series of mine and the main actors are on the cover, I’d rather imagine them than have them dictated to me by the cover designers – who, 9 times out of 10, have never read the book! I did find an intriguing cover for Gone With the Wind I’d never seen before but I must say I love it.

One Question for Author Angelique Migliore

Our one question author interview series continues with my guest Angelique Migliore. Welcome, Angelique.


Question: What comes first, the plot or characters?

Answer:

Honestly, it depends upon the genre I'm writing. When I write Romance, it's the characters because they are character-driven stories.

But when I write Fantasy or Science Fiction, usually the plot and the world come to me first. 

One Night in Portland

Bridges traverse worlds

Army Captain and surgeon, Finn O’Grady, returns from a field training exercise exhausted and defeated; two soldiers were injured in an accident and one didn’t make it home. 

Quilt artist, Lee-Lee Song, storms out of a date with yet another good Asian boy her parents have set up only to run smack into Finn. 

Their worlds—which could not be further apart—collide on a street corner in downtown Portland, and neither is in a hurry to return to their own realities. Finn craves the distraction of Lee-Lee's creative and colorful world. Lee-Lee wants a man who is one hundred eighty degrees away from her parents’ choices. 

As Lee-Lee and Finn venture together across the many bridges of Portland and share their favorite places around the city, they grow more attracted and closer. 

Will this special day together force Lee-Lee and Finn back into their own worlds, or will they build one more bridge in Portland—one to each other?

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One Question for Author Kathleen Rowland

Welcome to another segment of Maya's Musings One Question Author Interviews. Today's guest is Kathleen Rowland.


Question: How do you come up with names for your characters?

Answer: The name needs to fit the persona. For my hero in Bittersweet Alliance, I saw the perfect name for this alpha male driving through a commercial shipyard on a vacation in Boston. Danker Donahue was a hyphenated company name representing two last names of owners. My hero’s first name could have been a last name in his family. My heroine in Bittersweet Alliance is named Jolene, but her last name is Hawaiian. Lyrics from the song, Jolene, sung by Ray LaMontagne, represents the mood in this reunion story. “It’s been so long since I’ve seen your face… still don’t mean what love means… held you in my arms one time, lost you just the same.”

Bittersweet Alliance

Will a snap decision change their lives forever?

Bizarre kidnappings stun the Big Island of Hawaii, pulling Danker Donahue back into the game and forcing him to partner with Jolene Kualoha, the woman who left him seven years ago when his DNA showed up in paternity lawsuit. The prejudice-motivated hate crimes are the wildest anyone has ever seen. Victims are being poisoned then released once the ransoms are paid, many losing their lives.

In the shadow of Jolene's success as a helicopter pilot, a troubled woman develops a fixation on Jolene and imitates her appearance. Matters turn dark when the copycat is shot dead. Was Jolene the target? Threats mount when she barely survives an accident after her brake cables are severed.

When these crimes threaten her sanity, Jolene is forced to trust the one person she thought she’d lost forever, Danker. Instantly, sparks fly between them, and as much as she wants to rekindle their relationship, she must protect her heart.

An old enemy, Seamus McGinn, breaks out of a maximum-security prison and invites Danker to a meet-up. Surprisingly, the kidnapper joins forces with McGinn along with his sick fans. McGinn trumpets his ‘murders by ice pick’, and it’s up to Danker to stop him. The whole island is on edge with a live feed from the maniac’s website.

In a stolen moment, Jolene shows him hope, and he makes a snap decision that will change their lives forever. Will he make it back to show her?

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