Interview with Wendy Marcus -- Winner for Come Into The Light and New Book

First the winner of Come into the light is Jennifer P. and the next book up is All Our Yesterdays.

Captive of an ancient curse Astrid must journey through the ages, through deceit and betrayal to find true love and break the curse. Eight realms await her. Eight chances to redeem erself and break the curse holding her spellbound, perhaps for eternity. Remember a comment could win you this book. There is just one more after this one.

Now for the interview. Wendy is a new writing friend who belongs to the same RWA group as I do. She is a fellow nurse and someone I've enjoyed getting to know.

1. What's your genre or do you write in more than one?

I write contemporary romance. Right now I’m focusing on medical romance, but I also have a military series I started that I’m looking forward to revisiting at some point.

2. Did you choose your genre or did it choose you?

I chose my genre in that I write what I like to read, fast-paced stories that are hot and humorous.

3. Is there any genre you'd like to try? Or is there one you wouldn't?

I don’t read much paranormal but I think it’d be fun to unleash my creativity and give world building a try. While I like to read historical romance I would never want to write it. (While I’m not opposed to research, I’m not big into researching history.)

4. What fiction do you read for pleasure?

While my first love is spicy contemporary romance, I enjoy all romance subgenres from erotica to light paranormal to historical (western and regency).

5. Tell me a bit about yourself and how long you've been writing,

I am a registered nurse, but I haven’t worked in a hospital in years. Most recently I’ve worked in my own healthcare consulting business. I’ve been writing for about four years now. At the start of 2010 I decided to take a year off from work to really hone my craft, to network and see if I could get published. I joined a women’s writing group at my local library and actually read my work out loud to other people! When I saw I could do this without vomiting, I joined my local chapter of RWA, HVRWA, (where I met Janet) and actually attended a meeting. I joined RWA PRO loop and started a blog basically telling the world, or anyone who happened to stop by, that I was a writer of romance. There was no going back after that! I joined Writing GIAM (Goals in a month), a loop where authors post their goals and progress as well as support one another from the frustration of rejections to the thrill of publication. I credit all these things and the people I’ve met with helping me get published.

6. Which of your characters is your favorite?

It’s so hard to say, because each is my favorite while I’m writing them. The heroine from When One Night Isn’t Enough… is a feisty, sarcastic nurse named Ali who is ashamed of her past and was deeply hurt by the dysfunctional relationship between her philandering father and her unloving mother. Despite this, she’s a caring, professional, who remains open to the possibility of finding love.

7. Are there villains in your books and how were they created?

Nope. No villains. My first draft had one, but Harlequin Medical Romance is not a fan of secondary plots.

8. What are you working on now?

Right now I’m working on my second contracted medical romance, a sequel to my first. The heroine is Victoria and she’s Ali’s best friend.

9. What's your latest release and how did the idea arrive? My upcoming release is When One Night Isn’t Enough… which will be available on 6/11/2011 as part of a 2in1 book with author Janice Lynn. (One of my favorites!) For those of you not familiar with 2in1 books they are two complete 50,000 word books bound together as one. Medical romances are often released that way in the UK then as single books in other countries including the US, although, in the US they are only available online.

It’s difficult to say how the idea arrived because the book being published is so different from the first (and second) final drafts. I wanted to write about a caring nurse (write what you know) who worked at a fictional hospital in a fictional town.

10. Tell me about your latest book and how it came about. Enclose the opening of the book around 400 words.

When One Night Isn’t Enough…is about Ali Forshay, a 25-year-old nurse who’s practically engaged to a man she thinks is perfect for her. Okay, so he’s predictable to the point of boring. (Sex once a week, on Wednesday night, in the dark, missionary position) But he’s also dependable and mild-mannered and can give her the stable, anonymous life she’s craved since childhood. Then his friend Dr. Jared Padget comes to town and hatches a plan to break them up. Not to have her for himself, even though damn, with each new day the idea holds increasing appeal, but because they’re not right for each other. Ali changes when his friend is around, and Jared knows from experience, a marriage based on pretense is a disaster in the making.

Chapter 1
Float nurse Allison Forshay glanced at the clock on the institutional white wall of the staff lounge in the Emergency Room, wishing she could accelerate time with the snap of her fingers. Then the eight hours and six minutes that remained of Dr. Jared Padget’s last shift would vanish in seconds.
Along with him.
Hallelujah!
The chorus of sopranos belting out a private concert in her head came to an abrupt halt when the door opened and chatter from the busy outside hallway overpowered her glee.
Ali cringed, keeping her eyes on the patient chart open on the round table in front of her, struggling to maintain focus on her documentation for little Molly Dawkins, her first patient of the night. The three-year-old, blond-haired, blue-eyed terror had tried to bite the triage nurse and kicked at Ali when she’d attempted to expose the girl’s infected big toe. Then Dr. Padget had arrived, complimented the pink polish on Molly’s tiny toenails, the delicate gold bracelets on her ankle and wrist, and the princess tattoo on her hand. In less than three minutes he’d charmed that little girl right out of her sandal, confirming Ali’s suspicion. Women of all ages were susceptible to the man’s charisma.
If there was a vaccine to protect against it, Ali would have opted for a double dose.
The subtle change in the air gave him away, some type of electrostatic attraction that caused the tiny hairs on her arms to rise and lean in his direction, her heart rate to accelerate, and her breath to hitch whenever he found her alone.
His blue scrub-covered legs and red rubber clogs entered her peripheral vision. He pulled out the chair beside her and sat down, brushing his arm against hers. No doubt on purpose, the rat.
“You’ve been avoiding me,” Dr. Jared Padget said.
“You’re hardly worth the effort it would take to avoid you.” Although, in truth, she was.
“I’m leaving on Monday.”
Yes! Finally! His arrival three months ago had thrown her life into a state of flux. Now, his temporary assignment over, his departure meant she could finally settle back into a normal routine free from his constant badgering at work and ‘coincidental’ encounters on her days off. With a flippant wave of her hand she said, “Here. Gone. Alive. Dead. Makes no difference to me.”
“Come on, Ali Kitten.” He snatched her pen. “You know you’re going to miss me.”
“About as much as I’d miss a painful hemorrhoid,” she said, glaring at him from the corners of her eyes. “And you know I don’t like when you call me that.”
“Yeah,” he said with a playful twinkle in his peridot-green eyes and that sexy smile, complete with bilateral dimples that tormented her in her sleep. He leaned back in his chair and clasped his long fingers, and her pen, behind his head. “That’s what makes it so much fun.”

Ali grabbed at her pen, making sure to mess up his neatly styled dark hair. He raised his hand over his head and back out of reach, his expression daring her to come closer.
She didn’t.
He chucked the pen onto the table.
“I hear a bunch of you are going out Sunday night to celebrate my departure,” he said, making no mention of the fact he hadn’t been invited.
She shrugged, tamping down the other, less joyful reason for the night out. “It’s as good as any other excuse for the girls to get together. And it’s easier and less fuss than burning you in effigy.”