Saturday's Blurbs feature BOoks by J S Marlo #BWLAuthor #Romance #Red Quilt #Mystery #Romance

 

The Red Quilt

A last-minute Christmas trip goes horribly wrong for Eli and his five-year-old granddaughter, Ruby. On their way to a Bed and Breakfast on Prince Edward Island after a kitchen fire forced them out of their house, they get caught in a blizzard and end up in the ditch.

 

Retired Military Nurse, Lana, lives on a potato farm with the ghosts of her husband and son. She welcomes into her home the marooned Eli and the young child he raises alone. The storm outside rages on and problems arise as Eli faces the demons and mistakes of his past, Lana becomes entangled in her neighbors’ illegal activities, and Ruby wishes for something Santa cannot give her.

 

The resulting mix offers hope for a second chance even as it threatens their lives. Can Eli and Lana survive another storm to enjoy the love growing between them? And will Ruby’s wish be granted?

 

The Red Quilt is a stand-alone book.

Available in print and ebook.

List of retailers where to buy The Red Quilt: https://books2read.com/The-Red-Quilt/

 

Hot Water

 

Nineteen-year-old varsity swimmer Maxime Tremblay is leery of the string of fatal accidents involving female athletes, but after she thwarts an attack, she can no longer ignore the connection between the victims.

 

Special Agent Ross Sullivan investigates the deadly events on campus only to discover they are not accidents, the athletes are not targeted at random, and the killer is only warming up.

 

To protect his only witness, he goes undercover as Maxime's boyfriend, but as pretense and reality begin to blur, Sullivan faces the dilemma of putting her in harm’s way to stop the killings.

 

Hot Water can be read as part of the series or as a stand-alone book.

Available in print and ebook.

List of retailers where to buy Hot Water: https://books2read.com/u/bQVOZd

 

Mishandled Conviction

 

While Violette remodels an escape room, the lines between illusion and reality blur. The escape room is based on the legend of a dead inmate who haunts a condemned penitentiary, but the fake prison cell she recreates transports her into the past.

 

As she relives the tumultuous events surrounding her life and the inmate’s death, Violette glimpses clues regarding the disappearance of her son-in-law and loss of her precious heirloom.

 

The past and the present collide, threatening the lives of Violette’s loved ones and unleashing conflicting emotions toward the men haunting her heart. Can she unravel the truth and save her family without losing her future?

 

Mishandled Conviction is a stand-alone book.

Available in print and ebook.

List of retailers where to buy Mishandled Conviction: https://books2read.com/Mishandled-Conviction

 

Friday J S Marlo is visiting and talking about Characters #BWLAuthor #Heroes #Heroines #Villians

 

Day 1 Characters

 

2. Heroes, Heroines, Villains. Which are your favorite to write?

 

I love writing my villains. They are everything I’m not, so it’s interesting, and fun, to walk on the dark side in their shoes. I especially enjoy writing female villains as they are often more cunning and scheming than their male counterparts.

 

3. Heroes. How do you find them? Do pictures, real life or plain imagination create the man you want every reader to love? Do they come before the plot or after you have the idea for the story?

 

I don’t do pictures. My heroes aren’t perfect men, but they have many nice qualities that women appreciate, and flaws that make them more relatable.

 

If I create my hero from plain imagination (his physical attributes, his emotional baggage, his age, his job...), everything about him will be designed to fit the storyline.

 

If my hero is based on a real man, he will share some resemblance with his real counterpart, and the storyline will be weaved around him.

 

In most of my stories, the storyline came first...and the hero second.

 

 

4. Heroines. How do you find them? Do pictures, real life or imagination create the woman you want the reader to root for? Do they appear before the plot or after you have the idea for the story?

  Your favorite book?

 

Again, I don’t do pictures. My heroines are strong women with unusual jobs and challenging pasts, who learned to rely on themselves.

 

My heroines fit a different pattern than my heroes when it comes to creating them.

 

If my heroine is based on a real woman, she will share some resemblance with her real counterpart, and the storyline will be weaved around her.

 

The difference comes when I think up a new storyline. Most of the time, the ideas popping in my head will come with a female character attached to them.

 

In most of my stories, the heroines are created from plain imagination at the same time as the storyline. One doesn’t come before the other. Heroine and storyline are weaved together from the start, and they both get constantly adjusted so they keep on fitting nicely with each other until the end.

 

5. Villains or villainesses or an antagonist, since they don’t always have to be the bad guy or girl. They can be a person opposed to the hero’s or heroine’s obtaining their goal. How do you choose one? How do you make them human?

 

The storyline will dictate the antagonist(s). Quite often there are more than one antagonist, males and females.

 

My antagonists aren’t all created equal. Some are annoying but harmless, others are charming but dangerous...they have qualities that makes them relatable, and dark sides that they can’t always control.

 

There will usually be a dead body or two in my stories, but quite often my killers will be victims of circumstances or sudden emotions, rather than just being evil persons.

 

6. What is your latest release? Who is the hero, heroine and or the villain?

 

My latest release is The Red Quilt. It’s a sweet mystery/romance novel that takes place on Prince Edward Island during the Christmas holiday.

 

My heroine is Lana, a retired military nurse who lives on a potato farm with the ghosts of her husband and son.

 

My hero is Eli, a retired submariner who raises his five-year-old granddaughter alone.

 

My antagonists are a scheming woman, a shady neighbor...and Mother Nature.

 

The Red Quilt was released three weeks ago, on November 15, 2021. Books are easy to wrap and they fit in stockings. They make great Christmas gifts.

 

7. What are you working on now?

 

I’m working on The Blue Ribbon, a sweet mystery/romance surrounding a wedding in the mountains. It will be the second book in the Fifteen Shades Series, but it will be a stand-alone.

 

I may borrow a minor character from The Red Quilt and turn him/her into my hero/heroine. You can expect a bear or a cougar, a dead body, maybe snow, lots of twists and turns, and a happy ending.

 

8. How can people find you?

 

My Website -> https://sites.google.com/site/jsmarloauthor/home

 

Facebook -> https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100005715001393

 

Amazon -> https://www.amazon.com/J-S-Marlo/e/B071PBFDN8/

 

Goodreads -> https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2079858.J_S_Marlo

 

Twitter -> https://twitter.com/jsmarloauthor

 

9. Who are your favorite authors?

 

I like Dan Brown, Ken Follett, Maureen Jennings, J. K. Rowling, Peter David, Nora Roberts, Danielle Steel, and many, many more authors.