Pia Manning is visiting and talking about Who She Was Before #MFRWAuthor #Event planner, #contemporary small town #romance #Star Brides

 

1. What were you before you became an author? Did this influence your choices as a writer?

I was many things before I started writing – we moved around quite a bit, and that necessitated career changes. I worked as an event planner for a hotel and conference center, supervised operations for a couple of banks, taught pre-K (four-year-olds could rule the world!), and was the community development coordinator for a large medical system’s hospice affiliate. Whew!

Making up stuff for a living tugged at me – always. But adding four kids to the mix, all the moves as well as career changes made doing that almost impossible. It wasn’t until a kind guy in a white coat informed me I was medically unable to continue working in a traditional way, that I was able to write.

Over the years there have been a lot of people, towns, and jobs. I’m sure they influence my world view just as anyone’s life experiences do – but there’s not one specific thing that stands out. Rather all the years have come together to form a rich tapestry. Every so often I walk through those memories when I need inspiration.  

2. Are you genre specific or general? I don’t mean major genres but subdivisions or romance, mystery or paranormal.

These days I write more contemporary small-town romances (the where-I’m-at-today factor) set in the Northwoods territory of Wisconsin. I find plenty of inspiration in the rich tableau of characters, settings and situations that are found here..

I also love creating new worlds, hence the creation of the Star Brides universe of futuristic sci-fi romances. There’s something freeing when writing about the future because there are no known rules or societal expectations to observe. There’s no historical commonality to weigh me down. It’s exciting as a writer because I can let my imagination fly freely in the atmospheres.

3. What is your latest release? 

Hometown Spirits Caveman Creek 4 is my newest. As with my other books in the Caveman Creek series, it’s an erotic romance that’s set in the beautiful little town of Pinecone Creek, Wisconsin.

4. What are you working on now?

Cleaning my house, lol! Seriously, I have plans for Caveman Creek 5, tentatively titled ‘Daddy’s Home.’ My website desperately needs some updating, so that’s on the list as well.  

5. Does your reading choices influence your choice of a writing career?

Kinda sorta, but not always. How’s that for a definite answer?  I do read a great deal of romances books: contemporary, menage, sci-fi, paranormal, etc. While I enjoy feasting at the literary banquet available, I don’t necessarily write in those imprints.

I also read horror, crime/mystery, dystopian, sci fi, paranormal etc, but I don’t necessarily write in those genres. 

 

 

6. Where can we find you?

If you’d like to just chat, my email is best: https://www.pia.manning@yahoo.com  NOTE: I don’t have a newsletter, I’m not collecting emails. That said, if you do email me and want me to answer, then yes, I’ll need your email.

Otherwise:   

    Website: https://www.piamanning.com

    Siren Bookstrand page: https://www.bookstrand.com/pia-manning  

Amazon:    https://www.amazon.com/s?k=pia+manning&crid=1CTBHDIYQC8VR&sprefix=pia+manning%2Caps%2C484&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_1_11

Amazon Author Pg:     https://www.amazon.com/author/northofhwy8

    Apple Books: https://www.apple.co/4aOraBY  

    Barnes & Noble:  https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/caveman%20creek

    Twitter:  https://twitter.com/piamanning3

    Email: pia.manning@yahoo.com

   All Author:  https://allauthor.com/book/87193/hometown-spirits/

Karen Cino is visiting and talking about Who She Was Before #MFRWAuthor #Human Resources #women's fiction #Five Beach Road Series #Cozy mysteries

 What Were You Before

 

Day 1

1. What were you before you became an author? Did this influence your choices as a writer?

I'm pretty sure I was born with a pen and notebook in my hands. I can't remember a time when I didn't write. But through my early years, I worked in Human Resources after I graduated from college until I had my kids. When I returned back to work, I worked in retail management. That's where I started collecting real life events that I've incorporated in my books. 

 2. Are you genre specific or general? I don’t mean major genres but subdivisions or romance, mystery or paranormal.

 I generally write women's fiction with romantic elements and mystery, and added writing cozy mysteries to my repertoire. 

3. What is your latest release?

 My latest release was Seaside Reboot, book one in my Jersey Route 35 Cozy Mystery. 

4. What are you working on now?

I'm working on two books. The first one is book 2 in my Five Beach Road series, which is women's fiction. I'm also in the process of finishing book 2 in my Jersey Route 35 Cozy Mystery.

5. Does your reading choices influence your choice of a writing career?

 I would have to say yes. Earlier in my career I read romance novels. But when I read Lovers and Gamblers by Jackie Collins, I immediately knew I found my genre. Later on in my writing career, I read One For The Money by Janet Evanovich and I feel in love with cozy mysteries. So, in answer to the question if my reading choices influenced my writing genre, I would have to say yes.

6. Where can we find you?

 You can find me on my website at: karencino.com. I'm also on Facebook, (Twitter) X and Instagram. 

Friday Sara Stewart is Visiting and Talking About Who She Was Before #MFRWAuthor #Writer #Travel #Romance

 1. What were you before you became an author? I've always been a writer. I started my first novel at 12, however, like many beginnings I never completed them. For the past twenty-one years, I've worked in the business travel industry in various capacities. I've always worked for the same fortune 100 company and have acted as a client manager, a people leader, a consultant, and led sales enablement training. I'm still employed full-time with my company. Did this influence your choices as a writer? Not at all.

 

2. Are you genre specific or general? I write erotic romance only, predominantly BDSM and billionaire romance. I don’t mean major genres but subdivisions or romance, mystery or paranormal.

 

3. What is your latest release? On or around August 30th I will publish book 3 in my Portland Lovers Series, Bound by Pride

 

4. What are you working on now? Book 4 in my series, I'm about halfway done and it will be hot!

 

5. Does your reading choices influence your choice of a writing career? Yes. I love women's fiction and have a degree in English Literature. I have studied the origins of the romance novel and since I was young my reading choices have all slanted towards romance. As a teen in the summer after work, I'd read a Harlequin Romance a night. However, I didn't decide to start writing again until I found some of my new favorite authors who are self-published. The ability to break out of the mold of traditional publishing and own my characters fully pushed me to write again. I've been wanting complex and strong female leads in romance for a while and just not finding that in traditional publishing. 

 

6. Where can we find you? https://sararstewarts.com/, https://www.facebook.com/SaraRStewartAuthor/, https://twitter.com/SaraRStewart1, https://www.instagram.com/author_sararstewart/, http

Friday M S Spencer is visiting and talking About Who She Was Before #MFRWAuthor #Mystery #Suspense

What Were You Before

Day 1

1. What were you before you became an author? Did this influence your choices as a writer?

 My traveling life began at the age of six months, when my family moved from upstate New York to North Carolina. From there we went to Maryland, and four years later were winging halfway across the world to Turkey. When I was ten, we took the Queen Mary across the Atlantic to France. After two and a half years in Paris, we drove through France, Andorra, and Spain to Gibraltar and Morocco.

I once counted up the number of significant moves in my life…and stopped at twenty-five. I have lived or traveled in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the US, Central America, and South America.

A big chunk of my life after college was as a perennial student. I hold a Bachelor’s degree from Vassar College, a diploma in Arabic Studies from the American University in Cairo, and Masters in both Anthropology and in Library Science from the University of Chicago.  When I finally sloughed off the bonds of academia, I spent thirty years in Washington, D.C. as a Congressional staff assistant, speechwriter, librarian, editor, policy wonk, non-profit director, and parent. I worked for the U.S. Senate, the U.S. Department of the Interior, in public and academic library systems, and at the Torpedo Factory Art Center in Alexandria, Virginia.

All of these experiences have insinuated themselves into my books—thirteen as of this date and counting.

2. Are you genre specific or general? I don’t mean major genres but subdivisions or romance, mystery or paranormal.

 I write romantic suspense and cozy mystery (defined as an Agatha Christie- style puzzle story with an amateur sleuth, as opposed to a hard-boiled detective or police procedural). I started with quite spicy (not erotic) romantic suspense, but bodies kept cropping up, so I finally gave in and accepted that my stories had become cozy mystery with a hefty helping of one- to two-flame romance.

3. What is your latest release?

 Orion’s Foot: Myth, Mystery & Romance in the Amazon.

Wild Rose Press, October 30, 2019

Cozy mystery

442 p.

Rating: Spicy (PG13)

Petra Steele has just been left at the altar when her brother Nick invites her to come to the Peruvian Amazon. Before she even sets her suitcase down, she’s confronted with a murder victim. Mystery piles on mystery in a research station peopled with a quirky assortment of scientists. Why does the herpetologist sneak off to look for buildings? Why does the botanist claim he’s found a missing link between birds and dinosaurs? Is the biologist searching for a mythical monster or a living fossil? And why did the eccentric millionaire bring his prototype telescope to the jungle?

She is drawn to Emory Andrews, the ornithologist, a gruff, big man with a secret past, until his beautiful ex-wife shows up. More murders, more secrets, more mysteries ensue, all in the deeply romantic, sizzling jungle.

4. What are you working on now?

 Ooh, ooh. I have three different books at three different stages. I just signed a contract for Mrs. Spinney’s Secret, out some time this year. Here’s the story:

What do you do when Hollywood wants to make a movie in your tiny Maine village? Cassidy Beauvoir, chairman of the board of overseers of Amity Landing, is ready to throw the bums out until she meets Jasper MacEwan, the director of American Waterloo: the Rout of the Penobscot Expedition. Their budding romance is threatened by a series of deadly incidents. Are they directed at the movie crew? Or is the target local Mainers?

As the two search for answers, the trail leads them to long-held secrets of the worst naval defeat of the American Revolution—including betrayal, murder, and a lost hoard of English gold.

I’m also halfway through Hidden Gems: Murder in St. Augustine. Set in the oldest city in North America, it features an eccentric crossword puzzle writer and the owner of an antique map store. Along with the writer’s students, they attempt to find a key was hidden fifty years before, a key which is the subject of a nationwide treasure hunt of such intensity that the searchers are willing to kill for the answers.

And, I’ve finished the first draft of a romantic suspense/mystery set on Chincoteague Island entitled The Wishing Tree.

Will the wind whip her token from the wishing tree and make her wish come true? Addison hopes it will bring back her new husband, lost at sea, to Chincoteague. Instead, she meets a mysterious man, whose every word may be a lie. She is soon embroiled in espionage and defection, all related to the top secret science station across the sound at Wallops Island. Is Nick the spy—or is his brother? Who killed the Belarusian scientist who sought asylum? How can she trust the man who is slowly claiming her heart if his story keeps shifting?

5. Did your reading choices influence your choice of a writing career?

I read anything and everything when I was growing up. My favorites were in British literature: the Brontës, Waugh, Wilde, Harding. If anything were labeled a classic I’d devour it. I figured, if it’s considered a classic, it’s got to be good. So I read Dostoyevsky and Thomas Mann, Joseph Conrad and Fitzgerald. I tried modern fiction (I call it modern angst) and found it exceedingly wanting in persuasive, charismatic—or even likable—characters or believable plots.

6. Where can we find you?

Blog: https://msspencertalespinner.blogspot.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/msspencermysteries

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/msspencerauthor

GoodReads: http://www.goodreads.com/msspencer
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/msspencerauthor/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/msspencerauthor/

Linked in: www.linkedin.com/in/msspencerauthor

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/m-s-spencer

Friday DV Stone is Visiting and talking about Who She Was Before #MFRWAuthor #What She Was

1.     What were you before you became an author? Did this influence your choices as a writer?

I became an author later in life. One of my first jobs was driving a dump truck. I’ve been a janitor, maid, waitress. The job that began the change in my life was as an attendant for the developmentally disabled. This led to a career as an Emergency Medical Technician, both at the developmental center and later in a women’s state prison. I also volunteered with my local squad. Do to cut backs in the state, I was laid off from the prison and subsequently opened a coffee shop and small restaurant running those for several years. Then I found myself working in a veterinary emergency hospital. 2011 the economy was not good. I found myself unemployed once more. That’s when I took advantage of bad situation and began writing.

2.     Are you genre specific or general? I don’t mean major genres but subdivisions or romance, mystery or paranormal.

I love to read different things, so I do write the same. I consider myself a romance writer who enjoys penning a variety of genres. So contemporary, fantasy, suspense, and I even published a mid-grade paranormal

3.     What is your latest release?

Rock House Grill Book One in the Impact Series is a contemporary romance with suspense. It uses my background as an EMT and restaurant experience.

4.     What are you working on now?

Soon I’ll have a release date on a novella titled Rainbow Sprinkles it’s a contemporary with light paranormal. I’m also working on Jazz House the second book in the Impact Series

5. Does your reading choices influence your choice of a writing career?

 Absolutely! Back in the day, I passed a bookstore while traveling between High School and one of my jobs. Almost daily I stopped and picked up a romance novel. Phyliss Whitney, Rosemary Rogers and Victoria Holt to name a few. But I also love children’s books. Heidi, Black Beauty, the Narnia Chronicles. J.R.R. Tolkien is a huge influence in my fantasies.

5.     Where can we find you?

Buy links           Amazon           Barnes & Noble          iBook’s      Google Books

Social Media      Website        Facebook         Twitter                        Instagram

Pinterest          Bookbub         Goodreads       Newsletter

Welcome to the Campfire Blog          Amazon Author Page

Friday Lorelei Confer is Visiting and Talking About Who She Was Before #MFRWAuthor #Romantic Suspense

1. What were you before you became an author? Did this influence your choices as a writer? For thirty years I worked in the financial arena as a staff accountant in public account and also in private accounting as a Controller and CFO. I wrote reports of account analysis, budget(s), growth and deficits, etc. etc. During this time, I wrote in a journal every night and relieved my mind of harrowing problems as well as reading romance and mysteries books for that “take me away” moment.

2. Are you genre specific or general? I don’t mean major genres but subdivisions or romance, mystery or paranormal. Yes, romantic suspense or thriller.

3. What is your latest release? Deadly Homecoming releases Feb 18, 2020, the 5th book in the Deadly series. 

4. What are you working on now? I have five release in 2020 so I’m working a lot of promo as well as edits of three of them.

5. Does your reading choices influence your choice of a writing career? Yes, i think so. I like to write and read romantic suspense.

6. Where can we find you? Amazon buy link: https://www.amazon.com/Deadly-Homecoming-Lorelei-Confer-ebook/dp/B083RCBMT4/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=lorelei+confer&qid=1579379300&sr=8-3

Website:  www.loreleiconfer.com

Twitter https://twitter.com/loreleiconfer

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/LoreleiConferAuthor/

Pinterest:  https://www.pinterest.com/loreleiconfer/

Goodreads: https://bit.ly/2U1jLw9

Amazon Author Page:  https://amzn.to/2V2kV6U

Newsletter: https://bit.ly/2UZyQe1

Friday's Guest Roberta Grieve #MFRWauthor #BWL Publishing #What She Was #Historicals

Day 1

I was a reporter on a local paper for several years then changed direction to work in a library. Both of these careers influenced me in a way. The newspaper writing exposed me to all sorts of human interest stories which fired my imagination and, in the library, I was able to discover writers who also influenced me.

My novels are loosely described as historical romances and |I have set stories in various periods from Victorian times up to the Second World War. I love doing the research and putting my heroines into different situations.

Since a very young age I have always been an avid reader of all genres (except westerns) but I was drawn to romance with a historical background because of my admiration for Catherine Cookson who was my favourite writer as a teenager.  I always dreamed of writing like her – not sure if I have achieved that though.

My latest release is Song of Memories, a story of lost love and eventual reconciliation.

My next book will be ‘Madeleine’s Enterprise’. Left destitute after the death of her father, Madeleine has to find a way to recoup the family’s fortunes. Her mother thinks marriage to a rich man is the answer but Madeleine refuses to marry for money and determines to start her own business.

My website is www.robertagrieve.co.uk. I am on several Facebook groups including WriteWordsWrite and Goodreads.

Friday's Interview - Sheila Claydon - What She Was Before #MFRWauthor #writing #romance

1.     What were you in your life before you became a writer? Did this influence your writing?

It’s more a question of what I wasn’t. I trained as a nurse then retrained as a secretary. The skills I learned took me down a very winding path from sales to marketing, from medical research to education, from patient advocacy to the management of health care, from developing employment opportunities to supporting the UK government’s Department of Health. And while I was training I took a few diversions along the way such as picking and packing vegetables, stacking cheese in a supermarket, washing hair, working in a bar, typing up manuscripts…I could go on. 

Did all of this influence my writing? You bet. For a start I learned to touch-type and this, without doubt, has proved to be my most useful asset. In the days when people still relied on secretaries, it was the skill that enabled me to move into junior and then senior management positions while other people were still waiting for someone else to type up their notes. It took me to places I might not otherwise have seen, such as company boardrooms and the UK’s Houses of Parliament, as well as into factories and hospitals, universities and schools, and the offices of everything from supermarkets to small charities. And all of this has influenced my writing.

While typing remains my most useful skill when I am writing, the many, many things I was lucky enough to experience during my working life colour my stories, often without me realising it until I read the finished draft. It’s then that I recognise people I have worked with, places I have been, things I have done…not the real facts of course, but a flavour, a resemblance, a memory that I didn’t know I still had.    

2.     Are you genre specific or general? Why?

I only write fiction and I guess I’m generalist but with a strong bias towards romance. This means that every book I write has at least one romance as part of the storyline. This is even true of my one children’s book. For me, however, romance can only ever be part of the story. The characters must have careers and ambitions, or families, or problems, or all four together. To me, a romance without those things is not even close to real life, and that goes for  the books I wrote in the nineteen eighties (now a vintage collection) as well as the contemporary ones. It is also true of my one ghost story.

3.     Did your reading choices have anything to do with your choice of a genre or genres?

4.      

I’m not sure that it did. I am a very eclectic reader who enjoys everything from crime fiction to historical novels with the classics and more serious books in between. I also read a great deal of non-fiction because I like to learn new things.

If I’m honest, when I started writing in the 1980s, book club romance was all the rage and publishers were looking for authors who could provide a regular supply of romantic fiction. Because I had always wanted to write I decided to have a go, and the rest is history.

5.     What's your latest release? 

Remembering Rose (Book 1 – Mapleby Memories)

The idea for this book had been with me for more than 20 years before I began to write it. The whole story evolved from two photographs: the first, taken around 1880, is of a lovely, happy young woman in her twenties, while the second one is of the same woman in her sixties. In the later photo she looks thin and tired and sad, and I wanted to know why. I never will of course, so instead I have imagined her story while weaving in the few facts I knew about her.

6.     What are you working on now? 

Two books. I have just finished revising Golden Girl, the last of my vintage collection. It will be published by Books We Love in March. This is the third edition of my very first published book and it needed a lot of revising. Set in 1964, before cell phones and computers, and way before social media, it is a snapshot of how life used to be in offices and organisations across the western world, and how women and men behaved in those days that aren’t quite history and yet seem to belong to another world.

The second book, which is still in need of a title, is Book 2 of Mapleby Memories. In it I have taken a secondary character from Remembering Rose and I am in the process of making it her story. This is both easier and more difficult than writing a new book because while a whole village full of characters are readily available, I must remember everything that has already happened to them.

7.     Where can we find you?

My new website http://sheilaclaydon.com/ is a work in progress and something I will be working on over the next few weeks. I also have a Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/SheilaClaydon.author . This also needs a bit of tweaking because, due to family happenings, I haven’t kept up to date in recent months. I am also on twitter…ditto. And last, but not least, at http://bookswelove.net/authors/claydon-sheila-romance/

My books can be found at Amazon, iTunes, Kobo, Smashwords and Barnes and Noble, to name but a few.

Friday's Guest - Suzanne deMontigny - Repeat #MFRWauthor #Who She Was

    Today is a repeat of an earlier post.

What were you in your life before you became a writer? Did this influence your writing?

I was an elementary music teacher before I became a writer. Did it influence my writing? Absolutely! Because I write for the very age group I taught. Plus, I began storytelling at the end of music classes as a way of encouraging students to behave. It worked. But what surprised me was how much they loved my stories.

2.      Are you genre specific or general? Why? I don't mean genres like romance, mystery, fantasy etc. There are many subgenres of the above.

I write middle grade or YA, although I’m thinking of writing a chapter book.

3.      Did your reading choices have anything to do with your choice of a genre or genres?

Well, I can’t really say that’s true because I liked to read a lot of historical novels back then and still do, and though my unicorn trilogy takes place 12,000 years ago, it’s fantasy. And my teen novel, A Town Bewitched, is present day.

4.      What's your latest release?

It’s called The Deception. It’s the second book of my Shadow of the Unicorn series.

5.      What are you working on now?

I’m working on Book 3 of my unicorn series. It’s called The Revenge.

6.      Where can we find you?

Here are my links:

www.suzannedemontigny.com 

https://www.facebook.com/unicorngirl52?ref=hl

https://twitter.com/sfierymountain

http://suzannesthoughtsfortheday/blogspot.ca