Marie Force's Blog, page 16

Treading Water Winner

Thanks to everyone who came out this week to join in our conversation about some of the tough issues covered in Treading Water. I think we decided there really are no easy answers to some questions in life. I promise you that Clare gets her happy ending in Marking Time, so I will look forward to another chat after you've had a chance to read that one!

If you didn't get the word about the new reading group that was born as the result of this discussion, find us on Facebook under my main profile Marie Force (Author). The name of the group is Marie Force Book Talk. The group is open to anyone who has enjoyed my books and wants some reading buddies for future books. Thanks to Amanda for suggesting the group. We're already having fun over there!

Now, for the winner of the advance copies of Marking Time and Starting Over: JOY! Contact me at marie@marieforce.com and I will send your copies a few days ahead of the launch dates for each book. Thanks again, everyone. It was a great thrill to see readers debating the finer points of the book of my heart.

And Now for My Take...

Yesterday, Jennifer and Kellie posted some great questions about Treading Water, and we had a spirited conversation about the book. Before I invited them to come on the blog, I answered some questions for them. So I will post our Q&A here and look forward to hearing what readers have to say.

Question 1 from Jennifer and Kellie: Was Andi Jack's "true love?" I know you touched upon it when Jack himself asked Jamie his opinion of what Jamie thought would've happened had Jack met Andi while married to a healthy Clare. I mean he was going to meet her anyway...the project was in the works, etc regardless of the accident happening to Clare, right? I feel like Jack would still have been torn about his relationship with Clare. I guess what I'm leading up to is WHAT IF the roles were reversed and it was Andi he was married to and ended up in a coma and Jack had met Clare...would he have had the same pull he did with Andi? I don't think so. I think his bond to Andi was stronger than it was to Clare? He even admitted to it when he told Andi that she knew him better than ANYONE ever had.

Question 2 from Jennifer and Kellie: Clare - There's a part of me that feels like she gave up on Jack too soon. I would've preferred if Clare and Jack lived together for a bit in the same home after her hospital stint and then Jack would be then be the one to approach Clare that it just wasn't going to work although he had given it his darndest to make it work. Andi would already have the twins and in her own way moving on with her life....although heartbroken. There's a part of me that thinks that if I was Andi I would still wonder if Jack was really over Clare so it would've felt better for ME had he lived with Clare and realized it was really done.

Marie on Questions 1 and 2: The thing I like best about TW and Jack's dilemma is that it's one of those things where you can't possibly know what you'd do unless you are IN the situation. I'm with Jamie: Jack might've looked, he might've been attracted to Andi, but before Clare was injured, he wasn't in a place where he'd be OPEN to what might be possible with Andi, which made all the difference. That said, in the end, I do think Andi was Jack's true love. He and Clare had a great run, but by the time she rejoined the land of the living their time had come and gone. It took great courage on her part to be able to recognize that and not belabor the point by trying to get back what was already gone. Remember, she had a couple of months to watch and observe and by the time she made her decision she knew he was hopelessly in love with someone else. What else COULD she do?

From the author's standpoint, I needed to get Jack out of the marriage "cleanly" so he could end up with Andi. Readers were committed to their relationship by then, and there was no other possible ending but for them to end up together. When I was writing the first (of many) drafts, Clare had woken up and I was like, well, this is a fine mess. Now how do you propose we get him out of this? LOL! And please rest assured, Clare gets her happily ever after in Marking Time with a guy I love almost as much as Jack!

Another thing I want to say is that Andi never had any reason to doubt that Jack truly loved her. Look at what they went through to be together. He had proven himself to her. I don't think she relished the idea of him "choosing" her over Clare. Then she'd have to live with the fallout of that. I think, especially knowing what happens in book 2, it was better for Clare to be the one to pull the plug on the marriage. In the opening chapters of Marking Time, she is grappling with the reality of that decision and she is quite heartbroken over it when she gets home to the house he built for her and it really sinks in that she will have to live the rest of her life without him. Sigh....

Question 3 from Jennifer and Kellie: The Ending - Thank You for a Happy Ending. You had me worried there. The ending made me love Clare. In the end, we were both so impressed with Clare's strength and dignity. She did the RIGHT thing although it would've killed ME to do what she did.

Eric - Adorable and so touching how Jack adopted him and changed Eric's last name to Harrington. Perfect.

Marie: I'm glad you approve of the ending. I love the way the whole thing came together in the end and that Jack managed to make it all work out the way it was supposed to. I loved writing Jack and Eric's relationship. The scene where Eric tells Jack he loves him gets me every time.

My turn to ask a question: What would you do in Jack's situation? Your spouse is in a coma, you are told he or she will never recover and you have a second chance at love. Would you take that chance?

Just a reminder that I'm giving away copies of Marking Time and Starting Over (copies will be provided the week of their respective releases) to two commenters this week. Comment on yesterday's blog or today's to be entered into tomorrow's drawing.

Jennifer and Kellie Take Over to Talk About Treading Water

By: Jennifer Marriott and Kellie Harker
Type faster Jennifer, before Marie comes back...
Hi, we're Jennifer and Kellie and we've taken over Marie's blog. Well….."takenover" might not be completely accurate. She did give us permission and all, butwe are so excited to be here we can't stop giggling like school girls. Marieasked us to share "our" story with you.
K - So last March, it was March right Jennifer?
J - Yep, March!
K - Ok, last March I finished Marie's book The Falland was left with lots of questions and emotions. I wrote a blog post aboutthis being the first book I read that made me feel so much all at once.
J - Marie is a master at emotionally "messy" books.
K - Messy is exactly right, Jennifer! Feeling entirelytoo brave, I sent a link to Marie with a link to my blog, www.mommywishdom.com, andwent back to bed. When I woke up hours later I realized Marie had posted a linkto my blog on her twitter and Facebook page! Marie, HERSELF had come and commented and slowly other people startedcommenting as well.
J - Including me! That's where I came in. In Kellie'spost she admitted she had read 120 books in the last year and I knew we'd befriends. I finally "met" someone who read as much as I did. We commented backand forth and got to ask Marie a lot of questions about her books and she tookthe time to answer each one. It was just awesome!
K - We can be honest, we were totally star struck.
J - SQUEE!!! We couldn't believe she took the time toanswer our questions. A few weeks later Kellie and I started emailing eachother about this book or that book and at some point we decided to read a booktogether and then meet online to talk about it. We would start a book on aMonday and have an online discussion just between the two of us aroundThursday. It was a virtual book club….with two very cool chicks as members.
K - Oh we should mention. We've never met. Jenniferlives in New Jersey and I live in Arizona. If we had met through a classifiedad it would have read something like "Enjoys devouring romance novels, timealone with our Kindles and looking for someone to have long chats on theinternet with about books" We both would have answered that ad..
J - So true! It was SO fun. Our friendship grewquickly from that point. We could no longer wait to finish a book before westarted commenting. We were e-mailing and then soon we were texting every day. Itstarted with texts about the characters, story lines and soon followed with ourown personal lives, discussions about our children and families and all thatfun stuff. Recently, we finished Treading Water and the text messages goingback and forth were classic. When we finished the book we of course sent Marieour questions. Here is just sample of our texts to each other about TreadingWater:
J - I'm at 57%. I swear at this point I would dumpJack.
K - What??? Dump jack? R U ill?J - Are you reading? I don't think I can move on.K - Tell me when you get to the beginning of Part 3and tell me what you're thinking!J - I think I'm about to cry. Poor Andi
K - My heart is absolutely broken for her. Can you imagine?
K - We tried to keep out any comments that would givethe ending away for the few of you out there who may not have read it yet.Hurry though because the next book is coming out soon and you'll want to keepup. Marie didn't pay us to say that either.
J - When Marie wrote back and graciously answered allour questions again she asked if we'd be willing to write a blog post about"Our Story" and share how we met, meet online to talk about the booksand share the questions Marie gets after we finish her books.
K- I think we're stillstar struck.
J – Ya think?!? Totally!!
Here are a few of the questions we posted to Marie about TreadingWater. What do you think? Thanks for letting us stop in and tell a little aboutus. We met through Marie's books, quickly became close friends and share anabsolute love for romance novels. Doesn't get much better than that! Come leaveyour comments and let us know what you think about the questions we wererattled with after reading Treading Water.
1. Was Andi Jack's "true love?"2. Do you think Clare gave up on Jack too easily?3. If Clare had not made the choice she had, what do youthink would have happened between Jack and Andi?

Marie: Thanks so much to Jennifer and Kellie for sharing their totally cool story of how they met through my books. I LOVE that, of course! So, weigh in on their three questions and tomorrow I'll post my answers as well as a few other questions we talked about as we planned these blogs. On Friday, I'll give away copies of all three books in the Treading Water Trilogy, so make sure you comment today and tomorrow to be entered into the drawing. 

Fun Three-Day Event This Week!

Very exciting three-day event coming up on the blog this week! Two of my favorite readers, Jennifer Yao Marriott and Kellie Zondlo Harker became friends through my books. What a kick, huh? They'll be sharing how they bonded over The Fall and their thoughts and questions on Treading Water, beginning Wednesday, Nov. 16, with other readers welcome to weigh in on their questions (and they ask some GOOD ones!). On Thursday, Nov. 17, we'll post my answers to their questions. And Friday, Nov. 18, we'll give away copies of all three books in the Treading Water trilogy (winners will receive Marking Time and Starting Over just before they launch on Nov. 29 and Dec. 27). Make sure you've read Treading Water before you come by the blog as the girls will be spilling some spoilers. :-)

Konichiwa!

Love at First Flight hit the shelves in Japan this week!

What a Fun Fun FUN Launch Week!

The first sign of good news for Treading Water came early yesterday. I woke to a flurry of emails from readers and friends who told me they'd gotten a notice from Amazon letting them know my new book was on sale.




I had a feeling it was going to be a very good day, and I wasn't wrong. By the end of the day, the book was at no. 17 for ALL of Kindle, which makes it a Kindle bestseller! Commence happy dancing in an Elaine-from-Seinfeld kind of way, since I'm still recovering from surgery after all!

Treading Water began climbing the charts. I wonder if Nicholas Sparks was feeling the heat from the new kid in town...

[image error]
The news got even better as the day went on...


And better still...


And then today I found myself in some very good company with two of my all-time favorite authors. Pinch me please!


Of all the books of mine that could be in this position, this is the one I would've chosen. It's my all-time favorite, the book of my heart, the first book I ever wrote. Thank you to everyone who has given me this thrill ride of a lifetime.

Book Club: Flat Out Sexy by Erin McCarthy

[image error] By: Kris Gilson


First off, I must divulge that I had never read any car racing-themedbook.  I just wasn't interested.  Nuh-uh…no way.  Then came Flat Out Sexy and….OH. MY.GOD.  I was totally hooked.  This book centers around Tamara Briggs, awidow with two children whose husband died in a crash at Talladega.  She is just getting back into the datingscene when she meets Elec Monroe at a cocktail party.  She's with a dud of a date when theyaccidentally collide.  Elec is smokin'hot, the attraction is instantaneous. Tamara dumps the dud, and they unexpectedly share a scorching nighttogether (he was trying to be gentlemanly…didn't work out so much!).  
There are two things wrong with thisscenario…Elec is a race car driver and he's seven years younger.   Tamara really tries to keep it light andcasual and wants to do right by her children and she obviously has fears overElec's occupation.  Beyond the age andoccupation, she has a few body image issues, but they make her more likeableand don't detract from the story.  Elecis an all-around great guy; he's nice to her kids and he falls for herimmediately.  At Elec's age and with hisoccupation and having women fall all over him all the time, you'd think he'd atleast be tempted a little.  But he onlyhas eyes for Tamara.  It makes you love hischaracter even more and the chemistry between the two sizzles right off thecharts.  
This book is fast paced andfunny, but there is also emotion and depth to the story.  The kids in the story are great, neverannoying, and they are not used as props, they're integral to the story.  I liked how Tamara wasn't willing to justdump her kids in order to be with Elec; they had to figure out how to make timeinto their routines.  The secondary charactersare funny and charming, adding to an all-around awesome story (oh, how I lovedSuzanne and Ryder and couldn't wait for their story!).   The racing scenes and information areinteresting and not overpowering and written so well that it made me want tobecome a racing fan.
FlatOut Sexy is the first in a series and I highly recommend reading them all….inorder!I actually found this recipe on awebsite called "Talladega Superspeedway Recipes and Menu Ideas":
Apricot Honey Grilled Chicken

[image error]Makes 4 servingsPrep Time: 10 min.
Grilling Time: 15 minIngredientsGlaze Ingredients 1 - Tablespoon butter 1/4 - cup chopped onion 1/3 - cup apricot spreadable fruit 2 - Tablespoons honey 1 - teaspoon freshly grated lemon peel Chicken Ingredients 1/2 - teaspoon dried oregano leaves  1/4 - teaspoon salt  1/4 - teaspoon pepper  4 - boneless skinless (4-ounce) chicken breast halves DirectionsPreheat gas grill on medium orcharcoal grill until coals are ash white.While grill is heating, in a 1-quart saucepan, you want to melt butter in until sizzling and add onion. Sauté over medium heat for 1 minute or until onion is softened. Stir in fruit, honey and lemon peel. Set aside. In a small bowl, you will combine oregano, salt and pepper. Rub on both sides of chicken breasts and place chicken onto grill. Grill, turning once, for 15 to 20 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink and juices run clear when pierced with a fork. Brush chicken with glaze during last 5 minutes of grilling. Cook remaining glaze in 1-quart saucepan over medium heat until it comes to a boil, stirring constantly. Serve warm glaze over chicken. A Note About Book ClubAfter a year of meetings and books and authors and giveaways, we've decided to close the door on what has become a really fun weekly event for all of us. However, it takes more time than we've got to give right now and since we can't do it weekly, we've decided to do it once in a while. We'll still hold occasional meetings to talk about books we love, authors we love and of course, Oreos. Thanks for making the Romance and Oreos Book Club such a fun place to hang out this last year! Thanks so much to Aly Hackett and Ronlyn Howe, who helped out behind the scenes to keep things running smoothly. And to the authors who participated in the meetings and offered giveaways, thank you!

Next Up On Book Club: Flat-Out Sexy by Erin McCarthy

Independent single mother Tamara Briggs wanted to find a new, sexy, no-strings-attached man-just not one as young as NASCAR driver Elec Monroe. But he sure does get her heart racing. And after she's tricked into a blind date with him, Tamara gives in to her passion. Things screech to a halt, though, when he asks to meet her children. Whatever happened to wham-bam-thank-you ma'am? Suddenly Tamara has to decide how much risk she's willing to take to experience the power of true love.


Join us and author Erin McCarthy for our discussion of Flat-Out Sexy on Thursday, October 27th

Book Club: After The Fire by Kathryn Shay

[image error] By: Aly Hackett --- with some help from Kara and Ronlyn

I started reading Kathyrn Shay's Super Romance firefighter series back in 2000.  I immediately fell in love with her characters and knew that when she came out with After The Fire, that I would feel the same way.  She did not disappoint!

The Malvaso family siblings – Mitch, Jenn and Zach – have had their share of issues in life.  When a major fire happens, it makes all of them take a look at where they are in life and decide to make some changes.  Mitch wants to work harder at making his family work, Jenny wants a baby and wants her best friend Grady to "father" it and Zach wants to make up for all his past errors.

Mitch realizes that making his family work is going to be difficult for 2 reasons – 1.  His wife is a mean, spiteful bitch and 2.  His attraction to Megan Hale.  I really appreciated watching the relationship between Mitch and Megan grow.  Despite that everyone knows how horrible Mitch's wife is and would understand if he had an affair with Megan, I give him – and Shay – credit for not going in that direction.  Although, yes, Mitch and Megan were emotionally connecting, they did their best to stay away from each other and keep things professional.

Jenn and Grady were pretty fabulous as well.  They embark on a journey that has so many possible pitfalls.  And of course poor tortured Zach!  He has done so much wrong but you know he wants to make it all right!

Shay writes characters in a way that draws you into them.  The family dynamic and the relationship between the siblings is wonderful.  I also think that the "family" nature of the members of the fire department just adds strength to the book.

I asked Kara and Ronlyn to share some quick thoughts on After the Fire and this is what they had to say…

Kara :  I loved that this was not your typical romance. There wasn't really a main couple who followed a romance formula to happiness. I loved the fact that 'family' seemed to be the main character, both the Malvaso's and the family of smoke eaters.  None of the members were perfect to be sure!
There was raw emotion, which brought tears to my eyes more than once, as well as lighter moments that made me smile.   I couldn't nail down a favorite character, although I'm VERY confident it wasn't Cynthia.

Ronlyn:  I LOVED when Megan went to the record store and chatted with Mitch's son re: his music and her reaction and support of his dream.  Such a small thing for her, but so huge for both Mitch and his son

His psycho ex wife...well, I'm none too fond of psycho exes at the moment. ;-)  But when his brother came clean about what happened and the whole misunderstanding re: that.  Very emotional.

And Megan's memories of her times at the camp with her father.

I laugh that Kara and I had the same reaction to the family element.  And in a way, so did Ronlyn by her reaction to Megan's interaction with Mitch's son, Bobby.  Kathryn Shay does such a marvelous job with these characters that you are invested and drawn in and you MUST know what happens next.

If you haven't read After the Fire yet, you really must.  And then you need to grab On the Line and Nothing More to Lose.

Kathryn is at a conference but is going to try her best to pop in and say hi!

In honor of the Italian Malvaso's, here is a recipe :)


Calzones
Ingredients
1 1/4 cups water
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon dry milk powder
1 1/2 tablespoons white sugar
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
3/4 cup pizza sauce
4 ounces pepperoni sausage, chopped
1 1/4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
2 tablespoons butter, melted

Directions
Place water, salt, bread flour, dry milk, sugar, and yeast in the pan of the bread machine in the order suggested by the manufacturer. Select Dough cycle.
After cycle ends, roll out dough on a lightly floured surface; shape into a 16 x 10 inch rectangle. Transfer to a lightly greased cookie sheet. In a small bowl, mix together chopped pepperoni and mozzarella. Spoon pizza sauce in a stripe down the center of dough lengthwise; add sausage and cheese filling. Make diagonal cuts 1 1/2 inches apart down each side, cutting within a 1/2 inch of the filling. Criss cross strips over filling, sealing with water. Brush top with melted butter.
Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 35 to 45 minutes.


http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/calzone/...

Next Up On Book Club: After The Fire by Kathryn Shay

[image error] The Malvaso family has more than its share of firefighters, and when three of them--Jenn, Mitch, and Zach--almost lose their lives in a disastrous inferno, they change their views of the universe and their places in it. Jenn, a single woman living a platonic existence with Grady, her fellow firefighter and best friend, decides to have a baby. Mitch tries to make a go of his failing marriage and be a better father. Zach, too, has to get past a ruined relationship and fight many demons of his own. This powerful, emotionally realistic book is the first of Shay's new trilogy about the men and women who put their lives on the line every day and how that dedication and commitment affect all those around them.

Join us to discuss After the Fire on Thursday October 20th.