Mindy MacKay's Blog, page 3

All Things Romantic Suspense: Ursula Grey

Hey y'all! Today I'm interviewing Ursula Grey, author of Second Chances. Stop by, leave a comment, and help me give her a big ol' Texas welcome!

MM: Howdy! Please introduce yourself, tell us an interesting fact about you, and if you were an animal, what would it be?

UG: Hi Mindy! Good to be here. I'm Ursula Grey. I write mainstream women's fiction, romance, and erotic romance. Thus far, I've been published by eXcessica, and Siren-Bookstrand. I'm also a genre-crossing writer ~ I love historical fiction, science fiction, erotic romance, and literary fiction. I hope to one day publish something in each of these genres! I would consider Second Chances, the work I'd like to discuss today, a work of romantic suspense, but it's a little bit of everything.

An interesting fact about me? Gosh, I didn't know I was so boring! Let me see...I practice yoga, how about that? It's good for the body and the soul. I've never once become bored with it. It's very rewarding to master a posture you never thought you'd be able to get your body into!

If I were an animal, what would I be? Hmm, tough question. Although I prefer my current human form;-), I suppose maybe a dolphin. They are playful, intelligent creatures, and inhabit warmer waters...I'd definitely have to live somewhere warm!

MM: Tell us a bit about your book -- something you wouldn't find in the blurb.

UG: Second Chances is definitely about overcoming obstacles, your past, your fears, and living up to your full potential. The three main characters are quite dear to me, especially Jeanne, who was very similar to an old friend of mine. Despite the fact that quite a few decades separated us, once we spoke, our respective ages disappeared and we became good friends. She taught me that it was never too late to live your dreams.

MM: What was your inspiration for this story?

UG:The portrayal of women in the media, specifically the elusive and unrealistic quest to be perfect; the desire to be more than your environmental circumstances allow; and falling in love with Paris and all of France! The three main female characters came to me requesting their stories be told ~ and they wanted a happy ending. I obliged!

MM: Do you consider yourself a plotter or a pantser?

UG: Definitely a pantser, which I sometimes pay for later during the editing process. I've tried to outline, but invariably, I end up going off in a direction I hadn't planned, ie., I go where my characters lead me. In general, most of my work starts with a scene, and the story builds from there.

MM:When diving into a new work, how much research do you do and how do you go about doing it?

UG:I write the story and when I'm not directly involved in doing that, I refer to my research library or the internet to fill in the gaps. There's definitely more research involved when I'm writing an historical work. Accuracy is very important to me, but I also enjoy the research. It's intriguing. It usually leads to another story that's waiting to be told. I'm very interested in ancient civilizations, mythology and folklore, along with France and England during the Middle Ages. I've amassed some knowledge of these periods, but refer to reference sources for in-depth information.

MM: If you could be one character from your book, who would it be and why?

UG:I'd have to choose Delia, the teen in Second Chances. Although she's had some hard knocks, she's beautiful and talented, living in France, and has her entire life before her! That was easy!

MM: And if you had to be stuck in an elevator for 42 hours with one of your characters...?

UG: Another easy one! I'd choose the handsome and mysterious artist, Karl. He's good looking, intelligent, and talented. We'd discuss much art during that period...

MM: What was the hardest part of writing this book?

UG:Editing. I think it behooves any writer to set your book aside for a month or two after completion and look at it later with fresh eyes. You'll wonder how you missed such glaringly obvious errors!

MM:Why romantic suspense? Do you write any other subgenres of romance?

UG:I think there's a little suspense in every story. It's what keeps us turning the pages. I also write erotic romance. A Day in April 1944, published by eXcessica, takes place during WWII. It features a day and night in the life of a French woman working for the Resistance ~ and what happens when she shelters an American pilot for the night. It received recommended read status at Dark Diva, Fallen Angel, and the Literary Nymphs review sites. I'm also published in a recently released anthology by eXcessica entitled, Divine Matches. If you enjoy reading about mythological beings, check it out. My story, Heph's Revenge, features Hephaestus and what happens when he discovers his wife Aphrodite may have a thing for Apollo. It has a humorous edge and was fun to write. I'm also waiting to hear on a submittal, (an erotic romance that takes place in the Old West), and am working on a few other projects. Along with the publishers sites, all my work is available on Amazon.

MM: What books have most influenced your writing or your outlook on life in general?

UG:I'm an avid fiction reader with many favorite authors including: Rose Tremain, Joyce Carol Oates, Margaret Atwood...I could go on! Visit my website for more recommendations.

As far as nonfiction, I have to say that Clarissa Pinkola Estes book, Women Who Run With the Wolves, had a great impact on me. I loved the short story in the book entitled, The Wolf's Eyelash. After reading it, I "went out in the woods" and never looked back;-). If you haven't already, definitely read it.

MM:Quick! The Departed, Shutter Island, or Inception?

UG:Call me crazy, but I haven't seen any of them! (I assumed they were movies and looked them up to confirm that, yes indeed, they were.) Not much of a movie buff...however, one of my favorites is a French (of course) film entitled, Ridicule.

MM: Anything I didn't ask you about that you want to shout out to the world?

UG:All great questions Mindy. Just want to say, Read Me Please! and let me hear from you! Thanks for having me. Also, looking forward to your visit:-). Readers, do stop by my blog to say hello! ~ Ursula

Blurb for Second Chances:

Chance encounters bring together three women from very different walks of life and with little in common except for the desire to obtain a second chance at life and perhaps even love.

A mysterious birthday gift, a husband's devastating deception, and a secret past during World War II send the women on an unforgettable journey to France that will change their lives forever. Will Delia, the young runaway, find the father she never knew, a father who knows nothing of her existence? Will one impulsive night change Gwen, a soon-to-be-divorcee's, life forever? Can Jeanne, a French war bride, face her past and rekindle a romance with a lost love? When Delia disappears, the answers to these questions must wait.

"Are second chances really possible? Can dreams come true? I'm here to tell you the answer is yes if you're willing to take a chance and take that first step. The inspiration for Second Chances was born of the knowledge that anything is possible, if you're open to the possibilities. Go ahead, it's your turn. Take that first step today." ~ Ursula ~

Buy link: http://www.bookstrand.com/second-chances

Hokay, So.

Over the next seventeen weeks, I'm going to be participating in like, this HUGE interview ring involving romantic suspense, which is incidentally my favorite subgenre of romance. Every Friday I'll post a new interview, and every week I'll be at someone else's blog.

So keep your boots tight and keep your gun close...

Just thought you oughtta know.

Love you, chickadees!

On plot twists.

I pondered today.

I sat pondering for about forty-five minutes over the value of plot twist in genre fiction.

It's a necessary thing. You don't pick up a book if you know exactly what's going to happen. But how do we determine what a good plot twist is?

Consider Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club. Great twist, right? I won't spoil it for those of you who haven't read it, but it kept us surprised without being ridiculous. Now consider M. Night Whatshisname's Lady in the Water. Okay. So. There's a secret world in your swimming pool and people come out, and if they choose you, you're marked for a future of greatness...what?

While the former is extremely deliberated down to each meticulous detail, the latter sounds like it was conceived on the fly.

Readers of bizarro fiction will know all about these nonsensical premises. Aficionados will tear me apart for this post. Well, I say fire away. One can insist to no end about how "anything is art", but in the end, painting a hammer red and gluing it onto a block of wood hardly constitutes art. You can give it all the meaning you want in retrospect, but show me the effort, the deliberation, that went into it, and maybe then I'll change my mind.

There's obviously a difference between taking a phenomenon, such as irony or a character's mental instability, and applying it in a creative and unexpected way, and conjuring up deus-ex-machina out the wazoo for the sake of being different. My question was, how can you tell the difference? Where do you draw the line between a good plot twist and a decadent love of the bizarre?

So I asked my psychology teacher's opinion, and after some brainstorming, here's the general summary of our conclusion:

You have bizarre art. Within that subdivision, there's good bizarre and bad bizarre. In order for a plot twist to be good and not just ridiculous, it needs to be relevant--advance the plot, convey a meaning, supplement the work. If it does that, congrats, artist, you're on your way to mastery. If the bizarre element IS the entirety of the work's substance--nothing below the surface--well then.

Just a guest blog post...

http://moth-insertwittytitlehere.blog...

Please check it out! Comments are much appreciated.

A Great Week So Far!

Hey guys! Let me tell you what all happened to me in the last two days.

I read Lovin' Leela by Nichelle Gregory 'cause I won a free e-copy in a raffle, and you know what, guys? This is pretty good. I want all my male friends to buy this book, read it, and take a few hints--that should give y'all some insight into the quality of the, uh, content.

But it's more than that, though. The story really speaks to me about trust and what it takes to open up to someone and build a relationship. I definitely recommend this book.

Took a trip to the art museum today, and it was splendid. Saw some lovely art, took some sub-par pictures with my phone, and I may be posting those later.

All in all, these last two days have done much to leave me inspired and invigorated. It's rare that I feel this pumped about life.

Well, until next time, a bientot, chickadees!!

Interviewed today at Coffee Time Romance

Come check it out!

Interview: XOXOXOXO
Excerpt: XOXOXOXOX

Feature Friday - Pirates

Even though I know it's no longer Friday in most parts of the world, let the pirating commence with book recommendations for pirate-related books.

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QUINN'S CURSE by NATASHA MOORE

[image error] Cursed to haunt dry land for three hundred years, forbidden to touch the ocean he loves, Nathaniel Quinn's spirit lingers near the Logan Point Lighthouse until his sentence is served. All he wants is an end to the three hundred year curse so he can haunt the seas instead of the shores.
That's all he wants, that is, until the day Miranda Kent buys the lighthouse with the intent to turn it into a bed and breakfast. She hopes the presence of a ghost will bring in the tourists, but Quinn has finally found a benefit to his time on land.
She can hear him. See him. Touch him. He may only have a short time remaining at the lighthouse, but at least now he can enjoy it like a sailor on shore leave.
But pleasure turns to impending pain as these doomed lovers discover they're touching more than each other's bodies. They're touching each other's hearts. The long-awaited end of Quinn's shore curse might just mean a different kind of curse…
Because an eternity sailing the seas might also be an eternity separated from the woman he loves.

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A PIRATE'S LEGACY by AMELIA JUNE

[image error] Sinclaire Daves, a young and awkward archeology professor, lives her life surrounded by books and research. Body issues and a recent breakup have left her confidence in pieces. But at night, everything changes as her dreams are filled with the adventures of the woman she wishes she was; a pirate captain who lived over 200 years ago.

Rebekah Bonny, daughter of the famous pirates Anne Bonny and Calico Jack Rackam (who sailed under the Jolly Roger), wants nothing more than to escape her life of danger and disguise, to settle down and spend her life with the man she loves.

Across time, these two disparate women come together, and guide each other through mystery, man trouble, and mayhem, to find they aren't as dissimilar as they seem. Will Rebekah find her peace? Will Sinclaire find the love--and the pirate--she's been dreaming of?

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ANGEL'S MASTER by SANDRA SOOKOO

[image error] Life on the high seas just became more complicated for Ethan Williams. He's a pirate with a conscience, and even though killing and plundering are his way of life, he's searching for much more--and he's tired of being alone.

Jacqueline Massey is connected with the American Navy. It's her job to trick men into revealing they are indeed pirates. The guilt she feels about sending them to their doom is equaled only by her longing to be loved. But Jacqueline has a secret--one that has intertwined her fate with Ethan's for longer than he's known.

Can Fate bring together a pirate and an angel during the season of miracles, or will a watery death by Davy Jones locker drown their love?

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And if you're one of those people who reads to music, check out pirateFM: http://www.piratefm.co.uk/

International Talk Like a Pirate Day!

So apparently September 19th is International Talk Like a Pirate Day. In lieu of this, I'm going to bombard my readers with pirate-related things.

PIRATE JOKES. Here are some of my favorites.

This pirate walks into a bar with a big ship's wheel down his pants. The bartender says, "Excuse me, sir, but do you know you have a ship's wheel down the front of your pants?"
And the pirate says...
Aaargh, it's driving me nuts!!

A little kid dresses up as a pirate and goes trick or treating. He knocks on the door of a house and a man answers. "Oh, i can see you're dressed up as a pirate." the man says. "But where are your buccaneers?" So the kid says "On either side of my buckin' head!"

A pirate walks into a bar and the bartender says, "Hey, I haven't seen you in a while. What happened, you look terrible!"
"What do you mean?" the pirate replies, "I'm fine."
The bartender says, "But what about that wooden leg? You didn't have that before."
"Well," says the pirate, "We were in a battle at sea and a cannon ball hit my leg but the surgeon fixed me up, and I'm fine, really."
"Yeah," says the bartender, "But what about that hook? Last time I saw you, you had both hands."
"Well," says the pirate, "We were in another battle and we boarded the enemy ship. I was in a sword fight and my hand was cut off but the surgeon fixed me up with this hook, and I feel great, really."
"Oh," says the bartender, "What about that eye patch? Last time you were in here you had both eyes."
"Well," says the pirate, "One day when we were at sea, some birds were flying over the ship. I looked up, and one of them crapped in my eye."
"So?" replied the bartender, "What happened? You couldn't have lost an eye just from some bird poop!"
"Well," says the pirate, "I really wasn't used to the hook yet."

PIRATE FASHION.

Because come on, how else can you strike that perfect chord of cutesy and smack-you-upside-the-head-if-you-mess-with-me-BA??



























PIRATE FICTION.

Have you read any pirate-related books lately? If not, you really should. This one's one of my favorites, and the first pirate book I read. If you like twists and turns in a plot, you should definitely check it out.

[image error] If anyone's the author of a pirate romance or other type of story, do drop me a line! I'd love to do a feature on all things pirate sometime in the next few days, while we're all still in the spirit!

Until then, Excelsior!

B&N Signing a Success!

Reeeeeally old pictures from the signing that took place at B&N on...I don't really remember. Some rainy Tuesday in September. (I wanna say the 7th.)

[image error] Me just sitting around. I wanted to find a strategic place to set up my table...being a literal person, I chose to sit next to the Stratego shelf.











[image error] A couple family friends come out to support me.















[image error] ...There's one girl who won't be growing up on a steady diet of Cinderella and damsels-in-distress. High-octane fiction and extra jalepenos on that corndog, please and thanks!










[image error]
Some reporters from down at...St. Mary's, I believe.

You just know one of these days I'm going to have a huge press scandal.

Angela Kay calls Peacebreakers "done tastefully"

Hey all! Peacebreakers received a 3 out of 4 rating from Angela Kay of Soap Box in My Mind!

Read the full review

at soapboxinmymind.blogspot.com

And be sure to follow Angela's page for more great reviews and book suggestions!