Author Speed Dating: Nan Dixon

Author Speed Dating(1)

I love discovering new authors, so I wanted my blog to be a place where readers and my author pals could come together. Only we like to do this Speed-Dating style. Check out a new author and her work here every Wednesday, and if the spark is there, you’ll have a match.

This week’s guest: Nan Dixon

 

 

Nan Dixon

 

harlequin superromance

 

 

 

 

1.Which of the Peanuts girls – Lucy, Sally, Peppermint Patty or Marcie – would be your best friend if you were added as a character on the comic strip?

Peppermint Patty—we both play sports.

2. Name a genre or sub-genre have you never written in but would like to.

Middle Grade or Historical Romance—but I would probably spend too much time on historical research and never finish the book.

3. When did you first decide you were a writer, and when was your first book published?

In 1986 I started working on a middle-grade book (never finished). In 2008, I began writing contemporary romance full time, and my first book released 2014.

4. Jeopardy or Real Housewives of Orange County?

Jeopardy! I even have it for my Wii! I might be a little competitive.

5. Do you write the synopsis before or after you write the manuscript?

I never used to write the synopsis first. Now I do, but only because it’s contractually required. (But the finished manuscript never matches the synopsis!)

6. Sam Elliot or Robert Downey, Jr.?

A young Sam Elliot.

7. Which character from one of your own books do you wish you were more like?

 I think there is a little bit of me in every character, or at least I give them things that I love doing.  In  SOUTHERN COMFORTS — Abby is a chef. I love cooking and always want to experiment more. I guess I did that vicariously with her! (She matches her appetizers and wine for each evening’s wine tasting.)

8. “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” or “The Great Gatsby”? Book or movie version, your choice.

Neither?—Give me “Gone with the Wind”. Movie version and Clark Gable!

9. What has been your proudest moment as an author?

When a reader came up and asked me to sign her T-shirt at the RWA literacy signing, because she loved my debut. I cried.

10. How important is social media to you in your writing career?

Very! It keeps me connected to my readers and writing peeps. And I can stay current on my agent Laura Bradford’s life, through her funny tweets!

11. What kind of snacker are you? Potato chips and ice cream or kale chips and edamame?

I try to snack healthy, but I love gummy worms and orange slices.

12. What are the hardest and easiest part for you as you write a book?

The hardest part for me to write is making sure each character has an emotional arc that changes during the story. The easiest, the black moment.

13. Adele or The Rolling Stones?

Adele! I want to be able to hear the words.

14. What is the best piece of advice you can offer to a new writer, particularly one you wish someone gave to you when you were getting started?

I really needed a beginning craft class when I first started to toy around with writing. I wrote 5 manuscripts before I knew what I was doing. Go to a basic writing class.

15. If you could travel anywhere in the world, free of charge, where would you be booking your next vacation?

England. My English mother met my father during WWII and came to the US to marry him after the war. They corresponded for 3 years during the war and while my father finished college.

***

NanBook

 

The Other Twin

By Nan Dixon

 

It was nice having the craziness of feeding two kids and a man at her table. This is what life would have been like if Brad hadn’t died. Cheryl touched her stomach. Maybe they would have had another child.

She watched Nathan cut Isabella’s chicken. There wasn’t a second child in her future, but she could help Nathan with his daughter. Eventually, Nathan and Issy would move on, both physically and emotionally. But she could help for now.

“I cut the potatoes,” Josh told Isabella.

Issy forked a potato and smiled at him. A pixie with dandelion fluff for hair and her father’s heart-breaking brown eyes.

Cheryl brushed the hair out of Isabella’s eyes. “Is it good?”

The little girl nodded.

“I love it.” Nathan grinned.

Josh shot him a glare. And the bubble broke. They weren’t a family. She was just helping out a semi-clueless father with a damaged daughter.

As dinner wound down, Isabella set her milk too close to the table’s edge and the plastic glass dropped to the floor.

“Issy.” Nathan’s voice was sharper than normal, but he didn’t yell.

The little girl cringed anyway. Her shoulders curled up to hid her face. A whimper erupted as she bent in two.

“It’s okay. It’s just spilled milk.” Cheryl hurried to the other side of the table. “Josh, can you please grab paper towels? We’ll have this cleaned up in no time.”

Isabella was frozen. Cheryl stroked her back and she jerked. “Nathan, I think she’s done.”

Nathan took the hint and picked up his daughter. She wrapped her limbs around him like a vine.

“It’s okay.” Josh handed a wad of towels to Cheryl. “Sometimes I spill, too. Mom never slaps me.”

“Slaps?” Nathan said. “Issy?”

The girl tucked her head deeper into Nathan’s shoulder, shaking her head.

Josh covered his mouth.

“Josh?” Cheryl wiped the floor, trying to keep everything nonchalant. “Has Isabella talked to you?”

“I can’t tell.” Josh looked at Issy. “I promised.”

***

THE OTHER TWIN, part of the Fitzgerald House miniseries, is a January 2017 release from Harlequin Superromance, and may be purchased from these retailers: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Google, Harlequin, iBooks and Kobo.

***

About Nan

Nan Dixon spent her formative years as an actress, singer, dancer and competitive golfer. But the need to eat had her studying accounting in college. Unfortunately, being a successful financial executive didn’t feed her passion to perform. When the pharmaceutical company she worked for was purchased, Nan got the chance of a lifetime—the opportunity to pursue a writing career.  She’s a five-time Golden Heart® finalist and award-winning author, lives in the Midwest and is active in her local RWA chapter and on the board of a dance company. She has five children, three sons-in-law, two granddaughters, a brand new grandson and one neurotic cat.

Stay in contact with Nan through her website, www.nandixon.com, or through these social-media channels: Facebook, Goodreads, Pinterest and Twitter.

 

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Author Speed Dating – Pamela Hearon

Author Speed Dating(1)

I love discovering new authors, so I wanted my blog to be a place where readers and my author pals could come together. Only we like to do this Speed-Dating style. Check out a new author and her work here every Wednesday, and if the spark is there, you’ll have a match.

This week’s guest: Pamela Hearon

 

Pamela Hearon

WOMEN'S FICTION-1

15 Questions

1. Which of the Peanuts girls – Lucy, Sally, Peppermint Patty or Marcie – would be your best friend if you were added as a character on the comic strip?

Peppermint Patty.  I was such a tomboy as a kid, growing up in a neighborhood of six boys and me.  I could outrun them all … until I got older and smarter.

2. Name a genre or sub-genre you have never written in but would like to.

Oooo, suspense.  I had a suspense element in one of my books, and loved writing it.  My editor made me tone down the bad guy, though, because he gave her the creeps!

3. When did you first decide you were a writer, and when was your first book published?

My dad always talked about a story I wrote in the 5th grade, so I was writing way back in the last century, but my first book didn’t get published until 2009.

4. Jeopardy or Real Housewives of Orange County?

 Jeopardy.  I’m the only person on the planet who has never watched one of those Real Housewives shows.

5. Do you write the synopsis before or after you write the manuscript?

After.  When I try to write it before, it never matches what I actually write.

6. Sam Elliot or Robert Downey, Jr.?

Mr. Downy, please (and can he wear his Ironman suit?).

7. Describe a character from one of your books who is most like or most radically different from your significant other.

Kale Barlow from HIS KIND OF PERFECTION—a little overweight, a whole lot funny, and sexy as hell <3.

8. “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” or “The Great Gatsby”? Book or movie version, your choice.

Gatsby—the movie version with Robert Redford in the starring role.

9. What has been your proudest moment as an author?

I was a RITA Finalist in 2013—wonderful validation from my peers!

10. How important is social media to you in your writing career?

Honestly?  I’m much better at just having fun on FB, Twitter, and Instagram than I am at promoting my books.

11. What kind of snacker are you? Potato chips and ice cream or kale chips and edamame?

Tortilla chips and ice cream—but not together.  I really love Sweet and Spicy Cajun Trail Mix, too.  Oh, and coconut chocolate chip cookies.  And nuts—any kind (except cashews).  But I can’t stand pretzels—blech!

12. What are the hardest and easiest part for you as you write a book?

Easiest—dialogue.  I hear the characters talking in my head, and I just write what I hear.  Hardest—ignoring the other voice in my head that says the story is crap.

13. Adele or The Rolling Stones?

Eric Church (color me Country).

14. What is the best piece of advice you can offer to a new writer, particularly one you wish someone gave to you when you were getting started?

Write for the love of writing, and count your success by how you feel about what you’ve written.

15. If you could travel anywhere in the world, free of charge, where would you be booking your next vacation?

Australia.  G’day, mate! ☺

***

Pam book

 

 

 

 

Gaining Visibility

By Pamela Hearon

 

 

 

Julia eyed the steep incline, noting the weight of her carry-on and her duffel. Both pieces of luggage had wheels . . . and in a few days, she’d be conquering the Cinque Terre.

Determined, she took on the hill, schlepping her bags behind her.

Dragging the extra forty pounds up what felt like eighty degrees of cobblestone incline for two hundred yards left her questioning her fitness and her sanity, however. She stopped at intervals, filling her lungs with huge gulps of air that apparently held no oxygen as she felt little to no recoup in her body. The bags threatened to pull her arms from their sockets, and her fingers gripped the handles with terror, knowing that any slip backward meant having to retrace her excruciatingly painful progress.

By the time she reached the turnoff onto the hotel’s walkway, the twenty-two hours of travel since leaving Paducah hit her like a Mack truck. The warm fuzzies she’d started up the hill with had been abandoned along the way, replaced by hot pricklies that caused her blouse to stick to her chest and back and underarms, making the areas alternate from itch to burn.

She stomped along a walkway built on yet another incline, albeit gradual, up to the sign that indicated the office. In front of the door, two men blocked the path, discussing something that apparently had to do with the swimming pool. From their wild gesticulations and heated tones, one of them had released piranhas into the water.

If you stop, you drop, Julia reminded herself. But it was the sight in front of her more than her mantra that inched her closer.

Adonis— or whatever the Roman mythology equivalent was— had come to life. Stripped to the waist, his torso was an ocean of waves and ripples that made her mouth so dry she longed for a taste. Long legs defined with muscles bulging from the shorts he wore pivoted him gracefully toward the pool and back to the other man whom he towered over.

Julia drew close enough to appreciate the sunlight glistening on the perspiration that poured from the black curly hair onto the wide, sculpted shoulders and chest. Despite the angry undertones, his deep voice had a smoothness that glided across his tongue like caramel gelato.

This was the man, rather than Howard, who should’ve been hooking up with Miss Italy. At thirtyish, he was the perfect age— the perfect everything— and Julia released the breath she’d been holding with a sigh.

“Um . . . excuse me. I need to get through here.”

Adonis swung toward her, pinning her with a sullen gaze from eyes as dark and rich as mahogany. “Mi dispiace, signora. I did not see you.”

Julia drew another sigh and shrugged. “That doesn’t surprise me.”

***

GAINING VISIBILITY, a September 2016 release from Kensington Books, may be purchased through these retailers: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million and Kobo.

***

About Pamela

Pamela Hearon grew up in Paducah, Kentucky, a small city that infuses its inhabitants with Southern values, Southern hospitality, and a very distinct Southern accent. There she found the inspiration for her quirky characters, the perfect backdrop for the stories she wanted to tell, and the beginnings of her narrative voice.  Pamela was a 2013 RITA® Finalist and Maggie Finalist for her first Harlequin Superromance, OUT OF THE DEPTHS (August 2012).  Six more Superromances followed, including THE SUMMER PLACE (National Readers’ Choice Award Finalist), and HIS KIND OF PERFECTION (2015 Maggie Finalist).  She made her debut in women’s fiction in 2016 with GAINING VISIBILITY (Kensington Books Sept 2016).

Connect with Pamela through her website, www.pamelahearon.com, or through Facebook or Twitter.

 

 

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Author Speed Dating – Elizabeth Bevarly

Author Speed Dating(1)

I love discovering new authors, so I wanted my blog to be a place where readers and my author pals could come together. Only we like to do this Speed-Dating style. Check out a new author and her work here every Wednesday, and if the spark is there, you’ll have a match.

This week’s guest: Elizabeth Bevarly

 

 

Elizabeth Bevarly Pub Photo

CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE

15 Questions

1.  Which of the Peanuts girls – Lucy, Sally, Peppermint Patty or Marcie – would be your best friend if you were added as a character on the comic strip?

Peppermint Patty for sure. She and I share identical fashion sense. I’d wear sandals all year if it didn’t mean losing my toes to frostbite.

2. Name a genre or sub-genre you have never written in but would like to.

Mystery. It’s my second favorite genre to read, and I actually have a good idea for one. Unfortunately, I’m afraid it would be the only good mystery idea I ever get.

3. When did you first decide you were a writer, and when was your first book published?

When I was twelve years old. I wrote my first story about a bunch of teenagers exploring a haunted house. I couldn’t finish it quickly enough for my two best friends, Marianne and Cheryl, to read it. And I sold my first book in 1988, when I was 27. It appeared in October 1989.

4. Jeopardy or Real Housewives of Orange County?

Jeopardy. Even if I’m terrible at every category except anything literary and “Potent Potables”.

5. Do you write the synopsis before or after you write the manuscript?

Before. But only because I have to to get paid.

6. Sam Elliot or Robert Downey, Jr.?

What, I can only choose one of them? That is so harsh.

7. Describe a character from one of your books who is most like or most radically different from your significant other.

Ramsey Sage from The Thing About Men is totally my husband David. Not so much the tattooed DEA agent part. (Though David was law enforcement in the Caribbean for the U.S. Coast Guard for a while.) But the epilogue Ramsey, who’s created an incredibly cozy, loving home for his family.

8. “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” or “The Great Gatsby”? Book or movie version, your choice.

Speaking as a woman with an honors degree in English, I naturally have to choose the book over the movie. And it would be, hands down, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. That’s also the English major talking.

9. What has been your proudest moment as an author?

Appearing on the New York Times bestseller list between Stephen King and Dean Koontz.

10. How important is social media to you in your writing career?

It’s probably super important. Unfortunately, I’m super bad at social media.

11.  What kind of snacker are you? Potato chips and ice cream or kale chips and edamame?

Somewhere in between. I try to avoid really unhealthy food, but I also don’t rob myself of things I love. Favorite snack, though, is probably just a big spoon of chunky peanut butter and a glass of milk.

12. What are the hardest and easiest part for you as you write a book?

The beginning is definitely the easiest. I love setting things up and getting to know the characters. The ending is definitely the hardest. I get so tired of those people after a while. Jeez, can they not work out their own problems? Do I have to do everything?

13. Adele or The Rolling Stones?

I’m actually not a huge fan of either. I don’t dislike them. They’re just kind of meh with me. I’m way more likely to be listening to alternative or world music.

14. What is the best piece of advice you can offer to a new writer, particularly one you wish someone gave to you when you were getting started?

Just write for you. You’re the only one you know you can please, and you have the most invested in your work. And don’t let other people have control over you or your work. Stay happy.

15. If you could travel anywhere in the world, free of charge, where would you be booking your next vacation?

Scotland. Waaaaaaaay up north. Where I could take a ferry to the Orkneys.

***

Renny Cover

 

 

The Pregnancy Affair

By Elizabeth Bevarly

 

 

 

“I don’t remember my father very well,” Tate said, studying the photo Renny had given him. “I assume the boy he’s holding in the picture is me.”

“Yes.”

“Which only means my father was an acquaintance of Joseph Anthony Bacco, AKA the Iron Don.”

“He was more than an acquaintance,” she assured him. “Your father was Joseph Anthony Bacco Junior.”

Tate snapped his head up to look at her. “That’s impossible. My father’s name was James Carson. He worked in a hardware store in Terre Haute, Indiana. It burned down when I was four. He was killed in the fire.”

Renny sifted through the documents she’d brought with her until she located what she was looking for. “James Carson was the name your father was given by the federal marshals before they placed him and your mother and you in the Witness Security Program when you were two. Your family entered WITSEC after your father testified at a murder trial, against one of Joseph Bacco’s capos, then helped the feds put away a half-dozen others in the organization. Your mother became Natalie Carson, and you became Tate Carson. You all received new Social Security numbers and birth dates. The feds moved the three of you from Passaic, New Jersey to Terre Haute, and your parents were given new jobs, your father at the hardware store and your mother at a local insurance company.”

Renny handed him copies of documents to support those assertions. She’d received them and the other information via snail mail a few days ago, from a high school friend whose computer hacking skills were legendary. They were records she was reasonably certain she wasn’t supposed to have—she’d know better than to ask where they came from. The only reason her friend had helped her out in the first place was because Renny A) promised to never divulge her source and B) pulled in a favor she’d been owed by said friend since a sleepover thirteen years ago, a favor that might or might not have something to do with a certain boy in homeroom named Kyle.

Tate voraciously read every word of the pages she handed him. When he looked up again, his gray eyes were stormy. “Are you trying to tell me…?”

It would probably be best to just spill the news as cleanly as possible and follow up with details in the inevitable Q&A to follow.

“You’re Joey the Knife’s grandson and legal heir,” she told him. “Your grandfather left his entire estate to you, as you’re the oldest son of his oldest son, and that’s what generations of Bacco tradition dictates. What’s more, it was Joey’s dying wish that you assume his position as head of the family and take over all of his businesses after his death.

“In short, Mr. Hawthorne,” Renny concluded, “Joseph Anthony Bacco Senior has crowned you the new Iron Don.”

***

The Pregnancy Affair,  a February 2017 release from Harlequin Desire,  may be purchased from these retailers: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Harlequin, iTunes and Kobo.

***

About Elizabeth

Elizabeth Bevarly is the award-winning, New York Times best-selling author of more than seventy books and, with her screenwriting partner Lorena Peter, a half-dozen scripts. Although she has called home in exotic places like San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Haddonfield, New Jersey, she’s now happily settled back in her native Kentucky with her husband and son. When she’s not writing, she’s binge-watching British TV shows on Netflix, spending too much time on Reddit, or making soup out of whatever she finds in the freezer. Her spirit animal is a rabid badger. (Long story.) Visit her at www.elizabethbevarly.com for news about current and upcoming projects, for book, music, and film recommendations, recipes, and for lots of other cool stuff. Also connect with Elizabeth on Facebook.

 

 

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Author Speed Dating – Shelly Bell

Author Speed Dating(1)

I love discovering new authors, so I wanted my blog to be a place where readers and my author pals could come together. Only we like to do this Speed-Dating style. Check out a new author and her work here every Wednesday, and if the spark is there, you’ll have a match.

This week’s guest: Shelly Bell

 

Shelly Bell Author Photo

EROTIC ROMANCE

 

 

 

 

 

15 Questions

1. Which of the Peanuts girls – Lucy, Sally, Peppermint Patty or Marcie – would be your best friend if you were added as a character on the comic strip?

Growing up, I was definitely the Marci to the Peppermint Patty. But now that I’m older, I’d want Sally as my best friend. She’s optimistic, sweet, and a romantic.

2. Name a genre or sub-genre have you never written in but would like to.

I’d been planning on writing a straight suspense novel, but it has two romances running through it, so now, I’m not sure what it’s going to be. All I know is I’ve never written anything like it before.

3. When did you first decide you were a writer, and when was your first book published?

My first book was published in 2012, but I’m not sure I’ve accepted that I’m a writer yet. No matter how many books I write, I still feel like a fraud.

4. Jeopardy or Real Housewives of Orange County?

I haven’t watched Jeopardy in years, but I’ve never even seen any of the Real Housewives. These days, I don’t get a lot of time to watch television.

5. Do you write the synopsis before or after you write the manuscript?

I always write a full chapter by chapter synopsis before I write a manuscript. Then it changes as I write. But I need a road map, especially for my erotic-suspense novels.

6. Sam Elliot or Robert Downey, Jr.?

I do love Sam Elliott, but I’ve got a huge crush on Tony Stark. Who doesn’t love a billionaire techie superhero?

7. Describe a character from one of your books who is most like or most radically different from your significant other.

Um…I’d have to say all of the heroes from my Benediction series. My husband is a beta all the way.

8. “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” or “The Great Gatsby”? Book or movie version, your choice.

The Great Gatsby, both book and movie (the original). Robert Redford as Gatsby? Sigh. I still have a crush on Redford today because of that movie and “The Way We Were”.

9. What has been your proudest moment as an author?

Finding out that I had two offers for my upcoming Forbidden Lovers series and having to choose between them. It was also one of the most difficult decisions I’ve made as an author.

10. How important is social media to you in your writing career?

I wouldn’t have a career without it. Not that I’m great about posting. But it’s been a great way to connect with readers.

11. What kind of snacker are you? Potato chips and ice cream or kale chips and edamame?

I’m an iced coffee with almond milk and popcorn kind of snacker. Kale and edamame does not belong in the snack category.

12. What are the hardest and easiest part for you as you write a book?

The hardest? The words. The easiest? Writing “The End.” Every part of it is difficult. But worth it.

13. Adele or The Rolling Stones?

The Rolling Stones. Hands down. I find myself singing “Jumping Jack Flash” and “Honkey Tonk Woman” at random times. Love them.

14. What is the best piece of advice you can offer to a new writer, particularly one you wish someone gave to you when you were getting started?

Don’t be in a rush to publish. Know both the market and craft before you query or hit publish.

15. If you could travel anywhere in the world, free of charge, where would you be booking your next vacation?

I would go to England, Ireland, and Scotland. My friend lives in England, and ever since reading Nora Roberts’ Irish Born Trilogy, I’ve wanted to visit Ireland. Now I just need several thousand dollars and time.

***

red handed high res

 

 

 

 

 

Red Handed

By Shelly Bell

 

 

It had been years since she’d heard that voice, and despite it belonging to her dangerous adversary, her body reacted exactly the same. As if he’d placed his hands on her skin and caressed her naked flesh, not sparing an inch.

Adrian motioned with a wave of his arm for her to enter first. Somehow, she managed to put one foot in front of the other until she stood inside Cole DeMarco’s lair. Its chocolate walls, the walnut furniture, and the flickering flames coming from the fireplace gave the first impression of a homey, comfortable room similar to her father’s before the FBI had raided it and cleaned it bare.

Her gaze fell on the man who’d haunted her in dreams and tormented her in nightmares. He didn’t get up to greet her. Didn’t welcome her with a smile.

From behind his desk, he sat tall in his chair, his muscular, tattooed arms folded in front of him. His brown eyes narrowed, and he scowled at her.

Her swallow caught in her throat. What could she possibly have done to anger him? She’d only just arrived. Besides, she never elicited a strong reaction out of anyone. She usually faded into the shadows.

His simple black T-shirt stretched tight over a broad chest, each inhalation giving her a glimpse of the muscles underneath. He’d shaved his head clean and grown a short goatee, hiding the dimple in his chin she’d adored from afar as a teenager. He looked even better than she’d remembered and every bit as dangerous.

***

RED HANDED,  a Benediction Novel from Avon Red Impulse, may be purchased from these retailers: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million and iBooks.

***

About Shelly

A sucker for a happy ending, Shelly Bell writes sensual romance often with a bit of kink and action-filled erotic thrillers with high-emotional stakes for her alpha heroes and kick-ass heroines. She began writing upon the insistence of her husband, who dragged her to the store and bought her a laptop. When she’s not working her day job, taking care of her family or writing, you’ll find her reading the latest smutty romance.

Connect with Shelly through her website www.ShellyBellBooks.com, email or these social media channels: her Amazon Author Page, Facebook Author Page and Twitter.

 

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