Please join me in welcoming author Josie Riviera. If you enjoy holiday romance in December, look no further that Cocoa’s Christmas Love for your next read.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Title: Cocoa’s Christmas Love
Author: Josie Riviera
Genre: Sweet and wholesome holiday romance
BLURB:
A florist’s Wishing Blooms rekindles the faded Christmas spirit of a disillusioned hometown photographer, but can her cheer, a rescued pup, and the magic of the season revive his holiday hope and love?
AUTHOR BIO:
Josie Riviera is a USA TODAY bestselling author of contemporary, inspirational, and historical sweet romances that read like Hallmark movies. She lives in the Charlotte, NC, area with her wonderfully supportive husband. They share their home with an adorable shih tzu, who constantly needs grooming, and live in an old house forever needing renovations.
I’m pleased to welcome back author Anne Hamilton Fowler for an interview. Her memoir, I’ve Worn Many Hats, recounts what led to her shift from a successful career to a life dedicated to philanthropy.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Title: I’ve Worn Many Hats
Author: Anne Hamilton Fowler
Genre: Memoir
BLURB:
This memoir is the no holds barred account of my unorthodox life lived in a manner regularly viewed as risky and on the edge, frequently laughable, on occasion full of hardship, but never boring! The candid account that spans decades of a long bumpy life evokes many emotions; laughter, empathy, shock, admiration. As you read the first half, you may find yourself going back, re-reading and thinking, “she did what?!” In the second half of the book, you will discover what inspired me to make such a drastic life change, leaving behind a long successful career in Human Resources to pursue philanthropic work with the people of Honduras. http://anne.honduranhope.net
INTERVIEW:
Welcome!
Where do you get your ideas?
It was all based on my surprisingly prolific memory!
What has been your biggest challenge?
The biggest challenge was having the nerve to put my life, the good, bad and ugly, “out there”!
What does literary success mean to you?
The book’s profits were always intended to help fund my Honduras programs and to that end, sales have been a huge help. What was not anticipated, was reader’s personal responses sharing their own traumas. Here is an example. It is an email I received this summer:
“The consensus of opinion by our book club members who have been reading “I’ve Worn Many Hats” is that it’s definitely not your average run of the mill memoir!!! Content spans a wide range including: humor, outrageous behavior, tragedy and redemption. Life experiences are laid out so honestly it was impossible not to identify with some of them. For the first time in many years one of our group shared her experience with rape and its consequences. We strongly recommend that you buy this entertaining book not only for your own enjoyment but to support the author’s work with children in Honduras. Anne Hamilton Fowler is a true inspiration! “
When did you begin writing?
This is the only book I have written but to answer your question, I guess I actually began writing in Grade four. I was an avid Nancy Drew reader and I wrote a mystery play for my classmates to perform for the school assembly! Over the years I wrote articles for local newspapers, several fund raising cookbooks and more speeches than I care to remember!
Please join me in welcoming author L. B. Joyce. A Grand Slam Kind of Christmas is a perfect pick for cozy mystery fans looking for a seasonal read to kick off a new series.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Title: A Grand Slam Kind of Christmas
Author: L. B. Joyce
Genre: New Adult, Contemporary Romance, Cozy Mystery
BLURB:
Everyone wants to live in a small town. The kind of place movies are made, happy endings always a given.
Having grown up in Blossom Falls, Ohio, Jessie Carter would be the first to tell you, it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. This was exactly why she left. After landing a job as a lawyer in one of the most prestigious firms in Chicago, she was ready to take on the world.
But things don’t go as planned. Reeling from a failed relationship, her integrity is suddenly under question at the firm. So, it only takes a hysterical call for help from her nine-months pregnant sister Crystal, to have her packing up and heading home.
After all, it’s the middle of December, the busiest time of year for Crystal’s local business, Crystal’s Coffee Cakes. With her husband stationed in Afghanistan until January, she needs all the help she can get.
As one of the most sought out professional baseball players around, Max Kirby surprised everyone when he signed with the first team to offer him a long-term contract. This means for the next seven years he plans to call Cleveland his home.
Little did he know an unplanned visit to Blossom Falls would lead him to Jessie. While he’s attracted to her from the start, it’s more than obvious she wants nothing to do with him. Even with Crystal’s numerous attempts to bring them together.
With Christmas only a few days away, the gifts collected for the town’s annual Coats and Toys for Tots drive are suddenly found missing. When Max doesn’t even hesitate to step in and offer his help, Jessie’s heart begins to thaw, her feelings for him completely flip-flopping.
The series of events that follow lead up to a Christmas they’ll both never forget.
AUTHOR BIO:
L. B. Joyce lives in Chagrin Falls, Ohio. A freelance artist by day, with designing Christmas ornaments her specialty, she’s also a writer by night. She loves getting lost in a good book, has redecorated almost every room in her house more times than she’d like to admit, loves baking up a storm in her kitchen, hates housework with a passion and will drive just about anywhere because of her fear of flying.
A Grand Slam Kind of Christmas is the first book of the new Holidays in White Oaks Valley series. L. B. Joyce is also the author of the series Twelve Months, Twelve Love Stories.
Ever since a traumatic experience as a college freshman four years earlier, Clare Matthews has had an aversion to men. But when she goes to spend the summer on one of Georgia’s Golden Isles as a companion for her cousin Sally, she finds herself drawn to Jon, a handsome young security guard who works on the family estate. When the feeling seems mutual, she hopes she has at last been healed. Then signs of his possible involvement in a dangerous criminal activity crop up, and Clare must make a decision that will affect the rest of her life.
EXCERPT:
Reaching the island, she turned on her GPS and keyed in her uncle’s address. The system’s confident female voice guided her over circuitous roads until she reached a wide concrete drive blocked with closed wrought iron gates. The GPS told her, “You have reached your destination.” She didn’t remember those gates. They were like those at the entrances to exclusive communities. Then, seeing the sign Sanderson Estates, she realized that this was such a community—the one her uncle had established since her last visit.
She pulled up to the gates and stopped. A tall, well-built, very tan young man in a white Oxford shirt and jeans—a security guard—came out of a small brick building beside the drive. Clean shaven, with dark curls cropped short and strong, even features, he reminded her of the statue pictured on the cover of her high school Latin textbook. She lowered her window, and he looked in at her, examining her with direct gray eyes. He held a clipboard and had a gun tucked into his belt.
Her hands grew cold. “I’m Clare Matthews, Sally Sanderson’s cousin. They know I’m coming.”
He looked at the clipboard, unsmiling. “You have some identification, Miss?”
INTERVIEW:
Welcome! What was the inspiration behind The Last Golden Isle, your latest release?
The title was inspired by the fourteen barrier islands off the coast of Georgia, which are sometimes referred to as “the golden isles.” The name originated in the 1700’s with early explorers of the coast who hoped to find glittering treasure in them. They were disappointed in that respect, but the name stuck, perhaps because of the color of the island beaches in sun or the vast marsh grasses in winter. While my novel is set on an imaginary golden isle, I was specifically inspired by a visit to Tybee Island with its sandy beaches, sea shells, gorgeous sunrises—and from a boat, dolphins and a sunset, with the sky stained pink and the moon rising.
Where do you get your ideas?
Many are from my life and people I’ve known—transformed of course. I once compared the use of experience to a kaleidoscope, the experiences being the little chips of glass being turned and forming new patterns and shapes. Newspaper articles and experiences told by friends also give me ideas. For example, a friend told me about her daughter’s experience with a “spiritual guide” in South America, and that inspired the spiritual guide sequences in The Last Golden Isle.
Do ideas for plot or characters appear first?
In the case of The Last Golden Isle, the idea for the plot came first, inspired by a little novel I’d written as a high school student about a Northern girl who goes to spend the summer with her pen pal in Virginia and discovers this family has dangerous secrets. I changed the setting to Georgia, where I, a Northern girl, ended up living— but much of the basic plot remained the same. However, I added to the protagonist’s character and included as part of the mystery the young man she becomes involved with there.
Have you ever traveled when researching information for a book?
Most of my settings are from places I’ve lived—the Great Sacandaga Lake in the Adirondacks of upstate New York, Athens, Georgia, location of the University of Georgia—or places I’ve visited, like Tybee Island. Thus, I didn’t need to do a lot of additional travelling to “research” these settings. But currently I am working on a novel based on my German immigrant ancestors, who in 1850 came up the Rhine by barge to Rotterdam, and from there crossed the Atlantic to New York City. In May 2022 I took a wonderful cruise up the Rhine to Amsterdam (close to Rotterdam), taking in the landscape, ancient bridges, and castles they would surely have seen. I think I can count this as research.
When did you begin writing?
In grade school I wrote little stories, illustrated them with crayon, and fastened them with safety pins. Later on, in high school, I typed up novellas for my friends to read. I continued writing fiction in college, but put it aside when I went to graduate school, then on to a college teaching career. Only since retirement have I had time to return to that first love, writing fiction.
How many hours do you dedicate each day towards writing?
It varies of course, but when I’m going full steam ahead on a novel, at least four hours.
AUTHOR BIO:
I grew up in Johnstown, New York, an historic town near the Mohawk Valley, where my parents were both public school teachers. I earned a BA from the University of New York at Albany, an MA from Columbia University, and a PhD in English from the University of Wisconsin, Madison—all in English. While on the faculty at The University of Georgia, I authored or co-authored a number of academic articles and books. Now retired, I’ve published three contemporary romantic suspense novels—Stranger in the Storm, Shadows of Doubt, and The Student in Classroom 6, with this fourth, The Last Golden Isle, to be released December 11.My short story “Falling,” which came in second in the Atlanta, Georgia, Writers Club’s 2021 Terry Kay Prize for Fiction, was published in the Fall 2022 issue of the online journal Knot. I live in Athens, Georgia with my husband Hubert, also a retired UGA professor. Our son Ed lives in nearby Atlanta.
Author Meryl Brown Tobin is joining us today for an interview. Read on for the inside scoop on the inspiration behind her latest romantic suspense novel, Broome Enigma.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Title: Broome Enigma
Author: Meryl Brown Tobin
Genre: Romantic Suspense
BLURB:
On a working holiday in Australia’s cosmopolitan Outback town of Broome in 1986, Jodie, a young book designer and artist is open to romance and adventure.
At the holiday village where she is staying, she meets Joe, a young man who works there. Despite the strong attraction between them, the many unknowns about his earlier life keep them apart. To try to uncover his mysterious past, they travel to Perth and back to Broome and are drawn into not only bizarre but also dangerous situations.
Is Joe the person she thinks he is, or is he some alter ego? Can Jodie and Joe stop their relationship from developing until they have answers and know if he is free to love her?
INTERVIEW:
Welcome! What was the inspiration behind your latest release?
Various visits to Broome, an exotic Outback town in Western Australia and seeing a young man with film star good looks but a ‘damped down’ personality at a holiday village doing cleaning and groundsman’s duties. He didn’t seem to ‘fit’ his job. I played the ‘What If?’ game until I came up with the some of the plot for ‘Broome Enigma’.
Where do you get your ideas?
From life––from my experiences and those of others, from the people I meet, reading, TV, observations.
Do ideas for plot or characters appear first?
It varies. In the case of ‘Broome Enigma’, Broome was such an intriguing place to set a novel, I kept it in my head for a setting. Then, when I saw the young man who seemed so out of place working in a caravan park, I had one of my main characters. A second person at the park, the man who managed the park and pretended to be unaware of the gross overcrowding there, became the inspiration for an unpleasant minor character.
Years ago I had an elderly dentist who mentioned that during WW2 he had been stationed at Broome. This opened up a whole new area of Australian history to me that I researched and used in the novel.
Experiences also helped. For instance, when my husband and I visited China, we visited the Underground City in Beijing. That experience has never left me and gave me ideas for expanding the plot in ‘Broome Enigma’.
Have you ever traveled when researching information for a book?
Yes, whenever we travelled in the past, I took field notes which I used for my travel articles which I then used in my travel book ‘Exploring Outback Australia’ and in my fiction writing, including ‘Broome Enigma’. I did not specifically travel for ‘Broome Enigma’ as I already knew the areas I was writing about, although I did add to that knowledge through research.
When I was writing a travel book, ‘Exploring Outback Australia’, I found there were a few gaps I needed to fill and photos my husband, my photographer, needed to take. We planned a trip specifically to cover the areas we had missed.
When did you begin writing?
When I was about eight, I used to belong to two children’s clubs attached to newspapers and I used to contribute material. When I was eleven a short story journal published a short piece on a trip to a wildlife sanctuary. In secondary school I contributed lots of material to our school newspaper and, when in Year 11, I ended up as its Assistant Editor.
How many hours do you dedicate each day towards writing?
Maybe eight hours a day. I write when I don’t have to do something else or think I should be giving something else priority. Most days I write most of the day with breaks for formal and informal exercise, housework, various appointments and family, friend and community catch-ups.
What has been your biggest challenge?
Setting up my own publishing house. A publishing house had contracted to publish my picture storybook ‘LEFTY’ but it was taken over and the new owner did not wish to publish my book. As compensation, I was given the art work the first publisher had organized. After publishing ‘LEFTY’, I subsequently published several more of my own books and one by a group I belonged to. However, as it took so much of my creative writing time, after some years I closed my publishing house down.
What does literary success mean to you?
Once it meant getting everything I wrote published and receiving fitting payment for it. While I got some return on my writing, especially on my educational puzzles and also my travel articles, it would not have been enough to give up my day job.
I now have a big body of work to show for the years I have spent writing. I am content in myself that I have produced something worthwhile for the huge amount of time, effort and creativity I invested in it. Getting my first novel ‘Broome Enigma’ published is icing on the cake.
What writing tips or marketing advice would you like to share?
Write what you know and what you think you could do. For instance, one night when I was bringing up my young children, I was doing a crossword puzzle and decided I could make up one as good as the one I was doing and did so. It started a career of writing crosswords and educational puzzles. So far, this has provided my biggest income from writing.
Joining writing groups, attending workshops and doing courses, especially my Diploma of Arts (Writing & Editing) at a tertiary institute, gave my creative writing a great push upwards. I would strongly recommend those serious about their writing to do the same.
The Wild Rose Press Editor, Val Mathews, gave me another great push with her enthusiastic support and for referring me to two excellent books, ‘A Writer’s Guide: Active Setting: How to Enhance Your Fiction with More Descriptive, Dynamic Settings’ by Mary Buckham and ‘Understanding Show, Don’t Tell (And Really Getting It): Learn how to find––and fix––told prose in your writing’ by Janice Hardy.
Which authors inspire you?
Many, but the two mentioned above are two of them ––Mary Buckham and Janice Hardy. Others are Australian writers, Richard Flanagan author of ‘The Narrow Road to the Deep North’, for which he won The Man Booker Prize 2014, Chrissie Michaels who writes Australian historical fiction for teenagers and Bruce Pascoe, who wrote a brilliant book, ‘Dark Emu’ and Stan Grant who wrote ‘Talking to My Country’.
What project are you currently working on?
I am working on several completed novels that I want to rework in the style that appeals to The Wild Rose Press editors, that is, the style described in Buckham and Hardy’s books, a style I now prefer for my novels and short stories.
AUTHOR BIO:
Meryl Brown Tobin is an Australian writer and a former secondary teacher of Humanities subjects. She writes short and long fiction for adults and children, non-fiction, especially on travel and the environment, poetry and educational and other puzzles.
She has had 21 books published. These include puzzle/activity books, black-line masters books of educational puzzles, work books for primary students, a travel book, a children’s picture storybook, a poetry collection and a haiku collection with four other poets. In total, nearly 300,000 copies of her first four puzzle books were sold in Australia, New Zealand and Canada.
Hundreds of her poems and puzzles, scores of her short stories and travel and other articles, and some cartoons have appeared in more than 150 magazines, newspapers and anthologies in Australia and elsewhere, including the US. ‘Broome Enigma’ is her debut novel and more novels are in the pipeline.
Jill Piscitello 