Wednesday, July 30, 2014

5 SECRETS (What No One Knows About My Book)


Our guest author today is Anne Cole, who is going to share some tidbits about the writing of her book that no one knows--until today.

Souls Entwined is Anne B. Cole’s debut release, combining sweet romantic suspense, time travel, and paranormal elements in a New Adult novel attractive to a wide range of readers.

In addition to writing, Anne teaches preschool and is raising three very active teenagers with her husband of twenty-two years. Her love for making fresh baked goodies, running, hiking, historical fiction, and her three pet cats continue to be her inspiration while she pens the sequel to Souls Entwined.
 
SOULS ENTWINED


5 SECRETS from Souls Entwined

#5 Pirates! Johnny Depp’s character, Captain Jack Sparrow from the Pirates of the Caribbean Movies is the inspiration behind Souls Entwined pirate character, Kadir Haty….and yes…Kadir will return in the sequel, Souls Estranged!

#4 Grandmothers and Rings - Anne B. Cole’s real life great, great, great, great grandmother’s name was Roxana, who gave her second granddaughter a garnet ring that was given to her by her brother, who was a US sailor in Europe during the early 1800s. It was passed down through the generations to Anne’s grandmother. She gave it to Anne (also a second granddaughter) when she was about 12 years old. Anne is not aware of any curses on her ring and wears the heirloom often.

#3 Runners - Anne is an avid runner and once nearly tripped over a squirrel that darted in front of her sneakers. During Gretta’s run in the park, Sam watches her suddenly fall. He didn’t see the squirrel that tripped her…Readers don’t know in Souls Entwined that Katarina’s spirit is entwined within the squirrel. The squirrel returns in the sequel, Souls Estranged, where Katarina’s presence within the squirrel will be revealed in true ‘Katarina style’.

#2 Deleted, but not forgotten - The first draft of Souls Entwined was handwritten in composition notebooks. It topped at 150,000 words. In this original, Gretta and Sam don’t meet in the park until Chapter Eight! Needless to say, Anne has many deleted chapters and scenes to reveal in the future on her blog.

#1 Titles - Souls Entwined was originally titled Maledicta, which is the Latin word for ‘cursed.’ During edits, it was suggested that Anne change her title to something that is easier for readers to pronounce and remember. Authors tend to bond with their titles, especially their first novels. For weeks after she changed the title change to Souls Entwined, she referred to it as #1. The #1 nickname stuck and Anne continues to call it #1 and refers to the sequel as #2. The yet to be written final book of the Soul Series is called, you guessed it, #3.

So there you have it. I hope you enjoyed Five Secrets from Souls Entwined!

 
Blurb from Souls Entwined:

When a cursed family heirloom sends Gretta Dobbs back in time, a hunky construction worker, Sam Daggett, suddenly finds himself love struck and joins her adventure. Their souls entwine within the bodies of young lovers on a Greek island in 1829, where they begin to unravel the mysteries behind Gretta’s ring all while avoiding a bloodthirsty pirate who is determined to seek revenge. Gretta and Sam must find the secrets needed to save her and her relatives from an afterlife in purgatory and return to their own lives—or risk becoming prisoners of the past, continuing the evil cycle of the ring’s curse.


You can find Anna at:
http://www.annebcole.com/
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Anne-B-Cole/576718832392205
https://twitter.com/AnneBCole

Thanks for checking out Anne and her secrets. If you have any comments or questions, Anne will be around to answer them today.

And don’t forget to check back next Thursday to find out even more author secrets about their book.

Thursday, July 24, 2014

5 SECRETS (What No One Knows About My Book)


Our guest author today is Heather Haven, who is going to share some tidbits about the writing of her book that no one knows--until today.

Heather attended the University of Miami and ended up as a writer in New York City, writing humorous commercials and ad copy for No Soap Radio. There she fulfilled her dream of writing comedy and getting paid for it. She has also written comedy acts for performers, television treatments, and two one-act plays, which were produced at several places, including Playwrights Horizon. Once, she even ghostwrote a book on how to run an employment agency. She was unemployed at the time.

Heather's first novel of the humorous Alvarez Family Murder Mystery Series, Murder is a Family Business, won the Single Titles Reviewers' Choice Award 2011. The second, A Wedding to Die For, received the 2012 finalist nods from both Global and EPIC for Best eBook Mystery of the Year. The third of the series, Death Runs in the Family, won the Gold, Dan Poynter's Global eBook Award Mystery Fiction 2013. Stand-alone noir mystery, Death of a Clown, is winner of the IPPY Silver for Best Mystery/thriller 2014. The novel is steeped in Heather's family history at Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus. She brings the Big Top to life during World War II, embellished by her own murderous imagination. The Dagger Before Me and Iced Diamonds, Books One and Two of the humorous Persephone Cole Vintage Mysteries, were #1 in Amazon's Historical Mystery and General Humorous categories, October 2013.

DEATH OF A CLOWN

Five Things About Death of a Clown No One Knows:

1 – Jeri Deane’s two best friends, Margie and Doris, are based on my mother’s two best friends in the circus, but in name only. I never met either one of them. As I did with the protagonist, Jeri, I built the characters around stories Mom told me about their close relationship throughout her years at Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey Circus. In a way, they were muses numbers two and three.

2 – The story started for me one day when I asked Mom about the photo of her on an elephant and the clown standing in front of her. She couldn’t remember who he was. I thought to myself, is this unknown clown still alive? Who was he? I went about inventing his character.

3 – I still have the original costume Mom wore in the photo on the book cover. How it survived all these years, I’ll never know. But now that she is gone, I treasure it all the more.

4 – All the elephants’ names in the book are real. So are their personalities,
as told to me by my mother. Elephants, like humans, have very distinctive personalities.

5 – Speaking of elephants, while I cannot comment on smaller, lesser circuses, the pachyderms under the Big Top were treated well, as were the rest of the animals. Aside from the fact that people like my father were forerunners of the idea of kindness and love, the owners wanted the animals – a huge investment on their part – to live long and stay healthy. Performers were encouraged to establish relationships along those lines with the animals. Anyone found mistreating an animal was either reprimanded or dismissed immediately, depending on the severity of the deed. As to whether or not they should be taken out of their original habitats, I am on the fence, considering the horrors of poaching out there.

Blurb:

IPPY Silver for Best Mystery/Thriller 2014
The year is 1942. Already weary from the Great Depression, the U.S. has joined the Allied Forces in their war against the Axis Powers. Fear and uncertainty is everywhere. Never has the circus soothed so many seeking refuge in its magic, if only temporarily. But there is no shelter from murder, even under the Big Top. Up and coming circus performer, Jeri Deane, finds a young clown strangled inside a beloved lion's cage. The town sheriff's threat to close down the Big Top won't stop her from finding his killer. Beneath the spangles and sawdust of the canvas sky, Jeri uncovers deceit, treachery, and secrets more dangerous than any death-defying trick in the show. Even she has much to hide. If the Big top survives the season, will she be able to face her own hidden past?
Heather Haven is the daughter of real-life Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus folk. Her mother was a trapeze artist/performer and father, an elephant trainer. Heather brings the daily existence of the Big Top to life during World War II, embellished by her own murderous imagination.


You can find Heather on these links:
http://www.heatherhavenstories.com/
http://heatherhavensays.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com
Twitter@HeatherHaven
Author page at Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Heather-Haven/e/B004QL22UK/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1372537066&sr=1-2-ent  


Thanks for checking out Heather and her secrets. If you have any comments or questions, Heather will be around to answer them today.

And don’t forget to check back next Thursday to find out even more author secrets about their book. 

Friday, July 18, 2014

Wildfires - and me

I know there are a lot of will fires in the northwest right now due to high temperatures and no rain resulting in extremely dry weather. Small towns in Washington have been evacuated. Leavenworth has a large fire burning fifteen miles away. Here in British Columbia we have the same concerns.
I live in West Kelowna and in the past few days we had two fires about a mile from our house - quickly extinguished, thank heavens.
Yesterday we had a third one which escalated out of control to 200 hectares and not controlled. Today it's 400 hectares and 20% controlled. 2500 people have been evacuated and another 150 are on evacuation alert. We're lucky so far but we're across the street from the evacuation area. We've packed our vehicles with my most precious stuff in case we have to leave quickly.
There are three water bombers fighting the fires and two helicopters. We live on a small lake so the helicopters are filling up their hoses and buckets in the lake and then fly up and over our house. The noise is really loud from all the aircraft - not complaining because I appreciate everything they're doing to keep people and their houses safe. No houses lost yet.

We only have one power line into our area and it's in the middle of the fire zone. If it goes down the whole town and 60,000 people will be without electricity. and apparently the only way to thread them up again is by helicopter..
The unknown and thought of losing everything plays heavy on the mind right now. It's stressful, but we're still in our home, with our two dogs, so that's great. And I love all the firefighters and pilots fighting our fire.
I thought I'd share a few photos from our fire.

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

5 SECRETS (What No One Knows About My Book) with Lois Winston


Our guest author today is Lois Winston, who is going to share some tidbits about the writing of her book that no one knows--until today.

Award-winning author Lois Winston writes mystery, romance, romantic suspense, chick lit, women’s fiction, and non-fiction under her own name and her Emma Carlyle pen name. Kirkus Reviews dubbed her critically acclaimed Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series, “North Jersey’s more mature answer to Stephanie Plum.” In addition, Lois is a literary agent and an award-winning craft and needlework designer who often draws much of her source material for both her characters and plots from her experiences in the crafts industry.

DEFINITELY DEAD

5 Things You Don't Know About Definitely Dead
 
1. Definitely Dead, the first book in my new Empty Nest Mystery series, pays homage to Dashell Hammet’s Thin Man movies of the 1940’s, starring Myrna Loy and William Powell. However, with a wink and a nod to the characters of Nick and Nora Charles, I’ve put a modern day twist on things by having a female amateur sleuth with her husband as her sidekick.

2. On the outside Gracie is a bit of a ditz (okay, maybe more than a bit.) But she’s actually quite smart. She just sees the world through her own unique, totally right-brained perspective. I came up with the idea for Gracie (and her name) after reading a book about George and Gracie Burns. As it turns out, Gracie Burns was nothing like the ditzy character she played in the movies and on television. She was actually quite brilliant and an astute businesswoman.

3. The Empty Nest Mystery series is set in the same town as my Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series. Gracie’s husband Blake even makes a reference to Anastasia at one point. And who knows? I just might have Gracie and Anastasia cross paths sometime in the future, perhaps even teaming up to solve a mystery. Frankly, I never know what my characters will do until they do it.

4. Gracie is a fledgling romance writer, bound and determined to become a bestselling author. She’s absolutely convinced this will happen relatively soon. There’s only one minor problem: She hasn’t actually completed a manuscript.

5. I turned down a traditional publishing contract for The Empty Nest Mystery series to bring Gracie and Blake into the world through independent publishing.

Blurb from Definitely Dead

When her career is outsourced to Asia, fledgling romance author and empty-nester Gracie Elliott wants a job that will allow her time to write. So she opens Relatively Speaking, becoming a wing woman to the senior set. Since her clients need several hours each morning to find their teeth, lube their creaky joints, and deal with lower GI necessities, and they always turn in after the early bird specials, she has plenty of time to pen her future bestsellers.

Gracie deliberately avoids mentioning her new business venture to husband Blake until after she signs her first client. Blake joins the company as a not-so-silent partner, tagging along to make sure Gracie doesn’t cause a septuagenarian uprising. When Client #13 is found murdered in the parking lot behind the Moose Lodge, Gracie knows, no matter how much Blake protests otherwise, she can’t wait around for the police to find the killer if she wants to save her livelihood.

To Buy Definitely Dead go to:
Paperback: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1940795095/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1940795095&linkCode=as2&tag=loiswins-20&linkId=7FNI2YWY67ISLWQG
E-books:
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00L83GUES/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00L83GUES&linkCode=as2&tag=loiswins-20&linkId=WSDDWJUGHITYPODD
Nook: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/definitely-dead-lois-winston/1119858546?ean=2940149780204
Kobo: http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/definitely-dead-3
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/lois-winston/id496048374?mt=11

You can find visit Lois/Emma at www.loiswinston.com
Anastasia at the Killer Crafts & Crafty Killers blog, www.anastasiapollack.blogspot.com. Follow everyone on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Anasleuth.

Thanks for checking out Lois and her secrets. If you have any comments or questions, Lois will be around to answer them today.
And don’t forget to check back next Thursday to find out even more author secrets about their book. 

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Excerpt from Targeted


I won a critique by bestselling western romance author Caroline Clemmons in the Brenda Novak Diabetic Auction. She’s going to critique the first 3 chapters of the third book in the Hawkins Family series – Targeted. I’m busy editing it right now and hope to send it off tomorrow. I thought you might be interested in an excerpt from that book.

Janna Kincaid sat straight up in bed, trying to focus her sleep drugged brain. Usually it took a five alarm fire to even get her to even roll over, let alone open her eyes.

Had there been a siren? A backfire?

Her mind tried to register what had disturbed her sub conscious. Glancing at the clock beside her bed the numbers showed two forty eight.

The hairs on the back of her neck tingled and moved to attention.

Someone or something was in the house.

Holding her breath, she waited for another sound, something that would explain why she was awake.

Had it been breaking glass that woke her? Did someone break in through the patio door?

Slithering her legs across the soft, expensive, cotton sheets, to the side of the bed, she continued listening as she quietly slid the drawer of her bedside table open. Her fingers grasped the cold metal of her thirty eight. Her other hand grabbed her cell phone. Slipping out of bed she glided toward the bedroom door.

She heard a soft thump. A muffled curse followed.

Whoever was out there had probably hit the coffee table. The brass corners would cause some damage to his leg. If you followed the trajectory from the patio door to the coffee table he could be heading toward her bedroom.

But if he was a burglar, why come to her bedroom? The TV and the computer were in the den.

Slipping behind the door Janna heard a soft click. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness she could see the knob turning. The door was pushed gently back toward her, allowing a sliver of light to cross her bed.

There was a muffled crack; then another one.

The door closed, this time not as quietly.

For another minute Janna stood motionless, her ear to the wall. Then she punched 911 into her cell.

“There’s someone in my house. I think they have a gun.” Janna

 whispered into the receiver.

At the operators request she whispered her name and address.

“The police are on their way. Please stay on the line until they arrive.”

Janna nodded. Still holding the phone she across the door.

“Ma’am? Are you still there?”

“Yes.” Janna whispered as she opened the door, just enough so she could hear if anyone was still in her house. Clutching the cell phone, Janna pressed her body against the door frame.

It was deadly silent.

Whoever had been there was gone. She was sure of that.

With her back against the wall she edged her way into the living room. 

In the distance a siren ripped through the silence of the night, tearing a strip out of the dark, empty streets.

He hadn’t broken in to steal anything. He hadn’t been there long enough.

Moving stealthily across the room toward the front door, Janna found it open. A cool April breeze drifted in, carrying the scent of fir and dogwood. Janna shivered before taking a deep breath to calm herself.

Obviously the person wasn’t concerned about someone finding the door open. Whoever had been there had let themselves out the front door and left it open behind them. They hadn’t stolen anything. They had entered her house; come straight to her bedroom, fired a shot, and left.

The siren screamed louder. Janna could see the flashing red lights racing down her street. The lights created a rotating ball effect, like the kind they had a disco dances. Every few seconds her couch and lamps were reflected in an eerie blood red glow.

Brakes squealed. Suddenly it was quiet.

The ballroom effect disappeared. The doors of the police car opened and slammed shut.

“They’re here. Thank you.” Janna clicked her cell phone shut. Turning on the lights she stood in the doorway as two of Seattle’s finest approached her door cautiously, guns drawn.

“It’s okay. He’s gone.”

“You the one who called it in?” One of the uniformed officers did a thorough visual scan of her person.

Probably checking for weapons, Janna thought, suddenly conscious that she was wearing only her yellow, Winnie the Pooh night shirt. She tugged at the hem. Her usually warm house felt chilly and damp.

“Yeah, that would be me.”

“Name?”

“Janna Kincaid, I own the house.”

The taller, heavier set cop appeared satisfied and holstered his weapon.

“Sergeant Delaney. What happened?” He lumbered up the steps, towering over Janna’s five foot seven frame.

She squinted up at him, “I’m not sure. Someone broke in, probably through the patio door. I called 911 and waited for you to arrive. I haven’t looked around yet. I haven’t touched anything but the doorknob from the bedroom.”

“Good. Well, let’s see what he was after. This is my partner Sergeant Murdoch.” Delaney nodded to his partner. “You take the outside perimeter.”

Janna nodded at the shorter, younger man with dark hair and eyes.

He acknowledged her before moving off into the darkness.

Delaney followed Janna inside.

“I think he entered by breaking the glass in the patio door.” Janna moved to the glass door at the back of the room. Outside she could see the shadow of the other police officer through the shattered glass, as he squatted to get a better look of the ground outside the door, partially hidden by her lilac bushes. The recent rains may have made the ground soft enough to get some footprints. She could hope.

There was splintered glass spread in a two foot semi-circle on the plush, cream colored, wool carpet. Janna jerked to a stop so she didn’t get splinters in her bare feet.

“You might want to put something on your feet, ma’am.” Delaney glanced at her feet, then he pulled out a camera and started snapping pictures.

Janna nodded, pulling a pair of old runners out from under the couch and sliding them over her bare feet. She didn’t bother with the laces.

“Then I think he headed toward my bedroom. I heard a thud. I think he hit the coffee table.” Janna jerked at the hem of her nightshirt as she indicated the large oak table in front of her dark brown, leather couch. 

Delaney nodded as he snapped a few more pictures of the solid oak and glass coffee with the replica of the statue of David in the center. “We can get the lab guys to check and see if maybe he left any DNA when he hit it. You keep saying he, do you know who it might have been?”

“I have no idea. I guess I just use ‘he’ because I don’t think of a woman doing this.”

A smile slipped across Delaney’s craggy face. “Oh, they do it all right.”

Janna moved through her open, bedroom door. “Then he opened this door. I think he took a couple of shots at the bed and then left.  At least it sounded like a gun with a silencer.”

Flipping on the light she looked at the queen-sized bed with the mauve, shamrock  green and white floral duvet thrown back to reveal the matching, expensive, mauve cotton sheets and pillow cases.

There were two holes in one of the mauve covered pillows.

The enormity of the situation finally hit her in the stomach. A wall of nausea crashed over her. She stared at the bed, unable to look away.

“Ohmigawd.” Her chest felt like a hundred pound weight was sitting on it. Janna struggled to take a breath.

“You might want to sit down.” Delaney touched her shoulder, motioning her back to the living room.

Nodding, Janna moved robot-like to the couch, still in her night shirt. Someone had tried to kill her.

She flopped down on the butter soft, brown leather. It felt cool against the back of her thighs. Pulling her legs up under her she tucked in the hem of her night shirt.

He had shot at her.

He hadn’t broken in to steal anything. He’d broken in to kill her.

If she hadn’t heard him and hidden behind the door, she would be dead right now.

Why? Why would someone want to kill her?

Monday, July 14, 2014

San Antonio and Lackland AFB


I'm in San Antonio at a writing conference. We're staying on the Riverwalk, which is lovely.
Today I'm touring the Lakeland Air Force base as part of my writing group, (Kiss of Death)'s pre-conference events. We pile onto the bus and head out to the base by 6:30 AM and I am not a morning person, just give me coffee.

During the morning we will have a Special Tactics mission briefing. We get to have lunch in the base food court with Special Ops Instructors. There are four spec ops career fields trained at Lackland: Combat Controller (the guys who call in air cover for the troops on the ground) and Pararescue.

In the afternoon we get to visit with the DCMT (Combat Medic Training at Fort Sam Houston - METC). That’s the Army Combat Medics. It’s going to be an awesome day and we’ll see some cute officers and learn a lot about the military.

Friday, July 11, 2014

Help I Need a Cover Part Three


 
A few weeks ago I asked for help picking a new title. If you remember the working title had been The Target is out. I thought I'd update you. (And no that's not my cover - that's one of the ones I found already published.)

The book is a dark, romantic suspense that takes place predominately in Reno and involves the Washoe Sheriff's office and the Reno PD.

The book is about chat rooms for teens; a serial killer who works the chat rooms looking for blonde, fourteen year old teenage girls. When he finds he develops a relationship with her,convinces her to come and meet him, rapes and kills her and then moves on to another chat room looking for another girl.

I asked for help and got lots of great names. When I researched pubbed books I found several with the same names so I ruled them out. It's taken awhile but I've decided on DON'T GO.
My reason was when I was editing the book I found the Washoe Detective saying it several times.

Here's the excerpt:

“Damn it. Where the hell is she?” She popped the chocolate in her mouth and chewed slowly moving her mouse around the Washoe County mouse pad. She scanned the cyber chat room one more time. “Damn. I can’t lose another one. She has to be here somewhere.”

Sam leaned forward, lips pursed, eyebrows crinkled.. “Come on; come on, ‘Invisible-Melissa’, check- in, please. Don’t go to meet him. He’s not who you think. You have no idea what he can do to you. Please baby, don’t go.”

Desperation wrapped around her like an iron boa and squeezed so she could barely breathe. Another tear trickled down her cheek.

With a few more clicks times she scanned the names of those in the online chat room. ‘Searching- for-You’ hadn’t checked in since last night either.

 “Damn. That’s probably who she’s gone to meet. How did I miss it? Don’t these kids know you never go to meet some stranger you’ve only talked to on line? They should have learned that back in the sandbox.”

She leaned back in her chair. Her forehead squeezed against her skull, shooting barbs of pain to her eyes. The chocolate hadn’t helped the stress.

“How did I miss this one?” She punched her fist into her palm. Insidious memories crept from the dark corners of her subconscious, spun a cocoon around her and dragged her back into the dark, tangled web of her own past.

The sickening sweet smell of overpowering after shave snaked up her nostrils; fat, sweaty palms grasped at her thighs. She knew what was going to happen; unable to scream, unable to escape … no one to help her.

The images crashed over her, scattering years of counseling like broken shells on a beach, and covering her soul with the spray of desperation and anger.

Sam scrubbed at a tear drifting down her cheek, and forced the images back into the darkness, back into the locked box.

It’s not about me. It’s about this girl and another predator creep.

With clenched fists she white-knuckled the arms of the chair, to keep from throwing the damn computer against the wall.

“Find anything?” Kerensa strolled back into the computer room, a partially eaten sugar donut in her fingers. A faint white trail drifted behind her. “They got a whole box of these out there if you want to grab one before the other detectives get back and scarf them all.”

“Damn it! I should have seen it coming. Where the hell are they?” Sam kicked her chair away from the computer and stood. “No thanks. Those things can kill you. I’d have to work out an extra hour tonight.”

“Hey, they’re no worse than that stash of chocolate you hide in your bottom drawer.”

“A girl has to have something to combat the frustration. Besides, dark chocolate is good for you.”
 
I've got my cover artist working on the cover and when I get it back I'll share it. Thank you everyone who sent suggestions. 

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

5 SECRETS (What No One Knows About My Book)


Our guest author today is Gemma Juliana, who is going to share some tidbits about the writing of her book that no one knows--until today.
 
 
GEMMA JULIANA is a multi-published author who lives in an enchanted cottage in north Texas with her handsome hero, brave teen son and a comical dog who is really a human in disguise. She loves making new friends and hearing from readers. Exotic coffee and chocolate fuel her creativity. She writes romance, mystery and suspense with a splash of the paranormal. You’ll find alpha heroes in the Sheikhs of the Golden Triangle series and modern heroes in To Kiss A Leprechaun and Autumn Masquerade. More books coming soon.
 
AUTUMN MASQUERADE
 
Here we are in the depths of summer, and I’m talking about something that may bring a cool breeze to pass by. I love the mysterious, witchy side of Halloween but not the more gruesome aspect that is so popular nowadays. Let me share with you some of the secrets surrounding Autumn Masquerade as I pondered what sort of Halloween story to write last year.
1.The veil between this world and the Otherworld is much thinner than most people realize. I love writing stories about communication between lovers who have been parted by death. There’s a different twist in this story, because the deceased wife wants to let her husband know it’s time for him to allow himself to love again. She chooses the messenger – who also happens to be the right woman for him.
2.This story draws on real life in many ways. I have many psychic friends just like Anna Spencer, and have always found it sad how so many of them hide their gifts in the day-to-day work place. They fear they will not be taken seriously, or worse. Some of them live double lives, offering private
consultations in their spare time, but always worry that someday somebody
attached to their jobs will find out.
3.I had just returned from my first trip to San Francisco, and fell in love with the city. I knew I had to set the story there – it’s got to be one of the most romantic cities in the USA!
4.Shortly after my first book was released in early 2013, a fellow author gifted me with a pretty golden masque. In the moment I opened the package and saw the ornate masque, I knew I would write some sort of masquerade novella. It turned out to be Autumn Masquerade.
5.Richard Bentley, the sexy hotel billionaire who is Anna’s boss, has been attracted to Anna since he first met her. Back then his wife was still alive, and he was not a cheating sort of man – just a hot blooded connoisseur of beautiful women. When his wife – with whom he was very much in love – died suddenly and unexpectedly, he struggled with his attraction to Anna. He wanted her much sooner than he allowed himself to finally pursue her.
6.Due to popular demand and many reader requests, there will be a second novella in this series. Readers love this magical romance and have asked me to expand on the story. The next novella will follow Anna and Richard on some of their travels to romantic destinations on hotel business as their romance takes off and they plan to wed.
And a final, unnumbered secret – the author’s hair is just as red as Anna’s hair on the book cover!

 
Blurb from Autumn Masquerade
 
To Buy Autumn Masquerade go to
You can find Gemma on her website at http://gemmajuliana.com/

Thanks for checking out Gemma and her secrets. If you have any comments or questions, Gemma will be around to answer them today. And don’t forget
to check back next Thursday to find out even more author secrets about
their book. 
Thanks for checking out Gemma and her secrets. If you have any comments or questions, Gemma will be around to answer them today. And don’t forget
to check back next Thursday to find out even more author secrets about
their book.