Melanie James is offering a giveaway to a lucky commentator—an e-book and swag of a handmade book thong, key chain and pen. Please add your email addy in your comment! (US only for the swag)
Melanie can thank a friend for getting her writing career started. Hey, that’s how I started too!
Welcome, Melanie, and thanks for treading the boards with us today!
Thanks for the invite! It’s a pleasure to be here! <3
1. Are you inspired most by places, people or experiences and how do these work their way into your writing?
I am inspired by people and experiences but also by places that I visit. I believe that people are the key to the stories that you build and write.
2. Please share one of your favourite moments of inspiration with us.
I had written a short story for a friend of mine who is an author, I sent it to her and forgot about it. Out of the blue, I got a phone call from the author screaming!! Telling me how much she loved my story. I had always written stories, but I didn’t think that anyone would be interested in reading what I had written. She made me promise, cross my heart promise to start publishing my stories. She inspired me more than anyone or anything could have.
3. How did you come up with the idea of A Valentine’s Surprise?
From my sister, she is such a humbug when it comes to all holidays. I thought it would be nice to take her pessimism and place it into a character that gets her HEA.
4. How do you come up with your characters’ names?
From the characters themselves. They just kind of tell me what their names are and argue with me if I try to give them a different name.
5. Who would you cast for a movie/TV series as your main characters if given the chance?
Henry Cavil as Adam and a younger Sandra Bullock as Amanda
6. What is your favourite holiday?
My favourite holiday is Christmas. It is such a magical time. I still have small children at home and I love seeing the magic spark in their eyes! It really is the absolute best!
7. Do you read reviews of your books? What do you do when you read a not-so-nice one?
Yes – unfortunately. I try to see if the reader has any merit. Could I do better? Are they providing constructive criticism or are they just bitching to bitch?
8. Who is your literary hero?
Gosh, I have so many. I’m going to have to go with Anne Rice, Karen Marie Moning, Kresley Cole, Gina Showalter and JR Ward. Lots I know but I can’t help it! I have always been a bookworm!
9. Who do you most admire and why? OR If you could meet anyone, alive or dead, and spend an hour with them, who and why?
I would like to meet my grandfathers. My mother’s father died when she was 11 and my father’s father died when I was just a baby. I never really knew what it meant to have a grandfather. I would love this experience more than any other. [Being such a late arrival to my family, I can identify with you; I only ever knew my step grandpa and I was two or three when he passed away. Family is everything.]
10. What is your favourite book of all time that you can reread a hundred times, and it still feels like the first time?
Karen Marie Moning’s Highlander Series. [I’ll let you get away with it—series = one book, why not!]
11. What do you need to set the mood for you to write?
I need quiet. I need to be able to focus and listen to what is playing out in my head.
12. If there is one genre that you have not written in yet, but would love to try writing a book in that specific genre, what would it be?
I write contemporary, erotic and paranormal romance and love all three equally. I would love to try my hand at mystery one day. That would be very intriguing to write. [LOL]
13. How many blurbs did you have to write before the final one?
Easily 20. I have found that it is much much easier to write a book than a book blurb. I have no idea why!
14. What are you working on now?
I have 3 completely different books in the works now. The next one to be released this spring is a contemporary romance titled A Summer Love. I am also working on a romance/erotica book called Beautiful Betrayals. The third and final one due to release in spring also hasn’t been titled yet and it is a paranormal romance.
Would you like to share an excerpt from your writing or a photo or music link that inspires you?
A Valentine’s Surprise
Amanda was tired of being alone on Valentine’s Day. She was twenty five and had never received a Valentine’s Day gift or surprise, unless she counted the ones she received in grade school and she wasn’t counting those. She was satisfied with her single status. It was everyone around her that seemed to have the problem with it. She hated Valentine’s Day more than any other day of the year. She was convinced it was a day that was designed for the sole purpose of making all the single people in the world feel like shit for being alone.
Because she had no real experience with this holiday, she saw it as nothing more than a Hallmark holiday. One that was created for couples that suddenly remembered their supposed love for one another and tried to show it by giving them the most expensive and gaudy gifts that they could find. Honestly if one more nurse on her floor talked about Valentine’s Day with that foolish look on their face, she was going to choke them! Every woman that she worked with who was dating, expected a ring from their boyfriend after only two months of being a couple. She was beginning to believe they were all dropped on their heads at birth. There didn’t seem to be any other explanation for the rampant stupidity that Valentine’s Day hosted.
15. Please share your favourite cocktail recipe or celebration photo.
Silly, but we had a Luau at our house over the summer and the dogs actually wanted to be decorated as well! So this is our Border Collie, Bear ready to party. The next is our Newfoundland Elmo ready to party!
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Author-Melanie-James/1408513832726084
www.melaniejames.com
Melanie is offering a giveaway e-copy of A Valentine's Surprise and a swag pack (handmade book thong, key chain and pen.
Thanks for visiting, Melanie. We can’t wait to see what ‘surprises’ you’ll come up with for other holidays!
www.melaniejames.com
Melanie is offering a giveaway e-copy of A Valentine's Surprise and a swag pack (handmade book thong, key chain and pen.
Thanks for visiting, Melanie. We can’t wait to see what ‘surprises’ you’ll come up with for other holidays!
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