Wednesday, July 9, 2014

The Gull Motel

Today's special guest is Amie Denman. Amie lives in a small town in her native Ohio with her husband and sons. Her two cats and large yellow labrador are kind enough to share a sunny office where she lets her imagination run wild. Reading books was her favorite escape as a child, and growing up four houses away from the community library encouraged her addiction. When she's not reading or writing, she enjoys walking and running outside. The helpless victim of a lifetime of curiosity, she's been known to chase fire trucks on her bicycle just to see what's going on. Amie believes that everything is fun: especially roller coasters, wedding cake, and falling in love.


ABOUT THE BOOK

Savvy Thorpe needs a vacation. Finally finished with college, she heads to her favorite shabby motel on Florida’s Gulf Coast where her aunt and uncle always save her room twenty-four. She quickly finds out, though, that The Gull Motel is not just her home away from home. It’s hers to manage while her aunt and uncle take an extended trip.

Skip McComber, The Gull’s former maintenance man, has been working on Savvy’s nuts and bolts for years. Now the new owner of the bar next door, his mission is to renovate a pirate bar while being a walking temptation for the girl he can’t get off his mind.

For Savvy, keeping her cool running a motel in Florida heat is one thing, but navigating the steamy waters of a former fling takes a whole other kind of savvy. In addition to the motel and the man next door, Savvy stumbles on a plot to swindle land from the residents of Barefoot Key. Devalued properties tumble like dominoes until Savvy musters her colorful crew from The Gull Motel to make the pillagers walk the plank.


AN EXCERPT


Day four of what I had planned as a Gulf Coast vacation had me perspiring in the pool shed and wondering what I should do.

“Need any help?”

I whipped around, blood rushing from surprise and something else. Of course I knew the voice. Skip McComber leaned against the frame of the open shed door. Shirtless. Wearing low slung jeans and a grin that registered somewhere between caution and amusement.

He looked like a man who knew how to run a pool pump. From experience, I knew he could handle a lot more than that.

“I’m fine,” I said, trying for cheerful dismissal in my tone. “Just taking a look around.”

“Taking stock of your new property.”

“Temporary property.”

“Since it’s your place now and all,” he said, disregarding my comment, “looks like we’ll be seeing a lot of each other.”

A mild earthquake rolled under my sternum and sent shockwaves from its epicenter. Maybe I’d have better luck with the space shuttle launch pad configuration than I would handling Skip.

“Temporary,” I repeated.

He nodded, continuing to appraise me with his look. Perhaps appraisal was too glamorous a word. He was looking at me like a cat who’d just opened the bird cage and was wondering how much fun he could have with the bird.

Skip had been rattling my cage since we were both sixteen. Every time I came to visit my aunt and uncle for a vacation, an added perk had been the endorphin boost from their local boy turned maintenance man. A skinny handsome kid, he had matured every time I came back to the Gull until he was the full-blown man standing in front of me.

“I know a lot about fixing things,” he said.


SPECIAL LINKS


Amie is the author of five contemporary romance novels:

The Gull Motel
Blue Bottle Beach
Her Lucky Catch
Her Lucky Prize
Will Work for Love
He’s on Her Trail

Please visit her at www.amiedenman.com

On Facebook https://www.facebook.com/amie.denman.1

On Twitter @amiedenman











Amie will be awarding print copies of her three Barefoot novels from Turquoise Morning Press: Blue Bottle Beach, Will Work for Love, and The Gull Motel to one randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour (US ONLY).


Follow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better your chances of winning. The tour dates can be found here: 



http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2014/05/virtual-blurb-blitz-tour-gull-motel-by.html



a Rafflecopter giveaway
Posted by at
Labels: , , ,

Monday, July 7, 2014

Resolutions

Today's special guest is Teri Riggs. Teri was destined to be a writer.  As a small girl she didn’t read bedtime stories, she made up her own.  Who needed Little Red Riding Hood or The Three Little Pigs when there were so many great tales bouncing around in her head?  When she grew up and became a mother to three little girls, she continued the tradition of making up bedtime stories.  On the occasions she chose to tell conventional fairytales, Teri usually gave them a bit of tweaking here and there or added a new ending.  Her girls loved it.


After her daughters had the nerve to actually grow up and leave home, Teri discovered she had a passion for writing and jumped right in.  It came as no surprise she chose to write mysteries and happily-ever-after’s since that’s the genres she loves to read.

Teri lives in Marietta, Georgia with her husband, one of her daughters and two dogs that seem to think they rule the world.  And some days Teri thinks maybe they do.

Teri still frequently tells herself stories as she falls asleep.  The only difference now is she wakes up the next morning and turns her bedtime stories into books.


AN INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR

 I asked Teri what scares her the most, and here is her response:





In the beginning of my writing career, I probably worried the most about not finishing the book I’d started. I knew nothing about writing. I was a NICU nurse and the extent of my writing was jotting down nursing notes on a patient’s chart. Learning the craft was not a walk in the park either. I am an insatiable reader and had a slight idea of what I needed to do. I took online writing classes taught by authors, bought a few writing for dummies type books, and attended a few writing conferences. It’s over ten years later and I still haven’t conquered the art of writing, but I’m closing in on it. Another ten to twenty years? Maybe.

I worried what people would think about me writing. Would it be a joke to them? Would I look like an idiot? 

My family was the ones who encouraged me to write. Still I decided I wouldn’t share my new insomniac’s overnight activity…until I realized I needed massive tutorials on the computer. I was lucky. No one in the family laughed. They supported my dream more than I thought possible. Soon I told my sisters and a few close friends about my little adventure. Again, I got nothing but best wishes.

When I actually finished my first book, I was ecstatic. I’d done what I set out to do. The book’s premise was good, but the writing was horrible. Naturally I didn’t get any contract offers and it’s floating somewhere out in cyber space. I wrote another book. It sold. Yay me! Then I began to worry again. What if no one bought my book? Then what? Well, the book was selling and three years later, I’m still selling copies. My second published book is selling. I won’t be amassing a fortune, but the books are selling.

I’ll always find something to worry about in my writing. But now I look at my adventures in writing as one big, continuous lesson in learning.


ABOUT THE BOOK


DEA agent Eve Taylor has had her fill of alpha males. When Resolutions’ operative and former lover, Dillon “Mac” McKenna, threatened her hard-earned independence, she ran. On a mission to gather evidence against a Colombian drug-lord, Eve discovers the drug-lord is helping terrorists plan an attack on American soil. Before she can escape with the vital information, she’s captured and comes face to face with her mortality…

As a teen, Mac watched his family fall apart after his mother died doing dangerous U.N. work. The possibility of losing Eve to a mission ignited an overwhelming need to protect her. When he forced her to choose him or her job, she walked away. Two years later, it seems all his nightmares have come true and he’s tasked with rescuing her from a Colombian prison. Mac has never stopped loving Eve, but does he dare risk his heart when he’s so terrified of losing…

On the run, Mac and Eve must learn to trust each other again in order to stay alive.




AN EXCERPT


Occasional bursts of gunfire echoed in the distance as the distorted voices of Mendoza’s men moved closer. The damned monkey started chattering again. She flipped onto her back and forced her breathing and heart rate to slow. The night’s stars faded into the orange-red sky of morning sunrise and a welcomed calm washed over her. For the first time in her life, Eve wished she was still back home in Duncan Falls, Iowa with her four overprotective brothers. The Alpha Four, she called them. They’d be royally pissed if she didn’t somehow get out of this mess.

   Her mind turned to thoughts of Mac, the only man she’d ever loved. Maybe he’d been right after all. Maybe she wasn’t cut out for this line of work. Maybe she did need him. So many maybes.

   Eve closed her eyes and the maybes and darkness took her.




SPECIAL LINKS


Amazon: 

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Teri-Riggs/329379907142621

Twitter: @TeriLRiggs

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/terilriggs

Teri will be giving away a $50 gift card to amazon or Barnes and Noble. Follow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better your chances of winning. The tour dates can be found here:  http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2014/05/virtual-book-tour-resolutions-by-teri.html


a Rafflecopter giveaway
Posted by at
Labels: , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)