WIP Wednesday: Melissa Snark

August 5, 2015July 29, 2015

Welcome back, Melissa Snark!

MS: Hi MJ, Thank you for having me today, National Underwear Day. I’m excited to talk about my current work in progress, which is called Moon Snatcher. It is an urban fantasy/Norse folklore novel and Book #3 in Loki’s Wolves.

MJ: I just love that title! How did you choose the setting for your current WIP?

MS: Hunger Moon is set in the northern Sierras. My family and I love the Tahoe area because it’s so rugged and beautiful. As a kid, my parents often took family vacations up there during the summer. My husband and sons like to ski so we head up to South Shore every winter for a family vacation (when there’s snow). I started Hunger Moon, the first book in the Loki’s Wolves series, while we were up there several years ago. The mountains and forests seemed like an ideal place for wolves, so the Sierra Nevada became the natural setting for my story.

From his most ancient beginning, flight exemplified freedom within his heart and soul. As a hawk, Loki soared high above the suburban oasis carved from Arizona’s austere desert. He drifted upon a rising column of warm air, wings angled to induce enough drag so he didn’t outpace the child he followed. Far beneath him, the figure of the six-year-old was only a dot, but enhanced avian senses permitted the Trickster to drink in every sight and sound.

The boy’s fleet feet splashed upon the wet pavement, running beside a small twig boat while the swift flowing gutter-steam swept the tiny craft along. Michael Allen Fraiser had light brown hair and an olive-toned complexion as well as a lean, athletic build designed for speed.

Now, in honor of underwear, I’d like to discuss the undies preference of three of my main characters.

Victoria Storm

Victoria Storm is a kick ass heroine with a take charge attitude. She is both a priestess of Freya and a Valkyrie to Odin. She’s definitely got a feminine side but she’s more tomboy than girly-girl. I think this set of athletic dance undies would appeal to her since she trained as a ballerina in her youth. It’s cute but practical.

Jake Barrett

Jake Barrett is the Hunter King. Master of the Hunt. He has many nicknames, not all of them polite. Rumors purport him to be invincible. He suffers fatal injuries but doesn’t die. Men pledge their undying loyalty to him. Monsters fear him. To underestimate him means certain death.

Jake is older, old-fashioned, and no nonsense. He wouldn’t wear anything other than plain old cotton boxers. No thrills, no frills. You’d be surprised how difficult it is to find images of those nowadays.

Sawyer Barrett

Sawyer is Jake’s son. He’s something of a rebel and an accomplished hunter in his own right. He prefers underwear that breathes while providing support for his active lifestyle. Boxer briefs would be right up his alley and he’d be more likely to buy name brand undies than Hanes.

MJ: You really know your characters! Here are the details of Melissa’s current release, Valkyrie’s Vengeance:

Genre: Urban fantasy/Norse folklore

Publisher: Nordic Lights Press

Published: Jan. 23, 2015

A thirty-year alliance that aligned wolves and hunters has shattered. Victoria Storm leads a few surviving members of her pack in a desperate flight. As the only surviving child of their leaders, the she-wolf inherited the role of Alpha. The violent deaths of her parents and the man she loved left her devastated, and the lives of her followers depend on her decisions. Simple survival often conflicts with the demands of preserving her Norse heritage, so she must struggle to balance her duties as Freya’s priestess and Odin’s Valkyrie. When innocent children are abducted, she must set aside her differences and work with her worst enemy to rescue them.

Available for free download:

Amazon: http://goo.gl/gLd386

Barnes & Noble: http://goo.gl/EQp6Wi

ARE: http://goo.gl/Gb1kMz

Kobo: http://goo.gl/SCC5ws

iBooks: http://goo.gl/HZiicW

Google Play: http://goo.gl/6d292A

Newsletter: http://goo.gl/I6J5NU

Author Melissa Snark lives in the San Francisco bay area with her husband, three children, and a glaring of litigious felines. She reads and writes fantasy and romance, and is published with The Wild Rose Press & Nordic Lights Press. She is a coffeeoholic, chocoholic, and a serious geek girl. Her Loki’s Wolves series stems from her fascination with wolves and mythology.

She blogs about books and writing on http://www.thesnarkology.com/.
Visit her website at http://www.melissasnark.com/.
Follow her on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MelissaSnark
Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0076EEQIU
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/MelissaSnark
Email: MelissaSnark at gmail.com

Reading By the Season: July

July 5, 2015June 28, 2015

JULY-A Year In Provence by Peter Mayle

We had talked about it during the long gray winters and the damp green summers, looked with an addict’s longing at photographs of village markets and vineyards, dreamed of being woken up by the sun slanting through the bedroom window.

This collection of twelve months worth of stories from the British author’s life the first year he and his wife moved to the south of France fills a need in me, best expressed in the above quote. The descriptions of the wonderful local foods and wines combined with the hot, dry weather are bliss to this misplaced-in-a winter-world reader.. I looked for a book with these elements for years before I discovered this one. The follow up book, Toujours Provence, is also good, in a different way.

Mad Men, Sad Commentary

April 5, 2015March 1, 2015

The second half of the final season (I hate that marketing ploy) of Mad Men premieres tonight. I will watch it, although with great reluctance.

Several years ago, my husband and a co-worker each insisted I needed to watch the program. Eventually I relented, and TV Stevie cued up the DVDs. We binge watched together (his third time).

From the beginning, the show made me uncomfortable. Hideously so. Although I started working in local TV a good 10 or so years after the time frame of Mad Men , the depiction was realistic. Too realistic.

After I caught up on the story, TV & I watched the show every Sunday night. I would see comments on social media about how well written the show was. I suppressed a shudder. A friend asked me who thought the program was written well. Men? Of course. But that wasn’t my issue. If the program wasn’t well written, it wouldn’t evoke the negative reaction.

A few weeks ago, I finally figured out why I hate the show. Entertainment is about the fantasy. That’s what romance book editors tell their writers all the time: people read romance for the fantasy. Escapism. Mad Men is about the reality, and I didn’t like those times when I lived them. Why would I want to revisit something so awful?

In December, TV Stevie and I binge-watched True Blood, which is about the fantasy. I loved it so much more than Mad Men. What woman wouldn’t want to be irresistible to hunky men?

Will I watch part two of the final season of Mad Men? Probably, but it has more to do with doing something with my husband than it does watching because I want to know what happens to Don Draper. I really don’t care.

WIP Wednesday: Sophia Kimble

November 5, 2014November 2, 201412 Comments

Today’s Work-In-Progress Wednesday guest is author Sophia Kimble. Welcome, Sophia. Can you tell us one thing most people don’t know about you?

SK: I like to eat my chocolate frozen. Seriously, I take my Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, Kit Kat’s, and Ho Ho’s and stick them in the freezer until their frozen. I love chocolate, but hate the melt factor. 🙂

MJ: What is the top book on your TBR pile?

SK: I’m waiting impatiently for the third book in Jon Steele’s Angelus trilogy to be released. As soon as it’s out, everything else will take a back seat.

MJ: Name one thing you won’t leave home without.

SK: A bottle of water.

MJ: Is there a particular movie that you preferred over the book version of the story?

SK: All movies I’ve seen after reading the book. I have a teenage daughter and she’s the one I go to the movies with the most, so the most recent was The Fault in Our Stars. The book made me cry, the movie did not, although my daughter looked like a raccoon as we were leaving the theater.

MJ: What do you normally eat for breakfast, or do you skip it and get straight to work?

SK: I’m bad, I skip breakfast, but then devour lunch!

MJ: Describe your ideal/dream writing space.

SK: Large loft in a cabin with huge windows, and all I can see is forest.

MJ: Briefly describe your writing day/process.

SK: Up at 3 or 4 am, write until around lunch time, then catch up on social media, marketing, and such. By the time the kids get home, my creative brain is usually shot, and I concentrate on my family.

MJ: That’s a long day! What book do you wish you could have written?

SK: Elizabeth Kostova’s The Historian. My absolute favorite book!

MJ: Name three things on your desk right now.

SK: My feet, coffee, favorite pen. Yes, my laptop in on my lap.

MJ: Do you listen to music when you write? Explain.

SK: No. I like to have absolute quiet so I can see and hear the movie of my book in my mind, and then I type what I see/hear.

MJ: What do you love most about your WIP hero?

SK: Immortal, gorgeous, tormented, Highland warrior. What’s not to love?

MJ: What genre is your current WIP?

SK: Paranormal Romance

MJ: What is your favorite genre to read?

SK: Paranormal romance, and historical. If they’re combined-all the better.

MJ: How did you chose the setting for your current WIP?

SK: My current WIP is the second book in The Druid’s Curse series, therefore the setting of a castle in the Adirondack Mountains was already decided for me.

MJ: I love the Adirondack Mountains. Now it’s time for the lightning round. Wine: red or white?

SK: Red

MJ: Beer: can or bottle?

SK: Bottle

MJ Cinco de Mayo or St. Patrick’s Day?

SK: St. Patrick’s Day

MJ: Last movie you saw in a theater?

SK: The Fault in Our Stars.

MJ: Favorite TV show?

SK: Blacklist

MJ: Favorite band when you were in high school (Marching band doesn’t count)?

SK: The Smiths

MJ: Coke or Pepsi?

SK: Coke.

MJ: Introvert or extrovert?

SK: Introvert.

MJ: Favorite ethnic food?

SK: Thai.

MJ: And now for the headliner: your Work In Progress. Can you share the title and the first few sentences?

SK: Yes! This is from Avenge Her, part of the Druid’s Curse series.

Why can’t I be like everybody else?

Izzy Alexander stared at fish swimming in their virtual aquarium across her computer screen while she sat at her desk in Malcolm Campbell’s castle. The soothing scene didn’t calm her as it sometimes did. No, the poor creatures were forever stuck in purgatory, they’d never get anywhere, never accomplish anything. Kind of like her and her infatuation with Malcolm.

God, how had she fallen head over heels with a man who was in love with someone else and who couldn’t stand what she was? Why couldn’t she go through life with blinders on, not knowing what people were feeling, what people thought by touching them? Why did her life have to be so strange?

Well, let’s see. Maybe because I’m a witch and an empath, and fell in lust with a thirteenth century Highland warrior who’d been cursed with immortality by Lailoken, a Druid High Priest. Yup, that about summed it up and equaled weird as hell.

MJ: Oh! What a great hook. And you have a book out now? How can people purchase it?

SK: Protect Her is available at Amazon.

MJ: And how can your readers stay in touch with you?

SK: I have a website and a blog. I’m also on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Goodreads and Google+.

MJ: Thanks for joining me today, and good luck with your books!

From Pool to Haven, Pt 2

October 5, 2014October 5, 2014

“A garden must combine the poetic and the mysterious with a feeling of serenity and joy.” Luis Barragan

Turns out one of our neighbors does landscaping. “What do you want?” he asked.

A good question with many answers.

Low maintenance
a container garden
an herb garden
a meditation garden
lawn
someplace to sit in privacy and write
Did we mention low maintenance?
Oh, and could we extend the patio with pavers?

First step: remove the sand and gravel that housed the pool for so many years.

Then he put in a low wall of flat rocks–shale, I think.

Yes, we’re going to keep those bushes–cypress? cedar? They hid the base of the pool; now they’ll provide privacy from the street. He brought over some plants. And yes, my maple tree had to go: chlorine poisoning, we were told. It was slowly dying. The stump is visible in the first photo below.

Turns out autumn is the best time to plant grass. Who knew?