Love is Silent by Toni V. Sweeney

 Wild Women Authors features Toni V. Sweeny’s Love is Silent, an historical romance and current release out of the Wild Rose Press. With Toni is teacher Anna Leighton who will go first.

Good morning, Anna. Thank you for spending time with us. Let’s begin with where you are from. My home is Little Riversreach in England. It’s a small village where my father is the resident physician. The name means “view of the river.” Going to Mayfield Village where David…that is, Lord Mayfield, lives, was my first time away from home, other than living at the McAdam Academy for the Deaf as the other teachers did.

Tell us a bit about Love is Silent. It is the story of my very first adult pupil. I’m a teacher of the deaf but until the moment I was hired to teach David Wood, Lord Mayfield, I had only had children as pupils. Needless to say, I was nervous about teaching an adult, and after I met His Lordship and realized what was expected of me and the challenge it represented, I was even more than anxious. You see, David’s cousin had petitioned the courts to have him declared incompetent so he could receive the title and family fortune and David’s sister, Lady Eleanor, hired me to teach him to Sign, to communicate, so they could prove the accusation a lie. That was bad enough but then the courts changed the time of the hearing, and instead of six months, I only had six weeks to perform what some would consider a miracle. Plus—and I blush as I admit this—in the meantime, David and I fell in love, so you see the entire story is fraught with very much emotion and anxiety.

What did you think the first time you saw David, Lord Mayfield. Actually, the first time I met David, I thought he was a groom. There I was, banging on the front door with my fist, when he came riding up on his horse. I must admit, he was definitely a disturbing sight, for he was…well, actually, he was only half-clothed, wearing only riding breeches and boots. It was rather embarrassing. To me, anyway. I mean, I’d seen young men without their shirts before…the farmers often worked in the field without their shirts, but I’d never been so close to anyone like that, and well…I admit, it was rather breath-taking. When I discovered he couldn’t answer my questions because he was deaf, I thought perhaps Her Ladyship would want me to teach her groom as well as her brother to Sign and it wasn’t exactly an unpleasant thought. Oh, that sounds so awful of me, doesn’t it?

What was your second thought? My second thought was to wonder if someone who worked with animals would really need to communicate with people, if perhaps he was happier not being able to have the real world intrude into his own.  

Do you feel it was love at first sight? It was more like misunderstanding at first sight! He thought I was the new housemaid and as I said, I thought he was a groom. When he found out I was to teach him, he equated me with the many doctors he’d seen, and how they’d poked and prodded and declared he’d never hear again, and he had a bit of a tantrum. One of Lady Eleanor’s flower vases had a terrible demise in the front entryway, his usual way of expressing his anger.

What do you like most about him? His determination. Once David realized what was needed of him. That he had to learn to communicate because so many people on the estate depended on his continuing to be Lord Mayfield, he buckled down and did his best to learn everything I could teach. He also used that determination to break down my rather stiff defenses. Once David declared he loved me, there was no arguing with him about it. Not being aware of the various stations in Society, he saw absolutely nothing wrong with his wanting to marry a school teacher, and he said…well, he didn’t know how to curse, but he got his point over very well of what he thought world could do if it objected. The one problem with David is that once he gets an idea into his head, he runs away with it…even now. It certainly keeps life interesting, to say the least.

How would you describe him? Handsome, spoiled, determined, loyal, curious, lovable. There were so many unanswered questions buzzing around in that handsome head—some of them childish, some of them very serious—and he expected me to give him answers to all of them. Being five at the time of his accident, he could read and write and do a bit of cyphering, but he was unable to actually ask about the things that intrigued him. When we were able to communicate, I became his source for all those questions.

How would he describe you? I’m not certain. I’d hope he would say I was competent and did my job well, but I fear he’d become a little more poetic and fanciful. Though it makes me blush, I’ll quote this compliment he once gave me:  “I love Anna’s blue eyes…like sky…Love her lips…sweet as strawberries…cheeks so pretty…angel’s hair… You’re an angel…taking me to heaven…” See? I said, he got fanciful.

What made you choose being a teacher of the deaf for a career? At age fourteen, my younger sister, Maisie, was stricken with a bout of red measles rendering her deaf. Papa had heard of the McAdam Academy for the Deaf, but being a small-town doctor,  he was unable to afford the tuition and fees the school required, having earlier just that year finished paying the tuition enabling me to graduate from the Dinsmoore Normal School in preparation for being a secondary studies teacher. As luck would have it, there was an opening at the Academy for an assistant instructor. I applied for the position and was accepted. Within two years, I was certified as a teacher, and the first thing I did upon returning home for holidays was to begin teaching Maisie to Sign.I guess I did a fairly good job. Later, Maisie had a suitor, a local lad, and they’re now married and very happy.

What is your biggest fear? I’m afraid I don’t have any actual fears. Does that make me odd? As long as I have David’s love, and the love of the people around me and my family, I’m very secure…and happy.

How do you relax? I love to play the piano. In fact, music helped bring David and me together, because I discovered that, although he couldn’t hear the music, he remembered how to play the piano from lessons he’d had before his accident. The first time he sat beside me at the piano and began to pick out a tune without hearing it, I was actually dumbfounded.

Who is your favorite fictional character? I daresay it would have to be one of Miss Jane Austen’s heroines. They’re so very plucky and determined.

What is the best piece of advice you ever received? “Do what you think is right.” I really questioned that when David and I fell in love but I determined to keep going, hoping, no, praying, that in the end, everything would turn out exactly as it did.

Thank you, Anna, for spending time with us. Now we’d like to chat with Toni.

What movies or books have had an impact on your career as a writer? I generally gravitated toward mysteries or paranormal movies/novels, so Love is Silent is an extreme departure from those. I guess I have a deep-set romantic streak, however, because once I got the idea for this story, I knew I had to write it.

Is there an event in your private life that you were able to bring to this story and how do you feel it impacted the novel? Not for this novel, I’ve used some life episodes in other novels, but this one is pure fiction.

Tell us a bit about your publisher: how did you hear about them and what influenced your decision to submit to them? In 2008, The Wild Rose Press was one of the first publishers to release one of my novels. They eventually published several of my books, and now, after a long interval, are publishing those listed below.

What book[s] currently rest on your TBR pile? I currently have two: Gregory Ashe’s The Girl in the Wind and Lyndsey Sands’ The Bad Luck Vampire, which is another in the Argeneau family vampire series.

Last, what's up next and when can we expect to see it on the shelves? The Wild Rose Press has also contracted for two other novels of mine, Mask of the Beast  and Evil Lives After, as well as the series The McCoys.

          Mask of the Beast is a romance set in Biblical times incorporating the Beauty and the Beast story with the story of the Moses and the Golden Calf. It’s set for release on December 27^th of this year, which is also my birthday, so… celebrate my birthday by buying my novel!

          Evil Lives After is a romance with paranormal overtones concerning an abandoned farmhouse and the tragedy that happened there. It’s set in my home state of Georgia, in a small south Georgia town called Hahira which is a real place, though I doubt anything such as this story ever happened there. Release date on that hasn’t been set yet.

          The McCoys is a historical family saga about a family during the 19^th century, of an Irishman named Quinton McCoy and his three sons and daughter and their lives and loves.

For more information on Toni V. Sweeney and the stories she creates, go to:  

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Welcome-to-the-ToniVerse-1900908046884512/?modal=admin_todo_tour

Amazon Author’s Page: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B002BLQBB8

Twitter:  @ToniVSweeney

Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/epicfantasywriter

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/579429.Toni_V_Sweeney

 

 

 

Sweet Slow Sizzle by Sadira Stone

 Wild Women Authors focus on Sadira Stone and Sweet Slow Sizzle, a Bangers Tavern Romance.

 Loving him means risking the only family she has left.

      Bangers Tavern’s hunky bouncer Jojo Williams has been flirting with server Lana Lopez for three years, but she dismisses him as a trifling joker. Determined to penetrate her prickly defenses, he plunges into the hot mess that keeps her from dating. If he screws this up, his heart and hers won’t be the only ones broken.

     Orphaned by a car wreck at twenty-two, Lana must keep her teen brothers on track and together in the home they grew up in. One more slip-up, and her interfering tías will separate the boys. The last thing Lana needs is a big goof like Jojo meddling with her fragile family. But when the teens’ shenanigans land them in trouble, Jojo may be the only person who can save them from the wrath of the tías. Lana’s growing attraction to the gentle giant makes it harder and harder to shut him out, but loving him is a gamble that could cost her everything.   

     Come back to Bangers Tavern for a slow burn, sizzling hot, friends to lovers workplace romance full of laughs, steam, and the glorious chaos of 21^st century family—the ones we’re born into, and the ones we gather to our hearts. 

 An Excerpt:

While Rosie waited for a frozen blue daiquiri, she tilted her chin toward the bouncers’ station at the door. “What did you say to Jojo?”

“Nothing. Why?”

“He looked like a kid who dropped his ice cream.”

Lana huffed. “I just declined his offer to talk some sense into Pedro.”

Rosie folded her inked-up arms. “Don’t you want more healthy male role models for your brothers?”

“It’s hard enough to keep those two focused on school. What’s gonna happen if I bring over a musclehead who spews jokes all day? Leo’s already in trouble for cutting up in class. Kenny’s the kind of role model he needs, not Jojo.”

“Hey, Jojo’s a sweetheart. He’s”—Rosie ticked off on her fingers—“educated, employed, good to his mama, and he’s totally sweet on you.”

Lana stabbed cherries and orange slices onto a cocktail pick. “Come on, he’s sweet on anyone with boobs.” She dropped the garnish into a tall rum punch. “Wait…you met his mom?”

“Last week when I dropped Eddie off for Jojo’s bootcamp-slash-torture dungeon. She came by to ask for his help with something, and he was a total puppy. Adorable.”

A high-pitched yelp from a nearby table jerked Lana’s head around. Some baby-face guy in a college hoodie was trying to snatch tater tots from a woman’s platter while his knucklehead buddies laughed.

“Oh, goodie,” Lana whispered to Rosie. “I love this part.”

Smooth as a shadow, Jojo slid through the crowd to confront the tot raider. She couldn’t hear whatever he growled at the thief, but the way he puffed out his massive chest and clenched his fists gave her shivers. Those corded forearms, those powerful shoulders! Ungh! She bit her lip.

Jojo jerked his chin toward the door.

Hands raised in surrender, the frat boy withdrew.

Rosie gave a low whistle. “Impressive, isn’t he? If I weren’t already spoken for…”

As if he could sense Lana’s lustful stare, Jojo glanced their way, and his rock-hard expression melted into a goofy smile. Rosie had nailed it—he really did look like a puppy, an oversize, muscle-bound pit bull eager for a belly rub. She blew out a shaky breath and forced her attention back to her friend.

“Handling two male egos keeps me busy to the max. What would I do with a third?”

About Sadira Stone:

Award-winning contemporary romance author Sadira Stone spins steamy, smoochy tales set in small businesses—a quirky bookstore, a neighborhood bar, a vintage boutique. Set in the U.S. Pacific Northwest, her stories highlight found family, friendship, and the sizzling chemistry that pulls unlikely partners together. When she emerges from her writing cave in Las Vegas, Nevada (which she seldom does), she can be found in dance class, strumming her ukulele, exploring the Western U.S. with her charming husband, cooking up a storm, and gobbling all the romance books. For a guaranteed HEA (and no cliffhangers!) visit Sadira at sadirastone.com.

 

Visit Sadira at:

https://linktr.ee/SadiraStone

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sadirastone/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SadiraStone

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/18568049.Sadira_Stone

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/sadira-stone

Amazon author page: https://www.amazon.com/Sadira-Stone/e/B07KWK5FBX

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/sadira0641/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sadirastone/

Author newsletter: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/q7x4c6

Tiktok: https://tiktok.com/@saidrastone

 

Sweet Slow Sizzle can be purchased at:

Universal Book Link: https://books2read.com/SweetSlowSizzle

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B3W8R99S

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w?ean=2940185575178

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/sweet-slow-sizzle

Apple: https://books.apple.com/us/book/sweet-slow-sizzle-bangers-tavern-romance-4/id6443405062

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61752357-sweet-slow-sizzle

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/books/sweet-slow-sizzle-bangers-tavern-romance-4-by-sadira-stone

All I Need by Kathryn Ascher

 Hannah Murphy is over her dead fiancé. In the year since his death, she’s kept herself busy and has finally discovered who she wants to be. No longer will she be anyone’s doormat.

Quinn Taylor has been burned in love, so he’s focused on his career and his future. When the woman he’s secretly loved since high school flings herself at him, he’s thrown off balance. He’s finally on the verge of having everything he wants and couldn’t be happier. Just as their relationship begins to bloom, the past comes back to haunt them, and old insecurities rise to the top.

Can they overcome their self-doubts and move forward together—or will their secrets separate them forever?

 Wild Women Authors welcomes author Kathryn Ascher and All I Need, Book 4 in her Rocky Creek series. With Kathryn is elementary school teacher, Hannah Murphy, who will go first.

Good morning, Hannah. Thanks for joining us. Let’s begin with where you’re from. Rocky Creek, Virginia

What did you think the first time you saw Quinn Taylor. We were both five. He had just moved to town and his family started attending our church. I thought he was a little shy, but then so was I.

What was your second thought?  As I got to know him, I realized how funny and kind he was. He was always fun to be around.

Was it love at first sight? No, it was very gradual, at least for me.

What do you like most about Quinn? He’s always supportive of my wants and needs. He knows when I need him to let me fight my own battles and when he needs to step in and handle it for me. Mostly the former.

How would you describe him? Kind, hardworking, smart, handsome.

How would he describe you? Helpful, smart, nurturing, beautiful

What made you choose teaching for a career? I love working with the children, watching them learn, grow, and mature, both in their education and as humans. I love that I teach in an elementary school where I get to watch their progression before they get to my classroom, and then after, for the two years before they move on to middle school.

What is your biggest fear? Letting people down; disappointing others.

How do you relax? Cooking or watching television.

Who is your favorite fictional character? I identify most with Mary Bennet from Pride and Prejudice. Intellectual, dependable, but often overlooked.

What is the best piece of advice you ever received? To look at every challenge in life as an adventure. My mom told me this when I left for college. I was very hesitant to go, I’d never been so far away from home and almost didn’t go because I was so nervous.

Thank you for spending time with us, Hannah. Now we’d like to chat with Kathryn.

What movies or books have had an impact on your career as a writer? There are so many that it’s hard to pinpoint just one. I love Jane Austen and feel like my first book had echoes of Pride and Prejudice in it. Every movie I watch I study the characters and their story arcs for inspiration.

Is there an event in your private life that you were able to bring to this story and how do you feel it impacted the novel? I was on several OM (Odyssey of the Mind) teams in school and really wanted to bring that into the book. The problems and the competitions were fun, and my high school team even made it to the state-level competition. Having done the competitions myself, hopefully I was able to inform and explain the competition to those who may not have been aware, or bring back fond members for those who were.

Tell us a bit about your publisher: how did you hear about them and what influenced your decision to submit to them? I met the president of BQB Publishing at a writers’ conference in Roanoke, Virginia. She wasn’t originally scheduled to present (a snowstorm delayed the conference and she was able to make it on the new weekend). I was at the point of either giving up, or self-publishing, which at the time was terrifying. Her presentation on the benefits of using a hybrid publishing company, like hers, convinced me to give it a shot. I submitted to her right away and my first book came out a year later.

What book[s] currently rest on your TBR pile? I have an extensive TBR pile, sadly, and the next book will all depend on the mood I’m in when I pick it up.

Last, what's up next and when can we expect to see it on the shelves? There are two more books currently planned for the Rocky Creek Series. Claire’s story is already finished and needs to go through an in-depth editing process. Dani’s story is still in my head, but I am looking very forward to writing it (her hero was in my first novel What It Takes). There are also two other books, completely unrelated to the Rocky Creek series in process. With luck and determination, they will all be out within the next five years.

 Kathryn Ascher can be contacted at: kathyrnascher.author@gmail.com

 For a purchase link for All I Need, info about her other books, or to sign up for her newsletter, go to: www.kathrynascher.com

 

 

Choices Meant for All by Sandy Lender

When their god needed a protector, she chose yes.

        From the foothills of the Freotho Mountains to the marble halls of Mahriket, factions of deities rise to threaten not only Master Rothahn’s crown, but all Onweald’s people. The battles fan the gates of the dark spirit world, releasing demons of every species to aid the enemy, but an embattled Nigel Taiman brings Malachi’s power to the Arcanan Army’s camp in hopes of tipping the balance in his bride’s favor. Dangerous times call for strange allies from all quarters.

To restore the geasa that should save the god she’s sworn to protect, Amanda Chariss must escape the very Betrayer’s grasp and make choices for the good of everyone. Does she have the will to sacrifice all that she holds dear in the process? Dive into the action-packed conclusion of the Choices trilogy to discover how prophecy works with—and against—those who would heed it.

 Wild Women Authors welcomes author Sandy Lender who is celebrating the release of Choices Meant for All, book three in her Choices trilogy. With Sandy is protagonist Amanda Chariss who will go first.

Welcome, Amanda. Thank you for spending time with us. Tell us a bit about Choices Meant for All. It is the conclusion of the original Choices trilogy, an epic fantasy story exploring good versus evil and how a chosen one—me—exercises free will instead of blindly following the path you might expect she’d take to protect a god from danger.

          In this third book of the series, I see horrors that shouldn’t be allowed in the world of Onweald—and I set about fixing them. I don’t think I’m the best choice for this role; I’m not sure why I was selected for these responsibilities. But here we are. I’m doing the best I can.

What made you choose to become protector for a profession? For a while, I thought I had no choice in the matter. This gem I was born with on my cheek marks me, according to prophecy. But I was offered the choice as I left the prophecy caves of Tiurlang and, as much as it pains my wizard to hear me say it, I chose to accept the responsibility of protecting Rohne. It’s what I’m supposed to do, and I’ve been trained for it. I didn’t see anyone else stepping up and volunteering to help Him.

Knowing what you know now, if you had it to do over again, would you stick with being a protector or do something different? I don’t think I should answer that. It’s a bit blasphemous and there’s no point in undermining the gods.

All right, that’s your right. What is your biggest fear? My biggest fear is failing everyone. I think what you have to understand is no one in this series wears plot armor. No one. Each one of us has the potential to fail. Miserably. And that’s my fear.

Who is your favorite fictional character and why? My goodness. Talk about a lack of plot armor. There’s a story from our history about a real slave girl named Tiatha. The prince of the Southlands saved her from execution and healed her wounds and took her to be his queen. I’m not sure if it’s her story or her spirit that’s so intriguing to me—but I really like Tiatha.

What is the best piece of advice you ever received? Do you know I was raised and trained by the greatest of the twelve wizards? Hrazon of Mon’dore always had good advice to share. There was always a good lesson in what he taught. I don’t know if I could pick out just one piece of advice above the others, but his lesson on using the balance of nature carefully might be it.

          How to be mindful of the balance is usually the first lesson you teach a geasa’n. It’s wildly important and he shared that with me when we’d run from Drake to the caves of Tiurlang when I was a child.

          Be mindful of the balance of nature because everything we use in our spell weaving comes from somewhere. Matter, light, wind, whatever you’re pulling to yourself is coming from somewhere. For example, if you want something to eat and you weave a spell to create a loaf of bread, you’re not really creating a loaf of bread. You’re pulling it or its ingredients from someone else’s storeroom and that person will go hungry because of it. A proper geasa’n doesn’t steal and upset the balance.

Thank you for spending time with us, Amanda. Now we’d like to chat with Sandy.

With regard to research, where did you start for this novel? Did that lead you down different paths, thereby changing the original concept? I mentioned to you before that when Chariss appeared to me in the early 1980s, I saw her standing on a balcony, greeting the morning suns. The story I’d start writing down went through an absolute ton of changes over the years, changing direction from the original concept.

          I at least had the good sense not to start her story at age four, which is when she and the wizard Hrazon began their sixteen-winters run from the mad sorcerer Jamieson Drake. Instead, I started with a scene in which she and her wizard guardian met up with the son of the Taiman estate in the wilderness. Nigel Taiman literally “surprised” them in the Rochest Forest. Anyone who has read the books will recognize what a mistake that would have been. No one could sneak up on Hrazon of Mon’dore, much less a farmer without a grasp of the geasa/power within him.

          Various “events” happened out of order and different characters showed up where they shouldn’t. I researched medieval weaponry and put my Old English studies to work to change, rework, and fix direction more than once over the years. When a literary agent sent a note saying she couldn’t get excited about the project, I completely rewrote it.

          But that first scene in the wilderness put Chariss in a position of complete uselessness, merely following her wizard’s lead traipsing across the country. While it offered a beautiful moment of Chariss guarding Hrazon while he sleeps (again, Hrazon would never…), I had to get tough, cut the scene, and rewrite the beginning of the story. “Kill your darlings,” as the experts say.

The beginning of Choices Meant for Gods had to change because I was learning more about Chariss and her arc, her independence, and her power. For the opening scene, Chariss ended up on the balcony because there was a reason to start there. She was about to put a knife in the enemy who’d caught up to her.

What's next for you?  I think I mentioned the Canadian publisher Feybreak Books is releasing Eden and the Most Precious Stone soon, which is a YA fantasy in the world of Onweald. That manuscript won second place in the Write Fighters 3-Day Novella Contest in 2022, so it’s due to happen anytime. An anthology with an Onweald short story titled Bitter Fruit is in editing somewhere. I’m also working on what I keep calling “a bridge novel,” which has turned into a trilogy between the events in Choices Meant for All and an epic fantasy mystery in the world of Onweald.

Basically, I have six novels in development for this world as well as about a dozen short stories and novellas for different characters and events and a huge Onweald Encyclopedia for fans who want that sort of collector’s item. Malachi (a dragon) has a regular column in my monthly author eNewsletter. (That link is https://bit.ly/SSReNews) It’s a joy to dive into this fantasy world when the real one gets hectic and harried—I love these characters. I’m invested in telling their stories. I don’t want to stop.

To learn more about Fantasy Author Sandy Lender and the stories she creates go to www.SandyLenderInk.com.

https://twitter.com/SandyLender

https://www.pinterest.com/SandyLender

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoJu4DdGhh7OFofRYl8R1Zg (@SandySaysRead)

 

To purchase Choices Meant for All, go to:

Amazon/print: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C91DKW3C/

Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0C92L7PDT

Nook: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/choices-meant-for-all-sandy-lender/1123159530?ean=2940160838724

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/choices-meant-for-all 

The Fog Ladies: Date With Death

 Wild Women Authors features author Susan McCormick as she celebrates the release of The Fog Ladies: Date With Death, book 4 in the San Francisco Murder Mystery series. With Susan is Enid Carmichael who will go first.

Welcome, Enid. Thank you for joining us today. Let’s start with you telling us a bit about The Fog Ladies: Date with Death. We Fog Ladies, five ladies of some years and young Sarah, the doctor-in-training who is a fraction of my age, are back. I’ll just say, if you don’t know us already, that we are called the Fog Ladies because we can count on each other like you can count on early morning San Francisco fog burning off by midday. Our latest caper you can easily read as a standalone if you don’t care about our pasts. This time, Olivia Honeycut joined a senior dating service, met a man, and promptly stumbled on a body one of her fellow romantics had pitched over a cliff. I think the killer is her new honey. The man is too smooth. He’s lying about his past, and I intend to find out why.

What made you choose your current profession? If this isn’t a loaded question, I don’t know what is. I don’t have a “profession” or a “career.” I am eighty-one years old. I worked behind the cosmetics counter in a high-end department store in San Francisco for about a year in my early days until they fired me for being too heavy handed with the makeup. But that was not a profession, a career. My calling, I guess, is being an old lady. I love it. I love the way I can disappear, even though I’m over six feet tall in my heels. I love the way I can say what I want, filtered or not. I love the way people assume I can’t hear them, or that I wouldn’t understand if I could. Most of all, I love my fellow Fog Ladies.

Knowing what you know now, if you had it to do over again, would you stick with being an old lady or do something different? Sorry, bub, it’s inevitable. We all grow old. Best accept it.

What is your biggest fear? Got none. When you get to be my age, what’s left to fear?

Who is your favorite fictional character and why? She’s not fictional, but I choose Julia Child. I don’t cook, but I admire a tall, strong-willed, reddish-haired woman, being tall myself, definitely strong-willed, and having red hair, though mine might be a different color every month since mine comes from a bottle.

What is the best piece of advice you ever received? My own. I just made it up today. Position yourself near the cookies. You never know how long some of these conversations will go on.

Thank you for sharing your wisdom, Enid. Now we’d like to chat with Susan.

Which writer or character[s], from either books or movies, have had a major impact on your writing? I love Alexander McCall Smith, with his gentle No 1 Ladies Detective Agency series. The mild-mannered mysteries, the life lessons, the poignancy—though there are twenty-four books and counting, there are not enough.

With regard to research, where did you start for this novel? Did that lead you down different paths, thereby changing the original concept? Because I am a doctor, I try to stick to murder weapons I know and understand. So research doesn’t lead me astray, but often the characters themselves will. I have an outline, but characters have minds of their own. Enid Carmichael, for instance, in the first book became addicted to Starbucks lattes. I planned that. Then she started to steal her neighbors’ newspapers for the free latte coupons. She did that, not me.

Tell us a bit about your publisher. How did you hear about them; what influenced you to submit to them; how is the submission process; what is the turn-around time from date of query to date of release? I am on my fourth book with The Wild Rose Press. I met my editor at the Pacific Northwest Writers Association writer conference. I pitched to her, sent my manuscript, signed a contract about three months later, and the book came out within a year.

What are you reading right now? I love Liane Moriarty, Anthony Horowitz, Richard Osman, and Alexander McCall Smith, and will read all their latest. The current book I’m reading is City of the Lost Monkey God, a complete departure from mysteries, but very suspenseful nonetheless.

What's next for you? I am always working on the next Fog Ladies book, the new one to feature a Fog Ladies vacation. In addition, I am finishing revisions on a suspense novel about an estranged alcoholic mother and her surgeon son who must team up to save his career, his patients, and their lives.

 To learn more about Susan McCormick go to:

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To purchase The Fog Ladies: Date With Death, go to:

https://www.amazon.com/Fog-Ladies-Francisco-Murder-Mystery/dp/1509249818

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-fog-ladies-susan-mccormick/1143832976

https://bookshop.org/a/22704/9781509249817