Bear With Me by Marilyn Barr An Interview
Give a warm welcome to Marilyn Barr author of Bear With Me. I see you brought along a couple guests. Please introduce them.Happy to, this is Grant and Alison from Bear With Me.
Welcome Grant and Alison. How about we pull up a chair, grab a drink of your choice from the cooler, a Chocolate Chip or Peanut Butter cookie from the plate, and let’s find out a little about Grant and Alison as well as Marilyn then of course Bear With Me!
Lets start with Grant, tell us about the real you—
Hi, Thanks for having us. I’m Grant Luther, the senior director of regulatory affairs at Bergan Pharmaceuticals. We specialize in genetically engineering biologics and my role is to collect the safety data into a package for FDA approval. I turn science into medicine. We outsource our clinical trials but the R&D, microbiological testing, genetic engineering, labeling, and API manufacturing all happen in-house. We are quite self-sufficient. Our next product, Julibamar, is a new approach to schizophrenia treatment. This biologic drug augments the gut flora to change the chemicals sent to the brain. It will naturally balance neurotransmitters.
Tell us three things we’d find if we looked under your bed?
Hopefully nothing! It is an old plantation home but I had it restored, including pest removal. Ten weeks ago, I left our home in Ohio to live in Strawberry, Kentucky. This gave me some time to focus on Bergan Pharma and transition into my new role. This weekend Alison and our son will be joining me. I have picked out a renovated plantation home and decorated a new master suite. However, I haven’t slept there yet. Azolicyst, another Bergan product, is close to approval so I have been working around the clock. When I do sleep, it is either collapsed at my desk or on the ugly couch in my office. The lack of sleep will be worth it when we bring relief to ulcerative colitis sufferers.
……What makes you laugh out loud?
Henrik is our twelve-year-old son and class clown. When his school in Ohio would call, they had the most outrageous stories about my son. I was too busy holding in my laughter at the description of his antics to be of much help. It is a blessing in disguise that Strawberry is over an hour away from the nearest public school. Henrik is a musical autistic savant and will enjoy homeschooling because of the extra time he will spend on his composing. While he is more social at school, he will be more productive at home. How much could he possibly be learning from the principal’s office anyway?
……What makes you angry?
Having a mechanical, electronic, or internet problem winds me up into a tailspin. I’m trying to save people from pain and suffering. Being blocked by an “unknown permissions error” or “conductivity reduction error”, is unacceptable. Bergan has a two-man IT department who I swear spend more time on my couch than at their screens. The jokesters have made me feel welcome but act more reactive than proactive. It is like they weren’t trained to work in corporate America. The CEO loves the pair when all they do is set our deadlines behind our potential trajectory. There is something I’m missing.
What event in your past has left the most indelible impression on you?
My life changed when Alison fell into it. We were college seniors and I was stuck in an ecology class. I needed to fulfill my environmental science requirement, or I wouldn’t have been in her path. For class, we had to volunteer in the greenhouse, and my job was watering the Mineola trees. One day, I fell off the ladder onto Alison’s plants. When she blazed at me for squishing them, I was drawn to her like a moth. She is so beautiful when she gets riled up like that, I had to spend more time with her. I had to get to know the woman so passionate about the injustice of the little seedlings. We started dating and have been together for almost thirteen years.
What do you most value?
I value a hard day’s work and the people who have them. With hard work, the pharma industry can make the world a better place. Some people go to work to make money, I want to save lives and reduce the pain in others. I work tirelessly to provide medicine for the sick, jobs for my community, and necessities for my family. Alison and Henrik have sacrificed as much as I have so I can reach the top of my field.
Life should be easier now. I can afford to give Alison all the riches she deserves for being alone all those years. I am so lucky she understood that having me working overnight on life-saving medicines was more important than having me home to help change diapers. I plan to reward her sacrifices with everything she asks for whether she wants jewels, clothes, or a new car. So far, she has only asked me to start listening to her, whatever that means.
…..What do you sleep at night?
More often than not, I sleep in a crumpled version of the suit I wore during the day. Bergan Pharma has a full gym with locker room so I can shower and change at work. If I wake up at my desk or on my office couch, it is no big deal. I keep extra clothes in my office for a quick change. With Alison moving to Strawberry, I hope to have more reasons to sleep at home.
You see, we haven’t shared a bedroom in close to five years. In an awkward phone conversation, I convinced her to move into the master suite I have decorated for her. After a day of moving furniture, she will retreat to a luxury suite with soaking tub, high-thread-count sheets, and so many soothing potted plants, it feels like sleeping in a forest. I hope she likes it. I hope she lets me use it.
What is the type of woman you want to spend the rest of your life with?
Alison. Not her type, just her. We were meant to be together and I will do anything to keep her. I’m not stupid. I know she has one foot out the door. This move is my one last chance to make what we have gone through the last few years worth it to her. We have made it financially, so everything else should fall into place. The only instruction she has given to me to fix us is to listen to her. Sigh, she doesn’t talk. We fight and she retreats to her garden for sensory relief. I don’t follow her because I want to be understanding about her disorder. I want to fulfill her need for grounding but maybe it is time I start chasing her again.
What do you consider most important in life?
The most important thing you can do with your life is to make a difference. Whether it is at Bergan, raising my son, or interacting with the community, I will leave the world a better place. With the correct genetically engineered probiotics, Bergan will save thousands from pain and suffering. I am honored to be a part of their efforts. With each new drug, another faction of our world can contribute to their communities instead of nursing their diseases. A domino effect of innovation, improvement, and creation comes from each life we save.
What is your biggest fear?
I fear I will lose my family. If I fail to keep Alison, Henrik will suffer the most. She will take him back to Ohio where her family can help her raise him. This is my one last chance to prove to Alison that I love her more than life itself. I can feel that we were meant to be together and I am committed to doing what it takes to save our marriage. If only I knew what it was, I needed to do.
I plan to build Alison a paradise. Our new home has a few acres for her to garden for hours. We are isolated from the town center, both stoplights, so she can go days without human interaction if she desires. The house itself has floor-to-ceiling windows in most of the room so she doesn’t have to use electric lights whose buzzing irritates her. She can eat in privacy without worry about judgment over her sensory demands. I have found the way she senses the world fascinating, but she has told me of the bullying she experienced for her eating rituals. I tried to read her mind and give her everything she desires. I only hope that I chose correctly.
Sorry to chat and run, but work calls.
Okay, Ailson, your turn in the hot seat. LOL Only kidding.
Tell us who are you really?
Hi, thank you for having us. I’m sorry Grant had to rush back to work. The drive back to Strawberry is longer this time of year with all the deer crossing the highway. I am Alison Luther, Teacher…well, former teacher…not a school teacher, I taught at a garden center. My new job is as a homeschool mom. Henrik is so excited and I will adjust.
Tell us three things we’d find if we looked under your bed?
My gardening apron ends up on the floor more nights than not. I stay outside as late as I dare. I love to watch the flowers close at night. Their petals furl and their scents fade, changing them from broadcasters of beauty to quiet serenity. I stay out until the earth cools beneath my bare feet so dusty footprints are also under my bed. The third item would be the vacuum cord. Grant hates my dirty footprints and follows me with a vacuum on days when he is home. Sometimes I wonder if he is entertained by my messes or annoyed.
……What makes you laugh out loud?
I love the antics of my students at the garden center. The small children hunting for worms in commercial potting soil always makes me chuckle. One elderly gentleman planted a gummy worm in a plant before one of my classes. I laughed until tears formed in my eyes at the squeals of delight from the preschoolers who found it. I was grateful when he coached them into releasing it into the wild instead of eating it. I smile to myself when I imagine what will happen when their mothers try to give them gummy worms for the first time at home. I will miss teaching at the garden center. Hopefully, in a community full of homeschoolers, Henrik can make some friends for me to teach. Bonus points if he can find friends who enjoy science more than my little musician does.
……What makes you angry?
Broken promises light my fuse. When Grant promises Henrik to do come to a school function, do an activity with him, or help with schoolwork, I expect him to follow through. It may not be saving humanity, but it is a promise Grant chose to make. Sometimes I wish he would just stop making promises. The man has a silver tongue and with a flash of his dimples, I will agree to anything. I mean…I’m following him to a state I have only seen on TV shows. Perhaps the next time he shows me an ad for something he wants to buy for me, I should ask that he keep his former promises instead.
……What do you sleep in at night?
I sleep in a camisole with either shorts or yoga pants. When I am in the garden at night, I do yoga. Grant says our new home is far from the town center lights with a balcony, so I can imagine I’m amongst the stars. I stretch my tired muscles while clearing my mind of the turmoil of the day. Fights with Grant and Henrik’s principal drain from my body into the earth. I return inside so relaxed, I collapse in my bed still dressed for yoga.
Who were the biggest role models in your life?
Even though she is younger than me, I would love to be more like my sister, Betty. She’s a nursing student who balances the nurturing part of her nature with a no-nonsense attitude. No one tries to stomp on Betty. From playground bullies to high school mean girls, Betty has taken on anyone who picked on me for my sensory processing disorder. She is confident, unashamedly opinionated, and has a true sense of self-worth. She is always there to be a pillar strength for anyone who needs it.
What kind of man do you want to spend the rest of your life with?
As much as I would like to give a vague description, I might as well give the short answer: Grant. Does that make me stupid? Despite all we have been through, I only want to be with him. He provides structure and security when my senses are constantly rioting. When the world becomes too much for me, I can leave myself in his care…when he isn’t too busy saving the world. Am I being selfish when I want a piece of his time too if he is the key to saving the lives of so many?
What kind of man would you never choose?
I’m not sure which is worse a cruel man or an indifferent man to the problems of the world. I am passionate about the well-being of plants, animals, and children. As much as I complain about Grant working all the time, I wouldn’t love him without his drive to save humanity from disease.
What is most important to you in life?
My son Henrik is my legacy. I wish to teach him to value our planet and all its creatures. We need to open our heart to sharing our world with all plants, animals, and people. It is up to us to include everyone in our community and make the necessary accommodations to help them feel comfortable. Henrik is so bright. He often rescues me with his earbuds when we go shopping in a store with loud fluorescent lights or coolers. I can never predict whether a store will be habitable until I am in it. With Henrik’s earbuds, I can navigate the store and complete my purchases. I hope he learns to extend this kindness to everyone he meets.
What is your biggest secret?
Oh, I shouldn’t say…my parents raised me not to talk about it. Has Grant left? Oh yes, he left for work right after his segment. You see, he is so accepting of my quirks from sensory processing disorder that I didn’t want to press my luck and tell him I am a Green Witch. I was born with the ability to grow plants by touching them. Only my parents, siblings, my witchy aunt Sarah and now, you know my secret. At the garden center, I just always wore gardening gloves. When Grant is around, which isn’t that often, I make sure I do not touch plants. If he starts to spend more time at home, I will have to spend less time with my plants or come clean. How can I tell him after hiding it after all these years? It is not like he will believe me anyway. He doesn’t believe in magic.
Thank you Alison!
Marilyn, tell us a little about writing Bear With Me. Was it fun or difficult? Do your characters always act as you expect? Are you a plotter, or fly (write) by the seat of your pants?
My books start with a dream. The dream is either the ending or the final scare through the eyes of a new character. Bear with Me started with a dream after writing a journal entry about my husband driving to our new home from work. We had just moved to Kentucky from Ohio just like the Luther family. I wrote about my husband cruising to our new home while balancing a pizza box on the front seat of his BMW. The journal entry is now Chapter 2 in the novel. The following night I dreamed I was addressing a crowd of animals in the pizzeria of my childhood. There were wolves, birds, elephants, all the predatory cats, and even a hippo. The dream setting became Paulino’s pizzeria and the animals became the Strawberry Shifters’ pack.
I am often found writing post-its in the middle of the night which will be turned into character aesthetics in the morning to brainstorm their rules. It is important to me that the character be consistent throughout the book in their go-to gestures, level of swearing, and favorite phrases.
In Bear with Me, Grant has loud, larger than life persona without trying. His thundering footsteps, imposing voice, and boisterous laughter fills the book. His character aesthetic was the first completed task when I decided to turn a journal entry into the novel. I didn’t make Alison’s aesthetic until I had written a few chapters for the book was originally an ode to my spouse, completely from his point of view. When I added Alison’s chapters, her aesthetic detailed her long-winded sentences, plant analogies, and how she twists her fingers when she gets anxious.
After I have my rules for the characters, the next step is a living outline. A grid is laid out on plain paper and each chapter gets a box. During the first draft, the boxes are cut apart to be rearranged with new chapters placed between them as I get tuned into the characters. Bear with Me was entirely from Grant’s point-of-view in its first outline. However, that outline was cut, pasted back together, and decorated with marker five times before the first draft was completed.
Bear with Me is deeply personal with Grant and Alison serving as exaggerated parodies of my spouse and myself. Giving up my homestead in Ohio to move to a state I had never visited was the adventure of a lifetime. It was the life change that brought our marriage back from the edge, but will it work out for Grant and Alison?
Tell us a little more about Bear With Me.
Blue eyes, dimples, and silky brown hair; Grant Luther has all of Alison’s weaknesses.
When he asks for one last chance to save their marriage, she agrees to relocate their family to isolated Strawberry, Kentucky in pursuit of his career dreams. Grant views Alison’s sensory issues as limitations and protects her from outside threats. When he finds his new job includes changing him into a shifter in a war against the soul-sucking Sluagh he vows to keep the changes a secret. What he doesn’t know is Alison has been hiding a magical secret of her own. One that makes her a target of the Sluagh.
Will Alison emerge from Grant’s shadow to protect her family? And can Grant learn that being different can be a strength not a weakness?
Sneak peek between the pages of Bear With Me:
“You look perfect. I mean perfectly healthy. I mean mostly uninjured,” she stammers. She places her tiny hand over her eyes.
Feeling braver than ever, I walk right up to her. I gently remove the hand from her face and hold it to my own. “See, I’m fine,” I whisper as I gently rub my thumb over her tiny knuckles.
Her eyes lift to mine and lock our gazes. I have always found the golden color of her eyes fascinating but never studied them up close. They are light brown with a golden star in the middle. I am literally star gazing as she takes in the injuries to my face. We stand there for about a minute, lost in time.
I wonder if she is thinking about when we first started dating, the hard times that followed, the present, or the future. I search her face for clues but don’t want to break the spell by opening my mouth. I decide to put said mouth to better use by lowering my head toward hers.
Bear With Me Buy Links:
About the Author of Bear With Me:
Marilyn Barr currently resides in the wilds of Kentucky with her husband, son, and rescue cats. When engaging with the real world, she is collecting characters, empty coffee cups, and unused homeschool curricula.
She has a diverse background containing experiences as a child prodigy turned medical school reject, biodefense microbiologist, high school science teacher, homeschool mother of a savant, and advocate for the autistic community.
She would love to hear from readers via her website: www.marilynbarr.com.
- Social Media Links:
- website
It was wonderful having you all with us today. Please feel free to stop by anytime. Good Luck with Bear With Me.
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Posted in Authors' Secrets Blog and tagged Bear With Me, Contemporary Romance, Marilyn Barr by Tena Stetler with 10 comments.
Never Enough by Kristian M. Sanchez – Cover Reveal
Never Enough cover reveal is organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Kristina M. Sanchez will award a randomly drawn winner a $20 Amazon/BN GC. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.
At thirty-seven, Valentin Belmonte returned to his mother’s house with his tail between his legs. No surprise there. His life had been a long line of bad choices, failures, and trouble. Also returning home, freshly graduated and on the hunt for a job, was Mina Toussaint, the orphan Val’s mother and stepfather had taken in when he was already grown. She’d been the only person who’d ever really liked him, but he’d screwed that up a long time ago.
Mina’s adoptive family had treated her like the perfect princess and little girl they always wanted. Val was the only one who’d ever seen her for who she really was; she’d never wanted to be a princess. But after what happened when she was sixteen, she thought she hated him. Now, six years later, things were different. She wasn’t the child she’d been when she got so angry. The trouble was that Val hadn’t changed. He still saw her.
About the Author:
Author Bio: Kristina M. Sanchez began her life-long love of writing as a small, insomniac child, making up stories about Bugs Bunny to occupy herself when everyone in the house was asleep. She lives now in Southern California with two cats and an enchanting hurricane—err—toddler. An enchanting, smarty-pants, bewildering toddler. Kristina is an asexual, happily single mother by choice. You might think that’s a weird kind of person to be writing romance novels, but the best science-fiction writers have never been to space, so there you go.
It was wonderful of you to share the cover of Never Enough with us. Good luck with Never Enough!
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Posted in Authors' Secrets Blog and tagged Contemporary Romance, Cover Reveal, Kristina M. Sanchez, Never Enough by Tena Stetler with 4 comments.
Letters & Lies from Colleen L Donnelly
Give a warm welcome to Colleen L. Donnelly, author of Letters and Lies new release. Pull up a chair, grab a drink of your choice from the cooler, a Chocolate Chip or Peanut Butter cookie from the plate, and let’s find out a little about Colleen and her Letters & Lies.
Thank you, Tena, for letting me air my newest characters and the smiles they still give me, even after two years of wrestling them to the page. “Letters and Lies” is a humorous divergence and stretch from my normal serious historical novels, a fun read I wrapped around matters of the heart, utter disappointment, and the staggering realization that going left when you should have gone right can still spawn a measure of success amidst a glut of failures.
I scratch my head at slapstick comedy, and maybe some will at my dry sense of humor. But it worked well when it came to creating a determined heroine I think we can all relate to, one with a blind eye to her own foibles. Louise Archer wanted what she couldn’t have, and wanted it badly enough she gave herself permission to lie, assume a false identity, take over someone else’s family business, upend a small town’s economy, and throw suspicion at a haughty banker in order to get it. Red-faced every time one of her schemes backfires, and horrified at the woman she has become, Louise’s broken heart and social humiliation propel her forward through a plethora of wrongs to make a single right…the right she thought she wanted…something, again, I think we can all relate to, and I hope many enjoy.
Speed Round (one word only answer): Yep, I know torture for a writer!<evil laugh>
Favorite movie: Follow the Stars Home
Favorite book: The Monk (the really old story by Matthew Lewis)
Last book read: Where the Crawdads Sing
Favorite color: Yellow
Stilettos or flipflops: Flipflops
Coffee or tea: COFFEE
Ebook or audiobook or paperback: Paperback
Pencil or pen: Pen
Favorite song: For Those Tears I Died
Streak or not: Once
Favorite dessert: Icebox Dessert
Favorite junk food: Fritos
Favorite thing to do to relax: Walk
Champagne or gin: Don’t drink
Paranormal or Historical: Historical
Wonder Woman or Top Model: Uhhhh…
Favorite TV show: Seinfeld
Hot or cold: Hot
POV: First
I’d die if I don’t have: Coffee
Review or Not: Review
Now give us the scoop on Letters & Lies.
Louise Archer boards a westbound train in St. Louis to find the Kansas homesteader who wooed and proposed to her by correspondence, then jilted her by telegram – Don’t come, I can’t marry you. Giving a false name to hide her humiliation, her lie backfires when a marshal interferes and offers her his seat.
Marshal Everett McCloud intends to verify the woman coming to marry his homesteading friend is suitable. At the St. Louis train station, his plan detours when he offers his seat to a captivating woman whose name thankfully isn’t Louise Archer.
Everett’s plans thwart hers, until he begins to resemble the man she came west to find, and she the woman meant to marry his friend.
Buy Link: https://amzn.to/2yNFGNv
A sneak peek between the pages of Letters & Lies!
“Kansas Concoctions.” Cook burst into the dining area with a shout, a tray in one hand and a spatula in the other. The tray clattered on the side table. Every head turned, every brow raised, surely every eye spotted the butt of his pistol that jutted from his apron. The gasp which issued from the civilized sector told me they had.
Drat. “Confections,” I said to Joshua. “He means Kansas Confections. Excuse me.” I marched in Cook’s
direction, a steady but civilized step which quickened when the spatula thudded next to the tray. “Cook,” I
hissed. He turned, his surly glare stopping before it reached me. He leveled a gaze on Rudy, and Lizzy next
to him. “Cook,” I hissed even louder. He set out Rudy’s direction. I switched my course and saw Deputy Joshua come to his feet. Now three sets of footsteps marched through the hush which fell over Eat Here. Travelers I had worked so hard to make comfortable stopped eating and talking, everyone’s attention on the Wild West show which promised to ruin everything.
Drat Cook.
About the Author:
Scientist gone rogue, Colleen has left the world of black and white facts for the mushy swamp of broken hearts, betrayals, and impossible relationships she mixes together on the page instead of in a test tube.
Way to go Colleen!
Now you can find Colleen at:
http://www.colleenldonnelly.com/
https://www.facebook.com/ColleenLDonnelly
https://twitter.com/colleenLdonnell
http://www.Goodreads.com/colleenldonnelly
It was wonderful having you with us today. Please feel free to stop by anytime. Good Luck with Letters & Lies.
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Posted in Authors' Secrets Blog and tagged Colleen L. Donnelly, Contemporary Romance, Letters & Lies, Western Romance by Tena Stetler with 16 comments.
Vanilla With a Twist by Peggy Jaeger
Give a warm welcome to Peggy Jaeger, author of Vanilla With A Twist. Part of The Wild Rose Press’s new fun summer series One Scoop or Two! Love ice cream don’t you?
Hey Peggy, I see you’ve brought guests with you?
Yeah, they had a bit of time to kill so here they are. Deacon Withers, hero and Tandy Blakemore, heroine and ice cream shop owner, from Vanilla With A Twist
That’s wonderful!
Pull up a chair, grab a drink of your choice from the cooler, a Chocolate Chip or Peanut Butter cookie from the plate, and let’s find out a little about Peggy and her Vanilla With A Twist. First Deacon, come on over here and lets talk.
Tells us about the real you— I’m so boring it’s not even funny. Basically, I work. And I work. And I travel for work, and then work some more. Not a lot of free time for anything else like relationships or fun. I started my own engineering firm ten years ago and it’s grown so rapidly that all I do now is travel to meet with clients. I miss the days when I could make things hands-on, figure problems in a design out, or even just tinker.
Tell us three things we’d find if we looked under your bed? Dust, one slipper because I can’t find the other one, a dog earred copy of A Clockwork Orange that I start reading every year and never finish.
……What makes you laugh out loud? Slapstick comedy and really good, thoughtful puns. The kind you need to think about for a second and then go, yeah.
……What makes you angry? Physical, mental, and emotional violence of any kind, to any one.
What event in your past has left the most indelible impression on you? I can remember it like it was yesterday, which – I’ve always heard – is a sure sign you’re getting old. Haha. I was seven and my mother’s vacuum cleaner went on the fritz. She called my father at work and told him he had his work cut out for him when he got home. Well, that night, I sat on the bench in his workroom in the basement of our house and watched as he took the entire thing apart. He couldn’t for the life of him figure out what was wrong, so he gave up, scooped me up to get ready for bed and told my mother he’d deal with it on his next day off. I always woke up before my parents did, so the next morning I snuck down into the basement to play with the fascinating parts my father had disassembled. By the time my folks woke up and came looking for me I had the motor back together and the vacuum was once again working. From that day forward anything that broke in our house was immediately given to me to fix.
What do you most value? Honesty and hard work.
…..What do you sleep in at night? A bed. And that’s all I’m saying.
What is the type of woman you want to spend the rest of your life with? I hadn’t considered this question fully before now, but I’d like to think the one I’m in love with. Feisty, strong willed, smart and with a backbone of steel. All that fiery red hair and freckles don’t hurt either.
What do you consider most important in life? Having a purpose and feeling as if you’re making, or have made, a difference in the lives of others. Everything else that comes along falls from this.
What is your biggest secret? You really don’t think I’m going to share that, do you?
It’s always worth a try! You’d be surprised at what people will reveal. LOL
Step on over her Tandy, It’s your turn in the barrel, so as to speak.
Who are you really? Just a small town girl who faced poor decisions straight on and lived to fight another day. That sounds way better than a farm girl who got pregnant at sixteen and never had a chance to leave her small time life.
Tell us three things we’d find if we looked under your bed? A box of my son’s old report cards, some dust resembling tumbleweeds and a plastic container of the past six years’ worth of receipts.
……What makes you laugh out loud? Slapstick comedy like the Marx brothers and old back and white RomComs.
……What makes you angry? Conceit, arrogance, and people who think they are better than you are simply because they had more advantages in life. And bill collectors, although I think those make me more anxious than angry.
……What do you sleep in at night? Old t-shirts and sweat pants.
Who were the biggest role models in your life? My only role model was my grandmother Blakemore. She was born and bred a farm girl, married a dairyman, and then helped my granddad build up a successful dairy farm business all the while keeping hearth and home alive. She never suffered fools, called a spade a spade and was loyal to a fault with her family. From her I got my excellent math skills and I learned at her knee how to make the best tasting ice cream in the world, using our family cow’s milk and cream.
What kind of man do you want to spend the rest of your life with? Until recently I thought I’d never have a lifelong man to call my own. So I’d have to say the one who sauntered into my shop one sunny July day and stole my heart when he fixed all my broken machines for free. He’s smart, kind, well mannered ( much more than me) really listens to a person and doesn’t think five steps ahead of what he wants to say, but hears you out. Plus, he’s got all that tall, rangy good looking stuff going on, so there’s that.
What kind of man would you never choose? Self absorbed, mean tempered and boring. I don’t care if he was is rich as all get out and I’d never have to work another day in my life. I’m not wasting my time with anyone with those qualities.
What is most important to you in life? Financial stability and making sure my son gets the educational advantages I didn’t, like college.
What is your biggest fear? Bankruptcy.
Peggy, Tell us a little about writing Vanilla With A Twist. Was it fun or difficult? Do your characters always act as you expect? Are you a plotter, or fly (write) by the seat of your pants?
When the Wild Rose Press put out the call for a new summer series dealing with ice cream in all forms, I just knew I had to submit something. A small town romance with an older couple had been dancing around in my head for a while and once this storyline was made public, I knew what I wanted to write. It took a single day to plot it all out and another to find my character lookalikes on Pinterest. ( you can see that page here: https://www.pinterest.com/peggyjaeger/vanilla-with-a-twist/
Within 3 weeks the first draft was done, another week to polish, and then I submitted and received a contract in less than a month.
Peggy, tell us about Vanilla With A Twist.
Tandy Blakemore spends her days running her New England ice cream parlor, single-parenting her teenage son, and trying to keep her head above financial water. No easy feat when the shop’s machinery is aging and her son is thinking about college. Tandy hasn’t had a day off in a decade and wonders if she’ll ever be able to live a worry-free life.
Engineer Deacon Withers is on an enforced vacation in the tiny seaside town of Beacher’s Cove. Overworked, stressed, and lonely, he walks into Tandy’s shop for a midday ice cream cone and gets embroiled in helping her fix a broken piece of equipment.
Can the budding friendship that follows lead to something everlasting?
Buy Links:
A sneak peek between the page of Vanilla With A Twist:
For a few moments, she regarded him with a look his mother would have called insightful. The corners of her eyes narrowed, she dipped her chin a hair, and she pulled her mouth into another appealing pout he was tempted to kiss.
“I bet,” she said after a long, drawn-out sigh, “you were the kind of kid who took apart clocks and fans and vacuum cleaners to see how they worked.”
“It was more washing machines and lawn mowers and anything with a motor, but yeah. I was.”
She shook her head, her own lips forming a lopsided grin. “Your poor mother.”
“She survived.”
Tandy rolled her eyes and shot her hands to her hips. “So it’s working again?” She thrust her chin at the ice cream machine.
“For now.”
“Okay, well, I can live with for now. And you think you know the real reason it’s been acting up?”
“I definitely do. But like I said, the water to the machine needs to be shut off to fix it.”
“Okay. Well, we close at nine.”
“I’ll come back a little before then. Get things ready. Is that okay with you?”
“I guess it’ll have to be.” She bit down on the inside of her cheek as her brows pulled together. “And you’re sure you want to do this?”
“If I weren’t, I wouldn’t offer, Tandy.”
Why her reluctance to have him help was such a turn-on was something he considered while he waited for his ice cream.
About the Author:
Peggy Jaeger is a contemporary romance writer who writes Romantic Comedies about strong women, the families who support them, and the men who can’t live without them. If she can make you cry on one page and bring you out of tears rolling with laughter the next, she’s done her job as a writer!
Family and food play huge roles in Peggy’s stories because she believes there is nothing that holds a family structure together like sharing a meal…or two…or ten. Dotted with humor and characters that are as real as they are loving, she brings all topics of daily life into her stories: life, death, sibling rivalry, illness and the desire for everyone to find their own happily ever after. Growing up the only child of divorced parents she longed for sisters, brothers and a family that vowed to stick together no matter what came their way. Through her books, she’s created the families she wanted as that lonely child.
When she’s not writing Peggy is usually painting, crafting, scrapbooking or decoupaging old steamer trunks she finds at rummage stores and garage sales.
A lifelong and avid romance reader and writer, Peggy is a member of RWA and her local New Hampshire RWA Chapter.
As a lifelong diarist, she caught the blogging bug early on, and you can visit her at peggyjaeger.com where she blogs daily about life, writing, and stuff that makes her go “What??!”
Social Media links:
Website: http://peggyjaeger.com/
Blog: http://peggyjaeger.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Peggy-Jaeger-Author/825914814095072?ref=bookmarks
Twitter: https://twitter.com/peggy_jaeger
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13478796.Peggy_Jaeger
BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/peggy-jaeger
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDR8RRIlssIyS0FYZWeGqsg/videos?view_as=subscriber
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/peggyjaeger_author/
Pintrest: https://www.pinterest.com/peggyjaeger/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peggy-jaeger-296ab878/
Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00T8E5LN0
Authors database: https://authorsdb.com/community/15814-peggy-jaeger
Triberr: https://triberr.com/tribe/strong-women–loving-men
It was wonderful having you with us today. Please feel free to stop by anytime. Good Luck with Vanilla With A Twist!
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Posted in Authors' Secrets Blog and tagged Contemporary Romance, One Scoop or Two, Peggy Jaeger, Vanilla with a Twist by Tena Stetler with 24 comments.
