Tehran Archives - Tena Stetler

Mar 20th A Moment with M.S. Spencer & Her New Sizzling Hot Release Lapses of Memory

Give a warm welcome to M.S. Spencer, author of Lapses of Memory!

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 M.S. and her sizzling HOT Lapses of Memory.

Thank you for having me at your great site today, Tena. I’m offering a little background on my new romantic suspense/adventure Lapses of Memory, and a spicy little excerpt.

Lapses of Memory follow the exploits of two journalists, Sydney Bellek and Elian Davies, as they travel the globe reporting on various world catastrophes. The first time they meet as adults, Elian is about to infiltrate a fictional Greek revolutionary group, and Sydney is off to Cairo to stud Arabic. The next time they are both covering the initial stages of the revolution in Iran and only barely escape.

Since I lived through these same events, I wanted to convey both the excitement and the trepidation associated with being in the midst of a world-shattering crisis. As reporters Sydney and Elian sensed that something important was going on, but couldn’t know the extent or the consequences of it. To add that dimension, Sydney tells the story of her life to her daughter. I hope you find it as romantic as I do.

Tell us a little about what inspired this particular story?

Lapses of Memory came about when a former publisher tossed out the idea of a series based on “love in the air.” Rather than starting with a plot of my own devising, I had to come up with one related to someone else’s theme. Sitting quietly in what I euphemistically call my lotus position, I mulled. “Planes,” I said to myself. “Love in the air…snakes on a plane (nah, overdone)…old planes…my first trip on a plane…” Eureka (or aha, whichever you prefer)! There rose before me the image of an enormous, bulbous silver bird with EASTERN written in red across the side. I’d recently seen it at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, which had made me feel really old, since the plane was, in fact, the very first plane I’d flown on at age four. A Boeing 377 Stratocruiser, one of the first to make the transatlantic voyage a regular event, it allowed—with its sleeping berths and formal dining—for luxurious air travel in the 1950s.

My heroine, Sydney, would take that plane. And so would the hero Elian. Everything was going swimmingly, until I realized that, this being a contemporary romance, Sydney and Elian would be too young in 1958 to fall in love. So I was forced to make them suffer through an intermittent romance as they (and airplane design) matured.

This gave me the opportunity to extricate bits from other adventures I’ve had, and so Sydney and Elian became journalists and were subjected to Egyptian/Israeli tensions, to the breakout of the Iranian revolution, and to the civil war in Lebanon. They held up rather well considering.

Where do your story ideas come from? If they come to you in the middle of the night, do you get up and write them all down?

My stories come in one of two ways. I usually start with the setting, followed by extensive Googling. My upcoming release, the Pit and the Passion, is set at the Ghost Hotel, a hotel begun by John Ringling of circus fame in 1926 in Sarasota, and left to crumble for forty years. What do you find at a ghost hotel? Anyone? Sometimes I

Tehran in the 1960’s

allow the Googling its head and discover the most amazing facts that work their way into a story. The Mason’s Mark features a shadowy renegade Mason, who was based on a real person who cropped up on the internet. Lapses of Memory, my new release, actually came out of reminiscing on my rather adventurous past.

Do you find it easier to write from a male or female point of view? Why?

Funny you should ask that. Up to now all my stories have been written from the female point of view—the heroine is the protagonist, although my heroes usually have a large presence. But in my current work-in-progress, the hero nudged his way into the lead despite all my best efforts. Even though he clearly belongs in charge, it has been a real struggle for me. Is he too effeminate? Is he thinking the way a guy thinks or the way a female thinks a guy thinks? Thank God he’s a nerdy academic type and not a big, strapping cowboy! I’m still working on it…

What do you like to do when you are not writing?

Stare out at the tropical sky? Oh, you mean, get off my butt. I happen to live in paradise—Gulf Coast of Florida—so I spend a couple of hours at the beach when I can, swimming and watching the dolphins and magnificent frigatebirds. I like to kayak and bird watch and cook when I can lasso a guest.

You’ve got a time machine, a cloak of invisibility, and one hour. Where would you go, and what eavesdropping would you do?

I think the most fascinating place to listen would be at the Constitutional Convention—to hear our founding fathers formulating what is the most amazing document ever produced by Man would be fabulous.
Oh, I so agree. That’s a good one. Now on to Lapses of Memory.

Sydney Bellek first meets Elian Davies in the 1950s on a Boeing 377 Stratocruiser when she is five and he is seven. They run into each other every few years after that, but while he knows from the start that she is his true love, she does not. Later, as rival journalists, they vie for scoops on international crises from the Iranian revolution to the Lebanese civil war. The handsome and intrepid Elian beats her out at every turn, even while keeping his love for her secret.
Only after years of separation does she finally realize they are meant to be together, but this time, in a twist of fate, it is Elian whose memory of her is gone. Will he remember her before she loses heart or will their new love be enough to replace the old one?

How about a sneak peek into Sydney Bellek and Elian Davies’ world?

Sydney took her daughter’s hand and squeezed it. “Are you sure you’re doing the right thing?”

Olivia shook her off. “We’ve been over this. I sent Ben away. I think he was relieved. I really do.”

Sydney recollected a man standing, shoulders slumped, as Olivia drove off the day before. “I’m not so sure.” She picked up a small enamel box that lay on her bureau and opened it. “Here, I want you to have this.” She held out a thin gold chain. A small teardrop pearl hung from it.

“What is it?”

“It’s the first gift your father gave me. He bought it in the bazaar in Tangier. I want you to have it.”

Olivia’s voice broke. “Oh, Mother.”

Sydney put it around her daughter’s neck and closed the catch. “Olivia, true love is not to be discarded lightly. You could find yourself regretting your decision years from now.”

“I know, every night in the shower for the rest of my life, wondering where he was and what he was doing. But that was you, not me. I know what I’m doing.”

The Wild Rose Press, itunes , Amazon, Barnes and Noble, KOBO, and Bookstrand

Although M. S. Spencer has lived or traveled in five of the seven continents, the last thirty years were spent mostly in Washington, D.C. as a librarian, Congressional staff assistant, speechwriter, editor, birdwatcher, kayaker, policy wonk, non-profit director, and parent. After many years in academia, she worked for the U.S. Senate, the U.S. Department of the Interior, in several library systems, both public and academic, and at the Torpedo Factory Art Center.
Ms. Spencer has published ten romantic suspense novels, and has two more in utero. She has two fabulous grown children and an incredible granddaughter. She divides her time between the Gulf Coast of Florida and a tiny village in Maine.

Contacts

Blog: http://msspencertalespinner.blogspot.com

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

Twitter: www.twitter.com/msspencerauthor

GoodReads:http://www.goodreads.com/msspencer
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/msspencerauthor/

Google +: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+MSSpencerauthor

Linked in: www.linkedin.com/in/msspencerauthor

My calendar of events can be found here:

Romance Books 4 Us:

http://romancebooks4us.com/Romance%20Author%20M.%20S.%20Spencer.html OR

http://bit.ly/1d6ehza

It was wonderful having you with us today. Please feel free to stop by anytime. Good Luck with Lapses of Memory.