She Reawakens His Soul. Her Fated Cowboy by Donna Michaels.

Today it’s my pleasure to interview wonderfully talented author, Donna Michaels who is celebrating her latest release, Her Fated Cowboy. 

Before we begin, let’s learn a bit more about the story…

L.A. cop, Jordan Masters Ryan has a problem. Her normal method of meeting a crisis head-on and taking it down won’t work. Not this time. Not when fate is her adversary. Having kept her from the man she thought she’d always marry, the same fickle fate took away the man she eventually did. Thrown back into the path of her first love, she finds hers is not the only heart fate has damaged.

Widower and software CEO, Cole McCall fills his days with computer codes and his free time working the family’s cattle ranch. Blaming himself for his wife’s death, he’s become hard and bitter. When his visiting former neighbor sets out to delete the firewall around his heart, he discovers there’s no protection against the Jordan virus. Though she understands his pain and reawakens his soul, will it be enough for Cole to overcome his past and embrace their fated hearts?

This is the first book in Harland County Series about 4 unruly cowboys and the women who tame them.

Interview time!

SKY:  Welcome, Donna! Always so great to have you visit.

DONNA:  Good morning, Sky. Thank you so much for having me here today. And thank you for such fun questions! I had a blast answering them.

SKY:  Awesome! Let's get to it then. How did you come up with the title?

DONNA:  Her Fated Cowboy was previously released as Fated Hearts through The Wild Rose Press. It’s been revamped with over 10k words, new scenes added, scenes deleted, new ending and heat level upped to hot.  This book is also the first in my new cowboy series and I knew I wanted the titles to have ‘cowboy’ in it so the title went from Fated Hearts to Her Fated Cowboy.

SKY:  If you could spend an hour in real life with one of your characters, who would it be and why?

DONNA:  Fabulous question. Also a toughie. Since I’m happily married I’ll stay away from the hero, especially since I modeled Cole after one of my favorite fictional characters, Duncan McCloud from the television show Highlander.  And, although I know both Kevin and Connor would be a riot to hang out with, I’m going to choose Jordan, my heroine. She’s my strongest, most willful heroine to date…and I’ve had a few. They’re my favorite kind.  But Jordan is special and I’d love to hang out with her. I know she’d get my rear in gear and help me hit my upcoming deadline. And maybe get one of those other books finished, too! :-)

SKY:  If you had to sell your book based on one run of dialogue (start quote to end quote), which would it be?

DONNA:  “Don’t try to turn this all around and put the focus on me, pal. It won’t work. I’m not one of your unsuspecting victims. But, you’re right. There is something about you I like. Your body. Or should I say Cole’s body,” she corrected, looking him up and down, really, really liking what she saw. Dammit. “It’s grown up quite nice.  But I still don’t like you.”

SKY:  Tell us about your book cover and how it relates to your story.

DONNA:  I LOVE my cover!  I was looking through Jimmy Thomas’ stock photos but couldn’t quite find the right one to capture my hero until I clicked his link to premade covers and there it was. Holy Cowboys was I thrilled! The cover was not only perfect for Cole, it perfectly captured one of the most important scenes of the story. In Her Fated Cowboy, Cole is dressed in jeans, white shirt and black Stetson when he and Jordan are caught in a lightning storm. I couldn’t believe my luck!

SKY:  Are you currently working on another story? If so, we’d love some details.

DONNA:  Yes, I’m actually working on four. I know. That’s insane. Fitting though, since my nickname is Mayhem. I’ve got Cowboy Daddy Squared started—the sequel to Cowboy-Sexy. Future Hero—the second book in my Time-shift Heroes series. Locke and Load—the  first book in my Dangerous Curves romantic suspense series is three quarters of the way done too, but I’ve put them all aside to concentrate on finishing the second book in my Harland County series—Her Unbridled Cowboy.

SKY:  What sort of personality does your hero have?

DONNA:  I’d have to say Cole’s personality is passionate. He runs the gamut of a few traits throughout the book but they can all add ‘passionately’ in front…passionately angry; passionately happy; passionately loving; passionately remorseful. Yes, Cole is a passionate hero. In the beginning of the story he’s mean and unfeeling, full of self loathing and guilt, which he takes out on others, wanting to keep everyone at bay. That goes to pot when the heroine arrives. lol

SKY:  What sort of personality does your heroine have?

DONNA:  Jordan is a force of nature. :-) She’s strong-willed, responsible, just, yet vulnerable. She doesn’t sit back and let others fight the fight. If someone needs help, she helps no matter the cost.

SKY:  Did you enjoy writing one scene above all the rest? If so, share.

DONNA:  Two scenes immediately jump to mind from this book and they both take place in the boardroom at McCall Enterprises. lol. The first is when Jordan crashes a meeting because Cole refuses to take her calls. Big mistake, bucko! What comes out of her mouth is priceless—enough  to make him drag her with him from the room. And the second takes place between Cole and his best friend/vice president, Kevin in the same boardroom later in the book. This time, it’s Kevin who’s a piece of work. He had me chuckling and shaking my head. Something tells me I’m going to have my hands full when I write his story.

SKY:  Do you write books in series? If so, share a bit about the series you currently have published or are coming soon.

DONNA:  As you already know, I have a few series’, but I’ll spare you and only talk about the Harland County Series. I know. You’re welcome. lol

The tagline is: …unruly cowboys and the women who tame them.

Fitting, considering these cowboys need taming. Her Fated Cowboy is a reunion romance were both the hero and heroine are recovering from losing their spouses. The second book is their siblings Kerri and Connor in Her Unbridled Cowboy, also a reunion story but of different proportions. More like brother and sister in their childhoods, now, eleven years later, not so much. Okay, not at all. Connor’s a cattle rancher, engaged three times to city girls. Kerri is, yes, you guessed it, a city girl, an accomplished chef and a divorcee who feels very inadequate around the virile cowboy. The third book in the series is Her Uniform Cowboy, and as you could probably guess, yes, the hero is not only a cowboy, he’s also in the military. Texas National Guard to be exact. Kade Dalton is Connor’s best friend who runs a horse ranch and has a few issues to work through while he adjusts back to civilian life and his attraction to an animal welfare agent who’s an advocate for abused horses. And finally, there’s Kevin. Did I mention he’s a bugger? Yep, Kevin Dalton (Kade’s cousin) is a lady’s man who meets his match in Her Forever Cowboy when he falls for a single mother and her little girl. It’s going to take two to tame that cowboy.

SKY:  Donna, you've got me thinkin' cowboys! Great interview. Thanks for joining me today!

Buy Her Fated Cowboy  HERE.

You can find out more about Donna and her books at www.donnamichaelsauthor.com and sign up for her newsletter, too.

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"Next time you won't be able to crawl away." Barbara Morgenroth's, Bad Apple.

Today it's my pleasure to interview Barbara Morgenroth, author of Bad Apple (Book One), a Mature Young Adult book.

Publisher: DashingBooks

ASIN:  B0045JK2XW

Word Count: 39,000

Cover Artist: Photo by Aleshyn Andrei.  

Cover design by Barbara Morgenroth

Amazon      BN    Kobo

Book Description

“You tell and next time you won’t even be able to crawl away.”

Neal Marchal lived with this threat for the next eight years. When she finds her neighbor murdered, she knows who did it. The why is the secret the family has been keeping forever. The reminder to never reveal the secret is her limp.

She rebuilt her life and now Neal has everything to live for—music, performing and a growing affection for the young man who pulled her to safety.

Then Joe comes home. Neal knows Joe’s going to finish what he started 8 years ago because she told. But this time Neal vows the outcome will be different.

Interview Time!

SKY:   What inspired you to write this book?

BARBARA:   I was involved in a murder and it took me years to be able to make sense of it.  When I did it was a natural reaction to want to write about it.

SKY:   How did you come up with the title?

BARBARA:   I was standing with my neighbor watching him press apples into sweet cider.  The book was originally titled Sweet Cider.  After many rewrites, it became bad apple.  They always say one bad apple spoils everything.  I guess that could be said to be Joe.  Or maybe someone else in the book.

SKY:   Tell us about your book cover and how it relates to your story.

BARBARA:   The first cover I created was a photo I shot of a bad apple.  I quite liked it.  Then someone who was selling a lot of ebooks advised me to put a gun on the cover.  So I took a photo of my shotgun and used that for the cover for a brief while.  Then one day I found this current photo and I thought it expressed Truly’s caring and protection of Neal so well.  The young woman in the image seems so vulnerable, and Neal is when Truly meets her.  I think it works very well.

SKY:   Are you currently working on another story? If so, we’d love some details.

BARBARA:   I have just finished Bittersweet Farm 2—Joyful Spirit.  My next project will be Bad Apple 4—Parked.   Everyone has been very patient while I cleared my schedule to write the final book in the series.  It should resolve all the loose ends.

SKY:   What sources do you use for research?

BARBARA:   After the murder, the police gave me all the files and the confession of the murderer so that was very helpful.  I also was able to go through the house of the victim and touch everything, read his address books, the mail he had kept, the photos her treasured.  All the disparate parts finally became a whole, completed puzzle.

SKY:   How long have you been writing? How long have you been published?

BARBARA:   I sold my first book to Atheneum when I was 24.  It was published when I was 26.  So that’s quite a number of years now.  I loved making the transition to digital and am beyond happy to be my own publisher.  This is the best time in the history of the world to be a writer.

SKY:   Do you write books in series? If so, share a bit about the series you currently have published or are coming soon.

BARBARA:   Bad Apple is a series.  Bad Apple 1.  Burning Daylight is 2.  Rise is 3.  I love being able to have the space and time to follow characters as they live their lives. If you do a standalone book, you wind up choosing just the moments to write that impact the characters then.  With a series, you can seed the story with foreshadowing that will be used in a later book.  Many readers enjoy a series because they get as invested in the characters as the writer does.  They want to see what happens next and so do I.

SKY:   Great interview, Barbara! Thanks for joining me.

About the Author

Barbara was born in New York City and but now lives somewhere else. By now, she thinks of herself as a country girl and knows more about gardening and animals than how to ride the subway.

Starting her career by writing tweens and YA books, (and did the cover photography for her first two books published by Atheneum so continuing to do the covers to her ebooks is predictable), she was actually aiming at the small screen. Television seemed like the perfect place for her even if she had no clue how to get there. Life is funny and often presents opportunities. Advice--Grab Them! Through a neighbor, Barbara wound up getting an introduction to a lower honcho at ABC and an audition to write for them. Her hopes were more than dashed, they were disintegrated, evaporated, demolished when ABC couldn't find a place for Barbara on General Hospital. (No Luke and Laura in her future!) To ease the crushing disappointment, Barbara wrote “In Real Life I'm Just Kate” about a 17 year old girl who becomes a star on a soap opera. That became an open sesame moment and shortly thereafter Barbara became the last headwriter for NBC's daytime serial, The Doctors, where she was ordered by the network to kill Alec Baldwin, shooting him not once but twice. With two different guns. From different directions.

Ah, good times.

You can read the book that started Barbara’s television career as the Kindle YA ebook, “Just Kate”, now with a substantial tweak because living life made her smarter.

You can also read about some could-be-hers-could-be-rumors experiences gleaned during Barbara’s stint in daytime television in the Kindle romantic comedy, In Under My Head.  Barbara is a recipient of a Writers Guild of America Best Writing Award for her work on One Life To Live.

Whether you're looking for a Mature YA or a romantic comedy, Barbara has a book for you!

Visit Barbara's Website ~ Facebook ~ Amazon Author Page 

Fairytale-inspired Regency Romance. A Beastly Scandal by Shereen Vedam

Today it's my pleasure to spotlight A Beastly Scandal (Fairytale-inspired Regency romances Book 1 of 4), a Regency Romance by Shereen Vedam

Publisher: ImaJinn Books

ISBN: 978-1-61026-124-1

Number of pages:  216

Word Count: 90,000

Cover Artist: Josephine Piraneo

Book Description:

A BELLE OF THE BALL…

Lady Annabelle Marchant was a belle of the ball in London until she used her psychical senses to save a man’s life.  She failed miserably, leaving him dead and her disgraced.  All she wants now is a chance to comfort his widow by cleansing the woman’s home of her husband’s restless spirit.  But the widow’s son, the beastly Lord of the Manor, accuses her of coming to the wilds of Cheshire to snag him as a husband.  Thoroughly disgusted, she is bent on proving him wrong.

…BECOMES PERSONA NON-GRATA…

Lord Rufus Marlesbury, the Earl of Terrance, is suspected of murdering his father.  He has come home to clear his name by finding the real killer before the new year or the king has promised that Rufus will be called in front of the House of Lords to answer for the crime.  He does not have time to waste fending off a marriage-minded miss who has inveigled an invitation to his home by playing on his grief-stricken mother’s worst fears.

…WHEN A MURDERER IS ON THE RAMPAGE

With an unruly manor ghost terrorizing the occupants and corpses piling up in the village, Belle must find a way to see the man beneath the beast and Rufus must learn to believe in the love of a woman who has no reason to trust him.  Only by working together can they stop a vengeful ghost before it torments the guests or before the killer strikes again.

Watch the Book Trailer HERE.

Excerpt

Lord Terrance may have forbid her from coming to his manor house, but she was determined to clear his country home of its resident ghost.

“That is a desolate looking house, is it not?” Winfield said. “I would have it torn down and rebuilt in a more flattering style, but Terrance seems fond of this monstrosity. So what brings you so far north, my lady?”

She faced the gentleman. “I have come for a visit with Lady Terrance. She is my grandfather’s friend.”

“I had heard the countess still wore dark colors.”

Before she could respond, a loud crack sounded. She sensed danger stab from above. With a shouted warning, she pulled Mr. Winfield out of harm’s way just as an icicle crashed and shattered where they had stood. She protected her face as splinters flew in all directions.

Mendal screamed. The owl fluttered its one good wing and screeched. The dog barked ferociously.

Mr. MacBride spoke first, his voice quivering and eyes wide with terror. “It is an omen, ah tell ye.”

“He is right,” Mendal said, sounding unusually timorous as she crossed herself. “We should leave. Bad luck comes from going where we are not wanted.”

The front doors opened then, and a footman descended. Immediately, the dog raced up the stairs and inside.

“Dog!” Belle called out in alarm. The animal might wreck the place. This was not how she had hoped to introduce herself to the countess.

An older woman, dressed in black, moved to the open doorway. Belle recognized her from a drawing her grandfather had shown her. This was Lady Terrance. She gave off waves of fear as she looked toward the roofline.

Belle’s worries drowned beneath the lady’s emotional assault, leaving her head pounding with a headache. Through that onslaught, Belle’s purpose became crystal clear. This is why she had come here. Lady Terrance needed her.

About the Author

Introduced to fantasy at a young age, Shereen's reality is merely a starting point to other realms.  

Her world is populated with little people with agendas, elements that talk and spells that rarely work as designed. Her heartwarming historical tales have a healthy dollop of mystery mingled with heart-melting romance, all stirred with a pinch of magic. In her brand new fairytale-inspired Regency romance series, she brings you four beloved fairytales, with a new twist.

Visit Shareen's Website ~ Blog ~ Twitter ~ Facebook ~ Goodreads


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