Summer Bash Is Here!

Woohoo! Summer is officially here! I'm swimming and having so much fun that it's time to share the joy. Every Wednesday between now and the 4th of September some of my author friends will be stopping by to introduce themselves and help me celebrate summer. Today, to open the bash my very first guest is Margay Leah Justice. She kindly stopped by to answer some questions. Welcome Margay!

Summer Bash Questions






01: What is the first story you’ve published. Tell us a little bit about it.



My first book was called Nora’s Soul and it was about a woman who is at a crossroads in life and is hunted by the forces of good and not-so-good (not necessarily evil!) in her quest to find herself again. It is a story that is dear to my heart, which I intend to re-release myself at a later date.



02: What inspired the story?



It was actually inspired by two dreams I had one night that somehow seemed linked, so when I woke up, I thought, I need to know this story. What’s going on?



03: Do you have a writing process? If so what is it?



I don’t have a tried and true process. I just write. Whenever I can. I do try to make it the last thing I do before I go to bed, though.



04: What do you currently have in the works? Give us a small preview.



I am working on a romantic suspense novel about a woman whose niece is nearly kidnapped, which brings back haunting memories of her own near-abduction when she was a girl. Complicating matters is the fact that the detective in charge of the case is a man she holds responsible for the death of her brother, a man she has a lot of unresolved feelings for – not all of them bad! It is called The Scent of Humanity.



05: Who are some of your favorite authors?



Julia Quinn, Jane Austen, Meg Cabot, Jennifer Armentrout, Lauren Willig and Luanne Rice, to name a few.



06: Do you have one author in particular who inspired your writing career? Who and why?



Well, I started writing when I first learned how to hold a crayon, so I don’t know who would’ve inspired it! But I am inspired by the above authors all the time.



07: Are your stories based on real events or people?



The story I’m getting ready to self-publish, The Scent of Humanity, has some basis in reality. When I was younger, my friend and I were nearly abducted, as depicted in the book, and my niece was nearly abducted a few years ago. So a good part of the story is real, but most of it is fabricated –for dramatic purposes!



08: How much research goes into your work?

It depends on the story. Some require a lot of research, some don’t. With Scent, I had to do my fair share about all kinds of things, from criminal procedures to kidnapping statistics to injuries.



09: Have you ever killed off a character based on someone real? If so why?



Not yet – not that I’d tell, of course!



10: If you could visit any period in history, what time would you go to? Why?



The Regency period (around 1820). I don’t know, I just have a real affinity for it. I love everything about that period, which is why I read a lot of books set in that time.



11: If you could gather any three people in the world, living or dead together, whom would you want to meet and talk with?



Jane Austen, of course! Robin Roberts and Alex O’Loughlin ( watch him in Hawaii Five-0 and you will understand why).



12: What do you do for fun when you aren’t busy writing?



Knitting! I am an avid – some might say mad – knitter. I love creating new things, so I give away a lot of handmade gifts for birthdays and Christmas.



13: What is the one thing people believe about writers that upsets you?



Hmm, I don’t know. I never really thought about that.



14: Is there any genre you haven’t written that you’d like to try your hand at?



Maybe New Adult. That seems to be quite popular now.



15: If you were independently wealthy what is the one place on Earth you’d most like to visit? Why?



I’ve always wanted to visit Paris. It is quite a beautiful city and I am part French, so there you go!





Five Bonus Questions




16: What is your favorite color?



Red.



17: What is your favorite food?



Love me some pasta!



18: What is your favorite movie?



Oh, too many! Um, The Holiday



19: What is your favorite TV show?



Hawaii Five-0



20: What is your favorite holiday?



Christmas

Sloane Wolf Blurb:



Micah Sloane is a shapeshifter who will do anything to protect his kind - especially his family - from the threat of outsiders. Any outsiders. And that includes, Shiloh Beck, a reluctant empath who will do anything to escape from a dangerous organization. An organization that ruthlessly separated her from her family when she was young - and is trying to manipulate her into using her talents for their nefarious purposes. When Micah and Shiloh meet, it is a match made in paranormal heaven, as they square off against the enemy - and sometimes each other - in the quest to protect themselves from fates worse than death.





Fate brings them together, but will they survive when the legend of the wolves collides with the men behind the Institute?

The Scent of Humanity Blurb:



One family, two attempted kidnappings nearly twenty years apart. Coincidence – or the work of the same man? Detective Nick Fahey will do anything to discover the answer.





Arriving on the scene of the latest abduction attempt to strike his small town in recent years, Nick expects to run a routine investigation into the crime. Everything changes, however, when he meets the victim, the niece of a woman he once considered a dear friend. Unfortunately, these days Silvie Childs can barely stand the sight of him.





Once there was a time when Silvie Childs worshipped Nick Fahey, believing he could do no wrong. Until the accident that nearly killed her brother. The accident that Nick reportedly caused. Coming on the heels of her own near abduction, the accident skewed Silvie’s ability to trust men – especially Nick. But now, with the attempt on her niece’s safety, Silvie finds herself in the untenable position of having to trust Nick to bring the kidnapper to justice.





That trust is severely tested when, after only two months, the case is closed for lack of new evidence. Feeling betrayed by the system in which she works as a paralegal – and by Nick – Silvie takes matters into her own hands by going after the kidnapper herself. Contacting local news stations to generate interest in the case, allowing herself to be filmed hanging sketches of the suspect on telephone poles, she will risk her own safety to protect that of her niece. When her efforts re-open the wounds of her past, she is once again forced to put her trust in the one man who still has the power to hurt her – Nick.





Nick is furious with Silvie for putting herself at risk, but he must put aside his own feelings when he’s called in to investigate a series of odd break-ins at her house. He soon discovers that ignoring his feelings for Silvie is an impossibility. One way or another, those feelings – and the misconceptions and hurts of the past – will need to be addressed.





The last thing Silvie expects is to become intimate with Nick. So she’s caught completely off-guard by her softening emotions for him, and by how quickly – and insidiously – their lives become entangled once again. But this doesn’t stop her from working to find the man who tried to take her niece.



Bio:



Descended from the same bloodline that spawned the likes of James Russell, Amy and Robert Lowell, Margay Leah Justice was fated to be a writer herself from a young age. But even before she knew that there was a name for what she was doing, she knew one thing: She had a deep and unconditional love for the written word. A love that would challenge her in times of need, abandon her in times of distress, and rediscover her in times of hope. Through her writing, Margay has learned to cope with every curve ball life has thrown her, including the challenges of single parenting, the harsh realities of living in a shelter, coping with the diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis, and the roller coaster ride of dealing with a child who suffers from bipolar disorder. But along the way she has rediscovered the amazing power of words.



Margay currently lives in Massachusetts with her two daughters, two cats, and a myriad of characters who vie for her attention and demand that their own stories be told. In her spare time, she is an avid knitter, knitting her way through a stash of yarn that almost rivals her tbr pile!



Here are my links:



http://margayleahjustice.blogspot.com/



http://moonlightlacemayhem.blogspot.com/



http://www.myspace.com/margay1122



http://twitter.com/Margay



http://www.facebook.com/MargayLeahJustice


Thank you so much for being here Margay and kicking off the bash. You have been a joy.See you all next Wednesday.:-)