@CharJGordon chats with @AngelaKayAustin about love after fifty

When I met Charmaine Gordon, I knew immediately that she had a big heart and a warm personality.  She was a guest on my blog, and right away I liked her.  She shared some of her journey from actress to writer, and some of it reminded me of myself.  Of course, my acting career consisted of a few extra roles on a few shoes, and long waits and bad auditions for more roles that never came :-) But, it was fun.

I love that Charmaine is writing a new series all about love after a certain age.  I've written a few older characters in my books, but I've never delved into the love and romance of those characters aside from how it taught or influenced the behaviors of the hero and heroine in my story.  I'm intrigued by Charmaine's new release and upcoming series.

Instant Grandpa blurb:

Summer at the Jersey Shore just got hotter…  Take one widower grandfather, add two little grandkids, and widowed grandmother with a small granddaughter. Mix well. Stir in sun drenched beach days and moonlit nights. What have you got? A kite flying high with a new tail; an author writing a book to sort out emotions; a talented boy with his mother returned to claim the prize. Family complications and a happy beginning… not the end.

Join us at Romancing the Pen!

@ShewandaP discusses character redemption with @AngelaKayAustin

This week Shewanda Pugh joins me to discuss her second installment in the "Crimson Footprints" series. Book two, "Crimson Footprints II" is the story of a secondary character that many of her readers didn't necessarily like in the first book.

I think this is something that many authors deal with.  You have a character that intrigues you, but you don't think readers will like that character, or you know they won't.  How do you treat that story?  Do you write it?

Join me and Shewanda Pugh at Romancing the Pen, to find out more about how she tackled  this situation.

@authorvwj joins @AngelaKayAustin with a message for all writers

This week on Romancing the Pen, author Victoria Warren Jackson shares a message for authors everywhere!

Blurb:
Desiree and Shanna are sisters. They both lived similar lives, but Desiree becomes infected with HIV. With two children, a caring sister, a supportive mother, and a new boyfriend, Desiree’s world could be perfect. The fear of dying from AIDS stands in the way of Desiree’s happiness. For Shanna, life will never be the same.

Join us this week at Romancing the Pen!

Marie Laval discusses the perfect hero

Who is my perfect hero?  I don't know.  I think as I've matured, my hero has grown and developed with me.  There once was a time when nothing mattered, but whether he was tall, dark, and handsome :-)  Now, I have as much or more of an attraction to a man whose mind is as interesting as his physique.

My own heroes mimic this.  They "feed" both their mind and bodies.

Marie discusses with me how important the eyes of her hero are to her.  How her ability to daydream about him brings him to life.

Join us this week at Romancing the Pen, and tell us what you think.

THE LION’S EMBRACE by Marie Laval

Blurb

Arrogant, selfish and dangerous, Lucas Saintclair is everything Harriet Montague dislikes in a man. He is also the best guide in the whole of the Barbary States, the only man who can rescue her archaeologist father from the gang of Tuareg fighters that has kidnapped him. As Harriet embarks on a perilous journey across Algeria with Saintclair and Archibald Drake, her father’s most trusted friend, she discovers a bewitching but brutal land where nothing is what it seems. Who are these men intent on stealing her father’s ransom? What was her father hoping to find in Tuareg queen Tin Hinan’s tomb? Is Lucas Saintclair really as callous as he claims—or is he a man haunted by a past he cannot forgive? Dangerous passions engulf Harriet’s heart in the heat of the Sahara. Secrets of lost treasures, rebel fighters, and a sinister criminal brotherhood threaten her life and the life of the man she loves.

Does forever lie in the lion’s embrace?

Chatting with J.T. Seate

Join me and J.T. as we discuss his release "Connor House" from MuseItUp Publishing.

"Connor House" follows the lives of two sisters living in the Washinington DC area shortly after the Civil War. The death of one of their daughters is an unspeakable tragedy, but the loss does not necessarily mean the end, especially within "Connor House."

To read an excerpt, visit Romancing the Pen!

Chatting with William Auch

This week, I'm chatting with William Auch about his new release, "Love in Provence."

BLURB:  

When John Martin is forced to sell his tech company, he decides to take a six-month vacation to the south of France.

When he meets Madame Garcin, her daughter Sophie, and her granddaughter Isabelle, his life is changed forever.   What began as a long vacation becomes a journey of self-discovery marked by love, loss, and tragedy.  

He is molded by this family of three generations of women, tempered by tragedy themselves, in ways that he could never have imagined.

William is also giving away a $25 gift certificate! Join us at Romancing the Pen to find out more details about how to win.

#GuestAuthor Christy Gissendaner

The title of this book intrigued me from the moment that I read it :-) "A Hot Mess"

I've been to Vegas several times, and I love it!  It's definitely not a city for the faint of heart!

Visit Romancing the Pen, this week my guest is Christy Gissendaner.  She'll discuss her book "A Hot Mess," and it's inspiration -- Vegas!

A Hot Mess Blurb:

Caitlyn Myers elopes to Vegas on a spur of the moment decision, but once there she is abandoned by her heartless fiancé. With no money, and her luggage lost at the airport, she calls the one person she knows will help her.

Dylan Russell has known Caitlyn since she was a scruffy tomboy. He’s watched her mature into a ravishing woman and has kept his desire for her a secret … until now. Valentine’s Day in Vegas provides the dazzling backdrop for seduction as Dylan shows Caitlyn that not all loves are messy.

#GuestAuthor @KatePatrick1 visits Angela Kay Austin

Join me at Romancing the Pen with my guest Kate Patrick.  She shares and excerpt with us for her book "Love Beyond the Curve."

Blurb:  Charlotte is shocked to find her new landlord, Reed Jackson, is tall, dark, and gorgeous.  The two become fast friends, enjoying times spent together, more than times apart. Charlotte can’t believe that Reed finds her curvaceous figure incredibly sexy.  Can Reed convince her he wants to be more than just “friends with benefits”?

Will Charlotte and Reed find… Love Beyond the Curve?

Visit Romancing the Pen!

#GuestAuthor - Janie Franz

My guest this week is Janie Franz.  One of my fellow MuseItUP Publishing authors.

This week, Janie joins me to discuss how she uses pieces of her life in her writing.  She'll share with us how it helps her build her worlds and create the interesting lives of her characters.

Drop by Romancing the Pen this week, and join in the conversation.

Book blurb:

Music journalist/artist Shivaun Corbin, on assignment at charismatic rocker Daniel Madux’s Sugar Magnolia, discovers dark secrets and hidden passion.

#GuestAuthor - K.M. Jackson

This week at Romancing the Pen, my guest is K.M. Jackson.  Her debut novel is Through the Lens!

Kwana discusses something that's really close to my own heart.  Strong heroines!

Kwana will also giveaway a free digital copy of Through the Lens to one lucky person!  So, don't just lurk...tell Kwana what you think.  Leave a comment, and you might be the lucky winner.

Blurb: Mika Walters is a normal-sized woman working in the not-so-normal world of New York fashion. As longtime assistant to uber-sexy photographer Alejandro Vega, she's tired of being the girl in the background. Just once she wants Alejandro to look at her with the same smoldering look he gives to his willowy models and now she has her chance. Stranded. After a travel mishap where the rest of the crew and the models can't make the remote island location shoot for another three days, Mika is taking her moment to catch Alejandro's eye and put herself in front of his camera and if all goes to plan, his bed . . . at least until the real world catches up with them.

Alejandro doesn't know what's gotten into Mika. Maybe it's the sand, maybe it's the sun, but he doesn't really care. All he knows is that he's finally opened his eyes and is seeing her clearly for the first time as the smart, gorgeous, and incredibly irresistible woman she is. But why can't she realize that what he's feeling for her is not one of his usual one, well, three night stands. This is real. Real love, real passion. What's it going to take for him to prove to Mika that she's the woman he wants? Now and forever.

Don't be afraid...

...to follow your dreams.

I don't know how many times I've talked with friends and family about taking a chance and stepping out on a limb.  When we'e young, we don't really care what anyone says.  We think we can do anything we set our minds to.  But, somewhere along the way, we lose that bravado.

Why?

I am one of those people who definitely believes that dreams aren't just for twenty year olds.

My guest at Romancing the Pen this week, Lizzie T. Leaf, shares with us her dream.  And how she inspired someone close to her.

Join us and tell us about your dreams.

@BrienMichaels joins me this week

I am so proud to have my friend Brien join me this week.  I remember when....oh wait, I'm not that old, yet :-)

Brien self-published his first book through Amazon at the ripe old age of 14!  Yep.  This kid is awesome.  Now, he's celebrating his first release with Loose Id, and he's visiting with me to chat about it.

I absolutely love his writing and I think you'll probably find a little something in his writing that speaks to you, too.

Visit me this week on Romancing the Pen with my guest Brien Michaels.

And Brien is also giving away a $25 Amazon GC during his tour.  But, you have to follow the tour to find out more details!

What exactly is a love story? How is #love defined?

A love story.  What does that mean?  Love? Romance?  What are they really?  Subjective at best.

My guest, Ken LaSalle, has visited me before, but this time, he's discussing what love and romance mean to him.  And why he chose to mix them together with a little environmental appreciation.

What can be said about a book that has a taxi driving polar bear ;-)

Drop by and join my guest Ken LaSalle at Romancing the Pen!

Fear...what is it good for?

Fear.  I am a huge fan of psychological thrillers.  I love books and movies that pull me in and have me screaming at the pages or the screen like what...why...come on :-)

And as a writer, I think I incorporate a little bit of fear...not blood and gore, heads rolling around on the ground gore, but fear into every story.  And when my guest this week at Romancing the Pen sent me her post on fear--phobias, I thought, wait...I use fear, right.  I ran through the synopses and character profiles of my books, but nope...not one phobia anywhere.  Big opportunity for me in the future to incorporate some of the things my characters fear into the stories I'm working on.

Thanks Elise for an awesome idea!

Join me and my guest Elise VanCise at Romancing the Pen.

My guest this week begins her blog post...

"What does it take for someone to overcome such a deep hatred and low self-esteem to fight their death at their own hands and come out on the other side?"

In my life, I don't know if I've ever been in the place that she describes, but I have had some incredible trials.  Because there are still many emotions I haven't felt, I use a lot of what I find in my research.  Books. Movies. Interviews.  When I did research for one of my characters that lost her child and her husband, I read blogs of mothers who'd experienced that loss, and even now my fragmented memories of those articles make me want to cry.

Reading my guest's blog at Romancing the Pen made me want to know more about her and her books.  To be able to take such emotion and twist it into the a creative form of expression is amazing, and honestly what we do as authors.  We pull readers into our worlds be they real or imagined.

Please join me this week, as I again host Erika Lindsen at Romancing the Pen!

Authors what tools do you use to know your readers?

Personally, I'm a huge fan of blogging!  I was one of the first to use and love Digg, Reddit, MySpace (yes, MySpace,,,betcha some of you miss it now,) FaceBook took me a little longer to get into, StumbleUpon, and Tumblr.  Lately, I find myself being a bit of a Twitter junkie!

But, how do we use these tools wisely, and not spread ourselves too thin, and end up using all of them poorly?  I don't think I'd know what I'd do without networking everything, or scheduled calendars.  I can sit one day and a schedule out months of uploads and not think about it again.  Or, I can hop onto Twitter and FaceBook everyday :-)

But, there is always something new around the corner: Instagram, Pinterest, Triberr.

Join me this week at Romancing the Pen as my guest, Shelly Bell, author of A Year to Remember, discusses Triberr with us.  And let us know what you think as readers and writers.  What should we use, and how much is too much?

What is success?

Many of you know that I was laid off, and that event changed my life dramatically as I'm sure it has so many others.  Like my guest on Romancing the Pen, my layoff made me rethink the meaning of everything around me.  For a long time, I couldn't really understand why something like that had happened to me, or really what I was supposed to do with it.

I never really thought it could happen to me.  And my struggle to not allow myself fall into a hole of self-pity and resentment was just that...a struggle.

Join Ken and me this week on Romancing the Pen, and share with us your definition of success.

Who has not gone through a crisis? Who has not heard one door close just to see another open? What do we strive for and why? Why are some people driven to take care of the world and all its problems? What is success and what does it mean to be successful? What is it that we chase after, day after day, and inevitably judge the value of our lives against? Do the old answers of career and money really hold up? Those going through lay-offs, career changes, lifestyle adjustments such as having children, health crisis, or coming back from serving overseas and facing employment with handicaps (both emotionally or physically), and persons forced into early retirement will relate to this memoir.

Faced with unemployment, the impending death of one friend and self-destruction of another, Ken La Salle begins his search for the meaning of success. It’s a search that explores why we still crave success that in the face of inevitable death could be nothing more than Maya, the illusion of life referenced in eastern myth. Through research, analysis and epiphanies from some very unlikely sources, he helps us push through all of our preconceived notions to a concept so few really understand - so that we can reach for the rope, grab it, hold on tight, and pull ourselves up.

This is a book that will be shared, given, and pondered for lifetimes and beyond. Yes, it is all true. This is his story.

Older women...younger men?

What is the attraction?

Most of the men I date are younger :-)  Why?  I'm not sure.  It just seems to be the way the cookie crumbles for me.   Several of my friends also date younger vs older men.  Do I consider myself a cougar...no.  I'm not rich enough or old enough (and don't ask me my age.)

My guest this week on Romancing the Pen, Morgan K. Wyatt, discusses her latest book Puppy Love.

Drop by and chat with us and let us now what you think about older women and younger men.

Theo decides to give up on love when she catches her sister in bed with her husband. Instead of blaming her sister or her husband, she blames herself, divorces her husband, distances herself from her sister, and shuts her heart to love.

Her son inadvertently pushes her back into the dating game when he drops off his puppy, Ollie, as he heads out to deployment abroad. He fails to inform her that the puppy isn’t even close to being trained or even somewhat obedient.

Ollie brings the dating-phobic Theo into contact with Westvale’s hottest bachelor, Dr. Brent Knight. Despite her best friend Lorna’s urging to go after him, Theo hangs back due the eleven year age gap and her past romantic history, but it doesn’t stop Ollie from barreling ahead.

Pavarti K. Tyler and Shadow on the Wall

Visit Romancing the Pen to read an excerpt from Pavarti K. Tyler's latest work Shadow on the Wall.

BLURB:   Recai Osman: Muslim, philosopher, billionaire and Superhero?

Controversial and daring, Shadow on the Wall details the transformation of Recai Osman from complicated man to Superhero. Forced to witness the cruelty of the Morality Police in his home city of Elih, Turkey, Recai is called upon by the power of the desert to be the vehicle of change. Does he have the strength to answer Allah’s call or will his dark past and self doubt stand in his way?

Pulling on his faith in Allah, the friendship of a Jewish father-figure and a deeply held belief that his people deserve better, Recai Osman must become The SandStorm.

In the tradition of books by Margaret Atwood and Salman Rushdie, Shadow on the Wall tackles issues of religion, gender, corruption and the basic human condition. Beautiful and challenging, this is not a book to miss.

Treasuring Creativity

Okay, I could barely finish reading the post of my guest this week without visualizing my treasure.  As a child, how did you save the things that were important to you?  How did you protect them?  How often did you go to those little treasures and touch, hold, or daydream about them.

This post inspired me to dust off my box and maybe add a few items.

Drop by Romancing the Pen, and read more about my guest--Lizzie Starr--and her box of treasure.

Just when Bryce decides to give up looking for the masked dancer who captured his heart and get on with his life, his darlin’ daughter climbs onto the lap of a captivating woman in a coffee shop and calls her Mommy. He certainly wouldn’t mind exploring the possibility.


Carrie’s vacation is over. Although she loves her job, she dreads returning. Especially when a blonde-haired cherub insists she’s ‘Mommy’. Add the girl’s intriguing father, and Carrie believes she’s finally ready for a real relationship. But memories of a horrific attack surface, bringing doubt and fear.


Then one of Bryce’s fathers is kidnapped by a cult. Not knowing if the abduction was of human or Fey origin, Bryce must chance seeming crazy and losing Carrie with tales of the Faerie Otherworld. Dare he take her to Faerie and declare his love—or are the forces aligning against them too much to overcome?