Liebster Award From Awesome Author Christine Elaine Black

My friend Christine Elaine Black nominated me for the Liebster Award. Apparently in German that means loved one, or favorite.

 

So this award is all about blogging and answering questions and also a game of "tag you're it". I love nominating people for awards and that's why I agreed to play and pick four of my favorite colleagues. So read the rules and the facts and then check out some blog links of other players.

Rules:

1. You must tell 11 things about yourself.

2. Answer the questions your nominator gives you.

3. Create 11 questions for the bloggers you nominate.

4. Choose new blogs with fewer than 200 followers and link them to your post.

5. If you’re nominated, please leave a comment on this post with the URL of your Liebster Award post.

 

Here goes:

 

Eleven things about me:

1. Close friends call me V.

2. My husband calls me Angel.

3. I took accordian lessons for 3 years until my boobs started to grow and kept getting caught in the billows.

4. I started college at 44.

5. I made my daughter's wedding gown.

6. I once worked on the assembly line at Mack Trucks.

7. While at Penn State, I wrote a play put on by the drama department--"Family Secrets."

8. I used to teach classes in reading blueprints.

9. I once got thrown out of a high school wrestling match for yelling at the ref. And he was TOO a "blind idiot."

10. The year before Calvin and I met, I went on a Women of Faith Cruise to the Carribean and was accosted by a Jamacian native who told me I was taking him back to the States. He had more hands than a spider.

11. I can run fast for a fat, old woman (see #10).

 

 

Here are my eleven questions.

 

Hot and sexy or sweet and romantic?

 

Can I have hot, sexy and romantic?

 

Where would you live for one year if you had the chance to take on a whole new culture?

 

Paris, for sure.

 

Do you have any talents besides your amazing writing skills?

 

I’m a great cook, or so my Calvin tells me.

 

One thing you could change about yourself?

 

I’d be much thinner. See above answer.

 

How many children do have or want to have?

 

I have three grown children (Amy, Steve and Mike) and a step-son Kelly, who falls between Steve and Mike, age-wise.

 

What were the best years of your life?

 

These are the best years, by far. I’m with my soul-mate, another published author, who encourages me in my writing. We laugh every day. We grow closer every day. I love my Calvin to pieces.

 

Favorite author and why?

 

I can’t name just one!!! I’ll give you the qualities I look for: someone who’s obviously studied her/his craft and can make me laugh, sigh, get angry and cry. Pull me in. Hold me there. Make me yearn to get back to reading the next chapter while I’m moving about the house doing other things and I am yours.

 

Pizza and beer or Champagne and strawberries?

 

Pizza and Champagne. What? That wasn’t a multiple choice question?

 

How often do you visit your hair stylist?

 

Every two months

 

Married or single?

 

In May, we’ll be married 11 years so we’re still in our honeymoon stage. Two senior citizens holding hands wherever we go.

 

Favorite activity other than writing romance?

 

Getting hugs from my grandchildren.

 

I’m nominating these four bloggers: Carolyn Sullivan(Liberty Blake), Dani-Lyn Alexander, Lilly Gayle, and Jill James.

 

 

Ladies, here are your eleven questions:

 

1. Compact, SUV or pickup?

 

2. What is your favorite breakfast?

 

3. Do you buy the majority of books off the net or in a brick and mortar store?

 

4. What was your favorite subject in school?

 

5. Did you play a sport in school? If so, what?

 

6. What sub-genre of romance do you write and why?

 

7. As you’ve studied your craft, what’s been your biggest help? An online course, a book of elements of craft or working with an editor or agent who taught you writing tips?

 

8. Other than romance, what do you like to read?

 

9. Do you work outside of the home?

 

10. What keeps you awake at night?

 

11. Where’s your favorite place to vacation?

LILLY GAYLE--ROMANCE AUTHOR

My guest today on Vintage Vonnie is fellow Rose, Lilly Gayle. Lilly lives in North Carolina in a small town—so small, in fact, that it just became a town last year. Her home is full of love and laughter with her husband of 31 years, her youngest daughter, who's still in college, a dog, a cat, and various critters--both dead and alive--that the cat occasionally drags through the doggie door. Lilly writes paranormal and historical romance because she believes love is an adventure no matter the century.

Tell me, Lilly, what is your life like away from the computer? Tell us something about your household. Jazzie, my cat, wants to know more about your pets.

We have a sweet little maltipoo named Titi (pronounced T.T.) and a somewhat evil cat named Cha Cha. It’s not that I don’t like cats, but Cha Cha, aka Satan, aka Devil Cat, is completely black. And he loves to stalk bare ankles in the dark. He’s also known for bringing live and dead animals into the house, including squirrels, a flying squirrel, moles, voles, rabbits, mice, rats, and an assortment of birds. Luckily, Titi has become a champion mouser because Cha Cha just likes to torture them…and me!

Tell us how do you research your storylines or locations? 

The lifesaving station on Portsmouth Island, NC. That's my husband walking toward it.

I do most of my research on  line. But when my first historical - Slightly Tarnished, released 6/3/11-- was still a WIP, my husband and I had the opportunity to visit Portsmouth Island, a coastal village in NC. The village was once a thriving seaport but after the Civil War many residents left and never returned. It is now a State Park and many of the houses look just as they did in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. After walking down the sandy lanes and stepping into those homes, I added the Prologue to Slightly Tarnished.  Before I wrote that Prologue, I had massive backstory dump in the first three chapters. But starting the story with a Prologue allowed me to show Nikki’s history and vulnerability while giving the book some NC flavor.

Ancient Cemetary in Nuremburg, Germany

I also visited a cemetery in Germany this past April for my current WIP, a sequel to my paranormal romance, Out of the Darkness.  The trip to Germany was a visit to my daughter and son-in-law who live there. The trip to the cemetery was a fun diversion and great research.

What part of the writing process brings you the most pleasure? The most angst?

I get the most pleasure out of edits. I know that sounds crazy, but by the time I get to the editing phase, I’m usually close to finishing or finished writing completely. At least, I used to finish the book before editing. But then I got what seemed to me to be a prophetic fortune cookie. It said: “Be satisfied with one chapter at a time.”

I taped the fortune to the base of my computer monitor and now, I can’t turn off my internal editor. So, it now takes longer to write. But hopefully, that’ll mean fewer edits when I do finish.

And nothing causes more writing angst for me than promotion! I stress over what works, what doesn’t. I stress over cost. I stress over having to “put myself out there.” And I stress over feeling like a salesman. And trust me, I couldn’t sell firewood in Antarctica!

 

My husband is also an author, although his writings are more literary. When he reads my chapters, he wants to turn them into Hemingway sparseness by crossing out description. Of course I smile sweetly, think demon thoughts and then pay him no mind. Does your husband read your writing?

Bless, his little heart. He tried. He bought a copy of my first book and read the prologue and first chapter. And that’s as far as he got. He said there were no pictures of cars in it. Lol! And he has read excerpts over my shoulder as I was writing. But, despite the fact he’s not really a romance reader, (VBG) he’s been incredibly supportive.  He’s a route salesman and has told all his customers about my books.

What are you currently working on?

A sequel to my vampire romance, Out of the Darkness. It’s Gerard’s story and at the moment, I’m calling it Into the Light. I’m thinking of maybe calling it Into the Sun so it won’t be quite so cliché. I guess I’ll let my editor decide if it gets published.

Tell us about your current release…or soon to be release.

Slightly Tarnished is an historical romance set in England. Here’s a blurb and excerpt.

 BLURB:

 

Victorian romance laced with danger.

 

When a brooding English earl with a SLIGHTLY TARNISHED reputation marries his dead wife’s American cousin to save her from her uncle’s vengeful schemes, the sea captain’s daughter with a taste for adventure sparks desires he thought long dead.

Nicole Keller has always been headstrong and independent, but after a failed business venture and a sinking ship take her father, her home, and her childhood sweetheart, Nikki must support herself and her mother. But moving to England and marrying Chadwick Masters, Earl of Gilchrest isn’t what she has in mind. And falling in love with the mysterious earl could endanger both their lives.

EXCERPT 

        “This will be your room.” He opened the door and stood to one side so she could enter. “I’m afraid you will have to continue to make do without a lady’s maid. The only household staff I employ are Mrs. Lomax, Dickens, Cook, and my groom. My driver lives in the village as do the few maids I hire on occasion to help Mrs. Lomax with the laundry and heavier cleaning.”

Nikki smiled. “That’s quite all right, Lord Masters. I’m used to doing for myself, and it’s only for a week.”

He returned her smile and leaned forward, his warm breath fanning her cheek. “What happened to Chad? Surely we’ve gone beyond such formalities now, Nicole.”

Gooseflesh rippled over her skin. Her body quivered. “I don’t think it would be proper for me to call you by your given name.” She risked a glance at his face and wished she hadn’t. His eyes no longer looked worried. They were hot—almost feverish. Her skin heated.

“It didn’t stop you before,” he said, his deep voice a husky rumble. Despite the heat, Nikki shivered.

Oh my!

“I don’t think this is proper either,” she stammered when he brushed his lips against her temple. A delicious tingle skittered down her spine.

“No, probably not,” he said, nibbling her neck.

A strange tension rippled through her muscles, tightening them with pleasure. She arched her neck, granting him access as he slid his lips along the column of her throat. Her hands bunched the skirt of her plain, serviceable dress. Her stomach quivered.

“What are you doing?” she asked, breathless and giddy.

He pulled his hands from his pockets and pulled her closer. “I’m seducing you, I think.”

“Seducing me?” Her heart hammered against her ribs.

“Hmm. You’re doing it again.” Then he lowered his mouth and kissed her

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