Author Interview # 9 Michelle Garren Flye

Today I'd like to welcome Michelle Garren Flye  who  chose this date of May 28 because "That's my anniversary, so an appropriate time to talk about love."

  In 2006, your first publication was as a horror writer. Four years later, you published your first romance novel. That's an unusual switch of venue! How long were you working on your first book? What drew you to the romance market?
To be honest, I was never a very good horror writer. I love the genre and I have no regrets about spending some time dabbling in it because I met some really talented people and had fun. But shortly after I had my second child, I realized I didn’t want to think about horror and bad things anymore. If I was going to write, I wanted it to be about beautiful things, and the most beautiful thing I have ever experienced is love. Plus, I always loved fairy tales and I thought it would be fun to write a few.

 You re-released you self published book on Valentine’s Day after having it initially released on Christmas Day. Was the positioning of this purposeful for you?
Sort of. To be honest, I didn’t actually sit down at my computer on Christmas Day with the intention of self-publishing a book. You know how it is in the late afternoon of a wonderful day when you’ve finished everything you had to do and everybody’s happy and content doing their own thing, though. Well, I had a few hours that afternoon and I pulled up WEEDS AND FLOWERS and read over it and decided I needed to do something with it. I have friends who have self-published on the Kindle and been very successful, so I decided what the hell.
After I published it, I got some pretty good feedback on it, but I also heard about some typos and minor editing mistakes. Lack of a professional editor (or two) is a major drawback to self-publishing in any way. So I resolved to fix the errors and re-release the book. Valentine’s Day was convenient for me, and it seemed like an appropriate day for it, even though WEEDS AND FLOWERS isn’t a romance.

Would you tell us a little about who has been your favourite character to write about and why?
My favourite character is actually in a book that hasn’t been published yet. His name is Will and he is one of the male leads in a women’s fiction book currently titled DUCKS IN A ROW. Long story (80,000 words long) cut very, very short, Will falls in love with the wrong woman. I actually loved Will so much, I’m currently writing the sequel to DUCKS IN A ROW so I can finish his story.

How much time do you dedicate to sheer research for the books you write? I am impressed by how you mix a good deal of medical detail with your story premise in Winter Solstice. How long did it take you to write it? Did you get help with the research or did you do it all by yourself?
I guess I got a lot of my facts for WINTER SOLSTICE from my own experience, and I can’t honestly say how long it took to write because I wrote it and rewrote it several times. The research wasn’t hard, though. My husband is a doctor and I was a medical transcriptionist for a short time after my first son was born. But research is one of my favourite parts of writing. I love exploring things I don’t know about. Before I wrote SECRETS OF THE LOTUS, I’d never been to New York. I watched loads of movies set in New York, explored Google Earth, researched on the internet and finally ended up feeling like I’d spent a lot of time there. THE hero in WHERE THE HEART LIES (to be published by Carina Press this summer) is a physics professor. Believe it or not, I actually learned a few things from that research. Will from DUCKS IN A ROW is a chef, so I had to learn about cooking and watch the Food Network a lot. My current work-in-progress is set in a vineyard that grows scuppernong grapes. You can imagine how much I’m enjoying that research!

 Which leads into my next question: can you share with us a little about your writing process? What's the genesis for your ideas? Do you build from dreams, conversations, TV or film influences or other sources? What's your setup for writing? Do you have a dedicated workspace? Do you jot down notes, create graphs; how do you keep track of your characters and narratives as you build up your story? Do you write every day a set amount of time each day?
Well, I’m a mom first, a writer second, so writing can be kind of discombobulated for me. I wrote a good bit of both WINTER SOLSTICE and SECRETS OF THE LOTUS curled up in a leather chair in our living room with my daughter sitting on my legs watching her favourite tv programs. Fortunately, romance is all about daydreams and fantasies, and I can do that anytime. The only trick is, when I figure out an important plot point in the middle of making dinner, I have to get to my computer fast. And sometimes dinner suffers.
And yes, I get inspiration from everywhere! Movies, television, the internet, whatever. Alicia, the heroine of WHERE THE HEART LIES, is modelled from my daughter’s Ariel doll (tall with long, red hair). I named her deceased husband Ty because UNC had just won another NCAA men’s basketball title when I started writing, and I was a huge fan of both Tyler Zeller and Ty Hansbrough. The one thing I try never to do anymore is base any character off someone I know in real life. But yeah, I can get ideas from anywhere.
As for my process, well, it’s a work in progress. My kids are getting older, so it’s easier to make sure they have something productive to do and sneak off for a few minutes to write. I have a desk. A nice roll-top one. Maybe one day I’ll be able to sit at it when I write. But for the most part, I write while sitting in a corner on the main floor of the house where I can referee, help with homework, and just be available if needed. I don’t have a set amount of time to write every day, because if I’m stuck I’m better off going for a bike ride or something, but I absolutely write every single day. Even on vacations, I take my computer. It’s an addiction I have no interest in getting rid of, even when it’s maddening.

You have an upcoming novel with Carina Press, can you tell us a little bit about its storyline and when it will be released?

I would love to! This isn’t the official blurb (you can find that on my website), but it is the story in a nutshell. WHERE THE HEART LIES is a contemporary romance about Alicia Galloway, whose husband Ty, a marine, was killed in action while serving in Afghanistan. Alicia moves herself and her two children to Ty’s hometown, Hillsborough, N.C., to help Ty’s mother and ailing father. She reopens the family bookstore and moves into Ty’s old home. Meanwhile she meets Liam Addison, Ty’s best friend from high school, and eventually starts to develop feelings for him. While trying to balance those feelings and deal with the fact that Ty’s family and old friends feel like she should be his widow forever, Alicia discovers a very important secret about Ty’s old life that may help her figure out not only where her heart lies but also where her husband’s was when he died.

Thanks for stopping by Michelle

We are Back - Giveaway Winners

So we are back up and running. We will be modifiying the review schedule to catch up and interviews and giveaways will go ahead at the date scheduled.




So  I have a couple of giveaway winners to annouce for the Michelle Garren Flye and Zach Sweet giveways  Congrats to the two winners

Entry #29 Maria



Entry # 39 Ally

Winners have been notified by email and have 48 hours to respond.

Where the Heart Lies by Michelle Garren Flye

Summary:

All widowed Alicia Galloway has left of her war-hero husband are the flag that draped his coffin and his final wishes: to move to his hometown, take over the family bookstore and enjoy a simple, quiet life with their two small children. When she arrives, her husband's best friend makes that new life anything but simple. How can she be so drawn to Liam Addison?

Liam only intended to help Alicia get settled. But one unexpected kiss awakens his long-held forbidden feelings. Soon, the town busybodies swoop in to warn Alicia away from him. Because no matter the man he's become, he'll never...

Reviewer: Dolce Amore

As he put the glass of chardonnay in her hand, she’d shouted over the music, “It’s very impolite to stare, you know.”
He leaned down. He must have shouted over the noise in the bar, but she felt as if his voice was very intimate, meant only for her. “That’s what I was coming over to tell you.” His breath was warm on her ear and when their eyes met, she knew immediately she would fall in love with him.

Alicia loved Ty, her husband, from the first moment she saw him; but now he is gone, hit by a sniper’s bullet, leaving her with their two children to raise alone. She has Gemma and Jason who is born a scant two weeks after Ty's death. Nine months later, the widow moves to Ty’s town, into her in-laws’ home, with the children in tow, determined to realize the dreams of her late husband.

Alicia's first meeting with Liam Addison starts out as a simple welcoming, but the attraction between them is sizzling and the gossip about them throws them together rather than tears them apart as the town gossips had hoped. Soon Alicia discovers that prior to Ty entering her life, he had a daughter with Penny, a woman who becomes her friend the moment she moves to town. It turns out Ty had known nothing about the daughter's existence.

The book has its funny parts:

“I owe you and your buddy a dunking.”
“Oh, you don’t owe me anything for that. It was my pleasure.”

And his wonderful and romantic ones:

He’d considered bringing flowers, but he hadn’t wanted to do anything that would make Alicia uncomfortable. Confronted by her beauty, however, his fingers felt empty, as if he needed something to offer just for the opportunity to look at her. Was this how Aphrodite’s worshipers had felt as they left their worldly goods at the feet of her statue in ancient Greece?

I’m impressed you exist, my love. I never thought anyone so perfect could live on this earth.

I loved the touch Ms. Michelle Garren Flye adds to the story with the magic tricks based on physics Liam performs to the delight of Gemma. And from all the characters, I absolutely loved Christine, the dance teacher. She is a maternal figure with a wicked sense of humor. She reminds me of Georgia, from “The Client List”:

“Honey, you’ve got to hold her like you mean it.” Christine moved her right hand down from Alicia’s waist to her hip. “The important thing about the tango is everybody watching has to be just waiting for you two to get busy right there on the floor.”

What I didn’t like about the book was that, after only a conversation or two, Alicia finds friends. But friends like Penny and Lulu with their attitudes and personal agendas should be steered clear of. Alicia needs nurturing influences, not backstabbing ones. Also, I found the relationship between the characters seemed to be evolve too slow, which made the story a bit boring. Those are some of the reasons that I believe the characters needed more depth and reality. 4 stars

Publisher: Carina Press's

Giveaway #7 Michelle Garren Flye

Today we are giving away one copy of the lovely Michelle Garren Flye book Winter Solstice. We've the pleasure to reivewed all her books and stay tuned for a early review of her upcoming book and interview with Michelle.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Weeds and Flowers by Michelle Garren Flye

Summary:

"When I think of my childhood, I think of weeds and flowers, sun-drenched color and shadowy spaces."

Charlie is 12 years old when her life changes forever. Her mother has remarried, had a "change-of-life" baby, and traded in her waitress uniform to be a stay-at-home mom. Meanwhile, Charlie's best friend Marleen has grown distant and Charlie's crush on her friend's older brother Kyle suffers a setback when he gets a steady girlfriend. The real shock comes when the girlfriend is kidnapped and murdered, leaving Charlie and her small hometown reeling from the shock. Can it be that the world Charlie believed in her whole life isn't what it seems?

The harder she looks, the more she comes to realize the truth about her town and the people who live there. Helplessly, Charlie watches as Marleen develops a dangerous obsession with a male neighbor. With the help of Marleen's brother Jeff, Charlie fights to save her friend before it is too late.

Set in the mountains of North Carolina against a backdrop of racism, bittersweet first love, and disillusionment, Weeds and Flowers is a story of young girl finding her way along the paths that lead from childhood onward.

Reviewer: Dolce Amore
Close to her wedding, Charlie remembers her childhood as this:

When I think of my childhood, I think of weeds and flowers, sun-drenched color and shadowy spaces. That was what gardens were and always will be to me—lovely flowers on the surface, weeds encroaching beneath and dark spaces in between. Snakes twined in a grapevine and beetles crouching under decorative borders of violets.

Despite all, she loved David, her step father, from the first time she saw him, when she was twelve, and he is a bright flower in her memory garden. However, that year, when he married Charlie’s mother, everything changed, starting with her mother’s decision to have a baby.

The same year, Marleen, her best friend, starts to be obsessed with a neighbor almost twenty years older, Brian; she discovers that her mother had knew all along how to reach her real dad and she never told her; and Tracy, the girlfriend of Marleen’s big brother is kidnaped and killed.

Slowly, Marleen’s other brother, Jeff, became her best friend and boyfriend, especially after Marleen moves with her mother to Chicago after the cops discover paintings of her naked in Brian’s home.

And she starts to see the darkness beneath the surface.

The ugliness. Every town has it. Secrets, lies, hidden anger, feuds. Small towns are the worst, I guess. I mean, I haven’t spent much time in Chicago, but the little bit I’ve been there hasn’t really felt that way. See, you’ve only ever seen the surface of things.

The cops finally arrested a man, a black one, for the murder of Tracy, but days after, Jeff is killed in a hit and run. And Charlie does her best to find the one who killed him.

It's a wonderful story that makes you stop and think. It’s about love, loss, and life. So well written it makes you feel like you were there, seeing all with your own eyes. It's different from the other books by Ms. Michelle Garren Flye, but no less wonderful. I love it and I rate it 5 stars.

Publisher: Dragonflye Publishing

Secrets of the Lotus by Michelle Garren Flye

Summary:

What would you trade for the story of a lifetime -- a lifetime of love?

Society reporter Josie Stewart is all too familiar with billionaire Dan Mason, who recently took over the reins of his ailing father's business. He has no intention of allowing anything, even his own conscience, to get in his way.

When Josie accidentally uncovers one of the family secrets, she glimpses a side of Dan that most people never get to see. Drawn to him, she puts her own career and reputation in jeopardy to keep his secrets. But some of those secrets are darker than she knew. Neither Dan nor Josie expects the danger lurking in their future -- or the passion.

Reviewer: Dolce Amore
As a society reporter for New York Life, Josie Stewart managed to sneak in to the birthday party of Dan Mason. There, she finds out that his father, ex-mayor of New York, has Alzheimer. She agrees to delay reporting this news, until twenty four hours before Dan will officially announce it, in exchange for a private interview.

At first, for Dan, having a relationship with Josie was a way of hiding what he was doing; however, he didn’t count on the feelings he starts to have for her.

When Josie vomits onto the shoes of the ambassador’s wife at a party, he takes her home and stays with her. They have a very funny conversation; here are some glimpses:

“What are you going to do here though?”
“Take care of you. Can I make you something to eat?”
“You cook too? How is it nobody’s ever been able to snag you and settle you down, Dan Mason?”
“I’m too ornery. And no, I don’t cook much, but I could microwave some soup, and I’m not bad at grilled cheese.”

“Men are extremely predictable in the arena of sex and food.”
“How so?”
“They are inextricably linked in the male psyche and, as you are not supposed to be having sexual thoughts about me, all I had to do was pretend I was turned on by your grilled cheese sandwich and presto, it’s all mine.”

Dan helps her with her project, “Second Chance of a Lifetime”:

“I was thinking something like a garage, maybe a body shop, possibly with a sideline in something like classic car restoration. I think it would make money. I really, truly believe these people need someone to show them they believe in them.”

It was her brother, James who inspired her, because he was stuck in prison and she wanted to help him and other people like him once they are released.

Josie’s relation with her mother is a bit rough and this is what she wanted to say on one occasion when she asked if Josie was dating someone:

“Yeah, there’s this one guy I’m sort of dating. He’s a billionaire, gorgeous—a real catch. He can make me feel like Cinderella without even trying. And I’ll be damned if I can figure out why he doesn’t make a move on me or if I even want him to.”

But she didn’t.

When James dies, she is devastated, but she still has Dan. However, when she is kidnapped and finds out the truth about her lover, will she still find her “happily ever after”?

Although I didn’t love this story as much as the previous book I’ve read written by Michelle Garren Flye, it is a lovely and wonderful story. I must say, I wanted a larger dose of humor, like the one from Winter Solstice; but Winter Solstice is the latest of Michelle Garren Flye’s books. That makes me wonder what I will find in her next release, a book from Carina Press, but I will wait impatiently.

I will rate the book 4.5 stars, as I didn’t felt the same connection with the story and the characters as in Winter Solstice.

Publisher: Lyrical Press

Winter Solstice by Michelle Garren Flye

Summary:

Assignment from hell or love of a lifetime?

Becky Gray thought her new job in the Public Relations Office of Buncombe County Hospital would be easy, but her first assignment takes her onto the front lines of the Emergency Room. Assigned to follow sexy Dr. John Grant whose reputation as a womanizer is only matched by his skill as a physician, Becky is caught up in a whirlwind of emotion and drama. Can she find safety in the arms of a man she should despise?

Explicit sex and some graphic descriptions

Reviewer: Dolce Amore
Becky Gray was the new public relations guru to a small community hospital in Asheville, North Carolina, named Buncombe County Hospital.

In her first day, while she meets almost all the people around, she also meets Dr. John Grant and I totally loved their meeting:

“I’m Dr. John Grant. I’ve heard you’re the greatest thing since sliced bread, and you’re here to make me look good.”
“Surely you don’t need me for that.”

And after two weeks of visiting most of the departments, becoming familiar with the procedures and the doctors, establishing contact with the area newspapers, and even taking a few reporters out to lunch, she gets her new task from her boss, Adam Greeley and it is… to follow Dr. John Grant around for a month. Wow, the same man she starts to feel attraction for. And slowly, she starts to see him as a kind, honorable, and totally amazing man and not only the womanizer almost everyone thinks he is.

I just love how Ms. Michelle Garren Flye is drawing John, making him real to the writers, real to me:

“It’s not always easy, is it?” She stood her ground, determined not to let the moment pass. John Grant, after all, was her assignment.
He froze. “What’s that?”
“Moving on to the next patient when the last one still needs help.” She bit her lip, hearing more sympathy in her voice than she’d intended.
“No.” His voice was soft, almost lost in the continuous activity of the room. “It’s not always easy. And there are no easy answers, either. You get used to it.”
“Do you?” She took a step closer to him.
He glanced over his shoulder and smiled a little. “You do. Now let’s get going.”

And the descriptions of what he was feeling for Becky are so wonderful they make me crave a John of my own… only if I could just order him from the internet, it would be so great (nowadays we can order anything from the internet so, why not a man, why not John?)

This woman was something else entirely from John’s previous experience with women. He wanted to wrap her up and keep her warm and safe at the same time he wanted to release her and see what she was going to do next. When he’d seen her in the reading room watching him, he’d felt a mild shock when their gazes met, but that was nothing compared to what he’d felt when their lips had touched just moments before.

So, let’s talk now a bit about Becky: she is timid, she doesn’t do one-night stands, and she is falling for John:

“I can’t do this. I’m just too vulnerable, that’s all, that’s the only reason I ever even considered it. I’m not the type for a one-night stand, and especially not with a guy I barely know.”

Wow, I have to stop adding my favorite scenes of the book or I will never finish the review. And all of them are from the first part of the book… could you imagine what would happen if I add them from the whole book?

Well, with the appearance of Becky’s ex, the situation between them is just getting worse, because although Becky want’s John, she doesn’t know if that is a good thing, so she tries to deny the feelings she has for him. And after she lets them together, her ex alone with John, John tells her:

“I didn’t tell him that we’d spent the most incredible night of my life together and I’ve had a hell of a time keeping my hands off you ever since.”

Isn’t he the sweetest and perfect man in the world?

However, not everything is going well… the author adds misunderstandings and past lovers to the story and that gives it the action the story needs.

I think I said before that paranormal is my favorite genre, but I always take the chance of finding good writers… no matter the genre. And Ms. Michelle Garren Flye is a good one, a very good one; my favorite writers’ list keeps growing…

Now, I will put into words what I think about the book: we have outstanding characters, wonderful storyline, great dialog, and delicious humor that just adds flavor to the story. And the way she adds the medical terms with the story just fills me with wonder. Do you already know how many stars I’ll give it? 5 stars, of course. And I totally recommend it. Besides, I hope Ms. Michelle Garren Flye could extend her magic over me and send me a John for myself.

Publisher: Lyrical Press