Month: March 2021

Could it be I’m a real writer?

Most days, I write for a few hours, or edit. That makes me feel like a writer. With coffee.

But today has been different.

I started out reviewing my email, and found a request for cover art for my manuscript SIXSHOOTER, so I had to fill out descriptions for the three main characters and return them to the editor, along with the contract for the science fiction romance book.

I also got a request to approve my course description and contract for a class I’m teaching for Pennwriters this fall on writing sci-fi and fantasy.

Then I got the video book trailer I’d ordered for my romantic suspense book TENDER MISDEMEANORS, with a request for approval. It was fantastic! I’ll post it on the TM page here in a few days.

THEN I got a request to approve the schedule for two classes I’m teaching at the Flathead River Conference in Montana in October, one on writing series, and one on world-building.

THEN I got a five star review from Long and Short Reviews for ADVERSARIES, the third book in my Color of Fear series.

I haven’t even started writing yet!

Is this what authors’ days are really like? I’d like a lot more of them, please! 🙂

Meanwhile, I will share with you our flavor mix of the day–two torties with a topping of tuxedoes. 🙂

Does attraction lead to love?

Book title: Love Leads the Way by Margot Johnson

Genre: Sweet contemporary romance

Blurb:

She coaches him in team leadership, but do they both need lessons in love?

Single mom Tessa Shore runs a successful leadership program at work and supports a mother with dementia. She can handle any challenge in her jam-packed schedule as long as nothing spins out of control…especially her feelings.

Engineer Mark Delaney is an expert on pipelines at the same company, but his interpersonal skills need a makeover. Advancing to an executive job requires enrollment in a leadership course he doesn’t think he needs.

When their professional and personal issues entangle, life at the office gets a lot more complicated. Romance is impossible…or is it?

Buy links:

LOVE LEADS THE WAY

LOVE TAKES FLIGHT

About the author:

Margot Johnson grew up in a family of writers and has always loved books and writing.

She is the author of LOVE TAKES FLIGHT and her new release LOVE LEADS THE WAY. Before turning her focus to the fun writing life, Margot held leadership roles in human resources and communications. Her motto is “Dream big and work hard.”

When not writing, she loves to connect with family and friends, volunteer with SK Writers Guild, and walk at least 10,000 steps a day (except when it’s minus 40!) She lives in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada with her amazing husband and beloved golden retriever.

Social media links:

Margot Johnson Author

Margot Johnson on Love Leads the Way

For many years, I worked in a busy corporate environment, and I left a leadership role in human resources and communications to focus on writing. Now instead of guiding employees, I create characters who have minds of their own!

In LOVE LEADS THE WAY, Tessa coaches Mark in leadership, but they both need lessons in love! I hope you have fun with these clashing coworkers as they discover where love leads.

The story is fiction but draws on some of my experiences at work and at home. I’d love to have lunch with Tessa and compare notes on office gossip, single parenting, family quirks, and cute golden retrievers. One key difference is I didn’t meet my handsome husband at work!

Tessa and Mark both support a mother with dementia which brings some tough but also light moments. My late dad died of complications from Alzheimer’s, so that part of the book is close to my heart. He was a journalist who always encouraged me to read and write.

My characters love dogs, and my loyal, old golden retriever, Sophie, is the inspiration for the adorable dogs in my books.

When not writing, I love to travel. One of my more unusual adventures was appearing on the TV game show Let’s Make a Deal where I almost won a car! You can often find me reading a good book for my monthly book club while munching on a large bowl of popcorn.

Excerpt:

Pacing around Crescent Park in moonlight trimmed with stars, Mark breathed fresh air and slowed his erratic heartbeats from the shock of Tessa’s invitation. Apparently, the woman who directed the class with the precision of an air-traffic controller could flex…at least, a little. She wanted to spend extra time with him, and he couldn’t refuse.

“I didn’t think we’d bump into other participants at this late hour.” She hugged tighter her windbreaker against the cool breeze. “We won’t mix business and pleasure. I’m strictly off duty, and so are you.”

“Okay, Tessa, whatever you say.” Zipping higher his jacket, he strode and sniffed moisture riding the wind. Guilt tiptoed around his collar, and he couldn’t escape the feeling this outing was a bad idea. He should avoid her, except in class, yet he accepted her invitation. But why did she break her own rule and contact him?

“If I can’t discuss work, can I ask you a personal question?” He admired her profile with pert nose tipped to the sky, breathing the fresh night air.

“I guess so since I’m the woman who persuades everyone else to dish.” She laughed and brushed a curl from her cheek.

Streetlights alternated with a full moon to light the pathway. Their footsteps crunched on gravel, and their murmured voices broke the peaceful silence.

            “Ready.” She tucked her hands in her jacket pockets.

“Is Mr. Shore waiting at home?” He winced at his forward question. No sense beating around the bush. He shouldn’t pine for someone else’s wife.

A very different kind of office #MFRWHooks

When Inessa Regan gets a pink slip, laid off from her law firm at the age of 42, without prospects she’s sure her life is over. She hides from the world, until her neighbor brings her a client, a young Iraq war veteran dying of cancer.

Kurt Lowdon only wants to make sure his affairs are in order should the worst happen, but meeting Inessa gives him encouragement on the road to recovery. His quest to help her realize her self-worth leads them into dangers they never expected, as horrors from the war and long-hidden family secrets come back to haunt them.

EXCERPT:

Returning to the dock after a glorious hour’s cruise that she’d
donated to herself and to life, she couldn’t seem to get the smile off her face as she drove back along Liberty Avenue to the East Side.
She wasn’t intending to work, just to stop and pick up some files to take home for later, and also to share her day with Kurt. He’d appreciate it.
She stopped at Panera to get a frozen mocha for herself and iced green tea infused with passion fruit and papaya for Kurt and continued to the office. Arms full, she breezed through the front door then skidded to a stop as two guns pointed in her direction.
“At ease!”
Kurt’s quick yell from somewhere she couldn’t see brought the gun-barrels’ aim to the floor, and she stepped back, knees weak, to lean against the wall. Rafe and Tommy Lee didn’t move from their defensive position near the door to her office. Kurt appeared and spoke quietly to them; they returned to his area in the rear.
“I’m really sorry. Are you okay?” he asked, his tone showing he knew she wasn’t. He took the drinks from her trembling hands and set them on the desk in the waiting room. “Good thing we don’t have a secretary yet. She might be a little twitchy.”
His grin failed to reassure her.
“What the hell was that?”
“Just getting the last touches on for tomorrow night. Is one of these for me?” He took the green tea.
“You’re going to shoot them?”
She peeled herself off the wall and set down her briefcase. She felt like hitting him with it, digging her teeth into her lower lip, not wanting to confront him. What the hell kind of greeting was that for an office? What if it had been a client instead of her? Fear kicking up her irritation, the question escaped anyway.
“What the hell is going on here?”

BIO: Alana Lorens has been a published writer for more than forty years. Currently a  resident of Asheville, North Carolina, she loves her time in the smoky blue mountains. One of her novellas, THAT GIRL’S THE ONE I LOVE,  is set in the city of Asheville during the old Bele Chere festival. She lives with her daughter, who is the youngest of her seven children, two crotchety old cats, and five kittens of various ages.

Website            https://alana-lorens.com

Facebook    https://www.facebook.com/AlanaLorens/

Goodreads   https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4829967.Alana_Lorens

Amazon Author Page  https://www.amazon.com/Alana-Lorens/e/B005GE0WBC/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1

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