Friday, July 17, 2015

Author Spotlight with Kim Cox



Book Two in the Lana Malloy Paranormal Mystery series, Get Out or Die, 
was released July 1, 2015, by Kim Cox

Blurb: In this book Lana deals with new abilities and an angry ghost who does not want to leave and blames the family living in the house for his death. He wants them out. Here’s the Get Out or Die blurb:
Since the news of her first case, Lana Malloy’s Private Investigating/Mediator business is booming. At one pro-bono job, Lana helps a widow communicate with her late husband and learns of a frightening new ability she wasn’t aware she possessed, an ability that could give the spirit the upper hand if she’s not careful.

Lana struggles for control when she encounters the angry ghost who doesn’t want to leave and who doesn’t want the occupants of the house to stay. Will Lana be able to control the situation or will the ghost sense he can overtake her? Does she have other abilities she can rely on to save her?

Excerpt:
“I can’t believe your husband is angry with you,” Lana Malloy said to her new client, Angelina Fuentes. “After all, he died almost a year ago and hasn’t haunted you until now. He hasn’t assaulted you or anything like that, has he?”
“No, Senorita. My Mario only moves things to where I can’t find them. He wants me to lose my mind or something?” A tear trailed down her cheek. “Why does he do this?”
Angelina was an exotic beauty with long black hair and eyes almost as dark. A young woman who’d lost her husband way too young.
Lana closed the space between them, holding Angelina’s hands between her own as she sat beside her on the flowered sofa. Angelina’s lavender scent permeated the air around them. “That’s not Mario’s intentions at all.” She closed her eyes to concentrate. “He came back to try to help you. To let you know it’s okay to live your life, and maybe one day to marry and be happy again. Little Mario needs a male influence in his life too.”
“Why does he say this? Does he not love me?”
“It’s because he does love you that he wants you to have a happy life. Even when that life must be without him.”
Angelina broke down. “I can’t. Mario was . . . is my everything.” Her shoulders shook as she sobbed loudly. Lana would never get used to the emotional strain of dealing with broken hearts.
“What about Rodriquez?”
At the sound of Mario’s voice, Angelina’s head shot up. She searched the room before bringing her gaze back to Lana.
“Where did that come from?”
Lana knew what was happening, but was incapable of stopping it. This was a first for her. Never had one of the spirits sent his voice through her.
“From me.” Lana felt her lips move beyond her control, but the voice wasn’t hers. She was a bit leery of this situation. One thing was for sure, Mario planned to get his point across. At first, she’d been stunned by the change, but then struggled to get control. Frustration overcame her and she tried as hard as she could to dispel the presence manipulating her.
Wrinkles appeared around Angelina’s eyes and she squinted as she stared at Lana. She snatched her hands from Lana’s, jumped out of her seat, clutched her rosary in her hands, crossed herself and backed away, praying silently.
“Don’t be afraid, it is only me, your beloved husband. I won’t harm you.”
“Is it really you, Mario? What do you mean? Rodriguez knows we can only be friends.”
“Why?”
“Because he’s your best friend and I love you. I always will.”
“Rodriguez has loved you for a long time, even before I did.”
“I swear, Rodriquez, we…I…never did anything to shame our marriage.”
“My poor Angelina, I know that. This is not what I mean. He is a true friend and you, a loving and loyal wife. But I’m dead now. Both of you should move on. He loves you. Let him make you happy.”
Lana’s heart went out to Angelina. As she smoothed her dark tresses with the tips of her fingers, her big brown eyes reflected the struggle going on in her heart.
Lana continued to struggle against Mario’s intrusion. This couldn’t be happening to her. She cared for Angelina and Mario but this was a violation of her body.
“Now, I must return to where I belong,” Mario continued. “Promise me you’ll at least try to move on, to live a good life.”
As Lana kept concentrating, she could feel the spirit start to leave and wasn’t sure if she was driving him out, or if he was leaving of his own accord. Just when she thought she’d rid herself of the unwanted spirit, it latched onto her again.
“I will.” Angelina dotted the tears from under her eyes with the pink tissue she’d held in her lap. “I will try. I promise.”

 To Buy:

Bio:
Kim Cox lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina with her chain saw artist
husband Lee and their three dogs, Scooter, Harley and Candi. She has two sons and two grandsons. Besides writing Kim works a full-time job as an MIS Specialist for a local workforce development agency and has a Web design business. She also designs her own book covers. Learn more about Kim at her Web site www.kimcoxauthor.com and her blog. Kim’s Musings at kimcox.blogspot.com.

Find Kim:
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Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Take Five and Meet Author Carol Malone




Welcome to An Indie Adventure, Carol.  Tell us, what inspired you to write your book Summer Holiday?

This was a personal story to write, though not about me at all. I had actually had a summer crush on my grandma’s neighbor across the street where this novel takes place, and acted like a silly fourteen-year-old girl I was at the time. I wanted to re-create that special time, that singular summer love. I took my fictional characters and placed them in my beloved valley, in my grandma’s house, and in the town that I adored. 

I wanted Lizzy Golden, my heroine, to be bold where I was not, and Brent Pierce, my hero to just be the Brent that I had loved. I’d been kicking around the idea of writing a historical set in territorial Utah for a while so when the Sweet / Clean Facebook group that I found said let’s write a summer themed compilation where a beach is mentioned, all I had to do was add in a lake that, technically, wouldn’t be completed for many years. 

But it made for great fun for the town folk to look forward to an end of summer picnic at the lake.

Have you been a lifelong reader of historical romance?  What are some the first books you remember reading?

Anne of Green Gables was my first historical romance. You might not think Anne is a love story, but underneath all her shenanigans, she was a romantic at heart. Gilbert was my first virtual love. I followed that up with Little House on the Prairie. I can’t think of a stronger hero that Almonzo. Innocent, pure, and captivating love stories. I was hooked on romance after reading those books and have been a huge romance fan since then.

What do you do to rev your creative juices?

Lately, I’ve been suffering a real emptying of the creative juice bucket. It took a challenge—the summer compilation and a deadline—April 25th, to motivate me to push through down times. I find I’m better at having a window of opportunity to write and a deadline to shoot for to motivate me. I seem to write better in the early hours of the morning and … for some strange reason, get an extra kick of energy around 10 pm. Go figure?

What would be your advice to people who are considering a writing career?

Write, write, write, and write some more. Then find a good book coach, one that will be the perfect fit for you. It wouldn’t hurt that this person might have some psychological training as well as book-writing power behind them. 

Not to sound like an ad or anything, but I saw an ad on the side of a blog article about evaluating my passion for writing and found Beth Barany, a book coach who was trained in NLP-Neuro Linguistic http://bethbarany.com/ (look it up). Another one of the absolutely best things new writers can do is read. Read in your genre, read out of your genre, but read. I personally read over 100+ books a year.

You’re having a dinner party. What character from your novel do you hope doesn’t show up? Why?

Catrina Boatwright. Cat, as she’s called in the story, is a self-absorbed, social-climbing young lady who assumes the male lead, Brent, is already hers and plots to ruin and embarrass Lizzy by tampering with her box lunch. She’s petty and selfish, and a dirty fighter. **shudders** There’s no way I could enjoy a dinner party with Cat without trying to murder her.

Give us a brief summary of Summer Holiday (part of Summer Hearts Compilation):

For Summer Hearts (the compilation): Every Summer Has a Love Story...Six Summer Tales of Sweet Romance that bring you the very best in Historical, Contemporary and Fantasy Romance. Sarah Daley, Carol Malone, Kathy Bosman, Debby Lee, Robyn Echols, and Lisa Watson weave stories of long days, sultry nights, sun-kissed beaches and sweet romance. 

For Summer Holiday, my novella: In the summer of 1905, Lizzy Gordon’s father dismisses her desire to be a doctor, demanding she become a teacher—a profession which does not allow women to marry. Determined to be free to choose her destiny, Lizzy defies her father and falls for her grandma's handsome neighbor—literally.

Teacher Brent Pierce is dedicated to expanding young minds, but circumstances are forcing him to take over the family farm. Sweet complications are what he gets when the feisty Lizzy drops into his arms. 

Before the summer is over Lizzy and Brent will be forced to make tough decisions. Can they find the courage to each fight for their independence, their dreams, and still be together?

Buy: Amazon 

Bio: Award-winning author Carol Malone has successfully combined her three passions – romance, sports, and writing in her two highly-rated books, Fight Card Romance: Ladies Night and Ladies Night Christmas sequel. 

She was the first woman to write a romance for the all-male dominated genre. Carol writes romantic suspense to rocket her readers into the shady world of who-done-it to uncover a surprising happily-ever-after. If not hammering out new tales, Carol’s loves reading, sports, and hanging with her sci-fi author husband on the coast of California.


Find Carol: 


Thanks, Leslie, for allowing me the honor to be featured on your blog.
~Carol