Meet the Exquisite Quill Authors


Saturday, January 4, 2014

Author Interview: Rita Henuber



Exquisite Quills Welcomes Author Rita Henuber!

EQ: Welcome to EQ! Tell us a little bit about yourself! 

Rita: I was born and raised on a barrier island on the east coast of Florida. A tomboy, I ran the beaches and heavily wooded areas at will. I grew up, sorta, and married a Marine. We were fortunate to live many different places and travel to the places we didn’t live.  I’ve always been a storyteller. As I child I was, shall we say, discouraged from telling or writing stories. Now, no one can stop me. I’ve returned to my barrier island and write Suspense/Thrillers incorporating what I know about military and government life and places I’ve traveled.  

EQ: What made you want to become a writer?

Rita: I was coming out of a horrifically bad time in my life and recovering by losing myself in books. One day I thought, I can do this. I can write.  And… write I did. Two hundred and forty-five thousand words later, I began to think about publishing. Quite by accident, I fell into a fantastic online writing class with a brilliant instructor and my career began.

BTW that two hundred and forty-five thousand word MS is a hot mess and still sitting in a file on my computer. But… I love it.

EQ: Describe how you came up with the plot of your novel.

Rita: For the first book, the instructor of the class I enrolled in, asked us to give her our plots. Eh… plot? You need a plot? Well heck. I live at the beach, and the regular Coast Guard helicopter patrol was flying over.  The Ashton Kutcher/Kevin Costner movie, The Guardian, about the Coast Guard was on the TV. Hmmm. My daddy was in the Coast Guard. Helicopters, the Atlantic, drug lords, fast boats and vengeance turned into - A smoking hot Coast Guard Helicopter pilot teams up with a sexy DEA agent to take down the drug lord who killed her brother.  

The second book bubbled out with some characters from the first. My third and fourth books will be out soon and are the result of those people living in my head demanding their own books.  Finally I found a way to quiet them.

EQ: What kinds of female characters do you prefer to write?

Rita: I write about extraordinary women and the men they love. My heroines are in the military. Independent, successful women at the top of their field. The words I can’t are not in their vocabulary. The men in their lives have to accept them for who they are. Be supremely confident in their own identity and be able to stand with her side-by-side, shoulder to shoulder in whatever they take on.  My heroines are fiercely loyal. They love hard and forever. 


EQ: Tell us a little bit about your most recent release.

Rita: Under Fire: The Admiral begins with a medical mission plane being shot down in the Ecuadoran jungle and finishes in Paris. Coast Guard Admiral Gemma Hendrickson prevents the drug cartel from capturing her passenger Dr. Ben Walsh until they are rescued, but can’t keep the sexy doctor from capturing her heart. There is plenty of action in the jungle with Navy SEALs, narco-subs, the drug cartel, and in Paris, between the sheets.    

Find Rita here:

Facebook   https://www.facebook.com/RitaHenuberAuthor?ref=hl
Twitter   www.twitter.com/ritahenuber
Web home   http://ritahenuber.com

Other Titles by Rita Henuber:

Under Fire
Under Fire: The Admiral
Under Fire: The Marine   coming in April
Under Fire: Hunter’s Heart   coming in May

Thursday, January 2, 2014

The Genesis of a Book - A Brilliant Marriage by Jean Lamb




What was your inspiration for A BRILLIANT MARRIAGE?

First of all, I have long enjoyed reading Regency farces, or at least Regency romances with a sense of humor. I also like romance novels where the hero and heroine don’t have to behave stupidly or refuse to talk to each other, simply for the sake of the plot. My favorite Regency farce novelists are Barbara Metzger and Michelle Martin. Metzger, of course, has written what seems to be dozens of them; my special favorite, though, is AN AFFAIR OF INTEREST, if only for the dreadful pun in the title. However, Martin holds first place in my heart for THE MAD MISS MATHELY. The writing in that book holds by attention from beginning to end, still tells a heart-warming story, and makes me feel sorry for that poor little snake (long story). There are strong humorous elements in Heyer’s classic THE GRAND SOPHY (the phrase ‘marching blindly to their doom’ sticks in my memory) as well.

So when I realized that when a brave duke without much money, some shady friends, and an exciting past was going to fall in love with a slightly distracted, bookish miss with a thumping great dowry, they would have to come to a meeting of the minds as well as hearts. Both of them had past issues that they had to resolve, too, and so I believe that they would enjoy plotting subtle revenge on those who had tormented them in the past. Besides, plotting revenge is fun if you do it right.

I decided to write the first draft of A BRILLIANT MARRIAGE for NaNoWriMo 2011 (National Novel Writing Month, visit the site at www.nanowrimo.org for more information). Before that, I made up a character list, very brief backgrounds for each, and a general outline for the novel. On Nov. 1, 2011, I sat and began writing, only to discover that things were turning out more complicated than I thought. But I plunged merrily ahead, realizing that I would have to fix things like remembering some people’s names later on. I never did do a complete family tree for the duke, save for a few branches of it; I’ve had knitting patterns that weren’t that messy.

Someday, I think I would like to go back and really flesh out the novel (unhousebroken puppies and the Prince Regent don’t mix, though his boots were eventually returned to their normal pristine state). But I have this horrible thing called a day job, and other novels are calling me. Someday I’ll be ‘retired’ though, or as much as a writer ever really does.

And some of the other characters in the book are coughing gently and asking when it will be their turn to be the stars…boy, are they ever going to regret it! <G>

Blurb

“For sale: one duke, slightly damaged provenance, but willing to do his duty. Comes with financially unstable estate, the duke’s shifty friends, and one Maiden Aunt from Hell. The roof over the library appears to be sound, and a few good paintings still remain. Required: decent sense of humor, ability to help with bad roof, and a large dowry.”

Lt. Jack Rawley has a title and an estate but no money. Lucinda Alcott has a thumping great dowry, and lives only a few miles away. You would think it would be easy. Both of them want to marry someone they can love. True, they do share some of their same people on their enemies’ list…

 


 

$2.99 for the ebook, $5.99 for print.

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

First Kiss Wednesday!


Sorry for the late start to today's First Kiss Wednesday, folks. I admit to too much reveling last night. The First Kiss Wednesday is up and running now. ~ Rose
 
Kisses are the mainstay of romance writing.  No matter how sweet or spicy our stories are, they usually involve at least a kiss or two.  And the first kiss is especially lovely - that first, soft touch of lips - or perhaps the kiss is fierce and hungry.  Maybe the characters murmur words of love or words of teasing while discovering the texture and taste of each other.  Maybe the only sounds they can emit are gentle, timorous moans or deep, throaty groans.
Okay, now that we've set the premise, here's what you can do for First Kiss Wednesdays.  In the comment box, give us a maximum of 300 words of the first kiss of a published work or a work-in-progress and one link to your website or blog or Amazon Author Page. 
Read and luxuriate in the glories of the first kiss...

Oh, and lips only...  ;-)

Sunday, December 29, 2013

Set the Scene in Six Sentences - Sunday






One of the finest aspects of fiction writing is the ability to set the scene.  Characters act and react, but they don't do so in a vacuum.  In their world, they meet, fall in love, solve problems, sometimes horrendous problems.  Maybe it's a small town, maybe the big city, the green, humid jungle, dust-dry desert, a mountainous region.  On the sea.  Under the sea.  In space! 

Setting the scene is also done by using character dialogue to paint a picture of loveliness, danger, evil, trepidation, excitement, awe...

Give us six sentences that set the scene.  Set the Scene in Six Sentences - Sunday is a new opportunity on the Exquisite Quills! Blog to tout your talent.  How have you set the scene in your books?  How have you put the reader into the life of your characters?

Every Sunday, the blog will be open to six-sentence scene-setting.  Just post your six sentences, your name, and one link in the comment box.  We can't wait to read you!

Pass the word!  Open to all!