Photo Interview: Dena Garson

EQ Welcomes Dena Garson!

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

I’m a process improvement specialist by day and a jewelry designer and author by night. I have two rowdy boys who play all kinds of sports so I’m frequently on the sidelines cheering them on. Books are my escape – either by reading them or capturing new stories on paper. Since my boys won’t do exactly what I want when I want, I take my frustrations out on unsuspecting characters. At least my heroines stand a chance of having a clean house!!

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

Loss of Control was released in July. It’s a sensual contemporary about two co-workers who first meet when they’re thrown together on an out of town assignment. They’re each attracted to the other but for various reasons don’t feel they can act on their feelings.

What photos inspired or encapsulate your characters, setting, or conflict?

Jeanie, the heroine in Loss of Control, faces an ethical dilemma. Her decision could affect not only her and her job but potentially the company. Lucky for her Steve is there to offer support!

Exquisite moment:                

I have two boys. Both love to play video games. I usually take my laptop into the living room and write or work while they play. It allows me to be near them, monitor what they are playing, and act as referee when needed. In the last couple of years, some of the best moments have been when they invite me to play the game with them. They know I’m not good on their games and that I have trouble with all the buttons on the controller (seriously – we had a joystick and ONE button – these have a dozen!). The boys often cover my back and try to keep me from getting killed and show me how to do some of their tricks. They’re very patient and protective of me in game. “I got them, mom!” or “Don’t shoot my mommie.” It’s really very sweet. Now if I could get them to be as nice to each other in real life…

Guilty pleasures:              

We have a chain of ice cream stores around here that have their own cows and make their own milk and ice cream. I discovered the joy (and heart ache) of their banana fudge sunday a few years back. This is a guilty pleasure because I just can’t eat them very often – not only is it a lot of sugar but ice cream wreaks havoc on my digestive system. But dangit! Sometimes you just gotta give in to your cravings!

Find Dena Garson at these places:

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/dena.garson.7

Twitter - https://twitter.com/DenaGarson

Blog - http://denagarson.wordpress.com/

Photo Interview: Maggie Le Page

Exquisite Quills Welcomes Maggie Le Page!

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

Hi, and thanks so much for inviting me over. I live down in Christchurch, New Zealand with my partner and two young children. I self-published A Heat Of The Moment Thing in 2013, juggling it around kidstuff, earthquakes, house shifts and work. It’s fair to say my life tends towards chaos.

Like many Kiwis I love to travel. I also enjoy reading and indulging in lazy hazy beach days. Clearly the trifecta – ie all three; say, as an island holiday combo – gets my vote. (Grins.)

I’m currently putting the finishing touches on my second novel, The Trouble With Dying, and plotting a sequel to A Heat Of The Moment Thing.

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

A Heat Of The Moment Thing is a romantic comedy about a woman who, after one too many Mr Wrongs, has decided it’s career girl or bust. When Mr Sizzling-Hot shows up as her new boss, she knows she’s in trouble. But she’s not about to risk her career on an office fling, so she takes defensive action. And that’s when the real trouble starts.

 

My writing process

I try to plan, truly I do, but my best writing comes when I have no idea what’s going to happen next and I just write. I like to call it the dartboard approach (because when I throw a dart it is very random, believe me). Strangely, it usually works.

 

The heroine’s conflict in A Heat Of The Moment Thing

In A Heat Of The Moment Thing, the heroine’s work and personal lives collide. Literally. Can you work it out from the photo?

 

 

An exquisite moment

Snowfall – the looks on our kids’ faces. Priceless. (Can you tell it doesn’t happen often at our place?)

Guilty pleasures

Bad timing. I’ve just started an eight-week liver cleansing diet. That means my guilty pleasures –chocolate, coffee, and wine are bad bad bad. Guess I’ve got a lot to feel guilty about. ;)

A risk or challenge I’ve taken

No, I haven’t bungy jumped – are you kidding?! – but it felt every bit as scary when I self-published my first book, despite the scores of rejections I’d had. I love the fact that readers are finding A Heat Of The Moment Thing and enjoying it.

Find Maggie Le Page at these places:

Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/MaggieLePage

Website – http://www.maggielepage.com

Twitter – http://www.twitter.com/MaggieLePageNZ

Photo Interview: Helena Fairfax

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

Helena: Thanks for having me, Exquisite Quills!

I write contemporary romances, and that’s the genre I love to read, too. I live in the north of England, close to the Yorkshire moors, the home of the Brontë sisters. Every day I walk the moors with my rescue dog, taking in the wildlife and the changing seasons. It’s a wonderful location for finding romantic inspiration - and for dreaming up my next hero!

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

Helena: My most recent release is The Antique Love, which is set around London’s oldest park, in Richmond-on-Thames. Here’s the blurb:

One rainy day in London, Wyoming man Kurt Bold walks into an antique shop off the King’s Road and straight into the dreams of its owner, Penny Rosas. Kurt certainly looks every inch the hero…but he soon brings Penny’s dreams to earth with a thump. His job is in the City, in the logical world of finance – and as far as Kurt is concerned, romance is just for dreamers.

But when Kurt hires Penny to help refurbish his Victorian house near Richmond Park, it’s not long before he starts to realise it’s not just his home she’s breathing life into. The logical heart he has guarded so carefully all these years is opening up to new emotions, in a most disturbing way…

My next novel is called A Way from Heart to Heart, and is due for release on 14^th December.

Photo One. Richmond Park in London is the setting for The Antique Love. There’s a great sense of history behind this setting.  It’s a Royal Park, and the oldest green space in London. I chose this location because my heroine, Penny, is an antique dealer.  She loves to immerse herself in the past, and to picture how the people and places must have been in those days.

My hero, Kurt, is from Wyoming, and misses the space and the great outdoors. Richmond Park is the perfect place for the two of them to get to know one another!

If you’d like to know more about this wonderful park, and some more photos, I have some more about its history here on my blog: http://helenafairfax.com/2013/08/16/richmond-park-incorporating-setting-in-the-theme-of-your-novel/

Photo Two. These are the Yorkshire moors, near where I live in the north of England, and where I walk every day. You can see from the photo what a beautiful place it can be. I took this photo in the summer. In the winter, the moors are bleak and harsh, but I love the dramatic landscape, which features so strongly in Wuthering Heights.

I’ve made the moors part of the setting for my next novel, A Way from Heart to Heart, which will be released in December. The heroine takes a group of disadvantaged teenage girls from London on a trip there. It was fun to write the location from their eyes, and it makes a dramatic backdrop to the hero and heroine’s growing relationship.

 

Photo Three. If I didn’t live near the moors, I’d love to live on the coast in England. I usually spend Christmas on the south coast, and this photo is of my step-daughter, walking along the Cobb in Lyme Regis, Dorset. The Cobb is a wall that protects the harbour, and it features in the film The French Lieutenant’s Woman, where Meryl Streep stares dramatically out to sea, and also plays a big part in one of the scenes in Jane Austen’s Persuasion – one of my favourite books of all time!

The seaside is the perfect setting for a romance, and I have a few ideas for stories going around in my mind that I’d really like to explore.

Photo Four. This is how I write, and this is my rescue dog, Lex. My constant companion whilst I’m writing and dreaming up stories, and my greatest fan :)

I hope you liked my photos. If you’re interested in seeing more, or finding out more about me and my books, please check out my blog at www.helenafairfax.com; or you can like my Facebook page, where I post lots of pictures of the moors throughout the seasons, https://www.facebook.com/HelenaFairfax; or else follow me on Twitter https://twitter.com/HelenaFairfax

I love to meet new people!

Thanks so much for having me on the EQ blog. It’s been a real pleasure sharing my photos!

Photo Interview: PJ MacLayne

EQ Welcomes PJ MacLayne!

The Marquesa's Neckace by P.J. MacLayne

Harmony Duprie enjoyed her well-ordered life in the quiet little town of Oak Grove—until her arrest for drug trafficking. Cleared of all charges, she wants nothing more than to return to the uneventful lifestyle of a historical researcher she once savored.

But when her beloved old car “George” is stolen and explodes into a ball of flames, it sets off a series of events that throws her plans into turmoil. Toss in a police detective that may or may not be interested in her, an attractive but mysterious stranger on her trail, and an ex-boyfriend doing time, and Harmony’s life freefalls into a downward spiral of chaos.

Now she has to use her research skills to figure out who is behind the sinister incidents plaguing her, and why. And she better take it seriously, like her life depends upon finding the right answers.

Because it might.

Lots of people write about the beauty of the ocean on a clear and cloudless day, when the sun sparkles on the water. I find beauty in the stormy ocean, with the water being tossed about by both waves and wind, crashing against the rocks thrusting from the bottom. This picture is a poor representation of what standing on the shore during a winter storm looks like.

I collect wild flowers. No, I don't pick them and take them home, only to have them die a day or two later, I take pictures of them so their beauty is preserved for years. I have no idea how many pictures of flowers I have, taken in various places throughout the United States. Here's one such picture, taken in the mountains of Colorado this July. And before you ask, I have no idea what the name of these flowers is. I'll leave it to someone else to identify them.

Many of us have seen pictures of redwoods as they reach to the sky. Sometimes, due to natural events, they crash to the ground.  When they do, their roots are often pulled from the ground. So here's a picture of redwood roots for those of you who have never seen them. And to give you an idea of the size, an average person standing in front of these roots would only be half as tall. I apologize for the graininess of this picture, it was taken on old-fashioned film and scanned to my computer a few years later.

I love the mountains. There's not a lot more that I can say than that. It doesn't matter what the weather is, the mountains feed my soul. Picking just one picture of the mountains to share was almost impossible. I changed my mind several times. So here's one.

It seems fitting to end this with a sunset. Yes, it was taken in the mountains.

Buy Links:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LF11HB4

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-marquesas-necklace-pj-maclayne/1119886265

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id894246916

http://www.inktera.com/store/title/8e689860-d163-4a5a-ac42-47ace09b4690

http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/the-marquesa-s-necklace

Media Links: Facebook: https://facebook.com/pjmaclayne

            Twitter      https://twitter.com/pjmaclayne

            Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/P.J.-MacLayne/e/B00HVE8WZI