Author Interview: Tonya Ramagos

Exquisite Quills Welcomes Tonya Ramagos!

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

Tonya: I live in Harrison, Tennessee in a house full of chaos and fun. Between my honey and I, we have 5 children ranging in ages from 19 to 3 years old and 4 cats that keep everyday interesting. We never know what will happen next! Almost everything I do is with the family…bike riding, hiking, fishing, trips to the drive-in, and anything else we find to keep us entertained. Writing is my passion and I’m thankful every day that I get to follow my dream. When I’m not writing or hanging with the family, I love to curl up with a good book or go for a night on the town playing darts.

EQ: What was your defining moment as a writer?

Tonya: I attended my first Romantic Times Convention in 2010 in Orlando, FL. I knew I had built a following of readers during my career, but being recognized and actually having them come up to me in person was the moment I really realized I was reaching and entertaining readers with my books.

EQ: What are your top three guilty pleasures?

Tonya: Chocolate. Almost anything is better with chocolate except my waistline.

Spider Solitaire. I spend way too much time playing that game when I should be writing.

Smoking. Yep, I confess. I smoke. I quit for 4 years and stupidly started back. It’s by far my worst guilty pleasure, but I will give it up again.

EQ: What is the biggest risk you’ve taken in your writing?

Tonya: I would have to say it was the choice I made in 1999 to focus on ebook publishers rather than the traditional print houses. Back then, ebook publishing was totally new and wasn’t expected to last. I disagreed, understanding the way technology was already taking over our lives. Despite tons of advice and criticism, I stuck with it and have never regretted it.

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

Tonya: Safe and Coasting with Ecstasy is book 2 of The Heroes of Silver Island series. This series is a spinoff of sorts from my well-known The Heroes of Silver Springs series. Silver Island is located off the coast of Silver Springs. It is an island that caters to people in ménage relationships. Kimberly Bevel is the heroine in Safe and Coasting with Ecstasy. She’s found her place on Silver Island. In a community where ménage relationships are the norm, all she’s missing is the love of two super-sexy hunks to complete her paradise. When she meets Coast Guard Petty Officers Emmett "Mett" and Charlie Doyle, she knows she’s found the men she wants, even if the brothers aren’t eager to share.

Mett and Charlie have been equally attracted to women before, but Kimberly is the first neither have been willing to walk away from. There’s little more important to Mett than a woman’s happiness, and he knows exactly how to deliver it. Charlie isn’t as suave as Mett, but he’s got a few moves up his sleeve.

While the brothers go head-to-head in their efforts to win Kimberly’s heart, she looks for a way to keep them both. But when she becomes the target of a madman, she may need Mett and Charlie to do more than keep her bed warm at night.

Find Tonya Ramagos here:

Website: http://www.tonyaramagos.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tonya.ramagos

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Tonya-Ramagos/e/B0088I776Q/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1389049739&sr=1-2-ent

Siren-BookStrand: http://www.bookstrand.com/tonya-ramagos

Enjoy these other titles by Tonya Ramagos:

The Heroes of Silver Island:

Safe and SEALed with Ecstasy

Safe and Coasting with Ecstasy

Safe and Burning with Ecstasy (coming January 31, 2014)

For a complete list of other titles, please visit http://www.bookstrand.com/tonya-ramagos

EQ Welcomes Missy Martine!

EQ Welcomes Missy Martine!

Author Interview Series

EQ: What has been the most exquisite moment of your life?

Missy: I spent twenty years of my life in a bad relationship.  I lived with a man who convinced me that nothing about me was special, or worth loving.  When I finally pulled together the courage to leave him I was convinced I would be alone for the rest of my life, and that was okay.  Being alone is so much better than being lonely, and hurt.  I was content living alone for the first time in my life when my best friend introduced me to the internet.  It was an inexpensive way for us to keep in touch since she lived in another state.  She directed me to a site called Friendfinders.  They had this ridiculous chat room that looked like the ocean.  You choose the color fish you wanted to be and then your words appeared under that fish.  I thought it was ridiculous.  They had other, more dignified chat rooms, but my friend loved the fish.  One afternoon the ocean room was down so I logged into one of their other rooms just to see what it was like.  There were two people chatting when I signed in.  I lurked, watching their words, until nigel1960 brought me into the conversation.  He showed real interest in what I had to say on many different subjects and pretty soon, we were chatting alone.  That was in May of 1997.  We exchanged email addresses and wrote long letters daily for the next month.  Then, we exchanged phone numbers and our phone bills soared.  He was living in Oklahoma and I was in Tennessee.  In November we made the decision to meet face-to-face with each of us driving halfway.  When we met in West Memphis, Arkansas we were already in love even though neither of us had seen the other’s face.  I moved to Oklahoma in December and we were married the following July.  We’re still together today.  He’s my true soul mate in every sense of the word.  I consider Nigel’s first message in that chat room as the most exquisite moment of my life.

EQ: Which of your characters do you most connect with and why?

Missy: I feel the closest to Cass Abernathy, the main character of “Table for Three”.  That book was loosely based on my own first marriage.  Like Cass, I had an abusive husband that pretty much controlled my life.  I wanted people to understand that it’s never too late to turn your life around and find real love.  You just have to be willing to open your heart to the possibility.  Like Cass, I was reluctant to move on and have new experiences.  And, like Cass, I found myself falling in love with a much younger man.  The biggest difference in her story and mine—I ended up with one younger husband while she ended up with identical twins!

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

Missy: All of my books have been different, but developing “Anna Doubles Down” is perhaps the most interesting.  My husband and I were on vacation, taking our Jeep off-road all over Nevada.  We stumbled across the sign for the ghost town of Hamilton by accident and couldn’t resist exploring it.  There’s practically nothing left of the town itself.  But the old dirt roads still remain and I followed one of them to the Belmont Mill while hubby explored the town’s old cemetery.  The mill was still standing, at least most of it was.  The windows were all broken out while the ropes from the ore car still ran from the top floor, over the tops of the trees, disappearing up the side of the mountain where the Seligman mine was located.  It was eerie, standing there, listening to the wind.  The upper floors of the old barracks had shadows I couldn’t explain, and it seemed as if the old building was whispering.  I don’t think I’ve ever felt so alone.  Then I began wondering what it must have been like to live back when the mill was full of hopeful young men, each yearning to make his fortune.  I walked further down the road and stopped to listen to the sounds of the woods and the idea came to me.  What would I do if I suddenly woke up in 1871 with all of my knowledge of the future?  By the time I made it back to the cemetery, and my husband, Anna had been born.  I took the names of the former residents of Hamilton from the headstones, and we headed home so I could begin my research on the old town.  Many of the characters I created actually lived during the time I based the book.  And that’s how “Anna Doubles Down” became a story.

 EQ: Tell us about your most recent release.

Missy: My most recent release is the second book in my new Wind River Pack series.  It’s called “An Officer and Two Gentlemen.”  The series picks up twenty-five years after the last book of the Wolfen Heritage series with the children of the alpha’s family.  In this book, Synia Wind River and Kinnith Kowana are asked to travel to Tennessee to protect a young woman.  She’s the daughter of a close friend of the leader of the shifter’s National Council.  Despite the fact that one of them is a wolf and one a falcon, the two men are mates.  They’ve kept it secret fearing their pack won’t accept them.  Both are surprised when they meet Kati and discover she’s also their mate.

Katherine Mathews is a New York policewoman who’s hiding out in Tennessee while she recovers from a gunshot wound she received in an undercover operation.  She managed to take out her assailant, but he was the oldest son of the head of the biggest drug syndicate in New York and they want revenge.  When she meets the bodyguards her father sends, she’s astounded.  She’s just learning to accept their differences when her enemies make their move.  She’ll have to make a hard choice to keep her new family safe.

Check out Missy's Books:

Table for Three

Discovering Her Wolfen Heritage

Denying His Wolfen Heritage

Changing Their Wolfen Heritage

Catch Her When She Falls

The Magic in Her Gift

Anna Doubles Down

When Kat’s Away

Forever Eva

Space Bride

My Chameleon Loves

Meredith’s Pride

Star Wishes

Blind Acceptance

If you want to know more about Missy's books, or just keep track of her, here are some places you can look:

Website:  http://www.missymartine.com/home

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/missy.martine

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/Missy_Martine

Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/Missy-Martine/e/B00328055M/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1382534258&sr=1-2-ent

First or Third Person?

When I wrote my first book, Letting Go, it was in first person. I told the story from Sabrina's POV. When I got that first acceptance letter from Siren Publishing (still hearing angels singing,) they made it conditional that I change the story to third person and add in Jonas's point of view.

I was deflated. I liked it in first person. A lot. But I did it because I so badly wanted to be published. The story did benefit from having Jonas's thoughts and feelings put in, but I felt like it lost something when I had to take out thoughts, observations, and insights that now fell under the category of "head hopping." You see, in first person, a character can make suppositions. In third person, those suppositions become taboo. When I get the rights back to Letting Go, I plan to revise it back into a first person story.

In the meantime, I've recently returned to writing from the first person perspective. Surreal Neal, the sixth book in the Awakenings series, is written in first person. I learned my lesson from Letting Go, however, and the chapters rotate between Sophia, Drew, and Neal. If you're not familiar with Hanging On, you can still pick up Surreal Neal and enjoy it, though I think you'll enjoy the second story more if you've been with Drew and Sophia from the start.

Rotating the chapters allowed me to present all points of view--which I think is the big fear with first person stories, that you'll lose the global perspective--and still delve deeply into the characters. I think it's one of the best in that series so far. With In Their Hearts (Two Masters for Samantha #2--due out in December),  I returned to the third person perspective. It wasn't for any particular reason. Hanging On was originally written in 1st person as well, and I think it works for those stories. In Their Hearts did not call to me on a first person level. It works very well from third person, though I did again rotate points of view so that the reader gets to experience the story from all perspectives.

In the meantime, I started a new series. It's a mainstream romance (with heat--don't worry, there's still sex) that's written entirely from the heroine's perspective. She has the most to lose in this series (Kiss Me, in case you were wondering.) I wrote them almost like a diary, and I took inspiration from the classics. Lacey (main character) speaks directly to her readers, at time dropping the figurative fourth wall. In the second book, she does give the epilogue to the hero so that he can vindicate himself a bit. He doesn't even bother with a narrative style. He speaks directly to the reader in a conversational tone. I think it's the best thing I've written yet. It's a two-book series (so far), and it's the first series I've ever contracted where I had a deadline for a book I hadn't yet written. It'll be out sometime in 2014 (I hope) from Omnific Publishing. (More to come about that later.)