The Reyes Family- A Series by Fiona McGier

My guest today if Fiona McGier who writes for Wings Press which is one of my publishers. Fiona, thank you so much for coming today. I'm having a lot of fun talking to authors whose work I haven't read yet. I'm going to bankrupt myself buying books! Tell us a little bit about yourself.

I have been happily married for the past 26 years, and we have 4 young adult children. I have full responsibility for my widowed mother who has Alzheimers, and count my lucky stars that she was so frugal, as she is now living in an assisted living place, since we don't even have a closet to spare around here! And on most weekdays, there isn't anyone home who could watch her, since all 4 of my kids have jobs and go to school (1 senior in hs, 3 sons in college), and I am on the call list for a local high school district as a substitute teacher. I am a certified English teacher who specialized in the teaching of writing, but alas I've found that districts want to hire teachers who are endorsed in reading, and who are 22 years old, and I'm not either! But the students in two schools started a Facebook fan club for me, so they helped me to overcome my fear of on-line chatting, since I joined it to see who was in it. They e-mail me for advice on their writing, and ask me about college choices and careers.

I started writing after my Dad passed away and I was scrambling to find a way to care for my Mom while trying to sell her house. I really needed to believe in happy endings, so one day I sat down at my laptop and started to let the stories out of my head. As a child I thought that everyone walked around with characters "talking" in their head, entertaining them with scenes. Now I'm glad to share those stories, and hope readers enjoy reading them as much as I enjoy writing them. And my books always have happy endings, usually accompanied by a wedding.

It sounds to me like you have your hands full. Both my son and I have characters taling in our heads. We laugh about it from time to time. How did you celebrate when you received “the call”?

It's happened a few times...first I run around the house yelling, but frequently there's no one home to congratulate me. Of course, sometimes my kids have friends over, which led to one of my son's friends deciding that the tattooed biker on the cover of one of my books must be what my husband looks like! And my kids tease me about what I write. But 2 of them have read at least one of my books, and my daughter told me I write good stories, just with heroines too old for her. My son told me I write in a very literary style, and that I write "tasteful" sex scenes. But then, since I've never censored what they read, I have to wonder just WHAT he's read to compare it to!

You write erotic romance. What drew you to this genre? Do you write in any other genre?

At first I felt embarrassed about the fact that I write romance novels. Most people think of them as "cotton candy for the brain", or a very simple kind of entertainment. But I began to notice that most pop songs are about love stories, most movies and TV shows deal with love and romance, and I began to realize that since we all fall in love, and as humans we are all designed to seek a life-time partner, that what I write about is really the universal human condition: falling in love, getting married, and having children. I try not to write down to my readers, and sometimes will include research into something that one of the characters is involved with. For instance, in Analysis of Love, the 4th book in my Reyes Family Romances series, Catalina, the heroine, is pretending to need analysis by a very sexy doctor who uses Abraham Maslow's theories of self-actualization in his practice. So during the course of the book, the reader will learn what the 7 steps are to the process, and just why this is such an important and interesting concept to think about.

I have written a few short stories that are sci-fi romances, or sci-fi erotica. One of them is a free read on my website. But even when I'm imagining another world, or the future of this one, I guess my mind will always put a love story, with naughty elements, into the picture!

When you have a new book coming out, do you worry about reader reaction?

Not really. I just worry about if there will BE any readers! Actually I have a core group of friends who buy every book I have published. They encourage me with comments, and reviews, and tell me when I am doing something they approve of, or when I'm not. I have an aunt who reads everything also, and she told me that the most recent book, Love Therapy, was not only a great love story, but parts of it made her cry. I take that as a supreme compliment, that I could touch her emotionally like that. My ex-roommate from college just e-mailed me that she finished the book I published on Smashwords as a free read, and her comment was "Hot, hot, hot! When's the next one?" She reads them much faster than I can write them!

LOL. I worry if there will be readers too! Is there a particular author who has especially influenced your writing? If so who and how?

I really like the breezy, conversational style of Mary Janice Davidson's romances. I enjoy reading about insights into human nature and behavior in books by Desmond Morris. I enjoy Margaret Atwood's books, though her vision of the future is a bit too distopic for me at times. I always have at least 3-4 books going at any given point in time. They are at various places around the house, where-ever I might sit, but my tastes are really eclectic, so there's really no one influence.

I'd say I'm eclectic as well. I don't like to limit myself to just one genre. Would you share your links with us?

I'd love to! My website is: www.fionamcgier.com. The first page is a blog, and there are pages for each of my books that have been published, with excerpts and links to reviews. There is also the free short story I alluded to, as well as a contact page for anyone who might like to chat with me.

I have an author page on Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2987252.Fiona_McGier

Prescription For Love, a free download is at: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/18367


Please share an excerpt with us. Don’t forget to include a buy link.

My books are all available at Amazon.com and Fictionwise.com, as well as other sites. But for the best pricing, please visit my publisher's site: http://www.wingsepress.com/Bookstore/Love%20Therapy.htm

My books are all available as downloads and paperbacks, with the sole exception that Smashwords doesn't offer the paperback option. So I had to send a manuscript copy of that book to my aunt who doesn't own a computer! But as a loyal reader as well as my aunt, she's worth the postage! ;-D


Blurb:

Miguel’s first love, his high school sweetheart, was the woman he wanted to marry…because they belonged together. But she had a different kind of future in mind and left for college, leaving him and his broken heart behind. 20 years later he saw her at their high school reunion. Will he walk away this time? Or is it still meant to be? And what will his family think?

After he got another drink, a double this time, Miguel looked around the room for Alicia. At first he didn’t see her anywhere; then a crowd of men laughed, and a few of them moved around, and he caught a glimpse of her, standing in the middle of the group, laughing. She had taken off her jacket, so that now she was wearing only an olive green spaghetti-strapped dress, made of some sort of silky fabric that shimmered when she moved.

It was obvious from the simple lines of the dress that she also took very good care of herself, since she was only slightly curvier than she had been twenty years ago. And the simple gold necklace that she wore around her neck drew attention to her neck and shoulders, which had always been some of her most attractive features. Of course, her cleavage was also eye-catching, especially since the style of the dress did not allow for her to be wearing a bra, and her nipples poked ever so slightly into the fabric.

Miguel felt his mouth go dry…he licked his lips and took another gulp from his drink.

“No!” He sternly told himself, “I will not make this easy for her, not this time…not ever again!”

A little later, after Miguel and Alicia have "reconnected", he calls her cell phone from his apartment.

“Are you already on your way back here?”

Alicia nodded.

“Um hum,” she said as she turned on her car, and checked her mirrors to begin driving. “I’m pulling out of the lot now. Why? Do you want me to pick up the pizza on the way home?”

Miguel smiled almost audibly into the phone.

“No, I’d rather order it later, after we have had a chance to be naked for a while, if you get my meaning.”

Alicia giggled.

“You bad boy! You are distracting me in a major way while I am trying to drive!”