Monday, April 21, 2014

Molly Harper

Please help me welcome Emelle Gamble to the blog. 



1.Emelle, What do you think makes a book a page turner?

Suspense. When I, as a reader, don’t know for sure what’s going to happen next I simply can’t put a book down. I think this is the single necessary ingredient for any good book…make the reader wonder what’s going to happen, let them experience a story that, even though it is a specific genre like romance or a mystery, which surprises them because the characters are unique and not someone they’ve met before. In my book SECRET SISTER, numerous reviewers and readers said this was the most fun part, they just didn’t know what was going to happen next. This made me very happy.

2.How many WIP do you have going at the same time?

Right now I’m sitting on a big weird book I don’t know what to do with and I’m writing a new one and thinking all the time about another one, which would be the first in a series of three books.  This is the usual for me, but I hate it. I wish I could just think about one book at a time. I think I’d be more focused, although way less fun at critique group. My partners are used to me talking about five things at once, bless them.

3.Where do you get your inspiration?

I get inspired from every single word every single person I know, observe or watch on TV says. I am not kidding. Writers are the ultimate observers, but like a kingfisher we’re waiting to stab our beak into a new idea swimming by. So be very, very careful around  writers. We’re thieves…and we’ll put you in a book before you can cry out, “My jewels!"

4.Which genre appeals the most to you?  

Women’s fiction and mystery are tied. I love them both.

The least?

I can’t read horror. I used to. But the real world is so scary, I just don’t want to read about more fear or suffering.

5.What's the hardest part of writing?

Not falling into the easy way out of a scene. When you’re tired and its late, sometimes its tempting to do the obvious instead of the real with a character. Because the real needs solid motivation, inevitability, uniqueness. In MOLLY HARPER, I deal with the issue of adoption, and how an adoptee feels about finding their birth mother. I really wanted to get this right for this character, and I fought a long time to get to know the women in this novel. I was not sure until the book was  done if I’d given readers an honest scene, not just a sitcom replay. Which is why I rewrite about 10 times before I’m through.

The easiest?
Getting a new idea and before word one is written down talking about it, especially to other writers. We all get giddy and excited and make suggestions and see little snippets of scenes in our heads. It’s all wonderful and fun. But then you put your fanny in the chair, in a quiet room with a blank screen.  It is no longer easy…

Thank you very much for hosting me on your blog, Elaine. I’d love to hear from your readers what they find hardest and easiest about their careers. Because then I’ll steal it and use it in a book. HA!

 Spoken like a true author! Help her out, readers. Tell her about your own career. Right now, why not a blurb and an excerpt?

Blurb:



Movie star Molly Harper has it all, beauty, success in her field, and a loving family and marriage to actor Ben Delmonico. Norma Wintz, Molly’s mother, has it all, a lovely life style and two children who adore her, and a respite from the battle against cancer she’s been fighting. Anne Sullivan, at age fifty, is optimistic that her move to sunny Santa Barbara, California, will allow her to be closer to her youngest son and his family, and help her start her life anew after the death of her beloved husband.

But all three of these women, despite their considerable blessings, are plunged into turmoil when the most intimate of secrets that ties their lives together is revealed. At this same time, Molly Harper is confronted with the news that her marriage to actor Ben Delmonico is over. As she navigates this heartbreak and tries to keep the personal details of the drama off the front pages of the newspapers, Molly must also find a way to once and forever negotiate a way forward with her ex- lover and best friend, the volatile and compelling Cruz Morales.

How each of these characters handles the resulting upheaval in their own life, and in their relationships with one another, forms the compelling story of family, secrets and trust in the romantic women’s fiction novel, Molly Harper.


EXCERPT:



Anne Sullivan looked down at her watch.

One twenty-one p.m. Norma Wintz was twenty minutes late.

Anne leaned back against the banquette and avoided making eye contact with the hovering waitress. She folded her hands together and wondered if her face looked tight as cellophane stretched over a bowl of tuna salad. That’s how it felt.

I shouldn’t have come. She glanced around the unfamiliar restaurant. It was all glass and mirrors; chock full of shockingly glamorous Californians surely leading shockingly exciting lives. People who wouldn’t understand why a widow from Potomac, Maryland was breaking into sobs and intruding on their lunch experience.

Which is probably what I’m going to do once Norma arrives, she thought. She had tried to prepare herself for meeting the woman, face-to-face, who had adopted her baby thirty-five years ago, but Anne wasn’t sure she was going to be able to handle it as she hoped.

Calmly. Dispassionately. In control.

Anne’s chest suddenly ached, as if all the emotion she’d suppressed for decades gathered into a knot under her ribs.

I should call the number for Norma Wintz and tell her not to come. Which was a great idea, except she’d left her cell phone in the car. And if she went to her car to get it, she might not have the emotional courage to come back.

To say nothing of the fact that if she walked the two long blocks to where she was parked, there was a good chance she would miss Norma Wintz altogether, and the woman would probably think she was a crack pot.

Anne took another peek at her watch.

One twenty-two.

That’s impossible. It felt as if an hour had passed since she’d last looked at the time.

“Excuse me, are you Mrs. Sullivan?” A waiter, his eyes jade green against his tan skin, smiled at Anne. His name tag read ‘Taj’.

“Yes, I’m Anne Sullivan

“There’s a call for you.” Taj held out a phone.

Anne pressed it against her head. “This is Anne Sullivan.”

Taj clasped his hands behind his back and smiled at her as if she was a small child on the first day of school.

“Hello, this is Norma Wintz calling,” a voice said in Anne’s ear. “I’m on my way but there was an accident and traffic is wretched. I got no answer on the number you gave me, but I wanted to let you know I wasn’t standing you up.”

“Oh, that’s no problem.” Anne nodded at Taj and repositioned the phone an inch higher on her ear. “I don’t have other plans for this afternoon.”

“Fine. I’ll be there in about ten minutes.” The phone went dead.

“Okay. Thank you!” Anne met the waiter’s eyes and wondered how Taj had known to bring it to her.

Norma Wintz must have described me to him. But what could she have said, since we’ve never met?  Look for a woman who seems the sort to give up her first-born child for adoption?


Author Bio and Links


Emelle Gamble was a writer at an early age, bursting with the requisite childhood stories of introspection. These evolved into bad teen poetry and worse short stories. She took her first stab at full length fiction in an adult education writing class when her kids were in bed.  As M.L. Gamble, she published several romantic suspense novels with Harlequin. She has contracted with Soul Mate Publishing for Secret Sister, published in the summer of 2013, and Dating Cary Grant, a March 2014 release.

Once and Forever, an anthology which includes the novella Duets, came out on November 1st. Molly Harper, a full length novel starring the characters from Duets 3 years later was released by Posh Publishing in January.

Emelle lives in suburban Washington D.C. with her husband, ‘Phil-the-fist’, her hero of thirty years, and two orange cats, Lucy and Bella. These girls, like all good villains, have their reasons for misbehaving. Her daughter, Olivia, and son, Allen, are happily launched on their own and contributing great things to society, their mother’s fondest wish.

Review Quotes:

Praise for Secret Sister

“Along with being a very unique and captivating plot, SECRET SISTER offers a shocking turn of the paranormal kind. So if you are the type of person that wants ordinary romance in a book, you won't find that here. This is a story of friendship, family, and most of all, true love and what those things can mean. I cannot recommend SECRET SISTER strongly enough… “ Fresh Fiction, Fresh Reviews

"If you're looking for a typical women's fiction/romance, don't look here... this story has a twist of the paranormal that will have you willingly stretching your belief in order to enjoy the plot. Emelle Gamble has created a story that will tear your heart out."  Long and Short Reviews

Links:

Email: emellegamble@aol.com

Website:  www.EmelleGamble.com 

FaceBook:  Author Emelle Gamble

Twitter: @EmelleGamble

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7123746.Emelle_Gamble      

Secret Sister by Emelle Gamble is now available on Amazon!  http://amzn.to/17J2Bn6

Once and Forever  an anthology with Emelle Gamble’s novella, Duets, is now available on Amazon!    http://amzn.to/1h9fZWv

 Emelle will be awarding a $50 Amazon GC to a randomly drawn commenter during this tour and the Reviews Only Tour A digital copy of Molly Harper will be awarded to 3 randomly drawn commenters also during this tour and the Reviews Only Tour.  You can find her schedule at
http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2014/02/virtual-nbtm-book-tour-molly-harper-by.html


15 comments:

  1. Thank you for hosting me today on your lovely blog, Elaine. And for getting a chance to chat with your readers. Come on and tell me something interesting about yourself so I can steal it for my next book! HA! Happy Monday to all...

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  2. You seem like quite a prolific writer, so I am not surprised you work on more than one book at a time.

    marypres(AT)gmail(DOT)com

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  3. The hardest thing about my career is being on call 24/7 and never having a break. The easiest is loving the clients unconditionally. I am a mom to 4 wonderful children.

    I love learning about and meeting new authors. I don't know if I could pull off what you all do.

    I hope you had a wonderful Easter.

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  4. The hardest part of my career, I had to make many changes in my life after being injured. A herniated disc in my neck, that I won't have surgery for. I gave up working and not stay at home. I lost that daily interaction with people. I worked at Dollywood as a waitress at the only full service restaurant. The easiest part of my retirement is I have 3 children and now 10 grandchildren. MY job is to be "Field Trip Grandma" and for the grandchildren here in TN I get to go and have fun with them and their class. I do have 4 grandchildren out of state and I miss seeing them.
    I've found so many new authors here on Facebook and I love reading and have become very active in ARC reading for them. I joke it is my job now. It's a win/win situation. I get a free book to read and enjoy and they get an honest review posted on Amazon, B&N and Goodreads. I love romance, all kinds of romance. BTW, Molly Harper sounds very good. Thank you and Happy Writing!

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  5. BTW: Heare2Watts is Kathy Heare Watts Redrabbitt(AT)aol(DOT)com

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  6. Happy Monday Emelle!
    I retired early from my career as a Catering Sales Director for a very prominent hotel company. The hours were brutal but the aspect of my job I should have most enjoyed, dealing with clients, became the hardest. It's difficult in any scenario to constantly present an "up" facade and thus becomes emotionally drainging to the point there's not much left for family or friends at the end of the day.
    My worst expereince came on a day that I had to meet with the parents and bridegroom of a huge wedding I was planning. Due to the no refund in case of cancelation policy, they wanted to change the event from a wedding to a funereal wake. The bride had just died in an auto accident. I was horrified and the meeting was fraught with honest stears and emotion from all involved, including myself.
    The true killer was I had only 15 minutes to gather myself after this meeting and walk right into another: with an ecstatic bride and a smiling groom. I had to put that happy face on and pretend to be upbeat and happy for them while I helped plan their event, all the while I'm still in shock from my prior meeting.
    The emotional toll that day took on me is what eventually led me to an early retirement. It just wasn't as much fun after that incident.
    Hope this wasn't too depressing~ it's real life after all. See you at the next tour stop and thanks as always for sharing your thoughts and encouraging ours.

    ilookfamous at yahoo dot com

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  7. I've been retired for so long it's hard to remember what conditions were like when I was working. I always had office jobs of some sort. I spent 23 years working for Ma Bell, first as an order typist (before computers came in) then 15 years as a telephone sales representative in Yellow Page and finally 4 years as a Small Business Service Rep in the inbound call center. I just got so tired of trying to achieve the various benchmarks to maintain acceptable performance it totally wore down to clinical depression. I ended up with a 10 week sick leave to be treated for depression. When I went back to work, I tried hard to get a transfer out of that office and into a clerical position in some backwater office. No luck doing that, so even though I still had 7 more years before I was old enough for Social Security, I retired on my birthday in November...didn't even have the heart to finish out the year! The day I walked out of that office for the last time, I felt like the weight of the world had been lifted from my shoulders. I moved to another state, got a part time clerical job and lived a happy life until I moved back to my home state this year. As my kids say, I'm getting up in years and they felt the need for me to be closer to them....actually I did too! All that said, the past 15 years have been probably the best years of my life and it's the only part of my life that if I had to, I would do it all over again!

    kareninnc at gmail dot com

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  8. great blurb and excerpt.

    madtvk34 _(at)_ yahoo _(dot)_ com

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  9. Great interview, thank you.

    Not everyone has a career. I worked various jobs while raising my children into the outstanding adults they are today.

    Kit3247(at)aol(dot)com

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  10. Karen, I loved your post! Thanks for sharing. I think we could all learn from your heartfelt emotion about leaving that job you really didn't love. Sounds like you finally found the right combination of work and not-work...and I'm happy that you are near family. Good luck in the drawing, and again, many thanks for sharing.

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  11. Rita, Jessica and Mary...thanks for your posts. And Rita, I fully believe a career is being a mother...wow, we must all work to keep the value in that job, for moms are the future of the world! so lucky you, dear Jessica. And yes, Mary, I am feeling prolific, but I did write SECRET SISTER, MOLLY HARPER AND DATING CARY GRANT over the last couple of years, about a book a year for me. Working on a new one but it won't be out for awhile. Thank you all for your posts!

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  12. Elise-Maria...speechless here. I am so sorry you had that tragedy to deal with, and so sorry for that poor family. Yikes, almost every day I think, "why do I write fiction? Non-fiction is stranger than anything a person could come up with!" Kudos for you for continuing on professionally. You're the one who needs to write a book!!! XXX

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  13. Heare2Watts...Kathy, thanks for your lovely post. What a blessing for you and your grandchildren that you are able to be in their lives as you are. And may I say, the hardest working folks I've ever seen are waitresses, so thank you for all your service to us patrons. Good luck in the drawing. XXX Emelle

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  14. Informative interview

    bn100candg at hotmail dot com

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  15. Great interview. =)

    I'm a sitter/nanny & the easiest thing for me is caring for a child. =) At first it's a little hard because you have to get used to the family and get to know what the children like & if they have a routine. But we get through that quickly. =) And the hardest thing,... after being with a family for so long & then having to leave them, that's hard. You become attached to the kids & once you don't have them around you everyday, sometimes you can end up feeling lost like "Ok, now what do I do with my time?" lol. And then you find a new family to help out with & the process starts over again.

    Thank you for sharing this interview! I hope you have a great week! <3

    Brandi
    BLeigh1130 at yahoo dot com

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