I’m excited to take part in Author Love, this author exchange of great stories was set up by the talented romance author Tina Gayle. Let’s give some #AuthorLove to our Romance authors. Today’s featured author is Mia Jo Celeste.
Mia Jo Celeste:
Looking for an Idea for Your Next Manuscript? Think of a Controversial Problem…Then Solve It
Hi, I’m delighted to be part of the #Authorlove blog exchange and I’d love to tell you about my new release, but before I do that I want to share a thought rift that may help you start your next project.
Think of a problem, but make it specific. Animal Extinction may be too broad, but salmon unable to return to their spawning stream because of the new dam that creates the communities’ electricity and employs almost everyone in town works. Once you have a problem, look at the different sides of the argument. Put your hero on one side and your heroine on the other.
To quote Linda Howard, “If your hero is a firefighter, your heroine better be an arsonist.”
Develop personalities, histories and careers that foster your main characters’ beliefs. Then make them work out a solution to the problem together. Once you’ve done this, you’ve got the beginning of a story.
OTHER THAN, a Gaslamp Fantasy/ Paranormal Historical Romance, came from just such an exercise. My heroine died or in Princess Bride terms she was mostly dead. She wanted to return to life while my hero embraced the immortality an undead status conveyed.
Blurb:
It only takes one drink from the Water of Immortality to kill Evie Woods—halfway. Trapped in undead flesh, the world’s last skin-slider wakens on an island purgatory where a cursed spring bubbles with immortality, and zombie cannibals crave living flesh.
Her only hope of escape rests in the hands of the one man who would see her fail. Bound to her by cords stronger than death, Lord Victor Lowell is both the man of her dreams, and her darkest nightmares. Contrary and intractable, Victor preys on others to maintain his angelic charisma and preternatural prowess. Drawn to the compellingly gallant and vulnerable soul behind his mercurial humors, Evie can only watch as protecting her forces Victor to sacrifice yet more of himself to the ancient evil long tethered to his soul.
Trapped in an ever-escalating war they can’t stop, Victor and Evie fight time for a cure, but as the long days pass blackness tears at Evie, ripping her thoughts from her one memory at a time. Victor will to do whatever it takes to prevent her from deteriorating into a rotting husk, even if it means dooming himself, but Evie won’t surrender his soul without a fight. Battle lines drawn, the soul mates resolve to find redemption or die trying.
Excerpt:
He materialized in the inky shadow.
Or rather his apparition did. His ghostly frame hovered before her, sinuous and lithe. Against his shadowed form, the string glimmered like liquid silver. Slowly he unwrapped her, tossing the spectral bands to the floor until a coil lay between him and her.
Something inside her chest fluttered. “You followed me.”
An accusation.
He nodded. With a slight shrug, he spread his hands. “You shouldn’t be alone.”
She wanted to turn, giving him her back, but her betraying gaze remained fixated upon him. When he paced around her, she waved him away. “Don’t.”
He caught her hand and placed an insubstantial kiss in her palm. “Let me help you…please.”
A gallant gesture, perhaps, but her skin-slider sensitivity noted the rigidity of his stance, the twitch along his jaw, and the slight narrowing of his eyes. How could he think of helping her when he was in so much pain?
Ordinarily, she might be grateful. Might…if loss hadn’t hollowed her.
She ripped her cooling flesh from his spectral arms. “I don’t deserve kindness.”
“Good.” He gave her a rakish smirk. “Because I’m not kind.”
She shook her head, biting back the emerging smile that had no place on her countenance. She couldn’t be civil, couldn’t risk the involvement. “I can’t go on like this—stuck betwixt life and death.”
“You must. Don’t you see, sweet dove? You’re beyond both. You’re immortal. Like me.”
If you’d like to check out Other Than, you can find it at these links.
http://catalog.thewildrosepress.com/all-titles/4817-other-than.html
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/other-than
https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/other-than/id1180447475?mt=11
Bio:
Mia Jo Celeste comes from a family of writers and English teachers, so it was no surprise when she chose to pursue both careers. She grew up watching horror movies and reading romances. To her, the two genres go together like salty and sweet in kettle corn.
If you’d like to contact her, you can find her at these links.
Amazon author page https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B01N9JGDVI
Facebook fb.me/ Mia.Jo.Celeste
Website http://www.miaceleste.com/
Twitter https://twitter.com/MiajoCeleste
Thank you for having me today. I love talking writing and books .
It’s my pleasure to have you here Mia!