M. S. Spencer, @msspencerauthor, #Pit&thePassion, #MSSpencerbooks, #Floridafiction

I’d like to welcome M. S. Spencer, author of The Pit and the Passion: Murder at the Ghost Hotel, to my blog today.

RW:    How much of your personality and life experiences are in your writing?

MSS:  A lot! As you can see from my biography, I’ve led a rather eclectic life full of travel & adventure. While every novel I write is fiction, bits of experiences do crop up in them. Lapses of Memory is particularly rife with actual experiences. I figure, this way I don’t have to write my autobiography.

RW:    Tell us about your latest book. What motivated the story? Where did the idea come from? What genre is it? Does it cross over to other genres? If so, what are they?

MSS:  Flotsam & Jetsam: the Amelia Island Affair, is a murder mystery/romantic suspense novel set on Amelia Island, southernmost of the Sea Islands on the Atlantic coast. I went to a book signing event there a couple of years ago and fell in love with the island’s quirky history. It’s been conquered and reconquered by not just countries, but pirates and mercenaries. I wanted to write a contemporary story, but one that draws on that history.

Here’s the blurb:

Who’s littering the park with corpses?

State Park Rangers Simon Ribault and Ellie Ironstone are used to dealing with messy campers and ravaging raccoons, but when three bodies wash up on the beach, they mobilize all their powers of deduction. Who are they and how did they get to the shore of Amelia Island? Are they connected to the secretive League of the Green Cross? Or linked to a mysterious Jamaican drug ring?

Ellie, new to Amelia Island, must penetrate a close-knit community if she wants to find answers to the mystery, all while deciding between two rivals for her affection: Thad, the handsome local idol, and Simon, the clever, quirky bookworm.

Simon, for his part, will have to call on his not-so-well-honed romantic prowess to lure Ellie away from Thad and at the same time use his wide-ranging research skills to solve the case.

RW:    How many books have you written, and how many have been published?

MSS:  Flotsam & Jetsam: the Amelia Island Affair will be released this year. It marks my twelfth published book, all romantic suspense or murder mystery. I wrote one other full manuscript—a murder mystery set in Williamsburg, Virginia—that sat in a drawer for a couple of years until my husband inadvertently (Or not? The jury’s out.) threw it out.

RW:    What book for you has been the easiest to write? The hardest? The most fun?

MSS:  The easiest was probably The Pit & the Passion, released in January. The characters practically wrote themselves and the setting (a grand hotel in ruins that circus man John Ringling built in the 20s) so much fun. I even managed to set a scene or two in my beloved Paris.

The hardest was definitely Flotsam & Jetsam: the Amelia Island Affair, which is due out before the end of this year. That’s the first time I’ve tried a male POV. I had to worry that I was feminizing him too much—plus there are surprising gimmicks I had to ditch—like how to describe the characters. Men usually tell women they have beautiful hair/eyes, etc., thus providing a description for the reader with little effort. But women don’t do that—so how to provide an image of the hero to the reader? We’ll see if it worked.

RW:    Which comes first, the story, the characters, or the setting?

MSS:  I usually like to set a story where I’m setting 😊 but sometimes I get an idea while fiddling around on the internet. I’ll follow research leads until something jumps out. I was reading about John Ringling’s Ghost Hotel—a Ritz-Carlton he started in 1926 and left unfinished for decades when it struck me—what do you find at a ghost hotel? Anyone? The Mason’s Mark: Love & Death in the Tower, is set at the Masonic Memorial and has lots of Masonic intrigue. It came to me when I was reading about a real life renegade Mason with an incredibly flamboyant (& wicked) history.

RW:    Are you in control of your characters or do they control you?

MSS:  Oh, they definitely control me—even to their names. My hero/heroine are literally called “/name/” up until about the third chapter, when they are fully formed little beasts who insist on going their own way. Sometimes they even bring in relatives I didn’t know they had! In Dear Philomena, my Chincoteague mystery romance, Dagne drags her no-good father right onto the page and made me write him in.

RW:    A biography has been written about you. What do you think the title would be in six words or less?

MSS:  Been there, done that.

RW:    If you were stranded on a tropical island, who would it be with? You can choose any living, deceased or mythical figure.

MSS:  Samuel Johnson, definitely. He had an opinion about everything and was the greatest wordsmith ever. I could listen to him for hours. He didn’t mind a dram or two either.

RW:    What’s your most embarrassing moment?

MSS: Hard to choose among so many! But one time—I had my family with me (husband & two young children). We were heading into DC for a victory parade and the subways were packed. Finally, I went full Nike (goddess of Victory, not the shoe) and pushed my way onto the car proclaiming that “I had children with me” as though I expected them to make way for the royal family. I managed to squeeze us in, turned around, and had a full-blown panic attack. In the same stentorian tone I announced that we had to get off RIGHT NOW. I grabbed one child and plowed through the quickly parting sea of people. Once out, I absolutely, positively died of embarrassment. Especially once I realized we were six miles from home. And that I’d left my husband and son on the subway.

RW:    I love pizza with (fill in the blank).

MSS:  Anchovies, bacon, and pickled jalapenos. Don’t argue with me 😊

RW:    Those are all the questions I have for you. Thank you for speaking to me.

THE PIT & THE PASSION:

MURDER AT THE GHOST HOTEL

The Plot

At midnight, in the darkness of a deserted hotel, comes a scream and a splash. Eighty-five years later, workmen uncover a skeleton in an old elevator shaft. Who is it, and how did it get there? To find out, Charity Snow, ace reporter for the Longboat Key Planet, teams up with Rancor Bass, best-selling author. A college ring they find at the dig site may prove to be their best clue.

Although his arrogance nearly exceeds his talent, Charity soon discovers a warm heart beating under Rancor’s handsome exterior. While dealing with a drop-dead gorgeous editor who may or may not be a villain, a publisher with a dark secret, and an irascible forensic specialist, Charity and Rancor unearth an unexpected link to the most famous circus family in the world.

An Excerpt:

That Hot Heavy Feeling

He scratched his neck. “You are no fun at all.”

She smiled with satisfaction. “Good.”

“Because you see, while you with such easy indifference relegate Tommy T to a mundane accident and the benighted Biddlesworth to a watery grave, you haven’t answered the question of my grandfather’s disappearance.”

“Am I supposed to?”

He stopped. An uncertain look passed over his face, catching Charity off guard. “I…I thought we were in this together?”

A feeling she couldn’t name rushed through her, one that filled every pore with a heavy sort of heat. It weighed her down, made her sluggish. Time slowed. She watched with vague interest as her knees buckled, and the floor rushed toward her. Just before she smacked into it, two strong arms caught her, lifted her up, and held her in a crushing grip. “Charity? Are you alright?”

“Yes. Yes. Oh, Rancor.” After that she couldn’t talk because her lips were smashed against his and her chest against his and she couldn’t breathe at all, but she didn’t really need to because he was breathing for the both of them.

A while later, they sat down on the couch. Rancor traced her cheek with his finger, his eyes wondering. Charity felt at peace. She had recognized the hot, heavy feeling and accepted it. Now to explain it to Rancor.

“Rancor? I—”

The phone rang.

M. S. Spencer

Bio

Although M. S. Spencer has lived or traveled in five continents, the last thirty years were spent mostly in Washington, D.C. as a librarian, Congressional staff assistant, speechwriter, editor, policy wonk, non-profit director and parent. She has two fabulous grown children and a perfect granddaughter. Ms. Spencer has published twelve romantic suspense/murder mystery novels, and currently divides her time between the Gulf coast of Florida and a tiny village in Maine.

Book Links:

The Wild Rose Press: https://catalog.thewildrosepress.com/all-titles/5533-the-pit-and-the-passion-murder-at-the-ghost-hotel.html

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Pit-Passion-Murder-Ghost-Hotel-ebook/dp/B078JY8RLY

ITunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-pit-and-the-passion-murder-at-the-ghost-hotel/id1332026896?mt=11

Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-pit-and-the-passion-m-s-spencer/1127750685?ean=2940158925351

KOBO: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-pit-and-the-passion-murder-at-the-ghost-hotel

Google: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/M_S_Spencer_The_Pit_and_the_Passion_Murder_at_the?id=F-tGDwAAQBAJ

Indigo: https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/the-pit-and-the-passion/9781509218424-item.html

Contact M. S. Spencer At:

Blog: https://msspencertalespinner.blogspot.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/msspencerromance

Twitter: www.twitter.com/msspencerauthor

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/msspencerauthor/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/msspencerauthor/

Google +: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+MSSpencerauthor

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/m-s-spencer

https://www.bookbub.com/m-s-spencer

Author Pages

The Wild Rose Press:

http://catalog.thewildrosepress.com/1360_m-s-spencer

Amazon Author Page:

http://www.amazon.com/M.S.-Spencer/e/B002ZOEUC8/

P.J. MacLayne @pjmaclayne, Author of The Baron’s Cufflinks #AmateurFemaleSleuth, #CozyMystery, #Suspense

I’d like to welcome P.J. MacLayne, author of The Baron’s Cufflinks, to my blog today.

RW:      Tell us about yourself, your family, where you live, etc.

PJM:      I’m an old hippie chick turned computer geek turned in-my-spare-time writer. I live in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains and love spending my spare time exploring the back roads of the area.

RW:       Why did you decide to write? When did you submit your first manuscript and what genre was it?

PJM:     I’ve been writing since high school. (Many years ago!) I wrote poetry for years, and was moderately successful getting published in magazines, but at some point the words seem to dry up. Then I heard about National Novel Writing Writing Month. It sounded like fun, and there was a story kicking around in my brain that wouldn’t work as a poem. Well, I didn’t make fifty thousand words in one month, but I found a new creative release and I haven’t stopped writing fiction since!

RW:       Who are your favorite characters among the books you’ve written?

PJM:    It’s normally the heroine of whichever book I’m working on at the moment! Overall, Harmony Duprie, my main character in the Oak Grove Mysteries, is my favorite. She’s such a quirky character and I enjoy hanging out with her. Plus, she has such great stories to tell!

RW:       How much of your personality and life experiences are in your writing?

PJM:     There’s a lot of me in my writing. The books I’ve published so far are all take place in the general area where I grew up—the rolling hills of Pennsylvania. But I’ve lived in several different parts of the U.S., so I’ve got room to stretch out. (Spoiler alert—the location for my next Free Wolves book is Wyoming.) I write strong female characters, and I give credit to my mother for that, because she helped my sisters and me to grow up as independent women. But none of my characters are carbon copies of me.

RW:      Would you like to write a different genre or sub-genre than you do now?

PJM:      I’m currently writing two different series—The Free Wolves, which are urban fantasy/paranormal romance, and the Oak Grove Mysteries, which are cozy mysteries. I’ve tried my hand at pure romance, but I’m not very good at it. I’m better at writing action than emotions. So maybe I’ll try a pure action/thriller one of these days.

RW:      How many books have you written and how many have been published?

PJM:    I’m an Indie author, but I’m picky about what I release. I’ve written a dozen books, but have only released five of them so far. (The sixth is coming!) Two more of the unreleased ones have potential, and when I have the time, I’ll whip them into shape and share them with my readers.

RW:       If I were a first-time reader of your books, which one would you recommend I start with and why?

PJM:      I can’t pick one, so I’ll pick two. Wolves’ Pawn is the first book of my Free Wolves Series. Each book in the series is stand-alone story, but the overall premise for the series came from that book, so I suggest starting there. In the Oak Grove Mysteries, the plot line through the series is more linear, so it makes sense to start with The Marquesa’s Necklace, the first book. As a bonus, it’s only 99¢.

RW:      Are you in control of your characters or do they control you?

PJM:      We collaborate. I have the basis for a story, and my characters tell me how it really happened. Sometimes we disagree, and I try to trust my characters’ input. Sometimes I have to go back and change things, but usually they’re right.

RW:       What is the single most important part of writing for you?

PJM:     Getting the words on paper in first draft form. Writing the end is always such a great feeling. Once I get through that, the rest will happen. Editing’s a necessary pain, but if that first draft isn’t done, the editing is useless.

RW:    Bubble baths or steamy showers? Ocean or mountains? Puppies or kittens? Chocolate or caramel?

PJM:      Steamy showers. I’ve never been much of a bubble bath person. Mountains, definitely mountains. You only have to check out my blog to figure that out! I’ve lived on both coasts of the U.S. and in the middle of the country, and I’m quite happy being where the mountains are only a short drive away. Puppies or kittens? if I can’t have both, give me kittens. I know they grow into cats, but they suit my personality better. And chocolate, always chocolate.

RW:       If money were not an object, where would you most like to live?

PJM:      I’ve managed to come close already. My current job puts me within sight of the mountains so I can escape to them on the weekends. But if I didn’t need to work, I’d find me a cabin somewhere actually in the mountains (with internet access) and be quite happy hanging out there. The internet access is important, because as an indie writer, I need access for research and to promote my books.

RW Comment: I can’t imagine any serious writer living without internet. Whether we’re indie or we have a publisher, we have to be able to do research and promote our books.

RW:      Tell us about the scariest thing that ever happened to you.

PJM:      I’ve had several experiences that could be classed as paranormal. Many years ago, I was out camping with a bunch of other girls, and we were fooling around with a Ouija board. A sudden gust of wind came up outside the cabin at the same time as a cold chill surrounded us inside. We ended that session quickly.

              Later on, I was researching Tarot cards for a report, and was loaned a deck by the friend of a friend. (No, really!) Following the information I gleaned from several books, I told several people’s fortunes to test my knowledge. Later, one of the unhappy fortunes I told (involving death) came true. When I found out, I returned the cards and never told another fortune.

RW:       If you came with a warning label, what would it say?

PJM:    Warning: Not good at telling white lies. May be overly-truthful. Engage at your own risk.

RW:       Those are all the questions I have for you. Thank you for speaking to me.

THE BARON’S CUFFLINKS

The Plot

What starts as Girl’s Night Out ends in murder, and Harmony Duprie is a suspect.

She’s innocent, of course, but with no alibi, the sheriff’s department won’t remove her from the list of suspects. It doesn’t help when a waitress from the bar gets beaten up and the only clue is a slip of paper with Harmony’s name on it. Throw in a rookie deputy dead set on building his reputation, and Harmony must tread carefully.

But caution isn’t Harmony’s middle name, and she plunges head first into danger to defend her honor.

What she finds is a web of half-truths and suspicions implicating several law enforcement agencies, with Jake, her ex-lover, stuck in the middle of it all.

Can Harmony rescue Jake and find the real culprit before she becomes the next victim?

An Excerpt:

I noticed what appeared to be a leather-bound book half-buried under some old college textbooks. I set them aside, picked it up with my other hand, and rubbed my forehead in puzzlement. As thick as the volume was, it should have weighed more.

I ran one finger across the gold-embossed title. Wolf’s Knight, Tasha’s Tale. Another unknown. I gingerly lifted the cover, half-afraid the book would fall apart.

The book was hollowed out to create a hiding place. Inside the empty space was a small, purple velvet-covered box. I hesitated for the briefest of moments before taking the box out and setting it on top of the nearest stack of books.

My mind raced as I imagined what the box contained. A diamond ring? A pair of fancy earrings? Or just some child’s plastic beads? With unsteady hands, I lifted the lid.

PJ MacLAYNE

Bio

Born and raised among the rolling hills of western Pennsylvania, P.J. MacLayne still finds inspiration for her books in that landscape. She is a computer geek by day and a writer by night who currently lives in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains. When she’s not in front of a computer screen, she might be found exploring the back roads of the nearby national forests and parks. In addition to the Free Wolves’ stories, she is also the author of the Oak Grove series.

Book Links:

Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B072P6CD3D

BN:  http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-barons-cufflinks-pj-maclayne/1126317718

Contact PJ At:

Author Blog:  http://pjmaclayne.blogspot.com

Facebook:  https://facebook.com/pjmaclayne

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/pjmaclayne

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

Thanks for visiting.