Linda O’Connor @LindaOConnor98 Author of Perfectly Series #SultryNightsBoxedSet #Contemporary #RomCom

I’d like to welcome Linda O’Connor, author of the Perfectly Series, to my blog today.

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

LOC:      I live in Ontario, Canada in a house on the water. I usually sit and write where I can look at the lake. When the weather is warm, I’ll write outside. I balance writing with my work as a physician at an Urgent Care Clinic and being a mom to three sons (luckily grown and capable of throwing together a decent meal, in a pinch).

RW:        How many hours a day do you spend writing?

LOC:     I write for two to three hours on the days I’m also working at the clinic and about six hours on the other days.

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

LOC:    I’m a physician, and I started writing because I wanted to find a fun way to disseminate medical information and to educate and empower readers to take ownership of their health. Targeting a female audience with romance novels seemed like a good idea, because women are usually the ones who see a doctor. (Males typically only go when a girlfriend/partner/spouse/mom encourages them to do so. :D) I write romantic comedies because I love being in a fun headspace when I’m writing. I submitted my first manuscript in 2014.

RW:       Who are your favorite authors? Who influenced your writing?

LOC:      My favorite authors are Nora Roberts, Marne Davis Kellogg, Jeffrey Archer, Graeme Simsion, and Ruth Reichl. I think every author whose books I’ve ever read has influenced my writing in some way, but the romance authors who hosted workshops about writing, editing, publishing, and marketing skills have made the most impact.

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

LOC:      My favorite characters are Chloe Keay in Perfectly Planned (she’s a lot of fun), Sam O’Brien in Perfectly Honest (he’s really hot), and Patty Kelt in Perfectly Crazy in Love (she’s sweet and a little bit crazy).

RW:      What makes a good book? A great romance? Is humor important in fiction and why?

LOC:     I read for relaxation, and I love happily-ever-after endings. I don’t enjoy books that make me cry. Laughter is essential to great health, so humor is a must!

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

LOC:    One hundred percent of my personality is in my writing. :D My life experiences are woven into the stories in some shape or form, often not consciously or exactly as they happened, but sprinkled with my imagination.

RW:        How do you come up with story ideas? What kind of research do you do for a book?

LOC:      News stories, headlines, snippets of conversations I hear, lyrics of songs, watching people and putting a story behind their body language or expression—they all inspire my imagination. I’m a physician and my characters are often doctors. The patients they see are often inspired by something I want to teach.

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?

LOC:     My latest book is Perfectly Crazy in Love, a Perfectly Series novella. It’s a fun one! It came from that feeling of finding love—the uncertainty, the nervous thrill, that wonderful feeling when you realize someone feels the same way about you that you feel about them. It’s a romantic comedy - my fav.

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

LOC:     I’ve written twelve books, eight romantic comedies in the Perfectly Series and four as part of the In the Game Hockey Series. Perfectly Crazy in Love is the eighth one to be published. The first two books in the Perfectly Series are published by Soul Mate Publishing and the rest are published by Interlock Publishing. The hockey romances will be released in 2018.

RW:     After you’ve written your book and it’s been published, do you ever buy it and/or read it?

LOC:      I always buy it, but I never read it. :D

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

LOC:      They are all stand-alone stories, so it doesn’t really matter. You could start with the novellas and then read the full-length stories in order. I think it’s fun to revisit the characters as you read them in order.

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

LOC:     Thank you very much for hosting me!! I love meeting other authors and new readers. :D

Perfectly Crazy in Love

The Plot

Dr. Patty Kelt is trying to get Dr. Ken Marshall’s attention. They’ve been friends for four years, and it’s time to turn it up a notch. She wants him to see her as smart, competent, strong, and sexy. So far she’s just managed crazy.

Ken’s used to solving problems and giving advice. Crazy he could handle. But dealing with crazy in love? That’s entirely new.

Perfectly Crazy in Love…it’s not as easy as it looks.

An Excerpt:

“What are you wearing?”

Dr. Patty Kelt looked down at her exposed cleavage and grimaced. “Too much?”

Dr. Sylvie Grant, her best friend and colleague, sat down in the seat beside her at the busy restaurant. “Did you wear that to work today?”

“No, of course not. Patients have enough trouble focusing on what I say without a,”—she waved her hand around her chest—“distraction.” She shrugged. “I changed for the meeting.”

Sylvie’s eyes widened. “You changed into that for our dinner meeting? Why? Are you heading out afterward?”

“Maybe. Possibly.” She bit her lip. “Hopefully.”

Realization dawned in Sylvie’s eyes. “You know, if you want to go out with Ken, you should just ask him. Welcome to the twenty-first century,” she drawled.

Patty winced. Ken Marshall, the other family doctor in Emerson who delivered babies in addition to running a busy practice, was hot. She’d worked with him for over four years, and she’d sensed … electricity between them. Well, it might have been more of a sock-stuck-to-a-blanket static electricity, but there was something. She was sure of it. Flirty comments, the look in his eyes, the occasional time he’d touched her arm when he hadn’t needed to—it was subtle, but the signs pointed toward a more-than-friends interest. Except … in the four years since they’d known each other, he’d never actually asked her out on a date. Sure, they’d sat beside each other at meetings, they’d attended the same hospital functions, she’d even included him in parties she’d hosted, but they’d never spent one-on-one time together. She wanted to change that. When he’d started his last relationship and it had hurt to watch him with another woman, she’d vowed that if the two ever broke up, if the opportunity arose for her to tell him how she felt, she would.

That chance had come. He was newly single. It was time to find out if that spark could be fanned into a flame, if the feelings she had for him could blossom into more. And for that, she needed to ramp things up. “I don’t think he’s a twenty-first century guy. I’m hoping,” she glanced at the low cut of her red dress, “this will get his attention.”

“Oh yeah, that’s a lot less brazen.”

Linda O’Connor

Bio

Linda O’Connor started writing a few years ago when she needed a creative outlet other than subtly rearranging the displays at the local home décor store. It turns out she loves writing romantic comedies and has a few more stories to tell. When not writing, she’s a physician at an Urgent Care Clinic (well, even when she is writing she’s a physician, and it shows up in her stories :D ). She hangs out at http://www.lindaoconnor.net.

Laugh every day. Love every minute.

Book Links: “Perfectly Crazy in Love” is one of 22 hot romances in the Sultry Nights Boxed Set.

Publisher: Romance Collections https://www.romancecollections.com/sultry-nights

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074RM9HFB

BN: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/1126974023?ean=9781537860725

Contact Linda O’Connor at:

Website: http://www.lindaoconnor.net

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

Twitter: https://twitter.com/LindaOConnor98

Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/Linda-OConnor/e/B00S7CNLEA

Audrey Turner of Teacher’s Pet by @KaylaDrakeBooks #Chicago, #ContemporaryRomance, #Family

I’d like to welcome Audrey Turner of Teacher’s Pet by Kayla Drake.

RW:   What’s your story/back story? Why would someone come up with a story about you?

AT:     I’m ambitious, but it might not be the first thing you notice about me. Ambition is still the quality that has driven every one of my major life choices. I set out to be a successful business owner and hit certain career markers before the age of thirty, and I’ve done that. But I was worried about the state of the business, and that’s what led me to accept an unusual offer from Dennis Delaney.

RW:   Can you tell us about your hero

AT:     Dennis is a single father whose son, Cole, attends my private preschool. Cole was with us for several years before I met Dennis in person. Usually, we only dealt with the nannies! But Dennis always sent me memos about Cole’s care. Every morning, when the nanny dropped off Cole, I also received a fussy little note about shoelaces or snacks or something. So I always imagined Dennis to be a fussy, bespectacled type with skinny arms. Was I ever wrong about that!

RW:   What problems do you have to face and overcome in your life?

AT:     My business was showing a worrisome decline in the number of applicants for the next school year. In Chicago’s posh neighborhoods, reputation is everything, and I was worried that the school’s prestige might be slipping. I have to fix it. I just have to. This business is everything to me.

RW:   Do you expect your hero to help or is he the problem?

AT:     Maybe both! Dennis is a perfectionist and his morning memos have always been something of a pebble in my shoe. But I know if I can satisfy Dennis, if I can meet his exacting and rigorous standards, then I’m doing everything I can to make Miss Turner’s School as good as it can be.

RW:   Where do you live?

AT:     My business is in Lincoln Park, a high-rent neighborhood on Chicago’s lakefront. I have a modest apartment in a cheaper neighborhood, though, because all my resources go into the business.

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

AT:     Bubble baths, for sure—that’s where I do some of my best thinking! Neither ocean nor mountains, but Chicago’s beautiful Lake Michigan. And how about chocolate AND caramel? I want it all! I also develop a special fondness for carrot cake in the book. That one is Dennis’s fault.

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

AT:     “Don’t underestimate me.” People do that sometimes because I’m basically a preschool teacher and I’m used to being around little kids all the time. This gives me a sweet, playful demeanor, but inside, I’m very determined to succeed.

RW:   Party life or quiet dinner for two?

AT:     Quiet dinner for two. I go to the clubs with my girls sometimes, but I prefer being able to really connect with people one on one. Dennis is a good match for me in that respect. He’s charming across a table.

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

AT:     Spinach and cheese, deep dish, Chicago style. There’s nothing else like it! I can’t always finish a whole slice—they’re so filling! But I love every mouthful. This is one of the best things about living in Chicago.

RW:   Nothing like Uno’s on a Friday night! The first Uno’s! Even the leftovers’re yummy.

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

AT:     Thank you so much for having me! I hope you enjoy my story!

RW:    I’ve already read it, and I liked it a lot. Cole’s quite the scamp! And Dennis—woo! Five stars.

Kayla Drake

Bio

Although she’s an enthusiastic traveler, Kayla Drake has spent most of her days right where she was born, in Chicago. When Kayla decided to write romance novels, she knew the stories had to feature her favorite places in this beautiful city by the Lake. Whether her couples visit the sculptures or the zoo, the sports arenas or the shopping districts, romance always grows in the “City of Big Shoulders.”

Teacher’s Pet

The Plot

Memo to Miss Turner:

Audrey Turner owns Miss Turner’s School, a top-tier preschool in the posh Lincoln Park neighborhood. Her students are the children of some of Chicago’s most successful doctors, lawyers, and entrepreneurs—and these parents expect nothing short of the best.

No parent is more demanding than wealthy investment banker Dennis Delaney. Every day, Audrey receives a morning memo from him containing precise instructions for his son, Cole’s care. No detail is too insignificant to escape this single father’s notice. When Dennis finds himself coping with a short-term summer childcare issue, Audrey agrees to be his temporary nanny. It’s a chance for a close view of their lifestyle, and if she can keep Dennis Delaney happy, then all the other parents should be content, too.

It’s only two weeks. Two weeks of daily contact with Chicago’s most meticulous parent—and its most eligible bachelor. Two maddening weeks of rigorously high standards and sizzling sex appeal. Audrey can handle anything for two weeks, right?

An Excerpt:

He wanted to touch her silky hair, know the softness of her throat under his fingertips, hear her voice telling him all her secrets.

Be patient, he instructed himself, but his arm curled closer to her shoulders. He inclined his head towards her. Her shoulders were mere inches from his fingertips. Everything about her was close, so close that he could catch the faint, clean scent of her shampoo. He wanted to be closer still. He wanted to know everything about her and to have her know everything about him.

He stared at her pink lips and wondered what it would take to get her to kiss him, to talk freely to him, or even to use that pink-rimmed mouth in ways he dared not envision at the moment. If he tried to kiss her, would she recoil? They hardly knew each other, after all. They’d spent a few evenings together talking about his son, their careers. But she knew nothing of his past, nothing of what was in his heart. He told no one these things. He banned himself from even thinking about them.

The distance between them was his fault. But it was one problem he could rectify.

To hell with patience.

Contact Kayla Drake At:

Website: http://KaylaDrakeBooks.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/KaylaDrakeBooks

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Kayla-Drake/e/B074YMZYL9

Book Links:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074T4X1KY

BN: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/1120026857