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Promo Article on Chris the Story Reading Ape's Blog 6/19/2014 4:15:07 PM
Meet Guest Author Marie Lavender
Posted on May 11, 2014 by Chris Graham
I am a romance author. About four or five years ago, despite my having published a couple of stories in a university publication, I would have only called myself a writer. But, fate (and a lot of hard work!) blessed me with being published so I must call myself an author now. To date, I have published nineteen books under various pen names. You may ask, “Why so many in such a short amount of time?” It certainly wasn’t planned. In 2010, I decided to venture into self-publishing. I had a collection of stories and poems I wanted to publish, and I figured I’d try it. It was catching on as quite the craze then, but I mainly just wanted to see my name in print. Well, after a long process of figuring out how it worked, I did it using both Lulu Publishing and the Amazon Kindle Direct Program. After I published the first book, I waited a year before the next and so on. In 2012, the self-publishing thing got ahold of me. I realized I had so many other stories to tell the world.
That same year, a manuscript was accepted by a traditional publisher. I had gone through many rejections by agents and publishers alike so it was wonderful news to see that someone had seen its merit. In 2013, Upon Your Return, my first historical romance, was published through Summer Solstice. Since then, I have published three more books, Leather and Lace through Lulu, Magick & Moonlight through Solstice Shadows and Upon Your Honor, the sequel to Upon Your Return, through Summer Solstice.
Upon Your Return is about a young woman, Fara Bellamont, who finds herself in a lot of trouble one night. She is attacked and a man rescues her. She finds him to be very compelling, however, which gets her into other kinds of trouble. The book sprouted from a piece of dialogue between the characters that was playing in my head on the way to a doctor’s appointment. Sometimes my ideas come to me that way.
Leather and Lace came from the title. I automatically started thinking of how fascinating it would be to write about the life of a stripper or exotic dancer. It is a romantic suspense.
Angie is sort of in the wrong place at the wrong time, and she witnesses a crime. She flees the scene only to be noticed by a detective. The detective discovers who she is, but even after they settle things, he suspects there is a lot more she is not telling him. Not to mention he’s very attracted to her. As you can imagine, quite a lot of interesting things happen.
Magick & Moonlight also originated from the title first, but then the scene of Ethan walking along the shore kicking rocks in Yachats, Oregon came into my head, resulting in a paranormal romance about a man who stumbles across a woman practicing witchcraft in the forest. He is pretty sure she’s lost her mind, but she claims to be a witch. Our heroine, Jessie, can’t believe she’s told him the truth so she casts a spell on the man. But, you have to read it to find out what happens next.
After publishing Upon Your Return, the first book in the Heiresses in Love series, I was a bit reluctant to let go of the characters completely. It felt right to see how they were down the road and maybe find out what their children were like.
So Upon Your Honor just seemed like a natural progression to continue the series.
It is my newest release and just came out on April 21st. The book starts with a young woman stowing away on a ship to escape the danger at home. When a strange man finds her, she feels she must protect herself so she lies to him, giving him a different story for her presence aboard the ship. He swears he will protect her, but he knows nothing of the peril that is coming for the both of them. The novel is not only full of history and passion, but also quite a bit of suspense.
I have far too many books to go into too much detail, but I have given an overview of a few.
Besides writing, I am a voracious reader. I love reading historical romances, contemporary romances and paranormal romance/urban fantasy. I also love shopping, both online and at stores. Keep me away from a credit card or I’ll get into trouble.
Thank you for reading about me and my books. It was fun dropping by!
