Hi, Linda! It's great to welcome a fellow Blue Ridge Agency author to my blog - hope you're well. I'm looking forward to catching up with you and learning more about your latest release, SCREWBALL! Let's kick off with my questions...
1.)
What was your first job? Did you like or
dislike it? Why?
I was a Sizzler salad bar
girl. (Sizzler was kind of a low-end steakhouse chain in the US at the time,
the 1980s.) My job involved washing and slicing vegetables, wiping down the
salad bar, and refilling the bar and the salad dressings. Once, for no extra
charge, I poured an entire quart of French salad dressing on a customer's leg,
by accident, of course. No, I don't think I liked the job very much. I'm sure
that customer didn't like me very much.
2.)
Do you have a pet peeve? If so what is it?
Customers who put their legs
in my way when I'm trying to pour salad dressing. Just kidding! One of my
traffic pet peeves is people who spend forever backing into a parking space
even though they can see that I'm waiting to pass. For heaven's sake, just pull
in forward like a normal person!
3.)
Would you describe your style as shabby chic,
timeless elegance, eclectic, country or ____?
I'd call it "early
twentieth-century hobo." Okay, not really. In the winter, I wear a lot of
jeans, ankle boots, and sweaters, in the summer, a lot of light, casual dresses
and sandals. I love Chuck Taylor All-Star sneakers and I hate pantyhose and
high heels. I always paint my toes and never my fingernails. I like jewel tones
and avoid pastels.
4.)
Tell me about your book SCREWBALL and where you
got your inspiration for it?
SCREWBALL is the second in
my HARD HITTERS series, a book based on a fictional small-town minor league
baseball team in the US. All of the titles are baseball puns. HIGH HEAT, the
first book, is named after a high, fast pitch. A screwball is a ball that takes
an odd, curving trajectory in the air. I was inspired to write it partly
because I love baseball, and partly because I got frustrated seeing the totally
unrealistic depictions of small-town USA in most romance novels. Plainview,
Indiana, is a little more realistic, I think.
5.)
Who is your role model? Why?
Huh, interesting question. I
don't think I have one. I like to forge my own way.
6.)
How much of your book is realistic?
Aha! See above. I think the
setting is realistic, and I did a lot of research into minor league baseball to
give that part authenticity. I love books that take me into another world I
don't know well, so I wanted to write one. Whether the love story and its happy
ever after ending is realistic depends on your point of view, but I think so.
7.)
What are your ambitions for your writing
career?
Many of them have come true.
At this point, I want to keep writing books, getting them out there for people
to read, and developing a fan following that wants to read the kind of stories
I want to write.
8.)
Share one fact about yourself that would
surprise people.
Chris Isaak once pulled me
out of the crowd to dance onstage at his concert. It was just like when Bruce
Springsteen pulled Courtney Cox out of the crowd to dance in his "Dancing
in the Dark" video, except I'm not quite as glamorous as Courtney Cox.
(Chris Isaak compares favorably to Bruce Springsteen, though, in my opinion.)
Fun fact: My future husband, whom I did not know yet, was in the audience with
his girlfriend at the time. He watched his future wife dance with a rock star and
didn't even know it!
Paul
Dudley, president of the Plainview Thrashers, is spinning out of control.
Preserving his family's baseball legacy in these tough times takes everything
he's got, and constant clashes with his father have left him struggling for
authority over the team and even his own future. So when sports reporter Willow
Bourne, a one-night-stand from a year ago, walks back into his life, he knows
he can’t give into his feelings for her—no matter how strong they are.
Willow never expected to see Paul again, and she’s got her reasons for keeping her distance. Except the more time she spends around Paul, the harder it is to hide her secrets—or stop herself from falling head over heels.
As the sparks between them fly, Paul discovers what Willow has been concealing from him, leaving him with a difficult choice—keep the team his top priority or make his own legacy by following his heart...
Willow never expected to see Paul again, and she’s got her reasons for keeping her distance. Except the more time she spends around Paul, the harder it is to hide her secrets—or stop herself from falling head over heels.
As the sparks between them fly, Paul discovers what Willow has been concealing from him, leaving him with a difficult choice—keep the team his top priority or make his own legacy by following his heart...
Buy Links:
Amazon US - http://amzn.com/B00NPNRAI4
Barnes & Noble - http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/screwball-linda-morris/1120374664?ean=9780698194731
“Come on. My treat.” Kendra squeezed her
hand. “You need a pick-me-up.”
“Not sure a twelve-dollar cocktail is
going to solve my problems, but thanks for the thought.”
“Come on, hon. Give yourself a chance to
cheer up.” Kendra led the way through the crowd.
The two women got plenty of looks as they
moved through the nightclub. Usually, leers from guys she didn’t know creeped Willow
out, but not tonight. Tonight, they were a boost to her badly battered ego.
They entered a long hallway with large
leather-lined booths separated by wispy white curtains. Crimson velvet
wallpaper lit with colored lights made for a trippy effect.
“We’re in the booth at the end,” Kendra
said.
The two slid into the booth and Willow
scanned the drink menu. “Ten bucks for something called a Sazerac?” She
couldn’t afford this place. Not that she could afford any place, considering
that she had lost her job and was living on savings, unemployment checks, and
an occasional assist from her parents. Whee! She was twenty-five and on top of
the world.
“Don’t get it. It tastes like lighter
fluid with sugar in it.”
She wrinkled her nose. “Duly noted.”
A loud yell from the booth across the hall
caught her attention. A raucous group of guys, young and mostly good-looking,
was flirting with their waitress. Without meaning to, Willow caught the gaze of
one of the guys: Quiet. A little older than the rest. An island of intensity
amid the liquored-up party people.
He has nice eyes.
She didn’t want to notice anything about a
guy right now, but his eyes asked to be admired. They were equal parts gray and
blue, bearing an expression she recognized because her face had worn it so
often recently. The stranger wore the look of someone trying to hide
something—but what? Sadness? No, more like discontent. He wasn’t doing a very
good job of it.
She ordered a beer and drank half of it before
she had the courage to let her eyes wander in the man’s direction again.
He was still watching her.
Her stomach tightened, but she couldn’t
have said whether from excitement or unease. She raised a brow, determined not
to look away this time. His lips curved, and the sight took her breath away. He
didn’t smile easily, she could tell. It looked like a reluctant one at best,
but it lightened the shadow in his eyes.
The easy feeling lasted until he rose and
walked toward her. Her pulse erupted.
Get ahold of yourself.
He’s a guy in a bar. What’s he going to do to you?
He walked right up, never glancing at
Kendra, only at her.
“Hi.”
“Hi.” Her voice came out calmer than she
felt, thank God.
“Can I buy you a drink?”
A standard line she’d heard a hundred
times. So why did it send a shiver of anticipation down the back of her neck
when he said it?
She gestured to her beer. “Got one
already.”
“I see.” He nodded, not letting that
half-quirk of a smile disappear. “Then, in that case, I have no choice but to
ask you to dance.”
She shot an apologetic glance at Kendra,
who beamed and shooed her off. Willow slipped her hand into his and followed
his broad shoulders through the VIP area and back to the dance floor.
“My name’s Paul.”
“Willow.”
“Willow,” he repeated.
She liked the way her name sounded on his
lips.
“It’s a pretty name for a pretty girl.”
Another phrase she’d heard before, but he
made it sound new.
Bio:
Linda Morris is a writer of contemporary romance, including Melting the Millionaire’s
Heart, The Mason Dixon Line, and Nice Work If You Can Get It.
She writes stories with heart and heat, along with a joke or two thrown in. Her
years of Cubs fandom prove she has a soft spot for a lost cause.
Social links:
Twitter: @LDMorrisWriter
Comments?? Questions??
Great interview!
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