Welcome paranormal romance author, Liza O'Connor...

 Hi, Liza! So happy to have the opportunity of returning the favor of hosting you after I spent some time at your blog earlier this year. I had a blast! SO looking forward to hearing more about what you've been up to and what you have planned for 2014. Let's get on with the questions...

1)   What is the best and worse thing you have learned from an editor/agent?

The best thing I’ve learned is a good editor who likes my voice and sense of humor can really help me. We all have flaws we can’t see. I am a prolific echoer.  Also, all my characters have a sighing disease.  In truth, I gave it to them. I really do sigh all the time. Sighing allows me to express my annoyance without opening my mouth and getting myself into all sorts of trouble.

Oddly, my dog uses snorting in the same manner. When I am annoying her, she snorts and sneezes, evidently likening me to an allergy.

To avoid getting myself into more trouble than I normally manage to get into, I’m not going to reply to the second part of the question. Best advice I can give: Never knock your editors or your publishers.

2)   What is your typical day?

I wrote a long and excessively boring response to this and kindly erased it. (You’re welcome J)

Here’s my shorter second try:

Wake up at seven, work on laptop ‘til my dog’s sad stare gets me up for our 2 hour hike. 

Then I work all day and afternoon on writing, editing, proofing, promoting, and marketing. In the afternoon, I either take Jess for another walk or if the weather is horrific, go downstairs and put my head in the ceiling.

Opps, that weird statement requires explanation: I had to remove a section of the ceiling so I could work out on my elliptical without hitting my head on each rotation. It’s kind of creepy though. I constantly picture mice hanging about the edges of the hole taunting each other. “Go on, jump in her hair….Dare you.”

I know, it sounds like something I’ve made up to amuse you. Here’s a picture of the ceiling hole directly above my elliptical so you know I really am this strange.

After my exercise, I return to editing and writing, then move to promoting, social networking, and marketing efforts until midnight. Then I sleep.

3)   What do you read while in the midst of a project?

The only chance I normally get to read is when I work out in the evening for an hour on the elliptical. Thus, I only read books that I’ll give a 5 star rating to. The moment I discover a book is not a five star, I stop reading and move on. I’ve too many books and too little time to do otherwise.

4)    What do you do with a paperback once you’ve read it?

I put it with the other paperbacks. They used to get alphabetized, but that fell apart when I ran out of proper room. Now they get stacked laying down above the tops of older paperbacks.

5)    Are you nervous about friends reading your book?

Not really. Since they are my friends, I expect them to get my sense of humor, or I would have annoyed them to death years ago. However, my friends seem to be excessively busy, so I am always shocked when they manage to get time to read one.

6)    What things inspire you to write? Crazy real life stuff.  (I’ll limit myself to three examples)

Ex. 1) I remember once there was a parade on Wall Street and some overzealous employees, lacking confetti, tossed out paper they found in boxes from their fifth story window. Turns out they were statements for clients which contained a great deal of personal information. Other brokers wasted no time gathering up the papers from the street and contacting the customers, asking them if they’d like to switch brokers. Needless to say, the confetti deprived employees were fired. So in Worst Week Ever, I have a fired employee bring her five nephews to help her throw out entire metal file cabinets full of client data. That of course causes a bomb scare and they almost smush my fabulous heroine.

Ex 2) A former boyfriend of mine is a really good lawyer, one of the best in the state, and he once got an attempted murder charge dropped down to attempted manslaughter, but the charge doesn’t make sense, for how do you attempt to accidentally kill someone? 

So naturally, my heroine in Ghost Lover get’s her attempted murder charge dropped to the same silly charge. (You’ll have to read the book to find out how the judge justified the charge.)

Ex 3) Recently, Iowa passed a law allowing the blind to carry weapons and discharge them in public. Never mind they are…well… blind. Everyone should have the same rights. Which makes me wonder if they get to drive as well?

So in the next book I write will be set in Iowa and I’ll have an old blind guy buy an AKA rifle and make his way to a park bench in the town greens. Upon hearing the cooing of pigeons above him, he fires upwards until the gun runs out of ammunition. And there is nothing the people can do. Totally legal. However, there is an issue of bullets going up into the sky and hitting nothing. They eventually give up and come down.  And you thought hail hurt. Wait ‘til you experience lead shot raining from the sky. Metal umbrellas will become a best seller at the hardware store. And somebody has to pick up all the dead pigeons the old man can’t find before they become a health hazard.

Thank you Iowa for voting in such an incredibly stupid law so I can put it in my next book. Otherwise people would say I’m being ridiculous again. It’s not me, it’s Iowa.  I love you, Iowa, I truly do! 

7)   What’s next for you?

In February, I’ll be releasing the final book of A Long Road to Love series.

For those of you who have read Worst Week Ever, you’ll agree it has the most God awful romantic hero ever.

Now some of your managed to like him. Others hated him so much they refused to read Oh Stupid Heart. But Hate Trenters, your time has come!  Carrie finally comes to reason in Coming To Reason (why else would I name it such?) and finds a guy truly worthy of her fabulousity.  (Yes, I make words up. Someone has to or the English language would become stagnant.)

For those of you who read Oh Stupid Heart and fell in love with Trent. (A rather large percentage, I fear) If you are really set on loving Trent—God help you—you should avoid this book like the plague, because he will break your heart. I tried my best to make him work out, but the truth is he has always been a train wreck looking to happen, and in Coming to Reason, the Trent train goes off track and explodes into a fiery ball of gaseous flames.

You have been warned.

Now check out my humorous romance with a proper Happily Ever After, The Ghost Lover.

GHOST LOVER

by Liza O’Connor

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BLURB:

Two sexy English brothers. One irresistible ghost. Who would you choose as your lover?

Completely broke and with a criminal record to boot, Senna Smith is one day from eviction from her apartment when Brendon, her promiscuous roommate from London, suggests she go to England, marry him, and manage his fortune. With few other options, she agrees to an open marriage. But she’ll never, ever, have sex with him, knowing if she falls in love with him, he’ll break her heart.

As trustee of Brendon’s family fortune, there is no way Brendon’s older brother, Garrison Durran, is going to let him marry a self-professed American gold-digger. As Senna tries to embrace castle life and English society for Brendon’s sake, Gar discovers Senna is the perfect woman for him--beautiful and intelligent, kind and caring. Now, if she wasn’t already engaged to his brother…

The ancestral ghost of Durran Castle has to intervene if the Durran brothers have any chance of an heir. He can’t leave them to fix matters on their own. They are useless buggers when it comes to love. As counselor to Gar, matchmaker for Brendon, and lover to Senna, a ghost’s work is never done.

CONTENT WARNING: Allergy warning: Ghost cat in book.  

EXCERPT

Brendon moved to the window and stared out. “I don’t think you realized how bad things became for me when Nan died. I’d lost the only person who cared for me. I had no one left. The million dollars I lost on a roulette wheel wasn’t done just to get rid of the cook. I did it to get your attention. While you didn’t give a shit about me, you’ve always loved money. And it worked. You finally noticed me.”

“And sent you away,” Gar said with remorse.

“Yeah.” Brendon turned and gave him a faint smile. “Not exactly the response I’d hoped for, but it turned out all right. I met Senna and since then life keeps getting easier with each day. Now I find I even like you most of the time.”

“Well, the feeling is mutual. You’re still eccentric, but you’ve a good heart and good intent, and I’m proud you’re my brother.”

Suddenly the door opened and Senna walked in looking at both men with concern. “Are you two having a fight?”

“Not at all.” Brendon smiled. “In fact, Gar told me he’s proud I’m his brother.”

Senna’s eyes filled with appreciation as she grinned at Gar.

Her smile almost broke Gar’s heart. God help him, but Brendon had nailed the truth. He did love Senna, and more than anything, he wanted her to be his wife.

ebook: http://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Lover-Liza-OConnor-ebook/dp/B00H1J5OS6/

Print: http://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Lover-Liza-OConnor/dp/1493667386/

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Liza lives in Denville, NJ with her dog, Jess. They hike in fabulous woods every day, rain or shine, sleet or snow. Having an adventurous nature, she learned to fly small cessnas in NJ, hang-glide in New Zealand, kayak in Pennsylvania, ski in New York, scuba dive with great white sharks in Australia, dig up dinosaur bones in Montana, sky dive in Indiana, and raft a class four river in Tasmania. She’s an avid gardener, amateur photographer, and dabbler in watercolors and graphic arts. Yet through her entire life, her first love has and always will be writing novels. She loves to create interesting characters, set them loose, and scribe what happens.

Liza's Blog and Website   Facebook   Twitter

Liza will be awarding a digital copy of "Worst Week Ever" to a randomly drawn commenter at every stop, and a grand prize of one $50 Amazon GC to a randomly drawn commenter during this tour and her Virtual Book Tour. 

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/08df9a1/

Follow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better your chances of winning. The tour dates can be found here:  

http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2013/08/virtual-book-tour-ghost-lover-by-liza.html

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