GUEST AUTHOR SATURDAY!! Please welcome fellow Wild Rose Press author Lucy Naylor Kubash...

 

Hi Lucy & welcome to my blog! I am very much looking forward to learning more about you and your latest release THE HAUNTING OF LAUREL COVE. Let's get things started with my questions, shall we??

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

When I was first published, 40 years ago, I was a total newcomer to the publishing world. I sold two short stories to Woman’s World magazine, back-to-back, with very few revisions, and thought hey, this is pretty cool! I can do this. I sent them a third story, and to my dismay, it came winging back to me. (This was in the day of snail mail submissions.) The editor gave me some ideas for revisions and said do them and send it back. I did. It came back again. I considered not resubmitting, even though she encouraged me to do so, but being the stubborn person that I am, I did the work and resubmitted the manuscript. I can’t remember how long this went on, how many times I sent that story back, but finally one day she said, yes, this is what I wanted, I’m sending you a contract. I would say that editor taught me to not give up, to accept and follow editorial direction, and to be persistent. Thank you, Elinor Nauen, wherever you are!  

2)     What is your typical day?

Get up, let the dog out, let the dog in, feed the cats, make my morning tea, watch a few TV shows, read yesterday’s newspaper, sometimes check email. Get my act together and figure out what I need to do that day. I’m not an early riser and most of my writing is in the afternoon and sometimes into the evening. If I’m hot on a project, sometimes, but not often, I’ll work later at night when everyone else is asleep. I belong to a Zoom writing group, and I often join them in the afternoon for a couple hours of writing.  Since I’m retired from an outside job, my time is usually my own, unless my other half wants to go out to lunch!

3)     What do you read while in the midst of a project? Or don’t you?

I don’t read a whole lot while I’m working on a story, but when I do it’s usually at night, when I’m comfy in bed and I have my Kindle handy. I like romance, mystery, romantic suspense. I just finished writing a trilogy of related books and while I’m waiting to hear from my editor, I’m hoping to get caught up reading my favorite authors and a number of craft writing books I’ve accumulated.  

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

If the book is one I really like or is by a favorite author or an author friend, it will go on my keeper shelf. (I have a lot of keeper shelves, lol!) Otherwise, I donate to my local libraries’ book sales.

5)      Are you nervous about friends reading your book?

Not so much anymore. The books I’m writing now are a bit spicier than what I used to write, so I often wonder what they think, but I don’t ask. If I use a friend or relative’s name, I hope they don’t think I’m modeling the character after them, because truly, it just happens to be that character’s name.

6)      What things inspire you to write? Location, music, film or even in a book?

Although I think my stories are character-driven, it’s the settings that inspire me. When we visited the Great Smoky Mountains, I knew I wanted to set a story there. That book is my latest release from the Wild Rose Press, The Haunting of Laurel Cove. The trilogy I just finished writing is set in Wyoming, where our son lived for a number of years and where we also visited. I think those stories will show I’m in love with the Grand Tetons. But songs have inspired me, too, or even incidents in my own life.

7)     Share your blurb or short excerpt from your latest release with us

 This is the blurb for The Haunting of Laurel Cove, a mystery romance (with       a ghost) from The Wild Rose Press.

Shattered dreams, family secrets, rekindled love. Which is the biggest threat to life and sanity to a broken woman trying to heal?

When Jane returns to the Smoky Mountains and the house she inherited from her grandmother with the hope to heal from a brutal mugging, she finds herself obsessed with a local legend involving a witch and a mysterious cabin.

Upon reconnecting with an old boyfriend now turned handsome environmentalist, she finds herself attracted to Brendan McGarren and is drawn into his battle to keep Laurel Cove from becoming a rich man’s playground. As she uncovers family secrets pertaining to the witch and the cabin, Jane questions her own sanity. Then the threats begin. Can she trust Brendan?

Will the search for the truth cost Jane her life?

You can find The Haunting of Laurel Cove here:

books2read.com/u/baBvBx

Here is an excerpt:

I glanced up into the woods, staring once more into vacant windows. The eyes and soul of a house no longer inhabited, at least not by anyone of this world. Voices whirled about in my mind. Lights have been seen in the cabin, after dark. Some say she doesn't rest at all, but walks at night. Then, from somewhere, the echo of a dog's plaintive howl sent icy fingers sliding down my backbone.

"I was here the other day," I said, my voice hushed. "I didn't know it was Cissy's cabin, but now I remember being here a long time ago, when the other kids were taunting her. It was awful, and I knew Gran would be upset with me. I think maybe she felt sorry for Cissy, or maybe she even knew her, before it happened."

"Before what happened?" Brendan drew next to me and leaned over to put his hand on mine where I gripped the reins. 

I tore my gaze from the cabin and looked into his turquoise eyes. "The murder."

He considered this a moment before he said, "I think we should leave now."

Did he feel it too? The presence of someone other than us? 

We did not talk at all as we rode away, but I couldn't resist a single backward glance at the lonely cabin. Strange how the breeze sifting through the trees now sounded more like someone's gentle sighing. Cecilia Jane.  

8)      What’s next for you?

As I mentioned, I’ve finished writing a trilogy that is western contemporary romance, and I hope they will be my next releases. Then I’m working on another contemporary mystery romance with a ghost. I do love ghost stories!

 Lucy Naylor Kubash has had a lifelong love of reading and has been writing for as long as she can remember. She is published in short fiction and novel length contemporary romance as well as nonfiction, having written a column called The Pet Corner for over twenty years. She is a member of Michigan Romance Writers, Romance Writers Online, Grand Rapids Region Writers Group, and Women Writing the West. She loves anything to do with the American West, mountains and beaches anywhere, and traveling whenever possible with her husband of over fifty years. When not writing she likes to spend time with her family and her pets.

You can find Lucy here:

Website:  http://www.lucynaylorkubash.com

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

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/LucyKubash

Instagram:  https://instagram.com/lucykubash_author/

Amazon author page: www.amazon.com/author