Interview with Cara Covington for Love Under Two Outcasts, Lusty Texas Collection

Morgan Ashbury, also writing as Cara Covington, has been a writer since she was first able to pick up a pen. In the beginning it was a hobby, a way to create a world of her own, and who could resist the allure of that? Then as she grew and matured, life got in the way, as life often does. She got married and had three children, and worked in the field of accounting, for that was the practical thing to do and the children did need to be fed. And all the time she was being practical, she would squirrel herself away on quiet Sunday afternoons, and write.

Most children are raised knowing the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule. Morgan’s children also learned the Paper Rule: thou shalt not throw out any paper that has thy mother’s words upon it.

Believing in tradition, Morgan ensured that her children’s children learned this rule, too.

Life threw Morgan a curve when, in 2002, she underwent emergency triple bypass surgery. Second chances are to be cherished, and with the encouragement and support of her husband, Morgan decided to use hers to do what she’d always dreamed of doing—writing full time.

Morgan has always loved writing romance. It is the one genre that can incorporate every other genre within its pulsating heart. Romance showcases all that humankind can aspire to be. And, she admits, she’s a sucker for a happy ending.

Morgan’s favorite hobbies are reading, cooking, and traveling—though she would rather you didn’t mention that last one to her husband. She has too much fun teasing him about having become a “Traveling Fool” of late.

Morgan lives in Southwestern Ontario, Canada, with a mysterious cat, an eight pound Morkie dog who thinks he’s a German shepherd, and her husband of forty-two years, David.

Website

Morgan’s books at Siren-Bookstrand

Cara’sFacebook page

What is your story's heat level? How do you approach the sex scenes?

The heat level for this story, as with all my Lusty, Texas series, is “sextreme”. That is the highest rating my publisher, Siren, has. Sex scenes have to blend into the story. They have to be an honest expression of the characters and their feelings for and reaction to each other. So every book’s scenes must unique, though of course you’re writing about similar activities. It’s a challenge, but done right, it’s magic.

How do you maintain activity as a writer when sitting at a desk all day?

I wear a step counter. Because I have some health challenges, I need to keep moving throughout the day. So I tend to write for shorter bursts – a half hour to an hour – and then I get up and do some housework. I call it “multitasking”.

What is it that you loved about the main characters in your story?
My three main characters in Love Under Two Outcasts have one thing in common: there is something they did in their pasts that they regret. For my heroine, Charlotta, it’s not that she did anything wrong, it’s that her father and mother more or less disowned her for doing something of which they didn’t approve. My heroes, Jesse and Barry, while thinking they’d been normal big brothers picking on their youngest sister the way brothers do, came to understand that in fact they had bullied her. The story of Love Under Two Outcasts is how all three characters come to view their past, and how they achieve redemption.

What do you feel is your strongest type of writing? Humor? Angst? Confrontation scenes? Action? Sex? Sensuality? Sweet Romance? And why?
I think my strongest elements would be relationship, followed by sex and humor. My stories are all, at their core, stories of characters and the relationships they build – and not just the romantic ones, either. There are plenty of people in the series who make connections.

Are you social media savvy? If so what do you suggest for others? If not, why not?
I am as far as I am able to be. I have FaceBook for Morgan and for Cara; I have a street team; I have twitter for both pen names, and I do my best to interact with my readers all in all. I urge all authors to learn as much as they can about social media. Today’s reader of e-books is different from my generation. As a young mother, I loved (and still do) Nora Roberts. But the only relationship I expected to have with her, was to buy her books. A book signing would have been a stupendous, momentous occasion (and actually it was). But my readers expect to build a personal relationship with me. So here I am, on a blog tour, and, if you contact me on FaceBook, I will respond.....or I will if FaceBook bothers to let me know you have. Leave a message through the forms on my website, and I will for sure get back to you. J

What are some things from your life or things you have observed that you've infused into your stories?

I don’t plagiarize my life in my stories, because I write fiction. But some of the issues my characters deal with are real life issues for many readers. I see character traits that speak to me, and I may take several traits from a few different people and put them into one character – usually the villain. But mostly, I rely on my imagination.

If you had an unlimited budget, where would you like to visit for story-related research?
Well, since I have been to Texas several times, I suppose I would like to tour Australia. I’ve never been and I would like to experience the flavors of that wildly diverse land.

Any fun facts about the research for your book?
I always do research for every book. It doesn’t matter if it’s a restaurant’s menu, how to brush and curry a horse, whatever. I try very hard to get my facts straight. I have even used Google Earth to “drive” from one city to another, to get an idea of the terrain. This current release, I did a lot of research on equine therapy, and also revisited the research I had done for a previous book (Wanton Wager) about the Bureau of Land Management’s Wild Horse and Burro program.

Finally, tell us a little about your newest release!
Love Under Two Outcasts is at its heart a story of redemption.

The previous Christmas, heroes Jesse and Barry Benedict were confronted by their youngest sister Veronica, and had it brought home, for the first time, that while they thought they’d just teased her the way brothers do, for Veronica their actions had been bullying. Filled with regret and self-loathing, Jesse and Barry decide they don’t want to be those guys any more.

Charlotta Carmichael is mostly not ashamed of the fact that she danced in a gentlemen’s club to pay for her degree in psychology. But her father had torn into her, calling her a whore, and his brutal judgment, though untrue, nonetheless ate at her soul.

The heroes meet the heroine when, having located from Montana to Texas, they apply to continue their certification as instructors, working with a horse equine therapy program the heroine runs. It doesn’t take them long to know there’s something special between them. And their love story is as much a journey of discovery of each other and what it means to love, as it is learning to forgive themselves. 


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Excerpt:

Once she reached her open office door, she stood back inviting the men to enter first. She’d originally planned for them to have their meeting in the more comfortable seating area comprised of a love seat and two chairs around a small table located against one wall. She reconsidered now.

Charlotta freely admitted to herself that the only thing that made her stick to her original plan was her own stubborn pride. It wasn’t Jesse and Barry Benedict’s fault that she seemed to be having an extremely physical reaction to them.

You are such a liar. That’s not the only reason. You want to sit as close to them as possible.

Charlotta hated that her inner voice was such a nag—and that it was almost always right. As the gentlemen made themselves comfortable on the love seat, she mentally sighed. She did want to sit as close to them as decently possible. She had never had this kind of a reaction before. It had been several months since she’d felt any kind of sensual stirrings, period. What was wrong with being open, at least a little, to the possibilities? These men were going to be volunteers in a program she helped oversee, not clients. In short, there was no moral reason she couldn’t…what?

You want to jump their bones.

She told her inner voice to shut the hell up. Who asked you anyway?

Cara will be awarding a $25 Bookstrand GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

 

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Interview: Essence of Time by Liz Crowe

Amazon best-selling author, beer blogger and beer marketing expert, mom of three, and soccer fan, Liz Crowe lives Ann Arbor. She has decades of experience in sales and fund raising, plus an eight-year stint as a three-continent, ex-pat trailing spouse.

Her early forays into the publishing world led to a groundbreaking fiction subgenre, “Romance for Real Life,” which has gained thousands of fans and followers interested less in the “HEA” and more in the “WHA” (“What Happens After?”). More recently she is garnering even more fans across genres with her latest novels, which are more character-driven fiction, while remaining very much “real life.”

With stories set in the not-so-common worlds of breweries, on the soccer pitch, in successful real estate offices and at times in exotic locales like Istanbul, Turkey, her books are unique and told with a fresh voice. The Liz Crowe backlist has something for any reader seeking complex storylines with humor and complete casts of characters that will delight, frustrate and linger in the imagination long after the book is finished.

Website
Brewing Passion

Facebook

Facebook Fan Page

Twitter
Amazon

What is your story's heat level? How do you approach the sex scenes?

ESSENCE OF TIME has a fairly high “heat level.” I’d say on a scale of 1-5 (one being no sex at all and 5 being fully explicit) it’s a five. However, I’d like to propose that none of my books including this one are
about the sex. I write novels that some have called “romance for real life,” others have deemed “brutally realistic relationship fiction.” My characters run the gamut of true human experience—they work, they eat, they sleep, they love and they have sex.

Some of my favorite reader comments/reviews about this book include those who have never read (and would never consider reading) books about “men in love with each other.” These now hard core Liz fans claim that this book is NOT about “man love,” but about real human beings, negotiating their lives honestly, living fully and loving completely.

I approach sex scenes with one question in mind: does it move my story forward or not?  If not, I don’t write it. If so, I make it as compelling as I possibly can in order for it to do its job as part of the story.

How do you maintain activity as a writer when sitting at a desk all day?

I practice Bikram yoga and just started taking up TitleBoxing. I’m a little sore at the moment but have realized the hard way that balancing the “sit and write all day” lifestyle with “staying healthy” is too important.

What is it that you loved about the main characters in your story?

I love Blake Thornton’s devotion so his sister (you meet Sara in books 1-3 but ESSENCE OF TIME is written as a stand alone novel) and the energy he puts into everything about his life—from his relationships to his brewing and his dedication to Rob once he realizes that he can safely love without fear of getting hurt.

I love Rob Frietag’s steadfastness, his quiet, inner strength, his comfort in his own skin, and the way he puts everything he has into his brew pub---and into convincing Blake to love him.

I love Lila Warren’s instincts to take care of both men, their home and to have their child. She is a caretaker by nature, in a way I am not but I admire that about her.

What do you feel is your strongest type of writing? Humor? Angst? Confrontation scenes? Action? Sex? Sensuality? Sweet Romance? And why?

Angst, confrontation, humor, family drama.

Probably because I have my own fair share of it?

Are you social media savvy? If so what do you suggest for others? If not, why not?

I consider myself fairly savvy, yes. But I learn new stuff every day. I’ve got about 3900 twitter followers, 5600 “likes” on Facebook, a private fan group with about 320 members, I “Pin” and “google plus” stuff a lot plus interact on LinkedIn where necessary and on Goodreads when required (as a reader, usually).

My advice? If you want to build an author platform in today’s environment you MUST dedicate a few hours EVERY day to twitter and facebook at least. Don’t “sell” all the time either, “interact.”

What are some things from your life or things you have observed that you've infused into your stories?

Pretty much every experience as a real estate agent as in my role as founder and former marketing director for a small brewery. Plus family drama…plenty of that!

If you had an unlimited budget, where would you like to visit for story-related research?

I’d retrace my steps as an ex-pat trailing auto exec spouse in Japan, Turkey and England for a long-planned semi-autobiographical novel.

Any fun facts about the research for your book?

I once contacted owners of much larger breweries than mine to ask them what is their “worst sabotage nightmare” to come up with concepts for a book called CHEEKY BLONDE, a suspenseful novella that is currently available from Decadent Publishing.

Finally, tell us a little about your newest release!

ESSENCE OF TIME is a novel about 2 men who go through their lives thinking they can’t trust love, until they meet each other. It is not about angst related to “being attracted to each other.” Both men are fully cognizant and accepting of their own bi-sexuality. It’s more about Rob’s secret that comes between them and how they deal with that and with the aftermath of it.

As I mentioned before, it is, technically book 4 of the Stewart Realty series BUT can easily be read as a stand alone/intro to the series.

I hope you get a chance to enjoy it!

  

Blurb:

A “take life by the throat” philosophy has always served Rob well. It keeps him focused, forcing emotions and potential relationships to take a back seat to his aspirations. But once every obstacle has been conquered and he’s achieved his goal—executive chef at a famous Chicago restaurant—he must acknowledge that he has reached his mid-thirties very much alone.

Blake has just jettisoned his dream job—head of a fast-growing craft microbrewery—to escape from the woman who shattered his soul. Arriving at a Chicago beer festival prepared to drown his sorrows before moving on he is miserable and numb.

Fate throws the men together altering their respective worlds forever.

Once Rob reveals the personal demon that has haunted him for years, Blake allows himself to fully trust again, and admits he wants a child. But a mutual attraction evolves out of a business arrangement with the woman hired as their surrogate, which has the potential to destroy an already delicate status quo.

But time is of the essence, and becomes the one luxury they don't have.

An honest depiction of a modern relationship mosaic reminding us to treasure every single moment we are allowed to love and be loved.

Buy Links:
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Barnes and Noble

Excerpt:

Rob interrupted him, keeping his distance, his voice low and calm. “I don’t want to do anything that will make you unhappy. It’s all I do anymore it seems. I know, I know, me being sick doesn’t make you unhappy it makes you mad. Whatever. Listen,” Rob said, taking the few steps between them and pulling Blake to his feet. “You look like you’re about to walk in front of a firing squad. Fuck it. Let’s call it off.”

“No.” Blake let himself be held a moment, listened to the sound of his lover’s beating heart, his arms wrapped around the man’s too-thin waist. “It’s okay. She’s…I mean, I think it will be fine.”

Rob tilted his chin up. Blake studied Rob’s face, stared into his brown eyes, memorized it, for later. They both smiled. Blake pressed a quick kiss to Rob’s lips, then began to disentangle himself. They needed to get on with it. Lila would be sitting and waiting by now. It would be rude to…But Rob held onto him, his grip strong. The lips he pressed to Blake’s, parting them with his tongue were firm and had a familiar urgency.

Blake broke the kiss first, held onto Rob’s face. “Keep that up and the poor girl will have to pay her own expensive dinner bill. Come on, let’s go. I’m tired of waiting on you.” He brushed a hand across Rob’s chest, and lower, grinning. “Save this. I’ll take some later.”

The ride downtown shimmered with anxious energy. Rob hummed, a clear sign of his nervousness. Blake tapped his fingers on the armrest, fiddled with the window, the HVAC, the radio.

“God damn it.” Rob smacked his hand away from the controls. “Cut it out. You aren’t making either of us feel any better.”

Blake blew out a long breath. “It’s not like I know how to act here. I mean, what the hell are we supposed talk about? The bank transfer of the money? The process? Who gets her first? If she wants it in both…”

“Stop it.” Rob’s voice was strained, his jaw clenched. “I don’t know either but I damn sure am not gonna ask her if she wants a DP. At least not on the first date.”

Blake laughed so loud he snorted. Rob shot him a sideways look as he pulled the F-150 into a parking spot behind the restaurant and put it into park. They both sat, frozen with indecision and anxiety.

“Do you remember Paris?” Blake put a hand on Rob’s thigh. The other man’s muscles twitched under his palm. “That girl, from the nightclub? Our first vacation?”

“Yeah.” Rob kept his hands on the steering wheel, eyes trained straight ahead. “What about it?”

Blake sighed. Rob’s body language, his clenched teeth and white knuckled grip only ramped up his own stress. But he needed them to get past this. They had to go into the restaurant, meet with Lila, eat, drink some wine then…possibly…go home and…He shook his head. He ran fingers through Rob’s hair, the silkiness of the new growth brought a smile to his face. “That was pretty easy. I mean, you know, my first time as three.”

Rob turned to him, anguish suffusing every pore of his handsome face and filling his eyes. He gripped Blake’s hand, yanked him across the console and kissed him hard. When he broke away, Blake touched his face. “You’re the expert here. Not me. The ladies love your tall, blond, Germanic hotness. I’m along for the ride. I’ll…watch and learn.”

“Don’t be an idiot.” Rob leaned his head back, hand over his eyes. “Jesus, this is…about as fucked up as it gets.”

“No, it’s not. Even if you weren’t sick we would be doing it. You know that. We wanted a baby.”

“You wanted a baby. I’m perfectly fine without…”

“You told me a thousand times you weren’t doing this to humor me. Were you lying then, or are you lying now?” Blake’s ears got hot and his chest tightened but he clamped down on the anger. “All we have to do is figure out how to share. That is one thing we know we both need to….practice. I don’t want her to think we’re a couple of barely evolved Neanderthals.”

Rob turned to him, his eyes still bright with unshed tears. “Even though we sort of are?”

Blake shrugged, unable to resist a smile. Rob sighed and climbed out, meeting Blake at the back bumper. He grabbed his arm. “I love you Blake Thornton. God knows I do. So, let’s get on with this, shall we? Not quite the impromptu heat of a Paris nightclub but…we’ll make do with the Chop House.”

The men walked around the corner and up to the restaurant in silence each deep in the mire of his own misery. They spotted her, seated at a table in the front window, before she saw them. Blake took a breath and leaned into his lover’s ear. “Don’t stand there and tell me that she is not beautiful. That she doesn’t do anything for you.”

He put a hand on Rob’s back, as they walked towards her. She looked up and smiled. Blake felt Rob shiver under his palm. “The mother of our child, Rob. The child we both want,” he whispered, then stepped aside so Rob could give Lila a quick hug before he did the same.

Liz will be awarding a $50 Amazon GC to a randomly drawn winner

a Rafflecopter giveaway