My special guest today is author
Teresa Blue whose first novel just debuted. Here's the blurb:
Travis Howland washes up on the
shores of Lost Isle and into the arms of an angel. Known as the Night Bird,
Emma Samson dedicates her afterlife to a solitary existence on Lost Isle,
easing the passage of the dying. When she finds Travis weak and desperate, she
gives him the only gift she has—a few more days to settle his affairs before
his death. Sorely lacking in faith, Travis lives life with no thought for the
future. When his lovely rescuer claims he has died, he can't believe it. He
must warn his father that their ship was plundered by a greedy business
partner, but only a leap of faith can save him. Together, Emma and Travis use
his last few hours to avenge the traitorous deeds that torment him, and along
the way discover that love can be found in any stage of life…even after death.
Welcome, Teresa. You must be very
excited about seeing your first book published. How did it come about?
The story Night Bird came after
listening to a CD I purchased by Eva Cassidy that had a song with the same
title. Eva’s sultry voice and haunting melody sent my imagination spinning.
The song’s about a woman in some hotel room in Memphis, alone and one night she
found a man on the streets who would surely die, so she took him in…and taught
him how to fly. ‘Is the moonlight just a place, for his memory, now he’s gone.’
Sigh . . . It’s a lovely song and I could listen over and over.
Tell us about your writing
journey.
I’ve always had my nose buried in a book
and when I moved to California, I read from sun-up to sun-down. Anaheim is a
big place and not knowing many people, my salvation came in the form of those wonderful
characters found tucked between the pages of romance books. I devoured each monthly
Doubleday book club selection, waiting impatiently for the next shipment. Later,
once my kids were big enough to go to school, I picked up a pen and tried
writing as a hobby, hoping to clear the voices in my head.
In 1999 after reading a novel called, The Charm School, I wrote a fan letter
to the author, Susan Wiggs. She actually wrote back and told me about RWA. I
joined the local Mid-Michigan chapter and penned my first novel.
The ink was barely dry in 2001 when I came
home from a writer’s retreat, (a weekend filled with informative workshops- I
think that year we had Deb Dixon) and a special guest, editor Linda Kichline,
who actually requested my full manuscript, Dark
Desire.
The ride home was full of chatter as we
(Annette, Jeanette & I) processed all we’d learned those two lesson packed
days. And I’ll never forget turning into the drive and wondering where all the
water was coming from. It ran down the gravel drive in ripples, pooling along
the roadside. Because our house sits back in the woods, it wasn’t visible until
reaching the top of the hill. People I’d never seen before stood scattered in
the yard watching the charred remains of my house crackle and burn. The fireman
said it probably took a matter of twenty or thirty minutes and everything I
owned was gone. Poof! My family, thank God, was safe, and even my dog although
I’ve never seen him look so sad.
It took several minutes to sink in as I
crawled out of the car. I no longer had a manuscript, my backup files were
toast. Worse, I didn’t even have a home! My husband came up and reassured me
we’d be fine. We had great insurance. Nice try…but I bawled like a baby.
It took an entire year to build the new house
and in the meantime try and return some order in my life. Determined not to
lose sight of my dream, the first thing I did was buy a laptop. I would write
(at least keep lists) of stuff I wanted to remember, and outlining the
destroyed manuscript made me feel as if I were still in the game, so to speak, pursuing
my desire to write. Although I may never rewrite that particular story, I do
have an outline for it. :-)
I remember that time and how
devastated we all (your chapter mates) felt for you. I've always admired your
strength in returning to writing after that disaster. Now, tell us about Night
Bird.
I love new
beginnings. There so much to look forward to. The beginning of anything always raises my heartbeat and gets me thinking. What if . . . Or, do you suppose . . . The fun part of being a writer is the ability
to play with all of those possibilities.
Let’s suppose
someone’s foot did accidentally hit the blasted gas knob, turning it on, like
in The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, and Captain Greg wasn’t
ready to leave this life yet? Is there really a pull to the other side or is it
a process, (sort of a beginning) that requires a few steps into the next phase?
My story Night
Bird is such a journey. Travis faces all this and more. The suddenness of his death has left him unprepared. But, Travis needs someone to guide him through the last final hours until he’s
ready to cross into the next realm. That’s Emma, the Night Bird.
It appears that Emma is a ghost, an angel, or
something more. I'm not telling. LOL The reader gets to figure it out. Is this your
first venture into paranormal romance?
No. Dark Desire was a paranormal. That story line had a female vampire
who had been beaten and tossed out in alley to die with sunrise. She was
desperate and my hero just happened to be in the wrong place. That first sip
changed both their lives.
Sounds intriguing. What advice
would you give an aspiring writer?
Create the stories living in your
head, and enjoy the journey crafting folks and universes unknown to the rest of
the world. Something only YOU can build. It’s your voice and your strokes that turn
the blank pages into something memorable to share with the rest of us. Don’t lose
your power. Only YOU can write the book of your heart.
Great advice. Something even
those of us who've been at it for a while can take to heart. All right then, what's
next for Teresa Blue?
I’m tickled to say that I’ve
signed a contract with a new ebook publisher Crimson Romance, a project from Adams
Media, the non-fiction publisher who delivered such books as Why Men Love Bitches (an excellent book
for story characterization) and the Cup
of Comfort series. I discovered a great page on their website aimed at
writing: story middles, dialogue, titles and beginning a story. http://www.adamsmedia.com/cup-of-comfort
Jennifer Lawler is the editor in charge of
the romance line and has been very welcoming. And she’s actively seeking new
authors. Although Crimson Romance is primarily an ebook distributor, there will
be a POD (print on demand) version for those who want a paper copy.
That is marvelous news, Teresa.
I'm so glad you shared it with us. It's been great having you here as your
debut book launches. I thoroughly enjoyed your book, Night Bird. I'm so glad
you stopped by to share some of it with us.
You’ve done a great job of
introducing me, Diane! And I’m honored to be your guest here today. Thank you
so much.
You're very welcome. Teresa Blue
can be found at
As a special treat, here's an
excerpt from Night Bird:
“Tell me, exactly what has
transpired these last few days to change me from a man to a…monster?” He
grabbed her by the shoulders. “Explain, damn you!”
Emma
watched the fleeting emotions score his face, understood his shocking disbelief
at what he’d been told. “I told you. You have died, to put it frankly.” And
then more gently, she said, “Upon the beach. I found you and transformed you.”
She cast
him a shrewd glance as she chewed on her bottom lip and waited for more—anger,
tears, something to convince her he believed. Except for the rapid swell of his
chest, there was none. Usually those chosen were willing, even eager, to make
the deal. Typically, the lives she’d encountered were desperate enough to agree
to anything if it granted them precious time to make things right before their
demise. But since there’d been no time to gain Travis’s permission, she’d acted
on instinct.
Maybe she’d been wrong.
