Don't take my baby. Please don't take my baby. The woman's plea
whispered in the steady swish, swish of the wipers. Her image wavered among the
falling flakes of snow, horror streaking in anguished tears down her face.
Marly O'Shea shivered and forced her attention back to the narrow, twisting
road grudgingly carved out of the side of the mountain.
FUN FIRST FACTS ABOUT GENIE
1. Tell me about the first novel you ever wrote? What ever happened to
it?
It was published fourteen years after I started writing it. :) And the
rest of the story… Like most teenaged girls, I was infatuated with a few rock
stars. So when I was supposedly grown up and started writing, I thought a rock
star would make a good hero of a romance book. Well, if you overlooked the rock
star's mantra of "drugs, sex, and rock'n'roll." So my hero became a
reformed rock star. And did someone say celebrity-type heroes don't sell well
unless it's an exposé to a tabloid? Um, I must have missed that e-mail. I blithely
started writing. And writing. And writing. Six-hundred pages later, I realized
the story was far too long for any contemporary romance markets.
I had also
been attending Romance Writers of America meetings and conferences and was
learning the craft of writing. Point of view? Character arcs? Conflict?
Building tension? Oops! I totally rewrote that book over half a dozen times,
but I loved the two main characters and wanted to tell their story. I
"came close" to selling it to New York publishers--meaning I got
personal rejection letters from editors.
Fourteen years after I started writing
THE ROCK STAR, I sold it to an e-book publisher. I later got my rights back and
another e-publisher re-issued it last fall with its current title and a new
cover. I still love that story and continue to promote it along with my more
recent books.
2. If you had a free afternoon, what’s the first thing you’d do?
Find some work to do? LOL! I'm happiest when I'm busy. I'm also at a
point in my life where I can pretty much do what I want. So I write. I'm also a
graphic designer and I love to design book covers. I have a herd of
doggies--mostly rescues--who have taught me more than I ever learned in a
classroom. I am a Reiki master and experience miracles every day. The door to
my office opens onto the deck to my back yard and I can meander out and dig in
the dirt if I want to. If I scheduled a free afternoon, I'd sit on the bench
under my magnolia tree and read books, or go play with my kids and grandkids.
3. If you won the lottery, what’s the first thing you’d buy?
Funny this is one of your questions! I bought a ticket for the $640
million lottery drawing just for fun. What would you do with that much money?
Pay off the mortgages of everyone you know? However, what I would buy first is
property for my herd of doggies so the animal sanctuary I've planned for years
would have room to spread out!
More about Genie
For years I've been fascinated by the puzzle of why some people
collapse under life's traumas and others emerge triumphantly stronger. These
triumphs of the human spirit over the ugliest of adversities became the basis
for my stories. Yet my dramatic stories have always contained touches of humor,
and sometimes I have great fun writing romantic comedy novellas. However, in
all my stories, my passion for writing romance is an outlet for the powerful
messages that people can overcome great difficulties, and true love can turn
life’s heartaches into happily ever after.
* * * * *
THANK YOU, Rebecca, for having me as a guest on your blog today! Maybe
just for fun, anyone who comments would tell me what they would buy first if
they won the lottery. I love to hear people's dreams!
And…it's not the lottery, but anyone who comments here will be entered
in the contest drawing I'm having on my LEGACY blog for a $15 gift card. The
drawing will be April 27. If you want to check out that blog, the url is
http://oshealegacyseries.blogspot.com/. You can also check out my Web
site http://www.GenieGabriel.com for more information about me and
about my books.
Thanks to everyone who stops by!
