We are excited to have a special guest on the blog today!
Please welcome Elley Arden as she shares her Writing Quirks and
Must-Haves as well as her new release Save My Soul...
I’ve never been called quirky, but I think I am. I’m a
creature of habit, and some of those habits—especially ones that relate to
writing—are pretty peculiar. Every weekday, before I sit down to write, I have
to set my place at the table the same way. My laptop is open and sitting at the
far left side of the dining table with my back to the French doors so I can
face into the room and no one can walk up behind me. (Nobody else is home when
I do this, so if anyone were to walk up behind me, I’d be in big trouble.) To
the right of the laptop is an open notebook (in case I need to jot a quick
note, and despite the fact it’s faithful there, I hardly ever use it), a pen
(of course), my iPhone (so I can read email and FB notifications and decide if
they are important enough to veer from my manuscript and check things out in a
browser window), and a mug of green tea.
I’m very particular about my mugs. I have a collection of
inspirational ones. The sayings range from Thoreau quotes to one word: dream. I
will wash one of these mugs by hand before I will drink my green tea—while
writing—out of anything else. Quirky.
I listen to music from my old iPod Touch, stuck in a Bose
speaker dock. I have to. I can’t write in silence. It feels like I’m trying too
hard. Nothing screeches a manuscript to a stop like me overthinking things.
Here’s what’s really silly about this habit. All current music is on my phone,
but I never synch it, so what’s on the iPod Touch is limited and overplayed.
Still, I refuse to dock my phone, because how would I see the email and FB
notifications?
At 10 a.m., I get up and go into the kitchen for a protein
bar (every weekday, always the same chocolate nut bar) and a tea refill. I read
over TMZ.com while I eat the bar, and then I’m back to my manuscript. There
have been a few days when I was out of bars. No words were written after 10
a.m. on those days.
I take my chocolate nut bars very seriously.
Blurb ~*~
Psychotherapist Maggie Collins has always been a little off the proverbial wall, but now she’s also knee deep in a delayed quarter-life crisis. With her meager paychecks devoured by student loan debt, a car payment and rent for office space, living at home with a flighty, folksinging mother seemed like a good idea…at first. Now Maggie’s not so sure. She wants space to sort things out and launch a life of her own, but she needs a cushion of cash to get there. When an unexpected phone call brings an offer Maggie can’t refuse, she’s one deal with the devil away from moving out of her mother’s house.
The devil of contract negotiations, baseball agent Jordon Kemmons, has a problem the usual experts can’t fix…his star pitcher is too depressed to throw strikes. Even worse, Jordon’s post-divorce grudge against women is turning him into a raging mess. If desperate times call for desperate measures, then cynical Jordon has made the most desperate move
of all. He’s hoping sexy psychotherapist Maggie Collins is the answer to all his rusty prayers. Soon Maggie and Jordon are fighting an attraction that threatens everything they’ve ever believed. If it’s not just physical attraction…if it’s something more, maybe two wrongs can make a right.
Publisher: Crimson Romance
Release Date: March 25, 2013
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Length: 189 Pages
4 Star Review ~*~
Save My Soul is a unique story that has a little bit of everything sprinkled in. It is witty, funny, full of tension, and sweet all at the same time. The characters that Elley Arden has created are likable and believable yet have just enough angst to be really gripping.
The opening of Save My Soul will hook you and make you really feel for Maggie. Her bad date experience will top almost any story you have heard before! How Maggie presents her professiona nd deals with her patients is unique and a really good idea. She has a mother who is a 'free spirit' that just cracked me up more than once throughout the story. Jordon is not as unique as Maggie but is is a lovable character with his share of baggage and his own set of ideals. The unexpected romance between them is almost magical.
The secondary characters are almost as important, if not more so, to the story than Maggie & Jordon. Elley Arden creates a full cast and doesn't skimp on any of her character or plot development. There are a few twists that liven things up, but Save My Soul was truly a romance to remember as she imparts several views on various world situations and how to deal with them. She will really make you think about things while enjoying her special writing style. Pick up Save My Soul and find out if a driven and hardened businessman can find happiness with a flaky, free spirited, psychotherapist.
Author Bio ~*~
Elley Arden is a born and bred Pennsylvanian who has lived as far west as Utah and as far north as Wisconsin. She drinks wine like it’s water (a slight exaggeration), prefers a night at the ballpark to a night on the town, and believes almond English toffee is the key to happiness.
Elley has been reading romance novels since she was a sixteen-year-old babysitter, sneaking Judith McNaught and Danielle Steele novels off the bookshelves of the women who employed her. She started her first manuscript when she was twenty-five, writing during babies’ naps. A total of three children and ten years later, the manuscript was complete. Little did she know, her journey to publication was only beginning…
Elley writes provocative contemporary romances for Crimson Romance.
~*~I received a copy of this book to review but I was not financially compensated in any way. The opinions expressed are my own and are based on my observations while reading this novel. ~*~
Thank you so much for hosting me and for taking the time to read Save My Soul. I'm so glad you enjoyed it. :)
ReplyDelete~Elley