Liz Flaherty Brings Color To Her Writing!

 

I'd like to welcome to the stage friend and fellow Romance Gem, Liz Flaherty! Liz agreed to answer some questions for me and tell us about her latest release...

Thanks for having me here today, M.J. It seems as if I’ve been all over the place with the first two books of Colors, the Harper Loch Trilogy. Both Pieces of Blue and Patches of Red are on sale for 99 cents for the next few days, so I hope your readers will give them a look! 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GXNQNJ1P

I had fun answering the interview questions. I always feel as if I come to know myself better in an interview. I’m not exactly sure what that says about me, but there you go.

When did your love for writing start?

I have two answers for that question, and they’re both accurate. When I was nine, I read Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women and realized that I was Jo March. I didn’t have a garret to write in, nor did I sell a story until many, many years later, but I knew. I knew.

The other answer is that, also when I was nine, my aunt let me type on her portable Royal typewriter—I think to get me out of her hair and shut up for at least five minutes. It took me all afternoon, but I wrote a story and dreamed up an entire adult life comprised of living in the city apartment with a doorman, writing books, and being fabulously rich.

One of three isn’t bad.

I'm sure that doorman is just around the corner. :) What is something you struggle with when you write?

I think this will sound a little goofy … not to mention self-serving … but it might be something some others identify with. What I struggle with most these days is the limitations I put on myself because of my age. Let’s be honest here—some of my grandkids are plenty old enough to be romance novel main characters. While I love every single thing about them, we don’t even speak the same language. Our core values mesh, pretty much, but our methods are poles apart. I not only can’t speak their language, I usually don’t understand it. Which means I can’t begin to write it.

I love writing later-in-life romance and women’s fiction, but even then the dramas are different, the angst is different, and I’m no longer sure the audience is there. Doesn’t mean I’ll stop looking for it, but … yeah, struggle.

 

Let's hope we discover some of that audience today. Where do you live? Where would you love to live?

I live in the country in Indiana, where I have lived my whole life. Politics and other difficulties aside, I love it here. What I’d love to do is be able to take off on a trip whenever I wanted to. Since my husband doesn’t like to travel, my options are kind of limited, but sometimes there are girlfriend getaways and visiting the kids in other states. It’s all good.

What is your concept of a fruitful day?

I love this question! First, waking up feeling rested and then working in my office until I’m ready to stop—ending the day with more words in the WIP than I started with. Talking to family and friends, spending quality time with the guy in the other recliner, and going to bed tired but pretty content.

That sounds wonderful! Name your favorite children’s story.

There were a lot of them, but my sister had a full set of the Raggedy Ann and Andy books and I loved them. Just as I became Jo March later, I became the doll with the candy heart when I first learned to read.

That’s what I hope for when I write grownup books—that the reader will either want to become the main character for a few hours or just be glad to spend some time with her.

I sure do! I enjoyed PIECES OF BLUE so much that I purchased PATCHES OF RED! I can't wait to get at it! Thanks for joining us, Liz! I enjoyed your answers to my questions! Now let's find out more about PATCHES OF RED...

Blurb~

He’s handsome but can’t even remember her name. She’s pretty, but her finickiness drives him crazy.

After twenty years as a nurse practitioner in the same practice, Ellie Wentz gives notice. When office politics interferes with her job, it’s time to get a new one. When her son and daughter-in-law buy her house and she has sold and given away everything else that’s not attached to her heartstrings, she packs up what remains and goes to Harper Loch to spend time with her best friend. She’ll decide what to do and where to go from there. No matter how much the handsome friend of her friends annoys her.

Jesse Grant comes to Harper Loch to help out his niece for a few weeks. He’s retired from the navy, his boys are grown, and he’s at loose ends. But he really likes the little lake community in Michigan—he thinks he might stay. Long widowed, he has no interest in getting married again, and neither does the redhead he can’t seem to avoid. And yet ...

Excerpt~

“You have all new days in front of you,” he said now. “If a chance doesn’t work out, take another one the next day until something sticks.”

“In theory, I agree,” she said after a moment. “In reality, I think I have some missing pieces. I need to find out what they are.”

He nodded. “Understood.” He’d never found his, just stitched up all the torn places and gone on. But he remembered feeling just like she did now. The memory made a painful ache.

They stood in her doorway, leaning against opposite sides of the frame. Her arms were crossed and she’d put on some kind of sweater thing over the long dress she wore. The sweater was a creamy color … not quite white … and it looked soft. How could a woman who was completely covered up and had her hair in a braid look so sexy?

He realized he didn’t know how to leave any more than he and the boys knew how to say goodbye on the phone. He and Ellie weren’t dating, although they were spending time together. They weren’t hooking up, because it didn’t feel right. At least, not yet.

But he still wanted to stroke the sleeve of her sweater to know if it was as soft as it looked, to feel the texture of her skin through the thin fabric. He wanted to touch the long braid to see if it still held the warmth of the day’s sunshine in it. He thought it probably did.

He wanted to make her feel better.

He was out of practice, he guessed. There weren’t a lot of single women in his age group in the area, and none that had captured his imagination beyond being friends. There were several he enjoyed talking to, a few he’d shared casual meals or trips to movies in Willoughby with, but somehow things hadn’t clicked.

He hadn’t wanted to touch the sleeves of their sweaters. The thought made him chuckle, and then he shrugged, because he didn’t know how to explain it to Ellie’s questioning gaze.

She smiled at him. “Thanks for the tour. I really did enjoy it.”

“Me, too.”

When her arms came around his neck, her sleeves touched his skin. They really were soft. So were the hands that linked at his nape and tunneled into his hair. When she raised her face to his, he met her halfway, meeting her soft lips in a long and sweet greeting and farewell-for-now.

Things definitely clicked.

He didn’t try to stop her when she drew away, but he didn’t take his hands from where he’d set them on her hips as they kissed. “Well,” he said.

“Indeed,” she said.

“Thank you.”

“You, too.” She smiled at him, although uncertainty flickered in the expression.

He bent his head, kissing her again. Gently. More quickly. Just as a promise. Sort of. Because it was too soon for promises, and he thought maybe neither of them was the promising type.

Had this been the reason for his anxiety earlier? It didn’t make sense. Or did it? He didn’t do relationships. He wasn’t good at them. And yet whatever was growing between him and the woman with the soft sweater was … something. It lent an air of … well, something … to his days and sometimes his nights. Unease, like he’d thought?

Or anticipation. Maybe.

“I’d better go,” he said, releasing her reluctantly and stepping away. “See you later, Evelyn.”

“Ellie.”

Uh-oh!

 

To find out how Jesse gets out of this scrape, buy PATCHES OF RED here:

Amazon: https://a.co/d/09fZR7nt

D2D: https://books2read.com/u/mZ98YJ

Bio~

Liz Flaherty thinks one of the things that keeps you young when you quite obviously aren’t anymore is the constant chances you have to reinvent yourself. Her latest professional incarnation is as a fledgling women’s fiction author and she is enjoying every minute that she’s not scared to death.

​
Website: https://www.lizflaherty.net/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/lizkflaherty
Amazon page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Liz-Flaherty/author/B001J919R4

 

Thanks so much for entertaining us today, Liz! I hope you'll return with Book Three of Colors, The Harper Loch Trilogy, SHADES OF GREEN.

 

 

You'll Be BEDEVILED BY THE BARONESS! Rebel Lords of London Regency Romance from Kathy L. Wheeler

 Hi, all! Please welcome my Romance Gem friend Kathy Wheeler with her latest book, BEDEVILED BY THE BARONESS. 

What a gorgeous cover! 

Blurb~

A scandalous masquerade, a missing heir, and a baroness who refuses to play by the rules

London, 1823 —

When widowed Baroness Lady Rose Stanford crashes a notorious masquerade in search of a titled husband, she doesn't expect to kiss a mysterious stranger—or get pulled into a dangerous game of blackmail and murder.

Emerson Whitmore, a self-made merchant, wants nothing to do with the peerage until a cousin’s suspicious disappearance and a damning note thrust him into aristocratic intrigue and into the path of the most irritating and desirable woman he...wishes he'd never met.

Sparks fly and secrets unravel as Rose and Emerson join forces to uncover a killer, protect vulnerable young women, and navigate a society where appearances deceive and love may be the ultimate scandal.

Excerpt~

Eyes of moss flashed fire, and a hand splayed across a dainty bosom that warranted further inspection. “What are you looking for?” Her voice held a small tremor.

He considered her question, her demeanor, the upper crest diction that did not belong with the riot of curls or the scullery maid’s costume she wore. “I’m being blackmailed.”

She gasped. “By Shufflebottom?” An adorable scowl compressed her full lips into a straight line, making her chin appear more pointed as that was all that was visible beneath her diamond-tipped mask. “That dandified churl.”

“You know him, then?” Of course she did. She and Shufflebottom ran in the same circles. It was the accent, he decided. Glancing about, he spotted a tray of spirits and sauntered over to pour out two small glasses of brandy. He brought one to his nose and sniffed. Nothing but the best in the house of a notorious marquis.

He held up the glass. “Shall we indulge in his hospitality?”

She eyed him with obvious suspicion. Smart girl. Lady, he inwardly corrected. He wasn’t of the peerage after all. Another thud sounded—she’d dropped what Emerson could only assume were shoes, though he hesitated to grant them the dignity of the term. She glided in his direction. “Thank you.” It was said grudgingly enough to have him biting back a smile.

Her appearance put a damper on his search, and he likely wouldn’t have another such opportunity.

She took a large swallow of the brandy and let out a coughing fit that had her eyes watering. “I thought this was Madeira,” she choked out.

“In a brandy glass? No.” He sipped his. “Definitely brandy. Were the hounds after you?”

“Er, no.” She pulled a small, laced handkerchief from a hidden pocket of her frock.

Emerson took her glass and set it on the desk, then the hankie, noting the embroidered initials of RS and dabbed at the tears trickling from behind her mask. “Now, what has you so flustered?”

“The fop was after me.”

His fingers stopped, poised as if encased in marble…or seized by rigor mortis. “Shufflebottom is on his way…in here?”

“No, thank the heavens. I lost him in the crowd.” Her voice fascinated him. Modulated, educated. And, sadly, definitely nobility.

Emerson pocketed the handkerchief and let out a breath. With no ties to the beau monde, he had no entry into many of the upper echelon’s residences. Yet perhaps that wasn’t quite so true any longer. If Ben did happen to become earl—

Impossible. As the bastard son of Mr. Jaxon Massey, Emerson would still have no reason to rub elbows with lofty lords. He needed another way in. This enticing creature opened an interesting prospect.

The masquerade event had allowed Emerson to avoid dealing with the aristocracy. The nobs were a fickle, irresponsible lot who typically put the screws to the lower-class populous. Hence the case of the Marquis of Shufflebottom.

For the second time in as many minutes, the door flew back.

In a most discourteous move his father would yank his ear for, Emerson quickly snagged his RS lady’s maid, tugging her into his chest, and covered her mouth with his. He dove his gloved hand into the mass of hair he couldn’t feel but was certain would haunt his dreams for the foreseeable future.

Her lips stilled beneath his.

“What the devil is going on here?” Shufflebottom’s voice grated like rusted iron.

The full mouth under Emerson’s went instantly compliant, and her fingers stole beneath his domino, clutching at him. Emerson, true to the gentleman he was not, swept his tongue into the sweetest mouth he’d ever tasted. But she stiffened as if she’d never been kissed. He stroked with an ever growing need that fired his blood to near anarchy over his own body.

Slowly, Emerson pulled away, meeting her stunned, wide-eyed gaze. Her kiss was as innocent as that of a virgin, but her eyes spoke of a different kind of experience. He wanted to rip away her jeweled-tipped mask. See if her skin was as soft as her lips. See her cheeks flushed with a blush.

Whoo! Hot excerpt! Here's where you can purchase BEDEVILED BY THE BARONESS:

Amazon KU: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FBB2M9YH/

Books-2-Read (libraries): https://books2read.com/bedeviledbythebaroness

 Bio~

Kathy L Wheeler graduated from the University of Central Oklahoma with a BA in Management Information Systems and Vocal Music minor.

Kathy loves the NFL, NBA, musical theater, reading, writing and karaoke. She is the Ethic’s Director of the Regency Fiction Writers and a Guide in the Pen to Paper, a fantastic three-year-old program for aspiring romance authors.

She writes historical and contemporary romances that are a little dark, a little suspenseful, a little bit humorous, that are always compelling and will steal your breath.

She lives with her musically talented husband in the Pacific Northwest. She has one grown daughter (who has two adorable boys), and a neurotic dog, Angel who lives up to her name… mostly!


Social Media Links:

https://kathylwheeler.com

https://facebook.com/kathylwheeler

https://bookbub.com/authors/kathy-l-wheeler

https://bsky.app/profile/kathylwheeler.bsky.social

https://instagram.com/kathylwheeler

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5804151.Kathy_L_Wheeler

https://www.youtube.com/@kathylwheeler-author

https://www.amazon.com/Kathy-L-Wheeler/e/B07C87Y2GK

Thanks for being here, Kathy! Thanks for reading, guests! And have a marvelous week!

I Have Something PRESCRIBED FOR YOU! From Marcia King-Gamble

Good morning, all! I have the complete pleasure of having my Romance Gem friend Marcia King-Gamble in the spotlight today! She was kind enough to answer a few interview questions for me...

What is the best thing you’ve learned about writing and/or the publishing business?

It’s a business like any other business. It pays to keep up with what’s going on in the industry. Don’t just leave it all in the hands of your agent, editor or publicist.


Good advice! How do you balance the demands of your everyday life and your writing life?

I have a full-time job. Always have had. At times it can be quite demanding. There are things I have learned to let go - like house cleaning. Leave it to a pro. Also, it’s important to have a social life. It keeps your writing fresh. Any chores I can hire out, I do.

I'm not a fan of cleaning house myself either, although I do...occasionally. Give us a brief glimpse at your road to publication.

Years ago, I lived in New Jersey. I attended a cocktail party at a writers’ conference, got to chatting with another attendee, and asked what she did. Her response – “I’m a a reader.” Well, so am I, I thought. She went on to explain she read for the now defunct Silhouette line and gave me the information. I filled out the test they sent and received a call and was told I was hired. I did it for seven years. Then a new line opened and one of the editors invited me to submit. They passed on my first submission but the second received an offer for a 2 book contract.

What a great story! You mentioned having a job outside of writing. What is it and how does it mesh with your writing?

Yes, I do. For the most part, I’ve always been in the travel industry. It meshes well with my writing, as there are few parts of the world I haven’t been to, and the less research I have to do about settings the better. Another plus, all that time in airports, hotel rooms /cruise staterooms, gives me quiet time to write.


Sounds like heaven. Do you have hobbies that you’d like to share?

Travel is a huge hobby of mine. It helps when you don’t have to pay for it, or it comes at minimal expense. I also work out quite a bit. Exercise relaxes me so I take Kickboxing classes, Zumba and Step and Sculpt. Then there’s reading. You can usually find two or three books on my nightstand at any time.

We sound like kindred spirits, although I don't get to read as much as I'd like to. Thank you for visiting with us today! Let's hear more about your upcoming release!

Blurb~

Plus-size model, Eboni is Trouble on Steroids. Not at all what stuffy Dr. Grant St. Jour ordered. But she just might be what the former surgeon recently relocated to Miami, needs.

A chance encounter throws them into each other's orbit as both compete for the same seat on the Miami Pediatric hospital board. Gregarious, Eboni wins the taciturn doctor at a Bachelor Bid, and they instantly become social media fodder. Compounding the growing attraction, Grant becomes the role model for Eboni’s troubled teenage brother, an inner-city kid with grandiose dreams of becoming a star basketball player.

Excerpt~

“Eboni! Eboni!” the crowd chanted, pulling her out of her head.

Gingerly, holding up the hem of her gown, Eboni mounted the stairs to the stage, joining a beaming Maximilian.

“Our lovely couple is off for a two-night stay at the beautiful Seabreeze Resort in The Keys,” Maximilian said, shaking an envelope at them before throwing his arms around their shoulders. The audience roared their approval.

Two nights? Not a simple lunch or dinner?

A dazed Eboni accepted the envelope, glanced at the contents, and turned it over to Grant who appeared frozen. He stared out into the sea of faces, smiling as if he had lockjaw and barely giving her a look. He held the envelope like something that should be flushed.

Never in her wildest imaginings had Eboni expected this to be an overnight date. Dinner she could handle, but a weekend at a resort with Grant allowed for endless and disturbing possibilities. Though it also might give her time to show the aloof doctor there was more to her than flash and bling.

It sounds awesome! You can purchase it here:

Amazon:

https://bit.ly/41bwOLj

Barnes & Noble:

https://bit.ly/4v1zmcX

Bio~ 

Marcia King-Gamble hails from a sunny Caribbean island where the sky and ocean are the same mesmerizing shade of blue. She is a travel industry executive and a self-proclaimed globetrotter. A National and USA Bestselling author, Marcia, has penned 34 books and 8 novellas. Her free time is spent at the gym and with her animal family. Email her at mkinggamble@gmail.com or find her on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Marcia-King-Gamble/12364168212 Visit www.lovemarciakinggamble.com to see what she's been up to.

You can also find Marcia here:

Instagram * Amazon * Website * Facebook * Twitter/X

Thanks for reading, friends! I hope you all have a wonderful week!