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.

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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.