Nancy Lee Badger Interviews Author Jeannie Moon

Jeannie Moon stopped by to share intimate details of her writing life and to tell us about her latest book. Then Came You, a contemporary romance was released on September 26, 2017. Please tell my readers a little bit about your book.  

Jeannie- Then Came You is a contemporary romance that celebrates second chances. Set in a small coastal town on Long Island’s north shore, it’s the first book in the Compass Cove series. The book, and the series, focus on characters finding their true north—their place to belong. Filled with colorful characters, and a centuries-old romantic legend, the town is as memorable as each of the romances.

In book one, Mia and Adam appear to be polar opposites, but they both landed in Compass Cove for a fresh start.

Nancy- I just got back from Long Island, visiting relatives and the 'old family homestead' in Huntington! This sounds like a book for me. Back on topic: when did you start writing toward publication?

Jeannie- I started writing in 2000 and it took me 12 years to get my first contract.

Nancy- Did you have several manuscripts finished before you sold? If so, did you send them out yourself?

Jeannie- I had three books finished, but I sold a proposal for a new series to NAL’s digital imprint, Intermix. The editor knew my work and wanted to work with me so she asked me to take a stab at an idea.  I did send some out on my own, but I have also worked with agents, some good, one not-so-good.

Nancy- Why have you become a published author?

Jeannie- The reason I achieved my goal is because I didn’t give up.

   

Nancy- "Never give up, never surrender" are the words I live by. What is your writing routine like?

Jeannie- I have a full time job, so I write at night, usually an hour or so, and I do a lot of writing on the weekends. If I’m close to deadline, I’m up at four in the morning.

Nancy- Having achieved your goal to be a published author, what is the most rewarding thing?

Jeannie- The romance community is the best thing. I’ve met great people, from authors, to readers to bloggers….I love the people.   

Nancy- Are you a member of any writing organizations and, if so, have they helped?

Jeannie- I’m a member of Long Island Romance Writers and CT-RWA, both chapters of RWA. I’m published because I’m active in my local chapters. They’ve given me knowledge and resources I couldn’t get on my own.

Nancy- I love my local chapter, and the on-line RWA chapters I belong to. Wonderful, diverse, and helpful people. Will you share some encouraging words for authors still struggling for that first contract?

Jeannie- Don’t give up. It can take years sometimes, but if you keep learning, keep working, you will find success.  

Nancy- Please Share three fun facts about you that most people don’t know.

1)  I keep a stash of Nutella in the house. I’m the only one who knows where it is.

2)  I can sing.

3)  I’ve been in more than one pro-sports locker room.

Nancy- What’s next for you?

Jeannie- Book two in the series is with my editor and comes out in the spring. It’s called You Send Me.

You can read an excerpt here, and there are links to all booksellers.

http://jeanniemoon.com/books/compass.ph

MORE ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jeannie Moon has always been a romantic. When she’s not spinning tales of her own, Jeannie works as a school librarian, thankful she has a job that allows her to immerse herself in books and call it work. Married to her high school sweetheart, Jeannie has three kids, and three lovable dogs and lives in her hometown on Long Island, NY. If she’s more than ten miles away from salt water for any longer than a week, she gets twitchy.

Connect with me on my WEBSITE  

All my social media links are there.

Home Again = Another Giveaway!

Now that my travels are  at an end for the time being,

here is the Giveaway I promised all my readers...

This assortment of goodies from the 2017 Romance Writers of America annual conference includes the following, all in a tote bag from author Viv Lorret:

*Family Tree by Susan Wiggs & Luggage Tag

*Hate to Want You autographed by Alisha Rai

*Angel Unleashed by Linda Thomas-Sundstrom

*Sample Books & Pen from Caitlyn Willows

*Plaid Notebook from Janice Maynard

*Notes, Tea, Lip Balm, Candy & Pen from Viv Lorret

*Butterscotch candies

*Shimmer: The Beginning autographed by ME and my latest release, With Every Heartbeat, also autographed

a Rafflecopter giveaway

You may enter using one or all of these methods (You NEVER have to do them all!)

Terms & Conditions

No purchase necessary.  Due to shipping costs, International winners will receive an ebook from Nancy's backlist. All entrants agree to me adding their names & emails to my Newsletter list, and will be eligible for future GIVEAWAYS. Info will NOT be shared.

My Trip North, Chased by Hurricane Jose

I am back from our annual 9 day trip to New England and managed to put 1,890 miles on the car. We ate lakeside in the Poconos, helped friends in Salem, New Hampshire, worked up a sweat volunteering at the NH Highland Games (it has NEVER been so hot & muggy!), then traveled by ferry to Long Island. 


While Hurricane Jose made the Long Island Sound a bit choppy, and managed to dump rain on us while visiting my cousins, it did pause long enough for me to take photos of relatives' graves. Thank you, Jose.

Due to having moved to Raleigh, North Carolina several years ago, visiting family and friends we see once a year is a treat. Some have aged (as have I) and some are no longer able to party until dawn (yep, that's me, too). I am happy everyone had a good time and I think my volunteers under the Information Tent did a whiz-bang job helping the approximately 40,000 people that enjoyed the 2017 New Hampshire Highland Games.

'Thor' was a big draw. The Mountain/Sir Gregor from Game of Thrones is also a weight-lifting champion and gave a great show. Did I mention he lifted a car?

Now that I am back home I need to get back to work, writing, especially since I sold a manuscript to SoulMate Publishing! I am again a published author, but will continue to share my self-published novels with my readers. Have you checked out my latest series?

Amazon    Amazon UK  

Amazon CAN   Amazon AUS  

Nook     iBooks   NOOK    Kobo 

Amazon PRINT    B&N Print

B-A-M Print   

 

By the time you read this I should be working hard at the New Hampshire Highland games that have taken place for 42 years. Side-by-side with my family and good friends (many who I only see once a year) we serve under the Information Tent. We help visitors find the locations of the caber toss, the sheepdog trials, the food courts, the vendor tents, the restrooms, and the lost & found, and we do a lot to make the games run smooth.

Thor 'The Mountain' photo by Nancy Lee Badger

While Volunteering at these games for years (this will be my 21st time) I got the idea for my Scottish romance novels. How could I watch thousands of kilted hunks, such as Hafþór Júlíus "Thor" Björnsson, who you might know as 'The Mountain' or 'Sir Gregor' on Game of Thrones, walk by along with bagpipe players and marching bands without dreaming up sinister or sensual plots?

You can find all my books on my blog's book page HERE 
Later, I will tweet and post photos on Facebook. The games run from today (the 15th) until Sunday the 17th.

*I will have several autographed copies of Shimmer: The Beginning as well as my Clan of Dragons novels with me, available for sale. Find me at the Information Tent next to the Parade Grounds. For info on the games click HERE

Always Remember

As a native New Yorker, I will always remember September 11, 2001. I would like to share a favorite quote with my readers: 
  
"History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again." -- Maya Angelou 

Nancy Lee Badger

Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/mayaangelo387255.html

The Prince's Pea by Caroline Lee

USA Today bestselling author Caroline Lee stopped by to share an interesting book that I found out about and just had to read. I love the cover, the premise, and her books. The Prince’s Pea is the book, released August 23^rd. Caroline, please tell us more!

This Pea won’t fit under the mattress…but the truth will!

Micah grew up in the Zapato orphanage, and is proud to take over Abuelo Zapato’s role of providing for the family—the children that have become his siblings—in Everland’s leather goods shop. Since being scarred in one of his brother-in-law’s gunfights, he knows they’re the only family he’ll ever have. And he’s at peace with that…until fate—or the Guild of Godmothers—drops two unexpected females in his path.

When his old childhood friend Penelope—Pea—shows up just in time to save him from a gruesome death, Micah is smitten. And when he sees her cuddling the new baby orphan, he’s in love. 

But Pea isn’t in Everland on a whim; she’s there on a mission regarding Micah’s past, and refuses to tell him the truth. That secret is going to tear them apart, unless they get some help from a particularly dopey Godmother.

And that's when everything goes wrong…

Excerpt:

They were going to hang a man.

Penelope heard the news as soon as she stepped off the train at the dirty little station in Dilbert, Wyoming. How could she not? It seemed to be all anyone was talking about, and besides, there was a man literally yelling as he told a gathered group of rough-looking men how it had taken him and three buddies to subdue the poor victim.

“Poor victim” because he obviously wasn’t whom they thought.

According to the story being told—yelled—as Penelope walked about to stretch her legs, a group of miners had recognized Draven and had attacked him. They’d assumed the feared bounty hunter was in town to take down one of them—she wondered why no one else had stopped to question why they’d assumed that, but decided it wasn’t part of her mission, and thus she could ignore it. So they’d waited until the man had ordered his third whiskey at Dilbert’s disgusting-looking saloon, and four of them had jumped him. Then they bashed him over the head.

And now they were planning on lynching him. Right now, in fact.

Didn’t this town have a sheriff? Penelope tsked in irritation, over the fact she seemed to be the only level-headed person around here.

Draven? Brought down in a bar by a rifle butt to the back of his head? Preposterous! Plus, Penelope knew for a fact, as of last week, the man in question was out in Utah, following up on a lucrative bounty out there. There’s no way he could’ve made it to Dilbert this quickly, and no way he would’ve let his guard down long enough to be captured by a lynch mob.

A lynch mob who had just finished celebrating at the same sordid saloon, judging from the crowd of men pouring out into the street. And—oh dear—the one in the front was holding a rope already tied into a noose.

Well. Penelope sighed. It looked like it was up to her to do something about this. Especially since she had a horrible feeling about who this mob would really be hanging.

She flagged down the porter and requested her luggage. “I know this isn’t my destination, sir. I have just discovered I have rather urgent business here, which I assume will take up enough of my time so as to prevent me from being on the train when it departs.”

When he continued to complain about having to fetch her luggage, she drew herself up to her not-inconsequential height and gave up on impressing him with her manners. “Get out of my way, then.”

All she’d brought on this trip was a large valise and her rifle case, and she could easily fetch that herself. The longer she spent arguing with this man, the more time the mob will have to kill the other man.

Sure enough, by the time she’d climbed down once more, holding her two pieces of luggage and scanning the station platform with practiced eyes, almost ten minutes had passed since she’d first heard the news. Dilbert’s main street was almost empty, and the few citizens she did see were hurrying towards the western edge of town.

Blast! That’s where the lynch mob would be then.

Behind her, the train whistled as it chuffed its way out of town. Penelope straightened her shoulders, hefted her bags, and hurried westward, praying she’d still make it in time.

The mob had gathered just outside of Dilbert. Of course, this far in the back, it was hard to call it a mob. Here were the mothers and curious children, the shopkeepers and the prostitutes. Here, at the rear of the crowd, were the people who wanted to know what was going on but didn’t want to be involved. They weren’t the dangerous ones.

By lifting herself up on the toes of her very elegant—and increasingly dirty—boots, she was able to see the rest of the crowd, which stretched up to the trunk of a large tree. How unusual, to see a tree so large, this close to town. Perhaps it was a favorite picnic spot…or the local hanging tree.

Knowing what she would find when she reached the tree, Penelope began to elbow her way forward, not bothering with niceties. She only prayed she wouldn’t be too late.

Oh, thank God. She breathed the silent praise when she reached the front of the group of casual bystanders, and the rear of the angry mob. Because these men in front of her? Definitely angry mob. And—per her prayer to the Almighty—they hadn’t committed their offense yet. For the moment, they seemed content to shake their impromptu weapons and yell insults about Draven, one of the West’s most feared bounty hunters.

Under the tree’s largest limb stood a wagon hooked up to a skittish-looking horse, whose eyes rolled fearfully at the sight of so many angry men wielding pitchforks and rifles and rope. There was an unsavory man holding onto its reins, but he looked ready to yank on its head at any moment. And when he did, that wagon would lumber forward, severely inconveniencing the man with the bound hands standing in the rear of it, the noose around his neck also tied to the tree limb above him.

The man who, even now, scanned the crowd with those gorgeous so-dark-they-were-almost-black eyes she remembered so well. Did he look confused? Frantic? Scared? It was hard to tell from this distance, but she would know him anywhere.

It was Micah. It had to be. He looked too much like that serious little boy from so long ago. She’d spent months searching for him, and it was cruel to find him here, like this.

Buy link:  Amazon 

More About Author Caroline Lee

USA Today bestselling author Caroline Lee has been reading romance for so long that her fourth-grade teacher used to make her cover her books with paper jackets. But it wasn't until she (mostly) grew up that she realized she could WRITE it too. So she did.

Caroline is living her own little Happily Ever After in NC with her husband, sons, and brand-new daughter, Princess Wiggles. And while she doesn't so much "suffer" from Pittakionophobia a

s think all you people who enjoy touching Band-Aids and stickers are the real weirdos, she does adore rodents, and never met a wine she didn't like. Caroline was named Time Magazine's Person of the Year in 2006 and is really quite funny in person. Promise. Connect with Caroline Lee here:

FACEBOOK    INSTAGRAM     TWITTER

With Every Heartbeat - Release Day!

A starry-eyed romantic grows up fast when the man of her TV dreams comes to town. Lust, and secret glances, start to heat amid an enraged father and a kidnapped child.

In this contemporary romance, taking place mainly in Manhattan and Long Island (near where I was born and raised), I bring together an Olympic hopeful and an older actor wanting nothing more than to act. 

Book Blurb

Rebecca Delacourt plans to try out for the US Olympic tennis team and loves being a tennis pro at a Long Island country club. Her mother gave up everything for love, but Becka refuses to take time for love or marriage. Her older sister’s problems add to their family’s discord which escalates after dumping Becka’s nephew with their parents. On the phone, Laney demands more help, the same time their parents show up courtside with the man Becka has secretly loved since he first appeared on television. Becka is swept into Laney and her nephew’s problematic, and ultimately dangerous, lives, pulling Taylor Adams into danger with her.

Taylor Adams left his home and family in New Hampshire, changed his name, and followed his dream to be an actor in Hollywood. Unfortunately, his science fiction television show went into reruns many years ago. Commercials, and appearances at Sci-Fi conventions, are not enough. He has set his eye on a film career. Visiting an old friend on Long Island, a producer who promises to help him achieve his goal, little does he realize the young woman swinging a racket at their country club has loved him for years. Their subsequent meetings in Baltimore and New York City turn steamy, until her older sister’s dangerous lifestyle interferes. Worse, all Hell will break loose if her father discovers their secret romance.

ebook List Price $3.99

ON SALE for a limited time for $.99

Buy Links

Amazon     Amazon UK    Amazon CAN  

Amazon AUS      Nook    iBooks    Kobo

Amazon PRINT

Coming Soon:

B&N Print

B-A-M Print

Book Depository Print