Time Changes Everything by Melinda Dozier-A Review and Interview with the Author

Time Changes Everything by Melinda Dozier-A Review and Interview with the Author

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date May 2013

Amanda Larson is dedicated to her job and doesn’t want to make time for anything else. Until she runs into Jake Edwards. He used to be the cute boy next door; now he’s a sexy, big shot lawyer.

Jake Edwards isn’t interested in commitment. He’s successful, sexy, and single–and that’s how he likes it. When he reconnects with Amanda, Jake realizes he might have to rethink his philosophy on the carefree, bachelor lifestyle.

But, is it too late for them? Or can he convince her that he’s ready to give her his heart?

••••••••••••••

REVIEW:  Times Changes Everything is a great short story.  If you want a romantic story with a happy ending, this is the one for you.  Amanda is an on the rise fashion designer, living her own life and making her own way.  One night, she reunites with Jake, her high school crush.  Jake is a sexy hunk of a man who is a self proclaimed bachelor.  Once reunited, sparks fly and both are swept off their feet.  BUT Amanda is afraid of getting hurt.  Jake kissed her all those years ago then ran off, breaking her heart in the process.  She is scared of getting hurt again.  Plus she wants to focus 100% on her career and getting involved with Jake might derail her plans.   Bachelor Jake is shocked to realize that Amanda is the one he wants to spend the rest of his life with.  He sets out on a mission to win her heart and her love forever.

Don’t let my comment about the book being a “romantic story with a happy ending” leave you to believe the book is boring.  There is just the right mixture of passion, humor and sweetness to make the story a good one.  Amanda and Jake are the type of characters that we all love to read about.  It seems in real life, happy endings can be few and far between so it’s nice to escape into a book and read about one!

 

Copy supplied by the author
Reviewed by Tricia


Interview

melinda dozierTRC: Hi Melinda and welcome to The Reading Cafe. Congratulations on the release of TIME CHANGES EVERYTHING.

We would like to start with some background information. Please tell us something about yourself?

Melinda: First, thank you so much for hosting me at The Reading Cafe. It’s great to be here.

Being a mom, wife, teacher, blogger, writer and reader keeps me busy. I live in Central America with my family and teach at an American School. I love living overseas and experiencing the life and beauty of another country.

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TRC: TIME CHANGES EVERYTHING is your May 2013 release. Would you please tell us something about the premise?

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Melinda: Time Changes Everything is a friends to lovers story. Jake and Amanda have known each other their whole lives. But when they run into one another in New York City, their teenage crushes turn into something much steamier and they soon realize time changes everything.

 

TRC: There is a prequel novella THE BOY NEXT DOOR-released April 2013. Would you please tell us something this storyline?

The Boy Next Door

 

Melinda: The Boy Next Door takes place seven years before Time Changes Everything when Amanda is still in high school and Jake a college freshman. They both had crushes on each other and Jake comes to the rescue when Amanda’s  Homecoming date dumps her. Sparks fly throughout their date and there may even be a first kiss. What happens after? You’ll have to read to find out!  It’s free at Smashwords and a short read!

 

 

Click HERE to order your FREE copy of THE BOY NEXT DOOR

TRC: How many books do you have planned for the series?

Melinda: I’m currently working on the second in the series called New York Minute and hopefully will have it published next year.

TRC: Are any of the characters or situations based on reality or an amalgamation of ideas and information?

Melinda: I think every writer uses some part of their own experiences in some way. For Time Changes Everything, my characters are from Louisiana. Guess where I’m from? Yep! So, their fictional town, Lake Cooley, takes after a town near where my family lives called Lake Charles. As for the New York City setting, I’ve never been, but I dream about it and that’s why I wrote about NYC. I live vicariously through my characters!

TRC: If you could virtually cast the lead characters for this series, which models or actors would be represent your ideal image of Amanda and Jake?

Melinda: Amanda resembles Alexia Bleidel, the girl next door type with good fashion sense. Jake would take after Colin Egglesfield.

TRC: When writing a storyline, do the characters direct the writing or do you direct the characters?

Melinda: My characters are definitely in charge! No matter how much planning, they lead the story!

TRC: What challenges or difficulties (historical, research, logistics) did you encounter writing this particular story/series?

Melinda: For Time Changes Everything I had to do a lot of research about New York City and about the character’s professions as a Buyer at Macy’s and a Sports Attorney. I wouldn’t say it’s a difficulty. I love the research part of writing. If someone could read my Google Search History, I might have to hide for a month from embarrassment.

Breaking The Rules

 

TRC: BREAKING THE RULES is your July 2013 release from Crimson Romance. Would you please tell us something about the storyline?

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Melinda: This book is closer to home since it’s about a klutzy middle school principal who always follows the rules. Hope Robinson is very much like me in that sense. She meets Doctor Colin Calaway, a widower and father of a student, who pushes her to break the rules and follow her heart.

 

TRC: Many authors bounce ideas and information with other authors or friends and family. With whom do you bounce ideas?

Melinda: I have an amazing network of writing friends who I’ve found online or through my publishers. I feel tremendously lucky to have them. They often beta read for me or email back and forth to hash out ideas.

TRC: How do you keep the plot(s) unpredictable without sacrificing content and believability?

Melinda: I think it has to be a balance of plot and characters. Characters drive a story, so if they are believable, then the overall storyline will be too.

TRC: How do you handle the pressures and anxiety of deadlines while still having time to raise a family?

Melinda: Ha! This is a tricky one! I always have pressure and anxiety, but I’m organized enough to schedule writing time in order to meet deadlines. I’m a stickler on time. I love making calendars, spreadsheets and to-do lists. Being a mother, teacher, wife and writer is hard work, but so worth it!

TRC: What are your thoughts on book reviews-good or bad?

Melinda: I appreciate the good and the bad as long as they are specific enough that I can learn from them. Of course, I’m always grateful for a positive review. My heart swells knowing someone enjoys my words and my creations.

TRC: On what are you currently working?

Melinda: I’m happy to announce that I have a new sexy NA novella to be released in October from Swoon Romance. Trouble With Gold is part of a Winter Olympics themed anthology, Love and Other Games. I had the pleasure to work with three other amazing writers: Aria Kane, Ana Blaze and Kara Leigh Miller. Expect my cover reveal on August 23!

TRC: Would you like to add anything else?

Melinda: I appreciate you having me today! I love to hear from readers. You can find me at: Website/ Goodreads / Blog/ or Twitter (since I’m addicted)

LIGHTNING ROUND

Favorite Food
New Mexican

Favorite Dessert
Cheesecake

Favorite TV Show
Bachelor (I’m a reality T.V. nerd)

Last Movie You Saw
Despicable Me 2 (or in Spanish, Mi Vilano Favorito)

Dark or Milk Chocolate
Dark Chocolate! Yum!

Favorite Flower
Lily

Last Vacation Destination
Portland, Oregon

Pet Peeve
Not picking up after yourself (I’m a mom of two teenagers and a teacher to twelve year olds!)

Famous Secret Crush
Hey Girl, I love Ryan Gosling, but it’s not much of a secret!

TRC: Thank you Melinda for taking the time to answer our questions. Congratulations on the new release. We wish you all the best.

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Omens (Cainsville #1) by Kelley Armstrong-a review

OMENS (Cainsville #1) by Kelley Armstrong-a review

Omens

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date August 20, 2013

Twenty-four-year-old Olivia Taylor Jones has the perfect life. The only daughter of a wealthy, prominent Chicago family, she has an Ivy League education, pursues volunteerism and philanthropy, and is engaged to a handsome young tech firm CEO with political ambitions.

But Olivia’s world is shattered when she learns that she’s adopted. Her real parents? Todd and Pamela Larsen, notorious serial killers serving a life sentence. When the news brings a maelstrom of unwanted publicity to her adopted family and fiancé, Olivia decides to find out the truth about the Larsens.

Olivia ends up in the small town of Cainsville, Illinois, an old and cloistered community that takes a particular interest in both Olivia and her efforts to uncover her birth parents’ past.

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

REVIEW: OMENS is the first storyline in Kelley Armstrong’s new contemporary mystery (slightly paranormal) CAINSVILLE series focusing on Olivia Taylor and her fight to prove, one way or another, that her birth parents Pam and Todd Larsen may or may not be the notorious serial killers who murdered eight people over two decades earlier.

Olivia Taylor-Jones has just discovered that she was adopted as a child and her life is making headline news around the world. Needing to leave town, her parents and her fiancé behind, Olivia, also known as Eden Larsen, finds herself penniless in a small, cloistered town known as Cainsville and things have gone from bad to down right strange. Hoping to uncover the details about the twenty year old murders, Olivia enlists the help of her mother’s former lawyer -Gabriel Walsh-only to discover he is out for one thing and money is the bottom line.

Kelley Armstrong takes the reader on a mysterious journey that will see our heroine Olivia aka Eden on the run and settling in a strange town. ‘Reading’ omens and symbols that give warning of danger and death at every turn, Olivia begins to wonder who or what is determined to keep her from discovering the truth behind her parent’s conviction and the real people behind the murders. With a town full of ‘gifted’ seers and prophetic elders, Cainsville can only be considered a town with a paranormal undertone of Celtic ancestry.

The writing style grabs the reader’s attention and keeps you on the edge. There is the mystery of the crime of murder; a town of strangers who know more about Eden Larsen than does Olivia Jones; and a lawyer whose motives are questionable and the bottom line always reverts back to money. There is intrigue, suspense, mystery and betrayal and when the truth about Olivia’s birth parents is revealed she will discover who are her real friends and just how lonely life can be without the support of parents and family. The storyline is detailed and the premise is intriguing.

Kelley Armstrong is a proven winner with her Women of the Otherworld series and she has introduced another strong female character in Eden Larsen/Olivia Jones that drives the storyline and the series into another dimension of mystery,suspense and the paranormal.

Copy supplied by the publisher

Reviewed by Sandy

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Kelley Armstrong-Interview with the Author

Kelley Armstrong-Interview with the Author

May 7, 2013 marks the release date of Kelley Armstrong’s new middle grade novel LOKI’S WOLVES-the first installment in her new Blackwell Pages series co-authored with Melissa Marr. We would like to welcome Kelley Armstrong to The Reading Cafe.

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TRC: Hi Kelley and welcome to The Reading Café. For those who do not know you, would you please tell us something about yourself?

Follow Kelley: Website / Twitter / Facebook / Tumblr /

Kelley ArmstrongKelley: I’m the author of the “Women of the Otherworld” paranormal suspense series and “Darkest Powers/Darkness Rising” young adult urban fantasy series, as well as the Nadia Stafford crime series. I grew up in Southwestern Ontario, where I still live with my family. I’m a former computer programmer, but I’ve escaped my corporate cubicle and hope never to return.

TRC: 2013 is a pretty busy and amazing year for Kelley Armstrong with a number of new series, anthologies, continuations and re-releases. How do you find the time to combine writing and family life?

Kelley: With a full household and a busy travel schedule, I’ve learned to live by the Jack London quote that you can’t wait for inspiration to strike; you need to go after it with a club. I get my writing in whenever I can. My basic routine is to write and edit after while the kids are in school, then work on business after dinner and on weekends.

The Rising

Click HERE for our review

TRC: The Rising is the April 2013 release in your Darkness Rising series. Would you please tell us something about the premise?

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Kelley: It concludes both the Darkest Powers and Darkness Rising trilogies. I set up two groups of kids in almost identical situations. Neither group could solve their problem on their own. They need to come together to find a solution. That’s about all I can say without serious spoilers for those who haven’t read the earlier books!



TRC: As with Thirteen, the final installment in your Women of the Otherworld Series, The Rising is the final book and conclusion to the Darkness Rising series. Do you suffer from any type of withdrawal when a popular and long running series comes to an end?

THIRTEENbyKelleyArmstrong

Click HERE for our review of THIRTEEN

Kelley: Not yet, possibly because I don’t consider them “done forever.” It’s been a nice creativity-recharge to work in new worlds, but I’ve written a few things in the Otherworld since Thirteen and I suspect I’ll do the same with the YA. It’s just not an annual novel-length instalment.

TRC: Savannah and Adam. Do you have any plans to write a short story with regards to their future plans? Wedding? 😉

Kelley: I don’t plan to right now, because I’m leaving that door open for longer stories. If I decide against that, I’ll definitely do a novella to show where they end up as a couple.

shards and ashesTRC: You have written a number of short stories for The Otherworld series as well as novellas for anthologies including the February 2013 release of Shards and Ashes and Spellcasters (June 2013) a collection of Otherworld short stories. Do you find it more difficult to write full-length storylines or short stories where an entire story and premise must be developed and come to fruition within a few pages and chapters?

Kelley: I wouldn’t say either is more difficult. They serve different story-telling purposes. Novels always sell better, but shorter fiction gives me a chance to tell the stories that aren’t novel length. Many just aren’t and being able to write short fiction means I never have the urge to take a twenty page story and pad it to 400 pages!

TRC: Loki’s Wolves (Blackwell Pages #1) co-written with Melissa Marr is your latest (May 7, 2013) foray into the world of middle grade novels. Would you please tell us something about the premise?

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Loki's Wolves

Kelley: It’s a middle-grade trilogy based on Norse mythology. The main characters are distantly descended from the dead gods. That’s one thing about Norse myth—the gods can and do die. So they’re long gone and now Ragnarök (the Norse apocalypse) is coming and these descendants need to fight in their ancestor’s stead.

Click HERE for our review.


TRC: What difficulties or challenges (research, logistics, communication, travel etc) do you face co-writing a storyline with another author?

Kelley: It is very different, because all parts of the process (from planning to writing to editing) need to be shared. For the first two books, we planned and wrote together, often at Melissa’s cabin. Then we edited separately, which meant divvying up the allotted time (we didn’t get extra time because there were two of us editing, so we had to be faster than I usually am.)

TRC: How did you and Melissa divide the writing of the storyline in Loki’s Wolves? Was there any particular premise that one or the other focused on such as character development or storyline flow?

Kelley: I think the process for every co-authoring pair is different in some aspect. What’s working for us is splitting the writing by narrative point-of-view. I’m taking the male protagonist and she’s taking the two secondary characters (cousins–a boy and a girl) We alternate chapters—I do one for “my” character, then she writes a chapter for one of hers. All the plotting and editing is shared, of course.

Wild Justice

TRC: Wild Justice is the third installment in the Nadia Stafford series to be released in November 2013. Did the fans of Nadia Stafford encourage or push you to write another storyline for their favorite hit woman?

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Kelley: I always planned to write one or two more books in that “series.” Then the YA books became much more popular than I anticipated and I just didn’t have time. I finally got far enough ahead of schedule this year to slot in a last instalment.

 



Four Summoner's TalesTRC: Four Summoner’s Tales (Anthology with Christopher Golden, David Liss and more) to be released in September 2013 is another collection of short stories. Would you please tell us something about the premise of your submission-Suffer The Children?

Kelley: The premise for all four stories is the same—someone offers to raise the dead…for a price. My story is set in northern Ontario in the last nineteenth century, after a diphtheria outbreak claims the lives of most of the town’s children.

TRC: We have heard that you are releasing a new novel in 2014 called Sea of Shadows. Would you please tell us something about the premise and to which series it will belong?

Kelley: It’s a brand new series called Age of Legends. It’s high fantasy, and tells the story of twin sixteen-year-old girls, one with the power to calm the dead, the other to fight them. They guard the Forest of the Dead, where criminals are exiled to their deaths. As you might imagine, things go horribly wrong 😉

TRC: Do your characters speak to you and tell you the direction of the story or do you direct the characters?

Kelley: It’s a combination. A fully developed character should direct the action in the sense that the author should not force him/her to act “out of character.” But it’s the author who develops the character in the first place, so she had control.

TRC: How do you deal with the stress and anxiety of writing deadlines?

Kelley: I stay away from deadlines exactly for that reason! By that, I mean that I’m always working well ahead of schedule. It’s my goal to submit books at least a couple of months before they’re due.

TRC: What do you believe is the biggest misconception about yourself?

Kelley: If there is one, I don’t think I’ve heard it! I suppose just the same misconceptions that all authors deal with—that we’re rich, that we only work a couple of hours a day (like authors on TV/movies), that we control all parts of production (like cover art) or that we control hardly anything (that we have to write what we’re told by our publishers or make changes that the publisher insists on.) All false…though I’d be happy if the rich and “hardly ever work” parts were true!

TRC: What five things would you like to accomplish in the next ten years?

Kelley: Tough question. There are personal things I’d like to accomplish, but professionally, I’m happy to tread water 😉 I’ve accomplished all my goals there, but now I’m making some major changes, so my hope is that they aren’t disastrous changes—ending successful series to start new ones. If ten years from now I’m in the same place I am at this moment, I’ll be very happy.

TRC: On what are you currently working?

Omens

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Kelley: I wrapped up my Otherworld series this past summer and I’m launching a new one called Cainsville this summer. The first book is Omens, and we’re calling it modern gothic—it’s heavy on the mystery and suspense with light supernatural aspects. I’m currently gearing up to start work on the third book in that series. Did I mention I like to stay well ahead of deadlines? Omens is completely finished, book 2 is in edits and I’m planning book 3 now.

 

TRC: Would you like to add anything else?

Kelley: Just a thanks for the interview and a thanks to readers, whose support gives me the best job imaginable.

Thank you Kelley for taking the time to answer our questions about the numerous new releases upcoming for the next twelve months. Congratulations on all of your success. WE miss Clay and Elena and, the wolf pack but we are definitely excited with each new short story release in The Otherworld series.

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