Hello lovelies! It
gives me great pleasure today to host Emily Mims and her new book, “Mist”! For other stops on her Goddess Fish
Promotions Book Tour, please click on the banner above or any of the images in
this post.
Be sure to make it
to the end of this post to enter to win a $10 Amazon or Barnes and Noble Gift
Card! Also, come back daily to interact
with Emily and to increase your chances of winning!
Thanks for
stopping by! Wishing you lots of luck in
this fabulous giveaway!
Mist
by Emily Mims
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GENRE:
Romance/Romantic Suspense
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BLURB:
The widow of a
lying drug dealer, dulcimer-player Kylie Barstow Richards finds herself
struggling to see through the mist of the Smoky Mountains to the truth-about
her life, about the nightclub where she works, and about the bluegrass-playing
musician who has arrived to steal her heart.
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EXCERPT
ONE:
Kylie
looked Ren in the eye. “How much of that
is the truth and how much of it was bullshit?”
Ren’s
lips firmed. “It’s the truth, every
damned bit of it. And that’s also why I
did what I did. The DEA honestly thought
you were guilty. A drug dealer took out
one of my best friends, Kylie. I’ve
missed Jerry every day for the last two years.”
“And
that justifies what you did to me?
Sorry, Ren. Not buying it. And I don’t care what your reasons for lying
were, a liar is a liar. And I can’t
stand liars.”
“I
get that, Kylie. Look, obviously we blew
it, and I’m just as sorry as I can be that I hurt you.”
“If
you can be believed, which I seriously doubt.”
“I
do mean it. I’m sorry. I’m really sorry.”
“I
am, too, Ren. I was just beginning to
have a little bit of faith and trust again and you very effectively managed to
take that away from me.
Congratulations. I will probably
never trust another man as long as I live.”
“Aw,
Kylie, no.” Ren leaned forward. “Look, I know there is no way I can take back
the lies I’ve already told. But I can
promise you this. I will never, ever lie
to you again about anything.”
Kylie
shrugged. “And now I’m supposed to
believe that? Ren, I’m sorry. The damage is done. The trust is broken. Kind of like Humpty Dumpty.”
“I
understand. But Kylie, I’m going to tell
you the truth from now on whether you believe me or not.”
“Knock
yourself out.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GUEST
POST:
The
Challenge of Writing a Series
Writing a series of
stories is a new challenge for me. In my
years with Candlelight, a sequel was rare and a series absolutely
unheard-of. My Candlelight editors
bought two sequels from me, but the rest of my books with them were all
completely stand-alone. Starting in the
nineties, leading writers such as Linda Lael Miller and Nora Roberts began to
write books in series featuring a particular family or set of siblings or even
a ranch or a seacoast town, with heroes and heroines who appear as supporting
characters in the other books. The writing
of a series has taken off to the point that today many if not most books are
part of one. This makes it convenient
for both the reader and the writer-the reader can revisit people and places
they’ve fallen in love with, and the writer does not have to re-create a
setting or characters from scratch with every new book. But the writing of a series also presents a
set of challenges, challenges that I faced writing the Texas Hill Country
series, and face again writing the Smoky Blue series.
I had no idea I was writing the first
book of a series when I created ‘Solomon’s Choice’. But it wasn’t long before I was thinking in
terms of another story and looking at the secondary characters I had created
for ‘Solomon’s Choice’ as characters for future books. And those books did come. Cute deputy Rory Keller and big-mouthed
waitress Lisa became the short story ‘A Gift of Trust’. Widowed Jimmy Adamcik and soldier Holly Riley
became the leads in ‘Daughter of Valor’.
But it was the multi-faceted cast of characters I invented for Daughter
of Valor that really set my imagination on fire, and nine stories in all
evolved, rather haphazardly I admit, including the story ‘Once, Again’ from
which ‘Mist’ spins off. The Smoky Blue
series is different in that I have envisioned it as a series from the beginning,
and as such can establish characters already knowing their story ahead of
time. The plotting is tighter, the
transitions are smoother, and I can introduce the next story as an epilogue.
There are definite challenges,
however. Once a character is created,
that character has to be portrayed consistently throughout the series, or the
series lacks believability. In other
words, if a character is short, fat, smart-mouthed, or not too nice as a
supporting character, a reader is not going to believe that character has
suddenly grown six inches, lost forty pounds, and been to charm school when
they become one of the leads. Cooper
Barstow is a case in point. In ‘Mist’,
Cooper is an amputee and a cranky curmudgeon with the morals of a tomcat. So when he becomes the hero of ‘Smoke’, the
next book in the series, he has to stay in character. He is not going to grow an arm, become Mr.
Congeniality or have a moral make-over. Another case in point is Sawyer
Ellison. In ‘Once, Again’ and ‘Mist’ he
is portrayed as a ruthless fanatic, willing to do just about anything, ethical
or no, to bring drug dealers to justice.
As a supporting character, he is a complete jerk. Is he suddenly going to undergo a personality
transplant in his own story? No, he is
not. Those negative qualities are a huge
part of the character and must stay. For
him to do otherwise would not be believable.
Another challenge to the writer of the
series is portraying former heroes and heroines in later books once their story
is over. How much of their new lives do
you include in the subsequent books?
Yes, the readers want to know how they are doing. But at the same time, it’s not their story
anymore. My first hero and heroine, Jack
and Caroline, do appear throughout the rest of the Texas Hill Country series,
and Ren and Kylie will appear throughout Smoky Blue. But it’s not their story any more. And it is important that the former leads be
an integral part of the new story and not be included just because their story
was part of the series.
So when is it time to end a series? The answer to that is ‘when the stories are
over’. The Texas Hill Country series had
nine books and short stories. At this
point the Smoky Blue has six in the works, with one more possible. At that point, I think it will be time to
move on.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
AUTHOR
BIO:
Author of twenty
six romance novels, Emily Mims combined her writing career with a career in
public education until leaving the classroom to write full time. The mother of two sons and grandmother of
three, she and her husband Charles live in central Texas but frequently visit
grandchildren in eastern Tennessee and Georgia.
She plays the piano, organ, dulcimer, and ukulele and belongs to two
performing bands. She says, “I love to
write romances because I believe in them.
Romance happened to me and it can happen to any woman-if she’ll just let
it.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CONNECT
WITH EMILY:
Website:
Facebook:
Twitter:
Goodreads
Author Page:
Goodreads
Book Page:
Amazon
Author Page:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BOOK BUY
LINKS:
Amazon
Kindle:
Barnes
and Noble:
Kobo:
iBooks:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GIVEAWAY
INFO:
Emily Mims will be awarding a $10 Amazon or
Barnes and Noble Gift Card to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during
the tour.
**This post contains affiliate links and if clicked and a
purchase made I may receive a small commission to help support this blog. This does not cost you anything, it just
helps pay for all those awesome giveaways on here.**
This contest is sponsored by a third party. Fabulous and
Brunette is a registered host of Goddess Fish Promotions. Prizes are given away by the sponsors and not
Fabulous and Brunette. The featured author and Goddess Fish Promotions are
solely responsible for the giveaway prize.
congrats on the tour and thanks for the chance to win :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteEnjoy the guest post
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for hosting me today! I love to chat with my readers and answer their questions. Readers, anything you'd like to know?
ReplyDeleteBest, Emily Mims
I enjoyed reading your post, thanks for sharing :)
ReplyDeleteOh it looks so good! I was wondering how you pick your names for your characters?
ReplyDelete