Friday, October 6, 2017

Interview with Peggy Jaeger, SHOT AT LOVE


Can you give us a brief overview of your latest book? Is it part of a series?
A SHOT AT LOVE is book 2 in the WILL COOK FOR LOVE series from Lyrical/Shine. This is Gemma Laine’s story
Photographer Gemma Laine is looking for arresting faces on the streets of Manhattan when her camera captures something shocking—a triple murder. In that moment, she becomes a target for the mob—and a top priority for a very determined, breathtakingly handsome, FBI special agent. With deadlines to meet and photo shoots on her calendar, Gemma chafes at the idea of protection, but every moment she spends under his watchful eye is a temptation to lose herself in his muscular arms . . .
 
With two of his men and one crucial witness dead, Special Agent Kyros Pappandreos can’t afford to be distracted. But Gemma is dazzling—and her connection to Kandy Laine’s high-profile cooking empire makes her an especially easy mark for some very bad people. Keeping her safe is much more pleasure than business, but as the heat between them starts to sizzle, Ky is set to investigate whether they have a shot at love


Do you have a favorite character?
I’d have to say my heroine, Gemma is my favorite in this book and the major reason is that she is the first bad-assed heroine I’ve ever written. She is proficient in several martial arts disciplines, fostered by an event that happened to her in her teens, and she knows how to use firearms. She has a take no prisoners attitude in her personal and professional life, but she is a total mush when it comes to her family. She – literally – would die for each of them. Growing up she was considered the warrior  of all her sisters, the one who always had their backs, who stood up to bullies for them, and who tried to right any wrongs concerning them. To this day she adopts this role.

Do you belong to a critique group? Have they helped improve your writing?
I actually don’t, nor do I have a critique partner. The first person who sees my manuscripts is always my publishing house editor. The reason I don’t have a partner or belong to a group is simple. I attended a few critique sessions once at a writing group ( Not my current NHRWA group) and my work got – literally –torn to shreds. The other writers were very vocal, loud, and obnoxious about what I had written. They told me six ways from Sunday how I had to change my manuscript, it would never sell as currently written, my heroine was unlikable, yada yada yada. I quit that group and never went back. A year later, the manuscript they all told me was horrible, won a contest and was published. I’d never changed one word I’d written in it during that year.

What is your writing process? Do you listen to music or do you like silence?
I write every day of the week. Like my website tagline states “Writing is my Oxygen.” 5 days a week I work on my current manuscripts. On the weekend I write my blog postings for the following week and schedule them for publication. I write anywhere from 5 to 9 hours per day depending on what I’ve got going on in my personal, non-writing life. And I don’t listen to music while I write, or have the tv on in the background for white noise. I find if I listen to music I start to sing along and then my concentration is broken. At my age, it’s difficult to get a lost thought back!

Do you outline your story or just go where your muse takes you?
In a former life I was a Registered Nurse so I have a scientific background. Because of that I tend to approach everything in life and career logically. Simply put, I’m a masterplotter and outliner. Before I every type a word of the story I’ve got it completely mapped out, know exactly where I’m going, have my characters drawn to a T, and know what my goals, conflicts, and motivations for every character will be. Once that is all written, I troll around on Pinterest for pictures of people who I think embody my characters’, well…characteristics! All my books have corresponding PInterest boards. I know this all sounds very anal and obsessive, but I’m that girl who never just likes to go for a car ride, or an aimless walk. I need to know where we are going, the approximate time we are going to arrive at our destination, and what we are going to be doing once we get there. I guess that sounds a lot anal and obsessive, now that I think about it!

Besides Amazon, are there any other sites where your books are for sale?
My MacQuire Women series ( 5 books) and my San Valentino Family novellas can call be found at The Wild Rose Press, in addition to Kobo. Nook, Barnes and Noble, Google and Apple i-books.
The Will Cook for Love series can be found all those places at well.





What kinds of marketing [twitter, facebook, blog, forums] are you involved with for promoting your book(s)?
Well, Kensington/Lyrical Shine has a fabulous publicity team, so I’m able to leave some of the marketing to them. But I use my Twitter, Pinterest, FacebookAuthor page, Goodreads, and of course my website to talk about and promote my books. Facebook is an amazing place to interact with readers and fellow writers. There are literally hundreds of groups on Goodreads to become involved with if you are a reader or a writer. The only downside to all this is that I could stay on these sites, chatting with people, all day. I’d never get any work done! I sincerely have to limit myself to participation, especially when I’m on a deadline.

Do you find it difficult to juggle your time between marketing your current book and writing your next book?
See above! And yes, I do. I’m not kidding when I say you can lose time chatting all over social media. I have chronic insomnia so I am usually up between 3 and 330 every morning. That’s when I schedule all my posts for the coming day. I use Hootsuite, which is a gift from the cyber Gods! Once all that is done I can usually settle down and write uninterrupted for a few hours. But when I’m doing a book tour/blog tour, I have to carve out times during the day away from writing to check on the sites, answer questions, interact with readers. This has been troublesome 2 times – both when I had a new book coming out at the same time I was in a deadline for galleys on the next one – and from 2 different publishers!! I don’t think I slept more than an hour each of those weeks. I’m not complaining – really I’m not! I feel blessed to be able to do this. It’s just that the Social Media/Marketing world can take you over if you don’t pay attention!

Besides writing, do you have any other passions?
Cooking and painting. I simply adore cooking for my family and friends. One of these days I’m going to take a very long sabbatical to Tuscany and learn to cook from some old world master chefs. I have over 130 cookbooks in my house and I have read, re-read and read them again over and over. I have actually starting giving handwritten recipe books filled with favorite recipes to brides when I am invited to the wedding. Painting is another thing I love to do, although I don’t do it well. But that’s okay. Putting brush to canvas is relaxing for me. I plotted out A SHOT AT LOVE in my head while I was busy painting a scene to hang up in my bedroom.

What’s next for you?
Well, book 3 in the Will Cook for Love series CAN’T STAND THE HEAT is in final galleys and is being released into the book reading world on 4.3.18, so I am starting to promote that. I’ve got a full diary of planned conferences to go to in the next few months, and I believe I will be speaking at 2 of them, so that’s pretty exciting. You can check my amazon author page for the upcoming appearances, but I’d like to give you a little nibble of Stacy’s story, Can’t Stand the Heat, which, BTW, is available for preorder now.

With three successful TV series under her belt, including her cousin Kandy’s, executive producer Stacy Peters is ready to helm her own show. But to make that happen, she has to do her network boss one favor first—spend two months on a ranch in Montana wrangling the notoriously difficult director of Beef Battles. Apparently, he eats producers for breakfast. Yet all Stacy can think when she meets the lean, rugged man is how hungry he makes her . . .
 
Dominic Stamp—Nikko to his very few friends—has had enough interference from TV newbies. And when Stacy climbs out of the car in Montana, he’s not convinced she’s even old enough to drive, much less produce his show. But he can’t deny that the long-legged blonde with the stubborn will and the dazzling smile whets his appetite. And as Stacy proves her talent with the crew and the budget alike, Nikko vows to prove to her that love is on the menu for both of them . . .
 
Look for exclusive recipes in each book!  


Thanks so much for hosting me today!!!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BLURB:

Nothing’s impossible when love is on the menu. In Peggy Jaeger’s luscious series, the only thing more tempting than a delicious meal is a truly delectable romance . . .
Look for exclusive recipes in each book!

Photographer Gemma Laine is looking for arresting faces on the streets of Manhattan when her camera captures something shocking—a triple murder. In that moment, she becomes a target for the mob—and a top priority for a very determined, breathtakingly handsome, FBI special agent. With deadlines to meet and photo shoots on her calendar, Gemma chafes at the idea of protection, but every moment she spends under his watchful eye is a temptation to lose herself in his muscular arms . . .

With two of his men and one crucial witness dead, Special Agent Kyros Pappandreos can’t afford to be distracted. But Gemma is dazzling—and her connection to Kandy Laine’s high-profile cooking empire makes her an especially easy mark for some very bad people. Keeping her safe is much more pleasure than business, but as the heat between them starts to sizzle, Ky is set to investigate whether they have a shot at love . . .










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