Osiyo~

I’ve been waiting ALL summer for today. What’s so special? I have the new Mills and Boon Medical author, Wendy S. Marcus visiting! Awesome? Yes! So without more of my rambling let’s get to the fun!

Welcome Wendy. I’ve been keeping track and your blog tour promoting When One Night Isn’t Enough has been a great success for you. I’m super excited to have you here today. Please tell us about you and why you’re here.

Hi Lisa!

Thank you so much for hosting me on my blog tour to promote my debut Harlequin Medical Romance, WHEN ONE NIGHT ISN’T ENOUGH. Rather than answering the typical interview questions, (since this is my 23^rd blog stop in three months and I fear people are starting to get sick of me!) I thought I’d do a Five Things You May Not Know About Me, post. (If any of you are interested in my call story or reading other interviews, you can find the links to all my blog stops at: http://wendysmarcus.com/news-events/)  

Here’s my official mini-bio:

Wendy S. Marcus lives in the beautiful Hudson Valley region of New York with her husband, two of her three children, and a much loved Bichon Frise named Buddy. A nurse by trade, Wendy has her master’s degree in health care administration. After years of working in the medical profession, Wendy has taken a radical turn to writing hot contemporary romance with strong heroes, feisty heroines, and lots of laughs. When she’s not writing, she enjoys spending time with her family and blogging/e-mailing/tweeting with her online friends. To learn more about Wendy visit her website, http://www.WendySMarcus.com.

Would you be willing to share some fun facts about Wendy with us?

Here are five things you may not know about me:

1)      I was adopted at birth, well prior to my birth actually. My parents flew down to Florida to pick me up and I was on a plane up to New York at the age of two days old. I’ve lived in New York ever since, and although from time to time I’ve perused the adoption websites, I’ve never made a concerted effort to locate my birth parents. An interesting tidbit: My mother – who was told she couldn’t have children (my older sister is also adopted) – was one month pregnant when I was born. My younger sister is eight months younger than me.

2)      Growing up I played the flute and guitar, took classes in gymnastics and dance, and was an avid skier. Now I enjoy watching all of these things on television!  

3)      In high school I was the head cheerleader for soccer and basketball. (We didn’t have a football team.) I had a perfect split, and I was NOT snobby. It was a relatively small school in the Catskill Mountains and I don’t recall any “Mean Girls” roaming the halls.

4)      In my first year of college – and what a fun year it was! – I landed myself on academic probation. After that reality check I pulled it together, went on to make the Dean’s List, and eventually achieved my Masters of Science degree in Health Care Administration.

5)      I have put on ten pounds since I’ve started writing. And it has nothing to do with my age!

Hmm. I wonder why I’ve gained ten pounds since I started writing? That was fun. Now tell us about your book!

Here’s a blurb about my book, WHEN ONE NIGHT ISN’T ENOUGH:

Nurse Ali Forshay has found the perfect man for her. Dependable. Routine. Boring. Exactly what she wants to ensure a quiet, stable and anonymous life. Then his friend, Dr. Jared Padget, shows up and goodbye fairytale ending. The man’s a schmoozer. A womanizer. A whoo-a-woman-into-bed-using-any-means-necessary kind of man just like her father. And Ali wants nothing to do with him. But he’s so tempting. Thank goodness his temporary assignment at Madrin Memorial is over, and he’s heading out of town.

If only he hadn’t shown up at girls’ night out on the eve of his departure. If only he hadn’t taken her up on her drunken one-time offer. If only he hadn’t come back when he’d promised to stay away…

Here’s where you can read an excerpt: http://wendysmarcus.com/books/. 

Here’s where you can purchase WHEN ONE NIGHT ISN’T ENOUGH:

In the UK: In stores and online at Amazon UK. (please add link to words Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Flirting-Society-Doctor-Enough-Medical/dp/0263885925/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1307558369&sr=1-1

In Aus/NZ: Online at Mills and Boon. (please add link to words Mills and Boon: http://www.millsandboon.com.au/product.asp?productid=4371&dest=%2Fcategory%2Easp%3Fbookcategoryid%3D27%26page%3D1 and coming to stores in July 2011.

Harlequin:

http://www.eharlequin.com/storeitem.html;jsessionid=BEFF49E2742164D8EA00C25749CD2E1D?iid=23898&cid=264

In the U.S.: Online at Amazon.com in July 2011.

Are you writing anything new and when can we expect to see it, if so? I know whatever it is it will be just as wonderful as this one.

Here’s where you can read an excerpt for my second book, ONCE A GOOD GIRL, coming to the UK in December 2011, other release dates still pending: http://wendysmarcus.com/excerpt-once-a-good-girl/

So for all of you who have been faithfully following my blog tour (thank you very much, by the way), is there anything left to tell? Any questions you’re burning to ask that I have not yet addressed? Go ahead, now’s your chance! And for everyone else, have you ever read a medical romance? If so, what’d you think? If not, why? And are you willing to make mine your first? Do you watch medical dramas on television? Who is your ideal medical hero/heroine?

Thanks so much for joining me today. One lucky commenter will win a copy of the 2in1 UK edition of my book which includes a complete novel by Janice Lynn.

Which I’m doubly thrilled about because I just received my copy today and can’t wait to read it! Where can we find you when you’re hard at work creating memorable books?

Visit my website: http://WendySMarcus.com

Visit me on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Wendy-S-Marcus-Author-Page/184507031577429

Visit me on Twitter:  http://twitter.com/#!/WendySMarcus

Visit me on Goodreads:  http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4823224.Wendy_S_Marcus 

Thanks for joining me Wendy. Good luck on your sales (though I know you don’t need it) and I hope to have you here again. Folks, don’t forget to check out Wendy’s links. Most of all- leave a comment for your chance to own this wonderful book today!

Dodadagohvi~

Osiyo~

Got your attention? Well, I didn’t actually kill one today. But I was sitting on my porch when I noticed a June bug trapped on its back in a container. I set it free, only to find it dead a short time later. I felt sad. It had struggled through the night to live and then I help it…and it died. Free, but, still.

This got me thinking about life and death and writing. How does a dead bug relate to writing, you ask? What about the spider? It takes a twisted and slightly distorted mind to connect those dots. Let me connect them for those of you who are ‘normal’.

I am a ridiculous softie. Pathetically so. I make me sick. When I was twelve my Daddy gave my little brother a pellet rifle. I, being the brave big sister, felt it my duty to help little brother rid the world, or at least our tiny corner of it, of grass hoppers. Fall in Oklahoma- they are everywhere. I took his pellet gun and strutted out into the yard and shot a hulking big one. YES!…NO!!! To this day I feel the evil that had come over me on that warm day that pushed me to murder an innocent little bug. At the same time, I have a very bad case of arachnophobia.

There’s the spider. (This image has been deleted)

I once threw an encyclopedia in middle school while turning pages and came to a huge orange and black spider. My sister only had to say “Look at ‘em crawl” and my shirt flew- the boy visiting didn’t mind… I scream at a microscopic ones nobody but me can see since my childhood days. Or, I used to. I’m proud to say that at about the time my youngest was born (she’s 20+, and married with a two yo now) I killed my first spider, and did it without screaming…very loud. A huge, fat, ugly black widow. Squished with a nasty popping noise. Now I don’t know what’s worse; the spider or the noise of it dying. *shudders*

But, since that life-changing day I have killed at least 100 eight-legged critters all by myself! I can’t bring myself to kill those black fuzzy ‘cotton spiders’ though. Not since my sister had a pet one. I never met Carmen, never wanted to before her untimely demise by smother inside a hottie’s tight denim pocket (he wanted to take her out for an adventure). But I can’t seem to kill them and I make hubby carry them outside to set them free. I don’t know what makes them different. They just are. As long as they stay far, far away from me! I don’t like them. But death to all spiders is still my creed. Mosquitoes, too. Make the world a happier place. Yet I nearly cry over a windshield-battered butterfly. Don’t even mention animals dying. As I watched that June bug today I wondered, not for the first time, do bugs feel? Do they fear death by squashing? Maybe that’s why hornets, wasps and bees are so aggressive. I don’t know.

So what does any of this have to do with writing? Absolutely nothing!

But, I can make it about my passion the way I do most anything in my life. So follow the squiggly colored lines and I’ll show you how my warped mind can relate these unrelated subjects.

If I can’t kill a grass hopper without horrible remorse, how could I possibly write a thriller book? Obviously, I can’t. I barely read anything more gruesome than an Intrigue these days, though I used to thrive on Stephen King. I don’t know just when that taste in reading/movies changed. But I never wanted to write thrillers. I’m not mean enough I guess. In my first romance my critique partners kept telling me to ‘don’t be afraid to be mean to your characters’.  Why??? *whine*

I can revel in a spider’s death, so why can’t I write ‘mean’? To this day I struggle with that concept. My characters tend to attempt murder with kindness. Not that I have murder in my contemporary romances, but if kindness could kill…

I blame my inherent lack of ability to kill bugs successfully for my lack of ability to torture my characters efficiently. I’m improving. I can make them say something nasty. Now if I can just keep that rambling nastiness in context to the scenes I’d be a genius.

There, I connected an irrelevant topic to writing! What? You didn’t seriously doubt I could do it, did you?

What about you? What affects your writing style? Does it hurt or help you write a better book? And how do you deal with spiders?

Dodadagohvi~

>Osiyo~

Jules Bennett- Award winning author

Available NOW!

 
Dodadagohvi~

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