Welcome Special Guest: Author Missy Martine

Let’s give a special welcome to California resident, Missy Martine! She lives in “The Golden State” with her still romantic, husband of twelve years, and three male cats that allow Missy and her hubby to live with them and serve them at their leisure. She writes almost daily, hoping that someone somewhere will get the same enjoyment from reading her stories that she gets from writing them.
And, as per Deb at Dark Diva Reviews, Missy delivers! Deb said of Table for Three, “Table for Three is exceptionally wonderful! It's a book not for the faint of heart. David’s, Cass’s, and Matt's passion will make you quiver. Missy Martine grants us with yet another wonderful book. She is a delicious temptation too good to pass up! Missy Martine creates a world of desire and love and adds a good dose of suspense.” (For the full professional review and others visit: http://www.bookstrand.com/node/805228)

So Missy, What inspired you to become a writer?
Truthfully, my husband nagged me into writing my first book.  I’d had a series of strokes back in 2002 and wasn’t able to continue working as a nurse.  I’d come through with few complications except for a little problem with short-term memory.  Nobody wants a nurse who can’t remember what she had for dinner last night so I had to retire.  For six years I watched daytime television and read romance books, hundreds of romance books.  Then, in 2008, my wonderful husband realized that I was dying inside, little by little, with nothing constructive to occupy my mind.  He pointed out that we spent enough money buying my books to open our own publishing company.  When I took a little offence at this, he suggested I try writing my own book.  He said, and I quote, “you’ve read enough of the dang things you should be able to write one in your sleep now.”  I took it as a challenge and began writing Table for Three.
When did you attempt your first story? What length was it? What's become of it?
Table for Three was the first story I ever tried to write.  I began with an outline back in 2008 and struggled for about a year getting it to the point where I felt it was finished.  The final copy was 69,202 words.  After working with Siren’s wonderful editors it was published in September of 2009.
How many stories did you complete before you sold your first?
I was extremely lucky and blessed that my very first effort was accepted by Siren/Bookstrand for publication.  No one was more surprised or pleased than me when I got the phone call telling me they wanted to publish it.
What genre(s) do you write in? What drew you to write in it/them? What’s your favorite genre of all to write in?
So far, I’ve written contemporary ménage and paranormal shapeshifter.  I was drawn to the contemporary ménage when I fell in love with Leah Brooke’s book Desire for Three in her Desire, Oklahoma series.  It gave me so many good fantasies I wanted to create something similar for other people to fantasize over.  On the same note, reading Wallflower in Dana Marie Bell’s Halle Puma Shifters series hooked me on the idea of shapeshifters.  I’m happiest writing anything paranormal.  The rules are different because there are no rules.  You can let your imagination run wild and create new worlds, aliens, astral beings, just about anything you could imagine.
What are the best and worst pieces of writing advice you ever received?
The worst advice I ever received, that I took, was from someone who advised me to change the ending of

Table for Three.  Their advice ended up leaving the character of Serena unresolved and I didn’t realize it in time.  If I hadn’t done what they suggested, and stuck with my original ending, I wouldn’t have needed to write a sequel to that book.  I can’t tell you how many emails I received wanting to know what happened after Serena made her phone call in the story :)  Taught me to trust my own instincts and not be easily swayed by someone else’s opinion.  The best advice I ever received was to take a chance and write that first book since I didn’t have anything to lose.  It opened a whole new world for me and gave me a new purpose.  Because of that advice I’ve discovered a whole new career, pretty late in life, and my 6^th book is being released April 15^th !
How do you celebrate/deal with acceptance/rejection letters?
So far, for each acceptance I’ve received my husband has taken me out for a romantic dinner at my favorite restaurant, the Olive Garden.  This is going to sound like bragging, and I don’t mean it that way, but so far I haven’t received any rejections so I’m not sure how I’ll react when it happens.  At my age I’d like to think I’d just smile and move on probably working on it a bit and submitting it to someone else.  But who knows, I might re-live my childhood and throw a screaming, crying tantrum.  Wouldn’t that be something to see :)
In regard to the book you’re promoting, which actor and actress do you envision playing the roles of your hero and heroine? If there’s a villain or other characters who are pertinent to the story, who would play those parts?
I actually discussed this with the artist who designed my cover.  For Tony, I envisioned a muscular Bruce Willis, with his shaved head with only a hint of dark hair on top.  For Marc I could see Peter Gallagher in the role.  For Serena, I might go with Reese Witherspoon with long hair.  As for the main villain, Eric Abernathy, I can see Johnny Depp as a villain easily :)
In regard to the book you’re promoting, is it a stand-alone story or part of a series? What sparked the idea for the story/series? If it’s part of a series, please list the order the books need to be read in for maximum reading enjoyment.
Today I’m here promoting Catch Her When She Falls which is the sequel to Table for Three.  You really need to read them in order to enjoy them to the fullest.  When my husband goaded me into writing Table for Three I had to write about what I knew.  It never occurred to me, at that point, to write paranormal.  So, I wrote about my own experiences.  I had a first, abusive marriage that I finally got the courage to walk away from after 20 years.  A short time later I met and was swept off my feet by a much younger man who’s been my constant companion and husband since 1997.  I’m sorry to say he’s not one of identical twins, but you can’t have everything .  I threw in the twin aspect of the story from my own fantasies.
Now for some fun info…
What’s your favorite color?
My favorite color has always been a pastel shade of blue.  There’s just something relaxing about the blue shades and I have them all over my house.
Are you a cat, dog or both kind of person?
I’m strictly a cat person.  I have three male, feline babies.  The oldest, at 9 years, is Beau.  He’s a Himalayan that weighs in at 23 lbs although he’s muscular and huge, not fat.  Our middle baby is Midnight and he’s strictly an alley cat.  Tiny for his age of 7 years, he only weighs 9 lbs.  Last is our baby, Bubba.  He’s part Bengal and is only going on 3 years old now and weighs a hefty 21 lbs.  I’m sorry to say that really is his name.  We rescued all of them from a shelter when they were abandoned or abused and he already answered to that redneck name so we didn’t try and change it.  If ever a name fit, Bubba fits his – big, dumb and loveable.
If you could live anywhere in the universe, where would it be and why?
I’d moved everything; lock stock and barrel, to Wyoming.  It’s the most beautiful place on the Earth and believe me; I’ve been all over the world.  One of my favorite things to do is take my Jeep back-roading in Wyoming photographing natural wild life.  There’s nothing like sneaking through the bushes or laying in wait by a stream for hours to get that perfect picture of a moose, or antelope that comes in for a drink.  It’s where we plan to retire when my husband’s old enough.
About her books…
My newest release is Catch Her When She Falls. 

It’s the sequel to Table for Three.  As I said before, I wrote the story because of a phone call in Table for Three that was never resolved and a lot of people wanted to know more.  The challenge to writing the story was to turn a villainous character into a heroine for the next book.  There had to be a reason for her to be so mean, and a way to redeem her in the reader’s eyes.  That was my first challenge.  The second was the setting.  I’d been reading books about cowboys and realized how sexy they are so I wanted my heroes to be cowboys.  Trouble with that, I didn’t know squat about anything western.  So, I researched the west, ranches, cowboys, horses and even long horn cattle!  I’ve never been on a horse so I had to research saddling horses and riding!  It was a lot of fun and has definitely made me want to write more about cowboys.
Catch Her When She Falls ~ Sequel to Table for Three ~ By Missy Martine
Purchase at Siren/Bookstrand - http://www.bookstrand.com/catch-her-when-she-falls
Purchase in Print at Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/Catch-Falls-Sequel-Publishing-Menage/dp/1610344219/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1299543530&sr=1-3
Blurb:
Serena Dammler is recovering from a savage beating and needs protection. Cowboys and lovers Marc Weller and Tony Estabon are taking jobs as bounty-hunters, and their newest assignment is to capture her attacker and return him to Texas. They take one look at Serena’s fragile beauty and decide she’d be the perfect third to their family.
Serena’s always dreamed of catching herself a rich man, and she’d do just about anything to make that dream come true. She’s not going to allow herself to fall in love with her two cowboy protectors, no matter how sexy they are.
Marc and Tony want Serena as their third, but they want her love to be real and not based on their bank accounts. So what will it hurt if they take her to a little cabin on their ranch and pretend to be simple cowboys?
Where Missy can be found…
Website – www.missymartine.com
Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000107833768
Twitter - http://twitter.com/Missy_Martine
LinkedIn - http://www.linkedin.com/in/missymartine2009
Romance Reviews - http://erotic.theromancereviews.com/mypageprofile.php?location=missymartine

I want to thank you for having me here today, and for giving me the chance to tell people a little bit about myself, and about my books.
As special thanks, today I’d like to give away a pdf download of your choice of any book on my website to three lucky readers.  Just leave a comment about what type of shapeshifter book you’d like most to read, as well as which book you’d like to receive.  Include the email address to send the book to and you’ll be entered in the drawing.  Winners will be chosen randomly on Saturday, May 14^th and notified immediately.  Be sure and include your email address or you’ll be disqualified.

It was a pleasure having you here, Missy, and learning about you and your books!