I want to welcome Jan
Meredith. First I’d love you to introduce yourself.
Thank you so much for having me here today! Hey,
everyone! My name is Jan Meredith. I’m married to my high school sweet heart,
have two grown sons, both of whom chose the same original career as
me—registered nurse. I’m a true Southern gal and live eight miles from Mammoth
Cave National Park, in Kentucky. And now, I’m an author!
Tell us about your
latest release.
PLAYING DOCTOR is my debut release with Entangled
Publishing’s super sexy imprint, Brazen, about Dr. Gabe North, who has spent
the past two years dealing with over his wife’s death and is now ready to move
on and Beth Roberts, RN, a survivor of domestic violence. After meeting at a wedding,
they have a one-night-stand which turns into so much more.
I’m happy to say that the book has been the recipient of the
2014 HOLT Medallion Award of Merit for Best First Book and Best Romance
Novella.
Now I have a few
questions for you – I have found readers do like to know fun things about us
writers.
1.) Who is your favorite villain – it can be
from a book (even one of yours), movie or TV show. And why
Loki,
because you never know what he’s going to do, and you can’t help but love him
no matter what he does.
2.) Who is your
favorite character out of your books? Why?
While I totally love Dr. Gabriel North from PLAYING DOCTOR,
I have to say that Eve, from the follow up book, EDUCATING EVE is my favorite
at the moment. First there’s her personality—she’s a bit eccentric, but that’s
because she’s a writer. She’s very straight forward, has an awesome sense of
humor that tends to drive the hero, Ian, a bit nuts, but doesn’t stop him from
coming back for more. She’s loyal to the bone and has absolutely no time for
drama.
3.) What genre do you
write? What made you pick that one?
I write sexy contemporary romance. While I love reading
paranormal and historical romance, I find that writing in present time works
best for me.
4.) What are you
working on now?
I’m working on the follow up book after PLAYING DOCTOR, a
friends-to-lovers romance about the secondary characters, Eve Winters and Ian
Montgomery, titled, EDUCATING EVE. Ian is a Navy SEAL home on leave to attend
his brother’s wedding and let his injuries heal from his last mission while
deciding where he wants to go with his military career. Eve is an erotic
romance author, but due to her less than
satisfying love life, is having problems penning her love scenes. I think
you can see where things go from here!
5.) What got you to
start writing?
I’ve been a lover of romance novels since my teens, but I
didn’t really get into them until the 80’s with the introduction of the sexier
Silhouette Desire and Loveswept imprints. I couldn’t stop reading them and one day
decided to try my hand at writing one. It’s tucked away in a boot box with a
whole bunch of red mark-ups from my “unofficial” agent at the time. One day, I
plan to pull it out, dust it off and give it a rewrite and make it a part of a
series I plan to write.
6.) Where do you get
your ideas from?
Oh, gosh, so many places. I love music and have written
entire scenes based on a song. I’m very visual, also, and a photograph can
inspire anything from a scene to an idea for an entire book.
7.) What would people
who read your work be surprised to find out about you?
That I met and fell in love with my husband when I was in
the second grade when I saw him laughing on the school bus. We were high school
sweethearts with an on-again/off-again/on-again romance that lasted through his
stint in the Army…and is still going.
8.) Do you have any
special talents?
I’m a total right brain person and constantly look for
creative outlets. I quilt, not just by the block, but with all those pretty
swirly designs. I decorate cakes, sew and make my own beaded shepherd’s hook
and thong bookmarkers. I love my Photoshop Elements software, and totally enjoy
making book teasers and covers.
9.) What was the one
piece of advice you received when you were an aspiring author that has stuck
with you? Why?
When I first began writing, I had this awesome story in
mind, but struggled with trying to bend it to fit a particular publisher’s
guidelines—very strict ones, and spent the majority of my time between constantly
referring back to the list of “dos and don’ts” and staring at the blinking
cursor in fear that what I wanted to
write wouldn’t fit into their mold. It drove me crazy.
I received very valuable advice from several writers, both
aspiring and published that really helped, but still found myself unable to get
my story down. Finally, my eldest son stepped up and said, “Stop writing for a faceless publisher,
forget the guidelines and tell your story the way you need to tell it, then
work it out with your editor after you sell the book. The main thing is to
write it.” He was absolutely right. Yes, the edits were extensive, but
between myself, Heather Howland, Tahra Seplowin and Kerri-Leigh Grady, we did
it, and came away with an award winning book.
10.) If you could talk
to any famous figure (present, past or fictional) who would it be and what
would you talk about?
I would love to sit down with the late John F. Kennedy, to
see what he has to say about the state of the world now and how he would
attempt to make it better.
11.) What song would
you say describes your life?
Wow, tough question. As a lover of pop, rock and metal,
there are too many choices to settle on just one. I do have a habit of greeting
the mid-shift doctor in the ER with, “Follow me into the jungle,” so I guess it
would be, Jamie N. Commons and X Ambassadors, JUNGLE. Plus, I just like the
song!
12.) If you could come
back as any animal – what would it be?
A bird. They’re free, depend on no one and best of all, they
can fly.
Blurb:
One night with a sexy stranger
is just what the doctor ordered...
When a fellow RN predicts Beth Roberts will
meet a tall, ripped, and totally lick-o-licious stranger who will fulfill her
deepest desires, she laughs it off. Given her tragic love life, Beth has no
desire to become involved again. But who could have predicted the doctor with
the mischievous smile she meets at a wedding, or the chemistry sparking between
them that threatens to break through her defenses?
Dr. Gabriel North spent two years blaming
himself for his wife’s death. Having finally battled through the guilt and
overcome his demons, he’s ready to move on. When he meets a sexy nurse at his friend’s
wedding, the attraction is swift and strong, and he wastes no time in pressing
his advantage. One night with the woman who makes him feel alive again isn’t
enough, but gaining Beth’s trust is going to take more than seduction…
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Excerpt: PLAYING DOCTOR
Taking advantage of the quiet moment and
the opportunity to get off her feet, Beth chose a table under one of the huge
white reception tents and took a seat, then immediately wished she had stopped
at the bar for a bottle of water. She pulled the band from her ponytail and
gave her hair a quick finger-comb as she glanced around, hoping to catch one of
the wait staff. Instead, she saw Dr. North, his long legs quickly eating up the
distance between them with a sexy, loose-hipped stride that made her mouth
water and start up a whole different kind of thirst.
He had a drink in each hand and an expression of pure male determination on a face that was melt-your-thong handsome, and yes, a faint cleft bisected his chin, as if his maker had reached out and gently tapped him with a let him be a hottie finger.
He stopped at her table and grinned, the same sex-you-up grin he’d given her earlier that shifted her hormones into high gear all over again.
Beth bit back a groan. Ground, just open up and swallow me whole. What in the world had she been thinking, doing that eye flirty-thingy with him? It was just a game, payback for the sizzling once-over he’d given her earlier. He wasn’t supposed to follow up on it for crying out loud, and he definitely had a follow up on it look in his eye. There had been no time for embarrassment while working on Albert, but now here he stood, larger than life and twice as sexy.
Without waiting for an invitation, Gabe dropped onto the chair beside Beth and slid one of the tall, sweating glasses in front of her. “Now that we have Albert squared away and his family reassured, let’s say we start over? Hi, I’m Gabriel North.”
Gabriel, huh? Earlier, while working over Albert, it had been Gabe. Now it was Gabriel. Bet he used that on all the girls, and ten-to-one, it worked every time. Beth managed to tear her gaze away from the most gorgeous pair of brown eyes she’d ever seen and looked down at the hand he held out to her. She slid her palm over his, totally unprepared for the frisson of heat that moved over her skin when his fingers closed around hers.
“Beth Roberts,” she replied around what felt like a bale of cotton in her mouth. She pulled her hand from his and reached for her glass, the condensation a cool shock against fingers still sizzling from his touch.
Beneath the table, his thigh brushed hers and then lingered, igniting a shimmer of warmth under her skin. A flicker of apprehension coursed through her, then quickly faded and she relaxed. In the four years since being subjected to Jamie’s abuse, she’d gotten past shying away from men in general. She no longer flinched at a sudden move or expected to be shoved out of the way during times of unexpected close proximity. She didn’t know Gabriel, but felt oddly at ease with him, sensing nothing threatening or presumptuous in his actions. It was as though he simply…belonged. Working alongside someone, fighting to pull life back into another human formed a common bond between people—even if those people had been heavily eye-flirting only moments before, she thought grimly.
“Thank you for the drink.” She picked up the glass, took a cautious sip.
“Water and lemon. I didn’t know your preference, and it seemed the safest choice.”
Beth watched as he lifted his glass to his mouth and drank deeply. She swallowed as if the cool liquid was sluicing down her own suddenly parched throat and wondered how the simple act of water sliding past his lips could appear so erotic. And the way he licked it from his lips—not a regular old dart-and-swish, mind you, but a leisurely swipe of his tongue, and she could almost feel the rasp of it along the seam of her…
Heat, dark and rich, infused her sex. She shifted in her chair and tipped her hips down in attempt to relieve the ache building there, only to find it heightened the sensation.
“It’s not very comfortable, is it?”
Blinking, Beth watched Gabe’s mouth curl into a slight smile. When she looked up, a glint of amused hunger brightened his eyes.
He knows. He knows what he’s doing to me. How freaking embarrassing! And how incredibly hot.
She cleared her throat. “I’m sorry?” Was that her voice, all breathy and sultry?
He paused, studied her for a moment, and then said, “The chair…it’s not very comfortable.”
Relief washed over her, quickly followed by a touch of disappointment. Had she misread him? “No, no it isn’t.” To prove it, Beth shifted again and crossed her legs. She groaned inwardly when the change of position rubbed her thighs and the needy territory between them together, intensifying her little problem.
“Sometimes,” Gabe started thoughtfully, turning his glass in small half circles on the tabletop and drawing her attention there. His broad thumb streaked the condensation on the glass and then paused to slowly circle one small area. Beth scrunched down a little and squeezed her thighs together.
“Sometimes, you have to find just the right…spot.”
Clench!
“Yes, well,” Beth clamped her fingers around her glass. Her toes curled inside her shoes. She shifted slightly, dragging her gaze up from the motion of his thumb on the glass. Warm, observant eyes looked back at her, full of promise and possibilities. Well. Maybe she hadn’t misread him after all. “Fortunately, I won’t be sitting on it for long.”
“Fortunately,” he agreed solemnly.
Beth’s eyes narrowed. Were his lips twitching? Frowning, she willed her body to behave. Easier said than done, with that hard length of muscled thigh pressing against hers each time either of them moved. “You were saying?”
Web page: http://www.janmeredithauthor.com/ [has buy links]
FB Time Line: https://www.facebook.com/jan.meredith.121
Twitter: https://twitter.com/JanMeredith21
Thank you so much for having me here today! What an awesome blog you have, and so many wonderful books!
ReplyDeleteGreat interview!! Loved Playing Doctor and can't wait to read Educating Eve.
ReplyDelete