I want to welcome Dorothy
A. Bell. First I’d love you to introduce yourself.
Tell us about your
latest release.
Reinventing Mica
Avery is a contemporary novel, the story is the story we all eventually
face, that being the tying up of the loose ends our parents leave behind after
they’ve gone. Coming from a dysfunctional home situation makes Mica’s task complicated
and confusing. But it also offers the adult Mica the chance to heal and close
some old wounds. Of course there is a love interest, contractor Gus Breedon.
Gus is unlike any man, or person Mica has ever known before. He’s someone she
can rely on, someone who wants to be her friend as well as her lover.
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?
Hands down Jack Nickelson as the Joker in Batman with
Michael Keaton. So creepy and sappy. Evil and childish. Not unlike some of our
politicians.
2.) Who is your
favorite character out of your books? Why?
Buck Hoyt from my Oregon historical romance Dance Hall Road. Buck runs a whore
house way out in the back-of-beyond. He’s a grouchy, prickly recluse with a
heart as big as all outdoors, and when he cleans up, he’s real sexy.
3.) What do genre do
you write? What made you pick that one?
Romance. Always romance. Mostly Oregon historical or western
romance. I love the time period of the late 1800’s so much is going on, the
industrial age is moving people into a whole new world, a world many are not
ready to accept. Women are beginning to see they’ve been getting the shaft and
are starting to stand up for themselves. We still have a lot of work to do in
that respect.
4.) What are you
working on now?
I’m working on a sequel to my Dance Hall Road series. I have
another Dance Hall Road novel with the editor on the queue titled Do-se-do. Do-se-do is the story of Petra’s son, Gabriel. In Dance Hall Road Buck saves Petra and
her infant son from certain death and a bleak future on the run.
5.) What got you to
start writing?
I started writing novels way back when my husband worked the
swing shift. Instead of turning on the TV I wrote stories, stories that I could
see in my head. Stories where I could play all the parts. At that time I had
not a clue how to have any of my novels published. That came about much, much
later. I had a lot of learning to do.
6.) Where do you get
your ideas from?
Names of places and people intrigue me. Dance Hall Road came about while my husband and I were out for an
afternoon drive east of Baker City. There is a Dance Hall Road out there. Out there
in the middle of nowhere, a road that goes nowhere, a road with no signs, no buildings
just dirt, sage and rock. I had to put a story to that place.
7.) What would people
who read your work be surprised to find out about you?
Oh, first off, I once weighed 204 pounds and I’m only four
foot eleven so that wasn’t good. Six years ago I lost eighty five pounds. I’ve
gained some of it back over the last year. But I’m fighting the battle. I spent
eighteen years of my life as an aquatic exercise instructor. Retired now, I go
to the pool and do my own thing. I’ve had my knees replaced. I met my husband
in the sixth grade. He bugged me all through grade school, middle school and
high school. I agreed to go out with him when I was sixteen. And we’ve been
going steady ever since. Oh, yeah, I’ll be seventy this summer and I feel like
I just got started on my life.
8.) Do you have any
special talents?
One of them, the biggie, is story telling. I do garden and
landscaping.
9.) What was the one
piece of advice you received when you were an aspiring author that has stuck
with you? Why?
Don’t lose your voice, don’t try to be something you’re not.
10.) If you could talk
to any famous figure (present, past or fictional) who would it be and what
would you talk about?
Cary Grant, Kathryn Hepburn, Spencer Tracey, Eleanor
Roosevelt. I wouldn’t talk, I would listen.
11.) What song would
you say describes your life?
Imagine by John
Lennon.
12.) If you could come
back as any animal – what would it be?
A cat, they know how to survive. And do they ever have an
imagination.
Blurb:
Taking
a lesson from a house riddled with mold, clutter, and bitterness, Mica Avery unearths
a treasure trove of lost love and forgotten dreams and enough wealth to begin
her life anew, if she’s brave enough to grab hold and live it.
Excerpt:
She’d
never thought of herself as one of those swooning, fluttering types of females.
But she sat there, her pulse playing hop-scotch, stomach woozy, and not a damn
thing she could do about it. She couldn’t form a simple sentence or focus on
anything but Gus Breedon, his tan, hairy legs, his muscular shoulders, and
bulging biceps.
Oh,
and the earwigs that probably, at this moment, were crawling up the side of the
very stump she sat on.
With
his hand going to her shoulder, he said, “Put your head between your legs, I
hear it’s supposed to help.”
She
closed her eyes to say, “It always sounds stupid to me. Who can bend over that
far?” She didn’t say it out loud, but she thought, besides, if I look down, I’m gonna stare at your legs, those hairy,
muscular, tan legs in those skintight cutoff shorts. Oh, my God.
“I
sure am sorry I frightened you. I didn’t mean to.” Gus did have a nice,
soothing voice, deep and warm like rich, brown molasses. She had to recover and
fast, and made herself think of Gary. She needed to remember how Gary sounded.
When she thought of Gary’s voice, she thought smooth, like cold steel. He
clipped his words, making noises like a salesman most of the time. Lately, the
sound of Gary’s voice irritated her. Yup, that worked—thinking of Gary pulled
her completely out of panic mode, leaving her to feel nothing but stupid.
Gus
Breedon, of all people, she couldn’t believe it.
“I’m
okay,” is all she could say...very clever.
“My heart, I think, is slipping back down into its correct position in my chest
instead of up in my throat. My pulse has slowed from an all-out gallop to a
trot.”
She
rarely blushed, but around Gus Breedon she couldn’t stop the rush of heat from
infusing her cheeks. Becoming flushed all over, she scolded herself you’re too old for this, too experienced for giddiness.
She
had a mad desire to rip her clothes off and run through the sprinkler—with Gus
giving chase, naked, of course. Well, what a silly thought. She blushed on top
of her blush, and ordered herself to get a grip.
“Where
did you come from?” she asked before she had time to think of another
ridiculous scenario. Gus had a big face, a manly face, like the Brawny towel
guy, only more brawny. Groan—there you go again. She could feel the giggle
coming on. She wanted to stop it, stop it right now. She didn’t have time for
Gus Breedon. As a matter of fact, she resented his presence altogether, with
his hairy legs and big face.
“Oh,
yeah. Well, I’m over at the Kramers,” he answered, and glanced over his
shoulder toward the construction site. “We’re building an RV garage for them.”
This
situation, with all the neighbors watching, all the guys on the construction
crew watching her from the moment she’d pulled into the driveway—so typical Perry
Grove. She could imagine them watching her, listening to her go around the
house, looking in the windows, hollering for Lela.
Suspicious,
Mica asked, “I thought you worked at the hospital?”
“The
hospital...? Oh, oh, yeah, the janitor cart. I had a construction job, doing a
remodel of some storage rooms. I stayed to sweep up, clean up after...you know.
When I got off the elevator I went the wrong way. I should’ve taken a left to
the service elevator, but I went right. I knew it the minute I turned the corner,
and that’s when I nearly took you out. Sorry.”
Mica
didn’t know why, but she nodded her head, even though she didn’t understand at
all. Gus stood before the patio door, studying it. He bent forward, then
squatted down on those magnificent thighs to run his hands along the aluminum
channel at the bottom of the door. She wished he would go away. She didn’t need
strangers hanging around. Lela would hate it, if she was in there stuck in the
tub or something.
Gary
should be here, not Gus Breedon. Gus Breedon wasn’t really a stranger, he knew
Mica at twelve when she wore braces. Gus Breedon knew her at fifteen, her face
one big pimple. And God help her, he knew her at sixteen, pregnant, and in
disgrace...in so much trouble.
Here
she stood, in trouble again. But this was a private, personal moment. She
wanted to keep it between Lela and her, no outsiders allowed in on this one.
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