Sharon is our flower of the day. .
Howdy Sharon, I'm thrilled to have you join us today.
Why don't we start off with your bio? I love to learn about authors.
Sharon Kleve was born and raised in
Washington and currently lives on the Olympic Peninsula with her husband.
She loves romance. She loves reading
romance, living romance, and especially loves writing about romance. She gets
no greater feeling than watching her characters come alive in each other's
arms. Most of all, she loves giving her characters the happily ever after they
deserve—with a few bumps and bruises along the way.
One of her favorite things to do is
picking up a new book and sinking into the story, immersing herself in the
emotions between the characters. She hopes to inspire her readers the same way
her favorite authors have inspired her.
When not writing, she can usually be
found either curled up in her recliner with her cat and a good book, or in the
kitchen baking sourdough bread or bagels; which led her to send in one of her
favorite recipes to All Romance. "Lip Smacking Pork
Roulade" was chosen to be in Free Recipes from the Hottest Romance Authors
Passionate Cooks.
The cookbook is now offered for FREE on All Romance
sites including AllRomance.com,
OmniLit.com, and AReCafe.com beginning in October. Her
recipe is on page 110; check it out along with many other best-selling authors
recipes.
Yummy, that looks mouth watering, Sharon.
Now, how about telling us about your series. I understand it's a paranormal/romance/humor.
Tell us a little bit about your newest
release.
Klutzy
Love is a Paranormal Romance and the third book in the Corny Myers Series. It
takes you back to when Corny and Steve first meet.
Blurb:
Corny is a hot chick with a great job that she loves. All that
changed in the blink of an eye when her boss had an accident involving an
oversized rubber band. She’s still a hot chick, but her boss is dead.
Steve Spears is a seasoned narcotics cop who ends up wanting to
strangle Corny on a regular basis. After finding out Corny’s dream of opening a
pet detective business, he decides he doesn’t want a girlfriend who routinely
puts herself in danger. That’s his job!
Corny misses Steve, but she’s getting on with her life. She
decides to get a month’s worth of dating out of the way in a single night, by
combining her three favorite things—men, food, and alcohol.
Steve’s big gun and cop’s intuition saves Corny’s life, but not
from another trip to the emergency room. He makes Corny promise never to get
hurt again—she agreed, but has her fingers crossed behind her back.
Ha, ha, ha, that sounds delightful. I'm laughing already. Let me ask you some questions as we get to know you.
If you could be the hero/heroine in any
novel, who would it be and why?
I'd
love to be Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum. To have two sexy, dangerous men
like Joe Morelli and Ranger fighting over me would a girls dream.
My
heroine in The Corny Myer Series is similar to Stephanie Plum, but with a
psychic twist. She speaks to animals.
What do you like more? Coffee or tea?
I'm
a Starbucks snob, through and through. (Double, tall, soy, latte)
What inspired you to start writing?
Well,
because the little voices in my head tell me to—seriously, I’ve always talked
to myself—now I put the voices on paper.
I
was a late bloomer and didn’t start my love of reading until I was in my
twenties and then I couldn’t get enough of the wonderfully, smutty Harlequin
books with really sexy hot guys on the cover.
I’ve worked in the government sector for fifteen
years and always dreamed of having a job that I could work from home. This
crazy idea came to me one night, after reading a particularly sizzling romance.
Why not try my hand at writing one? So, out of the blue I told my husband I was
going to write a Harlequin novel. He said, “Okay.”
I figured I’d read enough of them, I could write
one—no problem. Eight thousand words later; I realized it was harder than I
thought. I also realized, I wasn’t writing what I was most comfortable
with—animals.
I put my Harlequin attempt on the back burner and
started writing “The Boss from Hell”. My boss, who I adored, had been fired and
his replacement was a living-terror. It was really easy to come up with
material to write about and of course I threw in a bunch of romance and of
course animals. Ninety thousand words later I was still optimistic that I could
write for a living, but I’d need a lot of support, my cat couldn’t give me. The
support came in the form of Romance Writers of America and all the people
involved in the local chapter.
Several of the members of my local chapter read my
book and made numerous suggestions, one of them came from an independent
publisher—Books to Go Now. She told me to put the novel aside for now and try
my hand at a short story. That’s where I incorporated the paranormal aspect to
my writing and it really clicked for me.
I submitted ‘Flamingo Blues’, as a Christmas short
story to Books to Go Now and I was offered my first contract. ‘Be Mine’, a
Valentine short story, is book two of ‘The Corny Meyers Series’ and in addition
to a contract, I won the holiday contest too. Woo hoo! Klutzy Love is book
three of ‘The Corny Myers Series’, which came out in August 2012.
That's why I started writing…
How about you tease us now with an excerpt of your story?
Klutzy Love Excerpt:
I raised my salty-rimmed margarita, "Let's make
a toast to Mr. Langfield; he was kind, kooky, and had poor taste in
women."
"Here, here. God bless the silly romantic
fool," Kitty cheered and twirled her hair around her finger.
"I second that," Brenda clinked her glass
to ours and munched on chips and salsa.
After a sip from my drink my sexy-guy radar started
to beep. I did a quick scan of the restaurant and spotted my target. I
discreetly waved my hand above my head and said, "Target acquired...
target acquired." We laughed until we about peed our pants and then I
leaned forward and quietly asked, "Do you think he heard me?" then
giggled more. "I've seen my share of gorgeous men, but that guy is smok’n
hot."
"Oh boy, is he ever," Kitty and Brenda
said in unison and fanned their faces dramatically.
"He's been looking my way. I'm giving him my,
'you can buy me a drink' look."
All of a sudden Kitty rolled her eyes toward the bar
and whispered, "Holy moly, he's coming this way."
Sure enough he made his way through the crowd on the
dance floor towards our table. Before I hyperventilated from excitement, Kitty
kicked me in the shin. "Thanks, I needed that." Kitty could be pretty
levelheaded in stressful situations.
***
Where can readers find your newest
release?
Tell us about your upcoming writing
projects.
I submitted the fourth book in The Corny Myers
Series, to my publisher and I'm putting the finishing touches on a Christmas
story.
Where can others connect with you?
Author
of "The Corny Myers Series"
Book
One, Flamingo Blues, Published December 2011
Book
Two, Be Mine, Published February 2012
Book
Three, Klutzy Love, Published August 2012
Sharon, thank you for sharing with us today. Your stories sound like a fun read and are definitely on my TBB list.
Leave a comment for my guest today. We will both appreciate your thoughts.
Oh my! I have to read those Corny books! She sounds like my kind of girl. And you sound like my kind of writer!
ReplyDeleteHi Gail,
ReplyDeleteThank you. I really hope you enjoy them. Happy holidays!
Hi Lorrie,
ReplyDeleteThank you for hosting me here today, your a delightful host!
You can have a spot anytime you want, Sharon. Yum, I'm going over to get those recipes. Follow me folks.
ReplyDeleteI'm a fan of klutzy heroines (having one in my YA fantasy books). While I'm not a big romance reader, I am definitely a fan of humorous takes in all genres.
ReplyDeleteCorny sounds like my kind of gal.