Welcome! Today we are speaking with Marysol James.

Tell us a little about yourself.  Have you always been a writer?
MJ: In a way, I think that yes, I always have been. It’s certainly how I’ve always best expressed myself, and it’s the one form of creativity that I don’t really, really suck at. I mean that quite sincerely – I’m a terrible dancer, I have an awful singing voice, and even my stick figures are tragic. Writing is it.  In terms of writing and publishing, though, I’m very new to that game. I published my first Contemporary Romance, ‘Open Skies’ (Open Skies #1), on June 1, 2014… and I was hooked. I haven’t looked back since!

Do you write full time?  Tell us a little about your writing process.
MJ: I do write full-time, and I don’t think I’ll ever stop being astonished and grateful about that.

My process? Oh, man. Ummm. OK, here’s the truth: *drops voice to a whisper* I don’t really have one.  OK, well, I mean… I do. Kind of. The way that I work is as follows:

I scribble a whole bunch of ideas in to my Ideas Notebook. Yes, it’s paper; yes, I use a pen. Old school! I scribble until I basically know my entire story from beginning to end. Once it’s straight in my head, I sit down and write on my laptop. I write until the book is done. I don’t plan chapters, dialogue, plot, events, etc. I’m a total pantser, but I don’t really feel like one, since I’m 100% clear and certain about what I’m doing. I may not have a ‘plan’, but I feel like I do, and that’s good enough for me. And hey, it’s worked so far 😉

What do you read for pleasure?  Could you tell us a few of your favourite authors or books?
MJ: I love (love, love!) Margaret Atwood, and will reread her books for the rest of my life. I’m also a big fan of Barbara Kingsolver, Jhumpa Lahiri, John Steinbeck, and Robertson Davies. If I had to pick a favourite book, though, it’d probably be ‘A Prayer For Owen Meany’ by John Irving. No other book makes me laugh and cry the way that one does – still! – and I must have read it twenty times. I also love Warsan Shire’s poetry, since she can literally steal my breath with just a few words. She’s amazing.

You’ve written 25 books, 22 of them romance which spread across 4 series.  Is there a character that stands out as your favourite?
MJ: Hmmmm. The honest answer is no, and that’s the truth. I really like my characters, even when they behave in not-terrific ways. I guess if I had to pick a favourite heroine, it would be Francine, Olivia or Sarah. Maybe also Emma, Tessa, Shay or Gabi. Argh… can’t do it! And my favourite hero would be King, Chris, Dallas or Curtis. Or Aidan or Mac. Or Jax or Eric. Maybe Warren.  Nope. Cannot be done. Sorry!

Do you have any advice to people when they say they want to write a book?
MJ: Just write. Don’t talk about writing. Don’t put it off until you’ve planned every little detail of your plot. Don’t make endless excuses about why you can’t write. Don’t be afraid.

Just write.

 

Marysol James was raised in a small town in Canada and is still a small-town girl at heart. She’s a non-practicing alcoholic (she’s been sober since November of 2004), cancer survivor, and a hardcore coffee-lover.

Marysol crosses genres in her writing, happily and enthusiastically. To date, she’s published 22 steamy, sexy, slinky Contemporary Romances spread over four different series, including the Amazon best selling ‘Unseen Enemy’ and ‘Dangerous Curves’ series.

Besides her romances, Marysol also writes crisp, clever, Contemporary Literature, most of it set in the Canadian Rockies. It can be dark and provocative at times, and magical realism features heavily in her books. She loves moving between the worlds of magical realism and glorious romance, and she’s grateful every day to be able to do both.

If you’d like to stay on top of her news, please visit her official author’s website at www.marysoljames.com and/or ‘like’ her on Facebook.

 

Eight months ago, Warren ‘Derby’ Kane took a wrong turn. He set foot on a dark, twisted road without really understanding what he was doing, and now his life is messed up beyond all belief and recognition. Trapped as a patched-in member of the Fallen Angels MC and hell-bound by the orders of the club President, Warren’s on a road to nowhere, speeding to a dead end. What he doesn’t know is that that road is leading him to somewhere – or rather, to someone. It’s leading him to the one person who will make his life worth living… assuming that he can convince her not to hate him.

Six years ago, Shaylene Alcott blackmailed her way out of the clutches of the Highway Hellions MC, and since then, she’s fought like hell to build an existence as far from the outlaw biker world as possible. When she’s kidnapped by the Fallen Angels and stuck all alone in a cabin with Warren, her worst nightmare comes to life. She hates and fears anything and everything to do with depraved, violent monsters like him… now if she can only convince herself that Warren actually is a depraved, violent monster.

When Warren and Shay realize that they have far more in common than they ever thought possible, they realize a few other things, too… most crucially, that they’ve been given a chance to choose their own lives for the first time in a long, long time. But will they choose to be together, always on the run from the Fallen Angels? And if they do make that choice, how long will it be before the demons of the past come knocking, looking for revenge and restitution?

BONUS!! BONUS!!

This book includes a sneak peek of ‘The Devils’ Scars’, the first book in my upcoming new series, ‘The Road Devils MC’. I’ve shared the first TWO CHAPTERS at the end of the book – so enjoy!

Available on Amazon.