Awesome Romance Author Marnee Blake

My awesome romance author this week is award-winning Marnee Blake. I will let her tell us about herself. Take it away Marnee…

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Hi everyone! *waves* I’m Marnee Blake, and I write New Adult and Contemporary Romantic Suspense. My current series, The Altered Series, has sci-fi elements to it as well. I was a RITA ® finalist this past year, and a Golden Heart ® finalist the two years before that. I live in New Jersey with my supportive husband, our two rambunctious boys, and an ornery Maine Coon cat named Dallas.

What do you do when you are not writing?

Well, mostly I try to make sure all my moving pieces don’t fall down around me!  I have two very active little boys, so when I’m not writing, I’m trying to keep them from destroying my house. I love to cook, I crochet and knit, and I read, read, read.

Where do you get your ideas?

This is the question I get asked the most by non-writers. For me, I’m not sure what it would be like to not have ideas for new stories in my head all the time. They come from everywhere and nowhere. Movies, travel, conversations… Living life gives me plenty of fodder for my writing. The ideas are constant and easy. Forcing myself to sit in the chair and put the words in the right order is the hard part.

Do you ever experience writer’s block?

Yes, but I always think that “writer’s block” is a misnomer. It’s more like, I don’t feel inspired or I haven’t figured out what I want to say. I think that people see writers as having the constant urge to scribble on everything or to tap away at the keyboard. And sometimes that’s true. In fact, I love those days. Most of the time, though, it’s like any other job. There are inspired days like that where everything comes easy. But, a lot of days are hard. Sometimes there are stories that are harder to tell and characters that are harder to figure out. Those days require more effort to sort the mess in my head.

What was your favorite chapter (or part) to write and why?

My favorite chapter to write in ALTERED, the first book in The Altered Series, is one of the final chapters, where the main characters—Seth and Blue—escape from a military base. It’s fast-paced and full of emotion. Blue, my heroine, also is a huge badass. She’s telekinetic and that scene highlights what I think are the coolest things about that power.

Do you have any advice to give to aspiring writers?

My best advice to writers is to keep going. Keep writing, and keep honing your craft. Only through writing will you find your own storytelling voice. Only through getting feedback on your work will you start to see a well-balanced picture of what you’re creating.

Someone told me once that there are really only two options in pursuing publication: either you get published, or you stop writing.  There’s no time frame on this stuff. But if you keep going, every day you’re one day closer to your goal.

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Altered by Marnee Blake

Blue Michaels doesn’t know who to trust. She wakes in her sleepy little town to discover everyone is dead—well, almost everyone. U.S. Army Specialist Seth Campbell is alive, and a handful of her friends survived. But they’re different—each of them has powers they didn’t have when they went to bed.

Oh, and someone wants them dead.

It’s going to take all of their gifts if they are going to survive until they can figure out what to do. Blue wants to believe Seth has their best interests at heart. That he really does want to take care of them and get them to safety. God knows she can’t stop thinking about him.

But, can she trust him with their lives…and her heart?

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Buy Links

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | iTunes

 

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Learn more about Marnee Blake

Stay connected with Marnee by signing up for her newsletter at: http://eepurl.com/b4i2av

Find Marnee on the web at www.marneeblake.com, on Twitter and on  Facebook

 

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If you have any questions or comments for Marnee Blake, please post them below, and she will get back to you.