Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Meet Dorothy A. Bell, Author of The Laura Creek Western Romance Series




Hi, everybody, Dorothy A. Bell here. I would like to thank Leslie Ann for putting me up on her blog today. As an introduction, I thought I would give visitors a glimpse into my life so far.

I grew up in southern Iowa, moved to Oregon’s Willamette Valley at the age of eleven. I was in the sixth grade when I started school in Oregon. On my first day of school, I encountered the boy I would eventually marry. He kept pestering me, trying to kiss me. I held out until I turned sixteen, then I kind’a got the hang of the kissing thing. We’ve been married for forty-eight years, he’s still a pest, bless him.

I started out writing Regency Romances to entertain myself. I took writing courses, but I think I learned the most by submitting my work to publishers, editors and agents, and getting feedback. Laid low for nearly twenty-five years with arthritis, forced to use a battery-powered cart, I took up aquatic exercise and became an instructor. After two surgeries to replace my knees, I went to work on myself and lost eighty-five pounds, which I have kept off.

My husband and I live in Central Oregon with two West Highland White terriers, an energetic, longhaired Dachshund and one big, angora tuxedo cat. When I need a break from writing Oregon historical western romances, I work in the yard or my garden.

This year I am proud to announce the release of two Laura Creek romances “The Reprobate” and “The Cost of Revenge”.

LA: I'm so pleased you're with us today. What’s next for you?

DAB: On the queue with Freya’s Bower awaiting edits is the next book “Dance Hall Road”, another western romance. I have high hopes of seeing a release before March.

LA: How much time do you spend promoting your books?

DAB:  I spend a couple of hours each day with promoting, following up on blog guesting and hosting. I’m your typical absentminded, bubble head. I write things down on the calendar, save e-mails, I do everything and nothing works, I lose stuff, names and dates, and the requests for posts for blogs and hops.

LA: What works best for you?

DAB: Nothing works, I’m telling you, I stumble around and do the best I can. I’m doing so much more now than I ever have before. I think I’m doing pretty good, all things considered.

LA: What do you do when you find yourself overwhelmed with all the stuff that goes along with writing and publishing?

DAB: I whine a lot. You know, stomp around, growling and howling, then I settle down and wade through the muck, sort it out and get it done.

LA: Any advice you want to offer our readers about the dreaded Blurb writing ?

DAB: I love blurb writing. If you know your story, really know it, you can encapsulate it. You know that story forwards and backwards, you know the characters, you know the plot. My problem with the blurb is there are so many ways to write it. I’m constantly tweaking it, poking it and prodding it to say more with fewer words.

LA: Ha, it's the fewer words that get me.  But I'm working on it all the time. Key advice for other writers?

DAB: Don’t procrastinate. If you start a story, finish it. It doesn’t matter if it’s perfect, but end it. If you don’t like it, set it aside and go back to it later. By later, I mean weeks later. Then read what you wrote and maybe, maybe you will see what’s missing, or what you forgot to say, or how to make it work, make it what you want it to be. But don’t give up on it. You had a great idea, a great story. It didn’t go anywhere, it simply wasn’t time for it to manifest itself on paper.

LA: Great advice.  Here is a fun question; You’re having a dinner party. What character from your novel do you hope doesn’t show up? Why?

DAB:  From “The Reprobate” The O’Bannon brother’s old man; he’s a loudmouth, drunken, cruel son-of-a-bitch looking for a fight.

LA: Tell us something about yourself we might not expect!

DAB: I now weigh one hundred and twenty four pounds. Two years ago, I weighed two hundred and four pounds. For thirty years I weighed around two hundred pounds. One day, two years ago, I said stop, and lost the weight over the next nine months. I intend to keep it off. I do exercise daily, I do aquatic exercise and I walk and I watch very carefully what I eat and how much.

LA: So it's exercise and portions, or do you eat specific diet?  I'm very impressed.  Do you have a favorite quote, quip, or saying? What is it?

DAB: “Be careful what you wish for”, I think is my favorite one. “If you come to a curve in the road, it’s not the end of the road, unless you fail to make the turn.” I like that one a lot.

LA: Societal pet peeve … sound off.

DAB: It seems to me, a lot of folks have grown extremely intolerant in this age of facebook and instant media. Kids bullying other kids, shootings, politicians and religious folks sounding off, insisting on inflicting their beliefs on everyone who doesn’t believe as they do. I like this new Pope. He is showing a great deal of tolerance, and he’s instructing his bishops and priests to empathize and become more inclusive instead of exclusive with their parishioners. I’m not at all religious. I would never tell anyone who is, that they are wrong in how they believe. But they certainly do love to shove their beliefs down my throat every time I walk into a public room with their prayers. If they want to pray, then pray, but do it silently, one on one with their God. I don’t want them to stop praying. I simply don’t want to be included, leave me out of it. A moment of silence will do nicely. A moment that everyone can share and use as they choose.



Blurb:

The Cost of Revenge: A Laura Creek Western Romance

Quinn O’Bannon knows it’s time he settled down. He has two likely candidates, both sensible, attractive, young women. However, his fantasies keep straying to Tru McAdam, that thieving, sloe-eyed vixen with a grudge against the whole darn O’Bannon family.

Tru McAdam wants to believe the O’Bannons, all of them are rotten, heartless cheats. God help her, most of all she wants to believe the handsome, arrogant flirt Quinn O’Bannon is the worst of the lot.

Stanley O’Bannon, Quinn and Royce’s old man, is on a mission to destroy his traitorous sons, and the folks who turned them against him. It’s up to Quinn and Royce to stop the crazy old fart.

Tru believes destiny deliberately lead her to Laura Creek to lose her heart to her sworn enemy, the handsome Quinn O’Bannon, for a reason. She’ll know that reason when the time comes. All becomes clear when Quinn’s life is threatened and Tru strikes the fatal blow. 

When destiny shuffles the cards, strange pairs show up in the hand. Who can fight destiny, not the handsome, flirtatious Quinn O’Bannon, not the thieving, sloe-eyed vixen, Tru McAdam.

Find Dorothy at:
 Blog

Links to her books:

The Reprobate:
Goodreads
Amazon
Barnes and Nobel
Freyasbower

The Cost of Revenge:
Amazon
Freyasbower
 
Don't forget Dorothy's excerpt on Saturday from
The Cost of Revenge
 

2 comments:

  1. Good Morning, awarding winning blogger Leslie Ann. Thank you so much for hosting me. You make me look good and sound good with your interview. Here's hoping we have a great day. DAB

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dorothy, I'm so glad you're here today. I love your picture, btw, and I'm so impressed, not only with your books, but with the weight loss. We all know how difficult that is.

    Hugs
    LA

    ReplyDelete