Quick Promo- Alicia Dean and friends- Featuring Amanda McCabe

Happy Monday readers.

Today is the first in a week full of interviews featuring four special ladies who are not only great friends, but partners in a new series.

Here to do the introductions and tell us a bit about how this series came about is author Alicia Dean.

Martini Club 4 – The 1920s

A few years ago, myself and three of my writer friends—Amanda McCabe, Kathy L Wheeler, and Krysta Scott—began meeting each Friday evening (unless something extremely important kept one of us away, and trust me, it had to be IMPORTANT) for Martinis and various other libations, at the Martini Lounge in Edmond, Oklahoma. In time, we came to dub our gathering the ‘Martini Club.’ We unwind, vent, chat about writing, laugh, and strengthen an already strong bond of friendship. It’s not only fun, it’s beneficial. As all writers know, no other friend besides a writer friend truly understands us. (We also have an honorary MC member, Cindy Sorenson. Although she is a writer, she declined to write one of the stories, but she has been invaluable as far as brainstorming and beta reading. So, what else could we do…we named a character after her in the series!)

During one of these gatherings, one of us, and I can’t remember who, made an offhand remark about writing stories centered around the Martini Club. The idea blossomed from there, and the ‘Martini Club 4’ series was born. We thought it would be fun to set our first MC4 stories in the 1920’s, but we intend to write more in other decades in the future. During the planning, plotting, and writing, we have had a few weekend retreats that were loads of fun, and some were even productive. J What a joy to do something that I love so much—writing—with a group of ladies that I love so much!

*** Release date is February 26, 2015 and the price at that time will be $2.99 each. If you pre-order, they are only 99 cents each! ***

Please check out and ‘like’ our Facebook page:

http://facebook.com/martiniclub4

The entire series can be found at this link on Amazon:

(The books are all stand alone, but related. They do not have to be read it order, but it’s probably best that way.)

Amazon

Rebellious: 

Martini Club 4 Series – The 1920s Book 1 

by Amanda McCabe

How difficult or how easy was it to coordinate ideas/characters?

It's always a challenge to match up other authors' visions of a world to your own! (Especially since I'm such a pantser writer—I don't always know where my characters are going to wander once their story starts moving!). I was also very nervous about using other people's characters in ways they think might not “fit,” though luckily that never happened. I've done collaborations before, in a couple of continuity series for Harlequin Historicals, one of which (“Castonbury Park”) made my book the last of 8, with at least half the other authors living in England with a big time difference, and very interconnected family stories. This series was much easier—I knew I could find the other authors every Friday and bombard them with any questions or problems!!

How is your writing style different from the other authors?

I'm not really sure how it's “different”--a reader would have to look at them all and tell me that!! I do know that I love, love, love immersing myself in different historical time periods. I've written Regency, Victorian, Elizabethan, Italian Renaissance, and now the 1920s. The attitudes and atmosphere of each is so different, and it's so much fun to try and get into the different mind-sets. Jessica Hatton is such a 1920s girl, she's lived through the Great War and seen enormous changes happen, even though she's very young. She wants to be herself and follow her own dreams, and now she has the chance. She really couldn't have done what she does in “Rebellious” if she was a Regency earl's daughter! (Though it's also a challenge sometimes to stop researching and start writing!)

 Excerpt

Jessica stared across the street at the building secretly housing Club 501. In daylight, it was even less impressive than at night. The narrow alleyway snaked away off the bustle and noise of Broadway, but it might as well have been on a different planet. The car horns and shrieks were muffled on the grimy brick walls, so tall they cut off the daylight.

She leaned deeper into the recessed doorway, trying to keep out of sight herself as she studied the street. A cat streaked out from behind a trashcan, the only sign of life in the strangely deserted-looking buildings. In the light of day, the street was surely one of the most silent, nondescript places in the whole city. That was probably very good for Club 501's business. Who would go looking for a sparkling, glamorous nightclub here? But it all felt so sinister, with those boarded windows on the lower floors and the smell of mold and boiled cabbage in the still air.

Jessica shivered, and peered cautiously down the dark maw of the cracked stone stairs she knew led down to the speakeasy. It was just as silent and deserted as everything else in the workaday world here at the surface, with windblown trash caught in the railings. She saw no hint of any life at all there, but she knew she wasn't quite brave enough to lurk there after night fell. Not after what Charli told her.

Jessica had always been called a daredevil by her family, the subject of her mother's censorious sighs, her father's long-suffering glances, her siblings' teasing laughter. Get Jess to do it, she'll try anything. And she knew leaping before she looked had led her into plenty of trouble in the past. It had even led her here.

But she didn't want it to get her killed, that was for sure. She was young, there were too many more adventures out there. She glanced toward the end of the street, where there were glimpses of reassuring things like taxis and fruit trucks. For an instant, she considered running back there. Going home and writing up her safe little garden party story.

Remembering Mrs. Astor and her roses stiffened her resolve. Yes, there were lots of adventures left—but writing about hats forever wasn't one of them. Not if she really wanted to make a difference in the world. And wasn't that why she had come to New York?

“I'll just take one little peek,” she told herself. She wrapped her coat, her oldest garment of nondescript brown wool, closer around her shoulders and strode off down the narrow street on her flat-heeled shoes.  

BUY LINK

Rebellious: http://amzn.com/B00RKKP9VI

Amanda McCabe wrote her first romance at the age of sixteen--a vast historical epic starring all her friends as the characters, written secretly during algebra class (and her parents wondered why math was not her strongest subject...)

She's never since used algebra, but her books have been nominated for many awards, including the RITA Award, the Romantic Times BOOK Reviews Reviewers' Choice Award, the Booksellers Best, the National Readers Choice Award, and the Holt Medallion.  She lives in Oklahoma with a menagerie of two cats, a Pug, and a very bossy miniature Poodle, along with far too many books. 

When not writing or reading, she loves taking dance classes, collecting cheesy travel souvenirs, and watching the Food Network--even though she doesn't cook.