Aloha to Amelia Grey and A LITTLE MISCHIEF

Last week, I chatted with Amelia Grey during the Sourcebooks' signing at the RWA National Conference.   Today she joins me at SOS Aloha for a cozy chat .... from her bio (at this link), 

Amelia Grey (aka Gloria Dale Skinner) grew up in a small town in the Florida Panhandle. She has been happily married to her high school sweetheart for over twenty-five years. She has lived in Alabama, Connecticut, New Hampshire and now lives in Florida.

Amelia has won the coveted Romantic Times award for Love and Laughter, the prestigious Maggie award for best historical and Affaire de Coeur's best American historical award. She has been a finalist for the Golden Heart and the Holt Medallion awards which are given by Romance Writers of America and numerous other awards. Her books have been sold to many countries in Europe, Russia and China.

Amelia likes flowers, candlelight, sweet smiles, gentle laughter and sunshine.

ameliagrey.com

Amelia:  Good morning! I’m happy to be with you at SOS Aloha. Thank you for having me. Kim, it was so nice to see you at the RWA Conference in Anaheim. And thank you for that heavenly pineapple tea! 

Kim:  Florida - my home state!  What is your favorite sight, sound, and smell?

Amelia: I was not only born in Florida, I am a Florida girl through and through. I don’t like to be cold. I don’t like endless days of gray skies with no sunshine. My most favorite thing to watch is sunset. Sometimes the sun sinks down behind the water as this huge fireball and other times it seems to melt across the darkening blue sky in the most beautiful shades of yellow, orange, and mauve. I love flowers and it’s a blessing to walk outside and see and smell the colorful flowers blooming year round.

I’m fortunate enough to live on the Gulf of Mexico and late in the afternoon, when the day’s work is finished I love to sit on the balcony of my condo and watch the waves crashing on the shore. Usually in the distance, I can hear the joyful sounds of children playing in the surf, the tweets of sandpipers as they hunt for tiny sea urchins in the sand, and the cry of sea gulls as they fly overhead. I’ve lived other places but Florida has always been my favorite home. 

I don't have a picture of a Gulf Coast sunset ...
... so I offer you a Pearl Harbor sunset!

Kim:  How do you keep your marriage romantic after thirty-five years? 

Amelia: One of the major things that has made our marriage work for so long is that we came from similar backgrounds: both from large, middle-class families, same religious upbringing, same goals for our lives—to work hard to be successful. Romance for us is not a once in a while event—it’s something we work at every day—and it’s not necessarily a conscious thing. We cuddle, hold hands, and kiss often when at home. We’re polite to each other and help each other with daily tasks; we both cook and we both clean up. My husband enjoys a candlelight dinner at a fancy restaurant as much as I do, and I always watch the Super Bowl and other sports with him. We have things we enjoy doing together like traveling and going to movies, and then there are things we do separately which gives us our own space. He plays golf and I read a book. The best thing is that when the day is finished, we always go to bed together, and romance doesn’t get any better than that. 

Kim:  Who or what helped you along the path to publishing?

Amelia: I’m not certain of the exact year but around 1984 Kathryn Falk held workshops in New York City on how to write a romance. I would take the train from Connecticut into the city for those workshops. I also joined Romance Writers of America and took workshops at their annual conference as well workshops at regional conferences. If not for taking those classes on how to plot, create tension, write actively, and too many more subjects to mention, I never would have published my first book. I’ve now finished number twenty-five. 

Kim:  Tell us about A LITTLE MISCHIEF.

Amelia: I would love to. I like to write cute and fun books so I had always shied away from murder, or deep, dark and depressing plots. I mean, how can that be fun? But, finally I decided on a way to have a murder mystery and keep my same light tone and style. I decided to have the dead body go missing more than once, and then have it show up again at a most inopportune time. This is the short synopsis of the story.

A Little Mischief

Isabella Winslowe is finally flourishing. She is gaining respectable notoriety for her ‘Wallflower Society’ until the unthinkable happens. She finds the darkly handsome Earl of Colebrooke’s sister in the back garden with a stone cupid in her hand and a dead man at her feet. The newly titled earl is formidable in looks, personality, and reputation. He’s not a man Isabella wants to tangle with over such a delicate situation.

Daniel Colebrooke, is juggling all that he can handle when the most alluring young lady he has ever met arrives at his door and tells him his sister never intended to kill London’s most eligible bachelor. Daniel is certain he has a beautiful madwoman in front of him. Highly suspicious of Miss Winslowe’s story, he goes with her to the garden and finds it empty. She insists someone has stolen the body.

Daniel decides to keep an eye on Miss Winslowe to see what kind of mischief is she up to? She might tell someone else her outrageous story about his sister. If something like that got out, Gretchen’s reputation would be ruined beyond repair. But what Daniel finds is that Isabella sets his heart to racing like no woman ever has. She’s engaging and exciting in a quiet and captivating way. But Daniel can’t give into his desire for Isabella…there’s a supposedly missing dead body standing them. 

Gainsborough's ST JAMES PARK

Kim:  What’s next for Amelia Grey?

Amelia: I’m putting the finishing touches on the last book in the Rogues’ Dynasty Series. The sixth and final book should be out next spring. The final title hasn’t been decided yet, but here is a teaser about the book.

Matson Brentwood has finally met the woman of his dreams. The lovely, red-haired Sophia Hart heats his blood like no other lady. Her alluring countenance has stopped him dead in his tracks. But no matter how attracted he is to her, he can’t give into his desire to possess her in every way because she is the ward of the man he’s sworn to hate.

Newly arrived in London, Miss Sophia Hart is looking for a husband—for herself and for one of her twin, spinster aunts who has decided she wants a man. Sophia agrees to help her aunt by allowing older gentlemen to call on her and then come up with ways to make sure her aunt spends more time with the gentleman than Sophia does.

But there’s more than just an unwanted guardian and a long list of beaus standing between Sophia and Matson. She can’t give into the maddening charms of the darkly handsome and intriguing Matson. She must deny her love for him and pay her debt to her father for costing him the love of his life.

I hope you’ll pick up a copy of the reissue of A LITTLE MISCHIEF if you missed it when it was first published in 2003. It won the Booksellers Best Award and Aspen Gold Award for best Historical.

I love to hear from readers! 

Please email me at ameliagrey@comcast.net, 

follow me at Facebook.com/ameliagreybooks, 

or visit my website at ameliagrey.com. 

 

Mahalo, Amelia, for joining us today!  I posted my review of A LITTLE MISCHIEF on Amazon at this link and Goodreads at this link.   Last week I asked readers who was mischievous in their family (at this link).  Here in Hawaii, we have the mischievous Menehune.  From The Hawaiian Encyclopedia (at this link),

Wawā ka menehune i Pu‘ukapele ma Kaua‘i, puoho

ka manu o ka loko o Kawainui ma O‘ahu.

The shouts of the menehune on Pu‘ukapele on Kaua‘i

 startled the birds of Kawainui Pond on O‘ahu.

Translated by Mary Kawena Pukui.

Do you have any local legends of mischievous people - pixies?  fairies?  teenagers?  One randomly selected commenter wins a Hawaiian Mischievous gift pack - Hawaiian fruit tee and Nai'a (dolphin) candy dish ... and dolphins are just as mischievous as the Menehune!  This giveaway is open to all readers.  Comments are open through Saturday, August 11, 10 pm in Hawaii.  I'll post the winner on Sunday, August 12.

Mahalo,

Kim in Hawaii

These Hawaiian wahine (women) look for Menehune
near the Kaneaki heiau (temple).