I’m very pleased to have Margaret Daley with me today.  She will be giving away a copy of her book to one lucky commentor, so please leave a comment for a chance to win.

1.    How did you get started writing?

I have been writing for over thirty years. I was an avid reader of romances, especially historical ones, years ago and decided to see if I could put a story down on paper. This was before the computer was popular. I wrote my first books by longhand then typed them. So different from today.

2.    What genre(s) do you write in and why?

I started out in the secular market writing romances, mostly contemporary with a couple of historical ones. Then in 2000 I sold my first book to Harlequin’s inspirational line (Love Inspired) and made the shift to writing Christian romances (and romantic suspense books). I love writing for that market, but I have decided to re-release some of my older books as ebooks. I’m updating them and making a few changes then self-publishing them.

3.    Tell us about your current series.

My first out of print I’m reissuing is Deadly Race, a romance with a suspense/adventure element to it. The next one is Love Gone to the Dogs, a light contemporary romance with a zany cast of characters. I have several more after that.

4.   What movie best describes your life?  Why?

The movies I watch are usually suspense/thrillers. Thankfully my life does not reflect those movies. Truthfully I can think of one.

5.    What inspired your latest book?

My latest book is Deadly Race. It was written originally years ago, but what inspired the story are movies like Romancing the Stone. Fun, suspenseful, romantic.

6.    What is your favorite part of writing?

Coming up with the story and putting it all together.

7.    What is your least favorite part of writing?

Rewriting and rewriting.

8    What is your next project and when will it be released?

My next self-published work is Love Gone to the Dogs which I hope will be out by the time this blog goes up. Then I will be working on the book, The Lady and the Cop.

9.    What is your typical day like?

I write most of the day, especially when I’m under contract. I do a lot of my interviews, answering emails, etc at night.

10.    How much time do you spend promoting your books?

What works best for you? I’m spending more and more time on promoting and I don’t know what works best for me. I suppose the most important thing an author can do is write the best book she can. I answer emails and letters sent to me and try to have a presence on several social media places.

11.  How has your experience with self-publishing been?

I’ve just started and have a lot to learn.

12.  Where do you get the ideas for your stories?

From everywhere. A lot of time I don’t really know. They just occur.

13.  What advice do you have for other authors wanting to self-publish?

Learn the craft, write the best book you can and then learn how to promote yourself. I wish you all good luck

Excerpt:

When you’re desperate, you do things you’d never do otherwise, Ellie Winters thought as she spied the neon sign that might possibly lead to her salvation. American Bar, Hotel Grande Costa.

Dressed in a blue satin jump suit, she paused in the doorway to the bar and glanced over her shoulder to see if those two goons—King Kong and Godzilla—were still following her. They were. Her heart beat faster. Her throat went dry. This wasn’t turning out the way it was supposed to.

Her new job was supposed to be an adventure in a country she’d never been to. Instead, she felt trapped and that frightened her enough to seek help from a total stranger. Now all she had to do was find that stranger.

Ellie moved farther into the room, scanning the dimly lit bar. She had to come up with a way out of this mess. Calling the police was out of the question, since her employer was best friends with the chief of police, and frankly right now she didn’t want to draw any more attention to herself than she already had. That was what got her into this mess in the first place. That, and the fact she was too curious for her own good.

When she heard a deep male voice, low and gruff, but definitely speaking English, her gaze fixed on a fellow American sitting at a table with another man, talking earnestly to his companion. The second man rose, said something she couldn’t hear to the American and left.

Her hand came up to touch the brooch she wore for good luck. For just a few seconds she allowed herself to feel relieved and thought finally things would work out for her. But when she saw the two goons enter the bar, her newfound optimism faltered. With a quick glance around the place, she drew in a deep breath and made her move toward the American.

“Finally I’ve found someone who speaks English,” Ellie said in a breathless voice. “You know everyone around Bella Isla speaks Spanish.”

Surprised, the man just looked at her.

* * *

Slade Calvert glanced about him, wondering if this woman had mistaken him for someone else, and noticed more than one man in the bar was covetously staring at her. Her startling beauty commanded men’s attention when she entered a room.

The woman sat in the vacant chair at his table. “You don’t mind if I join you?” Her big, blue eyes appealed to him as she leaned forward and extended her hand to him. “I’m Eleanor Winters, fellow American. But you can call me Ellie. Everyone does. I’ve just been away from home too long and I hardly speak the local language. Of course, not from want of trying, but I just don’t have an ear for foreign languages. Next time I’m going to a place where they speak English. Although that was exactly why I was hired to teach English, not Spanish. I have a friend who is a travel agent, and she said I wouldn’t have any problem getting my ideas across.”

Probably her friend was banking on some man not caring what she said, Slade thought as he took in the woman sitting across from him at the suddenly very small table. The soft scent of vanilla wafted to him. “I’m Slade Calvert.” A few minutes’ diversion wouldn’t harm him, and he could appreciate a beautiful woman as much as the next man. Like any healthy, red-blooded male it was hard to resist one when she practically sat in his lap.

The waitress appeared at her side, and Ellie immediately said, “I’ll take a rum punch with a little umbrella and a pineapple slice in it.” She indicated an umbrella and pineapple slice with her fingers. “It’s so …” she waved her hand in the air as though searching for the right word, “so tropical. I feel when you go to a foreign country you should do what the locals do. Don’t you think?” She didn’t give him time to answer but continued her chatter, bending even closer as though to impart a secret. “I think you should blend in when you’re traveling abroad.”

This woman would blend in about as well as a neon light in the dead of night, Slade thought, and gave their order to the waitress in Spanish.

When he returned his appraising gaze to the woman sitting next to him, he was struck again with the one fact that overrode all others: she was drop-dead gorgeous. A mass of silver-blonde curls framed her delicately featured face. Her sky blue eyes were fringed in dark lashes that made her eyes appear large. Her figure was voluptuous, not disguised one bit in her satiny jump suit.

* * *

Ellie shifted beneath this man’s suddenly sharp, probing gaze, crossing her legs then uncrossing them. She had latched onto the nearest American male, praying he would be easy to manage; she was definitely having second thoughts about this one. Even though he was sitting down, she could tell he was over six feet tall and his body was in superb physical condition, as revealed by the white short sleeve shirt that didn’t conceal his muscles. But what arrested her the most about this stranger was his hard, rugged features, a firm jaw line, piercing, jade green eyes, a nose that had been broken at least once, and a tiny scar beneath his left eye. She wondered how he had acquired it.

Inwardly she shivered. “I just love those little drinks with all the fruit in them. If you’re going to drink, you might as well get some nutritional value, don’t you think?” Why she ordered a rum punch was beyond her. She didn’t drink alcohol, but then she’d been so nervous when she’d spied the two men making their way into the bar right behind her, she hadn’t thought about what she was saying.

“If you want nutrition, drink milk.”

“Milk is good, too, and definitely nutritional. After all, that’s what babies are raised on the first months of their lives, but I doubt they have milk in here.” She always chattered when she was nervous and boy, was she nervous. Slanting a look over her shoulder at King Kong and Godzilla, Ellie noticed the two goons had taken a table near her. Her heart slammed against her chest. Why had she accepted the governess job? Look where it had gotten her. All she had wanted to do was see the world. Ellie leaned even closer to the American, keeping her voice pitched low so the two goons couldn’t hear. “Why are you in Bella Isla?”

“Business.”

“Oh, what kind?” Bodyguard would be good.

“I work for a computer company. Why are you in Bella Isla? You said something about teaching English to two children.”

A computer nerd? How was that going to help her? “Yes, I took a governess job here because I heard the beaches were great here. But there are so many soldiers around you can’t even get to them. What a disappointment. I should have tanned by now and just look at me. Pale as a ghost.” She didn’t add that the real reason she hadn’t tanned was that she had been a virtual prisoner at her employer’s villa. She needed this man’s help, and she didn’t want to scare him away, even if he sat in front of a computer all day. At least he was American.

“Lady, do you know a revolution is about to break loose here?”

“I’m sure they’ll get everything straightened out. Fighting is such a waste of time.” And right now she couldn’t deal with a revolution when she was sure her employer had sent two men to find her and follow her. She wondered when Godzilla and King Kong would make their move and seize her. The feeling of being trapped escalated.