Please help me welcome Vonnie Davis to my blog today. Be sure and leave her a comment to be entered into the drawing for a $10 giftcard.

Tell us about yourself.

I am a retired technical writer who has traded her tailored clothes for the feathered boa of a romance author. The change in professions appeals to the romantic in me, that’s why I like to consider myself a Fairy-God Mother to my characters, giving them the HEA ending they deserve. My husband, who is also a published author, and I are both owned by a spoiled tabby cat.

If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be, and why?

Paris. We’re returning for two weeks in September before traveling to Berlin to see my step-son. I love the culture, the energy and the architecture of the city. Two of my books are set there.

Do you have other talents? Or is there a talent you don’t have that you wish you did?

I know how to spoil grandchildren. Does that count?

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

I love stories of hope. That’s why I write romance. I love the push and pull of it, the yin and yang, the agony and the ecstasy. Oops, was that a cliché? Can I claim senior moment on that one?

How many books have you written? Do you have a favorite?

In the past three years, I’ve written six books/novellas with two more waiting for a release date. I love them all, but Rain is a Love Song is my favorite because I allowed more of my demented sense of humor to show in this romantic suspense.

Tell us about your current series/WIP.

I’m trying my hand at writing a paranormal. For the last year or more, it’s been my “go-to” story when I’ve hit a wall in whatever book I was working on. I’d write a scene or chapter in this story so unlike what I normally write while my subconscious worked its way through the mess I’d created in my WIP. It’s tentatively titled When Paisley Meets Plaid. I’d still be playing with it if another writer hadn’t read part of the darn thing and insisted I finish it.

What inspired your latest book?

Oh, if I tell you, you’ll entitle this blog “Weird Woman Comes to Talk.” You might be right. You see, two years ago, I had a cancerous cyst removed from my saliva gland. A four-hour surgery that left my left cheek and ear numb. About a month afterward, two golden orbs started glowing in the back of my mind. Cancer, I thought. Despite what the doctors told me, I was convinced that cancer has spread to my brain. I went into major worry mode. I researched online and not once in all my research did I read that brain cancer glowed. Nor did I have any of the symptoms the Mayo Clinic and others listed. I was just about to call the doctor’s office when the golden orbs blinked. Eyes? Those are eyes?

Those golden eyes watched me for months…silently…waiting…and I had no clue what they wanted.

Then one night as I was in that fragile, fluttery state between wakefulness and sleep, the eyes moved from the back of my mind to the foot of the bed and slowly the shape of a huge bear formed.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” I whispered to the bear. “You’ve come to the wrong author. I don’t write children’s stories.” He shook his head. “Oh? You’re not a children’s bear?” Slowly the bear shifted to a man in a kilt. “Oh dear, you’re still in the wrong writer’s bedroom. I don’t write paranormal.”

He stalked around the foot of the bed and stood next to me. “Aye, lassie, but ye will.” He lifted the covers and I slid closer to my snoring husband to make room. The Scot settled into our bed and folded his hands over his broad chest. “Let me tell ye how bears came to be extinct in Scotland…” And from that point on Creighton Matheson has played an important role in my life.

This is how my heroes come to me. At bedtime, fully formed and oozing attitude. I’m telling you, the men just won’t leave me alone!!

Do you have critique partners?

Yes, I have three. One is a Harlequin author who lives in England, an ex-editor who self-publishes her fantasy stories and a self-published mystery writer, who claims I have a comma fetish, but we don’t need to go there.

Was your road to publication difficult or a walk in the park?

Once I decided to get serious about my writing, it wasn’t too bad. For nearly fifty years I’d started and stopped many stories. I suppose for me the timing wasn’t right. Plus, self-doubt is a terrible thing.

I’d written a romantic suspense and hired a free-lance editor to give it a good going over. Through the process we became friends. Once we had the manuscript sparkling clean of errors, I started querying agents. I think I made every mistake in the book. One night my friend and I were texting. I was lamenting my twentieth agent rejection and jokingly said if she’d become an agent, I could be her first client.

She emailed me the next day, asking if I really thought she could start her own agency. Emails flew back and forth, both of us getting excited. She researched and read “how-to” books and opened her literary agency. Of course all the “experts” said she couldn’t do it. (Never doubt a woman!) Others claimed editors would have nothing to do with her, running an agency out of her spare bedroom while wearing jeans and t-shirt. (Never challenge a determined woman.) Four years later, my agent now has over 50 clients with several big-six contracts. In fact an editor at Random House is waiting for me to finish this paranormal; she loved the first three chapters.

Two weeks after Dawn started “shopping out” my debut book, I had two contract offers and a lovely rejection from an editor at Harlequin who claimed I had a voice like Linda Lael Miller. I cried. Imagine my name and Ms. Millers in the same sentence! I chose The Wild Rose Press, an awesome publisher to work with.

What I’m trying to say to all of you is…we are living in the Wild West of the publishing industry. Almost anything goes. Heck, if you can’t find an agent, create one. If you can’t find a publisher, self-publish. Just make sure you hire an editor who knows about character development, GMC and zeroing in on plot holes as well as spotting missed words and grammar issues. Make sure your product is pristine. You owe your readers nothing less.

To a lucky commenter, I’m giving away a $10.00 gift card to Amazon. Please leave your email address, so I can contact you should you win.

EXCERPT from RAIN IS A LOVE SONG:
Jean-Luc stared at her for a few beats, his face hard and unreadable. His breathing quickened and his gaze dropped to her lips. The tic in his eye returned. “You think you can handle it, Gingersnap?”

A shudder went through her in response to the tone of his voice. Oh, hell, why did she feel like she just nudged awake some sleeping beast? She swallowed and was sure the sound reverberated in the room. Her police training taught her one thing: never show fear. She tossed her hair back and met him stare for stare. “I can handle whatever you’ve got, big guy.”

He stepped between her legs and splayed his fingers into her hair. “Let’s just see, shall we?” Was he asking her or himself? “You want to play ‘Fanny Flirtatious’ with me? For once and for all, let’s see if you’ve got what it takes to back up your words.”

Her system did its twitchy thing. Was he really going to kiss her? Suddenly her nerves jumped from eager anticipation to dread, hopping from yay, he’s going to kiss me to oh damn, me and my big mouth.

“Look at me.”

As if she could look anywhere else.

His head lowered one fraction of an inch at a time as if to prolong the suspense of the moment. All the while his dark eyes remained locked on hers. Tension coiled in the pit of her stomach. She waited—and waited. Finally, his warm lips made contact.

Oh. My. God.

Buy Link: http://www.amazon.com/Rain-Love-Song-Conspiracy-ebook/dp/B00BK9QV3K/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1370315861&sr=1-1&keywords=rain+is+a+love+song
LINK TO BOOK TRAILER: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XE2F3BCp_es
Find me at www.vonniedavis.com
I blog at www.vintagevonnie.blogspot.com

LINK TO BOOK TRAILER: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XE2F3BCp_es