Deal Sharing Aunt: Return to Marker Ranch by Claire McEwen & Giveaway

Monday, July 11, 2016

Return to Marker Ranch by Claire McEwen & Giveaway

On Tour with Prism Book Tours.

Return to Marker Ranch

(Sierra Legacy #2)
by Claire McEwen

Adult Contemporary Romance

Mass Market Paperback & ebook, 384 pages

July 1st 2016 by Harlequin Superromance

This is one reunion both of them could do without

This is the chance she's been waiting for to prove she can run her family's ranch. And despite her many doubters, Lori Allen knows she's doing a good job. Until the man who once broke her heart—Wade Hoffman—runs her well dry! And it turns out he's got as much to prove as she does. After serving his country, Wade's back to rebuild his family's reputation and win his battle with PTSD.

With so much to lose, neither can afford to give in to temptation. But to succeed they must let go of old heartache and face up to bringing out each other's worst, along with the best. And what doesn't kill them…

Goodreads│Amazon│Barnes & Noble│Harlequin

The First Book in the Series

Wild Horses

(Sierra Legacy #1)
by Claire McEwen

Adult Contemporary Romance

Mass Market Paperback & ebook, 384 pages

March 1st 2016 by Harlequin Superromance

This wild stallion can't be tamed

Todd Williams is still the naive idealist he was in college. Only now he's endangering lives—Nora Hoffman's to be exact. Nora hasn't seen Todd since he decided that saving the rain forest was more important than their relationship. Until the night she's nearly crushed by the stampede he causes. Now Todd is determined to make amends, for everything.

She may not agree with his methods, but even Nora can't deny the importance of his fight to save the wild horses. With the attraction between them still sizzling and the fate of the horses in the balance, Nora must decide just how much she's willing to risk.

Goodreads│Amazon│Barnes & Noble│Harlequin

Claire McEwen lives by the ocean in Northern California with her family and a scruffy, mischievous terrier. When not dreaming up new stories, she can be found digging in her garden with a lot of enthusiasm but, unfortunately, no green thumb.

Claire enjoys discovering flea-market treasures, walking on the beach, dancing, traveling, and reading, of course! She loves to write complex heroes and heroines, who grow and find themselves through their search for love.

Website│Goodreads│Facebook│Twitter│Pinterest

Interview

How long does it take you to write a book?

First of all, thank you for inviting me to your blog today. I’m thrilled to be here.

What a great question! How long it takes seems to vary a lot depending on the book – which isn’t very helpful when I’m trying to give my editor a timeline for a project! This book, Return to Marker Ranch, was originally my National Novel Writing Month book. The goal of NaNoWriMo is to write 50,000 words in a month. I met that goal and then kept writing for a couple more weeks to get to 80,000. So I guess it was about a seven-week process, which is very fast for me. And the book didn’t need much revision. It really poured out of me as a very complete, very emotional story. In contrast, the first book in the Sierra Legacy series, Wild Horses, took me months and months to write, with several re-writes and lots of agonizing. It just didn’t flow out of me in the same way that Return to Marker Ranch did.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

I write standing up, and sometimes I blast music and dance a little as I write. And I’m sure I look like a total nut in the process! But I really like to move and I get uncomfortable sitting for long periods of time.

Where do you get your information or ideas for your books?

I get ideas in many places. Sometimes from songs, or stories that people tell me about their lives. I get a lot of inspiration from travel. I’ll look at an interesting place, for example an old barn or farmhouse, and I will often imagine, or almost see, some characters there. And then I can build a story on that if I choose to.

I think of information as different from ideas. Information is what I gather once I have an idea I want to pursue. So once I’ve had my idea, I do a lot of internet research, or I talk to people who are in a certain profession, or I read non-fiction books, to build up my knowledge of what I’m writing about.

What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating your books?

How characters really do start talking on their own. They say things I never planned for them to say! And sometimes a new character, who I’d never envisioned before, just walks into the scene and starts talking. It’s very odd, and the first few times it happened, it worried me! It was just so totally unexpected. Until I started writing I had no idea that I had all of these people and voices lurking in my brain!

What do you think makes a good story?

I think strong characters are a vital part of a good story. Think about famous characters like Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy, or Jamie and Claire Fraser from the Outlander series. These characters live in our minds and hearts. I try to write stories where readers feel connected to, and invested in, the characters.

Also, for the type of stories I write, I think emotion is key. My characters are going through big changes, confronting difficulties in their lives, and falling in love. These are all really emotional events, so if I don’t convey that deep emotion then I probably won’t create a very compelling story.

What would you like my readers to know?

My books are published by Harlequin, and sometimes I think people don’t want to give Harlequin books a chance because they assume the books will be old fashioned, or like what your grandmother read. Honestly, before I got to know Harlequin better, I felt that way! But trust me, this is not your grandmother’s Harlequin! I feel like the series I write for, Superromance, is incredibly modern. They let me take on all kinds of issues in my stories that other publishers might shy away from. I absolutely love how the editors encourage creativity and powerful writing in our books. I try to read many of the Superromance books written by other authors and I always love them, and find them far more interesting than many of the other romance novels out there. If you’d like to learn more, we have a blog at www.superauthors.com and we’d love it if you stopped by!

Tour Schedule

July 1st: Launch

July 3rd: Becky on Books & Nicole’s Book Musings

July 5th: Mythical Books

July 6th: Brooke Blogs

July 7th: EskieMama Reads

July 8th: Thoughts of a Blonde & 23 Review Street

July 10th: underneath the covers

July 11th: Colorimetry

July 12th: deal sharing aunt

July 13th: Wishful Endings

July 14th: Harlie's Books