HAPPY BIRTHDAY ASPEN MOUNTAIN PRESS

 Thanks for stopping at my blog on AMP's 5th Anniversary –

Let me introduce myself.  My name is Marie Roy.  I also write under another name and some of you may know me as Collette Thomas.    I'm quite used to living life as a double because in real life I'm an identical twin.  She's not a writer, but let's say one day I will write stories of what's it like to be a twin, especially throughout our growing up years when we dressed alike, talked alike, and even thought alike.  I write a little about this aspect of my life on this blog in an earlier post.

As Marie Roy I write contemporary romance which I feel uplifts the spirit and touches the heart.

Stormbound is one of the stories I wrote under my name and can be found at Aspen Mountain Press.  This story is quite close to my heart inspired while vacationing in the Lake George, New York area with my late husband.  While browsing through a gift shop in that area I spotted these Christmas carolers.  From that point on the germ of an idea embedded itself into my heart as well as my mind.   A few years later my story Stormbound was released at Aspen Mountain Press where it earns four star reviews.  Basically it's a delightful story filled with quirky characters.  It is a straight romance who anyone can read...mothers, fathers, grandmothers, grandfathers, and anyone looking for a nice relaxing read, although do expect a few quite unexpected twists and turns. 

As Collette Thomas things really do heat up.  My story Night Fantasies also at Aspen Mountain Press was inspired actually by a dream that I had one night.  Yes, it was quite a sexy dream truth be told. 

Again, an idea embedded itself somewhere inside my brain and before I knew it I had created a story I think that most readers will enjoy reading.  Yes, Night Fantasies is quite sexy, and considered an erotic romance.  Also, as I've told my readers, you will never look at a wedding cake quite in the same way again.   Honest! 

Then one summer while I moderated a Yahoo group known as the Erotic Romance Workshop I encouraged several of the writers to coordinate together with me on an anthology of stories about someone getting stuck inside an elevator with a very attractive man or woman and then living out a fantasy. 

This resulted is a hot sexy anthology of stories titled Goin' Down.  Again you'll find that anthology on AMP's website.    I myself do not like elevators, especially the ones that go too slow because I think their going to get stuck, but I think after writing my story titled Elevator Man I'm not as hesitant to get on an elevator anymore.  After reading these stories you'll understand why.

To find out more about me just read through this blog.   And to find out more about me and what else I write as Collette Thomas just go to my NEWSLETTER.

CONTEST TIME

Please comment on this blog here and you will be entered to win BOTH copies of Stormbound and Night Fantasies.

 

Tour Rules:
1) Tour Starts: Monday, August 1, 2011 at Midnight (EST)
Tour Ends: August 7, 2011 at Midnight (EST)
Final Celebration is August 7th from 6pm-11pm (EST) at the AMP Community Loop.
Grand Prize: a Kindle (Wi-Fi, Graphite, 6″ Display with New E-Ink Pearl Technology) is the Grand Prize. Drawing will take place and be announced on August 7, 2011 on the AMP Community Loop at 11pm (EST). Only comments posted before 10pm (EST) on August 7, 2011 are eligible to win the Kindle. Winner will be notified by email on August 8, 2011 if they are not present on the Loop for the announcement.
***Individual winners from author contests will be drawn and posted August 8, 2011 on their individual sites.***
2) Participation at every blog on the tour is not required but the more blogs a person comments on, the more chances they have to win. If a person comments on one blog, they are entered into the Grand Prize Drawing once. If they comment on ten different blogs, they will be entered into the Grand Prize drawing ten times. Only one comment per blog per person will be entered to win the Grand Prize.
3) The winner of the Grand Prize must be a resident of the United States with a US mailing address. Non-US winners will be eligible for $50 US in Aspen Mountain Press books from the AMP Website.
4) Prizes at individual author blogs are completely at the discretion of the individual authors and are not in association with Aspen Mountain Press and its prize system. To enter the contest on any given blog, you must follow their contest rules and objectives.
5) By commenting on any blog in the tour, the participant is agreeing to these rules and policies.
6) All prize winners will be chosen randomly by using Random Line Picker.

Thank you for Touring my Blog your Next stop is the Aubrey Leatherwood whose books are coming soon to AMP and I can't wait to read them.

Happy Touring

For the next Stop on the tour

CLICK HERE 

July's Almost Over - Where Did It Go?

This summer is going by too fast.  I haven't even been to a pond, let alone a lake, or the beach.  In my youth that's where you would find me especially on weekends, near the Connecticut shore.  I loved that place, specificially in Old Lyme, CT, more specifically in Sound View, and even more specifically on Hartford Avenue where all the action was and still is.

I need to get myself down there before summer's end.  I will always remember spending two weeks during summer vacations there.  My parents would rent a cottage (actually a two-story house) right on Hartford Avenue from my father's sister who not only owned that property but a smaller cottage right in back.  Being that I'm Italian you can imagine the weekends down there when all the relatives would come down to visit from on my father's side and also on my mother's side.

I remember tomato sauce cooking on the stove and huge pots of spaghetti served to the droves of cousins, aunts, uncles, and friends.

I remember a donut shop that produced freshly baked donuts that melted in your mouth--literally.  Every morning my sister and I would make the short walk up the street from our cottage to buy a dozen of the cinnamon glazed ones.  (My mouth is starting to water now.)

My sister and I became well known during those summers in a sense because we were known as the "twins" who looked alike, dressed alike, sounded alike and you almost couldn't tell us apart.  To confuse people even more our names were the same but switched...I was known as Marie Angela, and she?  You can take a guess.  In a sense I think we felt like one person for many of those formative years.  I still remember us both wearing these yellow sun dresses with spaghetti straps.  We were into our teens then and we looked well..."hot" in those yellow sundresses with the spaghetti straps.  We both wore our hair similarly, long and straight.  We had great tans.  What Italian doesn't?  Yes, we turned heads.  But we also had a very handsome, very rugged looking, very protective father who stood at five foot six yet his voice would make the tallest shake in their shoes.  Not to mention a mother who quiet most of the time knew how to swing that spatula if need be. 

On Hartford Avenue there was the Penny Arcade, the Carousel, the various eateries, and of course the sandy beach and the ocean.  I haven't smelled that ocean scent in years now and realized the other day I miss it.  There's something really organic when driving toward the shoreline where you get close enough to smell the watery brine of the ocean and you get this deep inner sense of connection to all that's around you.  I need to get to the shoreline before summer's end, but not today.

Today is when I pay my property taxes due August 1.  Lets hope the town does a better job of budgeting the monies they receive from the taxpayers than what is happening in Washington DC.

It's Damn Hot Today!

I am not venturing out too much today.  I put out the garbage can last night so I didn't have to do it this morning.  The drapes and curtains are drawn and the AC is set at a comfortable temperature.  The best thing I ever did in my life was to purchase Fijitsu units that go on the wall and never come down.  I made that decision after one weekend when I did not yet have the window air conditioning units in and the temperatures inside my house rose to ninety-four degrees.  That was the same weekend when a fluky thing happened to my furnace that ended up spewing oil over the cement floor around the unit.

It was on a Sunday that I'm calling my oil company's emergency line.  Within an hour they were on the scene.  The furnace was only six months old at the time.  I still remember them burning off the fuel and thick black smoke spewing from my chimney into the quiet summer air.  Horrendous.  And during that same period a lightning storm fried my modem.  Come Monday I had the repair guys from the oil company and the phone company inside this house, and both could not imagine how I could live here with 90 plus temps.  My basement was the only place I could go to escape the heat at the time but because of the problems with the furnace, the smell of the oil,  and the problem with the phone line upstairs I found myself having to stay upstairs and deal with the heat.

The repairman mentioned Fijitsu units that would essentially give me central air.  My eyes opened wide, hope soared inside me that I could actually start to live a more comfortable life than what I was living.   I thought back to the first winter as a widow and the first blizzard where the wind actually blew my drapes back and forth.  At the time I did have an airconditioning unit still inside the window so that cold air coming through the sides of it was fast negating the warmth that a 40 plus year old furnace could muster.  There I was at midnight duct taping sheets of plastic to a large picture window, side windows, over the entire airconditioning unit, plus a doorway and whatever else I detected frigid air coming through.  

These Fijitsu's also pump out heat as well.  I thought well with the new furnace and these Fijitsu's I may never suffer through another harsh winter or hot sultry summer again.  Besides, I am getting old...older, and my body no longer is able to adapt to extreme temperatures.   I had them install not one, not two, but three of these units. 

Today we will have triple digit temps outside.  It's morning and my temp gauge reads 94 outside, 76 inside.  Humidity is low inside, and barely breathable outside.

 I'm sitting here in relative comfort thanks to my decision to buy these units, which are also so quiet I have to look at them to see if they're on by the red light.

Gone are the days of spending summer days down in my basement, or sleeping on a pull out sofa in my family room because it several degrees cooler in there.

Yep, it's damn hot out there.   I'm staying indoors today.

TO LOVE A SOLDIER

This is a review from Amazing Authors Showcase for my book formerly A Soldier's Fortune and retitled To Love A Soldier. I thought this would be a perfect time to re-introduce this story for the upcoming July 4th weekend. This book hasn't received much exposure over the years, in fact very little. I now retain all rights so am able to upload it to the various publishers' websites such as Amazon and Smashwords.

You can click on Amazon to order your ebook today.

Or if you like you can click on Smashwords to get a copy of  To Love A Soldier.

Below is one of several reviews where To Love A Soldier (formerly A Soldier's Fortune earned itself four stars!

"A wonderful romance that spans decades, Ms. Roy has broken the mold of the same old same old in romantic fiction to bring us a down-to-earth hero and heroine.

Thirty years ago Sean McIntyre broke Lia Stewart's heart when he didn't show up for their scheduled elopement. She'd left the meeting place hurt and dejected, believing Sean had let her down in love. She left Split Maple Ridge with no intentions of returning.

Sean had dropped out of Harvard Law and enlisted in the service and became a Medevac helicopter pilot during the Vietnam Conflict. Now he owns McIntyre Construction where he hires Vietnam Vets to work for him. A job lands him in Split Maple Ridge, Vermont to develop some land for a condo building project. Lia's father, Eliah Stewart, plans on stopping the development even if it means shooting at the workers from a tree. He believes Native American artifacts will be destroyed if the project continues.

Lia rushes to Vermont to mount a archeological rescue dig to pacify her cantankerous old father and keep him out of jail. She hadn't planned on staying long, but Eliah breaks a leg and Sean offers them a place to stay until he's recovered.

Lia and Sean are still drawn to each other. Thirty years couldn't erase those old feeling, but both carry secrets about the night of their foiled elopement that needs to be out in the open before they can start anew.

Can love survive over time and distance, secrets and lies? To Love A Soldier makes you believe love really can conquer all."