The Emissary 3: Love Hurts ~ New Release by @MarciaMeara

Hey, everyone! This has been an exciting month in that several of my author friends have new releases. Today, I’d like to welcome Marcia Meara to my blog. I believe this is her first time here, so please welcome her.

Now, without further ado, here’s Marcia to talk about her novella, Emissary 3, Love Hurts.


Thanks so much for having me here today, Joan. It’s great to be sharing the news of my latest release with you and your followers.

Like many writers, my readers often ask me who my favorite characters are. I’ve gotten that question quite a bit about this little series of novellas too, and thought it might be fun to talk about it today. Most of the time, my answers are pretty easy. There’s usually one character in each book that stands out to me more than the rest, even as I’m writing. But with the Emissary tales, there are only three characters who’ve been present in each book, and it’s a much more difficult choice.

First, we have Jake Daughtry, a widower who gave his life rescuing a woman who was drowning in an icy river. Jake was the first soul Azrael pulled from the line in front of the Pearly Gates to become an emissary to the overworked angels. He started out a bit on the stubborn, opinionated, and snarky side, but has grown into his job. He’s a good man, through and through, and hard not to like.

Then along came Dodger, a street-smart junkie in Atlanta, running drugs for a gang, but desperately wanting to get out of that situation. At Azrael’s instructions, Jake rescues the dying boy from a deserted alley, and eventually takes him under his wing. Dodger looks up to Jake as the father he never had, and takes to being an emissary from the start. As it turns out, his powers are far stronger than the ones bestowed upon Jake, and growing more so every day.

And then there’s that ginormous archangel, Azrael. He of the snowy-white wings and the stern countenance and even sterner proclamations. He starts by ruling the emissaries with an iron-fist, but while he’s never going to be a pushover, he has learned to care deeply about his first two emissaries, even as he added more and more to the team around the world.

When push comes to shove, while I love Jake and Dodger immensely, nothing has been more fun than writing Azrael, even if he still doesn’t know how to use contractions. So I guess that answers the question.

The archangel Azrael is my favorite Emissary character, but I hope those of you who decide to check out the tales will enjoy each one of them on his own merits.

Blurb

The archangel Azrael created his emissaries to help mortals avoid choices that would doom them for eternity. He hadn’t planned on the youngest member of the team falling in love with one. In Marcia Meara’s final installment of her Emissary Trilogy, a Riverbend spinoff series of novellas, we find our three heroes facing a new problem, and it’s all because Dodger died before having a chance to know what love was all about. His request that Azrael help him correct that situation causes a multitude of problems no one could have foreseen. Except the angel.

Azrael’s emissarial program was growing daily, but it still met with stubborn opposition from many on the Council of Angels. Dodger’s request to be allowed to experience what falling in love was all about didn’t help matters, but Azrael thought the boy was onto something. He agreed emissaries who’d shared a loving relationship during their mortal lives would have a deeper understanding of human emotions and motivations, thus enhancing the skills they needed to do their jobs.

With that in mind, Azrael gave Dodger one chance to search for true love. He then laid down a daunting set of stringent rules and guidelines that could not be broken under any circumstances lest dire happenings occur. But while the angel sincerely hoped Dodger would find a way to make this endeavor work, he feared an avalanche of unintended consequences could be in store for his youngest emissary.

Sometimes even angels hate to be right.

Will Azrael ever tire of popping up behind Jake just to see his first emissary fall out of his chair in shock? Will sharp-eyed motel owners ever notice a big red and white semi mysteriously appearing and/or disappearing from their parking lots overnight? And will Dodger be able to track down the mystery girl who caught his eye two weeks earlier to see if she’s really The One?

To find the answers to these and other angelic or emissarial questions, come along on one last adventure with Jake, Dodger, and that ginormous, glowy-eyed archangel, Azrael. They’re waiting for you!

Buy The Emissary 3: Love Hurts HERE.

Bio

Marcia Meara lives in central Florida, just north of Orlando, with her husband of over thirty years and four big, spoiled cats.

When not writing or blogging, she spends her time gardening, and enjoying the surprising amount of wildlife that manages to make a home in her suburban yard. She enjoys nature. Really, really enjoys it. All of it! Well, almost all of it, anyway. From birds, to furry critters, to her very favorites, snakes. The exception would be spiders, which she truly loathes, convinced that anything with eight hairy legs is surely up to no good. She does not, however, kill spiders anymore, since she knows they have their place in the world. Besides, her husband now handles her Arachnid Catch and Release Program, and she’s good with that.

Spiders aside, the one thing Marcia would like to tell each of her readers is that it’s never too late to make your dreams come true. If, at the age of 69, she could write and publish her first book (and thus fulfill 64 years of longing to do that very thing), you can make your own dreams a reality, too. Go for it! What have you got to lose?

Contact & Buy Links

Contact Marcia Here:

marciameara16@gmail.com

The Write Stuff

Pinterest

Twitter: @marciameara

Find Marcia’s Books Here:

MARCIA’S AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE

Book Review ~ Swamp Ghosts by Marcia Meara #TuesdayBookBlog

Hey y’all. It’s time for another Tuesday Book Share. I’ve been able to wheedle down my TBR list in the past few weeks. One of the books I read was Marcia Meara’s Swamp Ghosts, the first of her Riverbend Series.

Marcia published this book five years ago, but if you haven’t read it, I highly encourage you to do so. I’ll be reading the rest of her Riverbend Series and more.

Blurb:

Wildlife photographer Gunnar Wolfe looked like the kind of guy every man wanted to be and every woman just plain wanted, and the St. Johns River of central Florida drew him like a magnet. EcoTour boat owner Maggie Devlin knew all the river’s secrets, including the deadliest ones found in the swamps. But neither Maggie nor Gunn was prepared for the danger that would come after them on two legs.

On a quest to make history photographing the rarest birds of them all, Gunnar hires the fiery, no-nonsense Maggie to canoe him into the most remote wetland areas in the state. He was unprepared for how much he would enjoy both the trips and Maggie’s company. He soon realizes he wants more than she’s able to give, but before he can win her over, they make a grisly discovery that changes everything, and turns the quiet little town of Riverbend upside down. A serial killer is on the prowl among them.

My 5 Star Review:

I had Swamp Ghosts (Book One of the Riverbend Series) on my ever-growing TBR list for a few months. I don’t know why I waited so long to read it. It’s not often I finish a book in one day.

Swamp Ghosts has the elements I love in a story—mystery, suspense, and romance. A huge plus is Marcia Meara’s knowledge of the Florida area and its wildlife.

The characters are well-developed, and the chemistry between Maggie and Gunnar is evident from the start. The plot is well-written and the action fast-paced. Meara throws in enough twists and turns that kept me guessing the identity of the killer. (And no, I didn’t get it right.)

The book ends with a satisfying conclusion and a hint of what is to come in the second Riverbend book.

A resounding five stars for this one!

Author Bio:

Marcia Meara lives in central Florida, just north of Orlando, with her husband of over thirty years, four big cats, and one small dachshund. When not writing or blogging, she spends her time gardening, and enjoying the surprising amount of wildlife that manages to make a home in her suburban yard.

Marcia enjoys nature. All of it! Well, almost all of it, anyway. From birds, to furry critters, to her very favorites, snakes. She does, however, consider squirrels to be minions of Satan, sent to drive her mad. And she truly loathes spiders, convinced that anything with eight hairy legs is surely up to no good. She does not, however, kill spiders anymore, since she knows they have their place in the world. Besides, her husband now handles her Arachnid Catch and Release Program, and she’s good with that.

The one thing Marcia would like to tell each of her readers is that it’s never too late to make your dreams come true. If, at the age of 69, she could write and publish a book (and thus fulfill 64 years of longing to do that very thing), you can make your own dreams a reality, too. Go for it! What have you got to lose?


A note about ratings. I consider three stars and above as positive reviews. I reserve five stars for books that keep me turning the pages and that I would read again. (Yes, I’ve been known to do that.)

5 Stars: Awesome story! Couldn’t put it down – Highly recommend.
4 Stars: The book kept me interested – Check it out.
3 Stars: It was okay. Not my favorite, but I didn’t dislike it enough to discontinue.
2 Stars: Book didn’t hold my interest, problems with the plot, characters, poor writing, etc.
1 Star: Don’t bother!

Introducing Gamble’s Villains

Happy Monday! I’m excited to welcome back friend and fellow author Staci Troilo talking about her latest novella, Gamble. This is the second book in her Nightforce Security Series and released last Friday. She’s been a busy lady so far this year! Staci, it’s always a pleasure to host you. Take it away…


Hi, everybody. I’m really glad to be here today. Thanks for spending some time with me.

If you listen to actors give interviews, you find they appreciate the love they get when they play the hero, but they really love to sink their teeth into the villain. There’s something sadistically delicious about playing a bad guy. Maybe it’s because they get to say and do things we can’t do in real life, filling a subconscious need. (Or maybe that’s just my reason for liking them. And no, I’m not claiming to have fantasies of being a serial killer.)

For the same reasons actors like to play villains, authors like to write them.

In a novella, I think it’s hard to craft someone as layered and twisted as Hannibal Lecter or Annie Wilkes. That kind of depravity takes hundreds of pages. So, what’s a writer to do if she’s writing a short novella rather than a long novel in the thriller genre (known for fast-paced, plot-driven fiction)? I solved that problem with two solutions:

  1. focus on a single motivation (greed)
  2. created a gang rather than a single antagonist

The first point is easy. In my novels, I have characters who are multi-layered and psychologically complex. They consider their actions through exhaustive thought processes and concoct intricate schemes. In a novella, there isn’t time for that. So I picked one motivation, and I didn’t focus so much on the impetus as I did on the plan they hatched.

Yes, I said ‘they’ with respect to the villain. Or villains, in this case. It probably seems counter intuitive to have more people instead of fewer in a novella. I’m already claiming that low word counts make it hard to flush out a villain, and now I’m adding villains? Bear with me; I promise it makes sense. I created a gang that operates as one entity. So there’s really only one villain, it’s just multi-faceted. Each criminal provides a single characteristic of a complex antagonist. Because Gamble takes place in a casino (bet you didn’t see that coming), it seemed appropriate to give them names associated with playing cards. I’ll admit, I was thinking about the 1960s Batman television show where the henchmen had theme-centric names. (Catwoman had two male thugs named Felix and Leo and two female associates named Kitty and Cattie.) It was not only fun naming my villains, their names also help reveal their rank in the criminal hierarchy. And their position helped determine what they brought to the collective ‘villain’ entity. For example—Ace was in charge, Joker was wild, Deuce was definitely not the mastermind but rather just helped where he could (although he wasn’t always helpful). You get the idea.

So, there you have it. Motivation and a collective entity helped create the antagonist(s) in Gamble. It was a new and exciting experience for me, writing a gang instead of a single bad guy. And because there were a lot of them, there was opportunity for some fun interactions. If I were an actor, I’d enjoy playing any of these villains.

Blurb for Gamble:

Sometimes stakes are too high to gamble. Other times they’re too high not to.

Noah Crawford is a consummate bachelor—until a one-night stand piques his interest in something more. The only problem is, she wouldn’t give him her name, and he has no way to find her.

A week later, resigned to forgetting her, he accompanies his friends to a casino. Floor traffic promises to be light while everyone clusters at the sportsbook for the college basketball championship game. But Noah isn’t in the mood for frivolity and sets off on his own. No one is more surprised than he is when he bumps into his mystery woman.

He’s playing a far different game than cards when armed criminals take over the poker room. Noah is separated from his friends, and somehow the room has been cut off from security. Help isn’t coming. It’s up to him to keep everyone safe while he tries to thwart the gunmen.

Noah quickly realizes he’s trying to prevent more than a simple heist. And he doesn’t know who he can trust. The stakes have never been higher, and he’s all in. But one of the thieves might have an ace up his sleeve, and that could cost Noah everything.

More Information | Universal Purchase Link

About Staci:

Staci Troilo writes because she has hundreds of stories in her head. She publishes because people told her she should share them. She’s a multi-genre author whose love for writing is only surpassed by her love for family and friends, and that relationship-centric focus is featured in her work.

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