Guest Post - Marie Force plus GIVEAWAY!!!

 It is my extreme please to announce that Marie Force is here today!! I am so excited about having her as my guest. As you all know...she is one of my favorite authors. Not only is she talking about Creating Unforgettable Characters, but she is also offering her new release Fatal Affair to one lucky commenter today. Just answer her questions and please please leave your email address so that I can get a hold of you if you happen to be the lucky winner.  Without further ado...here is Marie Force...

Creating Unforgettable Characters

 

By: Marie Force

Thanks so much for having me today, Kara. It’s always such a pleasure to visit with such a great supporter of romance and, well, okay—my books! You are so kind in your reviews and comments, and I really appreciate your friendship. Since this is day five of the Fatal Affair launch week madness, I’m getting a little tired of myself, so I thought I’d talk about some other writing that wowed me recently.

Toy Story 3. Yep, you read that right. Just like its predecessors the movie is brilliantly animated and expertly voiced. And, even more so than the first two, it’s beautifully written: clever, poignant, funny, scary, and utterly captivating. When my son Jake was little, Buzz and Woody ruled the house. He was Buzz for Halloween one year and Woody the next. On one memorable road trip from Florida to Indiana and back again, all we watched/listened to in the car were the Toy Story movies. I remember my husband saying thank goodness there are two of them! We could’ve written a Ph.D. thesis on the deeper meaning of Toy Story by the time we got home from that trip.

One of my funniest Jake stories EVER was in a brand new church in Florida in which Jesus hung suspended over the altar rather than on the more conventional cross. Three-year-old Jake caught a glimpse of Jesus, busted loose in the middle of mass and tore down the center aisle yelling at the top of his considerable lungs, “Mommy, Mommy, it’s Buzz Lightyear!” How could a mom ever forget such a moment in which even the priest had to laugh?

Last year when the first two movies were re-released as a double feature, Jake and I went to see them and, shockingly, he had NO MEMORY of ever seeing them before. He remembered the characters but not the stories. I was astounded! How was that possible? Even years later I could still recite the lines ahead of the characters: “It’s a turilium carbonic alloy, and I can fly.”/“That’s not flying. It’s falling with style.” Classic!

Every time we clean out Jake’s room, we get to his Buzz and Woody guys, and he just shakes his head. And I breathe a silent sigh of relief. Not yet. After I posted on Facebook about how much the kids and I loved the third movie, a few of my friends said their kids do the same thing. Buzz and Woody are stashed away where visiting friends can’t see them (they live in the closet in our house), but they’re still in the room. My theory is that the kids worry they’ll be hurting their toys’ feelings if they give them away—as if the toys are, in fact, real. That, to me, is the hallmark of unforgettable characters.

Have you seen the Toy Story movies? If so, what do you think of them? What makes for an unforgettable character for you? I’ll give a copy of Fatal Affair to one respondent. Thanks so much for letting me share a few of my favorite memories with you.

About Fatal Affair

On the morning of the most important vote of Senator John O’Connor’s career he is late—again. His best friend and chief of staff, Nick Cappuano sets off to O'Connor’s apartment expecting to roust him from bed and hoping he is alone. But what Nick finds is that O’Connor, the handsome, amiable Senator from Virginia, has been brutally murdered, and Nick’s world comes crashing down around him. Complicating the disaster, the detective assigned to the case is none other than Sam Holland, Nick’s one-night stand from six years earlier, the woman who broke his heart and haunts his dreams. With six years worth of unfinished business hanging between them and more than a few scores to settle personally and professionally, Nick and Sam set out to find the senator's killer while trying—and failing—to resist the overwhelming attraction between them that seems to have only grown over the years.

It soon becomes clear that the senator’s past holds secrets that not only led to his death but now endanger Nick and Sam as well. Working together to find a killer and to rediscover the love they thought they lost long ago, they must put the past behind them and build a future that offers a world of new opportunities for both of them—including an offer from the Virginia Democrats for Nick to finish the last year of John’s term.

And about me:

Marie Force’s first romantic suspense, FATAL AFFAIR, will be out June 21, 2010 from Carina Press. Book 2 in the Fatal Series, FATAL JUSTICE, is coming soon from Carina. She is also the author of LINE OF SCRIMMAGE and LOVE AT FIRST FLIGHT. Of LINE OF SCRIMMAGE, Booklist said, “With its humor and endearing characters, Force’s charming novel will appeal to a broad spectrum of readers, reaching far beyond sports fans.” Wild on Books said, “LOVE AT FIRST FLIGHT by Marie Force is most definitely a keeper. It is an astounding book. I loved every single word!” A third contemporary, EVERYBODY LOVES A HERO, is due out Feb. 1, 2011. Since 1996, Marie has been the communications director for a national organization similar to the Romance Writers of America. She is a member of RWA’s New England, From the Heart and Published Author Special Interest Chapters. While her husband was in the Navy, Marie lived in Spain, Maryland and Florida, and is now settled in her home state of Rhode Island. She is the mother of two children and a feisty dog named Brandy. Find her at www.mariesullivanforce.com, on her blog at http://mariesullivanforce.blogspot.com, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/pages/Marie-Force/248130827909 and on Twitter at twitter.com/MarieForce. Marie loves to hear from readers. Contact her at marie@marieforce.com.

Guest Post - Marie Force plus GIVEAWAY!!!

http://worldaccordingtobooks.blogspot.com/2010/06/guest-post-marie-force-plus-giveaway.html