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It's my pleasure to have award winning historical author Amelia Grey Over Coffee today. Amelia, welcome back to Over Coffee. I'm glad to have you visiting!
Good morning! I’m very happy to be here with you at this
fabulous site. Thank you for having me as your guest today.
What was the single best or
luckiest thing that got you published?
This is an easy question to
answer. I had just finished writing my first historical and decided to enter it
in the Georgia Romance Writers Maggie Contest for unpublished writers. The
contest said the judges would give a critique and then finalists’ books would be
read by an agent. I received the call that my book was a finalist and the
awards would be presented at a banquet in Atlanta, Georgia. I was only five
hours by car from Atlanta so I drove up for the Moonlight and Magnolias
Conference and banquet. That night my book won in the historical category. I
was hoping for a good critique and ended up with an award. I was elated. As
soon as the banquet was over, the agent who had judged the contest found me and
said, “I think I can sell your book.” And she did. My title of Gentle Pardon
was changed to Passion’s Choice and published
by Warner Books in 1990. I’m a big supporter of contest because I credit
entering that contest as my lucky break.
What was the
biggest mistake you made along the way?
This question is difficult to
answer—which one was the biggest! I’m not fond of talking about my mistakes and
believe me I’ve made plenty concerning my career. I think it has to be that I
made an agent change at what I thought was a good time in my career to do so.
It turned out to be a disastrous time to make a change, and I’ve always wished
I hadn’t done it.
How has being published changed
your life?
I think funniest way my life has
changed is that I’m somewhat of a celebrity in the small community where I
live. There are a few other writers here, but none published in romance. And I
feel fairly certain none of them have published as many books as I have. I’ve
been asked to judge in local beauty pageants and cooking contests. I’ve been
asked to speak at the community college, and to give interviews on tv, radio,
and the newspaper. People will
sometime say to me, “You must be the writer who lives on the beach.” Yes,
that’s me. In a larger community, or bigger city no one would blink an eye at a
neighbor who had published 25 books, but where I live it’s noticed.
What do you still struggle with as
an author?
This is another easy question. I want to be more successful of course. I’m sure that’s a common
struggle whether you are a real estate agent, a banker, or a check out girl at
the supermarket. We all want to succeed at whatever we are doing and then we
want to do better. After one career goal is reached, I want to reach for
another. I want bigger print runs, to sell more books, to make more money, and
to hit more bestseller lists. I have to work at being successful. But to me
that is part of the enjoyment of this career.
Tell us about
your current book.
This month my
publisher is re-issuing one of my previous books titled A Little Mischief. It was first published in 2003 and it won the
Booksellers Best Award and Aspen Gold
Award for best Historical for that year. I hope you’ll pick up a copy if you missed it when it first came
out. Here’s a short synopsis of the story.
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A Little Mischief
Isabella Winslowe is finally
flourishing. She is gaining respectable notoriety for her ‘Wallflower Society’
until the unthinkable happens. She finds the darkly handsome Earl of
Colebrooke’s sister in the back garden with a stone cupid in her hand and a
dead man at her feet. The newly titled earl is formidable in looks,
personality, and reputation. He’s not a
man Isabella wants to tangle with over such a delicate situation.
Daniel
Colebrooke, is juggling all that he can handle when the most alluring young
lady he has ever met arrives at his door and tells him his sister never
intended to kill London’s most eligible bachelor. Daniel is certain he has a
beautiful madwoman in front of him.
Highly suspicious of Miss Winslowe’s story, he goes with her to the
garden and finds it empty. She insists someone has stolen the body.
Daniel
decides to keep an eye on Miss Winslowe to see what kind of mischief is she up
to? She might tell someone else her outrageous story about his sister. If
something like that got out, Gretchen’s reputation would be ruined beyond
repair. But what Daniel finds is that Isabella sets his heart to racing like no
woman ever has. She’s engaging and exciting in a quiet and captivating way. But
Daniel can’t give into his desire for Isabella…there’s a supposedly missing
dead body standing them. Excerpt Chapter (on Amazon)
What's next
for Amelia Grey?
I’m
glad you asked. I’m putting the finishing touches on the last book in The
Rogues’ Dynasty Series. The sixth and final book should be out next
spring. The final title and pub-month hasn’t been decided yet, but here is a
teaser about the book.
Matson Brentwood has finally met the woman of his dreams. The lovely, red-haired Sophia Hart heats his blood like no other lady. Her alluring countenance has stopped him dead in his tracks. But no matter how attracted he is to her, he can’t give into his desire to possess her in every way because she is the ward of the man he’s sworn to hate.
Newly arrived in London, Miss Sophia Hart is looking for a husband—for herself and for one of her twin, spinster aunts who has decided she wants a man. Sophia agrees to help her aunt by allowing older gentlemen to call on her and then come up with ways to make sure her aunt spends more time with the gentleman than Sophia does.
But there’s more than just an unwanted guardian and a long list of beaus standing between Sophia and Matson. She can’t give into the maddening charms of the darkly handsome and intriguing Matson. She must deny her love for him and pay her debt to her father for costing him the love of his life.
Amelia, thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to visit. Anything else you'd like to share?
Amelia Grey (aka Gloria Dale Skinner) grew up in a small town in the Florida Panhandle. She has been happily married to her high school sweetheart for over twenty-five years. She has lived in Alabama, Connecticut, New Hampshire and now lives in Florida.
Amelia has won the coveted Romantic Times award for Love and Laughter, the prestigious Maggie award for best historical and Affaire de Coeur's best American historical award. She has been a finalist for the Golden Heart and the Holt Medallion awards which are given by Romance Writers of America and numerous other awards. Her books have been sold to many countries in Europe, Russia and China.
Amelia likes flowers, candlelight, sweet smiles, gentle laughter and sunshine.
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