Welcome to Author Tierney James!

Tell readers a little about yourself so they can get the feel of where you’re coming from.

 I’m a former Solar System Ambassador for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab as well as a former geography teacher. Besides working on a Native American reservation, floating the Okavango Delta of Botswana, Africa and visiting The Great Wall of China, I was lucky enough to have spent time at Space Camp for Educators. Living in a mining community for many years led to writing the novel, The Rescued Heart, a romantic suspense. Attending a week long workshop on mining and geology, hosted by the Doe Run Company helped me with a lot of research. My husband is a mine engineer so he too, helped with the big picture of a mine collapsing in on itself.

How about a little taste of what the book is about.

Between a father who owns everything and everyone in three counties and a mine engineer who intends to take it from him, Fawn is caught between a rock and a hard heart. Trying to escape proved disastrous when she fled from both men to start a new life. Now she was back and the turmoil only increased. This time Garrett Horton intends on winning it all after finding out the lies her father created to keep them apart. The trouble with the truth was it could bury you alive 1000 feet underground.  

You sometimes work on several projects at once. How did The Rescued Heart fit into your schedule?

I actually wrote the first five chapters 20 years ago then stuck it in a drawer. Last year I participated in Savvy Authors online pitch session. I chose 17 publishers I thought might be a good fit for The Rescued Heart. After I pitched my four lines I got a little worried. What if they wanted to see more? So I wrote another five chapters. Wouldn’t you know it—eight publishers wanted to see more. Whew. Good thing I had five more chapters. Then I really got scared. So in about a week I wrote the rest of the book. It was a good thing because I got three contract offers. It was a great experience. 

Will we see more of Garrett Horton and Fawn Turnbough?

There is actually a prequel I wrote years before The Rescued Heart. It involves Garrett’s sister who shows up in this novel. It is sitting in a box in my garage. We’ll see if I’m ready to rewrite the whole thing. It needs a lot of work. I don’t have any immediate plans to write a saga about the Turnbough Mining Company at this point. I’m working on several other projects that are nearing completion.

What kinds of things help you get the words from head to paper?

Music plays a big role when I write. I have soundtracks for each novel or story. For The Rescued Heart I actually used a lot of nature sounds. It seemed to take me back to the farm where I lived in Iron County. I could almost smell the air and hear the whippoorwills. For other novels I have favorite artists like Trailerhead I use. Anything by Hans Zimmer is also good background music. Right now I’m using some classical pieces that tie into the urban fantasy I’m writing. 

A notebook of ideas for a story keep me from getting writer’s block. I jot down names, ideas, characters, tweets, etc. to keep focused. Every one of my novels has a notebook. 

What social media outlets do you use?

http://www.facebook.com/TierneyJamesAction

http://www.ptierneyjames.blogspot.com

www.pinterest.com/ptierneyjames/

Twitter: TierneyJames1

Tierney’s books are listed at Amazon.com   Winds of Deception is due for release June 8, 2015 

An Old Love Rediscovered

I have a confession to make: in December I returned to an old love. No, not a person. My husband and I are a-okay.  What I mean is I returned to the love of laying out publications.

Some, ahem, years ago I edited, did the layout for, and published CreativeReading, Hodgepodge and The Sunny Edition. The craftsmanship of putting the stories and poems of other writers onto empty pages and making the layout work was one of the things I loved about having my own publications.

Most recently I've done the layout on my fiction and nonfiction books. But I never connected the dots. I don't have to wait until I have stories written and ready to publish.

Light bulb! It dawned on me, with POD I could make so-called 'blank' books. Well, duh. And that is exactly what I did and am doing.

Putting a book together and seeing it come out looking ‘right’ as to where the headers and other bits and pieces reside is like completing a puzzle and having all the pieces fit. I love the challenge. Pure satisfaction.

The first books I created when I returned to laying out publications were journals. Because my husband is a photographer, I have taken numerous photos. Some journal covers feature photos I’ve take. Others are more graphically inclined. The journals are sort of ‘blank’ paperback books with most of the pages being nicely lined. I believe I have about twelve out now; they are ready for secrets and thoughts to be penned therein.

An idea I had for a goal-setting calendar also materialized and came out in December. It sold in modest quantities worldwide, and is still selling. Various colors are available, all with an elephant graphic on the front. I hope the goal-setting steps I wrote help those who purchase my calendar journal achieve their goals in 2015.

My latest project is a book wherein you can record web addresses and passwords. I got tired of having to request new passwords whenever I forgot one. So, I created a book for me, which I hope will help out others as well.

The joy of holding one of these books in my hands is comparable to the joy of holding my published fiction or nonfiction books. There is a great sense of achievement.

Confession No. 2: I’ve been having such fun creating these books that my writing has suffered, not abandoned exactly, but languishing for enough attention. To my fans, never fear. I know I will return to writing full steam ahead when the time is right.

Meanwhile, if there is a helpful 'blank' book you've been dreaming of finding, let me know. Maybe I will make one.

FYI: If you’d like to see what I’ve been up to, here are some links: 
Life’s a Beach (journal)
How to Eat an Elephant 2015 Calendar
Remember! Your Simple Solution to Keeping & Organizing Passwords

Guest Blogger: Katie Stephens on Five Things That Influenced Her Writing

Guest Blogger Katie Stephens, whose book Alphabetical Disorder is coming out as part of the Love Least Expected set in February, tells us about five things (books, movies, experiences) that influenced her writing:

1. Series books: from Nancy Drew and Tom Swift to JD Robb’s In Death and Suzanne Brockmann’s Troubleshooters, I enjoy on-going stories that use cross-over characters. I don’t want a snippet of life. I want to see a huge character arc over time. This is the concept I’ve incorporated into my circus anthology. I have twenty ‘chapters’ that I’m using as my character bank to expand into longer adventures.

2. Writer versus Author: I’ve kept every snippet of writing I’ve done since high school. It wasn’t until I joined the critique website Scribophile, where friends pushed and prodded and then encouraged me to submit my stories, that the writer’s bug really took a tremendous chunk out of my hide. And once bitten, authors are born.

3. Emotions: My first-ever-published story featured my kids in a half-truth, half-fantasy story of a possible future. When these grown children read the story and ended up with tears in their eyes, everything clicked in my mind. The best stories I have ever read usually evoke some sort of strong emotion in me—so my goal is to bring that feeling to other people.

4. Social networks: My fellow authors are taking me by the hand and teaching me about Facebook, Twitter and many other networks and blogs. I’m learning more every day and creating an entirely new group of friends and colleagues (a very good thing). I find it interesting that although my life has been spent in creative endeavors, the first part—as a musician—was a much lonelier existence. Because of the demands of the instruments, there were hours and hours of solitary practice. With writing, I’m either on my game or totally dry (the perfect time to turn to my writer friends for encouragement and advice). Sweet camaraderie!

5. Imagination: I can’t remember a time in my life that I didn’t make up stories in my head. I’m pretty sure it’s a prerequisite for being an author. Having the time now to write down these stories is a grand luxury. It boggles the mind how my younger colleagues can juggle a young family or school, a job and writing. They awe me.

Alphabetical Disorder 
by Katie Stephens


Everyone in Mason’s Circus understands and respects the powers of the resident gypsies—the Romani tribe—and most steer clear of any involvement. But when Susie gets caught in a web of prophecy and magic that brings danger to the troupe, her non-Rom interpretation turns out to be flawed. She pushes aside the man of her dreams to date alphabetically, in the hopes of saving her circus family.

Sam has had his eye on Susie since she joined the company. He’s puzzled by her actions, but not blind to the way she responds to him. A patient man by nature, he battles his need to claim her immediately or allow her game to continue. When disaster strikes, they join forces with their Romani friends to stop the curse before it destroys the circus.

About Katie Stephens:
If you discovered a sealed box with “Katie’s memories” scribbled on the side, you’d find a lifetime of partially completed stories, plays and musicals. A retired music teacher and curriculum writer, Katie Stephens has opened that box and switched her need to create from music to literature. She writes both non-fiction and fiction, where she happily experiments with all genres.

When her muse takes a break, Katie is a staff reader for freeze frame fiction and a grant writer for the Empire & Great Jones Creative Arts Foundation. Although her grown children are scattered east and west across the country, she lives solidly in mid-America with three kitties and a husband who keeps asking when she’s really going to retire.

Facebook  / Twitter @standardishue / Website / Email standardishue@gmail.com

~~Love Least Expected, coming February 3, 2015~~
Pre-Order today for only 99¢ at:
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