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MJ Compton is another author I met through Soul Mate Publishing – please tell her hi!

* You are going to be new to many of my readers. Tell us about yourself.

I worked in local TV for thirty years, which meant I got to do a lot of fun stuff. A lot of tough stuff, too, but I prefer remembering the fun. I love to cook, watch baseball and college basketball, and enjoy exploring the world of wine. I would rather read than watch television. I am a complete introvert.

* Tell us about the book that’s just come out.

Omega Moon Rising is the third book in the Toke Lobo & the Pack series. Each book stands alone, so a reader doesn’t need to read the first two in order to understand what is going on. Toke Lobo & the Pack is a country band–the members of which happen to be werewolves. No, they don’t book gigs on the full moon. <J> The band also does some clandestine work for the US government on occasion.

Omega Moon Rising is the story of Luke Omega, who is the drummer for the band. He’s young, he’s brash, and he has a chip the size of the Rocky Mountains on his shoulder. His fascination with human sex lands him in trouble. By the end of the book, Luke becomes the werewolf he’s meant to be, but not without some snags along the way. The heroine, of course, is his biggest obstacle. But his pack also changes the way it regards him, and that is huge.

* What started you on your love of writing?

The stories. I loved listening to stories, sharing stories, creating my own stories. My Petticoat Junction paper dolls and my Barbie dolls were the perfect vehicles for my imagination. And I grew up in a different time—when after school and weekends weren’t filled with events. I lived next door to cousins, and we played. We dressed up and invented elaborate stories for ourselves. All of that unstructured time created space for our dreams.

I am also fascinated with language. I recall thinking while learning about pronouns and punctuation in the third grade, “I need to know this, because I am a writer.”

* Do you write in more than one genre?

Yes—paranormal romantic suspense and contemporary sports romance. I guess I have a thing for men in packs—er, teams.

Tell us a little about each one and the books you’re working on in each?

The paranormal romantic suspense are werewolf books—the Toke Lobo & the Pack series. These werewolf/musicians periodically perform missions for the US government as part of the pack’s treaty—service for sanctuary. In each story, one of the band members finds his mate, who is somehow mixed up in whatever the government wants the werewolves to do.

I have one contemporary baseball romance published (Summer Fling). I am a baseball fan. Baseball is steeped in storytelling, especially the oral storytelling tradition. Mike Veeck said baseball is “all about renewal and second chances.” So is romance. Seems like a natural fit to me.

I’m currently prepping a second baseball romance for submission. I’m working on a romance involving another sport. I’ve written a lot of pages on the next installment of Toke Lobo & the Pack, but I need to rethink a few things. And my critique group is working on an anthology. My contribution is about a baseball-playing werewolf. Talk about a skill set!

* Have you attended any writing conference or classes? Tell us about some that and some that have been especially helpful.

I used to attend the Romance Writers of America National Conference on a somewhat regular basis, but it’s been a while since I’ve gone to one. I also attended the New Jersey Romance Writers Conference a couple of times. I loved going. I purchase the RWA workshop audio recordings. Listening to the workshops is as good as being there. I will binge-listen to a topic. Example: Synopsis writing. I’ll find every workshop on the topic that I own and load them onto my mp3 player, creating my own crash course with a panel of experts.

I am also fond of on-line workshops. Wish I had more time to devote to them, but it seems as if the ones I want to take are usually when I’m in crunch time with revisions.

* Are you a member of any writing groups?

I am a member of Romance Writers of America and of my local RWA chapter. The best birthday present I ever gave myself.

* How attached do you get to your characters? Do you know what happens after the book ends?

I don’t understand how an author can’t/won’t get attached to her characters. I have to tap into character emotions—make them my own—in order to portray them realistically on the page. So yes, I do get attached.

In the Toke Lobo & the Pack series, the heroes and heroines of previous stories play a part in the current book, so yes, I know what happens after the book ends. The heroine of the first book (Moonlight Serenade) was pregnant at the end of the story. You meet the baby in Omega Moon Rising.

* Describe your ‘perfect’ writing day.

Sunny and warm. Silent.

Seriously, any day the words flow is perfect. When seemingly disparate elements come together and one thinks, “Oh! That’s why I wrote that!” (I’m an organic writer as opposed to an organized writer.)

I attend as many writing retreats and writing weekends as I can because the creative energy zinging through the space occupied by a group of working authors is incredible.

Plus there’s always the added bonus of the guilt factor: you’re there to write, so . . . write!

* Could you tell us the one question you wish people would ask about your writing… and don’t forget the answer.

Is being an author fulfilling as you expected?

If writing didn’t fulfill me, I wouldn’t have kept at it for so many years. My brain is filled with stories. With characters. With curiosity. I hear something on the news and wonder if there is a way to spin that nuance into a book or a character. Embellish and twist reality to make my own. I need to write. Even after a hiatus (when my children were born and very young), returning felt as normal as breathing for me. Because, for me, writing is as normal as breathing.

Bio –

MJ Compton grew up near Cardiff, New York, a place best known for its giant, which inspired her to create her own fiction.

Although her 30-year career in local television included such highlights as being bitten by a lion, preempting a US President for a college basketball game, giving a three-time world champion boxer a few black eyes, a mention in the Drudge Report, and meeting her husband, MJ never lost her dream of writing her own stories.

MJ still lives in upstate New York with her husband. She’s a member of Romance Writers of America and Central New York Romance Writers. Music and cooking are two of her passions, and she enjoys baseball and college basketball, but she’s primarily focused on wine . . . and writing.

To get in touch –

Website & Blog – Twitter – Facebook – Pinterest – Tsu
Tumblr – Goodreads – Amazon Author Page: – LinkedIn

Omega Moon Rising

One desperate woman intent on escape.
One brash werewolf determined to deny his DNA.
Until his destiny becomes her deliverance.

Abigail Grant has a secret . . . and a plan to keep her younger sister from suffering the same fate. Her strategy would have worked if she hadn’t been seduced by sweet-talking musician Luke Omega. Suddenly she’s plucked from the life she wanted to escape, but her new circumstances only expose her to a different danger—or is it her salvation?

Luke has a secret, too. He believes he can change his destiny through willpower—and a little blue pill. When he inadvertently gets mixed up in the Grant sisters’ troubles and his pack alpha orders him to marry Abigail, his family insists he tell her he’s a werewolf. But Luke claims Abigail is not his life mate. She doesn’t need to know what happens to him on the full moon.

Until he accidentally stumbles across her secret. Then all bets are off.

Summer Fling

Caroline Maplethorpe’s respectable life is threatened when the man who shared her secret past as a plaything to a minor league baseball team reappears with demands she’s not sure she can satisfy.

Caroline Maplethorpe spent a summer as plaything for a minor league baseball team…and oh, how Win Winston played. Seven years later, she’s respectable, and he’s in the big leagues. Now that he’s found her again, he still wants her in a major way. But their second-chance relationship attracts too much publicity and their long-ago fling threatens to destroy the respectable life Caroline so carefully reconstructed after that crazy summer

OMEGA MOON RISING

AMAZON http://tinyurl.com/zrjb3xv

SUMMER FLING

LOOSE ID http://www.loose-id.com/summer-fling.html

ALL ROMANCE EBOOKS http://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-summerfling-1797313-149.html

AMAZON http://www.amazon.com/Summer-Fling-MJ-Compton-ebook/dp/B00X6EDJ82/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1432685480&sr=8-2&keywords=summer+fling

BARNES & NOBLE http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/summer-fling-m-j-compton/1121879015?ean=9781623009151

GOOGLE PLAY HtTps://play.google.com/store/books/details/MJ_Compton_Summer_Fling?id=MaH1CAAAQBAJ/

Ibooks https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/summer-fling/id992251460?mt=114

KOBO https://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/summer-fling-8

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Yep, retirement is still everything I always hoped it would be. I consider it one of the top decisions I ever made, with marrying Hubby #1. Of course, I had a plan and I followed it.

I got my dream – to write full time. And it has been all I thought it would be. I’ve self-published three books and sold one to Soul Mate Publishing. I’ve got a couple others in various states of completion.

After a year I admit it’s even now a thrill to get up and not have to go anywhere or get “dressed.” I swim for 30 minutes, then head to my office. The working atmosphere is really great, no one to annoy me or interrupt me and I get so much more done.

Hubby will retire on the first anniversary of my retirement and that’s going to add a whole new dimension to things but I think my routine is pretty well set. From 7 a.m. to Noon, stay out of my way – that’s when I hibernate in my office and write.

But other things get to happen now as well – we go visit the Grandkidlet every 6-8 weeks. Just walk out the door and go and not have to worry about getting back at any specific time or day. I continue to clean out the house so I don’t leave my kids what my parents left me (remember that process turned into a novel – Homecoming).

I know I was lucky – very supportive hubby, pension, and so far, health. My mother worked until she was 80 – not that she had to, she wanted to and she did sleep with the boss for 55 years. That isn’t me. I wanted out, wanted time to do something for me and I do appreciate it. Thanks for celebrating this anniversary with me and I hope you continue to drop by!

To help with the celebration, (and make merry for my birthday) leave me a comment – that enters you into a chance to win a copy of your choice from my ebooks backlist! Book List