Author Interview & Giveaway - Exit Signs by Patrice Locke

Exit Signs

by Patrice Locke

GENRE:   Romantic Comedy

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BLURB:

Tracy Price has a documentary-style life until rockstar Jesse Elliot rewrites her script and takes the wheel to drive her crazy.

In her quest to find a writer missing since the 1930's, Tracy thinks she has discovered exactly how to handle her new relationship. But she may be listening to the wrong voice. 

Then Tracy and Jesse find out they've both been keeping some big secrets, and the truth may ruin everything.

Will sharing the missing writer's story open both their hearts?

AMAZON

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

EXCERPT:

Jesse raked some strands of his blue-black hair away from his forehead. The hair fell right back onto the shoreline of his face like a wave on a beach. I thought of the cliché movie scene where the action cuts to an agitated ocean to symbolize sex. I cleared my throat, and ordered myself to get a grip.

Instead, I surprised us both by asking him my name. “Tracy Price?”

“Yes.” He confirmed my identity. “It’s nice to meet you.”

He was all-business; I was all over the place.

This was how a romance novel would begin, and, as the designated hero, he was free to relax and be two-dimensional for now. I’d provide the script because I thought I knew the genre, but I had it wrong from the start because, on second thought, he was from another planet. He had to be. And if this was science fiction, anything could happen. Aliens are tricky.

When he sat next to me I wanted to leap up and run away. Instead, I asked, “How do you like Albuquerque?” Very original, Tracy. What I wondered was, How does it feel to look like you do?

“I like it,” he said, answering both my questions. “I like it so far.”

I felt a surge of power. “I bet. And how long are you staying?” Or, more to the point, would it be too forward of me to sit on your lap?

“I can’t say yet. Maybe six weeks? This was kind of an unexpected trip.” Bingo. Both questions addressed.

This was working. Let me know when you decide about the lap thing. I covered my mouth for a fake cough to clear my head.

We were silent. I was contemplating his perfection. Maybe he was, too.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Talking with Patrice Locke!

What is your writing environment?

I write wherever I am. Usually at my dining room table, or on the couch with my laptop in my lap. Sometimes at the library or at a café.

Who is your perfect hero/heroine and why?

In fiction? I’m a cliché, I love Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy. Elizabeth has a wicked sense of humor, and Darcy has a lovely, strict moral code. I’d trust him with my life.

What authors have caught your interest lately and why?

A few years ago I happened upon a book called “Overtime” by Yvonne Jocks. It’s a time travel romance that is based on meticulous research and delivered with humor and great understated but blazing chemistry between the characters. Number four in the series is in the works and I’m obsessed with the stories and the characters.

I also read and re-read memoirs by M.V. Hughes. If you can get hold of her books, and if you like British history from the Victorian age to the years between the World Wars, you’ll love her. 

What type of book have you always wanted to write?

“Exit Signs” is the book I always wanted to write. (I have two earlier novels that I shelved when I finished because they didn’t thrill me). But “Exit Signs” remains vivid to me. It’s funny, romantic, and it has a bit of history along with a literary mystery, so it encompasses the genres/subjects that fascinate me.

Top 3 things on your bucket list?

1.   To live in London for one year in a flat in Bethnel Green and become a regular at the neighborhood pub, take day trips on the train, and visit all the places Jane Austen frequented.

2.   To study for a semester at Oxford University. I’d study Oxford itself, particularly in the 1920s, when Evelyn Waugh was a student there.

3.   To spend a summer in Glasgow, visiting all the places where my grandparents grew up. 

How did you get the idea for this particular novel?

I was bored, sitting in the Denver airport, paging through a People Magazine, thinking about celebrities when I saw a man who looked like a famous musician. I started to create the story for him.

After that, I couldn’t stop wondering how he got into the predicament I imagined for him, what affect it would have on his life.

Voila, Jesse Elliot, minor rock star was born and his reluctant fan Tracy appeared to tell his story.

What is your favorite scene in your new release?

When the narrator/main character Tracy takes her business client Jesse Elliot up the side of Sandia Peak on the Tram in Albuquerque. 

Along the way, because she is nervous being around Jesse, she launches into a bizarre lecture about New Mexico history that she can’t stop, even though some of the things she hears herself saying appall her.

What are you working on now and when can we expect it to be available?
I’m writing a book called Ghostsitter about a woman who has burned all her bridges and has always gotten by relying on her good looks and charm. She’s now destitute and friendless and has to redesign her life. She keeps repeating past mistakes.

Though she has vowed not to lie, one big opportunity arises that requires her to use her skills at deception. She is tempted, but wonders if she can ever recover if she tells just one more…BIG…lie.

What do you like to do when you are not writing?

I’m an avid reader and a doting grandmother of two.

I like movies, romantic comedies (big surprise) and thrillers. Some of my favorites are “Pretty Woman,” “Romy and Michelle,” and “Notting Hill.” On the other end of the spectrum, I love “Match Point” and “Rosemary’s Baby.” 

I’m also an artist. I love to draw and paint. And I do a little work in clay. 

What is one interesting fact about you that readers don’t know?

I interviewed Mother Teresa.

I won a $150 gold and diamond watch for decorating a turkey drumstick to look like Batman when I was 13 years old.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

As a journalist, Patrice Locke wrote a lot of stories with unhappy and even tragic endings.
Facts are facts, and a writer doesn't mess with facts.


But fiction is another world. Patrice began writing novels, where she could control the endings and make them as happy as she wants. The best thing about fiction, she says, is having time to think before her characters speak, so they can say the things most of us only come up with after the perfect moment has passed.
    

She loves to write, read, and watch romantic comedies where life always turns out the way it should. Her only obsessive relationships are with semicolons and Oxford commas.
     

Though she doesn't like to brag, Patrice is an award-winning artist. She won a gold and diamond watch when she was 13 for decorating a turkey drumstick bone to look like Batman. Alas, that was her last recognition in the fine arts.
     

Patrice lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where the blue sky is brilliant, the air is thin, and the vistas are breathtaking. She is none of those things, which is one reason she enjoys living among them.

Webpage:  http://www.patricelocke.com/index.html

Author Facebook Page:  https://www.facebook.com/bypatricelocke/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel 

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/patricelocke

Email:  bypatricelocke@gmail.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

GIVEAWAY:

Patrice Locke will be awarding a $10 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

a Rafflecopter giveaway