Happy Monday, lovelies. I hope you are all safe, healthy, and in good spirits. Today, I have an interview with MJ Moores, author of the Flawed Attraction series! You can check it out below. Don't forget to also check back on Friday for an excerpt from VICE RIDE, her newest release in the Flawed Attraction series.
What do you think is the most interesting thing about you?
Ha! Me interesting? Okay, what about this. I’m the kind of person where if you tell me I can’t do something, I will go out of my way to prove you wrong (if it’s something I think is totally doable). The best example of this was back in university when my program director told me I shouldn’t do two practicums at the same time (BEd & BFA Theatre Production) – that it had only ever been done one other time in the history of the university. My response was, “Shouldn’t? So, I can still do it anyway?” And I did.
Do you have your own writing space? If so, what's in it?
Kind of? LOL! I have gotten away from doing first drafts on the computer and have gone back to writing in notebooks. I will most often divide my time writing in my craft room or in the living room (if there’s a project in the craft room yelling at me to be done). If bugs aren’t an issue, I will also venture out onto my back deck in the better weather.
My craft room has a wall of books behind a sewing desk across from a pullout couch, with oversized pillows and a fuzzy throw blanket (it gets cold in there). I have a poster of Puss in Boots (from Shrek) on one wall, a young fairy-butterfly banner on the other above a wizard casting a spell ( another poster) and a gnome smoking a pipe under a giant mushroom (and another). My mother always threatens to steal my posters for her own place whenever she visits 😉.
If you could bring to life any of your characters, which would you choose and why?
Ooo… tough one. I’m writing a steampunk vigilante superhero serial right now that has a romantic sub-plot. The reporter who appoints the female vigilante as the City Guardian is all kinds of hot, sexy, mysterious, and damaged. He’s got curly, sandy blond hair that flops a little more than it should, a past tied up in the Americas in the volatile time just after the Civil War, a scar that travels from his right temple (above his ear) to his jaw, smoky grey eyes, and a need to see justice served. I’d love to turn back time and date him! I don’t think my husband would approve though 😉.
What genre would your characters read?
Specifically for Vice Ride, I’d have to say that Josh would be into thrillers and Amber would prefer high fantasy and romance.
Josh is the kind of guy who finds school easy, doesn’t have homework (or hardly ever) and his dad owns several movie theatres. He would be used to watching everything that goes through those theatres and would take a liking to high adventure and thrilling stakes.
Amber has to face a harsh reality with her family and home life so she’d prefer the escapism high fantasy promises and relish in the hope a romantic happily-ever-after brings, but she would also see these as beyond her grasp and not realistic – something she’d never experience.
You're stranded on an island. What two books would you bring with you and why?
Do compilations count? LOL 😉.
I would have to say the first book in Kristen Britain’s Green Rider series and the first book in Maria V. Snyder’s Poison Study series. Both books are NA fantasy with strong female characters who overcome crazy odds AND develop romantic feelings for someone along their travels. I love romance, but I write romantic suspense (and speculative fiction with romantic subplots) because I love action/adventure. Indiana Jones was my idol growing up. Anyway, I love the worlds, the writing, and the characters in these books. I have also read the entirety of each series so I would be able to start by reading the first book and then letting my mind remember all of the other books … as well as develop my own fan fiction in my head 😊.
What's your favorite 90s jam?
Hmm… I’m big on Def Leppard and Bryan Adams. I could listen to/sing Alannah Myles on repeat for hours at a time, and Madonna’s Like a Prayer album got worn out on cassette and I needed to buy the CD. I love any kind of rock: soft rock, pop rock, rock and roll, hard rock, indie rock… you name it. Rock on!
Why did you choose to write in the romance genre?
It came naturally. I have always loved a book that had two characters in it who found a way to be together against the odds. No matter what I write or have written over the decades (cough – aging myself now) it always had a romantic subplot. When I got serious about making money writing and started on my journey of writing full-time (not there yet!), I looked closer at romance since its such a highly desirable genre and has a huge fan-base. I decided to take the plunge and write a contemporary romantic suspense book, just to see if I could… and now I have my second one coming out.
Tell me one unique fact or quirk about one of your characters.
Amber (and Josh for that matter) learned how to pole dance in Josh’s basement in grade 9 from his mother’s workout videos!
What inspired your book?
The road trip is the route I take to go north and visit my mother every summer on holidays. The penny-pinching and street-savvy elements are all her – from what I grew up observing to what I see her dealing with as an adult. Amber is not my mother personified, if anything she’s some version of me (as most of my female characters are). The heart of the book and the essence of the events are my experiences of my mother though – right down to the racetrack and the casino.
If you only had three lines to tell readers about your book, what would you want them to know?
Heartache and heartbreak make us do incredibly stupid things. Add in the emotional rollercoaster of being a teenager and making mistakes, and you get regrets that follow you forever. But what if fate suddenly gave you a second chance … would you take it?
Amber leaves a college scholarship when she discovers her father keeping secrets. But, instead of facing long-standing family issues, she agrees to help her ex-boyfriend with a crazy scheme. Josh has five days to “keep his legs” or his bookie comes collecting. The problem is, being trapped in a car together stirs up a murky past, and threatens to expose the lies they’ve both been running from.
MJ Moores returns with an all-new edition to her flawed attraction romance series of books – Vice Ride
Come jump in the back of the pick-up while we go for a ride in the Algonquin region of Ontario. Watch Amber and Josh rock and roll through penny-pinching adventures, odd jobs, and making every cent count!
MJ Moores is an avid reader and writer of speculative fiction. Her early career as a high school Drama & English teacher nourished her propensity to help others with their writing. MJ’s debut novel Time’s Tempest is the first book in The Chronicles of Xannia quartet, a sci-fi/fantasy crossover. Her latest releases are the steampunk superhero online serial, Shadow Phoenix, and book 2 in the Flawed Attraction Romances: Vice Ride.
In addition to her writing addiction, MJ gives workshops and coaches indie authors via her website Infinite Pathways. MJ is acquisitions editor for DAOwen Publications’ imprint Love Knot Books.
