Jamie: Welcome Lisa. Tell us a bit about yourself that readers might not know.
Lisa: Hmmm, I used to manage a Boston rock band back in the 80s. I love music and loved the Boston music scene t the time. We had some local success, winning some band competitions and landing a spot on MTV with Julie Brown. The band also opened for The Fixx, which was kind of exciting.
Jamie: What made you decide to become a writer?
Lisa: I didn't decide to be a writer, I just wrote. Sometimes a profession chooses you instead of the other way around. From the time I was very young I would craft stories. So looking back, this profession was set in stone for me long before I even finished elementary school! I didn't seriously start thinking about writing a book until my mid-twenties. I credit getting my first PC with kick starting my career. If I'd had to use a typewriter and whiteout I would have quit.
Jamie: What do you write and what made you decide to go with that genre?
Lisa: I write everything from romantic comedy, contemporary romance, romantic suspense/thrillers, paranormal/fantasy romance, and YA romance. I love romance so it has to be some form of romance. Other than that anything that strikes me is fair game! When I first started out, I wanted to write a Harlequin Romance. but a dead body ended up in the story and suddenly the hero and heroine were being chased, so it very quickly turned into a romantic suspense. But now I write both. I also write fantasy and a touch of paranormal.
Jamie: Where do you get your story ideas?
Lisa: Everywhere. I could be doing anything; driving, cleaning the house, shopping, going out to dinner, and then an idea hits me. Many times the initial idea looks nothing like the final story.
Jamie: What type of hero/heroine do you like best?
Lisa: I like spunky heroines. I like a heroine who likes to take charge and saves herself in situations. I loathe the heroine who just sits back and waits to be rescued. A hero an be strong and go full force to save the heroine, but she can't be wimpy. I like strong heroes as well.
Jamie: Tell us about a typical day in your life as a writer. . .
Lisa: There really isn't a typical day. I'm busy all the time.I write every day, but not always for novels. Sometimes I write freelance or blog posts. Sometimes I work on my screenplay. I always start with a cup of coffee. It's my one vice. And usually there is a lot of loud music playing. As long as I don't have to cart the kids around too much, I can get a lot done during the day.
Jamie: Do you have to be alone to write?
Lisa: No, and it doesn't have to be quiet. but it's harder to write in the house when everyone is around because I can't shut off being mommy here. I can write in a crowded Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts. I've written in the cafeteria at school with a ton of people around me as I wait for a school performance to start. When I'm not home, background noise becomes white noise and it fades into the background. At home, all the noise is noise I have to deal with because I'm mommy.
Jamie: Tell us about your current project. . .
Lisa: Right now I have two e-series available to readers, my Fate with a Helping Hand series and my Texas Hearts series. Fate with a Helping Hand is set in Massachusetts and features a secondary character who gives fate a nudge to help the hero and heroine get together. The series includes All I Want For Christmas is You, The Marriage Contract and The Knight and Maggie's Baby. My Texas Hearts series, originally published in hardcover by Avalon Books, is Her Heart for the Asking, His Heart for the Trusting and The More I See. All these books are available for Kindle, Nook, iTunes, Kobo and Sony e-readers.
Jamie: Thanks Lisa! Below is an excerpt from Her Heart for the Asking, Book 1 of Texas Hearts. Author and buy links will follow.
"Ms. Mondello presents a beguiling story that keeps you turning the pages...Truly a joy to read." Susan Mobley - 4 STARS - ROMANTIC TIMES MAGAZINE
Mandy Morgan swore she’d never step foot in Texas again after Beau Gentry left her for life on the rodeo circuit eight years before. But now her uncle’s heart is failing and she has to convince him that surgery will save his life. She never dreamed the first thing she’d see when she stepped off the plane would be her biggest nightmare...the one man she’d never stopped loving.
Beau Gentry had the fever for two things: the rodeo and Mandy Morgan. But for Beau, loving Mandy was complicated by his father’s vendetta against her uncle. This led him to make the hardest decision of his life and he can still see the bitterness and hurt on Mandy’s face. All these years it has killed him to think Mandy had forgotten him and moved as far away as possible from him. But now they’re back in
Texas, and he’s going to do all he can to win back her love.
__________
"What are you doing here?" Mandy Morgan asked, dropping her too-heavy overnight case on the sun-roasted tarmac. After a grueling forty-eight hour work stint and a five-hour flight from Philadelphia, she stood wilting under the brutal Texas sun, facing her biggest nightmare.
Beau Gentry.
She groaned inwardly, drinking Beau in with her eyes as if she hadn't had a drop of water in months. Eight years was more like it. If she were eight years smarter, she would be moving her aching feet as fast as she could in the opposite direction. But all she could do was stare at eyes so bright they rivaled the blazing sun. At lips so kissable she'd spent the better part of her adult life trying to wipe the memory clean from her mind.
She had expected Beau would have aged some. When she allowed herself to think about him at all, she reminded herself. The faint lines etched in the corners of his sleepy gray-blue eyes gave a hint of maturity, but most probably caused by long days in the cruel sun.
She fought the urge to take a closer look at his ruggedly handsome features, but failed. How could he have gotten better looking after being abused by every bronc-busting horse on the rodeo circuit? His angular jaw, strong and determined, was shaded with beard growth that was probably a day old, maybe more. Mandy suspected if Beau grew a full beard, it would grow in thick and be the smooth texture of his almost black head of hair. She forced aside past memories that gave her such knowledge with renewed irritation.
The man didn't even have the decency to have a crooked nose. What should have been bent and awkward from being broken a few too many times was instead long and straight, shaped perfectly between high cheek bones most women would swoon over, or kill to have themselves. But on Beau Gentry, it was just one thousand percent robust cowboy.
Damn him.
"I'm your ride out to the Double T," Beau said, gripping the edge of his white straw cowboy hat and tipping it in a cordial gesture.
She ground the heels of her low pumps into the soft tar to contain her growing irritation. Did he think she was an idiot? "No way."
"'Fraid so," he said, his expression slightly askew.
"Hank didn't mention anything about you coming to get me when I spoke to him on the phone."
"I suspect he thought you would have found some excuse not to come if you knew I was picking you up."
"He would have been right. Why didn't one of the hands come get me?"
Settling his hand at the base of his neck, Beau replied, "You're looking at him. As of three weeks ago I am one of the ranch hands at the Double T."
Available at:
Amazon - http://amzn.com/B0077EGDAI
Barnes and Noble http://ow.ly/8WReM
Smashwords http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/130776
She loves to hear from readers. You can email her at LisaMondello@aol.com, find her on her blog, Conversations, talking about writing, movies and music at http://www.lisamondello.blogspot.com or chat on Twitter at @LisaMondello.
Contest/Giveaway
Lisa will do a ebook giveaway, readers choice. Simply leave a comment with your name and email addy!
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