A Warm Welcome to Elaine Cantrell

Elaine Cantrell was born and raised in South Carolina.  She holds a Master’s Degree in Personnel Services from Clemson University and is a member of Alpha Delta Kappa, an international honorary sorority for women educators.  She is also a member of Romance Writer’s of America and EPIC authors.  Her first novel, A New Leaf, was the 2003 winner of the Timeless Love Contest and was published in 2004 by Oak Tree Books.  At present she teaches high school social studies.
Elaine spends her spare time collecting vintage Christmas ornaments, reading, and playing with her grandchildren.
Here's her latest release:

NEVER TRUST A PRETTY WOLF

By  Elaine Cantrell

BLURB:  Liesel Wolf has a secret, a dangerous secret she’ll go to any lengths to conceal. When she’s paired in a charity game with sexy marshal Andy Bryce, a man with secrets of his own, her carefully constructed world comes crashing down, and Liesel’s on a collision course with her past.

Before treating us to an excerpt, Elaine Reveals:

From where do you get inspiration and what inspired you to write Never Trust a Pretty Wolf?  Inspiration comes from almost anywhere; a song, a movie, something someone says, my imagination.  The source is limitless if you open your eyes to the possibilities around you.  In the case of Never Trust a Pretty Wolf, my inspiration is the game my son and his family like to play.  It’s called geocaching.  This is how it works.  A person hides a cache and then posts the latitude and longitude coordinates to the cache on the Internet.  Those who like to play the game will look the caches up on the Internet, find the coordinates with a GPS, and see what’s in the cache.  The caches aren’t valuable.  Sometimes they’re nothing more than a logbook that you write in and replace.  If you take a small something from the cache you’re supposed to put something back so that other geocachers will have something to find.  I started to wonder what would happen if you were paired in a geocaching charity game with someone you didn’t know.  What if the two of you found a dead body and had to run for your lives?  And what if a romance is brewing between the two game players?  Basically, that’s the premise behind Never Trust a Pretty Wolf.

What do you hope your readers come away with after reading your book?  I hope that when readers finish my book, they’ll sigh and wish there was more.  I hope they’ll send me emails begging me to hurry up and write another book, and most of all, I hope they come away with the feeling that events in the story could happen to them too.  I want them to believe that they too are special and worthy of great love and extraordinary events.  Hopefully, their day to day stresses and cares will be mitigated by their escape into my fictional world.

What do you most enjoy about writing romance?
It makes me feel great!  I love the feeling that I’m standing on the threshold of a great adventure with a certain special someone.  There’s so much to learn and discover about each other.  The future shines and sparkles with promise as two lovers go hand-in-hand to meet their future.

Anything special you require to keep the creative juices flowing?   Oh, absolutely.  We authors have to maintain our reputation as eccentric artists, right?  I need two things.  First, a tall glass of cold, cold water.  If it isn’t cold, I don’t want it.  Second, I need a bendy straw.  When I get stuck in a passage or want to read what I just wrote, I need to play with the straw.  Sometimes I tap it.  Sometimes I twirl it around, but either way, I can’t write without the straw.  Members of my family keep trying to steal it every time I lay it down.  How could they risk thwarting genius?  LOL. 

What is the best writing advice you have ever received?  Interesting question.  I’ve taken some workshops and read about the writing process, but I can’t remember anyone ever telling me anything on an individual basis.  I’ve given advice to people myself, though.  My best advice is not to give up.  Writing is a business that could crush your spirit, I think, so it’s important to believe in yourself and keep working at it.

What can we look forward to from you in the near future?  I’m writing a romantic comedy at present.  I don’t think I’m a funny person, but maybe I am because when I read my husband parts of the manuscript he laughed at the right places.  My heroine just got into a bean ball fight with Marilyn Monroe which totally cracked me up.  No, not the real Marilyn. 

What would you most like to accomplish this year?
I’d like to finish my romantic comedy and submit it to a publisher, edit my sequel to Return Engagement and submit it, take a class to learn how to use my photo editing software, and lose fifteen pounds.  I’m not sure which one I’d rank as number one.

What is your culinary speciality?   Chocolate trifle or maybe chocolate cake or macaroni.   If we ever go to a party I’m requested to bring one or the other, depending on what type of party it is.  I’ll give you the recipe for my chocolate cake at the end of the interview.  It’s to die for.

 

A Taste of Elaine

Excerpt:

The minute the blue Mustang came to a halt, the valet hurried to open the car door for the newcomer. A pair of long, shapely legs unfolded from the car. Andy’s mouth went dry as his eyes traveled from her legs to her face. He had discovered a goddess. An overworked cliché perhaps, but he knew of no other words to describe her.

The goddess had Titian hair which begged him to run his fingers through it, freeing those glorious curls. Even from where he stood, her eyes glowed with an emerald fire. Her skin looked as if it would put satin to shame. As he stared at her mouth, a bolt of fire stabbed him right below his belt. He could only imagine how it might feel to kiss and taste those lush, red lips.
She sashayed up to the porch and held out her hand to Melton. “Good evening, Thomas.”
Melton was having a hard time getting his voice under control, but he finally stuttered, “Welcome, L… Li… Liesel. It’s great to finally meet you in person. This is your partner, Andy Bryce. Andy’s a United States Marshal.”
The light left her face. She shot Andy a look of what he swore was dislike, even though they’d never met. “Oh, but I thought you said the mayor was my partner.”
Melton nodded. “He was. But something came up, and his brother’s filling in for him.”
She didn’t want to be his partner. Andy knew it as surely as he knew his own name. He wondered if she had heard about… Yeah, she could have. The story made most of the big papers. The Marshals had trained him to read people, so he knew Ms. Wolf didn’t like him.

Here’s a review quote:   With twists and turns, Elaine Cantrell took me on an entertaining journey. Along the way I got to know her characters very well, understand their fears and motivations, and care for them. I also learned about geocaching, which sounds like a challenging and fun pastime. The story's plot was engaging, the descriptions added interest to the scenes, and the action never lagged, with just the right amount of romance included. Never Trust a Pretty Wolf held my interest throughout.  by  Sandra Nachlinger

And finally Elaine's Chocolate Cake Recipe  2 cups flour, 2 cups sugar, 1 stick butter, ½ cup cooking oil, 1 cup water, 4 TBSP cocoa, ½ cup buttermilk, 1 tsp soda, 2 eggs, 1 tsp vanilla.
 Sift flour and sugar together in a large mixing bowl. Place butter, oil, water, and cocoa into a saucepan and bring to a rapid boil. When mixture boils, remove from heat and pour over sugar and flour mixture. Mix well with spoon and add buttermilk, soda, eggs and vanilla. Beat lightly and pour into greased and floured 13 X 9 X 1 ½ inch pan. Bake at 325 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes.
Chocolate Frosting:1 stick butter,  4TBSP cocoa,  6 TBSP evaporated milk,  1 box powdered sugar, 1 tsp vanilla 

Place butter, cocoa, and milk in saucepan. When mixture comes to a boil remove from heat and add 1 box powdered sugar and 1 tsp vanilla. Pour over cake while hot. Sounds delicious!



Follow the rest of Elaine's tour here

Read more about Elaine at the following LINKS:

Website:  http://www.elainecantrell.com

Blog: http://www.elainepcantrell.blogspot.com

Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/elainepcantrell

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

Pinterest:  http://www.pinterest.com/elainecantrell

BUY LINKS Astraea Press      Amazon click for links

Many thanks for being a guest today, Elaine. Pleasure to meet you!

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