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What can you tell us about your new release, Maddy's Phoenix?

Maddy's Phoenix is the story of a struggling, 22-year-old truck stop waitress from the small town of Monte Rio, California, who miscarries for the second time, then finds an abandoned baby in a dumpster behind work. Determined to keep the baby and raise her as her own, Maddy takes her tip jar savings and patches together a plan to move to the San Francisco Bay Area. She wants to study to become a nurse so she can make a life for sweet little Judith, certainly better than the life her mother provided for her before she abandoned her when she was a teen. But Maddy knows she’ll need help if she’s to work and go to school. Her older waitress friend, Cheryl, volunteers to go with her, to take care of Judith.

Maddy's Phoenix is a happy story about how Maddy refuses to let a lifetime of adversity deny her the happiness she deserves. The lives of Maddy and baby Judith are suddenly turned upside down when she falls in love with Dr. Bryce Russell, one of her professors, who researches rare childhood diseases. MADDY’S PHOENIX delivers the happily ever after that readers seek!

What's the last book you read?

I just finished a book titled The Letter, by an author I’d never read, Kathryn Hughes. It’s a love story about a woman who works in a second-hand shop and comes across an old letter in the pocket of a man’s suit there. Her decision to find the man who wrote the love letter alters the course of her life forever.

What fictional literary world would you most like to visit?

I’d love to the visit the fictional world of Lord of the Rings. The movie was so delightfully beautiful and filled with scenery the likes of which I’ve never seen. I’d like to be dropped onto one of the winding paths alongside a gnome-sized house set next to a stream lined with super-green grass and abundant colorful flowers. When I think of the movie, I see lush hillsides and quaint towns. That would be such an adventure.

What's your favorite thing about writing?

What I love most about writing is creating a fictional world of characters. While all my characters are fictional, I do enjoy drawing on aspects of personalities of people whom I know or have met in real lie. Sometimes the names of my characters begin with the same letter as such a person, which helps me imbue that character with some similar personality traits. I enjoy using experiences that have actually happened to me or someone I’ve heard about, to design a world that is both believable as well as interesting for the reader.

If you could have dinner with anyone, alive or dead, who would you choose and why?

The first person who comes to mind is James Gandolfini, who played Tony Soprano in the television series The Sopranos. I absolutely loved watching him create a character who was horrendous in the things he did as a mafioso and at the same time was a soft-hearted, sweet man whose family meant everything to him. And he made us like him! I know James Gandolfini and the producers spoke with real people in the mafia to inject the show with realism, and I’d really enjoy knowing more about the mafia, which I find intriguing and definitely out of my comfort zone.

How do you like to spend a rainy day?

If it’s not raining cats and dogs (and usually the rain in the San Francisco Bay Area is so light I don’t even own an umbrella), I enjoy riding my Friesian horse Maximus in the rain. He doesn’t mind being sprinkled with raindrops, and while sitting on his back I’m comfortably warm, because his average body temperature is 100 degrees. It’s especially fun walking through the forest, hearing the plop-plop of the raindrops on the leaves along with the clippitty-clop of his hooves on the path. It works wonders for reducing stress!

What scene in Maddy's Phoenix was your favorite to write?

I enjoyed writing the scene where Maddy discovers the baby in the dumpster behind the restaurant where she works. I could easily picture the back of that restaurant with the big green dumpster filled with discarded food and napkins, in the middle of which a tiny infant lies underneath a half-eaten corn cob on top of a large piece of lettuce. I could well imagine how surprised and horrified I’d be to make that discovery.

Do you have a motto, quote or philosophy you live by?

Yes, I do. Having been raised Catholic, I attended Catholic grammar and high schools and went to hundreds of masses where the priest would give a sermon each day. One sermon that stuck was the philosophy of, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” I believe if we all would live by that motto, we’d have a kinder nation with fewer murders, rapes, burglaries, and drugs. And a world like that will never happen unless we each live our own individual lives as if that philosophy matters, all of us determined to make a difference in the lives of others.

Patricia Yager Delagrange is the author of the new book Maddy's Phoenix. 

Connect with Patricia:
Author Website

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What can you tell us about your new release, Bound for Life?

Bound for Life was a story I really wanted to tell when I was finishing up the Hitmen series. I wanted to get more involved in a character's life in depth, and really amp up the suspense and the thrills and, of course, the romance.

Serena and Bruno knew each other as teens, but then something terrible happened to pull them apart. Years later, and the Mafia is beginning to move in on Serena, which makes Bruno spring to action. Their feelings haven't faded for each other at all over the years, but it's hard to reconnect with the mafia breathing down your neck!

Who is your favorite couple from literature?

I'm gonna go straight for the (geeky) heart. Beren and Luthien from the Silmarillion (J.R.R. Tolkien). Star Crossed lovers of different people, never meant to live side by side, let alone as lovers. Family, friends and the dark lord himself all set upon them to ruin their love, but together they triumph all as a pair, even venturing into the pits of hell itself, always having one another's back. I’m all about a couple who loves and respects each other, through thick and thin.

You’re hosting a literary dinner party. Which three writers are invited?

I would die to have dinner with Willow Winters, Alana Albertson, and Kim Linwood. There's so many awesome authors out there, but I feel like the four of us would have an absolute blast! Hopefully at a future convention, we'll get a chance to hang out.

What's a typical day like for you?

I tend to wake up and immediately get to work! Whether it's checking emails or social media, updating my ads or website, writing or editing... Then I tend to take a break during the afternoon to go for a walk in the local park with my husband and partner. I then usually try to do some more writing before relaxing for the evening. My husband and I play video games and watch movies together, so that's what we've been doing lately.

What's rocking your world this month?

Aside from Bound for Life? I'm going to be doing a lot of volunteering in my community to support people with mental illness and disabilities, and other vulnerable people. Plus I'm hoping to go on a mini-vacation out to my partner's hometown of Bonavista, Newfoundland. It's right on the ocean, and it's absolutely breathtaking.

When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I feel like it's a cliche to say I wanted to be a writer, but I so did. My parents weren't very supportive and kept trying to rid me of the inclination, but I kept going back to it. When I was 16 years old, I met a boy online. We started writing back and forth, then sending love notes back and forth. Then those love notes became love stories.

16 years later -- almost half my life -- and I still write love stories with my partner

What scene in Bound for Life was your favorite to write?

Their first night together. It was so much passion, so much pent up feelings that they'd been struggling against for so long. I love those moments when it's just... time. When everything has finally aligned, and the hero and heroine give in to all the things they were fighting, and allow themselves to be vulnerable and grow closer.

Plus, I just love writing sex scenes!

Do you have a motto, quote or philosophy you live by?

I have a lot! I struggle with mental illness, so I have to keep a lot of positive mantras. I try to focus on things that I can control, and remember the things that are important to me.

One of my favourite quotes is "When we can't dream any longer we die." - Emma Goldman. It reminds me that creativity, that dreaming, that hoping and striving... it matters. It means we're alive, and it's a way for us to celebrate our lives.

“One glance at a book and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for 1,000 years. To read is to voyage through time.” - Carl Sagan. Writing... reading... it's magic. It's really, truly, wonderfully magic. I'm so blessed to be able to help others travel through time and place.

Alexis Abbott is the author of the new book Bound for Life. 

Connect with Alexis:
Author Website

 Twitter

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