Real Life Inspirations in Tempting Friendship by Patricia Josephine

Please welcome Patricia Josephine for her release bash!

Real Life Inspirations in Tempting Friendship

by Patricia Josephine

When it comes to my writing, I enjoy slipping little details from my real life into the story. It may be a name for a character mentioned in passing or somewhere the main character went that I’ve been to. They’re like little Easter eggs that people in my life may recognize. Here are seven that I slipped into Tempting Friendship.

Gerry the Beer Snob

Okay, so my husband isn’t exactly a beer snob, but he likes to try different beers and judge them. He would get along with Gerry great because they could discuss the different flavors of beer and he could trust Gerry to give him a good recommendation. Also, it’s a joke between hubby and I that any spilled alcohol is alcohol abuse.

Grand Taqua Falls

GT Falls is a mash up of Grand Rapids, where I have family, and Tahquamenon Falls which is a huge waterfall and tourist trap near me. Other things in GT Falls that I pulled from real life is 28^th Boulevard. There’s a street in Grand Rapids called 28^th Street and it’s so busy that any construction has to be done at night. My grandma used to live on Hazel Street, and my last job was on Spruce Street.

The Crown’s Inn

The restaurant is based on one I worked at called Weber’s Rustic Inn, but Adira’s office is based on the office at my last job, Penny’s Kitchen. It was tiny and cramped with a filing cabinet that had stuff piled on it.

Rum and Light Coke

No, I’ve never heard of a customer saying this, but working in restaurants since I was 18 I have heard some pretty weird requests. Like the fish tastes too fishy. That did actually happen. Cajun spice is too spicy. A friend once asked for pasta primavera without the veggies. That’s the point of the dish. Otherwise, you’re just having alfredo. Then there’s the customers who order an item and when you bring it out say, “I didn’t order that.” That one happened a lot.

Quinn and Gerry Wanting to Kick Out Customers

That happened to me a lot during summer time. Restaurants are crazy busy where I live then because of tourists, and after four hours of non-stop cooking, you just want them all to GO AWAY. More than once I begged waitresses to make it stop or to lock the door. If I was cranky, I’d swear about customers.

Keane Not Wanting to No-Show.

You know what really sucks? When your coworker doesn’t show up for their freaking shift! Yeah, there’s a reason Keane doesn’t do it because I’ve had it happen to me countless times and would never dream of doing it to another person. You’d think this would just happen with slackers, but no, I once had a professionally trained chef no-show.

Quinn and Keane

I had real people in mind when I was imagining them. YouTubers, Liana Kerzer and Jeff Holiday where kind of who I pictured when writing. Of course, when it came to the cover, I couldn’t find a model with long dread locks and no shirt, so I had to make do.

Other Easter eggs are: Geralt is a reference to The Witcher games, as is Witch Hunter 3, GTA, and Street Rage are references to real games.

I hope you enjoyed learning about the Easter eggs I threw in the story.

Genre: Urban Fantasy / New Adult

BLURB:

At first, Quinn isn’t impressed by Keane. He’s cocky and has sex on the brain. The polar opposite of her. Despite their differences, something blossoms between the two. 

Never one to take things seriously, Keane is an incubus coasting through life without a care. When he meets Quinn, her lack of reaction to him piques his interest. No human has ever been able to resist him. 

As Keane and Quinn struggle to understand what is going on between them, something sinister rocks their world. Young incubi are vanishing, and Keane's friends go missing. Someone is after his kind. When Quinn is kidnapped, Keane must uncover who is behind the abductions and get to her before it's too late.

BUY LINKS:

Amazon / Smashwords
Kobo / iTunes

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Patricia never set out to become a writer, and in fact, she never considered it an option during high school and college. She was more of an art and band geek. Some stories are meant to be told, and now she can't stop writing.

She writes New Adult under the name Patricia Josephine and Young Adult under the name Patricia Lynne.

Patricia lives with her husband in Michigan, hopes one day to have what will resemble a small petting zoo, and has a fondness for dying her hair the colors of the rainbow.

Social Media Links:

Website / Twitter / Facebook

Google + / Newsletter / Goodreads

Amazon Author Page / Smashwords

GIVEAWAY!

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Organization Tip: Business Cards #AuthorToolBoxBlogHop

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When you go to a book event, conference, or do any sort of networking, I bet you come away with a lot of business cards. Or…if you do it right you should. Why do I say that? Because networking is all about introducing yourself to other authors and industry professionals, giving your business card to them, and collecting their cards in return. You never know when you might need to recall a person’s name who you met at an event or if you may need to contact someone, so getting the cards of everyone you talk to is good practice.

But what do you do with them once you get them?

If you say throw them away, you haven’t been paying attention.

You could dump all of them in a shoe box or pile them in a drawer, but that’s not very organized, now is it?

I’ll tell you what I do.

I have baseball card holder sheets that I slip business cards into. Then I put those sheets in a binder. And voila! All of those little cards are safe and in an easily-accessible place that you can put in a filing cabinet.

It’s all about the neat little tricks when it comes to being organized.


QUESTION: Do you collect/keep business cards?

How a Pandemic Could End the World / Guest Post by Susan Kelley

Please welcome Susan Kelley to Write with Fey! She knows about my fascination with disaster and has provided an intriguing article for us about how a pandemic could end the world.

Take it away, Susan!

The World Falls Apart

In my latest series, Survivors of the Apocalypse, humanity in on the brink of extinction after a pandemic sweeps the world and kills millions. How would the collapse of civilization occur and what would the impact be on the handful of survivors?

In this futuristic world, scientists believe they’ve found a universal vaccine that will make an end to the diseases that have plagued mankind since the beginning of time. This isn’t something very far outside of reality. Legions of scientists work on creating yearly flu vaccines and part of their work is to someday create a vaccine that will work against any mutation of the flu.

2018 marks one hundred years since the worst flu pandemic in the world’s history. Around 50 million people died. Looking at how people are more mobile and how many more of us there are, can you imagine the numbers is such a virulent strain hit us today. Before you think our modern medicine would prevent that, keep in mind that an estimated 300,000 to 700,000 people die from the flu every year. Last year’s flu vaccine only protected one in four people who received. To read more about the search for a universal vaccine, here is one of many articles about it.

In my fictional setting, the universal vaccines backfires and disaster results. Imagine how civilization would crumble and implode. A lot of people get very sick, and the medical resources are overwhelmed. Some of the sick would be essential services like healthcare workers and police officers. Civil unrest would follow. As more people succumb, families fall apart, media falls silent, and infrastructure collapses. No phones, no electricity, and then no clean water.

Governments first thoughts might be that an enemy have used a biological weapon. Before the truth is known, a short devastating nuclear war could occur. Untended nuclear and chemical plants would eventually dump their poisons into the environment. Scientists that might have stopped the problem fall to the plague before they are successful. The world of mankind is over.

Except there will always be people who fall through the cracks and don’t get the newest vaccine. There are people who are for whatever genetic reasons are immune to the disease. And therein lies the hope for humanity’s survival, and the framework for my series.

Add in one protected biodome city, completely cutoff from the rest of the world, and you have enough people to give mankind a chance. Maybe.

Exile’s Savage Lady: Book #3 in Survivors of the Apocalypse, is the final book as a few brave people risk everything to bring the cure to everyone. Robin Linden was saved by the Gibbs family when the city exiled him to die outside the dome. The cure exists, but those in the city don’t know. Robin can’t let those inside starve as their resources fail, and he’s willing to sacrifice himself to save them. Kerry Gibbs doesn’t understand what makes the stoic city man tick, but she’s not going to let him get away before she finds out why she finds him so attractive. If that means following inside the city, she’s not afraid of anything. But the more she gets to know Robin and what motivates him, she fears for the first time. They may be able to save the city, but she’ll lose the man she loves.

Find it on Amazon.

BIO: Susan Kelley lives in a large country home in Pennsylvania where she and her husband have raised six children. After many years as a high school teacher, she retired to write full time. She loves dystopia, space adventures, superheroes, but especially everyday heroes.

Find Her:

Her blog: Susan Says

Her Twitter

Her Facebook

QUESTIONS: Do you get your flu shot every year? Have you ever been really sick with the flu? Do you think the world will end with a big bang or a long moan?

Writer's Depression - Part 1

Ever since I was a teen I’ve suffered from depression. It comes and goes but is never far away. Even during my best moments, it’s a teeny-tiny shadow in the distance. This does not make me a negative person during my best moments, though. Far from it. But depression never quite dissolves, even when you’ve been nothing but happy and content.

For a few years, from 2011 to 2014, I was in a tough place in my life. Very tough. I struggled financially and health-wise. And my confidence took hit after hit. I had published Hurricane Crimes and 30 Seconds during this time, but I felt like a failure in many other ways.

What helped me during this time?

Blogging.

I felt so alone, but blogging gave me a community.

I felt rejected by everyone, but the bloggers I got to know became my family.

The blogging world gave me something to be a part of. It gave me a purpose.

I shared my knowledge and experience to other writers. By giving to others I felt so much better about myself. Even if it was just for the moment.

In return, I received encouragement and friendship.

Blogging, in other words, was my escape, my refuge. I blogged 2-3 times a week (pre-planned posts) and visited many blogs and left comments. Back then, I was a lot more active with my blog. I dove into blogging, and it turned out to be my medicine.

If you struggle with depression and have a blog, I encourage you to let your blog, this wonderful community, and other people’s blogs to lift you up.



NOTE: Sometimes, blogging can be the problem or be hard to accomplish when you have depression, especially when blogging begins to weigh on you. My next post will reveal what I did most recently when I suffered from my strongest case of depression to date and blogging became an obstacle.

QUESTION: How has blogging helped you?