Today I’m so excited to welcome my friend and Sourcebooks sister Maggie Wells and her contemporary romance THE LAST FIRST DATE to the blog!
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THE LAST FIRST DATE
First date number forty-eight comes to a screeching halt for Detective Langley Sheppard when his date lifts a pack of gum from the local convenience store. But things start looking up when he encounters spunky damsel-in-distress Jessica Vickers, who’s stranded in the store parking lot. Now Lang is about to discover that on a night when everything goes wrong, falling for Jessica feels spectacularly right.
SHARON: I love this premise, Maggie. Can you tell us about the story?
MAGGIE: This is not a new release, but it’s one of my favorites. It’s a New Year’s Eve gone wrong story. Detective Langley Sheppard is looking for his Ms. Right, but first date number 48 comes to a screeching halt when his date is caught lifting a pack of gum from a convenience store. Jessica Vickers is stranded in the parking lot with a dead battery. Lang is about to discover that on a night when everything goes wrong, falling for Jessica feels spectacularly right.
SHARON: I adore first-date-gone-wrong stories! Can you share a teaser from your book?
MAGGIE: Of course!
A few strange women had flitted in and out of Lang’s life in the past few months, but not one of them had a bizarre fixation on chewing gum like tonight’s winner. Squinting through the sleet-spattered windshield, he peered into the harsh glare spilling from the glass storefront of the T-NT Mini Mart, hoping to catch sight of his date. The multitude of neon signs crowding the spotless expanse lit the puddles of slush in carnival colors. The store’s owner, Max Merida, believed in the laws of plenty. Plenty of light, plenty of cheesy merchandise crammed onto narrow counters, and plenty of markup built into every price.
Apparently, his date believed in having plenty of gum.
Five minutes had crept past since she bailed from his car, insisting he stay put. He could only figure choosing the right flavor was a deeply personal matter for Kristin…no, Kirsten.
Kir-sten.
No matter how many times he repeated it in his head, the name probably wouldn’t stick.
Not that there was anything wrong with the girl. She seemed nice enough. Blonde and pretty in a slightly overly made-up way. Her dress was low-cut and her legs were long—two features he usually appreciated—but tonight the sparkly package just wasn’t doing it for him. Kir-sten would be his fifth first date this month. He was getting good enough at gauging them to know that this one was not off to an auspicious start.
In the past six months alone, he’d chalked up a toll booth attendant who thought she was a shrink, a clinging-vine attorney who wanted to sue him for breach of contract when he broke a dinner date, a girl who ate whole cloves of garlic to keep vampires from sucking her blood, a nymphomaniac kindergarten teacher (not as fun as he expected), a woman whose man hands would have made Jerry Seinfeld jump off the Brooklyn Bridge, and a tattoo artist who wrote free-form poetry. On people’s skin.
And those were just the headliners.
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SHARON: The excerpt is wonderful. Where did you get the idea for this story?
MAGGIE: To me, New Year’s Eve ranks up there with Valentine’s Day in terms of high expectation, so I thought it would be fun to write a story where the holiday goes tragically wrong – and right.
SHARON: It’s a great title. Can you tell us how you came up with it?
MAGGIE: This was one of mine. I love the thought of realizing you might be on your last first date because the right person finally came along. Of course, in Lang’s case, he was on a date with the wrong person, but still…
[bctt tweet=”If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be? Write the stories you want to tell. I find writing more pleasurable when I’m staying true to myself and the stories I want to tell. ~ Maggie Wells @MaggieWells1″ username=”sharonbwray”]
SHARON: Can you share something we won’t find out just by reading the back cover?
MAGGIE: Lang may have been named for a long-running daytime soap opera character.
SHARON: Would that be Anton Lang on All My Children? LOL. Are you a plotter or a pantser?
MAGGIE: I definitely have pantser roots. I long to be a plotter, but find that when I get too in-depth with my story outline, it tends to stymie me. These days, I say I’m more of a plantser.
SHARON: Raising my hand for the plantser side as well. What is your favorite part of your writing process?
MAGGIE: I love brainstorming. There’s nothing I love more than hashing out a kernel of a story with my critique partner. Oftentimes, the initial idea takes off in a direction I had no intention of pursuing. I also love getting developmental edits for the same reason. It’s fascinating to know how others read and react to my work, and how it may be improved.
SHARON: I’m a huge fan of developmental edits which is why I love working for Sourcebooks. Can you share your writing routine?
MAGGIE: Lately, I’ve been relying more and more on dictation. I work a day job, so I find it helps me keep up with my word count goals. I usually dictate on my commute to or from work then let Dragon software transcribe my babble. By the time I am done cleaning it up and shaping it into the actual story arc, I have a decent chuck of work in.
SHARON: I will definitely have to try dictation. If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?
MAGGIE: Write the stories you want to tell. I know this sounds obvious, but when one writes for publication, chasing trends and trying to write to the current market is a constant temptation. I find writing more pleasurable when I’m staying true to myself and the stories I want to tell.
SHARON: How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have?
MAGGIE: Other than my work in progress, I only have two books I have shelved. One I stopped writing 2/3 of the way in because I realized I simply could not find the way to tell the story I wanted to tell. The other was a novella I planned to expand into a novel, but haven’t circled back to yet.
SHARON: Do you have any writing quirks?
MAGGIE: I don’t know if it’s a quirk, but I cannot write in silence. I have to have music on in the background.
SHARON: I draft to music as well, but I like to edit in silence. Can you tell us about yourself?
MAGGIE: I work a day job as an office administrator. Unlike many authors, I do not dream of making writing my day job. I find I do better creatively when I am a little crunched for time. I am married to a man I’m still crazy about after almost two decades. We have two grown children, three grandsons, and a very spoiled black lab.
[bctt tweet=”Which book influenced you the most? I’ve recently been moved by Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic. It’s about getting past our fear and becoming more creatively bold. I think that’s a work in progress for most writers. ~ Maggie Wells @MaggieWells1 @GilbertLiz” username=”sharonbwray”]
SHARON: How did you get into writing?
MAGGIE: Fan fiction. I have written over 4 million words of fan fiction for shows like the Gilmore Girls (I’m a long-time Java Junkie!) and The Office (A JAM fan forever!)
SHARON: I never wrote fan fiction but was a huge fan of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan fiction. Which book influenced you the most?
MAGGIE: I’ve recently been moved by Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic. It’s about getting past our fear and becoming more creatively bold. I think that’s a work in progress for most writers.
SHARON: I love Big Magic too. What book are you currently reading?
MAGGIE: This is a trick question, right? On my Kindle app, I’m reading Julie Anne Long’s Malcolm & Isabel. I love her Pennyroyal Green series. In paperback, I have just started Roni Loren’s The One You Can’t Forget. And my audible app is currently playing Lethal Whiteby Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling).
SHARON: Thank you so much for spending the day with us, Maggie. I hope you have a Merry Christmas and a wonderful holiday season!
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By day, Maggie Wells is buried in spreadsheets. At night she pens tales of people tangling up the sheets. This author of feminist, sex-positive romance is the product of a charming rogue and a shameless flirt. Trust us, you only have to scratch the surface of this mild-mannered married lady to find a naughty streak a mile wide.
You can find THE LAST FIRST DATE here: Amazon | Apple | Barnes & Noble | Google | Harlequin | KOBO
You can find Maggie here: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads
