Welcome Guest Author - Diane Craver

STEPH: Diane, welcome to Romance Under the Moonlight. Can you tell us a little about yourself?

DIANE: Steph, thank you so much for having me here today. I live about 26 miles from Cincinnati , Ohio . My husband and I celebrated our 35th wedding anniversary last August. We were blessed with six children - five daughters and one son. Writing is my passion but I also enjoy scoring tests for various states several months out of the year. The weird thing is I’m great at scoring high school science tests and science was my weakest subject and least favorite in school.

STEPH: Tell us about your Christmas Story.

DIANE: Here is a blurb for my story, “The Proposal”:
Jacqueline Andrews hopes her boyfriend Brad’s surprise is an engagement ring for her twenty-sixth birthday. Her best friend, Tyler Jordan, wants Jacqueline to be happy, but not with Brad. Tyler regrets blowing off Jacqueline’s confession of love for him before he left for college. When he returns to their small town as a physician’s assistant, he falls in love with her. He needs to win her love back. Will his hot kisses sway her? Or is she going to marry Brad?

STEPH: How did it find a home at VTP?

DIANE: I had joined RAMP, Rebecca Vickery’s wonderful yahoo group. It’s a great place to visit for readers and authors. I already respected Rebecca as a publisher and a writer herself, so it seemed natural for me to sign a contract for one of her Christmas anthologies. It was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up on and I have enjoyed being a part of A Christmas Collection: Sensual.

STEPH: What genres do you write?

DIANE: I write contemporary romance, inspirational, chick-lit mystery, women’s fiction, young adult and historical fiction.

STEPH: What about writing Christmas stories appeal to you?

DIANE: Writing Christmas stories is appealing because it’s the time of the year when everything seems magical and miracles happen when you least expect them!

STEPH: What's your favorite Christmas story that you've read? Seen on TV?

DIANE: I love Jude Deveraux’s story, “Just Curious”. It’s in an anthology titled A GIFT OF LOVE with Judith McNaught and other authors. It’s an absolutely delightful story with beautiful widow Karen Lawrence not trusting her boss, MacAllister Taggert. She thinks he’s just a playboy and a heartbreaker but she has a secret yearning to have a child before her biological clock expires. He seems to be the best man for the job even though she doesn’t want to become involved with him and have her heart broken.

A TV movie I have enjoyed is “Christmas in Connecticut ” starring Dyan Cannon and Kris Kristofferson with Tony Curtis. It’s a fun romantic comedy made in 1992.


STEPH: Can you share a Christmas tradition with us?

DIANE: We attend 5:00 Mass on Christmas Eve and our daughter Amanda (born with Down syndrome) serves at this church service. She’s done this for the last several years. She does an awesome job as a server. Afterwards, we come home and eat lasagna.

STEPH: Can you an excerpt? Buy Links?

Here's an excerpt from "The Proposal":

Celebrating Thanksgiving at his parents’ house might be miserable. If Brad proposed, Jacqueline would be ecstatic. But he’d have a hard time pretending to be thrilled with their news. I want Jacqueline to be happy…but not with Brad. She’d loved him enough once to pour her heart out to him. That love must still exist somewhere for him. If buried deep in her heart, he needed to get her past love for him to surface again.

Jacqueline walked into the kitchen and asked, "How about ice cream for dessert?"

He patted his stomach. "I guess I have room for a small dish of ice cream. Don’t tell my mom, but your lasagna’s even better than hers."

"That’s quite a compliment because everything your mother makes is delicious." She smiled at him. "I just had a thought. Would you like to come here for lasagna on Christmas Eve, and go to Mass with us? We can go to the five o'clock service and eat here afterwards."

"I like that. Midnight Mass is too crowded. When’s Brad coming for Christmas?"

"He’s not sure yet." She opened the dishwasher and pulled a tray out. She sighed. "The dishes are clean in here. Alex never emptied it. He can remember to ask me fifty times a day if he can drive, but he can’t remember to do his chores."

He carried his plate to the counter, then watched Jacqueline lean against the refrigerator. She wore a black sweater with her tight fitting jeans. At the gleam in her brown eyes, he tugged her into his arms. Her breathing became uneven, but she only squirmed slightly. He felt relief that she didn’t break his embrace. His pulse quickened with her warm body against him. She looked too adorable not to kiss. His lips pressed against hers, and she wrapped her arms around his neck. She returned his kiss with sweet passion. She wasn’t kissing him like a best friend, but a lover.

Suddenly her body stiffened and she looked up at him. " Tyler , what’s going on?"

"I had to kiss you. It’s not my fault you look so sexy in that black sweater." He saw her frown so continued, "Hey, you waited to get the ice cream. Then you gave me a look like you wanted me to kiss you."

"I did no such thing. I was just waiting for you to say what kind of ice cream you wanted."

He chuckled. What a liar she was. She wanted him to kiss her, but he wasn’t about to mention that fact again to her. "How could I tell you that when I don’t know what you have?"

BUYING LINKS:

Amazon: Kindle - http://www.amazon.com/A-Christmas-Collection-Sensual-ebook/dp/B004AYD69E/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1290912300&sr=1-1
Print - http://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Collection-Anthology-Sensual/dp/1456304372/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_9
Ebook, Smashwords:http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/29147
Create Space, Print book: https://www.createspace.com/3494421
Victory Tales Press: http://victorytalespress.yolasite.com/online-store.php

STEPH: Where can we find you on the web?

DIANE: I have a website, http://www.dianecraver.com and a blog, http://www.dianecraver.com/blog. I'm also on Facebook. This week I have all the Victory Tales Press Christmas anthology authors visiting my blog. I hope people will visit and leave comments. I’ll draw a winner and the giveaway is a $5 GC to Amazon and a download of one of the anthology books.

Thanks so much for visiting!
Smiles
Steph

Welcome Guest Author - Diane Craver

Is Mallory Harrington jinxed because her name means luckless?

Things have gone wrong for Mallory since she was a small child. All she ever wanted was to have a complete family and live happily ever after. It appears she has it all when she marries Toby Harrington and they have a son. Unfortunately, their marriage ends when Toby has an affair with his law partner. After their divorce, Mallory doesn't think she should ever get married again.

Mallory decides to get a surgical procedure that she's always wanted, but meeting plastic surgeon, Doctor Seth Whitman, complicates her life. Seth realizes that having Mallory as a patient might not work. She intrigues him too much. He wants to spend more time with her, but definitely not on the operating table.

Mallory learns that sometimes faith is about accepting what can’t be changed and grabbing what God offers her. Life must go on.




Excerpt:

After leading him into the study, she walked to the closet and opened the white door. Vases of every size filled the closet.

"This is wonderful." He looked at her. "Did you get your grandmother's artistic talent?"

She laughed. "I'm afraid not. I can barely draw stick figures."

Forty-five minutes later, Seth stood at Mallory's front door. He'd finally written her a check and told her not to look at it until he left. He'd selected a large vase with painted cherry blossoms plus a matching jar for herbs. His mom had an herb garden, so he knew she'd be excited about his gift.

He wanted to kiss Mallory. Surely a peck on the cheek should be appropriate with him being at her house. He was not her doctor at the moment. He leaned down to her. His lips brushed her cheek, and Mallory pulled him closer to her.

She whispered, "Here's a birthday kiss for you."

With her in his arms, he felt Mallory's breasts against his chest. When their lips met, energy surged through him. Maybe it was only a birthday kiss, but he hoped that it could be the beginning for something much more. He could see them as a couple. But was there a chance of this happening? He had no way of knowing if he'd get the opportunity to date Mallory after she recovered from her surgery, but he knew one thing for sure.

He never wanted Mallory to think his only interest in her was as her surgeon. He wanted so much more from this incredible woman.
Small Author Bio:
Diane enjoys her life with her husband and six children in southwestern Ohio. Her husband of thirty-four years is very supportive, as well as her awesome children. She writes contemporary romance, inspirational romance, women’s fiction, and chick-lit mystery. Diane published first in nonfiction, and later she decided to also write fiction.
Trailer link for Marrying Mallory: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xx47eTrY8M0\

I like to write inspirational romances because writing about Christian characters facing challenges of love in today’s world is rewarding. It's meaningful and fun to have the characters express their faith in real life drama. Even though my stories are emotional, they also have lighthearted moments. I like to give my heroes and heroines a sense of humor.

I enjoyed writing about my characters falling in love in my two inspirational romances, No Greater Loss and Marrying Mallory. Luke Brunsman and Jennifer Hunter meet in an unusual way in No Greater Loss. Jennifer does an emergency delivery of a baby in a rural grocery store. Luke happens to be shopping at the same time and assists her. The miracle of life touches each one in a different way. In Marrying Mallory, the sparks fly instantly when Mallory goes to see the charming Dr. Seth Whitman about having plastic surgery. However, her friend Elizabeth thinks a minister acquaintance, Jeremy, is the right guy for Mallory. Seth's attraction for Mallory causes problems for him. He'd rather date Mallory than operate on her. In both inspirationals, I have conflict, drama and suspense.

BUYING LINKS for MARRYING MALLORY:

Amazon Kindle - http://www.amazon.com/Marrying-Mallory-ebook/dp/B0032JSJ0Y/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1272122158&sr=8-1

Desert Breeze Publishing - http://stores.desertbreezepublishing.com/-strse-51/Marrying-Mallory/Detail.bok