Contemporary romance author Petie McCarty joins me today to chat about her series, The Cinderella Romances Series, made up of the novels, Cinderella Busted, Betting on Cinderella, and Par For Cinderella.
During her virtual book tour, Petie will be giving away a $10 Amazon or Barnes and Noble (winner’s choice) gift card to a lucky randomly drawn participant. To be entered for a chance to win, use the form below. To increase your chances of winning, feel free to visit her other tour stops and enter there, too!
Bio:
Petie spent a large part of her career working at Walt Disney World—”The Most Magical Place on Earth”—where she enjoyed working in the land of fairy tales by day and creating her own romantic fairy tales by night, including her presently touring series, The Cinderella Romances. She eventually said goodbye to her “day” job to write her stories full-time. These days Petie is writing additional Cinderella adventures as well as sequels to her regency time-travel series, Lords in Time.
Petie shares her home on the Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee with her horticulturist husband and an opinionated Nanday conure named Sassy who made a cameo appearance in No Angels for Christmas.
Welcome, Petie. Please tell us about your current release.
I am writing Book 4 in The Cinderella Romances . . . Fall in love with the fairy tale all over again.
My modern-day Cinderella stories provide unlimited opportunities for me to retell the classic fairy tale, happily with returning characters to share in these adventures. Book 4 is Cinderella on the Rocks, set in the Highlands of Scotland and returning Ian MacVicar who made his first appearance in Par for Cinderella.
What inspired you to write this series?
Ian MacVicar was one of my favorite characters in the Cinderella series so far and certainly deserved his own story. Aidan Cross’s private investigator also appears in Par For Cinderella and will probably follow Ian with his own adventure in Spying on Cinderella.
Excerpt from Book Three Par for Cinderella:
Silhouetted in the outside light, Aidan looked big . . . and dangerous. Over six feet of pure sin. Too much for her to handle, and Casey officially changed her mind. Turned chicken.
Aidan must have sensed her decision to flee like a timber wolf senses his prey. “What are you doing down here?”
The deep sensual timbre of his voice vibrated along her spine and created tiny pinpoints of desire along its length. Her mouth had that dry feeling she got at the end of her tour spiel—dry and raspy.
“I-I was just going up to bed.”
“No, you weren’t.”
“I-I was too.”
His sexy chuckle rumbled in the darkness, and her skin prickled with anticipation. She couldn’t fool Aidan or herself.
Her brain taunted, Flight or fight, make up your mind.
She suddenly recalled her earlier decision following Janie’s call—to grant herself the month with Aidan. Better for her to have him than let Deedee steal him away. Casey had fully intended to enjoy every single minute of that month with Aidan before she’d chickened out just now. Instead of running away, she could enjoy the feel of those broad shoulders and muscled arms presently filling up the doorway. She could also allow herself a good long stare at that perfect butt when he turned, and maybe even enjoy that kissable mouth with those please-never-take-them-off-me lips.
“Stop looking at my mouth,” Aidan growled, “or you’ll be sorry.”
Her heart ended her dilemma. Go for it.
She could feel his unseen eyes track the movement of her chest, rising and falling with each hard-won breath. Time to force the issue for them both.
“K-Kiss me,” she whispered. Frozen in place, she left the outcome up to Aidan.
He didn’t move a muscle for three lifetime-lasting heartbeats.
One . . . he doesn’t want me.
Two . . . he’s still angry.
Three . . . my own fault.
She turned for the stairs, and he had her in two strides. His arms snaked around her waist and yanked her tight to his chest as his mouth took hers. This was no tender, make-up kiss. This was all need and desire and maybe a little punishment too.
She didn’t care. Her fingertips had gotten their Christmas wish, and Casey buried them in the silky hair at his collar, luxuriating in the soft texture and wanting to keep him close. Even that didn’t stop the tingling in her fingertips.\
Aidan’s tongue teased at her lips, then swept inside and tangled against hers. She grew lightheaded as she reacquainted herself with the moist sweetness of his mouth, tinged with a hint of beer. A joyful reunion after the fear of separation, and she intended to savor every sexy nuance of flavor.
He growled low in his throat and turned his head to deepen the kiss. Casey just prayed he wouldn’t stop kissing her. Aidan had to care about her. He didn’t, couldn’t kiss another woman like this. Could he? An image of Deedee flashed behind her eyelids.
She pulled back, but her fingers refused to relinquish their hold on his soft curls.
“What was that for?” he asked, his voice rough with desire. “Not that I’m complaining, mind you.”
“I don’t want to be just friends,” she whispered.
“Thank God.”
What exciting project are you working on next?
Due to the recent and unexpected closing of Soul Mate Publishing on September 30 and the subsequent return of my rights to the Mystery Angel Romances, I am in the process of re-writing, retitling, recovering, and rebranding that series as a new and darker romantic-suspense three-book series, The Watchers. Look for it in a future Goddess Fish Promotional tour.
When did you first consider yourself a writer?
When I was young, I often made up stories while playing with my Barbies or my Wild West figurines and horses, but I had never considered a full-time career or even a part-time pursuit in writing. Then about fifteen years ago, my life took an amazing detour, and I suddenly found I had two jobs—one I didn’t actually apply for—instead of one job. All this happened when a movie started playing in my head, like a feature film in color and everything, and more or less got stuck in my head. That first movie just kept playing, over and over, pestering me with the plot filling in as the feature film progressed in my head. Finally, I gave up and put the whole thing on paper. That story eventually became one of the Mystery Angel Romances soon to be restructured as The Watchers Book 2. I’m really looking forward to the new transformed series.
Do you write full-time? If so, what’s your workday like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?
I do or at least I try to. The times I’m not writing are filled with the same things everyone does when they get home from work: taking care of my sweetheart, cooking, laundry, and best of all, as much time as I can get in on my electric bike.
What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
I write my stories first in longhand—and shorthand when I can’t keep up in longhand. You know, that movie of mine moves at its own speed, and it’s up to me to try to keep up. I am fortunate my mom made me take shorthand in high school. The skill saved me in many a college class taking notes and now in my writing career. Shorthand is a sort of phonetic writing with squiggles and lines representing whole words or pieces thereof. I’ve done it so long that I can type from it as fast as I can type from print words. I have found that I can’t type and creatively write at the same time. My mind gets too easily distracted with going back and correcting mistypes (a little OCD maybe) and then I lose that absolutely perfect response of one of my characters.
As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A zookeeper—all I ever wanted to be. I even earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Zoology. While it doesn’t help me in my writing career, it did provide me with an excellent background for my position as an aquatic biologist and environmental manager with Walt Disney World for most of my career.
Anything additional you want to share with the readers?
I just want to thank you, Lisa, and Goddess Fish Promotions for hosting my Cinderella series tour, as well as all the wonderful readers who dropped by to visit.
Links:
Website | Facebook | Twitter/X | Goodreads | BookBub | Amazon
Thank you so much for featuring Petie McCarty and her series.
This looks like a very enjoyable novel. Thanks for sharing and hosting this tour.
Sounds like a great read.
I enjoyed the post. Sounds like a good read.
Thanks so much for sponsoring my Goddess Fish Series tour and for this wonderful opportunity!
Sounds like a interesting book.