#WriteWed The Inspiration Behind the Books

Wow, the inspiration behind the books. Where do I start? It’s such a tough thing to pinpoint because the inspiration can be so varied.

Vampire Reborn novella from The Calling Reborn series For The Calling-Reborn series, the inspiration for the series and FBI Agent Diana Reyes was very much the emotion I was feeling during a dark time in my life. Her character totally epitomized someone mired in darkness who needed to find herself again and be reborn (namely me!). I shared more of that inspiration in the blog titled Into the Abyss with Vampires.

In the 10 years since that first book, Diana has definitely grown and learned so much and I am so very happy to see where she is in Vampire Reborn. She’s a very different person now and a much stronger one, but opening herself up to love makes her vulnerable in so many ways.

I’m really looking forward to exploring that in future stories.

To Catch Her Man, on the other hand, was inspired by location, location, location and also mother/daughter relationships. That’s kind of been a recurring thread in the Charity Pineiro books set in South Beach – friends, family, mothers and daughters.

Why location? Well, South Beach is all glittering and glamorous, filled with celebrities, but amidst all that hype is the dark side of what goes on in all those party places. I thought South Beach would be the perfect place to have a romance with suspense elements, namely, an investigation into whether an undercover cop is dirty and responsible for the murder of one of his fellow officers.

To Catch Her Man is available alone or as part of the Dangerous Dozen Romantic Suspense Boxed Set. The boxed set is specially priced at .99 cents for a limited time.

Thank you for making it an Amazon and B&N bestseller!

Kobo

April 2, 2014July 9, 2019

#WriteWed Location Inspiration South Beach & NYC

One of the things I love about being a writer is sharing interesting locations with you in my novels. If I’m lucky, I actually either get to visit those locations, like South Beach, or live near them, like New York City.

South Beach has been the location for several of my latest re-releases and the upcoming TO CATCH HER MAN in the Dangerous Dozen Romantic Suspense Boxed Set.

This is a photo of the pool area of the Loew’s Miami Beach Hotel which is right in South Beach near Lincoln Road and Espanola Way, two locations that the heroine in my book, Sylvia Amenabar, frequents often. You may also remember those locations from Kissed by a Vampire.

The Loew’s is a combination of new and a restoration of the former St. Moritz Hotel.

New York City is the location for The Calling-Reborn Vampire Novel series. Much like this is a series of my heart, New York is the city of my heart. I can’t imagine not living nearby or visiting on a regular basis.

I snapped this photo this morning of Herald Square in front of Macy’s. Herald Square is formed by the intersection of Broadway and Sixth Avenue at 34th Street and is named after the long gone New York Herald. In the popular song, Give My Regards to Broadway, there is a reference to “remember me to Herald Square”. This location is also where the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade ends every year!

On the opposite southern portion of the intersection is Greeley Square which is named after Horace Greeley, the publisher of the Herald’s rival newspaper, the New York Tribune. Greeley is best known for his words, “Go West young man” which urged the westward expansion of the U.S. after the Civil War.

Hope you enjoyed today’s Writer Wednesday!

March 19, 2014February 17, 2021

#WriteWed Embracing Indie & Getting Organized

Last year was a crazy and brutal year publishing-wise. Although I had rights back to a number of books, including some of my favorites, I was unable to really focus on releasing them and going indie.

Not so this year. My goal this year was to embrace indie publishing and to do that I had to get organized. Big sigh. Anyone who has visited my home office knows organized is not a word to be used to describe my writing life. A big part of the reason is the lack of time that I have for it.

But lack of time doesn’t mean that you can’t get it done. It just means that you have to learn how to do it more efficiently. Going indie also meant that I had to establish my own schedules for what I wanted to do and when.

Thanks to my awesome buddy and awesome fellow writer Nisha Sharma, I’ve gotten organized. Or at least my knapsack and planner have.

Here’s what they look like now, including an awesome DREAM BIG bracelet thingie I got at the fabulous OG Surf and Skate shop in Neptune, NJ.

This has been really working for me because (1) I’m very visual and need to see things and (2) I’m still a needy kid inside who has to have little gold stars to tell her she’s doing okay.

LOL! So as you can see, there have been a number of stars on there as I complete the tasks I’ve scheduled. I keep the tasks on color-coded flags so I can move them around if need be.

Of course, there is just one thing I forgot to put on there and which totally belongs: Our Lucky 7 Bad Boys NY Times and USA Today achievement.

I will have to go and add that now and plan for even more good news like that. It’s going to be a lot of work this year, but like my mother always told me, “Nothing worthwhile is ever easy.”

March 12, 2014February 17, 2021

It’s #HumpDay & #WriteWed Captain America & Writing Retreats

My writing friends and I will often “get away” for writing retreats. Sometimes it’s just a night of gabbing. Occasionally we can get away for a weekend. More rare are extended outings with other writers. I’m lucky if I can do one of those extended outings once every three or four years.

In 2012, I was lucky enough to get invited to teach a Master Class at the Low Country Romance Writers. It was great to share what I knew about social media as well as legal issues for writers. I met a great group of people and you may recognize some of them in the photo from my Lucky 7 Bad Boys and Dangerous Dozen collaborations, namely Virna DePaul and Nina Bruhns.

The Writing Retreat Gang from Low Country Romance Writers

Post by Caridad Pineiro.

Here is a photo of two of my writing buddies, Julia Amante and Sylvia Mendoza, from another retreat in Vegas! I’ve known Julie and Sylvia for nearly 15 years and love getting together with them! We share so much in common and being with them is always inspiring. In fact, it was a trip many years ago that inspired THE PRINCE’S GAMBLE when they dared me to incorporate elements of our writing weekend into a story. I know that Red Rock Canyon, where we took this photo, will be the setting for a scene in a future romantic suspense novel. It just begs for an exciting chase scene!

Post by Caridad Pineiro.

Because it’s Hump Day, you may need a little excitement to get you up and over the hump! LOL! So here’s a trailer from Captain America to help. I can’t wait to see this movie. I just love Chris Evans. I have since he was in Cellular.
)

February 26, 2014February 17, 2021

#WriteWed My Writing Process & #Contest

One of the most frequent questions I get is, “How can you write so much when you’ve still got your full time job?”

It’s not easy, I’ll confess. There is a tug and pull between work and writing obligations and even more importantly, between family and work/writing obligations.

Because of all those conflicting things, I had to adapt to creating a writing process for myself that minimized conflicts.

The first thing was to make the most efficient use of my time. That meant writing on my commute to and from work. That also meant learning to write when it wouldn’t impinge on family times, namely, early morning and late late night.

I learned to be a morning person something which my mom would find hard to believe if she was still alive. I was one of those people who loved to laze in bed until noon.

Now I’m up at 5 a.m. on weekdays and on the train by 6. I get a solid 45 minutes of writing in on the train ride in and another on the train ride home.

The bulk of my writing is done on Saturday and Sunday mornings. I’m up by 6 usually, make the coffee (must have coffee) and then I’m on my laptop. During the winter months, I’m usually on the couch under a blanket while I write. I also usually have the television on. Yes, I know that some might find that distracting, but I’m used to working in noisy environments.

The spring/summer/Fall months are my favorite ones since when it’s warm enough, I head out onto my small balcony and sit and write there. In the early mornings it’s peaceful and I can often hear and smell the ocean, which is quite relaxing. The family cat, Osiris, will often join me. Here’s a picture of her and also, of some of the flowers I try to have on the balcony. I love those also and wish I had more space to grow things at my place.

Orisis my family cat

When I’ve got tight deadlines, I also work late at night, but I’m not a fan of that. First, because I’m tired from a day at work and second, because that’ll make me tired for the next day at work. But when I have to do it, I do.

So that’s my writing process. It works for me. It may not work for you and I think the key is to find out how to balance your writing life with all your other obligations.

Contest

Don’t forget we’ve got lots of fun things going on for the release of the Lucky 7 Bad Boys Contemporary Romance Box Set.

This set is available for pre-order now, but will be officially released on March 3. We’re having a big release party on March 5 at our Facebook page and a contest where you can win a number of different items. Just check out the Rafflecopter below to find out how to earn points!

You can also get extra points by capturing the bad boy keyword(s) (hint: find the hot bad boy pic) in our Lucky 7 Videos. You can find them here:

Lucky 7 Video #1
Lucky 7 Video #2

a Rafflecopter giveaway

February 12, 2014February 17, 2021

#WriteWed Behind the Scenes of THE PERFECT MIX

THE PERFECT MIX Contemporary Romance This Wednesday I’m offering you a little behind the scenes look at the location for Bianca and Rey’s story in The Perfect Mix which will be released shortly.

The Perfect Mix will also be available in the Lucky 7 Bad Boys Contemporary Romance Box Set!

My hubby and I always have a Christmas Eve errand to run, namely, to head up to Union City to get Cuban goodies we can’t get locally. That entails taking a shortcut through Weehawkin so we can get a glimpse of New York City. We both love the city!

One of our trips to this area was when we were in the midst of renovations to our current house. We had decided to redo the kitchen since the stove had shorted out, drawer fronts were coming off in our hands, and the 1960s yellow linoleum and missing wall behind the fake brick paneling were finally too much to handle.

As we reached Hamilton Park in Weehawkin, we stopped to snap some photos of the city. It was a day much like this one!

Photo Credit: [email protected]

When we got back into the car, we passed by a building at the end of the park. It seemed empty at the time and had been a restaurant at one point and it made me wonder, what would it be like to take over that space with those fabulous views and renovate it?

Well, as you can imagine, The Perfect Mix was born. In this story, Bianca is a chef who, together with her two partners, is undertaking just that kind of task. The hero, Rey Ramos, is the contractor who has been recommended to them and the sparks between Rey and Bianca are instantaneous!

Rey takes on the task of renovating the restaurant, but along the way, has to deal with falling in love with Bianca and having to share a very painful secret with her.

Anyway, here’s another photo from the same location. It was really overcast and cloudy this year, but I love the way this photo came out!