New Release: Obsession by Sharon Buchbinder #paranormal #romance #suspense

I'm super excited to feature my good friend and talented author Sharon Buchbinder. Her paranormal romantic suspense OBSESSION just released from The Wild Rose Press.

Welcome, Sharon. Please tell us about yourself.

   Thank you for having me here, Joya! I have always been a story-teller. As a child, I got into a lot of trouble for "making things up." Now, I get rewarded for making things up. I love being able create heroes and heroines readers can relate to—even crazy cat ladies. I've been writing fiction since I was in middle school and have the rejection slips to prove it. In high school, I even submitted a script to "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." on yellow-lined paper in pencil. Not surprisingly, that was rejected, too.
   As an academic (I have a PhD in Public Health), prior to publishing fiction, I published numerous non-fiction articles and two textbooks. However, I found the road to publication in fiction to be much harder. After I published some short stories in horror and mystery, a friend recommended I join the Maryland Romance Writers (MRW). I joined in 2005 and found friendship, support and the opportunity to develop as an author with MRW and the Romance Writers of America (RWA). I published my first short story in romance in 2007, and I've been pecking away at the keyboard ever since, like one of Skinner's rats, going after the pellet of publication, blending my love of mystery, suspense, and the supernatural with romance.

   We live in beautiful Baltimore, Hon, and live in purple clothes during the Ravens season (no, there are no other teams!). Dem O's are beginning to grow clothing in my closet, as well. When not rooting for the home teams, or attempting to make students, colleagues, and babies laugh, I can be found herding cats, waiting on a large gray dog, fishing, dining with good friends, or writing.

Wow! Sounds like a verrrrry full life! What inspires you to write?

Coffee and a deadline inspire me to write the fastest. LOL. If the clock is ticking, I am much more disciplined about hitting word counts. Otherwise, I am easily distracted by Facebook, Twitter, and researching obscure tidbits that I may or may not use for a work in progress.

Coffee? Did you say coffee? <runs out the door to Sharon's house> LOL. What would be a *perfect day* for you, Sharon?

I get up with a dream that dictates a new story, the plot already formed by my busy subconscious mind. I wrangle the cats and dog, have a light breakfast with my DH, get on the elliptical for thirty minutes, spend a minimum of time on FB and Twitter (hahaha!). I write in two hour chunks, coming out of my other world to stretch, refuel, and put dinner in the oven. Then it's time for dinner and a movie in my family room, in my pajamas. Oh wait! That's today! I'm already having my perfect day!

LOL! Yipppee! Glad you're having a perfect day. Can you tell us about the setting of Obsession? Why did you choose it?

When I began researching Chihuahua, Mexico for a setting for my new paranormal romantic suspense, OBSESSION, my primary intent was to find a location to build by villain's refuge.  Lucky for me, the rugged terrain of the Sierra Madre, and specifically,  Copper Canyon, were perfect for a hidden compound for a crazed cult leader who kidnaps his grandson because he believes the child is the Chosen One. This part of the world is remote, beautiful, and sparsely populated. The cult leader believes he has it all: isolation, control of a thousand loyal-to-the-death followers, paid off politicians, and the Chosen One. With more research, I found the setting was perfect to demonstrate the heroine's resolve to rescue her son, the hero's strength and abilities under harsh conditions, and to provide a realistic backdrop for supernatural events core to the story. In addition, I found allies for the heroine and hero in the form of the hidden indigenous people of Mexico, the Tarahumarans, also known as the Rarámuri.

Copper Canyon sounds like the perfect setting! Since you write romance, I must ask...what’s the most romantic thing anyone has ever done for you?

This is going to sound crazy, but when I lost a housekeeper, I was beside myself. I have serious dust and cleaning solution allergies. My asthma kicks in with a vengeance. But, the house wasn't going to clean itself, and I still hadn't found a replacement. One Saturday, I put on my mask and gloves, dragged out the vacuum cleaner and cleaning supplies and began to get to work. After a while, I found my husband in the master bedroom, wearing a scarf on his head and scrubbing the toilet. He told me to call him "Tootsie." He was my hero that day!

Hey, I think men who clean toilets are very romantic and sexy!! So where can readers order OBSESSION?

 

The Wild Rose Press

Amazon

 

OBSESSION

A year after a barbaric childbirth, complete with a near-death experience and an encounter with her guardian angel, Angie Edmonds is just happy she and her son, Jake, are alive. She's finally in a good place: clean, sober, and employed as a defense attorney. But at the end of a long work day, she finds herself in a parent's worst nightmare: Jake has been kidnapped and taken across the Mexican border by a cult leader who believes the child is the "Chosen One."

Stymied by the US and Mexican legal systems, Angie is forced to ask the head of a Mexican crime syndicate for help. Much to her chagrin, she must work with Alejandro Torres, a dangerously attractive criminal and the drug lord's right-hand man. Little does she know Alejandro is an undercover federal agent, equally terrified of blowing his cover—and falling in love with her.

 

Find Sharon Buchbinder online:

Sharon's website/blog

Sharon's Amazon Page

Goodreads

Facebook

Twitter

 

Thanks for stopping by, Sharon! Be sure to check out Sharon's incredible book trailer HERE

 

 

 

Inner Harbor, Baltimore, MD

Alicia Dean tagged me in the fun activity The Next Big Thing. It’s a blog circle where authors tag each other, giving fellow authors an opportunity to share their current Works in Progress (WIP).

Here are the questions I was asked to answer….

What is your working title of your book?

Ghostly Voices

Where did the idea come from for the book?

My daughter. LOL. This is the third book in my Hauntings at Inner Harbor series, and I knew books one and two right away. My daughter helped me flush the main idea for this book.

What genre does your book fall under?

Contemporary paranormal romance.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

Ian Somerhalder and Rumer Willis

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

A psychic-medium whose painful experiences with ghosts have left her empty and disheartened must choose between keeping a promise to herself and helping a handsome doctor rid himself of a dangerous ghost.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

This book will be published as part of a series at a publisher.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

Still working on it. Hope to be finished within four weeks.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

It’s a little bit like Grey’s Anatomy-meets-Ghost-meets-The Wire.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

I have always loved the city of Baltimore and knew its history would lend itself to some fun ghost stories.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

The heroine is a psychic-medium, but circumstances have made her hate her so-called gift. I think she is going to have some fun conversations with Edgar Allan Poe who lived in Baltimore for a few years, and died there, too. Hereafter, book one of this series, releases in early December!

Tag, you’re it…

Laura Kaye

Christi Barth

Sharon Buchbinder

MacKenzie Crowne

Autumn Jordon

Welcome Sharon Buchbinder, Author of SOME OTHER CHILD

Please welcome my friend, critique partner, and awesome author, Sharon Buchbinder. Sharon is the author of quite a few novels and stories, and her newest release SOME OTHER CHILD, just released last month. Sharon’s here today to talk about an issue that’s near and dear to her heart and she’s sharing an excerpt from her new release, too. Take it away, Sharon...

Fallen Women or Problem Girls?

Once upon a time, not that long ago, when an unmarried woman became pregnant, it was so stigmatizing that she was sent away and shuttered up so they wouldn’t be seen. In the late 1800’s, evangelical reformers on a missionary bent began to set up homes for unwed mothers to rescue them from predatory males and to save them from their baser urges. The Salvation Army and Crittendon homes established “quasi-official relationships with the court system” (Kunzel, 1993, p. 15). When delinquent or “pre-delinquent” girls appeared in court, missionaries often sat in the back row, waiting for the young women to be referred to them. In general, evangelical women and reformers encouraged the unwed mothers to bond with their child and established vocational programs to enable the mothers to go to work and support themselves and their baby.

However, over time and with the rise of the profession of social work, according to historian, Fallen Women, Problem Girls: Unmarried Mothers and the Professionalization of Social Work, 1890-1945 by Regina G. Kunzel (New Haven, Yale University Press, 1993) the labels on unwed mother shifted from “fallen women” to “problem girls.” No longer were these young women treated as victims of predatory males, now they were locked up in homes for unwed mothers, treated like criminals, and in the early 1900’s babies were taken away from them because they were now deemed “unfit mothers.”

In many instances, mothers were told their baby died during childbirth and the infant was “buried in the hospital rose garden,” when, in fact, the child had been handed off to a wealthy, two-parent family that had a stillbirth or was unable to have children (Kunzel, 1993). Nowadays, we would call that practice “human trafficking,” but at the turn of the century midwives, nurses, doctors, and social workers participated in stealing women’s babies because they believed the child deserved a better home, one not with their biological mother. The names of Dr. Katherine M. Cole of Miami and The Ideal Maternity Home in Canada live on in infamy, their effects still echoing through the decades because of these practices.

In my new release, SOME OTHER CHILD, Aunt Ida is one such woman who was victimized by this practice. Told her baby died and was buried in the rose garden during World War II, Aunt Ida went on with her life, still feeling an ache in her arms where her child should have been. When Sarah Wright’s mother, Ethel, is injured and on life support, Aunt Ida is torn between telling Sarah the truth about her relationship with Ethel and letting her best friend take her secrets to the grave. Before she can all is revealed, however, Aunt Ida goes missing.

Blurb: In SOME OTHER CHILD, between taking care of her injured alcoholic mother and work, Sarah Wright, a pediatric nurse researcher, hasn’t a minute to herself, much less time for romance. But unbeknownst to Sarah, two little old ladies--her aunt and her ex-fiancé’s mother--are conspiring to reunite Sarah with Dan Rosen, a brilliant and demanding surgeon. When her aunt goes missing, Sarah is convinced it’s a kidnapping, but the police refuse to investigate. Dan flies to Sarah’s side to help her, and it looks like things might come together—until Sarah is arrested for her aunt’s murder. As the evidence stacks up against her, Sarah must find the real culprits and unravel decades old family secrets along the way.

Excerpt: SOME OTHER CHILD

Prologue

Chicago, Illinois

Exhausted after a long day of teaching classes and endless rounds of revisions on her dissertation, Sarah Wright opened the front door to the house she shared with her fiancé and was almost knocked down by the dog. Gandalf’s scramble of paws and claws left a wake of mail scattered across the foyer and into the kitchen.

“Great.” She shrugged out of her blazer, tossed it onto a chair, and began to play fifty-two pick up. Her neck prickled. Sarah looked up from the mail. A giant gray slobbering monster stood with his front paws on the glass door, the fog of his breath mixing with mud smears. More work. She edged the door open and forced Gandalf to sit while she wiped his filthy feet.

“Gandalf, it’s time we had a„come-to-Sarah‟ talk about your behavior.”

The gray beast turned his back to her, raised his leg and peed on her jacket.

“Fabulous. What else can go wrong?”

Moments later, her fiancé strolled in the door, whistling a cheerful tune.

Sanitizer barely dried on her hands, Sarah spoke through gritted teeth. “Gandalf pissed on my coat. Get rid of that dog.”

Dan Rosen leaned over and gave Sarah a bear hug. She buried her face in his shirt and breathed in a mixture of aftershave and masculine scent.

“That’s his way of showing he likes you.” Dan kissed her brow. “You should be honored.”

“I’d hate to know what he’d do toshower me with love.” The canine in question slunk behind the sofa.“Give him back to your ex-girlfriend.”

Dan quirked a brow. “Jealous?”

“Absolutely not.”

“Methinks the lady doth protest—”

Sarah put her fingers over his mouth, stood on her tiptoes, and gazed into his chocolate brown eyes. She loved him from the top of his head at six-feet, two inches, dark hair flecked with white, all the way down to his size ten shoes. His dog, however, was a different matter.

“He gives me the evil eye. I swear he’s laughing at me.”

The ring of the phone interrupted her appeal.

“Sarah, please come,” her mother sobbed. “There’s been a terrible car accident.”

A chill slithered down Sarah's spine. Not again.

“What happened?” White knuckled, she clutched the phone and mouthed ‘my mother’ at Dan.

“Some idiot slammed into me. The police say it’s my fault.”

Sarah shook her head. Same story, different day. “How much did you drink?”

A long silence. Sarah sighed.“How bad?”

“My legs are broken. Ida's too old to help me. I can't ask your brother. He has a wife and a child to support. Your sister won't talk to me.” She paused. “You're a nurse without a job.”

“I'm in a doctoral program, not unemployed.”

“Don't make me beg.”

Her mother began to weep and Sarah's vow not to fall back into her old ways began to waver. Arrows of guilt pierced her resolve. Who else would come to the aid of this difficult elderly woman?

“I can't walk, drive, or do anything for myself.”

Sarah closed her eyes and sighed, already regretting her next words. “Okay, Mom. I'll come.”

She placed the phone on the receiver and turned to Dan.

Dan stared down at her with an expression of disbelief. “DUI, right?””

She nodded. “She needs me.”

He took her face in his hands.“Look at me.”

She locked her gaze with his.

“This woman sent you away to live with your deaf grandmother and didn't visit you for years.”

“A nasty divorce. An alcoholic husband. Three little kids. What was she supposed to do?”

“Hardly a loving mother. You have physical and emotional scars, Sarah.”

Tears welled up in her eyes.“That’s history. She's changed. I heard it in her voice. She asked for me, not Matt, not Debra, me.”

Dan closed his eyes, and the muscles worked in his jaw. Raised in a normal household, he’d never understand what it meant to be the adult child of an alcoholic. They came from different planets, not just different religions.

An idea occurred to her. “You grew up in Baltimore. Your mom still lives in the city. Visit your mom and me at the same time.”

His eyes flew wide open. “You can't stand Gert.”

Sarah shrugged. “I’ll get to know her better while I'm in Baltimore.”

“Don't do this, Sarah. Ethel's an alcoholic—a mean one. Stay here. I love you.”

She glanced at Gandalf. He stared back at her with doggy daggers.

Dan followed her gaze. “Well, okay, he is a pain in the ass.”

She kissed the tip of his nose.“Thanks for that admission, at least. I love you, too, but if I don’t go and something happens to her, I could never live with myself.”

“You can't keep running to rescue her.”

She shook her head. “I won’t abandon her.”

He threw his hands up. “Go. But mark my words: One of these days she's going to get drunk and kill herself.”

 

Buylink:

Amazon http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009JX31KK

 

Websites:

Blog http://sharonbuchbinder.com/blog/

Facebook http://www.facebook.com/sharon.buchbinder.romanceauthor

Twitter @sbuchbinder https://twitter.com/sbuchbinder

Goodreads http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4417344.Sharon_Buchbinder