Tamelia Tumlin - Author interview and Giveaway!

Give a big welcome to Tamelia Tumlin who's visiting with us on her virtual book tour for the inspirational suspense novel, "Deadly Image".

She's graciously offered TWO eBook copies of "Deadly Image" to commenters on the blog post today (so make sure you say hello!). She's also hosting a contest on her website, http://www.tameliatumlin.com  for two $10 Amazon GCs.

She's 'fessed up to five secrets about herself today, so take a peek and then maybe share one of your own in the comments.  The floor is yours, Tamelia!

Secret one: Sometimes, I still have trouble thinking of myself as a “real” author. Yes, I have written several books; some of which are traditional print books and others which are strictly e-books. I even have readers who want to read more of my work and some who are asking when my next one is coming out. For this, I am very grateful. It certainly warms my heart to know someone out there really likes to read my stories. However, I’ve always been under the impression that to be a “real” author a person must write for one of the Big Six publishers and make their way up the New York Times best seller list. While, this is true for some authors, I’m learning that many best selling authors write for smaller presses like I do. So, I guess I need to change my perception of what a “real” author is and realize that everyone won’t necessarily write for the Big Six or make on to the NYT best seller’s list, but that doesn’t make them any less of a “real” author.

Secret Two: I really do pay attention to my reader’s reviews of my books. I read them as learning tool to find out what the readers liked, didn’t like and what they would have liked for me to do with the story they read that I didn’t. This helps when I’m penning a new story. I take their comments into consideration as I plot the next story.

Secret Three: I am a Nick at Night, TV Land and Hallmark kind of girl. I absolutely love watching reruns of my favorite sitcoms: Cheers, Frazier, The Nanny (my absolute favorite), The Golden Girls (another favorite), and Designing Women when it was running. Now, I’d like to say I had never seen them before Nick at Night, but I’ll go ahead and age myself by saying I saw the originals when they first premiered many, many years ago. But, I still enjoy the reruns.

Secret Four: I teach fourth grade in my hometown. I’m one of the ELA teachers so I get to teach the subjects I really love. Except…shhh, don’t tell anyone… I absolutely hate teaching writing. The thought of reading, editing and helping revise eighty plus essays every week or every other week is not my cup of tea. Now, you’re probably wondering why an author would hate to teach writing. It’s simple really, at the fourth grade level we focus so much on the grammatical part and the writing process itself that the creative side seems to get brushed under the rug so to speak. Of course, I do teach them how to be creative, but somehow that gets a bit lost when we have to work on sentence formation, capitol letters and end marks until we are blue in the face. I will say last year was a little more exciting because my little ones really did catch on to using their first sentence to “hook” the reader. That was certainly more fun than capitalizing and punctuating and I enjoyed reading their “hooks”. Some of which, were quite good. Hmm… as you can see editing is my least favorite part of the writing process.

Secret Five: I’m still a kid at heart when it comes to Christmas. I love everything about the season and I start mine EARLY because I want to savor every moment. The sights, sounds and smells. I put my tree up on November 1 (I do have to wait until after Halloween is over because I can not stand to see Christmas and Halloween decorations mixed. Just a little quirk of mine, though I do love both holidays as long as they are separate.) But, come November 1 my trees (yes, plural) come out and everything gets decorated from the house to the yard. We start watching Christmas movies after we decorate the trees and don’t stop until New Years Day. I do have one movie that I watch every New Year’s Eve whenever possible: When Harry Met Sally. Another strange quirk, I know, but it is something I started years ago and it has become a tradition in my house. Who doesn’t love Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan?

Well, enough about me. Tell me some of your secrets. Don’t be shy…we want to hear all the juicy details.

Gone without a trace ...

Lexi Yates knows she hasn’t harmed her three-year old daughter, yet the Louisiana town of Gator Bayou seems to think she’s guilty. With her daughter missing, the evidence stacking up against her and her faith in God tested to the limit, Lexi must find a way to convince FBI agent Ace Valdez she’s innocent before she becomes the next target.

Ace Valdez doesn’t trust easily, and he certainly knows better than to fall for a case, yet there’s something about the widowed mother that makes him want to believe she’s innocent, but evidence doesn’t lie. Or does it?

Tamelia Tumlin sold her first story to Dogwood Tales Magazine many years ago while taking a creative writing course in college. The short story titled "The Traveler" was the feature story for that edition. After graduating college in elementary education, life, a teaching career and a wonderful son consumed most of her time. However, in the past couple of years, the yearning to pen fabulous romantic tales of to-die-for heroes and spirited heroines has taken over. Ms. Tumlin has worked with several online publishers, but she is now writing for Steel Magnolia Press. Juggling motherhood, teaching and writing is a challenge, but one she welcomes to pursue her passion. Her novels range from sweet and sassy to dark and dangerous.

Find Me On:

www.tameliatumlin.com
www.steelmagnoliapress.com
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Romance-Author-Tamelia- tumlin/136280626492728?ref=hl
https://twitter.com/tameliatumlinhttp://www.linkedin.com/pub/tamelia-tumlin/3b/676/61b
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/tamelia-tumlin/3b/676/61b
http://www.goodreads.com/TameliaTumlin