A Babs By Any Other Name

My guest today is Alana Lorens, also known as Babs Mountjoy, also known as Barbara Mountjoy, also known as Lyndi Alexander. If she has any other aliases, I don’t know what they are. If you know, kindly leave them in the comments section. Babs — I mean Alana — kindly agreed to an interview as part of her blog book tour, so here goes.

Take it away!

Alana Lorens (aka Barbara Mountjoy) has been a published writer for over 35 years, including seven years as a reporter and editor at the South Dade News Leader in Homestead, Florida. Her list of publications includes the non-fiction book 101 Little Instructions for Surviving Your Divorce, published by Impact Publishers in 1999, stories in A Cup of Comfort for Divorced Women, in December 2008, and A Cup of Comfort for Adoptive Parents, in June 2009. Her Clan Elves of the Bitterroot series (as Lyndi Alexander) is available from Dragonfly Publishing; THE ELF QUEEN in 2010, THE ELF CHILD in 2011, and THE ELF MAGE in 2012. THE ELF GUARDIAN is coming out in 2013.

§  Her newest release (as Alana Lorens) is SECRETS IN THE SAND, in the Crimson Rose line from The Wild Rose Press. CONVICTION OF THE HEART is her sixth published novel, which will be followed in July 2012 with SECOND CHANCES, a women’s fiction with romantic elements story. The Wild Rose Press is also publishing her contemporary romance novella THAT GIRL’S THE ONE I LOVE later this summer.

§   When she’s not busy writing, practicing law or teaching, she takes care of a husband and a bunch of kids and blogs on a variety of subjects, including autism, science fiction and life at Awalkabout.

  1. How did you become involved with our common friends at Madison, Indiana’s That Book Place?

Met Frank and the rest of you lot at Context in 2011—a very auspicious beginning! Now Hydra Publications has accepted one of my novels, and it will be out this fall—Love Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me…

  1. Can you say how your main character first occurred to you and how he or she evolved from that first spark to a full character?

I think we all relate to a big downturn in the economy. I was really going through a dry spell, working for myself, but it was clear that attorneys in other firms were having the same problems. I imagined how I would feel getting a pink slip—which, in Inessa Regan’s case, is really something special and almost hateful. And the story went from there.

  1. Did you choose your subject, or did your subject choose you?

I chose the subject. I like writing about lawyers—this book is the second in the Pittsburgh Lady Lawyers series, you know. J  But all of us Lady Lawyers have different issues and opportunities. Timing is everything in life.

  1. How do you work?

Since I work for myself as a lawyer, I have good control over my day, so I try to set periods of time during the week when I can have several uninterrupted hours. I have trained myself, Pavlovian style, to write to the soundtrack for Firefly and also The Stand. If I plug one of those in, I can likely get through 2,000 words or more in a morning on a WIP. Of course, I usually have two going at the same time—and another already contracted in edits, etc. And then there’s blogs and other promotional material. So it’s a full day, every day—especially if the family wants any attention. I know, right? How inconsiderate of them…

  1. Are you involved with email lists and/or social media? Why or why not?

I do Facebook, and manage three professional webpages for my writing. I also subscribe to the Motivated Writer’s Life e-list and the support group for The Wild Rose Press authors. Both provide good source material and support for those days that don’t go so well.  People tell me I MUST be on Twitter, but I’m not. I have just about all I can handle now.

  1. If you could have an evening with one fictional character, your own or someone else’s, who would it be and why?

One fictional character, hmm? That’s a tough one. Thinking through some of Stephen King’s courageous heroes, Heinlein’s interesting, forward-thinkers (who wouldn’t want to meet Lazarus Long??) and a host of others… I think I could die happy having spent an evening with Masterharper Robinton from Anne McCaffrey’s Dragons series, in his little island home, made for him to retire to by Sebell, Menolly, Piemur, and the others. He was always just the pinnacle of a character—enough strength, enough courage, enough humor, and enough love.

§  Inessa Regan, a 10-year associate at a Pittsburgh law firm, gets a pink slip when the economy tanks. Insecure, her pride wounded, she flounders helplessly until she meets Kurtis Lowdon, a man 15 years younger than she, an Iraq War veteran with cancer.  He helps her take the first steps back from the pit of despair after she loses everything that defines her. 

§  First as her client, then as her landlord, then as her partner, Kurt shows her the power of  believing in oneself. Their journey is tainted with secrets from Kurt’s own past, as well as some of the horrors of war that have followed Kurt and his friends home from overseas. When his cancer returns, she must take control of her own life and fight to survive.   His battle teaches her how to live; and she risks everything she holds dear to save him.

ANDDDD:

DUAL BOOK/BLOG TOUR!!

CONVICTION OF THE HEART (release date June 8, 2012)

And SECOND CHANCES (release date July 2012)

The first and Second books of the Pittsburgh Lady Lawyer Series!

Come by the following blogs or live booksignings and leave a comment to be entered in a drawing—at the end of the tour, Alana will give away one ebook copy of each book and one paperback copy of each book—Four lucky winners!

The blog book tour stops are posted at AlanaLorens.com as well as here.

27-May                        Vonnie Davis

28-May                        Karen Nutt

30-May                        Kelly Moran

4-June                          Rachel Hunter

7-June                          Nikki Barrett

8-June                          Sarah Grimm

11 June                        Gwen Perkins

13-June                        Katherine Grey

19-June                        LaVerne Clark

23-June                        BOOK SIGNING—FACT AND FICTION, Missoula, Montana

25-June                        Roses of Prose

26-June                        Calisa Rhose

29-June                        Lilly Gayle

2-July                          Marian Allen

10-July                        Babette James

10-July                        Nancy Jardine

13-July                        Pippa Jay

14-July                        Second Saturday—Live appearance, booksigning and mini-seminar, Meadville PA Market                                                 House

16-July                        Jessica Aspen

19-July                        Cathie Dunn

23-July                        Mackenzie Crowne

27-July                        Barbara Bettis

30-July                        Joan Swan

Thanks for visiting, Babs! You, too, Barbara, Alana, and Lyndi! Great buncha gals! We should all get together and do lunch sometime. Split the check five ways, how about that? Whaddya mean, No?

A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: A character is fired in a particularly unpleasant way.

MA

About

I was born in Louisville, Kentucky, but now live in the woods in southern Indiana. Though I only write fiction, I love to read non-fiction. The more I learn about this world, the more fantastic I see it is.

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One thought on “A Babs By Any Other Name

  1. Bodie P

    July 2, 2012 at 12:36pm

    I love Masterharper Robinton, too–that reminds me: I should download McCaffrey’s books to my Kindle…Nice to meet you, Alana/Babs/Barbara!

    Permalink  ⋅ Reply
  2. Maryann Miller

    July 2, 2012 at 1:00pm

    Enjoyed meeting your various personalities, Babs. I think I might like your lady lawyer series. Need to check it out.

    Had to laugh when you said how inconsiderate it is of family to need you when you are writing. My husband comes down to my office when I have been in here for hours and sometimes he does the “Mommy I’m starving” that the kids used to do when they were little and I was trying to work. I told them starving didn’t count. I only stopped for blood. LOL

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  3. Nicolle Olores

    July 2, 2012 at 7:38pm

    Hello Marian, thanks for introducing Babs. She is totally fabulous. The book is very interesting for me. I am very intrigued with the story and I really want to read it.

    Permalink  ⋅ Reply
    • Author

      Marian Allen

      July 2, 2012 at 9:56pm

      Hi, Nicolle! I agree with you on all points. Babs and her book are both intriguing. Happy reading! 🙂

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  4. Babs M

    July 2, 2012 at 11:07pm

    Thank you all for stopping by! I’m on the road back from a booksigning tour out west–came through the Black Hills today where fires were still burning.. 🙁 Feel so bad for some of these people who’ve lost so much.

    Special thanks to Marian for a great interview. 🙂

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    • Author

      Marian Allen

      July 3, 2012 at 10:20am

      It was great having you here, Babs. Thanks for your great answers! 🙂

      Permalink  ⋅ Reply

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