Stephanie Cage - Writer

Yikes!  I last posted in summer 2017.  What's happened since then?  Well, for one thing life happened.  For another, editing happened.  Next week my holiday novella Paris Proposal  finally hits the virtual shelves.  Paris  is published by The Wild Rose Press, who also published my earlier novellas Desperate Bid , The Santa Next Door and Djinn and Tonic .   I think this is their best cover yet!  What do you think? For another thing, I've self-published a sci-fi romance, just for fun.  It's called Sleeping Satellite and you can grab it free from 3rd to 5th December to celebrate the launch of Paris Proposal . 

I wonder how often those words have been uttered over the course of the 13 years that Strictly Come Dancing has been aired? The celebrities who speak them are usually referring to the intense roller-coaster ride of a single series, but those of us who have been fans from the start have travelled a much longer and more rambling route. When the show started in May 2004 I was an English graduate, ballroom dance lover and aspiring writer in my late twenties, living near London and working in market research.  Over the years, my Strictly journey and my writing journey have become intricately entwined, thanks to an idea I had as soon as I heard that there was going to be a competitive dancing show on TV again for the first time since Come Dancing hung up its dancing shoes.   I’d noticed at university that the dancing world was something of a hotbed of gossip and romance, and thought it would be fun to combine a dancing show with something more relationship-focused – think ‘Str...

Today on my blog I welcome Mary Morgan, author of the Dragon Knights series.  Hello, Mary! When and how did you first become interested in writing? I’ve always enjoyed writing. I started at a young age with poems and plays. With an overactive imagination, I loved creating stories within my mind and writing them down. However, it took decades for me to have the courage to bring them out into the world for others to read. What gave you the idea for the Dragon Knights stories? On my first trip to Scotland sixteen years ago. I was sitting all alone on a boulder in the Highlands, surrounded by the magic and mists of the land. The Dragon Knights were born that evening. You write about Scotland, which seems to be a favourite setting for romance writers (my friend Lizzie Lamb sets most of her stories there and they have been very popular).  What drew you to it, and how do you evoke the setting in your books? My love affair with Scotland began decades ago. I blame it...

A huge thank you to all the people who've helped Djinn and Tonic get off the ground over the last week! My lovely fellow authors at Wild Rose Press helped create quite a twitter storm over the first few days, and I've done some very enjoyable interviews - if you've missed any of them, here are the links: http://blogspot.nancycweeks.com/2016/02/welcome-back-stephanie-cage.html   Nancy C Weeks finds out about the inspiration for Djinn and Tonic, and challenges me to write an 8 word love story. https://joyceholmes.wordpress.com/2016/02/22/interview-with-author-stephanie-cage/   Joyce M Holmes asks about my writing habits and my tastes in reading.   http://marymorganromancewriter.com/blog/2016/02/24/spotlight-author-interview-stephanie-cage/   Mary Morgan finds out about my writing inspirations, and asks some entertaining personal questions.  

It's been a fun release weekend.  I've made a book trailer for Djinn and Tonic... Djinn and Tonic ... and visited the blog of the lovely Angela Scavone to talk about my dream date http://angelascavone.com/2016/02/19/romance-month-stephanie-cage/ I've got a few more interviews and visits lined up over the forthcoming week, so watch this space!

This is the first time I've participated in a paranormal blog hop.  I'm still getting used to the idea of myself as a paranormal writer.  My first three books (Desperate Bid , Perfect Partners and The Santa Next Door ) were all set firmly in the real world. I've written science fiction before (for the now-defunct AlienSkin Magazine, and more recently for the anthology Stories from the World of Tomorrow ), but although the stories were somewhat 'out there', there was an explanation for the strange occurrences.  Or at least an implication that an explanation existed. Buildings ate people because the scientists who engineered the sentient town forgot to consider that imbuing it with a survival instinct might result in more than just self-repairing walls.  A newspaper proprietor was able always to be at the scene of the next big story due to precognitive visions resulting from a (largely unexplained) genetic mutation.  In science fiction, even if we don't know ex...

Under a Blood Moon by Rachel Graves My rating: 4 of 5 stars 'Under a Blood Moon' is a highly entertaining debut novel which blends dark elements with a light chick-litty feel in a similar way to Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse books. I love stories which explore how supernatural elements would fit into the structures of our everyday world, and the heroine Mallory's role within the Baton Rouge Supernatural Investigations Department puts this book squarely into that category. With the book coming from The Wild Rose Press, I was expecting more of a romance, but as it turns out, Mallory's relationship with Jakob, a six hundred year old vampire, provides plenty of heat without detracting from the pace of the detective story, and her friendships with others from the supernatural community are much-needed light relief from the dark events which follow from the initial zombie attack. When supernatural powers are thrown into the mix, human politics and interperso...

It's official! Djinn and Tonic has a cover! Not at all what I expected, but I love it, and it fits the magical theme of the story perfectly. Thanks to Kim and all at The Wild Rose Press. Oh, and in case you're curious, here's the blurb: As fashion photographer Sal Purdew sets up her studio for a special shoot, she wishes for the perfect male model, and he appears. Sal just wants to win at the Alternative Fashion Awards, but her model, Ashtad, is a djinn with the power to grant her wishes and turn her into anything she wants to be. From the pretty English town of Whitby to a tropical beach, Ash whisks Sal away on a magical trip neither of them can forget. When Sal finds herself falling for Ash, she has to decide: do they have a future together, or will his magic always come between them?

There are few better moments for a writer than finding out that an editor has enjoyed your story enough to want to share it with the world. Maybe one day it'll get old, but after two novellas and one novel, it certainly hasn't yet. I've just signed my third contract with The Wild Rose Press, which I'm delighted about because I think they did a great job with my first two novellas, 'Desperate Bid' and 'A Santa Next Door.' My first two Wild Rose Press novellas were straightforward contemporary romances, but this one is a bit of a departure, because although it's set in the present day, it also contains a paranormal element, in the form of a djinn, or genie, who appears in response to the photographer heroine's wish for the perfect model for her photo shoot. What would you do, I wonder, if a perfect man materialised out of thin air - literally - in your studio? If you've followed along with my occasional Sunday snippets, you might reme...

I loved this sweet story about a country singer and a playwright.  Sherry Valentine is the queen of popular culture and Carston Hewlett is the king of high-brow theatre: Nashville meets New York Times.  When they’re thrown together for a radio interview, neither of them expects much of the occasion, but they quickly find that there’s more to each of them than first appearances suggest.  Sparks fly and they’re soon looking for opportunities to spend more time together.  The mature hero and heroine of the story were totally believable, and I liked the fact that, while they both had a past which influenced their present-day feelings, their pasts weren’t overplayed.  Instead, the focus was purely on how things play out for them in the present, when Carston finds out about Sherry’s desire to become an actress.  While Sherry keeps her ambitions a secret because she doesn’t want to exploit Carston, his past experience makes him misread her intentions entirely...

' Risking it All ' is a truly lovely short story with a very convincing wartime atmosphere. A few years ago I went to a World War II battle re-enactment which English Heritage organised at Scarborough Castle (below), and this book gave me very much the same sense of history coming alive.  You can almost smell the aircraft fuel and feel the bombs landing, not to mention hear the jive music playing when Lynne sees Billy for the first time in years, at the airmen's dance.  A lot of intensity is packed into a small space, in a way which I might not have believed if it weren't for the fact that because it's wartime, both hero and heroine know that time may be short for them. The transition which Lynne and Billy make from childhood crush to adult relationship is believable and touching. Suspense comes from the conflict stemming from Billy's concern that Lynne may be responsible for the spate of deaths at the airfield, as well as from the risk Billy runs e...

Squee!  And assorted other excited noises!  It feels like Christmas... for two reasons.  One is that seeing my book going out into the world always feels as exciting as opening a shiny new parcel and waiting to find out what's inside.  The other is that the book in question is the snowy story I've mentioned a few times on this blog... The Santa Next Door.  Although it's not officially released until early December, it's already available exclusively from Amazon on the Kindle Select program .  Look, here's a picture!  Oh, and if you missed the earlier mentions of the story, you can find a sneak peek into the snowy opening here and an introduction to the lovely Sue and Bryn here.

So...  it's official.  My Christmas novella, The Santa Next Door, now has a cover, and I love it!  That's about it really.  Oh, except that if you missed an earlier sneak peek of the opening, you can read it here .  Now I'm just waiting for a release date.  Hopefully some time around Christmas...

Today I'm interviewing Leanne Davis, whose first novel, 'Poison' is just out with The Wild Rose Press and is free for download for a limited time only - if this interview whets your appetite, you can find a link at the end.    Welcome, Leanne!  ‘Poison’ is a romantic suspense novel – what attracted you to the idea of writing romance with a villain? I was on vacation in Long Beach, Washington, (the fictional town of Seaclusion, where Poison takes place is based on it) and happened along the North Head Lighthouse which stands over the Columbia River during a bad storm. It seemed like something evil should happen there…and I began thinking about what it could be. I had long before written about my character’s John and Cassie as a high school romance. I decided to re-visit them   ten years later, and how   they could end up reuniting after a bitter betrayal. In order to give them some drama, I had Cassie have a violent ex-husband who is hunting her and h...

A while ago I introduced you to the snowy setting of my Christmas story, with the working title of 'The Santa Next Door'.   If you missed it, you can read it here . Now, I'm delighted to announce that Santa Claus really will be coming... to an electronic device near you.   I've just signed a contract with The Wild Rose Press for this short Santa story to be published as an e-book, hopefully in time for Christmas 2013.   So this seems like a good time to let my lovely heroine, Sue, and hero, Bryn, introduce themselves, to each other and to you...     “You said don't go in strange people's houses.”   Sue winced.   Apparently Trudi had inherited Sue's love of rules.   But why did she always have to trot them out at the most embarrassing moment?   Before Sue could find an answer, and definitely before her blush had faded, he had already supplied an answer: “Your Mum is quite right, usually.   But you see, I'm not a stranger...

Today I'm delighted to be welcoming prolific romance author Rachel Brimble to my blog.  Based near the beautiful city of Bath, where I studied for my MA, Rachel has written a number of books for The Wild Rose Press and is now also published by romance giants Harlequin.  I'm in awe of Rachel's diligence and versatility, and excited to be finding out more about how she does it! Rachel, you write both historicals and contemporaries – do you find the process of writing varies depending on what kind of story you’re writing? Interestingly, not for me – I write character sketches for my hero, heroine and villain, followed by a two to three page synopsis. Throughout this process this tends to reveal the goal, motivation and conflict of the three main characters, which gives me the basis of the story. I write the first draft from start to finish, without looking back and then the hard work comes in drafts two and three. The only difference with my historicals is the ...

Today you get two interviews for the price of one, because J M Stewart kindly invited me over to her blog, where we discovered how much we have in common.  We're both romance writers, published with Crimson Romance and The Wild Rose Press, who love the seaside and the smell of lavender.  Who'd have thought it? You can read about Joanne's books, great titles and cool covers in the interview below: http://www.stephaniecagewriter.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/writer-wednesday-interview-joanne.html And on her blog , you can read about some of my favourites, including my favourite scene to write, my favourite films and even my favourite cars: http://jm-stewart.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/welcoming-stephanie-cage.html I've had so much fun doing this blog swap - hopefully there will be plenty more! 

Today I welcome J.M.Stewart to my blog.  J.M. Stewart writes sweet and heartwarming contemporary romance with a touch of passion. She’s a wife, a mother, a spiritualist, and lover of puppies, and happily addicted to coffee and chocolate. She lives in the Great Rainy Northwest with her husband of sixteen years and their two sons. She’s a hopeless romantic who believes everybody should have their happily-ever-after and has been devouring romance novels for as long as she can remember. Writing them has become her passion.  Welcome!  I notice you describe your books as ‘sweet and spicy’, which sounds like a potent combination.   What exactly do you mean, and did it take you long to come up with that description? --Honestly, the description just popped into my head, and it was a play on “sweet and sour”, as in sauce. Honest to goodness, I couldn’t really tell you how my mind works sometimes. lol.  My mind wanders, takes little stuff like this and just run...

For the next couple of weeks, I've decided to use my 'sneak peeks' to introduce you to some of my favourite characters from my first book, 'Desperate Bid' , and after meeting Sarah last week, it's time now to introduce you to struggling musician Alex, who's about to turn his life around by putting it up for sale on an online auction site:         Alex had shaken his head and frowned to himself. Eyeing up random women, falling for the singer... What was happening to him?          It hadn’t even been that long. It must just be the pain in the singer’s voice catching at him and making him think, as he had avoided doing for the last few weeks, of Suzy. She’d have looked good in the singer’s place, smooching around in the low light with the coloured spotlights dancing across her pale skin. Not that she’d have been seen dead in a dive like that. Even when Suzy was roughing it, as she’d always been, a little, w...

For the next couple of weeks, I've decided to use my 'sneak peeks' to introduce you to some of my favourite characters from my first book, 'Desperate Bid' , and who better to start with than my heroine Sarah and her sister Gillian?  (In case you're wondering, since this appears out of context, the subject of their conversation is the nightmare 'team-building event' which Sarah attended the previous day.           Sarah would sooner have been soaking in a hot bath than sitting in this dingy dive, staring at a wall papered inches thick with posters of unknown rock bands. But she’d promised Gillian ages ago that she’d come to hear this great new band, and she didn’t like to let her down. And for all its grubbiness, Campbell’s had a certain charm, a friendly, lively atmosphere that was hard to resist.          “So you loved it, then. I’m sure.” Gillian matched Sarah’s sarcasm.    ...