Friday, October 5, 2018

Based on Principal VBT

Blurb:
By day, Natalia is the strict principal of a private school with a staid, troubled legacy. By night, she’s a lithe, agile assassin with a penchant for latex. Or at least her cosplay character is. The two identities don’t mingle until she meets a handsome comic book shop owner at the local comic con. Now there’s a guy she’d be willing to peel her mask off for.

Too bad he’s the father of one of her students.

Single father Chris has no time to date, thanks to his business, his daughter, and his ex’s meddling family. But how can he resist a comic lover in a business skirt? She’s his perfect woman. Or she would be, if she didn’t keep the professional and play parts of her life so separate. And he swore he’d never date a woman ashamed of him again.

Too bad she’s obsessed with what the wrong people think of her.

Together, they could be an unstoppable duo, but when Chris’s daughter acts out at school, Natalia will be put in an impossible position: break all her school’s rules, or pack away her cape forever.



Excerpt:
The man she had twined herself around not two days ago at the comic con had just entered her office.

Chris was Mr. Halliwell? He was dressed nearly identically to when she’d met him. There was no denying he was the same person. 

She’d made out with a student’s parent?

Mortification swept through her. The one time she lowered her guard, and she committed professional suicide. She’d come here as the ballbuster to knock the place back into shape. If those who resisted her efforts found out she had a personal relationship with a student’s father, they would double down to undermine her efforts.

He smiled, that easy grin she’d dreamt about each night since the convention, but it was filled with tension. “Hello, Ms. Shaw.”

He didn’t recognize her.





Marie, thanks so much for stopping by. How did you get started writing?
After saying I wanted to write a book someday, I sat down and actually wrote a book after a mild moment of panic. I have four kids and coordinating my part-time work schedule with my hubs’ work and travel, and getting the kids where they needed to be when they had to be there was a logistical nightmare. What happens when I go back full-time? I know a lot of families make it work, but I know myself. I don’t handle stress well. I worked full-time when I only had two kids and I felt like every day was a race. I needed a flexible job. One I wouldn’t dread going to everyday. Then I sat down and started a book.


What was the inspiration for your book?
The series Based on Principal is in is my geeky twist on the billionaire romance story. It started with book one, Unmistaken Identity where a tycoon shuts down a comic book shop. Book two is the tycoon’s friend. Both heroes are closet fanboys and the heroines are obvious fangirls. But with Based on Principal, I wanted the heroine to be the wealthy one—and very much a fangirl.


What’s a genre you haven’t written in yet that you’d like to?
I have no interest in writing anything historical because the research is crazy! But I would do it to write my grandparents’ story. It was like a primetime saga—Dynasty but for poor people.


Are there any genres you won’t read or write in? Why?
I read historical books, but I have no desire to write them. Most writers have to research for their books, but historicals are all encompassing—clothing, speech, food, mannerisms.

I used to be an avid romantic suspense reader, but after being a mom I can’t anymore. Many of those stories revolve around women and children getting hurt or worse and I can’t separate enough to enjoy a thrilling story. When the same storylines are in paranormal romances, it doesn’t bother me. Probably because if feels like an extra layer of fiction.


What are you up to now? Do you have any releases planned, or are you still writing?
Somehow, I managed to heap a ton of work during a personally busy season. Back-to-school and holidays, and then I was writing two books and editing four. I have a release in October, two in November, and one should squeak out in late December.

I’ve planned for October to be a catch-up month for one of those books I was trying to write and getting another I wrote a few years ago spruced up to go to an editor. It’s a paranormal that’ll kick off a new series. Then in November, I’ll get back to my series in progress.


Alright, now for some random, fun questions. Favorite color? 
Eggplant.


Favorite movie?  
The Mummy (the original with Brendan Fraser). 


Book that inspired you to become an author?
A compilation of great authors.


You have one superpower. What is it?
Clean house with only a thought.
 

You can have dinner with any 3 people, dead, alive, fictitious, etc.
Who are they? My grandma Rose, JR Ward, and my hubs (alone with no kids!)


Last question: Which of your characters are you most like and how/why?
I don’t feel like I’ve written a character too much like me. No hot mess frumpy country moms are in my books. 




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Author Bio and Links:
Marie Johnston lives in the upper-Midwest with her husband, four kids, an old cat, and a young dog. After trading in her lab coat for a laptop, she’s writing down all the tales she’s been making up in her head for years. An avid reader of paranormal romance, these are the stories hanging out and waiting to be told, between the demands of work, home, and the endless chauffeuring that comes with children.

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