Our featured author is an inspiring woman and the author of romance novels.
Meet Allie McCormack.
Tell us something about the woman, Allie McCormack. Who are you?
I'm a disabled Army vet, living in the beautiful Sonora desert in Arizona with my two rescue cats, Levi and Tobi. I have a wonderful daughter who's over in California. She just got married and is promising my grandkids sometime soon. I used to travel a lot... mostly around the States, but I also got to Cairo for a year as an exchange student through U of California, where I was a history major, and as a medical transcriptionist I took a year's contract in Saudi Arabia, where I involuntarily wound up being in the middle of Desert Storm. I used to speak quite fluent Arabic, but that's faded a lot, since I don't use it anymore. Nowadays I'm mostly an armchair traveler, though I did get to the Romance Writers of America conference in Denver this year, and mean to go to the one San Francisco in 2020. I use a lot of these experiences in my books, btw.
I'm heavily involved in SecondLife, a virtual game that simulates real life, where I get to do all the things I'm no longer able to do (or could do, or would do, like owning a Gypsy Vanner and skydiving!) in real life. I have a public park there in SecondLife, and the need to have music without advertisements drove me to start my own radio internet station.
With my daughter grown and living a ways away, it's just me and the cats, and most of my time is divided between writing, reading and SecondLife which usually I'm inworld while I'm writing anyway. I do have a passion for CSI and NCIS and more recently, Bull (OMG Michael Weatherly!). But I don't watch TV often and months may go by without even turning it on, then I do marathons and catch up! Speaking of marathons... I adoooooore Christmas, and it's the one month of the year you can be sure to find my TV on regularly, as I watch all the old Christmas movies and probably do a Lord of the Rings marathon as well!
And who's the writer? How was Truck Stop, your first novel, conceived?
I'm a sponge when it comes to reading, I just soak up the stories! I've been a reader, and a writer, too, since pretty much as young as I can remember. Third grade specifically I remember hiding under the bed covers with a flashlight at night, writing down the stories I was making up. Mostly my life is writing, thinking about writing, tweeting about writing, making graphics for writing, plotting, procrastinating....!!!!
How Truck Stop was conceived. Oh my gosh. My daughter was about 10 or 11, and we were driving through southern Wyoming, along the I-40 out in the middle of nowhere, with the plains to the south and hills to the north, and there was this one little area where the hills formed this little semicircle around part of the plains on the north side of the highway, and just then the sun was setting, and it just came to me that wouldn't that be a great place for a little truck stop, not one of the big established chains, but a small, family-owned, friendly one. And from there it just sort of built!
Why did you choose the Romance genre?
It wasn't really a choice. When I make up stories in my head, they're about romance. When characters come to me out of nowhere, they want love and a happy ending, and I give it to them! That's mostly what I read, too... not exclusively, of course, I have a few favorite authors in other genres.... Dick Francis, Anne McCaffrey, and of course Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, but probably 75% of what I read is romance, because that's what makes me happy. And writing it makes me happy, too!
Is there a book or author that inspired you to be a writer?
When I was little, I was swept away by books like The Secret Garden and A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Then there was the Little Golden Book Eagle Chief and Pussy Willow, and an older children's book called The Valentine Cat. (I have all these, btw... as an adult I looked them up on places like eBay and got them... yes, even the Little Golden Books!). As far as those stories inspiring me to be a writer, it's sort of indirect. The books I read inspired me to daydream, and to make up stories in my head. The stories I made up inspired me to write them down. I mean... I didn't sit down and think, oh I like that book, I'm going to write one too.
What can readers expect when they read Truck Stop?
You can expect romance! But more than anything else really, it's the story of a young woman who is determined to not allow her past to define her. Teri takes on life with both hands and lives it to the full. Mike too comes from an abusive background, and this is a bonding factor between them, and both equally determined not to let that hold them back. A spanner is thrown into the works when Teri's abusive father appears on the scene, bringing an element of suspense to the story as he will do whatever it takes to either regain control of his daughter... or silence her.
Where can they buy a copy?
You can buy it as Kindle or paperback on Amazon. CLICK HERE.
You can also get a personally autographed paperback copy through me directly, using PayPal on my website.
It's also available to read for free on Kindle Unlimited!
When the audiobook comes out, it will be available on Amazon, Audible and iTunes.
Are you releasing a new book anytime soon?
Yes! The audiobook of Truck Stop will be released soon! (planned for early January 2019)
And I plan to put Wishes in a Bottle, the first of my Wishes & Dreams paranormal romance series in the production line for publication. I'm currently working on contacting an artist to do the cover art, once I have that, I'll be able to set a release date. I'm hoping for mid-December.
What do you love about being an author?
I LOVE bringing "my" characters to life, writing their stories. I love world building, and creating the world in which the stories take place.
What is your message to readers?
My purpose in writing these stories is to share them with you, to introduce you to the people that are very real to me (in a writer kind of way), to share their stories, their hopes and dreams. To share their happiness as they find someone to love and who loves them back. And I hope to give you that warm glow of a satisfying read, enough so that you want to come back for more!
CONNECT WITH ALLIE MCCORMACK
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