Getting to Know you Thursday with Ann Lee Miller with a free e-book.

Please help me welcome author Ann Lee Miller to my blog today. Tomorrow 1 June Kicking Eternity will be released.  I have had the opportunity to read this book and I hopefully will get a review up tomorrow.

Note: Anyone who leaves a comment with an e-mail address (JaneReader[at]msn[dot]com) will receive a free e-book copy of Kicking Eternity. Those who don’t want to leave an e-mail may contact Ann for their free book at AnnLeeMiller.com.

1. Can you tell us a little about yourself?

I write full-time in Phoenix, but left my heart in New Smyrna Beach, Florida, where I grew up. I love speaking to young adults and guest lecture on writing at several Arizona colleges. When I’m not writing or muddling through some crisis—real or imagined—you’ll find me hiking in the Superstition Mountains with my husband or meddling in my kids’ lives.

2. When you were a child did you have a favourite book or books?

I loved all books about girls who went to boarding school. I was certain their lives were happier than mine. My first trip to summer camp was like heaven. The library was always a happy place for me, a place of peace and escape.

3. Do you have a favourite Genre to both read and right write?

Romance and coming of age.

4. Did you have favourite authors growing up who have influenced you?

I was a fan of Anya Seton, and Jane Austen before her popularity skyrocketed. Catherine Marshall’s Christy and Francine Rivers’ The Atonement Child have lived in me for years.

5. When did you know you wanted to be an author?

I always say I became a writer the year I discovered Sister Sheila had hair. I was in fifth grade at St. Hugh’s Catholic School in Miami, knee deep in nouns and verbs, when Sister Sheila walked through the door in a new habit that showed two inches of mouse brown hair threaded with silver. Thanks to Sister’s encouragement, I went on to earn a BA in creative writing from Ashland (OH) University.

And growing up on a sailboat, an aquaculture for mold and dysfunction, shoved me—in lieu of therapy—into writing.

6. How did you go about becoming an author?

When I earned my BA in creative writing in 1980 only six universities in the United States offered the degree, and my program did not offer a single novel-writing class. I had to read a stack of writing craft books, participate in critique groups, and attend writing conferences to learn the skills I needed to write a book.

7. If you were not a writer what would you like to be?

Dead! There is nothing else I’ve ever wanted to do.

8. Outside reading and writing what do you like to do?

I hike in the mountains with my husband, do Zumba, and go garage saling every Saturday morning with a friend. This year I mentored three teens from my youth group. I don’t know if it counts as a hobby, but I’ve been guest lecturing on plotting in Phoenix colleges for the past few years. Great fun! I’ve worked at teen church camp for more years than I care to reveal—thus the camp setting for Kicking Eternity.

9. Do you have a place you love to visit or would love to visit?

I’d love to visit Europe again and set a book there.

10. If you could have a meal with 3 living people who would you choose and why?

I’d like to eat with my closest friends who all live in different parts of the United States.

Finally can you tell us about your current books and/or any that will
be coming out soon. Also where we can find you on the web.

Atlantic spray and the grit of New Smyrna Beach, Florida, texture my coming of age stories that are littered with romance, regrets, and renewal. Kicking Eternity debuts June 1, The Art of My Life on September 1, Avra’s God on December 1, and Tattered Innocence on March 1, 2013.

AnnLeeMiller.com

Twitter: @AnnLeeMiller

Facebook Author Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ann-Lee-Miller/356653761022022

Back cover copy for Kicking Eternity:

Stuck in sleepy New Smyrna Beach one last summer, Raine socks away her camp pay checks, worries about her druggy brother, and ignores trouble: Cal Koomer. She’s a plane ticket away from teaching orphans in Africa, and not even Cal’s surfer six-pack and the chinks she spies in his rebel armor will derail her.

            The artist in Cal begs to paint Raine’s ivory skin, high cheek bones, and internal sparklers behind her eyes, but falling for her would caterwaul him into his parents’ live. No thanks. The girl was self-righteous waiting to happen. Mom served sanctimony like vegetables, three servings a day, and he had a gut full.

            Rec Director Drew taunts her with “Rainey” and calls her an enabler. He is so infernally there like a horsefly—till he buzzes back to his ex.

            Raine’s brother tweaks. Her dream of Africa dies small deaths. Will she figure out what to fight for and what to free before it’s too late?

Book Blurb:

Fresh from college, Raine scores a teaching job at New Smyrna Beach Surf and Sailing Camp. A crush on the camp rebel/art teacher threatens to derail her plans to teach orphans in Africa. The broody recreation director spots her brothers meth addiction and Raine's enabling. Raine believes she is helping her brother--until lives are threatened. 

Endorsements for Kicking Eternity:

Kicking Eternity won First Place Long Contemporary in the 2009 Romance Writers of America Faith, Hope, and Love Contest.

“In Kicking Eternity, Ann Lee Miller masterfully weaves the delicate web of emotions experienced in that turbulent ‘twenty-something’ stage of life. Powerful family dynamics, intense loyalty challenges, and tender new loves find their niche in your heart as this story unfolds layer by lovely layer.”

Mesu Andrews, Author of  Revell titles Love’s Sacred Song, and Love Amid the Ashes, which won the 2012 CBA Book of the Year, New Author Category

“Ann Lee Miller writes stories straight from the heart with characters who'll become friends, remaining with you long after you turn that final page. You won't want to miss Kicking Eternity!”

Jenny B. Jones, Author of the Katie Parker Production Series from Think and The Charmed Life Series, and other single titles from Thomas Nelson

"I've lost hours of sleep reading Ann Lee Miller's work due to her uncanny ability to yank me into a story with authentic, lovable, yet challenging characters."

            Lynn Rush, author of Wasteland, Awaited, and Prelude to Darkness from Crescent Moon Press