VBT + #Giveaway: Exit Signs by Patrice Locke @patricelocke @GoddessFish

Exit Signs

by Patrice Locke

GENRE:   Romantic Comedy

BLURB:

Tracy Price has a documentary-style life until rockstar Jesse Elliot rewrites her script and takes the wheel to drive her crazy.

In her quest to find a writer missing since the 1930's, Tracy thinks she has discovered exactly how to handle her new relationship. But she may be listening to the wrong voice. 

Then Tracy and Jesse find out they've both been keeping some big secrets, and the truth may ruin everything.

Will sharing the missing writer's story open both their hearts?

Excerpt:

Jesse lunged toward me. It was too late. I had already launched. He reached out but didn’t connect. Instead, I broke the trajectory of my upper body by grabbing him at chest level and sliding down. He was pushed backward into the table, which stabilized our ungainly host-parasite tableau. He softened my landing so that physically I was fine, but my pride was ready for intensive care.

Heaped at his feet, like a demented penitent, I hugged his knees, my face pressed flat into his thighs. I might as well stay down. What’s worse? To stand up and face you, or remain here, nestled between your legs? What do you think? Then, the finishing touch: I erupted into nervous, snorting laughter. He guessed there was no serious injury.

“It’s nice to see you, too. You are okay, aren’t you? Can you stand?” He reached for my arms to unwrap them from his legs and help me up. I jammed my eyelids together to conjure up a do-over, but no such luck.

I would have to deal with it.

He held my elbows in his hands. “I guess we were both in a hurry to see each other.”

I do appreciate your attempt to lighten the mood, but you are standing SO close. I can feel your body heat. Or is that mine? By the way, you smell tart and fresh, like a lime.

I stared at his shoulder. My dignity meter was stuck on empty.

“Enthusiastic greeting. Thanks for that.” He was blatantly amused.

“It was nothing.” I stepped backward to regain a semblance of independence. Don’t mock me. But, you did go to all the trouble to bring your hair. And your eyes. I might forgive you for witnessing my disgrace. That hair.

An Interview with  Patrice Locke:

What inspired you to write “Exit Signs”?

I had an idea for a scene about a couple having a big confrontation in an airport. I wrote that scene first and then backed into the rest of it, figuring out how they got to that big difference of opinion and then how they could work their way out of it.

When or at what age did you know you wanted to be a writer?

I can’t remember a time when I didn’t think I’d end up writing. I just didn’t know what kind of writing. I started with a journalism degree and then gravitated more to fiction because I’m a sucker for happy endings, or at least inspirational endings. And you don’t always, or even often, get that in journalism.

What is the earliest age you remember reading your first book?

My mother read to my sisters and me probably from birth. We were regulars at the library. Recently, an old friend told me that soon after we met I asked her if she wanted to go to the library because my mom was taking us. And she said she thought, “Why would I want to do that?” It’s all a matter of perspective. I remember reading Carolyn Hayward books in first or second grade. The first book I read to myself that I remember loving was and still is “Anne of Green Gables.” It was kind of a family tradition.

What genre of books do you enjoy reading?

I like memoirs more than biographies because biographies often get bogged down in the details of a life that aren’t very interesting. In a memoir, the writer can cut to the chase and leave out the boring parts. In fiction, I have a wide-ranging taste. I like classics like Jane Austen and Elizabeth Gaskell. In modern releases I enjoy Yvonne Jocks OverTime series and many of Susan Elizabeth Phillips’ earlier books for the humor and banter.

I also like time travel to the past, when it’s well done, as in “Time and Again” by Jack Finney and “The Doomsday Book” by Connie Willis.

What is your favorite book?

That’s like saying which is your favorite child? Too tough to say! I love Jane Austen, particularly “Pride and Prejudice” and “Persuasion.” It may be cliché to mention Ms. Austen, but I can never get over the style and elegance of her work.

You know I think we all have a favorite author. Who is your favorite author and why?

Jane Austen’s use of words and her ability to express emotions without becoming sentimental floors me every time.

If you could travel back in time here on earth to any place or time. Where would you go and why?

I’d go back to hear the Sermon on the Mount. I’d like to hear it first-hand and then to taste the multiplying fish.

When writing a book do you find that writing comes easy for you or is it a difficult task?

It’s both, depending on the day. On a good day, the words just flow out and I can be at it for hours without realizing time has passed. I can also stare at an empty screen when things aren’t going well.

Do you have any little fuzzy friends? Like a dog or a cat? Or any pets?

At the moment, no. But I do have a grand-dog named May who is the most unusual looking dog I’ve ever seen. She’s part heeler, part beagle, basset hound and spaniel. Her coat reflects her mixed parentage. She has polka dots on her left flank, fawn colors on her back, black and white cow-like blotches on her right flank, a beagle head and a very basset like low slung carriage. She’s a lover and gets lots of attention wherever she goes for many reasons, I think.

What is your "to die for", favorite food/foods to eat?

Funny you should ask because the main character of “Exit Signs” is a renowned snack connoisseur. And it’s something readers always comment on. Tracy’s combinations have turned many a stomach. The most unusual combo in the book is rattlesnake meat wrapped in cotton candy.

For me, food favorites shift often. I’ll get a hankering for something and then get tired of it and move on. Lately I’ve been loving tortilla soup.

Do you have any advice for anyone that would like to be an author?

Read everything you can about anything that interests you. Listen to advice, but don’t follow it religiously. You have to find your own way. Most important, don’t give up and don’t let the rejections ruin you. It only takes one YES to get you started.

AUTHOR BIO:

As a journalist, Patrice Locke wrote a lot of stories with unhappy and even tragic endings.
Facts are facts, and a writer doesn't mess with facts.


But fiction is another world. Patrice began writing novels, where she could control the endings and make them as happy as she wants. The best thing about fiction, she says, is having time to think before her characters speak, so they can say the things most of us only come up with after the perfect moment has passed.
 

She loves to write, read, and watch romantic comedies where life always turns out the way it should. Her only obsessive relationships are with semicolons and Oxford commas.
    

Though she doesn't like to brag, Patrice is an award-winning artist. She won a gold and diamond watch when she was 13 for decorating a turkey drumstick bone to look like Batman. Alas, that was her last recognition in the fine arts.
   

Patrice lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where the blue sky is brilliant, the air is thin, and the vistas are breathtaking. She is none of those things, which is one reason she enjoys living among them.

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Giveaway:

$10 Amazon/BN GC 

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