Ink Motions with Belle Maurice

Belle Maurice spends a great deal of time lost in imagination, which is a pretty interesting place to be. She recently returned from living in the Middle East where the temperature is always hot, sunrise and sunset are pretty stable year ’round, and she could go literally weeks without encountering a member of the opposite sex other than the man who works at the shop where she buys milk. Do you know what happens to a woman essentially living in a harem situation? That’s right, she talks about shoes and thinks about men. Which brings us right back around to being lost in imagination…

 

Website: https://bellemaurice.wordpress.com/

 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BelleMauricewriter?ref=hl

 

 

How do you get an idea for your novel?

 

Something strikes me funny. For Sacked By the Quarterback, I happened to be sitting on the couch while my mother watched a football game and the phrase came up. I thought “heehee, sacked by the quarterback.” And off I went. I’m a little juvenile that way.

 

What is your writing style?  Do you just sit down and write or do you create

 

I am a pantser who would love to plan more. I start with the end in mind, two (or more) characters who deserve an happy ending, then I try to get them to that ending. Unfortunately that means sometimes I end up stuck and I have many, many half finished projects on my hard drive that need a special something that I cannot come up with right then.

 

Who is the "Writing Muse" in your life? I.E. who gets your juices flowing when

 

Okay, brace yourself because this might be a wee bit bizarre. Def Leppard’s Slang album. I once wrote and edited most of a novel to Slang on repeat and ever since, if I am stuck, all I have to do is play that album on repeat and the words just flow. I have also cultivated a small, but honest group of friends who will flatly tell me, “I’m sure you could write a story about a kindergarten teacher stopping terrorists in Walmart, but I fail to see how you’re going to make it funny or sexy.”

 

How many novels have you written including all work in progresses you are currently working on?

 

Well, as Belle Maurice I have three full-length novels (including one written as Belle McClain) published, one novella drafted but not submitted yet and 4 in progress. Under my sweeter pen name (Christa Maurice) I have five novels and five novellas published, three novels and seven novellas drafted and we won’t even talk about how many in progress.

 

Who is your "writing idol"? I.E. Who do you like and what is it about there writing that captures your soul?

 

I love Stephen King for his gritty reality (and not so much for his verbosity.) I love J. R. R. Tolkien for his world building. I love Theresa Medeiros for her passion and fun. And I love Rhys Bowen for her clever, endearing characters.

 

What is you favorite plot line type?

 

I love a good second chance story. The idea that, no matter how badly you’ve screwed up or what misguided choices you’ve made, you can start over. That’s probably why I write so many of them.

 

Is there any advice you can offer to anyone who would like to write?

 

Find a supportive group. Writing is a lonely business and if you don’t have somebody to give you a needed push or a celebratory high five or a much-needed tip now and then, you can drive yourself nuts.

 

What is a good villain?

 

This is a surprisingly difficult question to answer. In real life, I tend to be most disturbed by the “nice guy” veneer. Ariel Castro who kept three women locked up in his house for years in a Cleveland neighborhood, but was well liked by his neighbors. Ray Rice who looks like such a promising young football player, but hit his girlfriend so hard that he knocked her out in an elevator and then proceeded to drag her out by her hair when the doors opened. The neighbor who was always helpful and friendly, but was molesting his daughter next door the entire time I was growing up. I think villains like that shake my confidence in my own instincts. Reading a book where I know what the threat is, but the main character doesn’t and even trusts the maniac usually has me shouting at the book. This is probably why I don’t write suspense.

 

Excerpt:

 

Oh but she had, and it had been a thing of beauty. The glorious thrill of seeing him slammed on his ass by that Broncos defender had had her on her feet and screaming for joy.

“I thought so,” he said.

“What? Maybe I’m grinning because I was having great sex with my boyfriend Sunday.”

He perched his very fine ass on the edge of her desk. “Right. I know that grin. That’s the patented Amanda Daws Ha Haw grin. You saw the game. You watched me get flattened. You cheered, didn’t you?”

“What if I did?”

“I deserved it.”

Mandy blinked. That was not the Sonny Black she remembered or the one she’d been watching on ESPN all through college and now pro. That cocksure jackass was not the man leaning on her desk looking at his fingernails. “How so?”

“I have the worst luck on the planet.” He folded his arms. “Did you know some of the commentators are calling me Sonny Black Cloud now?”

“Yeah.” Mandy drawled, letting a smile spread across her face. “I love that nickname.”

“You really do hate me, don’t you?” He looked so glum she wanted to lie and say she didn’t. He frowned. “You have that right.”

“Do I ever."

"What I did to you was wrong and I’ve come to apologize.”

“Have you now.”

“You look great.” He reached for her, probably to twist a lock of hair around his finger like he used to.

Mandy pulled away. “You’ve made your apology. You can go now.”

“No, I can’t.” He dropped his hand onto his leg. “I need you to forgive me before the Super Bowl so I don’t go out and make a fool of myself.”

“Which, presumably, is what I want.”

Sonny scraped his hand through his hair, which was what he did when he was trying to figure something out that was eluding him. She hated the fact she knew him that well after so long. She also hated how warm the sight of his mussed hair made her. “I guess it might be. Do you still hate me that much?”

“You altered the course of my life. I had to change schools and even that didn’t help because the reputation you gave me followed me.” The painfully shy, madly in love girl she had been cowered to the surface. Tears formed in her eyes. “You couldn’t let everyone think you might date the geekiest girl in school because you liked her so you lied and told them I was a slut. It was a Catholic school.”

 

Purchase: https://bellemaurice.wordpress.com/sacked-by-the-quarterback/