In the Author Spotlight

Melissa Lopez

AL: Hi Melissa! Thanks for being in the "Author Spotlight" this week.

Melissa: Ann thank you so very much for allowing me this opportunity to share some of my work.

AL: So, tell us what's happening with you.

Melissa: Real life? I'm recently divorced. I was married 15 yrs so being single again is quite a change in my life.

AL: Shifters, soul tainting fends, Australian hunks...oh my! What new releases do you have for us to sink our teeth into?

Melissa: My latest release is a print anthology titled Love Down Under. It contains my first two Australian stories Boomerang Love and Riptide Love.

AL: You write different genres, do you favor one genre over another?

Melissa: Not really I love all genres I write. I just write in genre that my characters tell me.

AL: What do you feel is the most important thing that a first-time author should know?

Melissa: Borrowing from the fabulous Jennifer Crusie...first time authors should know who there real friends are before they make it. A good support system in place for a writer's journey is invaluable.

AL: What do you hope for your writing career in the next few years? Any goals that you have yet to obtain that you have set for yourself?

Melissa: I'd like to publish as many stories as life allows. I want to do right by my characters and their worlds. And I eventually want to sale to a New York publisher...

AL: Now for the fun stuff? Sometimes people envision an author's life as being really glamorous. I like to set them straight, so tell us what's the most unglamours thing you've done in the past week?

Melissa: Hmm..I scrubbed my bathrooms today. Cleaned my front windows. Oh, and changed lil' Jax's diaper.

AL: If you had to go live on an island for six months, which three things would you HAVE to take with you?

Melissa: Besides being stranded with someone capable of surviving on a deserted island I'd want my computer. And I'd want the survivalist stuck with me to pick the third item. :-)

AL: If your muse were to talk behind you back, what secrets would he/she tell?

Melissa: Oh, she'd tell that I can be very submissive in my life.

AL: You're the actress in a must see blockbuster movie that everyone's been waiting all summer for. 1) What's the movie aboue? 2) Who's your character? 3) And who's your leading man?

Melissa: The movie would be a action adventure with myself as the female lead. Leading man? Oh, Hugh Jackman. Er...or maybe Daniel Craig...Or Clive Owen...Oh, no, it'd have to be...Viggo Mortensen...They're all just dreamy and excellent actors. It's their accents. I love them.

AL: Please share a favorite quote(s) with us.

Melissa: "You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough." Mae West

AL: Thanks so much for sharing with joining us this week, Melissa.

Melissa: You're welcome. Thanks again for having me.

AL: If you'd like to find out more about Melissa please visit:

http://melissa-lopez.com/

FEATURED TITLE:

Blurb:

Boomerang Love (The Thorns 1)

Take a walkabout on the wild side.

When you toss a bommerang, you know it will come back. But all bets are off when it's a lover you've let go.

Cohen thorn and Hayleigh Davenport shared one night of wild sex neither of them can forget, then went their seperate ways half a world apart. But now Hayleigh's back in Australia for one more weekend of passion. If she can't get this Outback rancher out of her system once and for all, she'll at least have memories to last a lifetime.

They've only got three days to steam up Sydney and the Outback, but in for the place known as Never-Never, anything can happen. Soon they realize there's a powerful force drawing them together.

Is it simple lust, or lasting love?

Riptide Love (The Thorns 2)

Caught in love's undertow...

Rescue swimmer Ethan Thorn is used to pulling people from the swirl of the ocean, but he never expected to pull a woman straight out of his past. Denae Button was the first woman who meant more to him than great sex, until he realized she was his brother's finacee. Now the one woman he hoped never to see again is back - with the three-year-old son he never knew he had.

Denae knows she's made her share of mistakes, especially when it comes to the Thorn brothers. Royally screwed up by her religious-zealot parents, now she just wants to be a good mother. She doesn't want anything to do with Ethan - and she knows the feeling is mutual - but she can't deny him a chance to know his son. Even if facing the Thorn family means confronting a past she'd rather leave behind.

A resurging riptide of love drags Ethan and Danea back into each other's arms. But exposing the secrets that nearly destroyed the Thorn family could tear them apart for good.