I’m thrilled to have Peggy Jaeger, one of my sister authors at The Wild Rose Press, here today. Welcome, Peggy, and congrats on your new release, Can’t Stand the Heat! I wish you great success with it. I have lots of questions for you, so let’s get started.
At what age did you write your first story? If I’m remembering right, I was 6. It was about a lonely, neglected girl who made a wish for a family and got that wish granted!
Sounds like a wonderful story! Which genre was the first to hook you? Mystery. I devoured every Nancy Drew and Trixie Beldon book in my local library when I discovered them. Then I moved on to Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie. At one point in my 20’s I had a copy of every Agatha Christie book in print. This was waaaaaaaaaaaay before ebooks!
Wow! I love all of those, and my childhood wouldn’t have been the same without Nancy Drew! I think those books inspired many future authors. What was your first published book? THE KINDNESS TALES, published in 1994. It was a children’s book from a very small press that has since gone the way of the dinosaur.
What’s your favorite part of the writing process? Brainstorming? Research? Outlining? Writing? Editing? Actually, my favorite part is coming up with my characters. I’m a huge and unabashed eavesdropper and people watcher. I watch and listen to people all the time when I am in public. On the line at the grocery store. In Panera. At the drugstore. Even when I go out to dinner with my hubby. I am always thinking of scenarios and backstories for interesting people I see. It gets kinda hard in the small town I live in, since I know so many of the people already! But outside of that town and when I travel, my creative juices really start to flow.
What are you working on now? I am currently in edits for my third San Valentino book which will be coming out Christmas-time 2018 from the Wild Rose Press, titled BAKED WITH LOVE (A San Valentine Christmas Romance). This book tells the love story of baker Regina, and the handsome stranger who comes into her bakery looking for a custom cake and winds up leaving with her heart!
I loved reading about the San Valentino family in A KISS UNDER THE CHRISTMAS LIGHTS. They remind me a lot of a large Italian family I knew when I was growing up. I’m sure BAKED WITH LOVE will be a fun read, too! Of all the settings you’ve used (or created!) for your books, which is your favorite? My fictional town of Heaven, NH for my book series (as of yet unpublished) A MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN. Why? It’s about a tiny town in New Hampshire. I live in a tiny town in New Hampshire. The setting of the book plays a pivotal role in each of the 4 books. There’s something about a small community of people, esp. New Englanders, that just warms my heart. So many backstories, so much history. Secrets everyone knows but never speak about. Love that!
Have you ever dreamed about a character you created? Actually, yes. In Book 3 of my Macquire Women series, the character (hero) Pat Cleary, came to me fully formed in a dream. I saw him, knew him, heard him speak all in one dream. That entire book was written for him.
Very cool! If you could have a conversation with anyone—dead or alive—who would it be? Love this question. Jane Austen’s Elizabeth Bennett. I’d like to ask her, for once and for all, to settle a dispute in my head: Did she marry Darcy because she truly loved him, or because she loved Pemberton and wanted to be its lady and the only way to do that was to marry the onwer?
Great answer! I love Elizabeth Bennett, and I’m guessing she truly came to love him. If you could travel to any time and place, when and where would that be? You know, I’m kinda happy where I am right now!
If you could step inside any book or series and live there for a week, which would you choose? Hands down JD Robb’s IN DEATH series. I would love to work with Eve Dallas and Delia Peabody and just sit around and stare at Roarke!
If a fairy godmother appeared and offered you one thing—anything at all—what would you request? Oh boy, what a question! Well, I could take the moral high road and ask for world peace. Or the fiscally sound one and say a billion dollars so I could make sure my family is secure for the rest of my life. Or I could be selfish and ask for the body I had at 20 back (HeeHee). But I think the thing I would ask for is the power to end world hunger. To make sure everyone, everywhere has enough to eat for the rest of their lives. I don’t want anyone ever to know what it’s like to go hungry. Ever again!
A wonderful wish! Now, it’s time to learn some of your favorites.
Sound: babies giggling
Eye color: Green
Foreign language (whether or not you speak it!): Italian (lovelovelove the way it sounds on someone’s lips)
Song: “Secret Agent Man” by Johnny Rivers
Book: New York to Dallas by JD Robb (the last 3 pages make me cry every single time I read it!)
Movie: Gone with The Wind
TV show: Hawaii 5-0 (the original one with Jack Lord and James MacArthur)
Cuisine: cake (Trust me, it’s a cuisine!)
Cookie: Plain sugar cookies. Yummo
US location: Hawaii
Foreign location: Tuscany
And finally, list your preference from the following choices:
Tea or coffee? Neither. I drink DIET MOUNTAIN DEW by the gallon!
Cake or pie? Cake. Always and forever
Halloween or Christmas? Christmas
Nancy Drew or Sherlock Holmes? Nancy
Jane Austen or the Brontë sisters? Jane, always!
A mortal, vampire, ghost, or fae for a lover? Don’t know what a fae is, but I do know that I love the fact that vampires got it right when they discovered that the neck is a supreme erogenous zone, so I’d have to say, Dracula.
English gent, Scottish highlander, European count, or all-American guy? All American guy, every single time!!!
Thanks so much for being here, Peggy. And now, here’s a little about Can’t Stand the Heat, Book 3 in the Will Cook for Love series:
In Peggy Jaeger’s delectable series, delicious food is just an appetizer for life’s main course: the kind of love that feeds your soul.
With three successful TV series under her belt, including her cousin Kandy’s, executive producer Stacy Peters is ready to helm her own show. But to make that happen, she has to do her network boss one favor first—spend two months on a ranch in Montana wrangling the notoriously difficult director of Beef Battles. Apparently, he eats producers for breakfast. Yet all Stacy can think when she meets the lean, rugged man is how hungry he makes her . . .
Dominic Stamp—Nikko to his very few friends—has had enough interference from TV newbies. And when Stacy climbs out of the car in Montana, he’s not convinced she’s even old enough to drive, much less produce his show. But he can’t deny that the long-legged blonde with the stubborn will and the dazzling smile whets his appetite. And as Stacy proves her talent with the crew and the budget alike, Nikko vows to prove to her that love is on the menu for both of them . . .
Look for exclusive recipes in each book!
Excerpt:
This couldn’t be the new executive producer.
She looked like an intern, barely out of college, not the seasoned television producer Teddy Davis had emailed him about.
The one he’d emailed back saying he neither wanted nor needed.
Hair the color of freshly uncorked champagne fell just below her shoulders in a soft cascade of waves and ripples. Even in the heat and humidity engulfing them it looked fresh. Her face was a perfect heart, a tiny dip in the center of the hairline bifurcating her brow into two perfectly aligned sections, her flawless chin falling into a delicate point. She had one hand out to shake his, the other shading her eyes from the strong and harsh afternoon sun, but underneath her fingers he was able to make out a pair of sloe-shaped eyes in a deep, forest green.
Taller than average but small boned, her legs took up most of the lissome body. With her lips held together in a tight line, she reached him.
“I’m Stacy Peters, Mr. Stamp.”
He stopped and planted his feet, his gaze shifting to her outstretched hand and then back up to her face without taking it. Her eyes narrowed into a determined glare and it looked as if she wasn’t going to back down until he shook it. With reluctance, he did.
Like the rest of her, her fingers were narrow and thin as they coiled around his.
A blast of heat instantly warmed and calmed his entire body like a few shots of his favorite Irish whiskey did after a rough and painful day. The subtle aroma of vanilla floated to him, filling his senses with the sweet fragrance. The persistent, throbbing ache in his left leg the liquor helped chase away, was momentarily forgotten with his hand rooted in hers.
As soon as she pressed her fingers firmly against his palm once, she pulled her hand back.
For a split second, Nikko missed the touch.
In the next, he found his anger again.
Buy Links:
Amazon https://www.amazon.com/s/?field-keywords=9781516101092
Nook https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/cant-stand-the-heat-peggy-jaeger/1126718088?ean=9781516101092&st=AFF&2sid=Kensington%20Publishing%20Corp._8067221_NA&sourceId=AFFKensington%20Publishing%20Corp.
Kobo https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/can-t-stand-the-heat-8
A bit more about Peggy:
Peggy Jaeger is a contemporary romance writer who writes about strong women, the families who support them, and the men who can’t live without them.
Family and food play huge roles in Peggy’s stories because she believes there is nothing that holds a family structure together like sharing a meal…or two…or ten. Dotted with humor and characters that are as real as they are loving, Peggy brings all topics of daily life into her stories: life, death, sibling rivalry, illness and the desire for everyone to find their own happily ever after. Growing up the only child of divorced parents she longed for sisters, brothers and a family that vowed to stick together no matter what came their way. Through her books, she has created the families she wanted as that lonely child.
A lifelong and avid romance reader and writer, she is a member of RWA and her local New Hampshire RWA Chapter.
Where to find her:
Website/Blog: http://peggyjaeger.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/peggy_jaeger
Amazon Author page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00T8E5LN0
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Peggy-Jaeger-Author/825914814095072?ref=bookmarks
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/peggyjaeger/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13478796.Peggy_Jaeger
Instagram: https://instagram.com/mmj122687/
BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/peggy-jaeger
Judith Sterling 