Molly Harper by Emelle Gamble ~ Goddess Fish Promotions Virtual Book Tour ~ Giveaway ~ Interview

Molly Harper

by Emelle Gamble

Emelle will be awarding a $50 Amazon GC to a randomly drawn commenter during this tour and the Reviews Only Tour. A digital copy of Molly Harper will be awarded to 3 randomly drawn commenters also during this tour and the Reviews Only Tour. Please leave a comment below along with your email address. To increase your chances of winning visit the other tour stops. Those locations may be found here....  http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2014/02/virtual-nbtm-book-tour-molly-harper-by.html

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Interview: 

Crystal: Today as part of this Goddess Fish Promotions Virtual Book Tour I have the opportunity to ask Emelle Gamble a few questions. Welcome Emelle, I'm so happy to have you here today. Would you share a little bit about yourself with us today?

Emelle: Clever question, Crystal. What do authors first want to share? Their book titles. And its not just to sell copies (HA!, although that is surely a piece of it), it is to introduce ourselves by way of our characters.

So let me say as the author of MOLLY HARPER and DUETS, the prequel novella introducing Molly Harper three years before the novel opens, I am not a young, stunning, Oscar winning movie star, who just found out I’m being left by my cheating husband. Neither am I in love with my best friend or worried I’m pregnant. That’s Molly.

But we do share the ‘family secret’ thing. The ‘knowing more about secrets than you let on’ thing. And the ‘adoption no one talks about’ thing. And we’re both from California. And I once wanted to be an actress. But I was in LA, and frankly, every other person you meet in LA wants to be an actor.

Crystal: How do you celebrate the release of a new book? 

Emelle: You know that feeling you once had on Christmas Eve, when you were so excited you couldn’t sleep, and your imagination made everything possible? Well, I get that feeling the day the book comes out, which is the real celebration. But I also generally share a good bottle of wine and get treated like a Princess by my hubby, Phil-the-fist, and we generally go out to dinner. And I buy myself a special ‘just for me’ present. For Molly it was a new purse. It’s all fun.

Crystal: What is your favorite snack to munch on while you write? 

Emelle: Salty, sweet, all bad for you. Goldfish, M&Ms. Sigh. I wish I was a carrots and humus girl, but that ain’t Emelle.

Crystal: Where did you come up with the idea for Molly Harper?

Emelle: See # 1 above. HA! Plus I just thought it would be really cool to look at a famous person’s life from the inside, not the outside, and try to give readers a sense of how it must feel to be under a press microscope all the time, even when you’re suffering and going through tough emotional times. And it felt just like I imagined. Molly turned out to be a person just like everyone is a person; richer, prettier, fortunate to be a success in a very, very tough business, but mostly a complicated woman who makes good decisions and bad and gets through it all with the love of her family and friends. A person just like you or me, if we’re lucky.

Crystal: What are you working on now? 

Emelle: I’m working on a couple of things. The next book I release is tentatively called KISS ME TWICE and is a college reunion story, but really more about memory and love. It’s at the ‘I am the book and I am kicking your butt’ stage I always go through with my work. But I’ll wrestle it down soon. As usual, I feel I know the characters very well, just need to smooth out the plot into something coherent. Soon. 

Crystal: Do you have a favorite scene from Molly Harper you would like to share with us?

Emelle: Sure. One of my favorites is when Molly goes to see her newly revealed half-brother, Harry, who is one of my reader’s favorites in MOLLY HARPER.

“Molly tuned back to Harry, who was telling a story about the first time Jackson took him to a company function. She began to relax. Harry was very different from Jason, much more open and emotional, but she felt a stirring of the same type of connection she shared with her brother. 
A bond of support, or approval, or something she wasn’t sure how to categorize, familiarity, maybe, began to grow between them. She liked Harry Sullivan. She usually warmed to people slowly, but Harry had a way about him she’d taken to immediately. 
During dinner they talked about movie people she knew and stage actors he worked with. Harry told her he was very impressed when he read she’d been dating Hugh Grant, and disappointed when she told him there was no truth to the story.
He didn’t mention Anne Sullivan, and she didn’t either.  
After a crème brulee dessert Harry cooked to perfection, they settled on the sofa with coffee. “So, are you going to let me do your makeup now?”
“Sure.” She put her mug on the table. “Shall we do it right here?”
“Oh no. Jackson will kill us if he comes home and finds blush smudges on the rug. That’s happened before. Katie Holmes was here a couple of years ago when she had a play on Broadway and dropped a whole damn pot of rose ole right there.” Harry pointed. “She has the most incredible skin, by the way.”
Molly put her hand on her cheek. “I had trouble with my skin when I was a teenager. I’ve had lots of dermabrasion therapy, but I still have scarring.”
“Me, too!” Harry made a face. “Mom had a lot of problems with acne when she was a teenager. One of the first to use antibiotics to try and control it. So it’s in our genes I guess.”
They looked at one another for a moment.
“Do you think we look alike, Harry? Other than the fact our eyes are the exact same color, which I’m noticing now for the first time. Duh?”
He grinned. “Yes. Our eyes are also the same shape, and our lips are similar. I noticed all this the first time I met you, but didn’t think anything of it, except ‘lucky me’.” Harry stared at her hands. “You have Anne’s hands. They’re beautiful.”
“How is she? She handling all this okay?”
“She doesn’t mention you. Don’t take that the wrong way,” he said quickly, touching Molly’s knee. “I mean, she told me about you coming to see her after your mom died. She also said you didn’t think there was any point to trying to have a relationship.”
Molly swallowed. She had too much wine and was feeling raw suddenly. “I did say that.”
“I’m not trying to convince you of anything here, but she’s a wonderful person. Very caring. She had a horrible childhood herself, but she did really well with my brother and me.”
“Good. I’m happy for you.” 
“Does that make you angry?” Harry put his hands on his face and sighed. “God. Am I saying everything wrong? Do you hate her because she gave you up for adoption?”
“No. I don’t hate her. And I agree with you that she’s very caring. I saw that when she was with my mom. It’s just, hard. Hard not to feel rejection on a really basic level, you know?”
Harry nodded. “I can try and imagine, but probably no one would know how that feels unless they went through it. I bet it was surreal the first time you sat across from her and realized she gave birth to you.”


Thanks for hosting me, Crystal. I’m a big fan of your blog. And let me ask your readers, do you like reading about characters who are movie stars?

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BLURB:

Movie star Molly Harper has it all, beauty, success in her field, and a loving family and marriage to actor Ben Delmonico. Norma Wintz, Molly’s mother, has it all, a lovely life style and two children who adore her, and a respite from the battle against cancer she’s been fighting. Anne Sullivan, at age fifty, is optimistic that her move to sunny Santa Barbara, California, will allow her to be closer to her youngest son and his family, and help her start her life anew after the death of her beloved husband.

But all three of these women, despite their considerable blessings, are plunged into turmoil when the most intimate of secrets that ties their lives together is revealed. At this same time, Molly Harper is confronted with the news that her marriage to actor Ben Delmonico is over. As she navigates this heartbreak and tries to keep the personal details of the drama off the front pages of the newspapers, Molly must also find a way to once and forever negotiate a way forward with her ex- lover and best friend, the volatile and compelling Cruz Morales.

How each of these characters handles the resulting upheaval in their own life, and in their relationships with one another, forms the compelling story of family, secrets and trust in the romantic women’s fiction novel, Molly Harper.

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EXCERPT:

When the doorbell rang, Cruz Morales froze. Carefully he set his beer down and glanced out the kitchen window.

He didn’t like what he saw. 

He walked to the front entrance of Norma’s house, leaving the pan of chicken and tarragon burbling on a low burner. The soft sounds of Santana playing on the stereo in Molly’s room floated toward him on the evening breeze. 

Cruz opened the front door to two uniformed Santa Barbara policeman.

“Officers.” Cruz wiped his hands on the dishtowel he’d stuck in the waistband of his jeans. 

The policemen’s faces changed from officious to wary at being confronted by a six-foot-three Hispanic male with a ponytail, tattoos and two gold rings hanging from his right ear. 

His bulging biceps beneath the soft old t-shirt didn’t help their comfort level. 

Cruz put his hands on his hips and waited. He knew he looked threatening, ugly even, with the scars and disfigurement to the left side of his face.

But he didn’t mind how he looked. Ugly scared people, and kept them away. 

Even police.

“Can I help you?” He reminded himself not to move quickly. He’d ended up spread-eagled on the ground more than once in his life for spooking a rookie gringo.

“Is this the Wintz home?” The older of the two men spoke, his right hand on his nightstick. 

“Yes. It is.” Cruz offered nothing more. He learned over the years that the best way to protect Molly’s privacy was not to give out gratuitous information.

The cop cleared his throat. “May I ask your name?”

“Cruz Morales.”

“And you are…?”

“I’m a friend of the family.”

“Is that your vehicle out there?” The younger police waved toward the truck in the driveway.

Cruz nodded. 

The police looked at each other. “We’ve been trying to contact Miss Molly Harper by phone, but she didn’t answer her cell,” the first cop said. “Is she here?”

“What’s the problem?” Cruz asked. 

“I’m afraid I need to save my information for Miss Harper.”  

“Cruz, who is it? Is it Mr. Garcia?” Molly hollered from her bedroom.

“Come in.” Cruz stepped back. He turned and called out, “Molly, there are two policemen here who want to see you. Get dressed and come out here.”

The young cop smirked as he walked by Cruz. He had red hair and freckles, and his shirt was about an inch too big around his skinny neck. 

Cruz lifted his chin. It was obvious the rookie knew who Molly was, and was busy imagining her getting dressed. 

“Take a seat in the library.” Cruz pointed. “It’s right through the archway there.” 

The older man, who wore a name-tag reading ‘Sgt Purcell’ nodded. “Okay. Thanks, Mr. Cruz. Please bring Miss Harper to us, whenever she’s ready.”

Cruz watched them walk across the foyer, their black boots squeaking on the tile. 

He didn’t mind that the cop got his name wrong. It was typical arrogance. But Cruz began to feel dread build inside. It always happened when he wasn’t sure what would happen next.

He opened the front door and checked the driveway and yard. There was nothing outside that indicated any of the media assholes were sniffing around yet. His truck was blocked in by the patrol car, but no other vehicles were in sight.

Molly hurried down the hallway. “What’s wrong? Why are the police here? Did Mother call?” 

Her face was shiny and red from crying. She looked like she was seventeen, he thought. The age she was when he first fell in love with her. He didn’t remember a lot of things from his past, but he always remembered that.

Cruz closed the door. “No one called the house. But the police said they tried your cell.” He took her left arm gently. “Let’s go see what they want.”

“God, do you think something’s happened to Mother?” Her eyes were wide with panic.

“Don’t borrow trouble. They didn’t say that.”

She didn’t move for a moment, and then she put her arm around his back and leaned against him. 

Molly was trembling. Cruz knew there was no way to protect her from whatever was coming. But at least he was here. 

Because she called me.

Because she needs help. 

She needs me.

Everything in his life had changed over the last three years. Everything except that. Cruz squeezed Molly closer and guided her into the library. 

“This is Molly Harper,” Cruz announced. “What’s going on?”


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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Emelle Gamble was a writer at an early age, bursting with the requisite childhood stories of introspection. These evolved into bad teen poetry and worse short stories. She took her first stab at full length fiction in an adult education writing class when her kids were in bed.  As M.L. Gamble, she published several romantic suspense novels with Harlequin. She has contracted with Soul Mate Publishing for Secret Sister, published in the summer of 2013, and Dating Cary Grant, a March 2014 release. 

Once and Forever, an anthology which includes the novella Duets, came out on November 1st. Molly Harper, a full length novel starring the characters from Duets 3 years later was released by Posh Publishing in January. 

Emelle lives in suburban Washington D.C. with her husband, ‘Phil-the-fist’, her hero of thirty years, and two orange cats, Lucy and Bella. These girls, like all good villains, have their reasons for misbehaving. Her daughter, Olivia, and son, Allen, are happily launched on their own and contributing great things to society, their mother’s fondest wish.

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Review Quotes:

Praise for Secret Sister

“Along with being a very unique and captivating plot, SECRET SISTER offers a shocking turn of the paranormal kind. So if you are the type of person that wants ordinary romance in a book, you won't find that here. This is a story of friendship, family, and most of all, true love and what those things can mean. I cannot recommend SECRET SISTER strongly enough… “ Fresh Fiction, Fresh Reviews

"If you're looking for a typical women's fiction/romance, don't look here... this story has a twist of the paranormal that will have you willingly stretching your belief in order to enjoy the plot. Emelle Gamble has created a story that will tear your heart out."  Long and Short Reviews 

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Links:

Email: emellegamble@aol.com 

Website:  www.EmelleGamble.com  

FaceBook:  Author Emelle Gamble

Twitter: @EmelleGamble

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7123746.Emelle_Gamble

Secret Sister by Emelle Gamble is now available on Amazon!  http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DUL4LQA/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=211189&creative=373489&creativeASIN=B00DUL4LQA&link_code=as3&tag=revibycrys-20

Once and Forever  an anthology with Emelle Gamble’s novella, Duets, is now available on Amazon!    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00GC6XXVE/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=211189&creative=373489&creativeASIN=B00GC6XXVE&link_code=as3&tag=revibycrys-20

Molly Harper Amazon Buy Link:  http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HSPFTVK/ref=as_li_tf_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=211189&creative=373489&creativeASIN=B00HSPFTVK&link_code=as3&tag=revibycrys-20