Today I am delighted to welcome author Christy McKee on my blog. Christy has just published her contemporary romance "Maybe Too Good to be True" with MuseItUp Publishing.
Hello, Marie,
Thank you for having me as your guest this week. As you know, the prospect of having your first novel published is exhilarating and a little scary.
What’s In a Name?
Deciding on my pen name, McKee wasn’t a random selection based on sound, curb appeal or location on a bookstore shelf. I chose McKee because my father named me after his grandmother, Christina Ann McKee. Although I never had the privilege to know my great-grandmother, stories of her courage, strength, and compassion have always been a part of my life.
When my great grandmother McKee was a young woman she barely survived two years of peril in the dust bowl in Kansas.
Defeated by crop failure resulting from drought and devastating dust storms, she took charge of her aging parents and her siblings and led their retreat back to Ohio where she started a modest chicken hatchery which eventually grew into a successful commercial operation that provided her family with a comfortable life. My father’s own mother died when he was six years old. His grandmother McKee took him in and raised him in a loving, nurturing home until adulthood. She instilled in him the belief that he could accomplish anything with devotion and perseverance.
In choosing the name of McKee, I am honoring the woman I never met but who lived for me in my father’s tales of her kindness, love and— when necessary— grit.
When and Why Did You Become a Writer?
My career began—not as a writer— but in TV news, working as a reporter and news anchor in Missouri and later in Ohio. The only reading I did was off the teleprompter on set. When I married, I would follow my husband from Detroit to Baton Rouge with stops in between in Georgia, South Carolina, Kentucky and Ohio. I had to reinvent myself to find a job in each “new” town. From real estate sales to advertising, to co-producer of a southern university’s Writer’s Workshop series featuring John Irving and Kurt Vonnegut, my career path was full of twists and unexpected turns.
Even though my voracious desire to read began in my childhood during a bout of the measles, I didn’t try my hand at writing until a few decades later. After “getting some age on me,” I began to write a contemporary romance. It was like the stars aligned and my life clicked. I knew I was doing what I was meant to do. With my husband’s support, I quit my day job, came out of the closet and announced I was a full time fiction writer.
After four incarnations and a year under the bed, my first novel Maybe Too Good to Be True is releasing this summer. Today, I live in rural, picturesque Ohio with my family and two Labs. Lambeau is the unofficial dog of the Green Bay Packers and Gracie is well, just sweet Gracie.
Blurb
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Gabrielle March is summoned to an oceanfront estate in Massachusetts by the matriarch of Atlantic-Hastings International where she is presented with a hefty block of shares as amends for a crime committed against her family. The stock—worth several million dollars—can give her the means to make her dream come true if only she can muster the courage to break free from her past and believe in her unique creative talent.
Pierce Hastings, son of Gabrielle’s benefactress, grudgingly agrees to take her under his wing and acclimate her to Atlantic-Hastings. Never one to mix business with pleasure, Pierce stuns himself when he ignores his own self imposed rule. Gabrielle’s complete lack of artifice, unvarnished honesty and quirky sense of humor are intoxicating to him―and he’s rapidly becoming addicted. He’s blindsided when Gabrielle confesses that, in spite of her growing feelings for him, she will never fit into his world of power and privilege.
Excerpt, Pool Scene
“The fact is, Mr. Hastings, it is not a reporter’s job to be favorable. They are in the business of finding and reporting the truth.”
"Nobly put, Miss March.” The woman certainly didn’t pull any punches.
“I hope this will put you at ease, Mr. Hastings. I own the newspaper. It’s been several years since I single-handedly set out to ruin anyone.”
Sarcasm, even with a lovely Southern accent, was still sarcasm.
"I see.” Pierce sounded duly impressed. “That’s certainly an accomplishment for such a young …” He froze when her eyes narrowed. What the hell was wrong with him? He careened from one blunder to the next.
"Tell me, is it my age or the fact that I’m a woman that bothers you?” Her face was considerably more colorful than the rest of her and he knew it had nothing to do with the heat.
Pierce was no chauvinist and certainly had no prejudice against successful females. After all, he’d been married to a talented trial attorney. Hadn’t he put his wife through law school? Hadn’t he supported Glenna in every way until she made partner in her firm and then announced that she’d changed her mind about having children and, by the way, she didn’t want to be his wife anymore either.
"I didn't mean that you weren't responsible.” His eyes returned to the very entertaining Miss March who had just snapped up the ball and was ready to run with it.
"What would someone like you know about responsibility anyway? You've probably never put in an honest day’s work in your entire over-privileged life. Flying around the world trying to stay one step ahead of reality. One of these days you’re going to have to come down to earth and see what it’s like in the real world.”
Where did the woman get her information? She’d obviously pegged him as some sort of wealthy derelict. Fired up, she was something. Misinformed maybe, but she had balls of steel. "For a newspaper woman, you’re lacking in your facts, Miss...."
You can reach me here:
Christy is giving away a free copy of her ebook at the end of this weekend. Plus, your name will go into the drawing to win a $30 Amazon gift card on September 29. To qualify for both giveaways, you must leave a meaningful comment or question and include your email address.
Thank you Christy for being my guest today!
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