Meet Ana Morgan and her Debut Novel, Stormy Hawkins

Meet debut novelist, Ana Morgan. Stormy Hawkins, book one in her Prairie Hearts series,  came out September 27th. I looked up Ana on Amazon and this is what her author page says:

When she was small, Ana Morgan’s life goal was to know something about everything. She has waitressed, driven a school bus, milked cows, run craft service on an indie film set, hiked through European castles, wired a house, married a Marine, and studied the stars. She can change a flat tire but prefers it when handsome strangers remove their jackets and spin the lug nuts for her.

What a great bio/blurb. Ana, please tell us a little more about yourself:

My dad was stationed overseas, so I attended elementary school in Frankfurt, Germany.

Then it was back to the States for middle school. When he was sent to Eritrea, I went to live with my grandparents in New Jersey for high school. So, when my husband suggested staying put on a small farm in northern Minnesota, it sounded good to me—even though I didn’t know anything about milking cows or baling hay. Yeah, I moved a lot as a child and I used to dream about living on a farm. Or in any one place for more than two years. But farming sounded really cool to me. I never let reality intrude on my dreaming.

I love firsts, so tell me about the moment when a publisher told you they wanted to publish your book.

I was stunned. I’d worked on the manuscript for ten years, parked it in a file on my laptop, and only entered the Pages of the Heart contest to support the online chapter. I had zero expectations that my entry would win full requests from two publishers, and then a contract offer from SoulMate Publishing. I forwarded the offer to my critique partners and asked if they thought it was genuine. That's my kind of happy ending, one that begins a new chapter in a life. Congratulations!

  

If it isn’t too nosy. How about the first time you kissed your true love?

We were parked in his light blue VW Beetle in an avocado grove. He was 6’5”, and there wasn’t much room to get comfortable. When I opened my eyes, the windshield was steamed over.

Other than your own, who are your favorite (heroes/heroines/writers) in your genre?

My idol author is Bertrice Small. Her historicals are sizzling adventures.

 What is the most exciting moment, so far, in your writing career?

Seeing the cover for the first time. The artist captured Stormy and Blade perfectly. It is an amazing feeling, seeing the characters that live in your mind and on paper come to life as a picture. I love the cover.

What is your favorite pastime, other than writing? 

Gardening with my grand-kids. They live a mile away, at the other end of our farm. I've almost got the youngest over his fear of earthworms.  Lol!

 How do you motivate yourself when inspiration takes a vacation?

I set a deadline that puts my fingers on my keyboard.

Any advice for new writers just starting out?

Join a critique group. You’ll learn lots by reading others’ chapters AND by reading the feedback on those chapters (as well as the feedback on your subs.) Couldn't agree more. I would be lost without my critique group.

Tell us about Stormy Hawkins.

Blurb:

On a normal day, Stormy Hawkins would never hire a handsome, down-on-his-luck cowboy. She’s learned the hard way that she’s happier working alone. But, she needs help. The ruthless banker who holds the mortgage on her ailing father’s ranch just demanded payment in full—or her hand in marriage.

Betrayed by his greedy ex-fiancée and humiliated in front of his high-society family, Blade Masters has spent five long years remaking himself into a cowboy. Now, if he closes just one more land deal, he’ll have enough savings to buy a spread of his own, where he can live alone and bury the shards of his shattered heart. The Hawkins ranch looks like a perfect target until he witnesses bruises on Stormy Hawkins’ neck and vows to protect the feisty redhead—whether she likes it or not.

Teaser:

Stormy estimated it was nearly midnight when they arrived home. Silvery moonlight lent a fairytale aura to the ranch yard as Blade guided his mare to the corral gate and dismounted.

She put her hands on his shoulders and let them slide down his chest as he helped her down. She’d stolen countless glances at his sun-bronzed back when he worked on the fence, and had tried to imagine how his muscles would ripple under her hands.

He set her lightly on the ground and made no move to release her. Instead, he caressed her back and sides like a blind man reading a braille love poem.

She looked up, trying to read the thoughts hidden behind his dusky eyes. Surely, he’d kiss her now. That’s what lovers did in the novelettes she’d read. She closed her eyes and waited.

Nothing.

When she opened them, he was staring at her, the muscles of his jaw working.

Uncertainty jabbed her. The suffocating shroud of her self-doubt threatened to crash back into place. Her fists closed defensively.

She was debating whether to hit him and run when the only possible explanation exploded like fireworks in her head.

Great teaser and blurb. Here's the buy link so you can click over to Amazon and read more. 

  Buy link for Stormy Hawkins:    http://amzn.to/2wXgykQ 

What’s your current WIP? 
I’m writing the sequel to Stormy Hawkins. “Mary Masters loves a man her wealthy family fears. When he disappears, she refuses to accept his best friend’s pronouncement that he’s dead, and goes undercover, dealing cards on riverboats and searching dangerous docks the along Missouri River. Is his best friend correct? Is her fiancé truly dead?”

And finally, where can we find you?

Website :  www.anamorgan.net

FB:  https://www.facebook.com/authoranamorgan/   

Ana, thank you for being here. Dearest readers, if you like historical westerns this sounds like a good one. Here's the buy link so you can click over to Amazon and read more. 

  Buy link for Stormy Hawkins:    http://amzn.to/2wXgykQ 

Happy Reading. 

If any of you are going to the InD'Scribe Conference this weekend in Burbank, I'd love to meet up with you.

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