#WriteWed Jersey Shore Inspiration

I grew up on Long Island and there wasn’t a spring/summer/fall we didn’t spend time at the beach. Whether it was fishing at Captree or swimming at Jones Beach, there was always a connection to the beach.

Whenever I went I felt energized, maybe because I’m a Pisces and water is my natural environment.

It’s no wonder that when we moved to Jersey, I eventually came to fall in love with the Jersey Shore. It’s not just the ocean to which I connected. It was all the small towns with their very different personalities and the sense of community in each of the unique towns.

It’s why I chose the Jersey Shore for quite a number of my latest books, from SINS OF THE FLESH to my upcoming release, JUST ONE NIGHT in the ONE NIGHT ONLY Erotic Romance anthology.

In JUST ONE NIGHT, the heroine’s family is wealthy and owns a large mansion along the Jersey Shore. The hero literally is from the wrong side of the tracks. I’ve found that the socioeconomic line drawn by the North Jersey Coast Line as it works its way along the Shore is quite pronounced in some towns.

In JUST ONE NIGHT, the hero has overcome those differences by attending college on a ROTC scholarship, but now it’s time for him to serve as a Marine to pay back that opportunity. The hero, Jason Hart, has just one night to prove to the woman of his dreams, his best friend’s slightly older sister, Nicole de Silva, that anything is possible.

So today, I’m sharing with you some pictures from my little neck of the woods along the Jersey Shore. I hope you’ll enjoy the photos!

April 16, 2014

#WriteWed JUST ONE NIGHT New Adult Erotic Romance Inspiration

On May 12, I’ll be in the release of an erotic romance novella boxed set titled ONE NIGHT ONLY with my friends Stephanie Julian, Judi Fennell and Sara Humphreys.

My story in the boxed set, JUST ONE NIGHT, is a new adult erotic romance. As you can guess from the title, the story happens all in just one night when twenty-four year old Nicole de Silva decides to finally take a chance with her younger brother’s best friend, Jason Hart.

Jason, Jase to his friends, and Nicole have basically grown up together and for years, the sparks have been flying between them, but neither of them has done anything about it.

Jase is a newly commissioned Second Lieutenant in the Marines and he only has one night with Nickie before he heads home and then to his deployment.

The inspiration for Jase came from my time at Villanova which had a very large and active ROTC program. I even had the honor of going to a ROTC formal event my freshman year and it was amazing to see all the young men and women in their dress uniforms.

At the start of JUST ONE NIGHT, Jase and Nickie’s brother have just graduated and Jase is in his dress blues and looking way too handsome.

It’s going to be up to Jase and Nickie to decide whether to take a chance and explore the heat that’s been building inside of them for way too long. Trust me, it’s going to be a sizzling hot story as they finally give in to that attraction all night long.

Can’t you just picture Nickie helping Jase out of dress blues just like these?

April 9, 2014March 2, 2021

#WriteWed The Inspiration Behind the Books

Wow, the inspiration behind the books. Where do I start? It’s such a tough thing to pinpoint because the inspiration can be so varied.

Vampire Reborn novella from The Calling Reborn series For The Calling-Reborn series, the inspiration for the series and FBI Agent Diana Reyes was very much the emotion I was feeling during a dark time in my life. Her character totally epitomized someone mired in darkness who needed to find herself again and be reborn (namely me!). I shared more of that inspiration in the blog titled Into the Abyss with Vampires.

In the 10 years since that first book, Diana has definitely grown and learned so much and I am so very happy to see where she is in Vampire Reborn. She’s a very different person now and a much stronger one, but opening herself up to love makes her vulnerable in so many ways.

I’m really looking forward to exploring that in future stories.

To Catch Her Man, on the other hand, was inspired by location, location, location and also mother/daughter relationships. That’s kind of been a recurring thread in the Charity Pineiro books set in South Beach – friends, family, mothers and daughters.

Why location? Well, South Beach is all glittering and glamorous, filled with celebrities, but amidst all that hype is the dark side of what goes on in all those party places. I thought South Beach would be the perfect place to have a romance with suspense elements, namely, an investigation into whether an undercover cop is dirty and responsible for the murder of one of his fellow officers.

To Catch Her Man is available alone or as part of the Dangerous Dozen Romantic Suspense Boxed Set. The boxed set is specially priced at .99 cents for a limited time.

Thank you for making it an Amazon and B&N bestseller!

Kobo

April 2, 2014July 9, 2019

#WriteWed Location Inspiration South Beach & NYC

One of the things I love about being a writer is sharing interesting locations with you in my novels. If I’m lucky, I actually either get to visit those locations, like South Beach, or live near them, like New York City.

South Beach has been the location for several of my latest re-releases and the upcoming TO CATCH HER MAN in the Dangerous Dozen Romantic Suspense Boxed Set.

This is a photo of the pool area of the Loew’s Miami Beach Hotel which is right in South Beach near Lincoln Road and Espanola Way, two locations that the heroine in my book, Sylvia Amenabar, frequents often. You may also remember those locations from Kissed by a Vampire.

The Loew’s is a combination of new and a restoration of the former St. Moritz Hotel.

New York City is the location for The Calling-Reborn Vampire Novel series. Much like this is a series of my heart, New York is the city of my heart. I can’t imagine not living nearby or visiting on a regular basis.

I snapped this photo this morning of Herald Square in front of Macy’s. Herald Square is formed by the intersection of Broadway and Sixth Avenue at 34th Street and is named after the long gone New York Herald. In the popular song, Give My Regards to Broadway, there is a reference to “remember me to Herald Square”. This location is also where the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade ends every year!

On the opposite southern portion of the intersection is Greeley Square which is named after Horace Greeley, the publisher of the Herald’s rival newspaper, the New York Tribune. Greeley is best known for his words, “Go West young man” which urged the westward expansion of the U.S. after the Civil War.

Hope you enjoyed today’s Writer Wednesday!

March 19, 2014February 17, 2021

#WriteWed Embracing Indie & Getting Organized

Last year was a crazy and brutal year publishing-wise. Although I had rights back to a number of books, including some of my favorites, I was unable to really focus on releasing them and going indie.

Not so this year. My goal this year was to embrace indie publishing and to do that I had to get organized. Big sigh. Anyone who has visited my home office knows organized is not a word to be used to describe my writing life. A big part of the reason is the lack of time that I have for it.

But lack of time doesn’t mean that you can’t get it done. It just means that you have to learn how to do it more efficiently. Going indie also meant that I had to establish my own schedules for what I wanted to do and when.

Thanks to my awesome buddy and awesome fellow writer Nisha Sharma, I’ve gotten organized. Or at least my knapsack and planner have.

Here’s what they look like now, including an awesome DREAM BIG bracelet thingie I got at the fabulous OG Surf and Skate shop in Neptune, NJ.

This has been really working for me because (1) I’m very visual and need to see things and (2) I’m still a needy kid inside who has to have little gold stars to tell her she’s doing okay.

LOL! So as you can see, there have been a number of stars on there as I complete the tasks I’ve scheduled. I keep the tasks on color-coded flags so I can move them around if need be.

Of course, there is just one thing I forgot to put on there and which totally belongs: Our Lucky 7 Bad Boys NY Times and USA Today achievement.

I will have to go and add that now and plan for even more good news like that. It’s going to be a lot of work this year, but like my mother always told me, “Nothing worthwhile is ever easy.”

March 12, 2014February 17, 2021

It’s #HumpDay & #WriteWed Captain America & Writing Retreats

My writing friends and I will often “get away” for writing retreats. Sometimes it’s just a night of gabbing. Occasionally we can get away for a weekend. More rare are extended outings with other writers. I’m lucky if I can do one of those extended outings once every three or four years.

In 2012, I was lucky enough to get invited to teach a Master Class at the Low Country Romance Writers. It was great to share what I knew about social media as well as legal issues for writers. I met a great group of people and you may recognize some of them in the photo from my Lucky 7 Bad Boys and Dangerous Dozen collaborations, namely Virna DePaul and Nina Bruhns.

The Writing Retreat Gang from Low Country Romance Writers

Post by Caridad Pineiro.

Here is a photo of two of my writing buddies, Julia Amante and Sylvia Mendoza, from another retreat in Vegas! I’ve known Julie and Sylvia for nearly 15 years and love getting together with them! We share so much in common and being with them is always inspiring. In fact, it was a trip many years ago that inspired THE PRINCE’S GAMBLE when they dared me to incorporate elements of our writing weekend into a story. I know that Red Rock Canyon, where we took this photo, will be the setting for a scene in a future romantic suspense novel. It just begs for an exciting chase scene!

Post by Caridad Pineiro.

Because it’s Hump Day, you may need a little excitement to get you up and over the hump! LOL! So here’s a trailer from Captain America to help. I can’t wait to see this movie. I just love Chris Evans. I have since he was in Cellular.
)

February 26, 2014February 17, 2021

#WriteWed My Writing Process & #Contest

One of the most frequent questions I get is, “How can you write so much when you’ve still got your full time job?”

It’s not easy, I’ll confess. There is a tug and pull between work and writing obligations and even more importantly, between family and work/writing obligations.

Because of all those conflicting things, I had to adapt to creating a writing process for myself that minimized conflicts.

The first thing was to make the most efficient use of my time. That meant writing on my commute to and from work. That also meant learning to write when it wouldn’t impinge on family times, namely, early morning and late late night.

I learned to be a morning person something which my mom would find hard to believe if she was still alive. I was one of those people who loved to laze in bed until noon.

Now I’m up at 5 a.m. on weekdays and on the train by 6. I get a solid 45 minutes of writing in on the train ride in and another on the train ride home.

The bulk of my writing is done on Saturday and Sunday mornings. I’m up by 6 usually, make the coffee (must have coffee) and then I’m on my laptop. During the winter months, I’m usually on the couch under a blanket while I write. I also usually have the television on. Yes, I know that some might find that distracting, but I’m used to working in noisy environments.

The spring/summer/Fall months are my favorite ones since when it’s warm enough, I head out onto my small balcony and sit and write there. In the early mornings it’s peaceful and I can often hear and smell the ocean, which is quite relaxing. The family cat, Osiris, will often join me. Here’s a picture of her and also, of some of the flowers I try to have on the balcony. I love those also and wish I had more space to grow things at my place.

Orisis my family cat

When I’ve got tight deadlines, I also work late at night, but I’m not a fan of that. First, because I’m tired from a day at work and second, because that’ll make me tired for the next day at work. But when I have to do it, I do.

So that’s my writing process. It works for me. It may not work for you and I think the key is to find out how to balance your writing life with all your other obligations.

Contest

Don’t forget we’ve got lots of fun things going on for the release of the Lucky 7 Bad Boys Contemporary Romance Box Set.

This set is available for pre-order now, but will be officially released on March 3. We’re having a big release party on March 5 at our Facebook page and a contest where you can win a number of different items. Just check out the Rafflecopter below to find out how to earn points!

You can also get extra points by capturing the bad boy keyword(s) (hint: find the hot bad boy pic) in our Lucky 7 Videos. You can find them here:

Lucky 7 Video #1
Lucky 7 Video #2

a Rafflecopter giveaway