The P-Town Playlist: Born This Way

The book is the P-Town Queen. Lady Gaga's Born This Way is perfect for the playlist. Don't be a drag! Just be a Queen!

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Blog Hop

Click on image for more girls havin' fun!

Nikki

The lovely Nikki Silva, shark researcher extraordinaire  and star of The P-Town Queen is being interviewed by Mary Contrary of the cable access show, Mary Tells it All about the love of her life, Marco Tornetti AKA Parker Bench.

Parker

Nikki's Theme Song: Tom Petty,  I won't back down

So, Nikki, can I call you Nikki? How did you an Marco first meet?
I hired him for a job that didn't exist. It's kind of a long story.

Ooh, intriguing.  It was love at first sight, wasn't it ?
Not exactly. I mean, yeah, he was a great looking guy. What with that dark hair and those green eyes. And a body Michelangelo might have carved. But for a long time, I thought he was gay. So I kept my attraction to myself.

Why did you think he was gay? And how did you figure out he wasn't?
He told me he was gay. He was using an alias, too. I knew he was lying about a lot of things, but I didn't figure he'd lie about the gay thing. My gay brother, Billy, figured it out before I did. Guess I'm not as good at observation as I thought I was.

Too, too, funny. It did all turn out well, though didn't it?
Yes, but it wasn't easy. You'll just have to read the book to get the whole story.

You heard it here first, folks! Get the book and learn the whole story!

 Visit Girl's Just Wanna have Fun for more!

Top ten reasons to buy the P-Town Queen instead of a mocha frappuccino

It can be a tough choice:

Buy a Mocha Frappuccino 

or

Download a copy of the P-Town Queen

At just under four dollars, they both cost about the same.

Here's why you should opt for the book:

1. The P-Town Queen will give you hours of enjoyment. A few minutes with the frap and you're done.

2. The P-Town Queen is calorie free. In fact, you may burn a few calories while reading.

3. Take the frap to the beach and you risk getting sand in your mouth. Not  a problem with the P-Town Queen.

4. There's nothing to throw away when you finish The P-Town Queen.

5. You don't have to stand in line at the coffee shop to buy a copy of the P-Town Queen.

6. If you accidentally knock The P-Town Queen off the coffee table, it will not spill all over the rug.

7. Have you ever read the side of frap cup? Boring!

8. Laughing out loud while reading The P-Town Queen will not leave you wishing you'd brought along a change of clothes.

9. When you finish The P-Town Queen, you can loan it to a friend. Try doing that with a frap.

10. Laughing out loud at mocha frappuccino is just plain weird.

Of course, you could always get BOTH  The P-Town Queen and the Mocha Frappuccino and still get change back from your ten! 

In the Comfy Chair

I'm sitting in Elin Gregory's comfy chair today. Pull up your own comfy chair and join me for awhile!

P-Town visits Brinda Berry's Blog

I'm blogging about the importance of setting at Brinda Berry's blog today!

Provincetown Massachusetts is the setting for The P-Town Queen

Insecure Writer: OMG it's in print!

Click on image for more writer insecurities

I worry about many things—the health and well being of my family, running out of money and having to live in a refrigerator box, whether or not the tiny spot on my wrist is a bug bite or something that will require amputation.  This week I have something new to worry about; my romantic comedy P-Town Queen has been released.  P-Town is meant to be funny. Writing funny means taking risks—the biggest risk being that others will view me as crazy.

            To write well, be it comedy or something more serious, you need to push boundaries. You need to ride hard and fast into uncharted territory with little thought to what the mailman or the barista at Starbucks will think of you. That’s not always easy to do. In the confines of your writer’s garret, locked away from the world, you can manage it. But then the wonderful terrible thing happens: you get published. All those words come out of the dark garret into the light. You’ve been exposed. The mailman and the barista will know you're just a few bucks and fender bender from complete lunacy. You feel like you have to change your name and address.

From now on, if anyone asks, I’m Mary Smith. 

For more writer insecurity, please visit  Insecure Writer's Support Group

The P-Town Queen has arrived!

Here's the blurb

Nikki Silva feels like she’s blown up her life even as her brothers tease her about blowing up a boat called the Mona Lisa. Divorced, funding for her shark research cut off, she’s moved back to Provincetown to live with her father in her childhood home. Nikki hopes to regain herself. She’s written a grant proposal for the newly formed Massachusetts Bay Commission to fund a study that will get her back to the sort of research she loves. The commission is run by her ex-husband Ned, who would rather have a migraine than give money to his ex-wife.

            Marco Tornetti wants to turn a hole-in-the-wall Newark spaghetti joint into a trendy bistro. His silent partner, Fat Phil Lagosa, wants to use the place to meet questionable people for questionable business deals.  When Fat Phil accuses Marco of a double cross and has him taken for a ride by one of his hit men, Marco knows he’s in too deep.

            Marco escapes the hit man and takes the first bus out of the Tri-state area, a bus chartered by the Greater Teaneck Gay Men’s Choir and headed for Provincetown. Marco figures that Phil would never look for him in Provincetown‘s gay community. But when he meets Nikki and falls hard for her, he finds that pretending to be gay isn’t as easy as it would seem.


And here's where you can buy the book:

Champagne Book Group

Double Trouble at Roses of Prose

I'm at Roses of Prose today blogging about openings. Come say hello!

Meet me in the Vineyard and we'll blow up a whale

I'm at The Writer's Vineyard today, blogging about the whale blow up in P-Town Queen. Come on over and say hello. Just don't forget your hard hat.

#SweetSat Meet Nikki

For more Sweet Saturday Samples, Click on image.

I introduced P-Town's hero, Marco, last week. This week, meet the heroine, Nikki. Here's how she opens the book:

I did not blow up the Mona Lisa. Not only did I not blow up the Mona Lisa--an old leaker  of a boat whose blowing up could be construed as a favor to the aptly named Rusty Cook--I did not blow up any part of Rusty’s marina. My brothers will, of course, say otherwise. They had quite the laugh at my expense over coffee at Ella’s Place.

Rusty had been on the lookout for a boat for me. It had taken a lot of gumption and crow-eating to get to a place where I could consider buying a boat. I needed a cheap one, because God only knew how much money I’d be able to squeeze out of the Massachusetts Bay Commission via the research grant proposal I’d spent three long months laboring to produce.

The head of the commission was Ned Anderson. Ned, a brilliant shark researcher in his own right, had tumbled a long way: to full time administrator of a bullshit state commission. Though to hear Ned say it, it wasn’t a tumble but a reward for all the years he’d spent roughing it on a California channel island-- an island that only had electricity every other day-- in order to unlock the mystery of white shark feeding behavior. I had spent five years on that island with Ned. We were married at the time.

The P-Town Queen docks on June 4!

Today's Stop: Dawn's Reading Nook

The P-Town Queen docks at Dawn's Reading Nook today!
P-town is in the spotlight. Come say hello!

This is Race Point Beach in Provincetown. Beautiful isn't it?

#SweetSat: Thar she blows

For more sweet treats, click on the image!

It's been a while since I've done a Sweet Saturday Sample. Welcome, all you samplers!

The P-Town Queen is coming June 4!
To celebrate, I wanted to share a little excerpt from the book.

In my lifetime I have learned, among other things, not to overcook veal and never to forget a woman’s name the morning after. On that day I added another little ditty to my list: never blow up a dead whale with dynamite.

Max Groper had figured it for a horror show and so had washed his hands of the whole mess and stormed off to his van. Nikki, too, must have figured what would happen, but that woman likes trouble, I swear to God. “We’d better stand back,” she said, with the same amused mischief in her eyes that she’d had at Good Vibrations. The cops had, in fact, already pushed the entire crowd back, so Nik and I went to stand in the front line, so to speak, right where the lot meets the beach in front of the first row of cars. “I wish I’d brought the video camera,” Nik said. “I hope someone is recording this for posterity.”  I looked around and noticed at least three video cams trained on the whale, which was now being wired for a trip to kingdom come. “YouTube bonanza,” said Nikki, “I’m surprised that the folks from Channel Four aren’t here.”

“Maybe we should go wait in the truck,” I said. I had this bad feeling that flying whale parts wasn’t going to be like the fountain light show at the Bellagio in Vegas.

P-Town Queen Book Trailer

The Book Trailer for the P-Town Queen!

The P-Town Queen cover!

The P-Town Queen. Cover art by Amanda Kelsey

  This is the cover for my romantic comedy, coming to CBG in June!

Nikki Silva thinks she’s blown up her life. Divorced, funding for her shark research cut off, she’s moved back to Provincetown to live with her father. Nikki’s written a grant proposal funded by a commission run by her ex-husband Ned, who would rather not give money to his ex-wife.

            Marco Tornetti wants to turn a Newark spaghetti joint into a trendy bistro. His silent partner, Fat Phil Lagosa, wants to use the place to solicit questionable business deals.  When Fat Phil turns on Marco and has him marked for a hit, Marco knows he’s in too deep.

            Marco escapes the hit man and takes the first bus out of the city. Marco figures that Phil would never look for him in Provincetown‘s gay community. But when he meets Nikki, he finds that pretending to be gay isn’t as easy as it would seem.

At Champagne Blog

 Want to know more about writing funny? Or get a snippet of my upcoming release P-town Queen?
Come join at Champagne Books Blog today!