Celebrate 2016: Play Author Trivia Hunt (Day 1)

What better way to end the year than to celebrate our 2016 author guests? For a fun way to do this, we've put together a three-day Author Trivia Hunt.

How much do you know about your favorite authors?  If you need help finding the answers, click on the link to their interview. 

Put your answers in the comments and we'll enter you into a drawing for a $25 Amazon gift card. Answer as many questions as you can to earn more chances. (Don't forget to leave us your email address.)

Let's get started with our first mystery author!

JILL MARIE LANDIS

E.E. Burke has interviewed this author for Get Lost In A Story several times, and she's always drawn a great response from our readers. No wonder. She's a seven-time Romance Writers of America finalist and winner of a RITA Award, and a New York Times bestselling author. 

Jill Marie Landis started out writing historical romance. She now writes humorous mysteries set on the island where she lives with her husband and a spoiled cat. You can visit Jill's world of tiki, hula maidens, and tropical fun at www.thetikigoddess.com.

Her latest book, Hawaii Five Uh-Oh, is the fifth in her Tiki Goddess Mystery series.

What is the name of the island where Jill's mysteries are set?

Click this link to her interview to find the answer. (Scroll down to her interview)

CAROLINE FYFFE

Next up, a USA Today Bestselling author who was born in Waco, Texas, the first of many towns she would call home during her father's career with the US Air Force. A horse aficionado from an early age, Caroline earned a Bachelor of Arts in communications from California State University-Chico before launching what would become a twenty-year career as an equine photographer. 

She began writing fiction to pass the time during long days in the show arena, channeling her love of horses and the Old West into a series of Western historical romances. Her debut novel, Where the Wind Blows, won the Romance Writers of America's prestigious Golden Heart Award as well as the Wisconsin RWA's Write Touch Readers' Award. She and her husband have two grown sons and live in the Pacific Northwest.

This year, Caroline introduced us to Texas Lonesome, the 8th book in a highly popular series. What is the name of that series?

Click this link to her interview to find the answer. (Scroll down to her interview)

MARY JO PUTNEY

Regan Walker interviewed this NY Times bestselling author as a part of the Best of the Regency series of posts. Mary Jo was born in upstate New York with a reading addiction, a condition with no known cure.  Her entire writing career is an accidental byproduct of buying a computer for other purposes.  Most of her books contain history, romance, and cats.  She has had ten RWA RITA nominations, two RITA wins, RWA's 2013 Nora Roberts Lifetime Achievement Award, and she's so distractible that she’s amazed that she ever finishes a book. 

What turns off Regency author Mary Jo Putney like nothing else?

Click this link to find her answer! (Scroll down through her interview)

CHERYL BOLEN

Regan also interviewed this NY Times bestselling author as a part of the Best of the Regency series of posts. Cheryl is the author of more than twenty novels, including some great Regencies! She has been in the top five on the New York Times bestselling list and is also a USA Today bestselling author. Her novel One Golden Ring won Best Historical for the Holt Medallion and her novel My Lord Wicked won Best Historical in the International Digital Awards, the same year her Christmas novella was Best Novella. Her books have been translated into a dozen languages.

What is Regency author Cheryl Bolen's favorite movie of all time? 

Click this link to find her answer! (Scroll down to her interview)

CALLIE HUTTON

Another of Regan's Regency author interviews... Callie Hutton, USA Today bestselling author of both Western Historical and Regency romances with “historic elements and sensory details” (The Romance Reviews). She lives in Oklahoma with several rescue dogs, two adult children, a daughter-in-law, twin grandsons and her top cheerleader husband (although thankfully not all in the same home!). Living in the Midwest provides plenty of opportunities for Callie to pursue her interests: researching history, meeting readers, spending time with her adorable two year old twin grandsons, and discovering new adventures.

Where would Callie Hutton travel to in the past, if given the chance?

  

Click this link to find her answer! (Scroll down to her interview)

To enter the drawing, leave your answers in the comments. 

A winner for the $25 Amazon Gift Card will be randomly selected from all comments Dec. 28 through Dec. 30. The more questions you answer, the more chances you'll get!

THE WINNER OF THE $25 AMAZON GIFT CARD IS:

JUDY TUCKER! 

CONGRATULATIONS JUDY!

Thank you to everyone who played our trivia game. We hope you'll join us in 2017 for more great author interviews and stories to get lost in.

Get Lost on Facebook   @GetLostInAStory  #GetLostStories

AND OUR NEW Facebook Group: The Readers’ Spot

More Tiki Goddess Mystery & Fun from NYT Bestselling Author Jill Marie Landis

HAWAII FIVE UH-OH!

Em and the Hula Maidens are on the case . . .

Em Johnson is prepping for the biggest catering gig she's ever booked, this time at the world famous Tiki Goddess Bar. Then she hears Kiki Godwin has just been released from the psych ward at Kukuoloko. If the unpredictable leader of the Hula Maidens isn't completely recovered from her PTMAD (Post Traumatic Monkey Attack Disorder), Em knows all hell could break loose at the upscale event.

But for once, Kiki isn't the problem. When the guest of honor's multi-million dollar paintings are stolen and a security guard turns up dead, Kiki's convinced the best way to get her mojo back is to capture the art thieves. Kiki and the girls come up with a plan to lure the felons out by staging a grand hoax. Their bait will be a cocktail party featuring paintings by the reclusive Alphonse Cappuccino, an "up and coming artist" who is none other than Kiki's furry nemesis.


Here's an excerpt:

      “WHAT?” The movie producer whispered.

The last of the color drained from his face along with his anger.

A security guard with the name Leo embroidered on his shirt said, “My uncle is dead in your driveway. Someone was able to get in through your electronic gate and close it behind ’em.”

“It’s an all-in-one system. State of the art. One code works everything, and only I know the password.”

“Then it ain’t worth piss,” Leo mumbled.

Wally Williams overheard. He moaned and headed for the couch. Em asked him for her phone as he walked by. He tugged it out of his pocket. She stepped aside, turned her back on the group, and hit Detective Roland Sharpe’s number.

When his voice mail came on she whispered into the phone, “Call me. I need you.”

As if things weren’t bad enough, Em looked up and saw Kiki Godwin, self-appointed leader of the Hula Maidens walking slowly toward her with her arms out for balance and a martini glass clutched in one hand. She set the empty glass down on a cube table and smoothed down the front of her pareau.

“I’m okay. I’m okay,” she told Em.

“You sure?”

Kiki nodded. “What’s going on? I saw the stampede for the exit. People are going crazy out there yelling for their cars.”

Now was not the time to tell an already fragile Kiki what had happened next door. Em struggled to figure out what to say.

“Something is up,” Kiki pressed. “Why else would there be vomit in that vase over there? Come on and tell. You know I’ll find out one way or the other. What do you think I am? A blabbermouth?”

Em shrugged. “Kiki, really. I can’t say.”

“Okay, so maybe I am a bit talkative. Don’t you think it’s best I hear it from you and not later when the story has been blown out of proportion?”

“I guess you’ll find out anyway,” Em agreed. Kiki was right about the story being blown out of proportion. By morning folks would be circulating tales of a mound of dead bodies piled in the Delacruz driveway, not to mention hundreds of missing paintings.

Em stepped closer to Kiki and lowered her voice. “There’s been a break-in and a murder.”

“A murder? Here?” Kiki yelled.

“My house is cursed!” Wally threw himself down on the sofa and pulled a throw pillow over his face to muffle his screams.

“Not here,” Em told Kiki. “Next door at the Delacruz place.”

Kiki went dead silent for so long Em thought she’d lost the ability to speak again, but then she slowly smiled.

“I hate to admit it,” she said, “but this might be just what I need to help me snap out of my nervous breakdown.”

“What are you talking about?” Em glanced at her cell and wished Roland would call back.

“Don’t you see?” Kiki said. “Now I can focus on solving this murder, take my mind off of my, well, off of my own mind.”

“Oh, Kiki, I don’t think that’s the kind of diversion you need. How about quilting, instead?”

Kiki stared at her. “Have you lost your mind?”

Hawaii Five Uh-Oh is hilarious, non-stop action. So pour yourself a tropical beverage, kick back, and join Uncle Louie, Em, Sophie Chin, and the Hula Maidens at the always unpredictable, ever-entertaining, Tiki Goddess Bar. 

About the other books in the series:

"Too Hot Four Hula is a fun, quick read with nary a lull in the engaging plot."--Fresh Fiction

"This book was truly hilarious."--Open Book Society on Too Hot Four Hula

"Smart and sassy, fun, and endearing."-- Kristin Hannah, New York Times bestselling author

Meet Jill

A seven-time Romance Writers of America finalist and winner of a RITA Award, NYT bestselling author Jill Marie Landis also now writes The Tiki Goddess Mysteries (set on the island of Kauai, Hawaii, where she lives with her husband and a spoiled cat. 

Visit her world of tiki, hula maidens, and tropical fun at www.thetikigoddess.com.

Let's get to know more about Jill...

E.E.: Is writing or storytelling easier for you?

Thinking about this one, I realize they are one and the same for me. If I wasn’t a born storyteller, I think I’d probably have a harder time writing and perhaps wouldn’t write at all. I have to see the setting, characters and action in my head and then translate the scenes into written word in order to share it with readers. For me it’s much easier to write/tell the story, tell the tale, and then go back and polish up the writing than it is to try to come up with a clean manuscript right off the bat.  

E.E.: What’s your favorite kind of story to get lost in?

I’m a very eclectic reader. I love any novel in any genre that keeps me riveted to the page. If the action is fast paced, the characters so real I don’t want to leave them for a minute, the setting so compelling and interesting that I want to see, feel, taste, and smell the place—well, then I’m hooked.

E.E.: Do you write while listening to music? If so what kind?

      Most days I write without music. If I play Hawaiian music, then I’m too tempted to jump up and hula if I’ve learned a dance to the song. I love to sing along to music, so that’s also a distraction. Truthfully, I used to write while listening to 24 hour news channels like CNN. The television is on, but I’m not really listening. It’s just good background noise, which helps me focus on what I’m doing. I was a kindergarten teacher and so I have a pretty high tolerance for racket. In fact, if it’s too quiet I start thinking about other things and my mind wanders. If there’s background noise or something else going on, then I’m forced to focus on my work. I’m not sure that makes a lot of sense to some writers who need absolute quiet.  

E.E.: What drew you to write in the genre(s) you do?

I was drawn to write historical romances because I read them by the bushel full in the early 1980 and the 1990’s. (Am I telling my age here?) What’s not to love about historical romances? Alas, after I wrote fifteen of them, I grew weary of the old West, so I wrote a trilogy of Contemporary Romantic Suspense novels which were published in hardcover by Ballantine Books. Lover’s Lane, Heat Wave, and Heartbreak Hotel. Two of those titles will be re-issued by Bell Bridge Books, my current publisher, in the coming year.

Now I’m writing my Tiki Goddess Mystery series set on Kauai and loving it because comedy is something I always wanted to write. Much of the material in the stories reflects my own life here on the island and quirky island life in general (except for the murders, of course). Coming up with the adventures of the crazy old hula dancers who try to solve mysteries and wind up in a heap of trouble instead is so much fun that I almost don’t consider it work. I also include recipes for tropical cocktails and pupus (appetizers) in back of each book and we all have a great time taste testing the mixes. 

Readers love the antics of the madcap Hula Maidens and keep begging for more. HAWAII FIVE UH-OH! Is the fifth book in the series and though I wasn’t sure I’d keep going, I have an idea for number six rattling around in my head.

Jill will be giving away two books: a print version and an eBook, winner's choice of the first book in the series, or this current release. Just leave a comment and enter the drawing!

 What's your favorite kind of story to get lost in? Do you have a favorite genre?

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