VBT: Exit Signs by Patrice Locke

Exit Signs

by Patrice Locke

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GENRE:   Romantic Comedy

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BLURB:

Tracy Price has a documentary-style life until rockstar Jesse Elliot rewrites her script and takes the wheel to drive her crazy.

In her quest to find a writer missing since the 1930's, Tracy thinks she has discovered exactly how to handle her new relationship. But she may be listening to the wrong voice. 

Then Tracy and Jesse find out they've both been keeping some big secrets, and the truth may ruin everything.

Will sharing the missing writer's story open both their hearts?

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Excerpt Two:

Jesse lunged toward me. It was too late. I had already launched. He reached out but didn’t connect. Instead, I broke the trajectory of my upper body by grabbing him at chest level and sliding down. He was pushed backward into the table, which stabilized our ungainly host-parasite tableau. He softened my landing so that physically I was fine, but my pride was ready for intensive care.

Heaped at his feet, like a demented penitent, I hugged his knees, my face pressed flat into his thighs. I might as well stay down. What’s worse? To stand up and face you, or remain here, nestled between your legs? What do you think? Then, the finishing touch: I erupted into nervous, snorting laughter. He guessed there was no serious injury.

“It’s nice to see you, too. You are okay, aren’t you? Can you stand?” He reached for my arms to unwrap them from his legs and help me up. I jammed my eyelids together to conjure up a do-over, but no such luck.

I would have to deal with it.

He held my elbows in his hands. “I guess we were both in a hurry to see each other.”

I do appreciate your attempt to lighten the mood, but you are standing SO close. I can feel your body heat. Or is that mine? By the way, you smell tart and fresh, like a lime.

I stared at his shoulder. My dignity meter was stuck on empty.

“Enthusiastic greeting. Thanks for that.” He was blatantly amused.

“It was nothing.” I stepped backward to regain a semblance of independence. Don’t mock me. But, you did go to all the trouble to bring your hair. And your eyes. I might forgive you for witnessing my disgrace. That hair.

   

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

As a journalist, Patrice Locke wrote a lot of stories with unhappy and even tragic endings.
Facts are facts, and a writer doesn't mess with facts.


But fiction is another world. Patrice began writing novels, where she could control the endings and make them as happy as she wants. The best thing about fiction, she says, is having time to think before her characters speak, so they can say the things most of us only come up with after the perfect moment has passed.


She loves to write, read, and watch romantic comedies where life always turns out the way it should. Her only obsessive relationships are with semicolons and Oxford commas.


Though she doesn't like to brag, Patrice is an award-winning artist. She won a gold and diamond watch when she was 13 for decorating a turkey drumstick bone to look like Batman. Alas, that was her last recognition in the fine arts.


Patrice lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where the blue sky is brilliant, the air is thin, and the vistas are breathtaking. She is none of those things, which is one reason she enjoys living among them.

Webpage:

http://www.patricelocke.com/index.html

Author Facebook Page:

https://www.facebook.com/bypatricelocke/?ref=aymt_homepage_panel 

Twitter:

@patricelocke

Email:

bypatricelocke@gmail.com

Interview with Patrice Locke

Where do you get inspiration for your stories?

I’m usually inspired by something from history. For “Exit Signs,” the inspiration came from my interest in New Mexico and my fascination with the 1930s, everything from the movies to the way people dealt with the treacheries of the Great Depression.

For my newest story, I am putting my long-time interest in the old Albuquerque High School building complex, which is 100 years old and has been converted into urban lofts. The idea that generations of teenagers spent time wrestling with all their adolescent and hormonal urges just piques my imagination.

How did you do research for your book?

Though “Exit Signs” is a romantic comedy, there’s lots of New Mexico history in it – I have a passion for that subject and taught NM history for five years, so that was research of something I already love. The other research consisted of information from the 1930s, which I’ve always been fascinated by. I read lots of books from the 1930s because I was interested in the economy of the period and in the writing style, so I could copy it for the secondary story of the missing writer.

My research is reading, reading, reading.

Do you have another profession besides writing?

I have a journalism degree from Michigan State and I worked as a news reporter and editor for various newspapers and radio stations.

Then I got my teaching certificate and a masters’ degree in education. I’ve taught New Mexico history and language arts at middle schools forever. I also taught writing at a community college for about 14 years.

If you could go back in time, where would you go?

So many choices. I can think of about 20, but if I had to choose, I think I’d go to London between the World Wars. I have a passion for a writer who chronicled her life from Victorian Times through the late 1940s and she lived most of that time in and around London. Her name is M.V. Hughes. I’d like to meet her. I think it would be fun to find someone who’s known to me, but not too famous. If I arrived before the mid 1920s, I’d take a train up to Scotland and look up my grandparents as well. My grandfather and grandmother met in kindergarten at Bon Hill School outside of Glasgow. I’d like to witness that because the two of them ended up spending the rest of their lives together. What a love story.

What is your next project?

The working title is “Ghostsitter” and it’s set in the old Albuquerque High School I mentioned earlier. I’m experimenting with a narrator who is unreliable and possibly unlikeable, though the more I get to know her, the more I like her. She’s going to create a fabulously successful ghost story, and I’m really looking forward to writing that.

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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION

Patrice Locke will be awarding a $10 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Follow the tour here:

https://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2016/11/vbt-exit-signs-by-patrice-locke.html