Saturday, March 14, 2020

Unwrapping a Special Guest & Guest Post: Callie Carmen, author of the Risking Love series and the upcoming new novel, ANTHONY w/#excerpt


Coming April 1, 2020 - Pre-Order available now!

Today, I have a special guest visiting Unwrapping Romance. 
It’s been a long while since we’ve had a visitor so I’m most excited. 
Today’s guest is a fellow author, Callie Carmen. 
I hope everyone will join me in making her feel very welcome.

Welcome to Unwrapping Romance, Callie…

Callie: Thank you for having me as a guest on your wonderful blog today.

Unwrapping Romance: It’s a pleasure to have you here. I understand you have a new book coming out soon in your Risking Love series.

Callie: I do. This is an exciting time for me as a writer. My book Anthony (Risking Love Book Four) just became available for pre-order and the ebook is only 99¢ until the publication date, April 1. The paperback will be available soon if not already by the time this blog comes out. Here’s a little excerpt from Anthony and some information that I found helpful on show-don’t-tell. I hope you enjoy them.



EXCERPT from ANTHONY
By Callie Carmen

Anthony

Late that afternoon, I entered the accounting firm. It was so quiet without James at the reception desk. I felt my racing pulse in my eardrums. This would be the first time I’d seen Tessa since I’d walked out on her at the wedding. My stomach was in knots. I looked down the hallway and saw that there was only one light on, and it was coming from her office.

God, if she was here alone I’d be tempted to pull her out of her chair, lift her into my arms, and kiss her until she couldn’t breathe. Then I’d lay her across the desk, lift her dress, take off her panties, and taste her.

I decided to skip warning her that I was there. I wanted to see her reaction when I entered her office.

Tessa hopped up from behind her desk as soon as I walked in. Her hands shook, and I could tell that she was as nervous as I was.

“H–hello, Tony, how are you?” Damn it, even her voice was shaky.

I shoved my hands in my pockets and felt a heaviness on my shoulders.

“Hey, Tessa. You’re looking beautiful as ever.” I looked her up and down as she put her hand across her desk for a business handshake, but her pupils were dilated and she looked full of hope or possibility. I wasn’t quite sure which, but I liked it. Maybe I could salvage the mess I’d made.

SETTING SIGHTS ON IMPROVING ALL THE TIME
by Callie Carmen

As a writer, I’m committed to improving my craft daily. I find so many ways to do that with articles, books on the subject, and blogs that authors have written. My editor, Laurie Sanders, is a wealth of information. She even teaches classes on how to become a better writer. My publisher, Richard Savage of Black Velvet Seductions always has helpful ideas.

And then there’s Google. It sometimes feels like a close intimate friend. One that I can ask just about anything. And believe me I do. If I showed my Google research history to any of my friends, they’d think someone that looks like me had replaced me.

Today, I was working on JOSHUA (Risking Love Book Five). I wanted a new way to describe puppy-dog-eyes. So I Googled it. I was pleasantly surprised to find this facial cheat sheet blog with pictures put together by Nicholas C. Rossis. It didn’t give pleading as an example, but I found these seven emotions shown as show-don’t-tell helpful. I thought you might too.

Show-don’t-tell cheat sheet: facial expressions

Authors often struggle with depictions of emotions. We’re supposed to show them, describe them. For example, “she was surprised by this” is a big no-no, and considered lazy writing.  “Her eyes widened and her mouth slacked”, on the other hand, gives us the very image of surprise, without ever mentioning the word.
As you can imagine, this can be tough. But fear not, for thirty years ago, Paul Ekman did cross-cultural research and identified seven basic human emotions. He identified the seven basic emotions through facial expressions. No matter where in the world, what culture, class, race, gender, or lighting, these seven facial expressions were identified across the board:











Unwrapping Romance: Thank you so very much for the fun insight into expressions, Callie, and wishing you the best of luck with Anthony. Come back again, you're always welcome.

I hope everyone will check out Anthony as well as the other sexy men in the Risking Love series. 
Happy Reading Everyone!  



FIND OUT MORE AT ABOUT CALLIE CARMEN and her Books
 Where to buy her books:
MYSTIC DESIRE https://amzn.to/322Ziq3

Where to follow Callie on Social Media:

15 comments:

Callie Carmen said...

Amy,
Thank you. The blog looks wonderful. It's been fun working with you. And I'm happy to say that the paperback addition of Anthony hit today.
Callie

Suzanne said...

Hi Callie,
Great excerpt from Anthony. It is on my tbr list. I absolutely love the cheat sheet. It is very hard to show and not tell when it comes to emotion. I found it very useful.

Unknown said...

Glad to know Anthony is in paperback form. Will order from Amazon! Great blog article.

Ric said...

What a great blog. I am a massive fan of Callie Carmen's writing. I am always waiting for her next story to come out. I have loved all her stories so far.
thanks to UNWRAPPING ROMANCE for hosting this brilliant blog.

Callie Carmen said...

Suzanne,
Thank you for picking up a copy of Anthony. I can't wait to hear what you thought of his love story. I'm so glad you found the cheat sheet helpful.
Callie

Callie Carmen said...

Gibby,
Thank you. I can't wait to read your thoughts on Anthony.
I'm glad you enjoyed the blog.
Callie

Callie Carmen said...

Ric,
Thanks for being a fan. That is so sweet.
I'm glad you enjoyed the blog.
Callie

Alice said...

Great excerpt, I love the cheat sheet of expressions!

Estelle said...

I cannot wait to read Anthony! I love the advice given about show-don't-tell; it's a handy guide to have.

Callie Carmen said...

Alice,
Thank you. I was hoping the cheat sheet would be helpful to all of us. ❤️
Callie

Callie Carmen said...

Estelle,

Thank you, hon. I can't wait to hear what you thought of Anthony or any of the Risking Love novels. I am so happy that the cheat sheet was helpful.
Callie

Carol Schoenig said...


Great interview Callie. I may be borrowing the cheat sheets.
Keep up the terrific work!

Carol

L.J.Dare said...

Hi Callie,
Enjoyed the interview and loved the cheat sheets.
Looking forward to reading your latest.

L.J.

Amy Valentini said...

Thank you all for coming by to visit and I'm so glad you enjoyed Callie's excellent look at writing expressions. Great cheatsheet!
Callie, thank you again for thinking of Unwrapping Romance for your promotion of Anthony. Wishing you great success. :-)

Dee S Knight and Anne Krist said...

I love your cheat sheet, Callie. Thanks! Can't wait to read Anthony since all of the first Risking Love books are so great.