I’m delighted to welcome Celia T. Rose for an interview and a look at her new contemporary romance, Dream Man, Book 1 of the Executive Women in Love series.
Hi, Celia, so glad to have you here today. Tell us a little about Dream Man
Dream Man touches on a good old-fashioned love story that takes place in Tinseltown but adds a contemporary flavor with a heroine who is as determined in her professional life as she is in her personal life to take on any challenge in the way of her goals.
Blurb:
It’s not easy to make it in the competitive male-dominated field of television. Especially when you’re a twenty-two-year-old blonde with overly large blue eyes and a trim built that generates more than its share of whistles. Yet something sure needs to be said for the old adage about necessity driving invention.
Felicity Burgess is no stranger to tough breaks in business and in love. And she deals with them very well on her own. She has no choice. After the sudden death of her parents, Felicity must support herself and her sister. She fights her way up the ranks at a local television network and directs her own-inspired teen reality show. Despite raving reviews, the network won’t give her the title or the pay of director. Or a shot at running with her new show.
Her sister is a trouble-bound teen and lands in a hospital due to a weather related car accident. While in the emergency waiting room, Felicity’s idol, Hollywood’s notorious confirmed bachelor, film star, and entrepreneur walks in: Maxwell Marx. Felicity pitches her new reality show to him. Little did she know her life-long heartthrob would become her supervisor. Working close with Max, she sees a side to him no one knows. She wants to break down the barriers and reveal the man Max truly is but denies exists. She’s determined to break through, only she doubts he’d ever let her.
Max is happy with his carefree existence, much as the tabloids portray. He plays up to the role of the unattainable lady’s man better than any script he agrees to take. The façade works just fine until he meets Felicity who wows him with her new reality TV show proposal. So much so, he convinces his network executive buddy to take on the project. But Felicity also taps into something deeper in him. A place he’s purposely protected from any woman to penetrate. He enjoys Felicity’s company, and hopes to keep her at bay, yet she threatens to unravel his protective cocoon he spun out of the pain from his past. A pain he doesn’t intend to face again.
Should he stay in his safe world of single living or risk losing the one girl who could complete his life?
What inspired this story? Getting told too many times that something is impossible.
What are you working on now? Do you have any releases scheduled for this year? As told above Having Fun with Mr. Wrong is due out soon and I’m working on the sequel Fun with Mr. Now. Also the sequel to Dream Man, Designed by Love is in final edits.
Do you have any good news you’d like to share? Yes that after four years of trying to find a publisher, I have found two!
What are your writing goals for this year? Complete the sequel and work on book three of the Executive Women in Love series.
How do you come up with ideas? I just let my mind relax, don’t pressure it, and they come. Sometimes in dreams.
Can you share with us “the call” story? I submitted my MSs to so many places online, pitches in person my fingers hurt and my soul sunk, then a couple publishers who are smaller in scale but still traditional picked me up.
What do you enjoy most about writing? The freedom to be me and let my creativity soar.
Where do you start when writing? Research, plotting, character, or…? A little plotting, not much, and literally hands to the keyboard then the characters start talking, doing and thinking.
What is the best thing about being an author? You can create any person your mind conjures and give them carte blanche to act in any way they want.
What one thing would you change about your writing career? I’d get a literary agent who’d help me launch some publishing contracts with the larger publishers.
Do you have a favorite time of day for writing? Morning seems to be the best time.
What is your favorite scene from this story and why? When Felicity decides she’s going after Max despite all of the odds against her.
How do you balance writing and everyday life? Time management continues to be a challenge.
What is your favorite memory from childhood? Literally sitting at my little roll top desk and writing!
Where is your favorite place in the world? Where I live, Florida.
What is your favorite food to cook or eat? Italian, but of course, as that is my heritage.
What do you like to read? I’ll admit it, I’m a chick lit junky, and I love 50 Shades…
Do you listen to music while you write? What are you listening to now? New Age exclusively and always.
Who first introduced you to the love of reading? My Mom.
Who influenced your decision to become a writer? No one really. Just a childhood dream.
What don’t most people know about you but you would like to share? I love isolating and staying by myself. Most people think of me as a social butterfly.
Also: These are few of my favorite things:
- Cats
- Birds
- My man (and not in that order)
And now Celia has a question for you all: Have you met your Dream Man? Tell us about him. If you haven’t yet, how would you describe him?
Excerpt:
“Wait. I thought you looked familiar. I just read about you in The Hollywood Reporter. Nice article about your work.”
Felicity felt her face burn with embarrassment. He’d read about her! “Yes. That’s me. I’m flattered you saw it.”
“I like to see local talent get ahead. I’m impressed with your tenacity in fighting against the brass in Hollywood. What was it the article said? That’s right, you’re a savant.”
Heat flashed in her chest. “Yeah, I had to look that one up myself. But, I’m not exactly playing in the big leagues.”
“You’re getting there.” He wiggled his eyebrows.
Felicity could feel the flush run to her cheeks. “I do have an idea for a new reality series . . .”
“I read a little about it in the article. Tell me more.”
He seemed genuinely interested.
“I have an idea for a new show. It’s a step-up from the usual gossip, drama-ridden stuff.” Felicity took a deep breath and waited for the right words to formulate in her mind. “What if there were a series played by executive women who were on the fast track building their careers while juggling family responsibilities or a vivacious social schedule with a super-charged sex life? I envision the show to have just enough edge to give today’s hard-working professionals a chance to escape from their daily challenges.”
“Sound interesting. Have you pitched it to Applaud!?”
“First, they don’t think I’m seasoned enough to have my own show. Second, they’re fully booked. The established franchises have taken all of the prime TV slots. There’s simply no room.”
“Yeah, but I’m sure each franchise has a certain shelf life. Like everything else in television.”
“Maybe.”
Max seemed to be contemplating something.
Guilt pulled at her heart as her thoughts returned to her sister in surgery. The timing is way off. Too bad, she’d met Max under such unfortunate circumstances.
Then the dratted interruption occurred. “Sir, the doctor would like to see you about Ms. Hernandez.”
Max stood but took a moment to slip Felicity his card.
She scrambled to locate her own and pressed it to his hand.
“Why don’t you give me a call? We’ll meet for lunch.” He scurried to the awaiting attendant and glanced back. “Hope your sister’s okay.”
Then he disappeared behind the open door.
Did she just have a chat with Maxwell Marx? Did he really give her his business card? She stared at it and read it repeatedly:
Maxwell Marx, Actor, Entrepreneur.
She’d love to take their discussion further—professionally and personally.
Her dream!
Relax, girl. He was probably just being polite.
You can buy Dream Man at:
Bio: Celia T. Lucente is a retired CPA and semi-retired banker. Her work experience includes nine years as a public accountant and an internal auditor and seventeen years as a senior loan officer for a national bank. She’s currently a licensed mortgage banker and insurance agent as well as a writer of contemporary romance and women’s fiction aka what she likes to call “relationship fiction”. She is publishing her finished works under the pseudonyms of Celia T. Rose for contemporary romance and Celia T. Franklin for her contemporary relationship fiction. Her first book Having Fun with Mr. Wrong, in the contemporary women’s fiction series, Fun with Mr. Now, is under contract with The Wild Rose Press and will soon be released. Her contemporary romance, Dream Man is published with Soul Mate Publishing. She is a member of the RWA Contemporary Romance, RWA Romance Critique Group and her local chapter of Space Coast Authors. She is a participant with several critique groups and CP’s and enjoys working on her craft by helping fellow writers. She lives in sunny suburban Florida on a lovely cul-de-sac with her fiancé, two cats and loves to watch her many backyard birds who feed daily on several feeders.
You can find Celia at:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Celia-T-Rose/895597003792869
Twitter: https://twitter.com/celiaboops
Blog/Website: http://nowmotivated.blogspot.com/
babettejames.com 
Thanks Babette for having me. I can’t wait to hear about everyone’s Dream Man. I dreamed of my man so long I thought I’d never find him and when I did I didn’t recognize he was “the one” for quite a while. He’s still here, so I guess I finally got it!
Hope you like my book and I’d love a review on Amazon if you could!
Reblogged this on NEVA BROWN & BOOKS.