Sunday’s Author Spotlight: Angela Stevens

Today I’m excited to have author Angela Stevens on the
Sunday’s Author Spotlight. Angela Stevens is the author of the The Vargr Clan
Trilogy and the Cocktail Series. The Cocktail series is a contemporary adult
romance series and The Vargr Clan Trilogy is Urban Fantasy.

In the last two years Angela has published three book
which received many raving reviews. With a children’s book called ‘Mariquita’
coming this year, Angela Stevens is an author you definitely need to keep in
mind.

For years, Jude loved Maya from afar. When she falls into
his arms at his sister’s wedding, Jude decides he’s waited long enough. But
it’s complicated. Maya’s no longer the carefree, self-assured woman he once
knew. Frightened, vulnerable, her confidence crushed, Maya is unable to see a
way out of an abusive relationship. But Jude Holland is not going to stand back
and watch this happen. After rescuing her from Carl’s clutches, he plans to
stay and pick up the pieces, but he didn’t bank on Carl’s unwillingness to let
go.

This book is available at Amazon and Lulu.

 

 

 

Excerpt ‘Lemon Drops and Love’:

Jude couldn’t believe his luck when Maya spun around and
came crashing into him. After spotting her outside, he’d followed her in; his
progress hindered as he tried to navigate across a yard packed with partygoers.
As he fought his way through the kitchen, he thought she was going to slip away
yet again. It seemed all day long he’d been trying to speak to her but she was
a whirling dervish spinning here, there, and everywhere. Organizing photos,
straightening buttonholes, helping elderly aunts into cars and goodness knows
what else.

Book Trailer ‘Lemon Drops and Love’:

 

 

Outlawed from his clan, Tore embraces his new
responsibilities of father and protector as he carves out a new life in a human
world. But a jealous brother has a long memory and Erik is nothing if not
patient, when it comes to exacting revenge. When Tore’s past catches up with
his present, he has to learn to pull from an inner strength. 

There is a battle
of two wolves inside us all.

One is evil: it is
anger, envy, greed, arrogance, jealousy, resentment, lies.

The other is good:
it is joy, peace, love, hope, humility, kindness, empathy, truth.

The wolf that
wins?

The one you feed.

— Cherokee proverb

This book is available at Amazon. 

At the beginning of The Wolf You Feed you can find a
famous Cherokee proverb-

There is a battle of two wolves inside us all. 

One is evil: it is
anger, envy, greed, arrogance, jealousy, resentment, lies.

The other is good:
it is joy, peace, love, hope, humility, kindness, empathy, truth.

The wolf that
wins?

The one you feed.

This proverb is the backbone to this story. Tore Vargr is
a man driven from his family and clan at a young age but despite his exile he
is prepared to make the best of what he has. Tore is an inherently good man,
who has a strong sense of family. He is happy with a simple life that revolves
around his mate and his children. But when tragedy strikes, Tore finds himself
at odd with himself. As revenge and hatred threaten to possess this good man,
Tore struggles to break through a cycle of self-destruction and decide which
wolf he feeds.

After the tragic events of 1997, Tore Vargr is consumed
by hatred and despair. As he battles once more with the two wolves within him,
he is in danger of losing everything he holds dear. 

Hold on to what is
good,

Even if it’s a
handful of earth

Hold on to what
you believe,

Even if it’s a
tree that stands by itself.

Hold on to what
you must do,

Even if it’s a
long way from here.

Hold on to your
life,

Even if it’s
easier to let go.

Hold on to my
hand,

Even if someday,
I’ll be gone away from you.

Pueblo Prayer

This book is available at Amazon. 

An Unbreakable Will is set to be released end of March/
beginning of April

Join Tore and his children in this dramatic conclusion to
the emotionally charged Vargr Clan Trilogy.

“When you
know who you are,

when your mission
is clear and you burn with the inner fire of unbreakable will.

No cold can touch
your heart, no deluge can dampen your purpose.

You know that you
are alive.” 

– Chief Seattle, 1780

How I became… me.

Lemon Drops And Love is the first story I ever wrote. I
was a late bloomer; at forty-seven you could say I almost missed the boat entirely.
The thing was, I never went through a writing phase at any point in my life.
Never wrote romantic, anxiety-ridden poetry when I was a teen, never attempted
a fan-fiction novel. The closest I came was writing my weekly shopping list.

If my High School English teacher could see me now, she
would probably laugh her head off. I was completely hopeless at school and it took
three times to pass my English O-level. When I finally succeeded, I briefly
toyed with the idea of a writing career, thinking that Journalism sounded like
a good thing to study at college. Mrs. Daniels nearly died laughing and told me
to steer clear of anything that required me to spell a word or punctuate a
sentence.

Thing was, she was right too. I was absolutely hopeless.
So I did the next best thing and went into teaching- though it was debatable
that I was qualified to do that.

So for the first twenty years of my adult life, I was
set. I went to teacher training college, got a degree, had a successful
teaching career working with grade school kids, and in between I did the Mom
thing.

My life was set and there wasn’t any room for anything
else to be honest.

Then in 2005 my life changed. My husband was relocated
for work and we moved first to Singapore and eight months later to the United
States. When we packed up and left England I also packed up my life, as I knew
it. I no longer had a teaching career and became a full-time expat-Mom.

Although I have loved living abroad, as the kids grew and
became more independent, I kind of became invisible. For eight years I trod
water, doing the chores, raising the kids, doing the wifely things. A bit of a
fog descended around me and I rapidly felt like I was losing my identity.

I was also bored.

The kids didn’t need me chasing them around and there was
only so much cleaning to do. I’d watched every day time TV show and shopped in
every mall. So to get me out of my funk, I started to lose myself in reading. One
hundred and fifty books and less than a year later, I woke one morning with the
screwiest of ideas.

I’d write my own book.

After saying it out loud, I mulled it over and decided it
wasn’t a crazy idea. It’d keep my mind occupied and no one needed to know.

So I started that afternoon.

To be honest, I was totally surprised when 3 months and 135k
later I had a complete story. I read it back and it wasn’t horrible. But then I
had a dilemma. What did I do with it?

As luck would have it, I had just finished reading a book
and in the back the author had given a dedication to her wattpad.com readers.
Not knowing what that was I enlisted my best friend, Mr. Google.

Wattpad was like sending a kid into a candy store!
Thousands of books to read and it was free. But I also found out that you could
put up your own stories.

It took me about another month to be brave enough to
actually put Lemon Drops up. When the first person read it, the rush it gave me
was unbelievable. It still is now even two years and over 180 thousand readers
later.  Of course Lemon Drops and Love
has gone through scores of rewrites and is no longer a weighty tomb. However, every
time, I hear that someone has read one of my books, I have the same feeling I
had back in April 2012.

Now I have to say, I’m normally fairly shy and reserved
but something changed in me the day that first person read my story.

An addiction began.

The addiction is still going. In fact I know I can’t stop
this. I work all day, every day on my writing and often into the evenings as
well. I laughingly call it my full-time job. It is, even though I have yet to
make any money. But, you know, I’m good with that, because I still get excited
when I see I have made a sale or a reader has contacted me on Facebook to say
they enjoyed it. And, while one day I dream of earning enough to cover my
grocery bills, for now each person who enjoys my books spurs me on to write
another.

So if you are one of them let me know. Find me on
Facebook, twitter or my website and drop me a few words. It makes my day. And,
if you want me to run around in crazed excitement, just write me a review on
Amazon!

So all you budding writers out there, whether you are 8
or eighty, it is never too late to start. Just sit and type and see where it
takes you.

Angela Stevens is the author of contemporary adult
romance novel ‘Lemon Drops and Love’ and the newly released book 1 of her
Urban Fantasy Trilogy, ‘The Wolf You Feed’. Her first children’s fantasy book, ‘Mariquita’
will be out in the New Year.

Angela is British born and moved to Virginia, USA nine
years ago. Always a keen traveler, she has enjoyed spending time living outside
of her native country. She is an ex-teacher and the mother of two
children. When empty nest syndrome threatened, Angela turned to writing novels
to fill her growing free time. Her hobby has now grown into a fully-fledged
obsession and she works on her books full time.

Loving both contemporary romance and urban fantasy
genres, Angela flip-flops between the two genres. If you ask which is her
favorite, she is always undecided. For now her genres remain separate, but
maybe in the not too distant future they may combine. She is currently trying
to find the time to draw up plans for a steamy fantasy romance series, so watch
this space.

When Angela is not writing you can find her indulging in
her other passion, ice hockey. She discovered her love of this sport when she
first moved to America. Now a rabid Washington Capitals fan, Angela can often
be found ‘rocking the red’ at the Verizon center supporting her beloved team.

For more information about Angela and her books please visit her website, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads and Amazon.