A.E. Albert: A Writer's Blog

Choosing Happiness by Melissa Stevens 

Choosing Happiness

By Melissa Stevens

About the Book

Jake and Andrea met once. When Andrea was in college, Jake came with her brother Ben who was visiting on leave from a deployment in Afghanistan. Now, years later, Jake gets a job in Ben’s home town to be close to his best friend. He hadn’t counted on Andrea. The attraction he’d felt then was still there. And this time he wasn’t headed back to a war zone where he could very well be killed.

Andrea is drawn to the man who calls Ben brother. Something about him speaks to her, but she’s not sure what. She falls into things head first, but when something makes her question how fast things are going she slams on the breaks. Can the two of them figure out what’s going on with them before it’s too late?


Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25350295-choosing-happiness?ac=1

Purchase:
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Choosing-Happiness-Melissa-Stevens-ebook/dp/B00WGUY2DS/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1438234730&sr=8-5&keywords=Choosing+Happiness

B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/choosing-happiness-melissa-stevens/1121790689?ean=9781511770606

Guest Post:

Where Do My Characters Come From

I’m often asked if I base my characters on people I know. No. Each character’s personality is different. I do sometimes steal mannerisms, haircuts, personal preferences, but more often than not it’s what the character has told me about themselves and yes, they actually speak to me.

Sometimes I’ll be sitting in a restaurant with my family and over hear something at the next table that makes my mind spin. It may give me an idea or it may just sound so much like one of the people living in my head that they end up saying something similar in the future.

I may see someone somewhere who inspires my physically, and actually for Jade’s Peace, Steve was inspired by my mental image of what Model Jeremy Aaron’s personality might be like. I kept a picture of him on my desktop and when I had doubts about how Steve might behave, how he would react to something I could look at the pic and I just knew. Often, though I don’t need a visual aid. With Jade, she spoke to me, and told me things I didn’t have planned at all. She started out as an only child. And I was writing along and she says to me, “Watch out, my brother will be here tomorrow.” My immediate thought was, “You don’t have a brother.” She was adamant though and replied, “Yes I do and he’ll be here tomorrow.” Sure enough, he showed up, and I had to go back and fix a few things but I’ll admit, he made the story better.

I find that my best stories, at least to me, at the ones where I start out with a vague idea of the story, I have two characters and a rough ending, (Hey, this is romance, they always end up together, right?) and let the characters tell me their story as I go along. The characters always seem more alive when they lead their own stories.

Publication date: July 21st 2015 
Genres: Adult/Romance

About the Author

Melissa was born and raised in Arizona, she's spent her entire life living across the southern half of the state. She's found that, along with her husband and three children, she prefers the small towns and rural life to feeling packed into a city.

She started reading at a very young age, and her love for series started early, as the first real books she remembers reading is the Boxcar Children series by Gertrude Chandler Warner. Through the years she's found that there's little she won't read, and her tastes vary from westerns, to romance, to sci-fi / fantasy and Horror.

She's been writing since 2009, and enjoys nearly every minute of it.


Social Media Links:
http://melissastevens.us/
https://www.facebook.com/melissastevensauthor
https://twitter.com/MelissaTStevens
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5062799.Melissa_Stevens