Books/Mortar & Pestle ////////////

MEET AUTHOR MARILYN BARR’S MATIES IN HER NEW ROMANTIC PIRATE ADVENTURE

Meet author Marilyn Barr’s short alpha hero and set sail on the spirited cruise where he finds his happily ever after. Learn some history too!  

Since Quartermaster has elements of fantasy, I asked Marilyn  to share her answers to three fantasy questions. Her answers are from the heart. 

What would you do if…?

You had three hours alone. Sometimes, authors are super busy with kids and family. In this scenario, money and kid-sitting are not a worry. 

One of my favorite things to do alone is a weightless float. My life is full of noise—television blaring, social media notifications, and a tween who loves to talk as much as I do. My sensory processing disorder compounds the problem since I lack the ability to filter most of the noise out.

When I close the lid on the sensory deprivation tank, the world is on mute. All I can hear is my pulse. The warm, salted water holds me afloat, so my muscles can relax. The water’s scent is one note, and my body can forget it after a while. It’s pitch black without busy prints or blinking lights to stress my eyes. I sense nothing.

After about ten minutes, my imagination fills the void. I watch stories unfold like movies in my head. Characters introduce themselves in places I’ve never been. The scenes later become books but in the tank, I’m their first audience.

 

You won a cool million (still a respectable sum these days) what would you spend it on? You are NOT allowed to buy necessities/fund the kids’ college tuition. Spend it all. No investing.

If I had a million-dollar windfall, I’d buy vacation homes and call them “my office.” When I schedule my writing, I swear either my spouse or the Universe conspires to stretch my imagination to its limits. I’ve written Christmas books on vacation in Turks & Caicos, crafted Siberian adventures in the Arizona desert, and designed a Hawaiian love story while we had blizzard warnings.

No more of that! I’d buy a tiny cabin somewhere snowy like Alaska or northern Canada for when I’m writing winter romances. To write my beachy books, I’d buy a small cabana somewhere tropical or at least looks tropical out a window. If I need to write a character’s sensations while their toes are buried in sand or snow, I’ll be able to walk outside and do it.

 

With the wave of a magic wand, where would you go for dinner? Anywhere in the world? What would you eat? Would you bring a guest, a famous guest? 

This is going to sound awful, but I wouldn’t invite a third—not even a famous one. My husband is part of a team designing anti-cancer drugs for pediatric patients. He works long hours and travels constantly as a warrior in the fight against childhood cancer. I keep the home fires burning and care for our medically fragile son. Our son went to school for the first time this year, which allowed my spouse and I to have our first out-of-the-house date in over eight years.

Where would we go? My husband’s favorite business trip was to Milan, and I cried when he left…because I wasn’t going with him. I love Italian food, fashion, and people-watching. We would eat pizza on a busy sidewalk patio while watching the best-dressed city on earth bustle with nightlife.

Blurb for Quartermaster

Catalina He violated me. Don Rodrigo took my family’s business, home, and titles, but he will never own me. I’m on the run. He’s threatened to expose my secret. My last hope is to intercept the ship carrying my dowry before our match is permanent. Trusting pirates to give me a fair share is foolish but not as much as staying on the same island as my attacker…

Chub The letter from our arch-nemesis was written in feminine calligraphy but our nutmeg Captain Teeth didn’t notice. Blimey that because the author of the letter is my lady love. I’d bet my last doubloon. If only she didn’t shrink away from my touch… Killing every scoundrel who dared to hurt her isn’t helping…but it cools the rage I hold inside. Can Chub teach Catalina to assemble her shattered fragments into the strong woman she wants to be or is she too broken to believe in herself? Will she accept a pirate’s promise of true love or was the Mortar & Pestle’s message too late for lonely Chub to claim his lady love?

Trigger Warning: Rape before the story starts (not on the page and not by the hero)

Excerpt from Quartermaster  

   “We can’t be jogging back and forth—dumb decisions like that starve a crew. I hate to say this, but befriending the Spanish is vital to our survival,” I explain.
   “I hadn’t thought of all that.”
   Why does that not surprise me?
   I love me hearty like a brother, but he can’t see past the nose on his face. With a pretty face like his, he never thought to better himself by exercising his brain—only his bulging biceps. And as for me…at a formidable five-foot-three inches tall and with a chubby, youthful face, I’ve always had to work harder, fight fiercer, and lift more to be considered an equal…until Blackbeard’s boat. His boat, The Queen Anne’s Revenge, was a ragtag crew of misfits sailing under a phantom. We’d banded together thick as thieves—and not because we were pirates—but because we never knew when the Devil of the Sea would turn his hellfire on us.

    “If we do this deal, we can’t hornswoggle the bastard. The Spanish Armada will be on our arses before we weigh anchor, should we try to run a rig on Francisco,” I say with a glare. My squirrely Captain loves to play pranks, double-cross his double-cross, and make a joke of life, but the volatile politics between the Crown Heads of Europe are no laughing matter. Francisco Pintarro is a favorite of King Phillip, according to Francisco’s whining when we caught him last.

   “Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Teeth says with a wave in my direction. “Francisco is the cousin of some explorer who took down the City of Gold or some gobshite. Do you believe the ravings of a prisoner?”
   “—a prisoner who didn’t feel a ripple in his business due to pirates sinking a fleet of his merchant ships.” I lean toward him and raise my bushy red eyebrows. “Don’t you find his miraculous recovery odd?”
Grab Quartermaster and visit the author here:

 

More About Marilyn Barr

I have a diverse background containing experiences as a child prodigy turned medical school reject, published microbiologist, special education/inclusion science teacher, homeschool mother of a savant and advocate for the autistic community. This puts me in the position to bring tales containing heroes who are regular people with different ability levels and body types, in a light where they are powerful, lovable, and appreciated.

I currently reside in the wilds of Kentucky with my husband and son. When I’m engaging with the real world, I’m collecting characters, empty coffee cups, and unused homeschool curricula. I love to read paranormal romance as much as I love to write it. Connect with me on Goodreads to find out what I am reading.

 

To check out the Mortar & Pestle series of 7 books by 7 authors,  grab the FREE Prequel now! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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