Aquatic Biologist Writes Environmental Fiction

Click For Purchase Information

You may have noticed the book, Everglades, in the Recommended Book of the Month slot on my blog this past year. This week, I'm super pleased to be visited by author Petie McCarty, one of the most talented first time authors I've ever worked with. As an editor, I was floored by the presentation of her manuscript when we worked together. By the time we finished up editing her first novel, I had an author crush!

Please welcome Petie today and enjoy her tips and tales about balancing life. Her latest book is on my to-read list, and I'm thrilled to hear she has a new series coming out.

Hi Danielle! Thanks so much for having me in to visit at The Balanced Writer!

I'm Petie McCarty, an author with Desert Breeze Publishing, and I write contemporary romance novels with suspenseful elements and plenty of sexual tension, yet still rated PG-13. An aquatic biologist by profession, I create stories imbued with an environmental flavor,  which is a comfortable match for romance readers who love nature and the out-of-doors. 

For those of you who don't know, Danielle was the editor for my debut novel Everglades, and her wonderful ideas and suggestions really helped me fine-tune my manuscript before its May release. She was an invaluable guide in my first foray into the world of publishing.

So many new things have been learned in these last six months, as I swiftly move toward my second book release on the day before Thanksgiving. No doubt the most important lesson has been time management, and as most authors are painfully aware, scraping time together to work on a new manuscript can almost be considered an art form.

Like most authors, I still hold down a day job -- lucky for me, it's at the "happiest place on earth." And yes, I do mean Walt Disney World. J But at the end of my Disney workday, my second full-time job begins, and each task comes with a deadline -- for edits, for website updates, for review requests, for new manuscripts, for cover art input, and for the all-important interviews and blog posts.  *grin*

My best suggestion for juggling jobs and writing assignments is a task list. Do it in a format that allows you to transfer it to your Smartphone, so it's with you all the time, especially for those appointments with wait times like the car shop and the doctor. The task list is fluid and allows you to constantly add new items while smugly checking off completed tasks. By having a list, I never forget anything, and I never miss deadlines. I keep a daily task list on my Disney desk, too. Another time management suggestion is to learn to get by on less sleep. *wink* Although that's more of an accomplishment than a goal.

My most important suggestion for difficult time management situations is "pray for the small stuff." Too often, people "save" God for the big things -- cancer, hurricanes, tornadoes -- when He really wants to share in every aspect of our day. I can't tell you how many times I got buried and felt like I was going down for the last time, and then I prayed for some divine time management.

Each and every time -- as though by magic -- tasks shifted or meetings canceled or deadlines eased enough for me to stick my head above water again and to eventually dogpaddle back to high ground. Remember… ask for help, and when you do, it's just as important for you to count on God to come through.

…And speaking of deadlines, my second novel Catch of the Day is presently being formatted for e-readers and will be released the day before Thanksgiving, so I have a lot to be thankful for this year. *huge smile* 

The story has a beautiful accountant paired with a Special Ops Coast Guard captain in a private fishing tournament in the Doc-Hollywood-esque town of Loon, Alabama. I hope to make readers laugh out loud one minute and grip the edge of their seat in the next. The mayor makes up his own rules for the town tournament, his lunkhead son plans to cheat to win the event, and his daughter just plans to cheat to win the captain. There's plenty of excitement for everyone when inept drug smugglers come looking for their uncut diamonds inadvertently stashed in the Coast Guard captain's borrowed bass boat as the exchange point for their smuggled drugs.

Then in April 2013, my third novel One More Chance will be released -- the first of what I call my Rescue Angel romances. Each story will have an angel hidden in them, and the reader doesn't find out who the angel is until the finale. If I've done my job right, I'll fool the reader every time. One More Chance is a contemporary romance and sort of a "tweener" in that it crosses or smudges genre lines [not an inspirational or a true paranormal], and I'm thankful to Desert Breeze for giving my "tweener" a try. 

In One More Chance, Kellen Brand is bequeathed two things when her mother dies -- a dilapidated West Virginia farm and one guardian angel.  When she stumbles onto a clandestine hazardous waste dumping operation next to her farm, she's going to need her guardian angel just to survive.

Thank you for allowing me to spend time with The Balanced Writer, and I'd like to wish everyone a safe and happy Thanksgiving holiday. If you find time to read over the holiday, please give me a try, and visit my web site at http://www.petiemccarty.com.

Thanks for coming by, Petie. Best of luck with all of your books. I'm a fan! 

~Danielle Thorne

Ready to Read?

All of Petie's books are or will be available at Desert Breeze Publishing, Amazon.com and other online bookstores!