I’m so pleased to welcome my friend, author Mary Behre, today. She’s celebrating the launch of her wonderful debut novel, SPIRITED. I loved this story and blazed through it on my Kindle last weekend. What a terrific read! To celebrate, Mary will be giving away a copy of SPIRITED and a “swag bag”. Just leave a comment and your email for a chance to win.

Now, here’s Mary:

Hi Tara! Thank you for having me as a guest on your blog today. This whole week has been so amazing,  I appreciate you inviting me to continue my launch celebration here.

Mary, please tell us a little about your story.

A reluctant psychic and an no-nonsense cop thrown together by ghost on a mission when her purse is found in the hands of his dead informant. SPIRITED has it all… humor, suspense and a psychic love-connection.

All Jules Scott wants is to live a normal, quiet life—preferably one that doesn’t include ghosts. Jules’s ability for communicating with the dead means needy spirits always find a way to draw her into their otherworldly drama. When one implicates her in a series of deadly crimes, Jules is forced to entrust her paranormal secrets to the person least likely to believe her, the super-hot cop who also poses a danger to her heart.

 He’ll do whatever it takes to catch her.

Detective Seth English can’t get distracted from the big case he’s working on, not even by his alluring new neighbor. He doesn’t believe that Jules had anything to do with the string of robberies-turned-murders that he’s investigating, but when she keeps showing up in all the wrong places, including some scintillating fantasies, his gut tells him she knows more than she’s letting on. To solve his case, he’ll need to expose what the sexy redhead is hiding— but the truth could threaten more than the budding attraction between them…

I love this story…it drew me in from the first page! And Seth is such a wonderful hero. Mary, if you could bring a fictional hero to life, which one would it be? Heathcliff? Mr. Darcy? Mr. Rochester? Tarzan? Captain Mal? One of your own heroes?

Oh my, Captain Mal, definitely! I’m a huge Firefly fan. I saw the show for the first time, ten years after it aired and loved it. I’ve put the Blu-Ray on my wish list for my birthday this year. LOL

He’s one of my favorites…I devoured an entire season of Firefly in a day on a snowy weekend when my hubby was out of town. Firefly episodes are like potato chips  🙂 The fact we both adore Captain Mal doesn’t surprise me in the least. Great minds, you know! But what’s one thing about you that would surprise readers?

Like Jules I have a distinctive tattoo that I got in honor of my older sister. The tattoo is of a pink ribbon with a Celtic symbol for the feminine goddess in the center. If you see me at a conference ask me about the tat, I proudly show it off.

What an original idea!

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?

Oh, that’s easy. Virginia Beach. I moved there when I was twenty-two and never wanted to leave. In fact, I loved the Tidewater area so much, I used it as inspiration for the setting for SPIRITED. The Tidewater area is what the locals refer to the cities of Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Suffolk, Chesapeake and Portsmouth. Tidewater is actually not on a map. Locals of the five cities often work in one city, live in another, go to concerts in another, plays in another, and dinner in another. But beta readers of my first book, showed me they didn’t understand why locals would leave their own city for food. So Tidewater was born as the fictitious city that had it all.

I’m missing Tidewater, too. I grew up in that area and lived there most of my life until two years ago, when we traded the beach for the mountains of Pennsylvania. Now it’s on my “gotta get there” list at least once a season.

Mary, as a writer, what’s your favorite inspirational quote?

My favorite writing quote is from the sci-fi spoof, GALAXY QUEST. “Never give up. Never surrender.”

Do you follow sports? Favorite teams?

I’m a Baltimore fan all the way. I’m Orioles fan (baseball) and a Ravens fan (football). I love that the Ravens color is purple. My favorite color. So all season long, I wear my Ravens’ gear. The Orioles color is orange. I wear that color as little as possible. Only birds look good in orange. LOL

Hmmm…I’m a Steeler gal…looks like we might have a little Flacco/Big Ben rivalry going on here…

Thanks for being my guest, Mary! It’s been a pleasure to host you. Where can readers find SPIRITED?

Here are buy links to three major retailers:

Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/Spirited-Tidewater-Novel-Mary-Behre-ebook/dp/B00EOAS0BS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1388161462&sr=8-1&keywords=mary+behre

Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/spirited-mary-behre/1116561037?ean=9780425268612

Books-A-Million: http://www.booksamillion.com/p/Spirited/Mary-Behre/9780425268612?id=5649170482822

Don’t forget to leave a comment and your email for a chance to win a swag bag. We’ll announce the winner on Thursday, March 20…Happy first day of Spring!

Here’s a little more about Mary:

Mary Behre is the lone female in a house full of males and the undisputed queen of her domain. She even has the glittery tiara to prove it. She loves stories with humor, ghosts, mysteries and above all else, a good romance. When not writing, she enjoys reading, gluten-free baking, and hanging out at the beach with the most important men in her life, her family.

Her debut paranormal romance, SPIRITED (Tidewater Novel #1) was an award-winning manuscript before it sold to Berkley Sensation. The Tidewater Series is mix of humor, suspense, and a psychic love-connection. The first three stories are about three sisters separated years before in the foster care system. As they search for love, each other, and a way to live with their psychic abilities, they’re tossed into the middle of mysteries that only their unique gifts can help solve.