19/11/2013

THE BACK-UP LIST - MEET AUTHORS MYRIAM BRADY & AMBER BEST + BOOK GIVEAWAY


How did you decide to co-write The Back-Up List?
We just started talking about the story and decided we liked the idea of a heroine who could be a Cinderella yet be reluctant about it! We had so much fun just making characters up. Then we decided since we both have a love of reading and writing why not put our mad skills together! LOL

Did you know that it would be a series, or were you planning on just one book?
At first our book- The Back-Up List was a joke.  We wrote it for fun! We wrote for us! It was never meant to go anywhere! Our friends got curious and wanted us to send them chapters and they were actually encouraging us to really finish it! Once we finished our first book, we started having ideas for the second book- The List of Possibilities, which was shocking! By the time we finished that book we walked away from writing for 2 years! During that time Amber finished school and Miriam had another baby! We never thought anymore about our characters or progressing with the stories anymore! The day we started our third book- The Bump List it took us completely by surprise; we wrote our “Paris” chapter and knew these characters were not done! Here we are now writing our fourth book- The List of Demands.

We love the friendship between Maddy and KInley, is the friendship in the book based off of your own?
We get this question all the time! Yes, the characters friendship is based on our friendship! We get asked all the time if we are sisters when we look NOTHING alike. We have thought a lot about this and asked a lady once why she thought that, she replied, “Because I would NEVER talk to my friend like that!” We found it funny, but we realized that we don’t talk like that to any other friend.We tell each other how it is and thought why not base Maddy and Kinley on us!


How long did it take to write the series?
We started writing- The Back-Up List in Fall of 2009. Wrote- The List of Possibilities in the Fall of 2010. Took a break for Amber to finish school and in that time Miriam had another baby. Started writing- The Bump List Summer of 2012 and just started the maybe last in the series- The List of Demands! It’s been a fun process of 4 years of our lives; it’s brought us even closer together in our friendship that we didn’t think was even possible.
  
What’s a back-up list? Do you have one?
Here’s our descriptor of a back-up list- (also used in our book)

ICE
     If the woman carrying this card has been recently made single, through the accidental death of her husband, untimely demise due to unforeseen natural causes (or deliberate murder) or has become single due to the fact that her husband was a cheating bastard who left her, then this is an emergency. A new husband must be procured for her promptly. A list of suitable candidates is provided on the other side.

Yes we both have a back-up list and it sits safe and sound in our wallets in case of emergency!

About the book

THE BACK-UP LIST, is a bipolar, pop-culture love story involving a rock star playboy and a widow. The Back-Up List has only ever been a joke- that’s it. Madison Grey has a celebrity crush list of possible replacement husbands ready with the off-chance her husband might inexplicably vanish. Clearly, Madison was not prepared for- A. her husband’s untimely death and B. Calvin Hunt, rock god and top man on her Back-Up List to begin crushing on her. Talk about your cruel cosmic ironies. It has only been six months since her entire family was killed in a tragic accident and he’s looking to her for a hook-up! Really?

 Calvin Hunt, rock icon, is living the dream of any womanizing man-whore- that is until he spots the first unavailable woman he’s ever met. What the hell? Is shegay? He’s busily seducing her with concert tickets and exotic getaways, all while he’s touring.  There are plenty of obstacles he’ll have to overcome to be with her and he’ll need all the help he can get from his stoic bodyguard, his nosy Oprah-channeling brother and even Madison’s bizarrely quirky friends who are all fighting to cross his name off of Madison’s Back-Up List.

Available on Barnes and Noble and Amazon 

About the Authors
Miriam and Amber have been friends for quite a few years now...because Amber walked up to Miriam and told her she loved her slutty boots, on a Sunday morning at church. They’ve been friends ever since. They decided this was too funny not to write into the book somewhere. They started The Back-Up List in 2009; it has given them many hours of amusement. Writing these books has given them nearly endless laughter, which they love above all things. Some of their whacky real-life stories have been written surreptitiously into the books, although they’ll never tell you what they are. The Back-Up List is their personal joke, and yes they do have cards in their wallets. They are both married (but not to each other) and have 7 children between the two of them! Both live in Southern California with their families, and they enjoy going to Disneyland, the beach, and fun GNOs.
Twitter- @thebackuplist

  

Read an excerpt

Cal walked over to her, maneuvering easily through the crowd. He walked and they followed, he moved forward and they parted like the Red Sea. “Would you come with me for a moment?” he asked her. She nodded as she tried to swallow that damned lump in her throat. He walked to his dressing room and let her inside. “Come to my room tonight.” He was so unbelievably sexy, her knees were shaking, and she was biting her lip. Jack was there inside her mind; his reproachful glance made her nearly double over in pain.
“I can’t,” she answered softly, while looking down at her own shoes; Jack’s eyes were still boring into her, though only inside of her mind.
“Why? We’re both unmarried adults.” The words stabbed at her, leaving her already broken heart, completely dysfunctional.
“I-you don’t love me. Any one of those women out there would be more than happy to take care of you.” She grinned up at him, “I would need more.” She’d gestured to the door. “I can’t, we barely know each other.” Oh Jack, what would you think? She couldn’t, not even to erase the pain, for a few pleasure filled moments.
“I wouldn’t mind knowing you a little better. I’m intrigued with you, fascinated really,” he answered her. Oh, what could she do with that? She gulped as she found herself becoming lost in his deep blue eyes. She could say yes, and no one would ever know. What did it matter? Truthfully, he’d become real to her now, she’d be left to pick up the pieces in the morning when he was gone and she couldn’t. She didn’t have enough of a functioning heart left to deal with that. She shook her head.
“It’s not a good idea, Cal. I’m no good for you.” Her voice was growing hoarse as he leaned closer and pulled her into his chest. “Just forget about me,” she advised.
“I confess, I have always wanted anything or anyone who wasn’t good for me. What precisely is bad about you?” His mouth, delicious full lips, was a mere inch away from hers.
“I am damaged. You should find some young thing that has never had her heart broken and…isn’t afraid to take another chance.” She knew this one evasive sentence would make her sound merely wounded, vulnerable. She couldn’t imagine trying to tell him how far off that description really was.
He brought her hands to his lips and kissed them sending shivers up her spine, “I really don’t want you to walk away without giving this a chance. I know there is something here, something I’ve never felt before. I don’t want to lose whatever it is.” He kissed her tenderly, and for a moment she considered letting it go further, but she stopped him. “At least let me call you sometimes, or email you, hell, we can be Facebook friends.”
She laughed and leaned her head on his chest. His arms felt so good around her. She wished she could believe that he would take care of her, and try to fill the gaping hole in her chest, but he was not good for her, just as she wasn’t good for him. There really wasn’t a point. But, what harm could he be when he was on the road constantly, and he lived in another country the rest of the time. “You’re on Facebook?”
“Of course. Who isn’t? I’ll find you and we’ll keep in touch. I’ll give you my phone number and you can call me sometimes.” He had a look in his eyes, pure, intense. She couldn’t say no anymore, and honestly wasn’t sure she wanted to. She nodded and laughed.
“Does anyone ever tell you no?”
“No,” He chuckled. “But it’s interesting. I can see why normal people don’t like it.”
She laughed again; it felt nice. “Hand me your phone?”
He tilted his head to the side and gave her a scrutinizing glance before pulling his phone out of his pocket, “It may be, um…”
“Wet?” She giggled. “Sweaty much?” He grinned sheepishly.
“Those lights are really hot up there. The rest of me is dry now, but my pockets…”
She programmed her cell number into his phone, “I’d love it if you called me, and get to know me, you said that’s what you wanted, right? Unless you meant only in the biblical sense…”
He chuckled, “Well, I don’t think I’d mind knowing you that way either, but yes, I’d like to know you. I want to know what your favorite color is, and what you do for a living, and if you like my music, and whether or not you like string beans, and how tall are you, and where are you from?” He took a breath.
She held up her hand and laughed heartily. “My favorite color always changes, but right now it’s blue and don’t ask why. I am a full time student, I love your music, every song in fact, I hate string beans, I’m five foot two and I’m from Oklahoma, no wise cracks please.”
He grinned, that sexy yet delicious grin he’d modeled on the cover of G-String Magazine. Her knees would soon turn to Jell-O if he didn’t stop it. “You are not like any other woman I have ever met. I could sit and talk with you all night, although I’d be far too tempted to do more than talk.”
“Well, get to know me first, and then you can decide if I’m worth the trouble.” She gave him a cunning smile.

5 comments:

Miriam Brady & Amber Best said...

Thank you MG it's beautiful!!!!

Anonymous said...

I want to hear more about how two friends wrote a book together! Did you alternate every other chapter, or brainstorm for ideas and then write together, or....? I am so tickled about your ICE cards!

dstoutholcomb said...

it looks like a fun read

Miriam Brady & Amber Best said...

June- We wrote the probably about 95% of the book together in the same room! We started writing it separately and emailing it back and forth, but decided it didn't work! We've written 3 in the series so far and are starting our 4th. We spend a lot of time together! I am blessed to have such an amazing woman as my best friend!
~Amber~

junewilliams7 said...

Wow, that's a great way to spend time with your best friend. I am guessing that the two of you feed off each other's creativity.. Way cool!