Please Welcome Author Dixie Jackson!

Hello everyone and welcome to my site! Today, I have Author Dixie Jackson on my blog with her new release, PARALLAX! This is a stop on the Goddess Fish Promotions Virtual Book Tour! The author will be awarding a $50 Amazon/Barnes & Noble gift card via rafflecopter during the tour, so be sure to follow all the stops!

GENRE: ROMANTIC SUSPENSE

PARALLAX

Six years later, Trent Wayland still isn’t over his spring fling. Probably because he was convinced when he married Captain Leila O’Neil, their fling would go on a lifetime. Leila is his soul mate and Trent knows it. He might not admit it on a regular basis, but that doesn’t negate the raw emotion she draws out of him each and every time he thinks about her. Forget the fact his heart splits in two all over again when he’s afforded the luxury of hearing her voice. That doesn’t happen often, however. Leila only tosses a handful of words his way when she initiates the weekly video calls he’s allowed with the other love of his life, their daughter Lucy.

Once upon a time, Leila O’Neil wanted to be a Marine when she grew up. She worked hard, she landed a seat at the Academy, and she was the head of her class. Then her dream was destroyed and she traded it in for a new one at the nearest Coterie portal. She wears so many faces and so many hats, at some point she lost track of her soul. That didn’t really bother her until Trent Wayland came along and almost peeled her dressing room curtain back nearly exposing her innermost person. The real person, the real Leila, who once upon a time wanted to be a Marine when she grew up.

Leila misses the real person, and realizes it at the worst possible moment. With her daughter’s life on the line and Trent on the scene of the crime, Leila figures out she’s been using her hurt and anger to fuel all the wrong goals. In a daring move, she puts it all on the line, hoping it’s enough to gain her freedom from her handlers and her husband’s forgiveness.

READ AN EXCERPT

“How is it we’re in the middle of the biggest crisis of our lives and I’m so damn mad at you I want to hate you, but can’t?” Trent said, inching closer to her lips. “How is it, I want you so much I’d sell a piece of my soul to the devil to have you?”

“I’ve sold plenty of pieces of mine,” Leila whispered, straining against his hold, trying to bridge the gap between them. “It only hurts for a minute.”

His lips barely brushed hers before a tortured groan rolled out of him and tightened his grip. “Damn it,” he hissed over his teeth.

He turned loose of her so quickly Leila took a bounced step back before finding purchase of her balance again as he threw his hands up and turned his back to her. Running his hands over his head, his breaths were labored and his shoulders shook with what Leila suspected to be the same raw emotions running through her own system.

Leila stayed the desire to take the few steps between them and drop kick him to the floor where he’d be at her mercy for a tortured few moments. Instead, she jerked her robe over her shoulders, tugged it around her middle, and in one swift motion tied the belt.

MEET THE AUTHOR

Born and raised in the heart of the Ozarks, Dixie Jackson learned a love of the written word at a young age. She remembers spinning tales before she could even write them down, but it was the encouragement of her sixth-grade creative writing teacher which would plant the idea that just never seemed to go away. She wanted to someday see her works in print.

Dixie makes her home in the Great Smoky Mountains with her retired Marine husband, two rescue dogs, and her beloved chickens. When she’s not writing, you can find her digging in the dirt and nurturing her plants while plotting the next step in one story line or another. She also loves experimenting in her kitchen, embroidering, quilting, crocheting, tracing her family’s twisted tree, and of course reading.

INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR

Tell us a little bit about yourself?

I’ve been married to my soulmate for twenty-three years, a man who is a thirty-year veteran of the United States Marine Corps. He’s my knight in dusty cammies. Swoon! We’ve lived all over the planet and had more addresses than I can count. He recently retired and we moved to the mountains. Literally! I live in the Great Smoky Mountains. It’s one of the most beautiful places on Earth. It’s remote and isolated, and it’s quiet here. I’m grandma to seven (I started young and so did our offspring), auntie to four, fur mommy to two, and feather momma to thirteen (I have chickens in my backyard!). I love to garden. Digging in the dirt is good for the soul! Technically, I fancy myself a romance writer. Not so technically, I’m a bit of women’s fiction, a dash of suspense/thriller, a pinch of mainstream contemporary, a drop or two of military fiction, and a heaping dose of romance tossed in. I don’t believe in living inside a box and I’m all for coloring outside the lines.

Does writing energize or exhaust you?

Honestly, that depends on what I’m writing and the emotions I’m invoking. Writing something gut-wrenching can absolutely be exhausting, but in a totally good authorish way. If I’m not emotional while writing, my reader won’t feel anything either, so I completely embrace this part of the process and roll with it.

Any habits while writing?

I tend to have music playing in the background when I’m writing and what genre depends on my character’s taste. If they like rock, I listen to rock. If they want jazz, jazz it is. I love music so it’s no hardship to queue up what they want to listen to on any given day.

How many hours per day do you write?

This varies greatly from day to day. Honestly, there are some days I let it rest and there are no hours devoted to writing. I have a very full life and many other things I enjoy and do, so taking a break from being at the keyboard is often needed.

Do you read your book reviews? How do you deal with bad or good ones?

I do. When I first came into the business eleven years ago, reviews terrified me. Today, I read them all and appreciate them all, good, bad, or otherwise. Not everyone is going to like what I write, and that’s okay. And I have come to believe there is something to be learned from each review no matter if it’s five stars or zero.

Do you believe in writer’s block?

I’m not very popular among my writing peers for this, but no, I don’t believe in writer’s block. I believe there are days you need to let your brain rest and it demands that. I also know that writing is a process, it’s not just making words. Writing entails a host of things from research to outlining to filling out interviews for blog tours to maintaining my own blog. As long as it’s writing related, I consider it part of the process. If one story isn’t speaking to me on any given day, I move on to something else or take a break and come back the next day. I’ve even been known to write chapters out of order.

How long on average does it take you to write a book?

I’ve written a shorter work in as little as thirty days and have taken as long as a year to write a longer work. Each book is different and requires its own timeline. I’m not a fan of impossible deadlines. I feel like these days the market is so flooded many writers feel the pressure and believe if they don’t keep things coming as quickly as possible their readers will wander and never come back. In my mind, this can only lead to mistakes and quite possibly compromise the quality of the work. I believe in quality over quantity any day. My readers will be there when the next book is ready.

Have you always been a romance reader?

Absolutely! I remember the library fondly and when I was a pre-teen discovering the Sweet Dreams romances for kids my age. Of course, that lead me to Harlequin titles later on.

What hobby do you enjoy when not writing?

I’ve self-appointed myself our family genealogist, so I do a lot of family tree research and am constantly documenting and updating our files. I do hand embroidering, I quilt, crochet, and I read every day.

For Fun:

Favorite Color: All of them! No seriously. My husband spent thirty years in the Armed Forces and every house we lived in was some shade of neutral. I love color and embrace it with fervor. Favorite Food: Just one?!

Favorite Movie: I love black and white classics and anything with Jimmy Stewart in it is a winner. Favorite Holiday: Any holiday spent with family. We traveled a great deal over the years and were separated for more than one holiday. Any time we’re all under one roof is my favorite.

Favorite Music/Artist: Fleetwood Mac/Stevie Nicks makes the number one spot, but I honestly just love music and listen to a wide variety.

Favorite Animal: Other than my furbabies and chickens, I’d have to say owls. However, I do

adore all the bird. I have bird feeders right outside my office window and even as I’m answering these questions, I’m watching a beautiful male Cardinal munch on some bird seed.

Favorite Vacation spot: I’ve seen a great deal of the world and have many favorite places. Any beach is great, Savannah, The Grand C