Welcome to CentreStage!  CentreStage showcases fantastic authors from around the world, introducing in particular fellow authors in the Sapphire Star Publishing family as well as fellow featured authors at loveahappyending.com.  In this new, exciting feature, these authors might write for you about their lives, or their writing journey, or anything else that matters to them.  Every feature will be different in format and flavour, so watch out for a variety of stories and tales.

Today, it is my tremendous pleasure to welcome fellow Sapphire Star Publishing author Amy Gregory to this latest edition of CentreStage!

Hello, Amy! I am so thrilled that you are visiting today.  What have you got for us?

What have I got for you…?  Well, let me see.  Here’s a story about stories and voices in my family.  I call it:

Too Many Words???

As a mother of three children I’ve have often found myself trapped in places with one or more of them trying to talk to me.  When they were around the ages of three to five years old they started telling stories.  I figured out by the third child it was coming and I could not escape!  These stories would often take several long moments to tell as I would stand, force a smile and nod, waiting for the end that would take seemingly forever to make an appearance.

Then I would shake my head and wonder where they came up with it.  Most times their little stories were cute, some made me laugh my ass off, some just made me think they were telling me something just to hear the sound of their own voice as parts were told over and over again.

And then, um….oh yeah and, and, and…..

Well, as my people have grown older their stories have become more important in their lives and mine.  They’ve been published in school literary journals, have been asked to share with the rest of their school, have been nominated to student council because their stories and ideas are beneficial to others.

Recently my two younger children took part in an essay contest sponsored by our school district that feeds into a much larger program put on by the metro area.  They were asked to write about a person in their lives that matters to them and is a wonderful person to those around them.  With no help allowed, they were to explain why their person makes a difference to those around them.

So as a writer, it was quite an honor to have not one, but both of my children’s essays chosen.  Their stories, their words, and their voices that were put down on paper.  Their talent for writing that was selected amongst those in their classes.

With Mother’s Day approaching here in the States [editor’s note: at the time of writing], it reminds me of those little voices in the backseat of the car…um, oh yeah…and then you know what happened, Mom?  The giggles that would follow, the long pauses as they found more words to make up more parts to an already never-ending story.   Yes, I always knew what happened because they always told me, always had the words.  Always had another story ready when they finished the one before it.

Those stories seemed to take forever back then, but I can see for myself now how their creativity has found its way into their school work, and into their hobbies.  As a writer, I couldn’t be more proud.  As a mother I grin, hearing their little voices replayed in my head, their stories told over and over.  Pieces of the past I still giggle at every now again.

Um, um…and then you know what happened?  

Amazing! So that’s what happened!  Thanks so much for sharing…
🙂 Now, then: tell us more about your upcoming novel, Racing to Love: Carter’s Treasure!

From the outside, Molly West had everything, beauty, brains, and a career she’d retired from not once, but twice.  Being in the limelight and in a sport that was male driven, she was often surrounded men.  She ignored first the boys, and as she got older, the men.  Unfortunately, they were all the same, all after one thing, and she had absolutely no use for them.  Her cold shoulder and patented not a chance in hell look were usually enough to get her point across.  Occasionally, she had to resort to her sass—and her brother.

Molly had no plans in changing what was a perfectly good system. That is until she walked into the pits.  When she stood toe-to-toe with the sex in jeans, she knew right then and there that the man her adoptive mother always told her was out there, was now standing right in front of her.

Carter Sterling had traveled the racing circuit since he was a boy.  He’d heard all the old standbys, She’s out there somewhere, love comes along when you least expect it.  Good things come to those that… Yeah, he’d heard them all.  The last place he expected to meet the love of his life was on a pro track.  All she did was smile, and he knew, looking into her sapphire blue eyes, Molly West was his.  Forever.

If it was only that easy.  From the moment he laid eyes on her, he had a gripping feeling in him.  An overwhelming need to protect her.  A girl he’d just met.  Carter had learned a long time ago that gut feelings are almost never wrong.

Molly now held his heart in her hands, but it was going to take a lot more than just love to protect her from the past she thought she’d buried a long time ago.

Absolutely intriguing, Amy, what an unusual setting!  This is so high on my wishlist!! I adore the cover, by the way, what a wonderful image for your book. Wow! Now tell us more about yourself…

About Amy Gregory

Amy Gregory leads an incredibly active lifestyle in Kansas City with her husband and their three fantastic kids who keep them running in three very different directions.  When she’s not rushing her oldest daughter to tumbling, her youngest daughter to music lessons, or sitting track-side watching her son practice motocross, she’s taking the few minutes in between to scribble the next pages in her Racing to Love series.

When asked, “When do you have time to write?” Amy Gregory giggles.  “In bits and pieces,” she says.

Amy is known for her snarky, off the cuff sense of humor, which you’ll find shining through in the characters she’s created.  Her debut novel, Racing to Love, Carter’s Treasure, is set for release June 7, 2012.

I’ve spent my whole life trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up, and now I’ve finally found it. – Amy Gregory

Find out more about Amy on her blog, or on her Sapphire Star author page.  Amy is also on Goodreads and you can find her on Twitter and Facebook.

Thank you so much, Amy, for visiting today and introducing yourself and your novel, Racing to Love: Carter’s Treasure. It’s totally intriguing and I can’t wait for launch day.  I look forward to welcoming you back on 7 June in my Hall of Fame as part of your launch party!! Rock on! 🙂 xx

Now, dear reader, it’s your turn. Have you ever been told, “Too many words…?!?”