About the Author
Miranda Parker is the author of the Evangeline Crawford Bounty Hunter Series. After graduating from college, she began working as a features editor for various magazines and spent many years as a publicist for national recording artists, actors, ministers, and authors. However, writing fun, fiesty, redemptive bad girl gone good stories is her passion. She resides with her family in Georgia near a horse ranch and her daughter’s Girl Scout Troop. On a perfect day she can be found curled up with a good book or in a movie theater with a bucket of popcorn.
Visit the author online at http://www.mirandaparker.com/.
Tell us about yourself.
Hi, I’m Miranda Parker. Currently, I write romantic comedy thrillers for Kensington Publishing Corp. My novel A Good Excuse to Be Bad is the first book in the Angel Crawford Series. It releases this month (July 2011.)
Outside of writing I am the mother of a very sweet eleven year old daughter, a Girl Scout leader, member of the Black Doll Affair, painter, publicist, blogger, book critic, cupcake baker, and good friend to many. We live in an Atlanta suburb near a horse ranch.
What type of jobs or careers have you worked in the past?
I have published over fifty features articles for newspapers and magazines since 1991, focusing on subjects in lifestyle, religion arts and entertainment.
Because I am an Agnes Scott College alumnae, I’ve had the privilege to have worked in some of most well known companies on the planet. I’ve worked as a graphics designer for The Coca Cola Company Coke USA during the launch of the Polar Bear campaign. I’ve been an art historian for Atlanta History Center, Atlanta Heritage Row and HOCI during the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics. I’ve worked in PR for The Centers for Disease Control School of Adolescent Health, Muscular Dystrophy Associate, Bellsouth, ILSI, Ernst Van Praag, A T &T Southeast Marketing Division, even Agnes Scott College. I pinch myself when I think of all the places I’ve worked and the experiences I gained while working there.
Who are your favorite authors?
Anne Lamott, Chuck Palahniuk, Edgar Allan Poe, Thomas Hardy, Zora Neale Hurston, William Faulkner, Nella Larsen, Tosca Lee, Sharon Ewell Foster, Kate White, Walter Mosley, Sidney Sheldon, and Steve Martin
What are your favorite books?
Thomas Hardy Tess of the d’Ubervilles, Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice, Tosca Lee’s Devil: A Memoir, Kate White’s Bailey Weggins Mysteries, Walter Mosley’s Easy Rawlins Mysteries, Terry McMillan Waiting to Exhale, Nancy Drew Mysteries, Sweet Valley High Novels, The Holy Bible, the works of William Shakespeare, and Herman Mellville’s “Billy Bud.”
When did you begin to realize you wanted to write?
Writing was forced on me, because I was in the gifted program in secondary schools. After fifth grade, the AP English students in our school district ran the school newspapers and literary review. By the time I began undergrad I naturally gravitated to writing a column for the college newspaper, submitting shorts for the literary journals, writing literary criticism and essays for the local paper, and taking college level creative writing classes. Surprisingly, I never thought I would be a professional writer. I was going to be an architect. I wanted a profession that could guarantee financial stability for me and my family. However, my life changed a few months after I finally got my dream job. I call it divine intervention, because I know I wouldn’t have had the experience to write the stories that I write not, let alone become published.
Tell us about your journey to publication.
I wrote this story years ago as a part of a year -long writing workshop with author Chuck Palaknuik [ Fight Club, Choke] that was featured in Poets & Writers Magazine. Chucky P taught us how to tell a modern story in a way that glues the reader to the character’s journey.
At the time I was the only African-American and woman in the group. They gave me a lot of grief about my romantic story lines, but it was the best fun. They helped me come out of my shell and realize what type of stories intrigued me. Moreover, I got the toughest and best critiques to help me become a better writer.
However, after all of that, I lost this novel twice when my computers committed suicide. Thanks to my writing group buddies, they helped me rewrite the story and pushed me to the Romance Slam Jam Writing Contest. I placed third! What’s funny about that is when I received my notes back from the judges I realized one of my crit buddies (an Essence Magazine bestselling author) had notes hidden in the manuscript that I forgot to delete. LOL. Deatri King Bey of Romance Slam Jam gifted me a chance to have A Good Excuse to Be Bad read by Selena James at Kensington.
She loved it and here we are. I hope readers will love it, too.
Are you a full-time writer? If so, describe your day?
I am a full time writer. However, my day isn’t filled with working on my novels. I begin the day blogging, writing press releases for clients, and writing articles for magazines. The afternoon is spent booking clients, responding to queries, and planning events for myself and my clients. Novel writing time usually comes around midnight.
About the Book
Smart gorgeous, and too tough for her own good, bail recovery agent and single mom Evangeline Crawford moved to the burbs for a quiet life. Fortunately, it’s not turning out that way…
Angel has to admit she’s feeling restless. The only excitement in her life is her schoolgirl crush on the town’s new pastor, Justus-too-Hot-to-be-Holy Morgan. But a fateful encounter and a job gone wrong at Club Night Candy in Underground Atlanta is about to change all that…Soon, Angel’s trying to save her divazilla twin sister from her big mouth and a scandalous murder charge, and probing a church cover-up–with none other than Justus by her side. But Angel has one more pressing concern; will Bella be ready for kindergarten? Only time will tell for this bad girl gone good whose days are once again far from boring–and hopefully far from numbered…
Book Trailer
Watch on You Tube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_-iIDGCMP4
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For More Information
Visit the author online at http://www.mirandaparker.com/.
Visit blog tour schedule at http://bit.ly/AGoodExcuseToBeBadBlogTour
About Renee Williams
Very nice interview!
A Good Excuse to Be Bad is on my reading list and I hope to read it shortly.