• Blog

    Release Day Blitz for A Drakenfall Christmas by Geralyn Corcillo

    10/18/2016

    A Drakenfall Christmas Release Blitz Promo Banner
    A Drakenfall Christmas - CoverI’m really excited to be a part of the launch day of Drakenfall Christmas by Geralyn Corcillo. I’ve known Geralyn since we did a chicklit box set a few years ago. I’m always excited when someone I know has a new book out and I think that you’ll love this one. Enjoy!

    Title: A Drakenfall Christmas
    Author: Geralyn Corcillo
    Genre: Romantic Comedy
    Publisher: Blackbird Press
    Release Date: October 19, 2016

    Summary
    Get ready for a Christmas treat, generously sprinkled with laughter and lavishly frosted with romance!
    The magic of Drakenfall is in the air, spiced with cinnamon and mistletoe as Lord and Lady Mark and Maisy, along with their madcap staff, welcome Yuletide guests to their country estate-turned-resort.
    In an uncharacteristic turn, unflappable house manager Glynis Ferry seems to be getting her duster ruffled every time she catches sight of Shaun Fletcher, the new head groom. Pippa Taylor, a whirling dervish of a domestic, works below stairs to make the magic of Drakenfall happen for everyone else. But will there ever be enough dazzle left over for her? There will if most worthy valet Kafi Diop has anything to say about it, as he tries to spin holiday enchantment every which way. But his best laid plans seem to go cataclysmically awry, even with Maisy helping out as his faithful sidekick.
    And what about Kafi’s grandest of schemes, set to take flight at the Drakenfall Christmas Ball? He’s depending on guest Jamie Tovell, who’s depending on his long-time crush Lea Sinclair. But even if everything goes off without a hitch, will the secret Maisy’s been hiding from Mark all season pop up at the most inopportune moment to set everything asunder?
    It’s a Drakenfall Christmas … topsy-turvy, but generously sprinkled with laughter and lavishly frosted with romance!

    Book Links
    Amazon US: https://amzn.com/B01JU75TRW
    Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01JU75TRW
    Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31521644-a-drakenfall-christmas

    Geralyn CorcilloMeet the Author
    When she was a kid growing up in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Geralyn Vivian Ruane Corcillo dreamed of one day becoming the superhero Dyna Girl. So, she did her best and grew up to constantly pick up litter and rescue animals. At home, she loves watching black & white movies, British mysteries, and the NY Giants. Corcillo lives in a drafty old house in Hollywood with her husband Ron, a guy who’s even cooler than Kip Dynamite.

     

    Connect with the Author
    Website: http://geralyncorcillo.com
    Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8394712.Geralyn_Corcillo
    Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/geralyncorcillothewriter/
    Twitter: https://twitter.com/geralyncorcillo
    Amazon Author: http://author.to/GeralynCorcillo

     

    Comment

    Geralyn Corcillo
    10/19/2016 08:43:17 am

    Thanks for the shout-out, Monique! I’m so excited about this Christmas release – thanks for being a part of the big day!

  • Blog

    Launch day for Catch a Falling Star by Geralyn Corcillo and a guest post about spin-offs in TV and books

    8/26/2016

    Spin Off into Fictional Worlds of Wonder! by Geralyn Corcillo
    Catch a Falling Star - Cover
    Hey, Monique! Thanks for featuring me today on your delightful blog! This is a big day for me, and I am so happy to be here.

    Spin Off into Fictional Worlds of Wonder!
    by Geralyn Corcillo

    When the boys you used to hate you date
    I guess you best investigate
    The facts of life
    The facts of life

     

     

     

     

     

     

    -From the theme song to The Facts of Life by Al Burton, Gloria Loring, and Alan Thicke
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDVpP7fWurA

    The TV show The Facts of Life was a anchor in my childhood – I watched with devotion from the first season when I was in 3rd grade and Molly Ringwald was on the show to the later seasons when I was in high school and George Clooney was on the show and I was crushin’ on him as hard as Mindy Cohn’s character Natalie was.

    And it was a spin-off.

    The character Edna Garrett, played by Charlotte Rae, was the housekeeper on the show Diff’rent Strokes. She got her own show after the first season and became the house mother at the all-girl boarding school in The Facts of Life. And thus, one of the most successful sitcoms of the 1980’s launched into my childhood and adolescence.

    Throughout my life, some of my most beloved television shows have been spin-offs. The hilarious Laverne & Shirley, a spin-off of Happy Days. Frasier, a spin-off of Cheers. Angel, a spin-off of another love of mine, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. My favorite British detective show (and yes, I like it even better than Sherlock) is Lewis, a spin-off of the incomparable Inspector Morse.

    As a fan and a viewer, I adore stretching into the individual worlds of characters I’ve come to cherish. And these new realities are fashioned by the talented people who created the original shows, so we all get to enjoy more genius entertainment coming from the same brains. Yay!

    Recently, as an author, I’ve come to realize the wonder of the spin-off from the creative side. My third romantic comedy novel released today is called Catch a Falling Star and it’s a spin-off of my second romantic comedy novel Queen of the Universe. Many reader reviews of Queen mention how they would love to read more about its lead characters, TV writer Lola and handyman-turned-leading man Arlen. But Lola and Arlen have their arc in Queen, so I’m just not inspired to write a sequel with them. Sure, as the one who created them, I think about Lola and Arlen all the time and about their life together after the end of Queen. But as much as I love fantasizing about it all, none of it whips up into a compelling story. But I do so love the world I created around Lola and Arlen.

    So … not a sequel, but a spin-off. Catch a Falling Star is the story of TV superstar Wendy Hunter and Lola’s brother, southern high school football coach Colin Scott. So, now I’ve got a new, compelling story that can be read entirely on its own, but in a wonderfully familiar world. And yes, we get to see a lot of Lola and Arlen in Catch, this time as supporting characters. We get to catch up with them, in fact. And not just them …

    I am having so much fun crossing the stars and the paths of my different characters. And I hope that readers and fans love the spinning off as much as I’ve enjoyed my favorite TV spin-offs throughout my life.

    What spin-offs do you adore? TV? Books? Cartoons, even? I’d love to hear what spin-offs, what fictional worlds, have brought you joy. When it comes to fiction, I am all about bringing on the joy!

    Thank you for featuring me today on your delightful blog, Monique! I look forward to comments from your fans so we can talk about some of our favorite spin-offs!

    Book Blurb:
    When TV star Wendy Hunter is about to have her most closely guarded secret viciously exposed by the paparazzi, she desperately tosses out a juicy bone to distract them: she announces her engagement to southern high school football coach Colin Scott. One problem. She’s not really engaged to him. In fact, she barely knows him. Um … barely. But will one unforgettable night last year be enough to get him to go along with her charade?

    Wendy goes to Louisiana to see him and discovers that Colin is not so thrilled to be suddenly “engaged” to her. He’s got some secrets of his own that his famous “fiancée” is putting in serious jeopardy. Still, he agrees to her fake engagement … as long as she agrees to play by his rules. And with the whole world watching, she’s got no choice. His demands? That Wendy stay in town for three weeks to play the part of Colin’s one true love, all without wrecking his life.

    Let the games begin. But when their time together is up, will either of them be able to—or want to—go back to the way things were?

    Queen of the Universe - Cover

    Miss Adventure - Cover

    Geralyn CorcilloAuthor Bio
    When she was a kid in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Geralyn Vivian Ruane Corcillo dreamed of one day becoming the superhero Dyna Girl. So, she did her best and grew up to rescue animals and constantly pick up litter. At home, she loves to kick back by watching black & white movies, British mysteries, and the New York Giants. Corcillo lives in a drafty old house in Hollywood with her husband TV writer Ron, a guy who’s even cooler than Kip Dynamite.

    Find Geralyn online
    Website: geralyncorcillo.com
    Universal Amazon Author Page: http://author.to/GeralynCorcillo
    Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/geralyncorcillothewriter/
    Twitter: https://twitter.com/geralyncorcillo

    Book links:
    Miss Adventure Universal link: http://getBook.at/MissAdventure
    Queen of the Universe universal link: http://myBook.to/QueenUniverse
    Catch a Falling Star universal link: http://getBook.at/CatchStarQueen

     

    Comments

    Geralyn Corcillo
    8/26/2016 04:20:26 am

    Monique! Gorgeous post! Thanks! I had such fun being in the box set Have Chick Lit, Will Travel with you a few years ago, and I really appreciate your hosting me on Release Day for my third RomCom novel! And what a bizarre connection we have! I surprised you with a post about spin-offs and Facts of Life, and you were a unique little part of Facts of Life when it aired! Even back in the eighties, we were connected across the globe!!!!! I’d love to hear what spin-offs your fans have enjoyed … come on, everyone, let’s dish!!!!!!!!!
    Reply
    Monique
    8/26/2016 04:24:39 pm

    Congrats on your new book Geralyn. So exciting! Yes the connection is deep with us. I did help the Australian author who wrote the character with background on the Pippa character who appeared in Facts of Life late in it’s run. There was a little bit of me in Pippa. I think Private Practice which spun off from Grey’s Anatomy was a great spin off. And I was a huge Buffy fan and loved Angel when it spun off…

    Geralyn Corcillo
    8/26/2016 09:46:34 pm

    I googled Pippa and it turns out she’s had a pretty successful country music career over here in the States. Yes…Buffy and /angel. I loved the episode where the Buffy folks come to Angel’s place – I forget why. But Willow has a conversation with Wesley (they’re married in real life) and they are talking about people they have killed and terrible things they have done. almost as if they are trying to one up one another. And the chemistry between them is just so hot! I remember Wesley says how he chained a woman in his closet and tortured her for information, but Willow one ups him by saying how she killed a guy by ripping all his skin off. Good stuff!

  • Blog

    Musical Monday – with my fellow Have Chick Lit, Will Travel author Geralyn Corcillo.

    7/27/2014

    Have Chick Lit Will Travel Box Set ImageToday Musical Monday is being taken over by Geralyn Corcillo whose novel She Likes it Tough is on of the novels in the Have Chick Lit Will Travel Romantic Comedy Box Set, that I am also included in and which just released on Friday.

    ***

    What a whirlwind weekend I have just had! The Romantic Comedy Box Set Have Chick Lit, Will Travel that I am a part of along with Monique and Jennifer Gilby Roberts is burning up the Amazon charts!

    Can you guess what song has been going through my head all weekend? It is by – not to be biased against Monique and Jennifer – The American Authors! “The Best Day of My Life.”

    And how could these past few days be anything but the best days? At one point on its meteoric blast through the charts, Have Chick Lit, Will Travel was nestled between Sophie Kinsella’s I’ve Got Your Number (which includes the Best First Kiss Scene ever!) and Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy. Sigh…what a beautiful, divinely comfy place to be.

    Back to Musical Monday. Did you ever see the Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster, James Garner movie Maverick? In it, Foster’s character unearths a secret about the other two. When they ask her how she figured it out, she explains, “You both sing the same wrong words to Amazing Grace.” And that little oddity gave it all away.

    See? Using music in stories can be fun and so much more than background noise.

    In my contribution to the Box Set, She Likes It Tough, my first-person narrator heroine Lisa Flyte constantly relates her life to aspects of pop culture – books, movies, TV shows, and songs she has had trolling through her life. And the hero Jack Hawkins picks up on this through the course of the story and their topsy-turvy relationship. So much so, that when everything between them gets good and truly fracked up, and Jack is trying to work his way back to her, he tries to do it through songs:

    I open the email. No text. It’s an MP3. A heartfelt apology from Jack? A snippet about us from some radio show? I can’t imagine.

    I get up and close the door to my office. Then I make sure the volume on my computer is low enough that only I’ll be able to hear it. I open the attachment.

    With the first riff of guitar strings, I catch my breath. “Joey,” by Concrete Blonde.

    The heart-wrenching lyrics rip into me with their desperate struggle to salvage messed-up love.

    But we got lucky once before

    And I don’t wanna close the door

    I can scarcely breathe. Is Jack asking me to come back? Is he trying to confess something? Explain something? Or did he just send me a song he thought I’d like? And if so, why? Why why why why why?

    The song ends, making it easier to hear my heart pounding.

    The silence of the computer makes my skin prickle. Jack sent me a song.

    Wait. Jack sent me a song? Are we in middle school?

    Or should he get points for choosing THE BEST SONG EVER?

    I don’t know. I don’t know I don’t know I don’t know.

    The wooing through songs continues, but how does it end up – and what does it mean to the outcome of the story? Does Lisa fight back with songs of her own? Does she ever figure out what Jack wants or is trying to say?

    From Lisa’s cell phone ring to how something about The Ramones gives away one of her secrets, music chirps and trills its way throughout this story. Because after all, like sex and free food, doesn’t music just make things better?

    How do you use music in your life, your work, your art? And if one song from a spurned lover could win you back or at least make you think twice or even pull your hair out trying to decide what to do – what would it be?

     

    Geralyn CorcilloBiography

    Geralyn Corcillo has work published under the names GVR Corcillo and Geralyn Ruane, as well. Identity crisis? Sure…but she’s got it pretty much figured out now.

    Once upon a time, Geralyn Vivian Ruane Corcillo taught high school in Watts and South Central Los Angeles. But deciding she needed an even tougher job, she chose to write.

    Corcillo won a few contests, hit the New York Times Bestseller List with her first short story “Jane Austen Meets the New York Giants,” and got a B-movie screenplay produced by Roger Corman. She Likes It Tough is her debut novel, and winner of Best Humor Book 2013 and Best Indie Book 2013 from the Rebecca’s Reads Choice Awards. She Likes It Tough was also a Quarter Finalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards 2014.

    Corcillo lives in North Hollywood with her husband Ron, a guy who’s even cooler than Kip Dynamite.

    ***

    Pop back tomorrow for a post by the third author in Have Chick Lit, Will Travel Jennifer Roberts

     

    Comments

    Geralyn Corcillo
    7/27/2014 03:29:48 pm

    Wow, Monique, you really make my post look fantastic! Thanks 🙂 I applaud the energy and finesse you put into this incredibly fun blog! Being a part of The Box Set with you and Jennifer is truly wonderful, and being on your blog is just more scrumptious icing on the cake 🙂

    Geralyn Corcillo
    7/27/2014 03:43:34 pm

    Have Chick Lit, Will Travel – #57 on Amazon’s Humorous Women’s Fiction Bestseller List! It has been movin’ on up all day 🙂
    Reply
    Monique
    7/27/2014 05:26:11 pm

    Very exciting about the ranking. Great post!!
    Reply
    Geralyn Corcillo
    7/27/2014 06:45:24 pm

    Thanks, Monique. Looking forwards to Jennifer’s post tomorrow!

  • Blog

    Have Chick Lit, Will Travel Launch Day!

    7/24/2014

    Have Chick Lit Will Travel CoverI am very excited to be part of this lovely box set with authors Jennifer Gilby Roberts and Geralyn Coracillo.

    I’ll be featuring both ladies on the blog over the next few days so you can learn more about the women behind the stories.

     

    ***

     

    Have Chick Lit, Will Travel

    A new box set of three great summer reads from up and coming chick lit authors.

    Fancy getting away from it all this summer? The chick lit tour bus is about to depart!

    Calling at:

    * Los Angeles, USA, to stumble into some outdoor adventures in She Likes It Tough;

    * Sydney, Australia for a harbour tour and a trip to the beach in Mr. Right and Other Mongrels; and

    * London, England to enjoy Pimms, strawberries and, of course, tennis in After Wimbledon.

    But it’s not all about the scenery. There’s plenty of time for falling in love, tackling big challenges and finding the courage to go after what you want. Our three tour guides are pretty tough women – even if they don’t know it – so come enjoy the ride while they deal with men, media and mothers in this international chick lit boxed set.

    These three novels have a total list price of $8.97, but for a limited time the collection is on sale for only 99c!

    The set includes:

    SHE LIKES IT TOUGH by Geralyn Corcillo

    “Hilarious story that is well paced and very original. You don’t want to miss this sassy crazy romance!”

    Lost in Chick Lit

    When a freak fast-food accident almost kills scaredy-cat Lisa, she decides it’s time to get a backbone and really start living. But how is she supposed to get tough after a lifetime of watching from the couch?

    Jack Hawkins, that’s how. When Lisa finds out that the outdoor extremist needs a clueless urbanite to test his top-secret line of beginners’ adventure gear, she makes the most outlandish deal of her life: she will be his test dummy if he helps her become brave.

    But are there enough wild adventures in the world to help Lisa find the grit to pursue a career she really wants or the nerve to stand up to her bullying family? And what about going after the man who’s not afraid of anything… except falling for Lisa?

    Winner of Best Indie Book and Best Humor Book at the Rebecca’s Reads Choice Awards 2013.

    MR RIGHT AND OTHER MONGRELS by Monique McDonell

    “Truly loved every minute that I was reading this book!”
    Smitten With Reading, Amazon Top 1000 Reviewer

    Quietly and independently wealthy, Ally Johnson runs a charming second-hand bookshop in beachside Manly and is blissfully happy doing it. Heck, sometimes she even goes downstairs from her flat to run the shop in her Chinese silk pyjamas. It sounds perfect. But when dog-phobic Ally is rescued from an exuberant canine by Teddy Green, Australia’s hottest TV celebrity, her life begins to change dramatically!

    Despite her best efforts to resist his charm, Ally finds herself falling for him. Supported by her eccentric family and her fabulous gay friend Justin, Allegra embarks on an on-again, off-again romance with Teddy, complicated by his jealous ex-girlfriend, fashionista Louisa, and her own narcissistic hippy mother Moonbeam.

    Will Ally be able to overcome her insecurities and find happiness with Teddy, or will his celebrity lifestyle prove to be too much?

    AFTER WIMBLEDON by Jennifer Gilby Roberts

    “A sumptuous summer read that will delight everyone, even those who aren’t into their tennis.”
    Best Chick Lit

    After 12 years on the pro tennis tour and four years with her sort-of boyfriend, Lucy Bennett has had enough. She wants real life… and real love.

    Her life, her decision. Right? Well, no one else seems to think so. With opinions on all sides, Lucy’s head is spinning. And she’s stumbling right into the arms of long-term crush and fellow player Sam. Shame her boyfriend – his arch-rival – would sooner smash a racquet over their heads than agree to a simple change of partners.

    As the Wimbledon Championships play out, Lucy fights for her life on and off the courts. But what will she be left with after Wimbledon?

    ~~~~

    Each book is written using the language conventions of the author’s home country.

    One click this great romantic comedy box set now before the price goes up!

    Amazon: http://mybook.to/HCLWT

    Have Chick Lit Will Travel Box Set Image

    Comments

    Geralyn Corcillo
    7/24/2014 06:05:40 pm

    What a trip it has been putting together this box set with these two fantastic authors and their highly entertaining books!

    Jessica
    7/25/2014 12:29:52 pm

    ThNks so much for letting me be a part of your special day! Bought the book and can’t wait to sink my teeth in!! Wishing U guys much success!

    Jessica
    7/26/2014 04:57:17 pm

    Thanks so much! I can’t wait to read your book!! I have to admit, I purchased before skimming the blurb… I had already purchased and read Wimbeldon, so I figured any books paired alongside it should be up my alley! Now having read the blurb, can’t wait to dig in!! 😍. Congrats on your collaboration!