Where Are They Now?
PRG Presents Marianne Morea
Hey PRGers, I’m Marianne Morea and I was one of the founding members of the Paranormal Romance Guild. Our intrepid and motley crew met on the Amazon Paranormal Romance Forum a decade ago. Some of us were aspiring authors, other already published, but all of us had one thing in common…we loved to read…especially stories with a paranormal twist and a little heat between the sheets.
The forum was fun and solid friendships were forged that we still enjoy today. Some of have never met, but talk online often. Others we’ve met face-to-face once, or if we we’re lucky, a handful of times, but the commitment and love is there, regardless. We have gotten to know each other’s families. Together we have celebrated out happy times and mourned our moments of sorrow. And always…always…there’s laughter.
I remember author and friend, Amy Lane, and I, tossing words back and forth, daring each other to use the word in a sentence. That silly game became one of the most popular threads on the forum called Word of the Day. Multiple authors and readers played along in our round robin of words, so much so the thread went from ‘use this word in a sentence’ to ‘use this word in a snippet of story’. In fact, that same thread gave birth to my third book, BLOOD LEGACY, and people who remember that forum and that thread have since emailed saying they remember the book’s inception. Amy and I only met once, back in 2012. We were at the Romantic Times Book Lovers convention in Kansas City. We were in the hotel lobby, me on an escalator going up and she on the opposite escalator going down. We spotted each other as we passed and both screamed. We met on the ground floor and hugged and hugged and then went to lunch. It was like seeing an old friend…it WAS seeing an old friend…just one I’d never met before.
It was the same when I met our own, Gloria Lakritz. The PRG held it’s first physical meeting in Chicago, and I remember getting off the elevator to meet everyone for dinner, and Gloria looked and me and I her and we just knew. Her first words to me were, “I’d know you anywhere.” We’ve been as close as two friends can be since then.
Over there years, I’ve worn a lot of hats for the PRG…I have been a Board Member, a Vice President, a President, as well the PRG Convention Coordinator. In 2012, and again in 2013, the PRG was the premier group of authors at the Anne Rice Undead Con in New Orleans. More recently, we were at Authors After Dark in Savannah Georgia. Anytime we get together it’s a blast. We have each others’ backs for everything. Cross-promoting our work to celebrating new releases and accomplishments to giving the occasional hug when needed.
With the encouragement of my PRG family, I published my first book, Hunter’s Blood, seven years ago. It was the first of seven books in my Cursed by Blood Saga. Now I have more than twenty books across multiple genres, and two more set to release this coming December. I do ghostwriting in between (some of your fav authors just might be me *wink*) and have so much more planned for 2018, including two reader conferences: Literary Love in Savannah GA in July 2018 and Romancing the Capital in Ottawa Canada in August 2018, and a peer-to-Romance Mastermind peer writers’ conference in Houston at the end of next September. This year I had the privilege to be a guest on World Of Ink radio, made possible by an invitation from our own Kelly Abell. I had such a great time with her and the host, Marsha Casper Cook, that I look forward to doing it again.
My writing has evolved over the years, become more polished and my muse faster. I still talk with my PRG family as often as I can, and know they are but a message away. People who say online friends are false friends don’t know us. We’re the proof that true friends can be found anywhere. Even in cyberspace.
Marianne Morea
Supernatural Suspense, Urban Fantasy, (Adult and Teen)
1st place Winner – Best YA Novel – HOLLOW’S END – Paranormal Romance Guild Reviewer’s Choice
Quarter-finalist for Best Urban Fantasy – TWICE CURSED – Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award (ABNA)