Author Spotlight: Guest Post by Cat Johnson + GIVEAWAY!

Hi everyone!

Today we have a guest post by author Cat Johnson. Cat is also giving away an ebook copy of her holiday book, Nice & Naughty to one commenter.

And now over to Cat Johnson...

Guest Post: 3 Odd Jobs and How I Used Them in My Books by Cat Johnson

Like most actors, writers often have held interesting and diverse odd jobs and I’m no exception. I mean, you have to pay the bills, right, and it’s very few of us who are lucky enough to make a living at our craft. So here is a short list of just some of my past odd jobs, and the book titles that job has made me uniquely qualified to write.

Tending Bar:

I put myself through college tending bar at a golf club. Yes, it was a lot like Caddy Shack. Frighteningly so. Oh, do I have stories about that place and no, I haven’t written them down, but I dare you to find more realistic bar scenes than you’ll find in my stories Private Lies, Trey (Red, Hot & Blue, Book 1), Educating Ansley, and The EX-Files. Standing behind that bar, handling the bottles, and the drunks of which there were many, I’ve got the details down. I can still pour a perfect martini up, mix a Long Island Iced Tea, and get just the right amount of head on a tap beer, and I hope that all adds realism to my stories for the reader.

Catering:
Yup, I’ve rolled more 6-foot round tables during set-up and break-down than I can count, even though I’m not quite 5-feet tall myself. I’ve served passed hors deourves as well as French service. I can fold you a cloth dinner napkin to look like a fan or a swan, or a flower. I worked a wedding on a beach in a tent during a hurricane and had to hold the center tent pole down in a gust of wind. Thanks to these experiences, writing the scene where my team of Special Operatives goes undercover as banquet waiters was a piece of cake in Jimmy (Red, Hot & Blue, Book 3). And yes, the cummy-looking Parsnip Soup served in shot glasses I describe Jimmy carrying was an actual dish I saw served at a high dollar fundraiser.

Writing the heroine in Nice & Naughty came equally as easy since I’ve worked with those overworked women trying to run a catering business. And anyone who ever worked at Susan Lawrence Catering in Chappaqua, NY will recognize the coat closet-turned-office I describe in the book. Sad but true, the woman’s office was literally a closet, pole and all.

Mucking Horse Stalls:
It’s a shitty job, no pun intended. You have to do it when it’s 100 degrees and you’re sweating and covered in dirt, and you have to do it when it’s ten below zero, you can’t feel your hands or your feet and the poop is frozen to the floor of the stall, but you still have to do it. And I did do it, for about a year I guess. But that experience did two things for me. One, it prepared me to take care of my own horses. And two, it educated me enough to write the horse farm scenes found in both Jack (Red, Hot & Blue, Book 2) and Jared (Red, Hot & Blue, Book 4). I’ve actually watched a doctor diagnose an abcess in a hoof at the horse farm, as well as found one in my own horse here just as Nicki does in Jack.

But more importantly, yes, the farmer’s son I wrote about in Jared, the one unloading the 200 plus bales of hay and flinging them two at a time through the hay door in the barn, was very real.

Long story short, there are a lot of truths woven into fiction, if you know where to look.

Cat Johnson
www.catjohnson.net
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As a thank you to all the blog readers who took the time to stop by today, I’m asking Good Choice Reading to choose one lucky commenter on today’s post to receive a download of my holiday eBook, Nice & Naughty.


Thank you Cat for stopping by Good Choice Reading today. I would love to have a horse, but I don't think I can deal with the whole cleaning in below zero weather, especially frozen horse poop lol.

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GIVEAWAY!

What’s better than a fireman? Twelve of them, naked, on the pages of your calendar.

The hot firemen you loved in Opposites Attract are back with their friends, but now they're wearing a lot less clothing and heating up the holidays like never before. Be prepared for secret identities, a sizzling calendar shoot, smoldering bachelor firemen up for auction, sexy Santas and a whole lot more!

Secret Recipe: A famous lifestyle maven who secretly can't cook? Good thing a sizzling hot fireman/calendar model knows his way around the kitchen and is there to rescue her and her charity event from certain disaster. If they detour to the bedroom on the way to the kitchen, even better.

Mr. December: When the real December calendar man gets sick, a rich department store owner has to step in for him and play Santa. Once he meets the pretty lady photographer sent to cover the event, things really start to heat up. The only problem is, she has no idea who he really is, and he’s not all that keen on telling her.

Can't Buy Me Love: What do you get when you take one over-worked caterer on the brink of a nervous breakdown and add a hunky fireman for sale at the charity bachelor auction she's catering? You get a woman who finally finds the one gift to buy herself that she's never going to want to return.

If you love the old black-and-white classic holiday movies such as Christmas in Connecticut, Shop Around the Corner and Holiday Inn, you’ll love the three Nice & Naughty stories they inspired.

This book was previously published. It has been reedited from the original version.

To Enter:
- Must be 18 & Over
- Must FILL OUT THIS FORM. You can also find it below.
- Contest ends Sunday 27th
- Winner will be chosen Monday 28th and an e-mail will be sent.
- Winner must reply within 48 hours, or a new winner will be chosen.
- Please make sure to check SPAM box.

Good Luck!

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