Mar 31, 2015 | Blog, Coffee With, Elizabeth Heiter, March 2015
Rae: First, if we were meeting at a coffee shop I’d be drinking a Latte š What would you order?
Elizabeth: My usual order is a large mocha latte. Chocolate and caffeine ā one of the greatest combinations! š
Rae: Thanks so much for taking the time to answer a few questions. I am always in the mood for a great Romantic Suspense book. You have two series, a suspense series and a romantic suspense series that you are writing at the same time. How challenging is that? What inspired you to write suspense?
Elizabeth: Writing two series at once has definitely been a challenge ā mostly finding the time to write all the books! But I also have to be careful when I switch back and forth to stay in the right āvoiceā for the particular book, which usually requires some re-reading every time I move from one series to the other. The upside is that each series refreshes me for the other; I enjoy taking a break from one world and moving into another, but I always want to return to each!
Iāve always been drawn to suspense. Itās my favorite genre to read, and even as a kid, when Iād scribble stories in a notebook, theyād be mystery/suspense. I love the puzzle ā the chance to figure out the clues (or as a writer, how to layer in those red herrings alongside the real hints and how to work in all the twists and turns). I also love that, unlike in real life where there isnāt always a happy ending, in suspense (and romantic suspense), most of the time at the end of the book, you get some kind of justice, some kind of closure.
Rae: How many books do you anticipate in each series?
Elizabeth: Right now, there are at least three books planned in The Lawmen series (my romantic suspense from Harlequin Intrigue), and at least four in The Profiler series (my psychological suspense from MIRA Books), but I hope to do more of each!
Rae: How much research did you do for this?
Elizabeth: I really enjoy the research, and I do a LOT of it. Everything from reading up on psychological disorders, FBI procedures, and creating criminal personality profiles to in-person research. Iāve been lucky enough to get the opportunity to talk to a number of current and former FBI Special Agents, visit the FBI Academy and the New York field office, and even shoot weapons at Quantico! Many of the opportunities actually came through writersā organizations; others I pursued on my own (talking to some of the agents). People like to talk about their jobs, especially when theyāre passionate about them, and as long as I donāt ask about topics they canāt discuss, Iāve gotten a lot of great information, because Iām serious about trying to portray the job and the FBI accurately.
Rae: I read that you went to the FBI shooting range, what was that experience like? How were you able to do that?
Elizabeth: Firing weapons at the FBI Academy was a lot of fun. I took a bunch of notes ā everything from how heavy the weapons were, how easy they were to shoot, what kind of kick they had ā and I had a Special Agent standing beside me, telling me the proper way to do it all. Did I mention I shot all the weapons in a skirt and heels?
Rae: Congrats on your upcoming releases – you must be super organized to have two books out almost back to back!
Elizabeth: Thank you so much for having me!! (I do need to keep organized. I use a special writing program for my novels and I keep a lot of To Do lists!!)
Rae: Thanks again, I had a blast! Happy Writing!
8 Tantalizing Tidbits:
1. A Must read book and why? Gone with the Wind. A classic, and one with so much drama, angst, and intensity. Plus, Scarlett OāHara and Rhett Butler make a fantastic pairing, even if they never quite get it right.
2. What is one place that I should see if I visit your hometown? The Henry Ford museum. Metro Detroit is known for their automobiles, and this museum has an amazing, historic collection, including the bus where Rosa Parks made her stand (by sitting!) and JFKās presidential limo.
3. Castles or Beaches? Beaches. I love castles, but thereās just something about the sound of the ocean, crashing into the shore, that has always spoken to me.
4. One thing readers would be surprised to know about you. Although I havenāt done it much lately, I was once a pretty good skier ā I could ski backwards, on one ski, around moguls, and over small jumps.
5. If you had an all expenses paid trip anywhere in the world for research, where would you go? If I was going for pleasure, I would head out of the country, but for research? Iām going to cheat a little and say a non-stop tour of all the FBI field offices. That would definitely be a dream research trip!!
6. What is your guilty pleasure? Chocolate. And lots of it. I donāt really feel that guilty about it, though ā I tell myself itās dark chocolate, so itās good for me! š
7. Would you rather see a movie in the theatre or at home on DVD and why? Itās fun to go out to the movie theater, but I love watching a DVD at home. I can throw on something cozy, lounge in my recliner, and eat a bowl of ice cream (which might be a little weird in a dark theater!).
8. One thing you can’t live without. Books. Definitely books. I have a LOT of bookshelves, but itās still not enough (especially with my own books and all the foreign versions to add to the mix!).
Mar 26, 2015 | Blog, Caitlenn T. Ainnsley, Coffee With, March 2015
First, if we were meeting at a Coffee shop Iād be drinking a Latte š What would you be drinking? I’d be drinking an organic caffeine-free berry iced tea.
Thank you so much for taking time to sit down and answer a few questions. I LOVED A Jewel In Time Anthology. Your story was absolutely fabulous! I love the winter storm in Boston especially with the winter they’ve had so far!
Thank you!
How did you research for it? I did very little research for this story. Just had to look up the Boston airport location and route to the hotel I picked. I also reviewed the hotel’s restaurant menu and used actual items on the menu in the story.
It would make a great start to a bigger story, do you have any intentions of turning this into a series?Ā Not this book since it really ties in with Barbara Devlin’s Brethren series. I have an idea for a series though.
What can we expect next? The Conscious Gypsy Chronicles. It is a chick lit series following the serial dating habits of a spunky heroine with some interesting spiritual gifts.
8 Tantalizing Tidbits:
1. A Must read book and why? The Alchemist by Paulo Choelo. It’s a wonderful story with a moral at the end. I have such an appreciation for authors who can tell an amazing fictional story that has a practical life application or moral.
2. What is one place that I should see if I visit your hometown? Well, I live in Las Vegas, so there are all kinds of fun and crazy things to see. My favorite, no so well known place, is a Korean spa called Imperial Spa. It’s close to, but off the strip, and it’s only $20 to get into for the whole day. Once inside there are two floors of different detox rooms–a jade room, magnetic clay room, ice room, Himilayan sea salt room. Plus there are soaking pools of different temperatures and various saunas–dry, salt, etc. Between detox sessions you can pay for spa treatments or just relax in recliners. It’s a whole day of relaxing for almost nothing.
3. When you plot out your book do you know how it will end or do you figure it out as you go? I have no idea where the book is going. Every book I’ve written has started with me seeing the opening scene play out like a movie. I write that down and then more scenes show up and the characters begin to develop then the story unfolds. It’s a very messy process, but I’m a fast writer. The Brit, The Blizzard and The Brooch was written in about six weeks.
4. What was on your playlist while writing this series? I can’t listen to music or watch TV or movies when I’m writing. I hear the dialogue in my head and often see the scenes along with it, so any other noise distracts me from being able to create.
5. Do you watch a TV show weekly or binge watch? So I don’t own a TV. I grew up in a household where we were only allowed to watch one hour a day, so I read all the time. With cable costing a fortune, I decided to not have TV at all. That said, I do have a NetFlix account on my computer and about once a month I’ll spend a day binge watching something. The last show I watched two seasons of in a day was Californication. Something about David Duchovney is very sexy to me.
6. First concert you attended? Michael Jackson…actually the Jackson Five. My parents got tickets for the whole family and the concert was in the Broncos football stadium in Colorado. Something about watching a concert from bleachers just isn’t really the concert experience I prefer, but looking back I realize what a taste of history that was.
7. When you are traveling do you road trip it or fly it? I do both. I travel at least two weeks out of every month. If I’m going to California I will drive. If I go anywhere that would take longer than six hours to drive, then I fly. I prefer First Class, but will fly any airline coach as long as I can get an aisle seat. I hate being blocked into an inside seat.
8. Do you like to cook or go out to eat? I love going out to eat, however, I’m really a purist when it comes to food and that forces me to eat at home and be creative. I don’t eat sugar, gluten, soy, most dairy, meat, fish, GMOs–most food served at restaurants have at least one of those in it.
BIO:
Chick Lit Author
Caitlenn writes edgy, sexy chick lit stories about fabulous women, hot men and the often crazy situations they encounter on the road to love.
She won her first creative writing contest in the sixth grade and has always found pleasure weaving stories.
A big fan of Harlequinās Intrigue series, her first novel was a romantic suspense. Its rejection was a blessing because it challenged Caitlenn to explore other genres. When she scribbled a single scene to enter in a Romance Writerās of America editorās critique and all three editors said they wanted more from her, she knew sheād found her voice in chick lit.
The Brit, The Brooch, and The Blizzard is her debut novella.
Caitlenn is a pen name for Leah Grant. Leah is a Business, Life and Spiritual Coach having a diverse set of skills as a Master Certified Coach, a Certified NLP Practitioner, a Certified Emotional Intelligence Practitioner and an Ordained Minister. Leah Grant speaks, teaches and is a published best-selling non-fiction author.
Leah is also known as Lotus. As Lotus, she sings Sanskrit chants and has released a CD: Ecstatic Meditation ā One available at Ā www.ecstaticmeditation.com
When sheās not traveling, which she does very frequently, Caitlenn lives in Las Vegas.
Mar 19, 2015 | Blog, Coffee With, March 2015, Sandra Lake
Rae: First, if we were meeting at a Coffee shop Iād be drinking a Latte.
What would you be drinking?
Sandra: Mint tea, please. My naturopath guru has taken me off dairy and everything else delicious. I call it the āNon-Dairy, Non-Fun Programā. Before the health nutter ruined my taste pallet, it would have been a hot and creamy latte along with you.
Rae: Thank you so much for taking time to sit down and answer a few questions. I LOVED The Warlord’s Wife. Your story was absolutely spellbinding! I found it so engaging and breathtaking, as if I were truly in 12th century Sweden and Finland. What inspired you to write this story?
Sandra: The basic outline of Lida, my heroine, came from my grandmother. She had this terrible tragic life, a widow at twenty (with my mother on the way), disowned by her in-laws, she then worked tirelessly for ten years to support herself as a single mom. At 30, she remarried and had four sons. She died of breast cancer at the young age of 48.
Lidaās early years are pretty much torn from my grandmotherās diary. The glaring difference in the story I give Lida, is that her second husband wasnāt a bleep-bleep-bleep or a son of a bleep. So, in my imaginary world of Tronscar, I gave Lida a real man, Magnus, a man that starts out rough around the edges, but treats her and her daughter with love and respect.
Rae: How did you research for it?
Sandra: The setting of Sweden came to me when I hijacked my sonās school project of his family tree. My husband is half Swedish, and since Iām basically a mutt, having no ethic group to latch onto, I picked Sweden as my people. I always did love meatballs and smoked salmon. The history nerd in me then took over and for years I read any and all āVikingā fiction and non-fiction.
Rae: I’m so excited to see that this is a series, how many books do you anticipate?
Sandra: Sink or swim in sales will probably answer that question better than me. I have several more completed manuscripts, following the lives of Magnus and Lidaās āSons of the Northā.
The one I am most entrenched in right now is book 3, Hƶk, Magnus and Lidaās second son. At the tender age of eighteen, he gets his heart trampled on by a beautiful, highborn Norwegian girl who is used in a āhoney potā scam to extort Magnus. Years later, Hƶk and Sovia meet up again, sheās seconds from having her head cut off for selling secrets to Swedenās enemies. Sheās been labeled a whore by the Swedish Queen and does not shrink from the title but bolding argues that if her actions render her guilty of low morals, then so be the definition of all men. Fearing igniting a new war with Norway, the last war has just ended, Hƶk petitions the King to let him wed Sovia for her inherited land. The king agrees, granting this favor to Hƶk as a returning war hero. Their marriage begins as a battle ground, him not trusting her, disgusted with her past, Sovia using a false front of arrogant pride to cover up her deep inner pain and feelings of worthlessness. Their marriage quickly simmers into something much moreā¦oh and Hƶk of course has to avenge the warlord that tries to take her from him.
Iām obsessed with Sovia at the moment. Sheās damaged, been treated harshly by the world since she was a little girl, but she has an unbreakable spirit that Hƶk, nor I, cannot help but admire. Fingers crossed they will one day see the light of day. I really hope that there will be at least two or three more books in the series.
Rae: When is the Iron Princess being released? I’m not sure I can wait that long š
Sandra: I was told this week the release date is 6/6/15. I just finished my last touch ups and I admit, I didnāt want to send it back and let Katia and Lothair go. The story is very different from The Warlordās Wife, which I would hope classifies as a family drama, where The Iron Princess is an adventure, coming of age story for both main characters. I had so much fun writing it. It didnāt feel at all like work, more like my alone time with my best friendsā¦did that sound as corny as I think it did?
Rae: Not at all š Thank you again- I had a great time!
8 Tantalizing Tidbits:ļ
1. A Must read book and why? I have a hundred Must reads, but for the past few years, The Outlander Series has been on a constant rotation on my kindle; Gorgeous, crisp, poetic writing of adventure, guys in kilts, true love, marital bless one chapter and marital warfare the next. Oh, did I mention the kilts?
2. What is one place that I should see if I visit your hometown? Equestrian and nature trails are what set our small town apart. Most every day youāll find me on a trail being dragged behind my unruly husky. A lot of my neighbors own farmettes and keep horses. At the local cafe, itās not unusual to see women and young girls in their riding pants and boots coming from their Saturday morning riding lessons.
3. When you plot out your book do you know how it will end or do you figure it out as you go? For the majority of my stories, they are fully formed in my head before I type one word. At night, or when Iām vacuuming or doing something mindless, the entire story just pieces together and plays out, and after I have the opening scene tidied up in my head, I start to write it down. It usually comes out pretty fast after that, but then the real āworkā part of the process begins, edit and polish.
4. Do you watch a TV show weekly or binge watch? I find I binge read romance series more than watch TV. But it does depend on if Vikings (History Channel) or Outlander (Starz) are on, then yes, I watch weekly and take the batteries out of the remote so my husband doesnāt āaccidentally-on-purposeā switch it to hockey. Other than that, I donāt watch much TV. I do binge watch on Netflix from time to time, or as I call it, āTaking a mental health dayā.
5.What is the craziest souvenir you picked up while traveling? Do you collect things when you travel? That would be the giant wood giraffe from the side of the road in Swaziland, Africa. Its head stuck out the window of the car for days, my husband and his buddy (who lives in South Africa and was touring us around the country) were not impressed, nor was the flight attendant that I begged and pleaded with to have it shoved in the first class closet. Being polite with a big smile has served me well. Overall, I try to bring back smaller tokens of local art and pottery.
6.When you are traveling do you road trip it or fly it? Both and several times a year. I caught the incurable traveling bug when I was young. Fortunately, I married someone who is equal parts gypsy and nomad. For the first fifteen years of our marriage, we worked together in his trucking company. I still have a valid trucker license to this day. We literally lived the Johnny Cash song, āIāve Been Every Where Man.ā
So for work, we have driven to every state and major city in Canada and the USA, several times. We travel with our kids and make summer family holiday adventures out of every town we work in. I could write a book on the best childrenās museums in North America. When work slows down, in the winter, we hop on a plane and go, usually somewhere hot. Weāve seen a good chunk of the globe and forever keep finding new must see destinations.
7. If you could pick a book youāve read and make it into a movie, which book would it be? Heather Grahamās MacAuliffe Viking Trilogy Series is probably to blame for my medieval/ Viking addiction. For me, she writes the perfect balance of an aggressive, alpha male, who are flawed but never failing. Her heroines are all stubborn beauties paired against hot, brave men sailing, righteous crusaders fighting for their families, material is gold for a movie or mini-series.
8. Do you like to cook or go out to eat? I am a chef by default. My husband is allergic to the grocery stores and all things āfood prepā. Itās a rare medical condition that Iāve seen other husbands ailing from. My sons will not have this affliction. We regularly cook together now that theyāre olderā¦although, my Waterloo is baking. Iāve never mastered a piecrust. In āThe Iron Princessā, Katia pitches a fit in the kitchen trying her hand at baking. Itās a tale taken from personal experience. For the most part, Iām not shy to say Iām a competent cook, āmaster of the ultimate brunchā and host friends and family nearly every weekend.
BIO:
Sandra Lake was raised in rural Canada. She married her childhood sweetheart (who during her childhood resembled more like her childhood nemesis) and is currently living happily-ever-after along with their kids and unruly husky in eastern Canada.
Mar 12, 2015 | Blog, Coffee With, Laura Kaye, March 2015
First, if we were meeting at a coffee shop I’d be drinking a Latte š
What would you order? Iād order a hot tea or an iced tea depending on the weather! Iāve always been a tea drinker!
Thanks so much for taking the time to answer a few questions. I must first say that I LOVE your covers for your Hard Ink series! I discovered your refreshing and fabulous tale in Premiere. In case my dear readers missed it here is the link of my reviewĀ – https://booksilovealatte.wordpress.com/2015/02/27/an-ex-fiance-and-a-tattoo-require-an-expert/ The collection is a must read! What an honor to be included in the first collection!
Thank you so much! I always say that the cover gods have smiled on me, and itās never been more true than with the Hard Ink covers which I LOVE! And yes, I was super psyched be included in the Premiere anthology and absolutely loved the challenge of writing something short and compelling! Covering Her Skin was so much fun (and when I get my rights back in 18-24 months, I am thinking of expanding it into a series of novellas!)
Congrats on your three upcoming releases! Wow! Three books by September – where do you find the time? You must be a fast writer! Your series, Hard Ink looks fantastic. I’ve already put it on my “need to buy” list.
Iām a full-time writer, so that helps. And I am a pretty fast writer. I pretty much have back-to-back deadlines so I aim for 3,000 words a day, every day, and try to stay on track with my deadlines as much as I can. I think Iāll actually end up with seven releases total by December. And yay for āneed to buyā lists! *grins*
Iāve really loved writing the Hard Ink series. Now that all the books in that series are completed (though not yet released), Iām really missing the characters! Luckily, I have a spin-off series coming based on the Raven Riders Motorcycle Club, so weāll see the Hard Ink team again!
What’s the inspiration for Hard Ink? How many books do you anticipate for this series? Were you able to spend time in a tattoo parlor? I must say I think there are some fabulous tat’s but I’m so indecisive I could never commit. I admire those who can!
There are seven total books in the series, though the last one, Hard As Steel, is a crossover novella between the Hard Ink and the new/spin-off Raven Riders MC series. The inspiration was my love of tattoos and the eight years I worked for the U.S. Military (Navy) as a professor at the Naval Academy. And Iāve lived in/near Baltimore, Maryland, for a lot of my life. I have five tattoos, so Iāve definitely spent time in a tattoo parlor!
I’m very impressed at how many genres you are writing – contemporary, paranormal, fantasy romance and erotica. What’s the most difficult genre to write? How do you keep them all straight?
I think they each have their own challenges. In contemporary romance, building conflict that canāt be resolved by a simple conversation can be a challenge. In paranormal, building a unique and believable world can be a challenge. But I really enjoy writing more than one genre because it keeps things fresh as I move between projects. One way I keep them straight is that I rarely write more than one book at a time. But each series has a feel in my head thatās quite distinct from every other series I might be working on, so switching between them is easier than you might imagine!
Thanks again, I had a blast! Happy Writing! Thanks for having me!
8Ā Tantalizing Tidbits:
1. A Must read book and why? Lover Awakened by J.R. Ward, because it has the best heroās redemption of any book Iāve ever read.
2. What is one place that I should see if I visit your hometown? If you come to Annapolis, you have to go down to the City Dock. Itās right on the water, surrounded by historic buildings and tons of shops and restaurants, and right next to the Naval Academy.
3. Castles or Beaches? Castles
4.Ā One thing readers would be surprised to know about you. I had a brain injury in 2008.
5. If you had an all expenses paid trip anywhere in the world for research, where would you go? Scotland. I have been wanting to go for years and would love to write a Scottish Highlander series one day
6. Tats or No Tats? If tats, how many and what did you choose for your first one? Yes tats! I have five and my first is of a star filled with three roses (one for each of my daughters and my mom) on my right shoulder.
7.Ā What’s on your playlist when you write? I listen to one song on repeat for an entire book, one unique song for each book. Some examples:
Hard As It Gets ā Breaking the Habit, Linkin Park
Hard As You Can ā Revelry, Kings of Leon
Hard to Hold On To ā Again, Lenny Kravitz
Hard to Come By ā Blurry, Puddle of Mudd
Hard to Be Good ā Latch, Sam Smith
Hard to Let Go ā Numb, Linkin Park
8. If you could pick a book you’ve read and make it into a movie, which book would it be (besides yours š )? I would love to see J.R. Wardās Black Dagger Brotherhood series brought to life on screen!
About Laura Kaye:
Laura is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of over twenty books in contemporary and paranormal romance and romantic suspense. Growing up, Lauraās large extended family believed in the supernatural, and family lore involving angels, ghosts, and evil-eye curses cemented in Laura a life-long fascination with storytelling and all things paranormal. She lives in Maryland with her husband, two daughters, and cute-but-bad dog, and appreciates her view of the Chesapeake Bay every day.
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Mar 5, 2015 | Blog, Coffee With, March 2015
Today I’m enjoying a mocha latte (a yummy treat!)Ā with my family, a warm and toasty fire, and a TON of great reads in my e-reader. How about you?
While I didn’t have a coffee date scheduled today, they will resume next week! š
I’m also hoping toĀ free up some Tuesdays so thatĀ IĀ can participate in more release day events.
Thank you so much understanding š
Happy Writing and Happy Reading!
Mar 3, 2015 | Blog, Coffee With, Erica Ridley, March 2015
First, if we were meeting at a Coffee shop Iād be drinking a LatteĀ š What would you be drinking?Ā Either a steamy hot caffe mocha or an iced caramel macchiato, depending on the weather. š
Thank you so much for taking time to sit down and answer a few questions. Congrats on the release of The Captain’s Bluestocking Mistress yesterday! If anyone missed my review for your fabulous new book they can check out my reviewĀ that wasĀ postedĀ earlier this week:Ā https://booksilovealatte.wordpress.com/2015/03/01/a-soldier-who-has-returned-from-war-and-the-woman-who-desires-him/
What was the inspiration for your Duke’s of War series and how many books can we expect?
A lot of people (including me!) love military heroes. As a historical romance writer, I especially loved the idea of soldier coming home from war and doing his best to return to normal, when normal in his case means Regency England.
I asked myself: After years of marching and living in tents and killing enemy soldiers, do you care about the color of Beau Brummelās waistcoat or whether the patronesses of Almackās will grant you permission to waltz? How do you reconcile these two very different forms of survival?
With this series, I’m trying to show all sides of what it means to be soldierāthe ones who feel they did the right thing, the ones who don’t, the ones who didn’t make it home with all their pieces intact (physically or emotionally), the ones who do make it home whole only to find out home is no longer how they left it.
There are a total of six planned books in this series. But readers’ favorite secondary characters will probably find their way into a future series!
What can we expect next?
Next in the series is The Majorās Faux FiancĆ©e, which releases in June. Major Blackpool returns home to play pretend beau to the girl next door to save her from an unwanted betrothal. But once theyāve announced their faux engagement, neither one can cry off without doing damage to the otherās social status.
Daphne intends to remain a spinster, so she plots to make the major jilt her firstāwithout realizing heās busy plotting the same thing! With both of them on their worst behavior, neither expects their fake betrothal to lead to loveā¦ š
What inspired you to write in this genre and how do you research and prepare for your books?
I love writing historical romance because it gives me the freedom to put complex characters in impossible situations and help them find love anyway. The hardest part is keeping to the constraints of historical accuracy. I have dozens of physical research books, dozens of research e-books, hundreds of bookmarked links, reams of handwritten notes from visits to period cities and houses, and a well-tagged Evernote database for everything else.
I research what my characters are wearing, what they’re eating, what’s happening in the world during the dates of the story, money, travel, legalities, and whether the words I use existed in the time period. It’s impossible to catch everything, but I easily spend hours poring over every page. My critique partners and my editor are fabulous, too. I couldn’t do it without them.
How long does it take to write each book? It generally takes me 3-6 months to write a book. I already had two complete books ready to go before the series prequel launched. I try to start working on the next one while the previous one is out for editing or critique, in order to help minimize the downtime between books.
Your covers are fantastic and I love the dresses the girls are wearing. Do you design your own covers? Thank you!! And yes, I do! It often takes three times as long to find the right starting image as it does to create the initial mockups. I’m so glad you like the covers!
Thank you again!
8 Tantalizing Tidbits:
1. A must read book and why? It’s not a romance, but a book I read recently that’s really stuck with me is The Girl With All The Gifts, by M. R. Carey. It’s hard to explain everything I loved about it without giving away the best plot twists, but at its heart, it’s about what humanity really means, literally and figuratively, in a post-apocalyptic world. Nothing is black-and-white, and often the good guys and the bad guys turn out to be precisely the opposite, depending on your perspective. I loved that. I really enjoy books that turn stereotypes upside down. Bonus points if they can make me laugh, make me cry, and make me gasp in surprise.
2. What is one place that I should see if I visit your hometown? I live in Nuevo Arenal, Costa Rica, a stone’s throw from Lake Arenal, the biggest and prettiest lake in the country. So definitely you should come see it! If it’s a clear day, there will be windsurfers on the lake, and you may even be able to see one or two of the closest volcanos!
3. When you plot out your book do you know how it will end or do you figure it out as you go?
I definitely know how it will end, although I might not always know exactly how I’ll get there. I use the writing software Scrivener to organize my ideas and keep plot threads and character details consistent across each series.
For me, knowing ahead of time what is supposed to happen helps me to sit down and make it happen. Without a roadmap, I find myself spending too much time staring helplessly at a blank page.
I love knowing how a story will end because it gives me something to layer toward. The ending to The Captain’s Bluestocking Mistress is precisely what the heroine needs, and the ending to The Major’s Faux FiancĆ©e is exactly what the hero needs. But even I get surprised sometimes by the pages in-between!
4. Do you watch a TV show weekly or binge watch? Binge watch! Since I live in the rainforest, Netflix is pretty much my only option when it comes to TV. I’m sooo sad that I can’t stream Hulu Plus and Amazon Prime from outside of the U.S. Especially now that Amazon has some great looking original programming! (I’ve read all the Bosch books, so I’m particularly bitter about being denied that one, lol.)
5. What is the craziest souvenir you picked up while traveling? Do you collect things when you travel?
I am not much for knick-knacks, so I promised myself that if I ever collected travel souvenirs, it would need to be something small, inexpensive, and eminently practical. Thus: shot glasses!! LOL. It seemed like a good idea before there were three or four dozen of them…
I have two wall-mounted shot glass cabinets (this is a real thing!! You should’ve seen how excited I was to learn shot glass cabinets existed) and on exactly one occasion–my last birthday party in Florida–every single shot glass was used in a birthday toast. See?? I told you shot glasses were practical! š
6. Castles or Beaches? Castles! I love beaches, and they’re perfect for relaxing, but there’s just nothing like a good castle. My youngest brother and I went on a road trip around Ireland and the UK a few years ago, and we explored every single castle we came across. They are all vastly different! It was such a wonderful, eye-opening experience.
7. Favorite sports and team? Chicago Bears were my #1, but I lived in Tampa for almost twelve years, so it’s impossible not to have a soft spot for the Buccaneers (NFL), Storm (AFL), Rays (MLB), and Lightning (NHL). Of course, now that I live in Latin America, there’s only one sport that matters: soccer!
8. When you are traveling do you road trip it or fly it?
Depends! If I’m crossing an ocean or the entire United States diagonally, I fly. But I’ve road-tripped it between Florida and the Midwest states on multiple occasions–once, it took me three weeks to get from Chicago to Tampa because there were so many great places to see on the way down.
Here in Costa Rica, I drive almost everywhere. When I cross the border into Nicaragua, it’s either on foot or on a boat, depending on whether there’s a river in the way!
BIO:
Erica Ridley learned to read when she was three, which was about the same time she decided to be a writer when she grew up.
Now, Erica is a USA Today best-selling author of historical romance novels. Her latest series, The Dukes of War, features roguish peers and dashing war heroes who return from battle only to be thrust into the splendor and madness of Regency England.
When not reading or writing romances, Erica can be found riding camels in Africa, ziplining through rainforests in Costa Rica, or getting hopelessly lost in the middle ofBudapest.
Website: https://www.EricaRidley.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EricaRidley
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/EricaRidley
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/EricaRidley
