First, if we were meeting at a coffee shop I’d be drinking a Latte 🙂
What would you order? A skinny latte with a shot of mint or a chocolate mint frappuchino – depends on how I’m feeling.

Thanks so much for taking the time to answer a few questions. My pleasure – delighted to take part!

I LOVE books about hockey and your series about The New Jersey Ice Cats is on my wish list 🙂 Aww thank you. And yay to finding another person who loves books about hockey!

How many books do you anticipate in this series? The plan at the moment is for six books, a few novellas and some shorts. I’m currently writing book 4 and have book 5 outlined.

How much research did you do for this? Lots! Aside from watching a lot of hockey J, attending a number of NHL team hockey practices, I read a lot of hockey non-fiction, especially biographies, and watched some behind the scenes documentaries like 24/7: The Road to the Winter Classic. I was lucky enough that my favourite team (for whom we had season tickets) – the New Jersey Devils – graciously agreed to help me with my research. The then-owner, Jeff Vanderbeek, set me up with a ‘backstage’ tour of the arena and an interview with former Devils great, Ken Daneyko. You can read about those on my website (www.annasugden.com/extras/readers) and even see me on my Zamboni ride!

Were you a fan of hockey before you started writing this series? Definitely!

What was the inspiration for writing a hockey series? It actually started with the inspiration for writing about one player, Jake ‘Bad Boy’ Badoletti (the hero of A Perfect Distraction). I was intrigued by the difference between the on-ice and off-ice personas of several great hockey players – especially one of my favourite players, Scott Stevens. How someone who was a hard man of the ice and caused numerous concussions, could be a quiet, humble, generous and kind person off the ice. And once I got to thinking about him, the rest of the team followed!

I can only imagine how much fun that would be! The best!

Were you able to hang out with any hunky ice-hockey players? Oh yes! Of course, the best was actually hanging out with Scott Stevens himself!

8 Tantalizing Tidbits 🙂

1. A Must read book and why? OMG just one?! I can’t even pick just one author or even one genre, let alone one book! It’s hard enough to choose a top ten! So, I’m going to cheat and give you two – Tess Gerritsen’s The Surgeon and Lisa Gardner’s Say Goodbye. Both are beautifully crafted romantic suspense/thrillers which gripped me from the first word and which stayed with me for a long time after. They did what few books do and surprised me, with really clever twists.

2. What is one place that I should see if I visit your hometown? Cambridge is a beautiful, historic city and the colleges that make up the famous university are awe-inspiring. A tour of those would be well worth it!

3. Castles or Beaches? Beaches. Castles are interesting, but we have the odd one or two here in England J. I LOVE a beautiful beach. I think there is something about water that speaks to my soul because I feel at peace when I’m on a beach with my toes in the sand and water lapping around my ankles.

4. Hard Rock or Classical? Favorite Band or Artist? Rock chick all the way – though I admit to having very eclectic tastes (which includes classical!). I don’t have a particular favourite, but if there was one band I could have seen in its heyday, it would have been Queen.

5. If you had an all expenses paid trip anywhere in the world for research, where would you go? I’d actually like to do a trip which took in everywhere that penguins live, including Antartica. So Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the Falklands etc.

6. What is your guilty pleasure? Hmm which one to choose? LOL shoes or opals? Probably shoes, because I can’t feel too guilty about opals 😉

7. Tats or No Tats? If tats, how many and what did you choose for your first one? I don’t have any, but wish I was brave enough to have them. If I could have one, it would be a red gerbera daisy with a K in the middle (for my husband) and I’d have it high on my thigh.

8. If you could invite 5 people to dinner (not friends and family – that’s too easy) who would you invite? It could be anyone past or present. Cary Grant, Errol Flynn, Audrey Hepburn, Katherine Hepburn and Paul Newman. Wouldn’t that be a fun evening?!

THANK YOU SO MUCH for your time.

BIO:

Award-winning, Harlequin SuperRomance author, Anna Sugden, loves reading romance novels and watching films with happy endings. She also loves watching hockey and football, where she prefers a happy ending for her teams (Go Devils, Man UTD, Exeter, ‘Skins!). When she’s not researching hockey players (for her books, of course), she makes craft projects and collects penguins, autographs and memorabilia, and great shoes.

A former marketing executive and primary teacher, Anna lives in Cambridge, England, with her husband and two bossy black cats. Learn more about Anna, her books and her shoes at www.annasugden.com .

You can also follow her on Facebook (facebook.com/annasugden.romanceauthor) , Twitter (twitter.com/annasugden), Pinterest(pinterest.com/annasugden) and on the Romance Bandits blog (www.romancebandits.com).