First, if we were meeting at a coffee shop I’d be drinking a Latte 🙂

What would you order? I’d probably have a latte, too, unless we’re in my hometown (San Diego), in which case I’d be having a Mexican hot chocolate. I live in the Netherlands now, and I can’t find Mexican hot chocolate anywhere. I crave it! (And fresh tortilla chips, and guacamole, and cheese enchiladas… What were we talking about?)

Thanks so much for taking the time to answer a few questions. I love Sport Series Romance books. Your series about the London Legends Rugby Team sounds delicious. Thank you! I have to admit, I do love my rugby boys. 🙂

How many books do you anticipate in this series? Well, the fourth full-length book (Taming the Legend) comes out on May 11. There’s also a Christmas novella (Unwrapping Her Perfect Match), so that’s five books so far. I’m planning to write two more books, one about Alfie Hardwick (known as Hardy), who had to retire suddenly when a tragedy struck his family, and one about a young alpha stud named Sean Castells. Both Hardy and Sean first made an appearance in Tempting the Player, and readers have been asking me for their stories ever since!

How much research did you do for this? Each book is different, but I’ve been lucky enough to do some cool things for research. My husband’s cousin just retired as the team doctor for a pro rugby team in Dublin, so he has been a huge help with behind-the-scenes info (like what a typical practice looks like, what a weekly schedule is like, the players’ diets, training regimens, fall-back careers, etc).

In Tempting the Player, the heroine is a pilot who teaches the hero how to fly in order to help him overcome the terror he feels every time he gets on a plane. For that book, I interviewed two pilots and even took a flying lesson with one of them! You can see a short video on my website.

For Taming the Legend, I was really struggling with the story, and I talked about it with my good friend Lise. She works with a mega-famous rugby player, Ben Cohen, who retired and founded the Ben Cohen StandUp Foundation to fight bullying and promote respect. Lise took me over to his house and told him I write romance novels about rugby players and was struggling with my story. He was so incredibly kind and generous with his time (and funny! Oh my God, funny, funny, funny). He made me a cup of coffee and asked what I wanted to know. Of course, my brain went completely befuddled, so I probably just babbled something at him, but later on I looked at the notes I’d taken and discovered that he’d given me two key pieces of info that completely changed the story. It was like he unlocked something in my head, and the story started coming together. So I owe him and Lise a lot!

Were you a fan of rugby before you started writing this series? Yes! I can’t imagine writing five books about something I don’t enjoy.

I’ll be honest, though: I’ve never been the kind of person who follows sports news or can remember details about games. My husband can see a clip on TV and within two seconds say, “Oh, yeah, that’s the match from 1992 when So-and-So did Whatever, and Blah-Blah team won by three points with 42 seconds left on the clock.” I can watch a match, completely enjoy it, scream till my lungs bleed, and then–two hours later–forget who won. Also, I didn’t grow up watching or playing rugby, so I learn new things all the time.

What was the inspiration for writing a Rugby series? I can only imagine how much fun that would be! Were you able to hang out with any hunky Rugby players? Other than that time Ben Cohen took pity on me, the only hunky rugby player I’ve hung out with is my husband. When we first met, he played for a local (non-professional) team in the Czech Republic (though he’s British, not Czech. We met when we were living in Prague, teaching English at the same school). I loved watching him play, and he’s really my inspiration for writing a rugby series. It might sound strange, but my memories of learning about rugby are entwined with my memories of falling in love, so rugby seems like a very romantic (not to mention very sexy!) sport.

Other than that, it’s more like I’ve been in the general vicinity of hunky rugby players. 🙂 Remember I mentioned my husband’s cousin, the now-retired team doctor from Dublin? Years ago, before I started writing, we met up with him at a hotel in London, where he was staying with his team the night before a match. The three of us were having a drink together, and my attention sorta wandered to a guy in gym shorts, sitting on the other side of the hotel lobby. His legs… I just… I can’t even describe them. They were phenomenal. After some time, I realized my husband and cousin had gone totally silent, so I looked at them and they were both staring at me, grinning, like “You are so busted.” My husband said, “Finished perving over Jamie Heaslip’s legs?” And I thought, “No, never…”

The only Rugby player I follow is Stuart Reardon, a North Wales Crusaders footballer. Not only is he a talented athlete, he’s a model and VERY easy on the eyes 😉 Did you see the calendar he put out? OMG!
I follow Stu, too, and yeah, his calendar is…distracting. Fortunately, staring at pictures of hot rugby players is a perfectly valid form of research for me…right? 😉

He’s also a personal trainer, and there was a brief moment when I lost my mind and considered signing up for one of his courses. Then I remembered that the most strenuous thing I’ve done in the past two years is give birth, and that mostly just involved me lying on my back and gurning, so trying to keep up with a professional athlete would probably kill me. Either that, or I would end up sitting on the couch munching my way through a bag of potato chips while watching Stu work out–which would also end up killing me, but much more slowly.

Congrats on your upcoming release of Taming the Legend (London Legends Book 4). Fans must be anxious! Lucky for them they won’t have to wait much longer. Thank you! I hope it lives up to fans’ expectations!

Ok, before you go I just want to mention that you also have a new series, The Wild Montana Nights series that released March 27th. It sounds interesting – a complete switch from Legends. Was that easy?

Thank you! It’s been easy in some ways, difficult in others. The first book in the series, One Night with Her Bachelor, was such a joy to write. I love the story, the characters and all the intense problems they face. But these books require quite a bit of research into areas I’m not familiar with–all really interesting stuff, like Air Force pararescuemen, search and rescue, wilderness adventure sports, but it’s easy for me to get distracted and discover I spent my whole writing time watching videos of pararescuemen jumping out of helicopters.

How many books do you anticipate in this series? Three. One Night with Her Bachelor, Two Nights with His Bride (June 8), and one later this year that I don’t have a title for yet but will undoubtedly revolve around a couple spending three nights together. The series is also related to Taming the Legend.

Looks like you have a lot of great reads coming out soon – super excited and look forward to spreading the word soon!
Thank you so much, Rae! I really appreciate all your support!

Thanks again, I had a blast! Happy Writing! Thanks for having me! *downs the rest of her latte*

8 Tantalizing Tidbits:

1. A Must read book and why? The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter. It’s a collection of feminist retellings of classic fairy tales. “The Company of Wolves” is one of my favorite stories ever.

2. What is one place that I should see if I visit your hometown? The La Jolla Cove. It’s a small beach surrounded by cliffs. I used to spend my summers snorkeling and body surfing there. It also has some caves that I used to imagine hid pirates’ treasure, so it’s a great place for storytellers!

3. Castles or Beaches? Beaches!

4. What is one thing readers would be surprised to know about you? I’m actually quite shy in real life and have to push myself hard to introduce myself to people I don’t know. Social media makes it much easier. Now when I go to conferences, there are dozens of people I’ve already had conversations with, even though I haven’t met them yet in person.

5. If you had an all expenses paid trip anywhere in the world for research, where would you go? Right now? New Zealand. I just re-read Nalini Singh’s Rock Hard, and it made me really want to visit the Land of Rugby.

6. Tats or No Tats? If tats, how many and what did you choose for your first one? No tats, though I love looking at other people’s tats. I just can’t do anything that permanent. If I chose one, it would be the Greek word agape, which is a pure, selfless kind of love.

7. What is one thing you can’t live without? These days it’s my phone. Sad, I know.

8. Do you love to cook or go out to eat? My husband does most of the cooking. I’d much rather eat out or get take-out!

THANK YOU SO MUCH for your time.

*******Giveaway*******
Kat Latham has generously donated an e-book (Amazon or B & N) for todays giveaway.

Today’s giveaway is winner’s choice – any published e-book by Kat Latham to one lucky reader who comments below on the following:

Thanks for joining us for coffee. What’s in your mug (coffee, tea or something else)?

One winner will be randomly selected at the end of the Blitz.
Comment for a chance to win – contest ends on 4/29/15
at 11:59 PM. Winner will be contacted via e-mail so please be sure we can reach you.
Contest open to US and International – Good luck to all!

Don’t forget to enter the other contests on the following posts. Read and comment at the bottom of each.

Author Info:

Kat Latham is a California girl who moved to Europe the day after graduating from UCLA, ditching her tank tops for raincoats. She taught English in Prague and worked as an editor in London before she and her British husband moved to the Netherlands, where they are surrounded by miles and miles of green pasture, canals and Shetland ponies. Kat’s slowly adjusting to life in a place where bicycles and cows seem to outnumber people.

With degrees in English lit and human rights, she loves stories that reflect the humor and emotion of real life. Kat’s other career involves writing and editing for charities, and she’s had the privilege of traveling to Kenya, Ethiopia and India to write about the heroic people helping their communities survive disasters.

You can usually find Kat on her blog (katlatham.com), Twitter (@KatrinaLatham), Facebook (facebook.com/KatLathamRomance) and Goodreads. She hopes you’ll hang out with her there!