Author Interview!
What inspired you to write this book?
The initial trigger was a response that was not made to an apology. Teresa responded instead, and it was the first line I wrote, even though it is now in chapter two. Add in a comment by E.L. James in an interview, and a dark and stormy night, and the story developed from there.
What can we expect from you in the future?
Guilty Knowledge, a police procedural/interracial romance, will be released by the Wild Rose Press sometime this year. I also have two literary short stories coming up, in Thema Literary Journal and Louisiana Literature. After that I’m hoping to get another romantic suspense novel into shape, The Way to a Woman’s Heart, about a female cop and a man who loves to cook. There’s a murder mystery in it too.
Teresa Lansing is a small town girl, a veterinary assistant and single mother of six-year-old Aiden, who is deaf. Her schoolteacher boyfriend Brett broke her heart by cheating on her when he got drunk after being unjustly fired. Frank McAlister is a sexy SWAT cop, new in town, but set on sweeping Teresa off her feet. Brett is trying to win her back, though, and Frank might be more than she can handle.
Where did you come up with the names in the story?
I wanted a simple, old-fashioned name for Teresa. Frank McAlister is named after someone special, but in such a roundabout way that nobody is likely to guess. I chose Aiden from a list of names popular the year he was born. All of the places the characters visit on two trips to the coast are based on real ones in Oregon, and I had a lot of fun changing the names. Transforming Florence into the fictional Genoa was the most obvious.
Who designed your book covers?
The cover for Seventeen Days is by Tina Lynn Stout. Abigail Owen designed the one for The Rebound Effect. I’ve requested her for Guilty Knowledge as well, but it will be the publisher’s decision.
Anything specific you want to tell your readers?
The publisher lists The Rebound Effect as romantic suspense, but some reviewers felt that it wasn’t a romance at all. I think it does have a happily ever after ending, but it’s not the one the reader might initially expect. It might be considered a psychological thriller rather than a romance. It has been described as a cautionary tale of love and betrayal, and I hope it also has a message of forgiveness.
How did you come up with name of this book?
The original title was Whirlwind, as in whirlwind romance, but the publisher already had a novel with that title. After a lively back and forth with my wonderful editor, Nan Swanson, we settled on The Rebound Effect. In medical terms, it refers to the return and often worsening of symptoms after treatment is stopped. Love is a dangerous illness, and a woman on the rebound is particularly vulnerable.
What is your favorite part of this book and why?
I have more than one favorite scene and don’t want to give away any plot details, so I’ll say the ravioli scene. It was fun to write and also reveals aspects of Frank’s character. I also enjoyed the climactic scene, which Kirkus Reviews called “legitimately frightening.” I always knew it would take place on a dark and stormy night.
If you could spend time with a character from your book whom would it be? And what would you do during that day?
Seven-year-old Sasha is one of my favorite characters. She has a unique perspective on the world. We would eat at a restaurant that serves ravioli and do whatever else she wanted to do—maybe the zoo, the beach, or a movie. I would enjoy just listening to her talk.
Are your characters based off real people or did they all come entirely from your imagination?
They are entirely imaginary, except that Teresa has more of me than any of my other characters, from her T-shirts to her religious philosophy.
They do hijack the story sometimes. They don’t always do or say what I want them to, but it’s fine as long as they keep talking to me and to each other.
Have you written any other books that are not published?
Yes, some that I hope will be, and some that never should be.
What did you edit out of this book?
I was originally asked to take out one subject area that didn’t fit the publisher’s image, but it was integral to the story. We settled for editing the scenes in question. I think they were originally overwritten—the words just kept coming, and I threw everything in—so the end result was a real improvement. Kudos to my editor!
The initial trigger was a response that was not made to an apology. Teresa responded instead, and it was the first line I wrote, even though it is now in chapter two. Add in a comment by E.L. James in an interview, and a dark and stormy night, and the story developed from there.
What can we expect from you in the future?
Guilty Knowledge, a police procedural/interracial romance, will be released by the Wild Rose Press sometime this year. I also have two literary short stories coming up, in Thema Literary Journal and Louisiana Literature. After that I’m hoping to get another romantic suspense novel into shape, The Way to a Woman’s Heart, about a female cop and a man who loves to cook. There’s a murder mystery in it too.
Can you tell us a little bit about the characters in The Rebound Effect?
Where did you come up with the names in the story?
I wanted a simple, old-fashioned name for Teresa. Frank McAlister is named after someone special, but in such a roundabout way that nobody is likely to guess. I chose Aiden from a list of names popular the year he was born. All of the places the characters visit on two trips to the coast are based on real ones in Oregon, and I had a lot of fun changing the names. Transforming Florence into the fictional Genoa was the most obvious.
Who designed your book covers?
The cover for Seventeen Days is by Tina Lynn Stout. Abigail Owen designed the one for The Rebound Effect. I’ve requested her for Guilty Knowledge as well, but it will be the publisher’s decision.
Anything specific you want to tell your readers?
The publisher lists The Rebound Effect as romantic suspense, but some reviewers felt that it wasn’t a romance at all. I think it does have a happily ever after ending, but it’s not the one the reader might initially expect. It might be considered a psychological thriller rather than a romance. It has been described as a cautionary tale of love and betrayal, and I hope it also has a message of forgiveness.
How did you come up with name of this book?
The original title was Whirlwind, as in whirlwind romance, but the publisher already had a novel with that title. After a lively back and forth with my wonderful editor, Nan Swanson, we settled on The Rebound Effect. In medical terms, it refers to the return and often worsening of symptoms after treatment is stopped. Love is a dangerous illness, and a woman on the rebound is particularly vulnerable.
What is your favorite part of this book and why?
I have more than one favorite scene and don’t want to give away any plot details, so I’ll say the ravioli scene. It was fun to write and also reveals aspects of Frank’s character. I also enjoyed the climactic scene, which Kirkus Reviews called “legitimately frightening.” I always knew it would take place on a dark and stormy night.
If you could spend time with a character from your book whom would it be? And what would you do during that day?
Seven-year-old Sasha is one of my favorite characters. She has a unique perspective on the world. We would eat at a restaurant that serves ravioli and do whatever else she wanted to do—maybe the zoo, the beach, or a movie. I would enjoy just listening to her talk.
Are your characters based off real people or did they all come entirely from your imagination?
They are entirely imaginary, except that Teresa has more of me than any of my other characters, from her T-shirts to her religious philosophy.
Do your characters seem to hijack the story or do you feel like you have the reigns of the story?
Have you written any other books that are not published?
Yes, some that I hope will be, and some that never should be.
What did you edit out of this book?
I was originally asked to take out one subject area that didn’t fit the publisher’s image, but it was integral to the story. We settled for editing the scenes in question. I think they were originally overwritten—the words just kept coming, and I threw everything in—so the end result was a real improvement. Kudos to my editor!
In the small town of Cougar, struggling single mother and veterinary assistant Teresa Lansing is still bruised from a failed relationship when Frank McAllister sweeps her off her feet.
Frank is a big-city SWAT officer who moved to Cougar only four months ago. He's handsome, charming, forceful, very sexy, and a bit mysterious. He had his eye on Teresa even before they met and is pushing for a serious relationship right away.
Teresa finds his intense courtship flattering, and the sex is fabulous, but she doesn't want her deaf six-year-old son to be hurt again. Her former fiancé cheated on her when he got drunk after being unjustly fired, but he loves her and her son, and the whirlwind romance is complicated by his efforts to win Teresa back.
And then there's the matter of the bodies buried at Big Devil Creek…
Frank is a big-city SWAT officer who moved to Cougar only four months ago. He's handsome, charming, forceful, very sexy, and a bit mysterious. He had his eye on Teresa even before they met and is pushing for a serious relationship right away.
Teresa finds his intense courtship flattering, and the sex is fabulous, but she doesn't want her deaf six-year-old son to be hurt again. Her former fiancé cheated on her when he got drunk after being unjustly fired, but he loves her and her son, and the whirlwind romance is complicated by his efforts to win Teresa back.
And then there's the matter of the bodies buried at Big Devil Creek…
I was born and raised in San Diego, California and earned a BA in English from San Diego State University and an MLS from UCLA. I began my career as a reference and collection development librarian in the Art and Music Section of the San Diego Public Library and then transferred to the Literature and Languages Section, where I had the pleasure of managing the Central Library's Fiction collection and initiating fiction order lists for the entire library system. Although I also enjoy reading biography, memoir, and history, fiction remains my first love. In addition to the three R's--reading, writing, and research--I enjoy Scrabble, movies, and travel.
My earliest ambition was to be a "book maker" and I wrote my first story, "Judy and the Fairies," with a plot stolen from a comic book, at the age of six. I broke into print in college with a story in the San Diego State University literary journal, The Phoenix, but most of my magazine publications came after I left the library to spend more time on my writing
My stories have been published in numerous journals, including Eclectica, The Binnacle, The Nassau Review, Orbis, Thema Literary Journal, and forthcoming in Avalon Literary Review, and and in the anthologies Short Story America, Vol. 2 and The Captive and the Dead. Four stories, including two as yet unpublished, received honorable mention in the Short Story America Prize for Short Fiction contests.
Member of RWA and Authors Guild.
Giveaway!
enjoyed the interview
ReplyDeleteThank you, Jodi. Thanks for dropping by.
DeleteI like the cover, sounds like a good book.
ReplyDelete