Episode 13: A ‘What If?’ at the Heart of Stories, with Ann Christopher

Ann Christopher is an award-winning author who likes good food, great stories and killing off her characters. Host Patricia McLinn talks with Ann about her process for moving from a “what if?” question to a completed novel.

You can find Ann on:

*her website,

*Facebook and

*Twitter

Thanks to DialogMusik for the instrumentals that accompany this podcast.

Episode 12: Romance Is Hope, with Lisa Hughey

Lisa Hughey talks with host Patricia McLinn about her move from California to New England, how research leads to plot development, and her thoughts about characters after her books are finished.

You can find Lisa on:

*her website,

*Facebook and

*Twitter

Thanks to DialogMusik for the instrumentals that accompany this podcast.

Authors Love Readers with Lisa Hughey

Patricia McLinn [00:00] Hi, welcome to this week’s Authors Love Readers podcast, where we delve into the stories behind the stories. We’re asking authors questions. Some of them fun. Some of them serious. And from their answers, you’re going to learn things you never knew about the people who write the stories you love. My name is Patricia McLinn. I’m your host and designated question asker.

Lisa Hughey [00:23] I’m Lisa Hughey and I’m an author who loves readers.

Patricia McLinn [00:27] Now, let’s start the show.

Hi, and welcome to the Authors Love Readers podcast for the week. This is Lisa Hughey visiting us today. Um, I haven’t known Lisa as long as a lot of the other authors I’ve talked to so far, but we met at a Novelists, Inc. conference.

You know, that might be, uh, an ongoing thread of how I know these people. We hit it off, and had really interesting conversations. So I’m looking forward to continuing that, especially because I get to ask the questions. And the first question is going to be to have Lisa tell us a little bit about what you write.

Lisa Hughey [01:06] Hi, Pat. Thanks for having me. My name is Lisa Hughey and I write, um, almost everything. I write romantic suspense, romantic thrillers, paranormal romance, and I’m branching it out into contemporary romance a little bit more now.

Patricia McLinn [01:22] Did you get a lot of advice to not do that, to focus more on one genre?

Lisa Hughey [01:27] You know, I think when you’re, especially when you’re starting out, that’s, I think that’s solid advice, and I adhered to that. So I started with romantic suspense, and I had, I want to say seven or eight books in that genre. Then I had this paranormal that I had written that I really liked, so I continued on with that series.

And, um, I, actually, the reason I started contempt was I did a shared world with some friends.

Patricia McLinn [01:58] Oh.

Lisa Hughey [01:59] And so even though that wasn’t my genre, I really wanted to do this with a group of friends. So I did that and then wrote a follow-on novella, um, to that same, in that same world. And then, you know, last year was kind of a rough year and I wanted to write something happy, so even though maybe it’s not the best career move, I didn’t care. Honestly, I want to write, so I’m happy., Lighter, happier.

Patricia McLinn [02:24] And did that help?

Lisa Hughey [02:26] Yeah. Yes, well, so I actually have been working on the series world and haven’t written that much in the world. I had a, I did a, um, a book in a, another shared world called, um, Camp Firefly Falls. And in that book, I introduced this, um, This new contemporary series. And so I’ve been playing around with the, all the characters in the series, but haven’t written much of the books. There’s going to be five books, and I’m working on book one right now.

But yes, it was great. It’s been a lot of fun because even though my suspense isn’t like super dark, I do a lot of research that gets into darker things and I may brush over it in terms of like the plot, but, you know, if you start reading a lot of dark stuff, it can impact you. And the world’s been kind of dark in the last year or so. I wanted to go the opposite and I think it, I think it was good for me personally.

Patricia McLinn [03:20] I got a lot of advice, um, from people, especially earlier in my career to, to do the same thing, you know, to stay within a narrow bracket of what I was doing. And I didn’t want to. I kept being told I was pushing the envelope. And I said, What envelope and where, and where is the edge? So I empathize with that a lot. And my question then is how, what response have you gotten from the readers? How do they feel about it? Do you find you have different readership for different things that you’re writing or people following you from one to the other?

Lisa Hughey [03:56] Definitely different readership, which I found out, um, I released, um, in 2016 I released two in a paranormal suspense. So not, paranormal romantic suspense, um, it’s like, uh, remote viewing, but still in my suspense genre. And, um, my readers did not follow. They were not interested in those books at all, which was—

Patricia McLinn [04:23] Hmm.

Lisa Hughey [04:24] —news to me that was a little bit of a fail. But what just, you know, it’s fine. I tend to write like light paranormal. Like it’s not, I don’t create like this whole crazy and there’s no vampires or werewolves, it’s, it’s more like a paranormal overlay of my, of existing suspense plots. And, um, my readers follow me there. But I just did a survey, um, my last newsletter, I sent out a survey asking people to rank, like what of mine they do read. And I think my suspense people have carried over into my regular contemporary romance.

Patricia McLinn [04:59] Aah, that’s interesting.

Lisa Hughey [05:02] Which that’s good. Since the suspense is where more of my core readers are anyway, and, you know, I probably shouldn’t keep writing the paranormal, but I like it. I like it’s, you know, it’s I find it fascinating. So I’m going to keep doing it, even if only like a hundred people read them.

Patricia McLinn [05:18] Well, there, you know, there should for, shouldn’t quote for business reasons, but then there should for, um, keeping you fresh and interested in the writing. And I think when you’re doing a fun project, a project that’s fun for you, I think that carries over to everything that you’re writing and sort of effervesces all the other work, that you’re working on.

Lisa Hughey [05:43] That’s a good word. Yeah, I would agree. I think that as much as, like I said, I didn’t, my suspense readers didn’t necessarily carry over, I loved writing those books. I find it’s a fascinating subject, you know, remote viewing is like the idea that you, you basically like leave your body in one place in your mind travels somewhere else. And it’s actually based on the CIA program that existed in the seventies.

Patricia McLinn [06:06] Umhmm.

Lisa Hughey [06:07] And I basically recreated it in, uh, you know, two-thousands. Uh, and it was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun to read. Like I read books by people who have supposedly done this remote viewing, and they’re not like the guy who wrote the one book I read, it’s not a woo-woo guy, he’s a, he was military, I think he was a Marine. And then he worked for the CIA. Like not somebody that you would think of who would even believe that that was possible. So it’s, it’s fascinating.

Patricia McLinn [06:36] Well, it sounds to me like what writer, what writers do all the time. Our bodies stay in one place and our minds go all over the place.

Lisa Hughey [06:45] Yes, so true.

Patricia McLinn [06:49] Okay, let’s ask you some quick questions to let readers get to know you better.

Lisa Hughey [06:52] Okay.

Patricia McLinn [06:53] Um, uh, I’ll give you an easy one first. What’s your favorite color and why?

Lisa Hughey [06:59] My favorite color is green. I think it has to do with the fact that nature, most of nature is green. I like being outside. I like plants, even though I kill them. I just, I find, I find green, very soothing.

Patricia McLinn [07:13] Oh, that’s great. Do you have a favorite taste?

Lisa Hughey [07:16] Salt.

Fear of open heights and telemarking as a teen

Patricia McLinn [07:18] Ah. You know, there I’m surprised at how many of the authors are going to the salt. I thought a lot more of us would be toward the sweet, but okay. Do you have any strong fears and have they shown, have you used that then in books?

Lisa Hughey [07:34] I am terrified of open heights. So I’m not great in the—

Patricia McLinn [07:39] Uh.

Lisa Hughey [07:40] —and no, I can’t even, I can’t write about that. Like I, I get vertigo. I don’t know. No, I can’t, I can’t write about it even.

Patricia McLinn [07:49] Can you access some of that fear to, to use for other fears and in your books? Or is it so visceral that you just steer clear?

Lisa Hughey [08:00] Actually, yes. So that I can do. So I’ll think about how I feel when I’m on the edge of a mountain, like a lookout or something, I’ll take that, cause I, I mean, I literally have like that flight reaction.

Patricia McLinn [08:14] Okay. Have you had any surprising jobs in your life?

Lisa Hughey [08:18] Surprising jobs. So my very first job, I think I was, I was 12 or 13 and I, I was, it was like the precursor to telemarketing, but that’s what I was doing. I was sitting up in this attic in this old house with a telephone and a phone book, you know, with paper and a pen.

And I would call, I was cold calling people from the phone book to see if they would come into this dress shop. Um, this woman sold like designer clothes made specifically for people, so they were custom, and she was trying to get people into her shop for appointments. And that’s what I did. It was awful.

Patricia McLinn [09:02] I bet it was.

Lisa Hughey [09:03] It was horrible.

Patricia McLinn [09:04] Wow.

Lisa Hughey [09:05] It was before telemarketers. Like it was literally like before telemarketers were a thing, so, you know, people were surprised that you were calling and, it was a crazy way. I can’t, I can’t even believe she had us do that when I look back on it.

Patricia McLinn [09:18] And if you sound like your age, I would imagine that will throw some people off too.

Lisa Hughey [09:23] Yeah, because I was young.

Patricia McLinn [09:24] And that’s such a specific it’s crazy.

Lisa Hughey [09:27] It was a nightmare.

Patricia McLinn [09:28] So telemarketing was not your future.

Lisa Hughey [09:30] No.

Patricia McLinn [09:31] Okay. So from still sticking with your childhood, though, did you have any books that really, really opened the idea of stories to you, that really made you love them?

Lisa Hughey [09:44] Oh, you know, I loved to read, I don’t remember super early, but Nancy Drew, Pippi Longstocking. And then, you know, as I started reading, uh, more adult books, fairly young. Uh, my mom loves romance, so I was reading her Harlequins like her, um, Presents, when I was like thirteen.

Patricia McLinn [10:08] Oh yeah. When you were, when you were younger, did you use to fret about anything or multiple things that now you say, Oh, for heaven sakes, what was I worried about?

Lisa Hughey [10:21] I used to just always be polite, even if somebody was rude to me or, or, you know, kind of like if you got the wrong thing in a restaurant, I’d just smile and eat it, cause I didn’t want to, I didn’t want to make waves. And now I won’t do that. I, I, as a matter of fact, last week I just had my hotel room moved because it was this ridiculously small room. And I thought I was paying for a room, like not a closet. And I would’ve just said, Oh, well I guess it’s all they have. And I, I was, I said, no, this is not what I’m paying for.

Patricia McLinn [10:54] There’s a, there’s a great book. This isn’t quite the same thing, but there’s a great book called, um, Women Don’t Negotiate, Women Won’t ask, I think that’s it. It’s the gender divide on negotiating. And it’s a really fascinating book. One of the things I always thought that I was moderately assertive, and when I read it, I realized I wasn’t especially always.

And the other thing that, really kind of hit me was that it said that the younger generation and the, she taught the, um, author taught at Wharton business school and she was using her students for some of the studies. So these are intelligent, you know, business oriented young women and they were still making the same mistakes.

They were still not negotiating, not asking. And it hurts them throughout their careers. Especially in negotiating the very first salary, uh, because then, so, yeah, it tends to be, um, subsequent, uh, raises are based as a percentage of that initial salary. So you’re always in the hole. So I highly recommend that to anybody. Um, I may give it a reread myself, see how I’m doing.

Lisa Hughey [12:16] You know, I think we’re taught to be polite. You know, we’re taught not to make waves, be polite, be nice to everybody. And that’s fine as a general, you know, like treat people with kindness. But it’s not okay if you’re just getting walked over, you know, like walked on all the time. And I, I do think that we do are, our daughters are disservice by making them too nice.

Patricia McLinn [12:40] Well, and I, I believe that you can be polite while you are also standing up for yourself.

Lisa Hughey [12:46] Right.

Patricia McLinn [12:47] You don’t have to be nasty. Sometimes I want to be nasty if they pushed me, if they’ve hit my, my temper, but most of the time I find if, if you are adamant, but polite that things will come around the way they should be, you know, like with your meal. You know, if you ordered the wrong meal comes.

I had you as a kid. Now I’m going to ask you a high school type question or teens. Did you have a song at that point in your life that you thought just, This is me, this, this speaks to me?

Lisa Hughey [13:21] So, you know, I actually, I thought about that question a lot. I hope it’s okay for me to say that you send us questions, so we have some idea.

Patricia McLinn [13:27] Sure.

Lisa Hughey [13:28] And I couldn’t necessarily—

Patricia McLinn [13:30] And then I spring other ones.

Lisa Hughey [13:32] Yeah, exactly. Just to throw us off. I prepared, Pat. Um, so my thing is I love music. Pretty much all kinds. I think the only thing that I’m not, the only type of music that I’m not crazy about is jazz. And I apologize to jazz musicians everywhere, it just doesn’t really work for me. And like super angry German Bogner classical. Besides that I like, I like everything. So I was trying to think if I had a specific song and I, I just can’t, I couldn’t think of anything that really worked.

Now in college, I had a group of friends and, um, Tina Marie’s Lovergirl was our anthem. We made sure it got played at every party we went to, and we all danced together. It’s still, if I hear that song, I think of my friends from college.

Patricia McLinn [14:25] Ohh, that’s wonderful. That’s wonderful. I have one from college is Starry Starry Night. Actually it was earlier than college, I think. But there is something about that song that I just felt was speaking right to me.

Lisa Hughey [14:41] It’s a beautiful song.

Patricia McLinn [14:42] It is. It is. And from college then, we use the old Beatles song There are Places I Remember.

Lisa Hughey [14:50] Oh yeah.

Patricia McLinn [14:51] Is that the title of it? I’m not sure that’s the title, but that some of the lyrics.

Lisa Hughey [14:56] Right.

Patricia McLinn [14:57] And we did that in our final party. Our parting party. And so that has a lot of meaning to me too. Yeah. Well, those are great songs. Really important question here. Are you left-handed or right-handed?

Lisa Hughey [15:13] I’m right-handed.

Patricia McLinn [15:15] On your right hand, is your ring finger or your index finger longer?

Lisa Hughey [15:19] Oh, okay. So, now this is weird, when I looked the other day, they were basically the same length, but now my ring finger is a little longer. So I don’t know what that means.

Patricia McLinn [15:30] You know what, sometimes it’s the angle and especially if you, so put your palm away from you.

Lisa Hughey [15:35] Yeah. My ring finger is just slightly longer.

Patricia McLinn [15:38] And now here’s the, the other part of the question. Is your left hand the same way as your right hand?

Lisa Hughey [15:44] Yes.

Patricia McLinn [15:45] Okay.

Lisa Hughey [15:46] What’s the significance?

Patricia McLinn [15:47] I don’t know what it means. I have no idea.

Lisa Hughey [15:52] Super wisdom to be is imparted. I’m going to learn something.

Patricia McLinn [15:55] I’m just, I’m just curious, that’s all. I, somewhere back in the, way in the recesses of my memory, it says that in hand reading left, or palm reading, left hand is what you started with and your right hand is what you’ve made of yourself. But I have no idea what the significance of the length of your fingers is. Maybe somebody will tell us. So I’ve just been going around asking that nosy question just for the heck of it.

Okay. So I have this, I have this bizarre desert Island in my head where you get, you can play movies, but you can only play three movies forevermore while you’re on this desert Island for however long you’re captured there. So, which three movies are you going to take to my strange little desert island?

Lisa Hughey [16:48] Um, so I’m going to take Little Miss Sunshine. National—

Patricia McLinn [16:52] Mmm.

Lisa Hughey [16:53] National Treasure and Indiana Jones, the first one.

Patricia McLinn [16:57] Okay. I can see a connection between this.

Lisa Hughey [16:59] The second two. Sure.

Patricia McLinn [17:02] Yeah. So what do you see a common thread with all three in, in your mind, is there?

Lisa Hughey [17:17] Not with all three. No.

Patricia McLinn [17:09] You just like it. Good. Okay.

Lisa Hughey [17:11] I love a Little Miss sunshine. I think that, I think it’s brilliant.

Patricia McLinn [17:14] There all, well, upbeat isn’t quite the right fitting word, but, you know, I think of this quote from Jessica Tandy, and I’ve never been able to find it like online to confirm it, but I heard her in an interview say, and this is a paraphrase, that she wanted to make movies that when people left the theater, they were glad to be a member of the human race.

Lisa Hughey [17:37] Oh.

Patricia McLinn [17:38] And I thought, Yes, yes, yes, yes. That those are the kinds of movies I like to, to watch. Those are the kinds of stories I like to read. Those are the stories I want to write. And I can see that as being a thread with those books.

Lisa Hughey [17:53] Yeah. Yeah.

Patricia McLinn [17:54] They, are those movies—

Lisa Hughey [17:56] Yeah, I like that.

Patricia McLinn [17:57] That they appreciate the human race.

Lisa Hughey [17:59] I think, um, all three of those movies too, there’s like a sense of hope at the end, which is pretty much why I write romance, obviously. Um, that’s pretty much the definition of romance, right? Hope, hope for the future.

Patricia McLinn [18:13] Yeah, I like that. So as long as we’re talking about that, do you have, do you have a motivational, upbeat quote that, that you like, that you repeat?

Lisa Hughey [18:23] Uh, yes. Um, mine is, every, everybody’s path is different and another one might, might be, um, comparison is the thief of joy.

Patricia McLinn [18:34] Oh, who said that?

Lisa Hughey [18:36] Oh, shoot. I believe it was Eleanor Roosevelt, but I could be wrong.

Patricia McLinn [18:41] That’s a great one.

Lisa Hughey [18:42] It might’ve been Teddy Roosevelt. I can’t, isn’t it great, I think that whenever I, when I, whenever I have that, like temptation to compare whatever, somebody’s kids or my career or whatever, I think about that, and my path is completely different than their paths. So of course our results are going to be different at this moment in time.

Patricia McLinn [19:06] Yeah, my mom always used to say to me, if we’re comparing myself to somebody, you know, Oh, they got to be on the pompom squad, which I did eventually get on, but not the first year I tried. And she’d say, Okay, but do you want her whole life? I go, Well, no, I just want this, you know, come on, give me a break. And she said, no, it’s a package deal. And I’d say, Oh, darn. I thought that was totally unfair.

Lisa Hughey [19:40] Yeah. That’s smart.

Patricia McLinn [19:43] Yeah. Yeah. So here’s a question from a reader and I’m going to read it as she wrote it. Where do your stories come from? I know one author who dreams her stories, another has a character suddenly taken up residence in her head. So how are your beautiful stories born?

Lisa Hughey [20:02] I love that question. So I actually, um, use things that are happening in the world quite a bit. A lot of times that, especially in my suspense plots, there’s always a kernel of truth. Something that’s happened or something that’s speculated that’s happened. And it’s just provides that little jumping off point.

And then of course, I ignore whatever happened in real life and, you know, make up my own circumstances, but I’ll, I’ll start with something that, that actually happened in, typically in current day, but not always. And then I also think with, with that thing that happened, what’s a good character match for that event or that situation. And then I kind of go from there.

Patricia McLinn [20:47] Okay. So that, that leads into the next question about how you take it from that spark, that, that initial thought and develop it into a book. So your, your next step is looking at the characters.

The mystery of the code breakers in War World II

Lisa Hughey [21:00] And the what-ifs. So, as an example, um, my first thriller, I have a series called, um, Black Cipher Files and the first book in that series, Blowback, has current day espionage characters, but it came, the whole idea of these characters came from a research book I was reading called Body of Secrets. It’s a, non-fiction about the national security agency. It’s a fascinating book that runs through the history of how it was formed and various, like operations or world events that they, they were involved in.

And, um, I read this, it might’ve been a paragraph or a page about, uh, US-British joint task force, um, during World War II captured, uh, this castle in Germany, in Nazi Germany. They captured this castle and it was literally like code breakers, there was, you know, people sitting at machines breaking code, but here’s the cool part. So they captured all those people and it was a, it was a race between, um, the US-British allies and Russia, who was actually also our ally at the same time to get to, to get to these German code breakers because even though we were allies with Russia, it was rather reluctant.

Lisa Hughey [22:15] So we got there first, we captured these people and there, they disappeared all the records about what happened to those people are still, still to this day classified. I was like, well, what happened to those people? Where did they go? So I started thinking about that and I started thinking about, Okay, so if they’re, if they’re gone, they had to have put them somewhere. And if it’s classified, then somebody somewhere must know something like their descendants. There must be something with their descendants, something.

So I, I took just that and started thinking that my current day espionage characters would be the descendants of those code breakers. And so there’s actually like a mystery surrounding. The code breakers and then a suspense plot with the current day people.

Patricia McLinn [23:06] The mystery of the code breakers, is that carried through the whole series then?

Lisa Hughey [23:10] Yes, it’s a trilogy. And you find out like each, in each book, you find out a little bit more about what happened to these people. Again, it’s all, it’s all made up. It’s still classified. I have no idea what has actually happened to those people, but I found it fascinating that it—

Patricia McLinn [23:26] It is fascinating.

Lisa Hughey [23:28] When I was writing the first one it was classified and it came up for, I guess, I think it’s Congress that has to declassify the information and it came up in 2012, and they still voted to keep it classified. So, there’s something in those records, whatever it is.

Patricia McLinn [23:43] Wow.

Lisa Hughey [23:44] Right?

Patricia McLinn [23:45] Pushing 70 years later.

Lisa Hughey [23:46] Yeah, I’ mean—

Patricia McLinn [23:47] It’s going to be fascinating when they are declassified. Have you ever written anything where you thought you were making it up and then you found out it was there, there was truth to it, whether it happened, you know, for whatever reason?

Lisa Hughey [23:59] I don’t think, I don’t think that’s ever really happened. I don’t know. I mean, it might be, might be kind of funny if it was, but not as far as I know.

Patricia McLinn [24:07] I had, um, just a small thing. I had a character, the hero of, um, Prelude to a Wedding, I thought I was making up this occupation that he was an antique toy appraiser. This was, you know, 30 years ago. And then lo and behold, not only was it that there an occupation, there was an association of antique toy appraisers.

Lisa Hughey [24:29] Right.

Patricia McLinn [24:30] Who knew? Not me. I didn’t know, but clearly they did. So, that’s my small example of, of that happening where you think, Oh, I’m going to just totally make this thing up. Nope. Already exists. Which of your books has been the easiest to write? Just a joy?

Lisa Hughey [24:50] So, it’s actually not a full-length book, but it’s a novella. It is called One Silent Night, and it’s, that’s the one that’s in the shared, shared world. Um, I have a group of friends, there are seven of us, and we wrote, um, we created this fictional town called Snow Creek in California. And there’s like a little tiny bit of magic in some of the stories, but, um, it’s centered around Christmas and, um, there’s seven different stories. And I wrote this story.

I, I tend to be more plot-driven, I think. I mean, I’m character-driven, but not super emotional. And I wrote this story, it was, um, a couple that was getting divorced, um, because they’d had major infertility issues, and they have to, they spend Christmas together because her mother’s dying and she doesn’t know that they’re getting divorced. It’s was really emotional and really intense. And I had no idea I could write a story that emotional. And it just like flowed out of me. It was a, it was an amazing experience. And, um, I, I love that story still.

Patricia McLinn [25:55] Do you think it affected your writing subsequently?

Lisa Hughey [25:59] Yeah, because I didn’t, up until that point, I’m not, I’m not very angsty. I tend to write characters who already, are fairly solid in their sense of self. You know, they’re not, they may be unsettled in some way, but they’re not, they’re not struggling just with their own humanity they, they’ve already kind of got that down. So I don’t write super emotional stories. They’re, you know, they’re happy and there’s good things, but they’re not super emotional. And I realized after writing that, that I could write something that was more emotional. And I think that, um, I think that my books have gotten better because of writing that story.

Patricia McLinn [26:35] It always fascinates me how one story or one book can push us in new directions and help us grow as, as writers. So, your most recent book, what, what is that?

Camp Firefly Falls, Semi-Charmed Life, returning to camp as adults

Lisa Hughey [26:48] So, my most recent book is called His Semi-Charmed Life. And it, that is also part of a shared world. That’s the Camp Firefly Falls, which is, um, super fun concept. Basically all the stories are set at Camp Firefly Falls, which is a summer camp for adults. Um, so there are adult things that happen. Um, and it’s just, it’s just a really fun. It’s like, you know, going back to summer camp as an adult, which is a lot more fun than, you know, when you’re a kid and your parents made you go.

So, I had a lot of fun writing that story. And the, the, the premise of that story is that these two people actually met at camp 20 years ago. Penny, the heroine, was nine, and Diego, the hero was, um, 15, and he was a counselor, and she was sort of a spoiled little kid. And, um, they have this interaction. And it sort of changes both of their perspectives.

So she’s spoiled and very well off. And he’s first-generation Puerto Rican with kind of a tough, you know, beginning. It, it shifts both of their perspectives and forms how they, they both approach adulthood. And then they end up meeting back at camp 20 years later. And it’s just a, it’s a really fun story.

Patricia McLinn [28:08] Yeah. It sounds like that would be pretty, um, toward the joy side of the writing continuum. Have you had any books that were really difficult to write?

Lisa Hughey [28:17] Well, the, the third book, the third book in the, um, Black Cipher Files trilogy was really hard. I wrote those books over probably six years, you know, I would go back and forth. Each book has their own plot, like, but then there was an overarching like story that had to be answered. And I had to tie everything in, and I had to make sure that the timeline worked, and then everything that I had set up in the other two books made solid sense. And, the timeline of the ancestors.

And so that was really hard to make sure I got everything in that was important and still make it interesting. And, and like the suspense, like you, you needed to, you know, be rooting for these characters. And every time I was writing something and I was thinking, Oh God, but did I remember to put this, you know, X, Y, and Z in? And it, it was, the book was a lot of work. It was a lot of work.

Patricia McLinn [29:15] Uh, huh. Did you find that the readers reacted to it well?

Lisa Hughey [29:20] Yeah, actually I think it’s my highest, you know, as far as reviews go, it’s my highest rated book of all time.

Patricia McLinn [29:28] Terrific. There seems to be a thread that as hard as, when a book is hard for us, the readers don’t necessarily recognize or, or get that feeling of how hard it was for the author.

Lisa Hughey [29:45] Right.

Patricia McLinn [29:46] And often respond really well to it. And sometimes the ones that were like, Oh, this is so much fun to write, for the author, the readers I like, Yeah.

Lisa Hughey [29:55] Yeah, exactly. Yes. Yeah. Well, I had a book that I wrote. I, I, uh, I’d been thinking about the character for a while and I think it’s probably from a, um, a character arc and a plot arc, one of the most technically perfect books I’ve written. I really, my, um, my readers, weren’t crazy about it. They didn’t hate it, but they weren’t in love with it either. And I was really surprised because I was like, this book is really like, uh, like I said, almost technically perfect in terms of my character arcs and my story arcs and everything else, and the readers didn’t respond nearly to things that were much harder to write.

Patricia McLinn [30:34] Hmm, that’s, that’s I think, um, uh, as I said, a trend and I, it would be interesting to know is if there’s something that comes through in the books that are difficult to write that, that the readers pick up on subliminally. I don’t know. I just, I find that very interesting.

Okay, and a reader asks when you finish a book, do you miss the characters? Do you think about them afterwards?

Lisa Hughey [31:01] Yes, absolutely. I, uh, I do. I, I’ll think, Hmm, I wonder where they’re at like what, and I’ll think about that. Like, okay, you know, are they going to have babies? Are they not? Are they, you know, moving in together? Depending on the story. So, yeah, I do definitely.

Patricia McLinn [31:19] Has it ever made you go back and write another story about them or connected to them?

Lisa Hughey [31:24] So, not about them, although in the, um, the very end of, so I have a, a series called, uh, The Family Stone. There’s seven books. They’re shorter. Some of them are almost novella length, like 30,000 words. And then some are closer to 50. I love, I love this. I started with a blended family. There’s um, four siblings. Um, the two oldest were, their mother was married to their father. Who’s a complete bastard. And then the third brother, his mother was like a Vegas dancer and basically dropped the kid on the father’s doorstep and took money and left.

And then the fourth sibling is a sister. Her mother got pregnant when she was 18 with this bastard father. And she ended up raising all four of the kids. And then there’s, uh, there’s uh, a surprise baby, who’s an adult by the time they find out about him. And a couple of peripheral characters who get their own stories, and the mother gets her own story.

Patricia McLinn [32:23] Yay, sounds like she deserved it.

Lisa Hughey [32:25] Yeah, oh, I, you know, I love her book. So the very last story I do an epilogue, which is the wedding of the oldest brother. And, um, his heroine. And that was, that was really fun. Like, I didn’t need to add it, I could’ve just thrown in a, you know, a few lines or whatever, but it was, it was really fun to write the wedding.

Patricia McLinn [32:49] Umhumm.

Lisa Hughey [32:50] And there were, there were some unanswered things from their story that I, I sort of closed off. They could’ve stayed unanswered, it wouldn’t have impacted the reader in any way, but, um, I, I tied up some loose ends at the end of the seventh book.

Patricia McLinn [33:02] Yeah, you just wanted to go back and spend more time with them.

Lisa Hughey [33:07] I did. I did. Well, they’re fun. And it’s, so I I’ve, I’ve toyed with writing a Christmas story with the whole family together. I just haven’t had a chance. So that might be next Christmas.

Patricia McLinn [33:17] Do you celebrate when you begin or end or publish a book? Have you ever?

Lisa Hughey [33:24] I’m so bad. I don’t. I used to, you know, like there’s some people, you know, buy themselves a purse or whatever. I, I just don’t, I don’t really do that. There’s, there’s always more to do. And so I find that I just want to get onto the next thing.

Patricia McLinn [33:40] Hmm. Do you have ideas that have never jelled? So do you have the drawer of whether that, that’s a physical drawer or a mental drawer of, um, half finished or unpublished stories?

Lisa Hughey [33:53] I do. I have some things out there that are just not ready to be done yet.

Patricia McLinn [33:58] Because your writing isn’t quite ready for it or because it doesn’t, why are they not yet ready to be done?

Lisa Hughey [34:05] I just think I’m not ready to write them. I, you, you know, you, you find like all of a sudden be like, Ooh, you know what? That’s, I’m not ready for that yet. I need to wait until I’m in a place where that, that story just, I can’t stand but not write it. If that makes any sense.

Patricia McLinn [34:20] Oh, yes, to me.

Lisa Hughey [34:24] Yeah. I know. I don’t know if readers understand that. Sometimes it’s, uh, you know, you just, you get to the point I like to think about a story for a little bit before I actually start writing it. Cause then I, like in the back of my brain I think, is it Jenny Cruise calls it the girls in the basement, something like that. Like there’s, you know, you’ve got all these things sort of percolating around, but they need, they need to sort of simmer.

Patricia McLinn [34:47] I think that’s Barbara Samuel.

Lisa Hughey [34:50] Is that who it is? Yeah. So I, I, uh, I’m a firm believer that it’s better if it sort of simmers in the back of your brain. So I do have some things out there that, um, I think I’ll write eventually, but I’m not ready to write them yet.

Patricia McLinn [35:03] Are there any that you initially thought, Well, that’s a really good idea, and then as you sort of thought about it, it, you just realized it wasn’t going to come together or do you hold out hope for all of them?

Lisa Hughey [35:15] I kind of hold out hope for all of them.

Patricia McLinn [35:18] Me too. I always think that there’s going to be a way to work this somehow, sometime.

Lisa Hughey [35:22] Exactly. It’s my innate sense of optimism.

Patricia McLinn [35:26] What is the favorite part for you, of the writing process?

Lisa Hughey [35:29] Oh, I’ve loved this question. You know, it’s funny. I love that. the beginning, like right in the beginning is really fun. Just that, you know, there’s so many possibilities. There are so many different directions you can go in. And then I also love the part where the story goes a little slower at first, in through the middle it can be a little slower, trying to figure out exactly how you want to position things for the end.

But then there’s like that burst at the end where, you know, you’re just sort of vomiting outwards, cause things are going so fast, like your, your fingers almost can’t keep up with, you know, what’s happening in your brain. And I love that feeling. But I also like revision too. Like I like going through and taking all that vomit, which is a horrible word, but it’s so appropriate.

Patricia McLinn [36:15] It is.

Lisa Hughey [36:16] And making everything pretty and flow and it’s a different part of your brain, but it’s, uh, and it’s, uh, it’s a different process, but I like, I like both sides.

Patricia McLinn [36:27] It sounds like you like the whole thing. What, what part do you not like?

Lisa Hughey [36:31] I think, I feel like middles are always a little tough and it’s striking that balance of making sure that your characters, you know, I have an idea of where I want them to end up obviously, but sometimes making sure that they make the right decisions to make that where I want them to end up believable and, um, where they should end up can be a challenge.

Patricia McLinn [36:55] Yeah. And the middle, I think, it just struck me because you were talking about at the beginning there are all these possibilities and, and my process was really weird and different. So when I talk about beginning, middle, and end, it’s not necessarily the beginning, middle, and end of the book. It’s the beginning, middle, and end of writing the book for me. But anyhow, the middle part is where you’re eliminating possibilities.

Lisa Hughey [37:23] Right.

Patricia McLinn [37:24] You have to narrow down. You, you can’t have it go all the possible directions. And I, I don’t like that. I want to keep the doors open as long as possible. And it usually, for me, comes down to I’ve set a deadline. I’ve promised the readers and I have got to let go of things.

Lisa Hughey [37:45] Yeah.

Patricia McLinn [37:46] That’s the only way I will do it. So that’s, that’s. My new theory about the middle, just from what you just said. I’ve established a middle theory.

I have another question from a reader that I wanted to ask you, and this, it possibly all ties together with another question. That reader asks, What is your favorite place to write and why? Does it have an inspirational view? And I also want to ask you then if you have a routine for writing?

Lisa Hughey [38:12] I don’t necessarily have a favorite place to write as in a specific concrete place. I love to go to a hotel and write.

Patricia McLinn [38:22] Hmmm.

Lisa Hughey [38:23] And I started doing this. It’s been awhile, maybe 10 years ago. I, I had, uh, an agent who wanted to read my manuscript and I wanted to just get it perfect before I sent it to him. And so I checked myself into a hotel for two and a half days. I literally didn’t have, um, them clean my room and I spent, you know, 60 hours minus a few hours for sleep, just polishing.

Patricia McLinn [38:49] Wow.

Lisa Hughey [38:50] And I love that. It’s I get I’m so productive because there’s, there’s nothing else to do. There’s, you know, I can’t go do laundry. I can’t go to the kitchen and make a cup of tea. And then, you know, an hour later when I’ve, I’ve like cleaned my sink and organized my spices.

I think I love to go to a hotel and write. And when I can, I’ll do it, especially at the beginning. Like if I can start a book in a hotel, cause sometimes it’s starting as the hard part. You’re, even though, there’s so many possibilities, how do you, how do you choose? Like where am I going to go? And it’s easy to get sidetracked or walk away because I’m not sure what I want to do. And if you’re in a hotel, you’re not going to walk away, there’s nothing to do. So, um, I really like doing that.

Patricia McLinn [39:36] And, and people are bringing you food and, you know, you don’t have to—

Lisa Hughey [39:40] Yeah.

Patricia McLinn [39:41] You don’t have to clean.

Lisa Hughey [39:43] I go out pretty much like maybe once in the morning, get a cup of coffee and, uh, I might go out in the afternoon and get like an ice tea. Um, but otherwise I will, and sometimes I’ll sit in a restaurant, I’ll take my, my planner, my, you know, like my Moleskine book or my I’m using Leuchtturm now actually, and a pen and make notes while I’m eating. But besides that, I’m in my room, and I usually get up at six in the morning and I work until anywhere between like ten-thirty and midnight, go to sleep and do it all over again the next day.

Patricia McLinn [40:16] Wow.

Lisa Hughey [40:17] And I love that.

Patricia McLinn [40:18] I was stunned, I went to a writer’s conference last year or the year before where I didn’t know, I don’t think I knew anybody or I only knew a couple of people, um, which is fairly rare for the writer’s conferences I go to mostly. And, and usually for that reason, they are horrible for me trying to get any writing done because I’m out talking with people, visiting with old friends or meeting new friends.

And this conference, I was on a tough deadline and I would go to sessions and, you know, talk to people and be with people, but then I’d go back to the room. And if there wasn’t a session that interested me, then for that hour I would write. And then I go back and I go to another session and then I’d come back. And I was stunned at how productive I was.

Lisa Hughey [41:08] Yeah.

Patricia McLinn [41:09] And I think some of it was the focus for some, for me I know some of it was having the limited time. I’m very deadline responsive. But I also think it was somebody else made my bed. Somebody else—

Lisa Hughey [41:21] Right.

Patricia McLinn [41:22] —you know, dealt with the food. I was, it’s always a sign that the writing isn’t going well when my house is in really good order. When I get to the point where cleaning closets seems better than writing, I’m in deep trouble.

Lisa Hughey [41:35] Exactly. That’s funny. And then I, you know what, I’m sorry, I forgot the second half. What was the second half of the question?

Patricia McLinn [41:42] About a routine, of a routine. Do you have a routine?

Lisa Hughey [41:45] Well, I used to, I just moved. So I moved from the San Francisco area to Boston area. My whole writing life has been turned upside down by that. So my old process was I would get up and go straight to work. Try not to look at Facebook or Twitter, Instagram, anything. I just get up and work for an hour, hour and a half.

Um, I actually had to have a Keurig in my office, so I’d make myself a cup of coffee and try and get some words on the page. And then once that was done, then I might check my social media and maybe do some business stuff. And then I go back to writing, but I would, I’d put in like eight to ten hours where I just pretty much was in my office and then I’d pop out and get lunch or whatever on the days that I write regularly.

But now I moved and, um, I’m still setting up my office. It’s a good thing this is not video too, cause it’s still kind of a mess. And I actually started working out with a trainer, which I’m immensely grateful to be doing. And so that has changed my, it’s sort of changed it because that is my solid commitment three times a week. So now I don’t really have a process. As a matter of fact, today, I woke up at six-thirty and I wrote for an hour and a half before I went to my training appointment, which I normally don’t do, I’m not an early riser at all.

Patricia McLinn [43:14] I don’t know, I’ve heard six o’clock a couple of times to me, that’s a very early hour.

Lisa Hughey [43:18] Actually, since I moved to the East Coast, I get up between seven-thirty and eight most days. But the last couple days, you know I’m, I’m deep in the middle of writing this book and I’ve been waking up early cause I can’t wait to get words on the page, which is a fantastic feeling.

Patricia McLinn [43:32] Ahh. But are you offering seven-thirty to eight as being a late riser?

Lisa Hughey [43:37] I feel like it is. Yes.

Patricia McLinn [43:39] No.

Lisa Hughey [43:40] But you stay up late.

Patricia McLinn [43:42] No.

Lisa Hughey [43:43] You’ve sent me an email at two-thirty in the morning. I was like, Holy cow.

Patricia McLinn [43:46] Yeah.

Lisa Hughey [43:47] I’d been asleep for three hours at that point.

Patricia McLinn [43:49] Yeah, I’m a night owl. I’m definitely a night owl. So seven-thirty or eight is early rising, way or early rising for me. I’m, I’m think, I’m, you know, up with the larks, if I’m up at ten, so very different approach. Okay. Question about how, you said you’re setting up your office now.

Lisa Hughey [44:09] Yes.

Patricia McLinn [44:10] So what, what is your office going to look out on? Or does it have any view?

Lisa Hughey [44:14] Part of the reason that we moved to the East Coast was, well, it’s a little cheaper out here, which is nice. California’s lovely, but it’s expensive. And then we really wanted to live by the ocean. So I, right now I’m actually looking out on Ipswich Bay. Now, that’s because it’s winter and all the trees in front of me don’t have leaves.

Patricia McLinn [44:32] Oh, yeah.

Lisa Hughey [44:33] There are actually two or three houses in front of my house before you get to the Bay. But, um, because of, because it’s winter, I can see a little bit of water right now. I have seasonal views.

Patricia McLinn [44:50] And are you finding that, are you finding that inspiring seeing the, the water?

Lisa Hughey [44:54] Yes. And even not, not necessarily from my house. I mean, it’s very nice that I have this little blue and I know it’s the water, but, um, I live, uh, I live kind of on a, um, so I, so I live in Gloucester, which is in theory, a little bit of an island. And so I can, depending on how I drive home, I see water constantly. If I take the long way, the long way home from training, I think it’s four miles instead of two and a half or something. The views are stunning. It’s just, it’s beautiful. And I think it, it’s very peaceful and I love it. I love it. I feel really blessed that I’m able to live here.

Patricia McLinn [45:33] And Lisa and I have talked about, it just so happens that Gloucester is my dad’s hometown and, um, we’d have family reunions there. And my second book is set there. I actually, uh, fictionally added, uh, another beach. So, which the people should be really grateful for because that property is very valuable. So I added to the beach shore, the shoreline on, uh, in Gloucester. I have to get there, we should have a writing retreat there.

Lisa Hughey [45:06] Oh, it’s so beautiful here.

Patricia McLinn [46:08] It’s a really cool area. Well, that’s going to be interesting to see how you adjust and what changes you make. Did you leave a community of writers behind in California?

Lisa Hughey [46:19] I did.

Patricia McLinn [46:21] That’s hard.

Lisa Hughey [46:22] That’s probably one of the, well, and I had a very good group of friends. I lived in California for 26 years. Great group of personal friends, and then I had a great group of writer friends, and I miss them. I FaceTimed with a few of them, which has been nice. I think that’s like, uh, technology’s amazing.

One of my goals for the beginning of next year is to branch out. There are some writers in Massachusetts, so that’s nice, but there isn’t anybody very close by. Whereas in California, I had coffee with one of my writer friends at least once every two weeks, sometimes once a week.

Patricia McLinn [46:57] That is nice, yeah.

Lisa Hughey [46:59] Just depending on her, she had kids in school, so it was, um, sort of dependent on her kids’ lives. But, and I, San Francisco has a very, very active, uh, romance community and great, great group of women. So, um, I’m going to miss them.

Patricia McLinn [47:14] Yes. And, and build up a new group now.

Lisa Hughey [47:17] I belong to Romance Writers of America and New England has a chapter that is relatively active. So I’m hoping—

Patricia McLinn [47:23] Oh, yes.

Lisa Hughey [47:24] And I have met some people who live around here, so, um, once I start going to those meetings, I’m hoping I’ll make some more connections with people here.

Patricia McLinn [47:32] Oh, I’m sure you will. That the New England chapter conference in the spring is, is really good. I’ve spoken at it a couple of times. Really enjoy those folks. But it is hard when you’ve had a great group close by to, to venture away from that. I often think a lot of my closest writing friends are far across the country and far-flung so, beyond the country too. Uh, but as you said, technology is wonderful.

Lisa Hughey [48:03] Yeah, it’s amazing. And I think, um, I’m really lucky. I, I go to, um, I think I’ve been a NInc two years, Novelists, Inc. conference, two years in a row, and that’s been amazing. I also do a conference, they call it an unconference, so there’s, it’s not really structured, and I’ve been doing that in San Francisco and I’m going back, which is nice. So I’ll see my friends.

Patricia McLinn [48:24] I want to go to that. I haven’t been able to get in on the registration.

Lisa Hughey [48:30] It’s, it’s very small. I think 40 people. It’s a, it’s a, but it’s a great sharing of information. I think it’s just, it’s great.

Patricia McLinn [48:36] So, well, I hope I can get there in the future. Hope I can fit in among the 40. Maybe they’ll take 41.

Lisa Hughey [48:44] I hope so.

Patricia McLinn [48:45] Okay. Before you wanted to be a writer, what did you want to do? Or did you always want to be a writer?

Lisa Hughey [48:50] I don’t know that I really aspired to be a writer per se, but I wrote a lot when I was younger. I was a French major in college, which is not particularly employable. I actually was going back to school. When I started writing, I was going back to school to be an interior designer. Because I love, I love like furniture and colors and I love like putting together a room. I think it’s really a fun thing to do and messing our, I change things around and, you know, new pillows or whatever I love doing that.

This is funny cause I, and I hadn’t really thought about it, but I was reading through your questions and you ask about that. I have a really hard time setting a scene when I’m, I have to force myself to add the setting later. I frequently don’t put any setting details in, which I find—

Patricia McLinn [49:36] Huh.

Lisa Hughey [49:37] —really funny because I love interiors.

Patricia McLinn [49:40] Yeah.

Lisa Hughey [49:41] And I love color. I think color can affect your mood. I like all this stuff, and I thought, I love doing all that stuff and I never write settings, not through first pass, unless I’m struggling with the book.

Patricia McLinn [49:53] That’s interesting.

Lisa Hughey [49:54] And if I’m really mad, I’ll write a whole bunch about the setting and then add those details in later. Otherwise that’s a third or fourth pass.

Patricia McLinn [50:00] Huh.

Lisa Hughey [50:01] I know. Isn’t that funny?

Patricia McLinn [50:03] That is really interesting. Do you think it, is it so, like, are you writing, setting, like if it’s a really ugly room, you just don’t want to deal with that or, or is it any kind of setting?

Lisa Hughey [50:15] So, I actually, what I find is that if the, if like, if it’s an ugly room or, um, you know, I wrote a, I wrote a scene, like in a nasty, like motel room, You know, dirty seventies, carpeting and things like that. Like if, if it has some impact on the characters, then yes, but like, I, that stuff goes in right away. But if it’s just sort of a generic like room or restaurant, I find that I don’t put any details in, and then I have to layer those in later.

Patricia McLinn [50:44] I have a question that sort of touches on that, that comes from a reader that it has to do with the visual aspect. And she says, um, When the cover image doesn’t match the character description, and this reader says that’s a pet peeve of hers, how does it feel for the author?

Cover for Dangerous Game in the Black Cipher Files trilogy

Lisa Hughey [51:01] Really bothers me. I do my own covers. I don’t design my own covers, but I typically pick the couple. And I actually have a, um, book that I wrote called Dangerous Game. It’s a follow-on to, um, the Black Cipher Files trilogy that features a secondary character who I loved and I, she needed a happy, happily ever after.

The hero is Korean. So it’s a Korean hero and an African-American heroine. And I searched for days for a couple. And I could, I couldn’t, I could not find a Korean man and a black woman. I looked for days. I looked, uh, I was hitting websites. I, I looked at like seven websites could not find it. So I finally had to pick a, um, I picked a dark-haired Caucasian guy who was not looking at the, you know, his face is not forward. So you could sort of like—

Patricia McLinn [52:00] Uh huh.

Lisa Hughey [52:01] If you squinted in a dark room, pretend that he’s Korean. And it was really disappointing. And I got reader to push back on that cover. And I, and I said, I’m really sorry. Like I wanted, there’s a, I kind of based the hero on this Korean actor named Won Bin, uh, who’s in a Korean action-adventure called The Man from Nowhere and he’s, he’s gorgeous. And that was the, he’s who was in my head as I was writing this character and to have to settle for this, you know, perfectly attractive Caucasian guy was really frustrating. So I, I told—

Patricia McLinn [52:36] But not the right guy. Yeah.

Lisa Hughey [52:38] Yeah, yeah. There’s nothing wrong with him, but I couldn’t, I could not, uh, I couldn’t find that couple. I still like to think about, I think I should keep looking and if I ever find a good couple, then redo that cover. Cause I, it bothers me.

Patricia McLinn [52:54] And that’s one of the joys of being an indie author that we can do that we have the control of being able to go back and change things. And—

Lisa Hughey [53:02] Yes.

Patricia McLinn [53:03] Yes. So keep, keep looking.

Lisa Hughey [53:06] I am. I am. I’m looking.

Patricia McLinn [53:09] You said you got to reader push back on that. Have you had other encounters with readers? Have you had the, if you have good stories about talking with readers?

Lisa Hughey [53:20] Yeah, so this is kind of fun. I, uh, on my most recent book, uh, Diego is this, His Semi-Charmed Life. And, um, Diego is Puerto Rican. He basically starts out kind of a rough beginning. And after this encounter with Penny, um, he sort of expands his horizons of what he, is possible for him. And he ends up becoming a very successful businessman, which is when they meet again. And, um, I had a reader send me a really lovely note. Um, Diego reminded her of her father, who had passed away.

Patricia McLinn [53:55] Oh.

Lisa Hughey [53:56] And his story was he came from, uh, Puerto Rico and, uh, started his own business and ended up being very successful. And she just said, you know, Thank you for reminding me of my dad. I admired him. And it was just, it was a really, really touching letter. It was nice, so…

Patricia McLinn [54:13] Oh, that’s wonderful. That’s wonderful.

Lisa Hughey [54:17] It was really neat.

Patricia McLinn [54:19] And how, uh, how generous of her to take the time to, to let you know that. If somebody has not read any of your books, they’re new to you, which book would be the best starting place do you think?

Lisa Hughey [54:32] So I would say one of two places. If you like longer, more intricate plots, Blowback, which is the first book in the Black Cipher Files series, is a good place to start. And, um, if you like Kindle books, that book is free right now. Um, it’s not always free, but it so happens to free right now.

If you like shorter, um, shorter, little bit shorter books, um, that are a little bit lighter, there’s definitely a suspense plot, but it’s not super involved or convoluted. My Family Stone series is, um, the first book is Stone Cold Heart, and that is always free on Kindle. And then if that is not a standalone, I don’t have that as a standalone paperback. It’s a, like anthology the first five books. So that would be a little more expensive.

Lisa Hughey [55:23] But if you, um, if you like Kindle books, the Stone Cold Heart is free. And that book features the sister, the youngest sister, Jess, who is a former FBI sniper. And the hero is, um, an SAS officer, he’s British, and they’re working on a, um, tropical island that’s had an earthquake. They’re doing disaster relief and a few other little things on the side. But it’s a fun book. It’s an interesting book.

Patricia McLinn [55:48] That’s great. And really helpful to readers. And if, Readers, if you’re interested in the print books, you can also always ask your library to get them to order them, and then they would be available to you and other readers too. I love libraries. So put a little plug there.

Do you have any of your books, so you’ve got loyal readers, people who’ve read everything you’ve written, but maybe they’ve missed one. Do you have a book that’s kind of a hidden gem?

Lisa Hughey [56:19] The sixth book in the Family Stone series is Queen of Hearts. And that is actually the story of the mother, who, she’s, she’s only 45. So she’s a little older for typical romance heroines, and she’s raised four kids. When she comes into the house she’s 25 and, um, her stepson, if you will, is 14. So she’s, you know, she’s, she was, had kind of a tough life.

She has her own book is the sixth book of the Family Stone series. And I love that book. It’s really fun. You know, she’s been a mom for so long, and everybody thinks of her as a mom and she like, she wants passionate romance and a sex life, and she ends up getting together with a former, um, commanding officer of the, um, Jack, the oldest brother. So there’s actually some really funny scenes in that book because, you know, they think of her as their mother and, uh, you know, when he finds out they’re together, that—

Patricia McLinn [57:18] Yeah.

Lisa Hughey [57:19] And the way he finds out is somewhat amusing. So I, I had a lot of fun writing that book. And a lot of times people will say, I don’t really want to read an older heroine, but it’s a really fun, funny book. And I, I love that she’s sort of rediscovering her own sexuality after suppressing it for years. So…

Patricia McLinn [57:36] That’s terrific. That sounds like a great book. I hope people will search it out. So, what have I not asked you that I should have or that you would like to answer?

Lisa Hughey [57:50] You didn’t ask what I like to read and I love to read. I mean, I think most writers do, although I could be wrong. So I read a lot of romantic suspense, um, when I’m not writing it. And then I read contemporary romance. Um, actually love dystopian romance too, with the, you know, futuristic, the world’s in a horrible place. Uh, and, um, then I also, I read a decent amount of non-fiction. I like non-fiction that’s inspiring.

My favorite book that I read last year, that was non-fiction or this year, I guess you would say, was the Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes, who’s the showrunner for Grey’s Anatomy and How to Get Away with Murder. Can’t remember she, she’s showrunner for four shows, I think, something crazy. She’s yeah, she’s an amazing writer, but that book is phenomenal. A big plug for it. I think it’s a, if you’re ever thinking that you’re afraid of doing something, then reading that book will inspire you to just go for it. So I think that’s, that’s probably it.

Patricia McLinn [58:55] Tell everybody what your, um, how they can find out more about you and your books.

Lisa Hughey [59:00] Okay. So, um, if you go to my website, www.lisa, L I S A, Hughey, H U G H E Y.com. And all my books are on there. There’s a fun little 20 things you didn’t know about me and—

Patricia McLinn [59:18] Oh, cool.

Lisa Hughey [59:19] And some other stuff.

Patricia McLinn [59:21] I’ll have to go look at that. See what I don’t know about you. We can do another, we can do another interview and I can ask nosy questions about those things. And we will, we will have the URL in the show notes for folks. So that will be much easier to get to. Although if you are smart, you wrote it down really fast.

Okay. Now my very favorite part is the, what I think of as the epilogue, and these are either or questions. I’ve had many people try to cheat, but they’re either or. So, you can have cake or ice cream?

Lisa Hughey [59:59] Cake, no question.

Patricia McLinn [1:00:01] Cowboy boots or hiking boots?

Lisa Hughey [1:00:04] Hiking boots.

Patricia McLinn [1:00:06] So I think I might know the answer to this one, mountains or beach?

Lisa Hughey [1:00:10] Beach.

Patricia McLinn [1:00:11] You don’t want those, those heights, right?

Lisa Hughey [1:00:15] Yeah. Yeah. That was pretty, that’s pretty clear from where I moved and what I’m afraid of.

Patricia McLinn [1:00:20] Day or night?

Lisa Hughey [1:00:22] Uh, day.

Patricia McLinn [1:00:24] Toenail polish or bare toenails?

Lisa Hughey [1:00:27] Toenail polish. I had a pedicure yesterday.

Patricia McLinn [1:00:30] Leggings or sweats?

Lisa Hughey [1:00:32] Leggings.

Patricia McLinn [1:00:34] Dog or cat?

Lisa Hughey [1:00:36] Cat. But only because I’m allergic to dogs.

Patricia McLinn [1:00:39] Oh, oh, I feel so sorry for you. Sorry.

Lisa Hughey [1:00:44] Oh, you know what, I love my cats. My cats have been fun, so it’s fine, but I love dogs too.

Patricia McLinn [1:00:49] Um, okay. Which is eerier to you, an owl hooting or coyotes howling?

Lisa Hughey [1:00:55] Coyotes. As a side note, I have coyotes in my yard now.

Patricia McLinn [1:01:00] Oh.

Lisa Hughey [1:01:01] So we’ll hear them at night sometimes.

Patricia McLinn [1:01:03] It’s a very disconcerting sound, but I think the howling can— Okay. Whoops, we can, the owl hooting, net the howl looting. Um, okay. Sailboat or motorboat?

Lisa Hughey [1:01:13] Sailboat. Can you tell that iffy? I’m not sure. I think I like the idea of sailing.

Patricia McLinn [1:01:23] Have you not been?

Lisa Hughey [1:01:25] I have never been sailing. I’ve been on motorboats, but I’ve never been sailing.

Patricia McLinn [1:01:28] Oh, so you’re going to have to do that in Gloucester.

Lisa Hughey [1:01:33] Yes, but my husband wants motorboat and he’ll probably get his way on that one.

Patricia McLinn [1:01:38] Okay. Gardening or house decorating?

Lisa Hughey [1:01:40] House decorating.

Patricia McLinn [1:01:42] Paint or wallpaper?

Lisa Hughey [1:01:44] Paint.

Patricia McLinn [1:01:45] Good china or paper plates?

Lisa Hughey [1:01:47] Good china.

Patricia McLinn [1:01:48] And this is the last one. Save the best for last or grab the best first?

Lisa Hughey [1:01:54] Grab the best first.

Patricia McLinn [1:01:56] This has been a lot of fun, Lisa. Thank you so much for joining us and we hope all of you will come back next week for a new author and their stories behind the stories. Have a great week of reading, happy reading.

That’s the show for this week. Hope you enjoyed it. And thank you for joining Authors Love Readers podcast.

Remember, you can always find out more about our guest authors in the show notes, and you can find out more about me at www.patriciamclinn.com. You can also send in questions to be asked of future authors at podcastatauthorslovereaders.com

Until next week. Wishing you lots of happy reading. Bye.

 

Episode 10: Stories Are Everywhere, with Chris Taylor

Australian author Chris Taylor and host Patricia McLinn dish about Chris’ writing romantic suspense novels set in Australia for North American audiences. Chris talks about her “hot and steamy” novels, making sure that her language and plot lines work for North Americans, and about being a full-time author, former lawyer and mother of five.

You can find Chris on:

*her website,

*Facebook and

*iBooks.

Thanks to DialogMusik for the instrumentals that accompany this podcast.

Authors Love Readers with Chris Taylor

Patricia McLinn [00:00] Hi, welcome to this week’s Authors Love Readers podcast, where we delve into the stories behind the stories. We’re asking authors questions. Some of them fun, some of them serious, and from their answers, you’re going to learn things you never knew about the people who write the stories you love. My name is Patricia McLinn. I’m your host and designated question asker.

Chris Taylor [00:23] I’m Chris Taylor, and I’m an author who loves readers.

Patricia McLinn [00:27] Now let’s start the show. Hi, welcome to Authors Love Readers podcast. This week, we have Chris Taylor joining us from, as you will soon hear, Australia. Chris and I met two years ago, I think, so you’re, you’re a pretty recent one at the Novelis Inc. conference.

And we just hit it off and saw each other again this year, because this brave soul traveled all the way from Australia to come to the Novelis Inc. conference and join up with all the other writers, uh, writing in popular fiction. Chris, tell us a little bit about what you write.

Chris Taylor [01:05] Hi, Pat. It’s so lovely to be here all the way back in Australia and we are baking in the heat down here. I know you guys have probably all rugged up for winter, but I tell you what—

Patricia McLinn [01:15] Yes.

Chris Taylor [00:] —I am sitting in the air conditioning.

Patricia McLinn [01:20] I have an Afghan over my lap because I’m chilly.

Chris Taylor [01:26] And I have sweat dripping down. No, just kidding. But it is so hot.

Patricia McLinn [01:29] So Chris, tell us a little bit about what you write.

Chris Taylor [01:32] So I write romantic suspense, but it’s set in Australia. So, um, very early on in my writing career, I was told to write about what I know. And even though I had written, I had read a lot of, um, American stories and loved American stories, um, I, I knew about Australia. I live here. And so I based all of my stories in Australia.

Patricia McLinn [01:56] Do you think there’s any difference between US written and Aus— or set, um, romantic suspense and Australian set romantic suspense?

Chris Taylor [02:08] I’m not sure that there’s any difference in the story as such or even really the setting. Uh, it’s more just the, the language. And even though I, I try hard to make it, um, you know, North American friendly, and I have a North American editor who makes sure the phrases that I use are something that you guys can actually understand.

Uh, every now and then I will get it a note in the margin back from her. And, and it’ll be something that, you know, we say all the time and she’ll say, I know that, I get this from the context, but I have never heard this before. And you know, after 25 books, I still get that occasionally. So that’s always funny because I try really hard to make sure that you guys can understand it.

Patricia McLinn [02:48] Is there a phrase you’re particularly aware of that North Americans don’t get that you use a lot?

Chris Taylor [02:55] Oh, man, I should’ve come up with one off the top of my head. Um, there are always some things, you know, and it’s, it’s really common sort of things down here. I mean, apart from the language differences, like boot, a boot for us is your trunk and, uh, you know, we, we use a torch as in something like you call a flashlight and, um, you know, that the sidewalk is our footpath and, you know, just words like that.

But, but there are definitely, um, sayings and I’ll, I’ll um, I’ll think of one when we finish I’m sure. But my editor will say, this is an Australianism. She calls, she calls it an Australianism. I, you know, I get it from the context, but I’ve never heard this before.

Patricia McLinn [03:36] I’ve heard, um, that Australians tend to shorten a lot of things. Do you see a lot of words or phrases?

Chris Taylor [03:45] Yes, we definitely shorten names. Like we’d never call anyone by their real name. You know, if it’s Michael it’s Mick. If it’s, yeah, no, it’s true. And we didn’t realize it was an Australian thing until, you know, you kind of start traveling and, and meeting other people. And, but we always shorten people’s names. I don’t know why.

Patricia McLinn [04:03] Before we started the recording, we were talking about that Chris never goes by Christine and I, um, sometimes go by Patricia for writing, but I always wonder why I use that because it makes me feel like I’m in trouble. And, uh, but you couldn’t get much shorter than Chris and I couldn’t get much shorter than Pat. So…

Chris Taylor [04:25] I totally relate though, Pat, you know. All my, all my childhood if I was in trouble, my mother would be going, Christine, you know, and that, that’s the only time I got called my full name. I don’t know what it is. It’s a, it’s a parent thing, I think. But, um, no, definitely, well Chris, I chose Chris deliberately, um, because it was, um, you know, an androgynous name really.

And I, I had read somewhere that male readers will pick up a book by an unknown author. They’ll pick up a male author. If it’s the author is unknown to them before they’ll pick up an unknown female author. So I thought, well, this gives me a bit each way, and them in the male market. And, uh, and it has absolutely worked. I’ve, I’ve got quite a lot of male readers and, and often they write to me and say, Dear Mr. Taylor, and then they will tell me how they’ve never read a romance book, but they picked up one of mine because my covers are certainly not, they don’t, you know, I write romantic suspense and it’s probably 50/50.

So my covers, certainly I’ve got no bare chests or anything like that, you know, they, they’re more a thriller cover than a romance cover, so they pick them up and then there’s, I’ve never read romance and now I’ve read the whole series. And it’s funny that they assume I’m a man. Even though I, you know, I mean, I go by Chris, but in the back of the book, you know, I, I certainly, um, you know, confess that I’m a, I’m a wife and mother and et cetera, et cetera.

Patricia McLinn [05:39] Let’s let the readers get to know you a little bit better with some fun questions here. I think they’re fun, you may not. Do you have any surprising jobs that you’ve held?

Chipping cotton and giant spiders

Chris Taylor [05:53] Oh, I had the usual jobs as a, as a teenager, waitressing and I worked at KFC for a while and that sort of thing, but one thing you guys might not do over there, I’m not sure, but, um, it’s cotton chipping. So what that is, I live in a cotton growing area. It’s one of the main crops grown here.

And as kids, well, you know, teens into our college years and whatever, you would go cotton chipping in the summer, which is actually hoeing out weeds on the, in the cotton. So you’ve got a hoe and you’d walk up and down the rows for eight hours in the heat and you chip out weeds. But it was good money. And I met my husband that way when I was 15. So, you know, I have a fondness for cotton chipping.

Patricia McLinn [06:36] That’s a great expression. I had never heard that.

Chris Taylor [06:38] Yes. Well, we used to get backpackers a lot, obviously as backpackers and sometimes they would chip out the cotton because that’s what it was called, cotton chipping. So they would be going around, chipping out all the cotton instead of the weeds.

Patricia McLinn [06:50] Do you have any strong fears and do any of them have to do with cotton? And do you use them in books?

Chris Taylor [06:57] No, nothing to do at cotton, but, oh my goodness, yes. I, I am terrified of spiders. Probably not to the part of it, to the extent of a phobia. But although when I was younger, I certainly probably did have a phobia. And only just the big black ones. Like not daddy long legs, not every spider, but anything that looks fearsome. And yes, I have used a gigantic man-eating spider in one of my books.

Patricia McLinn [07:22] Which book can you tell us the title?

Chris Taylor [07:26] It hasn’t got a title as yet. It’s, it’s one of my most recent books. Um, and yes, my protagonist gets hunted by this enormous spider. And it gives me shivers just to write it.

Patricia McLinn [07:41] I guess, if you can scare yourself, it’s a good sign. Right?

Chris Taylor [07:45] Yes, that’s what I figured.

Patricia McLinn [07:47] Okay. So what’s your favorite taste?

Chris Taylor [07:49] Okay, so I am a sweet person, you know, you’re either sweet or savory. I will skip the, uh, the main meal every time and go straight to dessert. So, um, I love salted caramel anything, but salted caramel ice cream is my absolute favorite.

Patricia McLinn [08:04] Ohh, good choice. Favorite color. And why? Do you have associations with it?

Chris Taylor [08:09] Okay, so it used to be green when I was younger and I’m not really sure why, but I just did love that deep forest green color. But as an adult, it’s become red. And I wear a lot of red and I know it that’s a bit corny because I write romance and stuff like that, but I just, I love, you know, beautiful, deep, red color.

And it does remind me of love and romance and passion and all that kind of stuff. And in fact, my, my bedroom has these deep red curtains and I’ve got a beautiful red throw on the bottom of the bed and you know, that kind of stuff.

Patricia McLinn [08:42] See, now that I’m writing mysteries too, I also think, Oh, deep red curtains, they wouldn’t show blood as much.

Chris Taylor [08:47] I’m hearing you, Pat. These things are important.

Patricia McLinn [08:56] Do you have a— I know. I know. Do you have a childhood book that. Got you addicted on stories that, that really opened that world for you?

Chris Taylor [09:06] Look, I was always an avid reader. I spent an hour each way on a bus with no air conditioning and vinyl seats in the heat and all the rest. And I loved to read, so it was a way to fill in the time. And I must admit, even from a young age, I loved mysteries and romance. I used to read The Famous Five and, and The Secret Seven and Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys. And I always wanted the Hardy Boys to get with Nancy Drew and they never ever did.

Patricia McLinn [09:30] I know. What was the problem there?

Chris Taylor [09:32] Exactly.

Patricia McLinn [09:33] It was a natural.

Chris Taylor [09:36] Absolutely.

Rewriting Gone with the Wind. Steel Magnolias, Eight Seconds, and Good Morning Vietnam

Patricia McLinn [09:37] Any of those stories that you read in your, in your pre-author days, did you, um, decide they did not get the ending right. And at least mentally rewrite it. I am always curious about this because I think this triggers something for a lot of writers when we’re quite young.

Chris Taylor [09:55] Yeah. Well, I, I’ve got to say Gone with the Wind. I probably read that when I was about fourteen, I guess, something like that. And, uh, oh my goodness. You know, Ashley Wilkes, really? I mean really just, and then the whole, the, all the stuff they go through and, you know. No, I definitely had to rewrite that. I was just so disappointed, and I have read the sequel, and you know, it’s never as good and all the rest, but you know, that is one book that I absolutely loved, but absolutely hated the way it all went, went in the book.

Patricia McLinn [10:25] So how did you end it?

Chris Taylor [10:27] Well, of course they get together permanently and they love each other and all the rest. My goodness, you know, we all knew they did. It’s like, For God’s sake, wake up to yourself. So I make sure that I get that happy ending. You know, even though all seems lost, of course we know they got to get together. That’s how it has to be.

Patricia McLinn [10:44] I don’t know. I thought they were both kind of stinkers. Um, I, I know that’s, um, not the popular opinion, but that was my view on both of them.

Chris Taylor [10:55] She was a selfish, spoiled little brat, but she did grow, you know, there was that character growth, where at the end, of course, when it was too late. But he always loved her and was much more mature and it just broke my heart that he just didn’t give her that one last chance, you know, that he gave up on them because he still loved her and he just, she wore him out. But, you know, come on. I’m getting angry.

Patricia McLinn [11:20] I, I would have been with Rhet. I would have said, Bye, honey.

Chris Taylor [11:24] I know, she didn’t deserve him all the way through, but towards the end, when she finally woke up to herself, you know. I guess she, she’d got to the point where… No, they did deserve each other, but anyway, it wasn’t to be.

Patricia McLinn [11:35] So, okay. I’ve got to ask you now, because I, I suspect, I know one that will not be on the list. What three movies would you take to my strange little desert island that somehow lets you plays movies, but limits it to three. Well, we get to play three.

Chris Taylor [11:52] Wow. I am a huge movie buff. Um, and I was trying to think of my all-time favorite movies. There are just so many, you know, there are so many, but some that, um, came to mind, Steel Magnolias. I absolutely love and adore, you know, it’s just a beautiful movie and I know it’s an old movie, but I’m old too, so, you know. Oh, I love that movie. Still love that movie. I actually own that movie and watch it, you know, quite, not often, but you know, it’s a beautiful movie.

I also love Eight Seconds. I don’t know if you’re familiar with that one that came out in, um, oh, it was probably the early nineties.

Patricia McLinn [12:25] Yeah.

Chris Taylor [12:26] Again, I’m showing my age here. Um, and it ha—

Patricia McLinn [12:28] It’s about Lance Frost, right?

Chris Taylor [12:31] About Lane Frost. Yes. And I ac—

Patricia McLinn [12:34] Lane Frost.

Chris Taylor [12:35] And I actually used that rodeo kind of thing in one of my books and, um, uh, you know, and it just, it that was the inspiration for that. But, um, uh, so at the time Luke Perry of course was on 90210 and was the hottest thing out. So, and then he did that movie and it was just as beautiful as it. And I own that movie and I have watched it a few times and I still cry.

And the other one, I, the other one I chose. I mean, I could’ve chosen anything with Robin Williams in it because, um, you know, he was just such a brilliant actor and always had just brilliant stories. Uh, but so I put Good Morning Vietnam on my list, because that was another inspirational movie that I love to watch, and so it’s on my list.

Patricia McLinn [13:16] Can you see a thread connecting those movies?

Chris Taylor [13:19] I love the good stories. I love inspirational stories. I love stories that move you and what you to be a better person.

Patricia McLinn [13:28] Okay. And when you say old movies, girly, I love movies from like the thirties. Those are old movies. Those are classics.

Chris Taylor [13:40] I agree with you. I’m a move buff too.

Patricia McLinn [13:42] Is there a saying from your parents that you remember them using all the time and now you hear it coming out of your mouth?

Chris Taylor [13:50] One of the ones, I mean, there are lots of different ones. I think my mother was very big on sayings. Um, uh, but one of the ones that she used to say when, uh, you know, if you’re trying to get something by her, she would say, I didn’t come down in the last shower. I don’t know if you guys use that, but…

Patricia McLinn [14:08] No, but it’s wonderful.

Chris Taylor [14:10] So yeah, I remember her saying that quite often, you know, when we’re kids, I’m one of six. Six girls. So, you know, there are plenty of kids around, and, um, I remember her saying, Oh, I didn’t come down in the last shower as if you know how to, you expect me to believe that. And I have used that in a couple of times.

Patricia McLinn [14:24] Turned it on your kids now, huh?

Chris Taylor [14:28] That’s the way it goes that’s, that’s the, the story of life.

Patricia McLinn [14:31] Are you left-handed or right-handed?

Chris Taylor [14:35] I am right-handed.

Patricia McLinn [14:36] Okay. On your right hand, which is longer your index finger or your ring finger?

Chris Taylor [14:43] Now this is a really weird question, I have never, ever looked at my hands like this before, but you know what, it’s my ring finger. I don’t know what that means about me or says about me.

Patricia McLinn [14:52] I don’t either. I don’t know what it means. I’m just curious about it. I think it’s, it’s interesting that it’s, that it differs for people. Who knew.

Chris Taylor [15:01] Does it really? I didn’t know that either. So, okay.

Patricia McLinn [15:04] Yeah. And sometimes it differs from one hand to the other, for some people, it doesn’t for me. And I have no idea. There’s, there’s probably some significance to it.

Chris Taylor [15:15] It doesn’t for me either, but my left hand, but the index finger is a little bit less short than the ring finger on the left hand. There’s less of a difference.

Patricia McLinn [15:22] So that they’re closer on the left-hand than they are on the right hand.

Chris Taylor [15:26] Yes.

Patricia McLinn [15:27] I thought in my, in my, um, palm reading days, wasn’t it your left-hand is supposed to be what you’re born with in your right hand is what you make of yourself.

Chris Taylor [15:38] Wow. That’s interesting.

Patricia McLinn [15:40] Except that I don’t remember, I don’t remember anything else from that. That’s it. That the extent of it.

Chris Taylor [15:47] That’s totally unhelpful, Pat.

Patricia McLinn [15:49] We’ll have to do some research on it. And as long as I brought up the R word, let’s go ahead and talk about it. Because writing romantic suspense in particular, you must have to do a lot of research. How do you do it?

Chris Taylor [16:01] Uh, yes, well, I’m, I’m lucky that I, I had a medical background, uh, at one stage I was a nurse for a few years. And I also was a lawyer for a lot longer years, so I had a legal background and I’ve done, so I’ve done a medical romantic suspense series and I’m in the middle of a legal series at the moment. So I do call on a lot of past experience.

And I also have, um, a, your equivalent to the FBI. We’ve got the AFP, which is the Australian Federal Police, same kind of thing as the FBI. Uh, and so I’ve, I have one of their, um, retired supervisors or superintendents, on my speed dial and he answers any technical questions about the police and that sort of thing, because I often have a police investigation going on. And in fact, my hero or heroine is quite often a police officer or a detective.

Chris Taylor [16:49] So that’s really handy. I also have, um, a contact in the state morgue. So I’ve done some, you know, some scenes in the morgue and that sort of thing. And as a nurse, I actually watched autopsies. So I, I have been inside there and seen all that happen. So that helps.

I’m not, I’m not some… I love. I love, I love historical romance, but I just could not spend all that time on the research to get it right. And I’m someone who has to be right. So I just, I will not go there because I just know I just, I’m too impatient for the story to begin. And I just love to get in it and start writing. I don’t want to be pulled out all the time or spend months doing the research ahead of time. So I’ve stayed well clear of historical romance, even though I absolutely love it. Love to read it.

Patricia McLinn [17:29] How did you develop these connections with, uh, the retired gentlemen from the AFP and your other, your other sources?

Chris Taylor [17:38] So, I’m lucky, one of my sisters works for the Australian government. She’s a diplomat. And so the federal police are based in Canberra. I mean, they have offices around in the other capital cities, but their headquarters are in Canberra. So she knew this fellow through her work because she often deals with the federal police.

So she got me into contact with him and he was, I haven’t actually ever met him face to face, but we’ve spoken on the phone and I email, you know, every book I write to him about something or other. And it’s always just, Hi, Hey, guy, what do I do? And blah, blah, blah, what would happen if blah, blah, blah. And he just talks back. He hasn’t heard from me for a month or two, and then, you know, and he’s just straight back with the answer. So it’s really handy.

Chris Taylor [18:15] And as for the, um, the state morgue, I actually called them, um, you know, and explained I was an author and whatever, and that I needed, you know, could I speak to somebody about this? And, uh, anyway, they said that they would, um, you know, get, get someone from their media department to call me back. And so, you know, within ten minutes or so I got a call back and I explained again, who I was to this fellow, and he said, Yes, I know I’ve looked you up.

So they actually, they actually did a bit of a search because I guess I get calls from crazies and that kind of thing.So they’d gone and they looked at my website and whatever, and realized I was, you know, legitimate, often writing, you know, crime kind of novels. And, uh, anyway, so he he’s been very helpful as well. I, I, I write to him, email him or, uh, speak to him sometimes when I’m dealing with that kind of stuff.

Patricia McLinn [19:02] Well, those are great sources, because I find sometimes that when you find somebody like that, who will enter into the what if they are precious. I, I did a course in forensics at a place in North Carolina a few years ago, and the guy was great. He was also telling us a lot of times what usually happened and I would be saying, Yeah, but what if? And he’d say, Well, but that doesn’t usually happen. And I’d say, Yeah, but what if, and he felt at one point, he, he said, Don’t ever go into crime, you are the devil’s spawn. *Laughter* I know, writers think that’s a great compliment. My family wasn’t as impressed.

Chris Taylor [19:49] That’s funny.

Ideas from true crime and songs, obituaries for the living

Patricia McLinn [19:51] Okay. On behalf of a reader, I am going to ask you, uh, her question and she says, Where do your stories come from? I know one author who dreams her stories. Another has a character suddenly take up residence in her head. So how are your beautiful stories born?

Chris Taylor [20:08] Okay. So, um, they’re not necessarily character driven. I-I’m usually inspired. I watch a lot of crime, true crime TV. I-I’m obsessed with that a bit, I think in fact, my husband, just, yeah, he does think I’m obsessed with it. And, um, uh, so I, you know, cause truth’s often stranger than fiction, so often I will see something that will just it’ll spark an idea., and I start thinking, Well, how did that happen? Or why did that happen? Or what if this had happened, you know, you start asking all those questions and you know, from there I can get a story.

Sometimes it’s a song that inspires me that I just, like I’m listening to, um, I have discovered Gretchen Peters. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of her—

Patricia McLinn [20:46] I haven’t.

Chris Taylor [20:48] —but she’s been around for a long time, apparently. But I’ve just discovered her. She’s a country sort of, um, uh, singer, but she has the most amazing stories in her songs. And so I’m, I’m listening to one at the moment called Five Minutes, about, and it’s, you know, it’s about this girl who’s working in a diner and she’s on her break, a five minute break, you know, and she’s thinking about her past, and the boy that she loved and they’ve split up and she’s got a daughter to him that, you know, they, they haven’t seen each other for twenty years or something, I think.

Anyway, it’s just, and she’s thinking, and then the owner of the diner, you know, she knows he likes her. She could always have a relationship there, but he’s not this guy who, you know, she’s still thinking of. And it, oh man, there is a story there. I am going to definitely write a story backed from there. You know, it just it’s so, so emotional, and so sad and all that kind of stuff. And I like to tap into the emotions. I mean, even though I have the suspense going, the romance is just as strong.

Patricia McLinn [21:40] I like, I like songs too. And I have a couple songs that have grown out of, actually songs, um, sung by Hal Ketchum. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of him.

Chris Taylor [21:52] No, I haven’t heard of him.

Patricia McLinn [21:54] And that, wonderful storytelling songs. So I totally understand that. The only drawback is, start with this idea and then you have to turn it into a book. So how do you do that? How do you start taking that, that story you’ve heard in a song, how do you create it into a book?

Chris Taylor [22:15] Yeah, it is, it’s strange, but that’s part of the magic, isn’t it? That’s the part I just totally love, coming up with a new idea and totally building this amazing story about it. So another example I was listening to, I love country, I love country music, like I could listen to Nashville radio all day and often do. But, um, I had, I was listening to a song by Alabama called I Believe. And it’s a song about this fellow, who’s lost his wife, you know, she’s died. But he could still feel her, you know, he says, I still feel you.

And so my very first book was inspired by that. And I could see this guy standing, you know, kneeling down by this headstone and he’s crying and he’s touching the headstone and it’s cold, but he can still feel her. He can still feel the warmth. And that is the scene in my very first book. It’s one of the very early scenes is this grieving husband. And he’s actually, the detective in the story, goes from there, but man, I could see that so clearly. And it was just, yeah. Just just beautiful is great.

And I just love that whether I connect through a song or just something I’ve seen or even read, you know, sometimes I read this obituary in the paper, once in our local paper, it was an obituary, only the person hadn’t died. It was just so weird. Yes. They weren’t dead. Someone had written their obituary, but they weren’t dead. And so I thought, Wow, what is going on there?

Patricia McLinn [23:29] Were they, were they somebody well known in the community?

Chris Taylor [23:33] No, not well known in the community. At least I didn’t know them. And I live in a fairly small community. I mean, some people would have known them, but there was something going on there that, that they’d written their orbituary, likely someone else had written there orbituary. Think, Wow. That is that’s, that’s weird, there’s something going on there. That is a story.

Patricia McLinn [23:51] Newspapers write, um, obituaries for famous people ahead a time, and then kind of fill in details, but they have them ready to go basically. But it doesn’t sound like that was the same situation.

Chris Taylor [24:03] No, this was just in the classifieds. So someone had just paid to put this, it was like an ad in the classifieds, but it wasn’t an obituary. Like it was only a small square, you know, with stuff on it, but it wasn’t that small, but it was, it wasn’t a huge page or anything, it was just in the classifieds. And it was just these few paragraphs about this person, only they weren’t dead.

Patricia McLinn [24:22] Okay, we got to use that in a book.

Chris Taylor [24:27] Oh, definitely. I haven’t used yet, but that is definitely going in. That is just, Wow, what is going on there? They obviously hated each other.

Patricia McLinn [24:35] Well, you get dibs on it because you, you read it, but I really liked that. When you, when you finish up a book, this is another question from a reader. Um, do you find the miss characters? Do you think about them a lot? What, how they are going on from the end of the book? Um, and, and then I, uh, I want to add the question of, and has that thinking, if you do think about them, has that ever led you to write another book?

Chris Taylor [24:58] Yeah, so I write series, so I do myself in that series and there are usually like nine or ten books, so that there’s a reasonable length of time where you’re immersed in there. I, one of my, my first series was actually based on a family. So there were, there were so many brothers and a couple of sisters there to make up the books. And so I did revisit the characters and you just, you do that, they’re like your family. I know that sounds weird, but you just feel like, you know them, like they’re people that you know. And you know, so when things happen to them, you feel for them and, you know, and you like to hear back from them.

So, I did a novella, Christmas novella in the first series to revisit all the people that were, it came up as book seven. So you’d already met six of the brothers and sisters. And so I revisited each one around a Christmas theme, and, oh, that was so nice. You know, it’s like catching up with old friends.

Patricia McLinn [25:49] And, you said you feel bad for them when bad things happen to them, but you are making those bad things happen to them.

Chris Taylor [25:55] I know.

Patricia McLinn [25:56] How do you feel about that?

Chris Taylor [25:58] Oh, it’s so weird, it is. You know, it just happens. You, you would understand as an author that, you know, the story just takes you to certain places. I’m, I’m a planner. So I do plan quite a lot of the story out beforehand. I don’t just sort of get an idea and run with it. Um, so I often know, you know, a lot of it, but every now and then it just, the story just takes over or the character just takes over and does something that’s so surprising that you, you think, Oh wow. And it could be good or bad, you just have to go with it because that’s, that’s what the story needs. That’s what they’re telling you it needs anyway.

Patricia McLinn [26:30] What, that planning that you do before a book, what does that look like?

Chris Taylor [26:34] Okay, so it depends on how much time I have, um, for my deadline. So I, but generally, if I have, you know, I write fairly fast, so I publish every couple of months, generally. So I allow myself about three weeks to write a first draft and then I edit it and probably take me a week to go through and do a full edit. And then it goes off to be edited back and forth. It goes through three passes back and forth between my editor and, and me. What was the question again? I’ve lost my train of thought.

Patricia McLinn [27:03] What, how you’re planning?

Chris Taylor [27:05] Oh, the planning.

Patricia McLinn [27:06] What, what your planning looks like, what you’re doing.

Chris Taylor [27:08] Yeah. So I would, uh, write a rough draft, hand-write a rough draft chapter by chapter, just in point form.

Patricia McLinn [27:15] Hand-write?

Chris Taylor [27:16] Hand-write in point form. So it takes me a couple of days probably to hand-write, just, in point form chapter by chapter. But I find that I’m, I’m more efficient if I take that time because I’ve got five kids and so I’m often called away. And so I can just come back to my, my plan, I, you know, my summary really, and know where I’m at. I don’t have to go back and read, you know, where, where I was heading. I know where I’m at. I can just look straight down at where I leave it open on my desk and, um, you know, and then I just continue on. So I just find it. But it’s more efficient that way, because I get interrupted fairly frequently.

Patricia McLinn [27:50] When, when you have books where the character takes off on a different direction from you, are those, are those a joy to write or are those harder to write? And what would, which of your books you’d say was the easiest to write?

Chris Taylor [28:03] Okay. So, um, but it doesn’t happen all that often. I guess I keep them under control pretty well, but, um, every now and then… I wrote one about a serial killer. The, the man was a serial killer and they had two children, him and his wife. And she was meant to be totally oblivious to all this stuff going on. And then all of a sudden there’s a scene towards the end where the wife turns up with the chainsaw, you know, by his side, she walks in on him and he’s thinks he’s been sprung. But in fact, she’s, she’s, she’s part of it, you know, she’s… And I thought, um, I know it was too much, too much. I can not do that to those poor children. They cannot have two serial killer parents. So I had to, I regret that I did not let her come in and do that. And she was never meant to be there.

Patricia McLinn [28:46] So it was only to save the children, huh?

Chris Taylor [28:50] No child should have to go through life like that, with two serial killer parents.

Patricia McLinn [28:54] But okay. Your most recent book, how much, has that, say there’s a continuum of easy to write, joy to write, versus, Oh my gosh, um, this is, this book is going to kill me. Where in the continuum did the most recent book come in?

Chris Taylor [29:11] Um, it wasn’t too bad. It was another romantic suspense. Um, I, I have my series mapped out ahead of time. So I have nine books in the series. I’ve got all the titles chosen, and when I was doing this sort of planning, I, I would come up with an idea and just write a few lines down on each book. So, um, I already knew, you know, as I kept to each book in the series.

I know what the theme is. I know what the main story, I always know what the black moment is. For people, for readers who, who don’t know that, that expression, it’s where, um, particularly in romance where you think all is so wrong they’re never going to get back, they’re never going to get together. You know how they’re so far apart, that’s never going to happen, but that’s the black moment where you’re just in total despair that they’re ever like, like I was with Rhett Butler, don’t worry, I’m still in despair.

Chris Taylor [29:59] And then of course, you know, we resolve it and they get back to, they get together and, and that’s what, that’s the happily ever after we promise in a romance. Um, but, but, you know, so sometimes, the current book has, has, um, yeah, it’s flowed pretty well. I’ve um, recently started using dictation software. So, in fact, you guys inspired me at Novelis Inc. conference, when you are, you’re all talking about, um, Dragon Dictation software and how much, um, more efficient it was than all the rest.

And I tell you, I have been quietly impressed. So it, it’s making me think differently. I think I’m using a different part of my brain, which is weird, but it just feels a little bit different to be dictating a story rather than typing it and seeing it coming up in front of me. But it definitely is quicker.

Patricia McLinn [30:44] How do you make changes on the fly on Dragon? Cause if I couldn’t backspace, delete, and cut and paste, I would be in big trouble.

Chris Taylor [30:55] Yes. I’m with you on that. And I have only just started using the software on the latest book. Um, but what I have been doing, because I feel that way too. I have been dictating just like a thousand words at a time. So for about ten minutes, it takes me to do a thousand words, and then I transcribe it and then I’m editing it straight away. So, because sometimes as I’m speaking, I agree, I’d like to backspace and delete or change something. But I don’t. I just keep going until I do the thousand words, and then I just edit it straight away. So the thought or the deletion I wanted to make the correction is still fresh in my mind. So that’s how I’ve been dealing with it. I’m not sure how other people do.

Patricia McLinn [31:30] I was contemplating trying, um, dictation on things like emails because it’s not as precise for me as writing.

Chris Taylor [31:40] Yeah. Well, when you watch the, um, the YouTube videos and things on that, you know, write composing emails and stuff with dictation software is just so easy. You know, it’s like open mail, new mail, send, send mail to Pat, you know, whatever. And it just pops the address in and all that stuff. It’s just like, Wow.

Patricia McLinn [31:54] I might have to try that. But speaking of editing, have you edited, ever edited something out of a book or had it edited, edited out by someone else, that you still regret that you think, ah, I wish I’d left that in.

Chris Taylor [32:13] There is actually, and I’m sure the, the edit was made for all the right reasons. So I write generally for the North American market, because it’s just, you know, from a business point of view, it’s a lot bigger market than the Australian market. Just, you guys have got a lot more people than, than we do. We don’t read, but you know, there’s a lot, it’s a numbers game.

So I was writing this book where this guy had, he was a returned army officer. And he had PTSD, undiagnosed PTSD. You don’t realize this right until the end, but anyway, he had had an affair. Okay. So there were a lot of reasons why, in fact, you find out that he was part of his, trying to break this terrorist cell in Indonesia and stuff, and, and to keep his cover and basically saved his men, he, you know, he sleeps with this Indonesian girl. Who’s also a spy, you know, my editor made me, no, I could not use that. It was not acceptable to have the hero. Have had been unfaithful to his wife.

So I had to get rid of that, which it was, it was just so, yeah, I did. I mean, I still had PTSD, but he wasn’t unfaithful. He just, he still walked out on his marriage, but not for those reasons. So, um, but I still really loved that story. It was such a beautiful love story and I’ll write, I like to write really real and, you know, that happens sometimes, but no, my editor felt that it was not going to be acceptable to an all American audience, that a hero is unfaithful no matter what, the reason. So that went, and I do mourn the loss of that.

Patricia McLinn [33:38] Do you think it would have been acceptable to an Australian audience?

Chris Taylor [33:41] Most definitely.

Patricia McLinn [33:43] Oh really?

Chris Taylor [33:44] Yes.

Patricia McLinn [33:45] Why do you think there’s that difference?

Chris Taylor [33:46] Well, I don’t know, I was guided by my, um, North American editor, um, that, that, that kind of thing wouldn’t go down well in, in North America. In Australia, I dunno. I think we are just more, um, not accepting, but we were just less, gosh, I don’t know what the, what the word is. It would have definitely been acceptable in an Australian audience. We would have understood it. And understood the reasons.

And even though, you know, it comes good in the end, of course, they still love each other and they, you know, and we realize all this stuff was going on. But, you know, and it’s, I think it’s a beautiful love story, but, uh, yes. I don’t know why I think that that definitely would have been okay in Australia that it wasn’t okay over there.

Patricia McLinn [34:26] Now, other than the, the story where the wife of the serial killer shows up to join in, um, which of your stories has surprised you the most? And how did, how did it surprise you? And did you learn anything from that for books that, that followed?

Chris Taylor [34:43] Wow. The one where the wife turns up, that was my first, um, well that was my first book published. And so it was my first book because we always, we all write books well, before we got to publishing, uh, stage, but I guess that was the first time I had had a character take over like that. And it was like, Wow, how did that happen? Like, I’m the one writing this stuff.

So I guess, in later books, um, it didn’t happen as often, but every now and then, and I just gave myself the permission to let that happen. You know, I accepted that sometimes that happens that the characters take over where until then, you know, I hadn’t thought in those terms, you know, as, as you say, I’m the one putting the words there, what do you mean that the characters taking over?

It sounds really strange to somebody who’s never done it before, but after that experience, I realized, you know, that’s sometimes that can happen. And sometimes it’s okay. Sometimes it’s not like I had to get rid of it because it just was too much for those poor children. But, you know, sometimes they go that way.

Patricia McLinn [35:38] Well, I’ve told this story before, but, um, I had a murder mystery that I was writing, uh, that came out a year ago, um, called Look Live. And I was ahead of schedule, which I rarely am. I’m tootling along with this book and thinking, Oh boy, I’m going to be finished ahead of time. And then looking at the screen, what do you know? The person I thought was the murderer ended up dead.

Chris Taylor [36:05] I love that. I love that.

Patricia McLinn [36:08] Oh… I thought, Uh, oh.

Chris Taylor [36:12] Now what do I do?

Patricia McLinn [36:13] This is a problem. So I got the book out on time, but I was not ahead of schedule. I had to do some real rethinking and it, and it never occurred to me to make him undead.

Chris Taylor [36:24] Yes. Yes.

Patricia McLinn [36:25] He was dead. That was it, there it was.

Chris Taylor [36:27] It’s something I think that readers think is weird because, um, you know, like, we’re the ones writing the story. I mean, I know sometimes, so I haven’t been able to write the climax that I often have, you know, people getting killed or chased or whatever, you know, there’s always a threat that their life’s in danger.

And often I can’t write that late at night. I do write late at night. But I can’t write those scenes at night because I’m so scared. You know, it’s just, it’s like for goodness’ sake, I’m writing it. I know how it’s going to work out. Okay. You know, what’s going on here, but you know, it’s like, that’s the way it is.

Patricia McLinn [36:59] So are there other ways you think writers are different from normal people?

Chris Taylor [37:04] Normal people, yeah, that’s right. But we’re so far left of normal aren’t we. Um, I think that we just, I do think we think differently and I see stories everywhere, you know, and like, I, I wouldn’t say I’m a particularly observant person, but I just, I see stories in people and in actions and, and just, you know, sitting on a train or whatever. And you just see a comment or overhear a conversation or something. And man, my mind’s already off. Where I don’t know that normal people think like that.

Patricia McLinn [37:31] You know, uh, uh, a lot of the authors are saying this. And, I just had this thought, we’re making a lot of normal people really paranoid about being watched and listened to by writers since they’re out in their normal lives. And you’re in, you’re going to be in a book.

Chris Taylor [37:51] I often get emails from people who, because, you know, I write, I write a lot of murder and death and you know, stuff like that. There’s always chasing. There’s always, you know, the adrenaline pumping stuff and I, I will get emails every now and then from people who, cause sometimes I use the real names, real suburb names and things, especially in Sydney and whatever. And you know, I’ll get people saying, Oh my goodness, I live there. I live in that suburb. I’m still looking over my shoulder.

Patricia McLinn [38:14] That’s one of the things I feel bad about. My mystery series is set in Wyoming. So I managed to pick the least populated state in the United States. And I am rapidly depopulating it further.

Chris Taylor [38:28] Uh, yeah. Yes, one book at a time.

Patricia McLinn [38:33] That’s right. But sometimes multiple bodies. So how do you think you have changed and evolved as a writer? Since you, say not just since you started, but say since you were first published.

Chris Taylor [38:49] Um, well, it’s, it’s like anything, any profession, I think. That the more you do do and the more hours you spend on it, the better you get. So I’m definitely more efficient. Um, I’m definitely less wordy. You know, like some of my earlier books were a hundred-twenty, a hundred and ten, hundred and twenty thousand words just for, you know, an ordinary fiction novel, which should have been around, you know, eighty or ninety.

So I’ve learned to, I’m much more efficient with words and I love that. You know, I love that. I can just have a few words, a few words in a sentence and say exactly the same thing that I might’ve had ten words in before, you know, it just, and it just comes up more easily. And I think like any job, you know, the more, the longer you’re at it, the better you get at it. So that’s one of the things that has changed for sure that I’m better at it. And I’m more efficient at it.

Patricia McLinn [39:35] You have a writing routine that you follow?

Chris Taylor [39:38] Yes. Well, I, I write full-time. I’m lucky enough to write full-time. So it’s my job. So, you know, I’m, I’m in front of my desk by nine in the morning after my kids have gone to school and, you know, I’ll have a quick lunch break and I’ll be back again. You know, like, like I would a job and I sit here till four, when my kids get home from school, this is in between, you know, obviously, sometimes there’s interruptions and I have to go and buy food and stuff every now and then, which is an annoyance, but…

Um, generally, yeah, look, I worked seven days a week as well, and I often do more work, you know, after the kids have gone to bed, I’ll do another two or three hours then. So, um, but the good thing is it doesn’t feel like a job, you know, when you’re really into it. There’s nothing like being really into it and just, so immersed.

Patricia McLinn [40:19] And when it comes, just kind of its own, which doesn’t happen all the time, unfortunately, but it is lovely when it does.

Chris Taylor [40:27] Yes. Now, a lot of the time it is, it’s just getting that story down. But I think the more, more, um, prep I do earlier on, the more I get to know my characters, before I start to write the easier it is. So even though I chafe at the delay, you know, whether it’s two or three days where I’m just writing things out. In the end I think it’s, it’s more efficient because I don’t have to, I don’t have as many pauses where I’m thinking now, you know, what, what would they do here or what, what happens next?

Patricia McLinn [40:52] Now, uh, a reader wants to know what is your favorite place to write and why? And does it have an inspirational view?

Chris Taylor [40:59] Well, I, I generally write from my office when I’m home. Um, I, I use one drive on my iPad so I can go flip between the iPad and my desktop. But generally, I like to sit in my office and I do have a lovely view. I live out of town, so I’ve got a very nice rural view of the mountains and I’ve got a nice pool in my backyard that I look out over. So I have a water view, I guess.

Um, so, and often I’m the only one home, you know, when my husband’s at work, my kids are away. So it’s often just me. I don’t need to have music and stuff going. Like a lot of people need something going on. I can just sit here in total silence. I’ve got enough voices going on in my head. I don’t need anymore.

Patricia McLinn [41:39] You need one of those floating desks for your, for your pool. So you can just paddle around.

Chris Taylor [41:45] That would be nice.

Patricia McLinn [41:47] So have you ever had a situation that, a reader wanted to know about this, when the cover image didn’t match the character description, have you run across that? And then she said, if you have, she wants to know how it feels for the author.

Chris Taylor [41:59] Okay. So I, I’m lucky because I am an Indie, um, um, published author. So I, I have a lot of input into my covers. Uh, and I have used the same cover designer all the way through, so they really, they get, they get me in my, my, my books. So I, I mean, occasionally I have tweaks of course, that the, the hero doesn’t look like he should or is too young looking. I mean, man, I’m 45, everyone looks young now to me, but, um, you know, I don’t know, he’s too young. He looks like he’s—

Patricia McLinn [42:27] Go away.

Chris Taylor [42:28] You know what I mean. But I’m lucky in that way. I haven’t ever had a cover that totally mismatches, but I certainly sympathize with author friends who have. Because you know, you’ve got this person in your head and they’re a certain way and they look a certain way, they’ve got certain, you know, um, mannerisms and just some sort of bearing or whatever. And you get just turn, you get something that’s just nothing like that. And I can understand how ghastly you must feel about that.

Patricia McLinn [42:52] Now a lot of your characters… Hmm. I shouldn’t say a lot, but, um, you’re writing in areas where it tends to be male dominated, more males working than, than women, than females. Um, how do you approach writing about, from the point of views, especially of the opposite sex?

Chris Taylor [43:13] Okay. So I love to write from the male point of view. I don’t know why, but I guess, if I have a choice say from running single point of view, and I have a choice, I will often gravitate towards a male character, which is weird because I have no brothers.

So I grew up with five sisters. So obviously I had a father, but, um, you know, I, I didn’t have a lot of male influences such and I love writing the male characters. I don’t know whether I get it wrong. I think I probably make them a little bit too emotional. I can always tell a book that’s written by a man, but you kind of don’t even have to tell me the author, I, you know, I just can tell from the style.

And in, particularly if there’s any sort of emotional scenes, you know, you can tell it’s been written by a man. Uh, but so I probably am a little bit emotional, but I guess, you know, the people who read my books do tend to be women too. So, you know, we, we get it, we get that.

Patricia McLinn [44:01] So this question is sort of out of the blue, but I, I’m interested to hear the answer. What’s the best money you’ve ever spent as an author?

Chris Taylor [44:11] Okay. Um, I think on my covers, you know, um, they say a, Well, you can’t judge a book by the color, but we often do in this day and age of digital books, you know, we, we, we, we have the covers in front of us.

Unlike, you know, in the old days, when you had to go to a bookstore, I guess you saw covers too, but, um, most people shop online now I think, so the covers are really important. And particularly if you’re looking for just a read, you know, you’re not actually searching for a particular author. And I think the covers are really important.

And I probably spend on the upper end of the scale. Not the most expensive for sure, but more than some, um, on my covers, but I have had a lot of feedback on the covers that they, and, and, you know, even from digital retailers that the covers are stand out and that, you know, they’re, they’re attractive to readers.

Patricia McLinn [44:58] Do you have a favorite cover of yours?

Chris Taylor [45:00] That’s hard to say, cause I do like all my covers, but, um.

Patricia McLinn [45:04] Or one that’s gotten particular, a particular amount of feedback.

Chris Taylor [45:08] Probably, um, my, my hospital series, which it features sort of a part of the building on, on all the, of the fictitious hospital I set in Sydney, but, um, they, they’re kind of darker and grittier and edgier those books and the covers are all sort of reflective of that, I think.

Um, and they’re nice and glossy, some I’m doing a matte, some series I do are matte and I love matte, the matte cover as well. But, um, the glossy, the glossy really, that talks to me.

Patricia McLinn [45:36] Now you said that you have had some books set in the legal, against the legal background—

Chris Taylor [45:42] Yes.

Patricia McLinn [45:43] —right? And you were a lawyer. Were you a criminal lawyer?

Chris Taylor [45:46] Yes, I, I did a bit of everything in my early days. I worked for the, um, director of public prosecutions, which what do you guys call it? You know, the district attorney’s office, that kind of thing.

Patricia McLinn [45:58] Right.

Chris Taylor [45:59] So I did purely criminal law there on the prosecution side of it. Um, but when I moved to, um, the country, that was in Sydney, I lived in Sydney. When I moved to the country where my husband lived, I became a country lawyer. So in a country practice and I did a bit of everything and then I was a defense lawyer. So that was really weird because I, you know, you’re on different sides of the bar table. People probably don’t even realize, but you know, the defense sit on the left and the, and the prosecution sit on the right. And so all of a sudden I was on the other side of the table and it just was, so even though you’re already, still a few meters apart, it was just so weird to do that.

But yeah, I did defense criminal lawyer for a few years and also did a lot of commercial work and, um, you know, conveyancing and did a bit of everything in the country.

Patricia McLinn [46:44] So if you weren’t writing, would you go back to the law?

Chris Taylor [46:47] Yes. I would.

Patricia McLinn [48:48] And now that sort of surprised me because a lot of, there are a fair number of authors who are departed lawyers, escaped lawyers. Um, so that’s interesting. So what, what made you switch from law to writing?

Chris Taylor [47:00] Well, I always loved writing and I used to do that on my weekends and things, especially before I had children, I would be writing kind of Harlequin romances and things. Um, it was only later I got into the suspense.

I did try and write Blaze, um, but I just could not contain the word count. You know, I was always had too many secondary characters and too many plots going on. So I realized fairly, fairly quickly I was a single-title writer, and I didn’t even know that term until I started talking to other writers, you know, but, um, anyway, so I, I, I was always writing.

I just love criminal law, not so much the other stuff, but, uh, I love the criminal law. I’ve always been fascinated with that. And I think that, that’s why I’ve, uh, you know, I write about it because it, it’s, it’s fascinating, you know, what makes a person get to that point.

Patricia McLinn [47:46] How do readers respond to especially your criminal stories, do they, or, or any of your romantic suspense, what sort of feedback do you get from readers? What sort of interaction do you have with them?

Chris Taylor [47:59] Yeah, so I, I think the book that I get the most, um, response from is one that was on domestic violence. So it was in the medical series and the husband was a doctor, you know, very well-respected doctor, uh, at the hospital. And she was a nurse, the wife, and of course behind closed doors, we realized it’s so different to the, you know, the public persona that he was, he was showing everyone.

And I get a lot of response from that, you know, because I think there’s a lot of people out there in those situations. And I get a lot of emails from readers who, or, you know, sometimes it’s the daughter saying my mum was in a situation or one was, My mum is still in this situation, which was so terrible. So heartbreaking. Yeah.

Patricia McLinn [48:43] Oh, dear.

Chris Taylor [48:44] Yeah. But, but I think that that one has touched a lot of people. I get a lot of letters about that, about domestic violence, which just, I like to do, um, issues that draw attention to things I think need more attention, you know, more public awareness. So that was definitely one I, I felt, I felt for a long time that I needed to get out there and I get a lot of response from that one.

Patricia McLinn [49:04] I have a question that a reader posed, I think is intriguing. I’m very interested to hear what you have to say. If you could write a book with any author, alive or dead, who would you want to work with and why?

Chris Taylor [49:19] Well, see my favorite author, well, I have two favorite authors, one, and one, one’s alive. One’s dead. So one of them is a historical romance author by the name of Kathleen E. Woodiwiss. Now, she was one of the first, um, romance novels I read, I think I read her first book when I was about 13 or something.

Totally, totally loved her books. She just had the most amazing characters, such beautiful men, you know, and just lovely characters that you fell in love with. So she is somebody I would love to written with. Um, just because she just could tap into the, you know, into emotions so well.

The other one I love, um, and he is, again, one of my, is up there with her, my favorite author, is Richard North Patterson. So he has a couple series. And, again, he’s a guy who writes from a male’s point of view, but how, his guys are just so great, so lovely, you just, you know, you fall in love with them. His, um, male characters and, and he always has a fantastic story that goes with it. So I would love to write a book with him.

Patricia McLinn [50:23] So you’re looking at these authors, not just that you enjoy their work, but what you could learn from them.

Chris Taylor [50:28] Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Their characterization and the way that they just, you know… Richard North Patterson, especially his, you know, he writes contemporary drama sort of stuff. Um, you know, one’s a political series, another one’s a legal series. Um, he’s got other books, but there is the ones that I love. He taps into the real situations that anyone can relate to. And some people would have been in. And, and they react in a real way. You know, I always really liked that.

In fact, I, when I first discovered Sandra Brown, and she is one of my, my inspirations, um, she was the first author I had ever read that, you know, where it was a bit of swearing, people reacted in a normal way, you know, in a way you would expect. And it wasn’t sugar-coated, you know, and I thought, Wow. I was just blown away the first time I read one of her books.

Patricia McLinn [51:16] Now those books are sort of in your same genre. Is that what you read for fun or do you go outside your genre?

Chris Taylor [51:22] I do read a lot of that kind of stuff for fun, especially from, from authors that I really enjoy, but I also, I mean, I love historical romance. I love contemporary romance. I, I, you know, I every now and then I’ll read an autobiography, but not really for fun. It’ll be just something I’m interested in or some person, you know, I’m interested in to know their life story, I’ll read that for. But for fun, it’s always, it’s always romance in some form.

Patricia McLinn [51:45] So somebody who has never read any of your books and we’ll say this from the North American market, since it’s the, the bigger one, what would be a good place for them to start? Which book would be a good start for them?

Chris Taylor [51:59] I was given some advice that, um, at a RWA conference, actually, I can’t even remember who said it, but this was before I was published, so it was really timely for me. They said that you had no control on where a reader might come into your series. So I write series, I like to write series.

Um, and, but they said, you’ve, you know, you might have book four on sale or something, and someone gets that one. And if they can’t understand and enjoy that story on its own, without having read all the other, other books, um, then they may not go back and fill in the gaps, you know. Where if you, if you write it as sort of a standalone story within the series and they enjoy it, you know, as, as its own book, then you’re more likely to get them to, you know, go back and read or, or pick up another one.

So I took that on board. So my, I’ve got three different series at the moment. And each one is a standard line story. I think you get more out of it if you’ve read them in order, because there is some reference back to previous characters. And so you’ll realize that these ones have just had a baby or these ones aren’t doing so well or whatever, you get a bit more out of it. But you can still enjoy any of them.

Chris Taylor [53:02] So, the first series is really a detective series on a, on a family. Um, the second one is a bit darker, a bit grittier, is that the hospital series. So I deal with topics like domestic abuse and organ donation, you know, the, yeah, I think kind of controversial things that one’s about illegal trafficking, you know, organs. Um, so it’s a little bit grittier.

Uh, that the third series, the legal series is a lot of courtroom drama stuff. So it really depends on what you, what you like to read, I think. I think you can tell that I’ve written them all there. They’re very much stamped with my, my voice. Um, and, uh, you know, they’re fairly hot and steamy. Most of them are.

So, um, I would recommend any reader starting, pick a series and start at the, the first one, because I just think you get a little bit more enjoyment out of it, but, but really they could come in anywhere and enjoy it If it’s their kind of story.

Patricia McLinn [53:56] I was at a mystery conference in Indianapolis last fall, and a reader came up, we were doing book signing and she came up with, I think it was the fourth book in the series. And I said, Oh, you know, have you read the other books? And she said, No, I’m going to start here. So there is a proof, at least one person out there is doing what you were told about. Okay.

Chris Taylor [54:21] I would never do that. I have always, you know, gone and tried to find the first one because that’s just me, I like to do that. Even if the others are on sale, I’ll still start with the first one. But apparently, you know, some people don’t, they just, they dive in and see if they’re going to like it. So, yeah.

Patricia McLinn [54:37] Do you have any, any of your books that you have a sense has been overlooked and not, not as, read as much that even your loyal readers might, might’ve missed some?

Guns, snakes, murder

Chris Taylor [54:49] One of the stories that is very close to my heart is the eighth book in the first series. So it’s called The Defendant, and, um, it’s, it was inspired by my son, who was twelve at the time. And in Australia, well probably over there in the States, I don’t know what your age limit is, but in Australia at twelve, he can get a gun license. So my name is on the permit. So you still have to be under supervision of an adult, et cetera, but you can actually get a gun license at twelve. And we live out in the bush and, um, uh, you know, my husband’s got guns and, and, you know, I’ve even got a gun license. Um, he goes to the range every now and then. We’re not hunters, but you know, we’ve got guns.

And so my, my twelve-year-old was really, really keen to get his license, you know, when he turned twelve. And so he did, he got his license and of course, then he just wanted to shoot everything in sight, you know. I had a snake at the back of my back door on the concrete steps and, you know, he’s tearing off to the shed to get the 410 shotgun, you know. I’m like, Oh my God, you know, like his mentality was like, Let’s shoot it. Let’s shoot it, you know?

Chris Taylor [55:49] And anyway, so that inspired that book. It’s a very sad story. Uh, you know, like that twelve-year-old actually shoots somebody dead. For good reason, you know, for good reason. Terrible scene between, uh, you know, with his mother involved. Um, but this is the story is basically on a trial of this child. Because he, he wouldn’t, he, you know, he, it comes down to intent.

In Australia, if you, if the prosecution can prove that the boy intended to kill and knew that what he was doing was going to kill or had a fair chance of killing. Well then, you know, you can be charged with murder. And, um, so he was, in this story. He was in the book as it unfolds there. But I have had comments from the North American readers going, Wow.You know, it’s so different over here. You know, this, this kid would never have been charged with murder and blah, blah, blah.

But I write in Australia, so I follow Australian law and, um, you know, that, that definitely would have happened. And, and, uh, anyway, but that’s a book I think that not a, I don’t get a lot of feedback on, so I’m not sure whether it’s not being as widely read as it, as I wished it would because it’s, it’s a great story. And, um, uh, you know what, but that book is close to my heart.

Patricia McLinn [56:54] Tell us how people can find out more about you and your books.

Chris Taylor [56:58] Well, I’m, I’m on all the digital retailers. At iBooks and Amazon, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, and, um, uh, you know, I’ve got them all up there on my website, um, which is just www.christaylorauthor.com.au

Um, and people could just click on them go to different links to buy. Uh, you can also order paperbacks off Amazon and CreateSpace. So, uh, you know, they are, they are available.

Patricia McLinn [57:25] And we will include the URLs and the show notes. So it makes it easier than when you’re trying to catch something that’s being spoken and you’re trying to remember the URL. So, folks, you’ll find them in the show notes.

One of my very favorite journalism questions is to ask if there’s something I should have asked that I haven’t, or if you’d like to answer something that wasn’t asked.

Chris Taylor [57:48] Oh, Pat, you’ve done very well. I mean, it’s been a real pleasure to be here and see your questions. Um…

Patricia McLinn [57:56] Not done yet. We’re not done yet. So now we have, this is my, my perhaps favorite part where we talk about, uh, Or we do either Ors. Okay?

Chris Taylor [58:05] Okay.

Patricia McLinn [58:06] You just gotta answer fast. You gotta right through these. Uh, cake or ice cream?

Chris Taylor [58:11] Ice cream.

Patricia McLinn [58:12] Day or night?

Chris Taylor [58:14] Night.

Patricia McLinn [58:16] Cowboy boots or hiking boots?

Chris Taylor [58:19] Cowboy boots.

Patricia McLinn [58:20] I think you’ve already answered this one. Appetizer or dessert?

Chris Taylor [58:24] Oh, definitely dessert.

Patricia McLinn [58:26] Heels or slippers?

Chris Taylor [58:58] Slippers.

Patricia McLinn [58:29] Mountains or beach?

Chris Taylor [58:31] Beach.

Patricia McLinn [58:32] Dog or cat?

Chris Taylor [58:33] Dog.

Patricia McLinn [58:34] Sounded not totally sure.

Chris Taylor [58:36] No, definitely a dog. I’m not a cat lover. I have five cats. I have five cats, but they belong to my five children, and, um, yes. Yes. They all live outside.

Patricia McLinn [58:47] Okay.

Chris Taylor [58:48] I’m not against cats. I just can’t stand the fur they leave everywhere.

Patricia McLinn [58:51] Hey, I have a Collie you want to talk fur. Okay. Um, sailboat or a motorboat?

Chris Taylor [58:57] Ah, motorboat.

Patricia McLinn [58:58] Leggings or sweats?

Chris Taylor [59:00] Sweats.

Patricia McLinn [59:01] I’m not sure this particularly applies to you, but well, we’ll go for it anyhow. Which is eerier to you, an owl hooting or coyotes howling?

Chris Taylor [59:10] An owl hooting or a coyote howling. Okay. So I’ve never heard a coyote howling because we don’t have them here in Australia. Um…

Patricia McLinn [59:18] That’s what I wondered.

Chris Taylor [59:21] But I can imagine it sounds quite eerie and lonesome. I mean, I’ve seen it on movies and things like that. Uh, so I think I’ll go coyote.

Patricia McLinn [59:29] Okay. Gardening or house decorating?

Chris Taylor [59:32] Wow. I’m not keen on either. I love a nice house and I love a beautiful garden, but I’m, I’m not, you know, I’m not naturally inclined towards either, uh, if I had to choose, I’d say garden.

Patricia McLinn [59:47] Well, then that may be a hint to what your answer will be to the next one. Best china or paper plates?

Chris Taylor [59:53] Yeah, paper plates.

Patricia McLinn [59:57] Mustard or ketchup?

Chris Taylor [59:58] We call it tomato sauce. Um, tomato sauce, definitely ketchup.

Patricia McLinn [1:00:03] Okay. So the last one, would you save the best for last or grab the best first?

Chris Taylor [1:00:08] Wow. I think I would save the best to last.

Patricia McLinn [1:00:12] Well, thank you so much, Chris, for taking the time to be with us today. Really appreciated it. And I hope that the listeners will come back next week to meet a new author. And in the meantime, have a great week of reading and we’ll see you next week on the Authors Love Readers podcast.

Chris Taylor [1:00:33] Thank you so much, Pat. It’s been fun.

Patricia McLinn [1:00:36] That’s the show for this week. Hope you enjoyed it. And thank you for joining Authors Love Readers podcast. Remember, you can always find out more about our guest authors in the show notes, and you can find out more about me at www.patriciamclinn.com. You can also send in questions to be asked of future authors at: authors@podcastatauthorslovereaders.com

Until next week. Wishing you lots of happy reading. Bye.

 

Episode 8: It’s Like a Dream, with Anne Gracie

Host Patricia McLinn talks with Regency historical romance author Anne Gracie about Anne’s writing process, characters, and love of her craft.

You can find Anne on:

*her website,

*the Word Wenches blog,

*Facebook, and

*Twitter.

Thanks to DialogMusik for the instrumentals that accompany this podcast.

 

 

Transcript: Authors Love Readers with Anne Gracie

Patricia McLinn [00:00] Hi, welcome to this week’s Authors Love Readers podcast, where we delve into the stories behind the stories. We’re asking authors questions. Some of them fun, some of them serious, and from their answers, you’re going to learn things you never knew about the people who write the stories you love. My name is Patricia McLinn. I’m your host and designated question asker.

Anne Gracie [00:23] I’m Ann Gracie, and I’m an author who loves readers.

Patricia McLinn [00:28] Now, Let’s start the show. Hi, welcome to this edition of Authors Love Readers podcast. Today we have Anne Gracie all the way from Australia by the wonders of technology. And I am delighted to have her here with me. Anne and I met— Do you realize I was thinking about this? It was ten years ago because it was the Novelists, Inc. conference in San Diego, the year that I was president of Novelists, Inc. So I remember that.

Anne Gracie [01:05] Oh, I do.

Patricia McLinn [01:06] Precisely.

Anne Gracie [01:07] Yes.

Australia, Enid Blyton, and Georgette Heyer

Patricia McLinn [01:08] And then in, um, August of 2015, I was in Australia and New Zealand and Anne was the best hostess and the best representative for Australia and Melbourne while I was there. And, uh, I will never forget you keeping me awake to fight the lag after the 30-hour trip.

Anne Gracie [01:31] It was actually the obligatory piece of torture.

Patricia McLinn [01:37] But it was all worth it, it was all worth it. So, Anne writes historicals and we will get more into that. But first I wanted you all to get, uh, get to know her a little bit, and I always find out interesting things from these, from these answers. So let’s start with. Did you have a childhood book that addicted you to stories?

Anne Gracie [01:58] I wouldn’t say that there was ever one childhood book, but, you know, I suspect it was probably A. A. Milne. My parents and my older brothers and sisters, uh, used to read Winnie the Pooh stories to me, uh, before, when I was about four. And the poems I can still recite all of A. A. Milne’s poems, uh, off my head. And then as soon as I learned to read, which was just before I went to school, I devoured my oldest sisters and brothers books.

Uh, and a lot of them were written by Enid Blyton. Who’s, who was an English author. And she wrote endless series. And, and with all kids having adventures, and I just devoured those books. And I think just about every English writer would, would be the same thinking about their childhood books. I think everybody read Enid Blyton in England and Australia, not so much as America because I don’t know that they were even published there.

Patricia McLinn [03:04] Yeah, I, um, I know her name, but I don’t think I ever read her books.

Anne Gracie [03:08] Yeah.

Patricia McLinn [03:09] I know I didn’t as a child.

Anne Gracie [03:10] We know The Famous Five and, and, uh, the adventure books and yeah. Yeah.

Patricia McLinn [03:13] Did you hear of the Bobbsey Twins?

Anne Gracie [03:16] Yeah.

Patricia McLinn [03:17] That was something I read.

Anne Gracie [03:18] Yeah, my eldest sister had those because, my sister used to read a book and that was it, but I, I had to always have a book on the go. So I read everything. I read my brothers, you know, stories, everything.

Patricia McLinn [03:31] Yeah, I read those, um, my, my older sister had them too.

Anne Gracie [03:35] Yes.

Patricia McLinn [03:36] And so I inherited those and The Borrower’s Afield. I love that story.

Anne Gracie [03:42] Yeah. Lovely. There’s actually a whole series, there’s about four books, I think.

Patricia McLinn [03:47] I know. I love those. And all The Wizard of Oz books. Not just The Wizard of Oz, but there was a whole series of books.

Anne Gracie [03:56] Oh, I knew nothing about those.

Patricia McLinn [03:59] So you should go back.

Anne Gracie [04:01] Yeah. Well, there are a number of, um, I think one of the reasons that I’m such a historical writer, when I was about eleven, I discovered Georgette Heyer. And you know, I never went back. You know, I still re-read her. I think that, and I read a lot of other historical novels. For me, historical novels weren’t about history, they were just stories in a different time and place. And that’s still how I think, I don’t understand it when people say, Oh, I don’t read historicals. I think, Oh, really? That’s odd.

Patricia McLinn [04:34] So I have to ask, which is your favorite from Georgette Heyer?

Anne Gracie [04:37] Oh.

Patricia McLinn [04:38] You say Higher or Hair?

Anne Gracie [04:40] I say Higher, like lots of people. She apparently at some stage said they called it Air. Um, but I think the original, her grandfather was German, I think, and there was an attempt to make it not sound so dramatic in World War I and II. So I don’t really know. But I say Higher, I’ve always said Higher. She’s not going to hurt me if it’s Higher. And as far as, uh, my favorites, I dunno, I have so many I love. The Unknown Ajax, which is just very funny and very clever plotting. Probably the most romantic is, uh, Damerel it’s call The Nation is the book and Venetia is the heroine and Damerel is the hero and he’s gorgeous. The Convenient Marriage, which is about a very young—

Patricia McLinn [05:30] Angsty.

Anne Gracie [05:31] Yeah. Yeah. Uh, Friday’s Child is another young bride, but some very funny minor character things. Oh, there’s just so many. A few of hers were not successful for me, but most of them they’re just fabulous.

Patricia McLinn [05:49] See I, my absolute favorite is The Talisman Ring.

Anne Gracie [05:52] Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah. I love that line—

Patricia McLinn [05:55] I love that one.

Anne Gracie [05:56] Yeah, yeah that line when she’s, the young girl who’s not the heroin, uh, is talking about, um, asking the very dour hero, wouldn’t he feel sorry for her to see a young girl go alone in a tumbril, going off to have her head chopped off, and he says, I’d be sorry for anyone. He’s completely failed to see that romantic in her. It’s lovely. There’s some lovely humor.

Patricia McLinn [06:20] Yes, it’s wonderful is that, see the, I love the humor.

Anne Gracie [06:24] Yeah.

Patricia McLinn [06:25] I also love her, um, mysteries—

Anne Gracie [06:27] Yeah.

Patricia McLinn [06:28] from the 1930s.

Anne Gracie [06:29] Yeah, yeah.

Patricia McLinn [06:30] Terrific.

Anne Gracie [06:31] Rather good, yeah.

Patricia McLinn [06:32] I enjoy those a lot. Well, we got way off. Okay. I’m going to ask you another question. What’s your favorite taste?

Anne Gracie [06:37] ah, oh, salty-sweet, maybe. But, ah, look, I’m more a savory than a sweet. One of my favorite indulgences, and it’s, people will probably yak at this, but anyway, it’s a, a French pasty sort of thing called Anchoïade and it’s anchovies and garlic and capers and you smear, and they’re all mashed up together and you smear it on hot toast. And I like just adore it. Okay. Um, but the other alternative is chocolate of course, chocolates.

Patricia McLinn [07:14] Oh no. I think, I think that may be one of the times I would pass up the chocolate.

Anne Gracie [07:20] Yeah. Yeah, not together, separately.

Patricia McLinn [07:24] Okay. Okay. So what’s your favorite color and why?

Anne Gracie [07:30] Probably blue. Blue’s the most, there’s so many beautiful variations of blue. Going from that they almost start at lilac down to sort of almost purple, like yeah, so many blues. Both of my parents had blue eyes, I’ve got blue eyes and my dad used to have, wear blue shirts and blue jumpers and stuff and it just, I just loved it. Yeah.

Patricia McLinn [07:55] Okay. Blue is for you.

Anne Gracie [07:59] Yes.

Patricia McLinn [08:00] Do you have anything that you remember your mom or dad saying at, at, you know, uh, saying that they had, and now you hear yourself?

Anne Gracie [08:10] Yes. And it’s so silly. Um, I hear it, when, when other people’s kids are talking to their mothers, and it’s what Dad used to say to me, Don’t talk to your mother like that. And I want to say then, Don’t talk to your mother like that. And then I laugh because it’s just so silly.

It’s like they’d say when particularly, you know, repetitious about things. There was a, a thing on the web, uh, on, on Facebook recently where someone said, You know, what did your parents often say, and I said, Clean up your room. I’m sorry, if you want something philosophical, Clean up your room. I think it’s still appropriate.

Patricia McLinn [08:55] Well, in a way that is philosophical.

Anne Gracie [09:00] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Patricia McLinn [09:01] Stand in for many other things.

Anne Gracie [09:03] Absolutely. Yes. We’ll take it metaphorically as well as literally.

Patricia McLinn [09:08] Yeah, right. Do you have anything from, um, earlier in your life that you used to fret over that now you think **blows raspberry** who cares?

Anne Gracie [09:17] Yes, sort of what strangers think. When I was a kid, we moved a lot. And so I was very concerned about fitting in and not so much these days, you know, I’m quite happy for people to just take me as I am.

Patricia McLinn [09:38] That’s what, that’s a wonderful achievement.

Anne Gracie [09:40] Yes.

Patricia McLinn [09:41] That so many of us don’t achieve it.

Anne Gracie [09:43] Yeah. Well, you know, I, I suppose because I’ve left so many people behind in my life, I just realized that the important ones will stick.

Patricia McLinn [09:51] And you think that’s because of, because you said you moved?

Anne Gracie [09:55] Yeah. We moved a lot.

Patricia McLinn [09:57] A lot?

Anne Gracie [09:58] Yeah. Yeah we moved a lot. And, and, you know, in life you just realize that there are some people who are important. You know, I’ve got friends now that I made good friends with when we were 15. And, you know, and we’re still good friends. And I went to, uh, I’ve been to a couple of reunions lately. One was a school reunion, and one was kind of like a student house reunion. And in both instances, I just reconnected with those people so well, so easily. And it was lovely. So the important people will stick.

Patricia McLinn [10:35] Well, that’s a good approach. Okay. Shifting a little bit. Um, most writers have a bad habit word. And if you don’t, I don’t want to hear about it.

Anne Gracie [10:47] Okay. I surely do.

Patricia McLinn [10:51] Yeah, my list just and really. Oh, I use them all the time. So what, bare your soul here, Anne. What are your bad habit words?

Anne Gracie [11:01] Oh yeah. Well see, when you said your bad habit words. I thought Facebook.

Patricia McLinn [11:07] Oh.

Anne Gracie [11:08] But the word I overuse, yeah, I think, I think probably just and only, yeah, yeah. Uh, look, I’ve got lists of the rotten things, and I do, do a, a go through, and I think I, there are certain phrases that pop up every book and that’s a new phrase per book, almost.

Patricia McLinn [11:32] Yeah.

Anne Gracie [11:33] I had to weed out a few in the latest book that I’ve just sent in. Um, her eyes were quite often wide and fathomless, and, and I had to do a search for wide and fathomless and take some out. But, you know, it’s just, yeah, I just get little quirks that pop up in every book.

Patricia McLinn [11:52] I remember in one of my books, I had this poor woman smiling so much I thought her mouth is going to start, you know, just having cramps.

Anne Gracie [12:01] Yeah, yeah, yeah, ,yeah, that’s true. I do that too.

Patricia McLinn [12:09] Now, you’re left-handed or right-handed okay?

Anne Gracie [12:12] Right-handed.

Patricia McLinn [12:14] On that hand, which is longer, your index finger or your ring finger?

Anne Gracie [12:20] Index.

Patricia McLinn [12:21] By a lot?

Anne Gracie [12:23] Not a huge amount, but there’s no doubt. It’s probably maybe quarter of an inch.

Cary Grant, writing with eyes closed, The Autumn Bride, The Perfect Rake

Patricia McLinn [12:29] I, I just find that fascinating. There is no useful purpose for asking this question, I’m just interested. And here as a question that I think will let the readers get to know you better. What three movies would you take with you to my very strange desert Island that has a mechanism to play movies, but only three?

Anne Gracie [12:50] Desert Island with no running water, but, uh, movies.

Patricia McLinn [12:54] Right. None of that stuff, but you can watch three movies there forevermore.

Anne Gracie [13:00] Love Actually would have to be one of them. Uh, you know, I can watch that endlessly and still really enjoy it. And maybe While You Were Sleeping, that movie reminds me of what I’m doing when I’m writing. And I’ve possibly also because I’ve used it a fair few times, uh, as an example for when, uh, when I’m teaching writing. So, and so, and I’ve just written an article that, that refers to it, so that’s probably in my head.

Ah the third one. That’s very hard, I don’t know. Um, I’m going to, I’m always bad with favorites whenever I’m asked a favorite anything. I have a little baby meltdown and say, Oh, what about this? But it could be that. And then there’s the other, I’ll just pick one. I’ll pick one of Cary Grant’s, uh, the old, black and white ones. Um, well, maybe not black and white, they might’ve gone in color, but yeah, an old Cary Grant romantic comedy, I just adore Cary Grant. I think he’s a darling.

Patricia McLinn [14:02] I, that, one of my very favorites is His Girl Friday.

Anne Gracie [14:06] Yes. Yeah, that a beauty.

Patricia McLinn [14:08] The dialogue and that.

Anne Gracie [14:10] Yes, yes.

Patricia McLinn [14:11] Oh my gosh.

Anne Gracie [14:12] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s wonderful. Yeah.

Patricia McLinn [14:14] Yeah. Okay. So this question comes from a reader. And she asks, Where do your stories come from? I know one author who dreams her stories. Another has a character suddenly taking up residence in her head. So how are your beautiful stories born?

Anne Gracie [14:32] I often from most of my books and certainly for every one of the books that sparked the series, I, it’s not a dream, but it’s like a dream and it comes to me on the, when I’m about to fall asleep or when I’m just waking up and I’m in that dreamy state. And a scene will come to me and it starts rolling in my head like a movie. And I have learned to, this is a tragic admission, but I sleep with a notebook and pen next to me.

Um, and I can actually write whole pages with my eyes still closed, uh, and be able to read it in the morning. Um, and most—

Patricia McLinn [15:19] That’s a terrific skill.

Anne Gracie [15:22] —um, for example, in The Autumn Bride, which was the first book of my Chance Sisters series, there’s a scene where the heroine climbs through a window. She’s, she’s at an absolute desperation point and she’s climbed through a window of this house in order to steal something small to sell and pay for a doctor to see her very sick sister. And instead of finding something to steal, she finds an old lady in a terrible situation. Now that, that scene came to me in that exact sort of dream-like state. And I’ve got it, you know, it covers about four pages in, uh, in a notebook.

My first book for Berkley, which was The Perfect Rake, the scene where, where the hero and the heroine first meet, that’s another one that came and I have got their, their meeting, their whole conversation. That was about five or six pages. Uh, and it’s almost identical to what was in the book.

And then, when I get that sort of thing, I think, afterwards they stay with me for a while, cause usually it’s a scene that’s not related to the book that I’m writing at the time and, but it’ll stay in my head and that will take nagging at me to write until I know the longer it stays there, the more it, it impels me to, to write. And so then when I come to write it, I sort of think, Well, who are these people and how do they get in this situation? And where do I go from here?

Patricia McLinn [16:58] I have so many questions to ask you off of that. Are they always scenes at the beginning of books?

Anne Gracie [17:05] No. No. My very, very first book, um, which was called Gallant Waif, and it was a RITA finalist for best first book, that has a scene almost at the end. It’s the ballroom scene, if anyone’s ever read it. And it’s the, it’s pretty much the heroin’s black moment where the thing that she sees most has come to pass. And that is right at the very end of the book. And again, that’s about five or six pages in a notebook that came to me in that way.

And when I came to decide what I was going to do with that, uh, I thought, hmm, this is not, you know, it’s quite an intense thing. It makes people cry a lot of readers say, and, and I had to get, work out who the characters were and how they got to that point, And it was quite a journey. To get to that point.

So, yeah, it’s not always the meeting of the all right. With the all lady, the, the girl climbing heavy, um, privately through the window and the old lady, that comes for about three or four chapters in, if they’re not all straight away, they’re not the opening scene necessarily. They’re just a crucial scene.

Patricia McLinn [18:20] So do you have some of them that you you’ve written down the scene, but you haven’t quite found the story that—

Anne Gracie [18:26] Oh, yeah.

Patricia McLinn [18:28] that. Okay. And you hold on to those then.

Anne Gracie [18:30] Yeah. Look, when, when, um, my one time, I know when my editor was saying, Well, you know, you’re finishing up this series, what’s going to be next? And I said, Oh, I don’t know. And, and because I didn’t have a particular one in mind. And so I went through my notebooks, I’ve got a stack of those notebooks that I’ve got so many story ideas, um, and half done stories and things there isn’t, you know, I could be going till I’m a hundred and eight. Um, probably won’t.

Patricia McLinn [19:02] From that initial story… How many of you books have come from, uh, from a scene like that? What percentage? Do you half of your books?

Anne Gracie [19:10] Yeah, no, I-I’ve never worked it out. I’ve, usually if a series starts with that, those books, those scenes are always the most powerful, whether they’re the most powerful in the book, but sometimes I’ll just have little, little scenes will come and, and bits of story or bits of scene.

You know, if I’m, if I’m immersed in the story and try to get to sleep or just waking up, sometimes the whole conversation between the hero and heroine will come and I’ll just go brum brum brum brum brum. And sometimes they’re, they’re the funniest or the best chit-chat, you know, better nosh. Um, uh, what do they call it? You know? Yeah. When, when it’s backwards and forwards and backwards and forwards and sometimes that’s just the best.

Patricia McLinn [19:59] Yeah, and it really catches, catches the core of their relationship.

Anne Gracie [20:03] Yeah, yeah. And it’s fun. Um, and, um, at that stage, my pen is absolutely flying to keep up with the conversation that’s happening in my head. So I couldn’t, I wouldn’t know how many, what percentage, but it’s a big part of my process. It’s much more a part of my process then logically sitting down and plotting out a plot.

Patricia McLinn [20:24] You know, the characters names at that point?

Anne Gracie [20:26] No, no I don’t.

Patricia McLinn [20:28] Okay.

Anne Gracie [20:29] Um, sometimes they declare themselves pretty quickly sometimes I think, Oh, I think she’s named so-and-so, and then she will refuse to answer to that name. Until I find the correct name. Yep, yep.

Patricia McLinn [20:39] Yeah. Early on in my books, there’s a lot of she and he, and it’s a good thing I know who they are because—

Anne Gracie [20:47] Yeah.

Patricia McLinn [20:48] —it can be a little confusing.

Anne Gracie [20:50] Yeah. I usually start with a name, but then it becomes pretty clear that they’re not going to work or then they don’t like it. Um, I’ve had a series of Adams as, as heroes and they’ve never, they’ve never lasted past about chapter three, Adam just is never going to be one of my heroes it seems. I keep trying because I quite like the name. But no, no, sorry I’m not Adam, go away. Go find out who I am.

Patricia McLinn [21:15] So when you have that idea and it’s time for that, to deal with that book, you know, you’ve, you’ve finished the other one because those things almost always come when you’re supposed to be doing something else, don’t they?

Anne Gracie [21:28] Oh, yep.

Patricia McLinn [21:29] So, but you’re, you’ve got that scene, you’re coming, you’re going to deal with that book. How do you then take it from that scene, to a complete story?

Anne Gracie [21:40] With great difficulty.

Patricia McLinn [21:44] And many months of agony.

Anne Gracie [21:47] Yeah, yeah, yeah. For me, it’s always how I have to cast around to find the starting point of the story and my stories don’t usually start out with a bang. Uh, I’d hope that I start with a whimper, but no. Um, they, it takes me a while to find the right thread and to start at the right angle so that you’d get to see the characters in the way that I want you to see them.

And then I do a lot of what ifs, and what’s next. And sometimes characters will come up with just something, you know, something will pop out of their mouth or they’ll say something and I’m thinking, Oh, this isn’t where I want it to go at all, but it’s right for the character, so I have to go there. So yeah, I push on and see, and I do a lot of rewriting, but yeah. Yeah.

Patricia McLinn [22:42] At what point in this process are you telling your editor what you’re going to write? Because it sounds like a synopsis would not be very, um, informative, for you.

Anne Gracie [22:54] No, well, it is and it isn’t because the synopsis is so, it’s reasonably general. I devoutly hope that my editor doesn’t sit there and compare the, the final story with the synopsis. And I definitely hope she’s not listening now.

Um, yeah, I’d look, my, I have to put in a synopsis for a proposal pretty early in the piece because they use that for the cover design and to start working out a back cover blurb. Um, it’s my best guess. And in, in general, there, there is some similarities. The act is kind of there. I know where they need to end up, but it’s how they get there, that’s the difficulty.

And you know, I’ve done, once I’ve got the synopsis in, done, I don’t actually worry about it until they stop doing the back cover blurb. And then I have to know a whole lot more. And usually I’m not even finished the story by the time they’ve got the cover and the back cover blue, it’s known as pressure.

Patricia McLinn [24:00] And, and that leads to a question from one of the readers who kindly volunteer questions. Um, and she asks when the cover image doesn’t match the character description, and she says that’s a pet peeve of hers, how does it feel for you? The author?

Anne Gracie [24:19] Okay. I’ve never had a character that looks completely wrong. Like I’ve, you know, I’ve had some of my friends have got redheaded heroines, who’ve got black hair or, you know, I’ve never had that. Uh, that said pretty much all of my cover people are not exactly how I’ve seen them. I was one of the earliest authors to have the headless heroines and heroes.

Patricia McLinn [24:47] Is that because you didn’t know what color hair they had yet?

Anne Gracie [24:51] No, no, no, no. It was just that it was just the time, you know, that was the new thing. Um, An Honorable Thief was the, was the book. Um, and then An Honorable Thief, you know, his and hers heads are chopped off. And that, a lot of people hated that. I didn’t mind because I thought it doesn’t matter, what the book is, the way I imagined the hero and the heroine and not even my books, any books, uh, they never are the person on the cover. So I’m very philosophical about the cover as long as it’s pretty and attractive and worth picking up, I’m happy.

Patricia McLinn [25:31] That’s very sane.

Anne Gracie [25:33] Yes. Well, you know, I’ve had to be. But a couple of times I’ve got the, the cover early enough to have, uh, cause often I’ll get brides on the covers and I’ve been able to incorporate the description of the bridal dress on the cover.

Patricia McLinn [25:47] Oh, nice.

Anne Gracie [25:49] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That’s been fun when I can do that.

Patricia McLinn [25:52] So as you’re, as you’re progressing through this book, you’ve, had, you’ve had this sort of waking dream scene and you’re trying to figure out what brought those people to that point and what, how they’re going to go on from there. I often liken that by the way, to eavesdropping on people in a restaurant that you see this vignette, and from that just that little bit, you can pick up a lot of what got them there.

Anne Gracie [26:20] Oh, yes.

Patricia McLinn [26:21] And you can speculate on what’s going to take them.

Anne Gracie [26:24] Yeah, yeah.

Patricia McLinn [26:25] Yeah. But yeah, if, as you’re going on with the process, which parts do you love of the process and which parts do you hate?

Anne Gracie [26:32] Easy. I love the bits where it’s going well, and I hate the bits where I’m struggling. Really that’s true. That’s, that’s it, you know, when it’s going well, I’m really happy when it’s not going well, I’m miserable. Um, and I’m all, but I always get to a point three-quarters of the way through the book where I’m certain I’m never going to make it work. And my writing friends are really, really helpful on this. I go to them, and I say, Oh, this book is going to be terrible, and people are going to hide it. I’m never going to win. And they say this really helpful advice. And you always say that, shut up.

Patricia McLinn [27:10] So much sympathy.

Anne Gracie [27:14] Yeah, that’s right. And you know, but I still firmly believe that, that, that struggle at that point makes me go deeper into the story and work harder at it and, and fix the things that my instinct tells me are not working and that everyone else says is okay. Um, and, and I think it makes it more biddable. So I think angst and me in the writing process are a partnership.

Patricia McLinn [27:44] Sounds like almost every book surprises you.

Anne Gracie [27:48] Um, yeah, look, I don’t think I’ve never found in a book. I’ve never just thought, Ah, look, just get it finished. Get it gone. I try, I, yeah, I’ve really worked at it. I love, I love the books. If all in love with the characters and I want, I want it to be right. I want it to be like they’re stuck in Vegas. So, yeah.

Single books into a trilogy, a trilogy into a quartet, the Chance Sisters series

Patricia McLinn [28:08] And that leads to another reader question who asked if, um, you as an author, do you think about the characters after the book is done? Do you wonder, you know, how they’re doing or do you know how they’re doing, and has it ever led to another, you writing a sequel, another book?

Anne Gracie [28:27] Yep. Look, my first books for Berkley. I wrote four books for Harlequin, and my editor did not want me to do any series at that point. And so the book that I sold to Berkley, I actually started with the intentions, sending it to Harlequin. Uh, but as always, my books were too long and I had to cut them, and I was another book that I was going to have to cut 40,000 words off to fit the Harlequin links, and I just thought, I don’t want to do that.

And I wasn’t, it wasn’t contracted. And so I ended up selling that book to Berkley. And the first thing my editor said when I talked to her about it, she said, which girl’s next? Because I had the, the heroine for that was the oldest sister, the plain sister in a family of, of pretty girls. And, and so it was about her, and I hadn’t even thought about the sisters at all.

Anne Gracie [29:23] And so, Oh, okay. Well, we’ll do something about the sisters. And so that was the editor sort of asking me, and that was contracted as a three-book series. And then there was a young, the youngest sister who was just a child in that first book and readers kept writing to me about it.

And, and I had so many letters, I mentioned it to my editor. And she said, go ahead, write Grace’s story. So that was a four-book trilogy. And then the next series that I had was to be a four-book series and it was a five-book quartet. With the—

Patricia McLinn [30:04] Math challenged, Anne.

Anne Gracie [30:05] Yep. Ah, with the Chance Sisters series that I achieved a full book quartet. Um, that’s only because I reckon it was, each one was a seasonal bride. So I had autumn, winter, spring, blah, blah. So there’s not that many extra series. So, ah, that restricted me. Seasons, sorry, extra seasons. Yes, they do, they do haunt me and, and these days, um, I’ve got a whole lot of half-started shorts, other stories that were not contracted.

One of them in particular, Marcus’s story, I get reader letters for him all the time. When are you going to write Marcus’s story? And I promise I’m going to write it, but it’s just fitting it in between the other things. And, and at some stage I’m going to write it and I’ve got the story in my head and bits of it on paper.

But yeah. Yeah. I just haven’t had the time to sort of put it together because, my head space is weird and I can only write one book at a time. So yeah. And I have to do the contracted ones. Some people will do several books at a time, and, but I’m not like that.

Patricia McLinn [31:12] Yeah. I’m one of those. But then, now when you, when you have these, you haven’t named the characters yet and say you, you name a secondary character and then subsequently realize, Oh, that person is going to be hero or heroine of another book. Have you ever gotten yourself in trouble with naming them or giving them a foible or, you know, creating the, the secondary character who you think, Oh, they’re just sort of a walk-on. And then they won’t let, walk off.

Anne Gracie [31:44] Oh, yeah.

Patricia McLinn [31:46] your own book.

Anne Gracie [31:47] Yes.

Patricia McLinn [31:48] And then you think, Why oh why did I do this with them? Have you ever had that?

Anne Gracie [31:52] Yes. And, and I have it all the time. I have to prune back minor characters all the time. And in one of my books, the Honor— Honorable, was it the Honorable Thief? No, it was The Perfect Waltz. Uh, in The Perfect Waltz, I had a secondary romance with the, uh, the hero, the hero’s best friend and his original intended heroine.

And, uh, and it was just a little bit of fun on the side and so many people said, We want their story. So, yeah, these days I think with independent publishing becoming a reality, if I can get my act together, I can write some of those stories and make them a bit shorter.

Patricia McLinn [32:33] Oh, yes.

Anne Gracie [32:34] And still publish them. Um, but you know, at the moment, it’s a theory rather than a practice.

Patricia McLinn [32:42] Well, that leads me to actually kind of two questions. One comes from a reader, and she asked, What is your favorite place to write and why? And does it have an inspirational view? And, and then from that, I want to ask if you have a writing routine.

Anne Gracie [32:59] It changes, my favorite place changes. Um, I, currently I write on a laptop on my bed and I’m looking out the front window of my house, which is a lovely bay, big bay window. And my dog sits in the end, on the end of the bed, on her corner and watches for, um, enemies like cats and people and warns me of their imminence.

Patricia McLinn [33:30] Yes.

Anne Gracie [33:31] Um, another favorite place to write is my local library, which has nice comfy chairs and small desks. And I, and I go there when, particularly I go there when I’m stuck. Um, and I hand write, I don’t take my laptop. I don’t play on Facebook or Twitter or anything like that. I just hand write, and my rule is that I’m not allowed to leave the library until I’ve got three pages. And this is, this is a large sort of spiral back notebook, and three pages nearly always turns out to be a thousand words or more. And often I’ll do a lot more than three pages. Once I start, I just, I’m off and running.

Another place, favorite place to write, I’m very lucky and I go away on a writer’s retreat with a small group of friends with, we’ve been doing it for ten years. We had our 10th anniversary in March and that’s how I knew it was ten years since we met, Pat, because after the very first one, I went to San Diego and to NInc. So, yeah, so we’re coming up to our 11^th.

Anne Gracie [34:38] And, uh, and we go to the, we go up to the Gold Coast in Queensland. It’s, we have an apartment building right on the beach. We each have our own apartment. A couple of them share a two-bedroom apartment with a larger sitting room. And we all go there for meetings at lunchtime and night. And that’s a pretty or just some spectacular place.

But to be honest, once I start, I could, I could be living in a cave. In fact, I often say to people, I’m in the cave. Um, if the view doesn’t matter, the, the place doesn’t matter. It’s by a once I get started, the hardest thing is to get started. Once I get started, whoa, I’m off and running.

Patricia McLinn [35:21] I noticed you slid right by that retreat, cause I’ve been, oh, so strategically hinting that I be invited to that at some point.

Anne Gracie [35:36] But it’s a, it’s a closed group, these days.

Patricia McLinn [35:38] Um, yeah. No. These days? You closed it after I asked.

Anne Gracie [35:42] No, no, no, no, no, it’s been like that for, I dunno, about six or seven years, we kind of realized that it’s the same group all the time. And we kind of realize that so much has been shared, that it’s kind of difficult for, you, you know, other people to fit in. So, yeah. Um, that said, I am thinking of, of, uh, a couple of friends and I are thinking of organizing a different kind of retreat, uh, with a completely different group. So you’re still in with a chance.

Patricia McLinn [36:12] Okay.

Anne Gracie [36:13] If you still wanted to come.

Patricia McLinn [36:15] This one is going to be like, in a prison or something like that.

Anne Gracie [36:20] No, no, no, no, we’ll have a gorgeous spot. We’ll have a gorgeous spot and my rule is if it’s going to be retreat, it needs to be near the beach because I think water is very inspiring. You don’t have to swim, but yeah, you know, just looking at the beach and just looking out in the ever-changing water and the sea and the sky is just gorgeous and walking along the beach has just, you know, brainstorming with a friend is just brilliant, you know?

Patricia McLinn [36:45] It is. It is.

Anne Gracie [36:46] So, it won’t ever be in a hall or a prison or anything like that.

Patricia McLinn [36:51] Okay. I’ve got you recorded now, promising I’d be considered.

Anne Gracie [36:55] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Patricia McLinn [36:57] So how do you think you’ve changed and evolved as a writer since you were first published?

Anne Gracie [37:02] Oh, hope I’ve got better. I cut more than I used to. I think, I think look, um, I tend to overwrite. I tend to override in general and I have got better at cutting back and pruning back a lot of the extraneous stuff. Otherwise, I don’t know. I, I, I don’t, because I don’t re-read my old books because I heard someone say once at a writer’s conference that a book, as far as he was concerned, that a book is never finished. It’s just that someone takes it off him. And that’s exactly how I feel. Once it’s gone, the editors got and it’s published, I can’t change it. I’m not even going to look at it because I will want to change it. Yeah.

Patricia McLinn [37:46] Yeah. Well, it’s been an interesting process with having the rights back to some of my books and putting them out because a number of them, I have felt that way, and I’ve changed some of them quite a bit. One of them, I really, in essence, I rewrote it.

Anne Gracie [38:01] Yeah.

Patricia McLinn [38:02] Um, and then, and yet some of them, it feels like, Yes, I could go in and I could change things, and I’m a better writer than I am now, but they, uh, it’s uh, there’s a completeness to what it is.

Anne Gracie [38:14] Yeah.

Patricia McLinn [38:15] As that finished book.

Anne Gracie [38:17] Yes. Yeah. Look, um, not so long ago, well, a while ago, Mary Jo Putney got my very first book, Gallant Waif, to read cause they put it on Kindle. And, and she said, Oh, I’ve just bought, got your first book, Gallant Waif, and I’m about to read it. And I went, Oh don’t, it’s terrible. And she read it, and she got back, and she said, You know, don’t worry. It’s lovely. It’s a book of its time. It’s, the storytelling is lovely. You know, don’t worry about it. You know, anyone will enjoy it.

And you know, she’s right. It’s a book of its time. Yeah. And the storytelling still works.

Patricia McLinn [38:55] Yes.

Anne Gracie [38:56] And the characters work and I don’t know, I’ve found it hopeless talking about my own writing, but you know, she reassured me that, yeah, it’s fine.

Patricia McLinn [39:02] Well, and as readers, we love to go back to those books written in other times, written in other, um, manners and styles—

Anne Gracie [39:10] Yes.

Patricia McLinn [39:11] —because they were the style of that time. So, um…

Anne Gracie [39:15] Yes.

Patricia McLinn [39:16] It’s just a little closer in time.

Anne Gracie [39:19] Yes, and I think, you know, something has been lost in this drive to eliminate adverbs and adjectives and, and all of that sort of stuff. I think there’s a lushness in some of those older books. I recently, re-read a bunch of Jayne Anne Krantz-Amanda Quick books, uh, from, uh, and also, uh, Elizabeth Lowell’s medieval, she did a medieval trilogy that has always been a favorite and the books are practically falling apart, and I bought them again on Kindle. And, you know, there’s a lushness about those books that’s just so, you just don’t get these days.

Patricia McLinn [39:57] I think what, one of the things I like in some of the older books is a different tempo. And I don’t want to say they’re necessarily slower, but they let characters develop over the course, and you don’t have, the course of the book and you don’t necessarily have to, to know, there’s a tendency to, especially with contemporaries, to throw author, characters into danger right away.

Anne Gracie [40:29] Yeah.

Patricia McLinn [40:30] And maybe, maybe this is only me, but I think, I don’t care. I don’t know who this is. I need to know who they are before they’re in danger.

Anne Gracie [40:37] Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I completely agree. It, yeah, there’s characters opening in danger. Some people can do it really well. Dick Francis does it particularly well. Uh, there’s one of his and I can’t think of the story. Um, but it opens with a scene where the character is, uh, in a, handcuffed to the wheel of a car in the desert, sweating, um, you know, about to die first on the scene. And, but the character thoughts really intrigue you. And there’s another one. Um—

Patricia McLinn [41:12] So then you do care.

Anne Gracie [41:15] So you do care, that’s right. The character, you get to know the character by his responses. And I think that in the ones that you’re talking to… Lee Child did that with his first book, Killing Floor. Where he, you know, his character is sitting there, uh, in, in a diner, he’s just arrived, and he’s having, uh, his breakfast and, and the police cars are coming for him with guns and things. And, you know, he knows perfectly well he’s in danger, but he’s fought and he’s analyzing what’s about to happen and, and how it’s working.

You think this guy’s smart. He’s, he’s really clever and you’re with him, you know, whereas a lot of the times people are just reacting and you don’t actually get to know them.

Patricia McLinn [41:57] You have to feel the character.

Anne Gracie [41:59] Yeah. And, and I look, I did it in my Autumn Bride. Um, it was the first book of the series, and I was so worried about how readers would like that book, because as I said to friends all the time, uh, this book, isn’t really a love story between a man and a woman. It’s a love story between a group of girls, four girls and an old lady. And it kind of was. Because the hero—

I have a friend of mine, who’s an editor and a reviewer, and she said to me, came up to me at a conference later, and she said something like page 198. And I went, what, what are you talking about? And she said, When the hero arrived. And she was right. But, people really liked it.

People really liked that, you know, readers love to sort of, the relationship developing between the old lady and the girls. So they forgave the fact that it wasn’t instant love straight up. And, you know, I don’t do instant love anymore. You know, I don’t, I didn’t really ever, but you know, there was always the pressure to get them together pretty quickly. I’ll let the characters tell me now and hope that readers will follow.

Patricia McLinn [43:12] Now, are all of your books set in the Regency period?

Anne Gracie [43:15] Yeah, all my historicals are. I wrote one romantic comedy for Harlequin years ago, but didn’t continue that. That was contemporary. Um, I would love to write contemporary, romantic comedy, but I’m not a fast writer, so maybe not. Yeah. And I think it’s Georgette Heyer that, that, uh, you know, I kind of feel as though I grew up in Georgette Heyer’s Regency, so that’s, you know, it feels natural to me.

Researching, Tallie’s Knight, Grand Tour, and Egypt

Patricia McLinn [43:40] How, what’s your feeling about the research, and how do you approach that?

Anne Gracie [43:43] Okay, the research depends entirely on the book and the characters. Some, sometimes, if it’s only about the characters, you know, it’s the story is mainly about the characters and pretty much set in London, there’s not a lot of research to do because a lot of stuff that I already know. When it’s been set in wartime, I have had to do quite a bit of research and, and, and work out where people were one time and dates and battles and all that.

I set a book in Regency age, era, Egypt, uh, and that was a laugh. The research for that, it was fantastic. I used a lot of travelers, um, traveling in Egypt at that time, these days, it’s, the first one, the first book I ever had to do huge amounts of research for was, uh, my second book called Tallie’s Knight, which was set, pretty much set, most of it was on the Grand, taking the Grand Tour.

Anne Gracie [44:41] And so I had to do a lot of research for that, but what I found was a, um, uh, uh, uh, published, it was in the rare book collections of my state library, and it, it was a whole series of letters from a young woman doing the Grand Tour with a bunch of friends, writing back about the experience to her brother who was, uh, uh, apparently in Ireland.

Patricia McLinn [45:05] Oh, how wonderful.

Anne Gracie [45:06] And, ah, so yeah. And then, and that was fantastic. I ended up being able to buy that book. I bought it online from an Irish bookseller in the rare book library, but these days with, uh, the so many of those books and journals and collections of letters that are on, um, online and you can just get them. And so I had the most wonderful, you know, you can glean so much gorgeous data from those witnesses.

You know, people, if, you know, some people write really boring letters home, and others write really fascinating ones and, you know, that’s, that’s really good. So when I do do the research, it’s fun. It’s not a chore. And you know, I think people who write contemporaries have to do research too.

Patricia McLinn [45:51] Oh, yes. Yes.

Anne Gracie [45:53] Yeah. It’s a rumor that you don’t have to do as much research for contemporaries.

Patricia McLinn [45:59] Oh, no, you definitely have to do research.

Anne Gracie [46:02] Yeah.

Patricia McLinn [46:03] I, I, I refer, I always have a moment in my books I refer to my granite steps moment in my books. My first book was set in Wisconsin, and I had this, it just, it’s an offhand line about them walking up granite steps to a, um, a courthouse, I think, but, uh, you know, a public building, I had the sudden fear as I’m reading over the, I think it was the page proofs at that point. Oh my God, what if for some reason they don’t have granite steps in Wisconsin.

Anne Gracie [46:37] Yep, yep.

Patricia McLinn [46:38] I don’t know why. I couldn’t think of any reasonable reason they wouldn’t. But so I’m on the phone calling, I called courthouses. Most of whom thought I was nuts. Didn’t want it. And then I had a, I had a court clerk whose son, um, studied rocks. All right. And she said, absolutely. They are granite steps. Ah, okay.

Anne Gracie [47:01] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Patricia McLinn [47:05] So, there is always something that you fret about, but the flip, the other side of that though, is that the, um, Regency readers are famed… Sorry for that background noise. That was my dog dropping her 18-inch long chew on the heat register.

Anne Gracie [47:30] My Milly dog is jealous of that.

Patricia McLinn [47:32] So, what I was saying is that Regency—

Anne Gracie [47:34] Yeah, the Regency readers.

Patricia McLinn [47:37] —readers are famed for knowing all of the ins and outs and the details. And have you ever been called to account by, by any of the readers?

Anne Gracie [47:47] Well, yeah, I have. Generally I get it right. Um, because, you know, having been brought up in, in with Georgette Heyer, you know, um, sort of mostly I’m right. The, there’s one in particular where I got things spectacularly wrong. And it’s the reg— It’s the research that you think you know, that you then don’t look up—

Patricia McLinn [48:10] Yep.

Anne Gracie [48:11] —that gets him into trouble. And, um, there were two things. One is I had a lemon tree growing in Shropshire, and I had a lovely English lady write and say, Look, by the way, our climate wouldn’t, would kill a lemon tree. There’s no way. You’ve got lemon trees growing, but see, the American writers did not pick that up. The American readers didn’t pick that up, it was just a local lady.

Um, my worst one was, uh, when I had my heroine’s mother, um, take a pilgrimage to Lourdes to pray for her son, she was a French woman, 70 years before St. Bernadette had her vision. And that’s because—

Patricia McLinn [48:51] Ooops.

Anne Gracie [48:52] —Anne thought she knew the dates and didn’t look it up, did she? And I had Catholics from all over the world, because I have a lot of foreign translations, I had Catholics from all over the world writing and saying, Uh umm. And I had to say mea culpa, I’m sorry.

Patricia McLinn [49:09] Mea culpa.Very appropriate.

Anne Gracie [49:15] So, yes. Um, but you know, it’s the things that you think you know and don’t look up that are most likely to get me at any rate into trouble.

Patricia McLinn [49:24] Absolutely, absolutely. To share some of your research on a blog with, um, multiple other authors, the Writing Wenches, um, how have, have you found that blogging has had any impact on your writing of novels?

Anne Gracie [49:42] Um, I don’t really think the blogging has, but for me, the, knowing the Word Wenches has been a huge thing in my writing career because in Australia, when I first got published, there were two other writers published in romance in Australia. One of them was Stephanie Laurens, who I know very well, she’s a good friend, but she was already out of my league. And the other was, lived far distance.

And I just didn’t know anyone else published in New York. Um, you know, to talk to. And so I actually met Mary Jo Putney and Jo Beverley and Pat Rice at that very same NInc conference in San Diego, where I met you. Um, and, uh, and, and, and I met, you said it was quite a small conference. And for me, that was brilliant because I came knowing nobody and, oh, no, sorry, I already knew Jane Porter. She came. Um, but yeah, I came knowing virtually nobody and I left there having made a bunch of friends, and then I went to the second NInc conference, my second NInc conference, which was in New York. And I remember you took me, you took me for a drink at the end of that, and I still owe you a cocktail, I’m sure.

Patricia McLinn [51:09] I’ll meet you back at NInc.

Anne Gracie [51:11] I’ve only fed you wine when you’re in Australia or whatever you do when you don’t feed. Um, but um, you know, being with those, that group of people talking, we talk a lot offline, online, sort of, you know, a little email group and yeah, they, I get some really good advice there. So it’s not so much that it’s affected my writing, um, but it is, it’s definitely affected my sense of my career, or yeah. Something like that.

Patricia McLinn [51:48] So more of the conversation is about career or is there also conversation about craft and getting—?

Anne Gracie [51:55] Oh, everything, everything.

Patricia McLinn [51:56] Oh, good.

Anne Gracie [51:57] Everything. You know, we’ll talk about craft, we’ll talk about dogs. We’ll talk about cats. We’ll talk about, you know, covers, we’ll talk about edits. We’ll talk about anything.

Patricia McLinn [52:07] I knew, I knew cats had to work in there with Mary Jo.

Anne Gracie [52:11] Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. And I like cats. I’m just allergic to them. Yeah. It’s all sorts of stuff. And sometimes we, I’ll talk with one or two of them off, you know, in just a private email saying, you know, I’m not sure what do you think, blah, blah. Um, it’s great. You know, and, and I’m very lucky in that I get to read some of their stories before they hit the, uh, hit the stands, so that’s a little perk that we have. Um, so yeah, it’s great.

Patricia McLinn [52:38] And that for, for readers who might not be familiar, um, Mary Jo Putney, Jo Beverley, and Patricia Rice have all also written, um, many historicals, wonderful historicals.

Anne Gracie [52:50] Yeah. Yeah. We’re, we’re actually, there’s, there’s eight of us. Um, uh, there’s Joanna Bourne as well. There’s Nicola Cornick from England. Um, there’s Susanna Kinsley, who, um, writes fantastic kind of time sleep stuff, she’s Canadian. Uh, Andrea Pickens, who also writes as Andrea Penrose and Sarah, not Sarah. What’s the, oh God, Cara Elliott.

We all, what links us all is the historical aspect of our writing. Susan King, sorry, is another one. She writes historicals, but not so much, not so much historical romance, but historical novels. So, but yeah, basically the Word Wenches are, um, historical and, uh, that’s, that’s what links us all.

Patricia McLinn [53:40] Well, as long as we’re talking about other writers, this is a good opportunity to ask a really interesting question from a reader. She says, If you could write a book with any author, alive or dead, who would you want to work with and why?

Anne Gracie [53:56] Oh, look, I don’t know. I couldn’t, you know, take me back five years and I would have been happy to say, Oh, this person, that person, the other person. Um, but now I’ve done, I have actually written linked books. We did last a couple of years ago, the Word Wenches did a linked series of Christmas novellas.

Yeah. And, and it was really tricky as we, you know, we, it was all based around a particular event or a Christmas ball. And so just, just getting that in, I figured, Oh, it just became a nightmare at times, and it was fun, but it was tricky. And I realized how much of a control freak I am about my books. Um, and, and I think, I think everybody is. I think all writers are

Patricia McLinn [54:48] Yes.

Anne Gracie [54:49] With my friend Sarah Mayberry just wrote, co-wrote a book with, um, Sarina Bowen. And I’m a huge fan of both of them. They write contemporary romance. And I’m a huge fan of both of them. And I had dinner with, um, uh, lunch with, with, uh, Sarah recently and, and I was grilling her about how it went, and she, you know, she loved it.

She said it was wonderful and they, you know, they, it was just describing getting her to describe the process was fascinating. So yeah, I would, you know, I think I would like to, but it would just depend on who and their writing process, not so much the writing that they’ve produced—

Patricia McLinn [55:29] Oh, interesting.

Anne Gracie [55:31] —but their writing process. You know what I mean? Because, because I’m a huge fan of so many different people. And I read, I don’t just read romance. I read, uh, fantasy and crime and paranormal and all sorts. So, you know, any of those would be fantastic, but it’s, you know, I’m a huge fan of people’s writing, but I don’t know whether I would be able to work with them because it takes a certain amount of give and take.

Patricia McLinn [56:00] True. So how would you, would you, would you entertain, since this is fantasy, would you entertain, um, working with Georgette Heyer?

Anne Gracie [56:09] Having read her biography by Jennifer Kloester. Probably not. Look, I’ll tell you what, I’d probably be able to write with some and enjoy writing with someone like Mary Jo. Um, I would love to write with, I’ve got a couple of friends who write, um, contemporaries, uh, and I would love to write contemporary with some of my friends. Georgette Heyer didn’t even allow her editor to edit. Any suggestion from me, I think would come with a verbal slap.

Patricia McLinn [56:44] It would be interesting to be part of the process, you know, to watch the process.

Anne Gracie [56:50] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Patricia McLinn [56:54] Yeah. Yeah. We may not have much input, but you wish you could. I think it would be a real interesting, um, learning experience.

Anne Gracie [57:01] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it would be. Um, and I think there’s nothing I enjoy, look one of the things that I most enjoy when I go on my writers’ retreat is, um, I always get together with a couple of, couple of the friends there, and we brainstorm. And I love brainstorming. And, um, I do a lot of brainstorming with friends on the phone, not just about my books, their books, too.

You know, it’s, it’s very mutual on, I do what you, you know, if I say it once, I’ve probably said it a million times to a couple of, you know, various of my friends, I’m just throwing spaghetti at the wall here, but what about, and I’ll just throw suggestions and I’m not tied to those suggestions. I’m not hooked to those suggestions. I don’t care if they say, No that’s rubbish. Um, I just love spinning possibilities. So, you know, yeah. I could work with somebody, but it would depend. Yeah.

Patricia McLinn [57:59] Yeah, I, I’m probably better at brainstorming other people’s stories than having, um, brainstorming done for mine, unless it’s very specific because I have these, I have certain things that are so sharp and so clear and I can’t budge those and they could be idiotic. It doesn’t matter. I cannot budge those without losing the whole story without losing the feel of who those people are.

Anne Gracie [58:25] Yep. Yeah.

Patricia McLinn [58:26] And, um, that can be difficult for other people to work on because they never know where these mines are going to be and going, Nope, he’s got to where, you know, he’s got to have a dog that has three legs, you know, that’s all there is to it.

Anne Gracie [58:41] Yeah, yeah, but that’s important, though, you know, you’ve got to, I hate doing the kind of brainstorming where you say to somebody, What about this? They’re like, Oh yeah, that’ll work. Thanks. You know, it never happens like that. With my writer friends, they say, No, that can’t work because of this. Um, and now, now I’ve done a lot of that yeah, but, no, it’s a great idea, but not for this story that, that’s not going to work. That’s not going to work with my hero. No, my hero is nothing like that. You know, it’s, it’s, that’s how it works. We all have, we’ve got to be the boss of this story because we, it’s, it’s all kinds of weird little intangible themes that make it a story and not an idea.

Patricia McLinn [59:23] That’s a great way of saying it, Anne, and yeah, I like that. So we’ve gotten all writerly here. Let’s take it back and talk some more about a little bit more about the readers. You said you have, you have letters from readers about what they, what stories they want to hear from you. Do you have, have you had other, do you have a lot of other contact with readers or, um, do you have great stories about what they’ve written to you or.

Anne Gracie [59:48] Yes. I have one in particular that was pretty funny. Um, uh, yeah, look, I, I, I interact mostly on Facebook with readers. Um, there’s a lot of lovely people who write to me and tell me stuff. And lots of people write emails, send me email cause they, they go to my website and, um, you know, anne@annegracie.com and it comes up, it comes up, um, emails. I get, I’ve got lots of emails and I try and reply to everything. Not always immediately, but yeah.

Funny email, best work behind her

Patricia McLinn [1:00:19] Any funny ones?

Anne Gracie [1:00:20] Probably, yeah. The funniest one was, this was, uh, from a, uh, professor in the U S, who wrote, I wish I could quote it, but I haven’t got it here. Uh, wrote me this fabulous letter. He just read, um, The Perfect Rake. Uh, he said, he thought I was the best writer since Jane Austin.

Patricia McLinn [1:00:47] Oh, my goodness.

Anne Gracie [1:00:48] Yes, and then he went on to say, And what must it feel like to have your best work behind you? Because he didn’t like the following book. He didn’t like the rest of the series. He didn’t like the heroes in the rest of the series. So, yes.

Patricia McLinn [1:01:07] Your best work behind you.

Anne Gracie [1:01:09] Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. But you know what? He and I had a, an ongoing correspondence that lasted for quite a long time. And, uh, yeah, it’s an interesting bloke and, um, yeah, but, uh, it’s it, uh, that very first one where, you know, what must it feel like to have your best work behind you.

Patricia McLinn [1:01:29] And that is, that is, that’s so indicative of you, Anne, that you did have an ongoing conversation with him rather than just blasting him back or ignoring him.

Anne Gracie [1:01:39] Ah, look, I, you know, yeah. I look, he was fascinating. Um, and, I’m, I just I find people really interesting. I’ve been lucky in that I’ve never had nasty stuff, so, you know, I’ve never felt the need to be angry at anyone. You know, I think it’s fair enough if people don’t like some of my books, you know, there’s, there’s not a, there’s not a, an author alive that I’ve got. And I live in a house that’s absolutely drowning in books. Um, but not every, not every author hits the exact spot every time. And I just, yeah, if you don’t like it, fair enough. That’s okay. But he was, he was interesting. Yeah.

Patricia McLinn [1:02:20] And I think, I think there may be an element of that for a lot of us who are writing that if we could find the perfect books, um, for what we wanted to read at the time we wanted to read it. We, I probably wouldn’t write as much. I’m often writing what I want to read.

Anne Gracie [1:02:37] That’s exactly how I started, you know, because that first book, Gallant Waif, I had a ,it’s about a girl who followed her father and brothers to war. Uh, or accompanied them into war and, and, you know, followed the army and, uh, ended up in a mess, as you do.

And I had read a book, I had read a book with a heroine who had kind of done the same thing, uh, but had waltzed through behind enemy lines, no problems at all.

Patricia McLinn [1:03:09] Oh.

Anne Gracie [1:03:10] Met nice people along the way, sort of did the whole journey in a red silk dress in boots with eyelets. And I just thought, you know, I don’t believe that. Uh, I think it would have been grimmer, and so my heroine didn’t have, you know, a blessed, easy time of things, and it made her a stronger and more interesting person.

Patricia McLinn [1:03:34] So you were writing what you wanted to read. Yeah.

Anne Gracie [1:03:38] Exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I think we do.

Patricia McLinn [1:03:42] So, in, of your books, a reader who’s new to you, where would you recommend that they start? Where’s a good entry point to your books.

Anne Gracie [1:03:52] Okay. Oh, I can never, I can never recommend my books. Um, look, a lot of people, the favorite hero is Gideon in The Perfect Rake. Um, a lot of new to me writers, readers, uh, picked up, oh, forgotten the book, forgotten the title. Um, a lot of new to me being read is also picked up The Autumn Bride and follow that series through. Yeah.

People… I had a bunch of not very good covers, and then I had a fabulous cover for, I think it might’ve been The Accidental Wedding. It’s got, it’s got a really beautiful passible, um, bride dress on the cover. And because, purely because of that fantastic cover, a lot of people picked up that book and really liked it, and then went back and read, you know, the backlist. So I’ve been lucky in that all my backlist with Berkeley is still in print. Um, so I think it’s kept alive because people pick up something and they like it, and they go back and read the backlist.

Patricia McLinn [1:05:13] Even with that, with people coming back into your, discovering all of your backlist like that, do you have any books that you think have, have not been read as much as perhaps they deserve and that even your, your loyal readers may have overlooked it?

Anne Gracie [1:05:20] Sure. Two books that I think, you know, the, my second book Tallie’s Knight, it was used in the UK as a giveaway, always too green to know what I was agreeing to. And, it was used in the US, uh, as an experiment to start a new possible line. Uh, and, and it was shelved in the bookstores away from romance.

Patricia McLinn [1:05:50] Oh, dear.

Anne Gracie [1:05:51] And so a lot of people never discovered it, and it’s, it’s a nice book. It’s my, that’s my Grand Tour book. Um, the other one is probably my worst cover ever, which is a baby poo brown background with a bunch of red roses and a white rose in the middle. And that’s my chicken pants, Regency England, uh, the Regency Egypt story. And you know, it, it, it won a few Best of the Year’s in the US and, and, you know, I’ve got some lovely reviews, but just because the cover told you nothing, it was, it nearly killed my career, um, that cover.

And then the following, then I decided to sort of have a look at what was happening. Cause my, my title had died and it was a good book. Um, and that’s when I got the beautiful book with a gorgeous, um, cover. And that, and that just bounced my career back up into living again. So, yeah.

Patricia McLinn [1:06:53] Well those are great recommendations for, for readers. And—

Anne Gracie [1:06:57] Yeah. And look, even though I write series, all my books are standalone as well as being a part of a series. So you can pick up anyone at any time.

Patricia McLinn [1:07:05] And you’ve, you’ve mentioned your, your website, but mention it again.

Anne Gracie [1:07:09] Okay. It’s www.annegracie.com and it’s Anne with an E and Gracie with an I E. Um, I’m on Facebook it’s just Anne Gracie, just, yeah, just do a Google search, it’ll pop up.

Patricia McLinn [1:07:25] And the, and the, um, give them the wenches.

Anne Gracie [1:07:29] Wordwenches.com, I think. I don’t know.

Patricia McLinn [1:07:36] We’ll have the URLs written for the people, and so much easier to click from that than it is from it… I’ve been known to try to write down URLs while people were talking, that’s very difficult. Um, Is there anything I should have asked you that I haven’t, or that you would like to answer that you haven’t been asked?

Anne Gracie [1:08:00] No. No, it’s been lovely.

Patricia McLinn [1:08:07] Well, we’re not done yet. I consider this the epilogue. It might be my favorite part at a rapid-fire either or questions. You can only pick one. I’ve had trouble with, with some other authors about that. So let’s go, um, binge watch or make the watching last as long as possible?

Anne Gracie [1:08:30] Make the watching last.

Patricia McLinn [1:08:32] Cowboy boots or hiking boots?

Anne Gracie [1:08:34] Cowboy.

Patricia McLinn [1:08:35] Tea—

Anne Gracie [1:08:36] I have red cowboy boots.

Patricia McLinn [1:08:38] Oh, Ooh. How high up are they? Are they, you know, just midcalf?

Anne Gracie [1:08:44] Just above midcalf, yeah.

Patricia McLinn [1:08:47] Um, tea or coffee?

Anne Gracie [1:08:50] Coffee.

Patricia McLinn [1:08:52] Really? Okay. That’s surprised me. Um, cake or ice cream?

Anne Gracie [1:08:55] Ice cream.

Patricia McLinn [1:08:56] Day or night?

Anne Gracie [1:08:58] Both.

Patricia McLinn [1:08:59] I knew you were going to be trouble. Um—

Anne Gracie [1:09:02] Yeah, I told you I was going to be trouble.

Patricia McLinn [1:09:05] Well, okay. I was going to ask you mountains or beach, but I think I know that one. So let’s, well, this is still—

Anne Gracie [1:09:10] Both. Both.

Patricia McLinn [1:09:11] Okay. Mountains or beach?

Anne Gracie [1:09:13]. One of my favorite, both, one of my favorite places is Lowland in, in Victoria, where there, there are hills in the background going into it, a little low mountain range, and it goes right down to the beach. That’s a bit of a perfect combination. But, otherwise beach. Otherwise, beach.

Patricia McLinn [1:09:30] So sailboat or motorboat?

Anne Gracie [1:09:32] Motor.

Patricia McLinn [1:09:34] Gardening or house decorating?

Anne Gracie [1:09:37] Gardening.

Patricia McLinn [1:09:38] Okay, then I can’t ask you this other one. Let’s see, uh, toenail polish or bare toenails?

Anne Gracie [1:09:46] Bare. I do wear toenail, oh sorry, I’m going to annoy you again. I do wear, in the summer I have toenail polish. In winter and the rest of the time, I have bare.

Patricia McLinn [1:09:57] Definitely more during the summer. Appetizer or dessert?

Anne Gracie [1:10:02] Appetizer.

Patricia McLinn [1:10:03] Let’s see, what else should I, oh, which is eerier to you, an owl hooting or coyotes howling?

Anne Gracie [1:10:10] I love them both. I’ve never heard coyotes howling and I have… No, we don’t have them. And I, and I only ever go to cities usually. So yeah, I don’t, I’ve never heard coyotes. Uh, I would love to hear coyotes. We have, uh, dingoes, but it’s not the same thing.

Patricia McLinn [1:10:28] You’ll  have to come and stay with me because I have both. And especially if they have, um, like fireworks, it sets the coyotes out. And then, um, I will, I will try to get my dog to go out and she looks at me like, Are you crazy lady? I’m not going out there.

Anne Gracie [1:10:48] I do have a dog that sings along to Ella Fitzgerald. Only Ella Fitzgerald, uh, she won’t sing to anything else, but put Ella Fitzgerald on and she howls like crazy. But, yes.

Patricia McLinn [1:10:59] And what is her name?

Anne Gracie [1:11:01] That’s the closest I can get. Milly.

Patricia McLinn [1:11:05] Well, that’s wonderful. On that note, I think we’ll say, Thank you so much, Anne Gracie, for coming all the way from Australia by the, the wonders of technology. It’s been wonderful as it always is when we have a chance to talk. And I hope the rest of you—

Anne Gracie [1:11:20] Yeah, really enjoyed it

Patricia McLinn [1:11:21] Great. I hope the rest of you will come back next week for another author. We can try to find out more about the stories behind the stories.

Anne Gracie [1:11:31] Yep. I will certainly be here listening to that.

Patricia McLinn [1:11:34] That’s the show for this week. Hope you enjoyed it. And thank you for joining Authors Love Readers podcast. Remember, you can always find out more about our guest authors in the show notes, and you can find out more about me at www.patriciamclinn.com. You can also send in questions to be asked of future authors at podcast@authorslovereaders.com

Until next week. Wishing you lots of happy reading. Bye.

 

Episode 6: Dreams, Bigfoot and Hot You-Know-What, with Laura Marie Altom

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Transcript: Authors Love Readers with Laura Marie Altom

Patricia McLinn [00:00] Welcome to this week’s Authors Love Readers podcast, where we delve into the stories behind the stories. We’re asking authors questions, some of them fun, some of them serious. And from their answers, you’re going to learn things you never knew about the people who write the stories you love. My name is Patricia McLinn. I’m your host and designated question asker.

Laura Marie Altom [00:23] I’m Laura Marie Altom and I’m an author who loves readers.

Patricia McLinn [00:28] Now let’s start the show. Hello, and welcome to this edition of Authors Love Readers, the podcast. Today we have Laura Marie Altom as our guest, and we were just chatting a little bit beforehand and was saying, this is going to be interesting because we don’t know each other as well as a lot of the, um, previous people that I’ve had on. We would have had to be friends for 30 years, to know each other as well as a lot of the others.

Laura Marie Altom [01:00] We better get started.

Patricia McLinn [01:04] Yeah. Well, we’re at least a year in, right?

Laura Marie Altom [01:04] Oh, definitely.

Rodeo Knights and Renegade

Patricia McLinn [01:06] We were part of a, uh, group effort called Rodeo Knights with a K. K N I G H T S um, where we all released a book, um, in mid-June, June 20th. And it stemmed from three books that were originally done, um, about Rodeo Knights with Lisa Mondello—

Laura Marie Altom [01:29] Lenora Worth and Margaret Daley.

Patricia McLinn [01:30] Margaret Daley. Right. And they had done these three connected books, um, two years before. And then they said, uh, come back and invited ten of us to write books that, uh, touched on the same, connected to the same characters, but took the series, um, in different directions, which was really interesting.

And we were, we were on a group and we would, you know, say, well, I’m doing this with them. Or, you know, if so, if so-and-so gets married at this point, what does that do to, you know, the, the previous characters have to attend the wedding. So, so they can’t be out doing something else that weekend. And, uh, Laura’s book as Renegade, such a great title.

Laura Marie Altom [02:18] Thank you.

Patricia McLinn [02:20] —immediately makes me think of the, of the song, um—

Laura Marie Altom [02:23] Oh, it’s such a great song.

Patricia McLinn [02:26] Isn’t it. So tell us, tell us a little bit about your story Renegade.

Laura Marie Altom [02:30] It’s a, um, it’s part of my SEAL Team Disavowed series, which is a first for me because I’m kind of known through Harlequin for baby books, but I really love adventure books. So I’ve been doing this romantic suspense series with SEALs.

And, um, Margaret Daley, who you mentioned earlier, is kind of my bestie. She lives like a mile from me and she writes really awesome romantic suspense. And, I dunno, we were just talking at Olive Garden one day, and I said, You know, I’ve never done a serial killer book, but gosh, that seems just really harsh, I don’t know if I could do it or not. She’s like, yeah, you can do a serial killer. So I, yeah, we just did a serial killer. Um, but it was like, I’d never done anything that grizzly and, uh, I had to do quite a bit of research, you know? Blood coagulating—

Patricia McLinn [03:20] Yup.

Laura Marie Altom [03:21] —really creepy topics, uh, that I wasn’t in my normal wheelhouse, but I, I was real happy with how it turned out, and it just took some crazy turns.

Patricia McLinn [03:30] Yeah. I was just going to ask you, if you found that doing that research affected your mood.

Laura Marie Altom [03:35] It did. And it made me just feel real, like icky. Like then the book after that I had to research like nuclear weapons. And, you know, I was on those websites and like trying to get off really, really quick, I didn’t get on any crazy FBI list or something, but yeah, no, it’s, it was happy subject.

Patricia McLinn [03:57] Hey, authors could keep the, uh, NSA occupied full time.

Laura Marie Altom [04:00] I know, right?

Patricia McLinn [04:02] If they started going down the rabbit hole—

Laura Marie Altom [04:04] It’s scary.

Patricia McLinn [04:05] —of our searches. So, okay. Let’s go back and ask some, some short fun questions—

Laura Marie Altom [04:12] Alright.

Patricia McLinn [04:13] —here, just to get to know you better. What’s a surprising job that you’ve held.

Laura Marie Altom [04:18] I used to be a, um, nurse’s aid. And I guess it’s not so much surprising, but a friend of mine one summer, her mom was like a hospital administrator. And this is back in the days when like nurses wore hats and it was just very, I don’t know, formal and lovely and just kind of romantic, romanticized profession, um, or it’s still a fabulous, uh, if, if I wasn’t a writer, I think that’s one of your other questions, but I would definitely be a nurse cause I’m just, I love them, but yeah, it was just such an amazing job. Um, just loved it.

Patricia McLinn [04:55] Hard job too.

Laura Marie Altom [04:57] Oh my goodness, yeah. I’d go home. My feet would just be killing me, but just so rewarding.

Patricia McLinn [05:02] That’s terrific. Oh yes. Great, we said, we said, if there was dog barking on this, we would, we would just keep going. Cause we both have dogs. That was Chewy.

Laura Marie Altom [05:14] Yes. She’s a Yorkie.

Patricia McLinn [05:17] Okay. We were, we were trying to determine whose dogs, whether her three dogs would out bark my one dog or not.

Laura Marie Altom [05:23] I win. Yay!

Patricia McLinn [05:24] Well, she went first. We still haven’t done volume yet. Okay. What’s your favorite color and why?

Laura Marie Altom [05:31] Oh, I love aqua, and so, but not just any aqua. So like think if you’re like in Bora, Bora, the Maldives or even Mexico, like that kind of aqua of the ocean where it’s like really sandy, but blue and just like barely there. Does that make any sense at all? But—

Patricia McLinn [05:59] Well, I’m going to have to go to Bora Bora.

Laura Marie Altom [06:01] Well, yeah. I mean, I’ve only seen it in pictures. I call it like Caribbean blue or tropical blue, but just that—

Patricia McLinn [06:05] Ohh. Yeah.

Laura Marie Altom [06:07] —crazy iridescent blue.

Patricia McLinn [06:09] And what do you, so you associate it clearly with the water—

Laura Marie Altom [06:13] Right.

Patricia McLinn [06:14] So, okay. That’s a wonderful color. Do you have a favorite taste?

Laura Marie Altom [06:18] Uh, butter.

Patricia McLinn [06:21] I love that.

Laura Marie Altom [06:24] Ranch dressing.

Patricia McLinn [06:26] I like butter better. I think I’m with you there. Okay. Most writers have a bad habit word in there, that keeps cropping up, and a lot of us go back and check for it and take it out. And I have already admitted here that two of mine are just and really. Very slips in there too.

Laura Marie Altom [06:43] Oh my God. Just, really, very, uh, seeing how there, like the phrase, seeing how such and such, and it doesn’t mean, yeah, it doesn’t even make sense, but, yeah, very’s getting very bad lately. I’m having a lot of those, but you know, they come out easy enough. So it’s all right.

Patricia McLinn [07:04] Search and delete. Yeah, I do that with ands too, starting the sentence with an and.

Laura Marie Altom [07:11] Yes, yes, yes, yes.

Patricia McLinn [07:12] But then there’s some that needs—

Laura Marie Altom [07:15] Sometimes it works. It really does.

Patricia McLinn [07:18] Yes.

Laura Marie Altom [07:19] And I’m all about the rhythm and I don’t know. I, I was a band geek all through school, and a lot of my writing is very like musical in a weird way. Like if it doesn’t musically work in my head, then it’s off.

Patricia McLinn [07:33] Cause you hear it in your head.

Laura Marie Altom [07:34] Right.

Patricia McLinn [07:36] And then you, um, when you’re finishing a manuscript, did you play it back? Some people have the computer speak it back to them for a final edit. I do what I call a mumble through where I have a manuscript and I mumble it, it’s so I’m hearing the things. If I talk it, if I say it full voice, I lose my voice over the manuscript. That’s why—

Laura Marie Altom [08:00] I can totally top that. I have to read through it, not just me, but, in a fabulous British or Australian accent. And then I will catch everything. I do it like I’m performing a play.

Patricia McLinn [08:13] Oh, that’s cool.

Laura Marie Altom [08:15] No, and the dogs just look at me like you are crazy. No, I just, um, read it out loud in the craziest accent and sometimes the accents blend, but it’s, I don’t know, it makes it just fun instead of just, you know, drudgery, because at that point you’d read the thing so many times you just never want to see it again.

Patricia McLinn [08:37] Well, I wonder if doing it in an accent to kind of separates you, gives you a little separation from, from knowing what it should say.

Laura Marie Altom [08:46] Oh, maybe that’s it.

Patricia McLinn [08:50] Which is a lot of times what, when you’ve been working on a manuscript a lot, you stop seeing the errors because you know what it should be and, and that’s what your mind fills in.

Laura Marie Altom [09:00] Interesting.

Patricia McLinn [09:02] That would be very interesting. If I could do accents, I’d try.

Laura Marie Altom [09:04] Oh, mine are atrocious. But it’s, it’s just fun.

Patricia McLinn [09:07] That would be fun. Well, you should record one. Wouldn’t that be a riot?

Laura Marie Altom [09:13] Really, there would be great money in that, if I could do my own audiobooks.

Patricia McLinn [09:17] And in an Australian or British accent.

Laura Marie Altom [09:20] I know, right?

Patricia McLinn [09:22] A whole new cottage industry.

Laura Marie Altom [09:25] I get my Okie-Arkie twang out of there.

Pioneer camp, Bigfoot, and Angel Baby

Patricia McLinn [09:30] Do you have any strong fears, and do you use them in the book?

Laura Marie Altom [09:34] All right, I’m going to lay this sat there cause we’re, we’ve been friends 30 years, right?

Patricia McLinn [09:40] At least. Well, we’re starting on thirty years.

Laura Marie Altom [09:44] All right. When I was a little kid, my mother screwed up my summer camp reservations, and instead of my usual cushy cabin setting with my eight girls and, you know, the pool and all that, I had to go to pioneer camp. Gag. So here, I mean, I still like my Marriott’s today.

So, you know, I was out in a field in this tent and the bugs and the weeds and everything else. And one night I got up to pee and, um, I’m thinking it was probably 50 yards. I swear to God, I saw Bigfoot. Um, it was white, like a white ape. It’s the craziest thing to this day I have ever seen. And it scared me. Like even right now, like I kind of break out in sweat, like it was bad. And you know, I, I told counselor and everybody just went back to bed and I just laid in my bed, you know, praying I’d survive till morning.

And, um, I mean, I’ve told my parents about it and my mother’s like, Ah, somebody was putting a costume on just to make fun of you. I’m like, Mom, it was like three AM. Who’s going to have my white ape costume in Northern Michigan just to scare the children at 3:00 AM, like in the sev— you know, when is this, the seventies, I don’t know. But, um, Ever since then it just creeps me out. Like if I, you know, so I’m kind of scared of the dark. That’s a very long way to say I’m scared of the dark, uh yeah.

Patricia McLinn [11:16] Scared of the dark. I have multiple questions. You answered one. I wanted to know where it was and, uh, have any, um, Bigfoot researchers ever contacted you?

Laura Marie Altom [11:27] Um, oddly enough, I used to dabble in a group. And, um, I was so outside the norm that it just didn’t work. Um, you know, these are guys who are very comfortable carrying around AK 47s and, you know, with the snake things and tromping through the woods. And, you know, I just had my nails done and I really don’t need chiggers. And it’s just a little much, but, um, I did hear one time, I heard one of the wood knocks, and again, it was such a, just visceral fear. I remember it had just poured and I thought, Okay, good, you know, we’re safe. Nothing’s going to get us after it rains. And the clearest most vivid wood knock off, you know, like, you’d think you were watching one of the silly, that finding Bigfoot show or something. But I mean, it was like somebody had taken a baseball bat to a tree, and I mean, we were, there’s no way, I mean, I was with the people we were with, and it took a good hour or two four-wheeling to even get where we were. So it wasn’t anybody else. I don’t, I don’t know what would have made it. I still think about it to this day. I don’t know what made that noise.

Patricia McLinn [12:40] Then do you take the, um, that fear, whether it says, well, that specific fear have you used, you know, either fear of the dark or, or the more specific Bigfoot—

Laura Marie Altom [12:55] I would say Bigfoot has made cameos in quite a few of my books at least three or four, and he’s actually in the one … Oh my goodness, it might be out right now. Um, a Harlequin, it came out in November. It’s called The Cowboy SEALs Christmas Baby, and my hero finds, or he thinks he hears a baby crying and he’s a horse whisperer and he’s taking, um, this horribly scarred, mentally scarred horse on like its graduation ride in a hail storm or sleet or somehow storm and here’s a baby crying, but anyway, he finds a lady in a tent who just had a baby and she can’t remember how she got there, or what’s going on. But anyway, I’ve kind of flirt with Bigfoot in that.

Patricia McLinn [13:43] That’s cool. And sort of expiated that fear fight it that way.

Laura Marie Altom [13:51] And I collect, I have a fabulous Bigfoot T-shirt collection and little stuffed dolls and yeah, but it, I mean, it’s something that has stuck with me my entire life. Like, I, I don’t know what I saw. I don’t know what it could have been beyond that. And I mean, I was old enough to, to where, you know, wasn’t like a little kid having a fantasy or something. I mean, I definitely knew about boys and it was, uh, I don’t know.

Patricia McLinn [14:19] So the two other questions that, that one that occurs to me immediately is, was this on the way to the bathroom or, I hope, on the way back?

Laura Marie Altom [14:27] No, it was to and I don’t know—

Patricia McLinn [14:31] Oh, no.

Laura Marie Altom [14:32] Yeah. I mean, I had to have like wet my sleeping bag or something, I don’t know. Like I don’t have any remembrance of what happened after that. Other than trying to wake my counselor. She just rolled over and I climbed back in my sleeping bag and that’s all I remember until morning.

Patricia McLinn [14:48] Awww.

Laura Marie Altom [14:49] Yeah.

Patricia McLinn [14:50] Poor kid.

Laura Marie Altom [14:51] I know.

Patricia McLinn [14:52] And did you ever go back to pioneer camp?

Laura Marie Altom [14:55] Oh, no, no, no. That was my last year I ever went to summer camp.

Patricia McLinn [14:59] Okay. Sort of a segue from that. Do you have anything from uh, segue from, uh, Bigfoot are not easy. So now, but do you, do you have, um, other earlier in life things that you fretted over that now you just don’t care?

Laura Marie Altom [15:18] I guess when I first started this crazy journey of being a writer, I was just absolutely obsessed with selling my first book. And, you know, it was probably my family and friends were just like, shut up already. you know, you’re never going to sell a book to shut up about the books we don’t want, we don’t care. And, um, it was just an absolute obsession, would I ever sell a book? So probably that, I mean, that’s what first comes to mind.

Patricia McLinn [15:49] How did you get interested in. And selling a book and wanting to write and publish.

Laura Marie Altom [15:55] My grandmother was, um, just brilliant. She’s a University of Chicago graduate and just all about the classics and always, uh, wanted me to read. And, um, problem came in, uh, her and my grandfather, this, we lived in Michigan at the time, and they would winter in Palm Springs, California, and so I would go stay with them at their condo and there’d be all these fabulous older ladies who were missing their grandkids, and they would just take me in.

And so one in particular, her name was Helen, she would bring over sacks of Harlequin romances that she had read. And, um, my grandmother, you know, she say, Here, these are for you, Laura. And my grandmother would just, I can tell you know, we’re going to take those straight to the Goodwill. And I read every romance, stay up all night read.

Laura Marie Altom [16:55] And I think it was in junior high. It just occurred to me, Well, I want to write one of those. So I set up a very strict schedule where I was going to write like a page a day and I kept it up for probably a good 70 to 80 pages, and that’s when I was on a typewriter and I don’t know. And yeah, junior high happens. I’ve found out about boys and quit writing and stuff. I don’t think I took it out again until college.

But once I had my twins, uh, affording daycare for twin newborns is just nuts. So I, we decided that I was going to stay home, and I think I was just cleaning out the attic one day and came across that manuscript. And I thought, and by this time we had a PC, you know, at our house that, you know, and back in those days, all it had was a word processing program, probably Dig Dug or some weird pong game or something.

Laura Marie Altom [17:48] So, uh, yeah, so that’s history, but in those days, I mean, there, I guess there was RWA, but that was the only organization and there were no self-help books at Barnes & Noble, there was no internet. You really had to want it.

Patricia McLinn [18:03] Yeah. I stumbled into going to, um, RWA cause I, well, it’s a long story, but, uh, librarian helped me and said, Oh, we’re having a talk here by, um, a romance writer and it’s Kathleen Gilles Seidel, who is, um, one of the original authors for Harlequin America—

Laura Marie Altom [18:24] Wow, that’s my line. Huh.

Patricia McLinn [18:26] —And has done a lot of, um, single titles subsequently. And there were four of us who went up to her after the talk and within, I think within two years, two of us were published.

Laura Marie Altom [18:38] Wow.

Patricia McLinn [18:39] One was the president of the local, the local chapter. I don’t know what happened to the other one. She was a slacker.

Laura Marie Altom [18:46] Yeah.

Patricia McLinn [18:47] Kathy Seidel did pretty well out of that talk.

Laura Marie Altom [18:48] Oh, that’s great.

Patricia McLinn [18:49] So—

Laura Marie Altom [18:50] That’s a great story.

Patricia McLinn [18:51] Yeah.

Laura Marie Altom [18:52] Thank you.

Patricia McLinn [18:53] RWA has helped a lot of us, but there wasn’t, there wasn’t anything.

Laura Marie Altom [18:57] You really had to want it. And you had to like, be a detective about it. I mean, yeah, all of my first manuscripts were mailed in and I didn’t even know really how to do that. And I would print them on like a hundred percent cotton paper and like make it all fancy.

Patricia McLinn [19:13] Yeah. And then at the first, um, RWA, Washington Romance Writers, um, which is the DC chapter of the RWA, first meeting I went to a lovely woman named Nancy Richards Akers came up to me at first person to talk to me and said, What are you writing? And I said, A book.

Laura Marie Altom [19:33] Yeah.

On a desert island with Ethan Hawke, Matthew McConaughey, and Michael Biehn

Patricia McLinn [19:34] Okay. One of my favorite questions to ask is, what three movies would you take with you to a desert Island? I know this is weird because how many desert islands let you play movies?

Laura Marie Altom [19:45] Oh, mine would. Definitely.

Patricia McLinn [19:47] Lets not get particular.

Laura Marie Altom [19:48] No, it would.

Patricia McLinn [19:50] So which three movies, but you only get three movies.

Laura Marie Altom [19:53] Um, you’re so mean just three, huh? Okay. I’m going to say Great Expectations, but the Ethan Hawke Gweneth Paltrow version and it has amazing soundtrack. I really love the underdog story to it. They’re both very beautiful, and just the colors and the cinematography. It’s just fabulous. K2, which is a very underrated mountain climbing, movie. Uh, I think Michael Biehn, is he the one who played Terminator? I think so.

Patricia McLinn [20:30] I don’t know.

Laura Marie Altom [20:32] Well anyway, K2, fabulous mountaineering movie. If you haven’t seen it, you should. And then, um, let’s go with Contact, because—

Patricia McLinn [20:41] Interesting.

Laura Marie Altom [20:42] —it’s just such a, I remember seeing it the first time it was so riveting to me because, you know, you got to think something’s out there. And I really loved how, if there is something out there that really could be the way it goes down. I don’t know. It just, just seemed very fascinating to me. And you know, you can’t go wrong with Matthew McConaughey. So, yeah, I’d have Ethan Hawke and Matthew McConaughey and Michael Biehn all with me on the island.

Patricia McLinn [21:14] Okay. So that’s the thread, I was trying to figure out. Aha, now I see. Do you have a saying that your mother or father used to say that now you hear yourself, coming out of your mouth all the time?

Laura Marie Altom [21:26] I really don’t. I no, I mean like Grandma always used to say like, c’est la vie and stuff like that. Um, it’d probably be more of like a, you know how your parents are like, Yeah, we approve, but you can tell they don’t approve kind of a thing. Caught myself doing that with my kids. And my kids are like 25. So really it’s, you know, not my issue anymore, but it is. I’ve made you, I will always approve or disapprove.

Patricia McLinn [21:54] All right. So we have some questions from readers that I will kind of sprinkle in here, but let’s start with one. Where, and this reader says, Where do your stories come from? I know one author who dreams her stories. Another has a character suddenly taking up residence in her head. So how are your beautiful stories born?

Laura Marie Altom [22:16] Oh, that’s so hard. I used to have really vivid dream books, but they were like epic and like, you know, back in the, I guess it would have been eighties where they’re like 500 pages long, that kind of stuff.

And one that stuck in my head, it was all I remember is that the hero rescued this, I dunno, let’s say she was 15. And he was like an 18-year-old GI, and she was like a Hawaiian girl. And somehow he like took her in and it was kind of just this sweeping saga of they never met up at the right time. Like he somehow got her to school and then while she was doing that, he got married and then.

She was out of school and then she got married and then his wife died and then, you know, how back and forth they used to go. And, um, I wrote out this crazy detailed outline and somehow that got lost in the move and it just made me so mad that I just never went back, but it would have been amazing. I have no doubt, but nowadays it’s almost like, I don’t have an organic flow to it because I’m so scheduled so far out as far as series or, you know, even my work with Harlequin, I have very narrow parameters as to what my brand is and quirks, that it takes a little bit of the fun out of just being able to write whatever you want to write.

Patricia McLinn [23:56] But you’re doing some, um, indie writing too.

Laura Marie Altom [24:00] Yeah. I mean, cause I’ve got my Disavowed series and it’s planned up through ten books. So, you know, I’m just starting seven. So, you know, I’ve got that. And then I just started a new SEAL Team: Holiday Heroes. And I’m finishing up book two in that, but that would be a twelve book series. So I’ve got a lot to go there. I do have some, uh, like book of the heart projects that are with my agent, but, you know, we’ll just see what happens. Uh, those would go with, you know, Big Six publishing houses.

Um, and then I’ve got other books that are just total, I, I want to write a dystopian so bad and I’ve got one started. Um, and my agent’s like, no, oh, there’s just no market for that. I’m just like, well, tell that to all the movies that are on.

Patricia McLinn [24:51] Right. And, and tell that to your muse, to whatever is pushing you to, to write that.

Laura Marie Altom [24:55] Um, you know what, just for fun, I might start writing, like, I don’t know, 250 words a day on that book, just so I can have something. Cause it’s, I just want to write that book. I don’t think I answered that question at all. I’m sorry.

Patricia McLinn [25:08] That’s quite all right. That’s quite all right. So you mentioned the sweeping saga book idea you had, that you outlined it. Do you always outline?

Laura Marie Altom [25:17] No, usually I will outline, well, I always have to do a synopsis for Harlequin. I would say I outline about once I get to know my characters, maybe by page a hundred, just so that the story stays tight. I will then do a rough scene list. And I’ve, I’ve been at this enough now that it’s, I kind of just organically know if something’s going to work or not or what it needs, you know, a little more of here or there. So no, to always formally outlining, but yes, to just kind of listing the closer I get to the end of what scenes I want to include.

Patricia McLinn [26:03] Do your books tend to follow your synopsis?

Laura Marie Altom [26:06] Synopsis, no. Even my list, synopsis maybe 25%. I mean the general flavor’s going to be there. But, I don’t know about you, but my characters, they just talk and I don’t, they just kind of take over and people show up and I’m like, who are, who are you? You know, like if you’re supposed to be here, they just take over.

Patricia McLinn [26:27] Well, one of the delights to me of being an independent author is I will never write another synopsis in my life.

Laura Marie Altom [26:34] Oh my gosh. They’re horrible.They really are. They’re they’re just such a creativity sucker.

Patricia McLinn [26:40] Now, when did you publish your first book? When did it get published?

Laura Marie Altom [26:44] I think ’97. Yeah, my kids are 25, so they were born in ’92. And my first book came out and they were in kindergarten. So ’97.

Patricia McLinn [26:55] Do you think that having that book published, that first book published, did it change how you approach writing or, or your process or—

Laura Marie Altom [27:04] Well, it made me think I was hot you know what, and, um, I mean, I was just a superstar and, you know, there’d never been any better writer in the history of the world and, um, I can go back and look, I just got the rights back to that book and I just kind of hang my head in shame like, Oh dear. Oh, dear. So if anything now, it’s like, I know I have so much to learn, but back then, no. So in that first book, uh uhn, it, I was done like get out my Emmy Academy award, Rita, whatever you got, I’ve earned it.

Patricia McLinn [27:44] That’s interesting how we, we keep becoming better writers. And, uh, I think, uh, I’ve taught writing and one student was saying, they’d been editing this book for three years and I said, Stop, you know, you just got to stop. And they said, but I’m better. I’m better. And I said, Of course you are, but you’re going to be on an endless cycle. You are never going to finish that book. You’ve got to let it go and go write something else.

Laura Marie Altom [28:13] Let it go. Yep.

Patricia McLinn [28:15] And then at that point, you will be better at the end of it than you were at the beginning. And you’ve got accept that and go on to the next story.

Laura Marie Altom [28:21] Yep.

Patricia McLinn [28:23] Where do you think your love of story came from? Do you think it was from the, your, well from your grandmother and that friend of hers? Or was it other things?

Hippies, boaties, Lake Michigan, storms

Laura Marie Altom [28:33] I was thinking about that. I think, I was an only child and spent a whole lot of time alone. Uh, we grew, or I grew up on the shores of Lake Michigan, and back then it was not like wild or anything, but, you know, there was lots of places that a kid could safely just get on their bike and not come home till dark. And I would, I had this game that I’d play where I’d like, pretend I was Barbara Walters and like interview just random miscellaneous people, whether they happen to be there or in my head, I don’t know. I was a weird little kid.

You know, my parents, we got around, like they were kind of hippies and, um, we were always like, they were real boaties. And not really yachties in a fancy sense, but more boaties, I mean, we always had a boat. We were always sailing. We crossed Lake Michigan several times. And, um, I think I just, I was alone so much that I would just was playing with my Barbies and spinning stories.

Patricia McLinn [29:39] And you’ve got to tell people who are not, I grew up in the Chicago area and went to Northwestern, which is right on the western side of Lake Michigan. But you’ve got to tell people who maybe are not familiar with Lake Michigan that it’s not a—

Laura Marie Altom [29:56] Oh no.

Patricia McLinn [29:58] —passive little lake.

Laura Marie Altom [29:59] Oh no. And we were in a—

Patricia McLinn [30:00] So sailing across it is impressive.

Laura Marie Altom [30:03] —hellacious storm and we left, and I’m sure there’s a sailing reason for this, but we left it dusk out of, um, I think South Haven, Michigan, and we were headed toward like the Milwaukee area, I think. I don’t know, couple hours in, and this was before radar, I mean, you didn’t know if a storm was coming or not. And, um, just hellacious storm. I mean that bro was he heaving something terrible.

And my dad, he loves to sail, I mean, he grew up in a family of sailors. And I just remember my mom, like I kept wanting to peek my head out of the hatch, you know, my mom, like just pushing me back down kind of like whack-a-mole, you know, like, no, just stay down. You’re going to die. I mean, just the water is like coming up over the bow. Oh, it was bad.

Patricia McLinn [30:52] Oh, wow.

Laura Marie Altom [30:53] Very bad. And actually—

Patricia McLinn [30:55] Have you used that in any books?

Laura Marie Altom [30:57] I need you though, but the problem is with, and I’ve got another… Oh, this is another dream story I had, um, that I can’t quite write because of the technical logistics. Um, and when, if you’re writing a book that’s totally taking place on the sailboat, there’s so much technical stuff you need to know to make it come across as realistic that it’s just daunting. Um, so anyway, no, I haven’t yet, but yeah, that was quite an experience.

Patricia McLinn [31:28] Unless you did it, um, they’re really close third person or first person from the point of view of somebody who was on the sailboat, but didn’t go sailing.

Laura Marie Altom [31:37] Ohh, that is brilliant. That is absolutely brilliant.

Patricia McLinn [31:39] Yeah.

Laura Marie Altom [31:40] Thank you, Pat. Like for reals.

Patricia McLinn [31:42] You’re welcome. I’ll look forward to that book.

Laura Marie Altom [31:45] I never thought of that.

Patricia McLinn [31:47] I look forward to reading that book. Yeah, because then you have the emotion, and you have the additional fear of the character not knowing what’s going on.

Laura Marie Altom [31:56] I love that. Thank you. All right, you’re going to get credit at the start of that.

Patricia McLinn [32:00] Well, thank you. So do you have other books that are in, now these are, well, the one you had outlined, but the, more in your head, do you have books that are like half finished or completed, but not published? And—

Laura Marie Altom [32:16] So many. I have so many orphan book babies.

Patricia McLinn [32:22] I feel about that way about them too. Do you give up on them or do you keep thinking this can come together?

Laura Marie Altom [32:32] Nah, one of these days. It’s not that I ended it, I just ended it just time restraints. Um, there’s just, and I got a break my Bravo TV habit, and then I would probably have tons of time, but, and Lifetime movies.

Patricia McLinn [32:48] Okay, re-readers out there, you have to get Bravo to stop broadcasting and we’ll have lots more books from Laura.

Laura Marie Altom [32:58] Um, they didn’t, yeah, it just comes down to time, which I need to be a much better time managemer, managamer. That’s a good word. So I mean, it’s, let’s say, so I’ve got one called, um, Kissing Frogs, and it’s like a time-travel where this prince comes back, and this was real old school. This was before I’d killed, um, Dorchester Publishing. So, um, I would love to do the sequel for that. And, um, I’ve got probably the first three or four chapters, and they’re really fabulous. Like even today, I still love those chapters and I got to get that out.

Um, I’ve got a little, uh, kind of a tween book called I’ll Die if I Don’t Make Cheerleading. And then the sequel is I Made Cheerleading and I’m Still Going to Die. And that’s another one I’m probably halfway through. I need to just go ahead and just do it. Yeah. I’ve got a ghost book. Oh, my God, I’m just obsessed with it. And actually, Harlequin took a nibble on it. But for one of their online only reads and the terms were just atrocious. I’d rather just sit on it. But anyway, so yeah, I’ve got lots and lots of book orphans.

Patricia McLinn [34:11] Yeah. I have a time-travel. Um, but just one time travel story idea, but it keeps coming at me and coming at me. So at some point—

Laura Marie Altom [34:20] See, and that’s the problem. How do you, how do you, I don’t know if reconcile is the right word, probably not, but you know, there’s such a tight focus these days on author branding. But, yeah, I want to do more time travels. I want to do a horror book. There’s so many things I want to do, but it’s not in my brand. And how, you know, how do you do that? Just do it?

Patricia McLinn [34:43] Well, I do, but that’s part of being independent and, um, you know, just wanting and doing what I want to do. So I started a mystery series and I’m going to start, I think, another mystery series and I have some other, um, wild ideas and I’m just going to do it and hope people enjoy it. But if they don’t, here’s part of my, my philosophy is that if you, if you please yourself as the author, that’s the only time you are assured, absolutely assured of having one person who loves the book.

Laura Marie Altom [35:20] True. True, true, true.

Patricia McLinn [35:22] So, and you spend all the time with, you know, you spend months and months with it. So my first goal is to entertain myself and, and get far enough along in the book that when I hit the bad spots, I feel guilty if I don’t complete it because I-I’m leaving these characters hanging. So that’s, that’s my, um, use guilt to write books.

Laura Marie Altom [35:47] Oh, I love that. Yeah. I can see that. That makes a lot of sense.

Patricia McLinn [35:49] And now, do you have a writing routine?

Laura Marie Altom [35:52] My routine would be my lack of routine. I usually get up freakishly early, like, I don’t know between five and six and I’ll get a whole bunch done by say nine, but then by that time, you know, hubby’s up, and he works from home now and he, you know, travels when he has to go do other things. So he’s a real imposition to my day, usually.

So yeah, once he gets up, it’s just whatever whim strikes him. Yeah. As long as he’s in his office working good, then I’m okay. But then, you know, once I get out of that Goldilocks zone, it’s really hard to get back in because then you start answering emails—

Patricia McLinn [36:35] Yes, it is.

Laura Marie Altom [36:36] —and your marketing, your social media stuff. And there’s always some old fire burning somewhere but, you know, So, you know how it is.

Patricia McLinn [36:43] It’s always easier to, to click from the creative to the practical, than it is from the practical—

Laura Marie Altom [36:50] Right. Right.

Patricia McLinn [36:51] —back to the creative. Yeah. So you have to protect that. And do, do you write in a specific place? You mentioned your husband’s office. Do you have your own office?

Laura Marie Altom [37:00] Well, here’s the thing, I have a fabulous office and I absolutely love it, but I also have a 15-year-old, uh, deaf and blind Dachshund. And she gets really disoriented. And so if I go upstairs, so then I have my, the rest of the posse. So I’ve got this giant dog that was supposed to be my daughter’s, but somehow he ended up mine, and he’s kind of a lab-mutt mix. And then I have my little bitty four-pound Yorkie, and then I have Coco, and she’s the blind one and she weighs probably 15 pounds.

So I basically to go up to my office, I have to have the dogs, so I have to have the Dachshund, the Yorkie, my laptop, my reading glasses, whatever I’m drinking. I mean, it’s just really easier just to write at the, the kitchen table. So that’s where I am. So, you know, bless her heart, one day Coco will move on to doggy heaven, but until then, you know, she’s content behind me, and… I have to kind of, my daughter of this idea where it’s like a little, uh, settee for one side of the table and then two chairs on the other. So it’s really comfy. So me and all three dogs fit very comfortably on the couch. There I am. And now—

Patricia McLinn [38:20] Don’t, don’t tell Kalli that she’s not supposed to be on the furniture ever. Although I’ve got it, I know that she comes and checks on me and sees how occupied I am in my office. And then she comes down to the, in lies on the couch in the family room. I thought she was checking on me. You know—

Laura Marie Altom [38:41] Of course she is.

Patricia McLinn [38:42] —she loved me.

Laura Marie Altom [38:43] No?

Patricia McLinn [38:44] No. It was, see if the coast is falling on the couch.

Laura Marie Altom [38:47] Oh, no.

Patricia McLinn [38:48] Yes. So once you get going on a book, what’s your favorite part of the process? Do you love, you know, deep in the throes or are you, uh, many of us talk about the middle being bad, but I know a few authors who love them.

Laura Marie Altom [39:00] No.

Patricia McLinn [39:02] Do you love those, or do you like—

Laura Marie Altom [39:04] I really do. It is, writing is so uncomfortable. I don’t know what there, it’s just, once I’m in the middle, I have to get it out of me. It’s awful. That sounds really weird. It’s just the most uncomfortable feeling and my mood darkens, the more anx my people were going through, like, I’ll catch myself, like my mood kind of reflects them. And, yeah, I just want it done.

Patricia McLinn [39:30] That’s why I wondered about the research. If that affected you. And I could see where the combination of that sort of, um, research into, um, serial killers and stuff like that, combined with the characters going through tough times would, would really bring you down and yet be a satisfying book to write.

Laura Marie Altom [39:50] It’s very, it’s a very, very strange process, that I, and I, I don’t even understand, like, I’ll read the book, say months later, I’ll pick something up or it’s nice on Kindle now. So since I’m in a series, I can refer back to, you know, books such and such and do a quick search on it and I’ll read it. I’m like, I don’t even remember re, writing that. It’s so strange.

Patricia McLinn [40:15] Do you, sometimes you talked about your first, first book and reading it now and going, Oh dear. But, do you ever read things that you’ve written and gone—

Laura Marie Altom [40:24] Oh, sure, sure. No, absolutely.

Patricia McLinn [40:28] Yeah.

Laura Marie Altom [40:29] Um, yeah, no, lots, quite a bit, but yeah. It’s, I think when I say something’s bad, it’s like passive and I say like a lot, Yeah. I need to cut all my likes. But just the passive phrasings of things, like I write so much tighter now that it’s very annoying to see huge chunks of just passive garbage. Like just chop it off.

Patricia McLinn [40:56] I think that’s something that a lot of us learn, and also, the writing has changed in those years. So a question from a reader is when, when you finished a book, do you find yourself missing those characters or thinking about them. Where they are now, you know, after the, after the book or, um, or thinking about different things in the book. And, and then I would add on the question to that, Has that ever led you to write a follow-up book, because you are still thinking about them?

Laura Marie Altom [41:30] Probably not so much with my series books because they are so tightly deadline controlled, but I wrote a four-book series for Loveswept that were all in first person, and those people are still with me. I love those books. So yeah, I think, I think they’re the only ones. I mean, every once in a while, I’ll have some characters you liked better than others, but—

Patricia McLinn [42:01] Do you think you’ll go back to them?

Laura Marie Altom [42:03] Probably not. Uh, I mean, it, it’s very complete. And it’s, again, in the end it’s owned by the publishing house, so I really don’t have any rights to anything. Um, and I don’t, you know, as far as the world, I pretty much covered, I mean, you can always add somebody in, but I just, I don’t see it happening.

Patricia McLinn [42:24] Which of your stories has surprised you?

Laura Marie Altom [42:28] Probably, it would have been in that same series. And the fourth book in that series, I knew had to be centered around Garrett, who was just an absolute despised character throughout the first three books.

And he was a straight up bastard, just a horrible person, and the things he would say to people, it was just like, Oh, you know, I would even think, how can he say that? So when it came time to do that fourth book, I, I just was like, how in the world am I going to redeem this guy? Yeah. I didn’t even like him.

How was I going to make a reader like him? And my editor, Sue Grimshaw, and she’s a saint, uh, absolutely adore her. She said, what if you did a stepbrother book? I’m like, what are you even talking about? She goes, well, there’s this hot, new trend where, you know, people get involved with their stepbrother.

Patricia McLinn [43:34] Oh, my.

Laura Marie Altom [43:35] I’m like, Okay. I’m always game for an experiment. And lo and behold, it kind of came out that like, Garrett is so grumpy because he has wanted Savannah literally his whole life, but it’s so taboo. I mean, you just can’t be with your stepsister, and you know, there is no way in any way related physically, you know, by blood or anything.

So, yeah, he really shocked me what a fabulous guy he turned out to be. Um, I mean, he fell on his sword for her, uh, that book, I obsessed with that book. I love it so much. Um, but yeah, so that’s, that would be my surprise book.

Patricia McLinn [44:17] Um, did that end up being a joy to write or was it still difficult to write?

Laura Marie Altom [44:22] Absolute joy to write. And the love scenes, oh my God. Uh, I found a certain song that just kind of fit the mood or the vibe. And I would just listen to that song on repeat. And, uh, I remember my daughter on Spotify. She’d like, Oh my God, Mom. So embarrassing. People are gonna think that’s me on my account listening. And it’s you. Stop playing that song. So—

Patricia McLinn [44:49] Well, what do you read for fun?

Laura Marie Altom [44:51] I read a whole bunch of action-adventure, love James Rollins. And that’s probably what’s gotten me started on my romantic suspense. Um, just, I love the, just what if, you know, and just a little bit of bad guy and a little bit of romance and. Just a good mix of weirdness.

Ugly covers, The Cowboy SEAL, Sentenced to Sabrina, LaVyrle Spencer

Patricia McLinn [45:15] Okay. And then we have a question from a reader who says, um, When the cover image doesn’t match the character description, and then, reader says a pet peeve of mine. How does it feel?

Laura Marie Altom [45:28] It feels gut-wrenching. I remember, God, my poor husband, he’s been through so much to me. I have this book called The Cowboy SEAL and this was supposed to be like, an absolute breakout book for me, my editor was so excited. Harlequin was just super behind me.

And at that point, I had invented The Cowboy SEAL and with both my editor and agent, we invented him at a conference in Anaheim RWA and, uh, when I got that cover, you know, I told everybody, you know, this is going to be the most epic cover of all times. It is the most ugly cover. I cried and cried and cried.

Patricia McLinn [46:13] Ohhhh.

Laura Marie Altom [46:14] I went to my agent. I said, Come on now. Like, he looks deformed, like some, you know, like aliens got ahold of him. You’ve got to do something. And, uh, you know, my agent tried getting them to change it. My editor was like, Well, I don’t know, I called the office, and they don’t think it’s that bad.  And I said, Come on now.

Patricia McLinn [46:33] No, they never do.

Laura Marie Altom [46:36] I mean, I was so upset. So yeah, if anybody sees The Cowboy SEAL, I’m sorry. That’s not what he looks like. And then my very first book to, if anybody really wanted to do deep research, uh, Sentenced to Sabrina. Uh, you know, you think, okay, my first book cover, it’s going to be so amazing, and yeah, it’s just really bad.

So yeah, Google Sentenced to Sabrina. And it’s like this nuclear green background and it’s just nuts. And I want to say she had really red corkscrewy hair and she doesn’t at all in the book. Okay. And the song. It’s called To Build a Home—

Patricia McLinn [47:21] Oh, yes.

Laura Marie Altom [47:22] —by The Cinematic Orchestra. And I want to say I grabbed it off of, I’m real bad about or good about grabbing songs, you know, Shazam while watching TV. So I don’t, I don’t even know where I found it, but it is just absolutely stunning. Really love that song.

Patricia McLinn [47:37] Build a home. Okay. I’ll have to listen to it. And what was the name of the book?

Laura Marie Altom [47:42] That book is Stepping Over the Line—

Patricia McLinn [47:45] Okay.

Laura Marie Altom [47:46] —with Garrett and Savannah.

Patricia McLinn [47:47] That’s great. Here is another question from a reader, which I think this is fascinating, some people haven’t. If you could write a book with any author, alive or dead, who would you want to work with and why?

Laura Marie Altom [48:02] LaVyrle Spencer is an absolute goddess. She breaks every single rule so beautifully. I don’t know how she does it. I mean, she will head hop, so for readers, that would be like the point of view, like, you know, the hero has a point of view and the heroine has point of view. She will do it literally every other line.

I actually did a workshop on this one time and it’s fascinating how she does it, but yet you you never get lost. You totally know what’s going on. Uh, she is an absolute hands-down genius masterpiece. I love her. If I ever saw her, I’d probably break down in tears and, you know, just fall at her feet. Um, yeah, she’s amazing.

And I just read a book, one of her old books, and she started it with the hero drunk driving and throwing a beer can out the window. Who does that? You can’t do that, but she did, and it worked.

Patricia McLinn [49:05] Oh, that, she’s, she’s somebody who said I’m retiring and no, not going to write any more books. Would you consider, would you consider doing that?

Laura Marie Altom [49:16] No. Why? I mean my people need me to come out. No. My character people.

Patricia McLinn [49:26] I understand that completely then my head would get so clogged.

Laura Marie Altom [49:30] Exactly.

Patricia McLinn [49:31] What you do with all of them.Right?

Laura Marie Altom [49:35] Right.

Patricia McLinn [49:35] So—

Laura Marie Altom [49:36] What else would I do, in general? I mean, really.

Patricia McLinn [49:38] On that, I could find things, I would read. I would sit and read, I think. Um—

Laura Marie Altom [49:43] Wow. Yeah.

Patricia McLinn [49:44] And, and so coming back to readers, do you have any, have you had any great encounters with readers?

Laura Marie Altom [49:51] Oh my God. I have this sweet couple. I think they live in Manchester, England, and every year for my birthday, they send me this giant box of English, chocolate and candies. And it’s gotten to the point now where the whole family, the whole family is like, Oh my God, you got your birthday box. And uh, if you’ve never tried Maltesers, oh, oh my God. They’re just absolute chocolate heaven. It’s like a malt ball, but something about English chocolate, it doesn’t have that waxy kind of like, it just melts instantly. It’s, it’s amazing. But anyway, Louise and Steven McLean, I love you. And they’re fabulous.

Patricia McLinn [50:36] How did, how did that start? Had they read a particular book or do you know?

Laura Marie Altom [50:45] I don’t know. Well, she, Louise started out, uh, reading my Control series, uh, that was put out through Loveswept. And we just somehow, you know, how you become just fast friends with people online.

Patricia McLinn [50:59] Uh-huh.

Laura Marie Altom [51:00] And, uh, she just is so funny and quirky and we just always got along. And just one day she asked me for my address and said she wanted to send me a present and I’m like, okay, send me a present. And so, and then after that, then I sent her a box of, uh, American things. It’s funny. She loves candy corn. I’m like nobody in America likes candy corn.

Patricia McLinn [51:23] You have to send her Indian corn, though, instead of candy corn. You know, Indian corn has the chocolate, it’s the brown and orange.

Laura Marie Altom [51:33] I’ve never heard that.

Patricia McLinn [51:34] Brach’s Indian corn. I love the stuff.

Laura Marie Altom [51:38] Okay, I’m going to have to get that.

Patricia McLinn [51:39] I tell myself at Halloween that I cannot eat Indian corn. Cause it’s, I can’t eat, um, candy corn, cause it’s inferior to Indian corn. And I can’t eat any brand except for Brach’s Indian corn.

Laura Marie Altom [51:51] Oh, Brach’s. Everything they make is good.

Patricia McLinn [51:55] That limits my, uh, my access to, to pure sugar.

Laura Marie Altom [52:00] Interesting.

Patricia McLinn [52:01] Definitely. I’m going to hide now Indian corn, because, Oh my goodness. It, it is, you know, an immediate sugar delivery system.

Laura Marie Altom [52:09] Yes, please.

Patricia McLinn [52:10] Okay. So we talked, uh, um, we’ve talked about several of your books, which of your books would you say is the best place for a new to you reader to be introduced to your books, to find out if you’re a good author reader fit?

Laura Marie Altom [52:27] Okay, this is, I just redid my website and because I do so many different kinds of guys, I try to think of a slogan. So I came up with A man for every mood. So, because I do have, I think I’ve got over 60 books now, so I’ve covered a lot of different guys. So if you like billionaires, you would start with my Control series.

If you like SEALs, I don’t even know, like there, you know, it lists all my SEAL books. So you, if you like a SEAL just by himself, then there’s those kinds of books. If you’d like a SEAL, who’s also a cowboy, I got those. So then I have another section that has a cowboy. So those might just be a cowboy. Or they could also be a cowboy and a SEAL. So, what you do, if you want to check me out, go to my website and you’ll see the three guys. So just click on one of the three guys that you, so say, I-I’m really in the mood for a cowboy book. So click on a cowboy and then you’ll see my cowboy books and just pick, pick the one that looks good.

And I really, any of my series, I try not to make it, each book will stand alone, even within the series. I mean, you might get a little more reading them, you know, in sequence, but you’re not going to miss that much.

Patricia McLinn [53:50] And which, uh, what’s your URL for your website?

Laura Marie Altom [53:53] Uh, it’s just lauramariealtom.com.

Patricia McLinn [53:55] Okay.

Laura Marie Altom [53:56] And I’m everywhere. Um, and it’s the same thing anywhere. Twitter, Facebook, my Facebook page, it’s all just Laura Marie Altom whatever, you know, via Instagram. And Instagram is my fun place. That’s where I, you know, any kind of family pictures or just fun, goofy things. That’s probably where I have the most fun.

Patricia McLinn [54:17] Yeah. There’s my dog is all over that. She’s also all over Facebook.

Laura Marie Altom [54:24] Yep. Yep. Lots of dog pictures on Instagram. So if you want to see my crew, that’s where they are, where I hang out.

Patricia McLinn [54:29] So are any of your books what you might consider an overlooked gem? One, one that even your loyal readers, even those who send chocolate from England, might not have been familiar with or know about?

Laura Marie Altom [54:45] I have this little book and it was my first one published by Dorchester. Uh, at the time it came out, it was called Blue Moon, and I re-issued it, uh, Angel Baby. And that book is the first one that ever made me just break down sobbing writing it.

Patricia McLinn [55:05] What’s it about?

Laura Marie Altom [55:07] It features a super seriously down on his luck widower, who has a baby who’s failing to thrive. And I did quite a bit of research on infants who failed to thrive. And it’s just heartbreaking. I mean, there’s, you know, they won’t eat, there was a way there, um, you know, on a downhill slide. So one night he’s cleaning his, uh, the restroom in his diner and, um, just feeling lower than low. And this woman walks in and you can tell something’s happened to her, but you’re not quite sure, she’s just not quite right.

So she uses the restroom and he goes about his work and doesn’t really think much of it. And when he comes out, he finds her back in his office, breastfeeding his baby. And actually, this was another dream I had and I totally forgot that this was, this came from a dream, but so right away, so he’s got this issue of, okay, my baby is suddenly eating. And this is a really good thing, but on the flip side—

Patricia McLinn [56:11] What the heck is this?

Laura Marie Altom [56:12] —uh, clearly this lady has a baby somewhere that she should be with. Uh, where is her baby? And, you know, obviously contacts the authorities, authorities don’t have a clue where she’s come from. She doesn’t know where she’s come from. I just, I love a good amnesia story, but that one just, oh my God. Oh, I still, when I think about when it, when it all starts unraveling, it’s bad, just real bad, but anyway, in a good way.

Patricia McLinn [56:42] Interesting that you mentioned amnesia because, um, I have amnesia. I have, I have lost three days from a car accident.

Laura Marie Altom [56:52] Oh my gosh.

Patricia McLinn [56:54] And, um, I didn’t really want to write an amnesia story until I could figure out how to deal with it. So, and oddly enough, my amnesia story has smartass humor in it. So my, my character pretends that she has amnesia.

Laura Marie Altom [57:14] Oh my gosh, that’s brilliant.

Patricia McLinn [57:15] That’s how I, I dealt with, I think it was a way of working out some of my thoughts about losing these days, uh, from my memory, which had, had been really spectacular, but not quite so, so good after that.

Laura Marie Altom [57:30] Wow. So how did you, okay, so now the writer in me is kicking in. I got to know like, I mean, are you okay to talk about it?

Patricia McLinn [57:37] Sure, sure. It was years and years and years ago. Yeah.

Laura Marie Altom [57:40] So what happened?

Patricia McLinn [57:43] I was driving to work at the Charlotte Observer after, right after Christmas. And I, the last thing I remember is going out to my car, um, and, but from police reports and witnesses, I was driving, um, four-lane highway, not divided. I was in the left lane, a guy lost control of his car from the other, coming the other direction and came 90 degrees across. And the other witnesses said that I tried to go, I tried to go left first to avoid, avoid him, but there was oncoming traffic. So I pulled as far and as hard as I could to the right, we ended, which meant that his car came into the, um, driver’s area of my car.

And, and we ended up on the front lawn of a, of a business. And then they said that, um, you know, they took me into the emergency room. They said that I had, I had regained consciousness. And what happened was, uh, a friend who is also the wife of a coworker, um, came to the hospital to be with me initially. And she was the one who recognized that I was asking the same questions over and over. I was articulate. I would ask, you know, ask good questions, but that I wasn’t retaining that I had asked them or whatever the answer was.

Laura Marie Altom [59:07] Wow.

Patricia McLinn [59:08] Um, it was, it was quite, quite the thing. They called my parents in Illinois and said, if the family’s gonna get here, get here now, because they’d had a blood pressure that dropped precipitously. And one time they figured out what it was and fixed it. They never really knew what the other time was. And—

Laura Marie Altom [59:29] Wow.

Patricia McLinn [59:30] The first thing I remember is, um, that day, but very, very small snippets. I can remember tipping my head back and looking to the left and seeing the machine monitoring me and seeing the lines fairly regularly and thinking, Well, that should be okay. That, that should be a good sign. And the next thing I remember was my parents being there. So this is, I don’t know, five, six, maybe longer hours. Um, oh, probably more like eight hours after. And my mom on one side and my dad on the other.

And there’s two things my, uh, I asked my mother two questions. Was anybody else hurt? And, Was it my fault? And the other thing I remember is holding, I was holding their hands, and my dad had a cold, and he had put, he always had cloth handkerchiefs, and he had put a clean cloth handkerchief between our hands, so I wouldn’t get his germs.

Laura Marie Altom [100:37] Oh, my goodness.

Patricia McLinn [100:38] And I can remember moving, working my thumb to move the fabric, to hold his, to touch his hand.

Laura Marie Altom [100:44] Ohhh. Oh my God.

Patricia McLinn [100:45] Yeah. And then the next thing I remember is like two days later when they were going to make me stay in the hospital longer, but my sister and brother-in-law and their five kids were supposed to come and visit for New Year’s, and I told the doctor, Either let them all in, either let me out, or you’re letting them all in at the same time.

Laura Marie Altom [101:09] Right. Right.

Patricia McLinn [101:10] The doctor looked at my mother, and my mother said she means it. So they let me out. Yep.

Laura Marie Altom [101:18] Oh my goodness.

Patricia McLinn [101:19] But then it was months and months and months where I would remember I’d asked the question and then I couldn’t remember the answer, that was really—

Laura Marie Altom [101:26] That had to be scary.

Patricia McLinn [101:27] And, uh, the neurologist said in very technical terms, Your brains have been scrambled. You know.

Laura Marie Altom [101:36] That’s real training.

Patricia McLinn [101:37] Yeah. Yeah. Um, that I had this, I had a severe concussion, very severe concussion. And, uh—

Laura Marie Altom [101:42] Wow!

Patricia McLinn [101:43] —you know, I was just going to have to wait to see how things sorted out.

Laura Marie Altom [101:47] Whew. Goodness, that’s quite a story.

Patricia McLinn [101:50] Yeah. I should use more of that in a book someday. Huh?

Laura Marie Altom [101:53] I think you probably should. You don’t, I will.

Patricia McLinn [101:57] Nope. Dibs. Dibs.

Laura Marie Altom [102:01] Isn’t that funny now, a lot of times—

Patricia McLinn [102:03] Yeah.

Laura Marie Altom [102:04] —we gotta call dibs on those stories.

Patricia McLinn [102:05] Yes. Now, what is your most recent book? Oh, you mentioned the one that is that November. Do you have another one coming up?

Laura Marie Altom [102:11] I have, uh, the November one and then I had December 8th, Christmas Cookie Baby drops. And that is the first in my new SEAL Team: Holiday Heroes series.

Patricia McLinn [102:24] Okay.

Laura Marie Altom [102:25] And so my whole tag on that is, oh, gosh, see if I can remember. Holiday fun with a dash of danger. So, they all open with kind of a life or death situation. And this one opens with a plane crash.

Patricia McLinn [102:40] Oh boy.

Laura Marie Altom [102:41] Uh, but it, this was fun. This was actually, it’s a, I got the rights back, and I thought this was the second book I ever did with Harlequin. And I thought, Oh, well this will be fun, just a fun release. You know, my readers will get to see it because, you know, it’s been out of print forever. And, um, once I got diving into that, it needed a total rewrite. So even if somebody ever has read this, it’s totally a thousand percent redone and, uh, just, that’s been a lot of fun just to revisit those characters in the town.

And so the whole series now is based out of this town, Kodiak Gorge, in Alaska. And so I’m working on the second book now and it comes out, so it’s Happy New Year, Baby. And it comes out December 29^th. Please, God, if I can get it done in time.

Patricia McLinn [103:35] Always, always the hope, right? It’s interesting how you look at some of your old books and some of them stand up so well and amazingly well, and then some really, you think, Hmm. Okay. Okay. Let’s wrap up with, Oh, I want to say you gave your URL and we will have that in the show notes.

Laura Marie Altom [103:54] Oh, okay. Thank you.

Patricia McLinn [103:56] I always think it’s much easier to read than to—

Laura Marie Altom [103:59] Oh, yeah.

Patricia McLinn [104:00] —hang onto it in your head to listen to it.

Laura Marie Altom [104:01] For sure.

Patricia McLinn [104:02] Though for folks who, who want to explore that. So we’re going to ask you some, either or questions here just to get, just for the fun of it really. Um, cake or ice cream?

Laura Marie Altom [104:12] See, now it’s not that easy. What flavor of ice cream versus if it’s white cake with white frosting, I’d got to go with cake. If it’s like rum raisin, I’ve got to go with that. Can’t like, I’m more complicated than that. Next.

Patricia McLinn [104:29] Okay. Tea pr coffee?

Laura Marie Altom [104:33] See, there again. Is this like a mocha Frappuccino with whipped cream. See, and then tea it’s gotta be, you know, orange spice or else I won’t like it. I dunno. It’s another toss-up.

Patricia McLinn [104:48] Okay. I think, I think this one might be easier for you.

Laura Marie Altom [104:51] Alright.

Patricia McLinn [104:52] Dog or cat?

Laura Marie Altom [104:53] Oh, dog.

Patricia McLinn [104:56] Day or night?

Laura Marie Altom [104:57] Day.

Patricia McLinn [104:59] Cowboy boots or hiking boots?

Laura Marie Altom [105:02] Hiking.

Patricia McLinn [105:03] Really? Now that surprised me.

Laura Marie Altom [105:05] I Love to hike. I would hike any day, anywhere.

Patricia McLinn [105:09] Toenail polish or bare toenails?

Laura Marie Altom [105:11] Polish. French, please. I like a nice French pedicure with wide stripes.

Patricia McLinn [105:17] Oh my. Okay. Very specific. Um, leggings or sweats?

Laura Marie Altom [105:23] Can I do yoga pants? What do those, what do those fall under?

Patricia McLinn [105:28] Hmm. Um, really neither, because—

Laura Marie Altom [105:32] You’re teaching me a lot about myself. Pat.

Patricia McLinn [105:36] You’re not very good at either or.

Laura Marie Altom [105:40] No.

Patricia McLinn [105:36] Um, okay. Uh, gardening or house decorating?

Laura Marie Altom [105:45] House decorating, but I love both.

Patricia McLinn [105:48] Paint or wallpaper?

Laura Marie Altom [105:49] Oh, I love the wallpaper, but it’s not in right now. So I got to go with paint currently, but I’m hoping for a wallpaper comeback.

Patricia McLinn [105:58] Mustard or ketchup?

Laura Marie Altom [106:00] Oh, ketchup, can’t stand mustard.

Patricia McLinn [106:03] Best China or paper plates?

Laura Marie Altom [106:05] Okay, if I’m on deadline, paper plates, otherwise best China.

Patricia McLinn [106:12] Save the best for last or grab the best first?

Laura Marie Altom [106:15] Save the best for last, always.

Patricia McLinn [106:18] Okay, well, this has been a delight, Laura.

Laura Marie Altom [106:21] It has. It’s been fun.

Patricia McLinn [106:23] I really, really appreciate your taking the time and joining us today and hope all of you will come back next week to get to know another author.

That’s the show for this week. Hope you enjoyed it. And thank you for joining Authors Love Readers podcast. Remember, you can always find out more about our guest authors in the show notes, and you can find out more about me at www.patriciamclinn.com. You can also send in questions to be asked of future authors at podcast@authorslovereaders.com

Until next week. Wishing you lots of happy reading. Bye.