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[cherry_spoiler title=”I love your books and I want to give them as gifts, but I’m afraid the person might already have them. What should I do?”]
Try an Amazon gift card! Amazon can send it via email. Fill in the email address of the recipient and Amazon will send it on the date YOU specify. Just click the link below and let Amazon take care of it for you!
Give an electronic Amazon gift card
Would you prefer a physical card with an enclosed gift card? Amazon can do that too! They offer card designs for many different occasions and for varying amounts:
[/cherry_spoiler] [cherry_spoiler title=”What should I do if I’d prefer an autographed PRINT copy?”]
I’m happy to help you with that! I’ll match the current price on Amazon for a print copy of any of my books.
Send me an email at [email protected] and provide me with the following information:
Your name
The email address to which I should send a PayPay invoice
Name of the person to whom the book should be dedicated
Shipping address (if outside the 48 contiguous states, I’ll have to add a shipping charge)
I’m sorry, but I don’t offer gift wrap at the moment, but feel free to ask me about it in your email. If I’m able to accommodate you, I will.
Since I’ll be responding to these requests personally, I might not be able to accommodate you quickly if I’m traveling or if I’m on a book deadline, so please send me an email first if a two-week turnaround is too long. I might be able to send it sooner.
[/cherry_spoiler] [cherry_spoiler title=”Where do you come up with your book ideas?”]Everywhere! I always build a story around two main characters, and then I figure out how to put them in conflict. I always start with the characters first. As I work on developing the plot, my research and news items provide me with additional plot features.
For example, when I was first coming up with ideas for It Takes a Spy…, I read an article about a jewel heist in Cannes, France that took place in 2013, and that gave me the inspiration to have Cecilia’s mother’s jewels stolen.
[/cherry_spoiler] [cherry_spoiler title=”How many hours a day do you write?”]
It varies. As an author, I’m essentially a small-business owner. I love the days when I don’t have other tasks pulling me away from writing, and when I’m on a great roll, I can usually get a lot of writing done. I love those days when I can sit down at 7:30 am and write until 11:30 or so, and then focus on other tasks in the afternoon.[/cherry_spoiler] [cherry_spoiler title=”Wait! I though all writers did was write. What else do you have to do?”]
For each of my books, I do at least two more complete editing passes on my own before I send it off to my copy editor. (Sometimes I do five or six passes!) In each additional pass, I flesh out more of the details of my story and look for problems in my plot or the characterization. It’s hard to evaluate every single aspect of a book at once, so with each pass, I try to focus on one thing. For example, I examine my character arcs, plot, hooks, sentence structure, metaphors, and setting in each scene… sometimes I can do a couple at once, but I usually need to make multiple passes to get all of these right!
I also work closely with my cover artist when she creates my fabulous covers. We usually have quite a few iterations of the cover before we agree on a final version.
My website needs maintenance, and since my degree is in Computer Science, I feel obliged to do as much of that work as possible, although lately, I haven’t enjoyed it as much. I’d rather be writing!
Then, of course, there are the marketing and promotion tasks involved in getting people to know about my books! I send out newsletters, host Facebook parties, take part in Facebook hops, write blog posts, and create ads to promote my sales, releases, and appearances.
I also need to keep track of business finances, so I try to stay on top of that as much as possible.
I attend online and in-person writer’s workshops to continue to improve as a writer. That’s key!
I’m always working on developing new ideas for stories.
I support other writers and try to help when I can. I love brainstorming plot ideas.
[/cherry_spoiler] [cherry_spoiler title=”Doesn’t your publisher do that for you?”]
Publishers don’t do as much for authors as they did back in the 1990’s. These days, it is up to each individual author to maintain their website, manage their social media connections, and promote their books. Publishers occasionally put books on sale and promote them through ads, but an author would be wise to do as much as possible to help (without duplicating anything the publisher is doing). Unfortunately, huge book promotions tend to be reserved for bestselling authors like James Patterson and Nora Roberts… because they have such loyal fans![/cherry_spoiler] [cherry_spoiler title=”How long does it take you to write a book?”]
It depends on the book. I can get a first draft of a short book done in about 45 days, but my second and third drafts each take about a month or so. Longer books take… longer! 🙂
I’ve also found that I can’t get much work done toward the end of November (Thanksgiving) or mid to late December (Christmas). June seems to be problematic for me as well, with family trips interfering with my regular writing schedule.[/cherry_spoiler][cherry_spoiler title=”Do you write daily?”]
I love it when I get to write daily, but I TRY to take weekends off. All work and no play makes Jane a dull girl. I need to regularly recharge those batteries if I plan to keep writing for the rest of my life![/cherry_spoiler] [cherry_spoiler title=”Who are some of your favorite historical romance authors?”]
The list is a long one, and I’m afraid I might leave someone off! At the very least, I’ll mention:
Katharine Ashe, Madeline Hunter, Eloisa James, Courtney Milan, Tessa Dare, Christi Caldwell, Lisa Kleypas, Becky Lower, Tessa Dare, Victoria Roberts, Erica Ridley, Donna MacMeans, and Gwyn Cready.[/cherry_spoiler][cherry_spoiler title=”Can you recommend any other non-historical romance authors?”]
Well, there’s always Nora! (Nora Roberts!) Then Miranda Liasson, AE Jones, Barbara Freethy, (oh, my- so many!), Tonya Burrows, Sonali Dev, Jane Lynne Daniels, Mary Campisi, Kristi Avalon, Erin McCarthy, Heather Graham, I’M FORGETTING TOO MANY PEOPLE!
[/cherry_spoiler] [cherry_spoiler title=”Wow! Do you only read romance novels?”]
Of course not! Do you only watch one kind of movie? Eat one kind of food? I love variety! One of my favorite authors is Neil Gaiman. I happen to love science fiction and fantasy, and I’m a big fan of Brandon Sanderson. I might even have to try my hand at writing one someday! I love mysteries, suspense novels, “hero’s journey” stories… lots of different things. I do tend to prefer books with happy-ish endings. (I get enough of unhappy endings by watching the news!)[/cherry_spoiler]
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