Today is the last day of the blog tour, (you can read about the first two weeks here) but the contest is still open until March 30 at midnight. So be sure and visit each site and enter; you can enter several times at each stop!
On March 20 I was at Novel Reflections with an interview. I explained my “formula” for creating characters and gave more details about my research for Temptation.
I first get a wispy glimpse of a character, either a male or female—the main character whose character arc will be the story. I’m intrigued by this glimpse enough to try to figure out who they are, where they are, what they want—or maybe what they don’t want.
The next day I wrote about the fascination with celebrity at Romanceaholic.
What’s it like to live with cameras and microphones shoved in your face? What’s it like to know the paparazzi are willing to hack into your phone and sort through your rubbish to reveal any tidbit of your personal life?
At Simply Ali, I wrote about the title and theme of Temptation. Remember those English Lit term papers, where you wrote about theme? Well, it wasn’t quite like that:
I do remember when I realized the theme: I was writing a scene set in Laura’s garden, and a snake slithered by. Duh! I’d been writing a “Garden of Eden” book all along, but I had no idea.
Then at Always YA at Heart, in addition to a really nice review by Ellen, I gave an interview, where I explained some of the challenges of researching Temptation.
There was lots of research to do to make a story set in Amish country realistic. I had to learn what the rules were, and how far I could go in “breaking” them.
At Reading Reality I had a lot of fun writing about genre-busting. What’s genre busting? Writing outside the bounds of genre, or in this case, sub-genre.
I never set out to write a genre-buster, but when I heard my publisher refer to it that way in an interview, months before Temptation was released, I realized she’d correctly characterized the book.
Finally, at Romance Junkies I wrote about my true love, history and historical fiction. What’s a contemporary author like me doing reading historical fiction?
I’d love to write a historical novel. Sort of like I’d love to be able to score a perfect 10 in gymnastics, or date George Clooney. Neither are ever gonna happen, but just as I love watching gymnastics and George Clooney, I love reading a good historical novel.
The tour ends, but there are still several more blogs where I’m making an appearance with a guest post or interview. I’ll be at Tracey Livesay’s blog, Mimosas @ Midnight, on April 3, and at Manga Maniac Cafe on April 8. And on April 10 I’ll be visiting Rachel Firasek’s blog. I’ll also be at Killer Crafts and Crafty Killers (cute name!) in July with a recipe, just in time for you to deal with your garden’s summer bounty.
That’s it, for now.