Author, Author, Tell Us More

February 21, 2007 | Interviews

Good morning everyone. Yesterday I received several emails requesting I repost the e-book cover for NOT WITHOUT RISK only larger. I think people want to droll. So there it is and please excuse me while I take a moment to wipe off my keyboard.

ST: Hi, Sarah, and welcome back. Are you ready for another day of grilling?

SG: You bet. I’m fortified with a huge cup of coffee, so fire away.

ST: Are there any quirks you have or do before or while you’re writing?

SG: When I’m stuck I send my son to the corner store for a Diet Coke and a Hostess Golden Cupcake. I suspect this is why I get stuck so often while writing.

Oh, and the youngest of my three dogs needs to be sleeping in the office chair for me to be truly productive. This makes writing a bit uncomfortable since it leaves me with only the first few inches of the chair to perch on, but I’m always most productive when she is with me.

Does that mean she’s my muse?

ST: LOL. Can I borrow her?

SG: I’m not sure she’d ship well. LOL.

ST: Sarah, who or what encouraged you to write erotica?

SG: I’ve never considered what I write to be erotica. To me, I write romantic suspense. Do I have sexual tension in my stories? You bet. Do I have as many consummated love scenes in my stories as the characters allow? You bet! For me, that’s how it is, the characters tell me how many love scenes there will be. But I digress…

The question was what inspired me. Hmm… I write what I love to read. I’m not sure any one author inspired me, but a combination of all of my favorites. I don’t like to read romances with lots of sexual tension and a hunky hero and then once you get to the love scene, the author skims over it. Wait a minute! I feel robbed! So I give my readers what I like in a book. Hot sex!

ST: Where do you get the ideas for your novels?

SG: From everyday life: The stories I read, the music I listen to… I’m known for hearing a lyric in a song and developing an entire story around it. It’s true, I brainstormed a time travel like this. If anyone writes time travel, call me, I have a great idea for you.

I think I do what every author I’ve heard answer this question does: I hear or read something that spawns that old “What if?” question.

“What if a killer set his sights on you and the only way to survive was to revisit a past you swore never to look back on? What if you then had to trust the type of man experience told you was untrustworthy? What if you fell in love with that man? Is love worth the risk?”

These are some of the ‘what ifs’ that Paige Conroy, the heroine of NOT WITHOUT RISK faces. The hero, Justin Harrison, has a totally different set of ‘what ifs’:

“What if your identity hinged on the ability to do your job? What if you were suddenly injured and faced with the real possibility that you could no longer do your job? And if that wasn’t enough, “What if you suddenly realized that there was more to life than your job, but in order to keep that something more, you had to do your job and find the killer before he could find the heroine?”

ST: How do you research your books?

SG: I read a lot, both biographies and research books. As I’m writing there are always a few specific questions that come up and for those I turn to a fabulous RWA chapter called Kiss of Death. There’s not much that incredible group of writers doesn’t know the answer to.

ST: Who is your support group?

SG: If they spend most of their time yelling at me, are they still considered a support group?

My biggest supporters are my husband, my mother and my sister. Whenever I’m struggling, I’ll give one of them a call. Sometimes, I’ll call them because I’m excited about the way the story’s coming along and it’s during those calls that I’ll get the ‘That’s great, Sarah, so why are you calling me when you could be writing?’ That’s my sister and my mother; they’re always reminding me that I should be writing instead of cleaning the house or surfing the internet.

My husband supports me in different ways altogether. He’s a bit too supportive at times, LOL. Like when things aren’t going well and he’ll tell me, ‘Just walk away and go back later, sometimes all it takes is some distance and the answer will come to you. You want to go to the movies?’ I love that man! And I always want to go to the movies, but when I’m on deadline, I need to avoid his kind of ‘support.’

ST: My kind of man. You’ve pulled it all together with the help of people who love you. Congratulations.

SG: They mean a great deal to me. I sincerely appreciate them.

ST: Thank you again, Sarah for being so open and honest with us. We’ll see you tomorrow?

SG: I’ll be here and bring the Hostess Golden Cupcakes. LOL.

ST: Thank you all for stopping by. Don’t foget to check out Sarah’s web site. See you in the morning!

Sloane