Today on a Writer’s Haven, we’re interviewing author and Soul Mate sister, Becky Lower, whose new Contemporary romance Blame it on the Brontes has just released form Soul Mate Publishing.
Becky, thank you for stopping by.
Tell us a little about yourself. When did you know you wanted to be a writer?
I’ve been a writer since I could hold a crayon. When I was 12, I submitted a screenplay to the Bonanza television show, resulting in my very first rejection letter. But, they were kind, and I kept at it. I had to kind of shelve any kind of serious writing while I was in the work force, so I didn’t begin to think of myself as an author until five years ago.
It does look like writing has been in your blood for quite a while. Tell us, how long did it take you to write your first novel?
My first novel, which is still under the bed, took me about six months to write. I pulled it out a few months ago and re-read the first chapter. My initial reaction was to shove it back under the bed. It may never come out again.
Yeah, I’ve got my first one hidden away also, so I certainly understand that. When you write, are you a plotter, a pantser, or something in between?
I like what one of your earlier interviewers called herself–a linear pantser. I’m that way, too. I know the beginning and the end, but I don’t know all the twists and turns in between. Blake Snyder’s book, Save The Cat, taught me about beats, and I try to have a climactic event in all the right places. But most of the time, even when I start out with a rough outline, my characters hijack the manuscript, ball up my outline and toss it out the window, because it’s not what they want to happen. I’ve learned to not force my characters to conform to what I think should happen, and let them have their heads.
They do have minds of their own, don’t they? Well, let’s talk a little about Becky Lower the person. What do you do when you’re not writing?
I work part-time for a greeting card company, stocking the stores with merchandise. It’s flexible, and I like the work. Plus the income I receive from it assures me of having food on my table.
I hear you. I’ll take food on the table over ‘starving artist’ any day. So, what inspired you to write Blame it on the Brontes?
This novel came about when my sister insisted I join her for a class in making jewelry from sea-glass, or beach-glass, as it’s referred to in Ohio. While we were learning how to wrap wire around little shards of glass, the instructor gave us some history of sea glass and how it appeared on the shorelines of the world, and then related a story about how she and her husband found two pieces from the same plate at different times. I left the class inspired to tell her story, but not to make another necklace!
Becky, I’ve done a little snooping and it appears that Blame it on the Brontes is not your only work. Tell us a bit about your other books.
I have my third historical romance, Banking On Temperance, that just released on Monday, with a different publisher. It’s available here: http://www.amazon.com/Banking-Temperance-Crimson-Romance-ebook/dp/B00CA9DEX4/
I set my historicals in America in the decade leading up to the Civil War. This one is about Basil Fitzpatrick, one of three males in this family of nine children. It’s set in St. Louis, and characters from the first book re-emerge in this one as secondary characters.
Two releases in such a short time. That’s exciting. So what’s up next?
My current WIP is another contemporary, about a woman who decides on a whim to take a cross-country trip and ends up in Tornado Alley with a man named Cyclone! It’s fun, sexy, and poignant. I hope to have it finished by the end of May and start shopping it around.
Blame it on the Brontes
Blurb:
Sisters Charlotte, Emily and Anne Bronson, each in her forties, are in Puffin Bay, ME for their mother’s funeral and to sink their claws into the fortune each expects to inherit. But their mother has other plans. Her substantial fortune won’t be divided until the trio return to their childhood home and live together for a year.
It’s a request that pits sister against sister but could unite them in a common goal to find the friendship they shared as children, to create a family jewelry business and to win over the men of Puffin Bay. They have a year to figure it all out.
Available on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Blame-Brontes-ebook/dp/B00CLVACYA/
BIO:
Becky Lower has traveled the country looking for great settings for her novels. She loves to write about two people finding each other and falling in love amid the backdrop of a great setting, be it present day coastal Maine or on a covered wagon headed west in the 1850s. Contemporary and historical romances are her specialty.
Becky is a member of RWA, NEORWA and Savvy Authors. She has a degree in English and Journalism from Bowling Green State University, and lives in an eclectic college town in Ohio with her puppy-mill rescue dog, Mary. Visit her website at www.beckylowerauthor.com
Links:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/beckylowerauthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BeckyLower1
Blog: http://beckylowerauthor.blogspot.com
Website: http://www.beckylowerauthor.com
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6159227.Becky_Lower
