Interview with Author Lynsay Sands:
Hi Lynsay. Thank you for doing this interview. I would like to welcome you to the Romance at Heart Interview and Author Grilling session. *bg* We are interested to find out as much about you as we possibly can, so lets get started...
- Please tell us about your latest book.
Born To Bite is Armand’s story. It answers the questions of how his wives died, and also clears up what happened the night Nicholas, his son, was found with a dead mortal. Unfortunately, I couldn’t explain everything at the end of The Renegade Hunter without giving away most, or all, of Armand’s story so had to leave Nicholas’s story just saying he was innocent. I actually wrote and finished Armand’s story exactly a month after Nicholas’s and was hoping they would be pubbed back to back like Vampires are Forever and Vampire, Interrupted were. However, it didn’t happen that way. It’s been a year between the two stories and I have been apologizing to my readers ever since so I’m very glad it’s finally out.
- What can we expect from you in the future?
Well… for the Argeneaus, Hungry For You is coming out November 30th. This is about Alex Willan, the last single Willan sister, who is a chef and restauranteur. She’s attempting to open a second location but mysterious accidents and costly mistakes keep happening that hinder her progress. Then her chef bails on her at the last minute and Alex figures she’s up a creek… until Cale Argeneau walks into her office. As a European trained chef (or so she thinks), he is the answer to her current problem, but Cale wants to be much more than that. And as a successful businessman Cale is used to resolving issues but his biggest challenge lies ahead. He has to convince a frazzled Alex, who has no time for romance as she tries to stave off financial ruin, that he is much more than a good business decision for her.
After that comes a story I just finished. We return to Port Henry to catch up with some characters that we haven’t heard from in a while (Edward, Alessandro, Harper, Teddy, etc), get updates on a few others that have seen a bit action of late, namely Mirabeau, Tiny and Stephanie and you’ll even meet a new rogue hunter. Alexandrina, a cousin from the Spanish branch of the family, she is brought to Port Henry to help out with Stephanie and finds her own life mate while there.
As for my historicals, I have two regencies coming out back to back this winter. The first, called The Countess, is coming out January 25th, 2011 and the second, called The Heiress, is coming out February 22nd, 2011. Both of these stories revolve around the Madison sisters.
The Countess is Christiana Madison’s story. She who was married to Richard (or Dicky as he preferred to be called). And it was bad. The best part about it was the abrupt ending when her husband, Dicky, died. Or at least that's what they thought when Christiana and her sisters put him on ice. Only he didn't stay dead AND when he popped up again, he became nice…
And The Heiress is about Suzette, Chistiana’s sister. You get her side of the story and a whole lot more. You see Suzette has got to find a husband and fast. There will be no doddling, whining or expectation of love. This is a business contract. Said husband would get the security of Suzette’s dowry in exchange for the freedom to allow Suzette to do what she wishes with a portion of it. Only she gets much more than she bargained for out of the deal.
- How do we find out about you and your books?
My website-- www.lynsaysands.net -- always has my latest releases and upcoming books. I also talk about the books I’m currently writing on my home page and in my monthly newsletters and on my forum.
- Do you allow readers to contact you? If so, how do they reach you?
Yes! They can email me at lynsay@lynsaysands.net or join my forum --www.lynsaysands.net/forum/phpBB3/index.php --and chat with me. Or they can tweet me on twitter (LynsaySands or Lynsay_Sands) or talk to me on myspace or facebook. So many options, and only one of me… LOL. Just typing that made me tired.
- How many readers/fans contact you?
Let’s just say I no longer think just my family reads my books, lol. I get a load of emails, facebook comments, tweets and myspace comments daily, as well as messages on my forum. I read every one and eventually answer them all, though it can take a while because I am determined to do so myself. I believe if they can take the time to write me, I should respond myself. Unfortunately, that means right now it’s about a three month delay between when I get an email from a reader and when I am able to respond, but it gets longer as the number of readers trying to contact me increases. I’m not complaining, by the way. I love hearing from readers. I just hope no one minds if it takes a while to answer.
- What are some of the most memorable questions/comments?
The most memorable are always the ones writing to thank me for helping them through a tough spot in their own lives. Making them laugh for the first time after the death of a loved one, helping them keep their spirits up through cancer treatments and things like that. I get letters from soldiers on deployment too, once even from a fellow who said his whole platoon reads me and wanted to thank me for helping to take them away from where they were and what they were doing. Those kinds of letters are just priceless and never forgotten.
- Do your fans' comments and letters influence you in any way?
They influence me by encouraging me, and believe me that’s important, especially when I’m on tight or multiple deadlines and about killing myself to get the stories done. Those words of encouragement often help me carry on through the rough times when I’m exhausted and thinking I should maybe try a 9 to 5 job. However, I have an assistant who sorts through my emails before I ever see them to ensure I don’t read story ideas and such. This is because if they happen to send an idea I already had myself, I will discard the story idea rather than use it. I just don’t want there ever to be a question about where ideas come from.
- Why did you decide to write romance novels?
I guess because I like happy endings when I read. Romance is the best genre. You can have everything in them; adventure, paranormal aspects, bits of scifi, drama, comedy, and even some horror, but they'll always end happily. You'll never turn that last page and find the main character you've been following all the way through has died, and the bad guy has gotten away with it. I hate when that happens. Life is tough enough and I -- like many people -- read to escape it.
- How much of your personality and life experiences are in your writing?
A shocking amount, I’m sure. LOL. They say write what you know, and I take that literally. Family members and friends or fragments of them have shown up in every book, and even true life events have been in them. There’s nothing as truly funny as things that take place in real life, I mean you just can’t imagine some of the scenarios that crop up in reality, and so the more funny situations will often end up in stories. Oddly enough, those are usually the ones readers will say could never happen and so on. It always makes me laugh when I hear them say stuff like that.
- When did you first think about writing and what prompted you to submit your first ms?
As I say I’ve always written. I sent my first story in at 19, got a lovely response asking me to fix this and that and send in anything else I’d written, but I don’t think I was ready to be published then. Instead of doing as requested, I put my writing aside and finished University again. I didn’t stop writing, but I didn’t pursue publishing again until after University and the death of my mother who passed after a long illness. Then I wrote and sent in The Deed, it was published a year or two later and I’ve been writing ever since.
- Generally, how long does it take you to write a book?
Hmmm… depends on the book and how cooperative the characters are. The shortest time period to write one was two weeks, the longest was probably a month and a half. It does get harder with each book as I try not to repeat things that have been in other stories I’ve written.
- Do you have a set schedule for writing or do you just go with the flow?
I go with the flow as I’m not what you would call a nine to five writer. When I’m writing, I’m writing and usually from the moment I wake until the moment I go to bed during a book. When I’m not writing, then I’m usually thinking about writing and the ideas are still there just percolating around in my head.
- What is your writing routine once you start a book?
Well, my writing routine would be to eat, sleep and breathe writing. I get very little sleep, I end up working twenty plus hour days and I sometimes forget to eat. It’s just how I write. The advantage is that I don’t lose track of anything as I’m fully in the story and in my characters’ heads, even dreaming about them during the few hours of rest I do get, and the story will flow without me having to stop and reread what I did the day before. The disadvantage is it’s not very good for my health. That’s something I would like to work on.
- Does your family bother you when you are writing - are there constant interruptions?
NO… they have come to understand that when I’m writing, I’m writing and nothing interrupts it. I was like this even as a child. I had a hidden closet within a closet and would disappear in there and write and write and write. My family gave up trying to coax me into coming out when in the midst of a story. I do make time for family and friends in very concentrated intervals and then I’m gone again when a book deadline looms.
- What do you do to relax and recharge your batteries?
At the moment, I seem to have very little down time. I usually take a bath, read a good book and/or watch a movie to unwind. But I’d like to add travelling and a social life to that and hope to do so soon.
- What truly motivates you in general? In your writing?
People. They are funny, sad, frustrating and endearing all at once and I love the different aspects everyone has.
- Where do your ideas come from?
I’m not sure where the ideas come from. Often they’re spurred by real events, but sometimes they just seem to pop into my head. . . LOL. And while I used to jot them down, I don’t so much anymore. I do on occasion, but usually I just hop on the computer and write the scene.
- Do you feel humor is important in women's fiction and why?
Well humor is important to me so it is incorporated into my stories and it’s also what I tend to choose to read. I have a hard time writing stories without some level of humor in them. . . mostly because I find life and people funny in general. We're all so contrary in many ways. We spend the first twenty years of our lives impatient to grow up and longing to be older, and the next forty wishing time would stop and we wouldn't age. We do the same with everything it seems, wanting something sooooo bad, and then getting it and suddenly losing interest and wanting something else. The grass is definitely always greener for humans and I find that funny. But mostly, I think you need some humor to get you through this life. It can be tough. It IS tough, and if you can’t laugh at yourself and some of the things that go on around you…well, I don’t know how you can hold onto your sanity or enjoy the ride that life is. I don’t believe we were put here to be miserable and unhappy. I think laughter is as important as, or even more important than everything else in life. You need to enjoy the lighter moments when they come.
- What are your thoughts on love scenes in romance novels, do you find them difficult to write?
My thoughts? LOL. They’re there, a part of the story. I don’t find them at all difficult if they grow out of the story. If they’re because I haven’t put what an editor thinks is enough in and I have to go back and add them then it’s a little more difficult, but usually they’re easy.
- Would you like to write a different genre than you do now, or sub-genre?
I’ve always thought I’d like to write horror. However, I just know there would still be humor in there, dark humor maybe, but still humor. I may just give it a go someday, probably under a different name.
- Are you a member of any author groups - RWA, critique groups, etc.?
I’m a member of RWA but not of critique groups.
- What do you think of critique groups in general?
I think some people probably find them very helpful, but I’m not one who does. My process doesn’t lend itself to critique groups, I don’t welcome other cooks poking their fingers in my souffle. Writing is a very solitary thing for me, and the stories come at me like a movie. I dislike rewrites. I will do them if my editor thinks they are necessary, but on the rare occasion when an editor wants a scene changed or added, even while doing it my mind is squawking “But that’s not how it happened!”
- Do you think critique groups are a necessity to becoming a good writer?
Well, since I’ve only ever tried anything like it once and left after one sitting, never to return, and yet like to think I’m a pretty okay writer, I guess I’d have to say no.
- Where do you see yourself in five years?
LOL. Five years older and still writing, I guess. But, hopefully, I’ll have learned how to let go and work a little less so I’m a little more balanced as a person.
- Have you always wanted to be a writer?
I’ve wanted to be a writer ever since I was old enough to string words together to make a sentence, and I’ve actually been writing stories since then. Whether they were read by others or not never much mattered to me. I just have to get the stories down.
- How long have you been writing and working to that goal of being published?
My whole life has been moving me toward that goal. While my school friends were talking about getting married, or doing this and that, I had one thing in my head…I was going to be a writer.
- How many books have you written, and how many of those have been published?
Lets see, I’ve written 18 historicals, 16 of which are in print and two of which come out early next year.
I’ve written 15 Argeneau Rogue Hunter stories, 13 of which are in print. The 14th is coming out in a couple months, and the 15th is in production. I’m presently working on the 16th
And I’ve written 1 contemporary that went to print.
I’ve also written 11 anthologies and half books all in print. Am working on a 12th due in two months
Other than that there is only the story I wrote at 19 that was never published…hmmm, I wonder where I put that book.
- After you've written your book and it's been published, do you ever buy it and/or read it?
Yes, I have.
When it comes to buying them, I usually have copies so don’t need to go out and purchase one, but there has been an occasion or two (usually around moving time) where I haven’t been able to find a copy and have bought one.
I also do read them but usually to find background for a character we’re revisiting in a story I’m working on at the time. When this happens, I’m always amazed that I used to be able to write so well while what I’m working on at the moment seems like such schlock. LOL.
- Among your own books, have you a favorite? A favorite hero or heroine?
For historicals my favorite is Always. I had such fun with that book.
For the vamps it is a tie between Single White Vampire and Accidental Vampire. Those were both so much fun to write.
As for a favorite hero or heroine, that would be Lucian for hero and Marguerite for heroine. Lucian is just…well…he’s a strong character and if he has any weakness it is his family. As for Marguerite, she is based on and named after my mother who loved her family as much as Marguerite does hers.
- Which of your books has been the easiest to write? The hardest? The most fun?
The easiest and most fun to write was The Deed. It was the first and I had the whole world open before me. I also didn’t have to worry that I’d used this idea, or that scenario before in a published work.
The hardest is always the one I’m presently working on for a similar reason. Basically I tend to worry about what has come before it and as each book is written there is more to worry about. I worry about this because early on in my career I read a review of another writer’s story that said “same story and characters, just different names and settings” and I determined to never have that said about me. So I work very hard not to just write the same story over and over again, but to ensure each character has their own differing personality and that each story is different.
- Which comes first, the story, the characters or the setting?
Sometimes it’s the story idea, but often its the characters. The setting never comes first. For me, the setting is just the boundary setter. It tells me what I can and can’t do, what they should wear, etc.
- What part of a book has been the easiest to write? The hardest?
The easiest is the meat of the story. The hardest tends to be the start where I am struggling to get a handle on the characters, how they’d act or react in certain situations and so on. I will often rewrite the beginning several times while I struggle to know them. And lately the ending is getting to be just as hard. The reason is that I am only allowed a certain number of words per story and this seems to keep getting reduced by the publishers so the ending can be tricky at times too. Tying the loose ends without unduly cutting the story short is much harder than most people think…especially since I’m such a wordy chick.
- What are the elements of a great romance for you?
The elements of a great romance are the same as the elements of any great story; characters you care about and a story that holds your attention. If a story doesn’t have both of those I have trouble bothering with it whether its reading someone else work, or writing my own.
- What is the hardest part of writing/the easiest for you?
The hardest part is the side stuff, interviews like this and so on. I never expected this all to be a part of it. I just thought I’d write and the stories would speak for themselves. I still find it a little amazing that readers would want to know anything about me. I’m really very boring and rather shy.
The easiest part is the writing itself. When a story’s going well and the characters are doing their thing and I’m just scrambling to get the words down, its amazing…and the easiest thing in the world.
- Are you in control of your characters or do they control you?
I’d love to say I control them but who are we kidding here?! LOL. They have the control, at least they do if it’s a good book and I tend to drop ideas where the characters don’t start taking over. I generally sit back and type like crazy while the characters do what they want.
- Have you experienced writer's block---> If so, how did you work through it?
Of course! What writer hasn’t? When I get writer’s block it usually means I have to take a break and/or change the setting I’m writing in, or the point of view. No matter what it is, I usually head out to the coffee shop. I don’t know why, but for some reason working in a coffee shop or restaurant and writing by hand has always helped kick me out of a block. Personally, I think that’s just my contradictory mind finding it amusing that I’m sitting under the glare of fluorescents, surrounded by truck drivers and police officers (I write at night you see and that’s usually who’s around at 2 A.M.) and there I sit, writing a romance, or sometimes even a sex scene surrounded by this most unromantic crowd. It amuses me and makes me relax and then the writing flows.
- What is the most rewarding thing about being a writer?
The most rewarding part is being able to take people away from their troubles for a bit. I love getting emails from people telling me that I helped bring their spirits up after a loss or helped get them through a tough time. I get a lot of those and cherish every one.
- If you weren't writing, what would you be doing?
Writing… I have known I wanted to write from a very young age. So even if I wasn’t being paid to do it, I would be writing. However, my degree is in Psychology, so I might have been working in that field I suppose.
- Are there any words of encouragement for unpublished writers?
If I can do it, you can. And write for yourself, not what you think others want to read. The minute you start worrying about who will read it and what they want, is the minute the story looses it’s authenticity and becomes stiff and forced.
Thank you very much for taking the time with us and answering our questions. I really appreciate this interruption to your busy schedule. Good Luck, and we will be looking forward to the next delightful creation from your talented imagination!
Yours in good reading,
Rose!
Author Links:
Lynsay's Website Email Forum Newsletter Message Board MySpace Facebook and you can find her on Twitter under LynsaySands or Lynsay_Sands
RaH Links:
This Interview Review Review
Purchase Links:
Buy Lynsay's Books at Amazon
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Buy Harper Collins Books