Romance at Heart Magazine Author Interview: Mary Pritchard

Interview with Mary Pritchard:

Hi Mary. 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.

"Ghostly Mistakes" is a Paranormal Romance with Suspense and a bit of comedy. The heroine, Lizzy, has the unusual ability to channel spirits and manages to become bound to a rather obnoxious and spoiled southern catfish farmer. In order to free herself of the offending ghost, Lizzy must help him complete his promise to his mother on her deathbed. Something he should have taken care of prior to his own death!

Lizzy finds herself mixed up with an old murder, a disapproving lady’s church group, and falling in love with the highway patrolman who pulled her over for speeding. Convinced she is jinxed when it comes to men and a track record to go along with that belief, she isn’t sure whether to enjoy the ride or cut her loses while she has a shred of dignity and a heart to break.

I think anyone who enjoys a good laugh; excitement and the promise of true love will enjoy tagging along with Lizzy as she completes her hitchhiking spirit’s promise and finds the one person who just might be able to accept her, ghosts and all.

- What can we expect from you in the future?

Just about anything! I love to write and can’t limit my ideas to one specific type of book. I do have the sequel to "Ghostly Mistakes" already scheduled for release in August from Inara Press. I also have a more serious Paranormal Romance looking for a home. Basically, I’ll listen to my readers and find out what they want to read from me. It’s all about satisfying their cravings and providing them an escape to another type of life for a little while.

- How do we find out about you and your books?

That’s easy, www.maryalicepritchard.com is my website. It’s brand new and still a work in progress, but if I can tear myself away from writing more often, I’ll have lots of interesting information for readers to find and some short stories posted soon. More importantly, all my release information will be available as soon as I find out myself.

Presently, Inara Press, my publisher for "Ghostly Mistakes" and its sequel has information about all the Seron Serials and their release dates. You can visit them at www.inarapress.com for more information.

- How may readers contact you?

My email address is author@maryalicepritchard.com and I would love to hear what they think about "Ghostly Mistakes" as well as what they would like to see in the future.

- Why did you decide to write romance novels?

I love happy endings but I know that life is full of curves and forks in the road. They may lead us to a dead end but they also make us who we are. I wanted to write romance the way I see everyday life, with curves and dips in the road and heroes and heroines who aren’t perfect and have problems. I wanted to write romance where happy endings leave us feeling satisfied in the end, but how the hero and heroine made it to their happy ending was just as important.

Of course, I don’t think there are many women out there with obnoxious ghosts attached to them but there are women who have children from a first marriage or a demanding job that cuts into their family time. It doesn’t mean they can’t have happy endings. Romance is the journey into love.

- How much of your personality and life experiences are in your writing?

Since I write along the lines of what interests me as well as what I know about, a lot. Honestly, I tend to write my experiences how I would like for them to have turned out in the end. So the experience may be straight out of my past but the heroine’s personality is usually one I think would have served me better in that situation. Fantasy is all about creating what you want out of what you have and a romance novel is a fantasy written down.

- When did you first think about writing and what prompted you to submit your first ms?

I’ve been writing since I was ten or eleven years old. I created worlds that I felt at home in. Stories that let me explore a place or a time I couldn’t where I was. I read everything I could find on a subject in the local Library and when I exhausted what they had, I wrote my own.

I never pursued writing as a career until now because I didn’t think I wrote well enough to be published. I couldn’t see how what I wrote would be special to anyone other than me. Then I met a group of people on the Internet who were going to a reader and writer’s convention and my view on my own writing changed dramatically. I found out that other people were interested in what I had to say and liked it!

The support and encouragement of that group along with a few exciting comments from some authors who read what I wrote while I was at the convention created my drive to submit. My whole world has turned in a new direction since that week!

- Generally, how long does it take you to write a book?

Writing the book doesn’t take me long at all. I write 70-80k in about two to three months. It’s the editing and polishing that takes longer.

- What is your writing routine?

I still work full time so my writing time is limited to nights and weekends. Normally, I spend three nights during the week writing for about three hours and four to six hours each day on the weekend. Two nights a week I spend editing and polishing or setting up my next manuscript. It takes a lot of discipline to stick to the schedule though. I really love to read!

- What about your family, do they know not to bother you when you are writing - or are there constant interruptions?

I’m divorced and don’t have children, so you would think there wouldn’t be interruptions, but that isn’t true by any means. I have my feline muses who often redirect my focus and then there are my parents. Presently they visit me on weekends and though they do their best to go about their own plans there is always something they need or want to discuss, which prompts a trip over to my office next door. I just roll with the interruptions like most writers do when it’s their family. Scream at them to read the do not disturb sign or smile and find out what they want.

- What do you do to relax and recharge your batteries?

That is easy, I read! I love to read. If the weather is nice, I play around in the garden or I drive the Natchez Trace and enjoy the view.

- Where do your ideas come from?

Oh goodness, I wish I knew sometimes. I have them running around in my head all the time. The trick is to know which ones to pull out and expand. I’ve been driving to or from somewhere and created a whole book in my head as I drove. (Where do you think the highway patrolman came from in "Ghostly Mistakes"?) A snippet of conversation I overhear in line at the grocery store or when I’m waiting to have my oil changed turns into a novel before I can write it all down. Normally that is my greatest problem, catching the details before something else grabs my attention.

- Do you feel humor is important in women's fiction and why?

Humor definitely has its place! Our lives are so fast paced and intense that reading only serious and emotionally tense books can wear you out and burn you out. I think that humor can be discretely used in most any type of romantic novel without taking away from the story’s intent. It helps to balance all that suspense and intrigue so you don’t feel worn out in the end but charged up instead.

- What are your thoughts on love scenes in romance novels, do you find them difficult to write?

Funny you should ask that. I just had an interesting conversation with a fellow Inara writer about writing love scenes. Yes, I find them difficult to write, but not because I don’t know what to write or how to word it, more because I feel and partially live what I write so it tends to get me a little, well, hot under the collar when I’m working on one. My face turns red and my breath quickens as if I were in the scene itself. I figure that if it affects me that way, it will touch the reader as well.

I think the type romance you are writing determines the sensuality level of your love scenes. Sensuality isn’t just about sex and “the act” it’s about what leads up to it and how it is handled afterward. It’s what grabs the character’s attention and moves him or her along the road of excitement. You can make the heroine brushing hair as she sits in front of her dressing table sensual. The way you write how the brush glides through her hair or how the candlelight reflects off the rich black mantel of her head can excite the hero or push him over the edge. It’s all in how you write it and what your publisher’s limits are.

- Would you like to write a different genre than you do now, or sub-genre?

I write more than one already. I just haven’t published in another one yet. Even my romance serial has elements of other genres such as the paranormal, suspense and comedy of "Ghostly Mistakes". I have a pure romance started that I don’t plan to include anything other than some light comedy along the romantic journey.

- Please tell us about yourself (family, hobbies, education, etc.)

Well, I’m a registered nurse and have my ADS as well as my BSN. I work for a large health service in the financial department. I have one brother who’s happily married and has two boys. My parents live within a couple of hours drive and visit often. I’m divorced and don’t have children, but I do have several cats and two dogs.

I love to read, write, garden, put together jigsaw puzzles and listen to music. I would love to spend hours exploring places like caves, hiking trails, beaches and country roads but there is never enough time to do it all. I use to be a very hands on animal rescue person, but now I concentrate more of my time on raising money to support others who do the hands on and run an occasional animal train to transport one to their new home.

- Who are some of your favorite authors?

Oh, now that is really hard! I love so many! Christine Feehan, J.D. Robb, Thomas Hardy, Amanda Ashley, Lillian Jackson Braun, James Patterson, Laurell K Hamilton, Jonathan Kellerman, Fern Michaels, Charlaine Harris, Sherrilyn Kenyon. I guess I better stop. I could go on forever, my keeper shelves have already turned into my own private library!

- Are you a member of any author groups - RWA, critique groups, etc.?

Yes, I’m a member of RWA, my local chapter MSRW, KOD and FF&P. My local chapter also has a critique group that meets after our monthly meeting as well. I’m also a member of an online support community for readers, authors, aspiring authors, booksellers and editors who attend RT each year. We offer the first timer information on what to expect and how to prepare for the amazing experience. It grew from a few people into a large group and we keep in touch all year long. The group is called the Femailers.

- Where do you see yourself in five years?

Writing novels full time and working as a nurse several times a year in an emergency department. I love emergency medicine! I would like to have developed my writing to the point that I can support myself and devote my full attention to writing. The ED nursing would be research and a treat to myself. I enjoy the fast pace and need to make quick decisions. It keeps me on my toes!

- Are you in control of your characters or do they control you?

I think you could say it is a little of both. J They grow and change all on their own, but I can direct them for the most part. My biggest problem with them is that they won’t wait on me! If I’m not where I can write, they just keep going and I have to try and catch up with them when I can write. The other problem is that my secondary characters like to show off and don’t want to wait their turn. I constantly have to push them back and cut their parts down.

- Are there any words of encouragement for unpublished writers?

Yes, keep writing! Find a writer’s group and join it. Don’t sit and listen, ask questions and participate! Polish your manuscript and send it in to contests were you will get back free critiques. Some will be great and some not so great. Find the common themes that keep cropping up and focus on those problem areas. Most of all don’t give up!

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!

Mary Alice Pritchard Interview Review