Romance at Heart Magazine Author Interview: Michelle Levigne

Interview with Michelle Levigne:

Hi Michelle. 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.

I actually have TWO that were released in March.

PICTURE THIS is a light romantic suspense from Amber Quill Press. Basically it deals with the Lone Ranger meeting up with Joan of Arc. He’s tired of the “lone” part of the title, and she’d like to let someone else doing the rescuing for a change.

The hero, Blade is an ex-Federal agent, who runs into his ex-partner, Ray, teamed up with the heroine, Jen to steal back a stolen painting before the thief learns it’s a forgery. Blade and Jen are attracted to each other from the start, but they can’t seem to get any private time long enough to do anything about it. To make matters worse, Jen’s cover story says she’s married to Ray – and Ray wants her and Blade pretend to have an affair to distract their foes. Frustrating, but fun.

SPIRIT CHANTER is a paranormal romance from Triskelion Publishing. The heroine, Kassie, has inherited the power to talk to, see, hear and even touch the spirits of the dead. She considers it the family curse, not the family gift, and fled a life as a test subject in a paranormal research project.

She’s perfectly happy running the little café she inherited from her father. Then Tom and Theresa, childhood friends, walk into her diner one day. They’re twins. Tom was Kassie’s first crush. Theresa has been dead for 18 years. Their psycho father has been following them for years, hoping they’ll eventually lead him to Kassie so he can steal her powers and make the Afterlife serve him.

- What can we expect from you in the future?

April: Chorillan Cycle Book #2, SCOUT’S PRIDE will come out from Awe-Struck E-Books. It’s a purely SF adventure series, although there are touches of romance in several places. It belongs to my Commonwealth Universe.

May: HEIR OF FAXINOR is tentatively scheduled to be re-released by Hard Shell Word Factory. This is a fantasy/adventure romance one reviewer called “Neo-Celtic.” It was my very first book published and I’m delighted Hard Shell is willing to re-release it. They also have the sequel, LORIEN, waiting for a publication slot, and I plan to write more adventures about the Faxinors.

July: Chorillan Cycle Book #3, BY FIRE AND STARS

November: Chorillan Cycle Book #4, CHORILLAN

I also have a fairy tale, BITTER SWEET, which is in production at Mundania Press. No specific date has been set for that book.

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

My Web page: www.MIevigne.com. Readers can sign up for my electronic newsletter, which basically comes out whenever I have news to share! I always have at least one contest running at time.

- How may readers contact you?

Email: MLevigne@aol.com

- Why did you decide to write romance novels?

Honestly, it wasn’t a conscious decision!!! I just write the stories, follow up on the ideas and images that catch my imagination. There always seems to be a relationship of some kind in my stories, whether it’s background, back story, or the main focus. When I get several ideas that seem to mesh, it just seems perfectly “right” in a lot of instances to wrap them around a romantic relationship. (Yeah, that’s not a real encouraging, enlightening answer, but it’s the truth!!) I joined RWA in 1999, and my local chapter probably does influence me to write more romance than other types of stories, but you don’t see me fighting the influence.

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

Anywhere from 3 months to several years – with a lot of breaks in between. I generally spill out the entire first draft as fast as I can. Doesn’t matter how sloppily I do it, how much later story contradicts earlier scenes and information – what matters is to get the story down on paper in one form or another.

I gave myself the freedom to write badly. So bad a first draft, if you printed it out and lined a birdcage with it, the poor bird would die! That kind of freedom makes it a lot easier to write, because it puts the internal editor to sleep.
(I believe that you can’t sell a story you haven’t finished – and you can’t finish a story until you’ve done a couple drafts, and done a lot of tweaking – and you can’t tweak or fix what you haven’t written. So writing the story in the first place is the important thing.)
Then, I put it away and the story kind of simmers at the back of my mind. Then maybe months later, I bring it out and read through it, make notes for revisions, do another draft. Then put it away, and a few weeks or months later, repeat the process. Sometimes I get ideas or revelations in between that totally change the original idea that launched the whole story. Sometimes I get ideas that link several books and ideas together into a series, and that also changes the angle, the feeling, sometimes the characters’ names and chain of events.

Eventually, I get to the point where it’s as good as I can get it. I query a publisher, send out sample chapters or the whole book, depending on what they say and … wait.

- What is your writing routine?

Every day, whenever I can squeeze out the time. I try to get a page or two written before I go to work, and I carry an AlphaSmart to write on the train. Evenings are spent on office work and revisions of a different project. This keeps me fresh – and by the end of the day, I’m just too drained for new, creative work!

Except for trying to write every day and in the morning, soon after I get up … no set routine. What matters is getting something written every day, no matter how small.

- Where do your ideas come from?

A little shop in the French Quarter in New Orleans.
(Honestly, did you expect me to KNOW? If I knew, I’d have more control!)
Ideas come from everywhere, everything around me. Overheard conversations, scenes in movies and books. I used to get a lot of ideas from finishing a book or TV episode and wishing the story could continue. Or reading a book/watching a TV show and thinking, “Dang, I could write better than that!”

- What does your husband/wife think of your writing?

If I ever get one, I’ll have to ask him!

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

RWA, Northeast Ohio RWA, the author groups of my different publishers, Authors Red Room.

- How long have you been writing - have you always wanted to be a writer?

Since high school (longer than 20 years – that’s all you’re going to get!!!) and yes, it feels like I always wanted to be a writer. Figuring out WHAT I wanted to write, HOW to write it, how to FIND other writers and then actually SELL the silly thing …. That was the hard part. Thank goodness for the Internet, or I’d still be fumbling around.

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

A little of both, actually. I create the characters, their situations and kind of wind them up and let them go. I have a goal I want to reach, and I create the landscape … and sometimes the characters take off in their own path/direction. It’s great fun when a story seems to write itself, because that means I did a great job with world-building. Sometimes it’s amazing when I’m writing the characters and discover feelings, bits of history and ways of talking and even mannerisms that I didn’t plan, but which just appear out of thin air.

Thank you very much, Michelle, for taking the time with us and answering our questions. I really appreciate this interruption to busy schedule. Good Luck, and we will be looking forward to the next delightful creations of romance or sci-fi from your talented imagination!

Yours in good reading,
Rose!

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