Interview with Sara Reinke:
Hi Sara. 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.
In RESURRECTION, Jay Frances can raise the dead. One touch is all it takes to restore life to even long-since cold flesh. Jay has always considered this ability more of a curse than a gift -- that is, until the night he finds JoBeth Montgomery brutally murdered in a darkened stairwell and resurrects her. Jo is the first he is able to restore fully, body, mind and soul. She is also bright, beautiful and before long, Jay finds that Jo fills the void that has been in his heart since the death of his wife.
As a mutual attraction grows into something far deeper and more tender between them, so, too, does someone else's interest in them. Jo had not been the victim of a random act of violence. Her assailant had been someone far more methodical, a sadistic serial killer the police call the Watcher. Jay's brother, Paul, knows about the Watcher's methods all-too well. A seasoned homocide investigator, he's also the lead detective charged with catching him. When he learns about Jo, and what had happened to her during her assault, Paul recognizes the modus operandi of the Watcher. He also sees the chance to use Jo as bait, to try and lure the elusive killer out of hiding. Paul and his quarry have more in common than he can ever imagine.
Paul knows of Jay's extraordinary abilities; he's seen them firsthand. But so has the Watcher. He knows Jo is alive, but that's not what tempts him any longer. He's watched something else that has fixated him: Jay and his ability to raise the dead. And now the Watcher embarks on a personal quest to see Jay do it again. And again. And again.
- What can we expect from you in the future?
I have several upcoming releases:
Sometimes heroes are found in the most unlikely of characters...BOOK OF THIEVES, the second part in the Chronicles of Tiralainn series coming in late 2006 from Double Dragon Publishing's Dragon Tooth Fantasy imprint. (It’s the sequel to “Book of Dragons,” which was named one of the Top Ten Sci-Fi / Fantasy Novels of 2005 in the annual Preditors & Editors Readers Poll.)
In space, no one can hear you scream...but don't let that stop you. TETHERS, a science fiction thriller coming in electronic and trade paperback in late 2006 from Samhain Publishing.
Welcome to England, 1748...a time when romance was irrelevant and adventure was thoroughly unladylike. AN UNEXPECTED ENGAGEMENT, an unconventional historical romance coming in February 2007 from Medallion Press. Of “An Unexpected Engagement,” Karen Robards, New York Times, Publisher's Weekly and USA Today best-selling author said, "This is historical romance the way it should be written. I loved it!"
- How do we find out about you and your books?
Visit my website at Sara Reinke.com. I have sneak peeks and excerpts there, plus review snippets and links, my bi-monthly newsletter, blog, contest and promotional information and more. Plus, I’m constantly updating and adding to it, being one of those types of people for whom a little bit of know-how goes a long way (and sometimes unfortunately, ha ha!), so it’s always fun to check out the new pieces and pages.
- How may readers/fans contact you? Do your fans' comments and letters influence you in any way?
There’s a contact form and email info all on my website. I love to hear from my readers, and try to make sure I take the time to personally respond to everyone. Positive comments from review sites are great and all, but nothing makes me feel more satisfied with my work than hearing good things from readers.
- Do you have a favorite comment or question from a reader?
A couple, actually:
"It reads equally like a romance and a supernatural suspense... I'm very pleased with RESURRECTION's tone: gritty and real. Don't find that too often."
"I LOVE Resurrection. I can't wait to get each issue!"
"Figures that I finally find an ebook I want to keep reading and I'm forced to wait for the next installment. Great, great program."
- Why did you decide to write romance novels?
I was actually trying to land a sale. I’d written a book in another genre, and had an agent who was trying unsuccessfully to get it published. I started working on a historical novel, and she suggested that if I liked history, I should explore writing a historical romance. I had never considered romance. I’d never even READ a romance novel before. So I went out to the local bookstore and bought three of them – all with “NY Times bestseller” on them. I read Catherine Coulter, Stephanie Laurens and Karen Robards. I found a couple of great online resources for writing romance novels. I figured out the basic “formula” and went from there.
- How much of your personality and life experiences are in your writing?
My personality is usually present in my work in subtle but distinctive ways. If you read a wise-crack in one of my stories, that’s my personality coming through, for example, ha ha. And generally, any references I might throw in to Orlando Bloom represent my own personal and admittedly childish infatuation with him, LOL. As for life experiences, however, you won’t find many. The heroine in “Resurrection” is a nurse, and that’s based somewhat off my personal experiences in nursing school and working in a clinical capacity in hospitals several years ago, but otherwise, that’s about it. I enjoy exploring the possibilities of what lies beyond my frame of reference; of learning something new and applying it within my work.
- When did you first think about writing and what prompted you to submit your first ms?
I have been writing since I could toddle upright, I think. I can’t remember a time in my life when I wasn’t writing, not even in my very early childhood. I’ve been submitting manuscripts about as long. I sent off a short story to Playboy magazine when I was probably 10 or 12 years old. I figured if Stephen King could get into Playboy, I could, too. I went to school and told all of my classmates that I was trying to get into Playboy. I stopped writing fiction for about 10 years after college, because I’d decided to devote my time, energy and attention to more “grown up” pursuits. I had a degree in public relations, and parlayed that into a fairly successful journalism career, which I actually still pursue in a freelance capacity from my home office. But I could no more give up fiction than cut off my hand, and when my uncle died in 2001, it really galvanized me into examining my life, my priorities and goals. I decided what I’d wanted to be “when I grew up” as a kid was the same thing it was now, as an adult. I wanted to write books. And so I did.
- Generally, how long does it take you to write a book?
It depends. Before the birth of my son, I could crank ‘em out in three, four months tops. But now it usually takes me longer for a novel-length work. I am juggling motherhood, freelance writing, and fifteen bazillion other things. I still make sure that I include time for my own fiction writing, and that it remains a priority in my life…just now, it has a lot more to compete with some days.
- Do you have a set schedule for writing or do you just go with the flow?
Anymore, I write whenever I can squeeze it in, but usually in the evenings or weekends, when my husband can play with our son, and I can have uninterrupted time on the computer. Otherwise, I tote my laptop from room to room and work sometimes while my son is playing.
- What is your writing routine once you start a book?
I don’t really have a set routine, because life is so unpredictable. I try to make sure that I don’t leave a project unfinished; that if I begin a work-in-progress that I stick with it until it’s finished.
- What about your family, do they know not to bother you when you are writing - or are there constant interruptions?
My son is only 16-months old. He doesn’t appreciate his mother’s obsessive need to park herself in front of the computer and peck away all day, LOL. But my husband has always been amazingly supportive, and remains so to this day. He will often watch our son after supper and in the evenings so I can enjoy some private time to work.
- What do you do to relax and recharge your batteries?
I write. Isn’t that sad? Writing is one of the most rewarding things I do. I could never, ever think of writing fiction as work.
- What truly motivates you in general? In your writing?
My family is a good motivation. I want to prove to them, and myself, that I am worth all of the faith and confidence they’ve placed in me all of these years, and continue to place in me. In my writing, it’s finding just the right “face” to go with my characters; the image and even the right name in my mind’s eye that completes each character, “fleshes them out” and makes them come to life in my imagination. Once that happens, I can’t let go of them. I have to write about them. It’s nearly a compulsion.
- Where do your ideas come from?
Everywhere and everything. The world is a phenomenal place, and our own history is steeped in fascinating stories and absolutely astonishing characters.
- Do you feel humour is important in women's fiction and why?
Humor is important in everything – life, love, fiction, fact. Anything can be funny if you just look at it with the right perspective – and sometimes, that’s the healthiest way to go.
- What are your thoughts on love scenes in romance novels, do you find them difficult to write?
No. I think that each writer should approach a love scene as they’re comfortable, and never feel forced to write something they don’t like or don’t feel confident in – whether it’s sweet or erotic. I think it’s important that writers remember to remain true to their characters, to not have them suddenly spouting cheesy lines of dialogue because it seems like a “sex scene thing to do.” If a writer presents any scene, including a love scene, in a forced or unnatural manner, or to a heat level with which they personally don’t feel comfortable writing, it’s going to show.
- What kind of research do you do?
A lot. In person and online. I fill spiral-bound notebooks full of stuff. Binders and binders and binders. It all depends on the project. My history-based books, especially, require a lot of fact-checking and research before I can even begin. A lot of times, I’ve discovered plotlines I’d originally envisioned can’t be incorporated into the actual manuscript because historical facts don’t support them.
- Would you like to write a different genre than you do now, or sub-genre?
I write in multiple genres anyway. I don’t like to define myself or my work by any one set genre. I’m a storyteller, and I let the stories dictate their own genres.
- What does your husband think of your writing?
Fully supports it.
- Do you ever ask him for advice?
Every once in a blue moon. He’s a good sport about it.
- Please tell us about yourself (family, hobbies, education, etc.)
I live in Kentucky, am married, mother of one. I write, write, write, write, write. And sometimes sleep.
- Fill in the blank favorites -
Dessert – anything chocolate or cheesecake
Season – Spring
Type of hero – one who looks like Orlando Bloom (told you I was infatuated!)
Type of heroine – one with a brain
- What are some of your favorite things to do?
Write, write, write. Eat chocolate and cheesecake. Take a nap with my son.
- Do you have a favorite author? Favorite book?
Lots – Stephen King, Patrick Larkin, Pat Conroy, Catherine Coulter, Sue Grafton, Patricia Cornwell.
Favorite books? Lots. The Shining, The Lord of the Rings, The Lord of Discipline, The Tribune, The Sound and the Fury, etc.
- Who are some of your other favorite authors to read?
See above.
- Who, if anyone, has influenced your writing?
See above. And oddly enough, Shakespeare. I still love Shakespeare. I love throwing in little nods here and there to Shakespeare, obscure little things that probably no one in the world ever notices, but that I know are there.
- Are you a member of any author groups - RWA, critique groups, etc.?
RWA, Flowers & Hearts Author Group and EPIC.
- What do you think of critique groups in general?
They can be useful, but I think authors come to rely to heavily on them and not enough on their own instincts. Writers need to learn how to self-edit. They need to educate themselves on approaching their work from the viewpoint of a reader, not an author, and revise their manuscripts from that perspective. Editing is subjective, just like critiquing and you know what they say about opinions and butts – everyone’s got one. If you rely too much on a critique group to assess your story, then you’re writing to please someone else, and you’ll never be finished. Learn to self-edit, and you can work your manuscript to a place where YOU’RE happy with it, and then you can market it to agents and publishers with confidence. That’s what’s important. Who cares if you rewrite your book to make 15 other people say they like it, if you hate it?
- Where do you see yourself in five years?
Writing, writing, writing. Probably eating cheesecake and chocolate. Chasing my son around still. Wondering whatever became of Orlando Bloom…
- How long have you been writing - have you always wanted to be a writer?
Yes. My whole life, for as long as I can remember.
- How many books have you written, how many have been published?
More than I can count. Two have been published. Three others are under contract for publication.
- After you've written your book and it's been published, do you ever buy it and/or read it?
Obsessively. And because I’m a compulsive self-editor, I find 15 bazillion things I still want to change in each, ha ha!
- Among your own books, have you a favorite book? Favorite hero or heroine?
Yes. It isn’t published yet, though. But I have a favorite hero and he’s in my favorite book. He is one of the most remarkable characters I’ve ever created. I totally fell in love with him. I’m still in love with him. I know exactly what he looks like.
- What book for you has been the easiest to write? The hardest? The most fun?
“Resurrection” was the easiest. It had been in my mind for so long, more than 10 years, that it was just bursting to come out. I knew most of it (except, ironically, the killer’s identity) like the back of my hand. My favorite book, which is unnamed and mentioned in the previous question, was the hardest. My historical romance, “An Unexpected Engagement,” which is coming out next February from Medallion Press was the most fun.
- Which comes first, the story, the characters or the setting?
The story and the characters usually come simultaneously. A character often IS the story. The setting to me comes last. That’s part of the research, the window-dressing.
- What are the elements of a great romance for you?
Tension, believable characters, a believable and logical development of two characters’ relationship and love.
- What is the hardest part of writing/the easiest for you?
Easiest: Getting started on a manuscript
Hardest: Finishing what I’ve started
- Are you in control of your characters or do they control you?
They control me. I like to say I “channel” them.
- Have you experienced writer's block---> If so, how did you work through it?
10 years worth of it once. I worked through it by remembering how much I love to write, and how empty I feel without it. Now, if I get stuck, I listen to music, go for a car ride, take a nap, clear my mind. I let the characters work it out for me. They’ve always come through, with a little time and prodding.
- What is the most rewarding thing about being a writer?
Once upon a time, I’d have told you typing the words “The End” on a manuscript. And that’s still the second most rewarding thing. But the first has to be getting an email from a reader, a total stranger to you, and them telling you how much they enjoy your work. I can’t even describe how absolutely fulfilling that is.
- If you weren't writing, what would you be doing?
I can’t begin to imagine.
- Are there any words of encouragement for unpublished writers?
Never, never give up. When God closes a door, He opens a window someplace else. If one avenue of publication doesn’t work out, or you get rejected, it just means something better is out there. Let it toughen and strengthen you, not beat you down. Be your own cheerleader and never, ever lose faith and confidence in yourself or your work.
- What question would you love to answer that I didn't ask?
I would like to invite the readers to visit my website at www.sarareinke.com and also to join my Yahoo! group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tiralainn. I have really enjoyed this wonderful opportunity to get to visit with everyone, and would love to hear from you!
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!
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