Hello everyone,
Today, I’m
thrilled to introduce you to a new author, Ava Miles. Ava has just released a
novel called Nora Roberts Land. Isn’t that a great title? As
a long time reader of all things romance, Nora Roberts Land grabbed
hole of my attention and I had learn more it and Ava. I can’t thank
Ave enough for being here with me today. So on to her interview…
Welcome Ava. I
read that ever since your great-great-grandfather won a newspaper in a poker
game in 1891, your family has had something to do with words. When did
you start writing?
It seems as if I've been penning stories for fun forever. Like most writers, I had a spiral notebook in grade school and wrote whatever came to me. In high school, I wrote my first few chapters of a romance novel and got hooked. One of my best high school gifts was a Plot Journal from a former English teacher, which I still write in. It wasn't until my characters wouldn't get off my back that I finally finished a full manuscript. It wasn't easy--especially with a full-time job--but after that I couldn’t stop.
Is NORA ROBERTS
LAND your first book?
It's the first
of my books to go out into the world, but not the first I've
completed. I've written three complete books and started
several others, but this is the first one that spoke to me this strongly and
pulled me into my characters so fully that I simply had to write until I knew
what was going to happen to them.
Can you tell us
a bit about the plot?
Absolutely.
My heroine is Meredith Hale, a journalist who's a huge fan of Nora Roberts'
books, and whose ex-husband blames them for their marriage breaking up. He insists that Meredith had unrealistic expectations of their marriage
because she read Nora's romances. She even stopped reading Nora's books for a
time thinking he might have been right. But when she's called home to
Dare Valley to help her family, she packs a hidden agenda--to write a piece
about a divorced woman who goes back to her small home-town to find Mr. Right,
and to prove her ex wrong at the same time.
Meredith's
ready to put herself out there like a Nora Roberts heroine, determined to find
what her mother calls "Nora Roberts Land," a.k.a. her own
"happily ever after." Of course, that's much easier said than
done, especially when Meredith's efforts to uncover the mystery surrounding the
death of a family friend require pretending to go out with Tanner McBride, the only
man who sets her heart racing--and the only one who is totally off limits.
Is Tanner
totally fabulous?
I think readers
will be the ones to decide, but...ummm...hard body, great lover, handsome,
intelligent, a terrific flirt... Did I mention he's being blackmailed? He
is.
Have you based
any of your characters on people you know?
My characters
are their own people. I don't sit down and model people after ones I know as
I've heard Madeleine L'Engle used to do. However, they often have characteristics
of people I know and seem familiar to me. There's probably a little bit of each
of my three sisters and me in Meredith. And, of course my family's newspaper
and writing background informs several characters as well as the plot,
especially Grandpa Hale, who is what I imagined my great-great grandfather to
be like. Tanner has lots of his own personality and is definitely blessed with
the physical, mental and emotional traits that attract me to a man, be it
romance or friendship. It's funny though, with him being a former war
correspondent, he resonates with a lot of what I felt and experienced when I
was working in similar places.
It seems that
family is also very much at the heart of NORA ROBERTS LAND. Is that because of
your own upbringing?
Yes, I come
from a big family. I was born in the Midwest and lived in small towns until we
moved down South to a bigger city. My parents both grew up on farms so we were
raised with family and community coming first. I'm the oldest, and have three
sisters and two brothers. We are very close even though we span the U.S. now.
Everyone does
their best to support each other. From day one, everyone supported me with this
new passion, especially my sister, Michelle, my Nora girl. When her
personal experience of having her ex-husband blame their divorce on her reading
Nora Roberts novels (something that shocked us all) crystallized into the story
idea that became NORA ROBERTS LAND, I knew I needed her permission to write it.
She wholeheartedly agreed, wanting to inspire people to believe in second
chances and happily ever after since she's
found her own.
You pluck
Meredith from the center of Manhattan and send her to her small hometown in the
Colorado mountains. Why is it important that Meredith's journey takes
place in Dare Valley, rather than a big city, or even the suburbs?
Returning home
seemed critical for her story. She has an incredible sense of family and
tradition with her family's newspaper. When her dad has medical issues,
she immediately heads home to help run things while he's out. Also,
coming from a small community to the big city, I could see how it's easy to
lose yourself in a large city and to not feel connected to your neighbors.
Meredith needs to reconnect to the parts of herself she lost in her marriage
and while living in the New York City. Going home to Dare is a reminder of all
that's made her who she is.
Have you ever
lived anywhere like Dare Valley?
Yes. I spent my
childhood in two small Midwestern communities and then my summers in the same
town as our family newspaper. I cherish those times. Having people simply
stop by for coffee or to drop off a meal if someone has a crisis or a new baby
arrives. Walking into people's houses because the doors aren't locked.
Talking about the various events in town, how people are related and, of
course, any mischief that's going on. Since much of our big family also lived
in Colorado, where Dare Valley is located, we also spent a lot of time
there. Additionally, I lived in a small university town in Utah for grad
school. Dare is an amalgamation of these experiences, and a place I would
love to live.
What's
next? Are you working on something new?
I am working on
a new series involving another intriguing family, but I'm also still tweaking
my next book, FRENCH ROAST. It's Meredith's sister Jill's
story, who readers will have gotten to know in NORA ROBERTS LAND.
Readers revisit the action at Don't Soy With Me, Jill’s coffee shop, and find
out what's next for her and her ex-best friend, Brian. It's the second of three
books set in Dare Valley. It goes on
sale August 13th. THE GRAND OPENING is about Tanner's
sister and a mysterious man who arrives in town with an agenda she's determined
to stop. It will be out on September 24th. It's the last book in the Dare
Valley Series. At least I'm saying that now. I'm not completely
certain I'm finished with Grandpa Hale, Meredith and Jill’s grandpa. If
he were forty years younger, he'd make a hot and charming hero.
How can readers
find out what else is going on with you?
I'll
always post updates on my site about what's out and what I’m working on.
And I'll be sharing news on Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus. I'm also
collecting some fun visuals for Pinterest, along with who knows what
else. I'm looking forward to meeting up with everyone.
Excerpt of Nora Roberts Land
Meredith
dropped her gaze from Tanner’s face and studied the strong arms filling out his
gray dress shirt. She remembered what those muscles looked like dripping wet.
Whimpering would be totally inappropriate, but she wanted to. God, the man was
as intoxicating as Valrhona bittersweet chocolate.
He
put his hands on either side of her, brushing their bodies together in a wildly
tempting caress. “Maybe we could go out for breakfast after our next swim.”
The
idea of going out for breakfast with this man fired up her imagination about
other things…like wild sex and a sleep over. She leaned back for breathing
room, but there was nowhere to go. He surrounded her. She couldn’t smell
anything but him, and the counter was biting into her back.
He
had her body purring, but that damn wounded part of her was sounding the
alarms. Her lack of confidence—courtesy of Rick-the-Dick’s hurtful parting
words—clanged like a train trolley.
And
Tanner was a journalist. Just. Like. Rick.
She
pushed him back with a hand to his hard, muscular chest, needing space. She searched
for the caramel apple pie Jill had brought home from the coffee shop and raced
over to it. Her hands shook as she took out the plates and dessert forks. Deep
breaths seemed like a good idea to clear out Tanner’s musky smell, but she
couldn’t seem to take in a full one. Her lungs had deflated like balloons after
a disappointing party.
“I
can’t…have breakfast with you,” she rasped, frantically touching her bustier.
Even that wasn’t doing much to restore her confidence. Damn it.
Tanner’s
boots scraped across the tile floor. She could feel the heat of his body behind
her, and she imagined him gazing at that mole he’d mentioned. She wanted to
lean back against him, but was suddenly afraid of how much she wanted him and
where it could lead—especially with her family in the next room.
“Why
can’t you?”
“I
don’t date journalists. Ever.”
He
turned her around. She stood stiffly in his hold.
“Neither
do I…usually. But I don’t want to talk about journalism with you, Meredith.”
#
Ave, thanks again for visiting me
today. I hope your new debut novel sells off the shelf. For more information about Ave and how to
find her book, you can find her here:
NORA ROBERTS LAND, Book 1, Dare
Valley Series, by Ava Miles
Contemporary Romance/Fiction/Original
July 2013/On Sale 7-2-13/$5.99
(eBook), $14.99 (print)/ISBN: 9781301307210
www.avamiles.com •
facebook.com/AuthorAvaMiles • pinterest.com/authoravamiles
facebook.com/NoraRobertsLand •
twitter.com/authoravamiles • plus.google.com/110201714901830875706
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