Who’s in the Hot Seat? Author Elley Arden

 

Today we have a special treat!  Debut author Elley Arden has agreed to sit in the author hot seat. Whoo hoo! This Pittsburgh gal with a taste for fine wine, baseball, reading, and interior design is ready to make her mark on romantic fiction and all signs are showing she’s going to hit it big straight out the gate!

So without further ado, let’s heat things up!

What’s an average day like for you? Do you write full-time?

I’ve been writing fulltime for over a decade, but my first ten years were spent as a non-fiction writer and editor. In January, we got a Boston Terrier puppy, and she really through a lovely wrench into my writing plans. An average day is up at 6:00 am to help my three children (two teens and a preteen) get off to school, walk the dog at 8:00 am, and then by 8:30 sit to write while the dog naps until 11. At that point, it’s playing and training with Lizzy (the dog), and then she’s ready for another nap around 12:30-1 pm, so I write again until 3-3:30 pm. After that, all bets are off, because I’m usually running kids here, there and everywhere.

Do you have any writing influences? If you had to choose, which author would you consider the greatest influence?

Judith McNaught is by far my biggest writing influence. When I read my earliest manuscripts, I can see her influence on every page. Over the years, I’ve developed my own voice and started writing category length, so the influence is less apparent, but I know it’s there. Other major influences would be Susan Elizabeth Phillips and Rachel Gibson.

When did you decide on writing romance? Can you tell us something about your first debut novel?

I always think me writing contemporary romance is funny considering my love of historical non-fiction. I’m obsessed with royal history, and when I started reading romance, I gravitated toward Regency romances. But when I sat down to pen my first romance novel back in 2000, I wrote a contemporary romance. Why did I write one at all? Well, I was an avid reader, and at that time in my life I was incredibly short on cash, and with a full-time non-fiction writing job and two little ones, trips to the library to browse books for me weren’t always convenient. Writing was free. J It took me ten years to finish that manuscript, and I pray to God it never sees the light of day. Lol. I went on to write four more manuscripts—all contemporary—before Crimson Romance contracted my first category-length novel, Save My Soul: Book One in the Kemmons Brothers Baseball Series, in which a struggling psychotherapist falls for a bitter, divorced baseball agent.

What is the best thing about being a writer? The worst?

The best thing about being a writer is knowing what to do with all the voices in my head. I always say I would’ve been committed long ago if I didn’t have writing as an outlet. The worst thing? Putting myself (and my work) out there for other people to judge.

You’ve recently written a sports themed romance involving a sports agent and a psychotherapist, what inspired you to take on such an unusual pairing?

I’ve harbored a secret fascination for the world of sports performance mental training for a long time, and while I originally thought to make Maggie a sports psychologist, she appeared in my head as way more free-spirited and much younger than I imagined a successful sports psychologist to be, so I let her be my guide.

Have there been any surprises about the publishing industry you didn’t expect? Also, what was your route into publishing romance?

Oh, yes! As I mentioned, I spent years in non-fiction writing and editing, including being senior editor for a glossy, nationally distributed pregnancy magazine. When I started the fiction submission process, I wasn’t daunted by snail mail or long wait times, but then everything seemed to change and pick up speed with digital publishing. My route was slow at first, partly because I was submission-phobic, but I was incredibly lucky to get a lot of great feedback from the get-go. Once I started submitting regularly to publishers I learned about online, and keeping track of the results of those submissions, results came faster.

Does your family, spouse, neighbors, friend’s read your spicy tales? What do they think of your published work?

My husband would NEVER, but he’s incredibly supportive despite what I write often crossing the line into his job. My mother does read my work, and the first time I was scared to death until she looked at me with those wide mother eyes and said, “Darling, I’ve had sex before.” Lol. She’s so supportive is actually hurts sometimes. J And my friends? God, they are my biggest blessing on this journey. I have so many who support me, but there are five who read my work. I call them my Champagne Book Club. Just writing this and thinking about all the laughs and hugs and even tears over the years makes me incredibly humble. Of course, they think I’m brilliant and regularly tell me so.

Do you or have you ever based your characters on real people?

No. Real people are incredibly boring. Lol. I may be influenced by someone’s red hair or strong personality, but actually taking a person I know and making them into a character? Never.

What is your method of breaking through writer’s block?

I don’t get blocked. I believe the story is inside of me and it will come out if I write. I take a very mystical approach to my writing.

Do you bring your own life experiences to your writing? Your own personality? If so, how?

I certainly do. When my mother read Save My Soul, she could see the relationship between my life experiences to the characters’ life experiences in the book. People who know me well will see bits of me in everything I write, whether it’s my insider knowledge of baseball and medicine or locations like Lake Norman, North Carolina.

What fuels you as an author to continue to write?

The voices never stop. J I really have no idea what I’d do with them if I didn’t write.

Do you have plans to write more sports themed romances? 

Save My Soul is only book one. Change My Mind, book two, featuring a rough-around-the-edges centerfielder, is complete but waiting on a release date. There will also be a third Kemmons Brothers Baseball book, Heal My Heart. After that, who knows? I have a completed single-title manuscript, featuring a baseball team owner, so hopefully the world will be reading that one day.

How do you approach your books?  From concept to the final produce, how long does it take to complete a book?

I start with characters in my head. They usually pop up and I catch them mid-conversation. At that point, I start interviewing them, and when I figure out what they want out of life, I start concocting a bigger picture for them. If I’m in a hurry to get a book written, the “mental dating” only take a couple days before I start sketching the ideas into a Word document. I end up with a rough synopsis, and I’m ready to start Chapter One. I rarely look at that synopsis again, because as I write, the characters change my plans. Always. Since I write category length, I like manuscripts to hit the 50,000-word mark at first draft. I can have a first draft in two months. If my critique partner is reading chapter-by-chapter as I write, and there are no glaring issue, I only take a couple extra weeks to read through the draft and edit/revise before sending it off.

Can you give us some insight into any other upcoming releases? 

I recently contract Crashing the Congressman’s Wedding: A Harmony Falls Novel to Crimson Romance with a tentative release date of August 5, 2013. Here’s a sneak peek:

Alice Cramer is tired of being pitied for her family’s transgressions, so she resolves to break out of the gutter and into the spotlight. As long as her local congressman can forget about their checkered past and help her secure a federal grant to open Harmony Falls Little Theatre, she’ll be the brightest star in town. But when Alice stands up in church and stops the congressman’s wedding, she dives headfirst into fresh scandal.

Why is Harmony Fall’s golden boy, Justin Mitchell, speeding down the interstate sans a new wife but with the local drama queen he’s been trying his whole life to avoid? Alice Cramer may have saved him the hassle of an arranged marriage to a woman he didn’t love, but she’s put a business transaction big enough to save an entire town in jeopardy–not to mention his reputation.

Soon Alice and Justin are dredging up and indulging in an attraction that threatens all their dreams and aspirations. But what if life together is the dream that matters most?

 Time for THE Fast Five Random Questions: 

What’s your favorite sport? Why?

Baseball. I was raised with the sport. (My father played in rec leagues for years.) I essentially married the sport. (My husband played high school, college and beyond, and now he’s a team physician.) And currently, my oldest is a high school pitcher. I’ve watched a lot of baseball, and I’ve come to appreciate the game as a fan. Some people go to movies on their own—I go to baseball games. J

You’re having a dinner party, what five people would you invite?

My college philosophy professor, Macklemore (rapper), Judith McNaught, my husband, and Derek Jeter. Wow! What a crew. Lol. 

Aliens have landed on the planet. What are the three things you would tell them that are great about this planet? Our music, our wine, our ocean breezes

If you could create your own drink what would go in it and what would you call it?

I’d like to make my own wine maybe from some variety of grapes grown in Washington state. I’d have to really research this to make an intelligent guess at what I’d put in it, but it’d be red and full-bodied, and I’d call it Lust.

If you were a pirate what would your booty consist of? What would your pirate name be?

My booty would easily be limited-edition wines from around the world, and you can call me Cap’n El Cabernet. J

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To learn more about author Elley Arden, and I’m sure you do, here’s a roundup of her social networks:  WEBSITE, TWITTER, FACEBOOK, GOODREADS, AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE

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