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Q&A With GiGi Blume

Hi Gigi! I’m so glad to have you on my blog and to get to know you a little better! As you know, I’m a HUGE fan of romcoms. I recently read The Friend Act and fell in love with your characters! Tell us a little more about your books!

Thanks for having me. I love your blog.

I’m happy you liked The Friend Act. It’s part of my Backstage Romance series which is inspired by Jane Austen’s works. So far I’ve covered Pride and Prejudice, Emma, and Mansfield Park. My next Austen-inspired book will be Northanger Abbey but I don’t have a date for that yet.

I read that you used to be a professional wedding singer! That is such an interesting job, what was it like? How did you get from that to writing books?

The singing gig was a natural progression of what I’d been doing for years, having been in bands and choirs my whole life. While I love singing, I’ve always wanted to be a writer. I remember writing the screenplay to Batman the Musical in fifth grade. Because of my desire to write for the stage and screen I joined the drama club in middle school and fell in love with theatre and by extension, musicals, singing, and playing guitar. Now it’s kind of come full circle. I didn’t so much get from singing to writing as a transition, but rather one phased out as the other moved to the forefront.

Tell us about your love of musical theater and how has that inspired your writing?

Musical theatre is such a huge part of my being, I can’t help but write about it. I think if I ever write about aliens in space, musical theatre references will still sneak in there.

I recently found out that you design book covers as well and they are beautiful! How did this get started for you?

Gosh, I’m such a Jack of all trades. (and master of none) I just love art so much and used to do chalkboard art for a local coffee house. My friend, author KG Fletcher (she’s also a singer/actress) asked me to design one of her covers a while back and I completely turned her down. I didn’t think I had it in me. But she was persistent and wouldn’t take no for an answer. So I caved and made her cover. But I told her, “Never again. That’s a one time thing.” Famous last words. I think I’ve designed five covers for her now. LOL. And in learning how to use photo editing programs and Procreate, I decided to start a cover design business for the frugal indie author. It’s fun and a good distraction when I have writer’s block.

What was the first book you published and how was your experience?

My first published book was Confessions of a Hollywood Matchmaker, the prequel novella for the Backstage Romance Series. There was a huge learning curve so overwhelming, I think I blocked the experience from my memory. When I look back to that time, I see myself as a little kid who had no clue what she was doing. It kind of makes me cringe, especially when I look at my super lame marketing from those days.

What do you do when you are in a writing slump?

I love to listen to the autumn acoustic playlist on Pandora while I take walks. The music gives me inspiration for scenes. Sometimes though, I just need to zone out to Netflix and give myself a break.

What do you want readers to know about you?

Um, I guess that even though I have a stage performing background, I’m not an extrovert. I’m one of those people who hides when someone’s at the front door. So don’t come over because I’ll pretend I’m not home. LOL

How about some favorites!

Musical? GAH don’t make me choose! Phantom Sound of the Godspell Pirates

Food? French fries

Movie? Pride and Prejudice 1995

Book? Pride and Prejudice

Author? Jane Austen (Are we seeing a pattern here?)

Show? Midsummer Night’s Dream

Scent? Almond soaps and lotions

Person? My son and daughter.

Describe your perfect day.

Sleep in. Hubby makes my favorite breakfast. Hang out with my awesome teenagers. Walk along the beach. Read a book. Finish the evening with Shakespeare in the park or some other theatrical show.

Finally, tell us more about your new romcom series coming this year!

I’m over the top excited about this series. It’s a spin-off of The Friend Act where we get to know Francesca’s six irresistible Latinx brothers. They’re hard working, fiercely loyal to family, and if they can ever slow down for romance, watch out ladies. Prepare thyself for all the juicy tropes. You’ll need to grab a fan and a tall glass of ice water because the Precio Brothers are muy picante and when it comes to love, these hotties Mexi-CAN.

*closed door PG-13

AHHH, I love this so much GiGi and I can’t wait to read your newest series! Thank you so much for telling us about yourself and what makes your books so unique in the romcom genre 💕 I absolutely love your niche and your love for Jane Austen!

Friends! If you want to keep up with GiGi and her books then go and follow her on instagram.

Check out her cover reveal for her new romcom, Messy Love below!

Q&A With Author Katherine Center

My introduction for this amazing lady wouldn’t do her justice, so I’m going to let her bio speak for itself!👇🏻

BookPage calls Katherine Center “the reigning queen of comfort reads.” She is the New York Times bestselling author of eight books, including How to Walk Away, Things You Save in a Fire, and her newest, What You Wish For. The movie adaptation of her novel The Lost Husband (starring Josh Duhamel) hit #1 on Netflix and her novel Happiness for Beginners is in production now as a Netflix original starring Ellie Kemper. Katherine writes laugh-and-cry books about how life knocks us down—and how we get back up. She’s been compared to both Jane Austen and Nora Ephron, and the Dallas Morning News calls her stories, “satisfying in the most soul-nourishing way.” Her books have made countless Best-Of lists, including RealSimple’s Best Books of 2020, Amazon’s Top 100 Books of 2019, Goodreads’ Best Books of the Year, and many more. Katherine lives in her hometown of Houston, Texas, with her husband, two kids, and their fluffy-but-fierce dog.

Hi Katherine! I can’t tell you how excited I am to talk with you on my blog! Your books are some of the most beautiful stories I’ve ever read, heart-wrenching but equally inspiring. How to Walk Away and Things You Save in a Fire have stayed with me on so many levels. What led you to this particular niche in your writing?

I really love stories about how people get back up after life has knocked them down. Those moments, those really hard life moments that just crack us open . . . they’re so hard—but they also give us these rare opportunities to grow and change and redefine our lives. I’m interested in how people get through those hard times—but also in what they learn from them and how they grow from them. So I think I found my way to these kinds of stories because that’s what I’m interested in, myself, personally, just as a human: How we do it. How we rise to life’s challenges and cope with humor and grace. But not only just how we cope, but how we also appreciate life’s beauty and joy. Because we kind of always have to do both at the same time—and that’s not easy. I’m just endlessly fascinated by it all.

What is the most fulfilling thing about being an author?

Getting to think about stories all the time. Getting to study them and figure out how they work. Getting to pay attention to what I myself love and long for in stories—and then trying to figure out how to do that for other people. There’s a great quote from Julia Child: “Find something you’re passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it.” That’s me. I never, ever get bored with stories. I’ll be studying them my whole life long.

What does your day look like when you are in the middle of writing a book?

When I’m writing the first draft of a book—sort of building the scaffolding of the story—it takes huge, vast amounts of concentration. I need long stretches of time—days!—when I can get lost in the story and think about nothing else. I’ll go out of town (to Galveston Island) for 4 or 5 days at a time and do a big chunk of writing (50-100 pages), and then come home and read them over and mess with them and let them settle. Then a few weeks later, I go again and do the next section. This rhythm works for me—pushing forward and then settling for a while. That’s always the hardest part: figuring out what the story IS. Once I know what it is, telling it is pretty easy.

Tell us about your book cover designs! They are always so bright and positive and keep with the same theme. I know immediately if it’s one of your books without looking at the title or author!

I got so lucky with them, didn’t I?! I hit the jackpot when Macmillan, my publisher, asked the brilliant designer Olga Grlic to design my covers. That red cover with the flowers for How to Walk Away is the cover that started it all, and I feel like it captured something about my soul. I know the covers won’t always be exactly the same—they’ll have to grow and evolve, but I hope we’ll always keep some version of flowers.

Do you have a favorite book that you’ve written that holds a special place in your heart?

I love them all in different ways. How to Walk Away was my first book to ever hit the New York Times bestseller list. The Lost Husband was my first book to ever get turned into a movie (Hi, Josh Duhamel!). Things You Save in a Fire was a book I wrote with a ton of input from my (volunteer firefighter) husband, and so that one will always be close to my heart.

Your books are becoming movies!!! First The Lost Husband, now Happiness for Beginners, and possibly Things You Save In a Fire?! How has this experience been for you and to what extent are you able to be involved in the process?

It’s so amazing, I can hardly even describe it. I love movies, so it’s just like some kind of crazy magic to watch my stories come to life in this whole new way. I recently got to visit the Happiness for Beginners movie set and attend the wedding of one of my own main characters! The movies are of course often quite different from what I saw in my head when I was writing—but in some ways, they’re better. That kiss O’Connor gives Libby at the famers market in The Lost Husband movie? Better. I can’t take credit for that overalls-pull! That was director Vicky Wight, who is clearly a kissing genius. I was there on the day they filmed that kiss, and it just blew my mind to think that a kiss I wrote for two imaginary people in my head was now, like, happening in the real world with real people. It’s thrilling beyond description.

What are you currently reading/watching?

I just finished reading an advance copy of Christina Lauren’s new book, Something Wilder, and I also just finished Emily Henry’s next-summer book, Book Lovers. Both were absolutely delicious and so much fun to read. Those writers are both new discoveries for me in the last year or so, and I’m in love.

What’s your favorite way to unwind?

I’m a big fan of unwinding! I dance around in the kitchen a lot when I’m making dinner. I sing at the top of my lungs in the car. I walk the dog after dinner with my husband. I take a lot of bubble baths and read yummy novels cover to cover. I curl up with fuzzy blankets and Korean rom-com TV shows online with subtitles. Korean dramas were my best discovery during the pandemic. So swoony and fun to watch!

Where is your favorite place to travel?

So many! I love road trips. I love little New England towns. I love Europe and the UK. I’d love to go the Fjords. My mom’s family is from Germany, and I’ve never been there, so that’s a definite goal. I’ve been to Japan, but I’d love to see more of Asia. Korea’s on my list big time! And my best friend from college lives in New Zealand, so I’ll be heading that way at some point.

Do you have any family traditions you look forward to every year?

We spend Thanksgiving out at my grandparents’ ranch in Texas every year. It’s usually at least 20 people—my sisters and their husbands and any other extended family and friends we can gather. November is usually cool and lovely in Texas, so we build fires and walk the gravel roads and feast and fall asleep on the sofa. It’s just so fun for us all to be together.

What do you do to celebrate when you finish writing a book?

It always feels very celebratory to print out the final pages of one of those big, beautiful beasts. It’s like, it’s finally real. I print them out and then put them in a big old binder and carry them around for a while. That said, “done” is a slippery concept! Almost as soon as I’m printing it out, I’m circling back to make more changes and make it better.

And Finally! Will you please tell us more about your newest book, The Bodyguard?! It’s one of my (and many others) most anticipated reads this summer!

Oh, I’m so in love with it. It’s a classic rom-com. Usually, I think of my books as kind of half tragedy and half comedy—like, there’s almost always some big, hard life event that the main character has to struggle with and figure out, and there’s also always a fun love story. So it’s a balance between darkness and light. But with this story—which I was writing in 2020 and 2021—I decided I just wanted as much light as possible. There’s some struggle here, and some darkness, and some things to for the main characters to figure out, because you have to have some ballast in a story, but I knew from the beginning that I wanted this story to be as joyful and fun and bantery and swoony and playful as possible. And it IS. It was how I made my own sunshine during the pandemic. I just put these two main characters out on a ranch together . . . and then I just let them tease each other and joke around and banter and fight and fall in love. Man, it was fun. It was exactly what I needed!

You guys! How great is she???!!! Singing the praises of her cover designer and fellow authors-such a phenomenal writer, down to earth, and just all around so sweet to chat with. I want to give a shout out to Josh Duhamel too (Hey Josh!) because I just know he’s reading my blog 😂. Thank you SO MUCH Katherine for taking the time to do this chat with me. Readers!!! GO pre-order The Bodyguard now! It will be released on 7/19/22 and you won’t want to miss it! To learn more about Katherine, her books, and her movies you can check out her blog or Instagram.

Stay tuned for more fun Q&A’s!

XOXO,

Kristyn

Q&A With Author Debbie Baldwin

I’m so glad to have my friend Debbie on the blog today! I was first “introduced” to her when I signed up to be on a book tour for her book, Illicit Intent, a couple of years ago. Since then, we have ended up in some of the same group chats for bookstagrammers and authors. She’s hilarious by the way! She is also one of the most supportive people of my IG posts, blog, and author services. Debbie wears many hats and you can read all about her below 👇🏻

Debbie! I’m so thrilled to have you on my Q&A. Romantic suspense is one of my favorite genres and always has been. Tell us how your Bishop Security Series came about!

I usually read every night before bed, and I tend to genre binge.  A couple of years ago, I was in a romantic suspense phase and scrolling through the endless thumbnails of book covers on Amazon. I couldn’t find exactly what I wanted. In my mind, I was looking for an intriguing plot with a dashing but complicated hero who meets his soulmate and saves the day. I also wanted a female protagonist who was no shrinking violet and had her own set of skills. After about an hour of searching, I set my Kindle aside, said: “f**** it, I’ll write what I want.” I went to my laptop and wrote the first three chapters of False Front at one in the morning.

When did you know that you wanted to be a writer and what prompted you to take the leap?

I’ve always been a writer to some extent. I was an English major in college, and in law school, I interned at Newsweek Magazine in their Washington DC bureau. After that, I wrote speeches for a political candidate, worked in marketing, and wrote a humor column in a local paper. In 2015, I wrote and sold a comedy series to ATT/DirecTV. My show, Almost There, aired in 2016. After that, I knew I wanted to focus on a writing project. I just didn’t know what. I think the planets aligned that night when I was looking for a book and couldn’t find anything that grabbed me.

I know in addition to being an author, you’re a mom to 3 kiddos (well, not kids anymore!) as well. Do they read your books?

Hahahaha, good question. My youngest son (19) said he refuses to read my “sex books.” My oldest, my daughter, has read them and loves them—her college friends are all big Bishop Security fans and send me pics reading on the beach or on a plane. My middle child is a bad reader but a great promoter!

Who is a romantic suspense author that inspires you?

There are so many. I love Rachel Grant, Toni Anderson, and Laura Griffin. I don’t even need to read the descriptions of books by Pamela Clare or Jayne Ann Krentz; I just click “buy.”

When in the middle of writing a book, tell us how a typical day of writing looks for you.

Ummm, a lot of puttering. I make myself write a chapter (or fix a chapter), and then I get distracted by Instagram or my pup, or I remember that there are cookies in the kitchen. Then after a suitable amount of procrastinating, I sit down at my computer and start again.

What are some hobbies you love?

I am an exceptionally average baker, but I love it. My family is very patient with my attempts, and every once in a while, I make something delicious.

How do you celebrate a publication day?

Usually by compulsively checking social media and online sites for posted reviews. I’m aware it’s not healthy.

What are you currently reading/watching?

I am obsessed with Ted Lasso and Billions. I am in a real whodunnit phase right now. I’m reading all the old Agatha Christie books and scouring the shelves of my local bookstore for great mysteries. I love a twist that I don’t see coming!

Your first 3 books- False Front, Illicit Intent, and Buried Beneath are out! Is there a 4th in the series coming our way?! If not, can you tell us if you have something else in the works?

Funny you should ask! I just finished the first draft of Book 4, Past Purgatory. Fans of the series have been waiting for Finn’s story, and it’s finally here. Finn is a former Navy SEAL and CIA officer who was captured in combat, and, as a result, one side of his face is badly scarred. He went from being a kind, funny, happy-go-lucky guy to an angry, hateful misanthrope. In Book 3, Finn hits rock bottom and disappears to get his head straight. Book 4 is the story of how he finally heals and (of course) falls in love.

Let’s do some FAVORITES!

Favorite color? Green

Favorite song? Eric Clapton Wonderful Tonight

Favorite meal of the day? Breakfast. I meet my best friend at a hole-in-the-wall diner at least once a week for eggs and pancakes and chit-chat at least once a week.

Favorite restaurant? I don’t have one favorite restaurant; I probably have twenty! I love to eat, and I love to explore new places and new types of cuisine. I obsessively watch weird cooking shows and love learning about restaurants all over the world. I want to plan a culinary tour vacation, where my husband and I eat at all these amazing places.

Favorite toy as a child? I loved to play with my older brothers. Although the feeling was not mutual.

Favorite season? Autumn. Boom. Done. I don’t think I could live in a place that didn’t have changing leaves.

Favorite room in the house? There is this super cozy room in a far corner of the house. I love the sunlight and the cozy couch. It’s just a perfect place to read or think ( or fold laundry).

Favorite scent? I love the smell of baking—cinnamon, cookies, pie, bread. I totally understand why real estate agents bake cookies when they are holding an open house. I would be completely sold. Sure, it’s airport-adjacent, but smell that kitchen!!!

Thank you so much Debbie for your time and for participating in this week’s author Q&A 💕. You should come have a baking day with my husband, he’s amazing at baking pies, cheesecakes, cookies, you name it! And I’m a great taste tester, so there’s that! But seriously, thank you for your continued support of my blog and for being a fantastic romantic suspense author-I can’t wait for Past Purgatory and Finn’s story!

Readers, if you enjoy romantic suspense check out Debbie and her books on Instagram or her Blog! You can find her books to purchase on Amazon.

Q & A with Author Maddie Dawson

Have you met Maddie Dawson yet?! If you haven’t then you’re in for a treat! She is the author of 10 novels- the most recent being The Magic of Found Objects. I first found out about Maddie’s books when I signed up to do a book tour for A Happy Catastrophe a couple of years ago. When I started reading, I quickly realized it was the follow-up book to Matchmaking for Beginners and decided to stop and read that one first. I’m so glad I did, because it became one of my all time favorite reads! Maddie has this extraordinary way of writing and creating characters that will worm their way into your heart and stay there.💕

1.  I fell in love with your writing when I read Matchmaking for Beginners! The magic, the quirky characters, the charm, and the messiness that is life and love. I followed that up with A Happy Catastrophe & The Magic of Found Objects, which I loved equally as much! How do you come up with the originality of your stories?

Wow, thank you so much for such kind words! I wish there was a simple answer to your very intriguing question. Where do stories come from? To be perfectly honest, they seem to spring from out of nowhere (and never when I’m sitting at the laptop with my fingers on the keyboard, waiting patiently.) Nope, they come when I’m falling asleep or driving in the car or getting ready to give a talk on some other subject altogether—and BAM! There’s suddenly a story tugging at my brain, and refusing to let go. Usually it starts with a character who has a “what if” question. For Matchmaking for Beginners, the question was, “What if your whole life could change if you just trusted one unlikely person and let yourself follow your heart?”

2. I hear that you come from a long line of story tellers. When did you know you wanted to be a writer?

Ha! I think I was born knowing I wanted to tell stories. I talked very early, apparently, and at the age of four, my mother said, I talked incessantly about my life in the Navy. Yep, the Navy. No one in our family had been in the Navy, and as far as she knew, I’d never even heard of the Navy. But there I was, correcting the way she vacuumed the floor or planted flowers in the garden. “That’s not how we did it in the Navy!” I’d say. At six, I wrote my first story when my mother wouldn’t give me money for the Good Humor truck, and I went door to door until I sold it to the neighbors for twenty-five cents—enough to buy myself and my sister a popsicle. THAT may be when I decided I wanted to be a writer: it looked like a sure-fire way to have ice cream for the rest of my life!  

3.  You have some amazing character names in your books- Marnie, Blix, Phronsie, Tenaj. How did you come up with these?

Thank you for saying this. I love naming characters. It’s one of my favorite things—and is also possibly (besides ice cream acquisition) one of the best reasons for becoming a writer. After all, in your regular life, how often do you get to name things? Sure, if you have kids and pets, you get a few chances (but even then you have to negotiate with another person usually.) Quite often the characters themselves sort of “tell” me their names, and I just go along. The name always suits their personality, at least in my head.

4.  What is your favorite type of scene to write?

I love all of it! Mostly I love to write scenes where there is growing intensity between the characters and plenty of humor. I love scenes that express their personalities, and make me laugh.

5.  How many books have you written? Do you tend to stick to writing the same genre?

I’ve written ten novels (just finished the tenth one yesterday!) and three books of non-fiction.

6.  Who is your biggest cheerleader while you are writing your books?

I’m so lucky to have a community of writer friends, and we all hold each other up while we’re writing. It’s so handy to be able to pick up the phone and groan in a certain way and have the person on the other end know instantly that this means you’ve lost the plot and need a new motivation for the main character. (This is different from the moan you do when your computer has crashed and you just lost the first four chapters.) Family members try to be sympathetic—they really do—but often they can’t help saying things like, “Just think up a new plot!”

6.  What are you currently reading/listening to/watching?

I’m reading about four different books just now, because for some reason I need to have a book to read in every room of the house. One is The Museum of Broken Relationships: Modern Love in 203 Everyday Objects by Olinka Vistica and Drazen Grubisic; Safekeeping: Some True Stories from a Life, by Abigail Thomas; The Accidental Tourist, by Anne Tyler (for the fifth time!), and Untamed, by Glennon Doyle. As for television, I just finished watching Ted Lasso and Hacks, both of which made me a better person.

7. I always hate getting asked this question because I can never decide, but I’ll ask anyway…What’s your favorite book/ or who is your favorite author?

Ha! NO ONE likes this question, because it’s constantly changing—with moods, with time in life, even with wind currents. Over time, though, I guess I’d say mostly my favorite author is Alice Munro, who has such a fantastic body of work. Her short stories have stayed in my head over many, many years, and I’m always wanting to go back and admire how she manages to create such depth and such feeling with just a few lovely brushstrokes.

8.  How do you celebrate when you finish a writing a book?!

Champagne? Beating a drum outside at midnight? Nope, I’m afraid not. When I finish writing a book, I find that I’m kind of pensive for a few days. It’s an ending, after all. The characters are packing up their suitcases and we are bidding each other farewell. I thank them for moving into my head and telling me the story, and they thank me for trying to get it all down while they dictated it. Sometimes there are a few hard feelings we have to work on: I think they could have been more forthcoming at times, and also could have respected my sleep schedule, even when they had a brand new idea to tell me (couldn’t it have waited for morning, Phronsie??) And they always think I maybe left out some details they thought were important but which had to get dashed due to length. It takes a while for the dust to settle and for me to really feel the exhilaration of I’M DONE! I’M DONE!! For me, the true celebration comes when the galleys arrive in the mail—touching and turning the real pages of the book does something to my heart that I can’t quite put into words. It’s like magic.

9.  Tell us all about your latest release The Magic of Found Objects, and PLEASE let us know how gnomes came to play a role in this book, I can’t see one without thinking of you and this story!

Ah! The Magic of Found Objects, my pandemic book, is still one of my favorites. It’s the story that answers the question: What if you get to be in your late thirties and your dating life sucks, and your best friend says, “Let’s get married even though we’re not in love!”? That’s what happens to Phronsie Linnelle, for whom nothing in life is exactly clear-cut. As soon as she makes up her mind to make her parents happy and accept the proposal of this childhood friend whom she talks to every single day, she meets a much younger new guy at work, a guy who collects gnomes, wears sandals to work, and calls everybody “dude.” Clearly not what anybody had in mind. When she looks back at her childhood—raised by two very different moms, her biological mom who’s a hippie artist and her stepmother, who’s more practical and stable and dependable—it becomes clear she has to go deep to figure out who she really is in order to know what to do.

The gnomes! Ahhh, the gnomes! My friends Beth and Bill have a whole colony of gnomes living at their house, and as soon as I “met” these little guys, I knew I had to have them in a book. I gave them to Adam, the young guy in my book, and he immediately placed them in his office windowsill and bought them a tractor.  

9.  Also, readers want to know-(and by readers, I mean ME) Do you have something new in the works for us?!

I do! I do! (jumping up and down here) I have a book that I just finished—Snap Out of It—which is a comic novel about a middle-aged, three-times-married, fun-loving woman who’s happily given up on love and now just wants to help other people steer clear of romantic agony, so she dresses up in a bunny costume and goes to their houses, where she helps them get rid of all the reminders of lost love so they can move on. When her business takes off and becomes a national phenomenon, all is well until love starts breaking out all around her. It’s coming out in January of 2023.

Thank you so much Maddie for participating in my Q&A and for all of the thought that clearly went into your answers-I can’t wait for Snap Out of It! I hope you all enjoyed getting to know Maddie as much as I did! She’s such a delightful person and if you haven’t yet, I hope you get the chance to check out her books. 💕 Here are links to a few of them below:

Matchmaking for Beginners

A Happy Catastrophe

The Magic of Found objects

Follow Maddie on IG & Twitter, or check out her website!