Welcome JM! I am absolutely thrilled with your ongoing success and love watching your career go from strength to strength. I know your latest release, Her Knight in Black Leather, is going down a storm with readers and reviewers and can't wait for you to share more with my visitors!
Let's get going with the questions...
1)
When and why did you decide you wanted to be a published author?
I’m not sure I can really answer this
question. I think I decided I wanted to share my stories as soon as I started
to write that first one. I couldn’t even tell you why, other than it was a need
to share my stories with the world. But maybe it comes from my love of being a
reader. I’d been reading romance since somewhere around high school. I adore
them, so it was almost a natural instinct to want to share mine, because I’m so
grateful to all those writers who’d took the chance and wanted to share theirs.
2)
What is the best and worse thing you have learned from an
editor/agent?
The best thing I’ve learned from my agent?
As you know, since we share the same agent, she likes to edit our books before
she sends them out. I’ve learned a lot from this process. I’m not bad at
grammar. My edits are usually minor. But it’s all instinctive for me. I don’t
actually know the rules. I just kind of know where things go or don’t go, but
I’m never sure if I’m right. Dawn is helping learn those things I don’t know
and learn the why’s behind them.
She’s also helping me to write a lot
cleaner.
I’m not sure there is a worst thing, as I
appreciate everything I’ve been taught.
3)
Favourite author/s?
Diana Gabaldon, our Vonnie Davis (not just
saying that to give her a plug. I truly adore the way she writes), Tymber
Dalton, Laura Kaye
4)
What is your typical day?
I’m a stay-at-home-mom, so my day usually
begins at around 5:30. My job is to get my teenagers out of their beds and off
to school. This usually includes lots of grumbling, and coaxing from little
doggie helpers. The sure fire way to get a boy out of bed is to sick a
kiss-happy puppy on him who hasn’t seen him in eight WHOLE hours is SOOOO glad
to see him she can’t help but jump up on the bed and coat his face in slobber.
Yes, I’m evil, but desperate times call for desperate measures. ;)
The rest of my day usually involves copious
amounts of cleaning, in between which I have all day to spend on my writing and
author duties. When the boys get home, my hubby, my youngest and I go to the
gym, then it’s back home for an hour or two of writing/editing before I make
dinner. After cleaning up the kitchen, it’s down time in front of the TV while
reading (I’m a bit ADD…I usually do both at the same time. Lol). Bed is usually
somewhere around ten.
5)
Share your blurb or short excerpt from your latest release with us
My latest release came out in January, from
Crimson Romance.
Her
Knight in Black Leather
Cat Edwards has spent her life playing the
wallflower in an effort to escape the repressive weight of her mother’s
tarnished name. Dragged to a bar by her best friend in an effort to forget a
broken heart, the shy bookworm is determined to be someone else for the night,
but quickly gets in over her head. She discovers chivalry isn’t dead after all
when a mysterious stranger comes to her rescue. He’s wearing black leather and
a mischievous smile that promises to be exactly what she needs.
When his terminally ill father suffers a
setback, Michael Brant returns to the town he swore ten years ago he’d never
return to. He’s come back this time determined to make peace with the past, but
being home brings up memories he doesn’t want to remember anymore. His first
night in town, he’s captured by a damsel in distress. Cat’s beauty is made all
the more alluring when he realizes she has no idea who he is. He can’t resist
spending a single night in her arms. With her, he’s only a man, disconnected
from his family’s name and the past that haunts him here.
As the town erupts with the news of his
return, Michael’s dark past comes back to haunt him, putting Cat in danger.
Someone is threatening her life and the life of her family. Desperate to keep
history from repeating itself, Michael offers her his family’s name in order to
keep her safe. When the lie spirals beyond their control, can they stop their
hearts from becoming entangled as well?
Excerpt:
He touched her arm, hoping to ease the fear
all but screaming at him from her eyes. “What happened this morning?”
Cat’s head turned as she darted a glance
around her, before her gaze finally settled on him again. “I was threatened. A
very angry digitized voice called me names and told me I’d pay for my
indiscretions.”
Anger surged in his chest, settling in his
gut like hot coals that set fire to his blood. That goddamn article. Someone
dragged her into his mess. “Have you called the sheriff?”
She nodded. “Yeah, but it didn’t do me any
good. He said he’d log the complaint and to let him know if I get any more, but
unless I’m being threatened in person, there isn’t much he can do. The calls
are coming from one of those prepaid cell phones, but the phone was registered
to someone who doesn’t exist.”
“A fake name.”
She nodded and turned to stare at the
ground, her whole demeanor taking on a soft vulnerability that twisted at his
insides. The calls clearly frightened her, and an overpowering need to protect
her surged in his gut.
The rebel in him flared to life like an
old, familiar friend. Whenever someone pushed unfairly, something within him
always pushed back. The way she looked now reminded him too much of the pain he
heard in her voice as they stood in the gazebo during the fireworks. She was
being threatened, and the intimidation worked. Anger surged in his blood.
Damned if he’d sit by and allow someone to take that fire from her.
Before he could stop himself, he cupped her
face in his palms and seized her mouth. He allowed himself a moment to revel in
the sweetness of her lips, the way they melted beneath his own as her body
leaned ever so subtly into his, then released her.
“Let ’em object to that indiscretion.”
He furrowed his brow, not bothering to hide the scorn in his tone. “Whoever’s
got you in their sights now has me to contend with. Come on, I’ll take you
home.”
6)
Who would you cast to play your hero & heroine in a movie?
Oh, that’s a tough one. Give him dark eyes
and Henry Cavill makes a pretty darn good Michael. For Cat, Katie Holmes, with
long hair.
7)
Did you plan this book? Or write it as it came?
I don’t really plan anything. I tend to
write by the seat of my pants and this book ended up the same way.
8)
What surprised you the most when you became a published?
How much self-promotion you really have to
do. As you know, it’s almost a full time job all by itself. I’m a quiet person
by nature, so tooting my own horn goes against the grain for me.
9)
Do you have a dedicated writing space? What does it look like?
My writing space ended up being my kitchen
table, because if I sit in a recliner, I tend to fall asleep in it. Lol The
table is organized chaos. My husband’s laptop is caddy-corner to mine, and he’s
got his piles of papers besides his laptop, and I’ve got my stuff beside mine.
There’s a plant he gave me for mother’s day behind my laptop lid, a box of
tissues beside me, along with eye drops, a bottle of water and a backscratcher.
The essentials, you know. ;)
10)
What’s next for you?
I’ve just signed a contract with Berkley,
for their digital first line, Intermix, for a two book series that’s
tentatively scheduled for September and December of 2014. I’m also in the
process of writing book two of another two book series.
About the author:
J.M.
Stewart writes sweet and heartwarming contemporary romance with a touch of
passion. She’s a wife, a mother, a spiritualist, and
lover of puppies, and happily addicted to coffee and chocolate. She lives in
the Great Rainy Northwest with her husband of sixteen years and their two sons.
She’s a hopeless romantic who believe everybody should have their
happily-ever-after and has been devouring romance novels for as long as she can
remember. Writing them has become her passion.
Where you can find me on the web:
Website:
http://authorjmstewart.com/
Facebook
fan page (if you’d like to keep updated on all my author stuff, books etc): http://www.facebook.com/pages/Author-JM-Stewart/129990420383155
Personal
page (if you’d like to see how big of a dork I am *wink*. I’m here the most): https://www.facebook.com/JoanneStewart72
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/authorjmstewart/
Thanks for having me, Rachel!
ReplyDeleteHey, great interview, ladies. Sorry I'm late to the party! Loved the excerpt - really lives up to the title!
ReplyDelete