About 5 ½ years ago, I had an idea for a book, but I’d never written
one. I sat down and started to write, thinking maybe I’d write a few pages or a
short story. Much to my surprise, it was a whole novel. After I finished
writing it, I began studying everything about the publishing industry and
decided to try to get it published. Until I wrote that book, I never seriously
considered being an author.
The best thing I’ve learned from my agent is to trust my gut.
Sometimes people will ask you to do things that don’t feel right and you do it
out of desperation. My agent has always been in my corner and she stands by my
decisions for my career.
I don’t know that I’ve ever gotten bad advice from an editor or
agent. Although there were times when they were discouraging. When I first
wrote MORE THAN THIS, all I kept hearing was how bad the market for contemporary
romance was.
I have so many favorites – Jennifer Crusie, Jill Shalvis, Shannon
Stacey, Victoria Dahl, and Ruthie Knox. (please don’t make me pick just one)
I don’t have a typical day. I get the kids all off to school by 9 am
and that’s as far as my routine goes. If I have errands to run, like grocery
shopping, I do that as soon as I dump the kids off. Otherwise, I head back
home. I check email and then I either get started on my day job, where I work as
an editor for an education company, or I write.
What dictates the direction of my day is whether I know what needs
to be written next. If I’m sure what the next scene in my book needs to be,
I’ll sit down and write for an hour. If I’m not sure, I do the day job. After
lunch, I usually spend a little time on Twitter and email and promo stuff. Then
if my day job is done, I try to get some more writing in before I pick up the
kids.
Then there’s homework, dinner, activities, getting kids in bed. At
that point, if I’m really motivated, I might do some more writing, but more
often than not, I sit down to watch lots of TV. Finally I get some pleasure
reading in before bed.
Ryan (hero) – Jason O’Mara
Quinn (heroine) – Katie Holmes
Did you plan this book? Or write it as it came?
When I started writing MORE THAN THIS, the only thing I knew was
that Quinn wanted to get pregnant, even if she didn’t have a man in her life
and that her sister was going to convince her to step out of her comfort zone
for the summer with a list of adventures. I had the list before I started.
Everything else just happened as I wrote (and rewrote, and revised…)
What surprised you the most when you became a published?
I knew being published was going to be hard, especially promotion,
but I didn’t realize just how hard getting people to discover my book would be.
There are so many books published each week that I don’t know how to make
people choose mine. It’s something that I hadn’t given much thought to before I
published.
For a long time, I didn’t have a space. I wrote on the go whenever
my kids were in extracurricular activities. While I still do that once or twice
a week, I now have dedicated space because I have to spend more time writing since
I have deadlines.
Here’s a post I did about my writing space:
What’s next for you?
A GOOD TIME, book 2 in the O’Leary series will release on July 4,
2013. Books 3 & 4 will release next year. In the meantime, I’m working on
some other books that are not part of the series.
More Than This
by Shannyn Schroeder
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BLURB:
When a lonely
teacher teams up with a handsome bartender for some outrageous acts, they both
get more than they bargained for…
Learning her ex-husband is going to be a
father, Quinn Adams is determined to have a baby of her own—without the
partnership of a man. But her sister and friends believe she needs to focus on
herself first, and step out of her comfort zone by completing a list of
adventures. Challenge number one is to go on five dates within two weeks. After
a few disastrous attempts, Quinn’s ready to give up—until sexy bartender Ryan
O’Leary offers his assistance.
Ryan has always been the dependable one in
his family, often at his expense. But lately, he’s been longing for a life—and
a woman—of his own. The woman he has in mind is Quinn. Though it seems all she
wants is friendship, Ryan can’t ignore the explosive chemistry he feels between
them. In the hopes of becoming closer, Ryan offers to help out with Quinn’s
list. But when she asks him for a serious favor, he’s afraid it will jeopardize
his chance to become more than friends.
EXCERPT
Ryan stood at the opposite end of
the bar from Quinn’s booth. Watching in the mirror, he saw a new side of Quinn.
She was relaxed. When she’d first come into the bar with a crowd of teachers,
she’d hung back from the group, ordered one drink, gulped it down, and left. It
was like she had to make an appearance and she did the bare minimum. Now, she’d
invited other friends here.
He couldn’t believe he’d almost
been busted eavesdropping on her conversation. And, of course, it had to happen
right when they got to a good part. He wanted to know if she got laid for her
birthday. Judging by the way she looked when she came in, she hadn’t been given
a birthday orgasm. He almost wanted to offer to change that, but knew she’d
shoot him down.
A slight tap on his arm had him
turning to look at his younger brother, who was supposed to be stocking
alcohol.
“Who’s the gorgeous blonde?”
“Who?”
Michael hitched his chin up
toward the mirror. “The one you’ve been staring at.”
“Oh. That’s Indy, but I was
looking at her sister. Short dark hair.”
Michael looked at all three
women. “She’s not your usual type.”
“I know.” The concept rubbed at
him like a wool sweater.
AUTHOR Bio and
Links:
Shannyn Schroeder is a former English teacher, who now works as a
part-time editor while raising her three kids.
Even though she wrote from high school through college (mostly poetry),
she’d never considered a career as an author. Writing fell by the wayside as
she focused her energy on creating lesson plans and new and fabulous ways to
torment her teen students. One group in particular dubbed her “The Torture
Master,” a title she carried into motherhood.
After the birth of baby number two, Shannyn resigned from teaching and
fell in love with reading romance novels. She read so many books so quickly
that her husband teased, “If you’re going to read so many damn books, why don’t
you just write one?”
So she did.
That first book is safely buried on her hard drive, but the process set
Shannyn on the path to professional author. She came to reading romance later
than many, but lives for the happy ending because real life can be depressing.
She writes contemporary romance because she enjoys the adventure of new love.
In her spare time, she loves to bake cookies and watches far too much
TV, especially cop shows. She is recovering from her Diet Coke addiction, fears
putting her foot in her mouth on social media, and has a renewed appreciation
for the bad girls of the world.
Web site: http://www.ShannynSchroeder.com
Twitter: @SSchroeder_
Buy Links:
Amazon - Kindle Edition:
Barnes & Noble - Nook Edition:
Shannyn will be awarding a $10
Amazon GC to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour.
Follow the tour and
comment; the more you comment, the better your chances of winning. The tour
dates can be found here:
Comments??
Hi Shannyn!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your interview! We seem to have quite a bit in common..only I have yet to hit the kids stage so minus the getting them off to school :) I actually never would have pictured Katie Holmes as Quinn??? Might make me have to rethink my whole "movie" lol!
andralynn7 AT gmail DOT com
Hi Andra - Thanks for stopping by. I used a picture of a younger Katie Holmes (not that she's all that old now), but before she had a kid. She's not a perfect match for how I see Quinn, but she's close enough. I rarely find an actor that fits the image in my head perfectly
DeleteHi - Thanks so much for hosting me today.
ReplyDeleteI think I'd need to read the book before I could cast the roles.
ReplyDeleteKit3247(at)aol(dot)com
I don't think the market could ever be bad for contemporary romance. It's so now - always.
ReplyDeletemarypres(AT)gmail(DOT)com
Thanks for the great interview, I think it is funny that you wrote the book first then decided to become and author
ReplyDeletefencingromein at hotmail dot com