Karenna Colcroft Interview

Please welcome Karenna Colcroft to my blog home. Park your botties if you like reading about hotties...like Johnny Depp *swoon*...

Nat: Hi Karenna! Welcome! What do you like best about writing?

Karenna: Creating new realities. Getting to know my characters, and having them guide me through their stories. It’s like making new friends every time I write a new story, and I’m usually kind of sad when I finish a story, because that means I’m finished with those characters. Unless I’m fortunate enough to have a sequel to put them in.

Nat: It's great when you can follow your characters through several books, isn't it? Especially when you've become so attached from the beginning.

What sets you off on a new book? Do you need visuals or audio to spark a plot?

Karenna: I don’t really need any kind of a trigger. Just the knowledge that I have to write something. Sometimes a song or something I see on TV or in real life gives me a little seed of an idea, but sometimes it’s just a matter of “What am I going to write this time?” and then off I go. I even have times when I don’t know what I’m writing until the words appear on the computer monitor. Those times are pretty cool.

Nat: Yes, like a story that's been hiding inside you without your knowledge and just takes that opportunity to come out. I hear you on that.

Do you write via keyboard or pen and paper? Or both?

Karenna: Most of the time I use my desktop computer. I’ve been writing for so long that I now type faster than I can write by hand. Sometimes, though, I use pen and paper if I’m out somewhere. For one of my novellas, I actually wrote a sex scene while sitting in a subway station in East Boston waiting for my train. Thank goodness no one peeked over my shoulder!

Nat: LOL! Can you imagine the red face if they did?

When writing, we're interrupted by many things. Of course, this isn't evident in the tale, but is there a funny moment in your real life that interrupted your writing, one that you'll always remember when you read your book again, that you'd like to share with your readers? I like to think of my books as memory keepers in a way, where special events rest between the lines that no one but me can see. Do you have the same thing going on?

Karenna: Sometimes my special events end up in the story. Just read my novella Beginner’s Luck, from Pink Petal Books… Fortunately, my husband is a tolerant man, otherwise some of the sex between Kyla and Alec in that story might have upset him just a bit. Likewise, in my novel Eternal Love, which is coming from Pink Petal on July 8, some of the reassurances and comments Rhys makes are things my husband has said to me, or said to me while I was writing the book. Those are pretty special.

I don’t have very many memorable things happening in my life, though. I’m actually pretty boring.

Nat: If you could visit one place right now, where would you go and why?

Karenna: Only one place? But…but…there’s more than one I want to visit!

Nat: Oh, go on then! More than one.

Karenna: I’d love to go back to the cottage on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, where my husband and I spent our honeymoon a couple of months ago. That was such a quiet, peaceful place, and I got some good writing done there. I’d also love to visit Lunenburg, Nova Scotia (up in Canada), which is my mother’s hometown and a place I spent a week or two every year when I was growing up. I haven’t been there in almost eight years, though, and I really want to go back.

Nat: I hope you get your dream!

If you could have one thing that would make your writing life easier, what would it be and why?

Karenna: My own room! I have two kids, and my first husband was more demanding than either of them, so I’m pretty used to writing through distractions. But let me tell you…when I’m sitting here with my hubby bashing mobs in his online role-playing game on his computer behind me, with my eleven year old sitting at her computer (yes, we have a lot of computers here…) playing a dolphin game and giving us a play-by-play account of it, and my fourteen year old traipsing into the room every few minutes to cry about something mean her friend said or tell me something cute her boyfriend texted her…it kinda puts a cramp in writing sex scenes!

Nat: I know exactly what you mean!

Do you have any phobias? What are they, and why do you think you have them?

Karenna: I’m horribly afraid of heights. Well, not so much heights…I’m afraid of falling from heights! I’m not sure why that is. I’m also terrified of not being able to breathe, which allegedly is because I drowned in a past life.

Nat: Oh, how cool. Not that you drowned in a previous life, of course, but that you know you did. I find that sort of thing fascinating, although, if you've been regressed, I don't think I'd be as brave as you and try it myself.

Do you have any obsessions? What are they, and why do you think you have them? Yes, I'm nosey...

Karenna: I’m obsessed with writing. Do I really need a reason? LOL

Nat: Nope! That's a good enough answer without explanation.

If you could look like one star, who would it be?

Karenna: I’d kind of rather keep looking like myself; I’m pretty happy with me.

Nat: That's great to be comfortable with yourself like that!

If you had the choice of going to a book signing with a star on your arm, who would it be and why?

Karenna: Johnny Depp…in full Captain Jack Sparrow regalia. Enough said. LOL

Nat: No, not enough said. I mean, this is Johnny we're discussing here. How can there ever be enough said? Now, let's see. He's beautiful. Mysterious. Sexy. Did I already say beautiful? He's charming, delightful, he's...he's...looking at us two, smile on his face, look, knowing we fancy the pants off him. Oh, what a rogue! What a devil!

Ahem, yes. Let the interview proceed. Please pardon my sojourn into my head for a minute there...

If you have children and/or you work full time, how do you find the time to write? (Johnny, Johnny, my love, I adore you... Sorry. I really am sorry, Karenna. Please do carry on.)

Karenna: I do have children. Two daughters, 14 and 11 (both with birthdays next month). Making things a bit more complicated, the eleven year old has Asperger’s Syndrome, a form of autism, so some days she’s spot on and you’d never know she isn’t just like every other kid her age, and other days she has meltdowns, won’t stop babbling about one of her obsessions, or just plain acts like she hates everyone around her. I also work part-time.

But finding time for writing isn’t as difficult as it might sound. My job is only 12-15 hours a week, and I work for my father-in-law, so he’s very flexible about my hours. My husband’s entire family knows I write, and they’re all pretty proud of me, so if I tell my father-in-law I’m under a deadline he’ll let me go home early or even let me write in the office. (Though after last week, when my husband’s uncle looked over my shoulder to see me typing something about my heroine, er, sucking the hero’s best friend, I don’t know if I’ll be allowed to write down there anymore…)

Nat: ROFL!

Karenna: My kids are in school right now, which gives me writing time, and even during the summer they’ll be off with friends or visiting their step-grandmother across the street. They’re also having to spend a month this summer with their father, which will give me way too much time alone to write.

And I get up insanely early so I have at least an hour of uninterrupted, absolutely silent time before anyone else in the household gets up. On a typical day, I manage at least 3-4 hours of writing time, though that may be scattered into 15 minutes here, half an hour there.

Nat: Oh, you've got it made! So, add your own private writing room, and you'll feel like a queen.

Fave genre, time period?

Karenna: Favorite genre…I’d have to say paranormal/urban fantasy. I love the idea that there’s stuff lurking around us that doesn’t fit the “normal” world. Though I have to admit I’m not so into vampires… I’ve read a few too many vampire stories, and since those seem to proliferate like the proverbial bunnies, a vamp story has to have something really unique or special to catch my attention.

That’s for reading, though. I’d love to write more urban fantasy, but for some reason most of the romance I write turns out to be plain old contemporary, though my novel Eternal Love is paranormal. Homicidal immortals. Very cool. LOL. Everything I write takes place in the present, because I wouldn’t even know where to start researching for something historical.

Nat: Sounds as groovy as, well, a groovy thing!

If you had one piece of advice for aspiring authors, what would it be?

Karenna: Write. Keep writing. Keep revising what you write, and learn from everything you do. No matter how much you learn about the craft, there’s always more to learn, so don’t expect to ever fully master it. Just enjoy trying. And don’t get too stressed about making your stuff perfect the second it comes out of your head onto the keyboard. You can always fix it later, but get it written first.

I think that’s more than one piece…

Nat: Yes, but jolly good advice, what? Sorry, that's the Brit in me coming out.

Well...Johnny, stop that, would you? I'm trying to talk to Karenna, dear. Gosh, he's a fiesty one... Once again, sorry about that. Karenna, it's been wonderful having you here. I've had a great time. You're a pleasure to chat with.

Darling readers, if you're ready now for a spot of tea and scones with butter and jam, please partake of such delights while you sit and read an excerpt from Karenna Colcroft, a wonder of a woman!

~*~

Beginner's Luck by Karenna Colcroft

Desire filled his eyes. “Which means we have about three hours until you have to leave. So let’s spend a little quality time together now.” He pulled her to her feet. “Race you to the bedroom.”

“I’ll win,” she taunted.

“Of course you will, because I want to watch your cute butt going up the stairs in front of me.” He lightly swatted her ass. “So get going!”

She hurried ahead of him, but with his longer legs he caught up to her at the stairs. Hands on her hips, he half chased, half pushed her to the bedroom, both of them laughing the whole way. He made everything so much fun! She’d always been scared of letting go and losing control, and playfulness had just made her feel nauseated. But Alec was so unlike anyone she’d ever known, he’d changed her. With him, she dared to let go, and he’d brought out the playful side she’d never known she had.

Just inside the bedroom door, with a twinkle in his eye that belied his stern expression, he grabbed her and dragged her toward the bed. She squelched the brief fear that surged inside her, covering it with laughter. Like Alec would ever hurt her.

He hurt himself, though. As usual, he slammed his shin into the protruding footboard of the bed. “Damn it!” he yelped. “We’re buying another bed.”

“No point doing that if we might move,” Kyla said practically.

“I meant when we move.” Smiling, he abruptly shoved her down to the bed and imprisoned her with his arms. “Unless you have other ideas.”

“When we move?” she repeated, shocked. She must have missed that decision. Sure, they’d said things like “if we move in together, we should…,” but it had never been anything definite. Even though she desperately wanted it to be. After her marriage, she hadn’t thought she’d ever want to live with any man again, but in her heart she wanted a life with Alec. And his words sounded pretty definite.

“I want you and the kids to live with me.” His arms abandoned the cage they’d formed and wrapped around her as he lay on his side next to her. His eyes filled with the deep feelings she knew he had for her. “I love you, I love them, and I love being with you. It just doesn’t feel right when I head home and leave you behind.” He sounded uncertain as he added, “I thought we’d already decided we would move in together, but maybe I was wrong.”

Kyla’s heart soared. For weeks she’d wondered where their relationship stood, and now he had told her. He wanted a life together as much as she did. She’d never dreamed she would find love this strong.

He studied her, waiting for her response, and she hastened to reassure him. “Maybe I’m just too literal. Maybe I expected you to come out and formally ask me.”

“Which I just did,” he pointed out.

“Yes.”

He blinked, confused. “Yes I just asked, or yes you’ll move in with me?”

“Yes, I’ll move in with you!” To show how much she meant it, she brought her mouth to his in a hard, tongue-filled kiss. “As soon as I talk the girls into it,” she added slowly when they parted.

“Good luck with that,” Alec joked. “They aren’t going to want to live with me.”

“Bullshit,” Kyla said firmly. “They adore you. They just won’t want to move again.”

“Yeah, well, I know how much their father moved you guys around,” Alec said. His face twisted like he’d smelled something horrible, the way it often did when he mentioned Kyla’s ex. Then he smiled. “We’ll have plenty of time to talk about it. It’s not like it’s going to happen tomorrow.” With a lascivious look in his eyes, he moved onto her. “Right now I think we have something to do before you go pick up those girls.”

“And what would that be?” Kyla said innocently.

“Where do you hide your toys?” He pressed against her so she couldn’t mistake his arousal.