BookWenches

Winner of Sandy's book giveaway: Danielle Thorne. Congratulations, Danielle! Please contact us so that we can arrange for Sandy to send you your book.

Interviewed by Bobby

Hi, Sandy. Thank you for taking the time to chat with us at BookWenches about you and your work. After having read Free Falling, I have a lot of questions for you!

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Your website says that you’re a full time teacher. How on earth do you manage to fit writing into your busy schedule?

I don’t sleep. <grins>  Actually, I’m a Type A personality, so the busier I am, the happier I am.  Teaching also gives me the luxury of having two months in the summer to write to my heart’s content.  I have to admit this year was a bit of a trial.  Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined four books coming out in the same school year!  Handling edits and promotion while also getting my students ready for the Advanced Placement Exam has been a bit hectic.  But I love teaching as much as I love writing, so I make it all fit.

Tell me the story about having your first book published. Was it all you thought it would be?

That’s one of my favorite stories!  Flash back to the fourth of July, 2008:

Since it was a holiday, I woke up relieved. I had a few submissions out with a couple of publishers, but I’d yet to hear back from them. I’d nibbled away my most of my fingernails waiting, and I had a good start on developing that OCD my hubby always jokes about me having because I constantly checked my email. But the fourth of July was a holiday, so I figured I could actually receive email without getting slapped in the face with a rejection. It was safe to leave my email open and just have some fun finishing up the second book in my Amazon series.

 I blasted off about a thousand words. Then an email alert popped up. The OCD in me had to go check it. I clicked on the little icon. The incoming was only spam. No problem. I could take a quick breather before I zipped off another thousand words. Maybe I could get a laugh out of someone claiming they could make a certain part of anatomy that I don’t have much, much bigger.

Not spam.

Editor.

Crap. Crap. Crap.

It was a holiday. I wasn’t supposed to get a rejection on a holiday. People don’t work on a holiday. Even worse, the “rule” in publishing is that good news comes by phone; bad news by email. So I figured, “Here comes a rejection.”

Opened the email. Read it. Sat there like some statue.

“Dear Sandy, Thank you for sending your wonderful book, Turning Thirty-Twelve (also, what a great title!) We would love to publish your book at Bookstrand!”

No way! My book? The acquisitions editor wanted MY book? After taking a moment to absorb the meaning of the words that shouldn’t have been sitting there right in front of me, I screamed for Jeff (my husband). He came running downstairs, probably thinking the house was on fire. Due to my continued squealing, Dr. Carter (my Schnauzer) was barking like a cat was loose in the house and Peanut (my cockatiel) was flying around the family room like a hawk was after him. But despite my fears they would simply vanish, the words didn’t disappear. Jeff read the email and said, “Nice.” High compliment from my stoic husband. The first thing he wanted to do was read the contract. (And he calls me OCD?)

The editor wanted to purchase Turning Thirty-Twelve. Of all my books, I never thought that one would be the first to sell. It’s not a part of any of my series. It’s sarcastic and quirky. My online critique partner hadn’t ripped it to shreds.  On the other hand, Turning Thirty-Twelve is one of my favorites. I wrote it simply to please me, hence the sarcastic and quirky.

 
Would you consider yourself a plotter and planner, or are you more of a “fly by the seat of your pants” kind of writer?

I’m a hybrid – a pantser who plots.  I always have a really rough outline of where I hope a story is going.  I also do a “psychological profile” of both my hero and heroine.  (You can take the psych teacher out of the subject, but you can’t take the subject out of the psych teacher.)  Then I sit down and start writing.  Sometimes I stick with the outline; sometimes the characters steer me in other directions.  I always listen to them when they whisper in my ear because they usually give me fantastic suggestions.

Tell me a little bit about your stables and your horses. Harness racing looks fascinating!

There’s nothing as thrilling as watching your horse win a race!  My husband and I lived in Chicago when we were first married, and the only person I knew there was my cousin.  At the time, she was married to one of the best harness drivers in the country.   (Hi, Mark!)  We went to the track with them all the time, and when we moved back to Indiana, we loved to go to off-track betting to watch races. 

Around the time my husband turned forty (yeah, yeah, mid-life crisis territory), he started researching the cost of owning our own horse.  He’s an engineer.  They analyze everything.  Then he gave me all the details and asked if we could scrape enough money together so he could get a racehorse.  I figured a horse was much better than a trophy wife or a red sports car, so I went to the bank the next day, took out a personal loan, and told him to get his horse.  We’ve been racing ever since.  It’s been wonderful for both of us.  Now that our nest is empty, racing gives us something to share other than our children.

What caused you to choose to write romance over other genres of fiction?

I write what I love.  I’ve always been a voracious reader.  At twelve, I discovered my mother’s copy of The Wolf and the Dove by Kathleen Woodiwiss.  That book hooked me on romance forever. 

I think romance for me represents what’s best in people.  We all face life’s ups and downs just like the hero and heroine, we deal the best we can, and then we all hope for a happily ever after.  The greatest romances are the ones with what seem like insurmountable odds for the characters to overcome.  Those stories give you hope and inspiration.  What else could I possibly write but what I love?

In your opinion, what makes for the ideal hero and heroine in romantic fiction? I loved the way you made Ross in Free Falling just a little bit imperfect with his obsessive-compulsive tendencies. Do you try to instill a few human failings in all your main characters?

What a nice thing to say!  Ross is one of my favorite heroes!  He’s named after a former student who begged me to name one of my villains after him.  But the Ross I invented wouldn’t let me write him as a bad guy.  I probably wasted twenty-thousand words on trying. By the end of the first draft of Murphy’s Law, he became a good guy who helped Seth grow up, but that made me sad because Katie chooses Seth.  Ross was just too much of a strong character to leave him all alone.  I wrote Free Falling to give him a woman who would complete him.

I think my characterizations are strengthened by two things: my education in psychology and my students.  I get to meet almost two-hundred new kids every year.  After fifteen years in a classroom, that’s an awful lot of people.  They share their personalities with me, and I “see” characters in them.  Toss in some psychology, and I can get a clear idea of what motivates people.  All of us have flaws, but those flaws make us real and loveable.  That’s why I named my current series “Damaged Heroes.”

What causes you to write a series of books as opposed to a stand-alone?

I don’t think I set out to write series.  I just wrote the books as they popped into my head.  I think the series came from loving my characters and wanting to touch base with them again.  I loved Seth, Katie, and the other Murphy’s Law characters so much, I found a way to include them in a new story.  But Ross had to get his book first.  Then I went back to the track with All the Right Reasons.  The fourth book, Faith of the Heart, allowed me to write about Ross and Laurie again. 

Maybe I write series because I have a hard time losing the people I love – including my characters.  Ask my former students and they’ll tell you I can never really “let them go.”  They’re only a click on Facebook away.

What’s on your plate right now? Can you give us a sneak peek into what your readers can look forward to?

I’ve got so many characters and stories in my head, I sometimes think my name should be “Sybil.”  My agent – the fabulous Maureen Walters – is working on selling my urban fantasy series.  There are four books, two of which are complete, a third is “this close” to being done, and I’ve got great ideas for the fourth.  I’m proud to say that all three of the stories I’ve written in that series are contest finalists!  The Reluctant Amazon, the first book, finaled in five different contests.  Come to think of it, all of my Damaged Heroes stories were also winners/finalists of at least one contest.

I’m also working on rewriting my first two books.  They were great story ideas, but I didn’t know the craft well enough to do them justice.  I also have a first-person romantic comedy much like Turning Thirty-Twelve that I’m working on because I’ve had so many comments from fans and reviewers that ask me to do more of those types of stories.  It’s such a wonderful feeling to know people like what I write.

If you had to choose one of your characters to be a favorite, who would you choose? Why?

That’s such a hard question!  I fall so much in love with my characters and think of them as friends.  How can I pick just one?  Okay, here goes…

Seth Remington in Murphy’s Law.  He’s such a bad boy in the beginning, but he has so many other layers to his personality.  Seth is a perfect example of the “nurture” side of the “nature/nurture” argument.  He has a heart of gold, but it’s buried under all that money and the trappings of being rich.  By putting him in the right environment, I force him to grow as a person and bring out his compassion, his love, and his wonderful sense of humor. 

Who is your favorite author, and which of their books is top of your list? If you could ask that author one question, what would it be?

Julie Garwood.  Her historical romances are “keepers” that I re-read at least once every summer.  I blame her a lot when I can’t write because I’m having too much fun reading one of her books for the fiftieth time.  Honor’s Splendour is my favorite. 

If I could sit down and talk with Ms. Garwood, I’d ask her why she doesn’t write more historicals.  She drifted into mystery and mainstream fiction, and her romance fans miss her terribly.

If I took a peek at your movie and cd collection, what would I find?

You’d find that I have very eclectic tastes.  In my movie collection, you’ll find two copies of the Keira Knightly version of Pride and Prejudice – two because I’m afraid one will wear out and I can’t survive without that movie!  You’ll also find musicals such as Mama Mia!, Hairspray, Rent, Guys and Dolls, and The Music Man sitting next to a slew of Disney movies – The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast… And you’ll see several “comic book” shows like the Spiderman trilogy, Batman Begins, and Ironman. 

Yes, I know.  I watch a lot of fluff.  But it’s entertaining fluff.

My music is just as diverse.  Almost every Broadway musical ever written, Barry Manilow, Michael Bublé, Billy Joel, Ann Murray, American Idol contestants, and Matchbox 20.  I have an “ultimate mix” of three-hundred plus songs I play when I write.

We all need a little bit of pampering. What is your favorite way to indulge yourself?

Chocolate!  The psychology teacher in me rationalizes my chocolate consumption by reminding myself that chocolate raises the serotonin levels in the brain. 

Is there anything that you would like to share with our readers that I haven’t asked? I know I’ve forgotten to ask something!

I would like to say that I love to hear from readers!  I’m extrovert who needs feedback!  Drop me an email and tell me what you think of my stories or give me suggestions for something you’d like to see me write about!

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For more about Sandy James and her work, please visit her website at http://www.sandy-james.com/    Her novel Free Falling, which we reviewed for the BookWenches site, can be purchased from BookStrand here and from Amazon.com here. Sandy’s other works can be found at BookStrand  and Amazon.com.

Sandy is generously giving away a copy of "Free Falling" to one of our readers! To enter this giveaway, please post a comment and be sure to include a way for us to contact you when you win!