Saturday, March 30, 2013

Five Questions with Anne Hargrove

Five Questions with Anne Hargrove


1. When you think of your favorite books, what is it that draws you to them and makes you want to read them over and over again?

    ~~ Oh man, I’m such a sucker for a great toe curling romance. I mean I love the ones where one of the characters is flawed in some way, and the other one swoops in and rocks the other’s world. But I also love it when the female characters are strong and self-sufficient too, and not simply waiting for a man to come in and save her.


2. Did you consciously decide to write the genre you write, or did it choose you?

~~ That’s an interesting question. When I first started writing, I wasn’t quite sure about the direction I wanted to take, other than romance. My daughter was in high school and enjoyed reading, but hated all the vampire and werewolf books (can you imagine, haha). So I decided on going the YA/NA route because of her, but I did the paranormal thing with a sci-fi twist. When I wrote my 3rd Guardians of Vesturon book, I introduced a character that almost stole the show and I knew I needed to write his story. He, however, was too old and completely inappropriate for YA/NA, so that was my first venture into the adult romance genre. After that book, I decided to venture into adult contemporary romance and since then I’ve written Edge of Disaster and Shattered Edge and I just completed Desperate Lengths, which will be published in April. I’m also working on my 4th and last Guardians of Vesturon book, which I hope to have out by June.


3. If you could sit down for a drink and a chat with any writer, who would it be, and why?

~~I would absolutely LOVE to get together with Michelle Leighton (I love you Michelle!), Samantha Young and Alice Clayton all at the same time. Even though I talk with Michelle and see her, I’ve never met Samantha or Alice and I admire all three of those talented women SO much. Since I’m focusing on adult contemporary romance right now, I would love to be a sponge and learn everything they could teach me about their sexy love scenes!

Another couple of women I would LOVE to get together with are Lila Felix and Shelly Crane. I also admire them for their amazing talent and brilliant works and would love to be a sponge around them too!


4. When you are not writing (or reading) what is your favorite pastime?

~~Is eating a pastime? Just kidding! I love to hike and snow ski, although after this past injury I’m not sure about the last one. I’ve decided I need to become a gymnast because doing the splits on skis is hazardous to your health! I also enjoy cooking (so the eating thing really wasn’t a joke, LOL...and shopping of course!


5. At what point were you sure that your book was ready to be published, and how did you go about making it happen?

~~I don’t think I’m sure yet! For me it was a matter of typing the words, “The End,” and then finding an editor. Seriously! And then, I knew I was going to self publish, so I spent hours on the internet and ended up buying H.P Mallory’s book and followed her recommendations. I also used Smashword’s recommendations. I totally did everything backwards though. I put my book up for sale and THEN I joined Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads,etc. What a dummy I was. I was completely clueless on all this stuff. At the beginning though, you feel as though your brain is getting bombarded by so much information that you don’t know what’s important and what’s not. It was overwhelming. I did what I could and then hoped for the best. I’m still trying to juggle it all and I never know what works and what doesn’t. It’s a massive puzzle to me! I think it would be totally awesome if there were a way for someone to tell me, “Annie, this is what you need to do. One, do this. Two, do that. And so on.” That is exactly what I need! One thing I do know is that now there is not enough time in the day to accomplish everything that I need to get done.


Thanks SO much Bethany for inviting me to drop by today. It’s been fun chatting with you!

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