Welcome to Romance Week!
Today I have the wonderful Christy Hayes and Chrystal @ Snowdrop Dreams of Books has the equally amazing Nikki Jefford!
Welcome Christy!
My husband and I live outside Atlanta, Georgia, with our two children and two dogs. I have a journalism degree from the University of Georgia (Go Dawgs!) and I’m a member of Romance Writers of America and the Women’s Fiction Chapter of Romance Writers of America. I’ve been writing seriously since 2004 and made the decision to indie publish in 2011.
I write romance and romantic women’s fiction from my little basement office in the South. I’ve cooked up all kinds of trouble for my flawed characters when I’m not driving my kids to one sporting event or another or walking my pesky rescue mutts through the neighborhood.
Please note that a portion of the proceeds from each book sold will be donated to charity.
Valentine’s Day
I love romance. As a romance writer, I suppose that’s a pretty good thing. People often ask where I get my story ideas and I’m never sure how to answer them. Sometimes it’s something I hear on the news, sometimes it’s something I read, sometimes a person in my life just sort of inspires a character who takes on a life of their own in my imagination.
One of my favorite ice breaking conversations with people is to ask how they met their spouse (I’m in my forties, so most people I know are married). People love to talk about themselves and I’ve yet to meet a person—especially a woman—who doesn’t like to recall the first dizzying days of true love’s discovery.
The variety of these “how I met my spouse” stories is amazing. Romance abounds in all walks of life. Thankfully, most folks my age met their spouses before the advent of online dating. I don’t think these stories will hold as much appeal when half the population can say, “We met online.”
My husband and I met in college when my roommate and I went searching door to door for someone who knew how to tap the keg we’d bought for a party we were hosting. Guess who came to our rescue? Not surprisingly, my husband loves to tell people that he tapped my keg. He forgets to mention that he had a date that night and that it took us months to figure out we were meant to be together, but who wants to hear about that?
A friend’s parents were high school sweethearts who secretly married during their senior year of high school! Can you imagine? They are still married to this day. What a fantastic story!
I’m a very literal person, so in my creative mind where characters come to life and search for love, I try to keep them as grounded in real life as possible. Sure, my towns are made up, my characters aren’t real, and they’re all young and beautiful. That’s where the fantasy comes in. We live in a world of many colors and many shades between those colors.
It’s not all about the fantasy, however. I want those beautiful characters to have tortured pasts, uncertain futures, and difficult choices. I like to mix the real with the unreal. Real life situations for likeable and identifiable characters who just happen to be nice-looking.
Take my latest release, Mending the Line. The characters in this book are attractive, smart, and making the way in their world. They’ve both started along their career paths—paths that lead them in opposite directions. But cupid comes along and sticks them both with his arrow and now they’ve got to figure out how to make those paths intersect. Real life situations. Real emotional issues. Real romance.
Because let’s face it, folks. Real life is, in so many cases, more interesting than fiction!
Great titles by Christy Hayes:
a Rafflecopter giveawayJill Jennings’ dream of becoming an elite runner turns into a nightmare when she breaks her leg less than a year before the Olympic trials. After two surgeries and a lengthy rehabilitation, she’s ready to pursue her goal again. Or is she…
Jill’s healing and ready to hit the pavement, but her passion for the sport she’d planned to make her career unexpectedly wanes. On a whim, she changes course and runs right into tall, blonde, and gorgeous Tyler Bloodworth. Fly fisherman come and go in south central Colorado, but Ty’s back for a second summer, minus his girlfriend and hotter than ever.
Tyler Bloodworth's life plan to start a fly-fishing business with his dad back home in North Carolina is suddenly snagged when Jill Jennings runs circles around his heart during a summer stint as a fishing guide in Colorado. Back for a second summer, he sets his bait and casts his line, but Jill's not so easy to catch.
A catch and release fisherman breaks Golden Rule #1: he hooks a girl he can’t let go. A distance runner with big dreams and an uncertain future falls hard for a summer fling. Can Jill risk losing her career and her heart to Tyler when he’ll be gone in a few months, or will Ty reel in the biggest catch of his life?
Enjoy reading the blurb :)
ReplyDeleteI love the summary and it sounds like a terrific book. Will put it on my TBR pile.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a very interesting book will have to read
ReplyDeleteThanks for the fun post and congrats to Christy!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the interview and giveaway. I am glad that you and your hubby eventually figured it out!
ReplyDeleteI'm a sucker for Valentine's day too! I know a couple that met in kindergarten. He went home and told his parents that he was going to marry that girl one day....40 years later :)
ReplyDeleteI agree about the first meet. It's a favorite part of any book for me.
ReplyDeleteMy father first proposed to my mother when he was 16 & she was 14. They met on the train as they traveled to High School each day. Life got in the way, but 10 years later he proposed again & she said yes. They have now been married forever.
Thanks, everyone, for your kind words! I hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's Day. Thanks for sharing your stories of romance!
ReplyDeleteIt is so hard when two people find they want to be together, but their lives don't overlap enough to continue the paths they are on. Often one has to give up what is important to them. The question, I guess, is what is more important - the relationship and other person or the goals you were pursuing? One should always make sure they don't give up something they may regret in the future and hold it against the other person.
ReplyDeleteI haven't read any of Christy's books yet - I'll have to check them out.
ReplyDeleteLovely post.
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