I'm thrilled to introduce to everyone, Andrea Downing, debut author for The Wild Rose Press. Welcome to Novel Natterings Andrea! :)
Can you tell us a bit about
yourself?
I was born in New York but have spent most of
my life in the UK. However, in 2008, I
decided I wanted to be near my baby who had graduated from university in the
states and had decided to stay on and work over here. So back I came to NYC, swapping year-round
rain for snow and heat, the Underground for the Subway, and sticky toffee
pudding for red velvet cupcakes.
When did you first consider
yourself a writer?
About age 6! I wrote my first story in one of those
dappled black and white school books.
Most likely it was a cowboy romance because I watched every western
there was on TV.
Do you remember what
inspired you to write your first book?
If we’re talking about Loveland, because that is my first published book, it was when I discovered how many large ranches
were actually owned by British companies headed by members of the
aristocracy. When I think of it, I
must’ve made a wrong turn somewhere down the line and gone east to England
rather than out west. I’ve always loved
the west, had our family vacations out there twice a year for most of my
daughter’s childhood and, even now, I go every chance I have. So what better
subject for me than an English Lady being sent west and falling in love?
I love call stories. Can you
tell us about yours and your reaction?
Oh, dear, mine was a bit of
an anti-climax. The editor at The Wild
Rose Press who had first asked for a partial and then my full, left the firm for
family reasons and I wasn’t told until the very day she said I would hear one
way or the other. So I had to start all
over again with a new editor and another wait.
But when I got the email asking ‘how would I like a contract?’ I was
already so fed up with the dang thing, and engrossed in mss.2, I was too numb
to react any other way than to tell my daughter, who was really excited. So her excitement for me rubbed off, and then
I was really thrilled.
What drew you to write
romance?
I don’t know that I was
specifically drawn to write romance but they are definitely the stories I imagine. I like having happy endings, I like having a
beginning, middle and an end, and I don’t particularly go for this modern thing
of leaving a story hanging inconclusively.
And, of course, I like to think of people overcoming the odds to be
together and fall in love. I mean, who doesn’t like a good love story?
What’s the most challenging
part of the writing process for you?
I call it ‘the tyranny of
the clean white page.’ Usually I have
the beginning and the end figured out, can even write the last scene prior to
anything else—and I recently read that author John Updike is the same. But that middle bit, that getting from A to
Z, is difficult. I’m a pantser and my
characters write the story themselves so I never really know what’s going to
happen and at times that white page just looms and torments me.
Ooo! I hear you, sister! :) Has anything coincidental
happened in the real world while writing one of your books in terms of the
characters, scenes or world you’ve created?
Oh, this is so funny
LaVerne; I’m so glad you asked me this. The very first full length mss I wrote,
way back in the 70s—which I actually never showed to anyone because I ended up
feeling it was too unbelievable—was
about a modern day British Prince who falls in love with a commoner. Well, duh…guess what? LOL.
LOL - you're so right Andrea! Maybe you should dig out that old manuscript again? What are you working on
right now?
Well, it’s a double
romance—two for the price of one, folks!
It’s Texas Hill Country meets the Hamptons, and ‘Something’s Gotta Give’
mixed with ‘Crazy Heart.’ It’s about the relationships between parents and
children as well as the relationships between men and women, and it’s about
letting go of the past and facing our fears, the lies we tell ourselves just to
get by each day. But it’s also about
finding love where—and when—you least expect it. I know that’s clichéd but it
is…
Latest news?
I’m going to be doing a
signing at the Loveland Museum and Gallery in Loveland, Colorado, USA on
September 14th. They are
having an evening called “Historical Loveland by Book” and there’ll be several
authors there so anyone in the area please do come by and say hello.
That sounds so exciting! Wish I could be there to cheer you on :) Where can we find you and
your books?
PLEASE go check
out my appearances page for other interviews and guest blogs at http://andreadowning.com and buy my books
at
AND
And LaVerne, thanks so very
much for having me. I greatly appreciate
it—this is probably about as close to being in New Zealand or Australia as I’m
likely to get in the next few years!
It was my absolute pleasure Andrea. Just make sure you let me know when you're in town! :)
Now, if that cover wasn't enough to entice you (and can I just say, wowsers!), let me tease you with the blurb and excerpt for this fantastic looking story. I'm off to go buy mine now... ;)
BLURB:
When Lady
Alexandra Calthorpe returns to the Loveland, Colorado, ranch owned by her
father, the Duke, she has little idea of how the experience will alter her
future. Headstrong and willful, Alex tries to overcome a disastrous marriage in
England and be free of the strictures of Victorian society --and become
independent of men. That is, until Jesse Makepeace saunters back into her
life...
Hot-tempered
and hot-blooded cowpuncher Jesse Makepeace can’t seem to accept that the child
he once knew is now the ravishing yet determined woman before him. Fighting
rustlers proves a whole lot easier than fighting Alex when he’s got to keep
more than his temper under control.
Arguments
abound as Alex pursues her career as an artist and Jesse faces the prejudice of
the English social order. The question is, will Loveland live up to its name?
EXERPT:
The two men looked over at Jesse
who was leading his own horse into the stable, anger etched in every muscle of
his face. Joe nodded toward the chuck house and they followed the others in to
leave Alex alone when Jesse came out.
She was starting back to the main
house when Jesse grabbed her arm and turned her around. “You ever do that
again,” he said in a voice she had never heard, intense in its anger, rage just
below its surface, “I swear to God, Alex, I’ll...I’ll take you over my knee and
give you a lickin’ once and for all.”
“How dare you!” She shook him off.
“How dare you talk to me like that! How dare you! Who the hell do you think you
are?”
Jesse jabbed his finger at her to
emphasize he meant what he was saying. “Who do I think I am?”he snarled back. “Who
do I think I am? You ever, ever take a gun off me again and point it at
someone, you’ll find out who the hell I think I am. You know that coulda gone
off? You know you coulda killed someone? I told you—out there yonder—I told
you, you never point that thing at anyone less’n you mean bus’ness.”
“I did bloody well mean business!
They were destroying that horse. Furthermore, I knew, and you knew, and they
both knew, there wasn’t a shot under the hammer. You taught me that, didn’t
you? So there was no chance of an accident!”
“That don’t matter none. You
coulda pulled the hammer back twice. Way you was, you were nothin’ better’n a
loose cannon, Alex. You ever do a thing like that again—”
“You’ll what?” She shook with her
rage as tears pooled against her will. “I apologized to them both and they
accepted my apologies. It’s none of your concern—”
“None of my concern! You pulled my
gun! You ever do that again— Don’t you walk away when I’m talkin’ to you!”
She turned back to him after a few
steps. “You’ll what? You’ll what, Jesse? What will you do? I want to hear it!
Say it again. What will you do?” And she stood there in the evening darkness,
facing him down, wearing him out like she’d faced down the stallion.
