#Authorpalooza2010 Featuring Liz Fielding

Lots of love and a warm welcome to bestselling and award winning romance author, Liz Fielding. Thank you Liz for joining my celebration!

 

How long have you been writing?

Good question! I won my first writing competition at the age of 12; a hymn writing competition at school. The prize was an Easter egg :)

I had some children’s stories published and broadcast on the BBC in the early 1980s and then spent quite a long time writing three books that were my “learning curve” for fiction. The fourth, AN IMAGE OF YOU, was published by Harlequin in 1993.

What was your reaction when you first heard you were going to be a published author?  Do you still get excited when you first receive a new shipment of your latest novels from your publisher?

I was absolutely over the moon. I’d been working with an editor at Harlequin Mills & Boon for about 9 months (neat gestation period!) from the time she’d read a partial of AN IMAGE OF YOU. I did three rewrites and when I finally got a phone call telling me the news that it had gone through acquisition it was just amazing.

Even after more than fifty books, a new shipment of books is still as thrilling and it happens twice. Once for the UK edition and then again for the US edition. Magic.

What's one day in the life of Liz Fielding like?

The writing life is rather duller than you could ever imagine. I get up at six. I make a cup of tea and I go down the garden to my writing cabin and start work. Breakfast at nine with the dh. Writing. There are whole weeks when the most exciting thing I do is order my groceries online because I’m too involved in the book to go to the store.

Once in a while I get out for a lunch with local writing buddies, or go to London for a lunch with the Harlequin Mills & Boon authors and editors. I even had lunch at The Ritz with my publisher when I won my first RITA®  I have made it to the States to the Romance Writers of America conference a few times, too. Very special.

But mostly its hand on the keyboard writing.

Do you have a current project you’re working on or something you plan to begin soon?

 I’m just about to start a new book which I’m planning to set in Rome – I’m going there with the dh for a break in April and it’s just such a romantic and fabulous city. 

In your opinion, what is the most difficult part of being a published author?

Well, unlike most careers where, the more you practise the easier it gets, writing actually gets tougher. You feel as if you’ve used every word a million times before. You brainstorm plots and, after nearly sixty romances, everything that comes up is something you’ve done before. It’s like reinventing the wheel. Making it fresh and new and exciting. A toughie.

What’s the most rewarding?

 The letters from readers saying how a book has touched them. I really cherish the ones from women in wheelchairs who wrote to me about A Marriage Miracle – my second RITA® winning book – in which my heroine was confined to a wheelchair. They were just so pleased that I made her a well-rounded, real person.

If you could co-author a book with any of your fellow authors or anyone from anywhere, who would you choose and why?

I love brainstorming with Donna Alward and I did work closely with Ally Blake on the Bella Brides series, where our stories overlapped. I also collaborated with Jackie Braun and Barbara Hannay on the Secrets We Keep trilogy we wrote together. I cherish those relationships and could work with any of them.

Describe your writing process.

 It depends. The new book is starting with location. Then I look for characters. Then conflict. What is keeping these two people apart? I’ll find pictures. Hunt for names. Play with ideas until one takes root and begins to grow in the mind.

What is the most interesting place you’ve ever visited?

Oh, well now. I left my home in the UK for Zambia when I was twenty, worked there for three years, visiting the Victoria Falls (which I drew on for my hero/heroine’s visit in A WEDDING AT LEOPARD TREE LODGE); from there I went to Qatar to join the best beloved (we met in Zambia), then it was Botswana (where AWatLTL is set), Kenya, Bahrain and the UAE. Can I include the Alps, Egypt, Lebanon, Greece, Paris, Rome, Venice and the amazing cave city of Matera in southern Italy?

Hard to pick a “most” interesting from those, but I have to say that Rome takes some beating. History is just there in the streets, everywhere. Fabulous.

What can we expect to see from you in the near future?

May brings the publication of my Escape Around World book:

A WEDDING AT LEOPARD TREE LODGE.

Read Online Excerpt

This is the story of Josie, who first appeared in THE BRIDE’S BABY.

She’s become a partner in the events business, but is still an outsider, not quite accepted by the Establishment. But a last minute hitch in the wedding arrangements for a millionaire sportsman gives her a break. Unfortunately the hero, hors d’combat with a back problem, is occupying the bridal suite and is refusing to budge. And since he owns the hotel no one is going to shift him for her.  

Bonus Time!!!

You should know the drill by now but in the chance that you don't here is what you can do to enter to win a prize from Liz Fielding and everyone is eligible to enter including those living outside the U.S.

Tweet about this giveaway with #Authorpalooza2010 include link to this post.

You can also share on facebook, myspace or blog about this giveaway.

And if you don't have any other place to share, you can just become a blog minion here and leave a comment below with either links or answer the question(s) asked below.

Answer me this..

If you found yourself stranded on a deserted island... what would five things you could not live without be?

Who would be your top three choices to be stranded there along side you be?

 

Don't forget to check out all the other amazing authors posted here.. Lots of giveaways still open!