Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Guest Author Day with Lorelei Confer

Why don't you start us off by telling us how you discovered/decided you wanted to become a writer?  First let me say thank you for having me here today. I first started writing when I was in the fourth grade and had to write a play which the teacher thought was so good she produced it for parents, etc. I have written short stories since then.

Do you have a favorite TV show you can't miss? I love Criminal Minds and NCIS. I usually have to DVR them and watch them later.

What is your writing process? Do you outline, fly by the seat of your pants or a combination of both? I do a little of both. In the beginning I outline and describe my main characters then start writing the book. The characters and their alter egos usually take over from there.
 
So what is your latest or upcoming book about? Give us all the details behind this masterpiece. Deadly Revenge is the second book in the series about human trafficking. It begins with the heroine going home to the North Carolina Mountains for the summer after leaving her fiancé at the altar two years before. She has an auto accident on the way into town and meets the hero. Sparks fly. They become involved with each other. The heroine feels like she is being followed everywhere she goes and is continuously looking behind her back. She coincidentally finds four murder victims; all assumed to be suicides but were actually murdered. Her home is ransacked and she realizes someone is trying to kill her. She is finally abducted by traffickers who know it is easy to ‘traffic’ throughout North Carolina because of the highway system and its close proximity to Washington. She is frightened beyond words and the hero must find her and rescue her before being transported to be sold into slavery. The stalker and murderer are then found out and the hero and heroine must separate to go back to their original lives. He doesn’t want to leave and she can’t stay.

What are your thoughts on love scenes in romance novels, do you find them difficult to write? I think love scenes are essential to any book. It’s a part of life. I like them to be intimate and detailed but sweet. Not necessarily erotic. I love to write them just because it really gets me thinking because each scene in the book is different. The characters and their relationships have grown throughout the book and you need to reflect that into the scene.


Who are some of your favorite authors, and if we were to visit your home, what books would we find on your bookshelf, end table, floor or e-reader?  You would find Johanna Lindsey, Mary Jo Putney, Kathleen Woodiwiss, Harlan Colban, Andrew Gross, Mariah Stewart, and most of the classics.

If you could date any character from any book, who would it be and why?  Shannon from Kathleen Woodiwiss’s book of the same name. They, the hero and heroine have so many coincidental meetings that are so meaningful it is uncanny. Shannon is so against a relationship with the hero that she thwarts him at every step yet cannot control her own emotions when he touches her or kisses her or makes love to her.

Could you tell us about any work-in-progress, current projects, what we can expect from you in the future?  I am currently working on the third book in the series entitled Deadly Deliverance, and hope to be finished in the next couple of months and released early next year. I have a number of short stories I’ve written along with a Christmas Anthology (available at Amazon) and a list of story ideas I want to write about.

A biography has been written about you. What do you think the title would be? The Life of a Wanna-Be Nora Roberts???????
 
Have you ever found that you didn’t like your Hero or your Heroine? If so, what did you do to change that?  Yes and I make them redeemable, give them a reason to be likeable, or I have even thrown them out and started fresh.
What do you do to unwind and relax?  Spend time with my family in the North Carolina Mountains every couple of months.
 Is there a genre you haven’t done that you would like to explore in the future? Possible Fantasy in a make believe world with make believe characters, making them come alive sounds intriguing.

W
hat was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating your books?  I love it. I love to write and watch the characters take over and come alive.

What is your favorite candy bar?  Milky Way

When you looked in the mirror this morning, what was the first thing you thought?  Where did all those shadows, dark circles and wrinkles come from? They weren’t there yesterday or so it seemed.

What is your favorite pizza?  Hungry Howie’s ‘the works’ with sesame seed crust.
 
What genres and authors would we find you reading when taking a break from your own writing?  Mostly romantic suspense or thriller, not horror but a suspense that keeps you turning the pages, i.e. Harlan Colban.
 
If I was a first time reader of your books, which one would you recommend I start with and why? Deadly Deception, the first book in the series. Although they are all stand alone books but Deadly Deception looks at human trafficking in a different way and really has a message to tell.
 
What else would you like readers to know about you or your work? I am an advocate of stopping human trafficking and have done a great amount of research and study in this arena. I have worked with the Sheriff’s department and our local detectives assigned to the human trafficking task force and attend their meetings so I can be as accurate as possible in my books.
 
Please share any links you would like listed in the Interview. Website, Myspace, blog, facebook, yahoo group etc.  www.loreleiconfer.com, www.loreleiconfer.blogspot.com,
  
Sneak Peek into Deadly Revenge by Lorelei Confer
Available at Siren-Bookstrand
Contemporary Romantic Suspense

Tory Richards returns to North Carolina to help her mother set up a B&B, never expecting to stumble across several murder victims, fall in love, or get abducted by human traffickers.
Fortunately, when she’s run off the road on her way into town, Dave Miller, who is working undercover on the task force for human trafficking, comes to her aid. She blows off the near fatal accident as just that—an accident—but she rethinks her position once events escalate.

Someone is trying to kill Tory. Failing that, she’s being set up as a suspect in four murders. As Dave falls more deeply for Tory, how will he tell her who he is and what he does? Will she ever trust him?

Trust becomes a moot point when Tory is abducted and everything points to the group of human traffickers Dave’s had under surveillance. He calls in the task force, but will they reach Tory before she’s used as a sex slave?

Sneak Peek Excerpt:

Well, well, well, Tory Richards coming back to town after all these years. I wonder what she wants. Or better yet “who?” This can’t be good.
 
Twenty-six-year-old Tory Richards’s white-knuckled fingers gripped the car’s steering wheel, as she drove around the sweeping mountain curves and switchbacks. Out of practice driving on narrow curvy roads in the North Carolina Mountains, she dreaded the trip home, and approached the challenge with caution. I could do without any additional tension. But when she partially rolled down her car window and took a deep breath of the fresh, woodsy, pine-scented air, she remembered how much she loved these mountains.
On this cool spring day, the age-old trees swayed in the light breeze, some just budding, others in full bloom. Blossoming Dogwood, Mountain Laurel, and apple trees peaked in all their glory among the majestic pines and oaks.
She dreaded the inevitability of running into Matt. The fear of facing the truth, the past humiliation, and deceit wouldn’t go away. Explaining her reasons for leaving Matt at the altar two years ago would mean closure for her. She’d face her demon and finally move on. The thought of seeing him again brought back familiar panic. Her heart pounded in her chest, constricting her breathing, and the lingering ache became almost uncontrollable.
Suddenly, a large black car with dark, tinted windows sped from behind, passed her, pushing into her lane of the road. Tory slammed on the brakes and jerked the steering wheel to the right to avoid being sideswiped. Her car bounced over and onto the berm, slammed into the side wall of a drainage canal running along the side of the road, finally coming to a stop in the shallow ditch.
The force of the crash whipped her head left, hitting the edge of the open window and then backward, hard against the headrest. Stars filled her eyes. A slow stream of something warm and wet trickled down her left cheek from somewhere above her left eye dropping onto her blouse. The pain started high on her forehead and radiated down the whole left side of her face.
Laying her head back against the headrest, she drifted down a dark tunnel. When she heard someone talking to her from a distance, she turned to the open window and looked into a man’s fuzzy, fish-bowl-like face. She blinked once or twice, and the man’s concerned expression came into focus.
She didn’t know him, but she’d like to. He had an attractive face, a strong jaw. He looked dependable, a take-charge kind of guy. He must have pulled off the road behind her to help, she thought.
“Do you need an ambulance?”
She shook her head and winced when a wave of dizziness along with nausea washed through her.

6 comments:

KathyC said...

Great interview, Lorelei!

Lorelei Confer said...

Thanks Kathy and thanks for stopping by!

Eliza March said...

And I thought your favorite food was my plotting dip.

Lorelei Confer said...

Eliza: I love your plotting dip but it's for plotting only. Thanks for dropping by.

Dawn R. said...

Thanks for coming by Lorelei. Love the interview and the excerpt was quite intriguing. :)

Lorelei Confer said...

Thanks for having me. Glad you liked the excerpt. There're more where that came from.

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