Welcome to Dawn’s Reading Nook, Heather Hiestand. Please
let my cabana boys/girls get you a drink and make yourself at home.
Comfortable? Great…now let’s get down to business.
Q: Tell us a little about yourself. What you do, either for a
living or for fun or both.
I’m a stay-at-home
mom these days, thanks to my very special toddler. I try to keep active with my
writing career, and did manage to have four releases in 2011, a contemporary,
two historical fantasies and one paranormal erotic, all romance.
I can keep a novella-length story in my head for the most part, but novels require a detailed outline.
Q: Tell us all about your latest or upcoming release. What inspired it?
I’m currently working on “Captain Fenna’s Dirigible Valentine,” the sequel to “Captain Andrew’s Flying Christmas.” It was inspired by my own need to know what happened to Terrwyn Fenna after her crazy Christmas in the first novella, which just came out in late October.
Q: If you had super powers, what would they be? Why?
After my experiences of the last few years, I’d want the super power of being able to fix pregnancies so no woman had to live through the hell of miscarriages or premature births like me!
Q: What genre haven’t you tried yet but want to in the future?
I’ve been writing for publication for about sixteen years now and finally found the courage to write historical romance, but I still need to finish my first full-length novel in that subgenre. I’ve got my first twelve chapters down though. I can’t imagine how I’d have accomplished even that much before the Internet.
Q: What’s a fun fact about you? Something unique, a particular talent?
I grew up reading science fiction, not romance, which is why I turned out to have a particular talent for writing steampunk. Who knew a long-buried interest in spaceships and ray guns would come in handy?
Q: What is one thing readers might be surprised to know
about you?
It’s harder to find a more voracious
reader than me! Many writers can’t find time to read, but I need books like I
need air.
Q: Were your stories secret projects or were you able to
be open with your family and friends about your writing?
Nothing is secret per se, but my
family knows not to read my Anh Leod erotic romances.
Q: Do you have any weird writing habits?
I dislike thinking about my stories
unless I am actually working on them. It irritates me to have a great insight
and not be able to get to work right then.
Q: What's your favorite genre to read?
Historical romance, in all its
flavors, including steampunk, of course.
Q: What type of book have you always wanted to write?
Victorian romance.
Q: What authors can be found in your library of books
(print, audio or e-books)?
Some of the “over-represented”
authors are Elizabeth Peters, Connie Willis, Anne Perry, Carla Kelly and my
friends like Eilis Flynn, Delle Jacobs, Gina Robinson, Judy Laik and Gerri
Russell.
Q: If you could travel anywhere in the world (money is no
object), where would you go? Why? And for how long?
England for sure, to do research. I haven’t
been there since 1985 and I could spend at least three months visiting.
Q: Do you have any obsessions? What are they?
Gathering as much Victorian
information as I can – the novels of the time, and research material. You never
know what will inspire you.
Q: Is there anything you’re currently working on that you
can give us a taste of?
As I mentioned above, I am working
hard on Terrwyn Fenna’s story and I hope to have it out in late December/early
January, depending on how long it takes to be loaded to retailers.
Q: When creating your characters, do you have models in
mind or are they totally fictional?
I have often taken a picture out of a
magazine or found an actor to represent my characters. For my
novel-in-progress, Jake Gyllenhaal is my hunk representation for my yummy hero.
The only character in my steampunk novellas that I’ve represented is Terrwyn,
who I see as a young Catherine Zeta-Jones. Terrwyn is twenty-two.
Q: Are you in control of your characters or do they
control you?
I’m in control.
Q: If you came with a warning label, what would it say?
“She isn’t paying attention!”
Q: Please tell us where we can find you on the web.
My username is “hahiestand” on most
sites – I’m on Twitter, Facebook, Wattpad, Goodreads, Shelfari, Steampunk
Empire and probably many more that I’ve forgotten about! Some of those links
can be found on my website.
Thanks for popping by and I wish you
continued success in your writing career.
Thanks for having me, Dawn!
Blurb:
Housemaid Linet Fenna would rather be an air pirate than a
servant. When she finds the ladder to an airship dangling outside her garret
window on Christmas Eve, 1892, she ascends to the skies above London on her
late father’s flagship dirigible, the Christmas. The new captain is someone she
never expected to see again, a dangerous, sexy foe. Is the Fenna family nemesis
offering Linet her heart’s desire or a dastardly trap?
Captain Andrew’s motivations are as foggy as the coal-soaked sky. Prime Minister Gladstone’s Blockaders, a horde of automen and a teenage girl named Hatchet want Linet to fail in her quest to discover what happened to her missing family, but she is determined to have a happy Christmas.
Captain Andrew’s Flying Christmas is a 16,000-word steampunk romance novella.
Captain Andrew’s motivations are as foggy as the coal-soaked sky. Prime Minister Gladstone’s Blockaders, a horde of automen and a teenage girl named Hatchet want Linet to fail in her quest to discover what happened to her missing family, but she is determined to have a happy Christmas.
Captain Andrew’s Flying Christmas is a 16,000-word steampunk romance novella.
Excerpt:
The ladder swung sharply as a gust of
wind caught it. Andrew
leaned down, his warm fingers brushing hers. Linet heard a groaning noise and a
whoosh under her feet. Thinking the hull might be splintering, she looked down
to calculate her distance to the attic window and saw smoke and light nearby.
Cannons boomed, the sound coming from the roof of the Guterman Automen Factory!
They must think a pirate attack was imminent.
“We’re under fire!” Andrew dove over the
side. “Grab my legs, boys!”
Her heart caught in her throat at the
sight of his bravado. She leaned into the ladder so he could drop past her to
open the sticky cannon porthole below. Just as easily, though, he could miss
and fall to his death.
His downward dive stopped as unseen
crewmen secured his legs. He dangled over the side inches above her head. As
she clutched the ladder, his hands found her arms and gripped tightly, digging
her cuffs into the flesh above her wrists. Linet jerked back instinctively
until her body vee’d off the ladder. He pulled her up while she still held on
tightly. The airship shook as a barrage of bullets battered it.
“Let go!” He shouted as his hands slipped
on the cotton cloth of her dress. The fabric at one shoulder began to rip. The
urge to survive loosed one hand from the hemp but her other hand tangled in the
ladder, twisted now from the swaying. Her shoulder seam tore. She dangled at an
angle, trapped between Andrew’s tight grip and the ladder.
Captain Andrew’s Flying Christmas links:
Amazon:
Smashwords:
BN:
ARe:
1 comment:
Thanks so much for having me to visit today, Dawn!
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