Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Fantastic Fives on Bonnie Edwards

Five phrases or words that describe you:

Tenacious (15 years on the road to publication!),
Weird (all my life other people have used this descriptor),
Funny,
Questioning
and
finally for those who think only of the physical: Tall.

Five people and/or things that inspire you:

The great outdoors. (It's very cheering!)
Movies and television.
Real life situations that are absurdly touching for any number of reasons...but they must create emotional responses in me.
My emotionally fearless children.
And too many writers to count!

Five of your favorite authors:

EC Sheedy, Romantic Suspense,
Margaret Moore, Historical,
Nora Roberts,
JR Ward (my one and only vampire author)
and
Jack Bickham for his how-to writing books.

Describe five of your heroes/heroines of your books in you eyes :

In Slow Hand, (Pure Sex July 2006) Teri is ready to reassess her life when she finds herself on her honeymoon alone. With Jared McKay's help she decides to change everything...
In Midnight Confessions,(1 and II - 2007) Faye Grantham is another woman in flux about her life. When she inherits a haunted bordello she finally sees her destiny and accepts complete upheaval, in the midst of discovering who she really is. There are various ghost stories in this series. Each ghost joins the bordello for different reasons. One's a new bride married to an abuser, one's the daughter of a religious zealot, another is a destitute wife, another a sex-loving adventuress...each one finds love with the absolutely wrong man for them in the sequel. Each heroine has a different internal conflict and each hero exacerbates their particular conflict so at first blush...they seem like the wrong man. But there's a lot of growth potential in each hero and heroine in this series. It was a lot of fun to write.
In Thigh High (Feb 2008) I have a trilogy of novellas that explore more change: A late night DJ who think he wants one thing changes direction when he meets an adoring fan. There's one more story set in Perdition House (the bordello) which has two people lying their way through the story and finding love in spite of their lies.
I'm sure that's way more than five but I'm seeing a pattern emerge: Change and going for your dreams seems to recur throughout my writing.

Five reasons to read your books:

I try to slip some humor into most of them. Maybe "try" isn't the right word...I think humor falls into the writing unconsciously.
My editor tells me my writing is "warmhearted and hot", a rare combination.
I'd like to keep publishing so the more people who buy these books...the better the chance I'll get to write more.
And truly, hearing that I've eased someones otherwise crummy day makes me all misty-eyed. I don't know if any readers understand how absolutely wonderful it is to have something that comes from my heart directly impact their heart, makes me feel. It's addictive.
And I thank from the bottom of my heart, every person who allows that to happen.

Bonnie will be here throughout the day to answer questions and comments. She has a copy of Built to giveaway to a lucky commentor.

-- Bonnie Edwards, Midnight Confessions 1 and 2, and Built 4 Stars from RT!
View the trailer at: www.bonnieedwards.com

16 comments:

Lucinda Betts said...

I LOVE your heroines, Bonnie. My favorite so far is the gal in PURE SEX. She's so tough and vulnerable at the same time. Yum!

Unknown said...

I LOVE the cover, Bonnie, and enjoyed the blog. Can't wait to read BUILT!

Lisa
VIC-RWA

Bonnie Edwards said...

Thanks ladies. Yes, Lucinda...you'd know better than most about Pure Sex...you award-winning author you! (g)

Thanks for stopping by Lisa, Nice to 'see' you here!

Bonnie

Unknown said...

Hi Bonnie! Congrats on your new release!!! Great interview!!!! Love the cover!!!

Unknown said...

I have a couple of questions for Bonnie.

What has inspired you to become a writer? Does the same thing inspire you when you write a new book?

When it comes to writing a new story do you do any research?

Does your family read your books?

Bonnie Edwards said...

Thanks for the questions Amy, you always ask great ones.

I've always made up stories, so I can't say that anything inspired me. I will say that I'm cut from different cloth than my siblings. NONE of them read for pleasure. Never have, so I didn't have that kind of influence as a child. Reading was an "odd" thing for me to do. I was just different.

As for inspiration for writing what I write. Don't know where that comes from. But I will say that people who think they'll write a book some day had best be careful what they wish for.

Once I started writing I got so obsessed with the challenge of it, I've never stopped. And that continues today. It's the most challenging thing I've ever done. And I LOVE it.

Research...hm...I think I start with something that intrigues me, either an idea or a setting or a complication in life and then I sort of "collect" bits of things that round out the information or spark of interest that I have. Often a bit of research will shore up an idea or lead me to more brainstorms.

After I start working on a ms. I'll do a little more research as I need to. Then I try to weave a fine thread through the work.

My family doesn't read my work...not my erotic romance anyway. Too "icky". Cousins will read them, though. My dh never reads my fiction. But then, he doesn't need any clues as to what makes me tick!

Bonnie

Cathy M said...

Humor and romance stories are what I fill my keeper shelf with. Can't wait to read your stories.

danetteb said...

Hi Bonnie,
I've got a couple questions

Is there a different genre that you'd like to write?

Have you thought about wrting some erotic shorts for ebook publishing?

Hugs,Danette

ReadingIsSoMuchFun said...

Hi Danette & Bonnie,

I am glad to see you here Bonnie YaY! Great Fives I enjoyed reading your responses. I love the sound of your characters. Your story in Pure Sex was hot and a wonderful read. I look forward to reading more of your books and getting to know more about your other characters. Built sounds like another great read. Can't wait to get my hands on it :)

Hugssss
LindaH

Bonnie Edwards said...

Hi Linda...great questions, Danette.

Have I thought of shorts for ebooks? I have 4 shorts in for consideration right now.

They've been there for some time, though so I don't know what'll happen.

As for a different genre. I've never really come up with an idea that wasn't a romance.

I might like to add some suspense though. Maybe some darker paranormal stuff. Fighting evil is always fun.

Bonnie

Kammie said...

Hello Danette and Bonnie. Neat interview questions and answers. Warmhearted, hot and funny is a nice combination for a story.

What is the best thing about being a writer? What is the worst?

ReadingIsSoMuchFun said...

I have a few questions I would love to ask you Bonnie :-)

Q1: Is there a scene you have thought about but haven't wrote it yet?

Q2: Out of all your books which one would you say was the hardest to write?

Q3: What was the most valuable advice giving to you as an author?


Hugssss
LindaH

Bonnie Edwards said...

Kim.

The best and worst thing?

The writing.

Yeah, I know, it's crazy but true. I've found writing excruciatingly painful at times. I hate the story...hate that I suck at writing it...that the vision in my head is so clear and my words so muddy.

Then, there are the times when it just comes clearly like a mountain stream...sparkly and oh-so-right I get teary-eyed....then it's the best darned thing in the world.

the other best thing is getting those spur of the moment notes from readers. You know, like when someone just closes the book and hits the computer to dash off an email. It's so fresh in their head...so their words are clear and very dear.

There I go, blathering again.

You thought it was a pretty simple question, I bet.

Bonnie

Bonnie Edwards said...

And Linda...I'll go in order:

In all my books, the last scene is the one I think about most...but never see until I'm there. Even then, it takes about 4 drafts before I even get a glimmer of THE END. Weird, eh?


The hardest book to write so far I think was Midnight Confessions II b/c I wanted to include enough background so that people didn't think they HAD to go back, but I didn't want to bore them to tears with too much back story.

It was a tightrope for me. And the end was a KILLER - even I didn't know which man Faye would choose until the day before my deadline. ugh

There isn't one piece of advice that worked. I'll say though, that I base my writing classes on Jack Bickham's book Writing and Selling Your Novel. It gave me form and structure that eluded me before.

It was like I had "good stuff" in my books...but not a whole flow to the story. I had some great scenes. Some skill. Some talent for storytelling...but not all at once or even in a line.

See? Probably clear as mud.


I think I'll sign off for the evening.

Will announce a winner in the morning!

thanks so much Danette for letting me take so much time here today.

Bonnie

ReadingIsSoMuchFun said...

Thank You Bonnie for answering my questions. I enjoyed your answers :)

Hugssss
LindaH

Unknown said...

Thanks Bonnie for answering my questions!