Lynne Roberts

Welcome to Under the Covers with Lynne. I’ll scoot over *pats mattress* Let’s get comfortable.

Hi, Lynne! Ooh, this is very comfortable! Thanks so much for having me here!

First important question. Silk, satin, cotton, flannel. What is your sheet of choice and why?

I gotta go with cotton. I totally love the feel of sliding into soft, cool cotton sheets at the end of a long day. I love how they’re both light and warm. Yep, I’m a cotton sheet kinda girl.

Me too! And not an ultra high thread count. They’re a little too stiff. ; ) So it’s a slumber party! Calories don’t count. What snacks will we be munching on at midnight?

OMG I’m a total chip nut. Actually, if it has salt on it, I’m all over it, particularly if you can pair it with a dip. So, put out some chips and French onion dip or tortilla chips and salsa or, oh!, warm queso, and you best watch your fingers!

LOL I’ll be sure to watch them. Luckily, I’m pretty fast at the stealth dip. I just happen to have some French onion dip and no one else likes it around here. I’d love to share! When playing truth or dare, would you pick truth or dare?

Oh, jeez, well, let’s see, the last time I played truth or dare was in a whole other century…but as I recall, I was all about the dares.

Oh good! What’s the most daring thing you’ve ever done?

Within the confines of the game or in life? There are about 187 ways to answer that! LOL One summer while still in college, I lived in a co-ed dorm as part of a summer program, and while I was taking a shower, this guy who I knew liked me but hadn’t made a move stole my clothes and towel from outside the shower. When I realized it, I unhooked the clear plastic shower curtain, wrapped it around myself, and proceeded to march dripping and sheer the entire length of the building to his room, reclaim my clothes, and return to the bathroom, all while walking a gauntlet of onlookers hanging out of their dorm room doors. (They laughed on my way to his room, applauded on the way back!) I thought that was pretty daring. Then again, it doesn’t compare to the enormous-pile-of-daring getting married or bringing children into the world entails. And I’ve done those several times over—the children thing, not the married thing, just once there! ;)

Wow! I am so impressed. That’s so good it should wind up in one of your books! ; )
What are you usually wearing at three o’clock in the morning?

A t-shirt and pajama pants—not glamorous but true!

LOL Me too. Come to think of it, sometimes I’m wearing that at noon too! Such is the benefits of being a freelance writer.
Romance is frequently on the mind of a romance author. If you could take a date anywhere in the world, where would it be?

I am totally in love with the city of London. It wouldn’t even matter what we did, as long as we could walk those streets and soak in the feel of the place. The open-air markets, the historical fabric of the city, the theaters....it all appeals to me. In fact, I love it so much, I hope to live there for a while some day.

I hope you get your chance! What is your favorite season?

I love summer. As a college professor, summer represents freedom! But I also love the sun and the warmth and the lighter clothes and the beach. When I was younger, I worked a lot of summers outside doing archaeology in the Tidewater Virginia area, and I think my very fond memories of that work contribute to my feeling about the season. Summer is when I recharge, and that is a central part of why I love it so, and always have.

Summer and I have a love hate relationship. There’s less structure because the kids are home, and there’s less structure because the kids are home. ; ) If you could have any car, which would it be?

A Jeep Wrangler. I’ve always wanted one. I love the idea of roadtripping with the sides and top open, air blowing in, music blaring out, and just free to go (says the middle-aged wife and mother with the minivan…). It’s the car I gave Caden Grayson in HEARTS IN DARKNESS, just a little nugget of how I make my way into my books.

I love it! I’ve done that too! What is a movie you could watch over and over?

I have a real sweet spot for the movie Ever After, starring Drew Barrymore in a Cinderella retelling. I love the idea of such an iconic story having been based on a real person (according to the lore in the movie) and that person having been so much more than the modern version of the fairy tale recounts. Another watch-it-over-and-over favorite would be Dead Poet’s Society.

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?

Second to London, it would be northern Italy. Hands down. My husband lived there for a year before we were married, and I’ve traveled there several times. I love the lifestyle, the ambiance of the place, the food, the people. Being in Italy gives me the feeling that life is being breathed into my soul. I couldn’t go back too soon.

So let’s get down to business. How would you describe your writing style?

I’m a complete pantser, but luckily I tend to write fast and clean. One thing I’ve learned is that on the first draft I often skip over the needed depth of emotion a story needs to really have heart. So a regular part of my revision process is going back through the manuscript and always asking, where can this go deeper? I’m also a very visual writer—I see scenes play out in my head as I’m writing, which makes staging and choreographing a scene flow when I set it to words. Again, though, this relates to part of my revision process, because in those first drafts I tend to err on the side of laying all that choreography out, when the reader doesn’t need every step of it!

Revision is a writer’s best friend. What surprised you the most about the publishing process?

That it’s as hard to break in as they say it is. Maybe this is stupid, but, while I knew it would be hard—of course I’d read all the relevant writing books and blogs and interviews, that was worlds different from experiencing just how hard it is. You write a story, you love it, you believe in it, you risk your lunch by sharing it with others to critique and they love it too (well, mostly). And then your most-hoped-for agent blogs she wants *this* story, and it’s exactly what you’ve written, and….it’s a rejection. For me, the keys to weathering these challenges are 1) having a great support network of other authors who know what it’s like—and this has been one of the biggest and most rewarding surprises of being a romance writer to me, the supportive nature of the communities I’ve found, 2) remembering there are a lot of reasons why you get rejected that have nothing to do with the merits of your story or your writing—which means there’s always hope the next person will love it, 3) always having other projects in the pipeline to work on or to share with someone who might be interested, 4) copious amounts of internet procrastination, 5) chocolate.

It doesn’t sound stupid at all! Even multi-published authors get rejected and it really doesn’t get any easier. I agree. Chocolate helps. What’s your typical writing day like

Hmm…there’s no such thing for me! I have a full-time job teaching college history and am a wife and mom of two young daughters. So writing time tends to be whatever chunks of time I can snatch away from my work or family—or, most often, sleep. I do some of my writing either on my non-teaching days when I can, but most of it ends up happening after about 9 p.m. once I’ve gotten the girls down for the night. When I’m in the throes of writing, it’s not unusual for me to pull a lot of late-nighters, particularly since I prefer to write in larger windows of time. I have a harder time getting back into a piece if I only have 15 or 30 minutes here or there. Once I get those larger windows, though, I tend to crank, and can often write 5,000 or more words on a good day. Oddly, I have a very difficult time walking away from my computer if I’m mid-scene or mid-chapter. It will literally bug me to know I left something unfinished… ;)

You are a busy woman! Tell us about your newest release.

My debut novella released Wednesday from The Wild Rose Press. Hearts in Darkness is a contemporary romance about two strangers who find acceptance and dare to find love while trapped in a pitch-black elevator. I’m totally in love with this story and these characters!

Tagline: 2 Strangers. 4 Hours. 1 Pitch-Black Elevator

Quote: Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind;

and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.

~William Shakespeare

Blurb: Makenna James thinks her day can’t get any worse, until she finds herself stuck in a pitch-black elevator with a complete stranger. Distracted by a phone call and juggling too much stuff, the pin-striped accountant caught only a glimpse of a dragon tattoo on his hand before the lights went out.

Caden Grayson is amused when a redhead literally falls at his feet. His amusement turns to panic when the power fails. Despite his piercings, tats, and vicious scar, he’s terrified of the dark and confined spaces. Now, he’s trapped in his own worst nightmare.

To fight fear, they must both reach out and open up. With no preconceived notions based on looks to hold them back, they discover just how much they have in common. In the warming darkness, attraction grows and sparks fly, but will they feel the same when the lights come back on?

Sounds great and I love the cover! Do you have anything in the works?

About a million things, truth be told! My debut novel, FOREVER FREED, releases May 20 from The Wild Rose Press. But the most exciting thing in the works recently is I just sold my second novel-length book to Entangled Publishing! SNOW’S MAN is a Christmas paranormal romance involving a long-exiled snow god and a widowed woman struggling to let go of her guilt and grief. This story was so unexpected—its depth, its worldbuilding, the speed with which I wrote it (4 weeks)—all took me by surprise. It will be the first in a series involving other gods of nature and the seasons (which I now need to write post haste!).

A snow god? That sounds intriguing! I’ll be looking for it! Where can we find you?

Website: http://www.laurakayeauthor.com/

Blog: http://laurakayeauthor.blogspot.com/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/laurakayeauthor

Twitter: @laurakayeauthor

Publisher Website: Wild Rose Press

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/3703867

Thank you so much Laura! it was wonderful to get to know you better!