Anna del Mar writes hot, smart romances that soothe
the soul, challenge the mind, and satisfy the heart. Her stories focus on
strong heroines struggling to find their place in the world and the brave, sexy,
kickass, military heroes who defy the limits of their broken bodies to protect
the women they love. She’s the author of The Asset, At the Brink
and her newest romantic suspense, The Stranger from
Carina Press. Anna enjoys traveling, hiking, skiing, and the sea. Writing is
her addiction, her drug of choice, and what she wants to do all the time. The
extraordinary men and women she met during her years as a Navy wife inspire the
fabulous heroes and heroines at the center of her stories. When she stays
put—which doesn’t happen very often—she lives in Florida with her indulgent
husband and two very opinionated cats.
Questionnaire:
Thanks for letting
us interrogate you!
You are very
welcome, and thank you for having me back.
Can you give us a
go-for-the-gut answer as to why you wanted to be an author?
Because I can’t
stop my writing addiction and I might as well do something productive with it.
Tell us (we won’t
tell promise!) is it all it’s cracked up to be?
I mean what are the perks and what are the demands?
Writing is a
constant process, so the demands are huge. Creatively, you spend a lot of or
time and energy spinning your weave. Technically, the work can be grueling as
you polish and prim, prim and polish. Perfection is pretty much unattainable
and yet you try and you keep on trying. The rewards—especially at the
beginning—are few and mostly intangible. Once you hit the publishing path, it
can be pretty intense. You’ve got to have grit to be an author, but above all,
you’ve got to love what you do. The biggest perk—the only perk for some of
us—is the time and trust of our readers. We live and die by our readers.
Which route did you
take – traditional or self-published – and can you give us the nitty gritty low
down on what’s that like?
I’m published by
Carina Press, an imprint of Harlequin. I love working with Carina. The Stranger
is my third novel with them and they’re still impressing me. I have the
incredible good fortune of working with Kerri Buckley as my in-house editor.
She’s amazing. The team does a fantastic job at putting together quality, sexy,
gorgeous books. I’ve always said that publishing a book should be a sport at
the Olympics. The team that I work with at Carina would win the gold for sure.
Tell us for real
what your family feels about you spending so much time getting your book
written, polished, edited, formatted, published, what have you?
They’re super
supportive, which is the greatest blessing. I don’t think I could do this
without their love and support.
Do your pets actually get their food on time or do they have
to wait until you type just one more word?
I have cats. They
keep me around for the express purpose of feeding and grooming them. Do cats
ever wait for anything or anybody?
Are your plants actually still alive?
The only plant I
own is a plastic flip flop. I’ve killed mostly everything else. The cats ate
the unlucky survivors.
In writing your
book, how did you deal with the phone ringing, your family needing dinner or
your boss calling you saying you’re late?
I ignore the phone,
my husband cooks dinner and I don’t have a boss anymore. My friends do get
irritated when I drop off the face of the earth, but they know I’ll be
back…someday.
What was the
craziest or insane thing that happened to you in the book publishing process?
I once had a book
accepted for publication on my birthday. But I think I told you this the last
time you “interrogated” me. The craziest thing that has happened to me was when
Carina decided to publish not only my first novel, but all four romances I’d
written. Epically insane. And it happened to. Me!
How about the
social networks? Which ones do you
believe help and which ones do you wish you could avoid?
I like Facebook and
Twitter as a way to keep the connection. To be honest, I don’t have the time to
do much more than that and even then, sometimes I go MIA, especially when I’m
writing. But I do love to keep in contact with fellow writers and readers. When
I hear from them, they make my day.
Book sales. Don’t you just love them (or lack of?)? How are you making the sales happen for you?
I’m very fortunate
that Carina Press has resources and expertise I wouldn’t be able to access
otherwise. They know what they’re doing. So I just put my novels in their hand.
Heather Goldberg, Carina’s Digital Coordinator is a fountain of wisdom. I
credit them with making The Asset an
Amazon Bestseller.
What is one thing
you’d like to jump on the rooftop and scream about?
Politics. Can we
please start over?
Okay, too much
sugar for you today! Here’s a nice cup
of Chamomile tea and come on over and sit under the cabana and watch the waves
roll in. Now…can you tell us what you
love about being a published author and how all those things above doesn’t
matter because it’s all part of the whole scheme of things and you wouldn’t
have it any other way?
Done.
***
Anna del Mar’s Contact
Information:
***
Embedded links:
No comments:
Post a Comment