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Interview: Author Molly Harper + Giveaway
Filed in Giveaways , Interview , Molly Harper , The HEA Lover Posted on July 26, 2010 @ 6:00 am
48 comments
Today we are very happy to welcome Molly Harper on Book Lovers,Inc. Molly’s new contemporary romance And One Last Thing will be released tomorrow! Let’s give a warm welcome to Molly! Bienvenue on Book Lovers,Inc.
The HEA Lover: Molly can you tell us a bit about yourself?
Molly: My family is “blessed” with a dry, sarcastic wit. If you want to survive Thanksgiving, you learn to quip.
Growing up, writing was a chance to get all the words in my head out on paper, because no voice could keep up with my runaway brain. I liked the puzzle that writing presented, fitting the different words together in a way that sounded pleasing, but still got my point across. And it turned out that while my humor was probably inappropriate in say, a Sunday School setting, it was pretty darn funny on paper. The self-deprecating thoughts I didn’t dare express to friends, the comebacks I couldn’t come up with on the fly, they all came out on paper. And eventually, I could voice those thoughts and sling the comebacks… and survive Thanksgiving.
Still, I never considered a career in writing until a teacher compared my voice to a young Erma Bombeck. After I looked it up and realized that was a good thing, I developed an interest in journalism and humor columns. I went to Western Kentucky University and studied print journalism. For six years, I covered education for my hometown newspaper, The Paducah Sun. I wrote about school board meetings, quilt shows, murders, bank robberies, and the guy faked his death by shark attack in Florida and ended up tossing pies at a local pizzeria. There was also an incident involving potentially explosive feminine products. But I think a statute of limitations has to run out before I’m allowed to discuss it publicly.
When people wonder where I developed my sense for the odd and quirky, I tell them I was steeped in it like overbrewed sun tea. Weird things happen in Paducah. My hometown has been featured on Unsolved Mysteries twice, which is twice more than any town deserves. Combined with the stories my husband, David, brought home from his police shifts, I had a wealth of material.
I loved my job at the paper. I loved meeting new people every day and never knowing where I would end up. But somehow, the ever-shifting schedules of a police officer and a reporter did not equal “family friendly.” One of us needed to take a normal job for the sake of our young daughter. I took a secretarial position at a local church office, which left me with dependably free evenings for the first time in my adult life. We were living in “The Apartment of Lost Souls” while building our new home. This was the place where appliances and small electronics went to die. Every night I would tuck our snoozing child into bed and wait for the washing machine to start smoking or the dishwasher to vomit soap on the floor. It was either write a book or go nuts. I think I made the right choice.
I wanted to write something I would enjoy reading; something funny, outlandish, Southern. I wondered what would be the most humiliating way possible to be turned into a vampire- a story that a vampire would be embarrassed to share with their vampire buddies over a nice glass of Type O. Well, first, this poor woman just got canned so her boss could replace her with someone who occasionally starts workplace fires. She drowns her sorrows at the local faux nostalgia-themed sports bar and during the commute home she is mistaken for a deer and then shot by a drunk hunter. And then she wakes up as a vampire. And thus, Jane Jameson and the wacky denizens of Half-Moon Hollow were born.
It took me almost a year to complete and edit a draft of the book. And another four months to find an agent and sell the book at auction to Pocket Star Books.
While on maternity leave with our youngest in late 2008, I was between Jane books and a bit frustrated with writing about vampires. I wanted to write about people who could eat solid food and go out during the day. I’d had this scene in my head in which a woman and her adversarial (yet hot) neighbor were caught in a thunderstorm by a lake. I just had to find a way to get my character, Lacey, up to the lake.
The HEA Lover: Describe a typical day of writing? Are you a planner or pantser?
Molly: I get up 5:30, generally to the sounds of a 18month-old who doesn’t appreciate wet shorts. I get my two kids ready for preschool, drive them there, get to work at a medical society, where I handle the quarterly newsletter, advertising, and an alarming number of e-mails. I work until 5, pick up the kids, and we go home to dinner prepared by my loving husband. We eat dinner, wrestle the kids into baths and pajamas, and pray for bedtime. By 8:30, the kids are asleep. I try to spend a little time with David, so he doesn’t feel totally abandoned. And then I start writing at 9. I stay up until midnight or so, not stopping until I have written at least 1,000 words.
I think this is where my newspaper background has come in handy. I couldn’t wait to be inspired when I had to write three stories a day, including a 700-word opus that has to be turned in 30 minutes after I return from a school board meeting. I just had to write.
I am neither a planner or a pantster. I am a shortser – half pantster, half planner. I start with a basic outline, and eventually the story will look something sort of similar to it.
The HEA Lover: What do you think is the difference between a reader and a real Book Lover?
Molly: A mere reader can put a book down at the end of the night. A reader has never uttered the phrase “just one more chapter.” A reader has never checked and re-checked the release date on an Amazon.com page, just to see if a book might be released earlier than previously predicted. A Book Lover has done all of these things. And other horrible, shameful things.
The HEA Lover: Is it hard for you to make your books funny or is it just the way you are?
Molly: It’s just the way I am. David still hasn’t read one of my books. Why? Because he read the first chapter of NICE GIRLS DON’T HAVE FANGS and said, “Well, this is just like talking to you. I can get that any time I want, without bringing paperwork into the deal.”
I can’t turn it off. I’ve tried to write harsher. When I wrote my new werewolf book, due out next spring, I sent it to my editor, all excited, saying, “You’re going to see a whole new darker tone from me!” She read it and responded, “Oh, honey, no.” Apparently, I watched too much Brady Bunch growing up.
The HEA Lover: Tell us a bit about your new book “And One Last Thing…“
Molly: Lacey Terwilliger’s shock and humiliation over her husband’s philandering prompt her to add some bonus material to Mike’s company newsletter: stunning Technicolor descriptions of the special brand of “administrative support” his receptionist gives him. The e-mail to Mike’s family, friends and clients blows up in her face, and before you can say “instant urban legend,” Lacey has become the pariah of her small Kentucky town, a media punchline, and the defendant in Mike’s defamation lawsuit.
Her seemingly perfect life up in flames, Lacey retreats to her family’s lakeside cabin, only to encounter an aggravating neighbor named Monroe. A hunky crime novelist with a low tolerance for drama, Monroe is not thrilled with a newly-divorced woman moving in next door. But time, beer, and a screen door to the nose develop a cautious friendship into something infinitely more satisfying.
Lacey has to make a decision about her long-term living arrangements, though. Should she take a job writing caustic divorce newsletters for paying clients, or move on with her own life pursuing more literary aspirations? Can she find happiness with a man who tells her what he thinks and not what she wants to hear? And will she ever be able to resist saying one…last…thing?
The HEA Lover: Your heroine publishes her husbands sexcapades in the company newsletter. Is that something you would do too?
Molly: No, I like to think I would take the moral high road and not make a spectacle of myself or my loving spouse. But… my revenge would probably involve Super Glue and a bag of chicken feathers.
The HEA Lover: Tell us a bit about Lacey. What else does she do besides humilating her husband?
Molly: Lacey’s life is practically a four-page spread in Better Homes and Gardens. She’s her husband’s “at-home support” meaning her life is all about making him look like the prosperous young accountant. She maintains a perfect home. She serves on charity boards and spends her evenings with people who bore the crap out of her because it’s what expected of “Mike Terwiliger’s wife.”
When that life is yanked out from under her, Lacey has to figure out what she wants from life. Which can be difficult for someone who until recently hasn’t been able to decide what she wants for lunch without taking someone else’s needs into account. Besides antagonizing Monroe, she uses her time at the lake to write and try to figure out how she’s going to live.
And if she happens to see Monroe naked a couple of times, so be it.
The HEA Lover: You’ve got a hunky crime novelist in your book. Who is your personal author crush?
Molly: I know he’s fictional, but probably Richard Castle. He’s just so charming and funny and naughty. And he can quip, God help me, he can quip. (Pauses to wipe drool from chin.)
But in terms of authors that I go all fan-girl over? Probably Nora Roberts. I just want to sit at her knee and let her impart her writing wisdom to me.
The HEA Lover: Why did you decide to write a non paranormal book?
Molly: Honestly, I wanted to write about people who could go out during the day. It just felt good to write about something new for a while.
And while I don’t think I’ll ever find myself in Lacey’s position, all of her feelings of being lost and having to start over came from leaving my job at the newspaper. I had wanted to nothing but write news since I was 14 years old. It was a huge part of my personality and identity. Leaving the field felt like I was living without a safety net. Who was I, if I wasn’t a reporter?
It was a little deeper than some of the stuff I wrote for Jane. And it felt good.
The HEA Lover: Now the mean questions Muhahahahaha! :
Who’s your favorite: Jane or Lacey?
Molly: Oh, that is mean! As much as I LOOOOOOOVE Jane, I think I like Lacey just a smidge better. She’s a doer. While Jane analyzes and considers and mulls, Lacey takes charge and gets it done. Even if she doesn’t make great decisions, at least she’s decisive.
But I will say that Jane’s personality, in terms of her bookishness and neurosis, is much closer to mine.
The HEA Lover: Give us 3 reasons why people should read your books?
Molly:
– You will laugh, possibly so hard that a beverage shoots out of your nose.
– If you have a revenge fantasy, consider it fulfilled.
– A character modeled after Hugh Jackman gets naked. Several times.
Maybe I should have led with the Hugh Jackman thing.
The HEA Lover: What’s your favorite: Contemporary or paranormal?
Molly: I like writing paranormal romance because anything is possible. But I like writing contemporary romance because I don’t get to rely on supernatural action to move the story along. I have no favorite.
The HEA Lover: What is next on your schedule? Will there be more contemporary romances or will go back to write paranormals?
Molly: I am finishing up a two-part werewolf romance series set in Alaska, which will come out in March and April 2011. And then I have plans for another contemporary romance. I plan on switching back and forth.
The HEA Lover: Thank you Molly for taking the time to answer all my questions! I cannot wait to read And One Last Thing =)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~*~*Giveaway*~*~
Molly is generously offering a signed copy
of And One Last Thing to one lucky commenter!!
All you have to do is ask Molly a question
or just leave a meaningful comment about the interview.
This contest is open Internationally.
Please leave us a way to contact you
(twitter name or Email addy in blogger profile is enough).
Giveaway ends on Saturday August 7th,
we will announce the winners on Sunday.
Good luck everyone!
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Molly, while I love Jane and can't wait to read her next book, AOLT sounds like a hoot. Will there be any more Jane Jameson books?
And another question, do you rent out that fabulous hubby(we go home to dinner prepared by my loving husband)or would you at least consider cloning him?
alterlisa AT yahoo DOT com
http://lisaslovesbooksofcourse.blogspot.com/
I do not read a ton of contemporary, but I love the ones with humor. All of my favorite books have humor, regardless of the genre. When you said beverage would be shooting I was hooked! Of course Hugh is not all bad either *winks*.
robin [at] intensewhisper [dot] com
I saw this book recently at the bookstore, well not my bookstore, I was in a big city, this makes me wish I had picked it up 🙂
Cos well I love laughing, that revenge fantasy sounds nice and who can say no to a Jackman character getting nekkid
blodeuedd1 at gmail dot com
wow your husband prepares the dinner, I like. 😀 so by your definition, I guess I'm a semi real book lover, for me my health and increasingly dark eye circles are important too. and Hugh Jackman!!!! <3 Your answers are fun to read 😀
oh and thank you for the giveaway!
feeyonachan at gmail dot com
Love a book that will make me laugh (thanks for the warning about the pop out of the nose, I will be sure not to drink pop during my reading of it!)
Thanks for the giveaway!
dukesangel002(at)yahoo(dot)com
Hi Molly, congrats on the new release! I love your other books and am looking forward to this one now too. Do you plan to bring Lacey back again in future contemporaries?
bacchus76 at myself dot com
hmm, i'm looking forward to reading this if only to see how it backfires on her you'd think people would be sympathetic. and i'd like to see how she's different from jane although jane will always be first in my heart and i hope you get a deal for more jane books. besides your books are so funny and hugh jackman tops my list anytime
chiazochux (at) googlemail (dot) com
That was a great interview. I would like to ask, what author has had the most influence on your writing style?
debbie
twoofakind12@yahoo.com
Oh my I have done all of those book lover things! Guess I am one 🙂
Thank you for the Great giveaway!
I love the cover and I'm definitely putting this on my TBR list 🙂
Um…having Hugh Jackman visuals now. Thank you =) And I mean that sincerely! anyway, the book sounds great and I would love to win a copy, so please consider me entered!
willowwind@gmail.com
Thanks for the great giveaway! I haven't read any of your work, but the book sounds really good and you have me intrigued. It is now on my wishlist 🙂
june111@att.net
Awesome giveaway and interview! I love your books Molly and was wondering what is your general reaction to seeing your book covers for the first time (especially your vampire series)?
lilazncutie1215(at)yahoo(dot)com
Great interview! i love your Nice girl series, and I'm sure this new book will be just as funny as your previous novels. Looking forward to reading it! 🙂
Van
Littopandaxpress(at)yahoo(dot)com
Conflict makes the world go 'round…especially in novels, so I'm always looking for a good character driven book.
Also, did I read something about sexy authors and Hugh Jackman? Yummeh.
My Twitter is @KeriPayton
Definitely want to read this book now and will have to keep an eye out for some of your others.
xo
I love that you can't turn the humor off! Would you ever consider writing a cozy mystery?
I am a follower through FB
CarolNWong(at)aol(dot)com
Lisa R., I don't know. I spent a lot of time training him. I'd be willing to write you a manual.
Donnas, I don't think so. Unless I wrote about someone in their "universe," and then they might make a cameo appearance. I have more ideas for contemporary, non-paranormal romances, so anything could happen!
Debbie, I hope that Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly) has had an impact on my writing style. His dialogue is so crisp and witty and hilarious!
Lu, I know! I love it. Wait until you see the covers for the werewolf books! They're even better!
Jeanette, I will admit to being surprised the first time I saw the first Jane cover. I pictured it being much more abstract. But it grew on me and I've loved each consecutive cover. and I am in LOVE with the cover for AND ONE LAST THING!
Anonymous, I don't think so. I'm not great with mysteries.
Hi Molly – Wow your days sounds very packed and I think it is wonderful that you are able to get in as much as you do on a daily basis!! Definitely and inspiration to moms!!
I want you to know that I am a big fan of your Nice Girl series and I am looking forward to starting your new book!! I really like your writting style – smooth reading.
Hi Molly – Wow your days sounds very packed and I think it is wonderful that you are able to get in as much as you do on a daily basis!! Definitely and inspiration to moms!!
I want you to know that I am a big fan of your Nice Girl series and I am looking forward to starting your new book!! I really like your writting style – smooth reading.
Oh I am sooo excited about this book. I absolutely loved the Jane series! Do you have plans for more paranormal romance in your future?
I was with a friend at a mall, and I was trying very hard not to push her aside and run for the bookstore, when I just decided the Book Lover in me can't just ignore a bookstore, especially one I've never been in before. So I went in, looked around and saw Nice Girls Don't Have Fangs. And since I love almost everything vampire, I bought it. And every time I think about that story, I am so thankful that I went into that bookstore and that I decided to buy that book, because otherwise, I wouldn't have discovered my favorite author.
And now, to not be so sentimental, I love your books, and since I really like saying I own everything you've ever published (and for other reasons- obviously) I will get this book. One way or another.
So, I might as well ask you this- what books do you constantly reread?
Gali K
Oh, how I've imagined some great revenge….I'd love to see it played out.
akbabcock at gmail dot com
Molly, I absolutely love your Jane series, so I'll be interested to see how you handle the contemporary style. What are the names of your werewolf books?
As I am more a contemporary romance than paranormal romance lover I was delighted to see that your new book is a contemporary romance. I have put it on my list and am definitely going to try it out.
Great interview! Loved getting to know more about you and your books
Molly, i've been wanting to read one of your books ! I'd tried my very best to win..but no luck so far 🙂
well, keep my fingers crossed for this one !
uniquas at ymail dot com
Great Interview! It's interesting that you went away from the paranormal for a while but I guess we (readers and authors) all do that….but this look like it will be excellent! (and hilarious) I'll cross my fingers. 🙂 Anything that can make beverages shoot out of my nose is a winner LOL!
ksg_amg(at)yahoo.com
If your awesome book was to be a movie, who would you pick as the actors? Do you believe a person could portray your character vividly enough for it to be believable?
(besides the probable Castle or Jackman pick) 🙂
Twitter name: @VamPoet
E-mail: legally_write@hotmail.com
(safety in numbers :-P)
Thanks for the chance in the contest!
Thanks for the giveaway! Great Interview! It was interesting to know about your typical day in writing.
Misha
mishamary@gmail.com
I love contemporaries, especially witty ones. This one sounds very good. 🙂
jenma76 at hotmail dot com
I love the Jane Jameson series, and I'm so looking forward to reading this. Nice interview.
Rachel
Res498(AT)aol.com
You're so funny and I can't wait to read this!!!
nedsped at gmail dot com
I just love books with humor, keep it coming:)
spamscape [at] gmail [dot] com
I've read Molly's other books (Nice Girls Series) and they are super fun! The novels are brimming with wit and humor! They just keep you giggling and bursting with laughter until the very last page! I love Molly's books! Can't wait to get my hands on this latest book! 🙂 You can reach me at luvpinkpanther@gmail.com
I haven't read Molly's other books but I'm really looking forward to, especially after I heard about her non paranormal book! I especially can't wait to read And One Last Thing! Thanks for this contest!
sylvia_uy4(at)yahoo(dot)com
Great interview! I can't wait to check out your books, especially the new werewolf series. I love shifters.
marlenebreakfield(at)yahoo(dot)com
What made you pick Alaska for you next series? Have you been there?
lizzi0915 at aol dot com
Hey Molly! 🙂 I always ask authors waht their favorite musical is. 🙂
misusedinnocence@aol.com
Great interview ! I almost had a heart attack reading it though. I mean Worlverine and Nathan Fillion in a single post is too much for my heart 😉
Now about this fictional thing. My alltime favorite detective is Harry Bosch (from Michael Connelly's series). After more than a dozen book I truly feel like I know him. I even saw him in the bus once… I know, that's crazy but well, it just shows the author's talent after all.
I can't wait to read this new book of yours. Congrats on your release !!
Oups forgot my addy :
mollytucker(at)hotmail(dot)fr
Lol By your definition, I'm definitely a book lover 😛
My question is: contemporary romance or paranormal romance??
Thank you for the interview and contest!
entrelibros_blog at hotmail.com
Great interview. Please enter me in contest. I would really like to read the book. I am a follower. Tore923@aol.com
Thank you for the Hugh Jackman picture!!!!!!!!!!
lovemybabysquid at yahoo dot com
Thank you Molly for the fun and interesting interview! Wow two werewolves novels, can't wait! Werewolves are my favourite supernatural creatures? Why?
Because they are warmhearted, generous, passionate and playful! Because they are monogamous, would lay down their life for theire one and only love, their mate. Love their possessiveness and how protective they are.
So as you can see I’m quite passionate about werewolves 😀
What is your favourite supernatural creature/character? and why?
Thank you for this giveaway and wishing you the best for the future! 🙂
stella.exlibris (at) gmail (dot) com
Wow Molly! It's amazing that you can get so much writing done with so many little ones running around the house!
meredithfl at gmail dot com