This week I'm hosting the talented Alison Henderson. Welcome Alison.
What draws
you as a reader to the romance genre?
I started
reading romance about twenty-five years ago when the first big, lush
historicals by writers such as Kathleen Woodiwiss dominated the market. I was instantly hooked by the larger-than-life
characters, high drama, sensuality, and, of course, the happy endings. Romance fiction has evolved into a cornucopia
of sub-genres since then, and I enjoy reading (and writing) many of them. Fortunately, readers can still rely on
the most important element—the happily-ever-after ending.
What is the most difficult part of writing a love story?
I don’t
think love stories are harder to write than any other kind of story. The hardest part for me is always
creating sufficient conflict between the hero and heroine. I know they’re perfect for each other,
and I struggle to throw enough obstacles in their path to keep them from
recognizing it too soon.
Is creating a book title easy for you? Tell us about the process.
I enjoy
coming up with titles. Since I need to have a solid working title before I get
too far in a new book, the title is often the first thing I write. It’s important to me that the title
connect with the essence of the story.
Here are a few examples:
My first
book, Harvest of Dreams, is the story
of a young Civil War widow who owns an apple orchard and has buried her dreams
along with her husband.
The title
of my second book, A Man Like That,
refers to the heroine’s mother’s haughty dismissal of the ex-outlaw hero.
In my new
novella, The Treasure of Como Bluff,
the hero and heroine are hunting for different types of treasure and risk
missing the real treasure right under their noses.
Do your characters love the direction you take for them or do they have other ideas?
I’m a
plotter rather than a pantser, so I have a good idea of where my story is going
before I start writing. I also do
detailed character studies in advance. My characters sometimes surprise me with the things they
say, but so far they haven’t fought back against the story I’ve given them.
Any tips for writers that you'd love to share?
You’ve
heard it a hundred times, but I’m going to say it again—never give up. I’m not kidding. I wrote my first manuscript more than
twenty years ago. It was never
published and didn’t deserve to be, but I learned so many important lessons
writing it—not the least of which was that I was capable of writing an entire
book. I wrote a second, followed
by a third. I signed with an agent
and fired her. Refusing to give
up, I climbed on the submit/re-write/submit merry-go-round for several more
years. Along the way, both books
won multiple contests, and the encouraging words of the judges kept me
going. Ultimately, I found a
wonderful publishing home with a small press and couldn’t be happier.
Tell us
about your next book.
I’ve
completed a sharp, snappy contemporary romance featuring the proprietor of an
all-female bodyguard agency entitled Unwritten
Rules that I’m considering self publishing to learn more about the process.
I
also have two WIP’s going at the moment, another humorous western historical
novella entitled Delilah and the Badman
and the first in a contemporary trilogy about three sisters who are artists in
a fictional California coastal town called Sanctuary
Cove.
Alison
Henderson
www.alisonhenderson
Buy The Treasure of Como Bluff Thanks so much for guesting on my blog, Alison.
