Welcome Ruth
How did you come up with your title?
I finished writing one of my previous releases, Unbreakable, as a hurricane side-swiped my hometown. I fired off an e-mail to my editor, warning her that I might miss my deadline, and wrote the final few scenes hunkered behind aluminum shutters, praying we wouldn’t lose power. The winds picked up and the tree next to my front door swayed sideways, but I was able to finish my book and turn it in on time. Under such circumstances, it was impossible not to wonder what my characters might do in a similar situation. When I started working on this story, I set it at the very end of the Atlantic hurricane season, an unusual time for a major storm to hit South Florida. Unseasonable had found its title.
Tell us about your hero and heroine. What makes them likeable?
Ann Cooper is rational, level-headed, and down-to-earth. She’s smart, calm, and always has a plan. If you’re going to ride out an unseasonable hurricane with anybody, do it with Ann.
Are plots based on someone you know or events in your own life?
I’ve lived in South Florida since the 1980s and have ridden out everything from tropical storms to major hurricanes. Though I’ve never tackled a situation quite as unique as the one Ann does in Unseasonable, I’ve been around long enough to have my hurricane preparedness drill down pat.
Do you have advice for other writers?
When people tell us to write what we know, we’re sometimes tempted to discount our personal experiences as dull, uninteresting, or unworthy of building stories around. That’s absolutely untrue. First, readers actually identify with even the dull and petty life problems because they’ve lived through those types of things themselves. Second, aspects of your life that seem “common” to you are actually uncommon to readers who have never lived through them—Florida’s hurricane season being a prime example. In the end, you can’t worry too much about where your story falls along some inscrutable and imaginary sliding scale of reader interest. Just tell a good story that your life has equipped you to tell, and tell it in your own way. That’s what I’ve done with Unseasonable.
what is the spiritual takeaway for your reader?
God's timing is always perfect.
What is your hero's main character flaw?
He's awkward.
What makes your hero heroic?
He's helpful and kind.
What is your heroine's main character flaw?
She's indecisive.
what makes your heroine heroic?
She's competent and brave.
thank you Ruth, it was a pleasure learning about your new Christmas Extravaganza story.
