Guest Interview: Carol Ericson

Today our special guest is a fabulous former member of Fierce Romance, Carol Ericson!

Welcome, Carol! Please tell us about your latest release.

My September Harlequin Intrigue, The McClintock Proposal, is the third book in the McClintock Brothers series, which includes Circumstantial Memories, The Sheriff of Silverhill, and the 4th book, A Silverhill Christmas, which will be available in December.

Here is the back cover blurb for The McClintock Proposal: The moment Rod McClintock spots the disheveled bride on the side of the road, he knows life is about to become a lot more complicated. Callie Price is on the run and in need of his protection. She's also the answer to his financial woes, if they're both willing to say "I do."

A marriage of convenience is Callie's sole shot at inheriting the ranch that'll help her rebuild her life. All she needs is a husband in name only. Her smoldering cowboy rescuer fits the role perfectly. Too perfectly. As they struggle to escape a killer's obsession, peril and passion tie them together. And before long, someone is putting "till death do us part" to the ultimate test.…

Sounds wonderful! I love marriage of convenience stories! How are the books in this series connected and do they need to be read in order?

The books in this series are connected through the four McClintock brothers. The fourth brother, Rio McClintock in A Silverhill Christmas is illegitimate and didn't grow up with his brothers, which is a source of much bitterness for him. The books themselves aren't connected by an overarching story and can be read out of order, although the various brothers make appearances in each other's books and they all come together in the fourth book.

What do you like best about writing a series?

The best part about writing series is visiting old friends! We meet some of the same characters across the books, and if you've read the other books there are some inside jokes about those characters and shared history. Also, series give you a chance to check in on the heroes and heroines of the previous books to see how they're doing. :) That's my favorite part about reading series as well.

For me too! What is hardest about writing a series of this type?

The hardest aspect to writing a series is keeping elements of the characters or the setting straight. At least a portion of each book is set in Silverhill Colorado and when writing subsequent books in the series, I had to check back through the previous books to make sure I had the right name for a particular cafe or street. It keeps you on your toes! And with a series that's connected by an overarching story, you have to keep the elements of that story alive and progressing through each book.

Absolutely! For an unpublished author who would like to write for Intrigue, what advice would you give?

Advice I would give to an unpublished (or published!) author targeting Intrigue would be to use hooks. In category romance, hooks are very important, elements like secret babies, amnesia, women in peril, marriage of convenience, cowboys, brides--these are all very common and desired hooks for category romance. Also, for Intrigue you need to pack a lot of action into a little book. This means almost every chapter must end with....a cliffhanger! Finally, reading a lot of Intrigues will give you an idea of the types of story lines, heat level, and ratio of romance to suspense that the line is looking for. Before I sold my first Intrigue, I read a lot of Intrigues, which was enjoyable as well as educational!

Super advice! What is your writing process like?

I like to plot out somewhat before I start writing, except for the beginning of the book. Usually the opening scene of a book just comes to me and I'll sit down and write out the first few chapters, just letting the ideas from that initial spark flow onto the page. Then I sit back, look at what I have, and start sketching out a plot. I like to use the method in Discovering Story Magic, which focuses on character development to move your story along.

What's next for you?

Next up for me is the 4th book in the McClintock Brothers series, A Silverhill Christmas, which is coming out in December. Then for 2011, it's another 4-book series for Intrigue called Brothers in Arms and it's about three ex-military covert ops team members who are pulled back into their jobs to disrupt a drugs for arms deal that involves one of their missing team members. This series is connected by one major story, the missing covert ops member, who gets the fourth and final book all to himself. The first book in the series, Navy SEAL Security, will be out in March '11 and the second book, Mountain Ranger Recon, will follow in April '11. The other two books will be out later in the year.

In addition to my upcoming releases, I'm running a contest in September. To celebrate the release of my September Intrigue, The McClintock Proposal and to launch my revamped website at www.carolericson.com, I’m having a contest! The prize or I guess the prizes are the first three books of the McClintock Brothers series, Circumstantial Memories, The Sheriff of Silverhill, and The McClintock Proposal. And all you have to do to enter is answer some fun questions from my website. I will pose the questions on the Intrigue Authors Blog at eHarlequin on Wednesday, September 1st. So drop by the blog for the questions, and then check out my revitalized website for the answers. The first person to email me all of the correct answers at carol@carolericson.com wins the three books! I will be posting the winner on the Intrigue Authors Blog on Tuesday, September 7th.

Thanks for having me back at Fierce Romance. Hope to see some new visitors at the Intrigue Authors blog for a chance to win the first three books in the McClintock Brothers series.

Carol, congratulations on your latest release and newest sales! Thank you for coming back for a visit!

Carol Ericson & Circumstantial Memories

Hi, today I'm featuring our very own Fierce Author, Carol Ericson and her latest book from Harlequin Intrigue.

Vonda: Congratulations on your new release, Carol! What a sexy cowboy on that cover! Please tell us about Circumstantial Memories.

Carol: All that remains of Julia's past are the necklace with her first name in gold script...and the child she’s carrying. After the car she’s driving plunges over an embankment on a mountain road in Colorado, erasing her memories, Julia must make a new life for herself and her daughter in the small town of Silverhill. But Julia can never shake the dread that steals over her from time to time, reminding her that the life she fled in a stolen car loaded with cash holds dangerous secrets. Then Julia meets Ryder McClintock, the one man who holds the key to those secrets.

Ryder has no idea what's awaiting him when he returns to his family’s ranch in Silverhill after completing his latest three-year assignment for the covert ops agency, Black Cobra. His shock at discovering Julia Rousseau, the woman he’d loved with a burning passion, is topped only by his shock at discovering that Julia has a daughter...and that daughter is his.

When a stalker begins to threaten Julia, Ryder must decide whether or not to reveal the details of Julia's past with her dangerous ex-husband, who's now dead. If he helps Julia regain her memories, he may lose her. If he keeps her in the dark about her past, he may lose her forever.

Vonda: Sounds very exciting, suspenseful and romantic! What inspired you to write this story?

Carol: Because this is a category romantic suspense for Harlequin Intrigue, the idea for this story began with the hooks. Amnesia is always a popular hook, as is the "secret baby" storyline--throw in a stalker, a cowboy/cover ops hero, a Colorado setting, and I pretty much have all the hooks covered. Of course, the challenge with incorporating hooks into your book is to make the story original, and to seamlessly weave the elements together into one edge-of-your-seat thriller with a simmering romance.

Vonda: Indeed a very clever way to get in lots of hooks! What was the most difficult thing about writing this story?

Carol: Probably writing about Colorado and a ranch and a cowboy--I'm a city girl through and through! It was also difficult writing about the amnesia aspect of the story, trying to make it believable.

Vonda: What is your writing process or method?

Carol: Usually an idea or a character or a particular scene comes to me in a flash. At that point, I just have to start writing the story. I can usually whip out a first chapter based on the kernel of an idea or character. Then I sit back and figure out where the story is going. I'm a big fan of Robin Perini's and Laura Baker's Discovering Story Magic. I took their online class, and their method really works for me. It's a character-based method where you start with the characters' inspiring moment, and then go onto their short-term goals, long-term goals, character flaws, black moment, and resolution. I use it as a road map, and then as I write, if the story veers off in another direction, I go with it. I also try to amp things up for my characters since this is romantic suspense. I just try to think of the worst thing that can happen to a character, and then make it even darker.

Vonda: Oooh very nice method! Sounds like something that might work for me. Thanks for telling us about your book, Carol!

Everyone, Carol will be giving away a copy of her book! All you have to do to enter this contest is leave a comment. You might want to ask her a question or you might want to comment on one of the two wonderful excerpts below.

Please click here to read an excerpt. This first one is suspenseful!

The second excerpt is exciting and romantic. I love the sexual tension in this one!


Please visit Carol's website at: http://www.carolericson.com/