Interview with Karenna Colcroft and Contest!

I would like to welcome Karenna Colcroft to the blog today. Karenna, I have a few questions for you...but first let's look at your brand-new book being released today! Contest winners will be drawn tomorrow, September 2. So don't forget to leave a comment and your email address!!

Leave a comment and win a free book from Karenna's backlist, your choice. See below. Now for the third degree! 

Jean: How old were you when you knew you wanted to become a writer?

Karenna: I’ve wanted to be a writer since I was three or four, but at that point no one would show me how to make those little squiggles called “letters.” I wrote my first story when I was five.

Jean: What did you do for a living in your “previous” life?

Karenna: I worked in education; at various times I was a special education teacher, a teacher’s aide, and a substitute teacher.

Jean: Do you have a family?

Karenna: Yes, I have two daughters from my first marriage and the most wonderful husband ever, as well as my parents and members of their families.

Jean : Do your characters ever take over when you’re writing?

Karenna: All the time! Just when I think I know how a story’s going to go, one of the characters throws me a curve ball and I have to reconsider the whole thing. It usually works out pretty well, though. I think the characters know better than I do how the story should go.

Jean: Do you get inspiration from real people or places?

Karenna: Sometimes. I’ve used people I know as models for some of my characters, and I’ve gotten ideas from things I’ve seen, like couples in the mall or that sort of thing. The setting of my novel Salad on the Side was inspired by a cluster of apartment buildings, with a shared garden, that I pass on my way to work.

Jean: Do you do a lot of editing before you submit a manuscript?

Karenna: I wouldn’t say it’s a lot. I try to write fairly clean first drafts. Usually on revisions I end up filling in gaps in things like the characters’ emotional responses and sensory details. I do two revision passes, one in which I fix those things plus typos, grammar, etc., and a second in which I make sure I didn’t miss anything the first time.

Now some personal questions (please feel free to elaborate) :

Jean: Chocolate or vanilla?

Karenna: Strawberry. I like to be difficult.

Jean: Favorite minor character from your book.

Karenna: Berni, from my novel Their Home Port. She’s a wiseass, very irreverent, and very comfortable with her body and her sexuality. I keep thinking she deserves her own book, but I haven’t managed it yet.

Jean: Dog or cat?

Karenna: Cat. I have two of them, and as I was typing this one of them came over and tapped me on the shoulder. She’ll stand on her hind legs, prop herself against my chair, and tap me on the shoulder when she wants attention.

Jean: Country or city?

Karenna: City. There’s way more going on, and always something interesting to see.

Jean: Beach or mountains?

Karenna: Beach. I love the ocean, and couldn’t stand to be away from it.

Jean: Early morning or late night?

Karenna: I think I’m innately a late night person, but since I used to teach and I have two kids, I’ve become an early morning person by default. After my kids grow up, we’ll see which one I really am.

Jean: Cruise in the Caribbean or camping in Yellowstone National Park?

Karenna: Cruise, unquestionably. The idea of spending a few days on the water sounds like heaven to me.

Visit Karenna’s website at http://www.karennacolcroft.com. Karenna can also be found on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/karenna.colcroft and on Twitter @KarennaColcroft.

Today’s the release day for Karenna’s newest novella Help Around the House, available from Pink Petal Books! (http://pinkpetalbooks.com). To celebrate, Karenna is giving away reader’s choice of one of her backlist Pink Petal titles to one random commenter.  And here’s a taste of Help Around the House:

Back in the living room, Todd found the remote and changed the TV channel. “I don’t think we need to watch that movie anymore,” he said. He slid closer to Jodie and put his arm around her. “We don’t really need to watch anything, do we?”

“I guess not.” She wanted the TV as a distraction but couldn’t think of a good reason to ask Todd to leave it on.

He shut it off and set down the remote. In the silence, Jodie held her breath, waiting to see what would happen next. She hoped he would kiss her. She also worried about what a kiss might mean. What it might lead to.

He turned toward her and she looked up at him. The love she saw in his eyes nearly brought her to tears. No one had looked at her that way in such a long time, and she barely knew how to handle it now.

“May I kiss you, Jodie?” he asked softly.

If they kissed, everything would change between them. Kissing would make it completely real that they weren’t only friends anymore. They were a couple, and she wasn’t sure she was ready for that.

Despite herself, she nodded.

Gently, Todd touched his mouth to hers. His lips were soft and slightly chapped, and he tasted like the soda he’d had with dinner. He put his other arm around her, and in his embrace Jodie felt the warmth and comfort she hadn’t been able to find enough of in the past year. Only Todd had tried to console and care for her, and as the kiss deepened to something far too passionate to be called friendship, Jodie felt everything he had tried to give her.