Take Five and Meet Author Carol Malone

Welcome to An Indie Adventure, Carol.  Tell us, what inspired you to write your book Summer Holiday?

This was a personal story to write, though not about me at all. I had actually had a summer crush on my grandma’s neighbor across the street where this novel takes place, and acted like a silly fourteen-year-old girl I was at the time. I wanted to re-create that special time, that singular summer love. I took my fictional characters and placed them in my beloved valley, in my grandma’s house, and in the town that I adored. 

I wanted Lizzy Golden, my heroine, to be bold where I was not, and Brent Pierce, my hero to just be the Brent that I had loved. I’d been kicking around the idea of writing a historical set in territorial Utah for a while so when the Sweet / Clean Facebook group that I found said let’s write a summer themed compilation where a beach is mentioned, all I had to do was add in a lake that, technically, wouldn’t be completed for many years. 

But it made for great fun for the town folk to look forward to an end of summer picnic at the lake.

Have you been a lifelong reader of historical romance?  What are some the first books you remember reading?

Anne of Green Gables was my first historical romance. You might not think Anne is a love story, but underneath all her shenanigans, she was a romantic at heart. Gilbert was my first virtual love. I followed that up with Little House on the Prairie. I can’t think of a stronger hero that Almonzo. Innocent, pure, and captivating love stories. I was hooked on romance after reading those books and have been a huge romance fan since then.

What do you do to rev your creative juices?

Lately, I’ve been suffering a real emptying of the creative juice bucket. It took a challenge—the summer compilation and a deadline—April 25^th, to motivate me to push through down times. I find I’m better at having a window of opportunity to write and a deadline to shoot for to motivate me. I seem to write better in the early hours of the morning and … for some strange reason, get an extra kick of energy around 10 pm. Go figure?

What would be your advice to people who are considering a writing career?

Write, write, write, and write some more. Then find a good book coach, one that will be the perfect fit for you. It wouldn’t hurt that this person might have some psychological training as well as book-writing power behind them. 

Not to sound like an ad or anything, but I saw an ad on the side of a blog article about evaluating my passion for writing and found Beth Barany, a book coach who was trained in NLP-Neuro Linguistic http://bethbarany.com/ (look it up). Another one of the absolutely best things new writers can do is read. Read in your genre, read out of your genre, but read. I personally read over 100+ books a year.

You’re having a dinner party. What character from your novel do you hope doesn’t show up? Why?

Catrina Boatwright. Cat, as she’s called in the story, is a self-absorbed, social-climbing young lady who assumes the male lead, Brent, is already hers and plots to ruin and embarrass Lizzy by tampering with her box lunch. She’s petty and selfish, and a dirty fighter. **shudders** There’s no way I could enjoy a dinner party with Cat without trying to murder her.

Give us a brief summary of Summer Holiday (part of Summer Hearts Compilation):

For Summer Hearts (the compilation): Every Summer Has a Love Story...Six Summer Tales of Sweet Romance that bring you the very best in Historical, Contemporary and Fantasy Romance. Sarah Daley, Carol Malone, Kathy Bosman, Debby Lee, Robyn Echols, and Lisa Watson weave stories of long days, sultry nights, sun-kissed beaches and sweet romance. 

For Summer Holiday, my novella: In the summer of 1905, Lizzy Gordon’s father dismisses her desire to be a doctor, demanding she become a teacher—a profession which does not allow women to marry. Determined to be free to choose her destiny, Lizzy defies her father and falls for her grandma's handsome neighbor—literally.

Teacher Brent Pierce is dedicated to expanding young minds, but circumstances are forcing him to take over the family farm. Sweet complications are what he gets when the feisty Lizzy drops into his arms. 

Before the summer is over Lizzy and Brent will be forced to make tough decisions. Can they find the courage to each fight for their independence, their dreams, and still be together?

Buy: Amazon 

Bio: Award-winning author Carol Malone has successfully combined her three passions – romance, sports, and writing in her two highly-rated books, Fight Card Romance: Ladies Night and Ladies Night Christmas sequel. 

She was the first woman to write a romance for the all-male dominated genre. Carol writes romantic suspense to rocket her readers into the shady world of who-done-it to uncover a surprising happily-ever-after. If not hammering out new tales, Carol’s loves reading, sports, and hanging with her sci-fi author husband on the coast of California.

Find Carol: 

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Amazon Author Page | Pinterest

Thanks, Leslie, for allowing me the honor to be featured on your blog.

~Carol