Take Five with Author Jill Haymaker

Today you get to meet Jill Haymaker and learn a bit about her new series, Peakview. 

And wait until you read her answer to the last question. 

Don't miss it!!

Jill is offering a sale and don't miss her trailer...read on.

Welcome Jill, what inspired you to write Breakfast for Two?

I fell in love with both the main characters in this book Violet and Howard, when I wrote the first book in the series, Colorado Sunset.  I just love my little town of Peakview nestled high in the Colorado mountains.  I wanted to write a romance about characters in their sixties, to show that romance is just as real for people our age, that they still have the same feelings, wants and desires as twenty-somethings. But at the same time, I wanted to show the unique issues and dilemmas that older people deal with in a love relationship. I hope that I have been able to portray their unique personalities and sense of humor on facing their senior years. I wanted to give baby boomers a romance they could relate to.

How did you use setting to further your story?

I’ve always believed that setting is almost like another character in any story.  As a reader, I fall in love with the setting and want to continue to read more stories in the same location.  When I started Colorado Sunset I didn’t know Peakview existed. It just happened. But once I had created it, I fell in love with the small town.  Many of the issues my characters face are unique to small-town living.  I think Peakview and its residents allowed for Violet and Howard to fall in love.

How do you construct your characters?

I think my characters construct themselves.  I start out by doing a backstory for each of my characters, I construct as much detail as possible about their entire lives leading up to the beginning of my book (when your characters are in their 60’s that can be a lot of backstory. Then I try to have them conform to how someone with those experiences would react to what’s going on in their lives. I am definitely a Pantser, so I usually don’t know at the beginning of a story where my characters are going to take me. Sometimes they really surprise me.

How is your main character completely different from you?

All of my characters have a part of me in them.  Violet has lived a very different life than I have, so her views are somewhat different than mine, but I think we have the same hopes and dreams.  I made her the town busybody, which being an introvert is not something that I would do. She is way more outgoing than I am.

Tell us something about yourself we might not expect.

I was a bartender for almost twenty years before becoming an attorney. You can learn a lot about people by watching and listening to them when they drink. I think I draw many of my characters from people I met in bars. People will give their bartender more personal information than they share with most of their friends and family. I have always been fascinated by the study of people and how they react to others.

Blurb:

The tiny, mountain town of Peakview, Colorado, wouldn’t be the same without Violet’s Café, and its owner, Violet Woods. Widowed in her fifties, she leads a solitary life with only her cat Lucky to keep her warm at night. All thoughts of romance died with Stan. They had a wonderful, long happy marriage, and she’s content to live out the rest of her life with her memories.

Howard Crandall, Peakview’s only mechanic, is a confirmed bachelor and something of a hermit. When Stan died, he took it upon himself to look out for Violet. Over the years, they have become friends, but it isn’t until the past he has hid from for thirty year past suddenly catches up with him, that he opens up to the idea of finding love.

Is there a second chance for these two lonely souls?

Buy:
Amazon

Book 1 in the series, Colorado Sunset is Free from October 1-5

Buy Link: Amazon

Bio:

Jill Haymaker was born and raised in Indiana and Ohio. After high school, she attended Bowling Green State University before moving to Fort Collins, Colorado in 1975.  Ms. Haymaker has made her home in Fort Collins ever since except for three years in the 1990’s when she left to attend law school at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, Nebraska. She has practiced family law in Fort Collins for the past 20 years. She has three grown children, a son and two daughters.  She also has three granddaughters.

Jill has always had a passion for writing.  Colorado Sunset was her first full-length romance novel.  It is the first in a series of novels centered in the small town of Peakview, Colorado. The second book in the series, Breakfast for Two, was released on September 15, 2015. She is working on the third book, a Cabin in the Pines, to be released in early 2016.She also has had several short stories published by Chicken Soup for the Soul. Her latest story in a book entitled Thanks to My Mom.

When not practicing law or writing, Jill enjoys gardening, long walks with her Shetland Sheepdog, Laddie, and spending time with her children and grandchildren. She enjoys their numerous sporting events. She is also an avid football fan and can be found on autumn weekends cheering on the Broncos, the CSU Rams, and the Huskers. She has a passion for working with high school youth- she is a youth group leader at her church, coaches a high school Mock Trial team and is a volunteer for high school Cross Country and Track teams.

Find Jill:
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