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An Interview with Heidi Betts
We’d like to welcome Heidi Betts to CK2S Kwips and Kritiques this month! I’m so excited to have the chance to talk about her latest book Loves Me, Loves Me Knot and her writing career. I have been a fan of Heidi’s since back when she first debuted as an historical romance author. I followed her through her career as a category romance author for Harlequin and now I have followed her back to single title with her funny and sexy contemporary romance series. 1. Your fans are very familiar with Heidi the author. Please tell us a little bit about Heidi the person. Well, Heidi the author & Heidi the person *snork* are really very similar. Heidi the author simply smiles more when she’s in public because getting out of the house usually gives her something to smile about. (Fresh air will do that to you. *g*) Otherwise, I’m very much a reclusive homebody. My favorite pastime is staying home to write, or sometimes read or watch TV/movies. I can’t get anything done when I’m out & about, & I always seem to come home to an extensive To Do list, so it’s easier just not to leave the house in the first place. :-P Oh, I am also a huge animal lover. Huge. But then, so is Heidi the author. ;-) 2. I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve read of yours to date and I love the spunk and sass you always manage to bring out in your characters. From meeting you a few times, I know your own personality is perfectly suited to such books and players. How much of your personality, in addition to your sense of humor, finds its way into your characters? Who would you say is most like you and why? Thank you so much; I never tire of hearing that sort of thing! *g* I think a lot of my personality finds its way into my books—especially the humorous contemporaries—if only because my voice & writing style are very much a part of me. It always depends on what I’m writing & what kinds of characters I’m working with, because I never want my personality to overshadow theirs; it’s their story, after all, not mine. But when writing humor, I think an author’s own sense of humor will inevitably make its way onto the pages simply because no one is going to write something they don’t think is funny. The question then becomes: Is my sense of humor universal enough for others to “get” & enjoy it. But that’s a whole other interview, & I can only hope the answer is YES! J As for which character is probably most like me… Most recently, I think I would have to say Veronica “Ronnie” Chasen from TANGLED UP IN LOVE. There’s a lot about her I love & a lot of my own life I drew on to make her a fun, well-rounded character. She’s got a wicked sense of humor & can cut a man to ribbons in just a few words, but she’s never intentionally cruel. And even though she portrays herself a certain way in public, she’s got a softer, more vulnerable side in private, which I think can probably be said for the majority of us. 3. What was it that made you one day decide you were going to be a writer? Did you always know or was it a surprise to choose this career path? How long did it take you to get your first book published? Oh, I’ve always loved to write & tell stories. My dad used to tell everyone that I never said anything in three words if ten would do, & I was the queen of both essay questions & talking my way out of tight situations all through school. So even though it did take me a while to get published, putting that creativity into writing & eventually full-length books seemed to come naturally for me once I discovered the romance genre. (How’s that for evading a question that will only make me feel old? *g*) 4. In your Chicks with Sticks series, Charlotte gets to play fairy godmother to her niece Jenna and Jenna’s two best friends, Ronnie and Grace, through a spinning wheel she is convinced is magical. Where did you get the idea for Charlotte and her yarn spinning as the key to our couples’ happiness? Okay, this one I totally don’t get to take credit for, darn the luck. I have a wonderful friend who is just a genius when it comes to plotting. (In my defense, I like to think I help her with her stories just as much as she helps me with mine. J) So when I started plotting out the “Chicks with Sticks” stories, I of course turned to her & we came up with some marvelous ideas. Hers was to have a set of magical knitting needles carried throughout the series, but since I already knew I was going to have each heroine knitting a different item in each book & needles sizes vary, I decided something more constant would be better. But still…her idea, almost entirely. :-P 5. Knitting is becoming a more popular hobby and is cropping up in a variety of novels. The Chicks with Sticks trilogy revolves around a knitting circle of friends who bond over a love for the craft and each other. What inspired you to write a series with knitting as a central theme? I know, isn’t it wonderful? J The “Chicks with Sticks” series actually developed very much from a conversation with my editor at St. Martin’s Press. We were chatting about story ideas & what would best showcase my humorous contemporary voice, & she happened to ask if I knew anything about knitting. Well, I’ve been knitting for years now…very funny, ironic turn of events there—When I first came home from college & announced that I wanted to write romance novels, my mother insisted I do something to make money on the side. So she taught me to knit & I sold dishcloths & such at local craft shops until my writing career became more stable. And now, all these years later, I’m writing about knitting! Ha—I love it! J… But, anyway, my editor & I discussed the growing popularity of knitting & how all of the fictional titles dealing with the hobby were either mystery or women’s fiction & how cool it would be to do something with a really sexy, really funny take on the subject. I was definitely her girl when it came to that! So I jumped in feet first & did everything I could to make knitting super-sexy & super-sexy all through the trilogy. I mean, what could be sexier than naked knitting & using your homemade knitting projects to tie your lover to the bedposts? 6. I love Jenna’s character for all her spirit and desire to share her love with those important to her. Her desperation to have a baby that leads to tying Gage to her bed and his reaction affected so much of the rest of the story. Watching them try to deny their feelings for one another in the midst of all of this provided wonderful entertainment. What does it feel like to write characters so bound and determined to resist their obvious attraction (well resist outside the bedroom anyhow)? It wasn’t easy, actually. One of my pet peeves in books is “misunderstandings,” where if the characters simply sat down & had an adult conversation, all of the problems keeping them apart would disappear. So I wanted to make sure I gave Jenna & Gage both very deep, very real reasons for staying apart even though all either of them wanted was to be together. 7. Gage is an undercover vice cop in Loves Me, Loves Me Knot. How much research did you have to do to flesh out his character? Was it difficult to figure out how to work the darker elements of a career like this into a romantic comedy? For this story, there wasn’t very much research involved for his occupation. Probably because I wasn’t writing a romantic suspense of action/adventure where his job as a vice cop played a major part in the story. This was more a contemporary romance in which the hero just happened to be a cop, even though much of the story’s conflict hinged on that job. But we’ve all watched cop dramas & read cop books, so we know the general personality of a law enforcement character, & I just made sure that any details I needed to use to build his particular character were accurate. Keeping things light when he did have a bit of a darker background was the more difficult part of the story. Thankfully, my editor loves an emotional read as much as she loves a funny one, so as long as I was careful to balance the two, everything worked out well. 8. Jenna and Gage come to full vibrant life in Loves Me, Loves Me Knot. As do all your characters in your books. Are there any particular ones who have stayed with you long after their book was finished? Who were they and why do you think they affected you so much? Oh, I fall in love with all my characters! My favorites tend to be whichever couple I’m writing about at the moment, but they all linger in my mind long after a book has hit the shelves. I’m not sure I have favorites, but if I think of any particular book, I can always go back & remember the characters & how much I enjoyed writing about them. 9. From inspiration to print, how long does it typically take you to complete a single book? Do you have any special ways you celebrate finishing a book or any rituals, per se, you follow upon starting a new book? Anne Stuart has this great saying about some books seeming to write themselves & others having to be dragged kicking & screaming into submission. Nora Roberts says a book takes as long as it takes to be written. I agree with both of them. But in general & because looming deadlines have a way of panicking me into working faster, it takes me about six to eight months to write a single title, three to four to write a category (Silhouette Desire). Starting a new book is always great fun, so I just jump in & go for it. And even though I always tell myself I’m going to do something to celebrate finishing yet another book—even if it’s just going out to dinner or to the movies—I never actually do. I tend to be too tired & worn out from the big push to The End that I crash instead. Sleep a lot, then spend a few weeks playing catch-up with all the stuff I didn’t get done while I was writing like a maniac. 10. This is one of my favorite “signature” questions to ask in an interview. If you had to convince people, in one short paragraph to give your books a try, what would you tell them? Hmm, that is a tough one. Well, for this series, I like to tease folks with that whole “naked knitting” thing. *g* But in general, I would probably say that if you like Lori Foster, Susan Andersen, Rachel Gibson, or Susan Elizabeth Phillips, I think you’ll like my books. If you like sexy, funny, fast-paced pure romance, then I’m your gal! 11. Your next book in the Chicks with Sticks trilogy, Knock Me for a Loop, is Grace’s story and it comes out in February 2010. Can you give us any teasers on what to expect in the book? Anyone who’s read TANGLED UP IN LOVE knows that Grace & Zack are very happily engaged at the beginning of the series. I actually received a lot of letters after TANGLED came out asking about them & where readers could find their book; everyone thought they’d missed something! But, no, you didn’t miss anything. One of my favorite things about writing the “Chicks with Sticks” is that all of the characters really evolved throughout the series. So in TANGLED UP IN LOVE, Zack & Grace are in love & eagerly anticipating exchanging vows. Then in LOVES ME, LOVES ME KNOT…bad things happen. Their happily-ever-after doesn’t seem quite so guaranteed, after all. So they really needed their own story to get back on track. KNOCK ME FOR A LOOP catches up with them after the “bad things” & shows them trying to work out their differences & get their romance back on track. I’ll warn you right now, though—it’s not an easy path for them. 12. You have written single title, category length, and even a novella or three. How does the writing process change for the different length books? It’s all about tone & plotting. With category, there are very specific guidelines & story lengths you have to meet, so as long as you meet all those, they’re fairly easy to write. With single title, you’ve got lots of room to play—plenty of room for expanded plots & backstory & character development. Novellas are tricky, though. They tend to be very short, so you have fewer pages to tell your story. In that case, it’s a matter of creating characters & plotting in a way that hits all of the high points very quickly. I actually love novellas, but I keep the shorter word length in mind at all times when I’m working on one. 13. You got your start with historical romance and then moved into contemporary romance. You have even written a paranormal romance novella in the anthology Hotter than Hell, and an erotica novella in Real Men Last All Night. Did you find it difficult to jump genres like that? Which genre do you enjoy the most and want to explore further? You know, I really don’t. I just love writing & I have a lot of different interests, so I sort of want to do everything. (I’d really like to do it all at once, too, but I haven’t quite figured out how to manage that yet. :-P) The thing I love most about writing in all different genres is that it gives me a chance to do a lot of different types of stories & use a lot of the different ideas I’ve come up with over the years. I think my favorite genre so far is the humorous contemporary, mostly because I can just go hog wild there. I can be as funny & sexy as I want; be outrageous in places, deeply emotional in others. So I definitely want to keep writing those! But I also really enjoy the paranormal & am going to be writing some sexy, funny vampire books for Kensington Brava pretty soon. I’m looking forward to them, especially since they’re going to be in a humorous vein (ha! pun intended, I guess), as well, so they’ll be a little different from what I’ve been doing—but also very much the same. 14. Speaking of Real Men Last All Night, wow, Wanted: A Real Man is one hot read! For folks who may not have read this one yet, can you tell us a little bit about it? Thank you. *blushes* WANTED: A REAL MAN is my U.S. Marshal story because I’ve been wanting to do one for a while. In a nutshell, Claire & Linc were high school sweethearts, but things between them didn’t end well. Now Claire is back in town & needs Linc’s help to find her missing daughter—but first she has to break the news that the little girl is Linc’s daughter, too. 15. You add your own spin to the “secret baby” theme in Wanted: A Real Man. It took a lot of strength for Claire to go to Linc after leaving the way she did. What was it that drew you to a story about this family and their conflicts? Although I didn’t think much of it at the time, it was probably my Silhouette Desire roots showing—I’m a sucker for a secret baby or surprise pregnancy storyline, even in single title. LOL I also think that type of conflict carries a real emotional punch for both the characters & readers, regardless of the length of the story. 16. Do you have any words or wisdom or inspiration to give to other women (or men) who may be trying to break into a writing career? This soon after attending National—not really, or at least nothing terribly lucid. LOL I think the most important thing is to be really sure you want & are ready for a career in writing, because it’s not nearly as glamorous on this side of things as it might seem. (It’s a job, just like any other, with ups & downs & plenty of hard work. :-P) Aside from that, I recommend that people really study the genre they’re interested in & hone their craft as much as possible. I know you’ve been caught up in a whirlwind of conference preparations and promotion for Loves Me, Loves Me Knot so thank you for taking the time to do this interview with me Heidi! Do you have any final words for our visitors? Thank you for having me, it’s been tons of fun! And since you asked… ;-) I would love to plug a few of my communities, if you don’t mind. First, the blogs—I’ve got a fantastic blog at my website called “WIPs and Chains.” (http://www.heidibetts.com/wipsandchains/) It’s sometimes naughty, sometimes nice, but always a blast, & I’d love to have readers drop in to become regular Darlings of The Dungeon. *g* If you like to knit or crochet & are a fan of the “Chicks with Sticks” trilogy, feel free to visit my Must Love Yarn blog (http://www.heidibetts.com/MustLoveYarn/), where we chat about the books & all thing yarn. Second, I would love to have readers sign up for my Happy Bookers Yahoo Group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HeidiBettsHappyBookers/). Lots of fun stuff going on there, like monthly drawings & discussions of who should play the characters if one of my books is ever made into a movie. :-) Third, we have just launched the “Heidi Betts’s Street Walkers” Street Team (http://hbstreetteam.wordpress.com/), & despite the suggestive name—which goes well with WIPs and Chains & Happy Bookers, don’t you think? *g*—is really quite innocent. Basically, I’m asking readers who sign up for this group to visit their local book & retail stores with promotional items to get the word out about my book. Bookmarks, shelf-talkers, Great Read! stickers…whatever they can do to draw attention to my newest releases. And then, of course, to talk up the books as much as they can with friends & online, etc. Every little bit helps. And last but not least, readers are always welcome to “friend” me at MySpace, Facebook (I’ve even got a “Fans of Heidi Betts” Facebook page—be sure to check it out!), Twitter, etc. You can search for me or find the links in the sidebar of my WIPs and Chains blog! Thanks for letting me ramble…I hope to “meet” many of you soon somewhere out there in cyberspace. :-)
Read reviews of Heidi's books: Chicks with Sticks Book 1: Tangled Up in Love Chicks with Sticks Book 2: Loves Me, Loves Me Knot
Interview by Kelley Interviewed July 2009 |
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