Abbie Roads

Author on the Couch: Becky Lower, Second Session

Today I’m conducting a session with…Becky Lower!

GIVEAWAY!

Becky is giving away a ebook copy of Dance With Destiny. 

Just comment and share this post to be entered into the giveaway! Feel free to use the handy-dandy click-to-tweet links to share it quickly.

~ First things first, if you missed Becky Lower’s first session you can take a quick look at it HERE.

Me: Have there been any big changes in your life since our last session—good or bad? Tell us about them.

Becky:  Since our last session on the couch, I’ve had a botched hip replacement that took a year to figure out how to fix. Then, when I finally got the right doctor to fix me, I started working out at the local gym and flipped the wrong switch on the treadmill. You know the commercial with Taylor Swift taking a header and shooting out the back end of the machine? That was me, only not nearly so graceful. I dislocated my shoulder and had a hairline fracture of my wrist, which inhibited my typing ability. Thankfully, I had nearly finished my final book in the Cotillion Ball series by then.

Me: Becky! Holy cow! I knew about your hip problems, which were horrible, but the treadmill accident… That’s just awful. I hope 2017 treats you better than 2016.

How many books have you written?

Becky:  This has been a crazy year for me. I finished my Cotillion series in January and was not contracted for any more work. So, I decided to spend the year experimenting with my craft. I wrote a contemporary novella set in a fictional town that was already a popular series with one publisher, just to see if I could pull it off. That book, Love’s In The Cards, was released December 7. I wrote a middle-grade novel about the Revolutionary War, Rebel Girl, which has yet to find a home. Another publisher suggested I try to write a Regency, and I’m never one to back down from a dare, so I completed A Regency Yuletide, a Christmas novella and self-published it when I realized it was past the deadline for the publisher to use it in their Christmas lineup. And I offered up a story from my family tree, Dance With Destiny, explaining how we could have an Indian ancestor when there’s no DNA evidence to corroborate the story. So, with this flurry of activity in a year when I thought I’d take it easy, my book count is now at sixteen.

Me: You’ve been a busy lady!
Who is your book boyfriend? Why?

Becky:  I always thought this a silly phenomenon, until I wrote my book, tentatively titled Sweet Caroline, which is now being considered by the same house who published my contemporary Christmas novella. I had promised to finish the book by a certain date and had it done weeks ahead of time. But I couldn’t send it off, because I didn’t want to let go of my hero. He’d hurt a girl when he was fifteen and never forgot it, or how she had run from the room in tears. He’s turned into a wonderful adult male–high school history teacher and basketball coach–and now he has the opportunity to right old wrongs. I just loved him.

Me: Aww… He sounds like a sweet man. I’ve been in love with Aiden from Brinda Berry’s FIT FOR LOVE because he loves his Nonna so much. How can you not love a hero who loves his grandma?
What’s the worst piece of writing advice you were ever given? How did you get beyond it?

Becky:  I started on my writing journey years ago with a big “What if?” moment about the end of the life of early American explorer Jedediah Smith. Instead of his rather anti-climactic end, I wanted him to time travel. I wrote the book and started entering it into contests. I won one contest, but then in another contest I was told I had written it backwards and the heroine should vault back in time instead, since that’s how time travels are set up. So I ripped apart the book and rewrote it, but it didn’t sound right. Too many cooks destroyed my grand idea. I keep going back to it every now and then, but it may never see the light of day. However, it started me on the process of writing and doing research, for which I’m forever grateful to Jedediah.

Me: It’s tough when you’re a new writer. You want to listen to those who are more experienced. But I think our own experiences teach us that we have to be true to ourselves as creators.
How do you deal with rejection or bad reviews? What advice can you give others?

Becky:  I look at reviews as a good thing regardless of the rating the reviewer gives me. They took the time to read my book, and then took additional time to post a review. If something about the book bothers them, I read what triggered their response and, if it’s valid, I store that information away and am mindful of that when I write the next one. The same with rejections. I take what they say and, if it’s sound information, I use it. If it’s not, I forget about it and move on.

Me: That’s a great way to look at reviews.
If you could have dinner with any famous author who would it be? Why?

Becky:  I’d choose Thomas Paine, who wrote Common Sense, which helped fuel the Revolutionary War. In light of the current political environment in the United States, it would be worthwhile to get his perspective on where we are now.

Me: What an interesting choice!

What do you collect? Why? What personal meaning does this item have for you?

Becky:  I’ve always collected something, from the time I was a kid. One of the food manufacturers, General Mills, maybe, used to include coupons on their boxes and if you saved enough, you could get silverware, tablecloths, dishes, etc. My parents bought me a hope chest to keep it all in. As I got older, I started collecting fashion plates from the era of the Godey fashion magazines and La Mode Illustree, which came in quite handy for my Cotillion series. And then when I moved to Texas, I decided to read and collect first editions of Zane Grey’s westerns.

Me: What is something you thought was true for a long time, then found out you were wrong? Explain what that felt like.

Becky:  This one’s easy. My book, Dance With Destiny, which released on December 15, is a branch taken from my own family tree. My dad told me when I was a teenager that we had Indian blood. I guess he waited to tell me until he thought I was old enough to handle the truth. Instead of it being the family’s dirty little secret, I embraced the knowledge. To this day, I wear moccasins and I love anything with fringe. When DNA testing became commonplace, I plunked down my $99 and took Ancestry.com’s test. I waited on pins and needles until I got the results. When I finally received them, I was so disappointed to discover I had absolutely not a drop of Indian blood. I checked with everyone I could think of in the family and even though they’d all heard the same story I had, they couldn’t figure out where the Indian fit into our family closet. But if so many heard the same story, there had to be a grain of truth to it. Where there’s smoke, there has to be fire, as the saying goes. So my book provides my explanation of how it could have happened.

Me: Tell me about your upcoming American historical, Dance With Destiny.

Becky:

William Myers feels it’s his duty to answer the call to fight for the Union Army—but his wife, Susannah, doesn’t agree. How does he expect her to survive with four small children in the cold Ohio winter during the three-month enlistment period? Angry and abandoned, Susannah learns soon after William leaves that she is also pregnant again.

Raoul Lafontaine is a half-Ojibwa, half-French-Canadian drifter who is more Indian than white. Also known as Lone Wolf, he has recently left the Ojibwa village in search of a fair-haired woman both he and his grandfather have seen in visions. She is important to him—but how? He will never allow himself to care for another—not after losing the wife he loved so much.

But Raoul could not have planned for the sizzling emotions that surface when he comes near Susannah, nor the love he feels for her children. When he realizes that Susannah returns his feelings, he knows he must leave—for how can he stay close by knowing she can never be his? William will return to his homestead, and they’ll once again be a family. One in which Raoul has no place. Or does he?

Will Fate relent and grant the love between Susannah and Raoul in this DANCE WITH DESTINY?

Me: Share with us a favorite paragraph or two from Dance With Destiny.

Becky:

This is the first meeting between the eldest daughter, Hannah, and Lone Wolf. Hannah is only nine, but she has enough backbone to stand up to a strange man in the forest. I love her tenacity in the face of so many trials.

When she finally got to the pasture, she pulled the milk bucket from the shed. Then she came out from behind the lean-to and stared into the forest. Her eyes locked on him and he once again held his breath.

“You might as well come out from the woods, Injun. I know you’re there.”

Without a word of protest, he emerged from the woods and leapt over the fence into the pasture. She took a step back, but stood her ground as she stared up at him.

“So you understand English. Do you speak it, too?”

“Yes.” His voice sounded harsh to him, but it had been months since he’d talked to anyone other than his horse.

“Did you steal some milk from me?”

He nodded.

“And did you leave the wood by the path for me to find?”

Again, he nodded.

“Why?”

“Because I was thirsty, and you were running low on wood. Do I frighten you?”

“You did at first, but if you were going to hurt us, you would have taken the cow instead of just some milk. And you wouldn’t be leaving wood for us.” She continued to stare at him.

“Are you still thirsty?”

He could not keep his lips in a straight line. They curved up at her question.

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You can find Becky here:

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Abbie Roads writes dark emotional novels featuring damaged characters, but always gives her hero and heroine a happy ending… after torturing them for three hundred pages. RACE THE DARKNESS and HUNT THE DAWN are available now!

RACE THE DARKNESS

HUNT THE DAWN