Please join me in welcoming Sandra K. Moore to this AOTM interview with The Romance Readers Connection.
Sandra's latest book, DEAD RECKONING, is a Silhouette Bombshell due to be published this month. It is a terrific book and the review is up at the TRRC website. Here are the questions I posed to Sandra:
Geri: On your website you talk opening about the process you went through to become a category romance writer. Can you talk a little about this here?
Sandra: When I decided to try my hand at writing romance, I originally targeted Silhouette Intimate Moments because I liked the romantic suspense subgenre. Part of my work background involved being a software product manager, so the idea of "working to spec" wasn't daunting to me. I simply sat down with several Intimate Moments novels and mapped them out to see how they functioned. Once I had an idea of how they "flowed," I was able to condense my somewhat rambling style into something suitable for a SIM.
But when my entry placed first in a contest and I spoke with the editor who judged it, she suggested that my strong heroine and voice made me a good fit for the upcoming Bombshell line. After giving that some thought, I decided I really would enjoy writing heroine-centric books, and I believed I had just the heroine in mind for a Bombshell. So I put aside the manuscript that became DEAD RECKONING and wrote THE ORCHID HUNTER (March 2005) from scratch. THE ORCHID HUNTER was my first sale. I rewrote DEAD RECKONING to better fit the Bombshell line and subsequently sold it.
What I love about Bombshell is its focus on the heroine's journey as she struggles to achieve her goal. It's not about her "being a man" during the action/adventure plot, but about being uniquely female and perhaps tackling her obstacles and challenges in a different way.
Geri: In your biography it is noted that you live on a boat. The fascinating nautical details in DEAD RECKONING were distinctively accurate in giving readers a picture of living at sea. How is it to write on a boat?
Sandra: A bit like writing while on vacation, actually. My office is in the aft cabin, so when I get tired or need a break, I just go upstairs where the wind is coming over the aft deck and I can watch the pelicans fish. My "backyard" is a lake and a lovely marina. My biggest problem is juggling the writing schedule with the varnish schedule.... The varnish usually loses that contest.
"How do you deal with space?" is the question I get asked most. I live aboard with my partner and two cats, which is about maximum occupancy for liveaboard comfort on our 38-foot long motor yacht. Fortunately, my DSO is very handy and creative, so he's made adjustments to the interior which gives me a complete kitchen (two-burner stove, a convection toaster oven, two small refrigerators, and work space), a clothes washing area (we have a combination washer/dryer unit), and separate offices. Since we both work from home, we value our separate work areas, believe me!
I do have to keep possessions to a minimum -- I'm constantly recycling books because there's simply not room for anything that could be construed as "a keeper." Most of the books I read are borrowed from the library.
Also, I'm glad the nautical details weren't boring! I have to admit I worried about that because who else would be interested in bilge pumps and engine problems? But my non-sailing critique partners assured me that I hadn't gone on information overload, so I decided to trust their judgment.
Geri: What do you do for fun these days?
Sandra: I'm a movie junkie and am probably one of those people Netflix loses money on. If it was put on the big screen, I'll watch it -- everything from obscure foreign films to documentaries to blockbusters.
Geri: Can you share with readers who some of your favorite authors/romance characters might be? What are you currently reading?
Sandra: Right now I'm riveted to THE DEADLIEST DENIAL by Colleen Thompson. Her romantic suspense novels are really starting to cause a well-deserved stir. They're so multi-layered -- a real joy to read.
I can't say that I really have a favorite author or romance character. Maybe it's the liveaboard influence, but I don't obsessively run out and buy or borrow everything written by any writer. When a book crosses my path that I love, I enjoy the heck out of it and remember it fondly, then move on to the next one. Catherine Asaro's THE MISTED CLIFFS is a great example of that; her writing was so spare and achingly beautiful, and Cobalt such a conflicted and textured hero, that I just have to sigh when I think about it. If I see another Asaro book in the store, will I pick it up? Probably. But I'm not by nature a collector, so who knows?
Geri: When you develop a story line do you obsessively plot the novel or do you let your creative muse take over the characters?
Sandra: Both, actually.
I'm a huge believer in the "lose-lose" moment for the heroine, so I have to get to know her well enough that I fully understand what climactic decision will cause her to make a choice between what she desperately wants and what is "right." That, in turn, leads me backwards through the plotting, so that the build-up to that decision makes motivational sense. So I'm a big plotter in that regard. My product manager self is most happy when it has a plan. It also helps that when I sit down to work, I don't spend an hour or two wondering what should come next.
But I also believe that "the girls in the basement," as writers sometimes refer to the subconscious, will surprise me with wonderful things if I'm open to them. When I started writing DEAD RECKONING, I had no idea that Chris's most treasured possession would be the quilt she and her mother made just before her mother died. When I was writing an early scene and the quilt popped up, I thought, "That's different," and went with it. Given that the quilt was the Mariner's Compass pattern, it took on a deeper meaning as the story progressed.
As for letting the characters "take over," that almost never happens to me. Either I'm lucky (which is most likely the case) or I've been writing long enough to allow the characters and story to flow together onto the page in sync. I come from the school of thought that if you want to write a novel, you've already written it; it's just a matter of getting the story on the page. If my characters take off in bizarre directions without me, I've either got them in the wrong story or I'm not writing with any discipline.
Geri: What kinds of writing do you see yourself doing in the future? Are you planning any books that are connected novels?
Sandra: I tend to write "big," as in lots of pages and elements and characters, so I suspect I'll eventually write something other than category. My third novel, INTENDED VICTIM (2007), was so huge, in fact, that my editor asked if I could hack it up into two books. That was quite a chore, and while I like the resulting first novel, which is complete in and of itself, I haven't decided yet whether to write its sequel.
The mainstream thriller appeals to me, with or without romantic elements, so I might try my hand at one of those eventually. I've also found myself toying with the idea of writing a "commercial literary" novel (think THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES or THE KITE RUNNER), but that'll be a ways off yet.
Many thanks to Sandra for letting TRRC ask her these AOTM questions. Her book should not be missed by readers who are looking for a dynamite romantic suspense with a strong nautical theme.
(Click here for a review
of DEAD RECKONING)
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