Mia Zachary

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Lora McDonald 

Please share with our readers something about yourself and how you became a writer.

I live in Maryland with my wonderful husband of 13 years and our beautiful son.  I started writing as soon as I could write. I used to create pictures with simple dialogue and staple them together into books for my little brother. Now I’m teaching my toddler to tell stories, usually about trucks or animals. Unless he’s not in the mood. Then he’ll say, “Once upon a time, nothing happened, the end.”

Why did you decide to write a romance novel?

I write what I like to read. Romance fiction is stories about friendship and intimacy, love and respect, commitment and responsibility- the backbone of any society. I started out trying to write historical, but got bogged down in the research and turned to contemporary romance instead. 

Which other romance writers do you enjoy reading?

I love Blaze/Temptation authors Janelle Dennison, Tori Carrington and Jamie Denton. I also enjoy Janet Evanovich and Eileen Dreyer. The books these women write encompass most of my keeper shelf.

What do you consider to be the best romance book that you have read and why?

Without a doubt, the best novel, which I’ve read more than twenty times since it was published, is A PLACE TO CALL HOME by Deborah Smith. Even knowing the story by heart, the book still makes me cry. The hero, Roan, is just wonderful and so easy to love. 

It isn’t easy to get published. How did Harlequin select your book to be part of the Blaze line?

Two of the love scenes from RED SHOES & A DIARY won the 2000 Harlequin Summer Blaze Contest. Part of the prize was a full manuscript read and I was lucky that my editor saw potential in the story. I had actually submitted a proposal to Harlequin Temptation, but Ms. Chin felt I had the style to write for Blaze instead.

In your first Blaze, RED SHOES & A DIARY, why did you decide to build the story based on a woman’s fantasies?

The Harlequin Blaze line is founded on women’s fantasies, these books are sensuous and highly romantic, sexy in premise as well as execution. Blaze stories are about women who aren’t afraid to admit that they have fantasies, like sex and dream of making their fantasies a reality. How many women would actually pick up a stranger in an unfamiliar environment and have sex with him? Almost none BUT how many women do you think fantasize about it? And that’s why books like mine are so appealing. 

Your heroine Meghan had a pretty wild mind when fantasizing about her sexual encounters with her lover, while her real life was so ordinary.  Was it difficult to keep her two personalities separate as you wrote the story? 

Not at all. Meghan and her alter ego Elise could be any woman; they are every woman. In our society, even in the twenty-first century, admitting that you like sex, that you like to experiment and that you have fantasies will still get you branded as a slut. The face we show the world isn’t always the real one. In RED SHOES & A DIARY, the journal fantasies were the heroine’s emotional and sexual outlet, just as the book itself was mine. 

While I loved your book, I was wondering if your next book would feature African American lovers?

I’ve submitted a proposal for a story with African American characters, but I’m currently working on a sequel to RSD, called BLACK LACE & A LETTER, that gives a secondary character his own story (Emelio Sanchez is the RSD hero’s best friend). In BLL, Emelio is Cuban and the heroine Caucasian. 

If your book was turned into a movie, who do you think should play the leading roles?

I see my heroine, Meghan, as Halle Berry and my hero, Alex, as Ben Affleck. Maybe Mexican singer and actor Pablo Montero could play Emelio. 

What can our readers expect to see from you in the future? 

As I mentioned, my current project is BLACK LACE & A LETTER. Security expert Stephanie Madison has been lusting after her boss at January Investigations for months. Well, at least on paper. Given Emelio Sanchez’s playboy reputation and hands-off-the-staff attitude, she knows the only way to get his attention is to seduce his mind with erotic notes before going after his body. When someone threatens her and fiercely independent Stevie goes on the run with over-protective Emelio, he has to guard his heart against Stevie’s seductive charms. 

Thanks for sharing your thoughts with our readers, Mia! 

(Click here for a review of RED SHOES & DIARY)

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